text:
House DFLer's Cigarette Tax Hike Up For Review
ST. PAUL (AP) - An influential Minnesota House Democrat is proposing a substantial increase in the state's cigarette tax.
Rep. Ann Lenczewski of Bloomington wants to more than double the state's cigarette tax by $1.60 a pack, from $1.23 to $2.83. That's considerably more than proposed by Gov. Mark Dayton, who wants a 94-cents-a-pack increase.
The House Taxes Committee is reviewing Lenczewski's proposal at a Thursday afternoon hearing. Lenczewski is chair of the committee, and her plan's reception could provide an early hint of the likelihood of a cigarette tax hike during the current legislative session.
The Taxes Committee is also reviewing a bill that would reclassify so-called "little cigars" so that they are taxed at the same higher rate as cigarettes.
(Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved)


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So there's been a few little niggles and bits to iron out with the site since the relaunch two weeks ago, but there's also been a shedload of interesting new content to usher in this exciting new dawn for DiS. From excellent mixtapes from some of our favourites to in-depth analysis of what makes a band tick, we've broadened our journalistic horizons somewhat. In case you've missed any of it, we've compiled a handy list below. Best get your reading glasses on...
- -
+ DiS is 8! A stumble down memory lane... by Sean Adams
+ Interview: Peter Hook  by Rob Webb
+ In Pictures: Metallica at London's O2 Dome by Gary Wolstenholme
+ An evening with Daniel Johnston by Jeremy Warmsley
+ Something old, something new #2: The Modern Lovers by Everett True
+ Interview: The Dears by Dean Samways
+ Mixtape #15: Duncan Lloyd by Rob Webb
+ DiSection: Long Blondes _Singles_ by Rob Webb
+ Something old, something new #1: These New Puritans by Everett True
+ Interview: David Holmes by Dan Wale
+ Of Montreal _Skeletal Lamping_ by Andrzej Lukowski
+ Life Along the Borderline - A Tribute to Nico by Alexander Tudor
+ Los Campesinos! _We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed_ by Joe Weiler
+ _ZXZW 2008_: the DiS review by Jonny Mugwump
+ Eugene McGuinness _Eugene McGuinness_ by David Renshaw
DiScuss: what's been your favourite piece since the relaunch? Do you like the new article types? What would you like to see more/less of?

subset: commoncrawl


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Quote:A new report out of Oxford has found that the next 20 years will see 45% of America's workforce replaced by computerized automation.Read more: technologyreview.com
'The authors believe this takeover will happen in two stages. First, computers will start replacing people in especially vulnerable fields like transportation/logistics, production labor, and administrative support.
Jobs in services, sales, and construction may also be lost in this first stage. Then, the rate of replacement will slow down due to bottlenecks in harder-to-automate fields such engineering. This "technological plateau" will be followed by a second wave of computerization, dependent upon the development of good artificial intelligence. This could next put jobs in management, science and engineering, and the arts at risk.' 45% is a big number.
Politicians have been yelling themselves hoarse over the jobs issue in this country for the past few years, and the current situation isn't anywhere near as bad. At what point will we start seeing legislation forbidding the automation of certain industries?
As if America needs more bad economic news? Who will be employed ten years from now?


text:
LA Airport Shooting Suspect Appears In Court
RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. (AP) — A man charged with killing a Transportation Security Administration officer and wounding three others during a rampage at Los Angeles International Airport has appeared in court with bruises on his face and a bandage on his neck.
Paul Ciancia said little at the brief appearance Wednesday at a San Bernardino County jail facility where he's being housed in federal custody.
It was the first time he's been seen in public since the Nov. 1 attack at LAX's Terminal 3.
Ciancia was shackled at his hands and feet. He didn't enter a plea to a murder charge that carries a possible death penalty if he's convicted.
Investigators say the 23-year-old was targeting TSA officers when he killed Gerardo Hernandez. Three others were hurt.
Ciancia was shot and wounded by airport police as passengers scrambled to safety.


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René is the Chief Operating Officer for Mercer, bringing 25 years of broad business and technology leadership and benefits administration experience to the company.
As the former Executive Vice President of the US Region and Chief Technology Officer for Morneau Shepell, René led market growth through new sales, partnerships, acquisitions and innovations in products, services and technology in addition to overseeing business operations.
Prior to his role at Morneau Shepell, René led Mercer's Eastern Canada Administration and Canadian Technology Solutions from 2000 to 2007. He returned to Mercer in 2016 as the Global Health Delivery Leader, responsible for creating and executing the Health & Benefits delivery strategy worldwide.


text:
East Carolina University's Electronic Billing (eBill) system is the official means of generating tuition bills to enrolled students.
ECU does not mail paper bills to student's permanent home address.
Students and their authorized users will receive email notifications from
firstname.lastname@example.com to their
Outlook Live student email when a new billing statement is available for review online.
Students can gain access to the eBill system through
Pirate Port and should choose the "TUITION STATEMENTS AND PAYMENTS" link on the "Tools" tab. Once logged in, students will be able to make online payments, view and/or print billing statements, or review current account activity. Students will also be able to set up other individuals as authorized users, and these users will be able to view and print billing statements and/or make online payments. Authorized users can gain access to the eBill system by logging into
Since the delivery method of student bills is through ECU's
Outlook Live student email, it is the student's responsibility to check their ECU email for eBilling notifications so that satisfactory payment arrangements can be made by the deadlines posted in the
University's Tuition and Fee & Payment Schedule Brochure
for each semester.
It is also important to understand that the eBill statement will only reflect the charges and credits applied to a student's account at the date the eBill was generated. If additional charges are incurred after an eBill statement has been generated, it is the student's responsibility to monitor their financial account through the eBill system to ensure that there are sufficient financial aid/resources and/or payment to cover all charges on account.
A partial payment will not secure any of a student's class schedule.
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text: Job Discussion Forums :: View topic - Teaching Spanish Get TEFL Certified & Start Your Adventure Today! Job Discussion Forums"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!" FAQ Search Memberlist Usergroups Register Profile Log in to check your private messages Log in Teaching Spanish Job Discussion Forums Forum Index -> Macedonia and the Balkans View previous topic :: View next topic Author Message naturegirl321Joined: 04 May 2003Posts: 9041Location: home sweet home Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 1:42 am Post subject: Teaching Spanish My husband and I would like to travel. After being here in Peru for 2 years, I'm getting itchy feet. The thing is that my husband is Peruvian and only speaks Spanish. So the ideal job for him being a native speaker would be to teach Spanish. WE're open to almost anywhere except for the States and Mexico. BUt don't really know where native Spanish speakers are needed. If you could help us. that would be great. Thanks in advance for any info, contacts or websites. Back to top laradelicadoJoined: 02 Aug 2006Posts: 2 Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 10:37 am Post subject: ¡Hola! Bueno, pues si queréis enseñar español, Bulgaria es un buen sitio para intentarlo. No os van a faltar alumnos. Eso sí, tened en cuenta lo que os dicen por acá: que los salarios son bajísimos, por debajo de los 200 euros, y que la vida por allá sin embargo no es tan barata. Es lo que hay. Saludos Back to top scot47Joined: 10 Jan 2003Posts: 15327 Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 5:14 am Post subject: Spanish is widely learned in Bulgaria. Strong Cuban connection ! And Spanish since the ex-King spent much of his exile in Madrid. But can you live on the miserable salaries paid in Bulgaria ? I think not ! Back to top Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First Job Discussion Forums Forum Index -> Macedonia and the Balkans All times are GMT Page 1 of 1 Jump to: Select a forum Where to Begin----------------General DiscussionNewbie ForumCurrent Events ForumTechnology ForumOnline Teaching Forum Africa Forums----------------General Africa Forum Asia Forums----------------CambodiaChina (Job-related Posts Only)China (Off-Topic)Hong KongIndiaIndonesiaJapanMalaysiaPhilippinesSingaporeTaiwanThailandGeneral Asia ForumVietnam Caribbean Forums----------------General Caribbean Forum Europe Forums----------------Czech RepublicFranceGermanyGreeceItalyMacedonia and the BalkansPolandRomaniaRussia & C.I.S.SpainTurkeyUkraineUnited KingdomGeneral Europe Forum Latin America Forums----------------ArgentinaBrazilChileColombiaCosta RicaMexicoMexico (off-topic)PeruGeneral Latin America Forum The Middle East Forums----------------BahrainEgyptIsraelKuwaitOmanQatarSaudi ArabiaUnited Arab EmiratesGeneral Middle East Forum North America Forums----------------General North America Forum Oceania----------------Australia/New Zealand You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum This page is maintained by the one and only Dave Sperling. Contact Dave's ESL Cafe Copyright © 2018 Dave Sperling. All Rights Reserved. Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group Teaching Jobs in China


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THE SQL Server Blog Spot on the Web
I didn't travel to the SQL Pass Business Analytics conference this week but I keenly followed what was going on via the #passbac hashtag on Twitter. Seemingly the big announcement was Geoflow Preview for Excel 2013, an add-in for Excel that visualises data over space and time (read more at Public preview of project codename "GeoFlow" for Excel delivers 3D data visualization and storytelling). Geoflow certainly looks compelling at first glance though I must say I found it rather strange that it got top billing given that Microsoft were talking about it at some SharePoint conference five months ago but nonetheless the keynote demo was apparently very impressive indeed. Here's a screenshot of Geoflow:
I think Geoflow looks great, I really do; the questions I immediately had about it were:
So the big reveal from Microsoft at this conference was an Excel add-in that does something very very cool but had already been announced, is only a preview, doesn't fit with Microsoft's BI collaboration strategy, doesn't use their modern distribution platform and isn't part of their Excel-based data visualisation tool. Well thank god I didn't stump up the cost of travel, accommodation, loss of income and time away from the family for that! Doubtless there were a lot of other good reasons to go to the conference but I would have been going with high expectations of news from Microsoft that is going to be compelling and help me sell Microsoft's BI offering to my clients – Geoflow doesn't do that, not by a long chalk.
What I was hoping for, nay expecting, was a concrete announcement regarding Microsoft's mobile BI strategy. We first saw Power View demonstrated on an iPad at the PASS 2011 conference and I assumed that in the intervening eighteen months they might have built something we could actually install and play around with. Apparently not.
Microsoft are getting killed in this area. At my current client all the management folk walk around with iPads glued to their hands – this is the tool on which they consume information and Microsoft doesn't have anything for them. I was working for a client two years ago that had just invested in a product called RoamBI because it enabled them to view Reporting Services reports on an iPad. Two years ago for pity's sake, and Microsoft haven't released anything mobile-BI-related since!
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Agree wholeheartedly JT. Given Sharepoint is the BI collaboration tool I would expect Geoflow to be integrated.
I am also not a fan of separate tools for everything. PV + Geoflow would be good/Better.
Other people are doing Mobile BI (Tableau for example) and not doing badly either. MSFT at the moment are talking the talk but not walking the walk. They are already playing catch-up but if left much longer the gap may be too large for them to make an impact.
Jamie, I absolutely agree with you on this:
Given the hype, I'd have expected a lot more from MS on spatial visualization. Between pie charts on maps in PowerView, no HTML5 support for PowerView, and the whole "PowerView can't be used with the other SharePoint components, it only really works fullscreen and can't accept parameters" story, I really think MS has lost their way on this.
We (a very strong Microsoft Gold partner in BI) have actually gotten to the point that we're writing our own SharePoint BI webparts using D3.js to get the BI we want. And we're going to put them on the App STore as well :)
This was exactly my expectation. Two weeks after the Data Explorer release, I did a demo at a SSUG with "teaser trailers" of GeoFlow and machine learning. I mentioned #passbac and boldly voiced that I expected mobile to be announced because I was so sure that PASS could not launch a new conference without an announcement of this scale and impact ... GeoFlow does not measure up. It's a "cool" product, but doesn't help the MS platform anywhere close to the gaping hole called mobile.
As you know I agree entirely with your sentiments. In the time it's taken Microsoft to release nothing useful that's mobile BI related (Geoflow looks cool but its practical use is within the BI stack is virtually nil) and at the same time manage to piss off the Excel community by effectively restricting the adoption of PowerPivot/Power View, most of the competition have not only released BYOD-friendly mobile BI apps but the most forward thinking have completely re-written their offerings in HTML5 (QlikView .Next for example)
So still we wait, and at every pre-sales meeting where the "Can our execs use MSFT BI on their iPads?" question comes up (80% of the time now), I have to shift uncomfortably in my seat and say "No, and what's more, even as a MSFT partner, we have no clue when we will be able to say Yes!"
I agree as well. Twice over the past week I've been asked about best BI tools for iPad, also seeing lots of interest in Tableau, and their new version 8 is very compelling. Getting increasingly difficult to mount an argument in Microsoft's defence.
And so having spent 2 years pushing the SharePoint message, despite huge reservations from the partner community, here we have a release of a front end tool that isn't supported through SharePoint.
You want to put the fun back into BI? It might be fun producing flashy but ultimately pointless demos for serial conference attendees but it certainly isn't fun trying to position a Microsoft BI strategy to enterprise customers.
And how many different but overlapping tools do we need? I now need two monitors side by side to view my Excel ribbon.
CONSOLIDATION please.
I don't know. I think one sign of the sickness pervading the last decade or so is, as you put it, 'management folk walking around with iPads glued to their hands,' and such phenomenon. The so-called communication revolution has gone too far.
Ideally, what I'd like to see is all these management folk glued staring into their ipads wandering around continue to do so and wander straight off the nearest cliff.
Honestly, these days most people are struggling to keep a job, find credit to start a business, or otherwise cope with an ongoing financial crisis. If anyone thinks they need geo-flow on their iPad then they're probably more in need of putting their pennies into a saving account and a long holiday in Tibet or something.
Hmmm...I think the point most people contributing here are trying to make is that it would be nice to get ANYTHING related to Microsoft BI on to a mobile device. Those of us trying to sell BI to the enterprise are being severely compromised by a total lack of support, information and any indication of a roadmap and timeline from Microsoft.
On the other angle, I'm not sure that mobile BI and its adoption by end users has got anything to do with the global financial crisis. I just don't see a correlation at all.
I have to hope the thing was not in the Office App Store because it is preview tech. No?
Finally someone understands my Microsoft BI pains. I too followed the PASS BAC tweets looking for good news. Fun and easy, ok but BI = Basic Intelligence is terrible. My customers want their competitors to have Basic Intelligence, they ask me to recommend the Best Intelligence. My customers need and will pay big bucks for strategic BI tools...not shiny toys. The MVP attendees lost some credibility in my mind since they sounded like they were being paid by Microsoft to hype Excel and cloud versus provide the BI professional, thought leader updates they historically have provided. The GeoFlow Excel add-in is interesting but it is yet another silo tool that does not really fit in anywhere except for rare, niche use cases. I see Data Explorer as a response to Qlik, Oracle Endeca, and other data discovery tools but why Geoflow? Who asked for it? What about the millions of customer requests for Mobile BI? And for cloud, come on guys we really need solid BI on-premise for a long while. Many of the customers are just upgrading now to Microsoft Office 2010 and SQL Server 2008R2 or 2012. At this point Microsoft BI has also lost credibility after years of lagging and bumbling around. Microsoft should just buy a BI company that has a mature, modern, mobile capable, front-end BI solution.
On a related note, am I the only one noticing that there have been little-to-no real enhancements to classic Reporting Services, PerformancePoint, or Data Mining in the past few releases? Power View was the exception but Microsoft chose Silverlight (a dead technology) and Silverlight is still in Excel 2013. The new 2013 licensing is keeping PowerPivot and Power View out of reach. Report Models were quietly deprecated in 2012 without a migration path. PerformancePoint death is next. I can't recommend PerformancePoint in good faith to any of my customers knowing that the engineers for it were laid off a long time ago. It seems like Microsoft has been planning to leave the BI market since they forced the SharePoint requirement. They chose not to build APIs for PowerPivot or Power View, forced many software vendors to look for other vendors embedded BI solutions, chose to rely heavily on partners fill voids, prolong the ongoing silence about BI product futures, and all this while shoving select BI components into Excel to focus entirely on Microsoft Excel and cloud futures. Most customers call for help wanting to get away from reporting in Excel. As soon as I open Excel 2013 to show them the cool Power View demos, I often hear "what else do you have that we can use"? Microsoft BI pales in the face of the BI competition. Microsoft may have become experts at wooing the analysts and MVPs. They clearly are not listening to their customers. Look I know this all sounds bad but I am not a hater. I miss the Microsoft BI of the past. Who can help Microsoft see the light before it is too late?
For what it's worth I'd like to chip in that I agree completely with what you guys are saying.
What Mike said - "Microsoft should just buy a BI company that has a mature, modern, mobile capable, front-end BI solution."
I think this is a brilliant suggestion. Tableau or something similar would be a good acquisition for Microsoft as it seems, at least up until this point, that Microsoft are not capable of producing a coherent BI solution that includes mobile delivery.
"The MVP attendees lost some credibility in my mind since they sounded like they were being paid by Microsoft to hype Excel and cloud versus provide the BI professional, thought leader updates they historically have provided." - This too is an accurate observation. It seems the main benchmark to become an MVP now is touting Microsoft's products on your blog in a positive way. There are some great MVPs out there still, but it has changed.
"Microsoft may have become experts at wooing the analysts and MVPs. They clearly are not listening to their customers. Look I know this all sounds bad but I am not a hater. I miss the Microsoft BI of the past. Who can help Microsoft see the light before it is too late?" - HEAR HEAR!!
Unfortunately any company MS buys would end up dying once absorbed, its poeple leaving to built another startup and its technology refactored to fit Sharepoint and Excel molds, so it would just be a waste of a valuable alternative for customers... Yes I too miss the MS of the past. Very Nostalgic.
Hi Josh/Mike,
"It seems the main benchmark to become an MVP now is touting Microsoft's products on your blog in a positive way.
For what its worth, I am currently an MVP (perhaps not for much longer after writing this blog post :) ). "
Hi Jamie
It is true, you *have* sinned.
Say ten "Hail Ballmer's" , and confess to your MVP lead!
I see lots of MVPs being critical about Microsoft technologies. I think if someone is ONLY critical or ONLY flattering, then that's more likely to hurt a potential MVP award. A mix is just fine, as it helps everyone to realise that when praise is given, it has probably been well-considered.
Ah, the eternal hunt for a BI Strategy from Microsoft. This total fragmentation is nothing new. Just think KPIs. People are suggesting the Microsoft should buy a BI vendor, well remember Proclarity. That worked out well!
At the end of the day the reality is that there are 4 competing teams all pushing to get budget and attention for their pet projects and therefore their promotions. In the Red Corner you have the Office team with Excel and SharePoint. In the Blue Corner you have SQL Server and Analysis Services. All of these teams have very different views on what BI is and how it should be delivered. Sometimes personalities can cross the divide but for the most part it is every man for himself.
If you are waiting for a coherent, joined up, and user centric BI Strategy from Microsoft you may want to check your pension plan first.
Mark Stacey, Rob Collie,and Chris Webb have all called out Microsoft at least once in public for the good of the many. If I went back to the PASS event when SSAS Tabular was introduced, there were a lot of ugly gripes. They lived through it for the better even if some hands were slapped.
The MVP community does need a few voices of reason to lead us safely into the future. MVPs should be able to call out issues and help Microsoft make course corrections. As an implementation partner, our group has been begging for answers for a long time. I do know the "uncomfortable seat shifting" the other partner mentioned and it is costing us deals. Thanks for being strong enough to point out issues allowing us a chance to beware of them, discuss them, and learn from each other.
It's true there are a lot of great MVP's out there. And it is understandable that Microsoft looks to its MVP program to promote its products. After all, they are not a charity.
I know there are different teams vying for budget and attention etc but surely there would be an overarching strategy so these teams can work together rather than endlessly compete ?
Welcome to your "SSAS is dead" moment, Jamie!
I agree with pretty much everything that's been said here about GeoFlow, and also about the buy/build question. Despite all the valid criticisms of GeoFlow here though, I do like it and it does demo extremely well - as anyone who saw Amir's keynote on Thursday will testify.
Regarding the criticism of MVPs, I don't think it's completely fair to say that we've been co-opted by MS into hyping their products or that the benchmark for becoming an MVP is to do this. There's a constant stream of public and private feedback that goes back and forth between MS and the MVP community, and MS does listen even if it can't always take immediate action, or disagrees with what it hears. I've made some very public criticisms of MS BI strategy in the past and I'll do so in the future, but one thing I have learnt over the years is that the result of *constant* public complaining is that your complaints end up getting ignored.
I don't know exactly what's going on with Mobile BI and why it's so late but I'm 100% sure that the relevant team at MS don't need us to tell them that they are in deep trouble. It seems that they do need to be reminded of the need for communication with partners and customers though, even if the message is bad, and that's why I'm glad Jamie wrote this post.
Another Partner here agreeing that it does not help us sell a coherent enterprise BI strategy. This is what we need to see from MS far more than yet another tool.
I agree with your assessment of MVP independence, and I already advised Jamie to get a thick book to stick a book down his trousers at SQLBITS :-)
Microsoft rely heavily on both the community and their partner ecosystem. I'm convinced that their current struggles to hit sales targets are (in part at least) directly linked to their lack of communication with partners and the community in general around Mobile BI.
I tend to think that Microsoft can't win.
Excel is the way forward for Microsoft Business Intelligence: hence, PowerView, Data Explorer and Geoflow are both part of Excel. If it had gone into SharePoint first, there would be a furore about the fact that Geoflow had gone into SharePoint Enterprise and wasn't accessible to people without SharePoint. Remember the Power View furore?
The truth is that the majority of BI work is done in Excel, and I think Microsoft are just bringing everything home to where the Business Users do most of their work. It's about working with the Excel users, and giving people opportunities to work with other technologies that are outside of SharePoint or Office365.
Regarding mobile, my ideal strategy is for people to use Microsoft and Tableau to service a BI solution. Excel will keep most people happy, and Tableau is the 'gold standard' for mobile data visualisation and Microsoft are only one of the many vendors are trying to keep up with Tableau.
For mobile business intelligence strategy, my bet is that you should all be watching Office365, which I haven't seen mentioned here in the commentary so far. Excel is currently available on a mobile device via Office365 or even SkyDrive, for example. It would be a nice evolution for Office365 if GeoFlow, Power View etc were available via a mobile device, since you could access it anywhere.
We Business Intelligence people do not like uncertainty since we are fundamentally 'data' people and I'd like to see clarity in this area, for sure.
Regarding the comments of MVP independence.
Noone would deny the great work that MVP's do. Hell, I've got by on their advice, their code and their blogs for years!
But it is hard to claim they are 100% objectively independent. The award is handed out by MSFT, not an independent company.
It would be very difficult to compose a convincing argument that a person is independent regarding their opinions of a company, when they are receiving an award, and benefits, from that company.
In the greater world outside of technology, that is called a 'conflict of interest'. Nothing wrong with receiving benefits of course, but it does make it hard to claim independence.
Hi Jen,
You said
"Excel is the way forward for Microsoft Business Intelligence: hence, PowerView, Data Explorer and Geoflow are both part of Excel. If it had gone into SharePoint first, there would be a furore about the fact that Geoflow had gone into SharePoint Enterprise and wasn't accessible to people without SharePoint. Remember the Power View furore?"
I don't understand the notion that it has to go to just one place first, before everywhere else. It should go *everywhere* first. Make Power View *viewable everywhere* (i.e. Escel, SharePoint, SkyDrive) and then put new features (e.g. Geoflow) into Power View, ensuring that its *still* viewable everywhere.
The piecemeal approach Microsoft takes to this really annoys me. Fine, if they want to have premium SKUs then make it so that you can only *build* Power View reports in those premium SKUs, but the reports should be *viewable* everywhere. And that means on SharePoint, in Excel, on SkyDrive and also on iOS/Android/Win8 if/when those apps reach us. I'm fed up with conversations that go along the lines of "well, you can use functionality X, but only if you pay for this edition". The rest of the world doesn't work that way anymore, and customers won't stand for it anymore when the other guys make it a lot simpler.
Microsoft suffer from the Scylla and Charybdis problem. They can deliver something quickly to show proof of delivery and to 'test the waters', or they can wait until Geoflow (or any other product) is ready in every and any scenario, and then release it. Either way, they get pricked by Morton's fork since the solution is the same: not everyone is happy.
Another way of putting it is that they are essentially a commercial enterprise and it's the usual business problem of you can have something fast, good, or cheap - but not all three.
Power View was put in SharePoint first, and then added to Excel. GeoFlow has been put in Excel first (after the Power-View-In-SharePoint-Only problems) and then Microsoft can see what the adoption is like. If nobody uses it, then it will naturally have attrition. But at least we have something to play with, for now.
You can't just buy a technology and expect it to solve all the business problems and 'one size fits all' will never work. Different things for different needs, so hence a hierarchy of payment options - you get what you pay for.
I do think, and have lamented long, that the licensing and functionality relationship is never clear to anybody, and hence comes across as piecemeal and fragmented. This is further compounded by the fact that Business Intelligence, particularly mobile, is simultaneously heterogenous and personal, particularly on mobile devices, and difficult to pin down.
I don't think a 'suck it and see' approach is unreasonable as long as its accompanied by strong messaging - and this is the piece we are missing.
MVPs are MVPs because they have shared their expertise with the community. It's a reward for the previous year's community contributions. It is not a paid position and we do not receive benefits to be blind Microsoft cheerleaders handing out kool-aid.
I am a SQL Server MVP. 99% of my work is done in Mac OS and 100% of my work is done using Apple hardware (with either VMs or RDP to facilitate my work). I am not shy about lambasting Windows in general, criticizing the terrible things they have done to Windows 8 in specific, or even speaking unfavorably about choices the SQL Server team has made in implementing features, ignoring bugs and throwing most of their money into the cloud. I am very happy to say that I have been this way throughout my career. I have been an MVP since 1997, and have always been very honest with my audience - I cheer when Microsoft does good things, and I boo when they don't. The challenge is to boo in a way that is not seen as a direct attack, and to share feedback internally and give them a chance to respond before blasting them in public (you don't have to be an MVP to show them this kind of respect, either). So in that case I agree that we're not 100% objectively independent, but please don't paint us out as a bunch of zombie lemmings who say nothing but good things about Microsoft. That is quite far from the truth.
The bottom line is this: Microsoft HAS created great self-service BI tools (PowerPivot, PowerView, Data Explorer, GeoFlow). They are the BI leader by far in this category. However, if these tools are not available to everyone on a level playing field, and don't work smoothly across platforms and in the cloud, then Microsoft's BI bet will fail miserably. I have a gut feeling, though, that Microsoft cannot possibly be as inept as they appear to be, and the availability/integration/interoperability issues will be solved very soon.
David Hager
Former Microsoft Excel MVP
I'm sincerely hoping you're right. This isn't just some random dig at Microsoft we are seeing here. It's an impassioned critique of a glaring hole in BI strategy that needs to be filled by those that are in large part either "friends of Microsoft" and/or reliant in th getting this right for their livelihoods.
No news, in this instance, is not good news!
I also see BI going the Excel way. I am also very curious about the role Silverlight plays in this, and I also agree with one or two above that the space to watch is Office365.
The notion of the datawarehouse is anachronistic - there's more horsepower in a laptop Excel installation than there is in a multimillion dollar old corporate datawarehouse. As for front end interrogation of the data, the real question is XAML or HTML5 - and this leads on to questions about Windows8 and Office365.
I think mobile touchscreen is a fad about to die a swift death in the face of technologies like Google Glass and the like.
@Will Riley
No, the problem is that you are trying to sell BI into the enterprise. a) what does the enterprise need BI for? large companies have all the info they need, and their businesses run on a combination of cultural inertia and international credit flows. b) Small companies need BI - and this means Office 365 - and that's where MS is at. Enterprise is history.
Bloody hell. The future is Excel? What other news exactly have I missed? I have been helping customers get away from Excel messes. Has there been deprecation news for SSRS and PerformancePoint? Is it true about Report Models? Where do I get the not so warm, fuzzy news to know what to implement and avoid?
@Frank Szendzielarz
I got a good laugh from "The notion of the datawarehouse is anachronistic" and then I saw "I think mobile touchscreen is a fad about to die a swift death". You have taken trolling to a new level.
Re the touchscreen thing - Google Glass is, at best, the Windows CE v1 of this type of interface. Read Halting State or Rainbows End for an idea of what this needs to look like for real use.
Regarding data warehouses, I'm not sure what kind of DW you've been using but I'm the guy that gets brought in to rescue people from that special kind of "We don't need a DW" Excel hell. Sure Excel has a million rows these days and that's great. It's still slower than treacle to try and do anything of merit in Excel and a million rows is getting to be a rounding error. Yes, even for "small businesses".
Geoflow should be a feature in the next Power View release, not a separate product. Then it would be supported immediately in SharePoint and Excel, and soon in HTML5. Having another Excel based mapping visualization is just confusing and unnecessarily overlapping.
While we're on the topic it also seems Data Explorer should be part of PowerPivot. Keeping both of these as separate products simply complicates the development efforts and increases the opportunities for inconsistent functionality going forward.
Hey has anyone been using Geoflow on corporate data.. I am wondering what kind of performance you are getting..
I don't have a dedicated graphics card at work and was wondering if anyone out there is getting much better performance on machines with dedicated graphics cards?
How many data points are you rendering and what kind of hardware are you using?
I'm getting pretty good performance but was wondering how far GeoFlow can be pushed on high end machines before it starts to slow down..
@Joe Harris - well I think being a little provocative and mischievous could help boost JamieT's blog readership for one thing :-)
On the other hand, no I am completely serious and I think you are wrong. I think the future of BI is MS's Self Service BI and small or medium sized businesses don't need 'data warehouses' and sophisticated ETL as much as they did before, which are in essence a query performance optimisation strategy and nothing more. Also another angle is the 'information flow' concept which Jamie mentioned in an earlier blog post, which is basically event driven ETL in my opinion or in other words tying up reporting with business process automation.
As for mobile touchscreen - I stand by my point: there is no way I'm giving up my PC or laptop for a tablet, ever. There will come other UIs, such as Google Glass, or other gesture based or Kinect-type device based uis that might supersede the mouse and keyboard, but otherwise, no. If someone wants to do geoflow type presentations, they should sit down at a PC or throw them up on a projector.
@Frank Szendzielarz
Re touchscreen: 'Serious' computer users felt the mouse was slow and pointless. Serious computer users still use the mouse as little as possible. It's not about replacement, it's about capturing non-consumption either in new users or new usage situations. Touch devices now outnumber PCs so I'm thinking there might be something in it.
Re DW: A DW is the single place where a business is forced to classify and integrate their data across operational silos. That involves making hard decisions and talking to other departments. The modelling method or technology used is irrelevant it's the bringing together that matters. SSAS (or OLAP generally) is a performance optimisation but the DW is actually for business rules **clarification**.
Re ETL: I love the idea of event driven ETL but in my experience it tends to create a hard dependency between reporting systems and front line systems that slows down change in both sides. Working at one remove is certainly a bit slower in terms of data delivery but it adds a lot flexibility that you miss when it's gone.
A wise man once said "efficiency is the enemy of robustness". A DW and ETL process look like inefficient duplication of data and effort on the surface. But look deeper, the goal is to build a robust and reliable source of cross process data. We didn't arrive at the current approach by some sort of historical accident. Almost every imaginable alternative has been tried by someone and this approach can succeed in average businesses with average developers better than any other.
Re: DW - well no it's not is it? The SOA-style service bus does something similar, and now we have sharepoint and Excel services and PowerPivot models, while the whole notion of having a DW as a single place to organise views into data has been a failure since the beginning. The DW vs Datamarts debate still goes on, and only serves to illustrate the problem.
The so-called operational silos are only operational silos because of reluctance to do things like create a whack-load of indexes on a LOB transactional db, but with newer technologies, architectures and approaches, that problem starts to go away.
I can see quite clearly new small business users simply connecting their Excel workbook to their CRM systems (eg Office365) and producing all the reports and animations they will ever need. If they want to merge in data from some other source, they can do it all using Sharepoint and Excel. Where's the need for a DW and an expensive consultant? Sorry - no business case - maybe for older companies and legacy enterprises such as banks.
RE: Not needing a DW, users make all the reports they will ever need
Respectfully, completely disagree unless the business is doing trivial reporting! There are many great case studies on how poor "micro-level" reports/decisions are made that impact entire businesses ie. bank that denies micro-unit business loan for what happens to be a very profitable mega-customer across the whole portfolio of businesses.
In this data explosion era, there is a place for self-service BI and DWs and a solid BI architecture. There is more of a need than ever before for "usable/consumable" prepared data sources like the DWs, hybrid-DMs, these business users can efficiently consume to create their own reports with their own BYO reporting tool. Most of the time you can't just point users at the raw ERP and CRM transactional DBs and say go at it. For instance, business users wouldn't have a clue on how to compare Year over Year performance correctly when Business structures change - DWs use Slowly Changing Dimension patterns to accurately report those scenarios. There are tons of other examples. Check out this recent article from Claudia Imhoff.
Do We Still Need a BI Architecture? You Bet We Do!
Claudia Imhoff
"I can see quite clearly new small business users simply connecting their Excel workbook to their CRM systems (eg Office365) and producing all the reports and animations they will ever need"
I disagree with that too.. It's never just been about performance - the complexity of these systems doesn't simply allow you to point Excel at base tables.
The advent of new hardware, especially RAM, has made queries run faster though - it's probably fair to say that in a lot of scenarios we no longer need data warehouses for their performance benefits. And you can get away a lot more now with relational reporting.
But it doesn't solve the problems Mike has given examples of. Data Warehousing is still solving those problems.
And that's before we've even started discussing those trends that have made reporting HARDER. One example being the storing of data in SharePoint lists, and in XML format in InfoPath forms that are user designed. Try giving your business users a connection to a bunch of XML files created by other business users in InfoPath that contain critical data - and see if they can get meaningful results out of it. Don't get me started on reporting on InfoPath data...
@Mike / Josh
RE preparation of data/slowly changing dimension/etc - I think this is a cultural problem. So far, the business knowledge and understanding was put into the BI team because these challenges of organising information were/are considered technological problems.
The fundamental shift is not a technical one but a cultural one that is made possible by new technologies. While data preparation and organisation of data structures that facilitate reporting (or 'BI' / 'Datawarehousing' as you are now putting it), will continue, the people (you) doing it will no longer be considered technologists. You, or your successors, will be working in operations teams, in analytical teams, superusers who will be responsible for using the existing platforms for creating and maintaining these structures within the Office context.
So if you are saying that Data Warehousing is really no longer so much about the technology, but about the process of understanding the information and making it available, then yes Data Warehousing will continue, but the people doing it will be members of the business departments, using Office, Office365 and plugins in the great majority of cases I think.
@Frank Alrighty then, you have had far too much Microsoft Office 365 Kool-Aid... your signature should read "now a word from our sponsor, Microsoft Office". There will be less IT infrastructure roles and DBAs in cloud world but DW/BI development will thrive. The DW location simply moves to cloud but the design patterns and complexities of querying and reporting across multiple systems remains the same as it is today.
Let's hear what the those of us that live and work in the real world have to say about that.
An Office plugin that does data warehousing and can be operated by business users.. cool
Does anyone have the URL for it?
Perhaps the best place to continue such discussion would be here: http://cwebbbi.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/why-corporate-bi-and-self-service-bi-are-both-necessary/
Jon Capezzuto said:
"Geoflow should be a feature in the next Power View release, not a separate product. While we're on the topic it also seems Data Explorer should be part of PowerPivot."
Even better, what if all four (PP, PV, DE, Geoflow) were all just one product, with one installation?
I am a SQL Server MVP and I'm not happy to read these comments.
We are all passionate by Microsoft Technologies and we share that passion.
That's why we are MVP.
But remember we are also all professionals, consultants, developers, managers...
As you, we are embarassed with some customers questions and more than you we are embarassed to tell them that Microsoft is not clear on some points.
Please consider all of our work before critize them.
Also, I'm totally agree with Jen. You cannot make everybody happy. Nothing is perfect and even is Microsoft.
2 years ago, we all complained about SharePoint. Now you are whinning about Excel. What's next ?
I share the pointed problem about a unique BI story accross all devices and bound in one tool. And I tell it to Microsoft. But I'm not Microsoft, don't blame me.
I also think it take a long, a very very long time, to preview some Mobile BI features...
I like Geoflow and many of my customers said "wow" when I presented it.
I guess it will be integrated in SharePoint, Power View, Office Apps etc. I just tell it to the right person and not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
PS : i'm pleased to see that it is not a French guy who starts complaining :p.
Hello Jean-Pierre,
Thank you for your comment.
"Please consider all of our work before critize them."
Not quite sure what you're saying here. I will assume from what you said in the rest of your comment that "our" refers to all MVPs. Are you saying that by criticising Microsoft I am reflecting negatively upon the work that other MVPs do? If so, can you explain how?
"But I'm not Microsoft, don't blame me."
Don't blame you for what? I wasn't aware that I was blaming you for anything.
"i'm pleased to see that it is not a French guy who starts complaining"
Why is a person's nationality significant when that person is voicing a personal opinion?
Can you please clarify something for me. Are you suggesting that due to my receiving of the MVP Award that I should not voice any of my opinions that are critical of Microsoft?
I have been following this conversation with the most interest. I left BI consulting almost a year ago, and have moved into corporate BI Management. And if MS strategy looked not so good from the partner perspective, from a large organization point of view, is simply crumbling.
I used to be a SQL Server MVP. I know for sure that (at least SQL Server ones) are very vocal and critical to Microsoft.
However, Microsoft execution is poor, bad designed, and completely utterly ignorant of real market needs. We have had the conversation with Microsoft about BI consistency.
And for the last 5 years, it has been a non-stop SNAFU after another: Proclarity ,
PerformancePoint Planning,
Data Mining forgotten,
no serious management tools for troubleshooting SSAS Cubes -Only what good Mosha left behind-,
poor Reporting Services integration with SSAS,
Zero Microsoft BI Mobile (and the paper on using BI on an Ipad is just for fools, totally humiliating),
PowerView STILL (after 2 years) is not able to access SSAS Multidimensional (we only got a CTP, an old one by current IT standards), and now,
Excel licensing isolating BI from the mainstream.
Just one question: WHAT IN THE WORLD IS MICROSOFT THINKING?... I seriously respect Amir Netz, but man, you gotta recognize he has only done good demos for the past 2 years... And none of those promises/vision have made it to the hands of us, the consumers, nor with the bare basic quality expected from a company like Microsoft.
Wow Jamie. This sure has kicked off considerable and passionate debate.
Notwithstanding Jamie's excellent analysis of GeoFlow, for those bemoaning the lack of a good mobile BI offering from MS, it would be good to keep in this in mind.
It is a big ask for any organisation like Microsoft to deliver upon every niche they operate in as well as the core competencies (and I think most of you would agree that in the database arena they are doing very well). You could argue mobile BI is not niche, but not so long ago it was.
Anyway, as the wheel of the IT industry inexorably turns through the same cycles (only the themes are changing), we continue to have the same choices to make.
So on the BI theme, the choices are
A. Get in bed with with a huge, apparently complete solution / partner (eg. Informatica, Business Objects) and then find out (often too late) some of the components are square when you expected round.
B. utilise the core capabilities provided by your chosen hardware vendor and custom build your solutions.
C. grapple with hybrid's of the two approaches as your organisation moves through the cycle
D. if you reach sufficient age, REPEAT.
The choice between A & B is that age old conundrum of "will the retrofit of the 20% of the solution in option A be better or worse than the 'do it yourself' method of option B"?
I have always tended to lean towards custom build, largely because of distrust about silver bullet solutions, offered by teflon coated sales people, that all too often, disappoint.
However, if you are a small IT department, big IT projects can be the undoing of what was a good, capable team.
The good news is, we work in a rewarding and challenging industry and get paid well to confront these challenges. The Microsoft community in particular is very open, productive and supportive and I personally benefit from this support every week ( from contributors who are MVP's and not). That support depends upon the freedom to express opinions in a respectful way. Jamie certainly ticks that box.
As soon as constraints are put upon that freedom (implied or directed) then the community support will suffer.
The freedom to speak frankly (and also the desire) within large IT projects is crucial as issues cant be addressed if they are not acknowledged and addressed. You cant behave one way in good project teams and another just because you have been endowed with an MVP award. The programme will suffer if the good, straighforward professionals refuse the accolade if they feel they will be censored.
So please keep the Microsoft Professional support community horsemeat (and BS) free.
Tablets like surface pro can handle easly geoflow
I answered to some comments, not to your article. You started a debate and it is your/our job to do that. Reading comments, I feel like a Microsoft mercenary because I/We are an MVP.
"Please consider all of our work before critize them."
--> I meant a MVP is doing more than writing articles in favor of Microsoft. We all works for CUSTOMERS, not Microsoft
"But I'm not Microsoft, don't blame me."
--> I meant that if Microsoft do something wrong, as an MVP I am not responsible of that, don't blame MVPs
"i'm pleased to see that it is not a French guy who starts complaining"
It was a joke about French people complaining about everything, forget it. My intention was to unpassionate my comment.
--> surely not, that debate is important. I share that Mobile solutions are missing from MSBI, I share that 1 tool is better than 4.
My point for people in comments was :
the world is not divided into 2 categories : MVP blessings Microsoft and Others criticizing it.
I've just defended MVPs. Don't misunderstand my comment Jamie.
Hi Jean-Pierre,
Thanks for coming back to comment. I admit that when I saw your first comment I was rather put out as I thought you were basically stating that you thought I shouldn't have written the article. I now realise that that is not the case and I apologise for any misunderstanding on my part.
I certainly agree with your assertion that "the world is not divided into 2 categories : MVP blessings Microsoft and Others criticizing it" and understand now that you were merely defending what you saw in the comments as unfair criticism of MVPs - I definitely agree with you here.
Thanks again for taking the time to comment. I'm glad we cleared up any possible misunderstanding.
MVP and SQL people,
I understand the comments and the awareness with regard to the answer to that solution. After getting heavy into the mix on MSBI pre-sales and development, I started looking for a better way than what we have today. I've been heads down looking at how to fix that problem on an SSIS and SSAS (Multi-dem and Tabular) generation framework, as well as, a super powerful front end, called Prism. I'm the Chief Product Evangelist @ HaloBI. We're got 400+ installations of SQL Server that sold to create an an enterprise solution for the MSBI stack. Please take a look at HaloBI.com, and I'll demo the product for you, if you email me at email@example.com.
This product is the real-deal. I've got answers for every question that has been approached in this conversation, and we're fighting answers from Oracle, IBM, SAP, and Qlikview every day.
I'm sorry to shamelessly plug in the mix here, but we're doing something to address this direct problem and gap in the market and would welcome your feedback. We'll invest the product and make it happen, so real business analytical process and problems can get moving.


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Browns General Manager Mike Lombardi was the guest at the Pro Football Hall of Fame's luncheon club on Monday, which meant that he spent a long period of time in front of a microphone talking and answering questions about his team.
It's not something Lombardi has done a ton of since getting the job and one of the running themes of his appearance was evaluation. Lombardi talked about evaluating Brandon Weeden to see if he's the long-term answer at quarterback, evaluating Jabaal Sheard to find out how he fits in the team's new defensive scheme and evaluating center Alex Mack before deciding whether or not to sign him to a contract extension.
All of that evaluating and the trade of two 2013 draft picks for selections in 2014 led some to wonder if the Browns aren't pinning all of their hopes on the future while looking past the season right in front of them. Lombardi was asked if that's what the team was doing after being reminded that every new boss of the Browns has talked about building for futures that have wound up looking exactly like the past.
"I'm not sitting up here saying I've got a five-year plan, this is going to work. I'm telling you we're building something. I'm not saying it's for the future because I think it's all going to come down to us making sure we make good decisions and moving forward. And I'm not asking for any more patience than anyone else," Lombardi said, via Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon-Journal. "I'm just saying we're going to build this thing the right way so we can sustain success. We're certainly, by no means, thinking about giving up on the season …We're going to go in there and compete. We've got some pieces to compete with. This team last year was in a lot of close games, had a lot of opportunities in the fourth quarter. I think we can build on that."
After years and years of talk about building foundations for the future and counseling patience as plans work toward fruition, it's a tough sell to come back with more of the same. That's not to say that they're doing it wrong. Sustained success is obviously the goal of every NFL team and the new group running the Browns has every right to do it the way they believe is best. It's just all sounds awfully familiar after years of evaluation and planning have left the team in the exact same place it started.


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Rutsch, M. and Rieckermann, J. and Cullmann, J. and Ellis, John Bryan and Vollertsen, Jes and Krebs, Peter (2008) Towards a better understanding of sewer exfiltration. Water Research, 42 (10-11). pp. 2385-2394. ISSN 0043-1354


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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2002-08-06 07:00 UTC The ARISS (a joint effort of AMSAT, the ARRL, NASA, the ARISS international partners including Canada, Russia, the European Partners, and Japan) operations team wishes to announce the following very tentative schedule for ARISS school contacts. This schedule is very fluid and may change at the last minute. Remember that amateur radio use on the ISS is considered secondary. Please check the various AMSAT and ARISS webpages for the latest announcements. Changes from the last announcement are noted with (***). Also, please check MSNBC.com for possible live retransmissions (http://www.msnbc.com/m/lv/default.asp). Listen for the ISS on the downlink of 145.80 MHz. ISS Expedition 5 crew: Peggy Whitson KC5ZTD Sergei Treschev RZ3FU Valeri Korzun RZ3FK KANSAI HAM FESTIVAL 2002, Hirakata, Japan direct via 8N3ISS 2002-08-02 08:32 UTC Congratulations Kansai and Peggy on a successful contact. 15 Students had their questions answered. (***) Euro Space Center space camp direct via ON4ESC 2002-08-07 18:04 UTC (***) Jamboree Station, The Netherlands, PI4RIS 1st choice 2002-08-24 or 2002-08-25 2nd choice 2002-08-17 or 2002-08-18 Kursk's High School No. 55, Russia, 2001 direct via RK3WXZ 1st choice 2002-08-30 07:57 UTC (***) 2nd choice 2002-08-29 08:53 UTC (***) 3rd choice 2002-08-28 08:14 UTC (***) Mikve Israel School/ Givatayim Space Observatory, Israel direct via 4Z4SAT Week of 2002-09-02 TBD (***) Whitson Crew Pick, Stanley Clark School, South Bend, IN Week of 2002-09-02 TBD Whitson Crew Pick, Martensdale - St. Mary's School, Martensdale, IA Week of 2002-09-09 TBD Whitson Crew Pick, Silver Hills Middle School, Fairplay, CO Week of 2002-09-16 TBD Joamie Ilniarvik, Iqualuit, Nunavut, Canada Week of 2002-09-23 TBD Whitson Crew Pick, Spruce Hill Christian School (K-8), Philadelphia, PA Week 2002-09-30 TBD Glen Waverley Secondary College, Melbourne Australia, VK3BPU TBD Travis Elementary, Greenville, Texas TBD Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum, Chicago, Illinois direct via AJ9N TBD (***) Look for possible live streaming video, the website is http://www.adlerplanetarium.org Center for Educational Technologies, Wheeling Jesuit University, Wheeling, WV Telebridge TBD The latest ARISS announcement and successful school list in now available on the ARISS web site. Several ways to get there. http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov click on English (sorry I don't know French) you are now at http://www.rac.ca/ariss.htm click on News Currently the ARISS operations team has a list of over 40 schools that we hope will be able to have a contact during 2002. As the schedule becomes more solidified, we will be letting everyone know. Current plans call for an average of one scheduled school contact per week. 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors ---- Via the sarex mailing list at AMSAT.ORG courtesy of AMSAT-NA. To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe sarex" to email@example.com
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1. 2-in-1 London Combo
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Professional/Education/Science Policies
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For the purpose of providing clinical professional services, a Qualified Medical Physicist (QMP) is an individual who is competent to independently provide clinical professional services in one or more of the subfields* of medical physics. A QMP is qualified to practice only in the subfield(s) in which they are certified. The subfields of medical physics are:
The scope of practice of each subfield is defined in the AAPM Professional Policy 17 "Scope of Practice of Clinical Medical Physics".
A Qualified Medical Physicist meets each of the following credentials:
The following national certifying bodies have been deemed appropriate:
_________________________________________*Previous certification categories in medical physics included radiological physics, therapeutic radiological physics, medical nuclear physics, diagnostic radiological physics and diagnostic imaging physics.
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Wow how many different engines? Brio never fails to surprise everyone with just how many ideas they have for one little engine. Each machine has been carefully thought about and has been made from high quality materials, and most of all these engines are designed to be handled by those small hands. Here's a quick run though of this range to help you decide which engine might be best for your child.
First of all consider whether it is a basic engine that you need which is just pushed along and is great for the little ones who want to be fully involved, or you could go for one that does a little more. There are some that can detract magnets so the load can be removed without you doing it, and even some that make a chuffing noise as you push them along which is a great reward for young children who will be fascinated with the sounds. Some have lights and some are powered by batteries and this could make it a little more exciting for the slightly older ones. We think they've thought of pretty much everything and everyone. There are so many different engines to choose from it could be a difficult decision!
Here we go with the quick run through: For freight and loads you have the Goods Truck which can bring the goods to the train yard for onward transportation or can be used for loads arriving into the yard which need to be taken away.
The Freight Loco Train is then needed to shift the enormous weight of some loads and for heavy duty transportation of things like timber on the Lumber Wagon, or the Gas Fuel Tanker Wagon for fuel deliveries across the area. It can also be used to transport multiple smaller freight loads such as the smaller Tanker Wagon, Car Transporter, Blue Container or Tipping or Loads Wagons. Other Freight options are available in the Freight Cargo Train complete with trailers or the Freight Gold Train and the Diesel Engine or Cargo Engine can be used for shifting goods too.
If the loads you have need protection from the elements, or if you don't want them visible to the public if of high value, then you will need the Boxcar Wagons, and if this type of freight is mainly your load then you may consider the Boxcar Train which comes with two boxcar wagons. Plus if you need help with loading on the track then the Clever Crane Wagon is a must, or the Mega Crane may be needed for shifting heavier goods out and about on the railway line.
Other smaller goods which require transportation include the Car Transporter with its flat bed which is perfect for loading on cars, or the Handy Coal Wagon which is needed for keeping the steam trains topped up such as the Old Steam Engine, the Great Steam Engine, Bullet or the Flying Scotsman which is a must for every Brio Engine collection. The Hay Wagon is required to help the farmers out, as is the Milk Wagon and the supermarkets desperately need help transporting their bananas in the Freight Banana Wagon.
Brio have the emergency services covered too, and these are vital for any well run railway service. Trouble sometimes can brew between the different operatives, and accidents may happen which means the Police have to get involved and you can often see their Light & Sound Police Car zooming in to help. For accidents and passenger health concerns the Ambulance is needed and with their flashing lights and sirens they quickly make it to where they need to be. As does the Fire Service who are specialised to help in railway incidents and need their ladder and hose to help put out any fires before they become out of control and endanger the passengers.
The Mighty Red Action Locomotive is a really popular engine and this is because it is battery operated and has two buttons for sound actions including 'choo choo' and lights. Other battery operated engines include the Two Way Battery Powered Engine which can go backwards and forwards and the Rechargeable 4WD Engine available with spare battery unit.
One of the newer ranges for Brio is the Metro Train based on the electric line in real life, complete with passengers and luggage. More modern trains also include the well-liked Shinkansen which was famous in Japan as being the world's first high speed express train, as well as the High Speed Train with Sound and the Remote Control Express Train giving a new dimension to operating Brio Engines.
Originally wooden trains just had hook and eye connectors which were quite difficult for little hands to deal with so this led to development of magnets by Brio and you will see each train has silvery dot on it which is where they attach to each other and this is the coupler. Brio's quality and design of these magnets means as trains go round bends they stay attached as they have a more flexible connector than some other manufacturers. Hook and eyes are still also used on some carriages though to enable more features to be added.
Imitate real life with Brio Trains – where you will find every conceivable type of Engine, Wagon, Carriage or Vehicle. These pieces make excellent little gifts for birthdays and the suchlike, plus try using them as rewards for good behaviour – very soon you will have a little angel on your hands and a very impressive rolling stock!


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The Cosmetics Fairy Online Shop!
Beauty products you'll love!
If you find yourself wondering where to buy cheap makeup when then you've come to the right place. At Cosmetics Fairy we understand that keeping your makeup bag stocked shouldn't cost the earth which is why we hunt for the best brands and sell them at our discount prices. We stock a fantastic range of discounted makeup from cheap nail polish to lipstick and accessories. Browse our selection of discounted makeup, you're sure to find something you will love as well as some new favourites along the way
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We specialise in supplying discontinued and hard to find beauty makeup items. If you are looking cheap makeup in the UK then we are the site for you!


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mnp13 wrote:All of the kennels around me start at $15 per dog per night. There are cheaper ones, but I have yet to find one that is less than $13, and I would never let my dogs stay there
SpiritFngrz wrote:My MIL is afraid of Satin too, but I think it's because she has a little teeny-weenie Yorkie that she thinks Satin is going to eat up. And because Satin growls playfully when she has a toy in her mouth. Not aggressive, just being sassy.
Shouldn't they get used to Inara? I mean geez, if you crate her when need be what is the big deal?
pitbullmamaliz wrote: So I have to go.
Anybody have any suggestions on how to convince them to let me bring her? I really don't want to do a kennel (though one of my friends gave me the name of one she HIGHLY recommends).
Users browsing this forum: No registered users


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Anita Wheeler needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 73 designs submitted by 25 freelance designers.
Anita G. Wheeler Millionaire Mindset Coach needs your creative take on a
"branded" logo for website, newsletter, blog, etc. This will go on audio's, video's, teleclasses, and seminar training. Let's have fun in creating a stand-out logo!
The audience is 'entrepreneurs' mostly women that are starting new and existing businesses online and offline. It is a fairly sophisticated audience. Lot's of coaches, real estate agent's, on-line ceo's etc.
The logo is made up of both the name and the description. Since the name (Anita G. Wheeler) is the name and the new branding part is Millionaire Mindset Coach the logo should incorporate both. (AND BOTH ARE EQUAL! Don't want a small "millionaire mindset coach! Am wanting a REAL Logo look, not just the two names....something that creates a branding!
This will go on a new
website and is the KEY to the banner on every page and the whole concept
will be designed around. I would love something sophisticated yet creative. Not too "corporate"....yet, Millionaire Mindset in itself must reflect exactly that.
Am open right now to colors and design. My thoughts are black and lime
green or red and black. BUT....I am truly looking for creative ideas to flow and speak to me and I want YOU to create the vision with the logo. Thanks SO much!
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Scorpion EXO-R410 Kona Helmet
- Premium polycarbonate shell: Developed exclusively by ScorpionEXO®, our industry-leading polycarbonate shell is engineered to minimize weight and disperse impact
- Ellip-Tec™ Ratchet System: Easy, secure, tool-less faceshield changes in seconds. Pulls the shield back against the eyeport gasket during closing to ensure a proper seal.
- EverClear® No Fog Faceshield: Optically-clear shield with state-of-the art fog free technology. Anti-Scratch hardened coating. 100% UV protection
- KwikWick® 2 Liner: KwikWick® 2 anti-microbial fabric keeps you cool and dry in warm weather, warm in cool weather. Liner is easily removable and washable.
- Kwikfit™ cheekpads allow easy on and off of the most common styles of eye glasses
- Emergency Release System: Tabs located on the neck roll allow easy removal of the cheek pads by trained emergency medical personnel.
- Aero-Tuned Ventilation: Three intake ports across the front of helmet force cool air in while four exhaust vents maximize movement of hot air out. Two ports in the chin bar maximize fresh air inside.
- FaceShield Lock/Vent System: Securely locks shield in place or you can turn down the lever to allow light airflow into the helmet
- Meets or exceeds- SNELL/DOT for sizes XS-2XL (3XL DOT only)
Note about photos: This helmet's photos were taken with a dark smoke shield; a clear shield is installed on all Scorpion helmets. This is a legal requirement.
Check out these similar products:
Sizing Information
Helmet Sizing Information from Scorpion:
Our customer service group tried on a selection of the R-410 helmets and we found the fit to be very similar to HJC and Shoei brands. We noted that overall we thought the fit, if anything, was just slightly more snug; so if you find yourself sometimes between sizes in a helmet, we suggest choosing the larger, otherwise choose the size you normally wear.
One other tip: This helmet has padding that seals around the neck, cheeks and chin very well and the opening is a bit more narrow than most. It helps to put the helmet on toward the back of your head first and pull it on while rolling it toward the front. This is a common technique with many racing helmets that are also a bit more narrow at the helmet's opening.
External Links for Fit Help:
Find the best helmet models for your head shape and size: LidPicker.com
Other links of interest:
Need help choosing the right shape and size helmet for your own noggin?
Learn about the LidPicker!
Our Two Cents
We've copied the feature list (and associated explanations) for the new Scorpion EXO-R410 helmet in the upper field of this page. I think Scorpion has done a great job of listing the features and explaining the usefulness of each one. My big takeaway from all this is that the helmet still meets Snell and DOT and is lighter, which is always good. In a lower priced helmet like this, they will almost universally be a polycarbonate shell, which is a bit heavier than the high-end helmets that have a fiber based material for the shell. And any weight that can be trimmed from a poly shell is a good thing. Also the attachment mechanism for the shield is improved. Not only does it pivot, but it also sucks the shield in toward the gasket around the eye opening as it approaches its home position. Finally, this helmet includes the safety feature of allowing emergency help to remove the cheek pads while the helmet is still on your head. The cheek pads are mounted on a post/slider arrangement so they will come loose when pulled down. A simple concept and I'm glad they have taken the time to include such a thing in a low priced helmet. The simple/cheap ideas are sometimes the best, right? And I also need to comment on the graphics. What a nice looking set of graphic designs! I like the new bright colors! I have a pair of Puma shoes that is a perfect match for the aqua/orange Split graphic. Too bad I can't wear sneakers on the bike! :: Paul, 10-04-13


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How to Use Social Media to Do a Better Job of Customer Service
How to Use Social Media to Do a Better Job of Customer Service
Ever emailed or called a company's customer service department and got no response or a poor response to your comments? Did you instead post a rant on Twitter or Facebook until you got a response? You're not alone – more and more customers are expecting brands to step up and respond to these posts.
According to a recent report by Gartner, by 2014, organizations that refuse to communicate with customers by social media will face the same level of wrath as those that ignore today's basic demand that they respond to emails and phone calls. "The dissatisfaction stemming from failure to respond via social channels can lead to up to a 15 percent increase in churn rate for existing customers," said Carol Rozwell, VP and analyst at Gartner.
The message is clear: You need to use social media not just as a marketing tool but as a systematic part of your customer service model. Here's how:
Align Social Media with All Levels of the Organization
For small businesses, customer service is so much more than one person or one team; it reaches across the entire business. From sales to marketing, billing to product development – these are all touch points for your customer, and it's essential that each of these uses social media to ensure your business is customer-centric and taking care of online reputation management.
Try to involve whoever manages your social media presence in important weekly meetings so they are informed about all elements of the business while they serve as the voice of your social media followers.
Change Your Social Media Paradigm
Social media represents the human face, voice and ears of your business, but the fact is there are more brands that ignore comments on Facebook and Twitter than there are brands that respond. This is why using it as a customer service tool often requires a change in paradigm – and commitment. Here are some things to consider:
- Recognize that your social media efforts are front and center to your efforts to retain and nurture prospects and customers.
- Be strategic about social media and how you engage with fans. Don't treat it as an aside to be taken advantage of when you need to promote your latest sale or event.
- Monitor social media regularly throughout the day. Very few businesses actually do this.
- Endeavor to respond to issues the same day, even if you simply thank your customer and inform them that you are looking into the issue. If you don't, things can quickly snowball in full view of an audience of hundreds or thousands, including potential customers.
Set Rules that Define Your Response to Customer Service Issues
If you haven't done so already, set some rules: who manages your social media voice and how should they should respond to negative comments? Lay out a clear path for escalation and resolution. This will ensure you or your social media leader is prepared to respond promptly when issues arise. This is especially true if you outsource this function or hire a junior level person to manage your social media.
Work out ahead of time a method for categorizing comments and develop a hierarchy for responding. For example, how will you handle a general comment or suggestion from a follower, versus how will you handle a genuine complaint? Does it require an immediate response? Escalation? And don't forget to monitor some of the more serious posts further.
When to Respond
Being proactive about social media doesn't mean you have to respond to everything. Just don't overlook anything! Consider the following:
- Not all comments are relevant or even solvable – For example, some folks who post public rants on your Facebook page may not actually want anything from you. They just need to get it off their chest. Such comments are often best ignored; you don't want to add fuel to the fire.
- Address legitimate complaints – If a customer has a specific and legitimate complaint (say, for example, the quality of a service or product didn't live up to expectations), you need to address the issue publicly, promptly and in the same media it was made. Try to move the conversation offline, only after you've posted your initial response.
- Look for positives in a negative comment – For example, if someone makes a complaint but also suggests ways you can do things better next time, acknowledge this, let them know you will share the suggestion internally – and follow through on this pledge.
For more tips on how to respond to criticism, including how to apologize, check out my earlier blog: 7 Tips for Dealing With Criticism of Your Business on Social Media.
Learn From Your Interactions
I've already mentioned the importance of bringing your social media lead to the business-wide conference table, but it's also important to keep a record of customer service interactions. Again, this is part of the new paradigm. Think of it as the equivalent of monitoring a call and using it for training purposes. Share these conversations across the organization, and act on the critique and feedback.
About the Author:
Caron Beesley


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|Photo courtesy of Yarra Libraries.
Criminal networks were Squizzy Taylor's milieu - if only he had tried Australia's Community Heritage network!
The website allows you to create an individual profile or a group identity so you can enter information about places, people and historical events in Australia. For example, you might like to tell the story of how your ancestors came to Australia. While this is not a family history website, there are many Australians who have made a difference since they came to this country and telling their story is a way to get this known. You can also comment on stories and post notices about upcoming events related to your group's activities.
The website is an initiative of the Australian Government department with responsibility for heritage, (the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities) to engage people in heritage more widely across Australian communities. The website is supported by the Australian Council of National Trusts and the Federation of Australian Historical Societies.
Register now!


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Eviction of Kalaeloa Raceway Park? Support KRP!
Kalaeloa Raceway Park (KRP) is saddened to announce that earlier today, we received a 30-day Notice of Eviction from the Department of Hawaiian Homelands (DHHL) "Without Reason" per Linda Chinn.
Everyone on the Kalaeloa Raceway Park Project team is shocked by this letter. No reason or cause was given by DHHL on why we are being evicted nor have there been any indications that we were to be evicted or that our team has done anything to warrant this.
This comes on the heel of our inaugural events which were by all accounts very successful with over 4,000+ spectators in attendance in addition to the widespread acclaim and news coverage. DHHL attended our first SCCA Rally and indicated that no problems were noted during their "due diligence".
As a team, we have strived for the past three years to create a positive, community-driven facility that provides a much needed home for our displaced motorsports enthusiasts. Literally, thousands of volunteer man-hours and money as well as blood, sweat, and tears have gone into this project since the closure of Hawaii Raceway Park. In August, we were given the full go ahead by DHHL to open the park for business and did so with great joy in our hearts. To be evicted now, under two months from our grand opening has left us stunned.
We do not know if this is politically motivated or due to the constant harassment by a very small, minority group of individuals, but the loss of another motorsports facility after the closure of Hawaii Raceway Park is an idea we cannot bear to fathom.
As a team, we intend to fight this eviction notice, and ask that all supporters, enthusiasts, and fans to join with us in support of Kalaeloa Raceway Park. Due to this hostile climate, we have enlisted the services of an attorney and will be taking the steps necessary to protect this volunteer effort as much as possible in an effort to continue this public service for our community.
If you support Kalaeloa Raceway Park, please attend the DHHL Commission Meeting and voice your thoughts on this injustice. The date is yet to be finalized but we will have it announced once we get final clarification. It will be either the 18th or 19th of this month. An official press release will be sent out as soon as we confirm the date.
Their address is:
Hale Kalaniana'ole
91-5420 Kapolei Parkway
Kapolei, HI 96707
In addition, a Letter of Support can be sent or faxed to our attorney, Mr. Gary Shigemura at the following address:
Law Offices of Gary Y. Shigemura
Topa Financial Center
745 Fort St, Ste.700
Honolulu, HI. 96813
Fax # 537-9430
A template maybe found at the official KRP website (Kalaeloa Raceway Park) by clicking on the SUPPORT! banner on the homepage.
This is a very dark time for our motorsports community. We will meet this challenge head-on, and are committed to continuing our efforts to provide a place to race as we have every step of the way in this journey. We hope that our supporters will join us in defense of Kalaeloa Raceway Park. In the meantime, all events will continue as planned.
Michael Kitchens,
Volunteer Track Coordinator
& Public Relations
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Super 150 Made in Italy Blue Check Suit by Naldini
Naldini is simultaneously classy yet stylish—cut from Super 150 100% wool fabric. The jacket is fitted with two buttons and constructed with classic notch lapels and side vents. The trousers feature a modern fit with a flat front, lined to the knee. Made in Italy.
• Modern Fit
• 2-button Single Breasted Jacket
• Classic Notch Lapels
• Flap Pockets
• Fully Lined Jacket
• Side Vents
• Flat Front Pants (Lined to the Knee)
• Unhemmed (For Tailoring)
• Made in Italy
• Super 150 - 100% Wool
Care Instructions:
• Dry Clean Only
Fit Guide:
• Regular Fit - Our regular fit suit leaves extra room in the shoulders, chest, and legs. Use the sizing chart as a guide, but please contact us with any questions.
• Modern Fit - Our modern fit suit is trimmed in the chest, waist, and leg—in-between our regular and slim fits.
• Slim Fit - Our slim fit suit features slightly higher arm holes and is narrower in the chest and waist, with a trim leg—designed for a slim, modern silhouette.
• Free Shipping + Free Returns


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TheBroth is a social games company located in San Francisco, California. You can find our games on Facebook and other social networks, such as Myspace, Hi5 and VZ.net.
Many cooks can make the broth - or spoil the broth. Want to play collaboratively in a Global Mosaic? You can! Feel more competitive and don't mind sabotaging your friends' efforts - all in good fun, of course - With Kickmania, you can!
Take care of a virtual farm on Barn Buddy, one of the most popular games on Facebook! How about a fun jigsaw puzzle game that turns your photos into jigsaw puzzles? Try PuzzleBee!
Have you heard of Domo? Try out the officially licensed Domo game on Facebook, Planet Domo!
Jump right in and sample what's on offer. You're sure to find something you like. It's tasty and addictive!
Our headquarters are in San Francisco, California. Our office space right in the middle of downtown San Francisco is really cool place for both hard work as well as the occasional celebration, for example when our community gives us good feedback on a new game feature that we introduced! :)
We're still growing the team, so why not view the job oppo ...
The official Domo game is now available on Facebook. Play Planet Domo now!


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Q. Does the PPS price include Interstate Transportation charges? A. No, the Interstate Transportation charge is included in the Interstate Transportation and Storage Charges line, under the Gas Supply Charges section of your bill. This charge is the same for bundled gas customers as it is for those customers on the PPS program.
Q. Why is NIPSCO offering PPS? A. Customers have expressed an interest in price certainty and security for gas commodity costs, so we're offering this program to better meet your needs.
Q. How does the PPS Capped Price option work? A. The Gas Commodity charge for each therm of gas will be capped for 12 months. You will pay the lesser of the Gas Commodity charge approved by the IURC or the PPS Capped Price. In addition, you will pay a Capped Service Fee. The Capped Price option provides Gas Commodity charge security because you will never pay more then the Capped Price plus the Capped Service Fee.
Q. How does the PPS Fixed Price option work? A. With the PPS Fixed Price option, you pay the same price per therm for natural gas for a 12-month period. Changes in the market price of natural gas will not affect the price you pay. If market prices go up, you'll continue to pay the same rate. If prices go down, you'll still pay the rate you signed up for. However, the gas delivery charges on your bill will still vary from month to month depending on how much gas you use.
Q. Will NIPSCO always offer the same PPS price? A. No. NIPSCO will adjust PPS prices offered to customers whenever the projection of the future market price of natural gas allows a decrease or forces an increase. However, these price changes will not affect anyone who has already enrolled in PPS during their contract term.
Q. Can I stay on NIPSCO's BudgetPlan if I enroll in PPS?
A. Yes. The BudgetPlan is a complement to PPS.
Q. If I enroll in PPS, are there any penalties or cancellation fees if I change my mind?
A. If the PPS agreement is terminated prior to the end of the agreement period, early termination fees will be charged. Please see the PPS service agreement for complete termination fee details.
Q. What happens if I move?
A. If you are a residential customer on Rate 411 and move, but continue to receive gas service from NIPSCO at the new address, you can assume the PPS agreement at the new location if you notify NIPSCO within thirty days of shut-off at the current service address. You may, transfer the agreement to the new occupant with the new occupant's consent. If the PPS agreement is not transferred to the new occupant and you do not assume the PPS agreement at your new location, termination fees will not be applied to your NIPSCO account.
Q. Do I have to do anything at the end of my contract term?
A. For your convenience, the PPS agreement will automatically renew at the end of your contract term unless you choose to cancel by notifying NIPSCO prior to the end of your agreement. NIPSCO will notify you on your 11th PPS bill what the renewal price will be for the subsequent term.
Q. Will I save money if I enroll in PPS?
A. The purpose of PPS is to provide price certainty. While the focus is not on savings, some PPS customers have experienced lower monthly gas bills.
Q. How do I sign up for PPS? A. To enroll in PPS, call us toll free at 1-800-448-2026.


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> select price
Shimmery White & Blue
Product DescriptionCelebrate beautifully with a special occasion arrangement from FLOWERS BY BARBARA INC.. With accents of silver foliage, this bouquet features the purity of white lilies and star of Bethlehem, and tall, graceful stems of brilliant blue delphinium. Call us or order Floral City, FL flowers online now for your special occasion or holiday.
You might also be interested in these arrangements
When you order custom designs, they will be produced as closely as possible to the picture. Please remember that each design is custom made. No two arrangements are exactly alike and color and/or variety substitutions of flowers and containers may be necessary. Prices and availability of seasonal flowers may vary.
Our professional staff of floral designers are always eager to discuss any special design or product requests. Call us at the number above and we will be glad to assist you with a special request or a timed delivery.


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Taoist Man needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 61 designs submitted by 27 freelance designers.
To design a logo for my new school which is teaching people how to massage the abdomen using ancient taoist techniques
Please review my last contest white tiger company where the winning design used a zen brush stroke to create an image that refelected my values http://99designs.com/contests/11388
I want similer feel very flowing very zen brush strokes that suggest an art flow this but time the image of two hands on an abdomen applying massage techniques I have uploaded a picture that you can veiw that shows an images of me massaging http://www.enlight-qigong.org/cnt.jpg give you idea of gentle hands
very flowing zen brush strokes simple design of two hands massaging the belly can be abstract as long as it is clear of what is happaning
The company name should be included in design
The Art & Essence School of Chi Nei Tsang
- hard edges ugly hands
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.