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Amazon.co.uk: Customer Reviews: The Map and the Territory
4.0 out of 5 stars A Map of Artistic Success
The main characters are fascinating, especially the artist hero (Jed) and Houellebecq himself. I found it an interesting move for the author to inject himself into his own novel, and Houellebecq keeps the suspense going nicely, keeping us wondering when he himself is going to appear. And his final appearance is a show stopper (no spoilers ...) The story is, mostly, a...
Read the full review › Published 1 month ago by William Shardlow
1.0 out of 5 stars The Nap and the Snoozity
The Prix Goncourt must be France's version of the Booker Prize because "The Map and The Territory" won it last year and, reading it this year, I get the same feeling of tiredness and boredom when reading a Booker Prize winner. This is strange too because I was looking forward to this one having loved Houellebecq's previous books "Platform" and...
Read the full review › Published on 8 Dec 2011 by Sam Quixote
4.0 out of 5 stars A Map of Artistic Success, 6 Sep 2014
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent vintage Houellebecq, 9 Oct 2011
One sure thing about Houellebecq: he is not for everyone. If you don't 'get him', you will hate him. If you do, then you're in for a treat. This latest novel is different in tone to the prior ones. He has lost some of his bite, lots of his cynicism and nearly all of his shock-power. Like wine, with time he seemed to have mollify his taste. But it does not make the novel any less good and fascinating. Not for nothing that it won him the prestigious 'Prix Goncourt' in France. The hero is desabused Jed, a man flotting in life with no real grip on it. Yet he is suddenly sized by inspiration and becomes a sensationnal photographer of Michelin maps that leads him to international reputation. The fame helps him to attract beautiful and successful Olga with whom he develops a subdued relationship. But everything seems to be subdued for Jed, and he takes his own success in his stride with no real enthusiasm. Then Olga leaves to run a new branch of the business in Russia (she is Russian) and his life goes back to total lack of stimulus. Yet years passing, inspiration sizes him again and moving back to painting, his original skill, he creates a serie of 'metiers' or 'craftmanship' and again, finds immediate huge recognition. To write the catalogue of his coming exhibition, he needs a writer and asks Houellebecq for his help. In a very funny and convincing way, Houellebecq then enters his own novel as himself. Then ensue probably some of the finest moments in the book, when Jed goes to Ireland to visit him at several occasions. He describes himself pointedly and candidly, but without the slighest trace of narcissism as very few writers would manage. Later in the book the plot switches to dramatic effects and, as in many of his other books, Houellebecq leaves us with a great sadness and melancholy.A superb and stange and fascinating novel, if you're not afraid of the unusual. Houellebecq's take on our world is devastatingly pessimistic and ironic and with an exact clairvoyance that very few people really enjoy to encounter.
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book., 28 Jan 2013
4.0 out of 5 stars Adapting, 20 April 2014
I often found Michel Houellebecq rash and over the top in his earlier work, but still it felt genius. He seems to be mellowing out with age and some of the beauty that falls into his work is more salient now. The reoccuring theme of love is still present but it feels more sincere and optimistic. The transition is similar to in my literature class; going from Larkin to Abse.The book came quickly and was in mint condition, as expected.
5.0 out of 5 stars A compassionate view of humanity, 26 Jun 2013
By Amazon Customer "crowley" - See all my reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best contemporary French writers., 5 May 2013
By Caux Herv� - See all my reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars An Odd Book But Worth A Look In, 17 Dec 2012
I am really happy that my book club chose this book to read. I never would have read it. It is one of those books that one enjoys more upon reflection than when you are plodding through it.
1.0 out of 5 stars The Nap and the Snoozity, 8 Dec 2011
The Prix Goncourt must be France's version of the Booker Prize because "The Map and The Territory" won it last year and, reading it this year, I get the same feeling of tiredness and boredom when reading a Booker Prize winner. This is strange too because I was looking forward to this one having loved Houellebecq's previous books "Platform" and "Lanzarote" (granted, "Possibility of an Island" was near unreadable but I was willing to let bygones be bygones) so it was with some measure of disappointment that I finally gave up on this 291 page novel at page 164.The "story" is about an artist who becomes the toast of French art first by taking photos of parts of Michelin maps and then later painting captains of industry and artists. He then decides to have the famous writer Michel Houellebecq (yes he is a character in the book) write the programme for his latest exhibition. And that's really all that happened in the 164 pages I read and where I gave up.164 pages and all that's really gone into is the artist's dull life, his dull relationships with women, with his aging father, his dull art, and then an encounter with Houellebecq. This was the only part of the book I enjoyed, where the writer got to riff on himself in the book, making him out to be a drunken mess who lived in squalor and was borderline insane. I know a lot of writers put themselves in their work and sometimes this pays off (think Bret Easton Ellis in Lunar Park or Paul Auster in City of Glass) and sometimes it doesn't (Stephen King in the later Dark Tower books) but it really worked in this book.But really, 164 pages and near nothing happens? Couple this with Houellebecq's inscrutably dense writing style in this book (heavy on description, always - a car is never a car, he has to describe the make, model, and colour, as well as a note on some banal detail about it) and it's a very difficult read. I kept hoping for something to happen but when the artist got back with his dull Russian girlfriend and Houellebecq began describing yet another cocktail party in extreme detail (what food they were eating, how it was prepared, what they were drinking, how it was made, what clothes people were wearing, their hairstyles) I realised I had to stop reading for my own sanity.I wanted to like this book but unfortunately the burden of detail in a book lacking in any story and with too much time spent with the dullest of characters (Houellebecq only makes it into a couple of scenes unfortunately) made for a plodding novel with not enough to keep me turning the pages. It's not nearly as interesting as his previous books and in fact is just plain boring.
5.0 out of 5 stars thoroughly absorbing, maybe Houellebecq's best book so far, 17 Jan 2012
Houellebecq is streets ahead of most current English language novelists, if not all, in terms of originality, believability, quality of prose (in the French) and sheer readability.This novel follows an artist's life mostly through his 3 or 4 inspired periods, and makes one both see and want to see the works. It parodies or assimilates or modernises the Balzac novel of ambition and success in Paris, Proust's party scenes, even Maigret on a difficult case. It creates with splendid humour and blitheness the character 'Michel Houellebecq' and sends him to a sticky end. It also meditates on fathers and sons and depression through the generations, and passionately rejects assisted suicide. Then it diverts into little rather convincing sociological homilies and dystopian, but mildy so, futurology. It covinces and entertains almost all the way, though perhaps it isn't very good on women, who always seem to emerge as robots in Houellebecq's world. Highly recommendable.
3.0 out of 5 stars More style than substance., 2 Jun 2012
The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq (Paperback - 7 Jun 2012)

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GAMeBoi SF - 2015 Kickoff Party Tickets, Sat, Jan 17, 2015 at 9:30 PM | Eventbrite
GAMeBoi SF - 2015 Kickoff Party
Sarah Geronimo with Mark Baustista and Sam Concepcion
Creative Arts Theater Pittsburg High School, Pittsburg
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Re-Blogs | The Secret World of S.
Posted in Having a Bad Day? Remember..., Re-Blogs
December 28, 2012 by S.
I realize now that this sense of unworthiness did not start with him. It started long before I met him. It comes from being raised to be a proper, nice girl. Some parents tell their girls to put others first, be respectful of everyone, be
October 12, 2012 by S.
Posted in Depression, Re-Blogs
July 23, 2012 by S.
A wonderful(ly dark) poem from a wonderful lady. I think everyone feels this way at one time or another.

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A Spiteful Afternoon With NY’s Anti-Muslim Hate Brigades | Village Voice
30 Oct 2018 22:38:19 UTC

 A Spiteful Afternoon With NY’s Anti-Muslim Hate Brigades | Village Vo…
 archived 30 Oct 2018 22:38:19 UTC
{{cite web | title = A Spiteful Afternoon With NY’s Anti-Muslim Hate Brigades Village Vo… | url = https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/05/26/a-spiteful-afternoon-with-nys-anti-muslim-hate-brigades/ | date = 2018-10-30 | archiveurl = http://archive.today/Blen7 | archivedate = 2018-10-30 }}
Terrorists Heading for the Border? Where’s the Wall?
Milo Yiannopoulos speaks at an Alt-Right protest of Muslim activist Linda Sarsour as Pamela Geller laughs behind him. Stephanie Keith / Getty Images
Islamophobes, 8chan trolls, western-chauvinist frat boys, anti-Antifa brawlers, Jews for Trump, and further boisterous motley collected in a pen of police barricades, calling for CUNY to disinvite one of the most prominent Muslim women in the United States from speaking at the university’s commencement ceremony next Friday.
Addressing this crowd was New York Assembly Member Dov Hikind. “Let us make something very clear,” Hikind said. “Linda Sarsour supports terrorism!”
Hikind’s bill of indictments supporting his terrorism accusation was pretty thin gruel: Sarsour — until recently the head of the Arab American Association of New York and one of the co-chairs of the 2017 Women’s March — is vocally critical of Israeli policy; she recently shared a stage with Rasmieh Odeh, who 47 years ago was convicted in an Israeli military court on terrorism charges; and she once wrote a tweet suggesting that a photograph of a Palestinian boy holding a rock in the face of armed Israeli soldiers depicted courage. “She thinks throwing rocks at cars is an act of courage,” Hikind bellowed. “ ‘The definition of courage’ is throwing rocks. Throwing rocks at cars. Throwing rocks results in the murder of innocent men, women, and children.”
Leaving aside the strength of his evidence, Hikind was an unlikely vehicle for accusations of terrorist sympathy, given that he himself was once an actual member of an actual terrorist organization, an association from which he remains unwilling to distance himself.
As the attacks on Sarsour have mounted, Jewish allies have leaped to her defense, noting her history of collaboration and bridge building between Muslim and Jewish groups.
But the scrum on East 42nd Street represented more than just a flare-up in New Yorkers’ disagreements over Middle Eastern politics.
The event was emceed by Pamela Geller, who rode to notoriety as one of America’s preeminent Islamophobes in 2010 opposing the construction of an Islamic cultural center in Lower Manhattan. (Geller herself dismisses the label of Islamophobia, and frequently cites a quotation she misattributes to Christopher Hitchens: “ ‘Islamophobia’ is a word created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons.”)
Geller brought with her a parade of other stars of the Islamophobia firmament. “There are the evil losers to whom President Trump referred over the weekend after the horrific Manchester terror attack, an attack that I might add that people like Linda Sarsour likely supported since it led to the murder of infidels and non-Shariah-abiding innocents,” said Lauri B. Regan, a lawyer who writes frequently about the creeping threat of Shariah law. “There is no question that Linda Sarsour is an evil loser. Evil loser.”
Regan was followed by John Guandolo, a disgraced former FBI employee who is on the record as believing that “we need to find the Islamic movement anywhere it is, including in the United States, and crush it and defeat it now.” Islam and terrorism are one and the same, Guandolo charged. “Legally, we need to do everything that we can to crush them and destroy them here in the United States.”
Rightist movements of all stripes have increasingly framed their causes as matters of freedom of speech in recent months, accusing their critics of attempting to silence legitimate speech. That these same movements were now rallying to deny someone a platform produced some measure of cognitive friction. “Freedom of speech is a precious commodity in America, and nobody wants to take away anyone’s freedom of speech,” Hikind told the crowd. “But when CUNY imposes Linda Sarsour on the students, that’s outrageous! Shame on CUNY! Shame!”
Gavin McInnes Stephanie Keith / Getty Images
As the speakers droned on, the colorful petri dish of New York’s freshly visible right-wing communities frothed and bubbled. Denizens of the trollier corners of the Internet, decked out in riot-police cosplay and brandishing the Gadsden and Kekistani flags, traded inside jokes about throwing leftists out of helicopters. Members of the Warriors for Freedom, who present themselves as reluctant pugilists sworn to defend the vulnerable from the violence of anti-fascist aggressors, folded their arms and gazed out impassively from behind wraparound sunglasses. Gavin McInnes, a co-founder of Vice Magazine who has since devoted himself to drumming up pledges for his brownshirt-Chad fraternity devoted to the supremacy of “western civilization,” paced the event area, surrounded by a coterie of young men in Make America Great Again hats. At one point, he taunted a small group of counter-protesters from behind a row of police officers, offering them a can of Pepsi.
The attention of the crowd focused somewhat for the event’s headliner, Milo Yiannopoulos, a fading provocateur who was permanently banned from Twitter last year for instigating a racist harassment campaign against Leslie Jones and who lost his post at Breitbart in February after he made remarks that made light of pedophilia.
Yiannopoulos was in fine troll fetter, and his audience drank it up. He called CUNY’s leadership “spineless cunts.” (Applause.) “The enemy you as Americans have always faced is the enemy from within.” (Applause.) “The enemy here are the progressive elites,” and “their ideology is as ugly as Chelsea Clinton.” (Thunderous applause.)
But even as he insulted Sarsour’s appearance and her religion, Yiannopoulos wasn’t on quite the same page as the rest of the rally: Sarsour should speak at CUNY, he told the crowd.
“I would have paid her fee, no matter how many goats she asked for,” he said. “Don’t ban her.” It was a sentiment diametrically opposed to the organizing rationale of the rally, but participants seemed not to care. Ideological coherence was less important to participants than the opportunity to gather together outside the Internet, raise their voices, and flex their muscles.
As the rally ended, participants assaulted a 19-year-old woman who’d been taking part in the counter-protest. Police detained some people, but no arrests were made.
Thunderbolts and Lightning! The Voice Takes on Freddie Mercury and Queen
In 1977, Lester Bangs called Queen live ‘Fantasia for dodos and 14-year-olds.’ He also wrote that Freddie Mercury could become ‘the next Liza Minnelli.’

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Drama Llama's Mama: March 2012
Posted 1:45 AM by Shannon Harrigan
Well it has finally happened! There were many of us who were skeptical this day would ever arrive. Some of us starting to wonder, would my youngest son be the side act at a Circus? The Toothless Wonder! He will gum you to pieces!"
My first son, Little Dude, received his bottom front two teeth in the same day at four months old. We were honestly baffled because he had no teething symptoms. The only give away was a lot of drooling, but often babies will show signs of teething before popping a tiny ninja knife. (If you have not had your hand in a baby's mouth, whether they have one tooth or ten, they will leave your hand looking like it just had a brief encounter with a pocket sized Great White Shark.) It was an exciting day when the Little Dude popped not one but two teeth at such a young age and with such ease. I thought that the drama of teething had to be a myth because this was a walk in the park.Silly, naive, newbie mom I was. My first mistake was thinking you can compare your children.
Our second Drama Llama, Littlest Dude, has been as different from his older llama brother in every possible way. He was born three weeks early and decided it was time to get rolling...and quick! We showed up to the Labor and Delivery room and I was already 3 cms dilated. I couldn't even get that far after nine hours of drug induced labor at 39 weeks with my oldest son!
Once that cutie entered the world, in an amazing minute and a half versus my first sons 34 hour labor complete with two hours or labor, the differences didn't stop there. He was quiet, calm, easy-going, and peaceful. He was also blond! The two boys had very similar faces but it was clear that Drama Llama #2 was going to be a whole different show.
You would think I had learned my lesson, that my boys were so different from each other and should not be compared to one another. However, there is apparently something I suffer from called "Newbie versus Newer Baby Comparison". Newbie mothers have their things, second time mothers have theirs.
As soon as my Littlest Dude hit four months, I eagerly searched his month when he woke up in the morning, before and after naps, and before bedtime. He was drooling so much I thought we should get a hot tub because all that drool would fill it up for sure. My husband said no, silly practical husbands.
Months five and six passed in the same manor and I was starting to grow worried. I was convinced this little baby of mine would grow into a man and find the woman of his dreams. She would be sweet, beautiful, loving, and caring. She would be the daughter I never had. They would become engaged and my new daughter in law would invite me to help plan their extravagant wedding. That's when I would have to break the shameful news; my son would have to eat baby food at their wedding and this would be more than his beautiful bride to be could handle. The wedding would be cancelled, my son would be heartbroken, and all because of his teeth! (A moms imagination can run wild when left unattended...)
With two days looming before his seventh month birthday, it looked like we had averted his wedding crisis. I was cleaning his gums with his special Elmo baby tooth and gum cleaner and rubbing them down before bed when something quite sharp poked me. I ran over it again and again. It had finally happened!! My little boy had become a man. OK, even I can't get quite that carried away here but he finally did have a tooth and I was thrilled! He even squeezed it in while he was still six months old.
My oldest son was in the nursery with me "helping" to put his baby brother to bed. Both of us started a new dance called "The Baby Has a Tooth Dance". It looks exactly how it sounds so be grateful you were not there. My husband came up the stairs to see what exciting event had caused us to break out in song and dance (although I am thinking he is finally figuring out now much sets it off). I think he too wishes he had not seen Little Dude and I busting a move to Littlest Dude's new tooth accomplishment.
Part of me was happy knowing his body is doing what it should be and I don't have to wonder if something is wrong. The other part of me learned a lesson that they really are two different little boys. Little Dude didn't get his first tooth early and Littlest Dude didn't get his first tooth late. They each got their first tooth exactly when they were supposed to. On their own time.
Special Deals for my Readers!
Posted 12:12 AM by Shannon Harrigan
As a proud author through Smashwords.com, I have partnered up with them for a promotion this week called "Read an Ebook Week". It goes from March 4- March 10 and promotes not only indie authors but the readers who help make our books a success! For the entire week, authors who are part of the promotion will be offering their books at a discounted price via a coupon code that can be entered directly through the author's Smashwords Author Page. Enter a code, get a book for a great discounted price, and promote reading! It is a winning situation for everyone involved.
This is my first year taking part in this promotion and I am willing to make a deal with all my new readers out there! If I can sell 50 books (in honor of my coupon code REW50) by March 9, I will release, "Mommyhood: The Ugly Truth, Volume 2" on March 10, the last day of the promotion, and will even give it a discounted price as well! So spread the word and let's get some new fans reading about my adventures in Mommyhood! If you have not yet purchased Volume 1, follow this link and enter coupon code REW50 for 50% off my book! https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ShannonHarrigan
I would also love to hear what books you have purchased because of this wonderful promotion. I am not just an author and mommy but an avid reader (I know, how do I find the time. Imagine this; a toilet with a locked door. Four hands sticking their chubby, wriggling fingers under the door, smearing my floor with what I can only hope is peanut butter. My laptop on my lap, a story I am trying to read in one window and yet another story I am trying to write in another. It's not a pretty picture, but it's reality.)
Looking forward to seeing my book sales increase, learn about some of your new book purchases, and make some new moms laugh today.
Occupation: Mom?
Posted 1:15 AM by Shannon Harrigan
Recently, my husband and I have found ourselves in a situation much like many other American's right now. Out of a job, in debt, and about to lose our home. I can't throw myself a pity party because I know that a vast majority of the people reading this are experiencing the same thing. I wish I could say knowing that we were all suffering together offered us some comfort, but all it does is make us feel bad for one another...and then realize we are competing for all the same jobs.
I haven't worked since I was put on bed rest with our first son sometime in my second trimester. That was four years ago. I was great at my job and made a decent paycheck for a girl with no degree. I had only life experience and work experience. I was just 24 when I was given the job and only weeks away from marrying my husband. I had landed a wonderful job at that point in life when nothing but possibilities lie ahead and no one or nothing has had a chance to shatter the illusion yet.
My husband and I continued our daily grind for a few years, graduating from a shoe box apartment to a slightly larger duplex in the outskirts of a more affluent neighborhood. We had been trying, unsuccessfully, to start our little family and this home was a great place to keep trying. We must have sensed it because not even a month after moving into our new place, we became pregnant. It was a very exciting time. All mothers remember what it felt like the first time they discovered they were going to have a baby. It is a feeling you can never fully recapture again, no matter how many children you may have later in life. There is just something magical about the first born child. Anyone who says any differently just doesn't want their other children to find out.
Since it was a small challenge for us to become pregnant, of course it would make sense that this stubborn fetus I was carrying around wasn't going to make the pregnancy easy either. After a series of complications, I was put on full bed rest until I reached term and that was the end of my working days.
I stayed home with my oldest son, enjoying my role as a stay at home mom. We had faced a few financial hardships with only one income but we felt it was worth the sacrifice to be able to have one of us home raising our son.
Just after his second birthday in October, the baby bug bit me. Those damn bugs bite hard! By Christmas I was pregnant with son number two. Complications were much more dangerous this time around and we struggled to afford my constant care and finding care for our oldest son.
After our second little trouble maker was born, we had no intention of me going back to work. We were to broke to survive well on one income but we were also to broke to afford day care for two children. Since life never goes as planned, I had two minor surgeries in the three months postpartum and had a very difficult time recovering from one in particular. This sounds like a great time for my husband to get laid off, don't you think?
So here we are, up at midnight for the countless night in a row, applying for jobs and getting nothing in return. Today we realized, if we were going to keep a roof over our heads, we were going to need to see if I was "hireable" as well. It's a long shot, but a parent will stop at nothing to find a way to provide for their children.
Since it has been four years since I left the workplace, it would be a grave understatement to say my resume needed some fine tuning. I included my work history, skill set, and other qualifications and sent it off to my Aunt for review. As a hiring manager herself, she has been helping my husband and I make our resumes as top notch as they can be.
My resume looked great....except for the giant gaping hole that has been my life as a stay at home mother. She wanted to include my time at home with my boys somehow, but that was the question. How do you include motherhood on a resume? Lifelong job, pays nothing, work weekends, holidays, nights, and even in your sleep. No vacation, sick time, insurance, or 401k. My bosses would love to write my a letter of recommendation but one still sleeps in a crib and the other can't even spell his name.
I researched a little bit and there doesn't seem to be a very clear cut answer. I noticed the most common method was to include a sentence about being on a work hiatus for motherhood in the cover letter, but not all applications require one.
Should being a full time stay at home mom be listed under job history or other qualifications? Or does it simply have no place on a resume?
In the end, I added subtle information about being a stay at home mother and left it at that. If they wanted to know why I dropped off the face of the workforce planet, they could ask me in the interview that I am holding my breath I get.
In the meantime, I would love to hear what other mothers, working and stay at home, have to think about this topic. Do you believe we should be able to include our work as mothers on a resume or is this just another one of the sacrifices mothers make?

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The Team-Building Tool Kit: Tips and Tactics for Effective Workplace Teams by Deborah Mackin, Deborah Harrington-Mackin |, Paperback | Barnes & Noble®
by Deborah Mackin, Deborah Harrington-MackinDeborah Mackin
Workplace teams learn to function as effective units when they have the tools and techniques to be greater than the sum of their parts. Now thoroughly updated and expanded, The Team-Building Tool Kit provides practical advice to guide team coaches, leaders, and members to high-performance results. Filled with bullet points to make tips
The Team-Building Tool Kit: Tips and Tactics for Effective Workplace Teams available in
Workplace teams learn to function as effective units when they have the tools and techniques to be greater than the sum of their parts. Now thoroughly updated and expanded, The Team-Building Tool Kit provides practical advice to guide team coaches, leaders, and members to high-performance results. Filled with bullet points to make tips and strategies quick and easy to grasp, the book covers both the structure and nitty-gritty process details that so often derail even the best teams. Readers will learn how to: have effective team meetings • improve accountability for results and team member behavior • assess team performance • resolve team conflicts • recognize the pitfalls that affect decision making • train for high performance • design a plan for implementation Featuring new sections on team accountability, decision making, and problem solving, this team-building classic is a must-have for every team library. Advertising
“...whether you are empowering employees to participate in self-directed work teams, or you want to encourage increased employee ownership and participation in decision making—while retaining your traditional reporting relationships—or you want to provide your front-line leaders with new supervisory ideas and tactics, this book is an excellent resource. The topics and suggestions are timeless…The practical descriptions, tools, and insights are useful in nearly any employment stracture. Whether you use the book to spark discussion or as a reference tool. The Team-Building Tool Kit is a good addition to any management library.” -- Facilities Manager “…an excellent resource….a good addition to any management library.” Facilities Manager Product Details
1 C H A P T E R Getting Started THE US E OF TEAMS as an organizational strategy to engage employees and improve productivity is now more than three decades old. In the early 1970s, the leadership of Gaines, a Topeka pet food plant, launched a novel experiment to transform its workplace into selfdirected and cross-functional work teams when no one else was doing it.1 The increases in productivity at Gaines caught the eye of other organizations and the rest, as they say, is history. Today, although many organizations have implemented components of teaming, they have yet to realize the full range of possible benefits. Some have simply changed the language they use, calling supervisors ‘‘coaches’’ and group leaders ‘‘team leaders,’’ with no real change in structure or empowerment. Others do teaming when everything is okay and then revert to a traditional, top-down model when demands increase, or they don’t get the quick results they need. These are only superficial attempts at teaming. In this book, we show you how to develop ‘‘real’’ teams—teams that look different from what you might have seen before. Developing teams begins with leadership systematically providing the following: • Assurance of job stability (not security) for people who actively participate in the transition, especially as their old jobs ‘‘go away’’ • Time for teams to meet regularly • Rewards for both team and individual achievement of goals • Clear statements of dissatisfaction with status quo—‘‘the way we’ve always done it’’ • A compelling vision that grabs people’s imagination • Carefully delegated authority and responsibility in a way that makes people believe they will be successful • Movement from individual to team decision making • Feedback and performance measures on an ongoing basis • Opportunities to benchmark with others who have been successful in their teaming efforts • A strong commitment to stick with teaming through the ‘‘muck in the middle’’ Team building begins with a clear decision by leadership to encourage, and even to require, employees to operate in teams. Leadership must recognize that teaming is a cultural change that will include: 1. Developing awareness of teams as both a tool and a culture shift 2. Acquiring knowledge and understanding about how teams function 3. Learning skills to perform new teaming behaviors 4. Internalizing attitudes and beliefs so that teaming becomes a way of life The role of leadership is critical through each of these steps. Lack of leadership support remains the number one cause of team failure. Leadership Commitment Leadership at all levels must support team efforts openly and without reservation if it expects teams to succeed. Yet managers and supervisors sometimes feel threatened and may even take credit away from their teams when improvements are made. They often fail to realize that their own involvement in team activities will promote trust and cooperation between them and their subordinates and will enhance their own reputation as effective managers.2 Typically, we have seen newly formed teams repeatedly look to upper management to test the organization’s commitment to the new team structure. Leaders must take special care to reiterate their belief in the team’s future and to check critical offhand remarks or statements of frustration. Leadership must also avoid the ‘‘on-again/offagain’’ syndrome, in which they value teams when everything is going well but take time away from team meetings and team decision making when pressures rise. Leadership must also see teams not only as a ‘‘tool’’ but also as a way of thinking and being. When teaming is marginalized to being ‘‘just a tool,’’ it becomes optional whether to pick up the tool or not. In actuality, teaming is a cultural change in addition to being a tool; in a team environment, we must change the way we think and approach tasks. It is no longer ‘‘people watching people watching people.’’ There is a firm belief that every person at work is a responsible adult, capable of thinking for himself or herself and making effective decisions about his or her own work. When adults are encouraged to use their knowledge, experience, and skill, a shift in attitude occurs and something magical takes place. Let’s look at the key benefits and drawbacks of teams: Key Benefits • Improve productivity by 15 to 20 percent in six months, and up to 30 percent in eighteen months.3 • Drive accountability and responsibility to all areas within the organization. • Create a highly motivated environment and better work climate. • Share in the ownership and responsibility for tasks. • Prompt a faster response to technological change. • Result in fewer, simpler job classifications. • Elicit a better response to the less formal values of a younger generation of employees. • Result in effective delegation of workload and increased flexibility in task assignments. • Improve buy-in and common commitment to goals and values. • Encourage proactive and often innovative approaches to problem solving. • Improve the self-worth of the workforce, resulting in improved interpersonal relationships. • Increase four-way communication. • Allow for greater skill development of staff; cross-training in roles and responsibilities. • Promote an earlier warning system for potential problems. • Excite greater and faster interdepartmental interaction; reduced ‘‘silo’’ thinking. • Result in more time for management to work on strategic issues rather than day-to-day firefighting. • Reduce absenteeism as well as the number of accidents and defects. • Improve housekeeping and efficiency. Key Drawbacks • Require long-term investment of people, time, and energy. • Appear confused, disorderly, and out of control at times. • Can cause role confusion; members have difficulty leaving ‘‘hats’’ at the door. • Are viewed negatively by ‘‘old school’’ people who like order and control. • Require one to three years to be fully implemented. • Require people to change, especially managers, who must learn to trust and let go. Researchers have found that the effectiveness of teams is greatly influenced by members’ attitudes about the organization. If team members feel support and commitment from management, they will exhibit high productivity. If team members are angry because of a lack of organizational support, they will limit their efforts.4 Types of Teams As an organization begins its team building efforts, one of the first concerns it must resolve is what types of teams to create. The green light for team building is typically a top-management decision. Some organizations begin with high-level policy-making teams charged with identifying broad concerns and setting goals, whereas others begin with small departmental teams. Whether the impetus comes from a company-wide policy review or from a departmental task force, teams should be formed only when an achievable common goal can be identified. The various types of teams are somewhat like the flowers in a garden: All serve a particular purpose and have their own characteristics and set of benefits. Multifunctional Teams • Identify major areas of organizational concern/opportunity; articulate organizational needs. • Develop philosophy, strategy, policies, and direction. • Include members from various levels of the organization and across functional areas. • Require regular meetings and meet over extended periods of time. • Are sometimes called design teams or quality councils. Task-Force or Cross-Functional Teams • Include between eight and twelve members; membership based on common purpose. • Bring together individuals from multiple work areas at a similar level. • Necessitate regular meetings over either a short or an extended period of time. • Implement a strategic plan for addressing problems/concerns/ opportunities; others may complete the implementation of the plan. • Assume investigative, corrective, interactive function. • Are sometimes called steering teams, process improvement teams, product launch teams, or Kaizen teams. Improvement Teams (Functional or Value Stream) • Include members of one department or one value stream. • Focus on problem solving; identifying solutions. • Restrict scope of activity to within departmental or value stream boundaries. • Hold regular meetings over a short period of time. • Have a short life span. Self-Directed Work Teams (Functional or Value Stream) • Comprise an intact team of employees who work together on an ongoing, day-to-day basis without direct supervision, and who are responsible for a ‘‘whole’’ work process or segment. • Assume ‘‘ownership’’ of product or service and are empowered to share various supervisory and leadership functions. • Are limited to a particular work unit, or in the case of value stream teams, may cross over multiple functions within the value stream. • Function semiautonomously; are responsible for controlling the physical and functional boundaries of their work and for delivering a specified quantity and quality of a product or service within a specified time and at a defined cost. • Are all cross-trained in a variety of work skills. • Share and rotate leadership responsibilities; team members have equal input in decisions. • Accept the concept of multiskills and job rotation (except for jobs requiring years of training and technical expertise). • Work together to improve operations, handle day-to-day problems, and plan and control work. • Set own goals and inspect own work; often create own work and vacation schedules and review performance as a team. • May prepare own budgets and coordinate work with other departments. • Usually order materials, keep inventories, and deal with suppliers. • Are frequently responsible for acquiring new training and maintaining on-the-job training. • May hire own replacements and assume responsibility for disciplining own members. • Monitor and review overall process performance. Most self-directed work teams gradually take on responsibility for these tasks as they gain confidence in their own skills and are able to redefine the role of the supervisor. The shift to self-direction represents increasing accountability and responsibility for employees. Show More

value: Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States.


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Chennai floods: Social media, creativity helps citizens survive, Technology News, ETtech
Technology NewsLatest Technology NewsInternet	Internet »TsunamiSolar powerNetworksIdea CellularGoogleBharti AirtelChennai floods: Social media, creativity helps citizens surviveSocial media has been a life-saver, but as fake messages mounted – crocodiles on the loose, lakes breached and bridges collapsed – myth busters too were born. Rohini Mohan&Shilpa Elizabeth | ET Bureau | December 05, 2015, 08:28 ISTX	On Monday, December 1, Bharani MB walked down from his terrace, stepped carefully into the muddy water in his ground floor house, balanced himself by holding the edges of submerged sofas, his parked motorbike and finally his front gate. In his neighbourhood of Virugambakkam, rainwater had risen to his chest.He climbed on the gate and waved at a passing rescue boat on the road, ferrying five people already. Bharani had done this for three days, without avail, but today, the boat stopped."Doctor-a?" the boatman shouted. Bharani was wearing a white headband with a bright red cross drawn with a felt pen. "Yes!" shouted Bharani in Tamil, relieved. "I have medicines in my backpack!" The boat made its way towards him.Since then, Bharani has been staying at a marriage hall, giving pro bono medical help to flood victims at nearby shelters. "A red cross is a code everyone understands," he said. "It was my only way to survive, and now I still wear it while volunteering."Elsewhere in the city, Krishna Bharadwaj was stuck at work, and heard it was starting to flood near his house. He quickly logged on to YouTube and downloaded a video showing how a car battery is removed. He sent the video to his mother who was at home, and the 59-year-old homemaker with no prior experience with automobiles, removed the car battery by watching it.When techie Sivabalan saw the Adyar river overflow and water levels near Kotturpuram house rise, he filled gunny bags with sand from a construction site and guarded his compound for just long enough to save valuables like documents and appliances before the water gushed in. Some call it survival instinct, some profound resilience.Whatever the driving force, Chennaiites have shown phenomenal creativity in an overwhelming moment that was set to consume the city. They have done it before: during the tsunami in a December more than 10 years ago, fighting another kind of water rage through individual courage and community effort.Today, as Chennai has received unprecedented rainfall, the young and old, techies and cops, drivers and engineers, have been showing that same old creativity under pressure. They are quick thinking, organised and miraculously generous. Groups of neighbours in an inundated Velachery were seen making home-made rafts to make food runs or rescue people. "It's just plastic oil drums lashed together with a construction plank and a clothesline," said Jayanth Vincent, a resident.In Saidapet, Dandapani, an electrician, turned an old fridge into a float, using the space inside to distribute donated blankets and mosquito repellant around his slum. Driver Purushothaman went around Taramani, setting up a rope way so people could walk through deep water.Phones are crucial for rescue and communication, but there was no way to charge them. Power supply was cut off for over 48 hours in many areas to prevent accidents with live wires in water. College student Shilma Joseph waded through knee-deep water, boarded two buses from Mogappair to reach Central railway station to charge her phone.Journalist Karthik Subramanian tweeted offering his solar powered WiFi. Sriram Krishna, a law student in a high-rise with solar power, swam in Perambur with 12 full power banks in a waterproof backpack, half-charging dead phones for people. A resident named him "Charger Sriram". As phone networks were too spotty or jammed for calls, most people used WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook to share information, pictures and call for rescue.Social media has been a life-saver, but as fake messages mounted - crocodiles on the loose, lakes breached and bridges collapsed - myth busters too were born. "Don't believe until you hear it from an official," tweeted musician Krish Ashok. Others tweeted contacts for the NDRF, Practo and @DoctorsForSeva had doctors on emergency, Sathyam Cinemas and Phoenix Mall declared their doors open to the stranded.A website called ChennaiRains.org has Google forms to aggregate rescue requests that they then forward to Emergency 108 and NDRF. Another group started Floodmap Chennai, an interactive map that shows which of the more than 3,000 streets are flooded. Chennai Flood Virtual Communication room, set up by IAS officer Manivannan from the Tamil Nadu Water Board, works on behalf of senior civil servants to coordinate relief activity via WhatsApp and phone.BangaloreforChennai.com in Bangalore collects and delivers donated power banks to Chennai. They suggest buying banks online and delivering to their address in Bangalore, from where volunteers drive twice a day to Chennai for delivery.Several Chennaiites with relatively drier homes simply opened their doors to neighbours, policemen worked overtime, women cooked all the meat in their freezers and distributed it in shelters, citizen journalists uploaded video testimonies of marooned people to alert officials, and animal-lovers offered to taxi dogs to a dry place in Bangalore.Through individual courage and community effort, most of Chennai has been staying afloat. Videographer Sathish Alex Paul said he was shooting a woman being helped through deep water. "She saw my camera, waved, and said, 'Thambi, make sure you get my pretty side, ok?'" Perhaps that's the most heroic of all: that even in neck-deep water, Chennai retains its sense of humour. RELATED
Tags : Internet, Tsunami, Solar power, Networks, Idea Cellular, Google, Bharti Airtel

value: Times Internet is an Indian internet technology company, based in Gurgaon, which owns, operates and invests in various internet-led products, services and technology. It is the digital arm of the Times Group, the largest media conglomerate in India.


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ABBA Hillel Silver and American Zionism by Mark A. Raider | 9780714648248 | Hardcover | Barnes & Noble
The essays collected here investigate Rabbi Silver's Zionist political leadership, his impact on American Judaism, ideological orientation and relations with the leaders of the Palestine Jewish community, World Zionist Organization and the Jewish State.See more details below
Table of ContentsIntroductionZionism and Judaism: the Path of Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver1Abba Hillel Silver as Zionist within the Camp of Reform Judaism9A Comparative Study of Zionist Leadership: Abba Hillel Silver and David Ben-Gurion33Zion and America: the Formative Visions of Abba Hillel Silver45Between Ideal and Reality: Abba Hillel Silver's Zionist Vision71Where American Zionism Differed: Abba Hillel Silver Reconsidered87Index123


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Togs's Place.Com.: The Deadly Blast in Islamabad, Why was the Marriott Targeted? By TARIQ ALI
Tariq AliThe deadly blast in Islamabad was a revenge attack for what has been going on over the past few weeks in the badlands of the North-West Frontier. It highlighted the crisis confronting the new government in the wake of intensified US strikes in the tribal areas on the Afghan border.Hellfire missiles, drones, special operation raids inside Pakistan and the resulting deaths of innocents have fuelled Pashtun nationalism. It is this spillage from the war in Afghanistan that is now destabilizing Pakistan.The de facto prime minister of the country, an unelected crony of President Zardari and now his chief adviser, Rehman Malik, said, "our enemies don't want to see democracy flourishing in the country". This was rich coming from him, but in reality it has little to do with all that. It is the consequence of a supposedly "good war" in Afghanistan that has now gone badly wrong. The director of US National Intelligence, Michael McConnell, admits as much, saying the Afghan leadership must deal with the "endemic corruption and pervasive poppy cultivation and drug trafficking" that is to blame for the rise of the neo-Taliban.The majority of Pakistanis are opposed to the US presence in the region, viewing it as the most serious threat to peace. Why, then, has the US decided to destabilize a crucial ally? Within Pakistan, some analysts argue this is a carefully coordinated move to weaken the Pakistani state by creating a crisis that extends way beyond the frontier with Afghanistan. Its ultimate aim, they claim, would be the extraction of the Pakistani military's nuclear fangs. If this were the case, it would imply Washington was determined to break up Pakistan, since the country would not survive a disaster on that scale.In my view, however, the expansion of the war relates far more to the Bush administration's disastrous occupation in Afghanistan. It is hardly a secret that President Karzai's regime is becoming more isolated each passing day, as Taliban guerrillas move ever closer to Kabul.When in doubt, escalate the war, is an old imperial motto. The strikes against Pakistan represent - like the decisions of President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, to bomb and then invade Cambodia - a desperate bid to salvage a war that was never good, but has now gone badly wrong.It is true that those resisting the Nato occupation cross the Pakistan-Afghan border with ease. However, the US has often engaged in quiet negotiations with them. Several feelers have been put out to the Taliban in Pakistan, while US intelligence experts regularly check into the Serena hotel in Swat to meet Maulana Fazlullah, a local pro-Taliban leader.Pashtuns in Peshawar, hitherto regarded as secular liberals, told the BBC only last week that they had lost all faith in the west. The decision to violate the country's sovereignty at will had sent them in the direction of the insurgents.While there is much grieving for the Marriott hotel casualties, some ask why the lives of those killed by Predator drones or missile attacks are considered to be of less value. In recent weeks almost 100 innocent people have died in this fashion. No outrage and global media coverage for them.Why was the Marriot targeted? Two explanations have surfaced in the media. The first is that there was a planned dinner for the president and his cabinet there that night, which was cancelled at the last moment.The second, reported in the respected Pakistani English-language newspaper, Dawn, is that "a top secret operation of the US Marines [was] going on inside the Marriott when it was attacked". According to the paper: "Well-equipped security officers from the US embassy were seen on the spot soon after the explosions. However, they left the scene shortly afterwards."The country's largest newspaper, the News, also reported on Sunday that witnesses had seen US embassy steel boxes being carried into the Marriott at night on September 17. According to the paper, the steel boxes were permitted to circumvent security scanners stationed at the hotel entrance.Mumtaz Alam, a member of parliament, witnessed this. He wanted to leave the hotel but, owing to the heavy security, he was not permitted to leave at the time and is threatening to raise the issue in parliament.These may be the motivations for this particular attack, but behind it all is the shadow of an expanding war.Tariq Ali’s latest book is ‘The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power.’September 23, 2008 CounterPunch


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Tosh.0 Season 2 Premieres in January « kingoftv.net
December 3, 2009 - Posted by	kingoftelevision | Comedy, Premiere, Renewed, Television	| comedy central, daniel tosh, tosh.0, twitter


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Lancashire Knitter: 2016
How gorgeous is this wooden yarn holder? A great find!
I am very keen to use up scraps of yarn so these socks are made of a black 4 ply I've had for years (still some left! ) and a green single twist yarn which wouldn't be strong enough for socks on its own. Posted by
Earlier this year I snapped up some cheap 4 ply cotton yarn at a ridiculous price, so I have made a couple of new tops this year. Difficult to photograph this one, it looks so much better worn!
The pattern is called Sunspot, for obvious reasons.
This cardigan pattern is by Martin Storey and was originally done in two colours, I used just one and lengthened the sleeves as well since I had plenty of yarn. I'm pleased with this, it turned out well. I did have trouble with the gauge for other of these. While you can rely on the weights of woollen yarns, I do find cotton yarns are more unpredictable, with 4 ply by one maker not the same as 4 ply by another. I had to knit a smaller size in all these knits to match up.
The last one, a Pat Menchini pattern, was a reknit of some old yarn in a garment I don't wear anymore. It hangs badly on the hanger, but stretches to fit nicely.
Here's a close-up of the pattern, an easy knit once I got into it. You can also just see the mottled yarn, Patons Linen Shadow.
Unfortunately while the yarn I had should have completed the pattern it didn't stretch! This yarn is long discontinued so I couldn't get any more. After rummaging through a yarn store I found a contrast which happily is the same shade as the mottled part of the yarn though different in appearance and 50% acrylic rather than linen/cotton.
However, I do think it works quite well and since this is a sweater to wear around the home in the summer it will be fine. At least I have reused the yarn, I don't like to keep clothes I don't wear.
Given the cold spring, light sweaters have been required. I have wanted to knit this sweater for years, but finding the right yarn has been difficult. In the end I went with Artesano Alpaca Silk Lace which is a total delight to knit with, soft and silky. The original sweater was shorter, but I wanted more of a tunic length so I lengthened it. It took just under 3 skeins - around 1100 metres.
It's a fairly simple knit with a short lace pattern at bottom and top. The sleeve construction is unusual, with stitches cast on either side of the body to form the sleeves, and then seamed at the top. It does allow the lace to run uninterrupted across the chest and sleeves.
A nice knit, pattern by Anniken Allis from the Ultimate Knitting Stylebook which was published a few years ago.
2 ply fairisle
I've never tried this before, but 2 ply fairisle combined with lace is very effective and not too difficult. Another stashbusting project!


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SharePoint Conference 2014 : what’s new ? | Serge Luca's Blog (SharePoint MVP)
SharePoint Conference 2014 : what’s new ?
March 6, 2014 · by sergeluca	· in Office 365, sharepoint.	·
Jeff Teper stressed the 4 Microsoft “Office” beliefs
the future of work is working like a network : the way we work/live in our private life (creating a network, creating relationship, the way we interact with people…) must be based on openness and transparency
personal and proactive insights : people can focus on the right stuff
open developer platform and ecosystem : solutions must be agilely provided in weeks and not years
we be able to do the work anywhere, on any device
He also stressed the Importance of the Cloud : the cloud allows Microsoft to provide more value, faster: rapid innovation.
We are now in the 2nd phase of the cloud strategy:
In Phase 1 Microsoft focused on hosting: hosting SP, Exch, Lync : economic : we do it for you because MS will do it most cost effectively
Now in Phase 2 Microsoft wants to transform the experiences in SharePoint, in Exchange, in Lync, to connect Yammer, to leverage big data, the social and mobile
Benefits for users : they work like a network, more responsive, make better decisions
benefits for developers: make more apps and services (inside orgs, or for partners)
Benefits for IT : protect the necessary information->empower users and developers
work as a network = the social workplace
New personalized insight = OSLO and the Office Graph
Information overload; in the past the search engines were reactive (basically we go to the search and the search engines returns the information); today the search comes to you by leveraging big data and machine learning; the search becomes proactive and provide a personalized experience. The engine is the Office Graph (aka “the Social Fabric”): across SP, Exch, Lync, Yammer,custom application, we are building links and relationships.
One example is OSLO which provides an immersive way to navigate the information.
Another example is the Next Generation portal (on premise and in the cloud) : out of the box and engaging.
There will also be a new video portal build on SharePoint and leveraging the Azure Media services and the Office graph,
Julia White will demonstrate the new “Office” features to be released in the next 3 months by Microsoft
New groups experience across O365 :
Yammer is now part of O365
One of the Yammer group in this demo is “Marketing Campain Groups”
When Julia clicks on he inbox, the SharePoint groups she belongs to shows up:
When she clicks on the group name, the Yammer conversation shows up as well :
She can “reply” the conversation here :
When clicking on Calendar (see below), and by selecting the My calendar (left) and a few groups calendar(left) both the personal calendar events and the groups events can show up in the calendar :
If one of the group event is important and cannot be missed, it can also be copied to the personal calendar:
From Yammer she can navigate to the (Marketing Campaigns groups) site which hosts the group document library :
Is this a SharePoint site ? (to be determined)
Clicking one of the file (here a PowerPoint document) will open the document and bring the associated conversations along:
(in the future Yammer will be integrated with Skype and Lync)
In the conversation, a user mentioned a video, how can we find it : by using the Oslo app.
The Oslo app
The office graph (running behind) knows the content we are working on, the people we are working with and therefore can generate a great user experience by bringing what’s relevant to us.
The next picture illustrate the Olso search bar
The Oslo search bar
Ex: presented to me (meaning to de determined):
The social features of SharePoint will be frozen , everything will happen in Yammer; Microsoft is investing to help customers easily manage hybrid environments so that they can connect their on-premises farms to their in-the-cloud social network..
The Power BI has also be demonstrated by Julia, but since I’ve been working on it since Summer 2013 with my partner Isabelle Van Campenhoudt (SQL Server MVP), I recommend the reading of our SharePoint Pro mag article , you will learn much more : – )
After Julia White Jeff Teper talked a little bit about the developers stuff. Jeff stressed the role of contextual applications ;
2 types of contextual applications
apps that extend the UI of SharePoint/Yammer/Office
ex: composed apps in Outlook, content app in PowerPoint : see the demos presented by Arpan Shah down below…
He announced the new open source O365 android sdk for O365
apps where almost everything (including the UI) is created from scratch
The REST api will be extended in the cloud (sometime we can do more on premise-> we have to fill the gap like self service site collection provisioning, document-workflow manipulation,…)
The will be a new O365 API with new namespaces to simplify the developer experience across SharePoint, Office, Exchange (and Yammer?), and Dynamics (including on premise).
Customizing SharePoint by end user will be much easier
Access will play a important role for Power users; even today, Access is the easier/faster way to create cloud based apps. Access in O365 is no longer in preview.
Pure developers want a better support for non MS technologie in Visual Studio: they want intellisense & debugging support for Java, C, PHP, Rubby,…, new templates,… This will be addressed by the team.
Developer demos by Arpan Shah :
build contextual O365 apps, wherever we are (pc, mobile, …)
Arpan starts with a basic site with a custom list with custom metadata and workflow to track a process related to Marketing campaigns :
Users have to know the url, come to the site and fill in the information
->How to make that more contextual ?
Arpan goes to outlook where he gets an e-mail for starting a new campaign
In the reply message, we see the “Apps” button ;
We can select an application
and we can use it in the e-mail context
For the developer it is pure html5/javascript integrated with the O365 back-end.
In this specific case, the developer made use of the new O365 office 365 API (like the People API to grab people information like who’s is VP and who’s Director, but also to Calendar API see who is Out of Office :
For instance, Alice Bellew is in vacation (-> Out of Office)
Documents can be submitted etc, and users can be notified when a task will be assigned to them, thanks to the Azure notification service; the notification will show-up when they go to their phone (and of course not just here)
Clicking on Approve :
Then the workflow (running on the server) goes on, assigns a tak to the next user who can also check his/her device (in this case an Androïd device) : here the notification will also show up
The user can also use an custom Androïd app created with the new O365 Open Source API and he can interact with the back-end :
And when the document is finally approved by everybody, the app will provision an O365 web site (also a new possibility with the REST api):
Clicking on the link will redirect the user to the newly created SharePoint site where the document has been uploaded (with new new O365 file API)
Jeff Teper : IT
There will be a new version of On Premise SharePoint and Exchange in 2015.
Will be very solid, based on today’s experience in O365
SharePoint Online released 8 years ago
O365 today =
250.000 responses/second
400.000 cores in 22 data centers around the world
400 petabytes (storage)
Just SP online between 10-20% storage growth/month
Online –>great velocity and reliability : new bits of SharePoint online every week to > 10.000 servers around the world with SLA = 99.98%
infinite scale in the tenancy
Making transition from On premise to the cloud easier (and faster), new hybrid options:
sp2013 SP1 : in Admin UI, switch to support hybrid scenarios: we can now choose:
social to be powered by Yammer (in the cloud)
personal documents to be managed by One Drive for Business in the cloud
new : One drive for business standalone (25 GB/User).
New IT Pro Office 365 Yammer network to connect MVPs, Pros, and engineers : https://www.yammer.com/itpronetwork
Security and privacy is key
making sure all these upgrades & maintenance can take place and making sure no Microsoft employee can see your data; data will be encrypted. Security and compliance processes are certificated.
New features will be added every week to make IT management easier
IRM (Information Rights Management) updated
Multi-factor authentication updated and to be updated (support for Office clients)
Increased compliance and reporting capabilities
…More and more to come
all these feature are provided in the cloud first, and later just a subset on premise.
Illustration on Compliance&security + Multi-factor athentication with Michal Gideoni
new compliance center for data loss prevention demo :
ex we start by defining a case (here where the passport numbers are stored in O365) –>we created a case (like before) based on search results. This is based on the current e-Discovery features.
What is new is we have a new centralized Compliance Center:
with new auditing possibilities : who view some specific kind of data ? (based on a case, itself based on a search result )
This is better than the default auditing of SharePoint where we can audit site collections, sites, lists : here we audit some specific types of data/content.
She also illustrated Multi-factor authentication, but read my previous post if you want to understand what’s in there.
Contextual user experience; people don’t have to leave where they work. Regarding Infopath, read this post.
The strategy is to have the forms available in Outlook, in Excel, in SharePoint,… and in different devices.
Access will be a key tool, but we should be able to design forms in the browser as well, not just in a rich client.
Information worker are targeted first
http://officeforms.uservoice.com/
4 types of forms, 3 of them based on Access technology
list forms (released for the Summer) and on Premise in SharePoint 2015 : codenamed “Fossil”” = forms on top of SharePoint Lists
structured document forms (working with the Word team on) (released end of 2014); will look like paper (printable,…)
application forms (will work very well with Visual Studio), already available with Access Services
Excel survey (codenamed “FoSS” pronounce “fossis”= forms on top of spreadsheet) = already available in O365.
There will be extensibility points for developers
• Lookups, cascading combos, SharePoint list workflow … 6 months
• Rules, business logic, mobile/touch, profile information…. 1 year
• Web service call, electronic sign, enterprise data … much later
Tags: SPC14 #spc14 SharePoint conference 2014; Serge Luca SharePoint MVP Brussels; ShareQL; sharepoint 2015; sharepoint vnetx; Yammer
← Multi-factor Authentication & Office 365/ SharePoint Online
Power BI : our first Power BI article for SharePoint Pro Magazine has been published… →


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John's World: A Word on Photos
I want to address an issue that I’ve been thinking about for a long time. It’s about the subject of the use of photos on this blog. I received a comment this morning from the photographer of a photo I used in a post last April, and though his comment was not threatening at all, it sounded off some bells and whistles that I’d always been afraid of.
One of the best things about writing a blog is that I can put multiple pictures with my posts to enhance their effectiveness. I think the visual additions make for a more appealing post, and though I use many photos that I myself take, I often take photos from Google images or elsewhere on the web.
I’ve been meaning to put a disclaimer on the blog about how any and all pictures posted on it are believed to be of public domain and if anyone has an issue with a photo I add, they simply have to contact me and I will remove it. I plan to do that sometime today, but in the meantime I just wanted to add to this issue one more piece of commentary.
Unfortunately this whole subject has to do with money. A person who takes a photo or writes a piece of music or an article is the creator of that piece and needs to get paid for it in order to be used. I accept that fact, but I still think that it stinks. I make very little money off of this blog, yet it’s something I enjoy doing, and I think the visuals I add to my pieces add a certain quality to them. If I use a photo that someone else owns the rights to, I do not do it with any sort of malicious intent. My work has been plagiarized in the past and I know how offsetting that can be, especially when I’m not given credit for the work.
From here on in, I will do my best to give credit to the sources of the photos I use on this blog and if anyone out there who owns copyright to such picture wants it removed, I will do it gladly. It’s something I should have done all along and for now I will thank my commenter for pushing me to this long awaited point. Thank you!
Labels: Photos, Social Commentary


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value: Yahoo (, styled as yahoo!) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake Yahoo!


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August 10, 2007 ~ Lisa @ Life to the Full
Last night I finished my re-read of Randy Alcorn’s book, Money, Possessions and Eternity. I have a feeling that the thoughts presented will stick with me for quite a while.
This book has really challenged my thoughts on giving. I was taught at a very early age to give money every week to the church, and God has certainly blessed me with an ever-increasing delight in giving to His work in my home church. However, He has also blessed me with an over-abundance of financial and material benefits, particularly compared to most of the world’s population–benefits and blessings that I am not meant to hang on to, but rather to share with others.
I am giving more and more thought about just how much money I truly “need”. How many pairs of shoes or purses or lipsticks are really necessary? How many retirement accounts do I really need? Am I putting more faith in bank accounts and IRAs and 401(k)s than I am in God?
I’m not saying that I feel God is calling me to liquidate all my assets, give away all my money and live on the streets. Nor do I think it’s wrong to have more than one pair of shoes, or to enjoy going to Starbucks or buying books or other treats. But I am realizing that, while He does give us everything for our enjoyment (I Timothy 6:17), that enjoyment is not meant to be selfish, nor should our hope and confidence be in the gifts He gives us.
I want to have a more generous heart, a heart filled with compassion for others who are suffering, and a heart that is compelled by that compassion to not just be filled with pity or to pray for those in need, but to do something–to give when I can. I don’t want to hoard money and material goods for my own use. I want to loosen the grip that I have on my wallet and checkbook and to be sensitive to when God is prompting me to share with others what He’s so richly blessed me with.
This is something that I will continue to pray about. It’s very difficult to let go of that “Live for today–get what you want now!” mentality so prevalent in our culture. Equally tempting is the “You’d better sock away everything you can into an IRA/401(k) so you can be a millionaire when you retire” advice. I think that the more I remember that the money and possessions that come into my life do not actually belong to me, but rather are given by God for me to manage here on Earth, the easier it will be to live a more generous life.
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2 thoughts on “Giving Living”
Good thoughts Lisa, please let us know how you are doing with this.
I think I need to add that to my reading list. I’m with DJG, please update us!


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United States Pennsylvania (PA) Dillsburg Dillsburg Restaurants Square Bean Coffee
#1 of 1 Coffee & Tea in Dillsburg #9 of 25 Places to Eat in Dillsburg €
Cafe 1 S Baltimore St, Dillsburg, PA 17019-1228+1 717-432-3210WebsiteMenu Save
Also show MapSatellite Map updates are paused. Zoom in to see updated info. Reset zoom Updating Map... Return to Map Overview 4.5 17 reviewsExcellent55%Very good29%Average11%Poor5%Terrible0%12 Oct 2016“Best Hot Chocolate!”13 Aug 2016“Great little place”Closed07:00 - 14:00Mon - Fri06:00 - 20:00Sat07:00 - 14:00All hours CUISINES Cafe PRICE €RATINGS ServiceFoodValueAtmosphereLOCATION 1 S Baltimore St, Dillsburg, PA 17019-1228All Details Improve This ListingDoes this restaurant offer delivery?Yes No Unsure Is this restaurant appropriate for Kids?Yes No Unsure Is this restaurant good for dinner?Yes No Unsure Does this restaurant have waiters and waitresses?Yes No Unsure Is this restaurant good for brunch?Yes No Unsure Is this restaurant wheelchair accessible?Yes No Unsure Are the prices at this restaurant low or inexpensive?Yes No Unsure Is this a cafe?Yes No Unsure Is this restaurant good for breakfast?Yes No Unsure Is this restaurant good for lunch?Yes No Unsure Thanks for helping! Share another experience before you go. Write a ReviewReviews (17)Traveller rating Excellent9Very good5Average1Poor1Terrible0Traveller typeFamiliesCouplesSoloBusinessFriendsTime of year Mar-MayJun-AugSep-NovDec-FebLanguage All languages English (16)German (1)Language English (16)German (1)See what travellers are saying: 1 - 10 of 16 reviews
jenniferbowieDillsburg, Pennsylvania82Reviewed 12 October 2016 Best Hot Chocolate!I enjoy stopping at this cute coffee house after the farmers market, or on my way home from work. I work night shift and sometimes just want something warm on my drive home. The hot chocolate is always made perfect...not too sweet and just the...MoreThank jenniferbowie Brendan OBethlehem, United States639Reviewed 13 August 2016 via mobile Great little placeI met an old friend for a meeting here and was very impressed with this cafe. A nice, cozy but spacious place with a wonderful atmosphere that is very inviting. Multiple opportunities for any type of hot drink, especially coffee based, and a nice variety...MoreThank Brendan O Christina G4910Reviewed 21 June 2016 via mobile Needed a place to do some workMy husband and I have been traveling cross country and I'm keeping up on some business while we are on the road. This was perfect. The coffee was good as well as the bagels. The wifi was good and I didn't have any problems with...MoreThank Christina G sak497Etters, Pennsylvania4413Reviewed 1 June 2016 Coffee and a ChatSmall coffee shop in the middle of town on the square. Good place to meet and enjoy coffee or tea and pastry. Clean & comfortable. Most of the town can walk to the coffee shop or parking is usually available nearby,Thank sak497 SteveS614Dillsburg, Pennsylvania136Reviewed 24 December 2015 Friendly, Great Local PlaceMy wife and I have become regulars here (every Friday). It is one of those friendly local places that make me wonder how the chains ever became so successful. We also have taken a family group there, and had a few small meetings (understand that...MoreThank SteveS614 BILL LDillsburg, Pennsylvania351Reviewed 11 November 2015 Be There and Be Square!As their name alludes, it's a nice coffee shop on the square in Dillsburg. Good hot coffee and tea, nice pastries, plus good soups and sandwiches - at moderate prices. Nice friendly staff and good service, too!Thank BILL L Kitten524Sparta, New Jersey104Reviewed 24 October 2015 Eggs--quisite!Friendly clean and great service. Delicious latte and cappuccino in a warm and inviting environment. We had the breakfast quesadilla special and it was delicious.Thank Kitten524 klmnhPA4017Reviewed 29 September 2015 Great little place in town!My son and I went there for lunch. The food was really good, it took a little time for the food to come, but it was freshly made. My son loved his coffee as well The staff is very friendly. I highly recommend meeting some...MoreThank klmnh Chas1012Grantham, Pennsylvania10423Reviewed 1 September 2015 Good take out foodWe order lunch from there on a regular basis. Good food and good pricing make for a great deal. As we are ordering over the phone, I can't say a lot about the staff other than the people we speak to on the phone who...MoreThank Chas1012 DJM42Pennsylvania45Reviewed 27 August 2015 Dillsburg's best coffee shopFriendly coffee shop on the square. Good coffee and lattes, good prices. Nice neighborhhhod meeting place.Thank DJM42 PreviousNext12Updating list... Restaurant MenuSorry, we were unable to load the menu data.
Nearby Nearby RestaurantsBaker's Restaurant274 reviews .82 km away Pakha's Thai Restaurant84 reviews .45 km away The Pickle Nickel48 reviews .05 km away Road Hawg Barbeque14 reviews .06 km away Nearby AttractionsHaars Drive In Theater52 reviews 2.20 km away Children's Lake46 reviews 9.08 km away Roundtop Mountain Resort134 reviews 9.64 km away Paulus Farm Market68 reviews 9.81 km away Questions & AnswersGet quick answers from Square Bean Coffee staff and past visitors.Note: your question will be posted publicly on the Questions & Answers page.Verification: Posting guidelinesSubmit
1 S Baltimore St, Dillsburg, PA 17019-1228 Location:

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Caro on Stampin': Thursday's class card and box project
Gosh I can't believe how fast this week has flown by.......Hannah has been away with her friend and family this week, so Paul and I have been enjoying some quite time, or rather I have as Paul is so busy with work and not coming home until about 9pm and I am still in bed when he leaves in the morning!!!!
I had a lovely day on Monday with Kerry and Belle two fabulous ladies that I have meet through Stampin' Up, and met another friend on Tuesday for breakfast, and yesterday my friend Vicky came round and we opened my pre-order together and had some fun oohing and ahhhing over everything, and we only have another week before we can pre order again from the new 2012-2013 ideas book and catalogue I am so excited.
Being able to pre-order and have an early look at catalogue items is a wonderful perk of being a demonstrator, as well as being able to earn products for FREE, so if you would like to have the same privilege's contact me for a no obligation chat.
Last Thursday was my card and 3d project class and it was lovely to catch up with my ladies as I was unable to make the last class because I was ill.
We had two colour combinations to choose from, Marina Mist and very vanilla and Soft Suede and Pink Pirouette. Here is a photo of the soft suede combo.
The Box was a holder and then 2 milk carton box's fitted inside. The DSP is from Beau Chateaux and the ribbon is the pretty in pink scallop dots ribbon and some very vanilla taffeta ribbon. Tiny clips hold the milk carton closed, which could be filled with sweets.
The card uses the Reason to Smile stamp set which is available until the end of August, more details can be found on this on the right hand bar of my blog.
The pink thread was originally white and we coloured it using the ink pad and a dauber. I hope you like this gift and card project. I will show you the other colour combo tomorrow.
Later on today I have my hospital appointment with the shoulder consultant, as I am still having pain and pins and needles, but thankfully my blood test results for any serious condition came back negative earlier this week, so we will see what the options are later regarding an operation or pain management strategy.
Jane24 August 2012 at 14:47That is really pretty Caroline, bet the ladies loved it. Good luck with the appointment x ReplyDeleteAdd commentLoad more...