I have a confession to make – sometimes writing stories in this format leaves me completely cold. Seeing that same format repeatedly tends to drive me nuts. It can be a lot of extra work to put stories into this format.
The verbs are often missing – what am I trying to do?
Let's take my example above – mentoring. What did I mean by that? Is it mentoring for me? Mentoring for someone else? Perhaps a mentoring program? Maybe I meant all of the above? Without some sort of context, there is no way to know what this "story" was all about.
How do we fix these stories?
So that I can be more successful on my next project.
That's not bad – it's a distinct improvement really. Now I know the context pretty well. I know the who, what, and why. Not too bad at all. Nevertheless, it's still not setting my shorts on fire.
Who will help me be successful on my next project.
Hmmm… I am definitely starting to like this story. I dropped the "as a" phrase because it was redundant – we're just talking about me. Furthermore, I changed "so that" to "Who will help". It just seems to flow more naturally and better convey the meaning of what I am trying to do. Not only do I know that I need a mentor, but now I know what kind of mentor I'm looking for. This story is getting better as we build it up word by word. After all, when we only have a sentence to describe what we want, every word counts.
I wonder if I can improve this story still further? How about a trip back to our friend the thesaurus? Let's see: successful, flourishing, dominant, leading, noteworthy, smashing, stunning – oooh, there's a good one!
Who will help me make my next project a stunning success!
YES! Now that's a story I can get behind! That lights my fire! That's a story that I want to deliver. Remember, one of the keys to successful agile development is to have audacious goals. I feel like we miss the opportunity for a little audacity in our lives when we cop out on writing good stories. Stories should be something that the customer is passionate about. They should be something that the team should be able to get passionate about. It's hard to get passionate about single word stories. Even the standard story form is a bit bleak.
by doubling the project revenue!
Aha! Bring it all back to money! Nice! Now we have a compelling AND testable story. Sign me up!
You'll notice that I've taken some artistic license in interpreting the words that apply to these stories. The simple act of looking for different ways to describe something using a thesaurus brings up all sorts of interesting related ideas. We don't have to settle for the most spartan explanation possible.
Here is my theory: If we invest some time, and perhaps just a little imagination, we can transform our stories into something that is really worth doing. Take a few adjectives and put the passion back into your work! I guarantee you that the time will be well spent. Be audacious! Be passionate! Have fun!
Every once in a while I have one of those, "Science catches up with reality." moments. Take, for example, this weekend. I was putting the Christmas lights up on our house. You know, that yearly ritual where an otherwise sane man will risk life and limb in the pursuit of putting more lights on the outside of his house than his neighbor has. I fall victim to this peculiar form of insanity about once every 12 months. So there I was, cursing as I disentangled myself from a particularly aggressive set of C9's. I was just about done. Icicle lights along the roof line, LED's along the garage, rope lights arrayed down the driveway, lighted Christmas tree and snowman in the front yard – my chest positively swelled with pride. All I had to do was to plug it in and survey this masterpiece of suburban manhood. I stick the plug in the socket and I hear a "pop!" as the fuse in the snowman blows, and then I look up to notice that half the lights on my roofline are not lighting up. Cue more vehement cursing.
I had broken the first rule of agile development – Test First! Of course, any reasonably competent handyman would have known to try plugging in each strand of lights before beginning the life threatening task of suspending them from the roof – right? As I stood there at the foot of the ladder and contemplated my predicament, It occurred to me that the consequences of failing to test in the real world are a whole lot more painful than in the digital world. It's really quite amazing that Test Driven Development hadn't come along much earlier. If you stop and look around, people are doing it everywhere! Doing some woodworking? Measure twice, cut once.
Why did it take so long for us developers to catch on? Perhaps it is just because in the digital world, the consequences of failing to test your work really don't have any physical pain associated with them. Anguish maybe, but pain? No. Was I going to be in pain replacing those lights? Oh yes.
I've always suspected that every developer's chair should have a Taser installed in the seat. Broken build? Bring on the voltage baby! Maybe a more severe appreciation for the consequences of breakage is what we all need. As I returned to my roofline to retrieve the dead strands of lights, I realized that even the most trivial activities can benefit from the application of Test First or TDD. After all, if you had asked me, I would have described putting lights on the house as anything but a challenging intellectual activity. Hah! now I was the idiot desperately clinging to the frozen eves of my own house, praying that I wouldn't fall. As my flimsy ladder shifted beneath me, my life flashed before my eyes like a bad 'B' movie (very boring – gotta get a new writer) I realized the error of my ways.
To make matters worse, I had a string of lights that would sort of randomly turn off if I happened to jiggle them just right. My tests on the ground would prove they were fine, but then if I moved them a little, they just might just as easily test as bad. What can I do to solve this problem? Test first doesn't do me any good here. Then I had an epiphany: why not use Continuous Integration! If I leave the lights on while I'm hanging them, then I can always visually see if I've created a problem as I'm in the process of hanging the lights. Cool! I can make changes to the layout of the lights based on the feedback I get as I actually lay the strands out. Blow a fuse? No problem, time to rethink that strand arrangement. So now I've managed to incorporate two principles of agile development into my process for hanging Christmas lights: Test Driven Development, and Continuous Integration.
I know what you are thinking – this guy seriously needs to get a life.
Merry Christmas and Happy Testing!
The task board is the single most important information radiator that an agile team has. A task board illustrates the progress that an agile team is making in achieving their sprint goals. Usually the task board is located in an area that is central to the team. For example, it's in their work area or in the war room where they hold their stand-up meetings. I would maintain that the task board is an expression of the personality of the team. Some teams operate in a very minimalist style – only the most essential information is displayed. Other teams are quite disciplined. Everything is neatly laid out and you can get a very clear picture of the product that they are working on. From what I have seen, every task board is unique. It's interesting to look at the different kinds of task boards that teams use, and compare and contrast the differences.
Out in the "wild" there are many different examples of what a task board looks like. For example, this one uses a corkboard and three by five cards. One way to improve this task board would be to add a burn down chart. Then you not only see the status of the tasks being worked on, but you also see the burn down information which provides a overview of the progress that the team is making on the tasks for that sprint.
Below is a rather more elegant version of a task board. I call it the "Beautiful Mind" task board. We just took some of that blue masking tape used for house painting and laid out the task chart directly on the window. Post-Its were used for everything else. It was located in an office building where there were many windows, but not very many walls. It was sort of a "low impact" solution. This demonstrates that with a little imagination you can create a task board just about anywhere.
It also makes you look smart if you stand next to it and gesticulate.
Here are a couple more examples of some task boards that we have seen "out in the wild".
This one is just 3 by 5 cards taped on the wall. The yellow cards indicate the stories and the teal cards indicate the tasks. Task progress and status is indicated by putting little stickers on the cards and updating the hours remaining. Again, we see the burn down charts displayed prominently next to our task board.
Now we venture into the den of our very own CTO, Brent Barton! I wonder what he does?
This is a laminated poster that was created a team member with an innovative streak! He's done a great job of standardizing the information and making it easy for people to update. It's organized a little bit differently than the other task boards that I have shown you. There are some little bits that I might change, but I love the idea in general. I've seen a few more of these posters springing up lately, so maybe they're catching on.
This is just based on a printout of an excel spreadsheet. That certainly makes it easy. Just print it out and fill in the blanks.
So What's in a Task Board?
On the left, you have a list of the stories that you are working on for the sprint. In the next column, "To Do", you have the tasks necessary to complete the story. You move the tasks from "To Do" into the "In-Process" column while you are working on them. When you are done, you move the task from "In-Process" to "Complete". It's really pretty simple.
Notice that there are some extra columns in this one: Tests Ready and Hours. Test Ready indicates that the acceptance tests for this story are ready. This serves as a sort of gate that prevents work from moving forward on a story until the acceptance tests have been written. Having the hours remaining summarized at the end of the row just makes it easier for the team to keep track of time remaining for that story. Combine the hours remaining with a burndown chart and you will find that the chart gets to be very easy to update.
There are many tools out there that provide electronic versions of team task boards. One that I'm very familiar with is Rally. It gives a nice detailed summary of the stories and tasks that a team is working on in a sprint. It tracks time remaining, who's responsible for the task, and what state the task is in (Defined, In-Progress, Complete). It has nice reports and burn down charts. In fact, some teams that I work with will display the burn down chart on a monitor above their desks so that the whole team can see the current burn down status. Good idea!
As you can see, there is a lot of information on display here. In this view, Rally displays a hierarchical list of stories and their associated tasks for a given sprint. However, instead of moving tasks from column to column like we have seen in previous examples, Rally uses icons to indicate the current state of each work item ('D' for Defined, 'P' for In Progress, 'C' for Complete, and 'A' for Accepted).
Perhaps a web-based tool like Rally isn't what you are looking for. Then perhaps you might consider looking at a tool like ScrumWorks. Their product has been around for a long time and continues to evolve in interesting ways. Again, ScrumWorks provides an information rich display of the current stories and tasks for a sprint. Overall, the Scrumworks interface is somewhat cleaner and simpler than the Rally interface. You aren't plagued with a host of different tabs and options on each screen. Everything is pretty straightforward and simple to use.
The ScrumWorks display shows us the list of stories and tasks and that's just about it. They don't overwhelm you with multiple columns of information like other products do. However, there is no real analog to a task board here.
Just when I thought I understood all the players in this domain, our friends at ThoughtWorks brought their own product to the playground. The new kid on the block is Mingle. Mingle is based on a very flexible, wiki style platform. I haven't had as much experience using it as I have with the other two products, but it looks like it's going to give folks like Rally and ScrumWorks a real run for their money. The UI is clean and the product seems to allow a nearly endless variety of configuration options.
So there we have a few of the electronic tools for task board management that are available out there. Most of my software friends run straight to the electronic tools like moths toward a bug zapper. I've done it myself – I've got the scars to show for it. The fact is that electronic tools have their uses, but they are not a good substitute for a nice tangible task board that a team can stand up in front of and work with together. Online tools seem to keep people in isolation. Everyone at his or her own desk, staring at the screen – that's just not agile. I prefer to have the team working with a real physical entity that they can manipulate, edit, whatever. The quality of interaction is much higher.
In addition, electronic tools tend to hide information. They tend to make things less transparent rather than the other way around. If I walk into a team's work area and they have no task board, then there is no way for me to quickly assess how they are doing. For a team member, the information is gone the minute I switch to any other activity on my computer. The information remains hidden until I select the tool again.
If you have a customer that can't see your task board (as is often the case), then using an electronic tool makes a lot of sense. The same applies to working with distributed teams. However, use the electronic tools as a supplement, rather than as a replacement for the physical task board.
Here's a radical idea: Maybe we should be thinking of a task board as a recruiting tool. We should be showing off the cool stories that we are working on. They should be compelling enough that people passing by might take interest in them. They might stop, look, and think to themselves, "I would like to be a part of that…" Perhaps they might pass by, stop dead in their tracks and say, "No, no, no! I have a better idea!" Task boards should tell us all how the project is going. They are something to be proud of. A team slogging through incredible obstacles could show off the stories that they've accomplished like tattoos on the arm of a war veteran.
Task boards should be vivid illustrations of the achievements of a team. They should present a compelling picture of the challenge the team has undertaken. Along with a vision statement, they should draw us in. Like the TV commercials, they say this is where "The Few, the Proud, the Daring" will go. Give me an audacious goal, a compelling story to get there, and I will sign up in a heartbeat.
I can imagine walking through team workspaces and reading the task boards for each team. Some may have stories for teams that are just getting started and looking for new team members. Exciting stories full of promise. Others might reflect the work of projects that have been in progress for months or years, representing a tale of the battles that our grizzled IT veterans have fought and won – their challenges and triumphs. As I walk around the company, the task boards should reflect the nature of the work that each group is doing. Maybe I see financial projects near the CFO's office. Perhaps corporate initiatives are tracked near CIO's office. I bet there would be some exciting stuff up there.
When I think of the task boards, they remind me of those thermometers that HR puts up when we are doing a food drive. There is some compelling goal or vision (feed the homeless, toys for tots), and a big visible indicator of how close we are to achieving that goal. We need more of those. Make people want to work on your team – take the time to make your task board tell a compelling story.
I've been thinking about how to keep the project pace sustainable a lot lately (my wife says I need a hobby). My experience has been that agile projects generally demand a lot more focused engagement by the team than plan driven projects. This is both good and bad. The short, intense sprints enable some remarkable productivity, but they also come with a cost. Without a doubt, the highly collaborative environments found in most agile projects require a lot of energy on everyone's part. Eventually it can take a toll on everyone. I am fortunate enough to work in an environment with lots of agile teams, and I think I see a pattern emerging.
Here's how it goes: The team starts off slowly, builds up some velocity, works out some issues and is soon a fairly highly performing unit. But the challenges don't stop coming. Some of this is good, challenges are what make the work interesting. However, some of those challenges have an emotional component – and they can be real killers. For example, problems getting the product owner to engage, internal team conflicts, defending the team from micromanagement by upper managers, etc. All of these challenges are quite normal, and frankly they are to be expected in any agile environment. After maybe a year of these challenges you might start to notice the scrum master starting to look a tad bit crispy around the edges (is that a nervous tic or is he winking at me?). The team might start showing up at 10 AM rather than 9. Give them another six months, and while there may have been many successes, they all start to get a bit of that "thousand yard stare".
One of the benefits of highly transparent environments like those found in agile teams is that problems are often raised more often and more visibly. This is often touted as being good for the overall health of the project, but it can also be hell on the team. Bringing conflicts out into the open is great, but it's also exhausting. Continuous improvement is great, but it's also a lot of hard work. I think that it contributes to a very real feeling of burnout.
Recently I realized that I've encountered this phenomenon before: back when I used to be involved in amateur weightlifting. Burnout is a very common phenomenon in many different sports. It's symptoms can range from the very simple (physical exhaustion) to the more subtle (such as a lack of enthusiasm, depression, etc.). And in my opinion, it is probably the single most difficult challenge to face when you are trying to push yourself (or perhaps your team) to the next level of performance – mental or physical.
In sports there is even a terminology used to describe advancement through these different levels of accomplishment: "I've hit a plateau" A flat spot, an inability to make further gains. No matter how hard you throw yourself at the problem, nothing you do seems to lead to an improvement. It's as if the body and the mind have conspired to say, "We aren't going any further – we're gonna take a break." So what do you do?
Maybe you thrash for a while, trying to continue to make those magical gains that you first experienced (you want that endorphine rush!). But at some point it becomes apparent that progress just isn't going to continue forever. The day to day monotony takes over and you simply deal with the basics: you show up, you do your work, you endure the pain, you go home and you rest. I think there is a very close parallel between these plateaus that we reach in athletics and the plateaus that we reach as software development teams.
With software teams, the challenges are a bit different, but the "plateau" is the same. We've got our continuous integration working. We're using pair programming. We have beautiful burn down charts showing our progress – and yet we still haven't reached our goal of delivering fully tested software to our customer every 2 weeks. What's the matter? I think this is the point where we may lose a lot of people who are trying out agile methods for the first time. They think, "We tried it the new way, and it felt good for a while, but in the end it was just more of the same hassles." Same issues, different methodology. The fundamental problems don't change.
I've seen this happen in weightlifting countless times. Go into any gym the week after New Years day. The place is packed! People are feverishly pounding iron like there is no tomorrow! This is going to be the year that they get in shape! Here comes that six pack! Then the inevitable happens: toward the end of January the gym starts to get less crowded. By mid February the place is almost back to normal again. No surprise I guess, it's just human nature at work. But what about those guys who are still there in June? How do they manage to keep it up? What is it that makes them different?
Now, in my own experience there are two factors that can make a huge difference for the guys who pound it out day after day: they have almost maniacal discipline, and they have a plan.
After hanging out with the die-hard weightlifters for a while, I discovered that they all had different strategies for pacing themselves in order to hit a long term objective. Say for example, that you wanted to bench press 300 pounds, but right now you were only able to bench press 275. How do you create a long term strategy that will allow you to gradually work your way up to the desired weight?
I think the first strategy was discovered by the ancient Greeks – you simply increase the weight in tiny increments until you reach your goal (actually there was this guy who was fond of lifting a calf every day until it was full grown – don't ask me for the details – it's all Greek to me). That strategy of building in tiny increments is a start, but it doesn't really model the way we typically make gains. Typically athletes make gains after long plateaus or stable periods in their training. Then it sort of happens all at once. One day you are pounding the same weight as yesterday, then BOOM! the energy comes and you are ready to go to the next level.
It suggests that the body needs time to acclimate to each level of performance. That there is no such thing as truly non-stop continuous improvement. You improve for a little while…and then you plateau… You might want to go further, but you are just not ready yet – and there is no forcing it. However, you can plan for it. That made me wonder, are there plateaus for teams? How do we get past those plateaus?
Weightlifters and other athletes use a strategy called "cycling" to try and simulate the highs and lows of normal development (physical development that is…). It's a plan to enable them to reach their "Peak" without burning out. Cycling involves gradually working your way up to a heavy weight, and then backing off. The next time you start a cycle, you start with a baseline just a few pounds heavier and go a little bit closer to your peak from there. To do all of this, you need to do a fair amount of planning. If I have a competition three months away, then I might put together a workout that allows me to "Peak" or cycle about three times (once a month) before the big event. I calculate the weights that I need to lift on any given day, then it's just a matter of showing up and doing the work. That's where the dedication comes in.
The cycles or plan that I have created give me a set of milestones or deliverables to work with. If I discover that one month from now, I've added 20 pounds to my bench press – hooray! I'm ahead of schedule. Or I may find out that I'm 5 pounds shy of my goal. Then I adjust my plan for the next cycle and keep moving forward. By the time the day of the competition arrives, I should have had enough experience with my previous "Peaks" or deliverables that I should be fairly confident of what I can accomplish. It shouldn't be much of a mystery. To me, this technique bears a strong resemblance to the short, delivery oriented iterations in agile – and even to some of the agile planning techniques.
For me, the hardest part is not the planning, but the discipline to consistently execute. It's that maniacal discipline that I was talking about – and it ain't easy. There are so many different excuses I can come up with to skip some apparently trivial part of the plan on any given day. The really hard part is to show up and do the work, and report the results the same way – every single day without exception – regardless of whether it is raining, snowing, you have a cold, your mother-in-law is in town – whatever. You get the idea. I think that all too often I have used these excuses on my projects too: Skip the stand-up meeting because we all really "know" what's going on, forget to report burn down time accurately – I'll catch up tomorrow, delay creating tests because the code doesn't *really* need it. You name the lame excuse – I've used it.
I see potentially strong parallels in the efforts that development teams and athletes might use to pace themselves whether they be weightlifters, runners, swimmers, or golfers (wait…scratch that, golfing is *not* a sport). So if you find yourself unsatisfied with the pace of your teams progress, if you are wondering if you will ever find a way to meet the next challenge – try looking a the way people in other domains pace themselves. I think there is a lot that we could learn from other disciplines such as athletics. Maybe your development team has reached a plateau – that's perfectly natural. We talk about continuous improvement, but other disciplines learned a long time ago that it's much more complicated than just changing a little every day. For example, some teams need to reach a certain level of collective maturity before they are ready to take on something like pair programming. If you try and force them to do it too early, it's like trying to teach a pig to sing – it frustrates you and irritates the pig.
Speaking of pigs, that brings me back to Scrum. Maybe we need better mechanisms to help assess where teams are in their development, so that we can provide the mentorship and/or the tools they need to make it to the next level. Whatever the answer is, I think that I learned a few valuable lessons from my own athletic experience with regard to keeping the pace of a team sustainable. I would invite you to consider your own experiences outside of the software domain and see if there are similar parallels that arise for you.
Scrum was named for the formation of a Rugby team that is contesting possession of the ball during a Rugby match. It is characterized by a unified front formed by the entire team. Teammates are literally locked together arm in arm, shoulder to shoulder. Everyone on the team is intensely focused on the same objective: get the ball. When there are two teams lined up against each other like this, you can tell that it is a herculean effort. It is a contest of strength, of will, of iron resolve. It's tremendously exciting to watch. There is nothing ordinary about it.
Scrum shares many of these attributes with the sport of Rugby. The team is focused on the same goal. It is a unified effort that is driven by the strength, will, and iron resolve of a team. Think back to those first few times you worked with a Scrum team. Were you energized? Did you believe in the promise of agile development? Did you really want to see it work? It's normal for a team to be very enthusiastic at the beginning of a project. If your team isn't enthusiastic at the beginning of the project, you probably have a problem on your hands.
Regardless, teams march forward, sprint after sprint, chasing the ball. After doing it for a while, it's easy for complacency to set in. You do the planning, the daily scrum, the review and retrospective, rinse, wash, and repeat. Simple. Somewhere along the line, the team gets into a rhythm and everyone knows what to expect next. The customer is seeing increments of product value, the team is delivering, and everybody is happy. This is when a Scrum team is most vulnerable to its greatest enemy: The Ordinary.
The Ordinary is very seductive. It whispers warmly in the ears of your teammates, "Why change now? Why mess with a good thing?" The Ordinary croons some of my favorite tunes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." And "Good enough." The seeds of The Ordinary seek to take root everywhere: in your goals, in your user stories, in your code, in your impediments. When things get "ordinary" on an agile project, it's really the beginning of the end.
I'm talking about definitions 1 and 3. Some people might argue that an agile team becoming ordinary is a desirable thing – not me. Ordinary is the archenemy of inspect and adapt. A team that settles for the routine, the usual, is not looking for ways to improve themselves. They've become set in their ways and stopped looking for new ways to improve. I've seen it happen over and over again. The teams start out gung-ho and launch themselves up the agile learning curve with great gusto, only to stall out midway to their goal. I've seen it so much that I think of it as an agile anti-pattern. I'm sure I'm not the only one to notice this – in fact I'm willing to bet that someone else has coined a term to describe it (but I won't let that slow me down).
Whenever I go to a standup meeting and one by one everyone says, "No impediments" I know the team has succumbed to The Ordinary. They've lost the will to keep seeking improvements. Impediments often seem like deceptively bad things. Impediments slow you down, right? No! Impediments are opportunities to speed up your team! Impediments are a gift, a chance to make things a little better. They are tiny things with subtle impact. They are EVERYWHERE! We live in a veritable soup of impediments every day. That's part of the problem – we have gotten so used to them that they have become ubiquitous. We fail to recognize them because we have gotten so used to accommodating them. Finding impediments can be hard because we have conditioned ourselves to ignore them. It's easy to come to the daily stand-up and report, "No impediments." And get on with the rest of your day. After all, if it was a serious problem it would be staring you in the face, right? No! I would propose that you think of your stand-ups differently. Think of the 15 minute standup as your one golden opportunity to do one small thing to help out your team. Count on it – this is a chance to make big difference to your team. You have just a few brief seconds to identify what you did yesterday, what you're going to do today, and identify an impediment. An impediment is a gift that you bring to your team every day. Everyone should strive to find one every day – and the scrum master should be striving to eliminate them by the end of the day. Conversely, failing to identify an impediment every day is letting your team down when they need you.
One area that I have failed my team as a scrum master is with the Retrospective. Here is what I mean, part of the Retrospective is to identify the things we would do differently in the next sprint. It's another one of those golden opportunities for change. However, it is deceptively easy to walk away from the retrospective and forget about those things. It's almost like we treat it as a purgative experience. We flush out all the bad ju-ju, wave a magic wand, and move on to the next sprint. We sit around and share what went well, we anguish over what didn't go well, we feel each other's pain…and everybody goes home. We come back the next day all refreshed, and we continue to work as normal. What's up with that? When nothing changes, The Ordinary has won again.
Meaningless or missing Sprint Goals are another sign of the Ordinary. When sprint goals are missing, it says to me, this team isn't willing to take the time to come up with a real reason for accomplishing this sprint. It tells me that they are content to trudge onward without a goal. One story after the other, one foot after the other, marching forward without a goal. That just sounds like drudgery to me. In rugby terms, the objective goes from "Score a goal and win the game" to "get another 5 yards". The reason, the passion, the objective for why you are doing what you are doing is completely lost. This isn't a team pushing the envelope – this is a team that forgot to lick the stamp!
I've already written about "Passionate User Stories" before. Who wants to work on boring stuff? If you can't bring any passion to your work, who is going to sign up for those stories? Are you really going to get the team to work hard on something that bores them to death? I don't think so. The teams that win consistently are the teams that put an equal amount of passion and zeal into everything that they do. Nothing is too ordinary to be elevated and made worth truly doing. When I read boring stories that lack passion, I know that The Ordinary has set up house with that team.
So how do you defeat The Ordinary? You don't settle for the status quo. You keep pushing yourself and your teammates to bring greatness to your team. Set audacious goals. If you aren't trying to become the best agile team in your company, then your goals are too low. If you don't want to be the absolute best, then scrum probably won't be much more effective than any other methodology. In fact, you have to do more than want it – you have to demand it. You have to expect it of your team. You have to seek out the The Ordinary and root it out where ever it hides. You must hunt it down, identify it, and exterminate it relentlessly.
So what is your job? Your mission is to perform The Extraordinary and settle for nothing less.
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Bonded DSL: Bonding Three and Four ADSL Lines (Part 2)
1 June 2014 by Mark Heath
This is the second part of our independent review of bonded broadband solutions from UK-based Evolving Networks. In our first review, we tested the bonding of two DSL connections. In this article, we present the results from bonding three and four DSL connections.
New! As superfast broadband is now available to about 95% of premises, please do check whether higher speeds services are available in your area using our postcode checker on our Broadband Deals page.
Using individual ADSL2 lines capable of delivering downlink throughputs of about 5.5 Mbps, we were able to achieve aggregated throughputs of over 15 Mbps and 20 Mbps with three and four lines respectively, with low levels of latency (delay). Our results show that there is no law of diminishing returns when bonding more than two lines together.
Here is a screen capture of the eViewLive system, which shows four lines being bonded to give downlink throughputs in excess of 20 Mbps.
While our testing was delayed due to a faulty line, this problem demonstrated the role that proactive line optimisation (a critical part of the Evolving Networks service and a key differentiator for the company) can play in achieving the very best performance from bonding. ISPs offering single-line broadband solutions could learn a lot from the Evolving Networks approach to allow their customers to achieve the best speeds possible.
Getting three and four individual lines to perform at their true potential
Over the past few weeks, we've had the opportunity to comprehensively assess the performance of ADSL bonding using two, three and four lines from Evolving Networks. It would be easy in an ADSL bonding review to neglect the consideration of the individual DSL lines themselves in favour of the bonding technology and associated hardware. However, during our review, it became increasingly clear that individual lines play a critical role in defining the performance of broadband bonding as a whole. Never has the old adage 'garbage in, garbage out' been truer.
Bonding delivers the very best results when individual lines have been optimised to deliver the best speeds and performance possible. Furthermore, a single faulty line can significantly degrade overall throughputs and the perceived performance of bonding. Rapid changes in throughput on a line can cause the bonding system to struggle to keep up with the rapidly changing line conditions.
Today's provision of broadband lines by most ISPs leaves a lot to be desired. Broadband provision is somewhat of a lottery, and performance can differ dramatically between premises in the same street, and indeed between lines to the same premises. Demonstrated by the many emails we receive and the huge variation we see in broadband speeds in neighbouring premises, a large number of broadband connections could be significantly improved. This is because lines can be plagued by a variety of issues – to a greater or lesser degree – including:
undiagnosed line faults
poor cabling between the premises and the street cabinet, or between the street cabinet and the exchange
long cabling between the master socket and the modem
faulty equipment at the exchange
REIN (Repetitive Electrical Impulse Noise)
noise and interference caused by the absence of a faceplate filter
a faulty or obsolete modem
inappropriate line profile (set by the operator manually, or set by the Digital Line Management automatically)
inappropriate modulation used (i.e. not the best choice between ADSL, ADSL2 and ADSL2+)
stuck BRAS profiles
capacity issues (e.g. at the exchange)
contention issues.
Despite the huge performance variation that can occur, most ISPs do not undertake any form of proactive line optimisation and will only respond if customers complain of particularly slow speeds or intermittent service. How many broadband users actually realise that their connection could potentially deliver significantly greater performance? This is a missed opportunity!
It is in the area of proactive line optimisation that Evolving Networks currently stands out from other bonding providers and ISPs in general. It collects and analyses a range of data to help diagnose and improve the performance of individual lines to ensure they are delivering the highest speeds possible. This data includes:
uploaded performance statistics from the modems in customers' premises
BT's BRAS information from the BT exchange
results from its own speed and latency line tests.
Evolving Networks analyses the performance data for individual lines to understand if they are performing optimally. Since multiple lines are deployed, Evolving Networks is able to see if significant performance differences exist between lines, which can be immediately investigated. Evolving Networks also ensures that ADSL2+ equipment is used where this is available (to provide the highest possible uplink speeds).
The value of this proactive line optimisation was clearly demonstrated to us since we actually suffered from a particularly frustrating, and intermittent, fault on one of our lines.
This issue caused spikes in latency and erratic downlink throughputs (varying from 5.5 Mbps down to 0.5 Mbps) on the line, and substantially affected overall bonded downlink throughput.
After a prolonged period of time (and following comprehensive data analysis and several visits by an Openreach engineer), we were finally able to get four lines with consistent performance and excellent speeds (given the distance from the exchange). Our problem line was improved by changing the modem to the new Billion 8800NL modem router (shown above). Evolving Networks is currently trialling Billion modems to potentially give even more control over line settings, including the target SNR margin (Signal to Noise Ratio margin).
As can be seen in the table, below, we ended up with four individual lines with very similar performance, with single-line throughputs in excess of 5 Mbps and low latency. Two of the lines had been installed by Evolving Networks (lines 1 and 2), while lines 3 and 4 were already in place. Evolving Networks strongly prefers to install new lines for its bonding service so that it can optimise the connection to its own private network and minimise overall network delays. As can be seen in the table, the pings for the lines installed by Evolving Networks were indeed noticeably lower than those of the existing lines.
Provider BT Business TalkTalk Business TalkTalk BT
Downlink connection rate 6451 kbps 6551 kbps 6484 kbps 6304 kbps
Uplink connection rate 1059 kbps 1019 kbps 1020 kbps 1003 kbps
Modulation used ADSL2 ADSL2 ADSL2 ADSL2
Measured downlink throughput 5540 kbps 5693 kbps 5279 kbps 5347 kbps
Measured uplink throughput 887 kbps 860 kbps 861 kbps 844 kbps
Interleaving None None Yes None
Lowest measured ping 12.9 ms 10.5 ms 18.8 ms 15.8 ms
Average measured ping 15.6 ms 12.2 ms 21.2 ms 20.6 ms
Table 1: Performance of individual ADSL2 lines used for bonding
Evolving Networks has developed strong competence and unique systems for the optimisation of individual broadband lines. While the focus of this review is on bonded broadband solutions, these would be of great value to premium ISPs offering single-line solutions.
Bonding of three DSL connections
For our review of ADSL bonding with two connections, we used the smallest of the bonding gateways offered by Evolving Networks (called the EV1). This is a small unit of dimensions 15.6 cm x 16.8 cm x 2.7 cm, and weighs 440 g. This can support two lines and has a maximum bonded throughput of 30 Mbps, making it suitable for the bonding of two ADSL2+ lines each with downlink throughputs up to about 15 Mbps.
For the bonding of three ADSL connections, we were provided with the larger EV3, shown in the photo below (next to the smaller EV1). Dimensions of the EV3 are 21.5 cm x 18.9 cm x 4.4 cm and the weight is 1.25 kg. The EV3 can bond together up to three connections and has a maximum bonded throughput of 90 Mbps – more than enough for our purposes. The EV3 is able to bond ADSL2+ or FTTC fibre broadband connections.
When the EV3 was first switched on, the device was relatively noisy as the onboard fan started at full speed in start-up mode. However, the fan very quickly slowed down and, in normal operation, it was inaudible in what was a very quiet office.
We have very little to report about the bonding service as it simply delivered excellent and consistent performance. Just as with the bonding of two connections, we enjoyed a very fluid browsing experience with no slowdowns, and speed tests consistently measured throughputs in excess of 15 Mbps (downlink) and 2.3 Mbps (uplink). As with our two line bonding tests, there was no evidence of network contention or congestion issues.
Table 2, below, shows the measured throughputs from bonding, averaged across a number of speeds tests. As discussed in our first review, there is always a performance overhead due to the way the bonding process works. As shown in the table, the ADSL bonding service with three ADSL connections delivered about 94% of the combined downlink throughputs of the individual lines. In the uplink direction, bonded ADSL delivered about 93% of the combined uplink throughputs. The performance overheads were, therefore, very similar to those measured with two bonded connections i.e. very low. In other words, broadband users can expect the same additional speed benefits from adding a third line as they get when adding a second line. There were no signs of diminishing returns from adding a third line.
Measured downlink throughput (kbps)
Measured uplink throughput (kbps)
Line 1 5540 887
Total (pre bonding) 16512 2608
Total bonded throughput 15524 (94%) 2424 (93%)
Table 2: Throughout performance of three-line bonding from Evolving Networks
The average ping (for the BBC website) was just over 20 ms, as shown in the table below, which is an excellent result given our distance from the exchange. The Evolving Networks three-line bonding added only about 4 ms of latency (delay) over the average latency of the individual lines. This is impressively small and demonstrates that bonding does not degrade quality in any noticeable way. Through optimisation of the network architecture and the transmission parameters, Evolving Networks is able to minimise the latency of the individual lines meaning that, even with bonding, delays may be lower than typical ADSL lines without bonding since the slight latency increase from bonding is often offset by the reduction in latency on the individual lines. Packet loss was negligible.
Average ping for www.bbc.co.uk
Average ping for 4.2.2.5
Line 1 15.6 ms 17.2 ms
Average (pre bonding) 16.4 ms 18.7 ms
Average bonded ping 20.6 ms 22.5 ms
Added latency from bonding 4.2 ms 3.8 ms
Table 3: Average pings for two sites with bonded ADSL (200 pings)
Bonding of four DSL connections
Even though Evolving Networks had provided two ADSL lines for our trial, we had a total of four lines into our office, so we were keen to test the bonding of all four ADSL lines! To enable us to do this, Evolving Networks sent us a new bonding gateway – its most powerful EV7 device (shown in the photo below on the right, which is next to the EV3 on the left). While the maximum throughput capabilities of the EV7 (500 Mbps) are substantially in excess of the throughput requirements for bonding our four connections (each delivering 5 Mbps+ throughputs), we will be keeping the EV7 to test the bonding of multiple FTTC connections when fibre broadband services become available to us in the next few months.
Compared with the EV1 and EV3 models (which can be located on a desk top), the EV7 is a much more substantial device, weighing about 11 kg. It is expected to be rack mounted, for example in a dedicated server room. Dimensions of the EV7 are 43 cm x 30.5 cm x 4.4 cm. Lifting the EV7 really brings home that bonding with high throughputs requires significant processing power. Evolving Networks differentiates itself from other bonding providers in being able to deliver extremely high throughputs, up to 500 Mbps, so it can easily bond multiple fibre broadband FTTC connections together.
In operation, the onboard cooling of the EV7 makes it unsuitable for a quiet office environment where the fan noise would be quite distracting. We placed the EV7 in our own dedicated server room, where it performed faultlessly.
Bonding of our four lines using the EV7 delivered a similar user experience to the three-line bonding set-up, albeit with even greater throughputs. We consistently achieved downlink throughputs in excess of 20 Mbps, with uplink throughputs in excess of 3 Mbps. There was negligible packet loss. Latency measurements were virtually identical to our three-line testing (so are not shown here), with an average overall ping after bonding of about 20 ms.
Detailed throughput test results (shown in the table below) revealed that, even with four lines, there were still no signs of diminishing returns with bonding, with the service delivering about 93% of the combined single-line downlink throughputs. The fact that Evolving Networks has customers that are bonding up to seven ADSL connections demonstrates that there are no practical limits to the technology.
Table 4: Throughout performance of four-line bonding from Evolving Networks
In our first review, we demonstrated the value of resilience. By disconnecting one of the two lines, we showed that service was maintained (albeit at half the original bonded throughput). Increasing the number of bonded connections increases resilience further. For example, we confirmed that the four-line bonded connection continued to work satisfactorily when one, two and three connections were disconnected.
All in all, we have continued to be very impressed with the bonding solutions offered by Evolving Networks, which combine leading-edge hardware and a contention-free private network. Not only this, the company uniquely offers line optimisation to maximise the speeds of individual lines. While being surrounded by properties typically being only able to achieve downlink ADSL throughputs in the 0.5 to 4 Mbps range, we have been able to exceed 20 Mbps with ADSL bonding, which is close to 'superfast' speeds! Businesses need to be made better aware of the existence of ADSL bonding since bonding could significantly benefit many types of organisation struggling to cost-effectively enhance broadband speeds.
More information about ADSL bonding
If you would like more information about ADSL bonding, please visit our other pages on this site:
Review of bonded ADSL from Evolving Networks (Part 1)
New! Before considering bonding, please do check the availability of superfast and ultrafast broadband in your area using our postcode checker on our Broadband Deals page.
Filed Under: Bonded broadband

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Holy One, give us pure hearts and minds; help us to think and act with the love that you have taught us. Forgive us when we stray and think or act in jealousy, and remind us of our many blessings. Help us to proclaim your truth and love in all that we think and do. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.


There was no outlook written for Jaylen Watkins in 2018. Check out the latest news below for more on his current fantasy value.
$Signed a one-year contract with the Chargers in February of 2019.
Watkins (knee) is in contention for the starting free safety job, Eric D. Williams of ESPN.com reports.
Watkins suffered a torn ACL during the 2018 preseason, but he's expected to be back to full health for the start of the team's offseason program. Rayshawn Jenkins likely has a leg up on the starting spot if only because he was able to play last season, but Watkins was pushing Jahleel Addae, who has since been released, for more playing time before suffering the untimely injury.
How do Jaylen Watkins' measurables compare to other safeties?
The NFL Draft is finally imminent, with the 1st round kicking off on Thursday. Might Marqise Lee be a steal near the end of Thursday's session?
Colin Kaepernick has a strong arm, but he needs a receiver capable of stretching the field.
Watkins saw action in two games during his rookie season. With a number of new faces at the cornerback and safety positions, he'll be hard pressed to land on the 53-man roster this season.
Watkins, a fourth-round pick rookie from Florida, will very likely make the final roster. He might even push Cary Williams and Bradley Fletcher for snaps before the end of the year.
Watkins (knee) signed a one-year contract extension with the Chargers on Friday, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports.
Watkins suffered a torn ACL on Saturday, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports.
Watkins (knee) is scheduled for an MRI on Sunday, Jack Wang of The Press-Enterprise reports.
Watkins suffered a knee injury and is questionable to return to Saturday's preseason game against the Seahawks, Jack Wang of the Los Angeles Daily News reports.
Watkins signed a one-year contract with the Chargers on Friday, Mike Garafolo of NFL Network reports.


Camera shows endless columns of dark chairs. Loop ready animation.
Silhouettes of chairs. Black and white loop ready animation.
Endless rows of black chairs. Loop ready animation.
Camera moves away from a large number of similar chairs.
Endless rows of red chairs. Loop ready animation.
Brown chairs set in rows. Loop ready animation of large number of chairs in empty space.
Chairs of grey color set in endless rows. Loop ready animation of large number of chairs in empty space.
Endless rows of blue chairs. Loop ready animation of passing large number of chairs.
Endless rows of black chairs. Loop ready animation of passing large number of chairs.
A group of participants watching the presentation. Back view.
Two hands of journalists with microphones on white background, alpha matte, 3d animation.
Boom pole microphones and hands with mics in prohibition sign, 3D animation.
Zoom in of hands with microphones, 3d animation on white background, alpha matte.
Public speaking animated word cloud, text design animation.
Public speaking animated word cloud, text design animation. Kinetic typography.
Briefing animated word cloud, text design animation. Kinetic typography.
Briefing animated word cloud, text design animation.
Committee animated word cloud, text design animation. Kinetic typography.
Committee animated word cloud, text design animation.
Moscow Russia - September 22 2016: People on the forum on business development and marketing. The audience. Hall is full.


text:
package org.apache.hadoop.tools;

import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
import org.apache.hadoop.fs.CommonConfigurationKeys;
import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FSDataOutputStream;
import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileSystem;
import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileUtil;
import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DFSTestUtil;
import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.HdfsConfiguration;
import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.MiniDFSCluster;
import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.tools.JMXGet;
import org.junit.After;
import org.junit.Before;
import org.junit.Test;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.PipedInputStream;
import java.io.PipedOutputStream;
import java.io.PrintStream;
import java.lang.management.ManagementFactory;
import java.util.Random;
import java.util.Set;
import javax.management.MBeanServerConnection;
import javax.management.ObjectName;

import static org.apache.hadoop.test.MetricsAsserts.assertGauge;
import static org.apache.hadoop.test.MetricsAsserts.getMetrics;
import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;

/**
 * Startup and checkpoint tests
 */
public class TestJMXGet {

  private Configuration config;
  private MiniDFSCluster cluster;

  static final long seed = 0xAAAAEEFL;
  static final int blockSize = 4096;
  static final int fileSize = 8192;

  @Before
  public void setUp() throws Exception {
    config = new HdfsConfiguration();
  }

  /**
   * clean up
   */
  @After
  public void tearDown() throws Exception {
    if (cluster.isClusterUp()) {
      cluster.shutdown();
    }

    File data_dir = new File(cluster.getDataDirectory());
    if (data_dir.exists() && !FileUtil.fullyDelete(data_dir)) {
      throw new IOException(
          "Could not delete hdfs directory in tearDown '" + data_dir + "'");
    }
  }

  /**
   * test JMX connection to NameNode..
   *
   * @throws Exception
   */
  @Test
  public void testNameNode() throws Exception {
    int numDatanodes = 2;
    cluster =
        new MiniDFSCluster.Builder(config).numDataNodes(numDatanodes).build();
    cluster.waitActive();

    DFSTestUtil.createFile(cluster.getFileSystem(), new Path("/test1"),
        fileSize, fileSize, blockSize, (short) 2, seed);

    JMXGet jmx = new JMXGet();
    String serviceName = "NameNode";
    jmx.setService(serviceName);
    jmx.init(); // default lists namenode mbeans only
    Thread.sleep(25000);
    assertTrue("error printAllValues", checkPrintAllValues(jmx));

    //get some data from different source
    assertEquals(numDatanodes,
        Integer.parseInt(jmx.getValue("NumLiveDataNodes")));
    assertGauge("CorruptBlocks", Long.parseLong(jmx.getValue("CorruptBlocks")),
        getMetrics("FSNamesystem"));

//    https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HDFS-10270
//    assertEquals(numDatanodes,
//        Integer.parseInt(jmx.getValue("NumOpenConnections")));

    cluster.shutdown();
    MBeanServerConnection mbsc = ManagementFactory.getPlatformMBeanServer();
    ObjectName query = new ObjectName("Hadoop:service=" + serviceName + ",*");
    Set<ObjectName> names = mbsc.queryNames(query, null);
    assertTrue("No beans should be registered for " + serviceName, names.isEmpty());
  }

  private static boolean checkPrintAllValues(JMXGet jmx) throws Exception {
    int size = 0;
    byte[] bytes = null;
    String pattern = "List of all the available keys:";
    PipedOutputStream pipeOut = new PipedOutputStream();
    PipedInputStream pipeIn = new PipedInputStream(pipeOut);
    System.setErr(new PrintStream(pipeOut));
    jmx.printAllValues();
    if ((size = pipeIn.available()) != 0) {
      bytes = new byte[size];
      pipeIn.read(bytes, 0, bytes.length);
    }
    pipeOut.close();
    pipeIn.close();
    return bytes != null ? new String(bytes).contains(pattern) : false;
  }

  /**
   * test JMX connection to DataNode..
   *
   * @throws Exception
   */
  @Test
  public void testDataNode() throws Exception {
    int numDatanodes = 2;
    cluster =
        new MiniDFSCluster.Builder(config).numDataNodes(numDatanodes).build();
    cluster.waitActive();

    DFSTestUtil.createFile(cluster.getFileSystem(), new Path("/test"),
        fileSize, fileSize, blockSize, (short) 2, seed);

    JMXGet jmx = new JMXGet();
    String serviceName = "DataNode";
    jmx.setService(serviceName);
    jmx.setService("DataNode");
    jmx.init();
    Thread.sleep(15000);
    assertEquals(fileSize, Integer.parseInt(jmx.getValue("BytesWritten")));

    cluster.shutdown();
    MBeanServerConnection mbsc = ManagementFactory.getPlatformMBeanServer();
    ObjectName query = new ObjectName("Hadoop:service=" + serviceName + ",*");
    Set<ObjectName> names = mbsc.queryNames(query, null);
    assertTrue("No beans should be registered for " + serviceName, names.isEmpty());
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


In good fall spirit we are loving the orange-y hues. Although you may be thinking this color trend is one of the season, Sherwin Williams has also declared this deep terracotta orange, or as they call it, Cavern Clay, 2019's color of the year. And if you ask us, we are glad it's a color that is around to stay through the new year. The color lends itself well to a whole new wall color or just as good in a few simple accents throughout the home. It is a perfect backdrop for a space, making it great for some warmth on your floor with a rug or brining it in in a larger furniture piece as well. However you choose it, we recommend pairing it with wood tones, leathers and all sorts of greenery.


text:
Q: Why does Socket use streams but NIO SocketChannel use read/write? I'm experimenting with writing a non-blocking client/server of which I've noticed that Socket provides getInputStream() and getOutputStream() but SocketChannel provides read() and write().
The following questions are all related and is an effort to better understand the situation:

*

*Why do these objects differ in how the packet data is provided?

*Is this a side-effect of blocking vs non-blocking or simply a differing
in implementation?

*Is this something I need to consider while deciding how to read from the socket?

*Can I receive an incomplete packet where the buffer ends earlier than expected in either implementation?

A:
Why do these objects differ in how the packet data is provided?

Because otherwise they would be the same. The designers of NIO felt that they had to encapsulate data, position, capacity, and limit into a single class.

Is this a side-effect of blocking vs non-blocking or simply a differing in implementation?

No and yes.

Is this something I need to consider while deciding how to read from the socket?

Of course.

Can I receive an incomplete packet where the buffer ends earlier than expected in either implementation?

Yes. This is a property of TCP/IP, not of Java.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
itbusinessedge > Blogs > IT Unmasked > Adobe Embeds AI into Marketing Cloud Service
Adobe Embeds AI into Marketing Cloud Service
In real time, the Adobe Marketing Cloud can expose targeted offers to individuals based on the digital business goals of the organization.
Many organizations have been assessing the level of investment they need to make in data science and various forms of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to advance their digital business initiatives. A new update to the Adobe Marketing Cloud delivered this week that bakes these technologies into an Adobe Target personalization engine suggests that most organizations are about to benefit from these capabilities without having to make substantial investments of their own.
Kevin Lindsay, head of product marketing for Adobe Target, says an Adobe Target personalization engine that employs the Sensei machine learning algorithms developed by Adobe can now optimize which content is presented based on which attributes are known about the individual viewing the content. In real time, the Adobe Marketing Cloud can then expose offers to that individual based on the digital business goals of the organization that marketers work for are trying to achieve, says Lindsay.
In effect, Lindsay says, the days when marketers manually crafted those experiences are coming to an end because algorithms will be able to mass personalize individual content experiences with much higher degrees of accuracy. Organizations will be able to provide those experiences by either employing the Sensei algorithms developed by Adobe or inserting their own algorithms into the Adobe Marketing Cloud.
"We refer to that as bring your own algorithms," says Lindsay.
That advance, adds Lindsay, also extends out to marketing campaigns because the algorithms will be able to identify which sites on the web have the most desirable audience for a vendor to target their campaigns. Rather than relying solely on the intuition of the marketer, the Adobe Marketing Cloud will be able to identify campaign targets based on empirical data, says Lindsay.
Lindsay says marketers will have to get used to the fact that they will exercise less control over granular details. They can tune Adobe Marketing Cloud to achieve strategic goals. But there will no longer be a need to manually craft and implement each tactical campaign element associated with achieving that strategic digital business goals, says Lindsay.
The implications for smaller organizations trying to compete with larger organizations that have made massive investments in personalization and data science are obviously profound. In effect, Adobe is now making it possible for smaller organizations via Adobe Marketing Cloud to level the playing field by taking advantage of algorithms that Adobe will make available as part of the core service.
The implications of applying AI to digital marketing also naturally extend out to all the sales people trying to influence their decisions. If more of the implementation of the marketing strategy is being optimized by a machine, organizations trying to influence those decisions would be better served by investing more in, for example, content and audience development than in sales. In fact, whatever last vestige of "Mad Men" that exists in the world of advertising is about to be laid to rest once and for all.


text:
Jefferson Liberato Lucindo (né le  à Rio de Janeiro) est un athlète brésilien, spécialiste du sprint et du relais.

Médaillé d'or sur relais 4 x 100 m lors des Championnats d'Amérique du Sud d'athlétisme 2013, ses meilleurs temps sont :
 10 s 17 sur 100 m, obtenu à São Paulo le ,
 20 s 62 sur 200 m, obtenu dans la même ville le .

Liens externes

Sprinteur brésilien
Champion d'Amérique du Sud d'athlétisme
Coureur de 100 mètres
Coureur de 200 mètres
Relayeur (athlétisme)
Naissance en octobre 1990
Champion ibéro-américain d'athlétisme

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Fun activities: Make molasses cookies, popcorn balls, or Shoofly Pie.
Research plants on the prairie.
Fun activities: Cowboy cooking, plan and make an Indian Meal.
Skip Counting by 2s and 5s.
Music: Experiment with making music around the house.
Finish up your report and your Lapbook on Native American Indians.
Fun activities: Mason Jar Crafts..
Crafts: Make some crafts for your Indian Party.
As always we try not to charge for any printables or resources that we offer but we do appreciate any donations that you may feel like giving. You can use the 'Tip Jar' link on the Home Page or send a donation via Paypal to 'happy2bmyownboss@yahoo.com'. Thank you so much for your support!


Labor Fees for installing and refinishing a hardwood floor will vary from city to city and often from regions in the city. Once again, you may want to contemplate installing a backer board or substrate membrane in between the sub-floor and the actual flooring if the sub-floor is as well rough. For the kind of foot targeted traffic that a household or office floor will have to endure, cork flooring is incredibly resilient. Cork makers typically don't sell matching stains in a kit to assist you out, so you have to uncover them on your own. Although cork flooring is as sturdy as hardwood floors, it can nevertheless be broken. One particular big advantage of carpeting is that it really is warmer than most flooring options.
Cork is a well known floor for kitchens since it's uncomplicated to clean and comfortable to stand on. Cork material is naturally water resistant so it can be used in bathrooms and the basement. We have numerous bedrooms in the basement which are carpeted, but we decided to use tiling for the remaining flooring. Choose Line Glue Down Cork Flooring: The exclusive and limited pattern series of Jelinek Cork flooring.
Each of these cork based flooring systems are designed to be installed over a proper sub-floor, although the floating floor can go over some current floors such as vinyl, ceramic, hardwood, and so forth. In addition to the difficulties pointed out earlier in the text, the basement floor desires to be perfectly level before any sort of flooring can be installed. Like hardwood floors, cork can discolor over time if receives direct sun exposure. If effectively installed, ceramic tiles are particularly durable, and ought to last as long as your home. These cork floors possess the similar qualities of the Cork Decor floor line.
The character of your kitchen will raise if you make a thing different from the usual use. Do choose your flooring wisely: believe about what kind of space you want to produce, the anticipated level of traffic and your budget. Despite the fact that cork floors have soared in recognition over the past decade or so, they've been kicking about for a lot more than a century. Overview: Cork may just be the current darling when it comes to flooring, specifically in the kitchen. Cork and water get along extremely nicely which is why it really is applied in wine bottles and on fishing bobbers. Wood flooring can simply rot due to the presence of moisture and high humidity.
Distinguishing Premium Vs. Discount Vinyl Fence. A Uncomplicated Comparison.
Since 1992 we have been giving the highest high quality vinyl fencing installation in Southern Ontario like the Niagara Area and Toronto. Even so, vinyl fence panels come with posts that are predrilled for appropriate hardware placement with pre-reduce rails and pickets, or if you like the entire panel can even come totally preassembled. If you have the luxury of ordering a gate to your own specifications, you can offer the fence firm with a lock and it will be their job to make certain that the lock functions effectively. Wood just cannot withstand the harsh outdoor environments and final a lifetime like vinyl can.
Wooden fences will typically call for replacement at your expense, but vinyl is considerably a lot more durable and sometimes even comes with a guarantee of that reliability. They also use a bracket method which is an inferior way to assemble vinyl fencing and needs external hardware which distract from the clean lines of vinyl. Commonly the bottom rail of the fence really should have a maximum of 150mm above the ground level.
You can see that in terms of maintenance and cost vinyl may be a good path to go. If you own a household or a rental home and are hunting for the most low maintenance selection in fencing, it will be hard to beat vinyl as the ideal choice. Sadly, following I wrote this critique, Jack in no way showed up to do the job he promised to do. The fence is decent, but I am disappointed that Jack did not follow by means of on his promise to fix the problems we had with it.
As one particular of the very first family-owned vinyl solutions corporations, Vinyl Fence Depot takes pride in delivering a top quality item with outstanding client service. Not only will we aid you save funds on the highest high quality vinyl fencing we give 24/7 A+ buyer service and skilled fence installation support. Specializing in Vinyl Fencing, Railing, Decking, Patio Covers, Gazebos, Gates and Arbors, we take it to the next step by offering custom designs and layouts for every single client.
Unfinished oak flooring installation is a straightforward procedure that makes use of raw hardwood panels to produce an eye-catching floor that is identified for durability and strength. Some people prefer the robust graining of red oak – both for the appear and mainly because the robust graining aids hide scratches and dents. White Oak hardwood flooring is known for its durability, strength, and resistance to wear, serving as planking for boats and even mine timbers. If you are creating or replacing your stair treads, pick whichever oak species appeals to you.
This is a perk for homeowners who want to stain their hardwood floors, as the grain pattern in white oak hardwood accepts staining more very easily than the patterns in red oak, but it can be a adverse for home owners who lengthy for character" in their hardwood flooring. Even if you opt for the unfinished item, which is less costly you will have to have the boards sanded and completed upon laying the flooring. For precise price estimates, gather detailed bids from numerous certified professionals. Apart from the forest area, white oaks can be identified increasing near lakes, ponds, and streams. Unfinished is a typical choice for these adding new floors to current hardwood.
The pores of the heartwood of white oaks are typically plugged with tyloses, which is a membranous development.Tyloses tends to make the white oak impenetrable to liquids and particularly suited for use in the boat industry. Typically, you want to match any flooring to the stairs they will be butted into. Simple Maintenance: Compared to the carpet, it is less difficult to clean your hardwood flooring. For centuries, animal hides had been tanned utilizing tannic acid in the bark from oak trees. Regardless of the advances in engineered wood and laminate flooring, for some folks, only solid oak flooring will do. Till now, there has often been a compromise amongst high quality and price tag.
For white oak flooring, the numbers are 7.2% and four.two%. Notice that not only is white oak's tangential shrinkage significantly smaller than red oak's, but white oak's differential is also smaller. It may well be way also obvious, but it is worth mentioning that the prefinished oak flooring is the greater option over the unfinished 1. Built to last our hardwood flooring adds worth to your property and instant worth to your wallet. It is fairly simple to sand with flooring equipment, but skilled sanding and finishing is suggested. Red oak is much more prevalent in stair treads, saddles, banisters and other transitions.
A dado reduce, they have also been set to expose the post for a additional custom look. Note: You might have to add spacers on your outlets due to the fact the panels add depth to the wall. Any lock can be utilised on a gate given the correct prep, but unique kinds of locks offer different levels of access control. Made mostly of non-ferrous materials and handful of moving components, these locks to very nicely in exterior gate applications. An aluminum fence is installed by setting the posts and fastening the fence panels in between them. Go over your plans with any neighbors whose home lies along your proposed fence line.
If you have the luxury of ordering a gate to your own specifications, you can provide the fence business with a lock and it will be their job to make positive that the lock works properly. Fence manufacturer Jerith offers installation instructions 1 , and a Discount Fence Supply video two demonstrates the installation course of action. For example, Production Fence Performs in Georgia estimates average rates for labor and materials at $19-$25 a foot for a 3-rail aluminum fence 4′ higher, and $24-$30 a foot for 1 6′ high.
Dig out the finish leaning post and help, if the post has not rusted at the bottom, chip away the old concrete, you can use this post again, if the post has rusted, you might want to get a new 1. The variation in installation costs for complicated configurations (non-rectangular shape, quite a few corners, numerous levels, etc.) can be considerable. I live in a rental residence and my dogs have found that the fence isn't appropriately installed along the bottom. Choice – Regis Ornamental Aluminum Fences have a massive quantity of style-colour-accessory combinations to decide on from and can be configured to fit your requirements.
If you are installing a simple mechanical important or combination lock or a stand-alone access manage lock, measure the piece of wood into which you would be installing the lock and evaluate these measurements with those indicated in the lock installation guidelines. These locks are primarily designed to go on woven wire gates, but can be used on any gate made or retrofitted with the certain prep for this special lock.


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Interview with Zoë Flowers of From Ashes to Angel's Dust
By Byrne Harrison
With several years experience in the domestic violence field, Zoë Flowers is the founder of Highest Good Consulting (HGC). HGC provides training and program management for local, statewide and national domestic violence organizations. Zoë has appeared on National Public Radio and has worked internationally on the issues of domestic violence.
Additionally, Ms. Flowers is the author of "Dirty Laundry." This series of candid interviews chronicles the lives of African American and their experiences with intimate partner violence and incest.
In 2011, Zoe started the Angel's Dust Theatre Company to produce socially relevant and culturally responsible theater. The company's first production is a ChoreoDrama entitled: From Ashes to Angel's Dust: A Journey Through Womanhood (FA2AD). FA2AD has been widely received in New York, Florida, Maryland, Philadelphia and Connecticut and Flowers looks forward to a 2012 national tour.
First, I have to say I'm intrigued by the description of From Ashes to Angel's Dust as a choreodrama. Tell me a little bit about what that means.
Thank you so much for taking the time to interview me. From Ashes to Angel's Dust: A Journey Through Womanhood is part play and part Choreopoem. Ashes uses poetry, vignettes, monologues and movement to drive the story. However, I hesitated to call it a Choreopoem (A form of dramatic expression that combines poetry and dance) because the characters have defined relationships within the vignettes in a way that you don't see in a traditional Choreopoem. And I knew I couldn't call it a play. Choreodrama just felt "right".
Why did you choose that as the medium?
I have been working in the Battered Women's Movement for over a decade now. I have worked nationally and internationally on the issue of violence against women and rarely see non "movement people" at the conferences and workshops I facilitate and attend. And there is still a lot of secrecy and misinformation floating around about the issue of intimate partner violence. Theatre and music have the power to educate people in non-threatening and healing ways. Ashes is doing that-already.
The play deals with some sensitive subjects. What inspired it?
My bad relationships! And my frustration with the way we deal or don't deal with issues of sexual and domestic violence (especially in communities of color). In 1995, I had just come out of a pretty violent relationship and was living in another state (because of the stalking from my ex). Once safely out of the relationship, I started writing a novel about four girlfriends (one of whom was in a violent relationship). When I went looking for resources I realized the only book for black women who were in violent relationships had been written in 1973! It was the '90s. How was it possible that there was nothing out there that spoke to women like me???? So, I wrote "Dirty Laundry: Women of Color Speak up about Dating and Domestic Violence." "Dirty Laundry" is a series of interviews that I did with women like myself that had experienced domestic/sexual violence. It was always my intention to turn those stories into a play of some sort.
However, as the play evolved it became less about the domestic violence and more about the experiences of women as a whole. And surprisingly, it became about humor too (largely because of dramaturge and co-writer of many of the vignettes Sherri).
Who else is involved in the play?
As mentioned earlier, Sherri really helped to shape the piece. Many of my poems were/are very dark and somehow we were able to put to make them lighter and inspirational. Sherri also pushed me to write more when I thought I had nothing left. She was/is relentless!! Sherri (women #3) is also one of the four actresses in the piece. I have a dynamic cast!!! Chantal (women #4), Vesta (women #2) and Peggy (women #1) sing, dance and have brought my words to life in ways that I could not have imagined. We also have a wonderful Director, Chinasa who continually takes the piece in surprising directions.
The play is described as "activism through art." What is your ultimate goal for From Ashes to Angel's Dust?
Ashes is perfect for college campuses. We have a whole host of programming surrounding the show. The show is just the first step.
The ultimate goal is world domination-what else???
From Ashes to Angel's Dust
by Zoë Flowers
Sunday, January 08 at 3:00PM
at Wild Project
195 East 3rd St. (btwn Avenues A & B)
Labels: Festival, Interview, One Night, Playwright, Poetic License
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Review - "Advance Man" (Gideon Productions)
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Three Performances Left - "Honor & Fidelity: The B...
Tonight at Industry-Bar - Marty Thomas Presents: Diva
Showstopping Broadway dancer Rachelle Rak talks ab...
"Underground" - A Hip-Hop Trip On the Subways of N...
Poetic Theater Production's "Goliath" Shows Soul D...
Interview with Samantha Toh of "Neither"
Lysistrata Jones bounces onto Broadway and brings ...
Interview with Zoë Flowers of From Ashes to Angel'...
Interview with Joanna Hoffman of "Off the Record"
Interview with Eboni Hogan of "Foreign Bodies"
Interview with ShadoKat of "S.W.A.P. 2011: The Spo...
"Godspell" – Broadway revival of a theatrical ches...
Interview with Shadrack Boakye of "The Secrets of ...
Interview with Caroline Rothstein of "faith"
Interview with Darian Dauchan of "Death Boogie"
Interview with Nabil Vinas of "Goliath"
Interview with Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai of "Say You Hear...


The Floral Facets stencil collection by Carol Wiebe is the exclusive StencilClub kit for June 2017 and we couldn't be more excited about it! A fabulous, versatile repeating 9"x12" background, a beautiful 6"x6" flower mask, and another great repeating grid design for your 4"x4" stencil. Check out the introductory video to hear more from Carol herself about this month's kit and her inspirations.
Ready to see the amazing projects Carol created with her designs this month? Click on any of them to go to the original blog post.


Julia Barreto And Joshua Garcia Spotted At Dani39S Birthday Party - Download From YouTube For Free. Semalt.
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JULIA BARRETO AT JOSHUA GARCIA MAGKAGALIT NGA BA?
Julia Barreto Kissing Photo With Joshua Garcia!
JOSHUA GARCIA AT JULIA BARRETO MAY RESTHOUSE NA NGA BA?


The public is invited to attend "TRF Making It Home Action Forum," Monday, April 8, 5:30 pm, at the Ralph Engelstad Imperial Room.
TRF Making It Home was facilitated by U of M Extension, using the "Marketing Hometown America" template. Designed as a tool to create dialogue that moves people toward action, the process can be the spark to help a rural community look at itself in a new way. Marketing Hometown America engages communities to gather a variety of ideas starting with a community kickoff event and continuing with four small-group gatherings and a large-group action forum.
TRF Making It Home volunteer facilitators were responsible for generating community promotion ideas. Facilitators included Jamie Bakken, Lars Dyrud, Kristen Haase, Sean Ranum, Angie Westling, Mark Schmitke, Karmon Trontvet, Nicole Peterson, Karen Griffin, and Josh Watne. Each facilitator led a study circle, a small group of participants that met four times to come up with a community marketing plan.
The plans of each study circle were rolled into a set of priorities by the TRF Making It Home steering committee. These priorities will be presented at the Action Forum, and community members will be invited to get directly involved with promoting the community. The steering committee overseeing the project includes Mayor Brian Holmer, Rick Trontvet, Laura Stengrim, Ashley Nerhus, Brad Bergstrom, Kermit Genereux, Jessica Muller, Beth Nelson, Angie Philipp, and Michelle Landsverk.


The NAM joint venture with ExxonMobil (Shell interest 50%) in partnership with the Dutch government operates the Groningen gas field in the Netherlands. Regrettably, production has caused earthquakes that damaged houses and other properties, and caused many people in Groningen to feel unsafe. We are working with our partners to help people affected by earthquakes caused by gas production.
NAM has worked hard in recent years to reduce the impact on people, taking steps such as improving the handling of damage claims, running a programme to strengthen houses and public buildings, as well as socioeconomic development programmes. Public acceptance of gas production decreased rapidly as earthquakes continued to affect the region. In 2017, this led to the realisation that a new approach was required.
A range of actions have been taken to improve safety, liveability and economic prospects in the Groningen region.
In early 2018, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate introduced a new policy to manage damage claims. This included setting up a public body to address a backlog of claims and process new claims. The ministry also required NAM to finalise 6,000 outstanding damage claims, and in July 2018 NAM sent final offers for compensation to these residents.
As part of the new policy, all claims since March 31, 2017, are now the responsibility of the Temporary Committee for Mining Damage, an independent public organisation. NAM was, and will remain, responsible for all earthquake-related costs. Shell has provided a guarantee that it will fund these costs, up to a maximum of 30% in the NAM, which equals Shell's indirect interest in the Groningen production system.
The Dutch government has decided to phase out all production from the Groningen gas field by 2030. Shell and ExxonMobil, as shareholders of NAM, reached an agreement with the government that confirmed clear roles and responsibilities for all parties, including NAM as operator.
The Dutch government is responsible for setting production rates and balancing the risk of earth tremors with the supply of gas needed to meet energy demand from the field. The government is also responsible for all issues related to damage claims handling and the strengthening of buildings. NAM remains responsible for operating the field and paying all earthquake-related costs.
It was also agreed that NAM will contribute around $560 million to a fund to strengthen the economy and improve the quality of life of people in the Groningen region.
The Klim-op school is in the Groningen area affected by earthquakes.


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A Fashionable Life: Erica Pelosini and Louis Leeman In Los Angeles
A Fashionable Life, People
Striking a pose with her 1967 Mercedes-Benz 230SL Pagoda. Hat; choker; bandana; earrings; bracelets; rings; dress; coat; and briefs, all from Dior. Boots, Christian Louboutin.
For the longest time, Erica Pelosini Leeman, the pint-sized style star known for her eclectic fashion mix, always thought of herself as a New Yorker—dressed to the nines, wearing statement heels, riding downtown in a yellow taxi, and strutting about Fifth Avenue with an effortless urban attitude.
This all changed in 2014, when she walked into the pristine surroundings of Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles, where The Last Sitting's famous set and Marilyn Monroe's beauty were immortalised by photographer Bert Stern for Vogue in 1962. After a six-month stay here, the allure of LA had become undeniable, and Erica realised that she wanted to call LA home. Perhaps, the modern-day Hotel Bel-Air helped sell the California dream with its pink stucco façade, glistening swan lake, the Wolfgang Puck restaurant, and sensuous interiors restored by Alexandra Champalimaud. "The synergy between the arts and film industry here is so infectious," Erica muses. "Spending my childhood between the historical centre of Florence and the Italian countryside, I have a penchant for the big city life, while still being close to the sea."
Hailing from a family of artists in Florence, Erica's passion for fashion started when she was only 5 years old: "I was walking for Giorgio Armani and I realised I wanted to dictate the exact look I wanted to wear, and how my hair should have looked," Erica laughs. Years later, Erica found herself walking through the glamorous doors of Vogue Japan in a full Prada look for her job as a fashion assistant. "The stylist looked at me and immediately said, 'You're not in a fashion show, Erica!' I knew that having a role behind the scenes was hard work, but it has also given me the opportunity to travel the world with tons of trunks, steaming hundreds of dresses!" she professes. Combining her past of assisting Sissy Vian at Vogue Japan and presently as editor-at-large at L'Officiel magazines, Erica has worked with the top names in the industry including Victoria Beckham, Kate Winslet, and Jessica Chastain.
"One change I had to make to the house was to expand my closet space." — Erica Pelosini
Dress, Emilio Pucci. Shoes, Christian Louboutin. Jewellery, Harry Winston.
Styled by Erica Pelosini Leeman. Photographed by Mike Rosenthal.
This article originally appeared in the December 2017 issue of Harper's BAZAAR Malaysia.


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Obama's Unfulfilled Promise of Change
September 24, 2012 admin Analysis and Opinions 0
By Michael Barone
"The most important lesson I've learned is that you can't change Washington from the inside," Barack Obama said in an interview Thursday on the Spanish-language Univision network. "You can only change it from the outside."
A better way to put it is that Barack Obama has proved he can't change Washington from the inside.
One case in point is the comprehensive immigration legislation Obama promised to steer to passage in his first term. The Univision interviewers, who asked tougher questions than the president has been getting from David Letterman or various rappers, zeroed in on this issue.
With a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate and a solid Democratic majority in the House in 2009 and 2010, Obama could have pushed for an immigration bill.
Instead, he acquiesced in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision not to bring such a measure to the floor. It would require some of her members to cast tough votes.
But, with Obama's encouragement, she did bring to the floor and pushed through a cap-and-trade bill that also required some of her members to cast tough and in some cases career-ending votes.
Cap-and-trade was a favorite of gentry liberals, the kind of people Obama regularly has seen at his 200-plus fundraising events. As for the Hispanics who want immigration legislation, he's now promising that he'll push it in his second term. Wait in line.
George W. Bush managed to get congressional votes on comprehensive immigration bills. Obama didn't bother.
Obama's inability to change Washington from the inside is also on display in Bob Woodward's latest bestseller, "The Price of Politics."
He tells how in a meeting of congressional leaders Pelosi muted a speakerphone as Obama droned on lecturing members on the national interest, so the legislators could get some work done.
He shows how Obama blew up the summer 2011 grand bargain negotiations with Speaker John Boehner by suddenly raising his demands.
Boehner had already agreed to increased revenues from high earners through tax reform that would eliminate or limit deductions whose benefits go largely to those with high incomes.
That's the kind of tax reform recommended by Obama's Simpson-Bowles Commission, whose report quickly found its way to his round file.
It had the support of congressional Republicans like vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan and Republicans on the supercommittee.
But Obama insisted on higher tax rates for high earners — proposals that tend to bring in less revenue than forecast — and raised the ante on Boehner.
All of which prompts the question: Would the economy be doing better today if the grand bargain had been successful, and if we were not headed toward the fiscal cliff resulting from the sequestration process congressional leaders improvised after Obama spiked the negotiations?
We can't know the answer for sure. But it's certainly possible. Instead, the economy is in such disarray that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has embarked on a third round of quantitative easing.
Obama has spent about half of his career in public office running for other office. A couple of years after his election to the state Senate, he ran for Congress. He lost, and a couple of years later ran for the U.S. Senate.
Two years after taking office, he started running for president. And he's spent a lot of time this last two years — all those fundraisers! — running again.
In the meantime, he has skipped more than half of his daily intelligence briefings, including those several days before the attacks on our embassies and consulates that started on Sept. 11, 2012.
Afterward, White House press secretary Jay Carney, Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice and Obama himself (on David Letterman) characterized the attacks as spontaneous responses to a video criticizing Islam.
That story line was punctured when the director of the National Counterterrorism Center stated what seemed to be obvious — that Ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed "in the course of a terrorist attack." The video was a pretext.
The video alibi was obviously politically motivated. One of the premises of the Obama campaign was that his election would make Muslims love America.
What we see in all this is a president who is much more comfortable campaigning than governing.
What we also see is disarray — an economy that is foundering, a world where America is on the defensive and under attack. A president who can't change Washington and whose election did not magically change the world.
Michal Barone is the senior political analyst the Washington examiner and fellow at AEI. this op-ed appeared in RCP on 9/24/12
Down With the American Dream
GOP, Don't Blame Us: We Told You So.
Five myths about Latino voters
By Valerie Martinez-Ebers,
A '47%' Solution for Romney
BY ARTHUR C.
By David Brooks