text:
Worlds of Design: Fantasy vs. Sci-Fi Part 1
lewpuls
Other Games,
Friday, 2nd November, 2018 11:30 AM
This is a broader question than just RPGs but the same arguments apply. It's important for RPG designers, for consistency and to avoid immersion-breaking, but it's probably not important to players.
Sourced from Pixabay.
After making some notes to try to answer this question for myself, I googled it, and I also asked for suggestions on Twitter.
It's the kind of situation where most people will agree in most cases whether something is fantasy or science fiction, but there's an awful lot of room to disagree or to bring in additional terms like "science fantasy".
One googled source said, "Science fiction deals with scenarios and technology that are possible or may be possible based on science". That's an obvious differentiation, yet it doesn't actually work well. As Arthur C. Clarke said, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." For example, most people would call Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius (The End of Time) stories fantasies, yet they are supposed to be using highly advanced scientific tools.
"Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn't exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again." Ray Bradbury
Perhaps the difference is that science can be explained and follows laws, and magic does not. Yet we have examples of magic systems that are well explained (on the surface at least), for example, the metals system in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn novels.
A lot of the "obvious" differences are semantic, that is, it just depends on what you call something. Are psionics scientific or are they magic? Is a wizard a scientist or a spellcaster? Is a light saber science or magic? Science is usually associated with mass production, magic with individuals and individual use, and nobody but Jedi and a few bad guys use light sabers. Another source: "Many would argue that Anne McCaffrey's Pern series is science fiction despite the existence of dragons while others say the Star Wars films are clearly fantasy despite the space setting."
In the end, saying it's a difference between science and non-science, or between technology and magic, can fall afoul of semantics all too often.
Do we have to say that science fiction uses technology that we can extrapolate from today? No super advanced stuff? But then what about faster than light travel? Current science says it's not possible: does that mean any science fiction with faster than light travel is a fantasy?
A different way to pose science and magic is to say natural versus supernatural. Some people do not accept the supernatural as an explanation for anything, which leaves no room for gods or prophecies. But when we get to advanced technology versus magic, Clarke's dictum applies. Sufficiently-advanced aliens may look entirely supernatural, even godlike.
We can't really talk about the presence of magic versus scientific technology because it's often impossible to tell which is which.
Saying "Low-tech" is not enough to identify fantasy. There are fantasies where magic is used to achieve a higher level of "technology," in terms of devices to help humans flourish, than we have today. It's a matter of how the magic is used, not the fact that it's magic rather than science.
We could look at the culture of the world-setting to try to differentiate fantasy from science fiction. In SF, almost always there are lots of individual inventions that people use in everyday life, without even thinking about it. Telephones, automobiles, toilets, electric stoves, computers, washing machines, and so on. There will be analogs of those inventions in SF stories and games, usually posed as technology. But you can create a world that you call fantasy, that uses magic to provide all of those functions but calls it magic rather than technology.
Comics style superheroes are shown in something much like the real world (implying science fiction), but I'd call them fantasy, not SF. The Dresden Files (and other urban fantasies) are clearly fantasy, though sited in the real world.
It looks like science vs non-science is not sufficient, though natural vs supernatural is sometimes useful. Let's try other approaches next time.
This article was contributed by Lewis Pulsipher (lewpuls) as part of EN World's Columnist (ENWC) program. You can follow Lew on his web site and his Udemy course landing page. We are always on the lookout for freelance columnists! If you have a pitch, please contact us!
AriochQ - Friday, 2nd November, 2018, 01:07 PM
It has been many years, but I seem to recall Heinlein stating that to remain science fiction you extrapolate current science and are allowed to violate once scientific law. For example, a story with FTL would still be science fiction so long as the other details were grounded in reality. Star Wars, on the other hand, would fall into space fantasy since it violates numerous current scientific laws. Seems as good a definition as any.
Koloth - Friday, 2nd November, 2018, 01:59 PM
This was covered very nicely several years ago by Phil and Dixie: http://web.archive.org/web/201504282...?date=20070617
Jay Verkuilen - Friday, 2nd November, 2018, 02:40 PM
Well here we are back at the family resemblance, though I think it's more clearly indicated.
In my view, the family genres would be fantasy, sci-fi, pulp, and superhero. Maybe there are others, and there are some clear hybrid genres such as science fantasy or urban fantasy, that mix features of the types. My feeling is that the genres are more defined by the roots of their stories and their setting. In the first half of the 20th Century the genres weren't nearly so separate, so we're always dealing with a moving target. Doubtless they will merge and remix going forward, too.
Fantasy: Rooted in old fairy tales and medieval or ancient world stories. Often set in an imagined past (e.g., Hyborea) or redone version (e.g., Middle Earth).
Pulp: Typically near past settings but characters with markedly larger than life tales often exploring some kind of forgotten ancient history. Indiana Jones is a great example but so are the Tomb Raider reboots. The protagonists are usually mundane people who happen to have some extra amount of toughness, not some clearly supernatural power themselves. Indiana Jones and Lara Croft kick ass and take an incredible beating, but they're not casting many spells as a key part of their characters.
Superhero: Modern settings. Usually features costumed heroes with fairly discrete powers and origin stories often rooted in some kind of scientific accident (Spider-Man, the Hulk), scientific experimentation (Captain America), hidden ancient knowledge (Doctor Strange), aliens of extraordinary ability (Thor, Superman), or a mixture of them (Black Panther, Batman). The world is a surprisingly mundane one otherwise, without many logical adaptations to the kind of changes you'd see if there really was Superman.
Sci-fi: Set in the future or an imagined future with the proposed modifications coming from some advancement of scientific development. Example: David Weber's Honor Harrington series. Very rooted in a mid 20th Century idea of the possibilities of advanced scientific progress. The outcomes can be magnificent (lots of sci-fi from the '50s) or hellish (cyberpunk) but fundamentally the root of the extraordinary is just clever combinations of existing scientific advancement.
Cosmic Fantasy: Set in an imagined future but one that's so far removed from proposed modifications of scientific development that it just doesn't make much sense anymore. It often loops back towards medievalism. Example: The Dying Earth by Jack Vance or Urth of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe.
Science Fantasy: Has elements of sci-fi such as spaceships or space travel but has elements of fantasy too. Example: Star Wars, Flash "Aaaaahhhh! Savior of the Universe!" Gordon.
You can have some hybrid genres such as urban fantasy, which takes the modern setting from superhero stories but draws on fairy tale elements or, of course, superheroes who are rather fantasy-oriented, like Doctor Strange or Thor (although Marvel Asgardians are really "just" aliens). The genres are porous to some degree. I've skipped a few (Planetary Romance, Japanese Fantasy), but I think these capture it pretty well.
DMMike - Friday, 2nd November, 2018, 04:11 PM
Originally Posted by Jay Verkuilen
Flash "Aaaaahhhh! Savior of the Universe!" Gordon.
Thanks for properly announcing Flash.
Sci-fi: unreal stuff that has explanations.
Sci-fa: unreal stuff that has one explanation, "it's magic."
I hope some librarians and bookstore employees found some useful sorting info here, but even my super-simple breakdown doesn't reduce the subjectivity of the, well, subject. I'm not sure that an official line can be drawn.
Better yet, the line should be removed, and the science-fiction section (which is already a sub-section of fiction) should just be re-labeled "future fantasy." With a sub-section for Star Trek fans, "dragonless fantasy in which all aliens are humanoid, but are decidedly not elves, dwarves, or hobbits."
Thomas Bowman - Friday, 2nd November, 2018, 04:54 PM
Is the movie and book, Ready Player One, science fiction or fantasy? In the book, much of it was based on Dungeons & Dragons, he even had the hero's Avatar visit the Tomb of Horrors. Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy genere, but the science fiction is the virtual reality technology that implemented it. So would you say Ready Player One was science fiction, fantasy or an intersection of both?
Another book I've read is Split Infinity by Piers Anthony, this one involves a different dimension, a curtain that transverses a world connecting a fantasy universe with one of science fiction What category does this one fall under?
The first cover is of a character from the science fiction universe, her name is Sheen, the second is the hero meeting a Unicorn on the other side of the curtain, the magic system is one that would be hard to implement in a role playing game, but it works well enough for the novel.
Mercurius - Friday, 2nd November, 2018, 10:23 PM
There are many ways to make the differentiation - I've always liked sf is what could be but isn't (yet), while fantasy is what couldn't be and never was. The problem here is that we really need to add according to our current scientific paradigm of the world, which is always changing.
Any such definitions will always involve a spectrum, with numerous variations in-between the extremes.
But more than any such definition, I think it has more to do with a feeling or tone. When you step into Earthsea or Middle-earth, you enter Fantasyland. When you open an Asimov or Brin book, you are in SF. A lot of this has to do with how the author frames the story and the language they use. Fantasy uses what Le Guin called "the language of the night," which evokes misty otherworlds of myth and sorcery (This is why, in my opinion, most fantasy is trash, because it isn't sufficiently "fantasy enough").
Where things become interesting is when you have a story that looks and can be defined as one thing, yet feels like the other. Dune and Star Wars come to mind.
SF critic and historian John Clute, who uses the term "Fantastika" to encapsulate fantasy, science fiction, and horror, once said that as we traverse further into the 21st century, the lines between the different genres will become more and more hazy, and we'll see more works that blend them and are difficult to define. I can't remember his reasoning behind this, but would think it has something to do with how accessible information is today with the internet, including cultural forms. As one example, today you can find Tibetan texts online that were hidden from all but advanced Tibetan meditators for hundreds of years and there it is, voila, in PDF form. We are more exposed to different cultures, even if in the overall superficial form of the internet and other media outlets.
The good news is that in this post-postmodern era, we can mix and match in a variety of ways, and each author and story can be, in essence, its own unique genre. The downside is that when you mix colors poorly, everything becomes a lifeless, gray-brown. Or if you interject something that doesn't fit, you destroy immersion and get the Mona Lisa with a neon pink tattoo or Aragorn carrying an uzi.
Tonguez - Friday, 2nd November, 2018, 11:17 PM
Originally Posted by AriochQ
Here of course is where Star Trek rears it's head, it is an extrapolation of future earth based science but then takes tangents into psychic powers, energy based life forms and of course Q.
Is Q as an extra dimensional alien beyond human comprehension still sci fi Or is he a product of fantasy?
Gradine - Saturday, 3rd November, 2018, 12:48 AM
Originally Posted by Thomas Bowman
Ready Player One would be probably be considered an example of science fiction that is primarily used to give homage to fantasy. But more to the point, science fiction and fantasy have a long peanut butter/chocolate relationship, of which I would consider "Space Fantasy" to be a subgenre of.
Also important to keep in mind: Tomb of Horrors is part of the same setting (same adventure series even) as Expedition to Barrier Peak. How would one go about defining the genre of that adventure?
It begs the question, which makes more of a difference in defining the genre: the framing device, or the individual details of the setting? Star Wars has lots of aliens and spaceships and laser battles, which are all fairly consistent trappings of the sci-fi genre (at least until pedants kept pointing out lasers aren't actually weapons and laser swords are by and large unrealistic, the cretins) but then there's the force, which is routinely pointed to as the reason that it's fantasy. But is the force substantially different from, say, psionics, which are often denigrated in D&D as being too "science-fiction" for their fantasy settings? Sure, psionics tend to be given scientific explanations while the jedi/sith are shown to mostly take more metaphysical approach to the force. On the other hand, though, midichlorians.
And where does Shadowrun fall on this? Cyberpunk is the obvious answer, and I guess that could be considered a sub-genre of science fiction (what with the hacking and the cyborgs and other advanced tech), but where does that account for all the orcs, elves, dragons, and magic?
And there's 90's fantasy, particular in the form of JRPGs, which loved throwing around "ancient" robots and super-advanced technology around all willy-nilly.
I've not found it useful to engage in splitting hairs of the exact definitions between the two genres. Both ultimately seek to imagine something fantastical. There will always be instances of strange overlaps and genre blurring between them (Clarke's Third Law and its varied corollaries exist for a reason). But then I personally tend to enjoy both genres more when they successfully work in elements of the other.
pemerton - Saturday, 3rd November, 2018, 01:14 AM
We can also ask whether the ethos of a work is essentially modernist (Star Trek) which can verge on the nihilistic (some strands of REH's Conan), or romantic (Star Wars) which can verge into the reactionary (LotR).
Jay Verkuilen - Saturday, 3rd November, 2018, 01:18 AM
Originally Posted by Mercurius
But more than any such definition, I think it has more to do with a feeling or tone. When you step into Earthsea or Middle-earth, you enter Fantasyland. When you open an Asimov or Brin book, you are in SF. A lot of this has to do with how the author frames the story and the language they use. Fantasy uses what Le Guin called "the language of the night," which evokes misty otherworlds of myth and sorcery
I think this is a pretty good distinction. There are a number of works that mess with the boundary, too. The late Jo Clayton's Skeen trilogy is an example. It starts out as spaceships type sci-fi but fairly quickly ends in a quasi-medieval world with shape changers and other much more fantasy elements. Or there are fantasy novels with sci-fi elements, such as the late Brian Daley's Coramonde duology. It's a fantasy story but there are extra-dimensional travelers who end up in fantasyland via what appears to be a sci-fi method, meaning it has a planetary romance aspect. Gene Wolfe's New Sun is yet another example.
(This is why, in my opinion, most fantasy is trash, because it isn't sufficiently "fantasy enough").
As opposed to simply having crummy plots, bad characters, and turgid prose?
Originally Posted by pemerton
That's an important point, though I'm not sure I agree LotR is reactionary. You did say "verge into" so I get that.
What it is in many ways is complicated.
It's definitely got some deeply conservative and/or nostalgic "Little England" elements and "the Scouring of the Shire" does have an unnecessary dig at Britain of the 1940s and 1950s. It's deeply Christian in many important ways and has an important discussion on the nature of freedom, power, and evil. One thing JRRT is pretty clear on is that what he refers to as the "Free Peoples"---those created by Eru and in accordance with the Music of Creation---can be tempted and fall into evil. Sauron and Saruman both fall, primarily due to their excessive love of order for Sauron and rationalization for Saruman. The destruction of the Ring only comes through the restraint by the powerful, most notably Gandalf and Galadriel, and the mercy that Bilbo and Frodo showed towards Gollum. In the end Frodo fails at the Crack of Doom and succumbs to the Ring. Ultimately, the Ring is destroyed because Gollum takes it, getting what he wants most. This would not have happened had Frodo in general, treated Gollum in a humane and merciful fashion. One can dislike Tolkien's Catholic traditionalism, but his discussion of the nature of evil and of power is more subtle than critics often say and the messaging that Frodo brings really doesn't feel like, say, blood and iron ethnonationalism or any of the other elements of, say, Umberto Eco's excellent Ur-Fascism, which alas seems paywalled but is excerpted here.
Yes I have read Epic Pooh, including the updated version. I get what Michael Moorcock is saying and I understand that much of his issue has to do with his views on British politics---Moorcock being a strident atheist and socialist and Tolkien being a devout traditionalist Catholic, and, I presume a Tory---but in many respects I think he doth protest too much in spots and also misses the point in others. Nevertheless, I do think Epic Pooh is worth reading for people who don't recognize the larger issues and overly romanticize Middle Earth.
Brightmane - Saturday, 3rd November, 2018, 02:58 AM
Science fiction and fantasy go hand in hand and often get lumped together. Frankenstein is considered science fiction, even though aspects of it fit fantasy and horror.
Ratskinner - Saturday, 3rd November, 2018, 04:33 AM
Originally Posted by DMMike
In a none-too-recent discussion of the topic at hand, a friend of mine described fantasy as "the religious version of Sci-Fi" for just this reason.
For me, the difference (at least for what I consider "good" versions of either) comes down to how the non-mundane "tech" of the world impacts the heroes. Whatever the ostensible source, good fantasy tends to handwave how things work and obvious impacts on society because its more focused on fuzzy wish-y adventure-y things, while good sci-fi examines those impacts possibly through adventure.
So, we can take the topic to be genetic engineering: a good sci-fi premise might be the squabbling between different sects on the moral uses of such a tech and the "unforeseen" consequences it has on the personal lives of the characters while a good fantasy premise might be our hero saves the world from horrible tiger-man soldiers.
I think its also part of the reason that its hard to make a really good sci-fi (especially Trek) game. The players having an argument in-character about the morals or possibilities of genetic engineering just doesn't benefit as much from rpg-style mechanics as the adventure-y fantasy does.
I do realize that my standard will "flip" many materials out of their commonly assigned genres, but so be it. (I mean, how important is that anyway?)
MarkB - Saturday, 3rd November, 2018, 04:45 AM
To me, tone is an important aspect. Science fiction, at it's core, is taking a fictional element or elements and asking "what would a world that includes this element be like?"
Fantasy doesn't tend to use its setting to explore such "what if?" questions, instead using it more to create unique situations and fictional placements for its characters. The question it tends to ask is "what is the right thing to do in this situation?"
These approaches, more than the plausibility of a setting's trappings, are what will make it 'feel' more like science fiction or fantasy to me.
Yes I have read Epic Pooh
I've read Epic Pooh, but see it to a significant extent as a mostly literary attack. It's interesting, but then I also enjoy Pooh so there's only a limited extent to which I agree with Moorcock.
The reason I say that LotR is reactionary, or verging on it, is because of the combination of the theological account of evil and providence with the account of social relations. (One could say it has almost no account of social relations. That would probably be fair, but wouldn't be evidence against it being reactionary!)
the messaging that Frodo brings really doesn't feel like, say, blood and iron ethnonationalism or any of the other elements of, say, Umberto Eco's excellent Ur-Fascism
I don't think LotR is fascist.
Also, for completeness, I take it as given that a work can be Catholic, even very Catholic, but not at all reactionary. Graham Greene is a prominent example.
EDIT for clarity: some people may assume that describing LotR as verging on reactionary is a criticism. It's not intended as such. I've only read a handful of fantasy authors, and the only ones I reread (and who I assume influence my approach to FRPGing) are JRRT, REH, Ursula Le Guin and Chris Claremont (his run on the X-Men). Also occasionally HPL, but I find him nearly unreadable.
dwayne - Saturday, 3rd November, 2018, 09:00 AM
It is easy to do science fiction with the 5th edition system much like the d20 before. Take a magic item and give it a science description drop the magic( spells become programs or psionic abilities. A helmet of invisibility becomes a energy powered device that cloaks the person is a refection field that wraps light around the person. I wish wizards would release some official material for a modern and sci fi settings.
Jay Verkuilen - Saturday, 3rd November, 2018, 01:28 PM
I think Moorcock makes some important points but you're right, a lot of it is is "I'm the new guy in this world... get out, old man!"
It's a deeply theological book. I know I puzzled for a long time on the "gift" of mortality given to humanity and then one day said to myself "well it's pretty simple, really, when humans die they go to Eru faster. Elves need to wait until the end of the world."
But you're right, Tolkien pays almost no attention to a number of topics, especially in LotR. For as much as people hail his world building, there are parts of his world that make little or no sense or are simply undeveloped.
Tolkien is a very complicated writer in many ways. For example, the tale of Luthien and Beren is, in terms of gender relations, downright progressive, especially for his time. Luthien isn't the passive princess to be saved and she chooses her own fate, very much against her father's wishes.
Ah, it's certainly been accused of being such.
Got it. I've not read Graham Greene so I can't say.
HPL is nigh-unreadable to me now. I remember when I was a teenager really enjoying it. I can read past some of the racism as being a product of the time, but his is excessive in many spots and, even if it wasn't, the writing is... bad. JRRT's writing isn't all that great, either. There are spots where it's downright rough and he unnecessarily breaks the fourth wall or slips into lecturing, for instance, but he has important and relevant things to say.
Originally Posted by Ratskinner
I think Star Trek Adventures by Modiphius does a pretty good job. I'm not really a huge Trek fan but there are several things the game does very well. First of all the PCs are assumed to be quite competent, being experienced Starfleet crew. There is minimal character advancement in terms of power. Second, the adventures I've played are structured in a much more episodic fashion and often end in an ambiguous fashion. For example, one adventure I played we were tasked to check out a neutron star on the edge of Federation space. We found an alien sleeper ship that was having power problems. It wasn't warp-capable so we ended up having to deal with the Prime Directive issues. Eventually we restarted the ship drive and left it on its way. That's a very Trek-like adventure compared to, say, D&D. The threat/momentum mechanic at the core of 2D20 reads weirdly but turns out to play very well in terms of simulating the ebb and flow of a TV drama or short story.
Unfortunately the STA book is not written in a way that really helps lay out the rules but if you check out the free quickstart it's pretty good.
Thomas Bowman - Saturday, 3rd November, 2018, 02:47 PM
I like to have fantasy and science fiction come together like oil and water, that is they don't blend like Starfinder. If you have magic based technology, the whole thing is fantasy. There is an adjective I like to use when describing such a setting, I call it "scientifical". Its a made up word, the way I define it is as something that looks like science fiction but really isn't. For instance you have a robot that is actually a golem with blinking lights. You can have a blaster pistol that is actually a wand of magic missiles that is activated when the trigger is pulled.
ToddBS - Sunday, 4th November, 2018, 02:31 AM
I had a much longer post typed out, but decided I'd rather summarize. As I see it, the major difference is not in the trappings, but in the themes.
Fantasy typically focuses on themes like:
Destiny vs Free Will
Restoring some deposed power structure or rediscovering some lost past, which will instantly make everything good again
Conflicts that are identifiable and opposable: Sauron, The Empire, Goblins!
Sci-fi tends to focus more on:
Oppression vs Freedom
Determinism vs Choice (which is not the same as destiny vs free will, I swear)
Correcting injustices of the present to make a better future
Conflicts that are nebulous and existential: The state itself (not any particular regime), apocalypse, what is human?
You have sub-genres that blend these to some degree or another, but at a high level I see these as distinguishing characteristics of the two broad genres.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Abstract : This paper addresses a relatively new task: prediction of ASR performance on unseen broadcast programs. In a previous paper, we presented an ASR performance prediction system using CNNs that encode both text (ASR transcript) and speech, in order to predict word error rate. This work is dedicated to the analysis of speech signal embeddings and text em-beddings learnt by the CNN while training our prediction model. We try to better understand which information is captured by the deep model and its relation with different conditioning factors. It is shown that hidden layers convey a clear signal about speech style, accent and broadcast type. We then try to leverage these 3 types of information at training time through multi-task learning. Our experiments show that this allows to train slightly more efficient ASR performance prediction systems that-in addition-simultaneously tag the analyzed utterances according to their speech style, accent and broadcast program origin.


text:
Q: How to customize json_serializable library code generation? I use json_serializable library and firebase for database. I need to serialize and deserialize my data class to/from JSON. But firebase json format looks like this
{
  'some_id_here': {
     'title': 'some_title',
     'content': 'some_content',
     'timestamp': 'some_timestamp'
   }, ...
}

Here's my class
import 'package:json_annotation/json_annotation.dart';

part 'update.g.dart';

@JsonSerializable()

class Update {
  final String id, title, content, timestamp;

  Update({this.id, this.title, this.content, this.timestamp});

  factory Update.fromJson(Map<String, dynamic> json) => _$UpdateFromJson(json);

  Map<String, dynamic> toJson() {
    return _$UpdateToJson(this);
  }
}

So how to customize the toJson() function so I can deserialize from
Update('ID', 'TITLE', 'CONTENT', 'TIMESTAMP');

to
{
  'ID': {
     'title': 'TITLE',
     'content': 'CONTENT',
     'timestamp': 'TIMESTAMP'
  }
}

A: Try this
 class ID {
  String title;
  String content;
  String timestamp;

  Map<String, dynamic> toJson() {
    final Map<String, dynamic> ID = new Map<String, dynamic>();
    ID['title'] = this.title;
    ID['content'] = this.content;
    ID['timestamp'] = this.timestamp;
    return ID;
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Over the past 39 days, 750 Words has become a definite sort of purification ritual for me.
I write down those things that my brain gets stuck on, like to-do lists and situations that bother me, self-criticism and frustration — because of this, my thinking is clearer because I've purged myself of negative thoughts. I also write about plans for the future, childhood memories that have come to mind suddenly, plans for projects (I'm an art student)… I love that there's no format or requirements or expectations. I've never gone back to read what I wrote; it's writing just for writing's sake. I always feel more centered after I do my 750.


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text:
85th, or The King's Regiment of Light Infantry (Bucks Volunteers)
This unit was raised in 1793. It served with the British Army until the 1881 reforms, when it was merged into The King's Light Infantry (Shropshire Regiment).
The Battle of Fuentes D'Onoro, May 1811
Following the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars (1793-1802), the British Army needed to expand to face the new threat. In 1793, a new regiment with the numeral 85 was raised in Buckinghamshire, under the colonelcy of Sir George Nugent.
It deployed to the Netherlands twice in the following five years, the latter occasion being the Helder Campaign of 1799, when it fought at Alkmaar. It then garrisoned the Channel Islands, Madeira and Jamaica.
In 1800, the regiment raised a 2nd Battalion. This was disbanded just two years later, but saw garrison service in both Jersey and Jamaica.
Glengarry badge, 85th The King's Light Infantry, c1874
The Battle of New Orleans, 1815
In 1802, the regiment absorbed the Bucks Volunteers (formed in 1798). Six years later, it converted to a light infantry role. It then joined the Walcheren Expedition to the Netherlands in 1809.
The regiment landed in Portugal in 1811 and fought right up to the end of the Peninsular War (1808-14). It saw action at Fuentes de Onoro (1811), Badajoz (1812), San Sebastian (1813), Nivelle (1813) and Nive (1813).
In 1814, it was sent to America during the War of 1812 (1812-15), fighting at Bladensburg (1814), Washington (1814) and New Orleans (1815). In recognition of its service there, it was allowed to add 'The Duke of York's Own' to its title, after the Prince Regent's younger brother Frederick.
In 1821, officers of the regiment dealt with rioters who insulted King George IV in a theatre in Brighton. As a reward, the regiment was retitled 'The King's' and its officers were excused from drinking the loyal toast and standing during the National Anthem.
Later in 1821, the regiment sailed for Malta, where it spent the next 10 years.
An officer of the 85th (Bucks Volunteers) King's Light Infantry, c1848
Garrisoning the Empire
The 85th spent the 1830s and 1840s garrisoning Ireland, Canada and the West Indies. In 1846, it was posted back to Ireland, where it faced the social and political fallout from the Great Famine (1845-52).
The 1850s and 1860s saw the regiment in Mauritius, South Africa and Ireland. In 1868, it landed in India for the first time. This posting lasted 13 years and included garrison and convoy duties during the Second Afghan War (1878-80).
In 1881, the regiment merged with the 53rd (Shropshire) Regiment of Foot to form The King's Light Infantry (Shropshire Regiment).
Shropshire Regimental Museum
Explore the history and collections of the 85th King's Regiment of Light Infantry by visiting the Shropshire Regimental Museum at Shrewsbury Castle.
51st (2nd Yorkshire West Riding), or The King's Own Light Infantry Regiment
This infantry unit was raised in 1755. It served until the 1881 Army reforms, when it became part of The King's Own Light Infantry (South Yorkshire Regiment).
The King's Shropshire Light Infantry
This unit was formed in 1881 and recruited in Shropshire, Herefordshire and Radnorshire. It served with the British Army until 1968, when it was merged into The Light Infantry.
The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
This infantry unit was formed during the 1881 Army reforms. It fought in many campaigns until 1968, when it became part of The Light Infantry.
68th (Durham) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry)
This infantry unit was raised in 1758. It served until the 1881 Army reforms, when it was merged into The Durham Light Infantry.
The Durham Light Infantry
This infantry unit was formed during the 1881 reforms. It continued in British Army service until 1968, when it was amalgamated into The Light Infantry.
106th Regiment of Foot (Bombay Light Infantry)
This infantry unit was raised for the East India Company's army in 1839, but joined the British Army in 1862. It served until the 1881 reforms when it was merged into The Durham Light Infantry.


text:
Léopold Courouble est un écrivain belge d'expression française, né le  à Bruxelles et mort dans cette même ville le . Créateur du roman « bruxellois », il a inspiré de nombreuses pièces et écrits comme Le Mariage de Mademoiselle Beulemans et Madame Peperkoor de Fréderic Vander Elst (1930). Il oppose dans ses romans le langage des Bruxellois au français des plus châtiés.

Biographie
Il naît au 11 rue des Chartreux (actuellement le numéro 38) dans la maison que possèdent ses parents, Auguste Prosper Courouble (né en 1831) et Mélanie Van Haelen (née en 1825), de riches commerçants de la capitale belge qui possèdent une fabrique et un magasin de papier. Il fera la première partie de ses études primaires à la rue du Boulet à Bruxelles, puis à l'âge de sept ans sera mis en pension à Vanves au lycée du Prince Impérial (actuel lycée Michelet), où il est le condisciple de Maurice Bernhardt (fils de Sarah Bernhardt), puis au lycée Louis-le-Grand à Paris jusqu'en 1877 et enfin à l'athénée de Bruxelles pour les deux dernières années de ses études secondaires (où son langage châtié lui vaudra bien des moqueries). Ensuite il s'inscrira à l'Université libre de Bruxelles et deviendra docteur en droit (session 1883-84) en même temps que son ami Eugène Demolder (1862-1919). Il connaît alors une période de pauvreté (peut-être due à de mauvaises affaires de ses parents). Il deviendra avocat mais en aura vite assez de plaider.

Il s'embarque alors sur un bateau pour l'Amérique (en tant que mousse ou matelot ou simple voyageur ?). Il écrira alors Atlantique Idylle, puis À bord du Jacques Van Artevelde. Il collabore au journal La Réforme en 1890 comme chroniqueur judiciaire sous le nom de maître Chamaillac. Il part pour le Congo belge en qualité de juge territorial à Léopoldville et ensuite officier de l'état civil et substitut du procureur d'État à Goma (de 1899/1900 à 1903). Il n'y reste pas longtemps car sa santé y est mauvaise. Il écrira en souvenir de son bref séjour au Congo En plein soleil - profils blancs et frimousses noires - Images d'Outre-Mer. Il épouse Clotilde Hobé le , il est alors avocat, résidant au 166, rue Cortenberg à Bruxelles. Son premier livre Contes et Souvenirs (1893) est une ébauche des titres à venir.

La famille Kaekebroek (1901) sera le premier « roman régional ». Il sera suivi de Pauline Platbrood (1902) (il exista une famille Platbrood  rue des Chartreux), Les Noces d'or de Madame et Monsieur Van Poppel (1902), Les Cadets du Brabant (1903), Le Mariage d'Hermance (1905), Madame Kaekebroek à Paris (1910) puis beaucoup plus tard le Roman d'Hippolytte (1927) dédié à son fils Robert, mort le  sur le front de l'Yser. À la fin de la guerre, effondré par ce malheur, il quitte la Belgique et se réfugie dans le sud de la France, à Toulon. Il écrira alors pour le journal La Nouvelle Gazette.  Il aurait effectué un voyage au Dahomey en 1933, et fait paraître un article dans La Gazette, intitulé « Mes heures Dahoméennes ». Il revient à Bruxelles en 1937 et y mourra à l'hôpital Saint-Pierre, 320, rue Haute, bien que domicilié à Saint-Gilles, au 43 rue du Mont Blanc, tout en ayant toujours Toulon, dans le Var, comme lieu de résidence.

Ses déclarations feront scandale au sein de la société bien pensante de l'époque. Il excusait l'adultère mais surtout critiquait le catholicisme :  « Je ne parviens pas à me figurer ce dieu abstrait, invisible, qui ne se manifeste pour rien du tout... Je n'aime, ni les prêtres, ni la morale catholique ».

Il quitte l'ordre des avocats en 1904. Il fait la première page du journal Le Pourquoi pas ? du . Le , il a été élu à l'Académie royale de Langue et de Littérature françaises de Belgique.

La commune bruxelloise de Schaerbeek a donné son nom à une rue. Il a habité un certain temps à Schaerbeek, rue des Palais.

Œuvres
Il a notamment publié :
 Contes et récits d'un Bruxellois, éd. Lacomblez, Bruxelles, 1907. Illustrations de Constant Dratz.
 La ligne des Hespérides,  éd. Lacomblez,  Bruxelles, 1907.
 Les cadets du Brabant éd. Lebègue,  Bruxelles 1903 (qui est la  de La Famille Kaekebroek)
 Le mariage d'Hermance éd. Lacomblez, Bruxelles, 1905. Réed. La Renaissance du livre, Bruxelles 1926.
 Images d'Outre-Mer, éd. Lacomblez, Bruxelles, 1903.
 Atlantique Idylle, Les fiançailles de Joseph Kaekebroek. Ferdinand Mosselman, éd. Lacomblez Bruxelles 1895
 A bord du Jacques Van Artevelde, éd. La Renaissance du livre - Bruxelles 1931
 Le roman d'Hyppolyte, éd. La Renaissance du livre, Bruxelles, 1927. Dédié à la mémoire de son fils Robert mort à la guerre en 1915.
 La maison Espagnole, éd. Lebègue Bruxelles 1904. Souvenirs de la maison familiale, rue des Chartreux. (A consulter http://saintjacquesborddesenne.org/)
 Contes et souvenirs, éd. Lacomblez,  son premier livre ébauche de ses histoires bruxelloises, 1893.
 Mes Pandectes, recueil de drôleries judiciaires, préface d'Edmond Picard, 1900.
 Notre langue, éd. Lacomblez, 1898.
 Profils blancs et Frimousses noires, éd. Lacomblez, 1901.
 La Famille Kaekebroeck,  1901  - 15 éditions avant 1940 !
 Pauline Platbrood,  éd. Lacomblez, Bruxelles, 1902.
 Les Noces d'or de monsieur et madame Van Poppel,  éd. Lacomblez Bruxelles 1902. Préface de Georges Eekhoud.
 En plein soleil- Impressions Congolaises,  éd. Lacomblez, 1900 (réed. La renaissance du livre, Bruxelles 1930, et chez www.lecri.be en ).
 Madame Kaekebroek à Paris, éd. Lacomblez 1910. Rééd? chez La Renaissance du livre, Bruxelles 1926.(  partie de la famille Kaekebroek)
 Le petit Poels, éd. Lacomblez 1913. Réed. La renaissance du livre Bruxelles 1927.
 Prosper Claes, éd. La renaissance du livre, 1929.
 L'étoile de Prosper Claes,  éd. La renaissance du livre Bruxelles 1930.
 Les deux croisières, éd. La renaissance du livre 1928. Il s'agit d'Atlantique Idylle et La Ligne des Hespérides en un seul volume.

D'autres ouvrages auraient peut-être vu le jour, car étaient en préparation ; il s'agirait de :
 La Maison du juge, impressions d'Afrique.
 Carnets de voyage.
 'Croquis Bruxellois.
 L'autre secret de la vieille demoiselle, roman provençal.
 À travers la Camargue.

Notes et références

Sources
 Biographie sur le site de l'Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises de Belgique

Liens externes

 Notice biographique sur le site de l'Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises de Belgique.
 texte de Le Thyrse sur Archive.org

Écrivain belge francophone
Élève du lycée Michelet (Vanves)
Membre de l'Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises de Belgique
Naissance en février 1861
Naissance à Bruxelles au XIXe siècle
Décès en mars 1937
Décès à Bruxelles
Décès à 76 ans

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Obtain list of GCE projects with Apache libcloud The method projects.list provides details on the API call to request Google Computer Engine "projects". Is it possible to do this also with libcloud? I haven't found any reference in the documentation nor the source code, so I think it's not possible straight away.
If that's the case, could anyone provide some help on how this could be implemented? Initializing GCENodeDriver is not an option because it requires a project to be provided. However, when initializing it with a proper project, I could use the connection reference it contains. But so far, my attempts to issue a
response = conn.request('https://cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com/v1/projects', method='GET')

didn't result in anything useful

(libcloud.common.google.ResourceNotFoundError: u'Not Found').

I wonder if I can use the same authentication for this call (using service account and authentication json file). Any help is appreciated.

A: Looking at the documentation for projects.list it only talks about the successful response case.

Method: projects.list
Lists Projects that are visible to the user and satisfy the specified
  filter. This method returns Projects in an unspecified order. New
  Projects do not necessarily appear at the end of the list.
HTTP request
GET https://cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com/v1/projects

The URL uses Google API HTTP annotation syntax.
Request body
The request body must be empty.
Response body
If successful, the response body contains data with the following
  structure:
A page of the response received from the projects.list method.
A paginated response where more pages are available has nextPageToken
  set. This token can be used in a subsequent request to retrieve the
  next request page.

I'm not too familiar with libcloud, so do not know what Not Found means. To me it looks like the request got a 404 response.
I can make the following recommendations to confirm that the service account you're using has the required permissions and authentication scopes.

*

*I'm not exactly sure which permissions/roles the service account needs to have, but I feel it should have permissions at the organization level to be able to list projects. I could not find any info about this in the documentation.

*Here is the info about authorization scopes required to call this API.

Authorization
Requires one of the following OAuth scopes:
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform.read-only
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloudplatformprojects
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloudplatformprojects.readonly

A: I ran into the same issue. The projects.list endpoint uses a different hostname and different OAUTH scope for permissions, and doesn't fit well into the flow of apache libcloud. I ended up adding some extra googleapiclient code to my libcloud script to fetch the project list:
from googleapiclient import discovery
from google.oauth2 import service_account

projects = {}
kf = 'projectname-12345.json'
creds = service_account.Credentials.from_service_account_file(kf)
projapi = discovery.build('cloudresourcemanager', 'v1',
                          credentials=creds).projects()
req = projapi.list()
while req:
    resp = req.execute()
    for project in resp.get('projects',[]):
        projects[project['projectId']] = project
    req = projapi.list_next(previous_request=req,
                            previous_response=resp)

print(sorted(projects))


I've been a fan of Dyptique home fragrances for as long as I can remember. We are lucky enough to have a Dyptique boutique here in San Francisco making it convenient to keep my household stocked and fully fragranced. The quality of the fragrances used in the candles and room sprays is apparent. There is no synthetic overpowering artificial smell. Two of my favorites include "Baies" a blend of blackcurrant and Bulgarian rose, evoking the scent of a green riverside garden. Also luscious is "Figuier" with its a fruity fresh scent of figs which evokes a feeling of a warm afternoon on a Greek isle. The company was founded in 1961 by three students from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. The products are packaged in with rather plain boxes with lovely black and white lettering and elegant drawings, a hallmark of Diptyque products.


PHKC hosting event for MBC tour week, about our "Why."
The Porter House KC is proud to host event for the Multicultural Business Coalation Tour weel, discussing about our "Why." This is a chance to get to know more about us and what we have instore for the future.
PHKC hosting event for MBC tour week, about our "Why." at CHES, Inc. Credit & Homeownership Empowerment Services, Inc.


text:
So much noise on WinMob, but Microsoft's silent on lovely WinPhone
When it had a terrible OS, it wouldn't shut up
Andrew Orlowski Thu 28 Feb 2013 // 09:04 UTC
MWC 2013 I came to Barcelona to take the pulse of Windows Phone - which I'll confess I've grown to like quite a bit - I came away trying to make sense of the following paradox.
A decade ago, and for some years either side, Microsoft had a terrible mobile device platform but noisily insisted it would succeed. Perhaps because it was Microsoft, and everybody would eventually abandon their resistance. Never mind the quality of the client OS, they would say, you're getting Windows enterprise integration - and a great development environment.
Microsoft only made very limited progress with WinMob. Only its existing Windows customers like Compaq and HP nibbled - oh and HTC, which is a kind of granny flat attached to Fortress Redmond. (HTC was a contract manufacturer exclusively doing Windows Mobile devices, which later became an OEM brand).
Today Microsoft has a really good mobile platform, and once again insists everyone will eventually succumb. Look, says the Windows Phone team – you'll get Windows enterprise integration! And a really great development environment! It's almost a bit like whatever soul inhabits the body of a Microsoft mobile marketing person – the script remains the same. And nothing changes very much.
But it doesn't do this noisily anymore. The paradox is this: when Microsoft had a terrible product (except perhaps as a second device, or as an enterprise terminal) it was a lot noisier than it is today. But Microsoft doesn't do noisy any more. In fact, it barely whispers.
Having launched Windows Phone 8 at the tail-end of October, Microsoft had a low-key presence at CES in January and an even lower one here. That's a strange way to convey momentum – by disappearing. There were many Microsoft staff here – but no Meet 'n' Greet box. I met my Microsoft appointment, Bill Cox, in one of the generic catering outlets - the one with an hour-long queue for a hot dog. Dress to impress, huh?
There I learned nothing I didn't know before – and not a hint that Microsoft was budging from its hard-set schedules of a developer jamboree in summer and a consumer launch in time for the US Holiday Season. It doesn't need to prove how great it is.
This is all quite perplexing, for several reasons.
One is that if you were in charge of the No 1 smartphone platform you could afford to relax. Microsoft is not even in the Top Three – there are no laurels to rest on, here. This is a platform loved by reviewers and respected by analysts - but with very real "demand" issues. Prospective licensees want to know you're going to do the platform marketing so they can concentrate on hyping their brand and their devices.
Secondly, grumbles about Microsoft, its Windows Phone corporate vice president Terry Myerson and its "play-dead" marketing strategy were not hard to hear at Barcelona.
Nokia didn't mutter, even off the record, I must stress. But sources familiar with ODM strategy told me:
"Myerson is Microsoft old school. He's very much about preserving the purity of his platform."
Another grumble is that change is slow.
Defects apparently need three OEMs to demand something is fixed before it is fixed. Since WinPho really only has four licensees, this doesn't happen very often. Perhaps they should all form a union?
You don't get any lack of enthusiasm from Windows Phone development team lead Joe Belfiore – to whom it seems life or death. But that just doesn't appear to be reflected higher up the management chain. Instead, we see the kind of stoicism that allows a Microsoft executive to endure a Windows Vista – all those years of making soup with grass on the Steppes.
Getting a more responsive, dynamic and ODM-friendly Windows Phone chief would help: it would send a message to the industry how important WinPho really is to the Beast. But alas, this is Microsoft, remember. And Politburo politics are paramount. Steve Sinofsky was allowed too much freedom – and wandered way, way off the reservation - before mutually agreeing to leave late last year. Sinofsky didn't do what was required, and produce source level compatibility for all the Metro-style "new apps".
My Microsoft contact explained that the best selling point of Windows Phone was the new phones. The corporate message comes down to: WinPho has a) A broad array of devices b) the experience is personal c) there's Win8 integration. "Three times more people are asking for Windows Phones - we're selling four times as many Windows Phones as a year ago," he insisted.
That last point - Win 8 integration - is arguable. The multiple code-bases for each flavour of Metro app has, if anything, made platform fragmentation worse than ever.
Now either Microsoft is playing a very long game, or perhaps it really doesn't care too much about winning here - a muddling success is good enough for all the managers involved. This kind of attitude is common in bureaucracies – keep your head down - it's a form of risk aversion. But when the product is really good, it's baffling. Perhaps your career might actually (radical idea coming up) benefit from success?
I should stress no grumbles came from Nokia at all – but rather from other parties.
This is what Nokia's Michael Halbherr told me: "Number one, we build great products. This is the second generation of devices, and you can now see our full portfolio. We've worked with Microsoft to stress differentiation. We do this with imaging and location, and also with our design.
"Number two, we work with operators. Operators want to rebalance the ecosystem." Halbherr described the US as the lead market and said Nokia wants to ensure every operator "gets a 'hero' device".
"Thirdly, we have to tell the story at the Point of Sale," he says. Nokia has a cardboard pyramid with a small aperture to show the Lumia 920's capabilities in low light conditions. "We get that pyramid in there to show customers how good Lumia is in low light conditions. Then someone can see how our camera compares to a Samsung Galaxy or iPhone's camera in low light conditions. This is what we stress, not that the phone has 4 CPU cores, or runs at 3GHz."
All this doesn't mean big prime time TV advertising campaigns. "It doesn't happen in a week, said Halbherr. You don't need to get to 70 per cent overnight."
When asked about other OEM concerns, Halbherr replied: "Microsoft is a very big organisation – but if I have a problem, I can phone Terry. And Terry phones me." ®


Is it alright to keep my router to my virgin mobile broadband plugged in all of the time?
1. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with keeping it plugged in all the time. It uses a lithium ion battery, which performs well with constant topping up. HOWEVER, constantly being plugged in (and the constant heat associated with charging, even when it's fully charged) will diminish the battery life after awhile.
I recommend unplugging it every few days at least so that you can actually use/drain the battery. You don't need to fully drain the battery each time you do this, though every month or so, using it until the red low battery light goes on will help keep the battery in good condition.
If you use the MiFi device a lot, you'll find that you NEED to keep in plugged in for most of the day, as the battery simply doesn't last long enough to be useful for extended periods.
2. In terms of data usage, you'll want to be careful. Now that their unlimited plan is no longer unlimited (sigh), if you're not using your computer, keeping the device on, while your PC is connected will continually use data all day.
Downloading emails automatically with Outlook isn't a big deal b/c you would be downloading them eventually, but your PC has all kinds of processes running that will be using the Internet connection throughout the day even when you're not using it. This could be checking for updates, refreshing Firefox Speed Dial windows or tabs, and a myriad of other processes that are virtually almost always running on your computer. To combat this you can either turn off the MiFi hotspot, or you can disconnect your PC from the router, or switch off the wireless connection on your PC while you're not using it.


PARIS -(Dow Jones)- French power-station equipment and train maker Alstom SA's (ALO.FR) Chief Executive Patrick Kron Thursday said the company's relationship with bidding partner Schneider Electric SA (SU.FR) over their joint aim of taking over Areva SA's (CEI.FR) transmission and distribution business is positive.
The relationship between the two companies over the bid is positive, constructive and simple, Kron told reporters following a news conference to present the company's fiscal first-half earnings.
Some recent press reports have suggested the existence of tension between the bidding partners.
Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/access/al?rnd=JfrPkmqVLP3mJpSJdN4t2w%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.


text:
Q: Rails 5 - Namespacing models I am using namespacing in my Rails 5 app to try to keep resources organised.
I've been generating resources using the command line by adding the namespace folder to the generate command.
This makes a folder in the models folder for the main folder which the namespaced files are saved in.
I've since been reading posts from others that suggest namespacing models is not a good idea.
An example of what I currently have is:
class Stance::Assessment < ApplicationRecord

It seems to work alright so far.
What is the problem with namespacing models?
If it is a problem, does that mean I can't organise my models into folder groups, or does it mean that the model class doesnt need to be named wiht the "Stance::"?

A: There is a certain cost of complexity involved with "namespacing" your models. Ruby does not actually have true namespaces. Rather it has has modules which provide encapsulation.
Rails and ActiveRecord was designed around placing your application code in the Main object (the global object). While this might seem like a bad practice it is very simple and works well with the convention over configuration approach. It also allows a much simpler autoloading scheme and avoids the need to nest every single file in an additional folder.
Namespacing does have great organizational merits though and lets you avoid collisions. But there are a few minor aches in the backside:

*

*table prefixes, having the generated table names like my_app_projects_tasks is really inconvenient when you need to write a custom join.

*You need to override ActiveModel::Naming so that it does not look for paths like my_app_projects_tasks_path when using the polymorphic route helpers.

*You need to explicitly set the class_name option when creating associations or override how ActiveRecord resolves constant names.

A: you can prefix your models, so instead of Stance::Assessment you would have StanceAssessment. not as clean as a namespace but it's pretty close to it


text:
A Racially Polarized Election Augurs Ill for Barack Obama's Second Term
by Joel Kotkin 11/07/2012
President Obama, the man many saw as curing the country's "scar of race," won a second term in the most racially polarized election in decades. Overall, the Romney campaign relied almost entirely on white voters, particularly in the South and among the working class. Exit polls showed that almost 60 percent of whites voted for Romney. The former Massachusetts governor even won the majority of whites in California and New York.
In previous elections, including 2008, such a performance would have been enough to assure a GOP victory. But America's demographics are shifting, with racial minorities constituting upwards of one quarter or more of the vote, and growing.
Essentially, Obama's margin of victory was made up not only by a strong base of African-Americans but also Latinos, who appear to have voted for him more than two to one, a slight improvement from his 2008 performance. And for the first time, Latinos accounted for one in ten voters, up from 8 percent four years ago.
But—despite his poetic, inclusive victory speech—this alliance of people of color could create a potential tragedy for our democracy. This is not because of the final result, but because it suggests that, unless there is some massive change in GOP politics, we may see a re-hardening of politics along racial lines.
The election showed the efficacy of the new racial politics. Appeals to Latinos paid off massively, even though it may have cost the president some white votes. If Latinos remain solidly Democratic, the new racial outcasts will increasingly be middle- and working-class whites.
The Democrats will continue to press race, as some Republicans did in the past (remember Willie Horton?), because it works. The president's race-conscious campaigning this year was assisted in part because the media did not stress his ties to abrasive reverends like Al Sharpton and Joseph Lowery. He also did well with his Latino gambit since, once again, the media, including many conservatives, were sympathetic to amnesty.
So where does this go from here? Political revolutions—particularly successful ones—tend to shift rapidly into excess. With the recalcitrant white vote seemingly neutralized, the Obama team can now ever more openly embrace a multicultural politics of the kind Bill Clinton was careful to avoid. One sure voice pushing for race-centered politics will come from Attorney General Eric Holder, who largely embraces the idea that affirmative-action policies should be continued until Latinos and African-Americans achieve social and economic parity with whites.
Affirmative action and other race-sensitive policies—promoted even by ersatz minorities like new senator Elizabeth Warren—could characterize our politics for the next decade or more. These divisions are already evident among millennials, where whites, particularly evangelicals, have become increasingly alienated from the president. White millennials, who backed Obama in 2008, went with Romney this year 52-44, according to an exit poll—a particularly troubling shift. The gap between white and minority millennials this year appears to be as high as 30 points—a bad augur.
And racial divisions may become worse if the economy continues to sputter. President Obama may be beloved among Latinos and African-Americans, but his economic policies have not been friendly to them. This is particularly true, ironically, for blacks, who, as Walter Russell Mead among others have pointed out, have fared worst of all in the recession. This situation could be exacerbated by growing financial stress in cities and states, whose governments have traditionally been major employers of black white-collar workers.
Unless growth comes back, this means minorities, particularly African-Americans, could become ever more strident in their demands. Their appeal to an administration—particularly now that it faces no new elections—that at times seems sympathetic to a racialized agenda could be stronger than could be imagined just a few years ago. This could end badly. In the long run, history has shown, groups that look too much to government (the Irish, for example) do not fare as well as those, such as yesterday's Jews and today's Asians, who look more to education and entrepreneurship.
Alienation among whites is also likely to increase. Like its minority counterpart, the white working class—including millennials—has also suffered in the recession, and suffers double-digit unemployment. Although this entire generation can be considered screwed, young whites—and young white males—are particularly so. Not only have many been left behind by the economy, but they have been deemed less worthy of assistance by the emerging new ruling class.
In many ways, this has ominous implications. To date America's white working and middle classes have not drifted toward the kind of nativist movements that have risen in France, Germany, and, most recently, Greece. Yet a group that feels ignored by the establishment, and feels increasingly like second-class citizens in their own country, can drift in that direction.
The great tragedy here: the major challenges facing America are not primarily racial. They include stimulating economic growth for the broadest portion of our population. We need better jobs, roads, and bridges and less symbolism or redress for past sins. If politicians think the way to success is to open the scar of race, we will create the kind of politics that will undermine hope for our future success.
Joel Kotkin is executive editor of NewGeography.com and is a distinguished presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University, and contributing editor to the City Journal in New York. He is author of The City: A Global History. His newest book is The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050, released in February, 2010.
This piece originally appeared at The Daily Beast.
Voter sign photo by Bigstock.
How ironic
Submitted by lukelea on Wed, 11/07/2012 - 11:11.
"If Latinos remain solidly Democratic, the new racial outcasts will increasingly be middle- and working-class whites."
I say ironic because blacks, browns, and lower-class whites are the three groups hardest hit by ongoing trends in trade, immigration, and automation. The question is whether they will be able to unite around their common interests, or will cynical politicians continue to play them off against each other by exploiting their ethnic and cultural differences?
There's one strain of Judeo-Christianity which emphasizes the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. I'd like to see that make a comeback (with suitable gender adjustments).
It will also be crucial to emphasize workfare over welfare: expanding the earned-income tax credit is far preferable to things like food stamps and subsidized housing. Anything not to break the link between effort and reward.
Finally, any form of progressive tax reform must exempt savings and reward investment. Otherwise the Republican argument that high marginal tax rates discourage investment and entrepreneurial risk-taking has merit. Treat all income the same (earned and unearned alike) but exempt savings. Redistribution doesn't have to be a dirty word. (GET for GATT would make a good bumper sticker.)
The point is to take away the Republican talking points. The question is, which party will do it first?
Luke Lea
Email this comment
4+ more years
Submitted by davebarnes on Wed, 11/07/2012 - 09:57.
Time to repeal the 22nd Amendment so Barry can have a 3rd term.
Dave Barnes
The Future Of America's Working Class
The Cities Where A Paycheck Stretches The Furthest
The Cities Where African-Americans Are Doing The Best Economically
The Golden State Is Crumbling
Minority America


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Q: 10,000 Activities - SharePoint 2013 Workflow (SPD) I have a site workflow terminating automatically, after a short run time, with the error message:

The workflow instance exceeded the throttle of 10000 activities
  executed in a row and could not be unloaded because it was not
  persistable.

Is the 10,000 activities limitation strict for the workflow? I couldn't find documents detailing this out.
I put together this workflow that loops over two dictionaries built using REST calls to two separate lists. Each entry in list one will potentially have zero or more matching records from list two. The intent is to group records from list two, by field match in list one, into an email.
Presently list one has 97 records. This may increase over time, but not drastically. List two's records will fluctuate week over week but should expect to be in the range of 100-200 pertinent records for this loop.
The workflow functioned as intended during test with a smaller group which leads me to believe that the only problem now is that the scale of processing exceeds some hard limit.

A: I still could not find documentation supporting the 10,000 activities limit, however I have found a solution which allows the workflow to process in full.
The solution was inspired by a little note in this article:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj680843(v=azure.10).aspx

The limit of the memory allocated by a workflow instance. The quota
  resets each time the workflow is persisted, for example, if it waits
  for a message or waits on a timer.

Setting a pause activity periodically throughout the workflow's processing of records in list one seems to reset the number of continuous activities. So after 5 records from list one, I pause for a minute, then continue as normal.
The workflow completed processing with higher parameters than those which caused the suspension earlier, so I think this is a success.
Speculating it seems that the Workflow Manager counts the activities and upon reaching 10,000 or more, it halts the workflow to protect against infinite loops.

A: As suggested by Joe, I inserted pause statements after end of each loop block. The shortest pause possible is of 1 minute so avoid putting them in the inner loops because it can delay the workflow a lot. A judicious placement of pause statements through the workflow can help avoid this issue of workflow terminating suddenly. Refer the image for guidance.
Edited: 20-Apr-2016
Have found another way to pause SharePoint workflow for less than a minute. The steps are mentioned below and this is the source.
step1: Create a workflow variable called "delay_timer": Number
setp2: Use Calculate action to get required delay/pause time and save in workflow variable "delay_timer" (eg: 1 divided by 20 = 3 seconds)
step3: Pause workflow for "delay_timer" duration.
Another way that comes to mind is to use the mod operation in calculate function to pause the workflow after 5 steps only. So if there are 20 loops then counter mod 5 will be true only 4 times so you can reduce the number of times pause gets called. Will depend on the amount of processing happening in a single loop I guess.


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LOVE AFTER LOCKUP Heather says Dylan is a 'sexual predator,' a gay con artist & more
Asa Hawks October 15, 2020 Love After Lockup
Love After Lockup couple Heather and Dylan dated for five years prior to his release from prison. During that time, Heather became quite enamored with her handsome prison boo, going so far as to have his name tattooed on her in three different places and in multiple languages. She also got a "Mrs. Smith" tattoo on her hand, evidence of her confidence that she would eventually marry Mr. Dylan Smith.
Getting tattoos of a boyfriend or girlfriend is generally not a wise idea, not to mention getting three or four of them. The fact that Heather and Dylan had never spent any time together outside of supervised prison visitation would seemingly make the tattoos (and the confident hope they illustrated) even more ill-advised.
So, did Heather overcome the odds and the multiple skin art jinxes on her way to the happily ever after with Dylan that she was so sure of? No. NOT AT ALL.
Heather recently shared a video of an alleged verbal altercation with Dylan from late last year on Instagram and hurled numerous accusations against Dylan in the caption and comments, including claims that he is gay and a "sexual predator."
HEATHER AND DYLAN BACKGROUND
Before I get into Heather's comments, I feel I should set the stage a little bit. Heather and Dylan have been on the Starcasm radar since July of 2019 after Heather revealed on Twitter that she and Dylan had just filmed their prison release episode. "Catch us on the premier of Love After Lockup season 3 Aug 15!" she shared in another tweet under the since-deleted @MrandMrsDSmith account.
As Love After Lockup fans are well aware, Heather and Dylan did not make it on the season that they were scheduled to appear on. My guess is that the relationship imploded too quickly for producers to get enough footage to include them, but that is purely speculation. (That would also explain why they were introduced so late this season.)
Although it's not necessarily important in regards to Heather and Dylan's relationship and her allegations, I also wanted to share that Heather is the mother of at least two children. She does not have custody of either, but is able to see them. (Dylan also hinted on social media prior to being incarcerated that he has children — including a tweet about having a stroller stolen.)
Dylan mentions on the show that his recent prison sentence was from selling ecstasy to an undercover police officer, but prison records indicate that his longest recent sentence (6 years) was from a residential burglary charge. (That charge was much less than the armed robbery and aggravated unlawful restraint charges he was initially facing from the incident.)
Dylan also revealed on the show that he has been arrested 34 times, so it is understandable that there might be some confusion about his sentences.
If you're curious about how Dylan is doing now, he's currently employed as a salesman for a community solar energy company. I could find no record of him being in any legal trouble since his prison release almost 15 months ago. Given Dylan's arrest record, that is quite impressive.
Heather has been having a much more difficult time over the past year. She stated last month that she's been "homeless" and "living out of my car in Airbnb's and hotels since January." She says that a lot of the chaos in her life is a direct result of her relationship with Dylan and the abuse that she allegedly suffered. She's been working for Door Dash in addition to selling clothes online.
HEATHER'S ACCUSATIONS
On September 22, Heather posted a brief video that appears to include Dylan with a balloon as the two argue about him allegedly abusing her. She says that the video was submitted as evidence for an order of protection filing against Dylan that was eventually denied. Here's the clip, but be forewarned that it contains adult language:
Toxic positivity Pain for profit Love after lock up Fraud . . . . #1HeatherGee #MercifulStorm #AllTheVibes4U #WEnetwork #Unite #GoGreen #Equality #BlackLivesMatter #Explore #Ethics #Transparency #Gratitude #Build #Marketing #wellness #fitness #Hustle #Heal #Evolve #Explore #Lifestyle #Curator #ContentCreator #WildArtist #fashion #Family #God #Universe #vibe #balance
A post shared by 1ᕼ𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣Ǥ𝕖𝕖 (@1heathergee) on Sep 22, 2020 at 6:00am PDT
Heather shared the clip two more times on her Instagram feed and responded to numerous comments with specific allegations about Dylan. Here are some of her interactions:
HEATHER: I was trying to wait til the show aired but I watched a couple podcast/YouTube interviews where he is being praised and they even go as far as to suggest he speak to high school students about his reform. My conscious is clean knowing I did as much as I possibly could to prove the abuse and hopefully save someone else the trouble.
I've been dealing with this for almost a year now and the indirect threats, vandals to my car, and heckling just gets worse and more of the show airs. It's not ok. I'll gladly pay the price of speaking the truth if I can prevent another woman from a similar experience. That's really all that matters to me, I want to protect another lady from being in my seat in the future and by no means should this person be speaking to high school students he is a con artist and an abuser. It's sad and humiliating that I was too brain washed to see what was going on years ago. It's the frog and the pot of boiling water situation. ❣💯
COMMENT: I'm glad you are away from that situation. Sending you love and positive vibes ♥♥
HEATHER: I'm not away from the situation, I'm homeless I've been living out of my car in Airbnb's and hotels since January. I was robbed and abused by him and the judicial system. I submitted this video to a judge seeking order of protection and was DENIED!
COMMENT: You are in my prayers Heather🙏🏼 I am not in the position to help 🙁 but if I could I would! I really hope someone who reads this will give you the help you need… I am so sorry for everything that happened to you, nobody deserves to be treated like this… I hope you are safe❤
HEATHER: Thank you so much 😊 I am safe and I am prepared to die exposing this man❣ I'm done acting like I'm not a powerful goddess of truth.
I've been moving around since January and I can literally feel his energy. I have bad dreams about it still to this day and the only time I feel calm is when I'm working.
In time I will be stronger than ever before!
COMMENT: Oh my God I pray you are out of that situation!!!! 🙏❤ Sending love your way.
HEATHER: I have been homeless since a few weeks before the pandemic. I'm not ok. I need specialized therapy for dealing with sociopaths and psychopaths but it's very expensive. @wetv and @loveafterlockup_wetv are fully aware of all of this but have chosen to continue to promote Dylan and support him. He is even being paid for this project.
COMMENT: What is going on here chicky? U good?
HEATHER: This is the video that I submitted to judge smith at 555 W Harrison when I was denied my request for an order of protection and unlawfully thrown out of my own apartment last year.
Now @loveafterlockup_wetv is using an altered fake version of my story for profit.
I keep waiting for them to show some integrity but instead they continue to edit my words into false claims and I have grown tired of being quiet.
You can go ahead and sue me @wetv I'm telling the truth of who and what went on.
Dylan Smith is a con artist, he lied to me and drained my energy and finances for five years by offering me false protection from a group of lowlifes called the "lurkers."
I had NO KNOWLEDGE of Dylan's previous arrests. Actually when I arrived to do my commentary for the show 8 months after breaking up with Dylan, the producers showed me all of his previous mug shots. His record is sealed.
I was raped by the man Fluid that Dylan has posted video with and the girl Marissa robbed my house and left her hat that had her name embroidered in it.
Dylan is gay.
He had NUMEROUS relationships with other women and men after telling me he was curious I later found out he was NOT curious but rather HIGHLY experienced in coercion and is a sexual predator.
I don't know how a man on parole can beat a women on camera and a judge in a court of law WHO SAW VIDEO could simply ignore it.
#lawsuit??
We've got spoilers for new #LoveAfterLockup couple John & Kristianna! (You know, the guy who's building a wedding chapel in the bed of his pickup in hopes of a day-of-release wedding) Plus, we take a peek at Kristianna's rather extensive arrest history. 😬 https://t.co/N6hwruXYK2 pic.twitter.com/FD7kwpirms
— Starcasm (@starcasm) July 17, 2020
COMMENT: Oh my gosh..I feel @loveafterlockup_wetv should be helping you! I'm so sorry 😣😢
HEATHER: Yea honestly I thought the same. I thought after shooting my commentary they would play the truth but instead the edited my words and played back more and more lies. I'm very sad to say they don't seem to care at all about what he did/continues to do. I'm just another body to them.
COMMENT: But still, pain is pain and it's not all the same but it's all kinda the same…
HEATHER: This video is one glimpse of several years of abuse, manipulation, coercion, and brainwashing.
Before meeting him I didn't even know this type of abuse was possible.
COMMENT: Omg after all you've been through then that? Horrendous.
HEATHER: What's more horrendous than anything is the fact that in during the original shoot I told the network that I was being trafficked by Dylan and coerced and that I didn't know how to get away from him and rather than helping me they took that as another opportunity to exploit my situation and profit from my abuse ❣
COMMENT: That is just a glimpse, I can't even imagine what else you've gone through. So sorry you even had to go through anything like that 😔
HEATHER: You have no idea. Fortunately I have 6 SIM cards with hours and hours of video and photo along with thousands of letters and other documents that I have been saving since this all started. I am hoping that someone will realize this is going on stand up for what's right rather than continue to hide the truth.
Find out the unfortunate reason that #LoveAfterLockup star Shavel Moore and her family were featured in a 2012 @NewYorkTimesUSA article. Plus, listen to Shavel's rapping skills performing under her hip hop alias Yellowbone! #LoveAndHipHopAfterLockup https://t.co/YfIMKnaO8G
In addition to her comments on Instagram, Heather has blogged extensively about her relationship with Dylan and the fallout on her website mercifulstorm.com.
To see how Heather and Dylan's relationship imploded — at least how it imploded according to WE tv — be sure to tune in to new episodes of Love After Lockup airing Friday nights at 9/8c!
LOVE AFTER LOCKUP Tracie Wagaman released from jail after posting bond
Tracie Wagaman Brady GoFundMe launched by brother & mom for funeral expenses +
LOVE AFTER LOCKUP Brittany keeps custody of son Giovanni, Tito ordered to pay child support & attend drug program


Custom metrics are very powerful for keeping track of counts, averages, min, max, etc for arbitrary data. This article describes how to get the value of a metric from a playbook, but first a word of caution. Currently, the only way to get the value of a custom metric is by writing data to the metric (in this case, we'll use zero). This tactic may not work for all use-cases and may pollute the data. In fact, this method is only guaranteed not to corrupt data if the custom metric is summing values.
The key points are pointed out with arrows. The basic idea is that you select the metric you would like to retrieve, send zero as the Metric Value, make sure to select the Return Value checkbox, and then you will be able to use the tc.metric.value variable in downstream playbooks.


Ever since 1956 the Fender Duo-Sonic solidbody electric guitar has been the choice of adventurous musicians that dig Fender style, but want something a little different than a Tele or a Strat. The Duo-Sonic's unique voice is due to its 24" scale length - it's got a vibrant sound, and it also makes for a very playable instrument. It's got a slinky feel, extended chords are easier to finger, and you can pull off multi-step bends easily. A pair of single-coil pickups deliver sweet, glassy Fender tone, with sound-shaping provided by a three-way selector and Master Volume and Tone controls. Beginners and experts alike agree that there's a lot to love about the Fender Duo-Sonic.
The Fender Duo-Sonic packs two single-coil Duo-Sonic pickups, plus three-way switching and Master Volume and Tone controls. These pickups deliver those glassy clean '50s-style Fender tones, and also have enough output to make your amplifier growl when you turn up the volume knob. The Duo-Sonic has long been a favorite among beginners and players with smaller hands, thanks to its shorter 24" scale length. And easier chording isn't all that the shorter scale has to offer - it lends a slinky feel to this guitar, and makes it easier to pull off big string bends. With a "C" profile and 9.5" fretboard radius, the Fender Duo-Sonic will feel familiar to any Fender fan. One thing we really dig at Sweetwater is that the neck is finished in satin polyurethane, as opposed to the glossy polyurethane on the body. The satin finish feels fast and smooth in your hand, delivering a broken-in feel from day one.


We're all guilty of throwing on a pair of favourite trainers without socks. Standard. But whether you're nipping to the shops to grab some BBQ bits or simply lounging in the garden with a tall glass of something well earned, save your best trainers from your bare feet with our super stylish range of Sandals and Flip Flops. Stock up with a pair of Black Sandals, ideal for having to hand to match with every style.


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Besting the competition
5 ways the PS5 DualSense is better than the Xbox Series X controller
Sony's made what looks like an amazing controller with the DualSense, and it bests the Xbox Series X controller in a few key areas.
Microsoft's controller dominance is going to being tested by Sony this next-generation with the PS5 DualSense. It's a departure from the DualShock lineup that focuses more on immersion and "a sense of touch" through improved haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. The company could have easily rested on its laurels and been content with a slightly revised DualShock 4, but they didn't. Sony wasn't complacent in its design, nor with the technology it packed into the DualSense.
Here are what I see as the five aspects of the PS5 DualSense where we see notable improvement over what the Xbox Series X controller has to offer.
Adaptive triggers
Source: Sony
Adaptive triggers could easily be a marketing gimmick or an innovative idea that future generations of controllers follow. I like to believe it's the latter. Sony is taking rumble technology in each trigger to the next level.
With adaptive triggers, players will supposedly be able to feel different levels of tension and resistance based on what actions they are performing in-game, a common example used being that of drawing a bowstring. This further adds to the immersion that the DualSense controller can deliver.
It's impossible to know whether developers will take advantage of this feature and how useful it will actually be, but Bethesda's Pete Hines has said on Twitter that the adaptive triggers are impressive, and that he thinks "games are gonna do some really cool things with them."
Okay, hear me out: the touchpad on the DualShock 4 was a monumental failure. Practically no developer used it as it was intended. Where it fails as a touch/motion interface, it succeeds at being something so simple: a regular button. It actually may be one of my favorite buttons on the DualShock 4, and the more I think about it, the more I'm weirdly happy it's being kept on the DualSense. It acts as a giant Start button that almost all games use for their menus in some capacity. On either side, it's flanked by the Create button and Options button, separating them a distance, so you aren't accidentally pressing one over the other. It's all muscle memory now: Create on the left, touchpad in the middle, Options on the right — though I'm less of a fan of how they're labeled as symbols on the DualSense.
The Xbox One, and soon Xbox Series X controller, have two buttons on the face that act as Start and Options, which are called View and Menu. To this day, I cannot tell you which button is on the left or right. I know one has three horizontal lines, and another has two boxes overlapping, but which one is which is beyond me. I'm continuously pressing the wrong buttons even after six years of use. I'll sometimes even need to look down at my Xbox controller just to make sure I'm pressing the right button. That's never ideal, but it's never a problem on the DualShock 4's touchpad. I doubt it will be a problem with the DualSense either.
Source: Microsoft
Before I get into this one, I want to make it clear that I know the Xbox Series X has a Share button now just like the DualShock 4 did. I'm putting the Create button here because Sony indicates that it is "pioneering new ways for players to create epic gameplay content to share with the world, or just to enjoy for themselves." This sounds like more than a simple Share button to me.
To be fair, we haven't seen exactly how the Share button on the Xbox Series X works yet, and Sony hasn't fully detailed what the Create button can do either. Still, I think at this point, I think it's fair to say that whatever Sony has up its sleeve is more than what Microsoft plans to be offering, judging from initial statements.
After adding a speaker on the DualShock 4, Sony is going a step further and adding a built-in microphone on the DualSense. Sure, it's not practical for long gaming sessions, but it is a nice option to have if you want to send a friend a quick audio message or hop into a party for a few minutes without trying to find your actual headset.
I think the earbuds that Sony includes with the PlayStation 4 are awful compared to the (admittedly cheap) chat headset Microsoft packages with its console. This certainly doesn't replace them, and I'm hoping that Sony includes a better headset this time around, but it definitely makes voice chat more accessible for some people.
USB-C charging
As if there was ever any doubt, the DualSense will include an internal battery that charges via USB-C. Microsoft is still letting players choose between AA batteries or rechargeable battery packs (sold separately) for the Xbox Series X controller, and while the company says this was based on player feedback of wanting more choices, it's an archaic design decision. Please just leave the AA batteries in the past. If you want to charge your Xbox Series X controller, you'll need a rechargeable battery pack sold separately and a USB-C to USB-A cable since the console does not have a USB-C port.
Still too many unknowns
We know a lot more about the Xbox Series X controller than the PS5 DualSense, so we need to wait until Sony details its controller further before making any final calls. I'm cautiously excited for the DualSense, however. No matter which console (and controller) you end up getting, there's no doubt they'll both be great.
PlayStation 5: Everything we know so far
PS5 vs. Xbox Series X: How they compare
PS5 Specs: What's in the next-gen PlayStation
Will PS4 games work on the PlayStation 5?
be still my beating wallet
Hitman 3, Scott Pilgrim, and more release for PS4 and PS5 in January
There are some big game releases for the PS4 and PS5 in January. Here are some of the greatest titles to add to your collection.
Jennifer Locke has been playing video games nearly her entire life. If a controller's not in her hands, she's busy writing about everything PlayStation. You can find her obsessing over Star Wars and other geeky things on Twitter @JenLocke95.


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Q: Notify server with IOS in-app purchase events (renewed,cancelled..etc) I'm using auto recurring subscriptions in my app in my app,I need to change the subscription status if recurring fails from iOS.
I am following this documentation, but there are a few things that are still not clear to me:

*

*What if my server missed the post data from iOS

*How do I know if the subscription got renewed

*How do I link my app user memberId (unique id) to the transaction

*What is the difference between latest_receipt form iOS post data(server to server notification) and bundle receipt url after purchase.

A: Here are the steps I take  the user to subscribe:

*

*Ask the user to sign in. If they don't sign in they can't subscribe.

*Send the app receipt to my server and store it there. If this fails they can't subscribe. This need this to validate get the latest_receipt info from the server at any time.

*The user subscribes through iTunes.

*Validate their receipt with the app store and check the latest_receipt  to make sure they are subscribed. (This is done server side)

*Repeat step 4 periodically to make sure they are still subscribed

So to answer your questions:

What if my server missed the post data from iOS?

Since I get the app receipt from the user before they subscribe I can check the with itunes directly from my sever any time and get the status of their subscription.

How do I know if the subscription got renewed?

Since you have the user receipt on your server, you can use it to get the latest receipt from apple and check the current status of the subscription. Here is how you do it Validating Receipts With the App Store

How do I link my app user memberId (unique id) to the transaction?

You could use the "Original Transaction Identifier" from the receipt as a unique id. This value is the same for all receipts that have been generated for a specific subscription

What is the difference between latest_receipt form iOS post
  data(server to server notification) and bundle receipt url after
  purchase?

When you send a receipt to the app store to be validated, it will return a JSON representation of the receipt that was send, this can be found in the "receipt" field. If your receipt contains subscriptions you will get "latest_receipt" and "latest_receipt_info" fields. These fields are useful when checking whether an auto-renewable subscription is currently active. If the bundle receipt is up to date then the "receipt" and "latest_receipt" will be the same.


The first-ever MagicBand on Demand kiosk may have already opened at Walt Disney World inside the Tomorrowland Power & Light Co. building at the exit of Space Mountain at the Magic Kingdom. Disney quickly posted and retracted the story about the MagicBand on Demand system earlier this morning.
While we don't have any more details yet, it appears guests will be able to choose the color of their MagicBand, a design (those seen above and many more to choose from), and perhaps may be able to customize the inside of the band with an inscription of some kind. We are still waiting on more details on this process and we expect confirmation from Disney shortly.
UPDATE: We have since found out that guests may choose between the 8 MagicBand colors (which now includes purple) and names can be placed on the exterior of the band based on the design you choose. Custom MagicBands are $21.95, $29.95 if personalized with a name.


text:
// (C) Copyright 2015 Moodle Pty Ltd.
//
// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
// You may obtain a copy of the License at
//
//     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
//
// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
// limitations under the License.

import { CoreRoutedItemsManagerSource } from '@classes/items-management/routed-items-manager-source';
import { CoreGroupInfo, CoreGroups } from '@services/groups';
import {
    AddonModFeedback,
    AddonModFeedbackProvider,
    AddonModFeedbackWSAnonAttempt,
    AddonModFeedbackWSAttempt,
    AddonModFeedbackWSFeedback,
} from '../services/feedback';
import { AddonModFeedbackHelper } from '../services/feedback-helper';

/**
 * Feedback attempts.
 */
export class AddonModFeedbackAttemptsSource extends CoreRoutedItemsManagerSource<AddonModFeedbackAttemptItem> {

    readonly COURSE_ID: number;
    readonly CM_ID: number;

    selectedGroup?: number;
    identifiable?: AddonModFeedbackWSAttempt[];
    identifiableTotal?: number;
    anonymous?: AddonModFeedbackWSAnonAttempt[];
    anonymousTotal?: number;
    groupInfo?: CoreGroupInfo;

    protected feedback?: AddonModFeedbackWSFeedback;

    constructor(courseId: number, cmId: number) {
        super();

        this.COURSE_ID = courseId;
        this.CM_ID = cmId;
    }

    /**
     * @inheritdoc
     */
    getItemPath(attempt: AddonModFeedbackAttemptItem): string {
        return attempt.id.toString();
    }

    /**
     * @inheritdoc
     */
    getPagesLoaded(): number {
        if (!this.identifiable || !this.anonymous) {
            return 0;
        }

        const pageLength = this.getPageLength();

        return Math.ceil(Math.max(this.anonymous.length, this.identifiable.length) / pageLength);
    }

    /**
     * Type guard to infer AddonModFeedbackWSAttempt objects.
     *
     * @param discussion Item to check.
     * @return Whether the item is an identifieable attempt.
     */
    isIdentifiableAttempt(attempt: AddonModFeedbackAttemptItem): attempt is AddonModFeedbackWSAttempt {
        return 'fullname' in attempt;
    }

    /**
     * Type guard to infer AddonModFeedbackWSAnonAttempt objects.
     *
     * @param discussion Item to check.
     * @return Whether the item is an anonymous attempt.
     */
    isAnonymousAttempt(attempt: AddonModFeedbackAttemptItem): attempt is AddonModFeedbackWSAnonAttempt {
        return 'number' in attempt;
    }

    /**
     * Invalidate feedback cache.
     */
    async invalidateCache(): Promise<void> {
        await Promise.all([
            CoreGroups.invalidateActivityGroupInfo(this.CM_ID),
            this.feedback && AddonModFeedback.invalidateResponsesAnalysisData(this.feedback.id),
        ]);
    }

    /**
     * Load feedback.
     */
    async loadFeedback(): Promise<void> {
        this.feedback = await AddonModFeedback.getFeedback(this.COURSE_ID, this.CM_ID);
        this.groupInfo = await CoreGroups.getActivityGroupInfo(this.CM_ID);

        this.selectedGroup = CoreGroups.validateGroupId(this.selectedGroup, this.groupInfo);
    }

    /**
     * @inheritdoc
     */
    protected getPageLength(): number {
        return AddonModFeedbackProvider.PER_PAGE;
    }

    /**
     * @inheritdoc
     */
    protected async loadPageItems(page: number): Promise<{ items: AddonModFeedbackAttemptItem[]; hasMoreItems: boolean }> {
        if (!this.feedback) {
            throw new Error('Can\'t load attempts without feeback');
        }

        const result = await AddonModFeedbackHelper.getResponsesAnalysis(this.feedback.id, {
            page,
            groupId: this.selectedGroup,
            cmId: this.CM_ID,
        });

        if (page === 0) {
            this.identifiableTotal = result.totalattempts;
            this.anonymousTotal = result.totalanonattempts;
        }

        const totalItemsLoaded = this.getPageLength() * (page + 1);
        const pageAttempts: AddonModFeedbackAttemptItem[] = [
            // The page argument is ignored in the webservice when there is only one page,
            // so we should ignore the responses of pages beyond the first if that's the case.
            ...(page === 0 || result.totalattempts > AddonModFeedbackProvider.PER_PAGE)
                ? result.attempts
                : [],
            ...(page === 0 || result.totalanonattempts > AddonModFeedbackProvider.PER_PAGE)
                ? result.anonattempts
                : [],
        ];

        return {
            items: pageAttempts,
            hasMoreItems: result.totalattempts > totalItemsLoaded || result.totalanonattempts > totalItemsLoaded,
        };
    }

    /**
     * @inheritdoc
     */
    protected setItems(attempts: AddonModFeedbackAttemptItem[], hasMoreItems: boolean): void {
        this.identifiable = attempts.filter(this.isIdentifiableAttempt);
        this.anonymous = attempts.filter(this.isAnonymousAttempt);

        super.setItems((this.identifiable as AddonModFeedbackAttemptItem[]).concat(this.anonymous), hasMoreItems);
    }

}

/**
 * Type of items that can be held in the source.
 */
export type AddonModFeedbackAttemptItem = AddonModFeedbackWSAttempt | AddonModFeedbackWSAnonAttempt;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub