text:
Palestinian Policemen Finally Enter Gaza Strip
By Peter Ford Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
@peterfordcsm
GAZA CITY, ISRAELI-OCCUPIED GAZA STRIP
MOHAMMED al-Gazawi leaned heavily on his stick and smiled with grim satisfaction as he stood before the judge's bench in the Gaza military court on May 10.
The last time he was here in 1979, Mr. Gazawi was inside the barred cage that runs along one wall of the courtroom. He was being sentenced to 20 years in jail for blowing up the Gaza branch of an Israeli bank.
On May 10, dressed in the olive drab serge uniform of the Palestinian Revolution Old Fighters Association, Gazawi was assigned to guard the court, abandoned the day before by Israeli soldiers.
``I told the judge that one day I would be a free man standing here,'' recalled the former Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) guerrilla, who was freed in a 1985 prisoner exchange. ``I always felt that one day we would rule ourselves.''
Gazawi and his auxiliary were finally reinforced May 10 by regular Palestinian policemen. About 150 officers drove into the Gaza Strip checkpoint controlled by Israel nearly a week after Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat signed their agreement giving Palestinians limited self-rule in Gaza and the West Bank town of Jericho.
The Palestinian officers flashed ``V'' for victory signs and danced the dabka, a traditional Arab dance. ``We are coming to you, Palestine,'' some chanted. Others sang, ``Good-bye to the diaspora.''
Now that the police are in place, Palestinian officials say they can begin to take over authority for the day-to-day running of Gaza's strife-torn slums, home to about 850,000 people.
But the transition is still likely to take time. ``We need at least 2,000 policemen to guard all the departments,'' says Freih Abu-Middein, a prominent Gazan expected to be named to the 24-member council that will run the autonomous Palestinian zones. ``Until we have them, we cannot take over.''
Palestinian and Israeli officials were blaming each other for the delay: PLO officials complained that Israel was refusing to allow any policemen into Gaza or Jericho until Mr. Arafat formally announced the composition of the autonomy council. The Israelis said the PLO had failed to provide adequate personal information on the former Palestine Liberation Army soldiers who will make up the bulk of the 9,000-man police force.
Of the 60 Israelis who used to run Gaza's civil administration, only two computer technicians remain. And although the vast majority of administration employees are Palestinian, they are leaderless, with no new Palestinian department heads, nor instructions from PLO headquarters. ``They are not allowing people's day-to-day lives to go on normally,'' complains Gaza City's Mayor-designate, Mansour Shawa. Without policymakers for the past two weeks the court system is at a standstill, nobody issues licenses to import anything, and government has ground to a halt,'' Mr. Shawa says.
The only senior Palestinian official in Gaza is Brig. Gen. Ziad al-Atrash, head of the Palestinian delegation to the joint security committee with Israel, who is negotiating the details of the Palestinian police deployment.
After an emergency meeting with General Atrash on May 10, his Israeli counterpart, Brig. Gen Yom-Tov Samia, said that ``We had some problems, and we solved them,'' suggesting that some of the police force might cross the border on that evening.
So far only a few score men, mostly Gaza residents, have been issued the dark blue trousers and sky blue shirts - an enamel Palestinian flag badge pinned to the left shirtsleeve - that constitutes the force's uniform.
The handful of policemen engaged in trying to keep back crowds of children from the police headquarters on May 10 were still unarmed. Their Kalashnikov rifles were being checked by Israeli ballistics experts, so as to be identifiable if they are ever used in an attack against Israelis.
Although the autonomy agreement gives Israel three weeks to pull its troops back to Jewish settlements, Mr. Abu Middein suggested on May 10 that he was aiming for a takeover ``within 48 hours.''
Arafat, facing opposition even among his supporters to the terms of the autonomy accord, was reportedly having difficulty in persuading all his nominees to serve on the autonomy council. He had promised to inform Israel of its membership by May 10.
Meanwhile, as confusion reigned in every aspect of Gaza's handover to Palestinian authority, the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) threatened to complicate matters even further.
Unless the Gaza municipality pays a $10 million debt in unpaid bills immediately, the IEC said it would cut off electricity to the Gaza Strip on May 11. Municipal officials said they did not have the money to pay the debt.
Israeli and Palestinian forces exchange fire near Gaza
Israeli strike targets Gaza as rockets land in Israel
Armed with Romeo and red carpets, Gaza Palestinians try to live a little


The aim of this project is to evaluate the network security at J Bil AB. The focus will be on both social and technical issues. For the employees to be able to con-nect to remote servers and external services and perform their daily work tasks, secure connections is needed. J Bil Ab has no IT manager who actively maintains and monitors the network; rather they consult a computer company when changes and implementations are required. The projects' goal is to identify gaps, come up with suggestions for improvement and to some extent implement so-lutions. To do this, an observation of the employees hav been made, an inter-view have been held, and several attacks on the network have been performed. Based on the data collected, it was concluded that the company has shortcom-ings in IT security. Above all, the social security appeared to have major gaps in it and that is mainly because the lack of knowledge among the employees and they have never been informed of how to manage their passwords, computers and IT issues in general. Suggestions for improvement have been given and some implementations have been performed to eliminate the deficiencies.
Development of technology constantly creates new opportunities but it can also mean major chang-es for companies and organizations. Today phones, tablets, laptops, mobile communications and cloud technology make it possible to be no longer bound by the time, location or device in order to work. The change means that a new office type that is more flexible and space efficient due to no fixed workplaces, is becoming more common. A problem with this type of offices that are known as flex-offices is that it is not obvious where or when a colleague is in the office, especially if it is large office with multiple floors.
The aim of this work is to develop and implement a Location-Based Service for the company Connecta AB. The service will enable users to use their mobile phone to share their current workplace location in an office environment.
The result of this work is a Location-Based Service that enables a user to use an Android phone with support for Near Field Communcication to share their current workplace position. The cloud-based server solution, Windows Azure is used to store indexed workplace positions.
Detta examensarbete utfördes på avdelningsnivån CCS på avdelningen PDU Platforms på Ericsson. Avdelningen ville förändra sin nuvarande arbetsprocess genom att övergå från Daily Build, att bygga och testa en gång om dagen, till ett mer kontinuerligt byggande och testande. CCS hanterar och tillhandahåller kontrollsystemtjänster för RNC applikationer och äldre RBS.
Målet med detta examensarbete var att automatisera testprocesser för att kunna utföra kontinuerliga tester. Första steget i arbetet var att ta fram ett specifikt användningsfall, ett use case, att arbeta mot. Detta skedde genom analys av felrapporter och detta ledde till att nodomstarter definierades som ett första användningsfall. När användningsfallet var definierat, skedde analys av plattform att använda för automatisering, samt vilka steg som behövde automatiseras. De var enligt följande, uppladdning med ftp, exekvering av filer med Telnet och nodkonfiguration med verktyget Cicc.
This thesis describes the process of analyzing and evaluating geographic services, and the development of map applications for nationwide networks. The project was performed at DGC, a datacommunications-, telephony- and networks operator which distributes customer access across Sweden where consumers are connected to the backbone network. In whole, the task consisted of an analysis regarding the possibilities of address-to-coordinate lookup for established customer sites, displaying the access network in a map interface and developing one or more tools, aimed at supporting order processes. Architecture patterns, use-cases construed from user requests and analysis of external provider services for geocoding determined the design of the solution. Software was partially integrated in existing systems, and partially distributed as stand-alone applications. The product was finalized with a release. Read further to get a description of the monitoring tool, network mapping with KML, dealing with geographic data, and also the process of fetching coordinates for addresses.
This thesis investigates the personal account for health information (PHR) that every citizen in Sweden will be offered. The Ministry of Health and Social Affairs has made a decision to conduct a public procurement through Apotekens Service AB. The pro-curement was not finalized at the time of this report.The goal of this thesis is to on behalf of Mawell investigate what business opportunities the launching of a nationally provided service for PHR, and the ecosystem for applica-tions and services, is expected to result in, but also to implement two services to demonstrate the concept of how a service could be used to create benefits for a selected target group.During the thesis work a literature study and interviews with different target groups were performed. The purpose with the interviews was to identify different problems that the target group have in their operations and then analyze and give a proposal to how services developed for PHR could solve the problems.The result of the investigation is proposed services based on the different problems and needs of the targets groups and two service implementations. The report also gives Mawell proposal to how they could continue this work further.
Harmonics caused by variable speed drives create problems in industrial systems. The purpose of this study is to identify these problems and give recommendations to avoid them. The study was conducted as a bachelor thesis at the Royal Technical University in Stockholm, Sweden for the consultant company Ramboll Energy. A literature review was combined with electrical power quality measurements on variable speed motor operations conducted at Sandvik Mining in Sandviken, Sweden.
Electrical quality problems caused by variable speed drives origin mainly from frequency inverter control that gives a non-linear current usage which, if the grid is not strong enough, affects voltage quality. Examples of problems are production downtime, disruption and malfunction of equipment and increased wear of equipment.
This study shows that when making changes in systems containing harmonics, future harmonic levels can be approximated in some cases. Measurements before the change provide input data to model the system, describing the load as a harmonic current generator. With some assumptions on the grid impedance, calculating an approximation on harmonic after the change is possible.
This study has used a simplified model for the prediction of harmonic levels after a change in the system. The purpose is to propose a cost effective way to approximate so that information on how to prevent problems …in the decision making. Electrical power quality problems could be prevented more often and not doing that is a waste of economical, environmental and social resources.
In a modern society electricity is a key component for the development of the individual, industry, and society. Natural disaster areas where the electricity has been knocked out face great trials in order to get vital public functions working again. With the help of the mobile eco-friendly energy device Emergency Energy Module (EEM) electricity needs can be eased.
The goal of thesis was to produce an electrical power system description for the upcoming Export container (EXC), and to generate a correct circuit diagram for the existing Emergency energy module (EEM).
The electric power description must take into account EXC's specifications and include Bills of Material (BoM) and circuit diagram. The problems lies in getting the various sources of energy (solar, wind and biomass gasifier) to work together in a power system where DC, AC, three-phase and single-phase are mixed. Great emphasis is also given to obtain a flexible electricity systems that can be relatively easily changed for different customer needs.
The making of this thesis was carried out initially with a gathering facts phase. This was followed by a review and analysis of the EEM's electrical system which resulted in a circuit diagram and a manual.
Weaknesses in EEM's electrical system was considered to be the lack of overvoltage protection and residual current device, measuring point 5 was misplaced, measuring equipment should for safety reasons be firmly attached and 1-phase generator should be used in biomass gasifier to remove uneven load problems. The existing Power router, whose task is to control the energy flow in the system, was limited because it could only receive one AC power source, handle only one-phase and had a relatively low maximum output power of 5.5 kW.
Whit the help of the analysis improvement suggestions above and with EXC's specification taking into account was then an electric power system for EXC constructed. with associated BoM, circuit diagram, specifications for subsystems and proposals for candidates that meet these.
The electrical system is recommended to be built around the Power router Quattro which provides great opportunities for flexibility in terms of being able to scale up the system if such more power would be desired by the customer, or if there is a need for 3-phase systems. A variety of programming settings can then be made which facilitates the construction of specific electrical systems for varying customer needs.
This thesis was performed at the company ShapeUp Club located in Stockholm, Sweden. ShapeUp Club offers a digital calorie counter service for the web, iOS and Android with data synchronization across the platforms.
ShapeUp Club wants to provide their users with the option to synchronize data between ShapeUp Club and external health services. The objective for this thesis has been to develop an extension to ShapeUp Clubs current backend platform where new external health services can be plugged-in quickly and scalable. External partner APIs will be examined and implemented in the system to validate the functionality of the system. The amount of code needed to plug-in a service should be as minimal as possible for a developer to quickly add another service. To allow for scalability the platform also needs to adapt logic for how often users should be allowed to poll for data from their connected services, to minimize the database load for all parts.
To handle these demands, an extension to ShapeUp Club's current backend solution was built using the Django framework for Python. By providing a generic base class that new services inherit from, the amount of code necessary for implementing a new service is reduced to methods for API- requests, authorization and serialization of data. To reduce the number of redundant poll requests, users are placed into groups. Each group is a cluster of users with similar frequency of updates. Django's cache framework is used to handle the concurrency of the sync tasks, which locks a user from syncing the same partner in parallel.
Nu när Microsoft släpper sina nya plattformar, Windows RT, Windows 8 och Windows Phone 8 så finns ett intresse att försöka flytta detta ramverk till dessa plattformar. Vi kommer göra ett försök att porta Mario till Windows RT. Anledningen till att Windows RT valdes är för att det är den första plattformen att släppas av de tre nämnda produkterna.
Plattforms APIet som används i Windows RT kallar för Windows Runtime (WinRT). Många delar av det här APIet delas med Windows Phone 8 och hela WinRT APIet exponeras i Windows 8. Det här betyder att förutsatt att koden designas på rätt sätt så borde den gå att flytta mellan Windows RT, Windows 8 och Windows Phone 8 utan problem. Windows RT är ett operativsystem utvecklat för att fungera på datorer som använder ARM-baserade processorer.
De open-source bibliotek som används av Mario måste byggas på Mario.
C/C++ kod måste kunna köras på Windows RT plattformen.
Mario ramverket måste integreras med video- och ljudfångning i operativsystemet.
Vad det gäller open-source projekt så ligger det under en sådan licens (LGPL) som gör att källkoden inte får ändras utan att hela källkoden till de projekten som använder open-source koden också släpps som open-source. Ericsson vill inte att Mario ska släppas som open-source utan vill själva ha kontroll på källkoden. Av denna anledning kommer vi utreda om det är möjligt att bygga dessa bibliotek utan att ändra i koden.
I och med att Mario är skrivet i C och C++ så måste det också utredas hur vida det är möjligt att köra C/C++ kod i Windows RT. Vad det gäller video- och ljudfångning måste Windows RT APIet utredas för att se hur man använder det för just detta.
Bright is a company that provides customer and employee satisfaction surveys, and uses this information to provide feedback to their customers. Data from the surveys are stored in a relational database and information is generated both by directly querying the database as well as doing analysis on extracted data. As the amount of data grows, generating this information takes increasingly more time. Extracting the data requires significant manual work and is in practice avoided. As this is not an uncommon issue, there is a substantial theoretical framework around the area.
The aim of this degree project is to explore the different methods for achieving flexible and efficient data analysis on large amounts of data. This was implemented using a multidimensional database designed for analysis as well as an OnLine Analytical Processing (OLAP) cube built using Microsoft's SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS). The cube was designed with the possibility to extract data on an individual level through PivotTables in Excel.
The implemented prototype was analyzed, showing that the prototype consistently delivers correct results severalfold as efficient as the current solution as well as making new types of analysis possible and convenient. It is concluded that the use of an OLAP cube was a good choice for the issue at hand, and that the use of SSAS provided the necessary features for a functional prototype. Finally, recommendations on possible further developments were discussed.
To set up port forwarding rules on network gateways, certain technical skills are requiredfrom end-users. These assumptions in the gateway software stack, can lead to an increasein support calls to network operators and resellers of customer premises equipment. Theuser interface itself is also an important part of the product and a complicated interfacewill contribute to a lessened user experience. Other issues with an overwhelming userinterface include the risk of faulty configuration by the user, potentially leaving the networkvulnerable to attacks.We present an enhancement of the current port forwarding configuration in the gatewaysoftware, with an extensible library of presets along with usability improvements. To helpusers with detecting available services, a wrapper for a network scanner is implemented, fordetecting devices and services on the local network. These parts combined relieves end-usersof looking up forwarding rules for ports and protocols to configure their gateway, basingtheir decisions on data collected by the network scanner or by using an applications nameinstead of looking up its ports. Another usability improvement is an internal DNS service,which enables access to the gateway interface through a human-memorable domain name,instead of using the LAN IP address.Using the Nmap utility for identifying services on the network, could be consideredharmful activity by network admins and intrusion detection systems. The preset libraryis extensible and generic enough to be included in the default software suite shipping withthe network equipment. Working within the unified configuration system of OpenWrt, thepreset design will add value and allow resellers to easily customize it to their services. Thisproposal could reduce support costs for the service operators and improve user experiencein configuring network gateways.
This report aims to describe how the company Parera AB should be able to integrate three different computer systems into a support site belonging to their remote support service called Fjärrdrift. The service Fjärrdrift is based on remote support and operational monitoring of computing environments. The task in this thesis was based on the desire from Parera to be able to share information about the service itself and to provide status information on monitored devices as well as giving the customers the ability to manage their support cases in one place. To implement this, an investigation regarding the three systems APIs and general functionality had to be done and in connection with this a proposal on a suitable platform for the implementation had to be submitted. A milestone in the investigation was to consider if Parera could obtain any value by migrating their customer relationship management system to the cloud instead of running it on-premises.
The work was to test and evaluate the systems in daily use and to figure out what information was needed from the systems to integrate them with the support site by using their APIs. Another important thing was to find out about the customers interest in a support site and what functions they requested.
Recommendations that describe how Parera can get started with the development of the support site and recommendations regarding if their customer relationship management system should be migrated to the cloud or not are given in this report. To find out about the customers' requests they were asked to do a survey. Responses to the survey have been collected and are presented in this report.
This dissertation has been written with the request from Trafikvörvaltningen. The study's main goal is to investigate whether it is possible to use heat radiation against the surface of the third rail to prevent ice creation during the best efficient of absorptivity.
The goal of the thesis work was to give Softronic AB, a management and IT consulting company, an overview of strengths and weaknesses of the four content management systems Magento CE 1.6.2, Episerver Commerce 1 R2 SP1, Wipcore eNOVA 5.3 and Umbraco CMS, as platforms for ecommerce. The evaluation was to be made from a marketing perspective as well as from a user and in-house developer's perspective. Additionally, the goal was to provide an overview of how certain functionality from a current project could be implemented on the Magento CE platform.
To be able to evaluate the platforms, a study of current evaluation and comparison models was performed. This resulted in the choice of the framework Domain-specific Architecture Comparison Model. A comparison framework was derived and defined from this model, and applied on the platforms. The choice of what was to be measured, and how, was determined from literature studies of the e-commerce domain, as well as studies of current e-commerce platforms. The demonstration of the capabilities of the Magento platform was solved by creating a new Magento store instance, implementing two components from a reference project, as well as parts of the graphical user interface, and deploying the solution on a cloud server.
The evaluation resulted in a description of the platforms' strengths and weaknesses, and a table showing the properties of the platforms. The evaluation indicated that the platforms Magento CE and Episerver Commerce were the strongest when it came to functionality and market readiness. Wipcore eNOVA and Umbraco CMS's strongest side was performance efficiency, while none of the platforms were assessed as particularly strong in terms of maintainability.
This paper presents an implementation of a method for performance control in wireless body sensor networks based on measurement feedback, especially targeted for demanding healthcare applications.
This paper presents a monitoring method and its implementation as a light-weight end-to-end performance meter for quality-demanding applications in wireless sensor networks. The use of performance feedback information for control and management is also considered. The method is evaluated in a wireless sensor network testbed for healthcare applications.
This thesis has been written on behalf of the Swedish Armed Forces (Försvarsmakten). The objective of this thesis is to investigate the threats, risks and vulnerabilities that can be caused by portable devices within an organization. Laptop computers with operative system Windows and Mac, tablet PCs and smart phones with operating system Android, iOS and Windows Phone are the only portable devices that have been selected to be part of this report. Proposals on how to prevent these risks are discussed in this work. The report also discusses today's BYOD solutions. Examples of different products from known companies are admitted to more easily describe the actions of the threats, risks and vulnerabilities caused by the portable devices mentioned. Different methods and security solutions are discussed to simplify the understanding of the severity of problems and security risks caused by the portable devices.
The mobile technology has recently become powerful and as a result large enterprises, government workers, small business and private consumers are all using smart phones or other mobile devices to manage both business and personal interactions. Increased employee productivity, improved client services and reduced IT cost are some of the advantages of using mobile devices in an enterprise. Securing these devices at the enterprise level has become a challenge for many IT security experts due to the fact that mobile devices have limited resources (memory, CPU, hard disk space and battery). Therefore, hackers are discovering the economic potential of attacking mobile devices on a course to compromise both business and personal data contained within mobile.
An ideal mobile security solution would be one that is compatible with all the major mobile platforms on the market. Moreover, it would have the capacity to protect data stored on the device as well as data sent between devices or between a portable device and an enterprise network. This solution should also be tailored to the needs of an authority or any large organization, while it also has to be resource-efficient, given that mobile devices tend to have limited resources. Unfortunately at the moment there is no such solution on the market. Therefore, a company or authority at the moment should look around for two or more appropriate mobile security solutions that can be combined to achieve the best possible security level in accordance with their current security policies.
Detta examensarbete har genomförts i samarbete med Sourcecom Svenska AB. Sourcecom Svenska AB arbetar med kommunikationslösningar inom IT-kommunikation, IT-säkerhet och telefoni. Examensarbetet går ut på att undersöka konceptet Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) och föreslå olika lösningar beroende på företagets informationssäkerhetskrav. För att förstå konceptet BYOD behövs först en inblick i hur ett policybaserat system fungerar. Rapporten undersöker och förklarar tre olika Network Access Control (NAC) lösningar som är policybaserade. De tre BYOD-lösningarna som presenteras i rapporten ger möjlighet att se och jämföra olika tekniker som erbjuds av olika leverantörer. Anslutningsmetoder inom BYOD som undersöks är trådlösa, trådbundna och fjärranslutningar. Rapporten undersöker även de produkterna som är involverade i konfigurationer av BYOD. Det ges en riskanalys till de risker som ett införande av en BYOD-lösning kan ta med sig till ett nätverkssystem samt förslag till olika metoder för att eliminera de riskerna. I slutet av rapporten presenteras tre olika BYOD-lösningar anpassade till tre olika företag beroende på deras krav på informationssäkerhet (hög risk, medelhög risk, låg risk).
Rapportens främsta bidrag är en översikt över området BYOD, riskanalys och förslag att eliminera riskerna.
Multiple new services such as "Mina utgifter" and "Smartbudget" show that there is an increased interest among consumers to plan their economy. Groceries represent a large part of the average households budget and is thereby an important thing that can make a large difference in every households economy.This thesis will examine the possibilities to compare food prices with help of an Android application and by taking pictures of the text on receipts. The text will then be processed and sorted to get the necessary data which later can be saved into a database. Premade algorithms and OCR-engines have been evaluated and implemented directly into the Android application by using so called C-Libraries. This makes it possible without major efforts to further develop the application for IOS or Windows Phone.This project and the Android application show the possibilities to use premade libraries and the phones camera to extract and save the necessary information that is relevant for consumers.
This report describes the work on automating the testing of nodes at CCS (Common Control System) in Ericsson. The goal was to every three hours configure nodes with the latest build and run the tests. This process is to be fully automatic without user in-put. The existing configuration tool CICC (Core Integration node Control Center) is to be used for configuration. Before work started fault reports were analyzed and creating a usecase for testing restarts should reduce some faults.The first step was to make the configuration tool CICC automated. To schedule the test-ing the continuous integration tool Jenkins was used. But Jenkins can't by itself run CICC nor interpret the result. Therefore a wrapper layer was implemented. When the wrapper is finished it stores the results of the configuration run in a XML (eXtensible Markup Language) file, which Jenkins reads. Results can then be seen in Jenkins through web interface. If there were any failures during configuration or testing the failed step will have an error message.The project shows that automation is possible. Automating the testing reduce the time for correcting errors because they are more likely to be found early in the process. Be-fore implementing this project in production some improvements should be made. The most significant improvement is making the configuration and testing of each node par-allel with each other, in order to make the time limit for configuration and testing less of an issue.
Wireless personal area networks have emerged as an important communication infrastructure in areas such as at-home healthcare and home automation, independent living and assistive technology, as well as sports and wellness. Wireless personal area networks, including body sensor networks, are becoming more mature and are considered to be a realistic alternative as communication infrastructure for demanding services. However, to transmit data from e.g., an ECG in wireless networks is also a challenge, especially if multiple sensors compete for access. Contention-based networks offer simplicity and utilization advantages, but the drawback is lack of predictable performance. Recipients of data sent in wireless sensor networks need to know whether they can trust the information or not. Performance measurements, monitoring and control is of crucial importance for medical and healthcare applications in wireless sensor networks.
This thesis focuses on development, prototype implementation and evaluation of a performance management system with performance and admission control for wireless sensor networks. Furthermore, an implementation of a new method to compensate for clock drift between multiple wireless sensor nodes is also shown. Errors in time synchronization between nodes in Bluetooth networks, resulting in inadequate data fusion, are also analysed.
This paper presents a monitoring method and its implementation as a light-weight end-to-end performance meter for quality-demanding applications in wireless body sensor networks. The method is evaluated in a wireless sensor network testbed for healthcare applications.
Wireless sensor networks have today emerged as a feasible infrastructure for healthcare applications. This paper addresses the non-trivial performance problems in contentionbased wireless networks. We present a method for admission control in contention-based networks, implemented as a component of a performance management system. The test results show that admission control can improve the predictability and level of performance in wireless sensor networks. The system can be used as a tool for dimensioning and configuration as well as for real-time admission control. The often unpredictable dynamics in contention-based access networks means that continuous performance control is needed to maintain a desired quality of service.
Wireless sensor networks have today emerged as a feasible infrastructure for healthcare applications. This paper addresses the non-trivial performance problems in contention-based wireless networks. We present a method for admission control in contention-based networks, implemented as a component of a performance management system. The test results show that admission control can improve the predictability and level of performance in wireless sensor networks. The system can be used as a tool for dimensioning and configuration as well as for real-time admission control. The often unpredictable dynamics in contention-based access networks means that continuous performance control is needed to maintain a desired quality of service.
The goal of the thesis is to build a quadcopter that can fly and be controlled via a radio transmitter in all directions, stabilizing itself in the air, to land autonomously and detect collisions in the forward direction.In order to achieve the basic goal of being able to fly, a PID controller was implemented which is used to stabilize the Quadcopter in the air by controlling the motors with help from sensor orientation. This sensor orientation is obtained from a complementary filter that merges angle data from an accelerometer and a gyroscope. Both an accelerometer and a gyroscope are required to automatically stabilize the Quadcopter in the air.To achieve the goal of autonomous landing an ultrasonic sensor was used. An algorithm was developed to read the distance from the ground which was a basis for creating our own algorithm for autonomous landing.The Quadcopter has the ability to stabilize itself in the air, be controlled via a radio transmitter and land autonomously. A safety feature that enables autonomous landing if the Quadcopter travels outside the radio coverage is implemented and also a switch that turns off the engines. The only thing that wasn't implemented was the crash avoidance in the forward direction because the ultrasonic sensor was not suited for this application.
The aim of the thesis is to get an overview of the database services available in cloud computing environment, investigate the security risks associated with it and propose the possible countermeasures to minimize the risks. The thesis also analyzes two cloud database service providers namely; Amazon RDS and Xeround. The reason behind choosing these two providers is because they are currently amongst the leading cloud database providers and both provide relational cloud databases which makes the comparison useful. The focus of the analysis has been to provide an overview of their database services as well as the available security measurements. A guide has been appended at the end of the report to help with technical configurations of database migration and connecting applications to the databases for the two mentioned cloud database providers.
The thesis has been conducted on behalf of the Swedish Armed Forces and after reviewing the security risks associated with cloud databases, it is recommended that the Armed Forces should refrain from public cloud database services. Security deficiencies such as vague physical security and access control procedures, unavailability of preferred monitoring tools and most importantly the absence of proper encryption and key management schemes make the public database services useless for an authority such as the Armed Forces. The recommended solutions are therefore to either use a jointly-owned community cloud database solution for less confidential data only or to use on-premise private cloud database solution for all but the TOP SECRET classified data.
This thesis has examined which wireless technology that is best suited for use when an audio signal are to be streamed wirelessly to multiple recipients. The technologies that where compared was Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Other wireless communication technologies, ZigBee, ANT+ and NFC, were excluded because their maximum data rate or range wasn't sufficient enough. Since it's required a license to be allowed to use 3G and 4G, these were excluded as well. As receivers, primarily Android and iOS phones would be used. Furthermore, it has been examined which components that are required for manufacturing a prototype that will be able to stream an audio signal wireless to multiple smartphone's. Lastly, a circuit diagram for this prototype has been made.
Wi-Fi WLAN infrastructure was considered to be best suited for this application. The prototype that would stream an audio signal therefore needed to function as a Wi-Fi access point. AR9271, a Wi-Fi chip from Qualcomm Atheros, was selected to be used as Wi-Fi transmitter because it has an open-source firmware and were easier to come by compared to other similar Wi-Fi chip. To be able to use the Linux-based open-source firmware of the Wi-Fi chip, SAM9M10 MCU from Atmel was selected as control unit since it can be used with Linux Embedded. In order to digitize the analog audio signal, VS1063 MP3 encoder from VLSI Solution was selected.
This degree project was made in collaboration with Nordicstation. The project task was to develop a testing application for a self-developed telephone survey service, which uses third party software. This third party software showed to be unreliable at higher loads. The purpose of the application is to analyse the speech quality of clients connected to the service. This report gives an introduction to the speech quality algorithms Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ) and Single Sided Speech Quality Measure (3SQM). It also gives descriptions of the methods used to develop the application. The final chapters in this report are about the testing of the telephone service. The primary result of the testing was that the telephone service is unable to acceptably handle 80+ clients and recommendations to Nordicstation is to set a maximum of parallel connected clients to 80 or find an alternative to the third party software currently in use.
Energy smart solutions are up to date and all opportunities to save energy are considered essential for protection of nature. Energy can be saved on irrigation systems by not watering if rain is approaching. By monitoring weather forecasts, the rainfall can be analyzed and irrigation adjusted accordingly.
The projects goal is to create an energy smart irrigation system designed to prevent unwanted watering. By using soil moisture sensors and analyze weather data, the irrigation amount will be determined depending on the soil moisture and upcoming rainfall. Through a web page, there are configuration options and information about the system.
This report explains the sensor nodes and its various functionalities in the system. The associated soil moisture sensors characteristics and its calibration are described. The water pump and its associated controlling are also treated. The system's server and database are described as well as the link between them. There is also a flowchart of the server's functionality. It explains how the weather data is collected and analyzed to access impending rainfall.
The system's web page is shown and described with its configuration options and its status information. It also explains how the sensor motes are added, removed and edited on the website and in the system.
The results summarize the work with how the different parts are linked together to form the energy smart irrigation system. An installation guide and a user manual have also been created.
When selling a service to companies or individuals, it's important to deliver what you sell.
Currently, Softronic provides companies with a platform that provides different types of services. These services create opportunities to efficiently develop government functions in accordance with the Government's action plan for e-governance. These services are hosted by using the cloud computing platform Microsoft Windows Azure.
The services' functionality is important for both Softronic and their customers' businesses. To know early whether there is a problem or if there will be problems with the services, Softronic wanted to monitor one of these services with the help of an external monitoring service.
The aim of this thesis was to compare three different systems for monitoring cloud-based services, implement the most suitable one and develop an application for Windows 8 where customers can see the status of their message channel inside the service. The monitoring systems tested were chosen and judged according to Softronics needs and monitoring requirements.
A monitoring service called New Relic was chosen for implementation. New Relic has support for most of the required features, and for the rest of the features, an application was developed. A Windows 8 application and a website were developed that show information about customers' message channels, and a web service was developed to supply both of them with the data they need.
Body sensor networking is a rapidly growing technology. Today wearable sensors are used to measure and monitor e.g. pulse, temperature, skin conductance, heart activity, and movement (through GPS or inertial measurement units). Mobile phones can act as coordinating nodes in wireless personal area networks used in home automation, healthcare, sport and wellness e.g. to measure pulse and distance. Integration of data from multiple sources sensors (data fusion) means that data from each sensor node needs to be associated with data from other sensor nodes sampled at approximately the same time. Accurate methods for time synchronization are therefore a necessary prerequisite for reliable data fusion.
This thesis studies time synchronization problems in Bluetooth piconets between multiple wireless sensor nodes connected to a mobile phone that acts as coordinating node. Three different algorithms to enable correct data fusion have been developed, implemented and evaluated. The first is a single clock solution that synchronizes multiple wireless sensor nodes based solely on the mobile phone's clock. The other two algorithms synchronize the clocks in sensor nodes to the clock in the coordinating node.
This paper presents a new algorithm for synchronization of data from multiple sensors arriving to a mobile phone's Bluetooth interface with possibly unknown and different sampling frequencies. A system that provides feedback signals to an athlete is one example where it is crucial to synchronize data from several wireless sensors; especially sensor nodes use different and unknown sampling rates.
This paper presents a method to synchronize the clocks in a Bluetooth piconet from the application layer in a mobile phone. It adapts algorithms for time synchronization of distributed systems and the Internet to Bluetooth networks. The performance issues that cause problems for data synchronization between master and slaves in Bluetooth are highlighted. The tests show that the synchronization error is limited to one sampling time.
This paper presents a new algorithm for application layer synchronisation of data from multiple sensors arriving to a mobile phone's Bluetooth interface. A system that provides feedback signals to an athlete is one example where it is crucial to synchronise data from several wireless sensors. This paper also discusses synchronisation problems caused by unpredictable Bluetooth transmission performance.
Efficient algorithms for time synchronization, including compensation for clock drift, are essential in order to obtain reliable fusion of data samples from multiple wireless sensor nodes. This paper evaluates the performance of algorithms based on three different approaches; one that synchronizes the local clocks on the sensor nodes, and a second that uses a single clock on the receiving node (e.g. a mobile phone), and a third that uses broadcast messages. The performances of the synchronization algorithms are evaluated in wireless personal area networks, especially Bluetooth piconets and ZigBee/IEEE 802.15.4 networks. A new approach for compensation of clock drift and a realtime implementation of single node synchronization from the mobile phone are presented and tested. Finally, applications of data fusion and time synchronization are shown in two different use cases; a kayaking sports case, and monitoring of heart and respiration of prematurely born infants.


text:
A Day in The Life of Hybrid Working: Christmas Edition
This is my absolute favourite time of year. I just love the festivities of everybody's houses lighting up the evening and sitting on the sofa with a hot drink and a Christmas movie on. There's nothing quite like it! In a world where Covid-19 still bubbles under the surface and we are unsure what the future holds,...
Hannah Braybrooke
Content Hub, Life at Neo
Meet the Team: From Government Comms to B2B Tech PR
Meet Emily, who has recently joined Neo PR as an Account Manager. With prior PR agency and public sector experience, Emily explains below why she has decided to make a return to B2B agency life! Growing up, I never had a clear plan about what job I wanted to have, but I hoped it would involve writing....
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Meet the Team: B2C to B2B
Since the start of September, Lucy has joined team Neo PR as a Senior Account Manager, transitioning from the B2C to the B2B tech world. She outlines her journey in the industry below and why she decided to make the switch to business-to-business. I had been in B2C tech PR for over five years and experienced the...
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Meet the Team: Entering the Hybrid World of PR
Meet Millie, who has recently joined Neo PR as a Senior Account Executive. With previous tech PR agency experience, Millie knows the in's and out's of the industry. But joining a new agency in a post-COVID-19 world can be a daunting transition to make, especially when adapting to the hybrid way of working, as she explains...
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Meet the Team: The Importance of Work Placements
Neo PR continues to grow, and we can now introduce to you the newest member of our team, Hannah Braybrooke, who has joined us as a Junior Account Executive straight out of university! She shares her job journey below, highlighting the importance of getting experience before jumping into the 9-5 world! After three years of studying Broadcast...
Hybrid working is the new employment currency
Gone are the days of traditional perks in the workplace - 28 days holiday, paid sick days, dress down Fridays. Now, both existing and prospective employees want more from their role and company culture. With the pandemic accelerating the 'work from home' trend, it is clear that employees enjoy this flexibility within their workplace. Acceleration of Remote...
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Meet Eleanor, our latest addition to the team, who has joined Neo PR as an Account Director. With years of experience in PR, both in house and through agencies, Eleanor reflects on both the old and the current structure of Public Relations. I'm no PR granny but I've been around for a while and I've seen...
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Public Relations is an exciting industry to join, whether it's at entry-level or with years of experience. Ella Haris is Neo PR's newest member of the team, who has joined as a Junior Account Executive fresh out of university. Ella explains why she chose to start her career in PR: I recently graduated from Oxford Brookes University...
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Top tips for keeping your culture when working remotely
The majority of people enjoy going into the office. Catching up with colleagues, having office banter and bonding over weekend plans or what you're eating for lunch. When this was all taken away from us pretty quickly last year, the transition to remote working was worrying for many businesses as they began to question how they...
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: NSIS - Delete all files except one file Could any one clarify me that, when uninstalling I need to delete everything form the Installation folder except the License file. How can I do it with NSIS scripting?
Thanks
Regards,
RoboAlex.

A: Instead of opening the file, as in Anders' third point, I'd do it this way:
Rename $INSTDIR\license.txt $PLUGINSDIR\license.txt
RMDir /R $INSTDIR # Remembering, of course, that you should do this with care
CreateDirectory $INSTDIR
Rename $PLUGINSDIR\license.txt $INSTDIR\license.txt

Depending on when it gets to the file it can't delete, RMDir /R may leave most of it behind, as I believe it will stop when it can't delete something; this way will get rid of it all properly. This will also lose the directory stats, but that's probably not important.
I'd recommend one of Anders' first two solutions over this, though. They're more precise.

A: Off the top of my head, there are 3 ways to do this:

*

*Use Delete on one file at the time on a list generated at compile time with !system etc

*Use FindFirst/FindNext/FindClose at runtime and Delete everything except the license based on filename

*A bit of a hack, but you should be able to open the license file for write/append, then Delete/RMDir will not be able to delete the file since it has a open handle.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Summer time is one the most relaxing times of the year. Hot sun, more daylight and just an overall break from the drudgery of everyday life. Summer is also a great time to vacation. One of the best parts about vacation is packing up and heading somewhere else where you have fewer responsibilities. Surprisingly for a lot of people, vacation can be just as (if not more) exhausting than regular workdays. Long days of playing in the sun are likely to leave you needing an extra day just to recover from your vacation! And, nothing's worse than coming home from a relaxing week at the beach to a dirty, cluttered house. In the weeks up to your vacation, you can take a few steps to ensure that your home is clean before you leave, so there's one less thing to worry about when you get back home!
Log on to the post office's website and schedule your holds. You can set the dates you'll be out of town. Get it done ahead of time so you don't forget in the last minute hustle. Not only will keeping your mail on hold keep your mailbox from cluttering up, it'll keep would-be-robbers from knowing you are out of town.
Check your cupboards and fridge for food you need to finish off before you leave on vacation. While most condiments will hold up, yogurt, eggs and other items that typically take a bit longer to go through are also more likely to spoil. Monitoring your food about two weeks out will also help you plan a grocery trip a little wiser.
Tackle any yard work at least a week out. Pull weeds, mow the lawn, fertilize and keep bugs at bay. This will ensure your yard still looks put together when you get back. Now is a good time to plan for plants that need extra attention while you are away (purchase watering bulbs or ask a friend stop by for your).
The U.S. Fire Administration recommends testing your alarms at least once a month. Make sure to test them right before you leave to ensure you home is safe while you're away. Testing only takes a minute.
Dedicate a few hours to cleaning your house from top to bottom. Sweep and wash the floors, scrub the bathroom, dust, wipe down cupboards and baseboards. It may be a little extra work, but you'll love walking into a clean home when your vacation is over.
If you're feeling overwhelmed with last minute vacation details, consider hiring a professional cleaning service to come in for a deep cleaning session. Then you can just keep the house tidy the last few days before your trip.
Don't forget to wash all of your towels, sheets, blankets, and pillowcases. That way you'll get to come home to a clean bed too.
Clean out the fridge: Get rid of food you won't be eating and scrub it out. Clean the inside and outside.
Clean the disposal: Pour vinegar and baking soda down your garbage disposal to eliminate odors.
Wash, dry and fold your laundry before you leave for vacation. You may think you won't mind a load of two when you get home. But you will. You'll be tired and sunburnt. Save yourself a little stress and just get it done before you go.
Tidy your house quickly before you go. Run the vacuum; put the dishes away, do a quick sweep etc. Don't forget to close all of your blinds and double check that you locked every window. (You can do a quick dusting when you check each window).
Make sure the garbage from every room in the home is out. This is especially true of bathroom and kitchen garbage as leaving them out could have you returning to a very smelly home.
If you have a regular cleaner come in, don't forget to schedule an appointment for a week or so after you get back. If you plan to be gone for a few weeks, you may want to have someone come in shortly before you get home to dust and put things together so your home is ready when you arrive.
Adjust your thermostat so your home stays a bit warmer while you are away. This helps conserve energy (and can save you a little on your next utility bill).
Make sure you have enough of your medications before you trip. Plan refills a day or two before you leave so you know you have enough. Additionally, take medicine and pharmacy information with you in case you lose you medication or forget them on the counter.
Unplug electronics. Unplug the TV, the radio, the microwave, toaster, radios and other media players. If you have a DVR, you may want to leave that plugged in because it won't record if it's unplugged (learned that the hard way!).
Call your credit card company to let them know the dates you will be out of town. This will keep your credit safe and prevent any hiccups if you try to pay with a card while out of state.
Taking some time to clean your home before vacation is a great way to reward yourself when you get home. Walking in the door to clean floors, no dishes, and fresh laundry can take a little of the vacation-is-over-blues away.
"I used Sparkling Clean for a move-out cleaning in Redwood City, and got the best results. Sigolena Quezada did a superb job-- punctual, friendly, professional, and boy, did she clean! Top marks!..."


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text:
Home News Regions Northern Virginia Northern Virginia Media Services to publish three more newspapers
Northern Virginia Media Services to publish three more newspapers
Published April 23, 2015 by Robert Powell, III
Leesburg-based Northern Virginia Media Services' regional publishing empire continues to expand.
The company has been awarded Department of Defense contracts to publish the Belvoir Eagle and the Quantico Sentry, two military base newspapers in Northern Virginia.
In addition, the Stafford County Sun, a weekly newspaper distributed in northern Stafford County, also joined the company this month.
The Belvoir Eagle serves the Fort Belvoir, an Army base in southeastern Fairfax County. The weekly is distributed free of charge to homes on the base as well as to most office buildings and public locations.
Distribution also includes the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency headquarters and the Washington Headquarters Services at the Mark Center in Alexandria.
The Quantico Sentry also is distributed at no charge to homes and offices on Marine Corps Base Quantico in southeastern Prince William County.
Under the terms of the Defense contracts, Northern Virginia Media Services provides editorial support, sells advertising, and prints and delivers the newspapers. Content is generated under the auspices of the respective public affairs offices.
"We're delighted that the leaders of these large military bases have placed their faith in us to help communicate their missions, and we're proud to serve the military in this way," Bruce Potter, chief operating officer of Northern Virginia Media Services, said in a statement. "In turn, these publications allow us to offer new print and digital marketing solutions to local businesses looking to extend their reach and grow their brands, especially with the military community and along the Interstate 95 corridor."
The base newspapers websites are www.belvoireagleonline.com and www.quanticosentryonline.com.
Stafford online content can be found at www.staffordcountysun.com, but it eventually will be consolidated with the company's regional news site, InsideNoVa.com.
The additional three papers are expected to boost the company's total weekly distribution to 200,000 Northern Virginia households.
Northern Virginia Media Services publishes five other weekly newspapers in four counties: Leesburg Today and Ashburn Today in Loudoun County; the Sun Gazette serving Great Falls, McLean, Oakton, Tysons and Vienna in Fairfax County; the Arlington Sun Gazette, and Prince William Today.
The company also publishes a monthly newspaper, Middleburg Life, and Washington FAMILY Magazine, a monthly parenting guide distributed throughout the Washington area. Its websites include InsideNoVa.com, LeesburgToday.com and WashingtonFamily.com.
Reston-based Maximus acquires Ascend
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Perspecta Labs lands $37M defense contract
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text:
Roseland Launches Consulting Division
SHORT HILLS, NJ-The new division will offer asset recovery services to financial institutions and other lenders and owners.
By Alyson Grala | April 09, 2009 at 09:42 AM
SHORT HILLS, NJ-The privately-owned, full-service company will focus its consulting work on situations where the firm's skills in large-scale land development, construction completion and residential management will bring the most benefit to clients exposed to the current variables affecting development land, partially and substantially completed buildings and property values, according to principal Bradford R. Klatt.
"This is the aspect of the real estate industry that we began in the early 1990s and our achievements are rooted in our collection of cross-disciplinary, in-house resources and special outside relationships among prominent financial institutions, development partners, private investors and municipal and state agencies," Klatt says, adding that this has allowed the company to address challenges and opportunities during all cycles and in all elements of the real estate development process.
Roseland's consulting services will offer a turnkey property and asset management operation. The firm will direct planning, entitlements and regulatory compliance of these projects to regain value and eventually recycle them back into the market.
The company will also take responsibility to assess and complete construction of partially built projects; manage the marketing, leasing and on-going property management; and prepare and sell assets to create incremental value and a pathway to liquidity.Roseland's skill set is best exemplified through its large-scale, multiphase high-density urban and suburban sites, Roseland principal Carl J. Goldberg points out. These include the 200-acre, mixed-use Port Imperial community along the Hudson River waterfront in New Jersey; the 471-unit, two-tower Battery Park City project in Lower Manhattan; and the 93-acre, master-planned Overlook Ridge community in Malden and Revere, MA.
"Combined with Roseland's community building skills, master planning, environmental remediation expertise and accessibility to public and private sources of capital," Klatt tells GlobeSt.com, "our asset recovery services will help clients stabilize their investments and recover as much capital as possible on these."
Miami Hotel Progresses Despite Sea Level Concerns, Resident Opposition
Lidia Dinkova | December 18, 2020
The developer that leases Jungle Island from the city wants to build a 281-key hotel in a 110-foot tall building, although it can go up to 130 feet and 300 keys.


text:
FE news
A teacher's guide to TikTok
Social media platform TikTok is now hugely popular with pupils across the world. What's it all about, asks Gemma Corby
By Gemma Corby
My interest was first piqued when students started announcing that they could "smell pennies".
I knew that the financial situation in schools was dire, but were we really training our young people to sniff out coins?
Nope. As it turns out, this comes from a popular meme from a virtual world known as TikTok.
Quick read: Social media overuse: the struggle to get up for school
Quick listen: We need to level up our understanding of video games
Want to know more? iPads and education: not a quick fix
I have since educated myself on this phenomenon, and this is what I have discovered…
What is TikTok?
TikTok is a social media video app that allows users to create short videos (between three and 15 seconds long). It has 500 million active users, putting it ahead of Twitter and Snapchat.
It is possible for users to make longer looping videos (up to 60 seconds) by stringing multiple clips together; there are also features such as slo-mo, graphics and filters.
Apart from being entertaining, it offers the chance to learn new skills. My niece learned how to draw a horse, step by step, by watching clips.
She also informed me that she learns new dance routines, which she and her friends practise in the school playground. The platform appears to encourage a degree of creativity in young people, keen to find ways to entertain others.
Should we be worried?
Like all things social media, a degree of caution needs to be taken, but much of it is common sense and already taught in many schools.
But it's important for schools to stay up to date as new apps appear, so they can update their e-safety policies accordingly.
My niece rattles off the usual rules, such as not sharing videos of friends without their permission, not adding your phone number, not engaging with strangers.
In an attempt to get down with the kids, I have downloaded the TikTok app and I have been alarmed by the number of scantily dressed, school-aged females, lip-synching and dancing provocatively around their bedrooms.
I am sure we have all been there in our teenage years, but in my day it was thankfully (for all concerned) minus an audience. The number of alerts I receive in a day is also concerning – it is an app that constantly demands your attention.
TikTok is meant to be for users aged 13 or over (with parental permission if they are under 18). However, as users do not need to have an account, it is easy for any young person with knowledge of how to use a smart device to engage with the platform.
This means there is a risk that they could be exposed to inappropriate content.
Some of the songs that young people mime along to include explicit lyrics – although it is possible that some of them do not fully understand the meaning of what they are singing (I recall the colour draining from my poor dad's face as I sang along to Madonna's Erotic back when I was 12).
It is easy for teachers to feel a bit out of their depth with ever-evolving apps holding the attention of young people in their thrall.
There were times when my students and my niece were trying to explain things to me when I felt like my grandad must have done when I showed him a camera phone for the first time.
He held it aloft, examining it closely and declared, "That's lovely dear, but where do you put the film?"
Gemma Corby is a freelance writer and former special educational needs and disability coordinator
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Arianne teaches at Glendale Community College — THE BIG SHOW CO.
Arianne is honored to be teaching Modern Technique at Glendale Community College. Sign up for class in the fall 2018! Mondays/Wednesdays 10:45 AM - 12:50 PM! See you on the dance floor!


Galmato Haven Repair is honored to serve you as the first and only Official Realdoll Certified Repair Center and providers of the amazing new Realdoll™ Consumer Protection Plan which combines the benefits of a warranty and insurance plan for your companion, plus other bonuses.
Despite being the industry standard for quality production, your Realdoll is still susceptible to the woes of life, including wear from time and unforeseen accidents. Until now you've had to carefully—and nervously–figure out how to keep her beautiful and get her repaired when needed. You call Abyss, you watch videos and you ask questions on the forums; then you do your best and hope for a good outcome.
No more. Professional help is now just a click away.
Our technicians have been personally trained and certified by Realdoll staff to give your doll the best care possible using the same materials that were used to build her. Now you can enjoy a full life with your doll, knowing that when accidents happen Galmato Haven is here for you to return her home like new every time. Starting with quality repair, the Spa Day, and the RCPP, Galmato Haven will continue to expand our services to you until we are your trusted name in everything doll.
Read more about the Spa Day and RCPP below or use the button to schedule a repair.
What is a Spa Day?
A Spa Day is the ultimate treat for you and your companion: A complete head-to-toe pampering session.
She won't get a mud bath or cucumber on the eyes, but she will have every minor-and-major injury repaired, from nicks and pokes to limb breaks. Her make-up, nails and body coloration will be restored; and her joints will be tightened. She'll be treated like the princess she is and come home to you freshly powdered, rejuvenated and ready to make you feel like you did the day she arrived for the first time.
Included in her Spa Day is a professionally done Boudoir Photo Shoot with image disc so that her beautiful, restored look is captured for you permanently. RCPP plans which include a Spa Day are scheduled at your request.
Read more about the RCPP below or use the button to schedule a Spa Day.
Finally, protection for your investment is here. We are pleased to introduce our Realdoll® Consumer Protection Plan (RCPP).
For years Realdoll owners have been looking for a way to protect the sizable investment you made on your companions. In response, Galmato Haven has worked closely together with Realdoll and a prominent member of the doll community to finally bring a protection plan to life that brings peace of mind to our customers at a fair investment. The RCPP combines the benefits of a warranty and insurance with the added benefit that all repair work is done and backed by us, the RCPP provider.
Coverage is divided into 3 options to cover companions 8 years old or younger. 60 and 36-month options include a Spa Day—a $2000 value alone—making the coverage a bargain.
We're constantly developing new ways to serve the doll community.
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Belton, Texas – On Wednesday, November 14, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor honored seniors Sydney Stolz of College Station and Allison Stevens of Weatherford with the Gary and Diane Heavin Servant Leadership Award, in recognition of the extraordinary time and energy they have devoted to ministry and community service during their years of study at UMHB. The recognition included a $1,000 cash award for each student, a portion of which could be donated to an organization of her choice.
Stolz is a communications major with an emphasis in public relations. She has maintained a 3.8 grade point average while playing on the women's volleyball team for the last three years and is a member of University Ambassadors. Stolz serves as a college assistant at Vista Community Church in Belton. She has served as director of the Psalm 139 Event at UMHB, a day designed to help women grow in their faith and foster community with others. Stolz gave a portion of her cash award to Young Life, a teen outreach ministry that she has been active in during her years at UMHB.
Stevens is a nursing major who has maintained a 3.2 GPA throughout her studies. At UMHB, she has served as a leader in First Year Council and Welcome Week. She has been active in Baptist Student Ministries and has taken a leadership role in Heart for the Nations, a community of students that meets regularly to pray, study the Bible, and support the spread of Christianity throughout the world. As a member of Temple Bible Church, Stevens has served as a youth intern and a mentor/leader for young people who live at Canyon Creek Townhomes in Temple. In recent years, she has also traveled to Uganda, the Arabian Peninsula, and France for the purpose of spreading the Gospel. She chose to give a portion of her cash award to Agape Impact Ministries, an organization which works with abandoned, abused, and orphaned children in the Philippines.
The Gary and Diane Heavin Servant Leadership Award is used to highlight the efforts of students who devote their time and talents to Christian service and to encourage other students to follow their examples. The award is named for Mr. and Mrs. Gary Heavin, who established a generous endowment at UMHB to fund this recognition annually.


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Nick Brandt (1966-) Great Britain
Nick Brandt studied film and painting at Saint Martin's School of Art in London. He moved to the US in 1992 and began working as a music video director. He began to approach photography more seriously in 1995 while in Tanzania to direct the video for "Earth Song" by Michael Jackson. Brandt was moved by the wildlife of the Savanna, and he decided to change careers and become a photographer. In 2000, he embarked on a project to capture the beauty of East Africa before it disappeared on account of human activity.
Brandt prefers not to use a zoom lens, citing his belief that the personality of an animal can only be captured on film by taking the image up close. Brandt has had numerous solo shows at a variety of galleries worldwide, including the Shapiro Gallery in Sydney, Bernheimer Fine Art Photography in Munich, and the June Bateman Gallery in New York.
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Breakfast with Jan Broman: Bringing Sweden's biggest photography gallery to NYC and London
The minds behind Fotografiska, one of Sweden's most attended museums, brothers Jan and Per Broman will be bringing their gallery to New York and London. We sit down with Jan to talk over coffee and kanelbullar (that's cinnamon buns to me and you.)


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Displaying items by tag: United States
Central Asia, the AIIB and the advent of 5G communication
By Kairat Bekov and Gregory Gleason
April 1st, 2016, The CACI Analyst
Competition over technological advantage has replaced rivalry over territorial advantage in the great games of contemporary Central Asia. One of the main thoroughfares of the modern "Silk Road" is the telecommunications highway. The impending advent of fifth generation telephone technology is opening yet a new sphere of interaction among the countries of Central Asia offering as many opportunities for regional cooperation as it creates for competition.
Russia recalibrates 201st base in Tajikistan
By Roger N. McDermott
February 25th, 2016, The CACI Analyst
Moscow has stated that among its defense and security priorities for 2016, Central Asia and the South Caucasus will top its agenda. Kavkaz 2016, the main strategic military exercise of the year, will take place in the Southern Military District (MD), while Tsentr 2015 occurred in Central MD with among its vignettes a rehearsal of intervention in Central Asia. Surprisingly in this context, the Defense Ministry plans to restructure the 201st Base in Tajikistan from divisional to brigade status. This initiative is driven by Moscow's growing concerns about the future of Central Asian security as it faces multiple potential threats stemming from Afghanistan and Islamic State (ISIS). But paradoxically, Moscow's latest moves to strengthen the basing of its forces in Tajikistan serves as an indicator of official perceptions that the region could suffer a serious security challenge.
Russia's confrontation with Turkey and instability in the South Caucasus
February 22nd, 2016, The CACI Analyst
The confrontation between Russia and Turkey, and the fast-changing situation on the oil and natural gas markets, have strongly impacted the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution process, as well as the internal state of affairs in both Armenia and Azerbaijan. Russia recently increased its military presence in Armenia, which has unsuccessfully sought support from fellow CSTO members in its confrontation with Azerbaijan. The ongoing clashes along the line of contact imply that the situation will likely remain tense in the short term. Meanwhile, the economic downturn in Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as in Russia, increases the risk of domestically motivated escalation of the conflict.
Kyrgyzstan denounces cooperation agreement with U.S.
By Arslan Sabyrbekov (19/08/2015 issue of the CACI Analyst)
On July 21, Kyrgyzstan's Prime Minister Tamar Sariev signed a government decree, unilaterally terminating the 1993 cooperation framework agreement with the U.S. Bishkek's decision came as a reaction to the State Department's decision to reward Azimjan Askarov with the Human Rights Defender Award. To Kyrgyz officials, Askarov is an ethnic Uzbek political activist serving a life sentence for organizing and taking part in the mass riots in Southern Kyrgyzstan in June 2010. In its official protest note to Washington, Kyrgyzstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has referred to him as "a symbol of disruption" and described the award as evidence of an attempt to undermine the country's unity.


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Q: Relation between The speed and Temperature of the molecule I'm fully aware of Gay-Lussacs Law, but when I was reading Feynman Lectures on Physics volume 1, sir said that the temperature and the speed of the gas (Ideal Gas) are proportional to each other. But if that's the case, shouldn't a fan never server its purpose if all that's happening is that its blades are imparting momentum to the adjacent air molecules, in turn increasing their speed and also increasing the temperature of the gas.
A.If we proceed with our last development so is it something like an AC, where the coolant is subjected to series of processes leading it to adsorb heat from the air from  the place that it's serving?
B.Does it also have something to do with the moisture content of the skin (A person felling better under the fan.) And the moisture content of the air.
Please answer if you know the answers to anyone of the sections if not all.

A: I will deal here with the sensations you would feel if you were sitting in front of a desk fan on a hot day.
It is true that the kinetic energy added to a parcel of air by that fan which accelerates it into a moving stream will eventually become heat via viscous dissipation, but for small fans that move air relatively slowly (as, for example, a fan sitting on a desk top in front of you) this effect is small.
A much larger effect is that of evaporative cooling, which occurs when that stream of air is blown over your skin, enhancing the evaporation of your sweat and thereby carrying heat away from your body. Note that for evaporative cooling to occur, the moisture content of the moving air must be significantly below the saturation point at the temperature of your room. The drier the air, the more cooling effect you will experience, and this effect will overwhelm the other.


The decision to file bankruptcy is rarely easy for a person to make. The process, while sometimes complicated and emotionally fraught, can result in getting a bankruptcy discharge leading to a fresh start. The United States Bankruptcy Code gives people, overwhelmed by debt, a new beginning by reducing or eliminating debt.
Bankruptcy is the process by which individuals can receive a discharge of their debt. By filing a bankruptcy petition, filers (referred to as debtors) immediately receive the benefit of the automatic stay. 11 U.S.C. §362 bars creditors from seeking repayment through any means other than the bankruptcy court. The automatic stay will stop phone calls, letters and most other civil actions against you.
Bankruptcy law is governed by Title 11 of the United States Code, known as the Bankruptcy Code. The Bankruptcy Code contains 5 different types broken into chapters: Chapter 7, Chapter 9, Chapter 11, Chapter 12 and Chapter 13. Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 are primarily used by individuals while Chapter 11 is used by larger companies. Chapter 9 is limited to governmental entities and Chapter 12 is limited to family farmers.


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The EU-US Trade Agreement: Creating the biggest trading bloc in the world, with the UK in it
US President Obama used his State of the Union address this week to kick start negotiations for an EU-US Transatlantic Partnership, likely to provide a much needed boost to the two leading global economies. Citing job creation and a boost to American exports, the US President declared "trade that is fair and free across the… » read more
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About: European Movement UK
The origins of the European Movement
The origins of the European Movement lie in the aftermath of the Second World War. More than eight hundred delegates from across Europe gathered in The Hague in May 1948, under the chairmanship of Sir Winston Churchill, to create a new international movement to unite Europe and prevent further wars between its members. The British section of the European Movement was founded a year later.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the European Movement put forward the arguments for joining the European Economic Community, and it ran a major campaign in the early 1970s, both among the general public and in parliament, to win the battle for entry. In 1975, during the referendum on membership, the European Movement played a central role in the YES campaign. Other campaigns since then have included pressing for direct elections to the European Parliament in the 1970s and promoting the benefits of the single market in the run-up to 1992.
During the 1990s, the organisation became revitalised around the need to create a new national pro-European coalition. The rise in anti-European feeling threatens to undermine Britain's place in the European Union; our exclusion from the first wave of countries joining the euro is an example of how we lose out when the pro-European case is not put strongly enough in public.
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- A rallying point: The European Movement rallies all those who believe that European unity is vital where the peoples of Europe have interests in common such as increased trade to improve economic prosperity, an improved environment to tackle climate change, and action to combat global poverty. A politically united Europe is needed to sweep aside the petty tribalism that has historically, at the very least, been an obstacle to progress or, at its worst, has led to bitter conflict and a catastrophic loss of human life. Europe must be united as a region of law, justice and democracy, equipped with the institutions capable of achieving these ends. Members receive a regular newsletter, euromove, with information and news about Pro-European developments. In addition, the office publishes updates on campaign ideas and issues an e-mail newsletter, e-News. Members take part in lively discussions in person and online, and the European Movement maintains an informative website.
- A campaign: The Movement has since its creation in 1948 sought to build and maintain public support for the unity of Europe. In the face of a backward-looking nationalist resurgence in some quarters, this role is as vital as ever. The campaigns include public information points, working with the media, and lobbying MPs and other decision-makers. In addition to the work of the London office, the branches and national councils organise campaign activities in their own areas, as well as political discussions and social events for members.
- A pressure group: The creation of the European Union has been an extraordinary achievement - democratic, sovereign states have created a common institutional framework in order to forge a future together based on the rule of law. But the European Movement is not the Union's information service or an apologist for its weaknesses. It must work to win support for the reforms necessary to improve its ability to meet the hopes and aspirations of its peoples.
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Kickstarter's Aziz Hasan steps down as CEO
Kickstarter CEO Aziz Hasan announced that he is stepping down from his leadership role. Sean Leow, the company's chief operating officer, will be interim CEO.
Hasan said the decision to leave came after a lot of "personal reflection" around his own creative work.
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"Over the last three years, Kickstarter has witnessed the power of this community reach truly historic heights of support for creative projects of all shapes and sizes. We saw pledges for creative projects surpass $6 billion, the total number of creative projects funded reach beyond 200,000, and our community of backers grew to over 20 million people," Hasan said in a statement.
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity.
The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, Kickstarter has received nearly $6 billion in pledges from 20 million backers to fund 205,000 projects, such as films, music, stage shows, comics, journalism, video games, technology, publishing, and food-related projects.
"While my last day as CEO will be April 4, I will remain on as an advisor to the company for the next several months as the Board searches for the next CEO. In the interim, Sean is the right leader for Kickstarter.
"He has brought his passion for empowering creative people through technology to the platform and its community for over six years," Hasan added.
In December, 2021, the platform planned to develop a decentralised crowdfunding protocol in the blockchain. Kickstarter received complaints and concerns from users when the announcement came out.
Costa Ricatechnology


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History Not on Caps' Side for Game 5 vs. Rangers
WASHINGTON (AP) - History isn't on the Washington Capitals' side now that they've blown another series lead in the playoffs.
The Capitals were up 2-0 on the New York Rangers. Now the series is tied at two games apiece headed into Friday's Game 5.
Washington has lost an incredible eight series after holding a two-game lead. The team has won only four of nine series after leading 2-0.
Fortunately for the Capitals, the current roster is oblivious to much of that history.
Said defenseman Karl Alzner: "The fans like to panic a little bit sometimes, but we're not panicking."
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Filed Under: New York Rangers, NHL, Washington Capitals