text:
Reinforcement Learning with Non-uniform State Representations for Adaptive Search
by Sandeep Manjanna, et al.
Efficient spatial exploration is a key aspect of search and rescue. In this paper, we present a search algorithm that generates efficient trajectories that optimize the rate at which probability mass is covered by a searcher. This should allow an autonomous vehicle find one or more lost targets as rapidly as possible. We do this by performing non-uniform sampling of the search region. The path generated minimizes the expected time to locate the missing target by visiting high probability regions using non-myopic path generation based on reinforcement learning. We model the target probability distribution using a classic mixture of Gaussians model with means and mixture coefficients tuned according to the location and time of sightings of the lost target. Key features of our search algorithm are the ability to employ a very general non-deterministic action model and the ability to generate action plans for any new probability distribution using the parameters learned on other similar looking distributions. One of the key contributions of this paper is the use of non-uniform state aggregation for policy search in the context of robotics.
READ FULL TEXT VIEW PDF
Sandeep Manjanna
Herke van Hoof
Gregory Dudek
Minsum k-Sink Problem on Path Networks
We consider the problem of locating a set of k sinks on a path network w...
Robert Benkoczi, et al. ∙
Non-Uniform Sampling of Fixed Margin Uniform Matrices
Data sets in the form of binary matrices are ubiquitous across scientifi...
Alex Fout, et al. ∙
Real-time Trajectory Generation for Quadrotors using B-spline based Non-uniform Kinodynamic Search
In this paper, we propose a time-efficient approach to generate safe, sm...
Lvbang Tang, et al. ∙
Convergence of the Non-Uniform Directed Physarum Model
The directed Physarum dynamics is known to solve positive linear program...
Enrico Facca, et al. ∙
A System for Generating Non-Uniform Random Variates using Graphene Field-Effect Transistors
We introduce a new method for hardware non-uniform random number generat...
Nathaniel Joseph Tye, et al. ∙
Interpolating Points on a Non-Uniform Grid using a Mixture of Gaussians
In this work, we propose an approach to perform non-uniform image interp...
Ivan Skorokhodov, et al. ∙
A Probabilistic Model for Planar Sliding of Objects with Unknown Material Properties: Identification and Robust Planning
This paper introduces a new technique for learning probabilistic models ...
Changkyu Song, et al. ∙
This paper addresses the discovery and synthesis of efficient search trajectories based on learned domain-specific policies and probabilistic inference. We also explore the use of non-uniform state space representations to enhance the performance of policy search methods.
Searching for a lost target or a person in the wilderness can be tedious, labor-intensive, imprecise, and very expensive. In some cases, the manual search and rescue operations are also unsafe for the humans involved. These reasons motivate the use of autonomous vehicles for such missions. In many search and rescue problems, timeliness is crucial. As time increases, the probability of success decreases considerably [1] , and every hour the effective search radius increases by approximately 3 km [2] . We present an active sampling algorithm that generates an efficient path in real-time to search for a lost target, thus making an autonomous search and rescue mission realistic and more beneficial.
Fig. 1: Overview of our search and rescue approach.
Given an approximate region of interest, the first task is to decide where to search. Within the region of interest, some areas have higher probability of containing the target than the others. Data shows that more than 90% of searches based on a probability distribution over the region have been resolved successfully within a short duration [3]
. We model the spatial field of search using classic Gaussian mixture models based on sightings of the lost target. The modeled probability distribution map over the search region is used as an input for planning the search paths. The traditional way to assign probabilities to search regions is with a distance ring model: a simple 'bulls-eye' formed by the
25%, 50%, 75%, and 95% probability circles [3]
. There are more advanced methods that propose a Bayesian model that utilizes publicly available terrain data to help model lost person behaviors enabling domain experts to encode uncertainty in their prior estimations
[4] . Since modeling of the search region probability distribution is not the focus of this paper, we use a simpler approach depending only on location and time of the target sightings. Our search algorithm would perform efficiently independent of the underlying probability distribution model.
Once the probability distribution of the search region is mapped, the task is to search this region efficiently such that the regions with high probability of finding the target (hotspots) are searched in the early phase of the exploration. Many complete coverage approaches use line-sweep based techniques [5, 6, 7] which are not suitable for search and rescue tasks because of their non-timeliness. Cooper et al. discuss the relationship between area coverage and search effort density. They claim that any solution to the optimal search density problem is also a solution to the optimal coverage problem [8] . We present a proof showing that coverage of the search region to reduce probability mass is equivalent to searching for the target. We have previously demonstrated an algorithm to selectively cover a region based on an underlying reward distribution [9, 10] . This technique, however, does not scale up smoothly for larger regions because of the computational complexity.
In this paper, we present an adaptive sampling technique that generates efficient paths to search the missing target as fast as possible by performing non-uniform sampling of the search region. The path generated minimizes the expected time to locate the missing target by visiting high search probability regions using non-myopic path planning based on reinforcement learning. A non-myopic plan is one that accounts for possible observations that can be made in the future [11] . Fig. 1 presents an overview of the whole path generation system. Our algorithm gets trained with a generic model of the probability distribution, which can be a map generated by a Gaussian mixture. These learnt parameters are used on the generated lost target probability distribution map to come up with an action plan (policy π). For a given state, an action is chosen according to the probability distribution π and thus a path is generated for the searcher robot. Training the system with discounted rewards helps the planner to achieve paths that cover hotspots at the earlier stages of the search task. A major contribution of this paper is the use of non-uniform state aggregation for policy search in the context of robotics.
The key feature of our search algorithm is the ability to generate action plans for any new probability distribution using the parameters learnt on other similar looking distributions, i.e. an action planner trained on generic search and rescue distribution models is capable of planning high rewarding paths with a new probability distribution map without being trained again.
Ii Problem Formulation
The search region is a continuous two-dimensional area of interest E⊂R2 with user-defined boundaries. The spatial search region is discretized into uniform grid cells, such that the robot's position x and the target's position y can be represented by two pairs of integers x,y∈Z2. Each grid-cell (i,j)
is assigned a prior probability value
q(i,j) of the target being present in that cell.
The aim is to find the target in as short a time as possible. Formally, we specify this objective as maximizing E[exp(−T/c)], where T is the time elapsed until the target is found and c is a condition-dependent constant. This objective reflects the assumption that the probability of the target's condition becoming bad is constant, and the aim is to locate the target in good condition.
We will specify the robot's behavior using a parametrized policy. This is a conditional probability distribution
that maps a description of the current state s of the search to a distribution over possible actions a. Our aim will be to automatically find good parameters θ, after which the policy can be deployed without additional training on new problems. The maximization objective then becomes:
maxθJ(θ)=maxθEτθ[exp(−T/c)], (1)
where the expectation is taken with respect to trajectories τθ=(s0,a0,s1,a1,...) generated by the policy πθ.
Iii Modeling of the Search Area
We model the spatial field of search using a classic Gaussians mixture model. The map q is initialized according to these generated prior probabilities. An example map is illustrated in Fig. 2. Our search algorithm can take any map q in accordance to the prior belief over where the target is. In this work, we will test our method on randomly generated Gaussian mixtures, but the algorithm could be trained on any type of distribution.
Fig. 2: Probability distribution modeled with
Gaussian mixtures.
Iv Policy Gradient Based Search
Finding a sequence of actions that maximizes a long-term objective could be done using dynamic programming. However, in our formulation the system state is described using a map containing the per-cell probability of the target being present and this map changes as areas are visited by the agent. The result is an extremely large state space where dynamic programming is impracticable - especially if the time to solve each particular problem is limited.
Instead, we turn to methods that directly optimize the policy parameters θ
based on (simulated) experience. To apply these methods, we will first formalize the search problem as a Markov Decision Process (MDP).
(a) Feature design 1 - centered around the robot with a map of size 9×9. This is all-grid uniform feature design.
(b) Feature design 2 - centered around the robot with a map of size n×n, with n≥10. This is a multi-resolution feature design.
(c) Average accumulated rewards with random starting locations
(d) Average discounted rewards with a fixed starting location
(e) CPU-time to obtain a path vs. growth in the size of the search world
Fig. 3: Results from evaluation of two different kinds of feature designs.
The shaded region indicates the standard deviation over five trials on three different sized worlds.
Iv-a Formalizing search as MDP
A Markov Decision Process is a formal definition of a decision problem that is represented as a tuple (S,A,T(st+1|st,at),r(st,at),γ), where S and A are the state and action space, T models transition dynamics based on the current state and action, and r defines the reward for the current state-action pair. γ is a discount factor that reduces the desirability of obtaining a reward t time-steps from now rather than in the present by γt. The objective is then to optimize the expected discounted cumulative reward J=Eτ[∑Ht=0γtrt(st,at)], where H is the optimization horizon.
In the proposed approach, we take the state s to include the position of the robot x as well as the map q containing the per-location presence probability for the target, s=(x,q). The actions we consider are for the robot to move to and scan the cell North, East, South or West of its current location. Transitions deterministically move the agent in the desired direction. When scanning does not reveal the target, the probability mass q(i,j) of the current cell (i,j) is then reduced to 0111More complex models specify a probability of detection (POD) given that robot and target are in the same area [8] . For now, our work assumes a probability of detection (POD) of 1. A more realistic POD could easily be included in our approach by updating the probability mass in the cell accordingly. Furthermore, note that as probability mass is cleared, the numbers in q no longer sum up to 1, so q is an unnormalized probability distribution..
The most intuitive definition of the reward function corresponding to (Eq. 1) would give the reward of 1 for recovering the target, coupled with a discount factor γ=exp(−1/c)
. However, this reward function has a high variance, as with the exact same search strategy the target could be found quickly, slowly, or not at all due to chance. Instead, we reward the robot for scanning cells with a high probability of containing the target. This does not introduce bias in the policy optimization, while reducing statistical variance
222Proofs are given in the Appendix.. A lower statistical variance typically allows optimal policies to be learned using fewer sampled trajectories.
(a) test-scenario1 - mixture of Gaussians based probability distribution
(b) test-scenario2 - non-gaussian probability distribution
Fig. 4: Probability distributions used for testing. Colorbars indicate the probability of finding the lost target.
Iv-B Policy Gradient Approach
Policy gradient methods use gradient ascent for maximizing the expected return Jθ. The gradient of the expected return (∇θJθ) guides the direction of the parameter (θ) update. The policy gradient update is given by,
θk+1=θk+η∇θJθ,
where η is the learning rate. The likelihood ratio policy gradient [12] is given by,
∇θJθ=∫τ∇θpθ(τ)R(τ)dτ (2)
However, this expression depends on the correlation between actions and previous rewards. These terms are 0 in expectation, but cause additional variance. Ignoring these terms yields lower-variance updates, which are used in the Policy Gradient Theorem (PGT) algorithm and the GPOMDP algorithm [13, 14, 15] . Accordingly, the policy gradient is given by,
∇θJθ=1mm∑i=1H−1∑t=0∇θlogπθ(a(i)t|s(i)t)(H−1∑j=tr(s(i)j,a(i)j)−b(s(i)t)). (3)
In this equation, the gradient is based on m sampled trajectories from the system, with s(i)j the state at the jth time-step of the ith sampled roll-outs. Furthermore, b is a variance-reducing baseline. In our experiments, we set it to the observed average reward.
Iv-C Policy design
We consider a policy that is Gibbs distribution in a linear combination of features given by
π(s,a)=eθTϕsa∑beθTϕsb,∀s∈S;a,b∈A, (4)
where ϕsa is an l
-dimensional feature vector characterizing state-action pair (
s,a) and θ is an l-dimensional parameter vector. This is a commonly used policy in reinforcement learning approaches [14] . The final feature vector ϕsa is formed by concatenating a vector ϕ′sδaa′ for every action a′∈{North,East,South,West}, where ϕ′s⊂Rk is a feature representation of the state space, and δaa′ is the Kronecker delta. Thus, the final feature vector has 4×k entries, 75% of which corresponding to non-chosen actions will be 0 at any one time step.
We consider two types of feature representations (ϕ′s) for our approach. The first feature construction is to consider a vector that represents all rewards in q robot-centric, as illustrated in Fig. 2(a). This feature vector grows in length as the size of the search region increases, resulting in higher computation times for bigger regions. In the second design we consider a multi-resolution feature aggregation resulting in a fixed number (24) of features irrespective of the size of the search region. In this case, features corresponding to larger cells are assigned a value equal to the average of values of q(i,j) that fall in that cell. In multi-resolution aggregation, the feature cells grow in size along with the distance from the robot location as depicted in Fig. 2(b). Thus, areas close to the robot are represented with high resolution and areas further from the robot are represented in lower resolution. The intuition behind this feature design is that the location of nearby target probabilities is important to know exactly, while the location of faraway target probabilities can be represented more coarsely. The multi-resolution feature design is also suitable for bigger worlds as it scales logarithmically to the size of the world.
Both these feature designs were tested with the policy gradient based searching algorithm and we found that the multi-resolution aggregated features produce higher accumulated rewards and better discounted rewards (Fig. 2(c), 2(d)). Also, the computation gets quadratically expensive as the size of the grid world increases (Fig. 2(e)). Based on these results, a non-uniform, multi-resolution, robot-centric feature design is more beneficial for efficient searching. These results further strengthen our belief that the immediate actions are influenced by the nearer rewards and the farther low-resolution features enhance non-myopic planning of the whole path. Theoretically, replacing the individual cell values by their averages causes some information loss. However, to plan for far-away target probabilities, a coarse location is enough. In fact, the results in Fig. 2(c) and Fig. 2(d) show that, perhaps due to the regulating effect of averaging, multi-resolution grids perform better than the uniform representation even after extensive training.
Further in this paper we will only consider the multi-resolution robot-centric feature design in our policy gradient search algorithm. The aggregated feature design is only used to achieve better policy search, but the robot action is still defined at the grid-cell level.
V Experimental Results and Discussion
In this section, we will introduce the experimental set-up and baseline methods, before presenting and discussing the experimental results.
(a) Boustrophedonic coverage
over test scenario 1
(b) Informed spiral search on test scenario 1
(c) Action plan generated by our method for test scenario 1
(d) Boustrophedonic coverage
over the test scenario 2
(e) Informed spiral search on test scenario 2
(f) Action plan generated by our method for test scenario 2
(g) Total accumulated rewards vs. length of the path
(h) Discounted reward vs. length of the path. For our experiments, we used a discount factor γ=0.9
Fig. 5: Comparison of three search methods. The trajectories shown are from
running the three search methods for 300 time steps.
V-a Setup
We generated a generic training scenario with probability distributions for a lost target using Gaussian mixtures. We model the search space of a simulated aerial search vehicle as a 30×30 grid world with each grid-cell spanning 100m×100m. We used 20 roll-outs in every iteration of the training phase. A discount factor of 0.9 was used in these experiments. During the test phase, an action with maximum probability is chosen at a given state. Fig. 2 illustrates the probability distribution grid used for training our policy based searcher. However, as mentioned in Section III, the searcher algorithm could be trained on any other type of distribution too. Two significantly different test-scenarios are presented to evaluate and compare the search algorithms. The first test-scenario (Fig. 3(a)) comprises of two Gaussians imitating the probability distribution of a lost target. The second test-scenario (Fig. 3(b)) cannot be represented as a mixture of a few Gaussians.
V-B Baselines
Traditionally, exhaustive sampling of a partially observable, obstacle-free region employs a boustrophedon path [16] . The boustrophedon or lawnmower path is the approach a farmer takes when using an ox to plow a field, making back and forth straight passes over the region in alternating directions until the area is fully covered. Another efficient search pattern reported in the robotic search literature is spiral, which minimizes the time to find a single stationary lost target in several impressive idealized scenarios [17, 18] .
We compare our search algorithm with these two search techniques. Fig. 4(a)-4(f) illustrate the paths generated by the three coverage algorithms overlaid on top of the test scenario probabilities. The paths shown are generated by running the search algorithms for 300 time-steps.
V-C Results and discussion
Spiral search can generate efficient, or even optimal, paths under suitable conditions such as the first test scenario (Fig. 4(b)). Its satisfactory performance is only assured for a restricted class of unimodal distributions (as opposed to that in Fig. 4(e)). We compare these algorithms based on the rewards collected by removing the probability mass in the search region, corresponding to the (discounted) probability of finding the target. Our goal is to reduce the probability mass as fast as possible by visiting regions with high probability mass (hotspots). We use discounted rewards as a metric to measure the timeliness of an algorithm.
The plots in Fig. 4(g) illustrate how our proposed method is the fastest to cover the target probability mass on both test scenarios, even though all methods eventually visit all states of potential interest. Spiral search performs on par with our algorithm in terms of total rewards accumulated. Nonetheless, policy based searcher out performs both, spiral and boustrophedon search techniques in total discounted rewards on the second test scenario by a significant margin. Thus the policy based searcher exhibit a higher order of timeliness, which is a key requirement for any search algorithm to be applicable in search and rescue missions.
It is important to note that despite the dissimilarity between the training scenario and the test scenario, the policy-based search algorithm achieves better performance than the other methods.
Vi Conclusions
We presented an optimization algorithm that results in a policy that can generate non-myopic search plans for novel environments in real time. Our policy gradient based search algorithm is well suited for applications in search and rescue because of its ability to come up with a search plan on-the-go, based on the new probability distribution of the lost target, with no time wasted on retraining. Other time-critical applications like aerial surveys after a calamity, water surface surveys to monitor and contain algal blooms, and searching for remains under ocean after an accident, can use the presented algorithm to explore the region of interest.
In the near future, we would like to enhance the performance of the search algorithm by exploring different feature aggregation techniques and designing an adaptive aggregation that can combine features in real-time according to the observations made during the survey.
We would like to thank the the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) for their support through the Canadian Field Robotics Network (NCFRN).
First, we want to show that giving a reward for clearing probability mass instead of locating the target does not bias the objective function.
Eτθ[H−1∑t=0γtr(st,at)]=Eτθ,y[R(τ)]
where the discount factor γ=exp(−1/c), y is the target's location, and the proxy reward r(st,at) is equal to the probability of the target being at the robot's location x according to q333The reward map q is not normalized, yet after clearing a fraction g or probability mass, the probability that the target has not been found yet is 1−g. If the target were not found yet, the normalized probability that the target is in cell (i,j) is q(i,j)/(1−g). So the probability of finding the target in (i,j) indeed equals (1−g)q(i,j)/(1−g)=q(i,j).. R(τ)=exp(−T/c) with T is the time until the target is found if the target is found within H time steps, or 0 otherwise444The proof here assumes a static target for notational simplicity, but can be generalized to dynamic targets by making both r and y time-step dependent, and calculating expected values over all y1,…,yH jointly..
For any trajectory,
EyR(τ) ={Ey[exp(−1/c)T]if T≤H0otherwise
=Ey[H−1∑t=0γtδ(xt,y)]
=H−1∑t=0γtEy[δ(xt,y)]=H−1∑t=0γtr(st,at),
where δ is the Kronecker delta. Since this equality holds for any trajectory, it must hold for a linear combination of trajectories.
Now, we want to show that the variance of gradient estimates using the proxy reward for clearing probability mass is lower than that of the gradient estimates using the original objectives.
VarH−1∑t=0∇θlogπθ(at|st)H−1∑j=tγjr(sj,aj)≤VarEXH−1∑t=0∇θlogπθ(at|st)H−1∑j=tγjδ(xj,y)
We use the definition of the variance and rearrange terms as in the GPOMDP method [13] to reformulate the proposition. We introduce the shorthand rj=r(sj,aj) make the equations more readable, and obtain
Eτ⎡⎣(H−1∑j=0γjrjj∑t=0∇θlogπθ(at|st))2⎤⎦ (5)
−Eτ[H−1∑j=0γjrjj∑t=0∇θlogπθ(at|st)]2 (6)
≤ Eτ⎡⎣(EyH−1∑j=0γjδ(xj,y)j∑t=0∇θlogπθ(at|st))2⎤⎦ (7)
−Eτ[EXH−1∑j=0γjδ(xj,y)j∑t=0∇θlogπθ(at|st)]2. (8)
Note that (6) and (8
) are expectations of unbiased estimates of the respective objective, and so equal the gradient of the expected value of the respective objective. By Proposition
4, these expected values are the same, so (6) and (8) cancel each other out. Writing out the squares in (5) and (7) and combining like terms yields
where we introduced the shorthand
Sj=j∑t=0∇θlogπθ(at|st),
and used the fact that Sj, Si are independent of the target location y. Note that ri is just the probability that δ(xi,y)=1, and since the agent cannot find the target twice, δ(xi,y)δ(xj,y) is non-zero only if i=j. Thus, the proposition is equivalent to
Eτ[H−1∑j=0H−1∑i=0γi+j(rjri−δ(i,j)ri)SjSi]≤0. (9)
The left-hand side of this inequality can be expressed and upper-bounded as follows:
Eτ[H−1∑j=0H−1∑i=0γi+j(rjri−δ(i,j)ri)SjSi] (10)
=H−1∑i=0H−1∑j=0γi+jrirjSiSj−H−1∑i=0riγ2iS2i
≤(2−H−1∑k=0rk)H−1∑i=0H−1∑j=0γi+jrirjSiSj−H−1∑i=0riγ2iS2i
=−Eτ⎡⎣H−1∑i=0ri(γiSi−H−1∑j=0γjrjSj)2⎤⎦. (11)
The inequality is due to the sum of rewards always being smaller than 1 (as the rewards denote probabilities of finding the target, and would sum up to 1 if and only if the robot visits all cells where probability mass was initially present in this trajectory). Note that the expected value in (11) is non-negative: it is a weighted sum of squared terms, where all weights are non-negative (again, due to their interpretation as probabilities). Thus, (11) is non-positive, so (10) must ≤0, confirming (9).
[1] L. D. Pfau, "Wilderness search and rescue: Sources and uses of geospatial information," Master's thesis, Pennsylvania State University, 2013.
[2] T. J. Setnicka, Wilderness search and rescue. Boston, US: Appalachian Mountain Club, 1980, no. 363.348 S495w.
[3] R. J. Koester, Lost Person Behavior: A search and rescue guide on where to look—for land, air and water. Charlottesville, VA: dbS Productions LLC, 2008.
[4] L. Lin and M. A. Goodrich, "A Bayesian approach to modeling lost person behaviors based on terrain features in wilderness search and rescue," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 300–323, 2010.
[5] W. H. Huang, "Optimal line-sweep-based decompositions for coverage algorithms," in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation (ICRA), vol. 1, 2001, pp. 27–32.
[6] A. Xu, C. Viriyasuthee, and I. Rekleitis, "Optimal complete terrain coverage using an unmanned aerial vehicle," in IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2011, pp. 2513–2519.
[7] C. Berger, M. Wzorek, J. Kvarnström, G. Conte, P. Doherty, and A. Eriksson, "Area coverage with heterogeneous UAVs using scan patterns," in Proc. IEEE Int. Symp. Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR), 2016, pp. 342–349.
[8] D. C. Cooper, J. R. Frost, and R. Q. Robe, "Compatibility of land sar procedures with search theory," Potomac Management Group Alexandria VA, Tech. Rep., 2003.
[9] S. Manjanna, N. Kakodkar, M. Meghjani, and G. Dudek, "Efficient terrain driven coral coverage using Gaussian processes for mosaic synthesis," in Conf. Computer and Robot Vision (CRV). IEEE, 2016, pp. 448–455.
[10] S. Manjanna and G. Dudek, "Data-driven selective sampling for marine vehicles using multi-scale paths," in IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Vancouver, Canada, September 2017, pp. 6111–6117.
[11] A. Singh, A. Krause, and W. J. Kaiser, "Nonmyopic adaptive informative path planning for multiple robots." in IJCAI, vol. 3, 2009, p. 2.
[12] R. J. Williams, "Simple statistical gradient-following algorithms for connectionist reinforcement learning," in Reinforcement Learning. Springer, 1992, pp. 5–32.
[13] J. Baxter and P. L. Bartlett, "Infinite-horizon policy-gradient estimation,"
Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research
, vol. 15, pp. 319–350, 2001.
[14] R. S. Sutton, D. A. McAllester, S. P. Singh, and Y. Mansour, "Policy gradient methods for reinforcement learning with function approximation," in Advances in neural information processing systems, 2000, pp. 1057–1063.
[15] M. P. Deisenroth, G. Neumann, J. Peters et al., "A survey on policy search for robotics," Foundations and Trends® in Robotics, vol. 2, no. 1–2, pp. 1–142, 2013.
[16] H. Choset and P. Pignon, Coverage Path Planning: The Boustrophedon Cellular Decomposition. London: Springer London, 1998, pp. 203–209.
[17] S. Burlington and G. Dudek, "Spiral search as an efficient mobile robotic search technique," in Proceedings of the 16th National Conf. on AI, Orlando Fl, 1999.
[18] M. Meghjani, S. Manjanna, and G. Dudek, "Multi-target rendezvous search," in IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2016, 2016, pp. 2596–2603.


By Mark Hobbs of Johnson Hobbs Squires LLP posted in Elder Law on Tuesday, November 21, 2017.
Long-term care costs can add up quickly. For veterans and the surviving spouses of veterans, help may be available. The Veterans Administration (VA) has an underused pension benefit called Aid and Attendance that provides money to those who need assistance performing everyday tasks.
By Mark Hobbs of Johnson Hobbs Squires LLP posted in Elder Law on Tuesday, October 17, 2017.
The median cost of a private nursing home room in the United States has increased to $97,455 a year, up 5.5% from 2016, according to Genworth's 2017 Cost of Care survey, which the insurer conducts annually. Genworth reports that the median cost of a semi-private room in a nursing home is $85,775, up 4.44% from 2016. The rise in prices is much larger than the 1.24% and 2.27% gains in 2016.


text:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

<title>Uses of Class org.maltparser.core.syntaxgraph.headrules.Direction (MaltParser 1.8.1)</title>
<meta name="date" content="2014-12-02">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../../../../../stylesheet.css" title="Style">

JavaScript is disabled on your browser.

Overview

Package

Class

Use

Tree

Deprecated

Index

Help

MaltParser 1.8.1

Prev

Next

Frames

No Frames

All Classes

Uses of Class
org.maltparser.core.syntaxgraph.headrules.Direction

Packages that use Direction

Package
Description

org.maltparser.core.syntaxgraph.headrules

Uses of Direction in org.maltparser.core.syntaxgraph.headrules

Fields in org.maltparser.core.syntaxgraph.headrules declared as Direction

Modifier and Type
Field and Description

protected Direction
HeadRule.defaultDirection

protected Direction
PrioList.direction

Methods in org.maltparser.core.syntaxgraph.headrules that return Direction

Modifier and Type
Method and Description

Direction
HeadRule.getDefaultDirection()

Direction
HeadRules.getDefaultDirection(NonTerminalNode nt)

static Direction
Direction.valueOf(String name)

Returns the enum constant of this type with the specified name.

static Direction[]
Direction.values()

Returns an array containing the constants of this enum type, in
the order they are declared.

Methods in org.maltparser.core.syntaxgraph.headrules with parameters of type Direction

Modifier and Type
Method and Description

PhraseStructureNode
PrioSet.getHeadChild(NonTerminalNode nt,
                        Direction direction)

void
HeadRule.setDefaultDirection(Direction direction)

Overview

Package

Class

Use

Tree

Deprecated

Index

Help

MaltParser 1.8.1

Prev

Next

Frames

No Frames

All Classes

Copyright 2007-2014 Johan Hall, Jens Nilsson and Joakim Nivre.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


UPDATE (6/27/08): Click here for complete Summer Night Market information.
Visitors to the Vancouver area will quickly notice that there is a very substantial Chinese population in this city. As such, there are a lot of cultural events that take place throughout the year and one of the most popular is the annual Richmond Night Market.
Taking place over a span of several months over the summer, the annual event is where people can spend their evenings shopping in an outdoor marketplace and enjoying some food at Richmond Night Market. It may have been plagued with some counterfeit items (fake Gucci purses, for example) in the past, but this is what happens when you have a Hong Kong-style marketplace!
I've written a few things on the Richmond Night Market in the past, largely because the official website is seriously lacking in information. This year, unfortunately, the official website does have an important piece of information.
Target Events is the company that owns the copyright to the name "Richmond Night Market" and they are the ones who have been running the annual festivities for the past few years. They were unable to secure the lease for the same site as last year and they were unable to secure another site in Richmond for this year. They are currently looking for a new site for Richmond Night Market 2009.
This means that there will not be a Richmond Night Market this year. However, this does not necessarily mean that there will not be a different outdoor Hong Kong-style marketplace in Richmond; it just means that it won't be run by Target Events. If another promotional company decides to do something, they can. Alternatively, you can consider the Chinatown Night Market in Vancouver. The Chinatown Night Market opens tomorrow.
UPDATE: Lions Communications says that they will be hosting a night market in Richmond called the Summer Night Market. It will likely be in the same location as last year, but Target Events removed all the plumbing, wiring, and sanitary facilities last year. Lions has taken steps to set up the site for this year. According to their website, they are gearing up to open on May 30 and the Summer Night Market will run until October 5.
In the past? And you're justifying it?
Counterfeit products are less prevalent now (or last year) than they have been in the past. There are still "knockoffs" however.
I'm not justifying it, but I do understand the phenomenon.
That's OK. We can hit the REAL Night Markets in Taipei. Prado anyone? Gocci? Rolax?
Great first picture and the name is so poetic. Liked the post.
Night market is becoming more popular nowadays. Even in the Philippines, example in lucena, whenever the town is celebrating its town fiesta, night market is at large on the city proper.


Items may be returned within 7 days of purchase you must have the original receipt and the items/s must be in as sold condition.
Please choose your item/s carefully as we DO NOT offer refunds.
With change of mind or incorrect sizing customers are able to return their item/s to Decadence Cowgirl Boutique at their own expense and will be issued with their choice of exchange for another item or credit voucher.


How to complain about a Airline?
To file your complaint with Aviation Dispute Resolution you must have first complained direct to the airline or airport and given them up to eight weeks to respond.
Our decisions are binding on our members and our service is 100% FREE for consumers.


Do you have unwanted metal items around the house or farm? Turn them into cash!
Advantage Metals Recycling makes it easy for you to "go green" and sell your scrap metal or sell your junk car! With fast and friendly service in 13 locations in Kansas and Missouri, we guarantee payment on time, every time. Bring us your old stoves, refrigerators, frying pans, bicycles, equipment, you name it... and we'll recycle all of them. It's a win-win for you and the environment.
We cater to the industrial and manufacturing sectors with our highly skilled dispatch teams who manage container scrap collection and pickup services. We provide customers with fast, reliable, personalized, comprehensive transportation services tailored to your schedule, moving materials from your scrap yard or manufacturing facility to one of our 16 recycling plants.
At home or at work, you profit, our communities' benefit, and the environment's protected from unnecessary landfill.
DOWNLOAD the list of scrap metal items we don't accept.


text:
Cover Image for Los Angeles Meeting & Travel Professionals Guide
The aerial images from Los Angeles that I had a pleasure to capture during helicopter flight still attract huge attention among various media and publishing companies so this time I proudly share the cover page for Los Angeles Meeting & Travel Professionals Guide.
ABOUT LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE
Los Angeles has chronicled life in the second-largest U.S. city since the magazine's founding by Geoff Miller in the spring of 1961. The definitive resource for Angelenos, Los Angeles covers the people, food, culture, arts and entertainment, fashion, lifestyle, and news that defines Southern California with a signature mix of feature-length writing, service journalism, investigative reporting, and design. Led by executive editor Matthew Segal, the magazine has been the recipient of three National Magazine Awards in addition to numerous other industry honors. With more than 800,000 monthly readers and 140,000 monthly subscribers, Los Angeles is the only local publication with 100% paid and verified readership.
Los Angeles's Web site, LAmag.com, is the go-to site for people who want to keep up with what matters in Los Angeles from those who know the city best. Updated daily, the Web site offers original coverage of culture, food, fashion, local history, news and the people who shape it.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Wild windy conditions overnight. Gusts of over 50 MPH but it's still this AM. Record return runs for the cars in impound commenced at 8:10 AM. Conditions are much cooler, temp at 8:00 is 59 degrees. There is much unsettled weather in the area, we hope to get a lot of racing in before it hits.
This put almost 20 MPH on his old record. Not bad for a 260 CID Blown motor!!
More Speed information as I get it.
The weather conditions have changed again. It is just incredibly great. Clear to partly cloudy skies, NO wind, warm temps (mid 70's). Nothing like yesterday. We have had reports of serious rain in the area last evening, Salt Lake city got strong thunderstorms, and there is obviously the possibility for rapid changes in the weather at Bonneville. We have been seeing some excellent racing. The Quad engined Chet Herbert car has raised the top speed of the meet to 345.803 MPH. Not fast enough to take the 378 mph class record from the Nish team, but fast indeed.
The weather is again the big news. A strong thunder storm has blown to the salt flats from the south. The officials have brought all the cars in impound to the starting line and are hurrying to get record return runs done before rain stops everything.
The following runs were completed, but strong winds and a lightning strike shut down the information radio system abd the times are not yet available. I'll post them when I get them.
The rain storm that prompted the early return runs ended runs for the day. The rain (20 minutes) wasn't enough to damage the track or the excellent traction. The wind storm that followed did put a halt to racing however. There is hope that vehicles in impound (if any) will be able to make return runs tomorrow AM. Weather forcasts are not encouraging.
There was an incident with the Burkdoll Racing C/FS Streamliner early this afternoon. Bo Burkdoll had a speed of 266 MPH in the middle mile and crashed in the third mile. Bo was shaken up in the event, but was reported to be walking and talking, but was taken to the hospital for observation. The race car suffered significant damage but remained fully intact. It has been a tough event for some of the streamliners.
John Noonan was on a record return run in an increasing rain storm, when a presumed lightning strike knocked out the radio station and likely interferred with the timing for the run (there was a loud thunderclap and the radio went off the air as I was watching him disappear into the rain thru the timed section of the course). John was observed by many at a good pace and likely above 200 MPH however, his timing data (included in the timing data below) reads 85 MPH. It looks like a tough break for a top notch Motorcycle racing operation. His run was the last recorded.


text:
Sign Hill Stewards: Habitat Restoration
Join the South San Francisco Parks and Recreation Department for a morning of fresh air, beautiful views, and meaningful habitat restoration on Sign Hill!
Date: 02/15/2020 02/15/2020 02/15/2020
Many rare plant and animal species live on Sign Hill's native grasslands, including the endangered mission blue butterfly. Help us conserve and restore their habitat by removing invasive plants and planting native plants! Sign Hill Stewards will do important work while also learning more about the wildlife in their backyard.
When/Where: Workdays are held on the second Wednesday and the following Saturday of each month from 9am - 12pm. We meet at the Sign Hill parking lot, located at the top of Ridgeview Ct, South San Francisco, CA 94080. Only heavy rain cancels.
Registration: Registration is required. To register, please visit our Eventbrite page https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sign-hill-stewards-habitat-restoration-tickets-80971751689 or email emma.lewis@ssf.net. Volunteers under the age of 18 must have a youth waiver signed by a parent/guardian at the event check-in. Youth under the age of 15 are welcome and must be accompanied by an adult.
What to bring: To prepare for working outdoors, please bring a water bottle, sturdy shoes, long pants and sleeves, and a hat/sunscreen. Volunteers should expect some hiking on steep terrain. Training, tools, and light snacks will be provided.
Questions? Cancellations? Accessibility concerns? Email emma.lewis@ssf.net


As the body's largest organ, your skin has a tough job; aside from the typical everyday irritation from clothing or perspiration, it adapts to a different set of threats each time the season changes.
In the winter, your skins threat is the harsh climate. Theres less humidity in the air, temperatures fluctuate greatly as you move from indoors to outdoors, and dry, blowing heat is everywhere. Flip the calendar forward about six months to summer, and your skin is facing powerful sunshine, more perspiration and prolonged exposure to pool, lake or sea water.
Why Do We Experience Seasonal Skin Changes?
Seasonal skin changes arent imagined. A study recently published in the British Journal of Dermatology confirmed that cellular changes do occur with the seasons, and contribute to seasonal skin changes, such as eczema, dry skin and rosacea.
In the study, changes were observed in the levels of breakdown products of filaggrin, a protein which supports the skins function as a barrier. Cells on the outermost part of the skins epidermis, called corneocytes, also exhibited seasonal changes.
Wouldnt you like to wake up looking refreshed each morning, with skin thats smoother, firmer and brighter than it was when you went to sleep the night before?
The truth is, something youre probably doing night after night is impeding your skins nighttime rejuvenation process. So today, Im going to tell you the secret to repairing your skin while you sleep, so you can safely and naturally be healthier and look younger.
Researchers say these findings are notable as they help to explain why seasonal skin changes which are one of the leading reasons people visit a dermatologist occur.
The researchers recommend that people protect their skin year round, and adapt for each season.
In the winter, covering up can help shield exposed skin, particularly your face, against extremes such as the cold air, wind and reflecting sun. Running a cool mist humidifier (like this one) indoors can also help offset the dry, arid feel of home heating. And even though a steamy hot shower may be tempting when it's cold out, lukewarm temperatures are gentler on the skin.
In the summer, try to rinse off in fresh water after a dip in salt or chlorinated water whenever possible. Wear a hat (like these sun hats) to protect your face and shoulders against the dangerous UV rays of the sun.
Whether youll be heading out into a bright summers day, or to a frigid snowy landscape, protect against UV radiation by wearing a sunscreen with an SPF of 30 higher than that doesnt make a significant difference. Another year round habit: moisturize regularly with a natural product, such as coconut, castor or olive oil, perhaps lightly mixed with one of your favorite essential oils. Aloe vera gel or shea butter are also good skin quenchers.
As science continues to learn more about the skins reactions, it will become easier and easier to keep your skin soft and healthy, regardless of the season.
Debbie Swanson is a freelance writer, published in numerous national and local outlets. An avid vegetarian, animal lover and reader, she loves learning about healthy eating and finding natural cures for everyday ailments.


Create fully produced radio ads in minutes by following along with our script and audio bed tutorial. Developing new radio creative on a regular basis can really chew up a lot of your workday. In addition, coming down with a serious case of 'writer's block' – can also seriously affect your productivity. So wouldn't it be great to have access to a library full of pre-written radio scripts, that you can pull from on-demand? Let us show you just how easy it is to craft a fresh sounding radio ad by taking one of our professionally written radio scripts and then adding it to one of our royalty free audio beds – all within minutes!
We know first hand how demanding it can be having to produce new radio creative, day-in and day-out, which is why we developed CreativeReady. Save hours of work every day by accessing our on-demand creative resource with pre-recorded advertising elements. Some products are ready to be aired just the way they are, and others are just in need of a few simple modifications. In the case of the latter, we've taken you 90% of the way, you now just need to run a few steps to the finish line. To make it even easier, we have produced a Script and Audio Bed Tutorial below.
In the video below, our Creative Director, Jamie, walks you through the steps of mixing files from our script templates and our audio beds to create fully produced radio ads in minutes.
So let's go ahead and download the files, open them up on my desktop and you'll notice in this folder we give you two version of each script. So you have the pdf (which is basically a quick view of it) and then we also give you the word doc (which is you are able to go in and edit). And in them, we make it fairly straightforward. Anything in green where you see "no name custom computers," that needs to be customized to your clients. So in my case the client's name is "Palentier", and so we've changed that and obviously, "in your town." So whatever town they are from, that's basically all the customizations that are needed to be done for this particular campaign. Let's pretend that I've already gone ahead and done those, written those revisions, and I've sent off the script to my voice and he has now sent back his voice so I can basically dump that into my session and get started.
So we go ahead and launch pro-tools, and let's just name this, "computer systems demo". And then we want to pull our wave file, the voice into the session. And again we are just going to do one ad for the sake of time. The procedure would basically be the same for all six ads. So here is the voice, I'm just going to go ahead and play it so you hear what we are working with.
Great so that sounds really good actually. I don't have to do a lot to it and it should just that simple. The only thing I am going to do is, just to tighten up kind of that little ending when he finishes; that last line. I'd like the end of the song to kind of hit soon after that. So I'm just going to take my time, shift to tool, and just kind of bring it back a little bit. Maybe bring in this a little bit more. And let's press play at the end.
So just like that, we have the campaign basically finished. I'll mix that a little bit. You'll notice again that I didn't have to add any plug-ins, I pulled the background track down a little bit. But for the most parts it's ready to go to air. And that's exactly how we've designed everything on our website to be. It's plug and play creative, and so there is a great little example of how you can pull from our scripts and our audio section and put together a fully produced campaign in a matter of minutes. Hope you've enjoyed that guys, if you have any question, please email us at production@creativeready.com. Thanks so much.


text:
Home inFocus Concrete spar buoy made with new materials and formwork
Concrete spar buoy made with new materials and formwork
Andy Filak
By using lightweight geopolymer and basalt rebar, a concrete spar buoy can be designed to withstand the sea state and its wave heights of 50 feet for more than a hundred years minimum.
More than 80 percent of the ocean resource potential is in deep water. That is ideal for floating offshore wind power. This power is located high up for strong and consistent wind. The proven spar buoy will allow offshore wind to exploit these inexhaustible wind resources. Exponential growth in floating, deep water, far-out offshore wind is happening now worldwide. This spar buoys' large potential, in the near term, is in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. It is the next big wave of renewable energy. The concrete spar buoy (CSB) will provide the potential for increase standardization in concrete floating turbine foundations throughout the world. The CSP will be a valuable floating foundation component in offshore wind.
European spar buoy construction and deployment
To date, the successful spar buoy in European waters is manufactured in steel. With a diameter of 49 feet and a length of 295 feet, there are only one or two plants that large enough with the crane capacity, height, and length to produce it. At approximately 8,000 tons, it is difficult to move to nearby water. Here, it is lifted with high capacity cranes on to a specially designed ship. At its destination, the ship is designed to take on water until the spar buoy floats free. After a horizontal tow out to sufficient water depth, it is upended with controlled water ballast placement.
At this stage, the permanent ballast is placed from a hopper barge. Next, with two of the largest floating cranes in any one country, the fully assembled wind turbine is lifted off the harbor's nearby quay and towed out to the spar buoy. After placement on the spar buoy and the temporary ballast water continues to be pumped out, it is then ready for tow out to the wind farm.
Crane mast drawing. (Courtesy: Andy Filak)
Concrete spar buoy concept
To date, no one has designed a concrete spar buoy that has been constructed and deployed. To highlight some of the problems, it not always the design, but the constructability or a poor choice of materials.
First, there is no need for a plant to produce the spar buoy or its turbine mast components. The spar buoy will be constructed in a dry dock and the mast components at a quay in the same harbor. The crew's skill requirements can come from local trades. The spar buoy, after float out from the dry dock, will be towed horizontally to a deployment way point. This is a site that has sufficient depth to invert the spa buoy to vertical position with water ballast. An ocean-going deck badge will be waiting at the way-point site to install the fixed ballast off its one end and install all the wind-turbine components off the other.
This is accomplished by a heavy lift company out of Europe, where its crane sets and climbs the mast sections it is setting. It then sets the nacelle and blades. For the heavier 10- and 12-MW turbines, two cranes will be required, climbing the concrete mast sections on the 3 and 9 o'clock sides.
Spar buoy construction
The concept for constructability was developed by adding eight four-foot flats (like a polygon) to the circular shape. This, in turn, developed an efficient construction formwork and sequence. This sequence required a balance of well-designed crane placed formwork, rebar, and concrete mix design, as well as addressing the safety issues in handling each. A dry dock will be required to build the CSB, of which there are many with enough depth and width to build two at a time. The first operation will be to pour a waste concrete soffit. This will act as both the parting surface for the float out of the completed CSB and the non-formwork casting surface of the bottom four-foot increment of the eight-sided octagon. All of the formwork components will have permanent hand rails and walkways built in as part of its design.
The first formwork component to be set will be the spar bottom or end plate. This form is in two parts: a 24-foot-deep by 48-foot-wide bottom half and top half. It is both the casting form for the spars' bottom plate and support for the void forms in the first 25-foot long section of the spar. This section has two half bottom sections that are 24 feet, 4 inches deep and 25-foot-long right and left sections and four collapsible void forms with a void form support. The void forms are placed with a crane-handled balanced pick caddy.
Before the void forms are placed on the rodbuster, the crew will place and tie the preformed and pre-tied rebar skeleton. Next, the concrete placing, vibrator, and finishing crew will pour the concrete special mix design. The following day, the same procedure will take place on the top 23 feet, 8 inches of the spar buoy. This is a capsulated view of the construction.
A concrete spar buoy concept drawing. (Courtesy:
Andy Filak)
Materials for the spar buoy and turbine mast components
The revolution in materials is the basis of this new concept. In existing marina concrete structures, the greatest threat is water, either fresh or salt. Through time, water penetrates into concrete through unseen cracks and the natural porosity and rusts the rebar skeleton. Even protected rebar has coating failures and deterioration that eventually causes the steel to fail.
Seawater also directly attacks the chemistry of ordinary Portland cement (OPC), causing rapid failure. What causes the OPC binder to fail at sea is the high percentage of calcium compounds (approximately 79 percent) that comes under attack by the sulphur compounds in seawater. This rots the concrete. The binder, in a concrete mix design, can occupy up to 20 percent of the mass of the concrete. Replacing the OPC in the concrete mix design with a geopolymer binder will foil this degradation scenario by minimizing the calcium compound in its chemical composition.
The geopolymer cement binder is made up of four inexpensive and widely available components: type 2 fly ash, fresh water, waterglass (sodium-silicate), and lye (sodium hydroxide). With the type 2 slag fly ash, the binder can have as little as 2 percent calcium, producing a saltwater-resistant material. Geopolymer cement binders are used commercially elsewhere in the world due to their superior performance to OPC binders. In general, these cements are stronger and both fireproof and waterproof. They bond well to most materials, have minimal expansion or contraction, are formable, and are resistant to salt, acids, and alkalis. The production process for producing geopolymers has an approximately 80 percent smaller carbon footprint than OPC.
To replace the steel rebar, a nonmetallic bar made from readily available basalt is used for reinforcement. Basalt stone (the generic term for solidified volcanic rock) is found all over the Earth and is a key component enabling the hundred-year durability of the polygon-16 spar buoy structure. The basalt stone, when heated to a temperature of 1,800 degrees, turns to a liquid that is run through a palladium die that produces soft flexible threads.
The threads are laid in parallel and locked together with an epoxy, producing basalt rebar — a water proof, chemical-resistant, fireproof material with a tensile strength several times stronger than steel. The geopolymer binder in the concrete binds to the basalt rebar on a chemical level in addition to the mechanical bond. The basalt bar is extremely light and also fairly flexible, lending to easy placement in the structure. Cut basalt fiber additives, much like nylon fiber, also are used in the mix design for added strength. The substructure will have a minimum of a 100-year life due to the low porosity, high strength, and cure technology found in the geopolymer binder in the concrete mix design.
Concrete mix design and placement
The spar buoy showing its position in the water. (Courtesy: Andy Filak)
The key to the constructability of the CSB is the mix design. It has to be efficient to wet out and bind to the rebar with no air pockets. Part of this will be achieved through the discipline of the vibration crew. The other is the mix design itself. Geopolymer cement (the paste) has a high viscosity. To achieve its workability, its placement will need super-plasticizers. All are now designed for OPC binders. New hybrid super-plasticizers have been designed for geopolymer cement (binder) using rice husk and an alkaline that makes it possible to achieve the viscosity for placing the mix into the formwork.
The geopolymer cement (binder) will make up 20 percent of the mix. The rest will be measured granite saw dust as a replacement for the silica sand. This will have beneficial effects on the composite strength, split tensile strength, as well as the modulus of elasticity. The specific gravity of the silica sand is 2.83 whereas the granite is 2.65 to 2.85. The preference for granite is its strength and porosity, which is 0.25 percent. The porosity of the silica sand is 25 to 30 percent and holds unwanted water in the mix design. The other aggregates will be fine (1/4") cut basalt fiber (stone) and crushed granite (3/16"). This mix design can be fine-tuned to achieve high strength and density.
The estimated time to construct one complete CPSB is estimated at 102 days and down line at 68 days. This time frame is based on fabricating two spars at the same time (in the dry dock) to balance trades and utilization of hook time.
The geopolymer (binder) and the basalt rebar (stone) is substantially lighter (less rebar weight and cover requirement) than OPC structures. This polygon-16 spar buoy is designed to withstand the sea state and its wave heights of 50 feet for more than a hundred years minimum. It has a unique feature in its "Moon Pool." This adds more than 45 tons of seawater mass to the spar buoy without increasing it displacement. The "Moon Pool" is the result of both Formwork and structural requirements.
Previous articleXL Specialized Trailers introduces new Gooseneck trailer
Next articleVestas wins multiple orders in United States
is a principal with AMF Concepts. He can be reached at amfconcepts@gmail.com or 310-373-5004.
XL Specialized Trailers introduces new Gooseneck trailer
NextEra donates borescopes to Northeastern program
Wind turbine prices to recover 5% in next two years
A digital camera can be a powerful tool in giving a total "€œsnapshot"€ of your maintenance practices
An interdisciplinary workforce of engineers is essential for advancements in wind turbine technology
Maximizing long-term integrity of turbine foundation integrity requires attention to fundamental aspects of construction and design
Cranes and Wind Power: A Critical Pairing
Wind projects in developing countries
Significant energy benefits
Offshore floating turbines offer a compelling means of harnessing the massive resources available in deeper waters
Siemens To Supply Three Projects In South Africa
Approaching Zero Downtime
Variability is the 'ghost in the machine'€ when it comes to supply chain efficiency


You're out there getting things done in the gym, and you're ready to start your own fitness business. This could be a gym, a personal training business, a franchise, as a fitness instructor or coach. Should my fitness business be an LLC? How hard can it be? You can just start charging a fee for training someone right? Not so fast.
The formation of a business entity has liability and tax consequences. Taking time to make this decision about your business entity and structure can prevent unnecessary cost and headaches. While the specifics will vary from state to state, there are some general considerations that will help you make a good decision about forming a business entity that would be best for your circumstances.
If you simply start charging customers for your work (not recommended!), you will have made a choice, even if you don't realize it!
A Sole Proprietorship is the default option if you don't make another entity choice as an individual. Where two or more people are involved, the default option is partnership. In these cases, there is no protection for an owner's personal assets. Owners of sole proprietorships and partnerships remain fully liable for the debts and obligations of their businesses.
A Corporation is a legal entity that is separate and distinct from its owners. A corporation has the right to enter into contracts, loan and borrow money, sue and be sued, hire employees, own assets and pay taxes. It is often referred to as a "legal person." Owners of corporations are not personally responsible for business debts. Many small businesses shy away from the corporation entity form because setting one up is generally more costly than other types and requires some additional maintenance. This is the type larger businesses choose because they have more fundraising and investment options available to them.
The Limited Liability Company (LLC) business entity form is the lowest maintenance entity type that provides any protection for personal assets of the business owner. An LLC can be comprised of a single individual, a partnership, multiple individuals, or a corporation. It is the most widely used business forms for small businesses.
You may have heard people talking about another entity type, the S-Corp. This relates to a tax election for the owners of an LLC and if you want to find out more and whether this is a good option for you, you should speak with your CPA.
The primary benefit of an LLC business structure is that the owners enjoy the same personal protection from responsibility for business debts as owners of Corporations. The liability limit of LLCs provides a significant incentive for individuals in partnerships or sole proprietorships. With limited liability, in the off chance your fitness business LLC goes bankrupt, creditors would be limited to the business assets instead of your personal assets. With an LLC in place, a lawsuit or other financial liability may result in the loss of your business assets, but your family home should be safe. This protection can be lost, though, if the business owners act irresponsibly, illegally, or unethically in certain cases that must be proved in a court of law or an out-of-court settlement.
In addition to the limited liability and the flexible tax options, the LLC is an attractive option to many business owners because it usually doesn't need to comply with many of the legal formalities that govern corporations such as annual reports, director meetings, and shareholder requirements.
For many businesses, especially small businesses, the benefits and flexibility of LLCs make it a better choice than other business forms.
One of the greatest advantages of the LLC business form is that they can elect how they will be taxed. The default taxation for an LLC depends on how it's structured. Most of the time, if an individual forms an LLC, it's taxed as a sole proprietorship. If a partnership forms an LLC, it's taxed as a partnership. Whether your business is taxed as a sole proprietorship or you elect to have your fitness business LLC taxed as a corporation, both of these approaches can have big tax advantages, depending on how much income you personally want to take and how much you plan to reinvest in your emerging fitness business. Speak to your CPA for more information about tax elections and LLCs.
Another tax advantage of the LLC form is that it allows you to set up both retirement funds and life insurance policies with greater contribution limits so you can set aside money for your future and your family.
No matter how you elect to have your fitness business taxed, don't forget that business expenses can be deducted. Most importantly, you can deduct the cost of forming your LLC. Make it a habit to hang on to all your receipts and invest in a scanner to organize them electronically (keep the receipt for your scanner purchase too!).
How do I register/form an LLC?
To create your LLC, it is often as simple as filing articles of organization with the Secretary of State (or equivalent) and pay the filing fees required. However, in order to make sure that you are protected and the corporate veil is lowered, when an LLC is formed, the owners should adopt rules, bylaws, and operating agreements. We offer a DIY LLC kit that walks you through the process.
Owners of LLCs must follow most of the business requirements for a corporation including keeping business accounts separate from personal accounts, being able to show evidence of sound record-keeping and appropriate licensing. State laws lay out record-keeping and licensing requirements (and ongoing fees!). For the LLC members to maintain limited liability, the state requirements for ongoing maintenance of the LLC must be met. If you fail to maintain all of these requirements, creditors may be able to reach your assets to satisfy business debt and liabilities – this is known as "piercing the corporate [or LLC] veil". Check out more discussion about liability risks of operating a fitness business.
Ready to start (or fix up) your fitness business?
You've already worked hard for the body you've got. That was hard. Now, you're ready to set up your fitness or coaching business for success by establishing it as an LLC.


The Folsom Concert Association provides Performing Arts Scholarships to university/college-bound high school seniors seeking a career path in the entertainment arts. This includes vocal or instrumental performance, theatre and or film acting, theatre/film/music production, and/or business.
Scholarships are awarded each spring and are applicable beginning in the following fall semester. The scholarship award and money will be up to the amount of $5,000.
Do not submit a Letter of Recommendation from a relative.
The date will soon be announced for the submission of the 2019 Scholarship application packets. Applications must be submitted by March 14, 2019.


text:
Mercedes to fit existing vehicles with Apple's CarPlay?
Maybe. Perhaps. If it actually knew when CarPlay was arriving.
By Liam Tung | March 7, 2014 -- 14:26 GMT (06:26 PST) | Topic: Apple
The interior of the new Mercedes C-Class saloon. Image: Mercedes
Apple's CarPlay, a platform bringing iOS apps and Siri to in-car systems, hasn't even arrived yet, but Mercedes is apparently planning to extend it to older vehicles via an after-market product.
Apple's CarPlay, on display at the Geneva International Motor Show this week , will begin appearing in vehicles later this year, bringing the iOS interface into the vehicle's infotainment screen where iOS apps such as phone, messaging, navigation as well as some third-party apps share space with the vehicle manufacturer's own content and apps.
Ferrari will provide CarPlay integration in its new FF model, Volvo is doing the same for its XC90 SUV, to be released later this year, and Mercedes will have it installed in its new C-Class vehicles, most likely alongside Android and MirrorLink integration.
But what about CarPlay for all the owners that bought last year's C-Class or, in Volvo's case, last year's model of the XC90? Or is CarPlay only for new cars?
According to 9to5 Mac, Mercedes has confirmed it will offer an "after-market solution by the end of the year", which it speculates could come in the form of a dealer-installed accessory, similar to after-market Siri Eyes Free integration offered by some Honda dealerships.
However, ZDNet contacted Mercedes UK and was told by a spokesperson that it could not confirm the car maker would offer an after-market solution yet, since "we don't have have any firm dates for its arrival yet".
Volvo isn't certain yet whether it will offer a service to integrate CarPlay for vehicles that have already been sold.
"We have not yet decided if -- or in that case, when -- we will be offering an aftermarket solution for CarPlay, but we are measuring consumer interest following the announcement last week," David Holecek, Volvo Car's connectivity brand and marketing manager told ZDNet.
Volvo last year worked with Neonode to build an Android-based infotainment system with a 7-inch display called Sensus Connected Touch. Holecek said the way forward for Volvo infotainment displays was portrait over landscape.
Mercedes this week stressed that Android integration would be available as soon as Google's Android infotainment system was ready.
According to Volvo, Apple CarPlay allows connection of an iPhone to the car through a Lightning cable. The connection is based on a streaming H.264 video feed that returns user input from the touchscreen.
Ferrari similarly had a wired connection for its demo in Geneva this week, according to Engadget's hands-on. It noted that Volvo is working on a wireless connection too.
Countries currently listed for CarPlay distribution include Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Republic of Korea, Spain, Switzerland, UK and USA. Despite Volvo's early support, Sweden, as with the rest of the Nordics, are off the list.
Other car manufacturers that plan to release CarPlay in the future include BMW, Chevrolet, Ford, Jaguar, Kia, Landrover, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Opel, Pegeot-Citroen, Subaru, Suzuki, and Toyota.
Apple takes Siri for a spin with launch of CarPlay, hands-free software for drivers
More speculation on rumored Apple, Tesla deal
Apple could dominate car tech (if it wanted)
Mobility iPhone Hardware Smartphones Tablets iOS


text:
Home / February 15, 2023 | 20:00 (Wed) - Land of Body
February15 2023 (Wed)
Land of Body
Laterna magika - The New Stage | Black Light Theatre
70 minutes | Available
Laterna magika - The New Stage
Can we see beauty where we would not expect to find it, without being compelled to reassess our standards and prejudices?
"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than boring." — Marilyn Monroe
Revealing the sheer diversity of the human body, it mulls over what beauty is and the standards by which it is judged. It raises the question of whether "ideal beauty" actually exists or whether this traditional concept no longer applies. If we cease seeking superficial perfection, we have the chance to discover inner beauty, the true and permanent one.
Purchased tickets cannot be returned or exchanged.
No discounts are provided.
Suitable for audience from 12 years.
Theatre is a cultural institution. Please respect the common principles of appropriate behaviour and clothing.
The program may be subject to change.
The price includes service fee of 3,7 € (100,- CZK)
More opera and ballet
Národní 4, Praha 1
Black Light Theatre
Laterna magika - The New Stage of National Theatre, a world famous nonverbal multimedia theatre in Prague
Legendary project of Laterna Magika is a Czech-unique, a show combining elements of film and live acting performances.
Classical principles of non-verbal theatre mingle with dance, film images and black light theatre. The audience is drawn into the story by a panoramically projected image, and fantastic scenes surpass the boundaries between fantasy and reality.
Enjoy the journey to the fantastic world of the Laterna magika, a synthesis of pantomime, dance, music, film and black light theatre.
The building of the New Stage of National Theatre, built in 1983, was tailored to the specific requirements of Laterna magika performances. The unconventional edifice, covered by over four thousand pieces of glass tiles, was designed by Karel Prager.
The diversely shaped glass tiles, created by Stanislav Libenský, form a distinctive relief which gives the New Stage its characteristic appearance. This unique use of glass makes the whole building an original sculptural work of art.
Accessibility by Prague public transport:
metro B (yellow line) - Národni třída station
tram Nos. 2, 9, 17, 18, 22, 23 - Národní divadlo stop
National Theatre (Národní divadlo), Ostrovní 1, Praha 1
Hakim S. | November 18, 2022 | 20:27 (Fri)
Spectacle super intéressant pour un spectateur qui découvre pour la 1ère fois, la technique utilisée dans les présentations de la Lanterne Magique. J'ai acheté ce billet pour le 18ème anniversaire de mon neveu. Il a doré le spectacle...
TICKETS WERE ADDED TO CART
Please have your credit card and personal information ready for payment to avoid expiration of the order time.
You have 10 minutes to finalize your order and proceed to payment.
When this time runs out, your reservation is cancelled.
If you have selected a discounted ticket price (student / senior), you may be asked at the venue entrance to present your ID or any other document proving that you are entitled to obtain the discount.
Select more tickets Proceed to checkout
Laterna magika
Paper Story
February 18, 2023 | 17:00 (Sat)


The top four reasons you need an Enrolled Agent to do your taxes.
There are many reasons why you need an Enrolled Agent to draw up your tax return in Denver, here are the top four.
An Enrolled Agent must pass a series of three exams to become credentialed before the Internal Revenue Service (www.irs.gov).
The enrolled agent exams cover individual (Form 1040) taxes, business taxes, and ethical procedures and standards.
An Enrolled Agent must take continuing professional education classes to maintain the credential.
Every Enrolled Agent must take a minimum of 72 hours of continuing education (CE) classes every three years to maintain the credential. There is a minimum numbers of hours that must be taken on a yearly basis as well as a requirement to take certain ethics related classes.
The person or company doing your taxes is probably not an Enrolled Agent.
An Enrolled Agent is trained exclusively in the area of tax return preparation and tax law. A CPA is required to take continuing education classes BUT it does not have to be in the area of taxes. Many CPA's are financial audit and accounting specialists that DO NOT prepare any tax returns! Financial advisors, attorneys and other tax professionals are not held to the same standard that Enrolled Agents are in regards to knowing and understanding taxes and tax law!
Can your tax preparer/ CPA successfully defend you in a tax audit or collections matter?
Enrolled Agents are the only people specially allowed unlimited representation rights before the Internal Revenue Service and the state departments of revenue. Other tax professionals can only defend clients whose tax returns they actually prepared. Enrolled Agents can help taxpayers REGARDLESS of who prepared the tax return.
I have worked hard to earn and maintain my status as an Enrolled Agent. Here are five reasons why you should work with me, Joshua Berman.
I am honest and prepare tax returns in an ethical manner.
I provide great client service.
I understand and am up to date on the latest tax law changes.
As an Enrolled Agent the IRS prefers that I represent taxpayers before them on tax related matters.
My fees are fair and transparent.
By simplifying both the numbers and the rules of law, I will explain everything to you in such a clear fashion that your taxes no longer become a "hope for the best" situation and are an understandable process in the growth of your life and your business.
Ask me a question about your Denver Colorado Tax return.


text:
Werner Walter Weinstötter, bekannt als WeWaW, (* 4. April 1914 in Müllheim; † 20. Dezember 2000 in Nürnberg) war ein deutscher Verleger und Modelleisenbahn-Journalist.

Leben
Weinstötter entwickelte ein Interesse an Modelleisenbahnen, während er im Zweiten Weltkrieg seinen Militärdienst in der Luftwaffe leistete. Da sich nach dem Ende des Krieges in seinem erlernten Beruf als Gastronom und Hotelfachmann keine Verdienstmöglichkeiten boten, begann er in Nürnberg mit der Herstellung von Holzspielzeug. Als er Zugang zu amerikanischen und britischen Modellbahnzeitschriften erlangte, gelangte er zu der Auffassung, dass eine vergleichbare deutschsprachige Publikation fehlte. Da Weinstötter bereits Erfahrungen als Verfasser von Presseartikeln besaß, sah er die Möglichkeit, selber eine solche Zeitschrift ins Leben zu rufen. Gemeinsam mit zwei weiteren Interessierten gründete er als Chefredakteur die Zeitschrift Miniaturbahnen (kurz als Miba bezeichnet), deren erste Ausgabe im September 1948 erschien. Da Weinstötter die für die Gründung eines eigenen Verlags erforderliche Lizenz der US-Militärregierung nicht erhielt, wurde die Miba in ihrer Anfangszeit vom Nürnberger Verlag Frauenwelt herausgebracht. Nach der Aufhebung der Lizenzpflicht in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland am 21. September 1949 gründete Weinstötter den Miba-Verlag, in dem die Zeitschrift fortan erschien.

Während die Miba in den 1950er Jahren erfolgreich wurde und unter Modellbahnern weite Verbreitung fand, wurde Weinstötter zugleich auch in seinem ursprünglichen Beruf tätig: Er eröffnete im Oktober 1954 in Nürnberg das Bijou, ein gehobenes Konzert-Café in einem im Stil der Zeit errichteten und ausgestalteten Neubau am Spittlertorgraben 39. 1959 verpachtete er das Bijou, übernahm 1969 den Betrieb vorübergehend noch einmal selber, verpachtete das Café erneut und verkaufte es 1979 schließlich.

1983 gab Weinstötter sowohl die Leitung des Verlags als auch die Position als Chefredakteur ab und zog sich ins Privatleben zurück. Er verstarb im Dezember 2000, doch auf seinen eigenen Wunsch gaben seine Angehörigen seinen Tod erst nach Ende der Nürnberger Spielwarenmesse 2001 bekannt.

Literatur
 Der menschliche Faktor – Zum Tod von Werner Walter Weinstötter. In: MIBA-Miniaturbahnen 3/2001, S. 80.
  MIBA 1948–1998 – eine kurze Chronik. In: MIBA-Miniaturbahnen 9/1998, S. 78–85.

Weblinks
 Foto von Werner Walter Weinstötter auf dem Titelbild der MIBA 12/1958 auf MIBA.de - Fünf Jahrzehnte Modellbahngeschichte
 Werner Walter Weinstötter
 Fünf Jahrzehnte Modellbahngeschichte
 Das Konzert-Café Bijou

Verleger (20. Jahrhundert)
Verleger (Nürnberg)
Chefredakteur
Person (Modelleisenbahn)
Deutscher
Geboren 1914
Gestorben 2000
Mann

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Optimize your patrols' observation, inspection, and security capabilities in a range of indoor and outdoor settings.
Experience the unrivaled rebirth of community policing when you utilize Segway PTs in your force.
Segway tightens security in airports with fast response times and flexible maneuvering in and around heavy crowds.
Ensure safety in all areas of your campus, from woods and athletic fields to pathways and buildings.
Simplify and streamline your military applications with Segway's range of cost-effective government solutions.
Customize your Segway PT with accessories designed for safety, convenience, comfort, and utility.


text:
Q: How to properly join when comparing the difference between two tables pertaining to specific fields I'm having problems writing this query. So I'm comparing a temp table to a table within our database. I want to find any records that don't have the same Case_Number the same Id_Number combination between the two table. The query I am using only provides me one or the other depending on how I join them. If I join by Case_Number, it returns the Case_Number records that do not match between the two tables. If I join by Id_Number, it will return the Id_Numbers that do not match between the two tables.. Is there a way to join by both Case_Number and ID_Number so that the query returns both? I would also like to know if it would be possible for me to include an "If Exist" to the query? Code below
 SELECT T1.Case_Number, T1.Id_Number, T1.FirstDate, T1.LastDate, T2.Case_Number, T2.Id_Number, T2.FirstDate, T2.LastDate
    FROM dbo.table T
    inner join #TempTable T2
     on T1.Id_Number = T2.Id_Number
    --on T1.Case_Number = T2.Case_Number
    where T1.LastDate is null
     and T1.Case_Number <> T2.Case_Number
     OR T1.Id_number <> T2.Id_Number

A: This should find both - firsst colum tells you what is the case
(
    SELECT 'in Table not in Temp' as R,
        T1.Case_Number as 'T1.Case_Number',
        T1.Id_Number as 'T1.Id_Number',
        T1.FirstDate as 'T1.FirstDate',
        T1.LastDate as 'T1.LastDate',
        null as 'T2.Case_Number',
        null as 'T2.Id_Number',
        null as 'T2.FirstDate',
        null as 'T2.LastDate'
    FROM dbo.table T1
    where not exists (
        select 1
        from #TempTable T2
        where T1.Case_Number == T2.CaseNumber
          and T1.Id_Number == T2.Id_Number)
)
UNION ALL
(
    SELECT 'in temp, not in list' as R
        null as 'T1.Case_Number',
        null as 'T1.Id_Number',
        null as 'T1.FirstDate',
        null as 'T1.LastDate',
        T2.Case_Number as 'T2.Case_Number',
        T2.Id_Number as 'T2.Id_Number',
        T2.FirstDate as 'T2.FirstDate',
        T2.LastDate as 'T2.LastDate'
    FROM #TempTable T2
    where not exists (
        select 1
        from dbo.table T1
        where T1.Case_Number == T2.CaseNumber
          and T1.Id_Number == T2.Id_Number )

)

Add the T1.LastDate is null - not sure where you want it.
You probably need to tweak the column names , I switched T1/T2 for 2nd statement so column will be the same table all the time, but names have duplicates.

A: Use or in inner join statement
SELECT T1.Case_Number,
       T1.Id_Number,
       T1.FirstDate,
       T1.LastDate,
       T2.Case_Number,
       T2.Id_Number,
       T2.FirstDate,
       T2.LastDate
FROM dbo.table T
INNER JOIN #TempTable T2 ON (T1.Id_Number = T2.Id_Number
                             OR T1.Case_Number = T2.Case_Number)
WHERE T1.LastDate IS NULL
  AND T1.Case_Number <> T2.Case_Number
  OR T1.Id_number <> T2.Id_Number

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Warsailors.com :: Find a Shipmate :: M/T "Jalanta"
Searching for persons that was on board Jahres M/T "Jalanta" when we collided SE of Ambrose lightship, with the US liner S/S "Constitution". Collision took place around 1000hrs., March 1. 1959.


Wolf–Rayet stars (often referred to as WR stars) are a heterogeneous set of stars with unusual spectra showing prominent broad emission lines of highly ionised helium and nitrogen or carbon. The spectra indicate very high surface temperatures of 30,000 K to around 200,000 K, surface enhancement of heavy elements, and strong stellar winds.
Uses material from the Wikipedia article "Wolf-Rayet Star", which is released under the Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0.


text:
Toqoz or Tuqoz () may refer to:
 Toqoz-e Olya
 Toqoz-e Sofla


ACC software efficiently captures and stores video while intelligently managing bandwidth and storage using High Definition Stream Management (HDSM)™ technology. Pre-installed on HD Video Appliances, HD Network Video Recorders (NVRs), HD NVR Workstations, ACC Edge Solution (ES) HD hardware, and the H4 Edge Solution (ES) camera line, ACC software also works as standalone software to meet the needs of a wide variety of installations.
Avigilon believes that deep-learning artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to solve some of the most critical challenges our industry faces today. By applying AI to our video analytics technology, we can focus human attention on what matters most, so our systems can provide powerful insights for effective decision making.
Avigilon self-learning video analytics solutions can monitor an area 24/7/365, enabling proactive, real-time response from your team. Built from the ground up to manage high-definition video, Avigilon offers analytics embedded in Avigilon cameras up to 5K (16 MP) resolution, with analytics events and alarms that can be managed, viewed, and searched through an intuitive user interface.
Avigilon self-learning video analytics technology uses advanced video pattern-based algorithms to recognize and detect the movements and characteristics of people and vehicles.
Self-learning video analytics technology is designed to detect and learn the surrounding scene upon initial set-up, adapting to changes without manual calibration.
Avigilon cameras and software offer exceptional high-definition video quality while reducing bandwidth from the camera to the Avigilon Control Center (ACC) client.
Idle Scene Mode technology allows the camera to reduce storage and bandwidth for continuous recording of scenes with no activity. When there is no classified object detection or pixel change motion, the camera will conserve bandwidth by switching to a reduced frame rate.
HDSM SmartCodec technology enables Avigilon H4 Platform cameras to enhance compression levels for regions in a scene to reduce bandwidth by up to 50 percent compared to standard H.264 compression.
HDSM™ technology reduces bandwidth from server to client by dynamically sending the optimal image detail for the user's viewing requirements.
Avigilon is rapidly expanding its artificial intelligence-driven video analytics technology to allow users to quickly search volumes of video data to identify important information. Our new search features are designed to enhance the way users interact with our systems, dramatically improve event response times and help make video actionable.
Avigilon Appearance Search technology is the new way to search video. This innovative, deep learning, artificial intelligence search engine sorts through hours of footage with ease to quickly locate a specific person or vehicle of interest across an entire site. It dramatically improves incident response time and enhances forensic investigations by enabling operators to build robust video evidence and create a powerful narrative of events.
Operators can search for a person of interest by selecting certain specific physical descriptions, including clothing color and gender. The new feature is designed to provide enhanced flexibility and speed when conducting a site-wide search for an individual.
Avigilon Appearance Search technology now incorporates the characteristics of a person's face to improve search results when searching for a specific individual even if items, such as their clothing, change over time.


text:
Desktop Linux users peer into Longhorn gap
Shane Schick
The open source community is still hoping to see desktop versions of Linux enter the corporate enterprise, but vendors say Microsoft's decision to make major changes to the next version of Windows will do little to help their cause.
Ever since Microsoft executives began discussing Longhorn
several years ago, members of the open source community have been trying to figure out how they will compete with some of the product's key feature enhancements. Late last week, however, Microsoft said it would push back one of those features, the WinFS file system, while the Avalon graphical interface and Indigo Web communications framework will be released as upgrades to Windows XP.
There are already several versions of Linux for the desktop available to compete with Windows. One of them came from an early project at Ottawa's Corel Corp, which later sold its Linux desktop assets to New York-based Xandros Corp. Red Hat Software has also been offering a desktop version of its distribution for some time, while the KDE project released version 3.3 of its free desktop environment earlier this month.
Open source pioneer Bruce Perens and several other organizations formed the non-profit Desktop Linux Consortium (DLC) to promote education and adoption of the technology. DLC spokeswoman Jill Ratkevic acknowledged that Microsoft's decisions about Longhorn could allow Linux some time to gain more of a foothold in the enterprise desktop space, but she said no one really benefits from enhancements that don't make it out the door.
""Nobody wants Linux to fill a hole in the market because Microsoft couldn't keep to its schedule,"" she said. ""The idea is to be a level competitor.""
John Danzig, who created and sells a desktop version of Linux called Libranet out of North Vancouver, said he pays little attention to Longhorn.
""I don't think Microsoft is driving the Linux desktop. I think it's a movement on its own,"" he said. ""I think people coming to the Linux desktop are people from the Linux side already, who see Linux as being very capable.""
Michael O'Grady, an analyst with New York-based research firm Red Monk, said WinFS in particular would have set Longhorn apart from open source operating systems, but the availability of Avalon and Indigo in XP could cancel out any advantages Linux vendors gain by the delay.
""I wouldn't say it's unilaterally one way or the other,"" he said.
Executives from Novell Inc. responded to interview requests from ITBusiness.ca with a prepared statement from Nat Friedman, vice-president of its desktop technology group, who said open source vendors work off a modular, flexible development model that allows them to deliver new features to customers more regularly than Microsoft. The company has also said the delay will give it more time to push iFolder, which was recently released as an open source product. Like WinFS, iFolder stores data in a user's real file system and tracks metadata in a separate location.
""I've played around with iFolder. It's OK,"" O'Grady said. ""What they're trying to do is less ambitious than what the WinFS is trying to do. It's two sides of the same coin. On the one side, (iFolder) gives you less functionality. On the other hand, it's likely to get out sooner.""
Danzig said it would take more than delays from Microsoft to get Linux desktops in major corporations.
""It's security, really. IT mangers are not going to do any desktops unless they know they are safe and secure and that there's going to be someone available to look after them,"" he said. ""I think you're likely to see a lot more support coming in the future . . . at the moment it's a risky choice for them.""
Ratkevic added that the open source community will be trying hard to make sure they learn as much as they can from Longhorn in order to smooth the transition process to Linux. ""People will say to us, 'Why do you make it so much like Windows?'"" she said. ""But what users want is a consistent experience.""
The Linux operating system turned 13 years old on Friday, the same day Microsoft announced its changes to Longhorn.
Your guide to the ongoing story of how technology is changing the world
IT Business Elsewhere: Can't buy me virtual love
William Osler Health taps Teranet for disaster protection
More from Shane Schick
How CMOs and CIOs can foster cross-business unit collaboration
Shane Schick - November 6, 2015
How the West Edmonton Mall uses Microsoft Kinect and your smartphone for...
Shane Schick - February 12, 2015
2013: The year Jeff Bezos gets a toupee
Shane Schick - December 7, 2012


I recently collaborated with artist Akiko Ostlund for Made Here MN, a public art showcase in the heart of downtown Minneapolis through The Hennepin Theatre Trust.
This showcase of local artists is displayed throughout west downtown in local windows and vacant storefronts. Akiko created a collage of portraits which is up on 8th and Hennepin near First Avene. It's a direct response to the recent news of neo-nazi and kkk movements taking place in our city. She chose 15 artists of color to center our innate joy and freedom in the wake of violence and extremism. It's a really great piece and will be up through the superbowl. If you are ever downtown you may find me!


In the surroundings of modern, multicultural Honolulu you'll find from volcanos to bays. Are you ready to visit Paradise?
Hawaii is a place for adventure, and going on adventures is exciting… and exhausting! It's better to find a good place to rest, but don't worry, because we have the best Honolulu vacation rentals ready for you. Take a look at our offers!


Universities, colleges and high schools can acquire a limited public performance license version of the film that permits non-commerical screenings to members of your school that are not open to or advertised to the general public.
Film only, no special features or subtitles. When the special edition DVD with all the extra features is released in 2011, you will receive a copy at no additional charge.
This DVD can only be shown on the property of the DVD purchaser to students and faculty only.
Screenings may not be advertised to the general public.
Louis Sullivan presents a unique opportunity for educators at both the secondary and college level to show how architecture fits into the broader cultural history of America. This is not just the story of a great architect, but how rapid social, economical and technological changes at the turn of the twentieth century influenced his creativity.
Students will see how pivotal events, from the Chicago Fire of 1871 to the Great Panic of 1893, along with the mighty forces of the industrial revolution, deeply impacted the course of Sullivan's career and his development as an artist.
Currently, a digital study guide is in development that will be included in the purchase of an educational license.
Buy your DVD now, and the study guide will be sent to you at no charge when it is completed.


Through trial and error children build logical reasoning skills, memory retention, small motor control and general problem solving skills. Mega Maze Volume 1 is filled with 50 different mind bending mazes! WARNING: With long winding dead ends and only one solution these are only for the most serious of 3rd-6th grade maze masters. High quality graphics ensure these mazes print crisp and clear and ready to solve.


Jindal Panther awarded its Distributors with much Fanfare at its Annual Distributor Meet 2015 at Sri Lanka under various categories. Jindal Panther awarded Ispat India & A&A Trading, Jai Bajrang Steels, Kartik Steels, Shree Radhay Krishna Ispat, Shubham Marketing, MD Steel, Kantipudi Steels Pvt Ltd, Shri Lakshmi Steel Suppliers, Vaishnavi Alloys, Disha Construction & Shivaum Steels for Consistent Performers. They form the back bone for Channel sales. They consistently perform month after month, quarter after quarter and they meet the stretched Yearly targets.


text:
package com.xujun.funapp;

import android.app.ActivityOptions;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Parcelable;
import android.support.v4.app.Fragment;

import com.xujun.funapp.common.Constants;

/**
 * @author xujun  on 2016/12/28.
 * @email gdutxiaoxu@163.com
 */

public class BaseFragment extends Fragment {

    public void readyGo(Class<?> clazz) {
        this.readyGo(clazz, null, "");
    }

    public void readyGo(Class<?> clazz, Parcelable parcelable) {
        this.readyGo(clazz, Constants.IntentConstants.DEFAULT_PARCEABLE_NAME, parcelable);
    }

    public void readyGo(Class<?> clazz, String name, Parcelable parcelable) {
        Intent intent = new Intent(getActivity(), clazz);
        if (null != parcelable) {
            intent = intent.putExtra(name, parcelable);
        }
        startActivity(intent);
    }

    public void readyGo(Class<?> clazz, String name, String value) {

        Intent intent = new Intent(getActivity(), clazz);
        if (null != value) {
            intent = intent.putExtra(name, value);
        }
        startActivity(intent);
    }

    protected <T> T checkNotNull(T t) {
        if (t == null) {
            throw new NullPointerException();
        }
        return t;
    }
}


Boil all the vegetables and the make them mashed.
Now mix all the spices with the mashed vegetable.
Now mix the egg, the loaf with the mashed vegetable and put salt to it.
Pour some flour powder above and make cutlets.