Rami Makhlouf and the arrogance of power. Buthaina Shaaban, in yesterday's interview with Shadid, managed to evoke a bit of humility while explaining that the Syrian regime was winning in the struggle with the opposition. Rami Makhlouf cannot conceal the puffery of power. He threatens Israel and the region. Syria's enemies will make hey out of this. It is true that if Syria collapses into civil war the entire region will suffer, but to use it as a threat against the very same people from whom you are asking indulgence and understanding is not a wise psychological tactic.
His words cast into the starkest terms a sentiment the government has sought to cultivate — us or chaos — and it underlined the tactics of a ruling elite that has manipulated the ups and downs of a tumultuous region to sustain an overriding goal: its own survival.
But even if it prevails, the uprising has demonstrated the weakness of a dictatorial government that once sought to draw legitimacy from a notion of Arab nationalism, a sprawling public sector that created the semblance of a middle class and services that delivered electricity to the smallest towns. The government of Mr. Assad, though, is far different than that of his father, who seized power in 1970. A beleaguered state, shorn of ideology, can no longer deliver essential services or basic livelihood. Mr. Makhlouf's warnings of instability and sectarian strife like Iraq's have emerged as the government's rallying cry, as it deals with a degree of dissent that its officials admit caught them by surprise.
He echoed an Arabic proverb, which translated loosely, means that it will not go down alone.
He serves as an instrument, too, in Mr. Assad's vision of economic modernization, where Syria serves as a crossroads of regional trade and a hub for oil and gas pipelines that link Iraq and the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean and Europe. Cham Holdings, a vast conglomerate with a portfolio of $2 billion, in which Mr. Makhlouf owns a quarter of the shares outright, is at the forefront of that faltering scheme.
Mr. Makhlouf suggested that economic reform would stay primary.
Perhaps you can explain to us who Mr. Makhlouf means by the word "we" in the last paragraph in the article.
The last time I checked, Syriatel or Cham holding had no "fighters".
Is it like "we own" when he says "we have".
yes another glaring example of Bashar's reforms. Reforming the Syrian economy to fit neatly into his cousin's back pocket.
Ten sentences out of a three hours interview (Shadid keeps the rest for a book). I wish he said anything useful or interesting!
Between the lines, would the message be: no matter what you do, we will not drop the bilateral defense agreement with Iran?
About Erdogan's comments on the situation, comparing it to Halabja and Hama, has Turkey finally given up its deal for a pipeline bringing gas to Europe from Iran?
How much was Turkey promessed to withdraw its 25,000 workers from Libya, who are now probably staying jobless in Turkey? Any journalist to interview them?
Bravos to Anthony Shadid. This article on Rami Makhlouf is probably the single most revealing piece of journalism into the heart of the Syria regime in years! He is fair and balanced with his analysis.
The thing that was most surprising was that the regime actually allowed such an interview to happen in the first place. By allowing Makhlouf to be interviewed for a front page story in the New York Times they are either inept in public relations or indifferent. Like it or not, Maklouf has become the new face of the Assad family to the rest of the world.
The other shocking thing of the report was Makloufs tone! His threats and taunts did not go unnoticed. Nor did his claims of ambivalence towards the thoughts of the rest of the world – some would call it arrogance. Basically, here is a person of privilege who has attained his wealth through nepotism and corruption threatening to fight till the end against a populace that no longer wishes to be exploited by him. The fact that thousands of innocent Syrians have been killed or seriously injured by the apparatus controlled by his family never seems to cross his mind. But rest assured that to the average reader these atrocities were never far off.
IN short the interview was a disastrous portrayal of the Assad clan. It was almost as if it was an unintended taunt to the rest of the world to do something about it.
This kind of an interview surely makes the blood boil. What arrogance!
But I prefer to look on the brighter side. This junta is desperate and frightened. You can read it between the lines, in both interviews, Rami's and Bouthaina's.
When I read the part about "we have a lot of fighters." it was clear that he was speaking on behalf of the Syrian intelligence.
Shadid also points out in the artcile that Makloufs brother is head of Syrian Intelligence in Damascus.
Funny how they all sound the same. This interview reminds me of one the interview Kaddafi's son did. Same blabber.
Reformer and Assad's family in the same sentence is an oxymoron. They will never reform.
2011 is the begging of the end of the Assad's rule in Syria. The sooner it is over the lesser the damage to the region. And not the otherway around.
There is no continuity without unity,this sealed the fate of the whole sect, if it was true.
Butheina Shaaban is just hoping.
The UN investigating committee is not allowed to visit Deraa.
Turkish PM comments are very important,it isolates Syrian regime.who has no friend in the neighborhood anymore.
He means the ruling elite, meaning the mafia gangsters.
This is a long awaited piece, it confirms even further how this country is ruled.
I disagree with your statement "this sealed the fate of the whole sect", simply, because the majority never benefited from this mafia, to the contrary. They are used as accessories to advance the ruling elite power. Unfortunately they turned some of them to monsters, like the Shabihas, this is a self hating attitude that will come back to hunt the Assads and Makhloufs from within.
Many educated Alawites are anti Assads Mafia, some are vocal, the majority are silent. They are a sliver of the Syrian society that reflects to some degree the rest of the pie.
Shadid just spoke about his trip to Syria on "Here and Now" on NPR this afternoon. He says that the goal of his trip was to interview Makhlouf and that he had spent a lot of time trying to make it happen; when he was there, he was told Shaaban could talk to him too. Poor coordination?
I wonder what happened to my post? I was asking you if you has anymore information about the supposed 'desintegration' of the Syrian army so diligently described by Mr Olmert?
Also if you know why, now that death in the demonstrations lost the headlines, there is a flurry in the western press of dark predictions of isolation and doom for the government of Bashar al Assad.
"…………Mr. Makhlouf suggested that economic reform would stay primary.
Political Reforms comes first, only then will fair distribution of economic reform dividents among the populace are insured. Should Political reforms comes afterward, it will be just to serve the unfair status quo after economic reforms completed, another powerless and obsolete political front to replace the old one.
It is obvious that the Syrian government has a poor PR compared to the opposition.
By the way, anyone knows how many syrians are employed by Makhlouf ( Syriatel etc..) and how many no-syrians?
It is obvious that this regime choose their death,they are not willing for reform and not willing to engage with dialogue,they are suicidal,they can not fight 70-80% of the syrian,The Assad clan are not even5%.they can not survive,this is the end of Assad dynasty,they are foolish in choosing this fate,as I said before Bashar is not a smart one,and he is not a leader,They do not look for the betterment of the syrian people.
Those who support the regime,should know,they are not neutral,they are not objective,nor reasonable, they keep posting from the regime media, all what they say is not believable,it is not credible,it is waste of their time,if they love Syria they should call for dialogue and reform, and stop telling us that the unarmed protesters are killing officers and soldiers who are well armed , the truth will be known.
You can tremble you can shake,you loose sleep and get headache ,you will wet your pants,there is no use, the end is comming.you are no longer Baik.
This interview and the interview with Buthaina Shaaban yesterday, signify the Syrian government increased confidence in defeating the demonstrators. It is clear to me that the government is now on the offense, and feels certain it will prevail.
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
In the midst of what's being called the Arab Spring, Syria has not let up in its crackdown of protesters. The government has been particularly harsh in Homs, a city that's been one of the centers of nationwide protest. Soldiers have occupied that city and are searching house to house for those opposed to the regime of President Bashar Assad.
NPR's Kelly McEvers joins us on the line from Lebanon, just across the border from Homs.
And Kelly, what more are people telling you about what's happening there in Syria?
KELLY MCEVERS: One man we spoke to on the phone, who had just fled Homs, says that that city right now – the way he described was – he said it's a place that separate from Earth. He said it's just unworldly what's going on there. He says that when security forces come into the city, they strike with their tanks first. They don't even bother using their rifles, says sometimes they even shoot from helicopters in certain neighborhoods.
He says there's places in the city where bodies are lying in the streets. People try to remove the bodies, but they can't even go out of their homes. He says they're putting men and women in separate rooms and interrogating them.
Another man told us that people who even try to hang their laundry out their windows, from second-floor windows, get shot at. He says that schools are closed, the province is basically paralyzed. They're running out of bread and salt, basics.
MONTAGNE: And, Kelly, it does sound like the crackdown is intensifying.
MCEVERS: You know, it's hard to say with absolute certainty, because we are not allowed to enter Syria to verify the reports. But what I can tell you is that residents and activists are telling us that the military is entering more and more cities, detaining more and more people. Activists are saying that now it's up to 10,000 people who've been detained or have disappeared. They're saying this is forcing many activists into hiding, which, of course, makes it harder for them to organize and to get information out.
Phone lines are being cut. Internet connections are being are being cutoff. Even satellite phones now are being jammed. This, of course, is troubling, because this has been the main way for the opposition to get information out, you know, through Skype calls and uploaded videos. Without that, the world will have no idea what's going on inside Syria.
MONTAGNE: And the government, what does it say it's doing?
MCEVERS: A Syrian government spokeswoman – who's also a close advisor to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – told The New York Times yesterday that, you know, she's fairly confident this whole thing will end soon. She, like Syrian officials, have been, for several weeks, characterizing these protesters as not, you know, reformers or people who are seeking, you know, more freedoms, but rather a combination of – what she said – fundamentalists, extremists, smugglers and ex-convicts. And that's why, you know, the government says it's using so much violence.
Of course, activists say the security approach to the problem is no way to solve it. There's no way you can occupy an entire country. You know, security forces might move into a few cities, but with then once they leave, the protests continue popping up. So at some point, activists say there's going to have to be something beyond the security solution. There'll have to be a political solution.
MONTAGNE: Although one wonders if a political solution is likely at this point.
MCEVERS: Yeah, I mean, the Syrian government says – the same spokeswoman says that, you know, the government's been reaching out to the opposition. But they're mainly talking to the so-called sort of old guard, opposition figures who've been around for a long time and who've always kind of been willing to work within the system.
The question is: Will that satisfy this newer opposition? I'm talking about the young protest organizers who are scattered around the country, and people who've since been radicalized by this violence at the hands of the government. How will they be satisfied? Will they be satisfied with any anything but revenge? Revenge in the form of, you know, Assad stepping down, which is seeming more and more unlikely? Or in the form of more violence?
Either way, it's really not a pretty picture.
MONTAGNE: NPR's Kelly McEvers is in Lebanon, just across the border from Homs, Syria.
I'm offering a lollipop for anyone who can post a greater number of links than Mina.
And why is she constantly in the international sphere when the discussion is on Syria? Why not just post "double standards" instead of all those links?
© Copyright 2011 Independent Newspapers (UK) Limited. All rights reserved.
New York: Western nations have launched a new bid to get the UN Security Council to condemn Syria for its deadly crackdown on opposition demonstrators, diplomats say.
Syria's refusal to let a UN humanitarian assessment team into the protest city of Dara'a was raised by Britain at a Security Council meeting yesterday.
Britain is leading lobbying for a Security Council resolution warning Syria over its crackdown, diplomats say.
In parallel, Western nations are stepping up a campaign to stop Syria getting a seat on the UN Human Rights Council at a vote next week.
But efforts to pressure Syria are being held back by opposition from Russia, China and other countries on the 15-nation Security Council, who say the French-British-US coalition staging air attacks in Libya has gone beyond its UN mandate.
Syria again angered its critics by refusing to let a UN humanitarian team into Dara'a on Sunday. Hundreds are feared to have died in the city, which has become a symbol of the protests against President Bashar al-Assad.
The UN announced on Thursday that Syria had agreed to let a UN team into Dara'a, after UN Sscretary general Ban Ki-moon appealed directly to Assad.
Everybody wants dialog and reforms.
Who will the opposition dialog with if there is no more government and Bashar is out, as you are wishing?
What reforms do you expect in the total collapse of the government structure and institustions?
It becomes a "nation-building" task from scratch.
Do you think the 'opposition' alone can do that? Who will help ? the US? The EU? The Syrian army? We are not in Egypt. Organized political parties: we are not in Tunisia. Any suggestion?
What a weird remark? Syria is not on Mars.. it is in the middle east and the events in the region and the international scene are affecting each other. Maybe you were not aware of that. Eat your lollipop, it suits you!
Do you think the 'opposition' alone can do that? Who will help ?
'Jealousy'?!?! Sure people are in the street being killed because they are 'jealous' of his hair style!
Stop treating me like this. I'm warning you (lower lip quivering).
Can you prove you're a PhD holder?
I can't wait for the next party leaflet from محمود. Great additions to the discussion.
Can you prove you're a female!?
Mr. Makhlouf is arrogant, he should keep quite and humble.
Sorry, I can't find it. There is a video about 5 days ago where someone is asked if the tanks were firing at the people and the guy says 'no, they were firing at each other with the amn'.
"The four Swedish participants left the hotel and headed back to their homes and jobs. A few days after that and as a part of my study visit I've visited Swedish Think Tanks and other opinion and policy making institutions. In the meetings I was told about Sweden political parties, social system and the well fare sate establishment.
Sweden at that time was three weeks away from the European Union Presidency. In the Think Tanks they had no real interest, knowledge or studies about The Middle East. They are so much focusing on Sweden. They have managed to do that as political institutions for a long time. And they have done an amazing job but they cannot do that anymore while they are part of the EU political structure and defiantly not when they are in the presidency.
I met parliamentarians from different political parties as well. Three of them sit on various committees including EU and foreign affairs. Those meetings were more productive and sort of relief. Nevertheless while visiting the Foreign Office Press center; a lady from the MENA desk answered angrily some of my boisterous questions stating basically that Sweden does not have a Foreign Policy when it comes to the Middle East. She said they will follow the EU.
I do not think that is destined. And on that matter I will be having more to say but not here. This is neither the place nor the time.
PS: The fifth Swedish participant was born and brought up in Sweden. Nevertheless in the eyes of the writer she is the result of a regionally approved and internationally blessed legal utopian marriage of convenience. The participant is the product of the fathers and the mother of most Lebanese. The rest of The Lebanese are still is sperm stage. Therefore she will be mentioned with the Lebanese participants.
The fathers are : Hassan Nasroulah[i], Al Mufti Kabani[ii], Patriarch Sufaier[iii], Ahmadinejad [iv] . The mother is : Nawal Al Sadawi[v].
[i] Hassan Nasroulah is the religious, political and military leader of Hezbollah, Lebanon. Hobbies: Assassinations, small and big wars, terrifying people, shouting and screaming, praying in public and playing the big hero.
[ii] Al Mufti Kabani is the Muslim Suni highest authority in Lebanon known as Mufti. Hobbies: Praying in public, speaking nicely about the Saudi Royal family, preventing equality legislations from happening.
[iii] Patriarch Sufaier is the Christians Maronite highest authority in Lebanon. Hobbies: Praying in public, preventing equality legislations from happening, appearing on every news channel in the country.
[iv] Ahmadinejad is the lunatic homophobe who stated that there are no homosexuals in Iran. He managed as well to cheat in the last Iranian elections and still proclaims himself the Mullah's spoilt president. Hobbies: has plenty ranks on top hanging Iranians whom he considers perverts.
It is probably a reaction to the European sanctions that were enforced today.
Dr. Landis described it as the "arrogance of power." I see it totally different; it shows a lot of scare and sense of weakness that I did not expect at this stage.
He sounded very much like an Alawi villager rather than a business tycoon. His last sentences made it very clear, he was saying: if you think you can let the Salafis exterminate us, you are wrong, we are going to fight to the last man.
He was alluding to the 10 million vs. 10 million scenario that I talked about in the first week. The problem with the Western world is that they refuse to see the stark sectarian nature of this situation. Many Westerners even doubt that there is such thing as the Wahhabis in the uprising. This is a major problem. It is not surprising that you can't understand the man's feelings.
He is not threatening the West or Israel. He is just so desperate and scared. He can't understand why Europe sanctioned 13 security officials (out of whom 10 are Alawis) who are fighting against a Wahhabi uprising. The Wahhabis want to exterminate the Alawis. This is what they say on their websites and TV channels, and this is what their sacred books say. The Alawis are scared to death. They are fighting a battle for survival. When you are in such a situation and when you see that nobody (in the Western world) believes you, you start believing in universal conspiracy. This is the only defense mechanism that can help you keep fighting.
If you want to understand the psychology of the Syrian regime, you must stop seeing them as an evil regime. Those people see themselves as a minority threatened by annihilation. Makhlouf's reaction is so strange and unusual. It is obvious that the sanction news has enhanced his feelings of persecution and paranoia.
You have to understand that there is a real thing called the Whhabis/Salafis who want to exterminate the Alawis like Ibn Taymiyya did. Even if they don't exterminate them, they are going to persecute them. This region is neither Europe nor America. People here are brutal. The Wahhabis can easily behead a man with a knife. They did it a lot in Iraq and video taped it. To the Alawis, this is not news that they see on TV—it is a real threat that they deal with on daily basis. There are many Alawis who have already been brutally murdered and mutilated in this uprising.
I have never talked to an Alawi person in Syria without feeling that they are scared of me. Those people are full of fear, even if they pretend otherwise.
Thanks Mina. That was very long and interesting.
The Western countries are starting to see the gutter rats showing their nose in Egypt and in Tunisia.
It is not only the Alawis who fear the Wahhabis, it is also the Christians. We can see now what is happening in Egypt: the salafists are finding any pretext to kill the Copts. If the Egyptian government does not do an immediate, 'brutal' and 'ferocious"crackdown' on the Salafists, the Copts will arm themselves and violence will generalize. The danger of a violent civil war is present in Egypt. Don't underestimate the Salafists.
He souds like the Gaddafi's SOn Seif alarab, We will fight them till the end, They are obssessed with ruling the country.
The mere fact that Rami is not in jail is a testimony to how corrupt the regime is,and the idea of giving this thief an outlet to express his opinion is an insult to every honest Syrian.
The regime should not interpret the chosen silence of many Syrians as a sign of approval of its policies or acceptance of a parasite like Rami who,if he is a true patriot as he claims,should sell his shares of syriatel,stay out of those fishy deals and pray that Syrians do not send him to where he and his likes belong: jail.
I was watching today a Wahhabi channel and they showed a "letter of support" sent to them by "Christian young men." Not all the "Christians" who claim to support the uprising on the internet are fake, there are some real Christians who show their support because they believe this will appease the Wahhabis. The same is true for the other minorities. There have been many demos in the Druze mountain and in Salamiyya. The minorities are scared and this is obvious.
The Wahhabis can never be appeased. So many people tried to reach agreements with them. It never works.
The civil war scenario is unlikely now. It would have happened if the Islamists in Aleppo and Damascus had joined the uprising. The regime successfully managed to neutralize many Islamists by using tactics of dividing and conquering that I talked about before. The regime successfully divided the Islamists and now it is in the process of conquering them. Things are going well for the regime. Even if the Islamists in Aleppo and Damascus revolt at a later stage, it will be too late.
Makhlouf's interview is an overreaction to the European sanctions. Things are not that bad.
'Businessman'- what a joke, and what a sadly inflated sense of his own abilities. People like Rami only prosper when the game is tilted heavily their way- by being at the core of a corrupt ruling elite. By agreeing to an interview, he displays his lack of judgement. If the regime falls, this man- with his ill-judged statements and ego-maniacal threats- should shoulder a lot of the blame. The best thing he could do is retreat to his yacht(s) on the French Riviera.
Remember that Kerry, as the article points out, has been the congress delegate to Damascus and one of the very few advocates for engagement with the Syrian regime.
Also, it looks like the family is well and truly united. Any earlier arguments or talks about Dr. Bashar's inability to rein in these around him should be dismissed.
What do you think of the Syrian government's murder of nearly 1000 innocent Syrians?
Will you lift a finger to criticize the Syrian government or does that take too much effort on your part? Or maybe your masdrassa education prevents you from criticizing a "brotherly" Arab government that kills its own?
333,This scared gang could kill you or your bigot relatives and then tell in their media that you were terrorists.
What asad-makhlouf paranoid gang dream for is to make sure that you fear their tools of oppresion torture,prison,killing again in the 2010's.
اننا نكره حكامكم ! نكره ممارساتكم ! تدخلاتكم ! نكره أسلوبكم! لن نشاهد منكم غير نتاج دمار مجمع التصنيع الحربي الأمريكي ! هل تريدون أن نفرش لكم الزهور في ساحات سقوط صواريخكم ؟كيف تدعون الانسانية و انتم تنفقون أكبر ميزانية عسكرية في العالم ! هل تعتقدون ان العالم ينسى بسرعة اجرامكم في تدمير هيروشيما و ناغازاكي ؟ كيف تنادون بالديمقراطية و أنتم بحاجة دائما الى خلق اعداء افتراضيين لتبرير انفاقاتكم العسكرية! هل تعتقدون أنكم الوحيدون ماضيون في العلوم ؟ انكم قمة في التخلف الأخلاقي ! انكم عبيد المادة ! سحقا لدهنيتكم ! سحقا لعقيدتكم المدمرة !
It is a really despicable interview made by this Makhlouf guy. Even more than the words uttered by Bouthaina Shaaban who continues to write senseless articles in the Wahhabi Al-Sharq Al-Awsat with a photo of her when she was close to 15 years old!


text:
Q: How to change cursor shape in qml when MouseArea is covered with another MouseArea There are two MouseAreas with two different responsibilities and one (green) is positioned partially on top of the other (red). I would like to change cursor's shape whenever red MA is hovered (even if it is under the green MA), and I would like green MA to react to press and nothing else.
Two MA's could be in different files so I don't want to make explicit dependencies between them like setting proper cursorShape in green whenever containsMouse in red changes. Is there a way to prevent the green MouseArea from handling cursor shape?
import QtQuick 2.4
import QtQuick.Window 2.2

Window {
    visible: true
    width: 200
    height: 200

    Rectangle { anchors.fill: parent; color: "yellow"; }

    MouseArea {
        width: 150
        height: 150
        hoverEnabled: true
        cursorShape: Qt.OpenHandCursor
        Rectangle { anchors.fill: parent; color: "red"; }
        onPositionChanged: console.log("position", mouse.x, mouse.y)
        onContainsMouseChanged: console.log("containsMouse", containsMouse)
    }
    MouseArea {
        x: 50
        y: 50
        width: 150
        height: 150
        hoverEnabled: false
        Rectangle { anchors.fill: parent; color: "green"; }
        onPressed: console.log("Ahoj!")
    }
}

A: There is no way to do this by MouseArea properties or any other ready solution. MouseArea always sets some cursor shape -- if cursorShape property is not specified than the default value is used (Qt.ArrowCursor)
You can of course use mapToItem()/mapFromItem() to workaround this problem (as Mitch suggested). But there are other possibilities too:
You can temporary change visible to false of overlaying mouse area.
Alternatively if both MouseArea are siblings, you can operate on z property to obtain specific hierarchy of object suitable for your needs.

A: I don't think it's possible to do that, at least from within QML. The green mouse area doesn't have hoverEnabled set to true, so you won't receive any position changes for it.
A better way of approaching this problem is to use a larger MouseArea that fills the maximum area you're interested in, and use mapToItem() / mapFromItem() to translate the global mouse position to local coordinates for comparison against each mouse area:
import QtQuick 2.4
import QtQuick.Window 2.2

Window {
    id: window
    visible: true
    width: 200
    height: 200

    Rectangle {
        anchors.fill: parent
        color: "yellow"
    }

    MouseArea {
        id: globalMouseArea
        anchors.fill: parent
        hoverEnabled: true
    }

    MouseArea {
        id: redMouseArea
        width: 150
        height: 150
        cursorShape: containsMouse ? Qt.OpenHandCursor : Qt.ArrowCursor
        enabled: false

        readonly property bool containsMouse: {
            var relativePos = mapFromItem(globalMouseArea, globalMouseArea.mouseX, globalMouseArea.mouseY);
            return contains(Qt.point(relativePos.x, relativePos.y));
        }

        Rectangle {
            anchors.fill: parent
            color: "red"
        }
    }
    Rectangle {
        id: greenMouseArea
        x: 50
        y: 50
        width: 150
        height: 150
        color: containsMouse ? "brown" : "green"

        readonly property bool containsMouse: {
            var relativePos = mapFromItem(globalMouseArea, globalMouseArea.mouseX, globalMouseArea.mouseY);
            return contains(Qt.point(relativePos.x, relativePos.y));
        }

        Connections {
            target: globalMouseArea
            onPressed: if (greenMouseArea.containsMouse) greenMouseArea.pressed()
        }

        signal pressed
        onPressed: console.log("Ahoj!")
    }
}

As you can see, the green mouse area is no longer a mouse area. It seems that a mouse area that has a higher stacking order than another mouse area will block position changes for the lower mouse area, even if the higher one doesn't have hoverEnabled set to true.
Also, note that it would be slightly more concise if it weren't for QTBUG-41452. Namely, you could shorten the containsMouse expression:
readonly property bool containsMouse: contains(mapFromItem(globalMouseArea, globalMouseArea.mouseX, globalMouseArea.mouseY))

If you're concerned about the code duplication here, then you can use a function instead:
import QtQuick 2.4
import QtQuick.Window 2.2

Window {
    id: window
    visible: true
    width: 200
    height: 200

    Rectangle {
        anchors.fill: parent
        color: "yellow"
    }

    MouseArea {
        id: globalMouseArea
        anchors.fill: parent
        hoverEnabled: true
    }

    function containsMouse(item) {
        var relativePos = globalMouseArea.mapToItem(item, globalMouseArea.mouseX, globalMouseArea.mouseY);
        return item.contains(Qt.point(relativePos.x, relativePos.y));
    }

    MouseArea {
        id: redMouseArea
        width: 150
        height: 150
        cursorShape: window.containsMouse(redMouseArea) ? Qt.OpenHandCursor : Qt.ArrowCursor
        enabled: false

        Rectangle {
            anchors.fill: parent
            color: "red"
        }
    }
    Rectangle {
        id: greenMouseArea
        x: 50
        y: 50
        width: 150
        height: 150
        color: containsMouse ? "brown" : "green"

        readonly property bool containsMouse: window.containsMouse(greenMouseArea)

        Connections {
            target: globalMouseArea
            onPressed: if (greenMouseArea.containsMouse) greenMouseArea.pressed()
        }

        signal pressed
        onPressed: console.log("Ahoj!")
    }
}

I used a property for the green mouse area, as it would otherwise call containsMouse() twice, which is wasteful.

A: You can set cursorShape in the green mouse area to undefined, this prevents it from changing the cursor.

A: You can create your own CusorShapeArea like below. It will help you to control cursor shape much easier.
First create C++ class CursorShapeArea:
cursorshapearea.h

#ifndef CURSORSHAPEAREA_H
#define CURSORSHAPEAREA_H

#include <QDeclarativeItem>

class QsltCursorShapeArea : public QDeclarativeItem
{
  Q_OBJECT

  Q_PROPERTY(Qt::CursorShape cursorShape READ cursorShape WRITE setCursorShape NOTIFY cursorShapeChanged)

public:

  explicit QsltCursorShapeArea(QDeclarativeItem *parent = 0);

  Qt::CursorShape cursorShape() const;
  Q_INVOKABLE void setCursorShape(Qt::CursorShape cursorShape);

private:
  int m_currentShape;

signals:
  void cursorShapeChanged();
};

#endif // CURSORSHAPEAREA_H

cursorshapearea.cpp
#include "cursorshapearea.h"

QsltCursorShapeArea::QsltCursorShapeArea(QDeclarativeItem *parent) :
  QDeclarativeItem(parent),
  m_currentShape(-1)
{
}

Qt::CursorShape QsltCursorShapeArea::cursorShape() const
{
  return cursor().shape();
}

void QsltCursorShapeArea::setCursorShape(Qt::CursorShape cursorShape)
{
  if (m_currentShape == (int) cursorShape)
    return;

  setCursor(cursorShape);
  emit cursorShapeChanged();

  m_currentShape = cursorShape;
}

Then register this qml type:
#include <QtDeclarative>
#include "cursorshapearea.h"

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
...
  qmlRegisterType<CursorShapeArea>("MyTools", 1, 0, "CursorShapeArea");
...
}

Then use it in QML, in your problems:
import QtQuick 1.1
import CursorShapeArea 0.1

Window {
visible: true
width: 200
height: 200

Rectangle { anchors.fill: parent; color: "yellow"; }

MouseArea {
    id: redArea
    width: 150
    height: 150
    hoverEnabled: true
    //cursorShape: Qt.OpenHandCursor
    Rectangle { anchors.fill: parent; color: "red"; }
    onPositionChanged: console.log("position", mouse.x, mouse.y)
    onContainsMouseChanged: console.log("containsMouse", containsMouse)
}
MouseArea {
    x: 50
    y: 50
    width: 150
    height: 150
    hoverEnabled: false
    Rectangle { anchors.fill: parent; color: "green"; }
    onPressed: console.log("Ahoj!")
}
CursorShapeArea {
    anchors.fill: redArea
    cursorShape: Qt.OpenHandCursor
}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Faith – Page 2 – Laugh.Cry.Giggle.Smile.
Seriously. That's it. That's all I've got.
I'm not in danger or live in a war zone. It seems like I should have more plans than this.
No bucket list. No travel the world. No write a book. Ne. Non. Nada. Nothing.
It occurred to me that I'm not even in control of Item #4. I can do my best at this and still not guarantee it. Sounds pretty low, huh… Talk about your biggest fear?! My sister faced this when my nephew fought anaplastic ependymoma aka brain cancer at 18months. He's now a healthy 10yr old, but honesty time —bad stuff happens and we aren't in control.
Fear has me reeling this week. I'm questioning how deep is my faith if something like this happens? And dear Lord, please don't let this happen! If I type these words or utter them out loud, does this make it more likely I will be tested and refined in this way?
As far as God is concerned, I'm already an open book. So, I guess that is reassuring. Typing the words doesn't make that more real or more likely.
As our previous pastor told me once when I visited with him about my anxiety – "God is God. God is Good. All the Time." He is my Rock and my Salvation. I don't have to be enough. Take that off my shoulders! It isn't my job description.
I've spent the last month of quiet early mornings reading Isaiah and then dove right into Jeremiah. While this does encourage some deep soul searching to see if my actions and heart match my words, it might be time to read something a bit more uplifting like Psalms or a book in the New Testament.
As I type, this song came on. "Eye of the Storm" — Thank you. Just when I needed it! Took the words right out of my mouth.
After I get in a run – think endorphins – I might try to make sense of this calendar and sketch out a few plans for life. Until then, I'll enjoy the people and moments that make me happy.
Yesterday morning my anxiety was running high, like the Burj Khalifa in Dubai high.
After getting the kids around for school and on the bus, I told my husband that I was going for a quick 10 minute run. That was all I had time to squeeze in. He didn't argue. I know he could sense my anxiety.
On top of our normal parent – work schedule, this week includes a lot of extras and one long car trip to a specialist. But I think the thing that really unnerved me was something our guest evangelist at church said yesterday.
13 Jen – "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
14 Jen – "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light" – Jen- " shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
I thought this was all very uplifting. Not giving myself any credit, but this is humbly encouraging to do good works in whatever way possible for the glory of my Heavenly Father.
He closed his message by declaring that the signs for the Lord's return are visible and increasing just as the old and new testament's discuss. While we aren't able to discern all those signs and know not the timing, each moment of time here is a moment gone and one closer to the next. The part that caught me is when he said we should all be looking toward this with joy.
I'm being very raw and honest here — I'm mixed with joy and worry when I think about this. As I internally debated these feelings for the past few days, it occurred to me that if I'm conflicted in my feelings it must partially be because I'm still holding God at arm's length in some parts of my life. More internal reflection is currently focused on exactly where.
Absolutely I look forward to no more illness, sadness, injuries, and no more gut-wrenching evil. I desire more of that amazing joy and peace that I occasionally feel pass over me for all eternity. Have you ever felt that? It is truly hard to put into words – warm, not just happy but deeper than that – joy, light, peace, complete love. I don't feel it with my family or friends, although I do feel deep love and comfort with them. It is much Much MUCH deeper than that.
My worry is about how bad it has to get. Am I equipped to handle it? Not alone, I'm sure. What about my children? What will their relationships look like? I know I went through a period of time in high school and college where I did things that I hoped God would just overlook. Pay no attention to the person behind the curtain (me) doing these things that I want to experience, but know are bad news… Not earned, not deserved and yet I asked and am graciously forgiven. Saved thru Grace not works.
What about my high school acquaintance who proclaims himself an atheist, but rails angrily against God on social media? He curses against the God he declares not to exist. He is so wounded by his current situation it is hard for me to fathom. What about those who are so cushy and comfortable in their own situations that they are oblivious to the emotionally, spiritually, or physically poor and needy next door? What about the people being led astray by the glitz, glamour and empty promises of success?
I just finished a life application study of the book of Acts. I know that people will hear the message and choose not to believe in God or the Gospel. In these situations, Paul had to shake off his garments and walk away. He still cared for all people, but realized that his mission was to present the message and pray for the people who heard it. He couldn't work in the hearts of the people. That is the job of the Holy Spirit.
As I write this, my anxiety diminishes. My job is to love the people and give them the message that God is real. He loves you regardless of your previous or future choices. We're fallible, breakable humans. God is not the hypocritical religious leader or megachurch preacher asking for your money while ignoring the needy. He is love. His Spirit flows in the hands and feet of those serving others humbly. I suspect that almost everyone on this planet has encountered the love of God regardless of if they've recognized it as such.
Upon returning from my run yesterday morning, this was laying in my yard by my sidewalk. Keep your head up and your eyes open. God's love is everywhere. Be the good and give that glory to Whom it belongs.
Our pastor says every Sunday: God fed – Spirit led.
I like it. It sticks with me.
Another quick phrase that stays in my mind: God is God and God is Good. Always.
I've been making the effort to get out of bed before everyone else in the morning. Tiptoeing down the bedroom hall, I go to the kitchen and make my morning beverage. About a minute after that, I sneak down to the basement to sit with my study Bible in my robe with a lamp on. No TV. No phone. No overhead lights. Yes cozy blanket.
It's been mentioned before that I don't have time in my schedule to attend a regular group study. This is not my life season for that. Instead, my goal is to get those 20-30 minutes of devotion at least 5 days a week.
I finished reading thru the book of James about a week ago. Picking a passage, I read thru it all once. Then, verse by verse, reading the commentary and being mindful about what it says, I study it. I try to apply it to what is going on around me. Who can I pray for? What does this make me feel? What does this make me think? Am I convicted or uplifted by this passage? What is the application of this for me and others?
I started on the book of Psalms at the end of last week. Psalms 7 and 8 were my focus this morning. Psalm 7 focuses on praying for those who wrong you instead of taking revenge. It felt sorrowful and heart-clutching. How often do you immediately pray for those who lie, steal, back-stab, or hurt you or your children instead of lashing back? Ouch. Touché. Message received.
Psalm 8 is one of joy. I often marvel at how God loves us even at our worst. I struggle to love myself during hard times! Why create such insidious creatures as humans? Because He knows how beautiful (heart, soul, kindness, love, compassion) we can truly be. He has placed His beloved children above the angels.
He put the world in our care! Man, we've mucked that up too… Let's try to step it up in that department, shall we? Take the time to show a neighbor or a child the beauty of nature. Listen for the birds and wind. Appreciate the open sky and voluminous clouds. Conserve water. Recycle. Don't be wasteful. Treat all creatures with respect – every living thing has a purpose.
Speaking of children, my young crew at children's church – although confused about many things 🙂 – have faith. Faith that the sun will rise. Faith that birds will fly. Faith that God loves them. They don't question it. It takes faith to accept that God will take care of the things that are beyond our humble realm of knowledge.
Before anyone writes me off as simple-minded, lacking in scientific knowledge, or thinks that I live in a religious bubble, please recognize this: Understanding the mechanics of the world and having faith are NOT mutually exclusive. Tough concept in our current cultural atmosphere. When you accept how borderless God is, it is amazing how everything else finds a place within that lack of borders.


text:
Q: postgresql change all sequences with for loop I have sequences like table_name_sq in postgresql for all tables.
For example;
seqtest-> seqtest_sq
seqtest2-> seqtest2_sq

I need to change all sequences in database.
(I cannot run query for every tables manually)
I can get tables and make sequence string
select table_name || '_sq' as sequence_name from information_schema.tables where table_catalog='test' and table_schema='public'

I can change sequence value for specified table
select setval('seqtest_sq',(select max(id) from seqtest)+1)

But I cannot merge these two.
I think should use for loop but that I could not make that work.
CODE IS:
DO $$
DECLARE
i RECORD;
BEGIN
    FOR i IN (select table_name from information_schema.tables) LOOP
         EXECUTE 'SELECT count(*) FROM ' || i;
    END LOOP;
END$$;

OUTPUT is:
ERROR:  syntax error at or near ")"
LINE 1: SELECT count(*) FROM (seqtest)
                                     ^
QUERY:  SELECT count(*) FROM (seqtest)
CONTEXT:  PL/pgSQL function inline_code_block line 6 at EXECUTE
********** Error **********

ERROR: syntax error at or near ")"
SQL state: 42601
Context: PL/pgSQL function inline_code_block line 6 at EXECUTE

Also I printed table names with for loop but table names come with parentheses.
HERE is CODE
DO $$
DECLARE
i RECORD;
BEGIN
    FOR i IN (select table_name from information_schema.tables where table_catalog='test' and table_schema='public') LOOP
    raise notice 'Value: %',i;
    END LOOP;
END$$;

HERE is OUTPUT:
NOTICE:  Value: (seqtest)
NOTICE:  Value: (seqtest2)

I think it is enough for me to get rid of this parentheses.
Would you help me to build a proper loop or find a easy way to achive this?

A: Here is the solution with help of @Nick Barnes and @a_horse_with_no_name
If someone needs a idea of how to fix sequences can use this script.
DO $$
DECLARE
i TEXT;
BEGIN
    FOR i IN (select table_name from information_schema.tables where table_catalog='YOUR_DATABASE_NAME' and table_schema='public') LOOP
    EXECUTE 'Select setval('''||i||'_sq'', (SELECT max(id) as a FROM ' || i ||')+1);';
    END LOOP;
END$$;

A: I've got some tables that have not got 'id' column and some tables use special names in camelCase, so they are need to be quoted. Hope this javuzs's solutions upgrade will be heplfull for someone.
DO $$
DECLARE
i TEXT;
BEGIN
  FOR i IN (SELECT tbls.table_name FROM information_schema.tables AS tbls INNER JOIN information_schema.columns AS cols ON tbls.table_name = cols.table_name WHERE tbls.table_catalog='YOUR_DATABASE_NAME' AND tbls.table_schema='public' AND cols.column_name='id') LOOP
      EXECUTE 'SELECT setval(''"' || i || '_id_seq"'', (SELECT MAX(id) FROM ' || quote_ident(i) || '));';
  END LOOP;
END $$;

A: Here is the script I use.
DO $$
DECLARE
i TEXT;
BEGIN
  FOR i IN (
    SELECT 'SELECT SETVAL('
        || quote_literal(quote_ident(PGT.schemaname) || '.' || quote_ident(S.relname))
        || ', COALESCE(MAX(' ||quote_ident(C.attname)|| '), 1) ) FROM '
        || quote_ident(PGT.schemaname)|| '.'||quote_ident(T.relname)|| ';'
      FROM pg_class AS S,
           pg_depend AS D,
           pg_class AS T,
           pg_attribute AS C,
           pg_tables AS PGT
     WHERE S.relkind = 'S'
       AND S.oid = D.objid
       AND D.refobjid = T.oid
       AND D.refobjid = C.attrelid
       AND D.refobjsubid = C.attnum
       AND T.relname = PGT.tablename
  ) LOOP
      EXECUTE i;
  END LOOP;
END $$;


text:
Blog » WordPress » Hub And Spoke Content Marketing With WordPress
Hub And Spoke Content Marketing With WordPress
Unless a business has a tight online marketing strategy things can become very messy, with diverse disconnected channels pumping out content with no overarching goal in mind. Imposing order on the potential marketing chaos is essential to ensure that every part of a business's online presence is pulling in the right direction.
The hub and spoke paradigm is one way of imposing that order. In principle it's fairly simple, the brand website is the hub, the point at which most substantial content in published, and where the major calls-to-action are located. The spokes are the channels through which content is pushed to potential leads, with the intention of drawing them into the main site and exposing them to the calls-to-action.
There are various ways that the hub and spoke model can be implemented; we're going to have a look at two of the most popular, both of which use WordPress as a major component. We'll look at these implementations separately, although there's no reason that they couldn't be combined in practice.
Blog and Social Media
This is the most common implementation of hub and spoke. The main site, whether it's a sales site or a lead generation site, acts as the hub. Closely integrated with that site is a blog on which high-quality relevant content is published. That content is then given exposure through a selection of social media networks, outreach to other blogs, and guest posting.
At every point in the process the aim is to draw users into the main site, where they can be presented with calls-to-action and opportunities to convert, as well as awesome content which encourages further sharing on social media and return visits.
WordPress makes a great choice for the hub, both because it's the most capable blogging platform available, and because of the huge number of plugins available for integration with social media.
Main Site and Microsites
Many businesses want to appeal to a range of different niches. Products are often better served by being exposed to different audiences using different tones, emphases, and designs.
Microsites are secondary websites that target each of those niches in the way best suited to them. For example, a clothing retailer may sell clothes to both men and women, and both city and rural customers. The content likely to engage those customers is going to be different, and a hub site that attempts to cover all bases — to cater for both urban hipsters and farmers — is going to end up looking inauthentic to both.
Using WordPress to produce microsites that are separately focused on producing content for each of those customer personas, and then driving that traffic to the main site for conversion is a very good way to deal with audience fragmentation.
Again, WordPress is well suited because of its flexibility as a content publishing platform, its easy theming, and the WordPress multisite capability, which allows for the running of several sites from one installation.
Graeme C
About Graeme Caldwell -- Graeme works as an inbound marketer for Nexcess, a leading provider of Magento and WordPress hosting. Like Nexcess on Facebook and check out their tech/hosting blog, http://blog.nexcess.net.
Please feel free to give us your feedback and comment below. Please keep in mind that comments are moderated. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Dog Sniffer Mobile App – A Website to App Development

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


We all have a different starting point with regards to our health. It's important to establish a Baseline in order to know what needs to be done to improve our health. Improving health is a comprehensive journey that is a marathon, not a sprint. It's important to understand the steps that need to be taken by establishing that baseline. Also it's important to establish our motivations so that we are consistent in learning and in our weekly practice. Finally, the health journey is a two step forward, one step back process. Obstacles will happen. Guaranteed. By anticipating those obstacles, we can prepare for it and set ourselves up for health success.
Learn step-by-step how to establish Baseline, Motivations and how to Anticipate and Succeed past our obstacles.


Given how frequently a good dexterity game gets played in our home - especially when we have friends and family over - I'm always on the lookout for new titles. That's why when I first heard about Suspend from publisher Melissa & Doug, I didn't need much convincing to give this a shot. It's like Jenga in that you are balancing things, but it immediately struck me as more fun and more entertaining. So let's show you what you get, how it works, and tell you what I think.
My game came in a long cylindrical plastic tube. It's not exactly the most standard form of game packaging - but then again, this isn't your standard form of game. How else are you going to package long wire rods with twists in them?
So while unusual, this is practical, and it does mean that you can easily squeeze this game in between others of your game collection, or even under a couch or behind some books.
The tag line gives us some idea of what to expect: "Suspend - the Teetering, Wobbling, Shifting, Tipping, Unbalanced, Balance Game!" The basic concept is further explained as follows: "Hang a piece and the puzzle moves, the balance shifts and everything changes! Suspend looks different with every turn, but the challenge remains the same: don't knock it down!"
So what's inside the plastic canister?
Let's take a look at all the individual bits and pieces, and explain what they are for.
The colour die simple is used to randomly select one of the rods by colour. There's six sides on the die, corresponding to six different colours of rods in the game: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and black.
The first thing we get is a wooden base, which you'll have to assemble with metal rods at the start of every game.
The wooden base has pre-drilled holes into which the metal support rods neatly fit. Two of them go into the sides, which go out at right angles and function as ground supports to ensure that the whole structure doesn't easily tip over.
One of the remaining two metal rods goes vertically into the top of the wooden base, where a wooden connector piece joins it to the last metal rod. The metal rod at the top has a small S style bend at the top, and is where the metal rods used by players will begin to suspend from.
The 24 metal rods come in six different colours, i.e. four identical rods in each colour. While the metal is plain, the colour is provided by coloured and rubberized ends, which also ensure that you won't easily injure someone or accidentally poke them with the ends. For most of this review, I'll just refer to these rods as "pieces".
Each different coloured piece has a different length, and also a matching series of notches/curves/twists that will assist in having the metal pieces hang from each other.
The game rules are included on a single sheet of player that fits inside the plastic canister - one side effectively becomes the game box label, while the other has the instructions.
You can download the instructions from the publisher in PDF format here.
First you assemble the wooden base with the four metal rods and wooden connector.
Then the metal rods/pieces are shared out, each player getting the same number of each colour, and extras (if any) going to a draw pile.
The basic objective is to be the first player who gets rid of all their rods/pieces, by hanging them from the structure, taking turns to place one at a time.
But there are some rules for placement: You can only use one hand when placing a piece. And once you let go and remove your hand - your turn is done. You can hang your piece anywhere, except on a notch or straight section already used by another piece. If after letting your piece go any other piece touches the ground, you need to reposition your piece. Finally, any pieces that fall during your turn, get added to your pile.
That's really all there is to the basic game!
Beginner: As described, but players must begin with their longest piece and work towards their shortest one.
Intermediate: On your turn you roll the die to decide what coloured piece to place. If you don't have that colour, must take one of that colour from the draw pile or from another player.
Expert: Use the Intermediate rules, but with the addition of a point system: each round the winner gets zero points, but other players get one minus point for each notch remaining on the pieces they haven't placed. Players with 20 points are eliminated, until just one person remains.
Solo: Build a freestyle sculpture, using any piece of your choice, in any combination desired.
It can be hard to visualize how this game works, because of the shifting balance that happens whenever you place a new piece. One of the best ways to get a sense of game-play is to check out a couple of videos of the game being played.
The guys at ToyBoxCollectibles were learning the rules on the go, but their game-play video will give you a good idea of the suspense and tension involved in playing!
Just check some of the videos for yourself, and you'll see that the facial expressions aren't fake or staged - these are the kinds of reactions that the game genuinely produces, as it teeters and totters, and swings in different directions!
Dexterity: As I mentioned at the start of this article, dexterity games have a value that few other games can have, in terms of the mileage you can get from them. This game introduces some randomness by means of the dice, but for the rest it's all about your dexterity and skill in judging the underlying physics of balance, gravity, and weight, and making good placement. It's definitely good for developing hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills too!
Accessible: The beauty about a game like this is that anybody can play it. There's no skill thresh-hold that requires a certain IQ to grasp the rules, or that excludes youngsters or seniors. People of all ages and abilities can join in.
Quick: Another strength of Suspend is how quickly it can play. Usually you can polish off a game in 10 minutes, which is ideal for a dexterity game. That means that you can easily rotate new players in or out, especially in a party or social context where there's a lot of people. It also helps keep the game fun, and prevents it becoming too serious.
Simple: The concept of the game is very simple to grasp, and an outside observer only needs to watch for 30 seconds to understand how the game works. That means that there's no downtime needed in giving a lengthy rules lecture in advance, and that you can quickly explain the game and get right into playing it and having fun.
Quality: I was immediately impressed by the quality of the components, aside from the plastic canister, which is probably the weakest link as far as components go. But the metal rods/pieces are polished, smooth, and look classy, and the coloured plastic ends not only serve as a safety feature but also add some visual colour and style. I hope that the holes in the base into which the metal rods are inserted don't wear over time, but they are recessed fairly deep, and overall it looks like there's good reason to expect the game itself to go the distance, meeting high standards of durability as well as being visually pleasing.
will inevitably cause people to ask about it and beg to play. The eye-catching nature of Suspend is especially the case when a game is in progress. Unlike Jenga, the structure is constantly moving and changing every time a new piece is added to it, as the gravitational forces do their work. It is inevitable that when people are playing the game, it will attract the attention of bystanders, who will want to join in.
Familiar: Almost everyone is familiar with Jenga, and there is a Jenga concept that is at play in Suspend, in that you're effectively adding something each turn, and trying not to have the whole thing tumble over. Having a connection with an established and familiar game helps people understand how Suspend works, and enhances its accessibility.
Unique: Although Suspend shares something in common with Jenga at its raw level, it is still quite a different game. The components have a very different look, obviously, and the way the balancing works is quite different as well. As mentioned already, in Suspend you are not working with a static tower, but the entire structure will move and change every time. This makes it slightly less predictable and even harder to assess what will happen each time you add a piece, but it also makes it more dynamic and exciting to watch and play.
Fun: Anything that involves physically building something, and watching it tumble down, will create moments of tension (will it fall?), moments of drama (will he succeed?), moments of disaster (oh, it toppled!), and it is moments like these that also create laughs and entertainment. The dynamic structure can create gasps as each piece is added and the entire structure swings and changes, and also moments of laughter or frustration when pieces tumble off or the entire thing falls over. It really is just a fun game!
Filler: I'm not sure that a game like this would provide a whole evening of entertainment - at least not with the same players. In most cases, Suspend will be a fun diversion while waiting for others to show up, or a filler between games or to close an evening. But certainly it would be a great choice for a party or family gathering, as a piece of entertainment that can be left set-up on a table somewhere, and played by different people throughout an evening.
Randomness: If the game has a weakness, it is with the standard rules, which require dice rolling to determine what colour metal piece you have to place. This can add an element of excitement and suspense, because you don't know if you'll roll a colour that you actually have, meaning that you might be forced to play a piece from another player. It also creates a catch-up mechanic, because it is likely that someone who has collected a pile of fallen pieces will be helped out by other players and could get back into the game. But it can also be very frustrating when you don't roll the colour you need. This is a light game and shouldn't be taken too seriously, but gamers may find themselves adopting house rules to improve the "game" element.
Kid-friendly: While certainly fun for adults looking for a light filler, Suspend is also going to work well for children. That makes it an ideal family game. You can even pit grandparents against grandkids as a good match-up! Many families have reported that Suspend was a great choice as a family game.
Popular: Somehow a game that would normally be an underground hit at boardgame conventions, has hit the mass market and become a real hit. Suspend is very available, and you'll even see it on shelves in big box stores like Target and Walmart, and online retailers like Amazon. That's fantastic - I'm all for good quality games like this hitting the big time!
Award-winning: Suspend has won several awards in the toys and game industry, including Best Toys Guide's Best Game of 2012. So I'm by far not the only one blowing its trumpet and singing its praises - many others have done so already.
Toy: Not everyone might admit to it, but it's fun just fooling around with the pieces of Suspend on your own. You don't even need to do an official solo challenge (although you certainly could), but the pieces and concept of the game is entertaining enough to mess around with, as you try getting all of them to balance in a single structure. There's definitely a big toy factor, and not just kids will appreciate this! So even if you don't find enough game in Suspend, you'll have to concede that there's a lot of toy-like dexterity/physics fun you can have with it!
Variations: The game comes with a few levels of play, but what it really needs are some good house rules and official variations, which can mitigate the frustration that can be caused by rolling the die. Many other players have remarked on this, and fortunately quite a few players have suggested different house rules that can help turn this from a good game to a great one. For example, Daniel Cluley suggests this variant: "If you roll a color you don't have, you get to pick one from an opponent to play, and if successful, trade one of your pieces for the one you played." Kirk Roberts has come up with a Color Force variant which seems quite good, and perhaps even better is the Pool of Points variant from VaultBoy. Others have suggested being able to place your final piece without needing to roll. None of this will probably matter to non-gamers, but I can understand that gamers will want a fairer set of rules that rewards skill and mitigates the dice-rolling.
1. "The game can be too easy for some players, and too easy to balance. As a result it can happen that the structure gets too solid with interwoven pieces, meaning that everyone can play all their pieces without any falling."
Response: I also found quite a few critics saying that Suspend is too hard and too difficult to play! So evidently you can't take this criticism too seriously, and you will get mixed results.
2. "The rules as written need variations and house-ruling, to avoid the scenario where all players have placed all but one or two of their pieces, and it comes down to the roll of the die as to which piece gets played to determine the winner."
Response: While there is merit to this, it's not reason to miss out on a fun game - just consider playing with some house rules.
3. "A potential concern about replayability."
Response: Suspend is not intended to be played over and over many times on the same day by the same players, but as a filler or party game.
As you can see, even some of the critics still give Suspend some love, and consider it a fun game of dexterity and equilibrium, and have to admit that it can be a fun toy to play around with!
So is Suspend for you? While it does have some weaknesses, particularly as far as rules is concerned, this is not a reason to stay away from it, because it's easy enough to play with whatever house rules you come up with. The central element that makes this game so much fun remains: the tense battle against momentum and gravity as you carefully position a new piece onto a swaying and volatile structure! The entertainment that this provides makes it more than worth any perceived issues.
There are some real strengths here in terms of accessibility and appeal, and the amount of fun this game can produce for a wide range of people. For me Suspend is a keeper!
Where to get it? Suspend is available from most game retailers that distribute and sell Melissa & Doug products, and even from some department stores world-wide. For more information, see the product page at Modern Brands here.
If you made it to the end of this review and found it helpful, please consider giving a thumbs up at the very top of the article, to let me know you were here, and to give others a better chance of seeing it.
Thanks for reviewing this, Ender! We had a New Year's Eve game night at our church. A couple had gotten this for their grandkids and they borrowed it for the evening. Several games were played and everyone seemed to really enjoy it! I know I did!
LOL, the rods almost look like my set of lockpicks!
How old would you suggest for kids?
My younger boy, 4.5, likes dexterity games, but when we play jenga he still occasionally tries to reach for the middle block on a level that already has a side block removed. He moves on to another one quickly, but its clear he hasnt internalized static structures yet. I wonder if the joy of watching the structure move would overpower the frustration of watching the structure move.
I've found that young players enjoy playing but quickly lose interest since the pieces can be hard to play successfully.
You might consider Suspend Jr, though - it's the same game but with plastic rods that aren't quite as slippery.
There is a "junior" version entitled Suspend Junior, but it is difficult to recommend that version.
The concept is the same but it has a cheap spinner (which admittedly might be more fun for kids than a die). However, it uses cheap plastic rods, which unfortunately are harder to balance and increase the frustration levels.
I'm sure it is still reasonable fun, and you will read positive comments about it too. But there are also many critical reviews on Amazon which suggest that it's not really more suitable for kids, and that the plastic bits slide too easily, making the game worse.
"I have the regular game and have enjoyed it with my great niece -- but I bought the Jr game for younger great nephews --- would not do that again -- the plastic pieces are actually harder to balance than the metal ones in the regular game." - Barbara J.
In view of comments like these, I would suggest sticking with the standard game of Suspend if playing with children. You will read reviews from people who found the game too hard for kids, but these are often also people who found the game too hard for adults! If anything, the normal Suspend game is actually easier to play and less frustrating to play than the Junior version with plastic pieces.
As far as ages go, I've read quite a few reports about children aged 4-7 who really enjoyed playing Suspend. Some four year olds will have more fun with it as a toy, playing with the pieces and building their own structure rather than following the rules, so there is an enormous toy factor they'll enjoy if they're not ready for the game itself yet. But once children are around school age, I think they should be able to manage quite fine with playing the game, and will enjoy it.
Great review and thanks for the mention of my idea and the professional courtesy to notify me about the reference.
I think this is a fun concept and the other rules we can develop may make it even more fun. I know I love experimenting with rules/mechanics/balance and I found a lot of cool options for making this game even better.
Keep it up, everybody, that's what makes this fun!


Canyon boys baseball overcame a sluggish start Friday to beat Golden Valley 10-6 in an offensive showcase.
The Cowboys (8-13 overall, 4-7 in Foothill League) got one run in the top of the first inning from sophomore designated hitter Justin Powell, who hit a triple to the left field wall. Powell brought in junior centerfielder Noah Blythe for a 1-0 lead.
Junior shortstop Joshua Lee got it going for the Grizzlies (6-19, 1-10) in the bottom of the first, smashing a bullet to right field, bringing home senior center fielder Dylan Daszek to tie the score at 1-1. Senior first baseman Steven Moreno brought in two more runs from hard-hit double advancing the score to 3-1.
The Grizzlies answered again in the bottom of the second inning from Lee, who slipped a single between Canyon's third baseman and shortstop to bring home senior pitcher Bryson James, pushing a 4-1 lead.
Cowboys junior pitcher Jace Root went three innings, striking out three before being pulled. Junior pitcher Jacob Melville came in for relief.
With a three-run deficit and one out in the third, Canyon's plate approach became more aggressive against James, who was pitching a quality game.
Senior second baseman Charles Harrison swatted the baseball deep into left field, bringing in Blythe and helping Canyon claw back into the game, making it 4-2.
The Cowboys responded again in the top of the fourth inning behind junior catcher Tyler DeYoung, who hit a single to bring in two more runs and tied the score at 4-4. Blythe, who had four RBIs on the afternoon, took a 5-4 lead by scoring DeYoung on a bunt that induced a bad throw by the pitcher to first.
Golden Valley did not score another run until the seventh inning. They had their opportunities with men on base, but couldn't get the hit that they needed during the game.
James lasted five innings in Friday's affair, striking out five batters for Golden Valley.
In the top of the sixth inning, Canyon manufactured two more runs, creating a 7-4 lead. Harrison singled in DeYoung for his second RBI. Junior shortstop Josh Ortega also singled home Harrison to build the lead.
They also scored three runs in the top of the seventh from a three-run home run produced by Blythe that skipped off the center fielder's glove and over the fence. The Cowboys were up 10-4.
Melville, who pitched three strong innings in relief, got into some trouble during the bottom of the seventh when the Grizzlies began to mount a comeback.
Both junior left fielder Joe Behan and junior Logan Rightmyer tagged Melville for two RBIs making the score 10-6. Senior Collin Cunningham came in for relief with one out and made quick work of the next two batters to end the game, claiming a victory for Canyon.
The Cowboys will look to build off of their win on the road against Valencia on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. The Grizzlies will be at Hart for their next game which is on the same day and time as Canyon.


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UX and Interface Design for Embedded Systems
Universidade do Colorado em Boulder
Curso 1 de 3 no Embedded Interface Design Programa de cursos integrados
This course can also be taken for academic credit as ECEA 5346, part of CU Boulder's Master of Science in Electrical Engineering degree. UX and Interface Design for Embedded Systems is the first of three classes in the Embedded Interface Design (EID) specialization, an online version of the on-campus EID class taught in graduate embedded systems design. This first course is focused on user experience (UX) and the related methods, practices, and principles that will help ensure your embedded interface designs for devices and systems are what your users both need and want. The class includes an introduction to UX, and then a four phase breakdown of a typical UX design process, including planning, user research, design methods, and testing for verification and validation. Much of the content provides generally applicable UX techniques, but particular focus is included for considerations in developing embedded devices. The class includes practical projects that let you try some of the key methods in a thorough interface design process.
Habilidades que você aprenderá
UX and user research, UX and UI design, UX verification and validation, Project planning and analysis
Focus for this module is on user research - understanding who the users are, what are they trying to accomplish, how can your interface design support and delight them. We review a number of approaches to structuring, performing, and documenting user research, including a special focus on personas of different types and on use cases, both in text and in UML (Unified Modeling Language) graphical formats.
Module Introduction1:48
UX Research10:46
UX Research Methods15:10
User Personas13:06
Use Cases and UML16:16
Module Wrapup5:06
Bruce Montgomery, PhD, PMP
Sr. Instructor
Selecionar um idiomaEspanholFrancêsInglêsRussoptPt
Hello. In this lecture we're going to talk about a method for the research phase called user personas. Personas are one of the more common tools that people use during this cycle. We will try to understand how they're developed, how they're used appropriately, and how they're applied during UX research. Again, a very common method that comes up often in this cycle are lots of variations to the approach. I'm going to talk a little bit about my initial experience and then we'll get into some alternative definitions from Cooper, from Buley, from Menlo Innovations on how persona's are put together and how they're used. But first we'll dig into what a persona actually is. The purpose of a persona is to create a representation of your user for your design team or for your design cycle to reference as you're moving through the rest of the development. Personas usually include a set of key information. There's often a picture of this fictional person that this persona represents. They usually have a name. They might have a job, responsibilities that are documented. There's usually some demographics around the age, the education, the capability of a user. The persona will talk to the most important goals and tasks that they have concerning your design for a device or a system. But also maybe just in general and maybe some information about their environment, their social activities. Again, to round out the picture of the person that you're describing in this persona definition. Typically this gets put into some template. There are many persona templates out there. Normally, a persona is not an actual person. It's really a fictional person that represents some segment of the user population that you're designing for. Even though the persona, depending on how it's presented, may look like an actual person. It may get to a point that people think of that persona as an actual person. Initially when I first looked at persona is I thought this was a throwaway exercise. I didn't really see all the benefit from it. As I started to use personas in development projects, it's started to be more clearer as to what the benefit was. Really what it gives you is some empathic emotional connection to your user. It also starts to plant the seed in your mind of what would that user do with my device? What would they expect? It can be shared with your entire team to the point where the designs team will even bring it up in design discussions. What would Melissa do with this device if we handed it to her. I think there's also an under appreciation of the work that's required to do a really good job on a persona. It's easy to fill out a template. It's easy to make up some of the information. In fact, we'll talk about something called a proto-persona, which really just creates the persona based on information that you already have. But to do this thoroughly, there is some research required and we'll talk about what the benefit of that might be. The persona approaches, we're going to go through, the Cooper approach and the Menlo approaches are fairly thorough. Although they're very different, they result in detailed definitions that can be used to drive the project forward. The Buley's approach proto-personas is more subtle, more empathic, and is created really at a point where you may not know all the answers about this person that you're creating a persona about. Let's talk about Cooper because really in Alan Cooper's about phase and in his book, The Inmates are Running the Asylum. Cooper gets a lot of credit for really creating the ideal for the need for personas. Cooper defines a persona as a user model of representation of how a user would behave and think what it is they want to accomplish and why. Cooper says that for personas to be effective, they have to be created with rigor, with finesse. You really want to make sure that the persona represents an archetype of a cross-section of the users that are going to be using your device or your system. Most importantly, Cooper feels a variety of users might be needed for a design. For a given system, you might end up creating a number of different personas that represent different needs that are being met by your design. The key here really is to choose who those individuals are and make sure that you prioritize them when you're making your design decisions. Cooper outlines roles for personas. They communicate to the project team who the users are. They really start to drive how a product should behave. They can be used to develop consensus around design features and perhaps be used as a way to measure a design's effectiveness as you try to align what the device does against what a persona expects. Personas, according to Cooper, should be based on thorough research. If you think about those research activities that we discussed, like contextual interviews or focus groups, the information that you develop from those types of exercises should feed into the persona development. Cooper would say that the personas should not be created until you have that information. In fact, Cooper learns about something called a provisional persona, which he feels could lead to concentrating on the wrong design targets or missing key behaviors. It can also impact eventual buy-in for design, because changes to the persona might impact how people accept your design decisions. This is a little bit at odds with Buley's approach of a proto-persona that's created before you have all of your information. But as we'll see, even Buley talks about trying to form up that proto-persona with the information that you gather as it develops. Interestingly, Cooper also picks up on some common issues that come up during persona development. One is the elastic user, which is a persona that is vague or drifts in terms of its definition or the expectations that are set from those definitions. Self-referential design again, is always a danger trying to make a persona and then finding out that it looks a lot like what the design team expects versus what the users expect. Then finally, the issues of creating personas around edge cases that may not be the priority for a given design. All those things should be considered as you're putting a persona together. In the Buley method, the proto-persona is developed pretty early in the design cycle. It is way to put together a hypothesis for what your user will expect and who your users are before and during the process of gathering that information. Proto-personas eventually develop into full fledged personas as information is gathered. But having this early view can develop an empathic connection between the design team and this concept of who it is that you're designing for. Again, you have to decide when it's appropriate to start putting this information together and what impact it might have on your design cycle. The proto-personas, as Buley presents them, again, treat this as a hypothesis. You're going to iterate over bringing information in and fleshing out this definition over time. In the process of proto-personas that Buley points out, she likes to have a team of people create multiple views of who they think the users are and use whatever data is available to create these personas. But again, over time, these things will strengthen and provide more guidelines for your eventual more detailed design. The Menlo approach to personas and persona mapping is interesting. It's a different approach and its goal is to drive to understanding the roles and responsibility of users. The persona structure that Menlo uses includes a lot of the things we see in most personas, a photograph, name and age, the organization or a place that the person comes from. But specifically, on the capture of the personas, they look for attributes about the person that might apply to the project and specific goals that the persona have, two of which have to be focused on the project, one that might be more general. In the process of creating these personas, initially, we're looking to create 10-20 different personas. This is a much broader creation cycle than you might see in other persona approaches. But what's interesting is what happens next. Those 10-20 personas are actually provided to the customer, not the design team. The customer decides amongst those personas, which ones represent the primary user, the secondary users, and tertiary users. There will be one primary user, two secondary, and three tertiary. Those six personas then become the heart of the design target for what it is that's being created. It leads to a very clear identification of what the key elements are that you're focusing in on in the design and still gives you that persona empathic connection to what these people want out of what it is you're creating. It's a very interesting approach. In summary, again, you'll need to decide how a persona impacts your design cycle. Certainly, it'll keep those concerns visible, it can help build consensus, and it helps to maintain that empathic, what would Melissa do at this point, connection to your design. Think about how you would use them. You'll have an opportunity to create one as part of an exercise for the class. Next up, we're going to talk about use cases and UML, one of the other important user research methods. Thanks.