A home business will be rather more than a strategy to pay the payments. Many home insurers routinely increase your contents cowl in December (and some even into January) without charge but, in the event you want extra and your insurer does not up its limits as a matter after all, you'll have to pay a small price if you wish to prolong your cover. In a sequence of massive cash deals, a few of the largest corporate landlords have lately merged, adding tens of 1000's of these homes to their portfolios.
Save your time and money by checking with the Higher Enterprise Bureau first. It'll value somewhat bit extra but you can normally get insurance coverage for objects reminiscent of your handbag, digital camera, bicycle, smartphone and tablet each exterior the home and overseas. When claiming, you might have to pay in direction of repairs and replacements, often known as an 'excess', so test your coverage for the total info.
For the buildings element of house insurance coverage, a standard mistake is to cover the home's market value (the amount it would sell for), as a substitute of the rebuild value – the cost of rebuilding the property if it was knocked down. So daunting, the truth is, that most people who are concerned in beginning a producing enterprise select to run the enterprise from their homes, however do the precise manufacturing in one other location.
If you lease, buildings cowl should be handled by your landlord Contents insurance coverage, nevertheless, is your responsibility and must be considered by everyone. Some insurers could have a separate excess for each components of your coverage, which implies a declare affecting both the structure of your home and its contents, reminiscent of a flood, will result in a double deduction.
Depending on the theme you've chosen on you're going to get a number of choices from both the online and native home superstores. Homeowners and landlords usually want each buildings (in actual fact, it is often a situation of your mortgage settlement) and contents insurance coverage. It's important to test along with your insurer and notify it in case you work from home – it'd drastically affect your coverage and could even invalidate your cover.


Today is the second part of my "Plant, baby, plant " series started last week with agroforestry. We shall delve here on urban forestry and its many advantages. Next week we shall conclude by the Billion Tree Campaign.
As we have seen, planting trees among farming fields and gardens provide many advantages. But what about planting trees in our cities ? With more than half of the world population dwelling in cities nowadays, the question is important.
This will even be more the case in the future as – to the United Nations – 7 out of 10 people are expected to live in cities in 2050.
We all know that trees are absorbing the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide as one acre of forest absorbs six tons of carbon dioxide and puts out four tons of oxygen. (source) But did you know that it can also remove nefarious air pollutants such as particulates, ozone and sulfur dioxide ?
Moreover, it also helps decreasing the amount of dust as " the amount of dust reaching the ground was 27 to 42 percent less under a stand of trees than in an open area. " (source).
So if you are tired of cleaning your place, start planting !
Please refer to the full article for more data on that one.
Forget about the say " Money doesn't grow on trees " as it does. If you are selling your house or apartment, please bare in mind that if your garden or street has plenty mature trees it will sell more easily and at a bigger price.
You see ? Money does grow on trees after all !
On top of all the aforementioned advantages, trees are just bringing Nature and its beauty on your doorstep. Whether it is a nest full of singing birds or squirrels and even if it is empty of animal shelters, trees are just beautiful and connect us with Nature and the cycle of seasons.
To conclude : I am enjoying as I write those lines the shade of the trees planted in my street and I find them beautiful and a relaxing view. Additionally, having grown up in the countryside I know how awesome trees are.
I wish more people were having this luxury… and I hope you soon will too !
Updated on May 22nd, 2017.
← Can Japan, and the world, ever be nuclear free ?


text:
Posts by Octopoid
59 posts • joined 23 Nov 2009
What the BLOCK? Microsoft to gobble Minecraft-maker 'for $2bn'
This post has been deleted by a moderator
Attention, addicts: LEGO meth lab pays homage to Breaking Bad
Monday 19th August 2013 12:47 GMT Octopoid
In the interest of fairness
I think I should just point out that LEGO aren't "getting away with" anything - this is made by a third party, not LEGO..
(Of course it's all 100% compatible and some of it may well be modified original LEGO bricks. Not sure about the legality of all that, but plenty of companies seem to be doing it!)
Sony PS3 extends lead over Microsoft's Xbox 360 by a cool million
Friday 11th January 2013 10:20 GMT Octopoid
Re: downloads
"That doesn't make any economical sense to me at all."
Really? Looks like Economics 101 to me - Brick and mortar shops are subject to market forces, hence they are forced to be competitive. Sony and Microsoft are not, hence if you want to use the only download service available, you will pay their prices.
Remember, the companies running these download stores are the same ones who set the RRPs in the first place - why wouldn't they charge their own recommended retail price?
Scan co-jacking nets crooks '€40k in IT gear'
Tuesday 29th May 2012 19:06 GMT Octopoid
I'm trying to think of what possible mispelling of "scan" you could use and people not notice it was different - the closest I can think of is "scam"...
Ubisoft insists DRM 'a success'
Friday 29th July 2011 14:34 GMT Octopoid
Less than what?
So firstly, by saying there are *less* pirates, they are admitting that people do still manage to bypass their fancy pants "always online" DRM and pirate it anyway.
In which case, are they saying that people who were going to pirate it anyway, don't because of the DRM that isn't going to affect them? Do they mean less copies are pirated as a percentage overall, or as a number of pirate downloads?
It strikes me it was probably just less popular, not that a DRM method which was stripped off inside 3 hours and not included in the pirated version actually forced less people to download a pirated copy somehow. Or are they suggesting that each pirate cracked the game themselves, and less of them were capable of doing so?!?
We can be thankful of one thing tho. Ubisoft haven't quite got to Capcoms new anti-piracy measure yet:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110627/17311614875/capcoms-resident-evil-drm-is-evil-you-get-to-play-game-once-thats-it.shtml?cid=19
I genuinely never thought I'd see the day. :(
Lost 1967 spacecraft found crashed on the Moon
Thursday 28th July 2011 00:08 GMT Octopoid
Well, I'd say that 3 doesn't have to be outside the universe necessarily. It simply has to comprise a force or beast which for whatever reason does not have to conform to the same physical laws everything else does.
For example, here we have an Islamic site proclaiming that 3 is basically Allah, using this exact same entropy paradox:
http://www.alislam.org/library/books/revelation/part_4_section_6.html
I think if 3 was to prove to be the reason, chances are it would not be something which could be represented within what we know as the physical dimensions. 3 is really the wildcard - it can't be rationalised in the same way as 1, 2 or 4.
If we are to assume that 3 is God, in whatever form, I don't think that presumes that he would be an outside force - could well be inside, in a closed system, he's just got op, and hence does not have to conform to 1 or 2.
.. Now that you've mentioned it though, the notion of a God could actually vaguely fit in with the first 2 laws, if he was just considered to be an outside force, and as few regard a God as a physical manifestation, I suppose he sort of would be. What does "within" really mean, when you remove the concept of 3 dimensional space?
(Purely for the record, I don't personally believe in the existance of 3... :P)
Wednesday 27th July 2011 16:16 GMT Octopoid
Re: Meta-clangers
If the universe is not of an inifinite age, then the energy was created at some point, hence the first law of thermodynamics is incorrect.
If the energy was not created, then it has always been present, and hence total entropy shave have already occured, and the 2nd law of thermodynamics is incorrect.
It is possible that the big bang created the energy, which is what you loosely suggest; if that is the case, the 1st law of thermodynamics needs revising, as the big bang contains the mechanism to create energy, which should be absolutely impossible. The only other option is that the big bang itself is supernatural, which in itself raises all kinds of interesting questions.
Or, as I suggested, the energy has always been there, and the universe is not a closed system, hence is not destined to suffer from eventual total entropy. Heat death would only occur if the universe was a closed system, and we really don't KNOW that this is the case.
But, who really knows? A significant amount of this stuff is basically guess work.
I might have misunderstood you, but I didn't think 3 really required anything to be assumed, as 3 was basically that physics applied to the natural universe, and that the energy had been created by a SUPER natural force, meaning that 1 and 2 could be true, 4 false, and 3 still true.
Certainly I think it's possible that 1, 2 and 4 are all true, and that 3 is false - I don't think the thermodynamics being correct, yet the universe not being a closed system really implies that there is a supernatural creation force. As I say, I may well have just misunderstood you though.
Tenants: lol - thanks. I don't think I've ever actually written it down. I did wonder at the time if that was right. I suppose as long as they don't get evicted we'll probably be OK ;)
I couldn't agree more, the supernatural theory is the last one I'd expect.
One explaination could well be that the Big Bang can do things that nothing else can, but however you cut it, that would mean that energy CAN be created, and would mean the 1st law is incorrect, even if it is only in a single exception. As you say, this is far from impossible, but I think the notion that the universe as it is defined now is definately the totallity of existance is based on more guess work than the first law. From everything else I see in physics, I somehow doubt totallity is finite, but that's a lot of guess work too, obviously!
I still think that the multiverse theory is the most substantial. While you could change the defintion of the universe to incorporate the new external bits / other universes as well, I'm referring to the universe as it is defined now.
And of course, if there is a multiverse, it's entirely possible that <insert space phenomenon here> is spewing energy into our universe from another, meaning our universe would not be a closed system, and entropy heat death MIGHT not be it's eventual fate.
To the couple of others here:
To survive to experince total entropy of the universe really is "long-term"! That's not what I meant by long term, and your argument seems dangerously similar to this:
"I'm not going to live to be 1,000,000, so why worry if I live to see 40?"
We still need to get off the planet and found a colony in the relatively VERY near future. Essentially, I agree! - I'm not at all worried about our fate in *10 trillion* years time! :P
However, our fate in the next 10,000 is looking very shaky until we can spread the risk of our extinction around a bit.
Tuesday 26th July 2011 22:12 GMT Octopoid
Meta-clangers
Well, that raises an interesting quandry there. (My intent is not to patronise with the next bit, bear with me)
1st law of thermodynamics - energy cannot be created or destroyed.
2nd law of thermodynamics - energy within a closed system will eventually all even out via entropy.
If we assume the 1st law is true, then all of the universes energy must have *always* been here. If it has *always* been here, and the 2nd law is true, then entropy would have already occured.
It's a fair assumption that both laws are true - the have both been under considerable scientific scrutiny for a couple of hundred years, with no sign of any way of side-stepping them. And, of course, it's fair to say that total entropy has not occured.
So one of the following is true:
1) The 1st law of thermodynamics is false. (very unlikely)
2) The 2nd law of thermodynamics is false. (very unlikely)
3) The energy within the universe was created by a supernatural force. :|
This is often used as evidence of a God, and is the main reason why Stephen Hawking believes in some sort of creator. I think most scientists just find the whole thing rather embarassing -2 of the most core tenants of physics coming together to basically prove the existance of meta-clangers.
I think there's a potentially viable 4 however:
4) The universe is not a closed system.
Our actual knowledge of the universe is primitive at best (many of the things we quote as absolute fact have only really been observed from on this one tiny little rock), and I think to sugest that we KNOW 100% that this is not the case is a stretch.
All that said, any one of them *could* be the case. The 2 laws are very much "good science" though, easily demonstrable and repeatable, and "a magic space monster dunnit" doesn't quite do it for me. "The universe is a closed system" is not necassarily "good science" - it's based on a hearty amount of assumption, hence I'm going to put most of my eggs in that particular basket, as it were.
And long-term? From the amount of "overdue" major life-ending events the earth is casually trying to ignore, I think we can give ourselves a hearty pat on the back if we make it another 10,000 years, let alone the *160 million* years the dinosaurs were lurking about for.
The surface area of the moon is just under 38 million square kilometers. This probe takes up, what, 10 square meters, tops? That's the equivalent of a grain of dust in your house. It's nothing.
And let's not forget, until mankind sets up a colony on another planet or moon, our chances of long term survival are exactly 0. The space program is the most important research we do. Why not save this kind of hand-wringing for heavy industry? One probe on the moon nearly 50 years old is hardly an enviromental concern.
Microsoft pledges Kinect games explosion
Controller(s)
But holding it in one hand is awkward, and holding it in boths limits what you can do with your arms.
What you really need is two smaller controllers, one for each ha...
Ubisoft to turn games into movies, TV shows
Wednesday 4th May 2011 06:52 GMT Octopoid
The 80's are way ahead of you..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w2fi_f5OLY
Suit settled, PS3 hacker donates $10,000 to EFF
Tuesday 19th April 2011 20:54 GMT Octopoid
I'm REALLY not trying to back up Sony here...
And 1 PC is 1 PC too many, but those numbers are ridiculous!
$1,000,000,000,000 / $25 = 40,000,000,000.
You really think *40 billion PCs* were affected to the point of having to be recovered for money by the fsking Sony root kit?
Now admittedly you mention secondary or tertiary costs, but even if we assume these unnamed costs run some $2,500 per instance, you still think 400,000,000 PCs? And that's assuming 400 million people (6-7 times the entire population of the UK) would somehow spend $2,500 removing a piece of software from their PCs. And this is going for the lowest possible trillion - you said trillion*s*, which is even more silly.
Sorry, just no - you're overestimated by many 100s of thousands of times. It MIGHT have cost a few million, at most, worldwide.
Still, it is officially "bang out of order" - not trying to defend it. Sony should have clearly paid dearly for such an arrogant action, and as far as I hear, did, to some degree at least. Let's not get too carried away with these figures though, eh?
Missed this bit:
"they are responsible for making it mainstream"
In fairness as well, rootkit style infections have been around since the late eighties. It's called a rootkit because it granted root access to early Unix-like systems. Windows NT received it's first rootkit in 1999, 6 years before Sony released their nefarious version. SecuROM uses rootkit techniques to hide bits of itself to this day, and if you're played a modern game the chances of it being on your system are pretty high.
I'm all for bashing Sony for being evil monopolistic bastards. Let's try and keep it true at least though - It somewhat waters down the argument otherwise.
Sony readies official PS Move support for PCs
Saturday 5th March 2011 18:40 GMT Octopoid
I for one
am looking forward to the release of this just as much as the release of the Kinnect SDK. People seem to think Move and Kinect are competing control methods, and while they are obviously competing in the marketplace, they're actually pretty much mutually exclusive. One tracks your body, one puts an object very accurately into your hand - both very useful, and there's virtually no overlap of functionality whatsoever.
I'm going to try and use both to create an application to map both the Move buttons and pointer and the Kinnect gestures and voice detetction to a virtual controller - then, amongst other stuff, I can use the Move Sharp Shooter for guns and movement, and Kinect gestures for actions - raise your left arm for Pipboy in Fallout, throw Plasmids in Bioshock! :D
The only thing that worries me is the lack of detail on what the SDK is for - anyone know how it's going to work? Will you be writing code on the PC, then building and sending it to the PS3 to run, or is the PS3 just used to host the Move stuff, and your code runs on the PC?
I think, and hope it's the latter. And I'm hoping they release proper drivers for Move on the PC alone. I'm not going to hold my breath on that.
Judge guts suit against Sony for killing Linux in PS3
Thursday 24th February 2011 10:43 GMT Octopoid
In fairness...
I think Sony were wrong to remove OtherOS, although I can see why they did it. But:
- You can buy radio broadcast equipment, but are not allowed to broadcast on a wide range of frequencies with it.
- You can buy a range of mains powered devices, but unless you happen to be CORGI registered, are not allowed to change the plug.
- You can buy a plug, but unless you happen to be CORGI registered, are not allowed to fit it to anything.
- You can buy a camera, but are not allowed to even accidentally capture a wide variety of people and things, even in the background.
- You can buy a TV, but are not allowed to use it to recieve broadcasts without a licence, and recieve no guranteee that even with a licence broadcasts will continue.
I'll readily admit that none of these are particularly good analogues of the OtherOS fiasco, just a few basic examples off the top of my head, but the assertion that you can freely use or modify anything you own as long as you commit no direct victim crime is very wrong. The assertion that equipment you purchase MUST retain all its original functionality is also unfortunately wrong - SHOULD, yes.
Once again though, I agree Sony should not have removed OtherOS. Don't lose hope though - there is little to stop them restoring it, other than the fact that Sony would rather attempt to pass a Krupp Bagger 288 then backtrack on a decision.
GFWL
I wouldn't buy anything through GFWL, as it is clearly rubbish. However, many Steam games USE it. GTA IV through steam also uses GFWL, but it's not used for any of the updates, it's simply used as a basic DRM method - you register your key against your GFWL account.
I would never use it as a actual games purchasing platform, but I'd take it as a DRM method over Securom any day of the week.
It's also even less of an issue if you already have an Xbox 360 - you can use the same account to sign on to GFWL, and hence collect achievements and the like.
Nvidia four-core chip to power quad-res Apple iPad
But..
I don't really get the problem with this - the average paper back book is 8"x5", which is exactly 16:10.
As far as the web goes, I tend to find high resolutions cause more problems than the ratio itself. I'm using a 2560x1440 screen currently, and there is a rather embarrasing amount of space at the edges of most websites, and page zoom is.. tempremental.
Personally, I couldn't read a whole book an a backlight tablet anyway. I tried, I got a headache, I gave up. I'm tempted to get a Kindle, but it seems like quite a lot for a device just purely to read books. I already carry enough gadgets most places, without another.
I guess I'll just stick to stained trees for now.
Sony expands legal offensive to more PS3 hackers
Tuesday 15th February 2011 23:10 GMT Octopoid
"If the thing is in my house, I own it. Every atom of it."
Try bridging your electricity meter. In fact, these days you're not even allowed to open up one of your plugs, unless you happen to be CORGI registered. Most of the creaky old laws about who can watch things you record from your live broadcast television are still in place. There are hundreds of items in your home that are illegal or prohibited to adjust or use in certain ways.
Still Sony have clearly gone insane trying to sue people for viewing or commenting on Youtube. I hope they lose this case very badly, and no-one else trys anything like it again.
However, I'm not sure the "I should be able to do anything with the PS3, hassle free" argument really does hold up. Microsoft will ban you very quickly for hacking their device, and if you do play hombrew games on the Wii you spend as much time looking for the latest patch fix as you do playing the games. Almost every update ever released for the Wii has been almost entirely comprised of anti hacking patches. Other than these ridiculous court cases, significant resources being devoted to anti-jailbreaking is pretty much par for the course.
It's just generally a bad time to be into homebrew on consoles, which is a shame. I've personally just ended up going back to playing with Windows / OSX / *nix stuff. It's just easier than constantly doing the battle of the patches, or waiting for the "console banned" message to show up.
But, yeah - here's hoping any case brought against people who just watched a video fails badly, and fast.
Court orders seizure of PS3 hacker's computers
Saturday 29th January 2011 22:33 GMT Octopoid
Engage brain, comment
You know WHY the PS3 has so many sequels? Because the original games were brilliant. Maybe in your world, you release a game, then forget all about it, but to my mind, that only happens when the game was shit. Really, I think that that is a fair old chunk of clutching at straws. SEQUELS DON'T COUNT LOLOLOL.
And also - try to know anything. Most of those games debuted on the PS3 in HD, not to mention that the 2 games referenced in the original post - MGS4 and GT5 - are both sequels!
So anyway, flaming aside - do tell what must have games you enjoy that are not available on the PS3 and (for some bizarre reason) have NO sequels? Half life..oh. Gears of..ah. Halo...hmm. Civiliz...damn. In 2011 I think you'll find that tricky.
what other "must have" PS3 exclusives are there?
How about Uncharted 1, Uncharted 2, Motorstorm 1, Motorstorm 2, Resistance 1, Resistance 2, Little Big Planet 1, Little Big Planet 2, Heavy Rain, Killzone 2, God Of War 3, Infamous 1, Mod Nation Racers, and Wipeout HD. That's just the games I think any gamer should have at least played.
And that's just the games that are out. Confirmed and coming soon there is Uncharted 3, Resistance 3, Killzone 3, and Infamous 2. I'm sure there's a load more too, that's just off the top of my head.
That's not to say the Wii/360/PC doesn't have their share of great exclusives, and equally not to say that the PS3 doesn't have it's share of absolute clangers (I'm looking at you Lair and Haze). But actually, for me at least, the PS3 has way more excellent games. Virtually all of my favourites for the last few years are PS3 exclusive.
And you yourself mentioned 2 of the most defining games of their particular genres (assuming GT5s genre is driving simulation) Metal Gear Solid 4 and GT5.
The old standard of "PS3 has no games" has long been far from the truth, that's for sure.
Beastly Android will batter Apple's iOS beauty
Wednesday 5th January 2011 10:52 GMT Octopoid
And not just that
It makes me laugh when I see articles such as this, carefully pouring over percentage market shares to 2 decimal places.
The simple fact is, 90% or more of mobile phone sales are made due to the price, the network, the tariff, or the handset. Most people aren't even aware that phones have different OS's - try it. Pick a normal person, and ask them what OS their phone is running. At best, you might get "Samsung" or "Vodaphone". (Admittedly, quite a few people do know that the iPhone is "somehow different" these days, but you're very unlikely to get Android or Windows Mobile as an answer)
All statistics are a bit faily, but these particular ones are almost completely random.
errr...
Yes, or the equavalant of.
You can buy a new unlocked iPhone from anywhere you like, and update it to the most recent OS for free.
There are many points for and against many mobile phone platforms, but this isn't one of them.
Xbox 360 outsells PS3 2:1
Tuesday 14th December 2010 22:55 GMT Octopoid
Hillarious stuff
Some of this has already been covered by the AC below, but anyway:
"Yes, that's why the game football isn't real, because footballers can't possible use their legs to kick a ball whilst stood up."
I never said that standing up wasn't real. That doesn't make any sense. If you actually read my post, I acknowledge at the end that kicking a ball is something the Kinect can do. Fine, no problem.
"It can handle mock snowboard/skiing leg movements"
I think you'll find that most of that relates more heavily to your waist, but fine - you can lean to steer, just like the Wii balance board.
"Try Dance Central, it does precisely this"
No it doesn't. They tried, but it wasn't up to it, so the on screen characters just play preset animations, and it loosely scores you on how close you are. There's a big big difference.
"Head movements can be used for simple things such as nodding your head to say yes in an RPG game"
Yeah, you could. I have to say pressing A has never really been too problematic for me, and how often do you really get asked yes/no questions in RPGs? It's normally "pick an answer from this list".
"voice recognition voice is an option too"
This really doesn't have much to do with Kinect, does it? This bit doing the work is software, and apart from that all it has is a built in microphone array, which Move absolutely does have. Even if it didn't, and Kinect didn't both consoles obviously have headsets available.
"there's no reason other driving games, such as those with Kinect support demoed but not out yet, can't use the afformentioned feet movement for this"
This one is genius. Are you serious? So, how's that going to work? Are you suggesting that you stand (remember you HAVE to stand) on the balls of your feet and then rock your right foot forward for the accelerator and the right foot for the brake? Even if the Kinect was accurate to detect this, which it probably isn't, that sounds horribly bad for your legs. The other option is, what? To lift your leg up to operate the pedal? You can't press it down, unless you've mastered a method of lifting both legs while standing. Let's hope you don't need to do any rally where you need both pedals at once eh? I won't bother going into it, but the whole "pretend steering wheel" concept just doesn't work either, for a good half a dozen reasons.
"Bowling, Sprinting, Hurdles, Javelin, Boxing, Darts, Football, Discus, Long Jump, Table Tennis, Volleyball, Tennis, Archery, Paintball, Figure skating, Skiing, Hang gliding"
A collection of sports mini games you say? Groundbreaking stuff.
"Kinect is the only input device that can handle some of these sports- i.e. figure skating."
Is that REALLY because the Kinect is the only device that can "handle" figure skating, or is it actually the much more likely reason that no-one wants a figure skating game?
Oh, and whether you believe me or not - I have all 3 current gen consoles, and Move and Kinect. Move married with 3D is a fantastic experience - like the VR dream of old. Kinect feels like an advanced EyeToy experience. It's much better, but at the end of the day you're just waving your arms about to perform basic tasks and trigger preset animations. Even the menu browsing concept is basically exactly the same as the old EyeToy one.
Don't get me wrong though - both Move and Kinect will be all but forgotten this time next year. They're both limited and gimmicky to differing degrees. Move however, does one thing pretty well - putting an object in your hand in 3D space. Kinect tries to do loads of things, and ends up doing a pretty poor job of most of them.
"I guess you're just crying that someone insulted your poor little PS3?"
Now that's funny - coming from an AC who's actually 75% XBOX boner by volume.
Money to burn
Whereas frugal people spend £130 on a £35 webcam, naturally.
At any rate the 360 and PS3 have been about the same price for a long time, especially if you want fancy high tech features like rechargeable controllers or Wi-Fi.
In terms of value for money, that has always been a one horse race, even for the 6 - 9 months the PS3 was more expensive.
I'm guessing your mum would only let you have one.
@ AC
As far as I can tell, the 360 and PS3 are too close to call, but frankly, who cares? They both sell well enough to be very well supported, and thats all that matters for either one.
"I guess those are the types of things you have to tell yourself when you picked the dud of the pack" - Methinks the lady doth protest too much?
Your comments about Kinect make no sense. However, even if we look at what you're trying to say.
"feet, legs, arms, hands, head"- tracking your legs and feet may be very important to you. Maybe MS will release a game of the Hokey Cokey, but in the meantime, tracking your legs on a system where you have to stand to use it is next to useless. "Stand on one leg to reload?" It makes no sense. Head tracking is generally equally useless - so every time I look at my ammo, I swing down towards the ground? Or do I have to try and remeber to use my eyes for some tasks, and my head for others. It really is trying to fix a problem that just doesn't exist. Then there's the important one - tracking your arms. This is all good and well, but the only really useful game mechanic involved here is putting something accurately into your hand, allowing you to manipulate objects in the 3d world, that sort of thing. Move is more accurate at this, not to mention the most important aspect of all - buttons. With Kinect, how exactly do you pick an object up? It's not accurate enough to detect your fingers, so you're left shouting "XBOX: PICKUP" or stamping your feet or something.
The "full body dancing games" don't actually map your full body onto a character - it's not up to it. Also, you may want to look into this - games that do this are also available for the Wii and the PS3.
Driving games - fine, as long as you don't want any fancy little details, like an accelerator, or brakes, or pretty much any controls other than steering.
It in no way has a "wide range of sports games" - it doesn't yet have a wide range of any games.
I can't even be bothered with the rest of your post. It's like you've been frozen in a glacier since 2006, and in that time have suffered a certain degree of frostbite to the brain. Is your assertion really that the PS3 is "dead in the water" because it's recent optional peripheral doesn't allow you to take penalty shootouts?
Apple patents glasses-free, multi-viewer 3D
Thursday 9th December 2010 13:10 GMT Octopoid
Really??
So now we're reading excessively accurate positioning data about any number of viewers bodies, heads, eyes and pupils, along with data about the projector position and screen position, sending this over the internet, letting the server convert all of this into an insane amount of motor instructions,sending it back down the internet where it finally moves several million tiny lenses by incredibly precise amounts.
And you reckon thats going to work 60 times a second, with no foreseeable issues? Under current technology, you would be doing just fantastic if you got the overall latency down to 1 second, let along the millisecond response times needed.
And that's not even the biggest problem - the biggest problem is the projector. Under current technology it's just not possible. Don't be swayed by talk about sub pixel fields. That doesn't even begin to help with this type of problem. Individually targeting pixels in this way requires motorised lenses 100x smaller than anything in existence, and not just one - over 2 million, closely packed. And not even one lens - a focal system PER PIXEL is also required. And then there's simple stuff, like the data bus itself. 2 million pixels, each requiring a pitch and yaw, and a focal setting, to an incredibly high level of accuracy, probably at least 32 bit per channel. A quick calculation shows you'd need at least 11 gigabytes (88 gigabit) per second just to pass the control signals back, not even including the image itself.
Even if any of this did become possible many many years down the line, it's just a non starter. There's so many other ways of generating 3D images which don't require mainframes, laser arrays, millions of tiny focal systems, highly specialised screens, and magic.
Monday 6th December 2010 12:55 GMT Octopoid
That would only work if the projector was the exact same size as the screen, mounted entirely dead on (meaning no-one could sit in between), and magic.
If the projector isn't set up in this way, then you can't just move the entire pixel subfield, each pixel would need to be individually targeted. Draw the raytyrace if you don't believe me - current pixel subfield technology does not help in the slightest.
I've also realised since, the effect this would provide would be utterly horrible unless you sat at the exact "right" distance away from the screen - the projector cannot adjust the convergance for the viewers, as the convergance required is dictated by the projector to screen distance.
You might be able to bounce a point off a curved surface onto an accurate target, but attempting to bounce a beam is going to result in the worlds most expensive glitter ball.
Friday 3rd December 2010 17:08 GMT Octopoid
Plead to quarrel
"cast a ray back to each hemishphere"
Just to expand on that slightly, you mean calculate 2,073,600 rays per eye, per viewer, 60 times a second, and manipulate 2,073,600 sub-millimeter lenses in a tight grid, accurately to thousandths of a millimeter, based on data tracked from measuring 2 centimeter squared targets in 3D space, 10 feet away from the screen, and about 3 centimeters apart. That's a lot LOT more complicated than you suggest.
I'm not sure which world a "high end processing setup", more powerful than a gaming rig PC, just to display the image, makes sense. Here's my 2 TFLOPS PS3 for running the game, and I'll just connect that to my 10 TFLOPS projector. What? Even if this thing could be created, it would cost a literal fortune, and at best produce an image about the same a current polarised efforts. It's just a crazy idea - it could be made to work, in a lab at least, but it's just so much more convoluted than other methods there's just no point.
Well no,
I wasn't under the impression they had built or tested it. I know patents can be applied for without any proof of concept, but I don't think they should be able to.
I don't envisage the main problem with this as being the processing power required, as thats just a few million basic math operations - still a heft load especially if those calculations need to be done per pair of eyes, as the article insinuates. And yes, it can work - the basic physics is sound.
I think the main problem will be the angling of the pixels themselves. It's not as simple as moving the entire pixel field slighty, each pixel needs to be moved by a differing amount, and possibly even sent to several different sub fields, again per pixel. In a non-lab environment, the projecter will need to be aware of it's location in relation to the screen in incredible detail, in order to callibrate itself accurately enough to pull off the exact angles required. It would ony take the screen moving or flexing by sum-millimeter amounts to cause a complete loss of the 3D effect in that area.
I would also question whether the beam of light each pixel comprises would be anywhere near precise enough to even survive the journey without dissipating to the point of terrible cross talk, or loss of the effect all together. The angles required to bounce a beam of light precisely to 2 targets mere centimeters apart over 10 feet are minute, and this is twice as problematic as current "glasses free" 3DTVs, as the light has to make 2 journeys. The beam of light would have to cover a tiny fraction of the surface of the pixel to be reflect accurately enough, most likely easily less than 1%. This would have to be more similar to an array of a million lasers than a current projector.
Maybe, in time, this could be made to work outside of a lab, as with pretty much anything. I would be suprsied if a much simpler and more effective method hadn't been discovered by then.
Wednesday 1st December 2010 10:09 GMT Octopoid
Apple patents.
What can I say? I don't want to sound negative, but "this almost certainly won't work properly".
Tracking multiple faces, and angling projecters to bounce light off micro-sized-hemisphere coated screens into differing eyes? (Thats a hell of a trick shot, especially when you have to make several million of them 60 times a second) Fiendishly complex but uncomplicated?
I guess this is one of the ones Apple are patenting just in case it becomes even slightly possible in the next x years, like the patent they put in for a motorised refractive lens per pixel on a HD display.
To be honest though, I can't imagine this ever really working outside a lab - it just all sounds too sketchy.
New NASA model: Doubled CO2 means just 1.64°C warming
Model V Model
Even if modelling did not equate science, how do you think they arrived at the current CO2 based MODEL?
There was a subtle clue at the end there.
Popular sites caught sniffing user browser history
It will work..
The "History" bit clears which links display as purple, hence fixing the problem. It's really not all that serious though. You can't even tell if you've visited a specific domain, it has to be an exact link match - for example you could only tell if someone had visited Facebook if they had gone to the mian homepage first - if you followed a link in to your profile, you're safe. It really is fairly limited. Still all privacy holes are bad, and should be fixed.
It is a slightly awkward problem, in that custom CSS means it's not a matter of "blue or purple" it's ":link or :visited", and those psuedoselectors are not exposed to the DOM. This is compunded by the problem that an individual link might have extra styles applied. Personally I would be quite happy with them simply removing currentStyle access to hyperlinks, or even harcoding any check to the default blue. How many legitimate reasons are there really for checking what colour a link currently is? All of the ones I can think of are more easily and cleanly expressed with CSS anyway.
Brave new Boris-bikers banjaxed by broken boxes
Stop the presses!
Shock horror - areas that experience high amounts of snow are better equipped to deal with high amounts of snow. Who'd have thought it?
Brits say 'no, no, no' to 3D TV
Demo quality
Just a warning for anyone put off by a demo - I was underwhelmed by several 3D TV demos, same sort of puppety type of effect as mentioed here.
It was only on the third demo I got it suddenly seemed a lot LOT better.
I've since realised why. The poeple demoing these things don't have the first idea, and hence the first 2 demos were actually just 2D content with the 2D -> 3D mode (which obviously doesn't really work)
Stick some actual 3D content on there, and the difference is night and day. Just worth bearing in mind.
Well, assuming you're talking about 3D *TV*, as the article is, and not the cinema, the piracy angle is a common misconception.
3D source media is no more difficult to copy than any other source media - most 3D video formats are simply fat 2D formats usually by either doubling the frame rate or doubling the resolution. However, you can happily send a 3D signal on bog standard 1080p, by either halving the frame rate to 30Hz, or halving the horizontal or vertical resolution. You can store 3D video or images on pretty much any current format - you could store 3D on VHS tapes if you wanted to.
As far as the glasses go, yeah, they're not ideal - you don't have to be in exactly the right place with them, as they ensure the right image gets into the right eye. I would suspect that 3D TV without glasses is a long way away yet - they can make it work for small screens, such as the screen tech that Nintendo have bought, but that technology does not scale up. The ideal screen size for that type of 3D display is similar to the width in between your eyes.
It's also worth mentioning, but because the TV is a standard TV, and the technology is within the glasses themselves, it means that down the line I can potentially upgrade my experience (removing ghosting, etc.) by replacing a £60 pair of glasses, rather than the £2,500 screen.
To be fair, if you would only be using it to view films, and are not also interested in 3D gaming, yeah - you're not missing out on much really. I'd say 80% of the time my TV spends in 3D mode is probably running PS3 games right now.
The thing I find most amusing is that people I know have come round, with the opinion that 3DTV is probably a gimmick, then complained that not enough of the films or games made stuff jump out in your face! Deep down I think some of us want to see gimmicky things, but in actual fact the effect is used quite subtely and with a certain amount of restraint. Motorstorm 3D is fantastic, it really looks like your TV is a 3D box, with the land stretching away inside it, rather than just a single wobbly layer all up in your face, like the 3D of old.
Gimmick or not, 3D capability in TVs is here to stay, and it's probably only a matter of time before it becomes a standard feature. I too think that 2% by the end of the year is a fantastic adoption rate - that's 1.2 million people, and it's only been vaguely affordable for a few short months, really.
Google sued for scanning emails of non-Gmail users
Tuesday 23rd November 2010 22:04 GMT Octopoid
Well, no..
No, they're not. Because they're always for the same product, and not based on the contents of the email.
There is a big difference between comparing attachments against a virus definition database, and opening them all up, scanning directly through the content, building up a list of subjects the person in question receives email about, and storing them in a database, forever. For added kicks, why not sell the data to any interested party?
This is why I personally avoid all of Googles "free" services like the plague.
Clive Sinclair unveils 'X-1' battery pedalo bubble-bike
Thursday 11th November 2010 12:35 GMT Octopoid
Your initials stand for "no problem".
Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect Launch Games
The funny thing...
That everyone forgets about Minority Report, is that the tracking system was bassed on glowing lights on the ends of hs fingers, making the whole thing far more similar to Move than Kinect.
http://fraser.typepad.com/frolix_8/images/minority_report_gloves.jpg
When even Hollywood thinks your futuristic tech idea won't work properly, you know you've barked up the wrong tree.
Nasty IE 0day exploit hosted on Amnesty International site
While I agree
While I agree that MS, Mozilla, et al. should try to patch up this 0day stuff a bit (well a lot) quicker, I don't agree with your reasoning here.
Of course the Nobel Peace Prize lot or Amnesty International do not have any kind of malicious intent, but they are clearly at fault for putting together yet another swiss cheese website. At a guess, they simply failed to sanatise their inputs or outputs properly, to the effect that SQL commands could be injected through the querystring, and then the site would happily render script tags back out. Of course, it may have been that the sites were more secure, and this was a "proper" hack, but if world goverments can't get it right, it wouldn't surprise me if a club and a charity couldn't either.
Patching 0day holes in browsers without break loads of legitamite stuff is often hard, a fact often overlooked by whinging pundits. Writing a website properly is not, hence I'd blame the site operators more here.
Hacker unshackles Kinect from Xbox
Wholeheartedly agree. What's the point? Anyone buying this to use as a webcam at £130 would be clearly sectionable, and there's no software available to use the fancy IR sensors anyway. At most this is going to be something a few people do who most likely own the Kinect anyway, and just fancy trying it out on the PC.
For that matter, why do games companies still use Securom? Time and time again it's been proven that any game "protected" by it is hacked within minutes of release, usually in exactly the same way as the last. I suppose it prevents some casual copying, but who really copies disks these days? The only people who are doing it just burn a precracked image anyway.
I prefer the "product safety groups" bit - it's almost like they're trying to insunuate that "hacking" this device is somehow physically dangerous, as if it's going to explode in your face, or digitise you onto the gaming grid or something. Fucking Sark.
Wednesday 10th November 2010 19:20 GMT Octopoid
Not so sure.
Well now - a steam train and a diesel electric don't really share a lot of components or build techniques, for example. Beacuse they both set out to achieve the same goal, they are both trains. From that standpoint at least, this is "a type of EyeToy" - it aims to allow you to control games with your whole body. Telling consumers otherwise is misleading, as when they get it home and try it, they'll realise they're bobbing about in much the same way they were with their old EyeToy - it just works better.
From a technical standpoint, it does work totally differently, seemingly not really even using the webcam component for most stuff, instead relying on the IR bits. I'd have to say I don't expect MS are selling this at anywhere near a loss. The mic is no different to the PS mic, and although decent, is not an expensive component. The motorised angling is also not going to be expensive to set up, when the product is designed from the ground up at least. The webcam itself is almost of no value at all these days. The IR would have certainly cost R&D a fair bit to get calibrated and working correctly, but the components? IR emmitters and recievers cost virtually nothing, hence why they are used in remote controls so widely.
I think the cost is partly to cover MS's R&D for this, because like it or not, others will make similar kit using their designs - it's just a matter of time really. I suspect the other part of the price tag is to try and protect against the probability of customers buying one, then never buying any games for whatever reason, much like what happened with the EyeToy. Of course the reason why no-one bought any EyeToy games was because few were ever developed, and the main reason developers quoted for this, was that you can't set up working control schemes for most games which will work inside a living room. Kinect does not really change this.
I dunno, MS might manage to do a bit more with this, but they will have to push - developers are unlikely to flock forward to develop for Kinect of their own free will, as its a massive risk until proven, something which the launch has in no way done. I can't really forgive the launch titles for Kinect - simply because Microsoft own their very own games studio! If that's the best they can manage, or they're not willing to donate more resources for such a "pivotal" launch, then why am I supposed to have any confidence?
Not quite not quite...
Sadly, there likely won't ever be an FPS for Kinect. It's just not accurate enough to detect your fingers, hence no trigger. Of course, it does have voice detect, so you could always shout "BANG" or "PEW-PEW-PEW". (If anyone ever does this I may never stop laughing.)
Then there's the aiming. Hold your arms in front of you, as if you were holding an assualt rifle. Now move your front hand left and right WITHOUT moving or re-angling your rear hand. Doesn't make any sense does it? How does the software cope with this, bearing in mind that when pretending to hold a gun, your hands are NEVER in the correct alignment. Much as MS would never admit it, the aiming just wouldn't work properly.
Then there's the other controls. How do you walk, run and strafe? Actually doing so requires far too much space, not to mention the fact the the "world" (i.e. the TV) would then move in the opposite direction. Running on the spot would just be stupid, and doesn't really solve strafing. Remeber, all of the games annouced for Kinect so far are on rails, with good reason.
Lets take another example of "big lad's" games - racing games. I've seen someone else breathlessley imagining the possibilities of Forza with Kinect. I'd be inclined to disagree.
1. You have to stand up, an instant fail for any racing game.
2. There are no sensible controls for the pedals, and no controls for any other actions at all.
3. Most steering wheel and pedal kits fail because they cannot be mounted securely to a surface, making the game VERY hard to control. This obviously suffers from this.
4. The "wheel" is totally weightless, leading to a complete loss of any tactile feedback.
5. You have to spend valuable (for pro racing) brain cycles remembering to keep your hands at a fairly fixed radius, and at an exact 9-3 position.
6. Because of the limitations of the controller, you have a maximum (comfortable) steering lock of 90 degrees, resulting in twitchy, oversensitive controls.. That's right, you need more elbows.
7. It makes you look like a total clunge.
7 was just for fun. But quite seriously, this could easily be the single worst racing control scheme ever, and I don't see the FPS one stacking up any better. And it really does make you look a TOTAL clunge.
For all of MS's waxing lyrical about this being the most revolutionary controller EVA, I really can't see it. It looks fun, for a little while, but I'll be VERY surprised if Kinect ever gets any real adoption, or support. In 12 months time it'll likely be all but forgotten. If MS were a bit more confident of it's sucess, of course, they would charge more like it's market value (about £40, I reckon) and re-coup the money through the high volumne of software sales they will make, right? I mean, it's not like they started to think that no-one would buy any other games for it, and they better grab all the cash up front, right?
Whatever you think about the "Kinect = EyeToy" argument, you can't really argue with the fact that they are setting out to do the same thing. Both intend to let you control a game with your whole body. Sony eventually realised that without buttons you loose direct, instant control, you loose tactile response, and most importantly, you loose the ability to navigate menus sensibly. You talk about gestures, but how long do you really think you'd control your computer by waving your whole arms about like a lunatic? Almost every succesful invention and innovation ever created takes a task, and allows you to do it whilst exerting less physical effort.
This is nothing like the PS3 - it's not at all powerful, or revolutionary, or even new really, (does bolting a couple of over the counter components onto an existing product count as new these days?) but has been put to a reasonably clever use fulfilling a single small niche. In fact the only bit of your comment I do agree with is that it's probably better for doing other things than playing games.
P.S. - I hope I'm wrong, because I care not for silly manafacturer loyalties. If this is good, I'll buy one, no questions. I just can't see how they will overcome such vast and obvious limitations in any kind of sensible fashion.
The 99p mobile phone: What's the catch?
Sunday 7th November 2010 17:57 GMT Octopoid
I've had a cheaper phone
From play.com - it was £9 and came with £10 of O2 credit. I can't remember the make and model, unfortunately.
But yeah, 99p for a phone? I expect to be paid to carry something like this away. :P
Microsoft's IE 8 'most widely used browser', rules ASA
Wednesday 3rd November 2010 16:54 GMT Octopoid
Well, then the ASA would have to get involved...
Win 7 + IE 8 is widely recognised as the single most difficult OS / Browser combo to hack. And the browser which has had the highest number of unpatched vunerabilites for the last 4 years running? Firefox. Look it up, I can't be bothered to find a link. If anything the ASA should be looking at Firefoxes "Faster, More secure & Customisable" tagline, as it is demonstrably not the best at any one of those things.
Sony PlayStation Move
Wednesday 22nd September 2010 12:02 GMT Octopoid
2D->2D vs 3D->2D vs 3D->3D
I'm lucky enough to have picked up a Samsung 55" LED 3D TV at the weekend, and I took the opportunity to grab a pair of Move controllers at the same time.
I just tried the move controllers out first, and they really are as good as has been indicated here. The pointing at the screen works brilliantly, and the augmented reality stuff is eerily accurate. Say what you like about Start the Party (and do, it really is shit) but there's something about seeing 3D objects put into your hands that accurately. I especially liked the giant foam hand, which wobbles when you shake it about.
I then tried Tumble. It's a Move only game from the PSN, and revolves around making towers of blocks. You use a (or one for each hand if you like) controller to pick up the blocks using the trigger. The 3D controller works great here, with you able to quickly get used to reaching towards the back of the level and grabbing the exact block you wanted quickly and easily.
That was all great, but until then I hadn't actually got the 3D TV functioning properly. Once I had that, I realised that Tumble was also one of the 3D enabled games available. I hadn't even really considered what using a 3D controller and a 3D display would be like, but I can promise you it makes all those expensive boxes worthwhile. Within no time at all, you forget you're even using it, and using your hands in the 3D space starts to become natural. Reaching back to pick up a block is now as easy as reaching onto a table and picking up a block. You can bring it up right near to your face to look at it in close detail, and of course the 3D display looks great here. I won't pretend that looking at virtual blocks right up in your face is in itself fun, but the whole experience seemed to me to be a glimpse of things to come.
I think Sony have done a great job here - on a side note, there are enough buttons on the navigation and move controller combined to map every button on the Dualshock - that means big budget first party games (such as Killzone 3) can just include move support with simple control mapping (largely, and assuming some sort of Move API for the clever glowy bits). This is where the EyeToy fell down, and I think Kinect may still fall down in time - they require developers to modify games heavily, or write specific ones. I know Kinect has some first party launch titles and the like, but I'll be surprised if the support doesn't wane before too long.
The other thing I found interesting was going back to the Wii having used this for a bit. It's a little bit like going back to old consoles - you have nothing but fond memories, but when you actually go back and try them again, you wonder how you ever put up with it.
If you're on the hedge about it, just wait - there's nothing unmissable on it yet, although there are fun games available. Within a month or two there's going to be some big titles coming out, then we'll see how well it's going to survive. It all looks really good for now though.
Google says desktop PC is three years from 'irrelevance'
Monday 8th March 2010 10:32 GMT Octopoid
Contradiction much?
"If a roman scout didn't return I think you would find out why, by maybe sending more, or the sending the legion. No commander is stupid enough to think. "hmmmm scout dead, must be really safe in that direction"
Don't give up the day job...
Microsoft made a phone, and I hate it already
er.. what?
"Once you start using your phone as a general purpose computational device, you battery life will suck, because it's not designed to fulfil that goal"
Of course, if you were designing a phone to be a general purpose computational device, you could pick a battery that was designed to fulfil that goal...
"Until then, get used to carrying multiple devices if you need the extra computing power."
Nah, that's alright. I think I'll just carry on using my Xperia X1 for the extra computing power. The battery lasts well over 24 hours, even when you're using it for General Purpose Computing.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Burj Al-Luluq Social Center Society launch handball trainings for supporting teams, under the supervision of the trainer Mohammad Obeidat, within the programs of improving handball in Jerusalem. The trainings started last December in Burj Al-Luqluq, under the supervision of the first trainer of Burj Al-Luqluq, Iyad Muhtaseb, and the team manager, Hamzeh Abdo.
Around 15 Jerusalemite players participate in the trainings. These players have interest and passion for handball, as it is considered an absent game in Jerusalem and it has only been revived by established the first team in Burj Al-Luqluq, which participated in the Palestine Cup last November.
Through launching these trainings, the center aims to establish supporting team to back up the first team and be ready to participate in the local and international championships.
On his behalf, Burj Al-Luqluq Executive Manager, Muntaser Edkaidek, assured that establishing supporting teams comes within the centre's plan in expanding sport games in the center, it also comes within the cooperation plan to develop the Jerusalemite sport section in cooperation with the different sports Palestinian Unions.
Moreover, Edkaidek assured that the centre's team is training continuously in order to participate in the Palestinian Handball tournament for men next March.


Kubernetes has quickly become the de facto open-source system for orchestrating, automating, deploying, and managing containerized applications. We're diving deep into this technology with a new day of warts-and-all talks to share best practices and real-world lessons learned for deploying and maintaining applications using Kubernetes.
If you're passionate about using Kubernetes and related tools to optimize your system infrastructure and build modern systems, you won't want to miss this day.
Join program host and twenty-year open source veteran, Sebastien Goasguen, for a full day of warts-and-all talks about deploying and maintaining applications using Kubernetes. If you're passionate about using Kubernetes and related tools to optimize your system infrastructure and build modern systems, you won't want to miss this day—open to all pass holders. Read more.


To add a recurring event to your site Calendar, you will log in to your site and click on the site tile. Click Calendar.
You can also add events from within the Manage Web Site > Calendar area.
Check the box next to Make this a repeating event.
Select the type of Recurrence (Daily, Weekly, Monthly) and how often you want the event to repeat.


Browse over 6,818 dogs in our English Mastiff database.
Thousands of English Mastiff pedigrees at your fingertips.
Pedigree Online's English Mastiff database offers free reports for thousands of English Mastiffs. It's also free to add your dogs pedigees to our site.


A lot of attention has been paid to an outstanding ergonomy to improve operator comfort.
Visibility has been optimized through big windows. The optimal visibility leads to greater safety on jobsites.
The multifunction joystick contributes to the ease of operation. It integrates forward-reverse switch, travel speed selector, differential lock 100 % on demand and hydraulic quick coupler.
The seat and armrests are comfortable and adjustable, contributing to reduce the operator stress, improving his safety on construction sites.
+ Operator stays in the same inclination than the bucket on uneven ground, providing more precision especially in pallet forks application.
+ Improved lifting capacity with front frame in articulated position, since the rear part acts as a counterweight.
+ More pressure on the bucket during backfilling, making levelling operations easier and faster.
The V8 has very compact dimensions in all aspects: height (< 2,5m), width, length and turning radius. These compact dimensions contribute to the high maneuverability of Yanmar wheel loaders.
The V8 is fitted with the Yanmar 4TNV88 engine. TNV stands for Total New Value. This engine integrates a new design of the combustion chamber to achieve cleaner burn and lower exhaust emissions. The design integrates also an improved and optimized stiffness in order to reduce significantly the vibrations and the noise level. The improved block cooling of the TNV engine range enhances the durability and service life of this main component.
Hydrostatic high pressure transmission, with automatic power regulation and closed circuit with variable-displacement pump and variable displacement motor (HA Automatic SHIFT).
The HA automatic control high-pressure shift changes automatically the travel speed according to the required performance. The automatic travel speed change is easy to use for the operator, improves his comfort, and chooses always the optimal combination between torque and speed.
Handheld hydraulic breaker kit is foreseen as an option. Yanmar does also offer a high flow kit to drive more demanding attachments like blowers, movers, etc.
Visibility has been optimized through big windows. The optimal visibility leads to greater safety on jobsites. Front visibility is optimum on the attachment for faster and safer operation.
The multifunction joystick contributes to the ease of operation. It integrates forward-reverse switch, travel speed selector and hydraulic quick coupler. A lot of attention has been paid to an outstanding ergonomy to improve operator comfort.
The dashboard gives an easy access to the machine working information through the use of gauges and icon light. All switches are centralized for improved operation and safety.
Our standard seat, adjustable in position and weight, makes it more comfortable for the driver. The seat has a high back and a headrest.
The adjustable steering column is part of the standard equipment of the machine. It improves the operator comfort and makes it easier to enter and exit the cabin.
The Z-bar linkage offers high breakout force and fast cycle times. The linkage choice was made to improve the productivity of the Yanmar wheel loader. The wheel loaders equipped with Z-bar linkage are able to maintain high torque in a lower lift arm position, ideal for load application.
The hydraulic quick hitch is part of the standard equipment of the Yanmar compact wheel loaders. It is easy and very safe to operate and allows quick and smooth change of attachments. Yanmar also integrated in standard the auxiliary hydraulic circuit for hydraulically driven attachments.
As an option, we have quick hitch compatible with Volvo system attachments or skid-steer loader system attachments.
The V8 model is also standard equipped with a return to dig feature.
When the operator lowers the loader arm, the shovel returns automatically to load position.
Improve drive comfort. Increased machine stability on all surfaces. Extended machine life. Best stability with bucket and pallet forks.
The large opening offered by the engine hood allows an easy access to all main service items, for an easy and fast maintenance. This contributes to reduce the TCO of the machine.


King Orfeo is related to the thirteenth century poem Sir Orfeo. Both the ballad and the poem tell the story of Orfeo rescuing his wife from the fairy queen.
Hes left his Lady Isabel alane.
Has pierced your lady to da hert.
But whan he cam it was a grey stane.
Bit sair his hert wi dol an wae.
An dan he played da notes o joy.
Dat meicht ha made a sick hert hale.
An come ye in among wis a.
An hes gaen in among dem a.
What sall we gie you for your play?
An dats me Lady Isabel.
An noo hes king ower a his ain.


text:
using Moq;
using NUnit.Framework;

namespace Xenon.Tests.RightClickTests
{
	[TestFixture]
	public class XenonScreenRightClickTests : BaseRightClickTests<DummyXenonScreen>
	{
		protected override BaseXenonTest<DummyXenonScreen> CreateInstance( Mock<IXenonBrowser> browser )
		{
			return new DummyXenonScreen( browser.Object );
		}
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Today was my 1 year checkup at Sheffield children's Hospital, and I have to admit it was kind of strange to be seeing my Surgeon and nurses again after so long, but it also reminded me of how far I have come since the last time I saw them. It's insane to think that it was one whole year ago since I was taking my first steps with a straight spine!
During my appointment, I had an X-ray, formatric scan, height measurements and of course a consultation with my surgeon.
Before my operation I had a 70 degree thoracic curve and a 67 degree lumbar curve, I now have a 30 degree thoracic and a 32 degree lumbar curvature. My curves have decreased atleast 50% in both the thoracic and lumbar parts of my spine, which is amazing! I am so happy with the results from my surgery.
My surgeon was impressed with the healing of my scar and my X-rays. My metal work has stayed in place and I am now fully fused. I was also given the all clear to return to all sports including contact and I couldn't be happier, all my restrictions have been lifted and I can finally move on with my life!
My journey with scoliosis has been emotionally and physically tasking, but seeing the results today made me feel like it was worth it. I got there in the end, and you can too!
I will only have one more planed appointment at Sheffield Children's Hospital, and that will be my 2 year post op !


text:
Q: Setting markers fro scatter plot I wanted to set markers for scatter plot as shown below
I am using matplotlib library for plotting until now I am able to plot only the points by the code
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
x = [39.5,38,42.5]
y = np.array([0,1,2])
my_xticks = ['a','b','c']
plt.yticks(y, my_xticks)
plt.scatter(x, y,marker='x',s=100)

plt.show()

I also want the line as shown in figure above as a marker in my plot

A: One way to do this would be to call plt.hlines, so that you can add a few horizontal lines to your markers.
Example:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
x = np.array([39.5,38,42.5])
y = np.array([0,1,2])
my_xticks = ['a','b','c']
plt.yticks(y, my_xticks)
plt.scatter(x, y,marker='x',s=100)
width = .4
plt.hlines(y, xmin=x - width/2, xmax=x + width/2)
plt.show()

Change width to suit your desired "width" for each line. Colors can be changed as well, check the documentation for plt.hlines.
Note that this will not persist in a call to legend. legend will only use the actual line objects, although there are ways to change that too.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Previous message: [ruby-cvs:56735] mame:r49585 (trunk): * lib/base64.rb: make urlsafe	mode user-friendly.
Next message: [ruby-cvs:56737] svn:r49587 (trunk): * properties.
* string.c (str_discard): does not free for STR_NOFREE string.
* bootstraptest/test_string.rb: test for above.


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Q: convert a character object into dataframe directly without saving I have a piece of script as below:
temp <- getURL("http://chart.yahoo.com/table.csv?s=^HSI&a=0&b=01&c=1900&d=0&e=07&f=2013&g=d&q=q&y=0&z=^HSI&x=.csv",.opts=opts)
write(temp,file="test.txt")
temp <- read.csv("test.txt")

I hate saving it as a txt before import it again as a dataframe, I have heard something like connection, can I skip this "write and load" process?

A: You can use function read.csv() directly to import this csv file
temp<-read.csv("http://chart.yahoo.com/table.csv?s=^HSI&a=0&b=01&c=1900&d=0&e=07&f=2013&g=d&q=q&y=0&z=^HSI&x=.csv")
head(temp)
        Date     Open     High      Low    Close     Volume Adj.Close
1 2013-01-04 23370.36 23370.36 23172.28 23331.09 1505752800  23331.09
2 2013-01-03 23390.54 23400.74 23234.43 23398.60 2211207000  23398.60
3 2013-01-02 22860.25 23317.39 22860.25 23311.98 2129252800  23311.98
4 2012-12-31 22584.44 22698.33 22566.89 22656.92  685413000  22656.92
5 2012-12-28 22706.33 22706.33 22628.46 22666.59 1043816200  22666.59
6 2012-12-27 22705.46 22718.83 22608.60 22619.78 1053372600  22619.78

A: Another answer shows how to do this in one step by providing a URL to read.csv, the more general case of reading from any text string uses the textConnection function:
> data = read.csv(textConnection("A,B,C\n4,5,6\n99,5,4"))
> data
   A B C
1  4 5 6
2 99 5 4

With your web page example, this becomes:
> data = read.csv(textConnection(getURL("http://chart.yahoo.com/table.csv?s=^HSI&a=0&b=01&c=1900&d=0&e=07&f=2013&g=d&q=q&y=0&z=^HSI&x=.csv")))
> head(data)
        Date     Open     High      Low    Close     Volume Adj.Close
1 2013-01-04 23370.36 23370.36 23172.28 23331.09 1505752800  23331.09
2 2013-01-03 23390.54 23400.74 23234.43 23398.60 2211207000  23398.60
3 2013-01-02 22860.25 23317.39 22860.25 23311.98 2129252800  23311.98
4 2012-12-31 22584.44 22698.33 22566.89 22656.92  685413000  22656.92
5 2012-12-28 22706.33 22706.33 22628.46 22666.59 1043816200  22666.59
6 2012-12-27 22705.46 22718.83 22608.60 22619.78 1053372600  22619.78

but obviously that's better done with read.csv("http:/...etc").
See help(connection) for more.


Hecht and Colin at their core embody two contrasting worldviews. He is a native Londoner, educated as an industrial designer, contemplative, and drawn to essential simplicity. She is a Californian, trained as an architect, effusive, and drawn to use the sensibilities of her discipline; emotion, scale, landscape, culture - to inform design.
Their studio, Industrial Facility, is located in central London's Clerkenwell neighbourhood - itself a place of opposites, hip and professional, home to thinkers and entertainers. The studio is small in number, eclectic in talent.


Thousands of lobsters, crabs, fish and sea animals have been washed up on the beach near Barmston.
This comes after the unprecedented high seas and stormy conditions of the last few days.
"I came across fishermen from Brid and Scarborough. We asked what they were doing as their were a lot of them and they were hauling buckets, trays,sledges etc back to waiting trucks.
They were trying to save as many Lobsters etc as they could by trawling through the debris to find as many live specimens as they were able. These were loaded on to a couple of trucks and were transported to tanks a Brid. If they survive in the tanks they would be put into the sea.


Life should inspire. Taking a moment to embrace wonder and ponder the imaginative is an opportunity to reconnect. Often, it seems that the world makes more demands on your time and consciousness than you can fulfill. Here at Cirridescence Studios, we provide you with lovingly handcrafted jewelry to remind you of life's opulence. We provide you with the opportunity to enhance the diversity of your personal landscape and announce your sophistication with wearable works of art. You have a vision and deserve to live life lavishly.
Each graver is modified to perfectly fit the hand of each artist.
We specialize in whimsical objects juxtaposed with hard, studied tradition; fleeting glimpses of merriment greeted by structured designs. We strive to bring you the tension between that which is expected of a fine jewelers… and that which inspires.


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Mansory Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG 6×6 boasts 828 HP, same insane looks
By Stephen Edelstein May 23, 2014
There's something about the Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG 6×6 that attracts tuners. From Brabus to Dartz, seemingly ever car customizer has tried to put a unique spin on this already-unusual vehicle.
The latest tuned 6×6 comes form Mansory, a company known for over-the-top projects like a 740-horsepower Rolls-Royce Wraith, or a 1,600-hp Lamborghini Aventador.
Compared to those cars, the Mansory G63 AMG 6×6 appears oddly restrained. Sure, it's got a big hood scoop and lights on its roof, but this version doesn't look any crazier than the stock six-wheel SUV it's based on.
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQB first drive review: An EV better than its gas sibling
Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV is a luxury SUV for the family
Mercedes-AMG shifting gears with a variety of hybrids and EVs on their way
Under the hood, it's a different story. Mansory boosted the 5.5-liter twin-turbocharged V8's output from 536 hp and 560 pound-feet of torque to 828 hp and 737 lb-ft.
The extra power comes from a new exhaust system and various upgraded internal engine parts. It should make the G63 AMG 6×6 legitimately fast, although whether that's a good thing is between the owner and his or her insurance company.
On the inside, the Mansory modifications include an extra dollop of carbon fiber, plus different leather, Alcantara, and wood trim designed to give the tuned truck a unique look.
It seems likely that the Mansory G63 AMG 6×6 will find at least one customer; it's hard to overestimate the amount of car buyers out there with more money than taste.
The real question is: with so few 6x6s produced and so many tuners waiting to get their hands on one, will any remain stock?
2023 Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV preview: The EV lineup grows again
Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class takes a subtle approach to tech
Mercedes-AMG EQE proves performance EVs are here to stay
Mercedes-Benz's brawny G-Wagen will get an electric makeover
Next Mercedes-AMG C63 could ditch the V8 for four-cylinder hybrid power
BMW M bundles supercar-like performance into the X5 and the X6


Bo Daraphant, an intern at Korean Resource Center (KRC) Los Angeles and a member of ASPIRE-LA, who would have personally benefited from the expanded DACA program, expressed huge disappointment in the supreme court's decision but remained optimistic that the fight for immigration reform isn't over.
LOS ANGELES – (June 24, 2016) — Leaders and members of organizations serving Asian American and Pacific Islander immigrants gathered to express their deep disappointment at the Supreme Court's inaction on the President's proposed expansion of immigration relief programs. Announced in November 2014, these programs – the new Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) and an expansion of the original Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) – would have benefited an estimated 65,000 Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) immigrants in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.
Although the Court's decision blocks implementation of the new DAPA and expanded DACA programs, it does not affect the original DACA program. Created in 2012, the original DACA program offers eligible young immigrants a two-year reprieve from deportation, work authorization and a social security number. It does not offer a path to citizenship. [Eligibility information here.] Nationally, an estimated 152,000 AAPI immigrants are eligible for the original DACA program, including 22,000 in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Only 20 percent of eligible AAPIs have applied for DACA, compared to an estimated 80 percent of eligible Latino immigrants.
Anthony Ng, immigrant rights policy advocate for Advancing Justice-LA and a member of ASPIRE-LA, urged community members to vote for legislators who care about the needs of immigrant communities in this coming November election.
For immigrants who are undocumented or out of status, Advancing Justice offers free immigration screenings to evaluate individual cases for available immigration relief, including the original DACA program, and free assistance in applying for or renewing DACA status. In addition, Advancing Justice can provide information and assistance with other important programs for undocumented immigrants, such as drivers' licenses (AB 60) and Medi-Cal for low-income undocumented youth (SB 75). See details below.
Looking forward, immigrant rights advocates urged impacted community members to join the fight for both the expanded DACA and DAPA programs as well as the larger battle to reform the nation's broken immigration system.
Stewart Kwoh, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-LA, clarified that the supreme court decision does not affect the original DACA program and strongly encouraged eligible undocumented immigrants to contact trusted legal service providers for more information.


If you have PHP or ASP enabled on your web site, you can have 100% protection from automated email-harvesting spambots with DB Master's form mailer. This script hides your email address in the PHP or ASP coding, and you cannot get the address by any means, not even by viewing the source.
If you have neither ASP nor PHP available, then you must have a terrible web host. You are not left out however. Robert Graham has created a tool on his site that will use various methods to convert your email address. Instead of letters and numbers, it gives you a string of symbols and numbers which presumably spambots cannot interpret as a valid address.
Using this method, there is no need to use a graphic of your address, as most browsers should be able to interpret the gibberish properly. I recommend saving the page to your hard drive so that you can use it even when not connected to the internet.
Unfortunately, this last method is not foolproof. Some spambots will still be able to read the address, although why a spammer would believe an address harvested like this will be useful is a mystery. However, it should keep the overwhelming majority of spammers away.


NAPERVILLE, Ill. — Oct. 24, 2016 — Jim Sikich, CEO and managing partner of professional services firm Sikich LLP, was recently named an accounting industry legend by LEA Global at its annual conference. LEA Global is an international association of 220 firms across 106 countries that focus on accounting, financial and business advisory services. The Legends award recognizes a leader who has driven growth and innovation and served as a model for others in the industry.
Earlier this year, Sikich announced that he will retire at the end of 2017 after more than 45 years in the accounting industry. Chris Geier, partner-in-charge of the firm's advisory services and investment banking practice, will assume the role of CEO and managing partner on Jan. 1, 2017.
Sikich also received LEA Global's Innovative Firm Initiative of the Year award for its Sikich Snapshots program. Snapshots is a biannual firmwide event that features presentations from company executives on firm growth and priorities.
LEA Global announced the 2016 Edge Award winners on Sept. 22 at its annual conference in Houston.


Madrona is touted as "Seattle's best kept secret" and is known for breathetaking views of the sparkling Lake Washington, quiet neighborhoods, and nature Northwest beauty. But, underneath it all, what's it really hiding?
Along the shores of Madrona's Lake Washington patch, is where it starts. A large and grassy beach and swimming area, with lifeguards during the Summer season, is an excellent place for a picnic, lounge, or dog walk. The size makes it a great place for large, family gatherings, or people looking for some alone-time. A little further south and the Lake Washington Dock jets out into, you guessed it, Lake Washington.
From the beach, navigate the not-so subtle incline of Madrona Park. This hillside park offers trails, nature walks, and beautiful views across the water. Though the trails aren't long, it's well-kept and proves a great workout!
Travel a little further west and you'll find the adorable Madrona "downtown" district. Local favorites, like Molly Moon's, Cupcake Royale, and the Madrona Arms call this neighborhood home. And local candleholder company, glassybaby, uses this neighborhood as it's headquarters. Imagine walking down a quiet street and watching the enthralling activity of glass blowing! Though their commercial area is small, it is lively and brimming with opportunity.
While much of the neighborhood is residential, it's ideal location makes it convenient for city-dwellers searching for that suburban feel.
Craving more? Madrona Seattle has the inside scoop!


Some babies are not tolerant of baby formula. For these babies, breast milk may be best. If you cannot breast feed or have chosen not to, there is still a solution. Soy baby formula can be used in place of breast milk or regular formula. How do you know if your baby needs to switch to soy formula instead of using the regular formula or breast milk?
Your baby or your pediatrician will let you know when to switch to soy formula. If your baby is having problems digesting breast milk or baby formula, your baby is going to let you know about any discomfort. Some babies are allergic to milk and milk products. Other babies are just intolerant to milk products such as formula. The good news is that, as your baby gets older, he or she may outgrow intolerance and be able to drink milk.
My daughter was on formula as soon as she was born. Not long after I got her home and was with her after her feedings, I knew something was wrong with her. If you ever had a "colic" baby, you know they usually scream at a certain time every day. It was like that, only worse.
My daughter would start screaming 20 minutes to one hour after she ate. The child would stand up in her chair, or wherever she was at, and scream like someone was hurting her. Her little body would get so rigid that I could not bend her at any of her joints. Forget about bending her at her waist, she was not moving. It turns out she was intolerant to lactose and needed to switch to a soy baby formula.
Some children spit up after every feeding. Sometimes this is caused by overfeeding or by not burping your baby. If you are feeding your child as directed and burping him or her, and he or she is still spitting up frequently, you may want to talk to the pediatrician about changing your baby's formula to soy.
Some pediatricians do not like parents switching formula. They feel switching formulas is rougher on baby's digestive system than "sticking it out" in hopes baby adapts to the current formula. However, it is your child, and if he or she is suffering in pain, you will want to do whatever you can do to make them feel better.
Once we switched to soy formula from milk based formula, with our pediatrician's approval (although the doctor still had hesitations), my baby stopped screaming after each of her feedings. I was so happy to have a full and content baby. So, if you are wondering if you should switch to soy, listen to your baby and your parental instincts. If your child is responding poorly to milk-based formula, it's time to give soy formula a try.


text:
Video: How do black holes evaporate?
by Fraser Cain, Universe Today
Artist's illustration of black holes.
Nothing lasts forever, not even black holes. According to Stephen Hawking, black holes will evaporate over vast periods of time. But how, exactly, does this happen?
The actor Stephen Hawking is best known for his cameo appearances in Futurama and Star Trek, you might surprised to learn that he's also a theoretical astrophysicist. Is there anything that guy can't do?
One of the most fascinating theories he came up with is that black holes, the universe's swiffer, can actually evaporate over vast periods of time.
Quantum theory suggests there are virtual particles popping in and out of existence all the time. When this happens, a particle and its antiparticle appear, and then they recombine and disappear again.
When this takes place near an event horizon, strange things can happen. Instead of the two particles existing for a moment and then annihilating each other, one particle can fall into the black hole, and the other particle can fly off into space. Over vast periods of time, the theory says that this trickle of escaping particles causes the black hole to evaporate.
Wait, if these virtual particles are falling into the black hole, shouldn't that make it grow more massive? How does that cause it to evaporate? If I add pebbles to a rock pile, doesn't my rock pile just get bigger?
It comes down to perspective. From an outside observer watching the black hole's event horizon, it appears as if there's a glow of radiation coming from the black hole. If that was all that was happening, it would violate the law of thermodynamics, as energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Since the black hole is now emitting energy, it needs to have given up a little bit of its mass to provide it.
Let's try another way to think about this. A black hole has a temperature. The more massive it is, the lower its temperature, although it's still not zero.
From now and until far off into the future, the temperature of the largest black holes will be colder than the background temperature of the universe itself. Light from the cosmic microwave background radiation will fall in, increasing its mass.
Now, fast forward to when the background temperature of the universe drops below even the coolest black holes. Then they'll slowly radiate heat away, which must come from the black hole converting its mass into energy.
The rate that this happens depends on the mass. For stellar mass black holes, it might take 10^67 years to evaporate completely.
Viewed in visible light, Markarian 739 resembles a smiling face. Inside are two supermassive black holes, separated by about 11,000 light-years. The galaxy is 425 million light-years away from Earth. Credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey
For the big daddy supermassive ones at the cores of galaxies, you're looking at 10^100. That's a one, followed by 100 zero years. That's huge number, but just like any gigantic and finite number, it's still less than infinity. So over an incomprehensible amount of time, even the longest living objects in the universe – our mighty black holes – will fade away into energy.
One last thing, the Large Hadron Collider might be capable of generating microscopic black holes, which would last for a fraction of a second and disappear in a burst of Hawking radiation. If they find them, then Hawking might want to the acting on hold and focus on physics.
Nothing is eternal, not even black holes. Over the longest time frames we're pretty sure they'll evaporate away into nothing. The only way to find out is to sit back and watch, well maybe it's not the only way.
The LHC. Credit: CERN
Black holes don't erase information, scientists say
Source: Universe Today
Citation: Video: How do black holes evaporate? (2015, April 14) retrieved 17 January 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2015-04-video-black-holes-evaporate.html
How much of the universe is black holes?
How can black holes shine?
Researcher devises a new way to mimic Hawking radiation in a lab


phpFFL is a project which will create free Fantasy Football League Management software. phpFFL will be a web-based system written in php using a MySQL database. All you will need to run phpFFL is a web host that supports php and MySQL (Check FAQ for recommended list of hosts). phpFFL is fully customizable. You customize the number of teams, schedule, divisions, length of season and scoring system.


text:
Back to Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services
Government > City Services > Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services > Parks and Recreation Facilities > Pavilion Shore Park
43390 Thirteen Mile Road Novi, MI 48377
Park Shelter Reservations Available: No
This 11 acre park was opened on August 24, 2013. Hundreds of residents came out to enjoy the festivities and play at the new park. The park sits on the southern shore of Walled Lake and consists of walking paths, a fishing pier, picnic plaza, parking and waterfront seating. Just a short walk (.2 miles) to the west is Lakeshore Park with additional amenities: sand volleyball, swim beach, Horseshoe pits, BBQs, picnic shelters, play structures and over 10 miles of mountain biking and multi-purpose trails.
The Pavilion Shore Park has a rich history as the former home of the Walled Lake Amusement Park and the Walled Lake Casino. The Pavilion Shore Conservancy is an organization that is dedicated to preserving the area's unique heritage and promote its environmental, educational and recreational resources.
Click here for state of Michigan Fishing License information, Children 17 and younger are exempt.
Seasonally Available May 1 - November 1
The construction company is planning to suspend shoreline restoration work at Pavilion Shore due to ground conditions. They will be moving to Lakeshore Park to begin that portion of the project and will return to Pavilion Shore when the ground freezes in order to minimize damage to the park.
Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services and Engineering staff have received several inquiries regarding the Pavilion Shore Park shoreline stabilization project. Concerns have been expressed with the aesthetics as well as access to the shoreline.
When Pavilion Shore Park was developed in 2013, several trees with 2-3-inch trunk diameters were removed along the shoreline. Coir logs were installed with the intent to slow erosion and spur the growth of new shoreline plants. Coir logs are tube-shaped; erosion-control devices filled with straw, flax, rice, coconut fiber material or composted material. Each roll is wrapped with UV-degradable polypropylene netting with 100- percent biodegradable materials like burlap, jute or coir. Unfortunately, the logs failed due to wave action and the down current of the lake. Additionally, the winter ice floe contributed to the breakdown of the logs and plantings.
City staff and the City Engineering Consultant, AECOM, worked closely with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (MDEGLE, formerly known as the MDEQ) to design a shoreline repair specifically situated around the use of stone and natural features as protection against erosion. Concrete retaining walls were not acceptable and would not have been approved.
It should be noted the sole intent of the project was to address shoreline erosion for the long term and not prohibit access to the lake. However, the project will result in reduced access to the water from the park.
The shoreline stabilization projects at Pavilion Shore Park and Lakeshore Park are now in process. We experienced significant delays in receiving the required permits from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE, formerly known as the DEQ). Equipment has been staged at Pavilion Shore Park and the work will take approximately 2-3 weeks to complete. The project will cause some damage to turf, sidewalk panels and irrigation lines in the park, but the contractor will be responsible for repairs and restoration. After Pavilion Shore is complete, they will move on to the Lakeshore beach area.
Shoreline stabilization work is expected to begin around Oct. 24 at Pavilion Shore Park and will take 1-2 weeks to complete. Once complete, shoreline stabilization work will begin at Lakeshore Park's beach.
City Council directed staff to add a playground at Pavilion Shore Park in order to meet the expected demand for a children's play area due to the upcoming Lakeshore Park renovations. Decisions on the placement and design of the playground were based on many factors, including sight lines, durability, accessibility and aesthetics. Separate structures for children ages 2-5 and 5-12 years old are included in the final design. A variety of features are included on the playground including an "Oodle Swing," spinners, sensory exploration, climbing structures and balance challenges. The playground will meet/exceed all current safety and accessibility requirements.
The east parking lot expansion at Pavilion Shore Park was completed Nov. 3, 2017, creating 32 additional parking spaces for the park. The new expansion brings the total number of parking spaces to 62 for the park and allows more people to enjoy sunsets and picnics on Walled Lake's edge.
The restroom shelter opened Sept. 28, 2016, as Mayor Bob Gatt, State Rep. Kathy Crawford and PRCS Director Jeff Muck addressed attendees. Although not available for rentals, the facility provides welcome shade and restrooms to park patrons, local joggers and cyclists along the southern shores of Walled Lake.
The foundation is poured and the restroom walls are being constructed.
The roof was installed on the new restroom/shelter at Pavilion Shore Park now that the foundation and beams are set. The project is targeting completion by Labor Day.
June 2016 Restroom/Shelter Construction Progress
Improvements at Pavilion Shore Park
City Council approved the summer 2016 construction of a restroom/shelter at Pavilion Shore Park. The 50x30 structure will use design elements from the Walled Lake Dance Hall and casino from the 1920s.
Pavilion Shore Park Restroom / Shelter Plans
Fate of Empires, a sculpture by international artist and Novi resident, David Barr reflects the rise and fall of empires, and ties in to the rich history of Pavilion Shore Park and its many past identities (including Walled Lake Amusement Park and the Walled Lake Casino). Thanks to a generous donation from The Novi Parks Foundation, Fate of Empires was purchased and installed at Pavilion Shore Park.
Pavilion Shore Park restroom/shelter timeline established:
PRCS Commission presentation – January 21
Planning Commission – February 3
City Council final approval – March 28
Construction Begins – May 1
January 2016 Restroom/Shelter Conceptual Rendering
January 2016 Restroom/Shelter Location
Architectural and engineering firm Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr & Huber, Inc. awarded contract to design a restroom/shelter for Pavilion Shore Park.
The need for restroom facilities was identified, replacing 2017-18 plans for a water feature and play structure.
Pavilion Shore Park Open House/Opening Day
Public Input Session conducted as a requirement of Phase 3 Grant Application to Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund.
Construction has begun at Pavilion Shore Park, located at Old Novi and 13 Mile Roads, necessitating a closure of the park through mid-summer 2013. During this time, we encourage citizens to enjoy the amenities at other nearby parks. A comprehensive listing of park and amenities can be found by clicking here.
Pavilion Shore Park Timeline
This is an estimation of work timeline which may be adjusted due to weather, etc.
Equipment Mobilization and Site Preparation – October 29, 2012-January 7, 2013
Boardwalk Construction – January-April
Landscape Walls and Terrace Construction – January-April
Grading, Electrical, and Sewer – April-May
Landscaping including Bollards, Flagstone, Bench and Table installation – June-mid-July
Pavilion Shore Park Phase 1 & 2 Conceptual Plan - September 2012
Construction of Phases 1 and 2 of the Pavilion Shore Park has been awarded to a contractor and scheduled to begin in fall 2012. Completion is anticipated in July 2013.
Highlights of Phase 1 and 2 include:
General Conditions and Site Preparation, Utilities & Electrical, Site Improvements, Shoreline Stabilization and Native Plantings, Landscaping, Irrigation, Two Parking Areas, Additional Walks and Pier
Matters from September 10, 2012 Council Meeting:
Approval to award a construction contract for Pavilion Shore Park Phases 1 and 2 to V.I.L. Construction, Inc., the low bidder, in the amount of $1,492,175.
Approval to award an engineering services agreement with URS Corporation for construction engineering services related to Pavilion Shore Park Phase 1 and 2 in the amount of $144,719.
Pavilion Shore Park Development Concept - January 23, 2012
January 26, 2012 - Development Plans Approved for Landings Park - Construction will begin this summer at the park property located at Thirteen Mile and Old Novi Roads on Walled Lake
At the regular City Council meeting held on Monday, January 23, City Council has approved the design concept for the development of the 11-acre property commonly known as Landings Park. The initial development of the park, estimated to begin in late summer 2012, will include a stone waterfront and pier on Walled Lake, biking and walking paths intersecting the park, interpretive gardens and landscaping, a picnic lawn, and parking area.
Read the full press release.
Landings Concept Presentation
The development of the Landings Park property at Old Novi Road and 13 Mile was discussed at the January Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Commission Meeting, with the below Concept being presented by architectural firm Hamilton-Anderson. Following a public input session in December, an updated plan was presented to commissioners. The design concept as approved at the January 23, 2012 Council Meeting.
Landings Concept Presentation (8.3 MB)
(To be presented to the Parks, Recreation & Cultural Services Commission on 1/12/12.
NOTE: The parking area envisioned on page 8 of the concept presentation would be expected on one side or the other of East Lake Drive, not both. )
Estimated Project Totals by Phase
Phase 1 - General Conditions and Site Preparation, Utilities & Electrical, Site Improvements, Shoreline Stabilization and Native Plantings, Landscaping $625,124.31
Phase 2 - Additional Walks and Pier 287,964.60
Phase 3 - Pavilion and Waterfront Picnic Plaza 291,883.68
Phase 4 - Site Lighting and Play Equipment 198,000.00
Phase 5 - Water Feature and Bath House 554,400.00
For more information, please contact Jeff Muck, Director, Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services via email or at 248-735-5611.