A high-profile panel featuring some of the industry's leading learning tech experts will examine learning and development's capability to support UK PLC's upturn strategy and the crucial role learning technologies can play. The Question Time style debate will also feature live audience voting to further assess mood and expectations.
Hosted by e-learning specialist Brightwave the debate - A road map to 2020: How can learning technologies support fast-changing business practice? - will focus on what learning and development professionals must do to maximise impact and play a significant strategic role in business development. It will be held at Learning Technologies 2011 - Europe's leading conference / exhibition - at Olympia 2, London on Wednesday 26th January.
Some discussion in the debate will be based upon brand new research, conducted by Brightwave, which explores the impact technology-enabled workplace learning has made over the last 10 years and the UK's expectations and needs for the next decade.
• What role will learning technologies play over the next 10 years to help staff perform at their best in a constantly changing environment?
• What are our current priorities and do they need to change?
• What technologies can help us step up?
• Apart from technology what else do we need to put in place?
• What influential learning trends from our personal lives can impact performance in the workplace?
Brightwave MD Charles Gould said in anticipation of the event: "Our findings show that L&D professionals are striving to be more strategic in how they support the productivity and competitiveness of their organisation. It's clear that learning technologies can help with this important shift. However, unless best practice is employed this goal will remain aspirational. Our debate will explore what needs to be done to make sure we're not asking the same questions in 2020. After all, no organisation has that luxury."


text:
FCC and FDA Bring Wireless Devices to the Forefront
Submitted by Samhir Vasdev on 7/28/10
Global Mobile
At a public meeting at FCC's headquarters on Monday, Chairman Julius Genachowski and FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg announced a landmark agreement to start a substantive conversation about the role of wireless communications in health care. With U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra presiding, the two leaders signed a Memorandum of Understanding and a Joint Statement of Principles highlighting the importance of nurturing mobile health innovation.
In his opening remarks, Genachowski summarized:
"All Americans stand to benefit from broadband-enabled wireless health solutions... Today's action will promote investment and innovation in health technologies, help realize potential cost savings, and deliver real health benefits to the American people."
Following the introductory comments, representatives from the health care industry, wireless technology groups, relevant agencies, and other stakeholderes gathered in a series of panels to share their perspectives on wireless health. Throughout the day, two conclusions were made clear:
1. Wireless and mobile health technologies will profoundly impact every corner of the health care industry:
In the nearby exhibitors' rooms, 25 mHealth innovators displayed an impressive showcase of wireless health technologies. Watch the FCC and FDA leaders tour the exhibits below (or on YouTube here):
Most of these exhibits demonstrated how mobile wireless technologies can improve patient monitoring and communication -- devices which monitor glucose levels 24/7 and send SMS warnings to diabetic patients, for example. But as Drexel University biomedical engineer Elliot Sloane explained, implementing wireless technology into health care will have far-reaching effects on the entire ecoystem.
For example, social networks could be incorporated into hospitals and nursing homes, allowing "P2P" -- patient-to-patient -- communication. Wireless entertainment systems in health care facilities could enhance the patient and family experience. On-call doctors would be more readily available if they could conduct procedures wirelessly from their homes. And the wireless transmission of patient information between and within hospitals would bring efficiency and transparency to an oudated system. No area of health care stands to lose from this technology.
2. Still, the vast potential of this emerging space is matched by the numerous challenges confronting it:
Panelists representing the wireless health industry expressed several challenges facing wireless and mobile health technologies. By far the biggest concern was mentioned by DexCom's CTO Jorge Valdes, who said that FCC and FDA regulation needs to be more "flexible and intelligent." Too often, he continued, the rate of mobile innovation exceeds the time consumed by the approval process of the FDA and FCC. By the time a wireless monitoring device is finally approved, the mobile phone for which it was made is already discontinued or obsolete. Additionally, regulations regarding spectrum allocations to the wireless health community need to be reviewed often in order to ensure network interoperability and international function.
Another concern among the panelists was what Intel's Bonnie Norman called "the human factor." It is critically important that these new wireless innovations conform to the patients' lifestyles, not vice-versa. Devices can't be cumbersome of finnicky. They must have "mobility and adaptability" in order to accommodate the lifestyles of athletes, young veterans, and students. The challenge is particularly salient among young patients, echoed another panelist, who "fully expect their solution to integrate completely with their smart phone. They don't want to carry around another device."
The final issue worth mentioning was again raised by Bonnie Norman. IT and network infrastructure must be able to reliably and securely keep up to pace with wireless health solutions. It's one thing to experience the occasional dropped call on your iPhone, she said, but when your mother's life is on the line, you can't afford for her device's emergency signal to be lost by the network. And the IT systems in the health care industry must be able to synthesize and make accessible the "tsunami of data" which flow from full-time wireless monitoring and communications.
It's clear to me, as it was to the panelists, that a conversation about wireless health technologies is long-overdue. The new FCC-FDA partnership should pave the way for a new era of wireless health innovation, making good on Dr. Hamburg's declaration that "the convergence of communications technology and medical technology could change the face of medicine forever."
Samhir Vasdev's blog

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


An investigation into the FinFisher spyware campaign reveals the potential role of major internet service providers in distributing the program.
According to ESET researchers, a new malicious malware campaign is spreading through seven countries across the world.
At the center of the attack is the "FinFisher" spyware, which is allegedly being distributed by internet service providers.
FinFisher also called "FinSpy," is a surveillance software developed by Gamma Group.
Until now, it was sold to governments to help keep track of opposition groups and figures roaming the public.
The ESET research team believes that this new campaign is being spread by internet service providers in collaboration with various governments to target areas of interest.
The unique component to this new malware is that it can avoid detection by most antivirus programs and can keep tabs on different communication software programs like Skype.
Moreover, it can also monitor video chats, log calls and even copy user files.
According to the creator of the FinFisher spyware software, the program was developed to help government and law enforcement agencies identify and track criminals.
However, the popular spyware is now being used to affect systems all across the world.
ESET released this information on the new FinFisher spyware malware campaign on their blog, stating that internet service providers may be involved in its distribution.
In the statement, ESET also mentions that the latest version of the FinFisher spyware is different from previous iterations, and it contains several improvements.
The versions that came before it had issues when it came to going undetected by popular antivirus programs but the new, upgraded version is able to get by without detection.
Unlike other malware programs that operate through Flash plugins, the FinFisher spyware can infiltrate computers when users download various applications like Skype, VLC or even WhatsApp.
ESET also stated that the FinFisher spyware is being spread through MiTM attacks.
MiTM or Man-in-The-Middle attacks focus more on communication relays, which leads to the tampering of data streams.
It can also spy on a user and distribute malware. In a successful MiTM attack, the target will get redirected to the hacker's server where the malicious program will be installed.
This program will also have a Trojan that disseminates the FinFisher spyware.
So when a user goes to a website to download their favorite application, they will be unaware that they are being taken somewhere else.
And to avoid any suspicion, the malware program even installs the software the user had intended to download.
This clearly proves a certain level of sophistication and points to the fact that the perpetrators have really put a lot of time and thought into this malicious program.
The newest version also utilizes custom code visualization, which allows it to protect itself with the kernel-mode driver.
It also prevents sandboxing and debugging along with emulation, which makes it very difficult for a security analyst to break down its code.
This spyware is now being used to infect systems across the world.
When ESET was performing the investigation into the FinFisher spyware campaign, they noticed that the redirection of users was occurring at a level that suggests the backing of a large internet service provider.
However, only the new version of the malicious malware had this capability, as the above was seen only in two countries where the new version was spread.
The older version that hit the other five countries had employed outdated techniques while infecting computers.
It is also important to note that this theory hasn't been decisively proven yet, and it is all speculation at this point.
Analysts at ESET do state that it is technically possible that the perpetrator behind the MiTM attacks might be located at various positions on the route between the infected user's PC and the legitimate server he/she is accessing initially.
But what creates doubt about whether or not major internet service providers are involved is the level of geographical dispersion in the new FinFisher spyware versions.
Such a wide area makes the involvement of big ISPs a very probable one.
As of now, nothing concrete has come out but in a due course of time, the mystery behind these attacks might be revealed.
Until then, it's important to use online scanners—like ESET's own free scanner program—to make sure your computer is not affected by the malware campaign.
You should also perform the necessary checks required to make sure you are safe from any spying eyes.


Due to the high number of requests in the previous thread and many spam/double posts , A new clean thread is Created regarding Iphone carrier/Simlock Check.
U can check the prices.
Please always use thanks button for who helps you.
1-Do not spam thread with thanks and double post.
2-Only 1 imei per post. 2 or more imei in 1 post will be deleted.
Last edited by axecom; 04-05-2017 at 06:22.
Please check this IMEI please??
what's the sold To Info please.


text:
Eli Wallach 1915-2014
Actor Eli Wallach, whose career spanned six decades, died on June 24, 2014. He was 98.
Over the years he starred alongside some of Hollywood's biggest names, including Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner, Peter O'Toole and Al Pacino.
Read more: Eli Wallach, veteran actor, dead at 98
Credit: AMPAS/Courtesy Margaret Herrick Library
Eli Wallach starred in Sergio Leone's 1966 spaghetti western film "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," alongside directed by Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef.
Credit: United Artists
A Tony Award winner for the 1951 production of "The Rose Tattoo," Wallach almost made his big screen debut in "From Here to Eternity" when he was offered the role of Angelo Maggio. But a Broadway job he'd been signed for, temporarily halted, was back on, and Wallach's role went to Frank Sinatra, who turned in an Oscar-winning performance. Wallach finally appeared with Carroll Baker in "Baby Doll" (1956), directed by Elia Kazan. His performance in the potboiler earned him a British Academy Award and a slew of Hollywood film offers.
Credit: AFP/Getty Images
Eli Wallach was up against such Hollywood stars as Steve McQueen and Yul Brynner in "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), but his performance as a Mexican bandit stood out from the crowd.
Wallach played one-third of the titular "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1968), Sergio Leone's epic spaghetti Western.
Eli Wallach, left, with Clint Eastwood in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." Wallach said that after shooting, Eastwood told him he had bigger plans, including directing, "And I thought, 'That'll be the day.'" Wallach ended up making a cameo appearance in Eastwood's Oscar-winning "Mystic River."
Eli Wallach played Don Altobello in Francis Ford Coppola's conclusion to the mob trilogy, "The Godfather Part III" (1990). Here, he is seen with Andy Garcia playing Vincent Mancini, the illegitimate son of Sonny Corleone and heir to the Corleone empire.
The 94-year-old is still putting in scene-stealing performances, as in this year's "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" (here with Josh Brolin), playing a wise old banker who predicts a financial apocalypse.
Credit: 20th Century Fox
Actor Eli Wallach attends the "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Sept. 20, 2010, in New York.
Credit: Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images
Eli Wallach, left, and his wife Anne Jackson, at the gala invitational world premiere of "The Tiger Makes Out," in New York on Sept. 21, 1967 . Wallach, the raspy-voiced character actor who starred in dozens of movies and Broadway plays over a remarkable and enduring career, died of natural causes.
Credit: AP
This 1964 file photo shows actor Eli Wallach in a scene from the film, "Lord Jim."
Credit: AP Photo/Ken Danvers
Eli Wallach and his wife Anne Jackson from the Broadway comedy "Promenade All!" in New York on April 27, 1972.
Actor Eli Wallach, center, and his family attend the TCM Classic Film Festival screening of a "A Star is Born" at Grauman's Chinese Theater on April 22, 2010, in Hollywood, Calif.
Credit: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
Panel moderator Charles Isherwood speaks with actor Eli Wallach and actress Bryce Dallas Howard onstage at the "Tennessee Williams on Screen and Stage" panel discussion at The Times Center on Dec. 9, 2009, in New York.
Credit: Jemal Countess/Getty Images
Kate Winslet and Eli Wallach attend the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre 80th Anniversary Gala and Reunion at Tavern on the Green on Nov. 9, 2008, in New York.
Credit: Cory Schwartz/Getty Images
Actors Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson arrive at the Official Oscar Night Party hosted by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Feb. 25, 2007, in New York.
Credit: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images
Actors Clint Eastwood, left, and Eli Wallach attend the 2006 National Board Of Review Awards Gala at Cipriani 42nd Street Jan. 9, 2007, in New York.
Credit: Peter Kramer/Getty Images
Actor Eli Wallach is introduced at "Franco and Friends," the Metropolitan Opera Guild's all-star tribute to Italian director and designer Franco Zeffirelli, Monday, March 31, 2008, in New York.
Actor Eli Wallach attends the 2006 National Board Of Review Awards Gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on Jan. 9, 2007, in New York. At the event, he was presented the Career Achievement Award.
Credit: GETTY IMAGES/Peter Kramer
In this photograph provided by Columbia Pictures, actor Eli Wallach celebrates his 91st birthday and the success of his latest film "The Holiday" in New York on Dec. 18, 2006.
Credit: AP Photo/Columbia Pictures
Actor Eli Wallach and his wife, Anne Jackson attend "The Holiday" premiere on Nov. 29, 2006, in New York.
Credit: GETTY IMAGES/Evan Agostini
Actress Patricia Neal poses with actor Eli Wallach after Neal received her star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame on May 20, 2005, in Hollywood, Calif.
Credit: Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Actor Eli Wallach holds a copy of his book "The Good, the Bad, and Me" during a book signing held at Dutton's Beverly Hills Books on May 18, 2005, in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Credit: Phil McCarten/Getty Images
Actor Eli Wallach arrives at the opening night of "The Boys from Syracuse" at the American Airlines Theater on Aug. 18, 2002, in New York.
Credit: Lawrence Lucier/Getty Images
Four-time Oscar-winning director Clint Eastwood speaks during the award presentation to Honorary Award recipient Eli Wallach, at the 2010 Governors Awards in the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Hollywood, Calif., Nov. 13, 2010.
Credit: Matt Petit/AMPAS
Honorary Award recipient Eli Wallach at the 2010 Governors Awards in the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 13, 2010.
Credit: Todd Wawrychuk/AMPAS
Four time Oscar-winning director Clint Eastwood, Honorary Award recipient Eli Wallach, and Two time Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro at the 2010 Governors Awards in the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Hollywood, Calif., Nov. 13, 2010.
Wallach died June 24, 2014 at age 98.
Credit: Richard Harbaugh/AMPAS


New details have emerged around Nokia's 3310 remake, alleging that the device – while sporting a modern design – will be a feature phone.
Nokia is reportedly preparing three new phones for debut at MWC, one of which will be a modern remake of the legendary Nokia 3310.
HMD Global has officially confirmed that it will launch a new series of smartphones with Nokia branding aboard in the course of 2017.


text:
HMS Phipps was the Dutch privateer Two Lydias, launched in 1807, that the British Royal Navy captured in 1808 and took into service as HMS Phipps. Phipps captured two privateers, took part in a notable action, and her crew was subjected to mercury poisoning. She was sold for breaking up in 1812.

Career
Commander Christopher Bell commissioned Phipps in Jamaica in January 1808. On 12 April, Phipps captured Heywood. Phipps sent Heywood, M'Intosh, master, which had been sailing to Liverpool from Haiti, into Jamaica. On 15 June Phipps captured Rolla, Thompson, master, which had been sailing from Malta to Haiti, and sent her into Jamaica, where she arrived on 19 June. On 19 June Phipps captured the American vessel Alert, Davidson, master, which had been sailing from Cuba to Alexandria, and sent her too into Jamaica.

Phipps arrived at Portsmouth on 10 October. There she was coppered and fitted.

On 4 February 1809, Phipps returned to Portsmouth after a gale dismasted her while she was escorting a convoy from Cork to the West Indies. Between February and May 1809 Phipps was converted from a schooner to a sloop. Then on 19 May she sailed for Portugal.

On 31 January 1810 Phipps was at Falmouth, having brought mails from Lisbon. On 4 March 1810 she was off Cadiz when a storm damaged a number of Spanish and French vessels. Phipps and the 74-gun third-rate  captured the Spanish vessel Purisima Concepcion, which had been wrecked on the tidal flats of the San Pietro River. She was carrying quicksilver, 130 tons of which the British removed and stored aboard the two vessels. The quicksilver was in kidskin bladders, which started leaking, either because of water damage or attempts by the crew to steal what they thought was silver. As a result, mercury vapor proceeded to disseminate throughout both vessels, causing extensive mercury poisoning among the crew, and killing animals aboard the vessels. Both went to Gibraltar where they underwent cleaning. In the case of the Phipps, the cleaning included boring a hole through the bottom of her hull to let the quicksilver drain out.

Just before midnight on 15 November 1810 Bell chased a French privateer lugger so close inshore off Calais that, after firing some grape-shot into her, he had to let her go. However, having previously noticed two other luggers to windward and decided to try to come up on them unnoticed by beating along the shore. The pilot, Mr Richard Sickett, undertook the task and by about 5 o'clock in the morning Phipps  was close enough to start an action with one of the luggers. For a quarter of an hour the lugger's crew fired small arms at Phipps and tried to run her ashore. Bell decided that as the water was only three and a half fathoms deep, the only way to capture the lugger was by boarding. Lieutenant Robert Tryon led the boarding party. The lugger surrendered after a few minutes fighting during which a seaman was killed and Tryon was dangerously wounded. Tyson died eight weeks later in London of complications from his wounds, which were the result of his being hit by a cannonball accidentally discharged from Phipps.

The French lost six men killed and eleven wounded out of a crew of sixty. The lugger's captain, Francois Brunet, was wounded, as were all but one of her other officers. The lugger was the 16-gun Barbier de Seville. She was a brand new vessel that had left Boulogne two days previously.

At daylight , Commander Francis George Dickins, came up. Zephyr assisted with the removal of the prisoners. Phipps then took Barbier de Seville in tow. Unfortunately, the lugger had taken shots between wind and water. These let in water, causing her to founder; in doing so the lugger took a seaman of the prize crew with her.

Goddard Blennerhassett was appointed to Phipps in December. However, he took command of . In January, Commander Westby Perceval took command of Phipps.

On 2 March 1811, the master of the ship Mercury wrote a letter to the newspaper The Pilot that on 28 February his ship had fought off three French privateers near Dungeness. Bell wrote a letter to the newspaper, and reprinted in the Naval Chronicle, that the supposedly French privateers vessels involved were Phipps and the cutter , and that the master had continued firing even after the British vessels had identified themselves. The fire from Mercury had wounded the sergeant of marines on Phipps. The only shots the naval vessels had fired were two musket shots to get Mercury to stop, and the only reason that the naval vessels had not fired their guns was because of the chance that Mercury was a British ship. Bell admonished all merchant captains to be a little more circumspect in the future.

In the summer of 1811 Commander Thomas Wells was appointed to command Phipps. On 11 March 1812 Phipps captured the French privateer lugger Cerf by boarding. Cerf was armed with five guns and eight swivel guns, and had a crew of 31 men. Cerf resisted before surrendering with the result that she sustained two men seriously wounded, while Phipps had three men wounded.

Some two months later,  and  were blockading the French coast between Cape Gris Nez and Étaples when at 3am or so on the morning of 3 May a thick fog descended. Both grounded. All efforts to free them failed and in the morning shore batteries started firing on them as French troops started to gather. Her crew set fire to Skylark as they left.

The French captured Apelles, and her captain and a small number of her crew who were still aboard. The French succeeded in refloating Apelles, however the next day  and  arrived and were able to drive Apelles on shore again. Then  and Phipps arrived. Gunfire from the British squadron drove the French off, permitting boats from Bermuda to recapture Apelles. The British brought Apelles into the Downs on 5 May, together with the entire crew of Skylark and all but Captain Hoffman of Apelles, and 12 of his crew, or 19.

Fate
Phipps was paid off at Sheerness in December 1812 and later broken up.

Citations

References

Brig-sloops of the Royal Navy
1807 ships
Maritime incidents in 1810
Captured ships
Privateer ships

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Pump It Up lyrics
Make sure to not miss out on any U2 news and updates: follow us on Twitter, Instagram and like us on Facebook.
"I may be married...but it's still okay to flirt a little, isn't it?" - Bono on stage during the Vertigo Tour
Starting from Summer 2007 to Summer 2008, U2 had written and recorded 50-60 songs for a new record with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. 11 of these were released on 2009's No Line On The Horizon.


Instructions that are neither human nor welcoming.
A lot of red text and icons indicate all that is wrong.
No links to help you find where to input your profile info.
Invoicing for past sessions is a very difficult task. To invoice for a session, tutors must toggle between their calendar and their invoice history to figure out which session(s) they have not yet invoiced.
Provide one-click, un-invoiced session summaries via email and on the tutor home screen. Surface the dollar amount of the invoice to inspire action.
Push notifications for un-invoiced sessions with one-tap native app invoicing and voice compatible note taking.
Before: Desktop view of the first step of invoicing. There is no indication that you have un-invoiced sessions and no easy way to find them.
After: Tablet view of un-invoiced session summary. One-click to initiate invoice.
Tutors are neither incentivized nor reminded to update their availability. Locating the place to update their availability is not intuitive nor memorable as it is a task usually done 1-3 times a year.
Surface tutors availability summary on their home screen and in other contextually relevant places such as on opportunity detail screens.
Improve access to updating availability by providing contextual links and by creating a logical place for the interaction to live.
Measure the time since the last time the tutor updated their availability and prompt them to update it at logical intervals (at the start of a new semester or school year).
Explain why updating their availability helps them run their business better.


text:
How Apple TV Might Disrupt Microsoft and Sony
Posted on Thursday, June 12, 2014 Tuesday, March 27, 2018 Author by Ben Thompson
Beyond the fact most of us had nothing better to do in the 1980s, a big reason to own a gaming console was that they were a phenomenally good deal. In 1985 Nintendo introduced the Famicom to North America as the Nintendo Entertainment System for a mere $199, a remarkably low price considering the average PC cost around $2,400.1 While PC prices soon began to fall, the Playstation/Nintendo 64 generation was still nearly $1,500 cheaper than the average PC.
Over the last two generations of consoles, however, prices have actually risen, and today a Playstation 4 or Xbox One is nearly the same price as an average PC.
PC prices have plummeted while console prices have slowly risen
In some respects, this makes no sense: why hasn't Moore's law had the same impact on consoles as it has had on PCs? Moreover, when you consider that consoles now compete with a whole host of new time-wasters like phones, tablets, social networks, dramatically expanded TV offerings, the Internet, etc., it's downright bizarre.
I think the answer lies in a specific part of disruption theory. Specifically, incumbents are driven by their best customers to add more and more features that drive up the price, causing the incumbents' product to move further and further away from the average customer's needs (needs which have actually been decreasing as more entertainment options become available):
High-end and low-end customer needs have diverged, and Microsoft and Sony have chased the high-end
It's hard to imagine an industry where high-end customers are more vocal and demanding than the console business, and there is no better example of this phenomenon than the Xbox One. Just before last year's E3, Microsoft formally introduced the Xbox One with a heavy emphasis on its built-in Kinect and entertainment features. While their presentation featured trailers for a few upcoming games, it was clear that Microsoft was finally making a major play for the living room. And, excuse my French, gamers went apeshit.
Beyond the perceived lack of focus on games, gamers objected to the Xbox One's always-on capabilities (meant to facilitate Kinect voice commands), its DRM, its price ($100 more expensive than the Playstation 4), and, especially, its perceived sacrifices in performance. Sony pounced on gamers' disgust, using their E3 presentation and launch runup to position themselves as the anti-Microsoft pro-gamer alternative, and successfully so. The Playstation 4 beat the Microsoft One out of the gate, and has only increased its lead since then.
Microsoft, meanwhile, has been backtracking furiously, completely remaking their DRM, making the essential Kinect optional, lowering the price, and this week at E3 focusing on "nothing but games". From CNet's coverage of Microsoft's press conference:
"You are shaping the future of Xbox and we are better for it," said Xbox head Phil Spencer, the first Microsoft executive to take the stage before the conference launched into its first demo, a gameplay showing of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. "We are dedicating our entire briefing to games," he added to strong applause.
So began a press conference where barely a sliver of time was dedicated to even acknowledging the existence of the Kinect camera and motion sensor, which was unbundled from the Xbox One last month, or any of Microsoft's original television programming or entertainment features.
Let me be very clear: this is a perfectly rational response by Microsoft, and a strategic disaster, all at the same time. The reason the Xbox existed in the first place was to give Microsoft a toe-hold in the living room. Over time the expectation was that the entertainment aspects of the console would make it appeal to not just gamers, but normal consumers as well. Instead, Microsoft has (understandably) been captured by gamers, and the only purpose their original strategic intent has served has been to make them less competitive with said gamers (the Xbox was more expensive and made different processing choices in order to accommodate the Kinect-centric entertainment focus). Meanwhile, no rational non-gamer will buy an Xbox One for $499 $399 in the face of sub-$100 alternatives like the Apple TV, Kindle Fire TV, or Roku.
Here's the thing though: I'm not sure that Microsoft's strategy was wrong, broadly speaking. As I wrote in Black Box Strategy, the TV is worth fighting for:
As I've written multiple times, the scarcest resource for consumer tech companies, especially ad-supported ones, is user attention. There are only so many minutes in the day, and their consumption is zero-sum: a moment spent doing activity A is not spent doing activity B, and then that moment is gone.
Meanwhile, TV continues to monopolize a significant amount of that user attention. Although digital products have overtaken the amount of time spent on TV, primarily due to the accretive time spent on smartphones, the absolute time spent on TV has remained stubbornly persistent at about four-and-a-half hours per day per U.S. adult (source).
What Microsoft messed up is the exact thing they seem to always mess up: timing.
Back in 2001, when Xbox launched, console hardware was still not "good enough" for most gamers. The Xbox was big and bulky, with remarkably dated graphics that don't even stand up to modern smartphones. It made sense to follow the standard console pattern: produce hardware just at the edge of possible, sell it at a loss, and make up the difference through game licensing and bending the cost curve. However, once Microsoft was committed to that pattern, they were stuck with it. And so, it's 13 years later, and Microsoft (along with Sony and Nintendo) has only launched three consoles.
Compare that to Apple (or Samsung or Nokia), which has launched 8 new iPhones in the last 7 years (plus 7 different iPads in the last 4). True, for most of that time all of those phones and iPads have cost more than a console, and even if Apple has fewer fragmentation issues, there is still tremendous efficiencies to be gained from developers writing for one specific platform.
However, the developer environment has changed as well. In particular, the move to HD graphics increased the cost of development significantly, leading most developers to focus on cross-platform engines that let them easily develop games that ran on Xbox, Playstation and PC. These high costs also began to squeeze out smaller developers and increased the focus on blockbusters – often sequels and formula-type games – that were sure to earn back their investment. Prices of games increased as well – $60 is standard for the current generation – further turning off average consumers.
The net result is that traditional consoles are about as far removed from average consumers as they could be. There is clearly a core gamer market, and Sony and Microsoft are fighting ferociously for it, but no one is growing the pie. I think there is an opening.
Imagine a new TV product, with two models:
$99 with a full set of entertainment options, but no gaming
$179 with a full set of entertainment options, plus gaming
This TV product would be on an annual release cycle; average consumers would only upgrade every few years (the core OS and most games would support 3 generations), while more serious gamers would upgrade every year providing a nice bit of recurring revenue (this would be much more feasible today, as developers have long since developed the expertise to make games available across multiple architectures). Video games would be delivered not as packaged goods, but rather through an app store. Prices would likely be significantly lower than traditional consoles, but the aforementioned serious gamers would support a higher-price tier for AAA titles and ambitious indies. This console would also integrate seamlessly with the devices carried by many of its potential customers: video and photos could easily be transferred wirelessly, and you could even share screens or use the TV for video calling.
Unlike the current console model, these TV boxes would be sold at a profit. I'll stop the charade – I'm clearly talking about Apple – so that I can get specific about costs. According to iSuppli, a 16GB iPad Air has a bill of materials of $269. However, that cost includes the following components that would be unnecessary in an Apple TV:
$90 Display
$43 Touch screen
$ 9 Cameras
$10 User interface and sensors
$ 7 Power management
$19 Battery
$42 Mechanical/Electro-Mechanical
That leaves a mere $49 in costs! I do think a console needs a controller (in fact, that's largely the point),2 so let's add $15, and mechanical/electro-mechanical is obviously not zero (but it's likely less given there is less need for miniaturization); let's put that at $25, plus $10 for a power supply. That comes out to $99; add in another $20 for IP, and you're still talking about a box with a 33% margin. It's a new growth driver for a company that could use one; more importantly, it increases the value of iPhones and iPads.
I've gone back and forth on the Apple TV as a console; there is certainly a strategic incentive to own the TV, and the way to do that is by doing the jobs TV does. Still, though, the timing needs to be right, and now the tech is there, the APIs are there, and more importantly, I believe the market is there:
There is a big market in meeting the needs of lower-end consumers (of which there are many more)
Meanwhile, Sony3 and Microsoft will be stuck with increasingly old consoles that are too expensive and, sooner rather than later, less capable than the continually upgraded Apple TV. At that point they will lose the high end gamers as well, and the textbook disruption will be complete.
Update: I wrote a big follow-up to this article in Friday's Daily Update (members-only), including talk about Nintendo, Playstation TV, the archaic console business model, pricing, and whether or not this will actually happen. Check it out or sign up for a membership.
Update 2: I have changed my mind about the inevitable disruption of consoles. Read Gaming and Good Enough
PC Prices from 1985 to 1995 are from this paper; prices from 1995 to 2005 were found by searching CNet's archives; prices from 2005 to present from information provided to me by Charles Arthur. I'd also like to thank @typistX for helping me search for data [↩]
I've gone back-and-forth as well as to whether an iPhone will be the default controller; I think that hurts the value prop, so I'm leaning towards no [↩]
To be fair, Sony has released the Playstation TV for $99; although it has some flaws, I think it's a very smart move that shows some impressive strategic agility. However, I question how much traction they will get: both their traditional retail channels and Sony itself are incentivized to push the PS4, not the Playstation TV [↩]
Previous post: Podcast: Exponent 006 – Product Versus Profit
Next post: Xiaomi's Oversold Global Ambitions, and the Week in Daily Updates


UCLA has joined an international consortium to investigate the high rates of schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders in those who are affected with Chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, a disorder caused by the deletion of a small piece of chromosome number 22.
A multisystem disorder, Chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome can also include developmental delays and developmental and behavioral differences across the life span.
The International Consortium on Brain and Behavior in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome is a large-scale effort involving 22 institutions in North America, including UCLA, as well as several across Europe, Australia and South America. The collaborative effort has been awarded $12 million over four years from the National Institute of Mental Health.
Occurring in approximately one out of every 4,000 live births, 22q11.2 deletion syndrome has many possible signs and symptoms that can affect almost any part of the body. These can include heart abnormalities that often require surgery in newborns, trouble fighting infection due to a poorly functioning immune system, and significant feeding and swallowing issues.
While a few individuals with the syndrome will not experience any ofthese medical issues, the majority of children have developmental delays. These can include delayed acquisition of motor milestones, learning disabilities and significant delays in the emergence of language. Moreover, a substantial number of children with the disorder have autism or autistic spectrum disorder, attention deficit–hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and/or anxiety disorder.
Later in life, persons with the 22q11.2 deletion are at an increased risk of developing severe psychopathology, particularly schizophrenia, as well as depression and anxiety disorder. Approximately 25 to 30 percent of adolescents and young adults with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome develop psychotic illness. The illness presentation and course are similar to those of idiopathic schizophrenia, which occurs in the general population at a much lower rate (about 1 percent).
"This funding from the NIMH will provide us with the opportunity to advance the understanding of this under-recognized neurogenetic condition," said Carrie Bearden, consortium co-principal investigator, UCLA lead investigator and professor of psychiatry and psychology at UCLA. "Beyond the potential for yielding a better understanding of the genetic causes of the severe manifestations of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, the results will help identify pathways leading to schizophrenia in the general population in a way that will inform novel treatments."
The consortium sites have extensive experience in applying integrative genomic and brain-behavior strategies to study individuals with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome and schizophrenia across the lifespan. Together, the sites have provided data on 1,000 genetically and phenotypically characterized individuals with the syndrome, the largest available sample to date.
The genomic efforts will include whole-genome sequencing in order to uncover genetic variations that may contribute to the heterogeneity of neuropsychiatric and neurobehavioral phenotypes of schizophrenia and psychosis.
"The project is an unprecedented international initiative to examine a common deletion associated with schizophrenia and elucidate its genomic and behavioral substrates," said Bearden, who is also the director of the UCLA Center for the Assessment and Prevention of Prodromal States, which identifies and treats adolescents and young adults at risk for developing psychotic disorders.
"Not only does this successful application demonstrate the genuine commitment on the part of the NIMH to better understand the brain and psychiatric illness, but it highlights the need for such international collaborations," she said.
In this instance, said Bearden, 22 clinical and five basic science collaborating sites, all with extremely dedicated clinicians and researchers who have overcome the challenges of differing cultures, languages, time zones, and health care systems, are working toward the common goal of improving patient care and long-term outcomes.
In addition to UCLA, participating academic sites in the U.S. include the University of Pennsylvania, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, New York's Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Duke University, Emory University, SUNY Syracuse and UC Davis. Other sites are located in Toronto, Canada; Europe (Leuven, Belgium; Marseille, France; Dublin, Ireland; Rome, Italy; Utrecht and Maastricht, the Netherlands; Mallorca and Madrid, Spain; Geneva, Switzerland; Cardiff and London, United Kingdom); Tel Aviv, Israel; Newcastle, Australia; and Santiago, Chile.


This is an archive of past Oblivion talk:Movement Formulas discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page, except for maintenance such as updating links.
4.3 Conclusions, i.e. "What does all this mean to me as a player?!"
The exact effect of the various Perk Variables needs to be determined. Since I wasn't entirely sure, here's a copy of that section with my comments. If anybody figures these out more specifically, please modify the main page accordingly.
A lot of the information on the current page, such as the impact of height, is extremely questionable. sdt 6, tdt, showracemenu, change to/from Breton/Altmer (tallest and shortest races). Be naked and carrying nothing, and if you're not in the sewers still you'll need to use "player.setav speed/athletics x" since the race change will affect those too.
To start with the simplest parts, assuming a completely naked character with no inventory at all.
The "Base Walking Speed" section is (now) correct, except that the name is wrong. Your Walk Speed is affected by SO many other factors that this needs to just be called "Base Speed". A character with 50 Speed has a TRUE Base Speed of 110.00; one with 100 Speed has a Base Speed of 130. Period. Athletics does not in any way affect your Base Speed.
The only time that you see your true Base Speed is when you are wearing NOTHING that has any weight, have no weapon, and have your fists out.
The "Run Modifier" section is correct (and should probably be the second section on the page since interspersing Creature speed comments just makes the article even more opaque than it already is). A character with 50 Speed and 100 Athletics runs at 440.00.
The "Sneak Modifier" section is correct (and nice and simple).
That character has 75 Strength, i.e. 375 "lbs" (for readability's sake) of capacity. Load their inventory up with 374lbs of warhammers etc, and their speed doesn't change AT ALL. Equipment carried but not worn has absolutely NO impact on player speed. Equipping ANYTHING (other than arrows), even a ring weighing 0.1, DOES change their speed (to 99.98 for that ring).
A 1lb robe reduces their speed to 99.83. Ridiculously, this means that a Master of Heavy Armor is actually FASTER than a character in clothing.
2lb = 99.67, 3lb = 99.50, 4lb = 99.33, 5lb = 99.17, 6lb = 99.00. That's clearly a linear progression.
A full set of Orcish Armor weighs 121lbs. Equipped on that player at 50 HeavyArmor, their speed drops to 79.75, i.e. -20.25. That fits exactly with the previous results: every 6lbs worn = 1 unit of speed lost. (At 75 HeavyArmor it's 89.88, i.e. -10.12, also exactly as expected: Weight *= fPerkHeavyArmorExpertSpeedMult. (Technically it should be -10.125, but is being rounded)).
(At 100 Speed, i.e. Base 130, their "dressed" speed is 103.68, i.e. -26.32, which is 130% of -20.25, thus confirming that encumbrance is a factor rather than an absolute unit).
This also makes it obvious why Feather has such a noticeable impact on speed, which on the original formula was just noted as "we don't know how this fits in".
Our 25 Speed char still has a BASE Speed of 100, but now has a "normal" Walk Speed of 110, because fMoveNoWeaponMult = 1.1. In 100lbs of armor, her speed is 88.00, exactly as expected: 100/150(fMoveWeightMax) * 0.3(fMoveEncumEffectNoWea) * 100 * fMoveNoWeaponMult = 22 units of speed lost.
Drawing her fists naked cuts her Walk Speed to 100 because of the loss of the fMoveNoWeaponMult bonus, but her dressed speed is NOT the 80 it "should" be, it's 73.33: 26.66 units of speed lost, which can only be derived from 100/150 * 0.4(fMoveEncumEffect).
(Sneaking, dressed, and fists out, her speed is 44.00: 73.33 * 0.6(SneakModifier), as expected).
Equipping a SHEATHED 48lb Dwarven Battle Axe naked drops her to 99.44, a 10.56 unit loss. Why? Because it still counts as "Worn Equipment", so 48/150 * 0.3(fMoveEncumEffectNoWea) * 100 * fMoveNoWeaponMult = 10.56. Those very badly named variables that have "No Weapon" in them are still used in this case.
DRAWING that Axe gets you a speed of 87.20: 12.8 units lost, which is 48/150 * 0.4 * 100.
This finally clears up the exact meaning of those three variables, and explains why the original formula was consistently wrong: because it isn't "really" a single formula, it's two separate ones.
(At 100 Speed, i.e. Base 130, naked and unarmed is 143, and armed but unready is 129.27: 13.73 units lost, again 130% of the 25 Speed case, which helps us order the terms: Base is the outermost factor, so we can have a completely commutative equation if we express Encumbrance correctly).
Is it possible that flying refers to either jumping or being knocked back by skilled blade/block/blunnt opponents?
Base Encumbrance is the total weight of ALL your equipped items apart from arrows, including weapons and even jewelry, and including any ARMOR weight reductions from perks, divided by fMoveWeightMax. (I don't have a full set of Daedric Armor, which is the only way to exceed fMoveWeightMax, so I don't know whether that's treated as 150lbs or 161lbs). We'll just call this the "EqFactor".
Your "Active Speed" is BaseSpeed * SneakModifier * RunModifier.
In other words, you take MULTIPLE penalties in combat. Not only do you lose the non-combat BONUS, but all your equipment "magically" becomes "heavier" too. If you are a Master of Heavy Armor your armor is excluded, but your weapon still becomes an additional 1/3 heavier, which explains the feeling of suddenly wading into molasses when you equip and draw a Daedric Warhammer: at 93lbs, * 0.4 / 0.3, it's equivalent to running in a full suit of Orcish Armor with no Heavy Armor skill at all.
If these formulae are correct, we should be able to confirm them against SDT 6.
Using "new" stats and equipment just to be sure, we have a character with 75 Speed, 50 HeavyArmor, a full set of Steel Armor weighing 94lbs, and an Iron Longsword weighing 20lbs.
Thus, our "idle" speed should be 120 * (1 - (0.76 * 0.3)) * 1.1 = 101.90, and on the HUD it's ... 101.77, which I'm going to blame on rounding errors and the fact that the game doesn't show exact weights.
Checking a different character, an 80 Speed, Heavy Armor Master, her EqWeight is 0.7lbs of jewelry, plus Umbra, for a total of 45.7lbs.
So "idle" speed should be 122 * (1 - (0.30 * 0.3)) * 1.1 = 122 * 0.91 * 1.1 = 122.12, and the HUD shows 121.93.
"combat" speed should be 122 * (1 - (0.30 * 0.4)) = 107.36, and the HUD shows 107.13.
Similarly, your second example works out to exactly the HUD numbers if you don't round off the EqFactor before you do the rest of the math.
Conclusions, i.e. "What does all this mean to me as a player?!"
Well, it's interesting. The end result of it all is: Speed is (directly, at least) a lot less important than you might hope. If you're riding your horse everywhere and using Light Armor / Acrobatics to boost your Speed at levelup, or equipping Fortify Speed items, you'll see very little increase in your running speed unless it's extremely low. At 25 Athletics, a 10-point increase in Speed is worth 13 points of "real" base speed, but if that increase is from 45 to 55, you're going from 351 to 364, which is a gain of only 3.7%. Increasing your Athletics by 10 points over that same time WITHOUT boosting Speed nets you 3.1% - only slightly less, and "freeing" up a stat increase for something "important", like Endurance. It's only if you increase BOTH by 10 that you see a "noticeable" jump: from 351 to 375.2, making you 6.9% faster.
But for most players, the overwhelming factor in how fast you move is ... your Armor skill. Even just in Steel, which is "light" by HeavyArmor standards, even if you have 100 Speed and 100 Athletics, you'll only be moving at 401 if your ARMOR skill is under 75. A HeavyArmor Master, or LightArmor Expert, will outpace you at around 55/55. To take an extreme case, if you somehow haven't mastered HeavyArmor by the time you're wearing Daedric and carrying Umbra (for example, if you wore Light Armor for the first half of the game TO increase your Speed as quickly as possible) your "real" speed will be a staggeringly-low *305* - even slower than the slowest you can possibly be in your jail cell at the very start of the game!
(3 Greater Soul Gems will feather 123lbs, but Grands are actually easier to find at early levels, and trivial to fill if necessary (as Blacks)). Subjacent Sigil Stones are also 50lbs each, and available from level 5.
Any "spare" Feather can be used to remove some or all of your WEAPON weight, which is the part you can't otherwise get rid of even with Heavy Mastery.
Do we know that that the number shown in the TDT display represents the player's ACTUAL physical speed? As in, have you tested with a stopwatch and a predictable run from point A to point B (say, the length of the Imperial Bridge) with both a tall and a short character to be sure that there isn't any difference? If all you're going by is displayed numbers, you may be missing something. The animation data is the same regardless of character race, but the model is scaled down for shorter characters and up for taller ones. A small model and a large model performing the same animation relative to their scale will move at different speeds.
Okay, I've undone the "fix" on the Races page but I no longer have any idea where to put the Height modifier in here now. Put simply, Height and Scale DO affect speed. It's easy to test scale - load up your favourite character, run for a bit then bring up the console and type player.setscale 10. You will notice a huge difference. Height is trickier to test. I timed a run by a bosmer and an altmer with identical stats and the altmer was somewhat quicker. I haven't confirmed that the relationship is exactly what Deathbane27 added but what I've found certainly doesn't rule it out.
Create a new High Elf/Wood Elf.
tcl out of the dead zone you land in and place yourself at the first stone of the bridge.
Confirm heading (top right) is 270, or close enough to make no significant difference.
Use internal timer still being conveniently displayed to time walk across bridge to final stone.
Results - Wood Elf: ~25.5 sec, High Elf: ~21 sec.
This page was last modified on 16 September 2012, at 19:55.


Lhind the Thief – Kindle edition by Sherwood Smith. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks. Lhind has been on the run all her life. Stealing what she needs, using magic for disguise, she never stays anywhere long. Lhind even has secrets from herself. Book Jacket: Lhind has been on the run all her life. Stealing what she needs, using magic for disguise, she never stays anywhere long. Lhind.
Lhind even has secrets from herself, for she has few memories, and those are troubling. I can recommend to teens and up. The Thiff of Black Wings.
The others were not explored much and I would have been interested with Rajanas. In this book we learn who Lhind is and we see her react to kindness and trust – some of her about-turns I found a bit difficult to believe from her age and the way the past had treated her she would really be so easy to manipulate by the bone whistle when she had luind at trusting the necklace and Hlanan, within reasonable suspicion I thought? Dragged a little bit towards the end, but otherwise solid fantasy.
Alexa Actionable Analytics for the Web. I am a writer, but I'm here on Goodreads to talk about books, as I've been a passionate reader as long as I've been a writer–since early childhood.
Especially the case since it's unclear how old Lhind actually is; people initially perceive her as a young boy, thanks hhief her disguise, but she is actually it seems late teens or early twenties.
But she's way too naive for the part.
She's quick-witted and an excellent improviser. Everyone who's ever read any of Sherwood's books will know absolutely that they don't have to worry her young female protag will be a helpless type, but she's also very much her own character, rather than your generic 'kickass heroine'.
So in addition to the adventures, there's also a quieter story unfolding, about the consequences of deception and what trust means. If you want to lose yourself in magic, intrigue, danger, and a touch of romance, Lhind the Thief is just the ticket. We learn that magic is illegal where she is; hence her various disguises. I'd like to give this a 2 star, but tje by the GR ratings, I can't say I really liked this book.
I enjoy many of Sherwood Smith's other books but I just never felt in the mood to pick it up. Close Report a review At Kobo, we try to ensure that published reviews do not contain rude or profane language, spoilers, or any of our reviewer's personal information.
Lhind – who is far more complex than your standard girl-disguised-as-boy – rarely does anything but hit the ground running, and thinks hard while she does. I enjoyed the more adult action, the trade mark name calling, and the vibrant world. Lhind herself is resourceful, a capable thief who also has some magic and obtains more in the course of the story.
As an adult I think its sweet and this world could use more of that and less of the stress we create for ourselves trying to duplicate the hyper sexual "romances" in books and on t. I am a bit disappointed because I have enjoyed other books by this author in the past, and the plot seemed right up my alley!
Oct 16, Barbara Douglas rated it really liked it Shelves: However, when the boxed set organiser and I were discussing who to invite, I read the preview and liked it, which is partly why lhnd in there in the first place. AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally. They still had problems, and I still worried about them, but they were usually well-off. Thianra was just a mere bard and a great supporter of Lhind. This book had been on my to-read list for a long time.
You can read this item using any of the following Kobo apps and devices: The author relates it to A Posse of Princesses.
Overall, it wasn't bad but it wasn't one of the best of Smith's works either. View all 3 comments. I also had an enormously difficult time picturing Lhind. I know there are a lot of little details like the one mentioned above that I know I'm missing out on all over the place but when I do catch one I find myself even more in awe of the magic of her tale-spinning and all the amazing detail that goes into the writing of these stories.
But this is the first and maybe only book in the series, so I'm not exactly sure how I was supposed to have known all this information about them already.
And thank goodness that it was not full of all the angsty-instalove, grimdark, political, dystopian yhe that are so prevalent in YA novels nowadays. So, I didn't feel invested in the saving of Rajanas's kingdom and Lhind's epic journey to do so. Hallie on Goodreads lhijd And here there are none. So there are characters I came to care about deeply doing things that are both important and interesting. A Torch Against the Night.


text:
arrow-left An arrow pointing left. Lincoln MKS
2013 Lincoln MKS
204.100" length, 61.600" height
View all 2013 Lincoln MKS specs .
Front-seat comfort
Roomy backseat
Slow-to-react controls
EcoBoost
Our 2013 Lincoln MKS trim comparison will help you decide.
Updated styling, redesigned dashboard
Upgraded base V-6
Available twin-turbo EcoBoost V-6
Available all-wheel drive
Full-size dimensions
2013 Lincoln MKS review: Our expert's take
By Sara Lacey
The redesigned 2013 Lincoln MKS is large and luxurious, and though it looks more like an executive's car than a mom mobile, I'd happily drive it through the carpool lane anytime.
The 2013 MKS' redesign isn't just cosmetic. The base V-6 engine has more horsepower, and my top-of-the-line test car had a twin-turbo 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 with standard all-wheel drive. It was a fun to drive, though when I stomped on the accelerator, the engine lagged some. The MKS was very much at home on the highway, and I really just wanted to take it on a road trip. While this full-size sedan was big, it didn't drive that way. I felt confident and comfortable changing lanes, braking and parking.
But the catch is the cost. The 2013 MKS has a starting price of $43,765, including an $895 destination charge, and my top-line test car started at $50,755. After all the niceties were added, my test car cost $58,265.
The updated 2013 MKS looks fresh and upscale. It has a grille with vertical slats that remind me of a whale's baleen feeding system and works proportionally with the rest of the car, but it might be polarizing for some shoppers. The rear end is sophisticated looking.
The MKS feels like a chauffeur's vehicle, and you may have to act like one because the doors may be a bit much for smaller kids to handle, particularly when closing them from the inside.
But how does it function in the carpool drop-off lane at my kids' school? The step-in height is just fine for school-age kids, who can also open and close the doors by themselves.
I test-drove the MKS while on vacation at Disney World in Florida, and one of the first things my husband and I wondered when we saw it was, "Holy cow, will all of our luggage fit in the trunk?" We further questioned the MKS' trunk because of its tapered opening and odd shape. However, the MKS stunned us because its 18.7-cubic-foot trunk fit out four large suitcases and duffels as well as four carry-ons. Its storage capacity was a delightful surprise.
The MKS had ample power. A 304-horsepower, 3.7-liter V-6 engine is standard and can be paired with front- or all-wheel drive. It gets an EPA-estimated 19/28 mpg city/highway with front-wheel drive and 18/26 mpg with all-wheel drive. My test car had the optional 365-hp, twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 engine and standard all-wheel drive. It gets 17/25 mpg and uses premium gas.
SENSE AND STYLE
Family Friendly (Not Really, Fair, Great, Excellent): Great
Fun-Factor (None, Some, Good Times, Groove-On): Some-Good Times
The first thing my son said when getting into the MKS was, "Whoa! Why is it so wide?" At 55.3 inches of rear hiproom in the backseat, the MKS' bench seat is on par with those in three-row SUVs. The 2013 Ford Explorer has 56.7 inches of rear hiproom, and the 2013 Honda Pilot has 56.9 inches. My kids loved the major expanse of space between them. In the front row, there was so much room my husband and I could sprawl out as much as we wished.
As the driver, I was thrilled with all the MKS' amenities. The standard heated and ventilated leather seats were comfortable and moderately bolstered. The optional heated steering wheel got some use even though I was in Florida; it's cool there in January. I liked the front row's split armrest. There are two cupholders in the front seats and cubbies in the doors. The glove box is monopolized by the owner's manual.
Almost all the buttons on the center stack are touch-activated. Controls that weren't on the center stack could be accessed on the MyLincoln Touch multimedia system. I've used this system many times in Fords and have gotten used to it, but it is by no means a cinch to use. In fact, we used our smartphone's map app instead of using the MKS' navigation system because it was easier. The steering wheel has a ton of controls, which looks overwhelming, but they're easy to use after a while. An LCD screen sits in the instrument cluster, but it's easy to experience information overload from it and get distracted while driving. I do like that I could customize the information displayed there.
My kids, aka the backseat passengers, liked the optional power rear sunshade for the optional moonroof and the heated seats. There were two cupholders and a cubby in the fold-down armrest.
IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS THAT COUNT
Storage Compartments (Puny, Fair, Ample, Galore): Ample
Cargo/Trunk Space (Puny, Fair, Ample, Galore): Ample
The 2013 Lincoln MKS works well with child-safety seats. There are two sets of lower Latch anchors in the outboard seats that are clearly marked and easy to use. The bench seat isn't too bolstered for any kind of car seat. The seat belt buckles are somewhat floppy, which might be tricky for little hands just getting used to buckling up independently.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has named the 2013 MKS a Top Safety Pick, its second-highest award. The MKS also earned a top overall safety score of five stars from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The MKS has standard four-wheel-disc antilock brakes with brake assist, adaptive headlights, an electronic stability system with traction control, front and rear parking sensors and six airbags, including side curtains for both rows.
Adaptive cruise control, a backup camera, lane departure and blind spot warning systems, and drowsy driver detection are optional. Park Assist, which is also optional, helps the driver find a parallel-parking spot where the MKS can fit and helps park the car.
Get more safety information about the 2013 Lincoln MKS.
Make sure it has a new water pump before buying
By Ed from Columbus Ohio
Just hope it doesn't need a water pump because it's gonna cost you around $3500 to $4000. Everything else is great about the car though I wish it didn't have an internal water pump.
Purchased a Used car
Used for Commuting
Most comfortable and luxurious ride
By Hot Rod Lincoln from Syracuse, NY
I was skeptical about having a car with so many features, my dad always said that is more than can go wrong, but nothing ever did. She was a perfect ride, the performance was incredible, plus comfort.
Great stylish car
By Melissa Ann from Lockport,NY
Affordability and luxury wrapped in one! Luxury style features on the inside While stylish, sleek and fast on the outside! I would definitely recommend this car to someone else!
See all 56 consumer reviews
Cadillac Escalade EXT
All model years for the Lincoln MKS


text:
package file

import (
	"testing"

	"github.com/pierrre/imageserver"
	imageserver_source "github.com/pierrre/imageserver/source"
	"github.com/pierrre/imageserver/testdata"
)

func BenchmarkServerGet(b *testing.B) {
	srv := &Server{
		Root: testdata.Dir,
	}
	for _, tc := range []struct {
		name     string
		filename string
	}{
		{"Small", testdata.SmallFileName},
		{"Medium", testdata.MediumFileName},
		{"Large", testdata.LargeFileName},
		{"Huge", testdata.HugeFileName},
	} {
		b.Run(tc.name, func(b *testing.B) {
			params := imageserver.Params{
				imageserver_source.Param: tc.filename,
			}
			var bs int
			b.ResetTimer()
			for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
				im, err := srv.Get(params)
				if err != nil {
					b.Fatal(err)
				}
				bs = len(im.Data)
			}
			b.SetBytes(int64(bs))
		})
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Milos is Consecrated a "Sacred Island" for its Ancient Christian Catacomb
The catacombs of the island are the oldest Christian monuments of Christendom.
Naftemporiki.gr
Famed for its indented coastline, Milos has been declared a "sacred island" as it hosts the unique monument of early Christian catacombs.
"This is an important moment not just for Milos and the Cyclades, but also throughout Greece, as the Catacombs of Milos, this priceless early Christian monument, establishes the island as a world Pilgrimage Centre and enhances the image of our country as an international spiritual brightspot", said Labour Minister Yiannis Vroutsis among other things, who attended the solemn events held yesterday and today at Milos, together with the presence of the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Ieronymos for the official proclamation of Milos as a "Sacred Island".
Ancient Christian Catacombs
The catacombs were dug into the volcanic soil and are one of the island's attractions. It was the large Community Cemetery of the early Christians of Milos. It was discovered by looters and became known after the looting in the 1840's. There are three, along with five routes and a burial chamber, forming a labyrinth which is currently 185 meters long. They all had entrances from the outside, but today only one is in operation, that of the second chamber, known as the "Prevyteron", from where it can be visited by the public.
Inside, right and left on the walls, there are the "arcosolia" (dug arches), where in them, and on the floor, the graves can be opened. 126 arcosolia have survived (Petrocheilou, 1972) and they are estimated to have buried a few thousand dead. In each grave was a lamp, but today electric bulbs illuminate the space and create the distinctive atmosphere of those times.
On the graves of persons of distinction, Christian symbols are inscribed or there are inscriptions. These were viewed and studied by Ross (1843) and Soteriou (1927), but over the years most were destroyed.
Such inscriptions can be seen today in the second catacomb in the 6th arcosolium to the right. The inscription says 'Presvyteron', hence its name. In the same catacomb, in the middle, there is a grave dug in the rock in the form of a sarcophagus. It is believed that here was buried one of the first Christian martyrs and even that early Christians used it as a Holy Altar in their Liturgies, as evidenced by the piece of rock, which has been left in place in the middle of the portico B. Since the bases found in all four corners during the investigation of 1928, we assume that over the Altar there was originally a "ciborium".
The Oldest Monument of Christianity
In 2009 the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece proclaimed Milos a sacred island, since the catacombs are the oldest monument of Christianity. It was the first meeting place of the first Christians and their first community cemetery at the end of the second century. The Catacombs of Milos are unique in size in the entire country of Greece and one of the most famous and notable Christian monuments in the world, together with the catacombs of Rome and the Holy Land.
Read also: Milos To Be Consecrated A "Sacred Island"
Posted by John Sanidopoulos at 11:04:00 AM
Labels: Apostles and Early Church, Orthodoxy in the Cyclades


PPC, Display & Social Media Advertising - LEXIM "Excellence in Web Technology"
We start with Google Adwords PPC Campaigns. We research Keywords then initiate Ads written by professional copywriters. We monitor KPIs, focusing on Conversions and Click Through Rate (CTR). From this we can see which Ads & Keywords are getting traction, then use that to inform advertising on other platforms.
Next, is Facebook marketing. We craft compelling and fun ads that create a tribe around your brand. Facebook Ads can be highly targeted.
Then, Remarketing is a tactic we use that gets your ads seen over and over again if someone visits your website. This creates the impression that you are "everywhere".
An important part of any marketing plan is also email marketing, which we can help you with too.
Finally, Youtube Ads are a cost effective—and underutilized—way to get your brand or business seen by people searching for videos that match the subject your industry covers.
Google Adwords used to be king. Now Facebook has caught up. Facebook is a place to create a tribe of fans for your brand. The audience targeting is amazing, allowing you to target demographics, interests, and more. And the costs are low relative to other channels.
Did you know YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world? Youtube Ads can be very cost effective. We know the proper formula to get you conversions fast.


Your contact form has been submitted! One of our Happiness Heroes will be in contact with you shortly!
In the meantime, you should check out our social media! We're on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Instagram! Give us a follow and interact with our content! We love new friends!
If being social isn't really your thing, check out Positively Printing, our company blog, to learn more about what we do!


text:
Philip Patston
Philip develops leadership capacity in the areas of diversity, complexity, uncertainty and change. Through his work, he and his team work with individuals, teams, organisations, schools, communities and Government.
His international success as a stand up comedian ensures his message is delivered in a professional, witty and entertaining manner. Throughout his life, Philip has embodied entrepreneurial qualities, motivation and diversity.
Philip has achieved highly as a disabled person and has proven his ability to work proficiently in many professional roles. He does not attribute his success to being courageous or special, but rather to capitalising on diversity and understanding and focusing his motivation.
In 2001 Philip was the first disabled comedian to win the Billy T James Comedy Award and also appeared on Shortland Street as a disabled businessman. In 1998 he set up consultancy and entertainment business Diversity New Zealand Ltd and attended a two week Mobility International Parent/Teen Leadership Programme in Oregon USA. Philip also toured USA for two months in 1992 on a Winston Churchill Fellowship researching technology for people with speech impairment.
In May 2003 Philip received a Social Entrepreneur Grant from the Community Employment Group of the Dept of Labour in order to travel to the UK to build capacity to initiate an international disability arts festival in Auckland. In 2002 Philip became a founding trustee for Ripple Trust and Star Jam Trust and in 2001 was the founder of the International Guild of Disabled Artists and Performers. He also initiated a pilot mentoring programme for young people with disability in Auckland.
He has broad professional experience including counselling, social work, creative and social entrepreneurship, and leadership as well as his thirteen-year career as a professional, award-winning comedian (1997-2010).
Philip was named one of the Top 10 diversity consultants in the inaugural Global Diversity List, the first ever assessment of the world's leading authorities on diversity, announced on Saturday 31 October 2015. He was again put on the list in 2016.
He and his team draw on a diverse range of skills when working with clients, including:
facilitation and facilitated conversations
thought lead ership and leadership development
strategic and policy advice
mentoring and coaching
project and process management
online systems and web design
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:
2016: Recognised as one of the Top 10 diversity consultants in the inaugural Global Diversity List, the second assessment of the world's leading authorities on diversity.
2015: Recognised as one of the Top 10 diversity consultants in the inaugural Global Diversity List, the first ever assessment of the world's leading authorities on diversity.
2014: Inaugural Arts Access Accolade, which recognises the life-time achievements of an individual who has played a significant role in working with Arts Access Aotearoa to achieve its vision of a society where all people in New Zealand can participate in the arts.
2014-2016: Independent board member NZ Home and Community Health Assn.
2012: Leadership New Zealand Fellow.
2012: Music video: As Love Draws Near.
2012: TEDxAuckland speaker: The Label Libel.
2007: ArtVenture creative entrepreneur Fellow.
2007-2010: New Zealand Social Entrepreneur Fellow.
2005: Founded Diversityworks Trust as a vehicle to creatively promote diversity.
2001: Established Diversity New Zealand Ltd.
1999: Billy T James awardee for commitment and contribution to NZ's comedy industry.
1997-2003: Regular appearances on Pulp Comedy and had a brief but acclaimed role in Shortland Street.
1994-1998: NZ Human Rights Commission: investigation, education and publications.
Chapters in "How Communities Heal" and "Why are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots" and "Love Letters to the Landscape".
• Motivation
• Productivity
• Success and Diversity


If you seek, you shall find. Today's customers are doing the seeking, looking for products and services to solve their problems. All you have to do is be found.
We use the latest digital marketing tools to put you exactly where potential buyers can find you.
To be found, you must be seen. Whether you're into brick and mortar, e-commerce or both, you need a strong online presence to stand out above the frenzied crowd.
Our Web Design, Content Marketing and Search Marketing skills put you on the map in the right place, at the right time in front of the right people. Expect visitors.
Don't just talk—be heard. With so many voices out there demanding the attention of your buyers and prospects, your voice needs to reach the right ears.
Remarkable Content is at the core of every successful Inbound Marketing campaign. Our Content Marketing, Blogging and Social Media services will give you the voice you need to be heard.
Who are you? What do you want to be known for? Your brand is a pledge to those you serve, a promise to consistently meet their expectations. It's who you are, what you do, why you do it and for whom you do it.
Our Branding and Corporate Identity know-how will help you develop your image and keep your promises.
When you keep promises, you earn trust. Keep earning it, and you will be successful.
We pride ourselves in offering a one-stop-shop for success.
It's about building solid relationships, producing meaningful outcomes and impacting your bottom line.


text:
Unconventional art: in search of more 'showplaces' across the South
By Robert M. Press Staff correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
You step through a black-curtained doorway into what Atlanta artist Chriss Mills calls ''my little world'': a large room whose floor is covered with 11 tons of sand. In the middle of the room is a tilting, model lighthouse you can climb up into. Its revolving beacon splashes a slow, nonstop spray of red-and-blue light across three lifeguard-like stands and other objects in the room.
Mr. Mills calls his exhibit an example of the ''middle ground between architecture and sculpture,'' and says he can find only a few places in this city where he can show such works.
It's not just that few art galleries want 11 tons of sand on their floor, he says. Most galleries exhibit what makes money, and art such as his is not seen as a moneymaker, he explains.
So, in a region that a variety of Southern artists say is less accustomed than some to various unconventional forms of art, including ''performance art,'' the trend is toward greater use of unconventional places to show off such works.
Former school buildings, abandoned warehouses, and long-closed theaters are being used as galleries and places of performance. And artists are stepping up their efforts to contact other artists in the region, exchanging information on where their works can be shown.
Their works vary. ''Performance art'' productions, for example, may include use of tape recordings, live music, various props, and narration to create an atmosphere.
But the search for places to show off such works, their reconversion into usable spaces, and the business of promoting their exhibits and performances is hard work - so hard that some of the artists involved are finding themselves feeling ''burned out,'' with little time for creating new art.
''Artists are out on the edges,'' says Janet Higgins, an artist in Murfreesboro, Tenn. ''When you walk on the edges, you have to convince people, to pull them in,'' she says.
''You're always talking,'' she says. In the process, some of the artist's creative ''spark goes away,'' she adds.
She recalls the 1977 indoor-outdoor show she put on at Middle Tennessee State University and how she was unsuccessful last fall in getting permission there to put on a similar one. The audience was led along some of the university's outdoor walkways and through various rooms decorated in a variety of ways to enhance her themes of probing human emotions.
Dancer Marcia Plevin found a way around resistance to her kind of artistic performances by renting an abandoned warehouse in downtown Winston-Salem, N.C. For $150 a month she has 7,000 square feet for her dance company and the ''freedom and flexibility'' she couldn't find or afford in other locations.
She does performance art, she explains, admitting her difficulty in defining the term. It is, she says, ''an intense personal statement.'' A performance may use a musician, a painter, and a filmmaker. One of her productions was a 20 -minute satire on eating habits, using a table setting as a ''visual sculpture.''
She does this out of ''love,'' she explains.''I'm not making money. I'm constantly fund-raising'' to put on the next production. To survive financially she is also a part-time music teacher.
But while some artists say they are wearing themselves out in the search for places and funds, Adrienne Anderson, a tenured faculty member of the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham, says she plans to quit that job for full-time attention to her art, in which she uses paper she makes herself.
She was among more than 40 Southern artists who gathered here recently to exchange ideas at a conference sponsored by the Atlanta-based Art Papers, a publication that seeks to promote the not-so-well-known artists in the Southeast as well as nationally and internationally recognized artists.
A co-host of the conclave was Nexus Inc., which provides working space for a number of artists in a former school building - and exhibited the sand and lighthouse work of Chriss Mills.
Over train's rumble, an opera
Spotlight is on women artists for 'Her Paris'
In Atlanta, a Civil War painting stops stretching the truth


In 2018 RLA launched its new 'Influencers in Hospitality' series to gain understanding of renowned hospitality personalities' vision of the future of our industry, their success traits, and to learn more about these remarkable people through RLA's short Q&A.
In case you missed our earlier influencers, you can still download them here Omer Kaddouri, Marco P. Nijhof, Dr. Maria Ridao Alonso, David Harper and Cornelia Kausch in our 2018 album.
We will be continuing this successful series in 2019 and will introduce further inspiring hospitality personalities, so stay tuned!
Our Wellbeing Hospitality® perspective allows us to create strategies that generate measurable, robust business results for our clients' property as a whole. The whole business, all stakeholders, the entire lifecycle of the asset. RLA's approach makes us the Go-to global resource for owners, investors, operators and GM's.
If you invest in, own, operate or manage a leisure, recreation, health tourism related assets, or those specific to resorts, destinations, active living communities, and mixed-use developments - we can help your asset be incrementally more profitable throughout its lifecycle.
As an integrated, full-service resource, we bring relevant in-depth experience, professional integrity and robust research to all of our projects in ways that address every aspect of hospitality and wellbeing to serve the best interests of our clients, the project's stakeholders and their guests.
We are up to date with the new trends and techniques. Check out our latest news.


Ferran Adria has another new job. Sports nutritionist for FC Barcelona's youth team. (The other one is at Pepsi).
The Spanish club recruited famed chef Ferran Adria on Thursday to revamp its youth academy menu. The European champions say the former El Bulli chef will redesign the club's La Masia meals to 'foster healthy eating and exercise' by providing the Catalan club's future stars with the best possible diet.


text:
Green Jade Slots: Best RTP Games, RTP Info, Slots List (2023)
License(s) Malta
Green Jade is a casino slot studio that offers high quality slots to players. They have an impressive portfolio of games and offer the most popular titles on the market. If you enjoy playing video poker, they also offer this type of game! Green Jade has been in operation since 2017 and has grown by leaps and bounds ever since. It specializes in digital gaming and takes pride in offering new content that players will love.
Green Jade Slots RTP
The average RTP of the Green Jade Games catalog is 95%. These figures do not make the studio stand out from the crowd of similar companies. Moreover, this percentage is not good enough for a company that aspires to do so. But it should be noted that this company is a young representative of the industry. They have come to present their vision for gambling. Yes, perhaps the downside to their products so far is that the RTP is not high enough. Time goes on, the provider continues to evolve and it is possible that as early as 2022, the upcoming releases will please us with a higher RTP than it was before.
Instead, the company focuses on bonus features and the use of unique mechanics. For example, this developer is the creator of the unusual Knock Out mechanic. The specifics are that players can remove certain symbols and win chests. In this way, they get the opportunity to receive additional Free Spins as well as additional cash payouts. Simply put, thanks to this patented mechanic, you can swap losing symbols for winning ones.
Best 7 Green Jade Slots
What are the best slots? How do you define them? After all, each player has his own criteria for putting slots in his personal ranking. In this regard, I place slots with the highest RTP in the rank of the best slot machines. Together with the maximum winnings included in their algorithms, these games can bring users big winnings.
Green Jade Games best slots are:
The Christmas Slot. Has an RTP of 97.01% and a maximum multiplier of x500
Dragon Lord. Has an RTP of 96.5% and a maximum multiplier of x100
Cheeky Cheshire. Has an RTP of 96.27% and a maximum multiplier of x500
Toin of Gold. Has an RTP of 96.2% and a maximum multiplier of x700
Dragon Fruit. Has an RTP of 96.2% and a maximum multiplier of x5,000
Book of Babylon. Has an RTP of 96.19% and a maximum multiplier of x5,000
Casino Blocks. Has an RTP of 96.15% and a maximum multiplier of x2,500.
Green Jade Slots Features
In order to ensure that users enjoy the gameplay, the provider has incorporated many interesting options into the mechanics of the slots. Some models also feature unique bonus features patented by the company. These allow players to come out a winner more often. There is such a variety of them that it is impossible to reproach the studio's experts for not doing anything. Some of the more common features include:
Free Spins, Additional Free Spins (Viking Smash)
Wild, Respin Wild, Moving Wild, Sticky Wild, Random/ Additional Wild (Cheeky Cheshire)
Scatter (Frankie Holiday)
Bonus Wheel (Son of Midas)
Buy feature (Fruit Punch K.O.)
Multiplier, Random Multiplier (Son of Midas)
Bonus game (Ra Ko)
Expanding symbol (Book of Babylon)
Giant Mystery Symbol (Dragon Fruit)
Knock out (Alien KO)
Skill Balance Pot (Candy Prize)
Bonus bet (Side Bet 11K)
Gamble (Stamp Wild).
Green Jade Slots
Green Jade Games is a small, growing company based in Malta. To promote the industry and open up new geographical markets, the studio is a regular exhibitor at international trade shows. So far, the studio's games are available at a limited number of online casinos. This prevents the studio from gaining widespread recognition.
There are no progressive jackpot slots in the studio's portfolio. Instead, the provider experiments with mechanics. This makes its games unique and competitive. Users can choose models produced according to the 53, 33, 64, 77, 8*8 scheme.
The paylines, together with the bet size, are important technical parameters for a slot machine. They give players an idea of how much total money can be wagered in a particular model. The provider's library includes slots with 10-50 paylines, as well as games with 243 options to win. In the latter, the bet is placed per spin. Betting amounts can be varied from 0.2 EUR to 550 EUR.
Use the "+" and "-" buttons to form a bet. You don't have to set anything else up. For added comfort, the provider has added Autoplay and Quick Game Mode to the interface.
Green Jade Slots List
Green Jade Games is a young developer. More than 30 specialists, ranging from managers to engineers, work on the creation of game content on a daily basis. The studio's first video slot was released the year they began operations. It happened in 2018.
Over the next 3 years, this developer has released more than 20 more titles, 8-9 units each year. This number of games in the portfolio, as well as the speed chosen by the studio, is another drawback. The fact is that there is more than one example of young game studios in the industry that release more than 15 titles a year. This fact gives players more variety than Green Jade.
Fairness of Green Jade Slots
The fairness of the RNG is a very important indicator for players. No one will play slots that do not meet regulatory requirements. On the other hand, the licensed operators will also refuse to cooperate with such providers. Simply put, the lack of any proof of the quality of the gaming software greatly affects the popularity of the provider.
To avoid such a situation, this developer has licensed its operations in Malta. This is one of the strictest jurisdictions in relation to gambling and, accordingly, one of the most reputable. Regulatory authorities of that country take very seriously the work on controlling the quality, safety and fairness of games for online casinos. This gives the studio the right to claim that their games are fully ready to be sold in the best clubs.
Mobile Green Jade Slots
This studio is of the opinion that their games are worthy of being always at the players' fingertips. And in order to realise this, they've used the HTML5 coding language. As a result, all Green Jade slots can be easily integrated into any platform. This allows casino customers to play directly from their mobile devices and tablets when choosing this studio's slots.
GJ's mobile slots are all about convenience coupled with accessibility. You can open the studio's games directly in your device's browser, no third-party software is required to keep you playing. And mobile slots can even be played on outdated OS versions.
Green Jade Slots Sound and Graphics
The graphics in the company's games are quite good. Each game invites users to dive into a new story. This is done by using themed images and complemented by quality music. Despite the fact that not every slot has "live" 3D technology, the bonus rounds are able to please with their effects. In those games where, on the contrary, this technology is used, they are as good as games from leading software vendors.


text:
What is the Difference Between Drop Forged Steel and Cast Steel?
Although drop forged steel and cast steel are both a kind of steel, their differences are still very big, and they cannot be replaced in many parts processing. Today we will learn about the difference between drop forged steel and cast steel and what is the cutting process of forged steel parts. Let's take a look together.
1. What is the difference between drop forged steel and cast steel?
1) Forging process
Drop forged steel refers to various forging materials and forgings produced by forging methods; cast steel is the steel used for casting castings.
2) Purpose
Drop forged steel is often used in the manufacture of some important machine parts; cast steel is mainly used to manufacture some parts with complex shapes, which are difficult to forge or cut, but require high strength and plasticity.
3) Performance
Drop forged steel can withstand large impact forces, and its plasticity, toughness and other mechanical properties are also higher than those of steel castings; cast steel materials have many impurities, brittle materials, poor strength, large internal stress, and loose internal organization.
2. What is the cutting process of forged steel parts?
The cutting process of forged steel parts is actually a chip formation process. A typical cutting process is that the metal being cut is elastically deformed by the extrusion of the tool.
With the cutting of the tool, the stress and strain gradually increase. When the shear stress reaches the yield strength of the material, start to produce plastic deformation - slip. The tool continues to cut in, when the shear stress reaches the tensile strength of the material, the metal layer is squeezed and cracked after shear slip to form chips.
In fact, these three stages of the cutting process of forged steel parts are not fully displayed due to different conditions such as processing materials. For example, when processing brittle materials of forging steel, the cut layer will form chips and leave the base metal soon after elastic deformation, and the slip stage of steel with good processing plasticity is particularly obvious.
Due to the different processes of chip formation in forged steel parts, the shape of the chips is also different.
Our company's main products are die forgings, including but not limited to forged hydraulic cylinder bottoms, forged hydraulic cylinder end caps, forged hydraulic cylinder earrings, and forged U-shaped clips, forged trunnions and other customized forgings. JC Forging is one of the most complete manufacturers of hydraulic cylinder forgings in China.
The company has 4 friction press production lines (630-1600 tons), more than 40 sets of precision machining equipment and heat treatment equipment. JC Forging can produce 0.5-50kg precision die forgings, with an annual output of 5,000 tons of precision forgings. Since its establishment, JC Forging has cooperated with most well-known hydraulic cylinder manufacturers in China, and its products are exported to more than 20 countries and regions around the world. If you have any needs, please feel free to consult us.
Two Common Types of Forging Machines
What is the Difference Between Forging and Casting?
What Are the Common Defects in an Improper Forging Process?


ASUU blatantly shuns meeting with the Federal Government which was slated for today, 29th of August.
The Academic Staff Union Of Universities, ASUU refused to show up in a meeting that was scheduled for noon today, Tuesday in Abuja. Federal Government was supposed to negotiate with ASUU folllowing the strike that has been ongoing for months now.
The meeting which was confirmed in a statement issued by the Deputy Director, Press, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Samuel Olowookere yesterday had no member of ASUU in attendance.
Based on reports from Channels, Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU President decided not to attend the meeting because a proposal had already been submitted to the Federal Government based on the last meeting that was held.
According to him, ASSU would henceforth, only honour any form of interrogation with the Federal Government after receiving a positive reply to their proposal of a new offer.


text:
Dubai's Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan Launches New 2021 Initiative
Under the new initiative, the government will "compete with the private sector" in terms of the caliber of service it provides.
Aarti Nagraj
Dubai's government will work as a single entity and provide service on the same standards as the private sector, according to a new initiative launched on Monday.
The 2021 Initiative was launched by Dubai's Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum during the Government Summit in Dubai.
On stage, Sheikh Hamdan briefly said: "Along with exceptional leaders, we have exceptional people," alluding to the previous presentation on leadership given by Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, deputy PM and Minister of Interior in the UAE.
In line with the message of smart e-governance strongly communicated during the summit, Sheikh Hamdan elaborated on the initiative on Twitter.
"Today we set our goals for the government of Dubai in 2021, as we march confidently towards the future and new horizons," he tweeted.
"In a first of its kind initiative, the government aims to compete with the private sector in terms of the caliber of service it provides.
"There should be no more talks of multiple departments and agencies. The government works as one: one ID, one phone number, one center and one employee.
"We're confident of the ability of the leadership and staff of Dubai government to reach targets on time, always dedicated to working for public good.
"It's now time to use our skills and expertise to show what this government can offer, not just to Dubai, but also to the world.
"We should all work as one, the strong supporting the weak, as we look towards 2021 when everyone will witness the arrival of Dubai government.
He added: "Our ambitious and entrepreneurial, innovative ideas will be implemented by Dubai government and the world will seek to learn from our experience."
Sheikh Hamdan is currently overseeing the implementation of the Dubai Smart City project, which was launched in October last year by Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
The project will ensure that government services are accessible, quick and efficient through the use of hi-tech smart devices.
It will also enable the public to transact with public departments using smartphones any time, any day of the year and provide information on weather, traffic, transport, health and education, as well as entertainment and tourist services such as aviation services and restaurants.
Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan To Oversee Smart City Project
Dubai Ruler: Private Sector Emiratisation To Increase 10-Fold By 2021
Dubai Smart Government Launches Several New Apps During Gitex
Dubai's Ruler Announces New 'Smart City' Plan
Kuwaiti Crown Prince Had Back Surgery In Germany
Sheikh Mohammed Announces New 'M-Government' Project
Sheikh Mohammed Says Employment For Emiratis Is Top Priority
Sheikh Mohammed's New Book Highlights Leadership Strategies
TRA Launches Official mGovernment Portal