New Delhi: Tech giant IBM announced on Monday the availability of Watson for cyber security, the industry's first augmented intelligence technology designed to power cognitive security operations centres (SOCs). With Watson, people can analyse and interpret all of their data, including unstructured text, images, audio and video. They can provide personalised recommendations by understanding a user's personality, tone and emotion.
"The idea behind Watson for cyber security is to take advantage of Watson's leading AI, machine learning and natural language processing capabilities to help security analysts make better, faster decisions from vast amounts of data," Vaidyanathan Iyer, business unit executive, IBM Security, said.
Watson can now help security analysts parse thousands of natural language research reports that have never before been accessible to modern security tools. "India is part of the global "X-Force Command Centre" networks that is now equipped with cognitive tools, including a Watson-powered chatbot currently being used to interact with IBM Managed Security Services customers," added Iyer.
Watson for cyber security will be integrated into IBM's new cognitive SOC platform, bringing together advanced cognitive technologies with security operations and providing the ability to respond to threats across endpoints, networks, users and cloud. The centrepiece of this platform is IBM 'QRadar Advisor with Watson', the first tool that taps into Watson's corpus of cybersecurity insights.
"This new app is already being used by Avnet, University of New Brunswick, Sopra Steria and 40 other customers globally to augment security analysts" investigations into security incidents," the company said.
IBM will also help clients design, build and manage cognitive security operations centres globally through IBM "Managed Security Services".


Adform (www.adform.com), the independent and open full-stack ad-tech platform serving media agencies, trading desks, brands and publishers globally, today announced further support for the cross-channel customer journey with the release of programmatic native ads in the Adform Demand Side Platform (DSP).
Native ads blend in with the original content and allow both publishers and advertisers to offer an immersive yet user-friendly ad experience. These non-intrusive advertising experiences are more effective for obtaining consumers' attention and such are increasingly sought out by advertisers. The use of native ads will continue to grow. Business Insider predicted spending on native ads will reach $16.8 billion in 2016 and will grow to $36.3 billion by 2021, meaning native ads will drive 74 percent of all ad revenue by 2021.
Over the last two years, Adform has helped advertisers and publishers build custom native formats that enhance the user experience while simultaneously working to meet marketers' needs to combine their first-party data at scale. Reaching audiences with native advertising at scale was a challenge within the industry until recently, when the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) released its OpenRTB 2.3 guidelines including standardization for native ads, which defined how advertisers and publishers should buy and sell native ads programmatically at scale. This standard has allowed programmatic ad tech providers to include native ads in their real-time bidding ecosystems.
In terms of creative possibilities, Adform offers support for Native In-Feed. These in-feed units are paid stories that appear as if they are part of a news feed. An advertiser simply includes their name, text, images and logo within the unit.
Programmatic native ads became available Monday, September 26, 2016. For more details or further assistance, please send an email to native@adform.com.


As a manufacturer do you ever find your products used in a way you never dreamed of?
Recently a gentleman bought an M30 stainless steel nut – but he only wanted one, so I asked why.
And how about using studding and fasteners on a boat?


text:
Cannabist
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Denver Politics
DIGITAL REPLICA EDITION
Is your area a "community center" or "regional…
Why have models of Colorado's coronavirus trajectory been off?
Is your area a "community center" or "regional corridor"? Blueprint Denver update will influence growth patterns
Meetings give residents chance to offer input that could help shape how their area will grow
By Jon Murray | jmurray@denverpost.com | The Denver Post
PUBLISHED: September 14, 2017 at 7:00 a.m. | UPDATED: February 19, 2018 at 2:37 p.m.
Denver's effort to update a map that has influenced development patterns for the last 15 years has shifted to a new phase that proposes new ways of channeling growth.
A series of five meetings that kicked off Wednesday night in Montbello gives residents a chance to provide input on designations in the Blueprint Denver plan that could chart out new aspirations for density in some areas — and make clear that others value their tranquility.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
Work continues on the new Lydian apartment complex at 2560 Welton street on Aug. 9, 2017 in Denver.
The update of the 2002 plan is part of a larger two-year city-planning effort called "Denveright." While the three other plans are focused on parks, transit and pedestrian access and trails, Blueprint is a master plan for land use and transportation.
Anticipated for adoption next summer, the new Blueprint will help city planners and elected officials guide growth. The state's demographer projects that by 2040, Denver — which has about 700,000 people now — will grow by 100,000, while the metro area could grow by more than 1.2 million.
February 20, 2017 Denver needs better mobility so that people don't "leave the city faster than they came," Michael Hancock says
December 12, 2016 Denver is absorbing a lot more people, but it's not more densely populated than 1950
March 18, 2017 Denver's population is surging. Its summers are getting hotter. How will the city's parks system adapt?
March 21, 2015 As Denver grows up, up, up, more neighborhoods grapple with density
"The original Blueprint Denver plan was innovative for its time, and has served us well in many ways," said Brad Buchanan, Denver's planning department director. "This month's workshops are an opportunity to push for more modern approaches that better serve Denver's neighborhoods today and address the things Denverites care about most."
Gauging just what city residents care about has been the leading challenge up to now.
One thing that was clear at the outset last year: Blueprint Denver's simple designations for the entire city — with areas shaded as either change or stability — might now be too simplistic. The map has provided fuel for rezoning fights and other growth disputes in fast-changing Denver in recent years.
The old map: The 2002 Blueprint Denver plan included a map that designated 82 percent of the city as an "area of stability" and 18 percent as an "area of change." Those latter areas have been the site of 67 percent of new housing development since then, city figures show.
City planners who gathered feedback have taken a stab at a more complex system that uses categories and contextual gradients to shade a new map with "future place types." They will seek responses to that map at the meetings. (View it here, along more information and a survey.)
David Gaspers, the principal city planner managing the Blueprint update, has overseen drafting a potential map that identifies current and possible corridors (oriented to streets) as well as neighborhood centers such as employment and residential hubs, each of them identified as local, community or regional draws. The map also has a range of districts that include industrial areas, parks, entertainment areas and campuses.
And then there are the city's remaining residential neighborhoods, which range in designation from suburban in character to "urban center" or "downtown" labels, for areas closer to the central business district.
Denver city planners have proposed designations for areas across the city based on corridors, centers, districts and residential areas, with some of those further broken down. This view shows part of the map, from Highland in the northwest to Cherry Creek North in the southeast.
Gaspers said feedback from a Blueprint task force and from community meetings indicated a widespread desire to factor in inclusivity and equity and reflect each community's evolution.
The city's outreach included development of an in-person board game, adapted for online play, that has allowed users to experiment with tools to guide growth.
Now it's up to the planners to find consensus in coming months as they fine-tune the map.
"We are hearing voices from all over the gamut … dating back to our visioning and values sessions, where we had thousands of people submit online comments. And we had over 1,000 people play the board game over April and May," Gaspers said. "So in relative terms, that's a lot of voices being captured. We hope to do the same thing here with these five workshops."
Blueprint Denver meetings
The first meeting was Wednesday night at Maxwell Elementary in Montbello. Here are the remaining meetings, all starting at 5:30 p.m.:
Thursday: Anderson Academic Commons at the University of Denver, 2150 E Evans Ave.
Sept. 19: Doull Elementary, 2520 S. Utica St.
Sept. 20: Scheitler Rec Center, 5031 W 46th Ave.
Sept. 21: East High School, 1600 City Park Esplanade
Jon Murray | Enterprise and Transportation Reporter — The Denver Post
Jon Murray is an enterprise reporter on The Denver Post's government and politics team, with a focus on transportation and accountability reporting. He previously covered Denver city government. A Colorado native, he joined The Denver Post in 2014 after a decade at The Indianapolis Star. He graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in journalism and history.
jmurray@denverpost.com
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Over the past 12 years of living with anxiety, agoraphobia and panic I've had many ups and downs. It occured to me today that in the past when I've made progress, it's usually been down to one thing.
I've had setbacks, I've been terrified of symptoms and sensations, I've been housebound and I've felt despair.
The one thing that's always pulled me from where I've felt like is rock bottom, is Courage.
This past few weeks I've felt determined to really challenge myself and to get myself out there. But I've still been scared of the sensations. It occured to me today that determination alone will not suffice.
To carry out exposure theraoy for anxiety and agoraphobia, in my opinion, the most important aspect is courage. And I intend to use it.


AXIS A4011-E Reader is a touch-free reader with keypad. It is intended for both indoor and outdoor use, supports most smart card formats and is designed to perfectly match AXIS A1001 Network Door Controller.
The competitively priced AXIS A4011-E is a fast, convenient and reliable complement when installing Axis access control system. With the AXIS A4011-E Reader in this segment, both the installer and customer can feel confident that the system components will work well together.
The A4011-E Reader is both future proof and backward compatible since it supports several different card formats in order to meet specific system requirements. This enables use with existing installations, since most of existing cards using 13,56 Mhz technology can be used while upgrading to new system hardware (AXIS A1001).
The product is a joint cooperation between Axis and ASSA ABLOY and is based on proven technology from ASSA ABLOY, a company with wide experience in readers and access control solutions.


text:
Xmarks Sync
Developer(s)
Marvasol, Inc.
(LogMeIn)
2006; 16 years ago (2006)
Stable release
Firefox: 4.5.0.8 (February 4, 2018; 3 years ago (2018-02-04)) [±]
IE: 1.3.17 (September 26, 2016; 5 years ago (2016-09-26)) [±]
Safari: 2.0.19 (March 12, 2015; 6 years ago (2015-03-12)) [±]
Chrome: 1.0.33 (July 25, 2017; 4 years ago (2017-07-25)) [±]
Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Safari
Browser synchronizer and browser extension
Freeware[1]
xmarks.com (Defunct)
Xmarks, formerly Foxmarks, is a defunct bookmark synchronization add-on for web browsers. The add-on was developed by San Francisco-based company Foxmarks (later renamed Xmarks) which was founded in 2006 by Mitch Kapor[2][3] and was acquired by LastPass in December 2010.[1]
LastPass announced on March 30, 2018, that the Xmarks service would be shut down on May 1, 2018.[4]
2 Company history
3 Xmarks domain blockage in India
Overview[edit]
The Xmarks bookmark synchronizer was an extension for Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Apple Safari (on OS X 10.5 and 10.6)[5] that synchronized bookmarks between computers. It could also synchronize passwords, open tabs, and browsing history (Firefox only).[6] Opera support has not been directly implemented as of 2015 [7] but the Chrome extension is available in Opera via a workaround.[8] As of April 2009 it was one of the most popular Firefox add-ons[citation needed], attaining over 150,000 downloads per week and almost 15 million total downloads.[citation needed][9]
Company history[edit]
In March 2009, Foxmarks was relaunched under a new name and service called Xmarks. Xmarks included many new features like suggested tagging bookmarks.[10]
On September 27, 2010 it was announced that due to the company's current financial projections resulting from its purely voluntary-donations funding-basis, in January 2011, Xmarks would be entirely discontinuing its service.[11] On September 30, Xmarks CEO, James Joaquin, noted that he had been "pleasantly surprised by the volume of interest" that has been expressed since his initial "closing-announcement". This interest has been shown by both potential buyers of the company, and by those who have thus far pledged to subscribe to the service at the site's "pledge page". At their donations page, Xmarks attempted to acquire pledges from 100,000 of their users to pay $10–20 per year for a proposed "premium Xmarks service" which launched on December 9, 2010.[12][13] To the date October 7, 2010, Xmarks investors had invested $9 million into the Xmarks project, but with a return on this investment not yet clearly in sight, unless sufficient pledges are received by October 15, 2010, apparently these initial investment funds are reaching an end-point.[13]
On December 2, 2010, the password-management service LastPass acquired Xmarks.[1] Since this acquisition the program has been minimally updated, primarily fixing bugs, and has not had a single new feature added. On October 9, 2015, LastPass was acquired by LogMeIn, Inc. for $125 million.[14] After the acquisition, LastPass stated that they plan to continue to support Xmarks.[15]
On March 30, 2018, in an email to users, LastPass announced that the Xmarks service would be shut down on May 1, 2018.[4]
Xmarks domain blockage in India[edit]
Starting in May 2012, the xmarks.com domain was blocked by major ISPs in India by court order,[clarification needed] resulting in various websites appearing with only a simple message "Access to this site has been blocked as per Court Orders."[16][17][18][19][20]
Privacy[edit]
Xmarks provided an option to encrypt bookmarks while they are in transit between the browser and the Xmarks server. Individual users' bookmarks are kept private from other users. However, there are clearly issues of privacy and trust in sending bookmarks to a third party. Xmarks did provide an option for the user to avoid the Xmarks server, by using their own WebDAV or FTP server to store their bookmarks, but this option was only available with Firefox.[21]
Bookmarks were analysed to provide public services such as "Suggested Tags" and "Smarter Search" (Xmarks enhancements to Google web search). The privacy policy stated that the results of this analysis are published without providing any information about individual users.[22]
Comparison of browser synchronizers
^ a b c "LastPass Acquires Xmarks!". blogs.Xmarks.com. Xmarks. 1 December 2010. Archived from the original on 1 April 2018.
^ "Mitch Kapor on Foxmarks". Mozillalinks.org. Archived from the original on 2011-07-24. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
^ "About Us". Foxmarks. 2006. Archived from the original on January 2, 2007. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
^ a b Brinkmann, Martin (31 March 2018). "LogMeIn to shut down Xmarks on May 1, 2018". gHacks. Archived from the original on April 1, 2018.
^ "Xmarks download page for all supported browsers". Download.xmarks.com. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
^ "Xmarks for Firefox, now with History Sync". Blog.xmarks.com. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
^ "Re: Opera Xmarks Extension". forums.lastpass.com. 2015-05-07. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
^ "Re: Will Opera be supported soon?". forums.lastpass.com. 2015-07-24. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
^ Xmarks (formerly Foxmarks) stats on addons.mozilla.org
^ "Foxmarks is becoming Xmarks". Blog.xmarks.com. 2009-03-02. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
^ "End of the Road for Xmarks". Blog.xmarks.com. 2010-09-27. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
^ Lowensohn, Josh (2010-09-30). "Xmarks may live on, in paid form". News.cnet.com. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
^ a b "Xmarks is Dead. Long Live Xmarks?". Blog.xmarks.com. 2010-09-30. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
^ "LogMeIn buys LastPass for $125 million". The Verge. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
^ "LogMeIn's Acquisition of LastPass FAQs". LastPass Help Center. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
^ Pahwa, Nikhil (2012-05-11). "DailyMotion Blocked In India On RCOM; Airtel & RCOM Block Bookmarking Site Xmarks". MediaNama. Retrieved 2012-09-02. And it gets bizarre...
^ "Indian ISPs block Vimeo, Pirate Bay and other torrent sites". Firstpost.com. 2012-05-17. Retrieved 2012-09-04.
^ Saxena, Anupam (2012-05-17). "Updated: Airtel Blocks Vimeo, DailyMotion & All Major Torrent Sites In India Following John Doe Order". MediaNama. Retrieved 2012-09-04.
^ Sushubh, Mittal (2012-05-17). "Now airtel broadband is blocking a bunch of file sharing and regular websites". techwhack. Archived from the original on 2012-08-14. Retrieved 2012-09-02. (see court order pdf on this page)
^ Parfeni, Lucian (2012-05-17). "More Indian ISPs Block Torrent Sites, Dailymotion, Even Xmarks". Softpedia. Retrieved 2012-09-02.
^ "BYOS « Xmarks User Manual". 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
^ "Xmarks - Privacy Policy". LastPass. 2009-09-24. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Xmarks_Sync&oldid=1043143647"
Companies based in San Francisco
Software companies established in 2006
Software companies disestablished in 2018
2010 mergers and acquisitions
Discontinued Firefox add-ons
Software companies of the United States
Defunct online companies of the United States
Internet properties disestablished in 2018
Articles with unsourced statements from September 2012
Wikipedia articles needing clarification from October 2015
This page was last edited on 8 September 2021, at 15:28 (UTC).


text:
Q: Dictionary as android application I want to work on android with eclipse , and my idea is to make a dictionary . the thought is that you are reading a file now you don't know a word you just have to click on that word it will redirect you to dictionary app " like word web " .
Now I don't know how to begin , on net also I was unable to find tutorials , can anyone tell me how to start with this .
Thank you

A: If you want the user to be able to click on words in OTHER apps to launch your dictionary app, it is pretty much impossible. I suggest you start with an app that doesn't need to interact with other apps.
Good luck,
Barry

A: You can use the Searchable Dictionary as a starter and change the database with your own.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree (avc.com)
79 points by ciscoriordan on Feb 27, 2009 | hide | past | favorite | 86 comments
Rod on Feb 27, 2009
Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard while undergrads. David Filo, Jerry Yang, Sergey Brin, Larry Page didn't bother to finish grad school at Stanford and dropped out too. On the other hand, we can think of Craig Venter, Andrew Grove, Gordon Moore, Carver Mead... all of whom obtained PhD's.
The usefulness of a degree depends on what field one is working on. In the Software arena, smart kids out of high school can do a lot if college is not holding them back. But try to start a laser / semiconductor / biotech company with high school kids if you dare ;-)
One might not need a degree to be a good software entrepreneur, but there are many other entrepreneurs who don't live in the software world. Sure, HN is focused on software, but it seems to me that it's irresponsible to promote the idea that all that entrepreneurs need is passion and hard-work. Necessary but not sufficient.
timr on Feb 27, 2009
"In the Software arena, smart kids out of high school can do a lot if college is not holding them back. But try to start a laser / semiconductor / biotech company with high school kids if you dare."
Exactly. We've inadvertently created a culture that rewards extremely shallow achievements. Thirty years ago, brilliant 20-somethings wanted to send men to Mars and build super-colliders. Today, the smartest college kids are trying to build social networks for dogs.
Frankly, that's not a trend worth celebrating. A society where an advanced education isn't an economic advantage is a society going the wrong way.
pg on Feb 27, 2009
That's just not true. I meet a lot of startup founders who are working on very hard technical problems and have hopes of changing the world by solving them. The Etherpads, for example, had to literally prove theorems to get their real-time collaboration sw to work, and they hope eventually to use it in a whole range of applications.
You could just as easily argue that thirty years ago (I was actually around then and old enough to be paying attention), technical people just wanted safe jobs solving circumscribed problems for large organizations.
The truth is that, all other things being equal, each generation of people is roughly equally ambitious. Past generations weren't golden ages compared to the present, or vice versa.
I don't see how you can argue that each generation is equally ambitious, while also arguing that the previous generation was seeking out "safe jobs".
I agree that people are probably as ambitious as they were decades ago on an individual basis, but that doesn't mean that their goals have stayed the same over time. Even in the last decade, there's been a massive shift of technical talent toward entertainment technology, whereas it's getting harder and harder to find R&D jobs in physics, chemistry, biology and computer science.
There are always a few companies doing interesting technical work, but if the number of under-employed PhDs I know is any indication, the fraction of companies doing R&D is pretty darned small, and getting smaller every year. It's much easier for a PhD in Physics to get a job as a sysadmin at a web startup than it is for her to get a job in her field. I think that's sad.
aswanson on Feb 27, 2009
I find it frightening that in the U.S. at least, basic research seems to have seriously declined at the government and large company level. Bell Labs is gone, and most companies now are focusing on applied rather than fundamental advances.
And before people start piling on large companies and the government with the usual rant, try to figure out how you could invent the laser, fiber optics, tcp/ip, lunar landing, orthgonal frequency division multiplexing , etc, with 2 college dropouts well-versed in rails and javascript.
Retric on Feb 27, 2009
I think there are cycles where technology get's to a state where basic research has huge value until you have enough basic research to to build a wave of new technology's. Once you have fully exploited the last wave of technology you are ready to build the next level of new technology. But, you rarely change technology's while there is still room to grow the old tech. Example: Modems starting at 300bps to 56k used the same basic technology, then DSL, then Fiber.
IMO, there is value to understanding the limitations to existing technology before you start doing basic research.
Hexstream on Feb 27, 2009
Yes. New technology is invented in response to problems with the older technology, and if you haven't capitalized on the old technology's potential, you'll likely just be reinventing the old solutions instead of coming up with new, better ones.
jibiki on Feb 27, 2009
Interesting. A counter anecdote would be the advances in physics in the early 20th century, when we were still far from finished innovating with Newtonian mechanics. I've always doubted the whole "necessity is the mother of invention" thing; I don't think relativity was discovered because it became necessary to discover it. On the other hand, when it comes to technological innovations (semiconductors, transistors, lasers, etc.,) I just don't know enough scientific history to assess your hypothesis.
I think the limitations of Newtonian physics where only discovered as people built devices that broke them. There is a great time line for that period, but when you consider the instruments required to make the discovery's you see they are based on specific assumptions about how the world operates. It's only when their design reaches their limits that meaningful discovery's can be made.
http://timeline.aps.org/APS/Timeline/
"The Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes finds that mercury loses its electrical resistance at temperatures near absolute zero. This low temperature effect is observed in other materials as well."
That takes advanced equipment to reduce things to that temperature, an expectation that resistance is effected by temperature, and an formula that works at higher temperatures to notice the discontinuity.
PS: Consider all the benefits high speed computing has provided when designing aircraft. You need a lot of wind tunnel / real world tests to build a model, but with that model and lot's of computing power you can design aircraft out to the limits of your simulation. At which point you need to collect more data.
My point was that if you can make as good a case for x > y as for y > x, then x = y.
Do you have any evidence for this massive shift toward entertainment?
Surely there are more research jobs in biology than there were 30 years ago, considering biotech was mostly invented in the intervening period.
Are there more biotech startups than 30 years ago? Sure. But probably not more than 20 years ago, and certainly not more than a decade ago.
There's plenty of evidence of a shift toward entertainment. Look at the big startup successes of the last decade: Google, Myspace, Facebook, Friendster, YouTube, Blogger, Flickr, Digg, Bebo, etc. Save Google, nearly every major success story has been an entertainment/media play. In fact, I don't see this argument as particularly surprising or controversial, given that the web has been the dominant technology of the last two decades, and that the web has always been about media.
I think we both agree that personal ambition is pretty much constant over time. My argument is that if that's the case, then it's not reasonable to argue that people preferentially sought out "safe" jobs three decades ago. Smart, ambitious people have always sought out the opportunities that make them most successful; today those opportunities are clustered in industries that reward ephemera.
biohacker42 on Feb 27, 2009
A quick side note. The number of biotech startups is mostly a function of the legal environment. The industry is more regulated that almost any other sector of the economy.
Your evidence is that most of the startups you've heard a lot about are mass market consumer startups? Would you expect to have heard as much about the ones working on infrastructure?
If I didn't know anything else about the industry, then probably not. But that's kind of the point -- that's the list of successes that everyone knows about; the list that every CS undergrad wants to found.
10ren on Feb 27, 2009
Their privacy policy mentions: "patent-pending edit synchronization algorithm". I'd much appreciate hearing about their experience with a software patent (I'm in a similar position).
Unless they want to not publicize it, to avoid anti-patent sentiment? e.g. two TechCrunch comments: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/19/etherpad-shows-google-d...
_csoo on Feb 27, 2009
>The Etherpads, for example, had to literally prove theorems to get their real-time collaboration sw to work, and they hope eventually to use it in a whole range of applications.
Could you tell them to publish the papers or the notes please?
Raphael on Feb 28, 2009
The Etherpads finished college, though.
tallanvor on Feb 27, 2009
This is true. Right now, people like Mark Zuckerberg are looked to for inspiration among young people. It's all fine and good that he's created something big, but has it really done anything for us? If I want inspiration, I'm more interested in looking to the engineers who put a man on the moon 40 years ago.
As useful as sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube are (not to pick on any of them), their achievements are nothing compared to putting people in space, designing planes like the Dreamliner and the A380. or even the engineering that went into the Chunnel.
schtog on Feb 27, 2009
Aren't you people generalizing a little too much, obv there are loads of people working on big, important problems like energy, medicine etc. While many people use Facebook I don't really see many that hold Mark Zuckerberg as an idol.
captainobvious on Feb 28, 2009
Sorry, but sending men to the Moon to drive around in a little car is a better example of wasteful entertainment than any of the three web companies you named.
You have to take scale in consideration.
The Facebook team's accomplishment may be much smaller than putting people on the moon, but the size of their team (and partners) and their budget isn't comparable either.
I say an accomplishment of X value by spending Y resources is equivalent to one of 100X value by spending 100Y resources (numbers and proportions unrelated to facebook VS moon example).
jaspertheghost on Mar 1, 2009
Innovation and utility is defined by use. If people want to use social networks and not some microformats to enable the semantic web, that's innovation. All this complaining about working on worthwhile products has some truth to it, but look at the utility of lasers. In the end, lasers enabled cd/dvd's for millions of people to watch movies and music, and that's the ultimate utility.
tjogin on Feb 27, 2009
I can think of quite a few people who dropped out and just became losers. Just saying, while dropping out of an education might work for some people, I'm willing to bet that on average, it's a bad decision.
Exactly. It's a manifestation of selection bias. We pay attention to the Gateses, Zuckerbergs and such, and disregard the thousands and thousands who dropped out of college and ended up achieving nothing in their lives. It seems to me that Microsoft's or Google's successes are anomalies that one should not try to emulate...
The key is having a marketable skill. With a good education, you have both a skill, and a certificate saying you do.
Without an education, you might still have a marketable skill, but people have to take your word for it.
Personally, I don't have a university degree. I do have a marketable skillset, but it's up to me to prove it, and through a bit of luck I'm in a pretty good position. But it's certainly not a path I would recommend others to travel, you leave too much to chance.
tyn on Feb 27, 2009
Larry Page holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from Stanford, according to Wikipedia.
But didn't he intend to obtain the PhD when he went to Stanford? I once read a long interview with him, and I believe that PhD was his goal. I am not sure, though.
madcaptenor on Feb 27, 2009
His Stanford web page (http://infolab.stanford.edu/~page/) identifies him as a "Ph.D. student".
I assume he took a leave of absence, then.
That's what I've heard. My point was that at least at some point he was calling himself a "Ph. D. student" -- his goal was a Ph. D., not a Masters degree.
And while I'm on the subject, Sergey Brin also still has a Stanford web page (http://infolab.stanford.edu/~sergey/), which helpfully informs us that "Currently I am at Google."
turbod on Feb 27, 2009
Eric Schmidt has a PhD in EE/CS.
hboon on Feb 27, 2009
But most news and comparisons are about these successful people who have ran startups successfully who have dropped out from school.
Could it possible that these are really people who dropped out after studying for a few years having learnt what they can or realised what they cannot learn rather than people who never went to college.
This is a big difference.
I've noticed this too. But I worry about encouraging people to drop out of college. There are probably a lot who don't really blossom till they get there. Especially those who went to bad high schools.
I think people should at least try a couple years of college, if they can, if only so they know what they're missing if they don't finish.
fredwilson on Feb 27, 2009
that is in fact what the president suggested in his "non state of the union" speech this week.
i didn't mean the post to encourage dropping out but upon reading it this morning, i realize it sort of does that
strlen on Feb 28, 2009
There's a different way to put it also:
A start-up usually takes at least four, on the average seven years until a "liquidity event" occurs (Some stay private forever and while profitable, don't offer any opportunity to just hand the business off without losing everything).
Thus, if someone is willing to try building a start-up (potentially, a four year commitment) why not try a college education provided they have the means?
Lastly, college education has rewards in it of itself: not just the employment/entrepreneurship opportunities it may open. There aren't very many jobs/many feasible/executable start-up ideas out there where you'll get to write operating systems, compilers, design RISC chips and code in Haskell and Scheme (I did/could do all of the following, despite going to a school that wasn't, by any means, a top research center for EE/CS). Add to that being able to attend lectures and write papers/essays on topics in such as Ancient Greek History.
The last paragraph sounds like something I'd like to do if/when I have a "liquidity event". On a personal note, had I not been exposed to these topics, I may have found routine software engineering work to be the most exciting task I could put my mind to (as I did, when I briefly worked full time during and after high school) -- and would see no reason for entrepreneurship.
ieatpaste on Feb 27, 2009
While the degree might not be meaningful, I find an accomplishment of finishing school especially if they find it meaningless. It shows a finish-what-you-started mentality which thrives (or at least persists) in opposition.
raffi on Feb 27, 2009
I didn't read the article but I'll be honest... I'm really thankful for my education. I taught myself programming when I was young and I thought I knew everything when I went to college. I was thankfully proved wrong.
College forced me to learn a lot of stuff I wouldn't have bothered to learn before. Stuff I had no idea would become useful and if I ever needed it may not have had an idea to look for it.
I have an interest in programming languages and interpreters--college helped me find and cultivate this interest. I'm working on a startup doing a lot of natural language stuff--college gave me the foundation necessary to teach myself the tools of this field quickly.
The theoretical underpinnings of stuff don't go away. Understanding different string matching algorithms can apply to writing an efficient style checker, not just making an asinine version of strcmp.
Granted this is all oriented towards technical stuff. I suppose if I wanted to be just an entrepreneur I could save money and buy a Subway franchise. I don't think a college education is necessary there either (but I'm sure it doesn't hurt).
alum on Feb 27, 2009
I second the "don't think it's necessary, but sure it doesn't hurt" stance; I doubt someone would be docked points on an assessment or interview for having a degree right?
Some of us had parents who never stepped foot near a college or university and having their kids graduate with a degree is one of their dreams. Having picked up programming in high school, Computer Science was really the only appealing option. Overall I don't think it was a waste, though some parts were (most general education requirements.) At that age, I don't believe I would have been ready or mature enough to even work a full-time programming job, let alone start some sort of business.
>College forced me to learn a lot of stuff I wouldn't have bothered to learn before. Stuff I had no idea would become useful and if I ever needed it may not have had an idea to look for it.
So all you needed were a few people to guide you in the right direction. You can get that from the Internet or from other people you may know who are into the same thing or have a certain level of expertise. We don't absolutely need colleges for that anymore.
"I have an interest in programming languages and interpreters--college helped me find and cultivate this interest."
Wow. We never even came close to studying that kind of stuff at my college (Computer degree). We just learned some Java and linked lists and trees in the data structures course, a bit about computer hardware and not much else.
All the really cool stuff like interpreters, compilers, programming languages, unification, Rete, Common Lisp, etc. I had to learn on my own.
Did I simply attend a subpar college or you attended a great one?
smokey_the_bear on Feb 27, 2009
Wow. We did the linked list and data structures course freshman year. After that it was all compilers, computability, writing schedulers for micro controllers, designing a processor in verilog, etc. Lots of really cool stuff I mostly haven't used since, but it's a great base of knowledge. And I went to Iowa State, not a top tier computer science school.
Oh my. It seems what you call college I'd call university (I live in Quebec).
barry-cotter on Feb 28, 2009
In Ireland and Britain college = university. I believe the US has a ~distinction that a college is an undergraduate institution, which may or may not be part of a university, but the rest of the Anglosphere follows British usage in that a college is post secondary school though it may not be degree granting, like the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
likpok on Feb 28, 2009
In the states, college <=> university. Elsewhere, I believe college is below university.
siong1987 on Feb 27, 2009
I live in a country where software and technology is not really blossoming. The government is trying hard to promote the tech business in the country. But, nothing is really working at all.
I stopped school for three years before I came to the US to further my studies here. In those three years, my plan was to start something that could make me millions. Soon, I realize that this is a dream, I only managed to make decent amount of money through freelancing. But, I can tell you that you hardly can go anywhere if you are working alone. Luckily enough, I did learn some programming in this period.
Then, I decided to come to the US. English is not my first language. I worked my ass out to get decent score for my SAT. And, luckily enough, I got accepted into one of the best CS school in US. Here, I met with my current cofounders with my new startup. And, this is another new process that I have to dedicate myself to learn something new again(Communication skills, new culture, etc.).
I never regretted to further my studies to college. I met new people here. I learned new knowledge(Remember, CS is not all about programming). And, I believe that this year in college actually helped me more than the three years I wasted.
thaumaturgy on Feb 27, 2009
What country, if you don't mind my asking?
wayne on Feb 27, 2009
Another reason this happens in my opinion: If you graduate from a good college with a marketable degree, you get sucked right into a cushy job at a large company. If you never got that degree and don't have that job, you're not giving up as much as the guy who's used to the status and money associated with the big company job. The opportunity cost of starting a company is less.
nostrademons on Feb 27, 2009
I've found this can be a really big "problem" as well. And it's not just the temptation of getting sucked yourself into a cushy job. It's that much of your network, your closest friends, also have that same hot degree and face the same temptation. Holding a startup together is hard enough in the best of times; when everyone on the founding team is continually bombarded by really tempting offers, chances are someone will crack. (Unless you're in a place where Silicon Valley where working on a startup is definitely "cooler" than that cushy job.)
My startup died when my cofounder got into Harvard Business School and I got into Google (we're both Amherst grads). 99.99% of America would not call that a failure. But the bottom line is that my startup's still just as dead.
kailashbadu on Feb 27, 2009
It's akin to saying that If you don't have a degree you are more likely to be an entrepreneur because your odds of getting a good job in a big company are very slim.
I would have agreed with you had Bill Gates, for instance, never been to Harvard in the first place. If he had applied for a job at IBM and had got spurned. If Microsoft was something he came up with as a last resort after failing to bag a job elsewhere.
I presume that's not the case.
mattmaroon on Feb 27, 2009
I've certainly never felt my lack of a degree to be a hindrance in any area except maybe fundraising. PG wrote once that he had come to the same conclusion but still had trouble believing it. Most investors never get there at all.
And I'd imagine even among those like Fred, they still find themselves impressed by a team of 4 CS grads from MIT. Thankfully for those of us who college wasn't for, customers are significantly less likely to read your resume.
4 CS grads from MIT would be impressive, but more impressive are the two kids from RISD who raised $32k for their seed capital selling cereal.
it takes chutzpah to make it as an entrepreneur and the cereal guys can hire the CS grads from MIT easier than the CS grads can get up the courage to sell 800 boxes of cereal at $40/box.
fallentimes on Feb 27, 2009
That's why airbnb is on their way to becoming the largest hotel in the world without having to own any rooms.
Alex3917 on Feb 28, 2009
Not to mention that if you can start any business you want, why not start the one where it's going to be the easiest to make a huge profit? And the business that fits the category almost certainly isn't the business that matches whatever limited technical skills you happen to have.
tptacek on Feb 27, 2009
I graduated high school in 1994. I'd have graduated college in 1998 with a CS degree. Two startups I held key roles in sold in 8-figure deals in that time period. I even got to do some academic research. I guess I'm unhappy I didn't take linear algebra (really!), but I think I'd have had to have been made of stupid to go to college in '94.
dmpayton on Feb 27, 2009
I'm 21, working at a startup as an engineer, working on my own small startup, and making a considerable amount of money over everyone I graduated High School with. All without a degree.
However, I feel that I've been quite lucky and am far more the exception than the rule. I'm actually quite jealous of some of my friends who are getting ready to receive their Bachelors in the next year. As different paths as we took, I somehow feel that I'm lagging behind them in terms of achievements. So I'm back in school this semester. Just one class to make some iota of progress towards my B.S. Comp. Sci.
You certainly don't need a college degree to be a successful entrepreneur, but I've often found it quite hard to apply theory to practicality when you don't know the theory in the first place. When all is said and done, I'd like to have the holes in my knowledge filled and kick that much more ass at what I do..
tonystubblebine on Feb 27, 2009
At the first startup I worked for we polled our office of 12 people to see who had graduated from college. I'm pretty sure the answer was just two people, myself and the other middle manager. Everybody doing interesting work, developers, designers, and founders had either skipped or dropped out of college.
Three of those college dropouts went on to found a company that Fred is funding. So his story could easily be about those three people.
There are two things I realized after that poll. First, the conventional path is boring and I needed to jump off.
Second, the amount of work required to be great at something completely trumps the tiny amount of work that you're going to put in during college. Sure, the background knowledge is helpful, but only a little bit compared to everything you're going to have to learn after college.
rw on Feb 27, 2009
You had a startup of 12 people, with 2 middle managers?!
Crazy, right?! We both did a little bit of real work (and I wrote the first version of the software for my current company), but we were definitely hired to fill some checkbox on a company growth map.
light3 on Feb 27, 2009
Your second point is certainly not universal, some people do a lot of work during college.
If you know what you really want to do before college, sure go for it, but in most cases people have no idea, college is a good place to keep busy and learn about your interests.
I was really talking about the specific work (or practice) that goes into being great at something, not about misspent youth.
Let's take a computer science degree and a ten year path to great (whatever that means). If you just measure by time spent, you're maybe coming out of college 5-20% of the way down the path.
But I'd argue that the computer science degree isn't specific enough to count nearly that much. Really, you're graduating as an broadly experienced non-expert who then has to put a boat load of time into developing a specific expertise.
The value of that time spent outside of college completely trumps the value of the time spent in college, even if the amount of time spent is equivalent.
omnivore on Feb 27, 2009
These days, I encourage kids to learn how to hack early and then go to a good school and network. If nothing else, the contacts are well worth it. It's not easy to get into the game anymore without the contacts and unless you've got deep pocketed parents or kooky friends with ambition (and money) you're just gonna get stuck somewhere less than desirable.
What's the game you're talking about, and what are the contacts you suppose you'd be making in school?
You're not supposed to do anything. But like all things, opportunities exist to do something beyond the ordinary. Look for openings, ways to stand out and to gain experience. College can provide someone who doesn't have their parents contacts to stand on with the opportunity to build social capital that could extend to other things.
Game? We're talking business or the "startup game" if you will.
aristus on Feb 27, 2009
At my first Valley startup job I was the first hire (out of 30) who didn't have a degree. I gather there was a long discussion about it before I was hired.
I missed out on some things, especially getting to know good hackers, and I've probably been paid less over the years. But it hasn't hurt me much. I am under 30 and I have almost 20 years of work experience.
I wound up in the same situation in an interview in 2000. They asked me to do Towers of Hanoi nonrecursively. I think I refused. Didn't get the gig. Things worked out anyways (ironically, I wound up at a spinoff of UMich, working for a professor and his postdoc).
If you don't have a degree and you go interview at (what turns out to have been) a Stanford spinoff, brush up on your useless CS 101, is I guess my life lesson there.
ctingom on Feb 27, 2009
My LinkedIn profile is permanently set to 85% complete because I can't add a college education.
And I'm 100% happy with my decision to drop out of college after 3 months.
jasonlbaptiste on Feb 27, 2009
College is a check box, not a select all button.
igorgue on Feb 27, 2009
+1 on that, I'm about to check it, but I see college as a way to make connections and get to know more people (teachers and students) interested in the same things I'm.
But yes!, you should do whatever you want to do, college is not an obligation, like you said a check box not a select button.
ahoyhere on Feb 27, 2009
FWIW, you can hang out with the clubs and associations and not attend college.
lifestudent on Feb 27, 2009
This is a very important point.
Most people phrase the issue as either attending college or getting some boring job and missing out on the "college experience"...
The better model is to not attend college, but to hang around the college town and attend the clubs and associations...and network with the folks that are doing more than just attending classes...these will be your co-founders :)
The real stuff goes on at night when folks are working on their side projects.
The other benefit of this model is that you don't have mountains of debt from tuition...so you're able to take more risks later on.
enra on Feb 27, 2009
I'm 22, soon finished up with first year in Business School and constantly fighting with myself if I have the patience to graduate. I have worked in the web industry since I was 16, done freelancing for couple of years, involved with few startups and currently a co-founder.
I know that I don't necessarily need the degree. For the most part it seems useless. I'm quite sure I could find a job, my financials are not that bad, I could even start a startup, but still feel that I'm not somewhat "ready" or have lucrative options enough to dropout.
My current solution is just to read for the exams and skip most, if not all the classes and work on other things. Good thing is that college education here is basically free, so I'm only loosing some time. But still, most of the time, I dislike everything with institutional education.
quizbiz on Feb 27, 2009
I just feel like sharing:
I am currently a High School senior. I'm three for three as far as colllege acceptances go which makes me feel incredible but I am still unsure where I will be going or how I will pay.
One side of me wants to start a business as soon as possible. Devote my time to fostering the network of websites I own and expanding my web design services to clients. There is plenty of other stuff I do as well, but I don't know if that's a realistic way to go on. I recognize that college will provide structure when I need it and I hope that it will get me to focus.
I wonder what college did for successful entrepreneurs. Rather how to take the most of college as an entrepreneur.
Try college! (If you can afford it.) You don't even know what all the options are yet.
gcheong on Feb 27, 2009
By afford do you mean, can pay for without racking up student loan debt? I don't quite understand the qualification here.
I added that qualification because I know not everyone may be able to afford to go to college, especially in poorer countries. I wouldn't presume to say precisely how much debt one could afford, and on what terms. I just didn't want to seem like I was assuming everyone had the option of going to college.
It's not necessarily an either/or proposition at this point. Without a strong alternative, I would say go to college and continue to work on what you've built so far and keep your eyes and ears open for other opportunities. If something you have takes off or you find a very compelling opportunity and college is conflicting then make a choice at that point.
releasedatez on Feb 27, 2009
I've noticed a trend tho. The dropouts that became successful were dropouts from Ivy League schools. Does that mean people from second tire schools should stay in school and finish their degree?
ido on Feb 27, 2009
Perhaps it means people with a wealthy background have a higher chance of trying to start their own business?
It undoubtedly helps. There're plenty of counterexamples though: Steve & Steve from Apple, for one. And I don't think it's more that they have a higher chance of starting a business, it's more that they have a higher chance of finding the money and time to succeed with their new business.
Also - the elephant in the room is plain old intelligence. Ivy League colleges tend to admit smart people, at least as closely as they can determine (there're always a few doofuses who sneak in, but they are a smaller proportion than at community colleges). Smart people have a higher chance of trying to start their own business, and a higher chance of being successful once they've tried.
vladimir on Feb 27, 2009
Of course, every system of education does not encourage characteristics of good enterpreneurs - independence and thinking differently. They are crerated to produce good workers - those people who will work for enterpreneurs. And I don't think this atricle encourages people to drop out of college - those who have bravity to do this will do it anyway, and others will finish grad school.
djahng on Feb 28, 2009
I just saw Johnny Cupcakes speak at UCSB last night. He's also a college drop out. While there are plenty of college drop out entrepreneurs that are very successful (e.g. Bill Gates), there are also a lot of successful entrepreneurs that are college graduates. An MBA is more debatable.
Why does this topic keep coming up?
The same comments, the same threads, the same post-hoc justification (from all sides), the same faulty logical extrapolation, the refutation of aforementioned, etc., etc., etc.
"Anti"-college people: Hi! You do not need an article on a blog - even a great blog from an expert - to justify your life decisions.
"Pro"-college people: Hi! You do not need to act uncomfortable because you did go to college. What an idea. Where's the defensiveness coming from?
"Try inventing anti-cancer shark-mounted LASERS without college degrees!" / "You sure wouldn't hire a BRAIN SURGEON without a degree!" people: One of these things is not like the other. The kids who bypass university thinking they will strike it rich with a social network for iguanas would not go on to invent anti-gravity boots -- or torts -- if only they'd tough it out thru 4 years in a state school.
Who'd I miss?
Remember, folks, historically speaking, many of the world's greatest minds had no university education in their fields. And a lot of them did, too.
Who the fuck cares?
EDIT: PS: I dropped out of high school at 14. Take that!
As a reasoning for the defensiveness: Each side is basically marginalizing the other. The anticollege people suggest that college is worthless and (occasionally) the people who go there are similar.
The procollege people suggest that people without a degree are lesser or cannot achieve as much because of it.
This leads to both sides feeling attacked, and for them to attack back. What you said is basically true, though. College is a choice which is good for some people, bad for others. Some people excel with the pedagogy, and go far further than they could have on their own. Some subjects require this (or, to turn it around, in some subjects pedagogy is so effective that people without it are at a significant disadvantage). Some, however, do not.
Colleges are important and useful. Some people don't need/want that level of analysis. Some people don't need the help. It's a personal decision.
mannicken on Feb 28, 2009
Exactly. We'll all die anyway :)
chiffonade on Feb 27, 2009
Yeah, well, you don't need a college degree to drink a bunch of booze, have sex with lots of chicks, and do lots of interesting drugs and hang around with interesting people, but it's how most people go about doing those things when they're 18-22 years old.


text:
As part of the Mayor of London's #BehindEveryGreatCity campaign, a statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett was unveiled in Parliament Square in a ceremony attended by the Prime Minister and the Mayor of London.
Following Caroline Criado Perez's campaign, the Mayor of London commissioned Turner Prize-winning artist Gillian Wearing OBE to create the first-ever statue in Parliament Square of a woman.
freuds coordinated tours of AB Fine Art Foundry in East London to observe the making of the statue alongside the event day itself, with hundreds of media and guests in attendance to witness the momentous reveal as a major event in the Mayor of London's #BehindEveryGreatCity campaign.
#BehindEveryGreatCity
London Is Open


text:
Cashman's rave review: Joba in August
As expected, Joba Chamberlain is likely to rejoin the Yankees when the 30-day deadline on his rehab assignment runs out on Aug. 6. GM Brian Cashman told ESPNNewYork.com today that the right-handed reliever "has been doing great'' in his rehab starts and would be back with the team the first week of August if not sooner.
Earlier in the day, Cashman told WFAN, "Joba's out of control. The stuff he's featuring is remarkable. He's as high as 100 (mph) but upwards consistently (at) 96, 97, 98. He looks really good."
Chamberlain underwent both Tommy John surgery and an appendectomy last June, then had a setback in his recovery when he dislocated an ankle jumping on a trampoline with his young son in March.
"He's an amazing guy," Cashman said on WFAN. "He's been hurt, he gets hurt a lot, but then his recovery time is like super-human -- always beats the standard. So yeah, he's due back here shortly. I mean, the worst-case scenario would be the first week of August, but he should be here ahead of that."


text:
Alumasc Group plc is a United Kingdom-based supplier of building and engineering products, with a specialism in sustainable building products designed to manage energy and water use in the built environment. The company is listed on the FTSE Fledgling Index of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker ALU in the construction and materials sector. It was once the biggest beer barrel manufacturer in Britain.

History

The company's original business, Alumasc Limited of Burton Latimer, was in the manufacture of aluminium products. In the 1950s it advertised cast metal beer casks which it claimed were preferred by the brewing industry to wooden casks as being more hygienic, stronger and lower maintenance. In 1960 the firm was taken over by Gold Fields Group. In 1962 it displayed a new type of aluminium beer cask at the Exhibition of Aluminium Goods at the Design Centre in London which was made from pressed sheet aluminium which it claimed was 40% lighter than a die-cast barrel though the company continued to make die-cast products, advertising its expertise in them in the Financial Times in 1970.

1970s
The firm's association with the brewing industry continued into the 1970s when it won an award from the Design Council in 1978 for its Hy-Range Dispense System, which it claimed was the first piece of brewing equipment to win a Design Council award. According to the firm, the equipment enabled the licensed trade to tap and reseal a keg ready for use in seconds.

1980s and 90s
In 1984, the firm's management, led by chairman and chief executive John McCall, bought out the business from Consolidated Gold Fields and by 1986, when it was announced that the firm would be floating on the London Stock Exchange, Alumasc was the biggest beer barrel manufacturer in Britain. The firm ran three divisions at the time, the beer-related products, one making components in a variety of materials for original equipment manufacturers, and another making aluminium building products. In addition, the firm owned Ingersoll Locks which it had acquired from Gold Fields when they decided to concentrate on mining. All had struggled owing to the recession of the early 1980s, particularly the cask business as beer consumption declined, apart from the building products division which had seen strong growth in demand for its aluminium guttering products. The Financial Times noted the varying fortunes of the different divisions and that the majority of the firm's profits still came from the slowest growing part of the firm, the beer-related products.

Profits in the 1980s and 90s were highly variable, first up then down following manufacturing problems with the production of kegs and long period where no orders were placed by customers. The firm continued to be highly dependent on beer related products. In 1995 it agreed to buy the West Midlands engineer Benjamin Priest for £35 million. Profits warnings were made in 1997 and by 1999 the company was loss making.

2000s
In 2006, the company changed its stock market classification from Engineering Products to Construction and Building Products, reflecting the larger size of the building products division. In 2007, Alumasc acquired solar shading firm Levolux.

References

External links

Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Pet Video of the Week: Lady and the Tramp as done by cats?
I thought I'd add a little romance this week because Valentine's Day is next Tuesday.
I love Lady and the Tramp. It is truly a Disney classic. There's romance, even though it's between two dogs. Lady just can't keep herself from falling for Tramp.
When I came across this version, I was truly stunned. It is done with cats. It's cute and will put a smile on your face.
The Vampire Diaries: Doesn't Bonnie deserve some happiness?


text:
You don't have to go for broke to have a good time. The best things in life are free. If you get there, you can enjoy all that a destination has to offer and you don't have to break the bank. Hopefully, these vlogs will inspire you to search for some DEAL$ and hit the road!
Halloween in West Hollywood
Halloween in West Hollywood is more fun than you can fit in your treat bag. Check out FEWDSTAR's vlog full of spooky, scary, and spectacular visuals!
Don't Drink The Beverly!
You will definitely enjoy the world of Coca-Cola in Atlanta but make sure to avoid tasting one of their international beverages!
Christmas Time In The City of New Orleans
New Orleans is not just for Mardi Gras! Check out FEWDSTAR's vlog of a night on the town in New Orleans during the festive and fun holiday season!
The Fremont St. New Year's Eve Experience
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas and it's just as much fun on New Year's Eve. Skip the hassle of Times Square and check out Vegas next December 31st. You won't be disappointed!
After 10 years and two master's degrees, a teacher decides to start over from scratch and pursue a career in writing and blogging. After setting out to write a cookbook and transform his food blog, he soon realizes that starting over from scratch was taking on more than one meaning in life. All at once, his entire life changes both good and bad. Forced to deal with both the greatest challenges and greatest joys of his life, he writes a different kind of book than he had originally planned with hopes to inspire others to take the leap of faith.
Episode 1: Eat, Drink & Be Mary (Part One)
Dennis throws a going away party for Mary, testing his abilities to cook and plan events. As the party begins, he realizes that it may be more work than he expected.
Episode 4: Gifts
Dennis gets an amazing Christmas gift and prepares for the new year which promises new beginnings and new adventures. Trey and Dennis visit Memphis, where they fell in love and create new memories.
Episode 7: Phoenix Rising
The city of Phoenix inspires Dennis and Trey to focus on their dreams, their future, and love but before they can get too settled in, they are forced to separate from one another for the first time in their relationship. Dennis' father illness becomes worse and Dennis is forced to head back east, leaving Trey all alone in a new city.
Episode 10: Inheritance
Dennis finds out that his father's health has taken a turn for the worse. He returns to New Jersey to visit his father, who is being cared for at the family home. As he tries to come to terms with his father's imminent demise, Dennis reflects deeper on the relationships in his family and his relationship with his father.
Episode 13: The Hardest Day (Part 2)
Dennis says goodbye to his father on the hardest day of his life.
Episode 2: Eat, Drink & Be Mary (Part Two)
Dennis realizes that party planning might not be his career move at the present moment but that doesn't stop him from enjoying Mary's going away party. He continues to contemplate his next move as he becomes increasingly jaded about his current profession.
Episode 5: Onward & Upward
Dennis starts the New Year off by trying to mend fences between his estranged parents on the East Coast. He also has to break some news to his father which might reopen old wounds.
Episode 8: No Time to Wine
Dennis needs a break from the hospital and family members while he waits on his father to recover. Being in his hometown for an extended period of time brings back memories and feelings he would rather forget. He takes a trip with his best friend from high school to a local winery to take his mind off everything.
Episode 11: Inheritance (Part 2)
Still energized from L.A., Dennis begins working on a screenplay and attends a casting call. His momentum is stopped when he receives news that he hoped wouldn't come until much later.
Episode 3: Angels & Demons
Dennis recalls his trials and triumphs with as a new beginning starts to take shape. The past seems to collide with the future and before he can move forward he reflects on the angels and demons in his life.
Episode 6: Moves
Dennis and Trey move to Phoenix and say farewell to St. Louis. The move itself provides challenges but the rewards are more than worth all of the hard work.
Episode 9: LA LA Land
Dennis makes what feels like a pilgrimage Los Angeles, CA. As his world around him becomes smaller and his father battles with illness, he escapes to LA LA land, temporarily escaping his own reality and visiting the places he only dreamed of growing up in front of the television set.
Episode 12: The Hardest Day
Dennis prepares himself to bury his father, but no amount of preparation gives him relief. He visits his childhood home and places that bring back childhood memories, further realizing that things will never be the same.
CHOP IT LIKE IT'S HOT
STEAM ANYTIME ON Amazon Fire TV & YouTube!
Check out our vlogs on our all new YouTube channel and come along for the ride, adventure, or recipe!


The Armstrong Farmer's Market has positions open for three, two year director terms.
Are you a vendor? Join the market board of directors and have a say in the direction of the market as it strives to serve vendors, the marketplace and the community. It takes only a few hours a month and you'll be joining an experienced group of enthusiastic and friendly folks happy to welcome you.
To find out details or to throw your hat into the ring please contact info@armstrongfarmersmarket.ca . The election will be held at the Anglican Church Hall on Patterson Avenue in Armstrong at 3:00p.m. March 10 at 3:00p.m. during the Annual General Meeting of the Market Society.
A whole new meaning to the term Bag Ladies.
Need a re-usable shopping bag? Some of the sewers at the Farmer's Market are sewing reusable shopping bags from donated fabric. And they've got the Market logo on them! Just $8.00 each while they last. (We say that because they're selling as fast as we can make them.). From left to right: Grace Walker, Angela Bawtree and Nancy Wilson.
Berry Season. We've got 'em!
June is typically strawberry season.


Lifestyle & Profit - Essential Easy Manufacturing Business That Sets You Up For Life!
Home > Buy a Business > Manufacturing > Lifestyle & Profit - Essential Easy Manufacturing Business That Sets You Up For Life!
…MAKES IT HARD TO GO WRONG!
There can be no better situation for a business to be in than a manufacturer and supplier of products which clients simply must have – even better, most are required by law!
That's partly a testament to the fact that this is a worry-free business that's got the success formula right – it has many can't-do-without products which are targeted to niche markets – and partly due to the nature of the market itself. The South-West is expected to experience automatic ongoing growth which is predicted to continue for the foreseeable future and with the business's customer base being wide and variable makes it even more diverse and secure.
There would be few if any businesses that could offer a Buyer the security of such a large forward order ledger. The business has an extensive forward order ledger which will be transferred to the Buyer on Settlement date. There are also a large number of quotes (awaiting approval) to the value of around $900,000 that have been entered into the new system, with many more legacy quotes from the old system that may also come on stream. There are a further 22 draft quotes in the system to be done, with new quotes being requested each day.
It has an extremely impressive, modern, fully equipped premises incorporating a showroom and display area, offices and well set out organised fabrication workshop. This is located on a main thoroughfare to the local industrial area with prominent businesses to each side. This comes with a relatively low cost monthly rent with a 3+3+3 year lease with plenty of room to double existing turnover.
Unlike the vast majority of businesses offered for sale, the majority (70%) of its 180 (approx.) customers are considered repeat. It has little reliance on any one customer making this a standout business for buyers looking for low risk.
What's more remarkable, this business has achieved this level of sales and growth without a sales force or large advertising budget. In fact, the profit and loss accounts reflect advertising is less than two percent of sales. An extensive website showcases previous work on award-winning completed products together with five-star reviews.
Local in-house production in the Southwest means the company also has a huge competitive edge against Perth-based businesses, as distance to the region prevents them manufacturing products in the time frames required by local customers.
As all products are manufactured in-house, the business is not reliant on outside contractors for this aspect of its operations, effectively giving the business full control and the ability to value-add, meaning improved lead times while also having greater flexibility to cater to a client's specific requirements.
What separates this business from its local competitors is its capacity to undertake major projects, due to a flexible workforce, and its recently acquired state-of-the-art computerised software. The new cloud-based quoting, job creation and scheduling system, which integrates with Xero, means that each team member is working to optimum capacity and all job information is available on their smartphone. Someone with no previous knowledge of the industry can learn it quickly and means the business can be run from anywhere remotely.
Expansion opportunities for this business are unrivalled and diverse. The fact that the business has won orders as far away as Augusta to the south and the Perth metropolitan area proves the business has no boundaries in expanding its works, revenues and thus profits.
Perhaps the greatest expansion potential, however, is in the area currently served. Massive automatic growth is expected in what is already one of the fastest-growing areas in Australia. A recent report on population and housing in the Southwest of WA showed an aspirational population target of 500,000 people by 2050, more than double the "WA Tomorrow" forecast of 230,000 by 2026. With this target, there is a need to provide around 150,000 extra dwellings in the region, placing this business in the ideal position to profit from the population explosion.
This is an industry that seems to know no bounds. It is also one that by virtue of its diversity is difficult to define. At first it too seems difficult to define and to grasp its diversity and potential. It requires deliberate investigation which will no doubt impress the most fastidious buyer.
The target market covers a large demographic with most clients based in the Southwest Coastal area between Bunbury and Augusta, and as a result, it has amassed a 180, loyal client base which generates an exceptional 70 percent repeat order flow since its 13 year established period.
Close to a monopoly, this is also the only local business of its kind in the town with the ability and capacity to take on large commercial orders, and in the past has been successful in fulfilling orders for the Perth Domestic airport expansion. Having many reputable previous orders to reference gives this business a strong advantage in securing larger commercial orders, showing it has a proven track record and the capability of delivering products on time and on budget.
Its ultra-modern premises give the company room for expansion in its manufacturing capacity to comfortably increase production output capacity by some 200 percent, which would also allow for increasing its field staff by a similar amount with minimal capital outlay.
With its future driven by the South West's growth and industries it serves, the business is virtually assured of continued growth in revenue and profits with minimal advertising.
The business is highly successful because it supplies essential security products and has established a reputation for reliability and diversity under one roof in the fast-growing south-west region of the state.
The business's comparatively low overheads also make it difficult for competitors to win business on price alone.
Employing just two full-time staff and casuals when required – allows the wages bill to scale up and down with demand – this is a business which is easily learned (especially given the vendor is offering an extensive post-settlement handover period) and easily managed.
All staff, including regular casuals, are cross-trained. Some have been with the company for 10 years and all have many years of experience in the field. The owner's duties involve only administrative, financial and overseeing which currently occupy approximately 35 to 45 hours per week.
…and no doubt be a business you'll keep forever!!
A genuine serious medical condition forces the sales of the superb manufacturing business.
SO, THERE YOU HAVE IT! – A business that will not only offer you extremely low risk with its essential products required by law but is unique in having low competition topped off with locked in bonus forward orders for the new buyer to take advantage of.
Note – the business report is close to being finalised, so it is important to register your interest to avoid disappointment. Be the first to get our 100-page business profile puts you in pole position to get rid of your money worries once and for all!
This Will Be Extremely Hard To Beat meaning; "this is a business you'll keep forever!"
Use these figures only as a guide.
Please contact your own financial institution for more detailed information.


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Expedition Update: An Epic Horseman
Bandits and brigands who were ever creative would often strike not at or after the crossing of a pass but rather in the valleys leading to the great passes, where escape routes were numerous and sightlines blurred and blocked. Mountain Passes on the other hand were rarely used to stage such attacks. For so many reasons the passes are special: they are sacred, they are high, they are the dwelling places of deities, they host winds that rip and inspire, they are a small success on routes that were often beyond daunting.
The epic man in action securing a load. His was a face that brought a smile to us regularly.
Ladakh, who's meaning is literally "Land of Passes" is a place where one has to travel over the mountains' V-shaped passes. And for that we need a horseman…and we get one.
Sadanand had a way of convincing others to assist. Here we have our veggies loaded by a friend of Sadanand's upon departure.
We now move as a team of six through one of these famed 'valleys of thieves' with Kaku, Karma, Tashi, Michael, myself and a hunched man of deep furrows and lines edging ever closer to the Parang La Pass. This man who is bent by years of mountains' attentions wears a traditional Kullu wool cap and is, I think, perhaps a minor version of the 'toughest man in the world'. At of 65 our horseman seems like someone who should be resting, but instead he wears a pair of white Croc sandals, woolen socks, pants, two pairs of long underwear, grunts an unending stream of unintelligible garble (no one fully understands his words) and uses the layering system I'm familiar with for his torso.
Wool…a commodity like few others. Only salt and tea can claim such 'fame' along the trade routes.
A hand-woven woolen vest of turquoise, a shirt, and under that two more long-sleeved shirts. He is a small package of indestructibility who has a slightly reckless look about him…apart from an immaculately kept thin moustache above his lip. In short, he is perfection. He wouldn't be out of place in a dozen countries in the world, so powerful is his universality to me and it is these kinds of characters that add immeasurably to a journey.
A descent that needed every second of attention as we plunged down…and further down. The mules, led by our man Sadanand were inspiring.
Our mules have grunted and farted their way down a tight series of switchbacks and now we're in a gorge that roars with yet another glacial river. We've had to cross, re-cross, and cross again as the swollen waters have eaten their way up the valley walls and swallowed the pathways. There simply aren't alternatives to making it through the waters other than getting wet.
At his best…Sadanand going on about some ancient tale of the mountains.
So, with a particularly risky crossing in front of us, our horseman, Sadanand (we called him both Sadanand and Salman) sits down, strips off his pants and long-johns and gets down into his skivvies without a moment of consideration. His woolen socks and Crocs remain on and he commences his crossing. Earlier I had asked him about when he'd put his boots on and he responded in his grunting broken English "When we get to the snow". The word "awesome" gets thrown around in my opinion where it often doesn't belong…but this man of iron fully reserves the right to be termed "awesome". He is a rare commodity.
The senses must contend with paying attention to every metre of rock below the feet, and the stunning sights that assault from every angle
Leading his favored mule first, old Sadanand pushes through the ice-cold currents with no hesitation. His short legs are hairless, powerful and bowlegged, but this combination seems to have created wonderfully powerful little engine that propels him through anything. Michael in seconds is grimacing and screaming that his feet were numb while our horseman seems singularly immune. The water is at a temperature that makes me wonder how it isn't frozen. It bludgeons the bones of the feet and at times seems as though it is going to pulverize the very nerve endings in the lower legs. Meanwhile Sadanand and his ancient legs simply burrow forward. Using a series of whistles, screams, and bellows he urges the mules to follow. They seemed to hesitate but eventually decide that the old grizzled warrior who led them was also the man who'd be most likely to feed them at the end of the day. Mind you, he isn't adverse to slapping the mules right on the snout when needed with a few words of abuse added on for extra colour.
One of Sadanand's classic 'looks'…best with a hint of a smile
Our team has carefully moved, hopped, and edged through the valley and it is here, deep beneath the pass to the north of us that bandits struck regularly. While the fear of bandits has dissipated the risks of weather haven't. Flash floods that streak and pummel their way down would annihilate us in seconds, landslides would snap and cut down a caravan with horrifying results, but the days of human intervention are no more. Bandits were as much a part of the trade routes as the mules themselves but now only the environment and the elements remain to flex their very significant muscles.
Some of the snouts of our mules that patiently endured Sadanand…and us
Sadanand and Tashi have an oddly wonderful relationship, which develops daily in tiny bursts. Tashi usually looks for options that are considered and practical when traveling, whereas in a seemingly bizarre reversal of "the older one gets the more logical one becomes', Sadanand usually goes with the first or most direct option, which is often a risk-ridden choice. We've realized that he doesn't like being told anything if it is said in the wrong tone. Tashi though is a master of soft-spoken logic and usually can convince Sadanand with soft coo's and a minimum of fuss. I say usually because there are still times when our grizzled horseman isn't to be convinced of other's words and he simply marches off to the bemused appreciation of the rest of the team.
Sadanand strips down…
Horseman I've noticed over the years, are quixotic blends of toughness, insecurity, and wonderful abilities who don't need much, but they absolutely do need respect and the odd pat on the back lest they feel taken for granted. They are however, one of the vital components still of travel through the mountains. The are the first up, the last to eat, usually lonely to a degree (unless they can sing all night), and do not like being questioned on "why" they've decided to go a particular route or travel at a particular speed.
An ice-cold dip as we head upstream
Sadanand comes from an area known for traders and horseman called Kinnaur, yet another valley with its own history of routes. He has been working in the mountains, he tells us for 52 years, since he was a young boy. He's also developed a way of communicating with his 'minions'. Gruff and seemingly abusive to the mules, he actually is far more gentle than he'd like anyone to believe. He often talks to the various mules individually and there are times where I sense in them a kind of gentle tolerance to this man whose arms and abilities might not be quite what they once were. When he ties the loads the mules often look back at him with a kind of dismay as though asking him "is that as tight as you can manage"?
Another plunging descent
Sadanand has gotten into the habit of using Karma and Kaku to assist in the tying…and in everything else. One morning of note, we awake to find the mules gone. They'd left to find other grazing during the night. Sadanand's line face smoldered briefly as he swore into the winds and pulled his over-sized pants on. His little hunched figure ploughing off into the winds stayed in the mind, while the rest of us inhaled more tea and spared a thought for him…and for the mules when Sadanand finds them.
We've doubled our daily travel distances in an effort to maximize time but for all of desires to push forward, the ultimate decision makers are the 6 four-legged mules. Our camps must have grazing for them and there are no forces around that can change this fact. Sadanand has an important role in our decision making as well. As much as we'd love to make entirely selfish decisions, the concept of a 'team' is sacrosanct. He and the mules are as vital to our journey as any.
Some of nature's reckless and impulsive beauty thrown in
Trade items, which included items far beyond simply wool, salt, and tea, passed through these very valleys. As one trader we had met clarified, "Anything that was needed was traded using the barter system. Luxury items were not important. What was important was what was needed". He emphasized the success of the barter system and the need for honour amongst trading parties.
Barley, wheat, horses, and leather goods were sent north to the Chantang area which is a vast region spanning India's northern Himalaya region and east into the grand expanses of the nomads in Tibet. Salt and wool would come south. Pashmina (known locally as lèna), and salt from the high mountain salt lakes were the main commodities coming off of the Tibetan Plateau.
There are often times during our trek days when I simply stare at the pathways that are still visible but rarely used, and wonder at what has come before us. Hooves moving with loads of goods, but also ideas, DNA, news, and trends passed to and fro.
Camp before the Parang Pass is made upon a small and very temporary island. I wonder at the wisdom of camping upon a swath of land that in milliseconds could be flooded in a wave of ice water from above. There is little choice though as unless we are prepared to add another four hours of trekking to the next acceptable camp for the mules.
That evening we're treated to Sadanand's off-tune hymns and a rather brutal case of gas that he's acquired. We hope its nothing permanent, for a number of reasons as we all have a long ascent tomorrow and don't wish to be downwind of an ailing and flatulent Sadanand.
A fitting end to a day
#HimalayanExpedition #Therouteofwindandwool #Himalayantravel #Horseman #IndiaHimalaya #Parangla #JeffFuchs
Tea Horse Road Chronicles Part 2 - Coming Snow
Intuition, Water, and Tales from a Boy
Live Chat with Michael Kleinwort and Kora this Wednesday April 15th at 16:00 PST


The BDSS Co. Dancers is an award winning dance team that offers young dancers the opportunity to develop positive self esteem, confidence, accountability, and leadership through dance. Here at BDSS we strive to further our dancers potential, while maintaining age appropriate routines and costumes. We encourage our dancers to do their best and make improvements throughout the competition season, but most of all to have fun and grow through fellowship. The competition team is instructed by Becky Robinson, Danielle Leslein and Scott Benson.
The BDSS Co. Dancers consists of dancers in mini, junior, teen and senior age divisions. The Co. Dancers compete in recreational to intermediate skill divions with dance numbers in tap, musical theatre, lyrical, ballet, contemporary and jazz categories.
2017-2018 BDSS Company Dancers team consist of 13 dancers ranging from 6 – 17 years of age. There were three National competitions attended through the summer by various team members.
Platinum National Dance Competition – National Finals in Panama City Beach, FL was held at the Marina Civic Center from June 12 – 17, 2017. The 11 BDSS team members that competed there were Baylee Mendheim, Kailyn Newsome, Mya Mason, Lauri Thigpen, Kaitlyn Hutchinson, Melana Webb, Allie Wilkerson, Jade Plummer, MaryKate Brooks, Caibre Johnson, Erin Jarvis. The team qualified for Platinum NDC in Daytona at the regional level on May 19 – 20. In addition, they also competed at the regional level this year at Fusion National Dance & Inspire National Dance.
BDSS competed at the Recreational Level with 16 entries in the categories of tap, musical theatre, lyrical, contemporary and jazz. The entry types were nine Solos, five Duet/Trios, and two Small Groups taught by instructors Becky Robinson, Danielle Leslein and Scott Benson. There were 811 entries during the 6 day event.
Platinum awards were given to BDSS Soloists - Mya Mason, Allie Wilkerson, and Caibre Johnson; Group and Duet/Trios receiving Platinum awards were tap numbers performed by Junior Team members Allie Wilkerson, Jade Plummer, Kaitlyn Hutchinson, Melana Webb and by Teen Team members Caibre Johnson, Erin Jarvis and MaryKate Brooks. Junior Team's tap dance "Razzle Dazzle" placed 6th overall in the junior recreational small group division. Teen Team placed 2nd overall for tap performance "Trickle, Trickle" and 3rd overall for musical theatre performance "Anything Goes" in teen recreational duo/trios division. Soloist Allie Wilkerson was invited to perform at Platinum's Invitational competition held in Charleston, SC following her performance in Daytona. Soloist Caibre Johnson also received a Judges Choice award for "Perfect Character" and placed 7th overall in her division which had 18 entries.
Gold awards were given to soloists Baylee Mendheim, Kaitlyn Hutchinson, Melana Webb, Jade Plummer, MaryKate Brooks and Erin Jarvis; Duet/Trios performed by Petite team members Lauri Thigpen, Kailyn Newsome, Mya Mason; Teen team members Caibre Johnson, Erin Jarvis and Mary Kate Brooks; Small group jazz number performed by Allie Wilkerson, Jade Plummer, Kaitlyn Hutchinson and Melana Webb also received a gold award.
Fusion National Dance competition was attended by team members Brittany Edwards and Savanna Edwards in Daytona Beach, FL from June 22 – 25, 2017. Brittany and Savanna competed at the Intermediate Level with 6 entries in the categories of lyrical, contemporary and jazz. The entry types were 2 Solos each and 2 Duet/Trios which were choreographed by Scott Benson. Soloist Brittany Edwards was awarded High Gold for both of her solos. Her sister and fellow soloist Savanna Edwards received Gold for each of her solos. They also performed 2 duets which were awarded a High Gold and Gold.
Inspire National Dance competition was attended by team members Brittany Edwards and Savanna Edwards in Savanna, GA from June 27 – July 1, 2017. Brittany and Savanna performed the same 6 dances. Soloist Brittany Edwards was awarded High Gold and Gold. Her sister and fellow soloist Savanna Edwards received Platinum for her two solos and High Score for her jazz number. They performed 2 duets which were awarded a Platinum and Gold award, as well as a Showmanship award for their jazz number. The girls, chosen as All Stars at regionals for Inspire, concluded their week by performing in the All Stars dance during the Crystal Showcase.


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Blaq Carrie Musashi Freestyle
A.Saxon Pacific Deep
Gig Photos
Interview with rapper/producer Dawn Laird
Newcastle rapper and producer Dawn Laird drops new single Marla Hooch, which is a homage to her fellow ladies who are often overlooked despite being worthy of taking room in spaces. Rappfox speaks to Dawn about her love of Hip Hop, moving into rapping and making her debut album Doreen, which is named after her late grandmother.
Hey Dawn, thanks for taking time out for this interview. Tell me how you got into Hip Hop.
I don't really remember a time I wasn't into rap. I was a hardcore Janet Jackson fan growing up and she had some great feature rappers on her songs like Chuck D and MC Lyte and Q Tip. I remember being really young and hearing Chuck D's verse on a Janet song called New Agenda and playing it over and over until I had the lyrics down. So Janet probably lead me to rap but being a kid in the late 90s/early 00's we were spoiled with so much amazing hip hop music so artists like Tribe and The Fugees and Biggie definitely kept me there. By the time I was 15 I'd found a group of friends who also loved hip hop so it became life pretty much.
And when did you realise you wanted to rap?
I never really wanted to rap actually, I wanted to make beats and produce. I started off with a program called EJay and was on that 24/7. But when Lauryn [Hill] 's Miseducation [of Lauryn Hill] came out I just got really inspired and started penning thoughts. So from then on I was like I'm gonna rap and produce. I was also listening to a tonne of rapper/producers like El-P, RZA, Kanye and Lauryn and rapper/producer crews like the [Hilltop] Hoods, Funkoars and EPMD. I was about 20 when I first got on the mic.
I love the reference to the film 'A League of Their Own', it was one of my favourite films growing up. Geena Davis is so tough in it and just the feisty attitudes of the women. What inspired you to make the song with this theme?
A League of Their Own was one of my favourite movies growing up. I was comfort watching it one night and just got to thinking about what a boss Marla [Hooch] is and how, despite being an insane hitter, she almost didn't make it into the team because she didn't look the part. That resonates with me A LOT. I had this beat that I'd made and had no idea where to take it song wise and the Marla hook just kind of came to me. I don't think I was consciously trying to do a Shabba Ranks thing but when I realised it had that mood I was like YES.
Have there been moments in the Hip Hop scene where you feel you were bypassed for being a woman?
Yeah definitely, but not in a really long time. I almost don't even wanna look back now cos it felt like pushing shit up a hill and I did my time in that cesspool of dicks. That's not to say the work is done but I think it's at a point now where we're occupying way more space than ever before, the quality is top notch and we're diverse as fuck so the 'female rapper' archetypes are dissipating. I still get disappointed when I look at streaming platform playlists but I don't know enough to speak on that editorial stuff. Overall though I'm really excited about where things are at.
You produced the track and wrote your own lyrics, what was the process making the song?
I'd made the beat first and was pretty clueless as to what to do with it. Everything I was coming up with was really vanilla and I knew it deserved something more. So I just sat on it for a while (like months) and then that's when I was watching A League of Their Own and the Marla thing came to me. From there it wrote itself in no time. That's often the process for me.
You will be releasing your debut album, Doreen, at some point this year. What is the inspiration behind the album?
I recorded a lot of these songs when I was living in Port Macquarie. I moved there to be closer to my grandparents who had gone into an age care facility. They played a huge role in my life and it was really important to me that I maximised the time I spent with them because I knew I didn't have long. I decided to name the album Doreen, my grandmothers name, because recording it wrapped up close to when she passed and she played such a huge role in my early love for music. While I don't think she'd have approved of some of the content, I'm okay with that dissonance now. The songs are about me but I'm confident they wouldn't exist in the first place without her influence throughout my life.
And what has been the process of making the album? Have you also produced the album too?
The process of making the album was long because I lived 5 hours from my mix engineer in Sydney. It took a good while to get it all down and mix. I'd finish work on a Friday afternoon, drive to Newcastle and stay the night, drive to Sydney on the Saturday morning then drive home on Sunday. The writing itself was piecemeal too because I didn't want to force anything. After stressing for so long about getting something out I decided not to care anymore because I could feel serious burnout coming in so I just let it be what it was and stopped worrying about optics. It's made for a much better body of work. As for production, of the 10 songs, I produced 6 and co-produced 3. Other than myself it features production by Jayteehazard (Newcastle), Calski (Brisbane) and Sparra (Newcastle).
What's next for Dawn Laird?
If I survive the superbug, more music!
Check out the track Marla Hooch above or on Spotify and follow Dawn Laird on her socials - Facebook, Instagram, Twitter & Soundcloud.


Ticketmaster provided online ticket sales, call centre services, marketing and promotional support, plus box offices at the event and access control. To enhance the smooth running of the event each year and to share ideas and exchange feedback, the team ensured they worked closely with the event partner at all times.
Due to the ongoing partnership with the client, it was important to ensure consistency in approach and therefore the overall project team at Ticketmaster has been maintained each year. The various teams supporting this event includes client services, marketing, sales, event services and product, lead by the project manager Elisabeth Volkers and our in-house equestrian expert Anna Montgomerie.
Multiple events across many different venues will always present a challenge for both the client, its partners and the ticket buyers. It was therefore critical that Ticketmaster ensured that the point of purchase was made simple, clear and concise to ensure a smooth purchase journey for fans. The team also took great care to ensure that the needs of club members' and local residents in close proximity to the venue were met. As the event naturally develops and elements change each year, it was important for the team to exercise great attention to detail and flexibility to find solutions to every challenge that was presented.
Ticketmaster has a long-standing expertise in the equestrian industry and an experienced and passionate team that know and love the sport inside out. With the knowledge, tools and data science required, the task of identifying existing and new fans of the sport is made easier which in turn helps to expand the sport's popularity and grow the client's business further.
As a result of the popularity of the sport in Germany, in particular, the team worked with the client to develop a special branded gift card which was available to purchase online.
The team also worked with the client to develop a special Valentine's Day promotion that gave fans the option to purchase two discounted tickets and receive a voucher to collect a bottle of sparkling wine and two glasses at the event. This was not only popular with the fans but also gave the wine producer, Henkell & Co. Sektkellerei, a sponsor of the event, brand awareness and close association with the PfingstTurnier.
2018 was the most successful year in the 82 year history of the event which saw a record 66,000 visitors attend the event proving a successful ongoing partnership between Ticketmaster and the client.