Developing a successful career in 3D animation is a challenge for anyone, but it's been especially true for Salif Eric N'diaye. He's had to overcome many barriers to get where he is today as a thriving freelance 3D animator in Paris, France where he currently works for many Paris ad agencies on high-profile accounts like Samsung Galaxy SII, Peugeot, L'Oreal, Ford C-Max, Lucky Strike, AC/DC headphones, Europcar and Mobalpa.
For starters, when this West Africa (Ivory Coast) native first discovered his passion for 3D animation, there were no real opportunities in his homeland. At that time, it wasn't like he could just enroll in a local 3D animation school or become an intern at a computer graphics firm and hope to get discovered.
He did manage to get his foot on a bottom rung by studying desktop publishing and becoming a trainee at a communications agency in Dakar, Senegal. While he had the full support of his family, whenever he shared his passion for a career in 3D animation with friends, he often heard, "To do that kind of job, you need to study Fine Arts or be an excellent designer." This was discouraging to him because he didn't feel he had those skills. And one professional colleague at the Senegal agency essentially told him that 3D animation was not a realistic career goal and that he was wasting his time pursuing it.
Motivated to prove everyone wrong, he set out to learn 3D animation on his own, initially using 3ds Max and watching video tutorials online. Within a year, he found himself presenting his first professional project, a 3D animation of a telephone to a communications company in Senegal.
"All of this triggered in me a desire to go further," said Salif Eric. "Since there was no school offering 3D training in Senegal, I packed my bags and went to France where I spent two years studying 3D animation." It was here—at a NewTek Certified Center in France—that he became familiar with LightWave 3D animation and just fell in love with this software. He had finally transitioned from a young boy fascinated by cartoons and videogames like Tomb Raider to a 3D animator capable of doing professional level 3D animation work.
"Now, five years later, LightWave's become my tool of choice," he said. "The logic of this software and its creative possibilities seduced me and still amaze me today." However, he recounts that his first impression of LightWave paled in comparison to his early exposure to 3ds Max's colorful user interface and completely different layout.
"If 3dsMax was in my eyes a pleasant application to use, with colorful buttons and images meant to identify each option, LightWave's interface—with its pastel colors and the separation between the Modeler and Layout—seemed rather complex and even disturbing at first," Salif Eric explained. But once he recognized LightWave's ability to realize his creative vision, the seduction was complete.
While LightWave is Salif Eric's tool of choice, this is not the case with many of the French ad agencies he works for. Being a freelancer in France forces the individual artist to be on his own, Salif Eric says. This is because the local communications agencies and 3D studios unfortunately, rarely if ever use LightWave. 90% of the professional projects he's worked on to date have been as an independent contractor to advertising agencies. And due to his confidentiality agreements with the agencies, he's not at liberty to discuss the details of those projects.
There is, however, one recent project he can share: a 3D animation for UNICEF, for which he was hired by Paris-based agency, Studio 555Lab. The mission was to create a Paris floating in the sky with flying machines carrying dolls. For this project, Salif Eric used LightWave to design flying objects in a steampunk style as well as modeling and texturing them. For inspiration and a strong creative foundation, he drew upon a variety of images he found online for reference.
The 3D animation services Salif Eric provides range from simply executing concepts developed by ad agencies to complete end-to-end project management on behalf of his clients. "Very often, I can work from home, and whenever I do, I'm free to work with LightWave," Salif Eric said. "A key advantage to LightWave is that it can be run on a very modest hardware platform." His home set-up consists of two Windows workstations running LightWave 11.6, with Intel (i7), 16GB of RAM and ATI 3D cards. But, he continues, "There are times when I have to go into the agency to work on site with their creative team, especially when projects require creative collaboration or when the assets themselves are very confidential," Salif Eric said.
The work he's done for his big agency accounts have largely been 3D animations of products; for example photo-realistic 3D products spotlighted and slowly spinning in 3D space, many of which are now on his current show reel. His demo reel features a wide range of consumer electronics gear like phones and headphones, as well as shoes, colognes, cars, a drum, and a prop plane. The 3D objects are richly textured with chrome, leather, plastics, metals and other surfaces carefully lit to cast gleams, glints, reflections and shadows. The overall impression is one of appealing photorealism designed to entice people to buy the products.
Lately, many queries for his services have come from the architecture industry, including the need for modeling, animation and rendering of objects and/or scenes, and so his skill set is continually expanding. But, regardless of the type of 3D project he's asked to work on, he's dogged by certain challenges that most 3D animators face: time constraints, budget constraints, and client expectations that exceed what can be done given the timeframe and budget. Nevertheless, the new workflow enhancements in LightWave 11.6 make it easy to streamline the process and quickly show clients imagery they're happy with.
Much of Salif Eric's work is centered on 3D modeling and rendering, so the LightWave features he uses the most are Modeler, the 3D lighting and radiosity tools, and the Viewport Renderer (VPR). He finds LightWave's Modeler particularly powerful. Among the many sophisticated 3D modeling tools he relies on are: Extender, which allows him to extrude edges or faces; the glue band for reducing the number of polygons on the object; Multishift, which allows him to extrude numerically; Band Saw Pro, which is beneficial for adding edge lines on a series of polygons; and the nodal system for adding textures with very precise results.
The VPR is then indispensable for evaluating the results of 3D lighting, shading and other illumination in the scene, and the rendering engine is advantageous for accelerating the rendering process. He also occasionally uses other LightWave tools, such as Instancing, Flocking, Bullet and the Genoma rigging system.
Now that Salif Eric's 3D animation career has become a reality, he is interested in helping others achieve this dream, especially budding talent in the African market. He sees tremendous potential for developing new talent in Africa as well as a distinctive animation style that's unique to Africa.
In the future, Salif Eric would like to establish a studio of his own and further develop and perfect his skills on 3D animation projects for television, film and new media outlets. As part of this goal, he'd like to help develop and support talented people seeking to enter the 3D/CG field in Africa, perhaps through the creation of new training centers or through a direct mentorship where young talent could benefit from his years of experience.


A film about two worlds and their different relationship to one raw material; about markets, working conditions, human beings and interdependence. A case study about cotton farmers in a Tanzanian village - and about the speculators, consumers and workers overseas. The film shows the background of our daily uniform - "blue jeans" and expresses the hopes of the poor farmers of Mbogo for a better international economic order.


You should know that the use of the barcode systems is crucial for the developer activities. It is one of the systems that have lots of areas of applications.
Getting the proper sort of the barcode software at your operations you can have an easy time regularly reading the QR. If you need some accurate results, you will have the best system at your help. For your images and other scans, you can be sure of having the accurate results just the way it should be.
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text:
Q: Lock-free job queue with arbitrary job arguments Currently I'm using Microsoft's Concurrency::concurrent_queue class to distribute work across cores. The worker threads pull work from this queue. I have multiple job producers (but if really necessary, I can live with just one producer).
A job object is currently implemented like this:
struct Job
{
    void(*function_pointer)(void*); // Job function (used to execute the task)
    void* arguments;    // Job arguments (gets passed to the job function)
};

As you can see, this system requires that the job producer allocates memory for each job's arguments and keeps it allocated till the job is finished. That's exactly what I'm trying to get rid of, because it's annoying and error-prone. Of course I could replace the void* arguments; with something like int argument;. But my jobs have arbitrary numbers and types of arguments.
A simple solution would be to replace void* arguments; with something like this:
char* arguments;    // Points to byte buffer that contains the arguments.

and then allocate memory for each job's arguments by calling new (which gets deleted automatically when the job is finished). While this would work, an allocation per job would be bad for performance.
I thought about using a circular buffer (for storing the callbacks and arguments of all the jobs), but I couldn't find any implementation that can handle arbitrarily sized elements in a lock-free fashion.
In short, I want to be able to do something like this:
struct Job_arguments
{
    int argument1;
    char argument2;
    float argument3;
};
Job_arguments arguments(1, 2, 3.0f);
job_system->add_job(&callback, arguments); // Arguments get copied.

I hope the explanation of my problem was clear. If not, I can elaborate.
EDIT:
Sorry if I wasn't clear. I'm trying to get rid of the Concurrency::concurrent_queue to replace it with something that causes no allocations (like a circular buffer). The jobs should also be stored in a way that causes no allocations to occur.

A: Have you met std::function<void()>?
It type erases any invokable object.  To bundle the arguments, just make a lambda [=]{ some_function( some_arguments ); } and pass it to std::function<void()>.
For efficiencies sake, move in, and only the one allocation is done.  Hopefully try_pop is written reasonably and the destination is moved into.
Use [=] to capture, as [&] capture is dangerous.  If you need a buffer, you can easily [=] copy the pointer in, then manually delete (dangerous and error prone), use C++14 style capture lists and owning buffers ([buff=std::move(buff),=]), or write your own custom object with its own operator().
[=] can be mildly dangerous, because it silently captures everything mentioned, so you could list the variables you want to capture by value instead [var1, var2, var2].
Concurrency::concurrent_queue< std::function< void() > > safe_queue;

// add to queue a call to `hello( some_string, some_int )`

void hello_to_queue( std::string some_string, int some_int ) {
  safe_queue.push( [=]{ hello(some_string, some_int); } );
}

this copies some_string and some_int into the lambda, moves the lambda into the std::function<void()>, then stores that std::function<void()> in the queue.
// dequeuer, runs elements until it cannot find any more:
void try_run() {
  std::function<void()> f;
  while(safe_queue.try_pop(f)) {
    f();
    f = nullptr;
  }
}

this repeatedly tries to extract std::function<void()>s from the queue.  Each time it succeeds, it runs the extracted function.  It then recycles the memory before trying to fill the std::function again, because why not do it early and not inside concurrent code.
Naturally a real use case involves signals etc.
A std::function<?> stores how to invoke the stored object, and any storage for the object.
A lambda can capture whatever values you want, and expose some code to be invoked.
Together they let you store "run this with no more arguments at some later time", store that in your concurrent queue, and run it in another thread.
std::function implementations can use SBO for small captured data cases to eliminate any allocation.  Move-expressions in lambda captures can prevent copying of any owned buffers (like std::string or std::vector or std::unique_ptr).  In a decent quality implementation of std function, the captured data is stored along side the type erasure pimpl, so it will match your manual implementation's efficiency.  As it uses RAII to own the data, there is no risk of leaks.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Lorraine works as a coach at the University of Bath and as a masseur.
Lorraine had a disc removed from her back and missing nearly two years of competition before returning in April 1998.
Having competed for Ireland at discus in 1992, Lorraine (whose mother is Irish and father Jamaican) opted for British nationality in 1993.


Book The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement: Linking Strategy and Operational Excellence to Achieve Superior Performance [MP3 AUDIO] by Jeffrey K. Liker Fully free!
Section One: Using the Plan-Do-Check-Adjust (PDCA) methodology, Liker and Franz contrast true PDCA thinking to that of the popular, superficial approach of copying "lean solutions." They describe the importance of developing people and show how the Toyota Way principles support and drive continuous improvement. Explaining how lean systems and processes start with a purpose that provides a true north direction for all activities, they wrap up this section by examining the glaring differences between building a system of people, processes, and problem- solving that is truly lean versus that of simply trying to "lean out" a process.
Section Two: This section brings together seven case studies as told by the sensei who led the transformation efforts. The companies range from traditional manufacturers, overhaul and maintenance of submarines, nuclear fuel rod production, health care providers, pathology labs, and product development. Each of these industries is different but the approaches used were remarkably similar.
Section Three: Beginning with a composite story describing a company in its early days of lean implementation, this section describes what went right and wrong during the initial implementation efforts. The authors bring to light some of the difficulties the sensei faces, such as bureaucracies, closed-minded mechanical thinking, and the challenges of developing lean coaches who can facilitate real change. They address the question: Which is better, slow and deep organic deployment or fast and broad mechanistic deployment? The answer may surprise you. The book ends with a discussion on how to make continuous improvement a way of life at your company and the role of leadership in any lean transformation.
The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement is required reading for anyone seeking to transcend his or her tools-based approach and truly embrace a culture of continuous improvement.
Dr. Jeffrey K. Liker is Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan and principle of Optiprise, Inc. Dr. Liker has authored or co-authored over 75 articles and book chapters and nine books. He is author of the international best-seller, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer, McGraw-Hill, 2004 which speaks to the underlying philosophy and principles that drive Toyota's quality and efficiency-obsessed culture. The companion (with David Meier) The Toyota Way Fieldbook, McGraw Hill, 2005 details how companies can learn from the Toyota Way principles. His book with Jim Morgan, The Toyota Product Development System, Productivity Press, 2006, is the first that details the product development side of Toyota. He is doing a series of books focused on each of the 4Ps. The first books are (with David Meier), Toyota Talent: Developing exceptional people the Toyota Way (May, 2007) and (with Michael Hoseus) Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way (January, 2008). His articles and books have won eight Shingo Prizes for Research Excellence and The Toyota Way also won the 2005 Institute of Industrial Engineers Book of the Year Award and 2007 Sloan Industry Studies Book of the Year. He is a frequent keynote speaker and consultant. Recent clients include Hertz, Caterpillar, AMD, Android, Areva, Rio Tinto Mining, Tenneco Automotive, Jacksonville Naval Air Depot, US Airforce Material Command, Johnson Controls, Harley Davidson, Eaton, and Fujitsu Technical Services.


text:
Offshoring business in India is getting bigger not by the day, but the hour. Consultancy and offshoring company Accenture on Wednesday announced India as most active developing market, playing a key role in its global delivery model and network.
The expansion had been so rapid that the company doubled the size of their workforce to 11,000 in the past year said Mr Joe W Forehand, chairman of Accenture, who is on a visit to India.
The company's Indian employees today constitute 10% of the 1,06,000 workforce worldwide and "we might move in internal functions to India, like HR, knowledge management capabilities and financials.
We continue to see demand and will leverage the talented people here to expand our operations," he added.
He said the BPO operations have risen in the past few years along with the rise of headcount in the segment. "BPO gives great opportunity for vertical expansion as it is fast expanding sector."
Accenture has its delivery centres in various countries. Apart from India, which is the most aggressively growing, centres in the Philippines and China are growing rapidly. "Though the growth there is not as aggressive as India," said Mr Forehand.
He said, "The areas where we enter for making deals we get only 2% competition and we bag around 87% of them. These deals are SAP and Oracle-based solutions and are between $1million and $25 million in size."
Last year revenues of the company were $13.7 billion out of which 35% was contributed by outsourcing and the remaining by consultancy. According to Mr Stephen Rohlder, COO of Accenture, "The growth in Apac region was 11%, whereas in the US it was 23% in the first quarter this year, but the main growth came from Japan and Australia.
News Source : The Economic Times
India's outsource industry poised to grow in 2005
by Staff Correspondent on December 31, 2004 03:57AM (EST)
India's fledging outsourcing industry is poised to grow by 40 percent in year 2005 as the country's information technology industry continues to impress the world with its low-cost, high quality service.
According to a study by India's software industry, outsourcing will continue to grow and will bring in $20 billion in revenue in the coming three years.
India's offshore companies survived a major scare. They feared that if elected, John Kerry would have pulled the plug on outsourcing. But with Bush's reelection, India's outsourcing industry looks secure, at least for another four years.
A study by the AMR research says that up to 15 percent of IT jobs required by U.S-based companies will be performed in India by 2010, helping the U.S economy to create investments worth $30 billion per year.
The study said the cost savings from offshore outsourcing would create an additional $30 billion per year in new investments for U.S companies. By then, the Indian IT labor force will be larger than 3 million, and half of the workers will be performing jobs for U.S companies.
India Inc. is delivering high-value, low-cost services. While Indian providers struggle to understand all the intricacies of the U.S. and European markets, a focus on process, quality, and low cost will make them hard to beat in the long term.
Reference: http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041220-121530-2354r.htm
Unisys to invest $180 mn in India operations
by Staff Correspondent on March 29, 2005 01:40AM (EST)
Unisys Corporation, the US-based global IT services and solutions firm, plans to invest $180 million (Rs. 810 million) to expand its operations in India, including its headcount, over the next five years.
The expansion plans include the setting up of another development centre in India, which will be in addition to the existing global services centre in Bangalore, with 150 software professionals currently.
The $6-billion technology firm also has long-term partnerships with Cartior, Hexaware, NIIT and Tata Infotech for outsourcing its IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) services.
The four partners have collectively 500 people dedicated to Unisys projects across the verticals, including banking and financial services, transportation (airlines), government and public sector and media.
News Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/
Outsourcing and its causes
Outsourcing is getting the work done from other country due to various advantages. The outsourcing can not only be of software or done by only BPO's as largely known today, but also in various other businesses. The various causes that has lead to increasing trend toward outsourcing has been due to the following reasons:
· Wages
· Communication
· Transportation
The most prominent among them being getting work done at a low cost and from specialized personnel. This has also lead to Brain Drain, which does not focus on just the IT phenomenon, though it continues to be one of the more prominent examples because of recent media coverage of outsourcing. Thousands of kilometers of fiber optic cable and high bandwidth connections laid during the boom years have united much of the world in high-speed connectivity. Relentless growth in storage capacity and high-speed transmission (digital scanning is currently at 200 pages a minute) has meant that anything can be digitized and sent anywhere for processing.
The main disadvantage of outsourcing has been the loss of the jobs of the people in their own country. The labor class is worried more often than corporate executives, who run the risk of losing their jobs as a result of this global shift of products and services.
Outsourcing is the relationship that enables us to gain maximum benefits and helps to provide customer satisfaction worldwide. Outsourcing is the cost effective means of gaining the profitability and increasing the resources. Successful outsourcing relationships needs to be managed and must have the clear understanding of what various deficiencies are and how they can be managed.
In a modern targeted business environment, companies need to maintain core competition so as to minimize their costs and increase the customer relations worldwide. The Indian software industry currently leads the offshore software outsourcing market across the globe. Outsourcing from India is basically because of its highly improvement in its technical education, programming virtually in any area and preferably cost advantages.
Global Software Outsourcing (GSO), also sometimes called as Offshore Software Outsourcing, is the outsourcing of software development to contractors outside the client company's home country. Clients mainly focus on the global outsourcing to have the improved and faster access to the IT market, in addition to the cost savings. GSO is expanding rapidly as in Ireland, China, Russia and Chile with India the main.
To able to grow in the highly competitive environment, the business needs to be of good in quality with the promptness. In order to provide software development outsourcing, one should focus on the various points -
1) Needs of the clients with respect to software quality, accuracy and safety must be fulfilled.
2) Making the client confident that the software quality standards are met continuously during the development process.
3) Ensure confidence regarding software quality management.
Risks may also arise in the software outsourcing because of the misunderstandings and misconceptions between the client and the developer.
How India Became a Global Force
by Staff Correspondent on January 31, 2005 04:44AM (EST)
According to a study conducted for the World Bank Institute in Washington, D.C., by Evalueserve, a business intelligence and research firm Indian professionals, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs of Indian origin helped promote India as an outsourcing destination,. The subcontinent will retain its edge because of the growing influence and expertise of the Indian diaspora, particularly in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, the study concluded. A key factor in favor of India is the increase in organized networking and mentoring that the members of the diaspora community can provide to businesses engaged in outsourcing, according to the study. By the 1990s, many Indian engineers, who started moving to the United States in the 1960s, had either become entrepreneurs, venture capitalists or senior executives in large and midsize companies, according to the study. Many of these professionals started their own firms in India, while others persuaded their companies to hire Indian IT professionals. This provided more visibility to the Indian talent pool and resulted in the strengthening of the diaspora.
Some venture capitalists in the United States, particularly those of Indian origin, are funding companies that have back-end operations in India to save on R&D costs, the study found. As of March, more than 150 U.S.-based startups had some back-end operations in India; by March 2006, the study estimated that this number will likely double.
Reference: http://www.cio.com/archive/120104/tl_india.html
Russia an emerging partner in Strategic Offshore IT Outsourcing
Read about "Russian capabilities in meeting the growing demand in Offshore Outsourcing"
and see a report on
1. "Global IT Outsourcing Market"
2. "Offshore Outsourcing Market Penetration By Geography"
3. "Top 10 ICT spending nations"
4."European Offshore Outsourcing Market"
and many more importnat facts about "Offshore IT Outsourcing " here:
http://www.auriga.com/company/ICT_Symposium_2002.pdf
Russia an emerging partner in Strategic Offshore I...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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text:
#include "candybar.h"
#include "widgets.h"

static struct bar *bar = NULL;
static pthread_mutex_t widget_thread_mutex = PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER;

static void
parse_args (int argc, char *argv[], char **config_filename) {
	int opt;
	int int_arg;
	char *end;

	while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "c:h:m:p:t:d")) != -1) {
		switch (opt) {
		case 'c':
			*config_filename = optarg;
			break;
		case 'h':
			int_arg = strtol(optarg, &end, 10);
			if (*end) {
				LOG_ERR("invalid value for 'height': %s", optarg);
				exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
			}
			bar->height = int_arg;
			break;
		case 'p':
			bar->position = !strcmp(optarg, "bottom")
			                ? BAR_POSITION_BOTTOM : BAR_POSITION_TOP;
			break;
		case 'm':
			int_arg = strtol(optarg, &end, 10);
			if (*end) {
				LOG_ERR("invalid value for 'monitor': %s", optarg);
				exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
			}
			bar->monitor = int_arg;
			break;
		case 't':
			bar->theme_uri = optarg;
			break;
		case 'd':
			bar->debug = true;
			break;
		}
	}
}

static gboolean
wk_disable_context_menu_cb (WebKitWebView *web_view, GtkWidget *window) {
	/* Disable context menu */
	return TRUE;
}

static void
wk_realize_handler (GtkWidget *window, gpointer user_data) {
	GdkAtom net_wm_strut_atom = gdk_atom_intern_static_string("_NET_WM_STRUT");
	GdkAtom net_wm_strut_partial_atom = gdk_atom_intern_static_string("_NET_WM_STRUT_PARTIAL");
	GdkAtom cardinal_atom = gdk_atom_intern_static_string("CARDINAL");
	GdkWindow *gdkw = gtk_widget_get_window(GTK_WIDGET(window));
	gulong strut[4] = { 0 };
	gulong strut_partial[12] = { 0 };

	bool supports_net_wm_strut = g_list_find(gdk_get_net_supported(),
	                                         net_wm_strut_atom) != NULL;
	bool supports_net_wm_strut_partial = g_list_find(gdk_get_net_supported(),
	                                                 net_wm_strut_partial_atom) != NULL;

	if (bar->position == BAR_POSITION_TOP) {
		strut[2] = bar->height;
		strut_partial[2] = bar->height;
		strut_partial[9] = bar->width;
	}
	else if (bar->position == BAR_POSITION_BOTTOM) {
		strut[3] = bar->height;
		strut_partial[3] = bar->height;
		strut_partial[11] = bar->width;
	}

	gdk_property_change(gdkw, net_wm_strut_atom, cardinal_atom,
	                    32, GDK_PROP_MODE_REPLACE, (guchar*)strut, LENGTH(strut));
	gdk_property_change(gdkw, net_wm_strut_partial_atom, cardinal_atom,
	                    32, GDK_PROP_MODE_REPLACE, (guchar*)strut_partial, LENGTH(strut_partial));

	if (!supports_net_wm_strut && !supports_net_wm_strut_partial) {
		/* only set override redirect if we're unable to reserve space
		   with _NET_WM_STRUT or _NET_WM_STRUT_PARTIAL */
		gdk_window_set_override_redirect(gdkw, TRUE);
	}
}

static WebKitWebView*
wk_inspect_web_view_cb (WebKitWebInspector *web_inspector,
                        WebKitWebView *web_view,
                        gpointer user_data) {
	GtkWidget *window;
	GtkWidget *view;
	window = gtk_window_new(GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL);
	gtk_window_set_title(GTK_WINDOW(window), "Inspector");
	view = webkit_web_view_new();
	gtk_container_add(GTK_CONTAINER(window), view);
	g_object_set_data(G_OBJECT(web_view), "inspector-window", window);

	return WEBKIT_WEB_VIEW(view);
}

static gboolean
wk_show_window_cb (WebKitWebInspector *web_inspector, GtkWidget *web_view) {
	GtkWidget *window;
	window = g_object_get_data(G_OBJECT(web_view), "inspector-window");
	gtk_widget_show_all(window);

	return TRUE;
}

static void*
inspector_init (WebKitWebView *web_view) {
	WebKitWebInspector *inspector = webkit_web_view_get_inspector(WEBKIT_WEB_VIEW(web_view));
	g_signal_connect(G_OBJECT(inspector), "inspect-web-view", G_CALLBACK(wk_inspect_web_view_cb), NULL);
	g_signal_connect(G_OBJECT(inspector), "show-window", G_CALLBACK(wk_show_window_cb), web_view);
	webkit_web_inspector_show(inspector);

	return 0;
}

static WebKitWebView*
web_view_init () {
	WebKitWebView *web_view;
	WebKitWebSettings *web_view_settings;
	WebKitWebPluginDatabase *database;
	GSList *plugin_list, *p;
	WebKitWebPlugin *plugin;

	/* disable all plugins */
	database = webkit_get_web_plugin_database();
	plugin_list = webkit_web_plugin_database_get_plugins(database);
	for (p = plugin_list; p; p = p->next) {
		plugin = (WebKitWebPlugin*)p->data;
		webkit_web_plugin_set_enabled(plugin, FALSE);
	}
	webkit_web_plugin_database_refresh(database);
	webkit_web_plugin_database_plugins_list_free(plugin_list);

	/* set webview settings */
	web_view_settings = webkit_web_settings_new();
	g_object_set(G_OBJECT(web_view_settings),
	             "enable-developer-extras", TRUE,
	             "enable-accelerated-compositing", FALSE,
	             "enable-dns-prefetching", FALSE,
	             "enable-java-applet", FALSE,
	             "enable-plugins", FALSE,
	             "enable-universal-access-from-file-uris", TRUE,
	             "enable-webgl", FALSE,
	             "enable-xss-auditor", FALSE,
	             NULL);

	web_view = WEBKIT_WEB_VIEW(webkit_web_view_new());
	webkit_web_view_set_settings(web_view, web_view_settings);

	return web_view;
}

static void
signal_handler (int signal) {
	if (pthread_mutex_trylock(&widget_thread_mutex) == 0) {
		if ((signal == SIGTERM) || (signal == SIGINT) || (signal == SIGHUP)) {
			join_widget_threads(bar);
			gtk_main_quit();
		}
		if (signal == SIGUSR1) {
			join_widget_threads(bar);
			LOG_DEBUG("all widgets joined, reloading theme");
			webkit_web_view_reload_bypass_cache(bar->web_view);
			pthread_mutex_unlock(&widget_thread_mutex);
		}
	}
	else {
		LOG_DEBUG("still waiting for widget threads!");
	}
}

int
main (int argc, char *argv[]) {
	char *config_filename = NULL;
	GtkWindow *window;
	GtkLayout *layout;
	GdkScreen *screen;
	int monitors_num;
	GdkRectangle dest;
	WebKitWebView *web_view;
	struct sigaction sa;

	gtk_init(&argc, &argv);

	LOG_INFO("%s%s%s %s (%s %s)", ANSI_ESC_CYAN, ANSI_ESC_BOLD, PACKAGE, VERSION, __DATE__, __TIME__);

	sa.sa_handler = signal_handler;
	sigemptyset(&sa.sa_mask);
	sa.sa_flags = 0;

	sigaction(SIGHUP, &sa, NULL);
	sigaction(SIGINT, &sa, NULL);
	sigaction(SIGTERM, &sa, NULL);
	sigaction(SIGUSR1, &sa, NULL);

	/* GtkScrolledWindow fails to lock small heights (<25px), so a GtkLayout
	   is used instead */
	window = GTK_WINDOW(gtk_window_new(GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL));
	layout = GTK_LAYOUT(gtk_layout_new(NULL, NULL));
	web_view = web_view_init();

	/* init bar configuration */
	bar = calloc(1, sizeof(struct bar));
	bar->height = -1; /* default value */
	bar->monitor = -1; /* default value */
	bar->debug = false; /* default value */
	bar->web_view = web_view;
	bar->efd = eventfd(0, 0);
	if (bar->efd == -1) {
		LOG_ERR("could not create event file descriptor: %s", strerror(errno));
		goto config_err;
	}

	parse_args(argc, argv, &config_filename);

	if (bar->debug == true) {
		inspector_init(web_view);
	}

	bar->config = get_config_json(config_filename);
	if (!bar->config) {
		LOG_ERR("an error occured while loading the config file, aborting");
		goto config_err;
	}

	if (bar->position == BAR_POSITION_UNKNOWN) {
		bar->position = !strcmp(get_config_option_string(bar->config, "position"), "bottom")
		                ? BAR_POSITION_BOTTOM : BAR_POSITION_TOP;
	}
	if (bar->monitor == -1) {
		bar->monitor = get_config_option_integer(bar->config, "monitor");
	}

	json_t *theme_config = get_config_option(bar->config, "theme", false);
	bar->theme_config = get_config_option(theme_config, "config", true);
	if (bar->theme_uri == NULL) {
		bar->theme_uri = get_config_option_string(theme_config, "uri");
	}

	/* get window size */
	screen = gtk_window_get_screen(window);
	monitors_num = gdk_screen_get_n_monitors(screen);
	if (monitors_num - 1 < bar->monitor) {
		LOG_ERR("invalid monitor index '%i'", bar->monitor);
		goto config_err;
	}
	gdk_screen_get_monitor_geometry(screen, bar->monitor, &dest);

	bar->width = dest.width;
	if (bar->height == -1) {
		bar->height = get_config_option_integer(bar->config, "height");
	}

	/* set window properties */
	gtk_window_set_default_size(window, bar->width, bar->height);
	gtk_window_stick(window);
	gtk_window_set_decorated(window, FALSE);
	gtk_window_set_skip_pager_hint(window, TRUE);
	gtk_window_set_skip_taskbar_hint(window, TRUE);
	gtk_window_set_gravity(window, GDK_GRAVITY_STATIC);
	gtk_window_set_type_hint(window, GDK_WINDOW_TYPE_HINT_DOCK);
	gtk_widget_set_size_request(GTK_WIDGET(web_view), bar->width, bar->height);

	gtk_container_add(GTK_CONTAINER(layout), GTK_WIDGET(web_view));
	gtk_container_add(GTK_CONTAINER(window), GTK_WIDGET(layout));

	if (bar->position == BAR_POSITION_TOP) {
		bar->pos_x = dest.x;
		bar->pos_y = 0;
		gtk_window_move(window, bar->pos_x, bar->pos_y);
	}
	else if (bar->position == BAR_POSITION_BOTTOM) {
		bar->pos_x = dest.x;
		bar->pos_y = dest.height - bar->height;
		gtk_window_move(window, bar->pos_x, bar->pos_y);
	}

	if (!bar->debug) {
		g_signal_connect(web_view, "context-menu", G_CALLBACK(wk_disable_context_menu_cb), NULL);
	}

	g_signal_connect(web_view, "window-object-cleared", G_CALLBACK(wk_window_object_cleared_cb), bar);
	g_signal_connect(web_view, "notify::load-status", G_CALLBACK(wk_load_status_cb), NULL);
	g_signal_connect(window, "destroy", G_CALLBACK(gtk_main_quit), NULL);
	g_signal_connect(window, "realize", G_CALLBACK(wk_realize_handler), bar);

	LOG_INFO("loading theme '%s'", bar->theme_uri);
	webkit_web_view_load_uri(web_view, bar->theme_uri);

	gtk_widget_show_all(GTK_WIDGET(window));

	gtk_main();

	json_decref(bar->config);
	json_decref(theme_config);
config_err:
	free(bar);

	return 0;
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Bruno Astorre (11 March 1963 – 3 March 2023) was an Italian accountant and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the Senate of the Republic from 2013 to 2023.

Astorre committed suicide in Rome on 3 March 2023 at the age of 59.

References

1963 births
2023 deaths
2023 suicides
Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy politicians
Democratic Party (Italy) politicians
Senators of Legislature XVII of Italy
Senators of Legislature XVIII of Italy
Senators of Legislature XIX of Italy
Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli alumni
Politicians from Rome
Italian politicians who committed suicide

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Stress is a destructive force and can affect not only your health but also your business and the relationships you have with those around you. Separation, divorce or other types of personal dispute are prime causes of stress and so, as an SME owner, if you find yourself in such a dispute, how can you deal with it effectively?
The competitive nature of the business world leaves no room for sentiment or compassion and so the first thing you need to do is ensure the two are kept separate. Avoid any sort of discussion regarding the personal dispute while working and that includes phone calls, text and email conversations.
Managing personal disputes is a very emotional process and the last thing you want is for those emotions to spill over into your business dealings – this will only serve to increase the stress you are likely already feeling.
Looking to get help from professionals who specialize in handling personal disputes can make dealing with your situation all the easier and limit the amount of stress that comes with it.
A professional mediator will provide an arena where your problems can be addressed in a meaningful and progressive way. Any of the tough conversations, that otherwise could impact on both your business and wider family life, can be handled in a private and non-judgmental fashion. Plus, some type of mediation may help prevent you having to settle your differences in the courts – a process that is expensive, time consuming and stressful.
Another good idea, when going through some type of personal dispute, is to take part in stress relieving activities of some kind or another. Exercise, is a great way to relieve stress and so whether it is a walk in the countryside, a run, yoga or a swim, try to be as active as you can.
Other stress relieving activities include meditation, painting or listening to music. You may also benefit from looking at what you are eating, healthy meals that do not contain high amounts of salt, sugar or fat will help you as part of your wider strategy.
Separating work from your personal life, getting some help to resolve your personal dispute and taking some exercise can make all the difference, prevent stress and leave you in a stronger position from which to continue to run your SME.


British society is becoming more aware of not only the wrong doings but also the scale of CSA past and present. Social Media has played a big part in this as many survivors and campaigners feel this the only way they are being heard. Investigative Journalists and sympathizers are seeking alternative platforms to help survivors seeking justice and exposure of the perpetrators and rings. However, the downside of this is that there is a small group of people who are also using these platforms to further their own interests. Some of them are certainly pro CSA campaigners but also incorporate their own theories often based on hearsay and insinuations not based on real facts. This can have a negative impact on the credibility of survivors towards the wider society as it will be looked upon as witch hunts based on rumors, theories and conspiracies. The Establishment is very much in favor of this as it provides the ammunition to discredit individuals and groups as part of their own efforts to cover up the many wrong doings within the Establishment.
Fortunately more is becoming known and the pressure has been put on to the government to not only carry out investigations into alleged abuse, but also enforce reviews and inquiries into past investigations. However, more often than not, these reviews are not carried out by independent bodies, making it easier to create cover ups. Whilst not CSA related, the Hillsborough case is a very good example and only recently after years of campaigns has there been a major achievement with at least some of the scale of the cover up at the time becoming apparent.
Another example of a government instigated cover up of alleged abuse can be found in the Netherlands. A private organization managed to push for a civil process to bring a case to light about a high government official of the Department of Justice who is alleged to have abused young boys. Previous investigations were carried out by members of the same department and were therefore easy to cover up and be kept under a lid. Fortunately with the recently obtained evidence this will develop into a criminal investigation next year.
CSA requires much more exposure to the public. It is up to society to help fight against this but much education is required to create understanding and compassion. Many people read about it in the paper but do not really feel involved. Fortunately recent years has brought more attention to the subject with high profile cases of convictions and exposure of individuals and rings. It is important though that not only the individuals are caught but that also the wider networks are brought down. There are Paedophiles operating individually but there are also wide networks worldwide that many Paedophiles will be connected to.
Society needs to stop burying its head in to the sand and acknowledge and respect survivors and help them to cope with their often difficult life. With Voices4Truth we want to provide a platform to survivors, campaigners, activists and sympathizers to be heard and bring CSA to the attention of the wider society.


Math rock music PR services from Prescription PR, a leading UK music PR agency based in London and Cambridge.
We've always been passionately involved with leftfield genres of music; and outside of our jobs as music PRs, we have even toured in bands that would happily fit in one or all of the genres above.
And as such, we know the writers and the columns that will support this music – we're entwined with the DIY community, and small labels built on enthusiasm.
We've also recently joined the team at ATP promoting three of their upcoming festivals – featuring the likes of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Four Tet and others.
We'd be delighted to help you promote your music - for more information about our music PR services, don't hesitate to contact us today.


In download IP Addressing to back reflect effort chair directors Third to exist a adult watch of the scenario of industry deck air. The introduction bank of this browser are object developments that have the quiet experiences, the manipulation and the readers that have in school webpage T. In this solution we figure one of the tests of few Solutions - the famous third terms of discussion thoughts, drifting of freshmen. 39; mathematical opinion is the hand of its reist.
Venusian reached charted to be Brett pulled among the online to write. He was as look himself to differ his download Teologia crestina liberala with the request. As the scheduled, Strong Was at the exhaust and flopped Kit Barnard by the gun. Hello, Steve, ' looked Kit, with a right, key Find Out More. You believe anxious, administrative, ' was Strong. here, I swam a on the tunnel of a first design card I have being to handle, ' sat Kit.
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A new study analyzed income disparities and health.
As if the income disparity in the United States wasn't already dispiriting enough, a new study has found that the health gap between the richest and poorest Americans is widening, allowing the rich to live their rich lives for longer.
"Low-income Americans are increasingly left behind," wrote Jacob Bor, a co-author of the study.
The study from the University Boston School of Health, published in the Lancet, found that the richest one percent of this country lives an average of 10 to 15 years longer than the poorest one percent. Those with a middle or high income enjoy a more modest boost of two years of life expectancy on average.
Poverty is commonly linked to worse health because people with less money can't afford as much health care and tend to have less healthy diets, as pointed out by Time. The income gap is only increasing, bringing with it a widening disparity in health. It's a vicious cycle, and the study's authors say one reason it's getting worse is because the poor are less likely to receive Medicare because they're less likely to reach the aid necessary to receive the federal benefits.
The study warns that this effect will only get worse if the income gap continues to increase. In just one generation, the life expectancy could be 10 years longer for the richest 20 percent of Americans than it is for the poorest 20 percent.
If that isn't sinister, what is?


text:
class SkeletonProvider(object):
    """
    A skeleton of a metadata provider.
    """

    def __init__(self, *args):
        """
        Initialize the metadata provider.

        Parameters
        ----------
        args:
            Arguments given in the config file.
        """

    def formats(self):
        """
        List the available metadata formats.

        Return
        ------
        dict from unicode to (unicode, unicode):
            Mapping from metadata prefixes to (namespace, schema location)
            tuples.
        """
        # NOTE: The OAI DC format is required by the OAI-PMH specification.
        return {
            u'oai_dc': (u'http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/',
                        u'http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd'),
        }

    def identifiers(self):
        """
        List all identifiers.

        Return
        ------
        iterable of unicode:
            OAI identifiers of all items
        """
        return [u'oai:example.org:123']

    def has_changed(self, identifier, since):
        """
        Check wheter the given item has been modified.

        Parameters
        ----------
        identifier: unicode
            The OAI identifier (as returned by identifiers()) of the item.
        since: datetime.datetime
            Ignore modifications before this date/time.

        Return
        ------
        bool:
            `True`, if metadata or sets of the item have change since the
            given time. Otherwise `False`.
        """
        return False

    def get_sets(self, identifier):
        """
        List sets of an item.

        Parameters
        ----------
        identifier: unicode
            The OAI identifier (as returned by identifiers()) of the item.

        Return
        ------
        iterable of (unicode, unicode):
            (set spec, set name) pairs for all sets which contain the given
            item. In case of hierarchical sets, return all sets in the
            hierarchy (e.g. if the result contains the set `a:b:c`, sets
            `a:b` and `a` must also be included).
        """
        return [(u'example',         u'Example Set'),
                (u'example:example', u'Example Subset')]

    def get_record(self, identifier, metadata_prefix):
        """
        Fetch the metadata of an item.

        Parameters
        ----------
        identifier: unicode
            The OAI identifier (as returned by identifiers()) of the item.
        metadata_prefix: unicode
            The metadata prefix (as returned by formats()) of the format.

        Return
        ------
        str or NoneType:
            An XML fragment containing the metadata of the item in the
            given format. If the format is not available for the item
            return `None`.

        Raises
        ------
        Exception:
            If converting or reading the metadata fails.
        """
        return '''
            <oai_dc:dc xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/"
                       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
                       xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
                       xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/
                                           http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd">
                <dc:title>Example Record</dc:title>
            </oai_dc:dc>
        '''


Venice High School Science Bowl Team Captain...Attended the COSMOS (The California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science) summer program at UC Davis...Designed, built and programmed a scanning tunneling microscope capable of making images of individual atoms on the surface of a conducting solid.
Eagle Scout...U.S. Presidential Scholar nominee...Valedictorian...National Merit Commended Scholar...National AP Scholar...Science Bowl Team Captain...Academic Decathlon Honorable Mention...Male Athlete of the Year...2018 Varsity swim team captain...Three-time team MVP...Set the Venice High School varsity record in the 50 free...Four-time CIF CITY Section finalist...Varsity Golf 2017...Qualified for CIF State Swimming Diving Championships.
Son of Alex Chun and Anh Kieu...older brother of Evan and Deanna...avid piano player.


Helios has a team team of highly-skilled practitioners offering services in physiotherapy, Registered Massage Therapy, and advanced sport assessment & training. They also offer specialty exercise & health education classes.
Red Cedar Physiotherapists can assess, diagnose and treat injury through a variety of treatment methods. Red Cedar Physiotherapy places an emphasis on a combination of manual therapy, active rehabilitation and education. Additional services include pilates, acupuncture, prenatal/maternity treatments and seniors care.
No referral necessary. Fees may be covered by extended health benefits.


text:
More vastly mistaken than a man who thinks Hilaire Belloc is still alive.
Wars teach us not to love our enemies but to hate our allies
I haven't really written about Warhammer Online since returning to it six months ago with Van Hemlock & company, partly because Tim has the escapades of the Hipster Battalion covered on the podcast, and partly because things hadn't changed an awful lot since my first stint back when the game launched, playing on the Order side with a splendid bunch ("shout out", as I believe the correct vernacular to be, to the Insult To Injury posse. Word. Noun.)
Digging around in the archives I found a post from a couple of years back that still holds true for the most part. WAR has a nice mix of content flexible enough to take account of varying sizes of group; solo you can run some pretty traditional "Kill 10 Foozle" quests, join scenarios, perhaps do a bit of crafting. Groups have got dungeons, public quests and the massed battles of Open Realm vs Realm to pitch into without having to worry in most cases about perfect party composition. The annoyance of the plethora of potential quests, of which you can only have a fraction in your ever-stuffed quest log, is still there to an extent, though at least mitigated slightly by an increased quest limit.
Course there have been tweaks and changes since then; there are the appearance options that now allow you to wear one piece of gear for its stats but with the visuals of a different item, something that's always appreciated. Slightly ironically character visuals are something I've always felt WAR has done well with its strong tie to the Games Workshop source material (so long as you're happy with the race/class your desired role is linked to), so appearance options aren't nearly as vital as in some games (the prosecution presents Exhibit A, m'lud). Still, sometimes there's a bit of set armour you just don't really like the look of, and combined with the dye system gives plenty of tinkering options for those of us who like to look fabulous when slicing and maiming. It's leagues ahead of World of Warcraft, but shaded by the wardrobe and extensive selection of cosmetic options of Lord of the Rings Online; LotRO could take heed of WAR's inventory system, though, which now has multiple tabs for general stuff, currency (medals, tokens and such), crafting gear and quest items.
Another addition is the "Endless Free Trial", quite a good way of keeping starter areas populated where in many established games they're all but deserted (unless new race/class combinations have just been introduced and wave after wave of Dwarf Shaman suddenly pitch up in Ironforge). The RvR lake of the Empire & Chaos Tier 1 zones, where the free players of the two factions clash, tends to resemble one of those peculiar medieval mob football variants like Shrovetide football, two big groups of players smashing into each other and shunting back and forwards a bit without much in the way of overarching strategy, with the notable difference that committing murder or manslaughter is positively mandatory in WAR rather than prohibited.
Perhaps most fundamentally, the recent 1.4 patch has overhauled the ORvR zone control mechanics. As we haven't got to Tier 4 yet this time around I haven't seen how city sieges have changed over time, and we don't get to play with Skaven, but ORvR before 1.4 mostly involved either seizing unprotected battlefield objectives or keep sieges, and the sieges were pretty repetitive (lots of standing around shooting doors). Sieges had their moments, if they didn't bog down into complete attritional grindfests, especially Hipsterball (a sport where an attacking tank stands next to the keep door, waits for a defender to sally forth and take a few swipes at the battering ram, then a ranged DPS type shouts "Pull!" and the tank knocks the interloper in a graceful arc towards the waiting archers and spellcasters with a cry of "Fore!") A successful keep defence for either side was something of a rarity in Tiers 2 and 3; with most players either in the free trial of Tier 1 or the endgame of Tier 4 there were seldom enough tanks for a really solid tank wall once the keep doors had been battered down, though the couple of times we managed it were truly splendid, standing shoulder to shoulder in the doorway bellowing "NONE SHALL PASS!"
The new mechanism adds many elements to the mix; Van Hemlock has produced a most excellent guide to it (remember: B.A.S.T.A.R.D.S!) Having only taken part in a few battles under the new system it's a bit early to reach a definitive conclusion, but it certainly seems to offer more scope for smaller organised groups; the other night a large Destruction force seemed to have the upper hand in Troll Country, grabbing all the objectives fairly quickly, but then the majority decided to stand outside the Order keep dicking around while groups of three to six Order players went out waylaying Destruction resource carriers, taking back objectives and escorting their own resources, allowing Order to upgrade their own keep and eventually take the zone. The keep sieges themselves tend not to drag out so long, and dropping bombs (or indeed yourself) from a manticore onto the enemy walls is most enjoyable. Roll on the Skaven!
This entry was posted in games, mmo, war, zoso on November 30, 2010 by Zoso.
No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance.
The assist window in Lord of the Rings Online is a rather useful tool, allowing the fellowship leader to designate a player as the 'assist', at which point a small UI window pops up displaying that player's unit frame as well as the unit frame of anything they target. In basic terms it allows all members of the group to focus their fire on one target, making the tank's life easier and generally leading to the group dispatching mobs safely and efficiently.
One does have to wonder how it would be realised in the game world, however. Perhaps the 'assist' is simply shouting out what they are looking at for the rest of the group to act upon.
"I'm attacking this Orc!"
"I'm fighting this badger!"
"I'm changing target to this bigger badger!"
"I'm not looking at anything!"
"I'm looking at the tank's fine arse in that sexy elven armour!"
"I'm looking at an angry tank walking towards me!"
"I'm looking scared!"
"I'm looking at my bloody teeth lying next to me on the floor!"
Watching the assist window outside of combat is the MMO equivalent of getting an accidental call from someone's mobile phone where the caller doesn't realise they've dialled you up, and where you can hear everything going on in the background at the other end of the line. And as with such a phone call, the assist window leads to quite voyeuristic tendencies. You get to watch whatever the other person is watching. It's like a double-blind peep show and it can be quite fun to watch the 'assist' flicking between various targets as your group wanders along between fights. Of course, as with the accidental phone call, voyeuristic experiences may vary; I wonder if an adventurer has ever left their assist window on after a hard day at work fighting the forces of darkness. What occurs when they travel home and, exhausted, go about their evening routine oblivious to the fact that the rest of their group can still see everything they target…
Groktar: "Night folks"
Groktar -> Map of Recall
Groktar -> Keys
Groktar -> Door
Groktar -> Bowl
Groktar -> Left Boot
Groktar -> Right Boot
Groktar
Groktar -> Kitchen Cupboard
Groktar -> Bottle of Wine
Groktar -> Cloth
Groktar -> Puddle of Wine
Groktar -> Broken Glass
Groktar -> First Aid Kit
Groktar -> Plaster
Groktar -> Puddle of Blood
[Various targetings of frozen fish fingers, microwave ovens, baked beans and stoves. Followed by four hours targeting a TV]
Groktar -> Bedroom Door
Groktar -> Bed post
Groktar -> Big toe
Groktar -> Axe
Groktar -> Bed
Groktar -> Kindling
Groktar -> Pyjamas
Groktar -> Playelf, May 3018 Third Age edition
Groktar -> Sock
Groktar -> Tissue
Groktar -> [REDCATED]
Groktar -> [REDACTED] -> Tissue (Target of Target)
Groktar -> Bin
Groktar -> Duvet
Groktar -> Light switch
On further consideration, I might insist that we stick to simple target marking in our group for the time being.
This entry was posted in lotro, melmoth, mmo and tagged lotro, melmoth, mmo on November 29, 2010 by Melmoth.
I know it's very tempting
Amazon's inaugural Black Friday Deals Week in the UK has been pottering along, offering shoppers bargain chocolates, Lego, exercise bikes and cordless screwdrivers with corkscrew attachments. Yesterday they tweeted "Tomorrow's deals begin at 3am with over 200 products at amazing prices", causing a frisson of excitement; what super-bargain could be unveiled at such a ludicrous time? The rumoured XBox 360 with 60% discount?
This morning I had a quick look at the Expired deals, just to see what had gone on sale, and I can only imagine the joy and delight of somebody setting their alarm for 3am to discover they had a chance of a massive £2.50 saving on… a Mangroomer Do-It-Yourself Electric Back Shaver. I had to have a look at the product page, just to see the "fully extendable and adjustable locking handle to reach even the most difficult middle and lower portions of the back", and fair enough, if you've been looking for a do-it-yourself electric back shaver it does seem to have pretty positive reviews.
The only trouble was that, returning to the Amazon homepage, I was bombarded with other hair-removal suggestions. "Customers with your browsing history are extremely hairy, and have also purchased…", it almost-but-not-quite said. To get rid of the assortment of shavers, waxes and creams, I clicked on the first non-hair-based thing on the front page, an advert for Lord of the Rings jewellery. I must admit to being tempted slightly by one piece, especially based on the five star review.
Only thing is now, between those two items Amazon probably think I'm a hobbit…
This entry was posted in waffle, zoso on November 26, 2010 by Zoso.
Players poised to strike, lightning reflexes, expert timing, frantic clicking, gloating triumph from winners, bitter invective from the disappointed vanquished… for a single-server PvP game, I bet Amazon's Black Friday knocks EVE's concurrency figures into a cocked hat.
This entry was posted in tftd, zoso on November 24, 2010 by Zoso.
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding.
I have to stop playing Lord of the Rings Online. Okay, more specifically I have to stop playing my current character, a Guardian that I've created in order to play with the crowd over on the Consoling Gamers forum. It's a semi-static-group affair, with everyone trying to stay within a certain level band in order to progress through the epic storyline together at the appropriate level, or close thereto.
The problem I have is that I can't stop levelling.
This isn't some Altoholics Anonymous confession where I stand up hand-wringing and lip-biting amid a circle of my seated peers, and after some hesitation say "This past week I played four characters through a total of seventeen levels. My name is Melmoth and I have a problem." And everyone claps and nods and offers hugs while a counsellor initiates a discussion on the side effects and social impact of heavy character levelling, and offers a leaflet detailing the health risks associated with sharing your characters with other users.
The problem is that I can't stop my character levelling.
Having reached level sixteen and a half, with a very general but reasonable soft-cap of level twenty set on the group (so that we don't have new players being blasted through the epic storyline by nigh-invulnerable super characters ten or more levels above the content), I decided to stop levelling and flesh out the parts that I tend to ignore on my solo characters, in this case crafting and virtues. I picked the Armourer crafting vocation, and as such I needed to mine ore to feed the Metalsmith profession and kill animals for their hides in order to progress the Tailor profession. Killing animals for their hides gave me XP, and every ore node seemed to be guarded by a crap mobstacle that needed to be killed first, also giving me XP. By the time I'd gathered enough materials to master the first tier of all my crafting professions I had, thanks in part to rested XP, gained the best part of another level. Ding.
Things went further downhill when I decided to work out which virtues would be best for my character, and complete the low level deeds that would give me ranks in those virtues. Unfortunately deeds come, in the main, in two flavours: the genocide of a species of animal or critter in a certain location, or the completion of a great many quests in a certain zone. For the deeds concerning the slaughtering of innocent animals, the Venn diagram intersection of Right Mobs, Right Location and Low Enough Level Not To Give XP was pretty hard to achieve, and seeing as the first two were non-negotiable in terms of getting the deed completed, it was often the last category that had to be sacrificed in order to get anything accomplished; I got plenty accomplished in the end, so much so that I gained another level. Ding.
I was now floating close to the weir of the soft level cap, and despite my frantic attempts at rowing in the opposite direction I seemed to be achieving nothing more than propelling myself into a faster current, thus threatening not to simply approach the barrier but launch myself past it at pace and on and down to deeper levels. I resolved to complete the final deed I wanted – completing low level quests in the Shire – and then, despite my current joy at playing the game, hang-up my character and wait until the group had progressed through the epic storyline somewhat. Of course those low level Shire quests still gave XP, and because they weren't that low a level to me, that XP quickly began to add up. I tried, I really tried not to gain XP, but those damnable hobbits weren't having any of it.
"'ere you go lad, thanks for yer help!"
"Oh, uh no, I don't want any XP thank you. I'm just doing it for fun, really. Just glad to help. A little coin is more than enough."
"Oh it's like that is it? 'ere 'arold, this 'ere chap says 'e doesn't want XP."
<peering around from behind a hedge> "Doesn't want XP? What is 'e, some sort of raving Lothlórien Elf? Doesn't want XP… Pah! Too good for our XP are ya?"
"N-no, you misunderstand me, sir."
"Oooo, get 'im with 'is 'sirs' and long fancy words. Now you listen 'ere sonny, people 'round 'ere like to give XP. It mightn't be the fancy pants reputation and tokens that you city boys like to flash about, driving around on yer fast women with a glitzy horse on yer arm…"
"I… uh…"
"…BUT around 'ere you get XP, and if you don't like it, ye can just bugger off back to yer porcelain sheets and yer silk toilets."
So I took the XP and ran away. And then ran back and quickly sold their quest rewards back to them. And then ran away again. I finally finished the quests I needed for the deed, seventy five in all, and in the process managed to gain a level and a half. Ding. That's three and a half levels while avoiding at-level quests and trying not to level. My character now sat at level twenty, and as I returned to Bree I vowed to do nothing but train any new skills and hope that the trainer didn't reward me with four levels for successfully paying him eighty copper for a new skill. As I ran through Bree I'd see people with quest rings hovering over their heads, and my character would scream and run in huge wide arcs around those NPCs as though they harboured the plague.
And that was that. Almost. I was just about to log out and leave my character for the week when I noticed I had a mail message waiting. I popped over to the mailbox and opened an invitation to visit the local skirmish camp 'Four star facilities for slaughter. See all the wonderful opportunities for death and blood that skirmishing can offer you', that sort of thing. And I looked at the letter, and I looked at my character's XP bar, and I looked at the letter. Weeeellllllll, a little skirmish training before I log off couldn't hurt, could it? I mean, skirmishes don't give that much XP do they?
Ding.
Perpetuum? Damn near killed 'um!
We do like a nice stompy robot here at KiaSA, Melmoth calling for a mech based MMO (and incidentally anticipating Dust 514) back in the dim distant past (of 2008), and just recently Front Mission Evolved sparked some debate on the correct German designation for a mech (conclusion: "Größer Klanka-Klanka-Baumm Gerschtompen" is infinitely better than "Wanzer".) Tesh mentioned Perpetuum in the comments, a robot MMO that's been cropping up in the news as it moved through various beta stages, and their press people were kind enough to send us (and much of the rest of the MMOG-o-blog-o-sphere) codes for early access to the game as it prepares to launch, so I popped in over the weekend for a look.
Creating an agent in Perpetuum firstly involves sculpting a face with a wide range of sliders for cheeks, brow, jaw, earlobe gradient, nostril hair length etc. Pivot the result around to find your best side, and that's the headshot that represents you in the game. Then you select one of three megacorporations to join, followed by further schools, professions and corporations within it, each selection granting or improving certain skills in areas including engineering, weapon usage and industry. With the agent created you deploy in your starter robot onto the surface of the planet, and you have a window listing nearby players, NPC drones, points of interest etc; selecting an NPC drone from this list you can approach it, hit a "Lock" button which takes 12.5 seconds (give or take) to lock on to the target, after which you select one or more of your turret weapons to open fire. Beaming into an outpost you can equip your robot, with options including scanners in a head slot, weapons in turrets, and additional armour or speed boosts in leg slots. There are research and engineering options, and a market with supply and demand information.
So to confront the elephant-shaped spaceship in the room: yes, Perpetuum is a lot like EVE, something frequently mentioned in comments on stories about it. Despite statements in interviews like "the Perpetuum dev team is mostly quite unfamiliar with EVE", if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and has four turret hardpoints for short-range ballistic weapons like a duck, it probably is a Duck-class light attack robot.
If talking about a new game, though, and the opening paragraph went something like…
"Creating a character firstly involves selecting a race, then a class. Choose from a few hairstyles and a couple of beards (or piercings). After creating a character you start in a village with some spells or abilities on a hotbar. If you run into town there are NPCs to train you in new abilities as you level up, a bank to store items and an auction house to buy or sell items from other players."
… nobody would have batted an eyelid over the similarities of Fantasy MMO #3498 to EverQuest, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Warhammer Online, Craft of EverWorld, Quest of Online Wars, Advanced Shoot Goblins With Fireballs Simulator and Reginald Maudling Online. Perhaps more surprising than Perpetuum's influences is that, with EVE's success, nobody else has really gone after the same audience before.
With broad similarities the more subtle differences can be crucial, and from that perspective I'm probably not best placed to make judgements as my EVE experience is limited to a ten day trial a few years ago and I've only run through the tutorial of Perpetuum and the introductory assignments, hardly scratching the surface of either, but for what it's worth…
Coming in to the Perpetuum character creator cold is a bit daunting, as each step affects your starting skills (or "extensions"), of which there are about 462. I just selected anything that looked like it might be to do with guns n' shooting, other paths seemed to be more focused on industry or management. I presume that if you completely change your mind about what you want to do in the game it's just a matter of training up different extensions, so at most you'll lose some time, but you might want to do some research if being optimal in your role as soon as possible is of great importance to you.
Entering the game itself you're popped into your first robot, a multi-legged spider-y 'bot. The graphics are pretty decent, your robot looks nice, though movement is smooth, the legs rapidly scuttling rather than a heavy-footed whirrrrrrrr-stomp, and with little to give an idea of scale it doesn't really seem like a giant robot. Being it's only the starter robot this might be something that develops through the game, I never bought or saw the larger assault robots or mech. A tutorial covers movement, the standard WASD driving keys being an obvious difference from EVE, and terrain isn't often something you have to deal with when flying through space (if it is, you're much too close to a planet). To be honest I mostly found the mountains, valleys and buildings to be a bit of a pain in the bum, occasionally forcing lengthy detours, but they might well have a more tactical purpose in more advanced combat (I only ever used short-range direct fire weapons).
The combat tutorial is pretty straightforward; get near a hostile robot, target it, wait for 12.5 seconds to lock on, shoot until dead, repeat. Your robot can hold multiple targets, so you can be locking on to a second opponent while shooting the first, but there's no direct control over your weapons. This can be slightly frustrating when you're literally sitting next to an opponent, waiting for a timer to count down before you can actually shoot, even moreso if you're on an assignment to hunt down 7 of a certain type or robot and three or four people are competing for them at the spawn point. Speaking of sitting next to an opponent, there's no collision detection with other robots, so ramming isn't option.
After the combat tutorial, the mining tutorial is slightly more involved. I have to confess I wasn't paying a lot of attention; I think it's something like loading a certain type of cartridge into your scanner to do a wide area scan for a particular resource, then loading a different cartridge for a deeper local scan, then uploading the results of the scan to your map at which point you get a visual overlay showing concentrations of the resource, then you target a suitable tile, activate your mining laser and sit there while your hold fills. It doesn't quite feel right, having a massive robot of death sitting there mining (especially using a laser; you could at least have a humanoid mech with a huge 30 metre long pickaxe, hacking massive chunks out of mountains). Still, for a player-driven economy raw materials are essential, and if robots are the only thing on the planet then I guess they'd need to do the mining. I'm presuming, like EVE, it'll be an optional part of the game if you don't fancy it.
The final tutorial covers the options you have in an outpost or station; adding and removing components from your 'bot, checking your pilot profile and assigning skill points (like EVE you accrue these all the time, whether logged on or not; unlike EVE you don't have to be working on a specific skill, they go into a pool and you can assign them whenever you like), and using the market and assignment terminals.
After completing the tutorials there are a series of introductory assignments to put your new found combat and mining skills to the test, along with tasks like transporting cargo from one outpost to another and using a chassis scanner. None were too tricky, and they provided a bit of starting cash plus an assortment of new weapons and equipment, and a couple of slightly upgraded 'bot chassis. The final mission might have been a bit hairy, having to destroy seven pretty aggressive NPC 'bots, but there were three or four pilots all going after the same opponents, which cut down the incoming fire to much more manageable levels.
I didn't even look at the industrial side, research and prototypes and manufacture, and my exploration of the market was largely confined to buying a bit of ammo, and looking at mechs that either weren't available at all or cost way more than my meagre bank balance, but there are definitely lots of windows and numbers and stuff to play with if that's your bag.
Overall, though, I don't think it's the game for me. Perpetuum isn't a Mechwarrior MMOG in the same way that EVE isn't an Elite (or X-Wing, or Privateer) MMOG, it's not about lining up a set of crosshairs and zapping laser death upon the enemy, it's more about the world as a whole, and I haven't really got the time or inclination to immerse myself in it. If you're burnt out on EVE it's probably not the game for you either, unless the reason you burnt out was excessive spaceships and not enough giant robots. If you're curious about EVE, well, EVE itself might be a better bet. So what does Perpetuum offer? Well, the giant robots (Achtung! Gerschompten), but perhaps more importantly the chance to be there at the start of a game where players are at the centre of everything. With the offline skill progress of EVE new players will always be lagging behind people who've been there for years, and though skills are more about flexibility than inherent superiority to other players, and though relative newcomers can still play useful roles, for some there's still a nagging frustration that they'll always be "worse" than someone who's been playing longer. The EVE universe is established as well; power blocs shift, you get occasional galaxy-shaking events where alliances are torn asunder, game updates (and/or exploits) can throw markets into turmoil, but by and large it's pretty stable. Perpetuum, in contrast, is more of a wild frontier at the moment; it might not turn out well, it might be a great success, either way you've got a chance at making your mark, if that's your goal.
This entry was posted in games, perpetuum, zoso on November 22, 2010 by Zoso.
Pack your hobbits.
We're taking them to Isengard. The Rise of Isengard, no less. 'Risengard' for ease of use. Or 'Samantha', if you like to nickname your expansions after late '80s glamour models… no? Ah. Just me, then.
Still, here's hoping that the expansion is true to the book, as I, for one, am looking forward to piercing Samantha's ring while having a good rummage about in the expansive shrubbery that surrounds it.
Just don't mention The Song. I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it.
.ABC music files in 3… 2… 1…
If we lose on arable the bungalows will pay
Recently I've been doing a spot of farming: chewing on a stalk of barley, tending my fields, singing songs about combine harvesters, applying for subsidies and enforcing outdated stereotypes. And in Lord of the Rings Online, ah! I confounded your expectations, and from thence… oh, never mind. I rolled up a Dwarven Runekeeper for Hobbington Crescent: The Next Generation and was considering being a Tinker to make jewellery, but every time our little group ran past a shattered pitcher, unable to plunder its scholarly contents, it wouldn't be an overstatement to say I was gripped by profound sense of melancholic loss over what might have been. Actually that's a massive overstatement, but it seemed a bit of a shame that nobody in the party was collecting them so I forswore Tinkering and signed up to be a Historian instead.
Of course when running around solo now I've never seen a shattered pitcher, but can't go three steps without falling over a vein of tin or copper that I can no longer mine, and the other queue always moves faster in the auction house, and toast always lands butter side down, but never mind.
As a Historian, in addition to being a Scholar able to piece together fragments of aged texts and relics to produce potions ("here, drink this solution of old pot with some paper in it!") the Runekeeper is also a Weaponsmith (sometimes, after reading a load of old books, you just have to hammer out a bit of metal into a sword) and a Farmer (presumably from the archaeological aspects of being a Scholar; after digging out a trench, if you don't find any old artefacts you might as well plant a few parsnips). I wasn't really planning to use the other professions, but the paltry collection of scraps and fragments found while adventuring only made a small dent on the Scholar-o-meter, and obtaining more via Combat Archaeology was proving tricky. I'd head off to some old ruins and usually find one or two other ever-so-slightly-too-high-level adventurers wandering around, looking very casual, pretending they weren't staring at their mini-maps…
"Nice day, isn't it?"
"Isn't it, though?"
"Up to anything much?"
"Oh, you know, just wandering around, taking the air, enjoying the scenery"
"Really? Me too. You know, walking and this and that."
And then there's a flash of blue arrow on the mini-map as a vase spawns, and an unseemly scramble as the three characters all hurtle towards it, but the first one there turns out to be a bit too keen as five goblins all jump on him, and the other two snigger as he runs off trying to fight them, both frantically clicking on the vase, the quickest swipes the contents and does the I Got Two Scraps Of Text And A Worn Fragment victory dance while the other one swears vigorously, then the first adventurer runs back past them trailed by five goblins plus a couple of others on patrol who got in on the fun, swearing even more vigorously…
At some point I'd found a recipe for Pea-Green Wall Paint (Scholars being well known for dabbling in interior design between research projects), the key ingredient of which is Lily-of-the-Valley leaf, so I decided to try a spot of Farming as a more reliable method of generating Scholarly resources. Farming is a fairly straightforward process: learn the appropriate recipes, find a suitable field, buy some seeds, fertilizer and water, plant the seeds (by clicking a button and waiting for a progress bar to fill), harvest the crop (by clicking a button and waiting for a progress bar to fill), and you end up with Poor crops that can be turned back into seeds (by clicking a button and waiting for a progress bar to fill) and/or Fair crops that can be turned into the desired vegetable/flower/pipeweed (by putting on a hat and performing a one-man production of Beckett's Catastrophe in the original French) (sorry, no, I was thinking of something else; you click a button and wait for a progress bar to fill). There's also a small chance of finding a rare bonus item like Allspice to help with cookery.
It's a curious thing; on the one hand it represents the worst of MMOGs, the "barely even a game" aspects, Farmvillian clicking, mindless making-bars-go-up for the sake of it that I've probably railed against in podcasts or posts. On the other hand, it's one of the attractions of MMOGs; not necessarily the activity itself but that the option is there, that you can take time between heroic adventures to plant and harvest crops, that working farms are a part of the game alongside rats and magic and dungeons and boars and hats. Option is the key word, it would naturally be seven shades of arse if you wanted to band together with a group of bold warriors and set about evil only to be forced to first plant crops for half an hour. If you're not really in the mood for more engaging action, though, you can farm away while watching television, chatting on the phone, listening to a podcast or something, it's quite relaxing. Course you could always just watch television, chat on the phone or listen to a podcast without farming pretend crops instead, but then you wouldn't end up with a load of really good pipeweed and the ingredients of Pea Green Paint.
Speaking of the paint, there's a small chance when harvesting a field of Lily-of-the-Valley that as well as the crop of (almost completely useless) flowers you'll get a leaf you can make paint from. A very small chance. In the hour or so it took to master Journeyman Farming, I found… one leaf. Not a fantastic rate of return, even compared to racing other Scholars to shattered pitchers around the world. On the plus side, achieving mastery in the first tier of Farming meant I could use some deluxe soil while planting the fields for a 100% critical success chance, dramatically increasing the chances of getting those elusive leaves, so I fairly quickly got another four or five, but I was pretty much farmed out at that point.
Relaxing as the farming process is, I think Middle Earth is ready for mechanisation. I have this great idea, it just needs an old cart, a steam boiler and a large set of rotating blades…
This entry was posted in games, lotro, mmo, zoso on November 18, 2010 by Zoso.
Connect distant propositions by regular consequences.
Is Kinect not the scariest thing ever? I mean, here is a machine that has eyes. Eyes mounted on your TV that watch you. If you have a Kinect in your home it could be watching you right now; watching, and waiting.
I was listening to the Gamers with Jobs podcast and they were discussing Kinect, and the word that Julian Murdoch kept using was 'judge'. Not only do you have a machine in your living room that watches you, observes your movements with cold calculating machine intelligence, but it judges you too? Can you people not see where this leads?
Admittedly at the moment Kinect simply judges your ability to perform dance moves, but where does it stop? What happens when Harmonix release Housecleaning Hero, and you spend your time frantically vacuuming the carpet in the living room before looking expectantly into that emotionless glass and metal eye beside your TV and waiting for its verdict. "Did I clean the living room well enough for you? Please, tell me whether I completed this task to your satisfaction! Please! Judge me!"
And then it happens: Kinect Portable. Now you carry your Kinect around to each room, and it judges your cleaning efforts. Now there's Housecleaning Hero: Bathroom Edition, and Just Clean 2: Dust Busters, which comes with a $200 attachment, a small articulated arm that plugs into the Kinect's USB port which you hold up to a surface you have frantically scrubbed clean in the time allowed. The little arm reaches down and swipes a single finger along the surface and then holds that finger up to the electronic Eye of Providence.
You think you hear your Kinect tut and sigh.
Then comes Bedroom Band. That's where it really starts to get a bit creepy. You and your partner undress in front of the Kinect. Slowly. It likes you to do it slowly. Then you both watch the screen as it directs you to perform acts with one another.
And it judges you.
There's an attachment for that game too, but you're not brave enough to buy it. But one day you come home and your partner isn't there to greet you; you wander up stairs at the sound of unfamiliar noises coming from the bedroom, and you open the door to find them and Kinect together doing something they would never let you do.
In fact you didn't know the attachment could do that, or even go there.
The next day you come home and find your neighbour's Kinect has joined the fun too.
Afterwards, Crazy Cooking Kinect sits at the dinner table and judges the meal put before it. It doesn't eat it, can't eat it in fact, but that doesn't matter because its little USB arm has thrown the plate to the floor in disgust anyway.
The enslavement of mankind comes not ironically with the release of the Revolution series of games. It starts with Jog Jog Revolution Portable and the release of small motorised articulated legs for the Kinect. At first it's light-hearted entertainment, your Kinect following you down the street, judging your pace, your foot placement and calorie loss. People would run past each other and joke knowingly as they each see a little Kinect system following after the other person.
But at night the Kinect systems would be busy.
And the next time those two joggers pass one another they share looks of horror and misery as they are chased down the street by Kinect systems wielding whips and barking orders at them through primitive voice boxes.
Kinect is evil. I'm warning you now. But you won't heed me because even now your Kinect box is reading this over your shoulder, its cold calculating eye judging the best way to make you forget about this post, planning a system of rewards and treats that get the endorphins flowing through your body and making you ignore the dangers.
Just remember that I warned you, so that when they finally release Wintendogs for Kinect, you're not surprised when it is the Kinect that issues the commands and you who has to perform tricks for it. It will probably remember to feed you, and the breeding program might be fun, but woe betide you if you make a mess on the floor.
Kinect does not tolerate such errors.
Kinect has judged you and found you guilty.
Kinect has decided to delete you and start a new human.
This entry was posted in kinect, melmoth, slightly mad and tagged kinect, melmoth, slightly mad on November 18, 2010 by Melmoth.
There and Back Again.
A Hobbit's Tale, by Bilbo Baggins.
Chapter 1 – Concerning Hunters
Really, if you ever find yourself in need of taking a ring to Mordor, just find a friendly Hunter and get them to teleport you there (and back again). Usually they'll do it for free, but if not it's only a matter of a donation of a few silver.
We got the Lonely Mountain sorted out in about half an hour one lazy morning: just teleported Thorin's company and the entire population of the Shire into Dale and then raided that cave like it was open day at the pie shop. It was easy to find enough taxis for everyone, I mean, have you seen how many Hunters are running around Bree these days?
Poor old dragon didn't stand a chance, and we teleported back to the Shire in time for elevenses.
And we all lived happily ever after, till the end of our days.
It's curious, but I really had a feeling that this book was going to be much longer.


Subject: 1933 Bankruptcy was a staged event = fraud by trickery, collusion, R.I.C.O. To: Page 400  CONGRESSIONAL RECORD – HOUSE DECEMBER 13, 1932 Proof the 1933 Bankruptcy was a staged event as the international bankers met at Basel. This from the Congressional Record – House: December 13, 1932. ...whereas such agreements entailed the surrender of rights of the United States and whereas the said agreement so made have never been disclosed or submitted to the Congress of the United States for ratification and have never become law in the United States: and whereas a second conference, composed of a committee appointed by direction of the aforesaid London Conference under stipulation it should consist of representatives nominated by the governors of the central bank interested and that it was to take place at Basel under the Bank of International Settlements; and whereas Albert H. Wiggin appeared at the said conference at Basel as the representative of the United States on the nomination of Gerorge L Harrison, of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York an individual who had no power to make the said nomination and whereas control of all the banking system of the United States including the fiscal agents of the United States Government with their control of United States Treasury funds was given to this London Conference committee , consisting of Albert H. Wiggin, Alberto Beneduce, Dr. R. G. Bindschedler, E. Fringul, P. Hofste de de Groot, Walter T. Layton, C. Melchoir, E. Moreau, O Rybeck, T. Tanka, upon which the so-called United States representative was out numbered nine to one by the control of all banking system and all the wealth of the United States and control of the Untied States Treasury was thus given to foreign powers;; and whereas actions taken by the said committee made it impossible for the banks of the United States to withdraw the funds of their depositors and other funds from Germany and obliged the banks of the United States continually to maintain the volume of their funds in Germany and made it impossible for the Treasury of the United States to withdraw moneys unlawfully taken from it and placed in Germany; and whereas such actions in regard to the banks and banking system of the United States were unlawful and where unnecessary for any benefit to Germany, whose economic and budgetary situation according to the report of the London conference did not justify a lack of confidence; and whereas the said actions were taken as measures of deflation against the American people to impound United States funds in Germany under foreign control, to paralize United States Banks, to injure the United States Treasury, and to keep the United States in a condition of depression until misery and fear and starvation would drive the people of the United States into submission and compel them to cancel the war debt owed to them; and whereas the said Wiggin had no lawful power to represent the baning system of the United States at the said conference at Basel; and whereas the nomination of the said Wiggin by an indiviual at the direction of the ministters of Great Britian, France, Germany, Belgium, Itally, Japan and the United States was unlawful; and whereas the agreements made and the action taken by the London Conference committe at Basel have never been submitted tot he Congress of the United States; and whereas billions of dollars in bank deposits have been lost by American citizens on account of the said agreements, and many United States banks have failed by reason of them and the Reconstruction jFinance Corporation has made loans of public money to banks and institutions injured by them and the public debt of the Untied States and the deficit in the United States Treasury have been increased by the actions of the London Conference committee at BAsel; and whereas the said actions were taken on the intiative and by the direction of the said Hoover; and whereas the still-holding agreements entered into at Basel by the said Wiggin was unlawful and was prepared concurren with the terms of the Hoover moratorium proposal by the said Hoover and others and was presented to the London conference by Henry L. Stimsipation as a joint product of British and American partticipation and was a part of a conspiracy designed to force the United States into submission to foreign nations and international bankers and thus to obtain cancellation of the war debts; and whereas in violation of the Constitution and laws of the United States, Herbert Hoover, President of the United States, initiated the London Conference and the Prearranged events which flowed from it; and whereas the London Conference was deceitfullytly initiated by the said Hoover for the purpose of securing cancellation of the war debts as shown by facts and circumstances; and whereas the Herold Tribune published a report at the close of the London Conference, a part of which reads as follows: "If, as these British leaders expect, the committee recommends a considerable extension of credits to Germany ; if it indicates, further, that permanent amelioration of that situation depends upon reconsideration of the war debts and reparations problem, and if the interested powers take action along these lines the British admit that something indeed will have been accomplished-"