Sopra Steria has more than 25 years' experience in the energy and utilities industry and in excess of 1,500 dedicated sector professionals.
We are delivering the most important smart meter project in France, developing the technology behind the deployment of 35 million new-generation smart meters for ERDF.
Our solutions and services embrace key players in upstream, power generation, transmission, distribution, retail, water, gas, utilities and service segments of the energy and utilities market.
Our Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) consulting services provide expertise and optimisation of our clients' production assets with up to 20% savings.
With our dedicated Smart Geo Solutions industrialised skill centre, we design location-based applications to meet current and future needs.
We have combined our key offerings in EAM, Field Services Management and Smart Geo Solutions in a single bundle of services that drives value through location-related operations management enabled by mobility tools.
Our Smart Energy Management solution has been implemented at our Sopra Steria France HQ to manage the building's energy use, as well as in other new or renovated buildings.
We partner with solution providers as well as with our clients to fully embrace the extended energy and utilities ecosystem and the innovation behind it.
Our BPS (business process services) centres handle millions of customer enquiries, helping our clients maximise revenues and speed up cash collection, while improving customer engagement and reducing costs.
A leading French energy firm's 9,000 network technicians are seeing improved levels of performance thanks to an operational field service management system developed by Sopra Steria.
Confronted by wide-ranging challenges, from customer demands for value-added services to new data flows and increasing environmental concerns, operators are seeking new ways of working and new sources of energy. Despite considerable cost saving programmes across Europe, operators know they must invest in maintaining and refurbishing ageing infrastructures and assets, and developing new generation capabilities.
Rising customer expectations demands the deployment and maintenance of new equipment and innovative services. These include new, more complex billing services and pricing models, as well as smart meters providing real-time energy consumption data that must be efficiently managed.
With a network of more than 1,500 dedicated energy and utilities professionals, Sopra Steria is supporting the transformation and resource optimisation required to meet these needs. We work with our clients to help them respond to challenges such as the deregulation and increased competition that are turning the spotlight on operational efficiency.
We have proven experience in key areas of industry strategy and understand the pressure on companies to explore a mix of distributed energy supply in the face of growing environmental and efficiency concerns. This means introducing renewable energies into the energy grid, developing and deploying smart meters, streamlining and balancing production and consumption, enhancing energy performance, and investing in low carbon generation.
At the forefront of energy expertise, we deliver cost savings, total quality of service and agreed outcomes that meet our clients' needs in the core areas of Smart Energy Management, Enterprise Asset Management, Field Service Management and Smart Geo Solutions , as well as our GAS-X solution for IT Management.
But that's not all. Every day our clients trust us to run their IT infrastructures and applications portfolios and support them with business consulting, efficient testing and business process optimisation. We have a proven reputation for delivery excellence and for building long-term trusted partnerships. Indeed, 95% of our clients renew their contracts with us. Isn't it time you took acloser look at Sopra Steria?
"Sopra Steria's strong portfolio in building and delivering IT systems assured us that they have the right experience and expertise to support our role as Settlements Services Provider for EMR. We are excited to be working with Sopra Steria to build a pioneering settlement system for the benefit of EMR stakeholders"
In the face of significant cost pressures and rising environmental concerns, how do you use technology to run your own and your customers' operations efficiently and sustainably?
Buildings, districts and cities are becoming smarter and greener in their approach to energy management. For businesses and local authorities, the key to this rests on putting in place the systems to manage and control energy consumption and production. In turn, operators are seeking to achieve the optimum balance between power generation and energy demand and comply with new regulations relating to the collection of domestic energy consumption data.
Sopra Steria leads the way in this area. At the vanguard of IT-enabled energy efficiency, our Sopra Steria Smart Energy Management solution offers end-to-end optimisation of business energy use and a commitment to sustainable results.
Exciting technology developments have brought about a new, smarter approach that puts intelligence at the heart of energy management.
Smart Home: we work with energy operators to design and develop information systems for the full scale testing of energy consumption reduction and new usages and services in the home.
Smart Building: we optimise the energy efficiency of buildings and meet the requirements of occupants in terms of comfort with an innovative system covering the entire energy value chain, from production to delivery of energy. This solution enables power management to be streamlined according to usage and comfort requirements.
Eco Neighbourhood (or Eco District) and Smart City: we design and develop IT solutions to support energy performance at a neighbourhood or wider city level. We bring unprecedented expertise in interoperability, data governance and security to ensure the integrity and consistency of exchange in an increasingly connected world. Our IT solutions also support the development of new and future energy services, as well as other digital-based services (security, parking availability, urban mobility, etc.).
Smart Grids: designed to intelligently integrate generators, suppliers and consumers, Smart Grids will ultimately support smart production and consumption of energy. How? By matching these aspects and combining intelligent monitoring, control and communication, managing demand- response and the introduction of renewable energies into the grid (energy mix, local loop, etc.) and ultimately providing intelligent billing of new energy services.
Backed up by our integration experience, we address each step of the energy management ecosystem, making the link between smart energy management and corporate information systems to offer a broader benefit.
Sopra Steria is at the forefront of the Smart Cities and Smart Grids evolution at a neighbourhood (or district) level. In France, we are involved inIssy Grid®, the country's first district Smart Grids. This optimises energy production and use across the city of Issy-les-Moulineaux. Drawing on our Smart City offering, we meet the ecosystem requirements through the supervision and overall optimisation of energy management,making the most of the urban diversity and complexity.
How do you ensure an enterprise-wide view of your assets so that you can manage them effectively throughout their lifecycle?
With millions of assets above and below ground, in customers' homes and at commercial premises, energy and utility firms face the challenging task of maintaining and monitoring their equipment and infrastructure as efficiently as possible. How do you manage and share the information you hold on these assets? Asset management is often governed by regulation, as well as by the need to control costs while managing business risk. This demands proven quality systems supporting accurate and consistent data to demonstrate governance of assets and adherence to the regulations.
With 15 years' experience in repository and technical enterprise asset management (EAM), Sopra Steria provides a comprehensive EAM solution that meets the need to prolong the asset lifecycle of ageing infrastructures. It comprises both business consulting services around asset management, auditing and optimisation, as well as maintenance strategies and purchasing (supply chain). Implementation includes a technical assets repository and integration with existing environments.
Our EAM solution supports the sharing of asset information and helps to optimise assets, whether physical infrastructure and equipment, field service engineers, or smart meter deployments. It can rely on a geographic information system (GIS) that is used to locate assets for easier and global management.
We also provide IT systems enhancements and the change support necessary to identify the optimum end of life for assets. And we can plan investment priorities to achieve cost effective and timely programmes of enhancement or replacement.
With our business consulting and EAM solution, our clients benefit from heightened asset governance, cost reductions and optimised maintenance plans.
Sopra Steria helps a main electricity distribution network operator to manage the maintenance of its network. Our solution optimises and anticipates maintenance of the company's production tool, essential to ensure the quality of services delivered to its users.
Is there a smarter, more cost effective way to improve workforce effectiveness, secure operations, such as the deployment of huge volumes of smart meters, and control installation pace and quality?
Constantly changing work and repair orders are typically a big cost centre. Petrol consumption is high and customer satisfaction is easily damaged if scheduled work doesn't take place at the time agreed.
Mobile technology can change this situation. It enables a new, more efficient and environmentally-friendly approach to delivering services. At Sopra Steria we have made exciting advances in mobility to offer a proven Field Service Management solution built on efficient mobility tools and location-based capabilities.
Our mobility services enable real-time, two-way communication between the field force and despatch centre. They provide timely access to vital information and streamline the business processes supporting transmission and distribution operations, both in the office and out in the field.
Employees working in-situ receive their work and repair orders in real-time on their mobile devices, so are able to deal with emergency repairs more quickly. Their jobs and journeys are allocated to achieve optimum efficiency using features such as geographical services. These include map functions and journey optimisation.
Smart meters are an essential component of the Smart Grids. They are the link between supplier and customer, giving an opportunity for operators to gather information and provide added value services. In France, the Sopra Steria Field Service Management solution is supporting meter deployment, both electricity and gas, enabling transformation of the energy distribution network and helping operators adapt to new industry business models.
As a leading player in smart meter deployment, we also developed the IT system to manage the world's largest deployment of smart meters in partnership with French utilities firm ERDF. This system allows lean optimisation of the organisation's deployment (scheduling of meter installations, planning, monitoring and orchestration of all stakeholders in the roll-out organisation) and the coordination of the progressive rollout of 35 million meters.
Business consulting in field service transformation: Change management and training of your field service personnel, as well as mobility interface design, mobile device selection services and performance and security consulting.
Integrated solution design to streamline business processes: We integrate solutions from leading vendors and provide essential mobility building blocks, such as communication and synchronisation tools and software for mobile devices.
We're helping major energy providers enhance their interaction with customers and business partners, enabling them to cut costs and increase customer satisfaction with improved field service performance.
Are you equipped to use the latest geographic information systems technology to get more from budgets dedicated to operations and quality of service?
New geographic information systems (GIS) capability offers exciting potential for enhancing operational and strategic performance. With more than 18 years' experience in GIS projects supporting clients in the utilities, transport, defence, local organisations and other industries, Sopra Steria is a leading player in GIS development and operations.
We draw on this strong business knowledge and GIS expertise to offer our clients end-toend support, from consulting to operation. Our GIS teams have a specific sector focus, enabling them to design solutions that best respond to the challenges and demands of each business they support.
Location-based applications bring a new dimension to data analysis and we're at the forefront of developments in this area. We design and integrate fixed or mobile solutions to optimise the management of networks, resources and assets.
Economic land management, such as matching the location of public services with population concentration.
GIS mapping also supports environmental protection activities. It can be used to take into account the flora and fauna in operational areas and to map predicted climatic risks, such as flooding.
Our dedicated and industrialised GIS skill centre designs and analyses new approaches to provide innovative solutions based on mobility, cloud, 3D, crowdsourcing and Big Data. We meet the information needs of businesses and full ecosystems, such as Smart Cities.
Sopra Steria's GIS solutions in energy and utilities are improving operations management at a number of levels, including more efficient equipment maintenance (pylons, electric lines, transformers) and faster meter deployment. The Route Management component of our solution accelerates access to vital information for field operators and helps to streamline work order planning to improve productivity. Relying on GIS capabilities, our Field Service Management solution has enabled a leading French energy distribution network operator to save up to 12,000 work hours and 180,000km of travel per working day.
How do you unravel the increasingly complex supply and grid operations that have resulted from deregulation in the European gas market?
Liberalisation has led to significant changes in requirements for companies operating in this sector, from wholesale suppliers to grid and storage operators. Competition is intensifying at both gas supplier and trader level and the transfer of essential data in the market is an ongoing challenge.
This demands new and well integrated IT solutions featuring offer calculation, planning and accounting, gas flow balancing and commercial dispatching. High performing and efficiently integrated software also helps grid operators respond to changing system availability requirements and increasing cost pressures.
Within this landscape standard software products based on intelligent individualised concepts are vital. Sopra Steria has the solution. Our GAS-X product suite has been developed for and used in the European gas market for more than 20 years. Indeed, our GAS-X community already comprises 35 active gas companies and our skilled GAS-X consultants are well versed in this sector's technology, regulations and business process requirements.
The solutions and services within GAS-X are designed to offer constant support for today's business processes. Our clients benefit from the efficiencies of billing process automation and optimisation, as well as greater agility in contract, capacity and balancing management.
German gas distributor WINGAS has used GAS-X to optimise and automate its billing process and has incorporated the GAS-X portal into its website.
E.ON uses the GAS-X Balancing and Capacity Management solution for the general handling of supply capacities and for nominations at entry and exit points.
E.ON France relies on GAS-X Sales to handle the entire invoicing process for all of its Small and Medium Sized Enterprise (SME) customers, as well as Industrial and Commercial customers with gas commodity contracts.
Natural gas supplier EconGas GmbH and its subsidiaries are using the GAS-X Sales solution for the realignment of sales, billing and planning processes. It is providing the basis for mapping the key business processes of quote calculation, billing and planning.
Working with clients at every level of the energy and utilities market, Sopra Steria offers solutions that incorporate new business models, game-changing technologies and proven expertise in business process optimisation.
Business Process Services: delivering a step change in business efficiency, agility and performance.
Many of Europe's leading energy and utility companies work with us to relieve their operational, regulatory and budgetary pressures so that they can stay focused on their core activities and deliver smart energy management.
We use our best-in-class consulting, solutions, industrialised services lines and implementation expertise to ensure our clients are able to compete successfully in a new operating landscape. For example, our testing service line is helping a water company to do more for its business by managing peaks in demand for testing, development and applications change.
in the UK Sopra Steria is supporting its energy and utilities clients with transformational IT and Business Process Services (BPS). Our goal is to always deliver business outcomes that enable our end customers to achieve their strategic imperatives, whether that's cost savings, improved customer satisfaction, or increasing revenue.


Rotherham Council has teamed up with the National Market Traders Federation (NMTF) to encourage entrepreneurs to start a business on the market.
The scheme called First Pitch, will allow future small business owners to trade for up to 12 months at discounted rent on Rotherham's Outdoor Covered Market with personalised support from the NMTF.
Joe Harrison, chief executive of the NMTF, said: "Many of our well-known brands started life on the markets and we know many people want to take that leap into starting their own business – First Pitch will give you the support you need to bring a product or service to the market."
Councillor Gerald Smith, cabinet member for Regeneration and Development at Rotherham Council, added: "If you're selected as a finalist, you are given free membership of the NMTF, a free copy of a market trader training guide and a mentor, someone who has a wealth of business and market trading experience."
"This is a fantastic opportunity for anyone wanting to launch their own business. Rotherham Market is a focal point in the town centre and is the perfect place for someone to set up a new business.
"We are delighted to be able to offer these stalls because the market complex is a hugely valuable community asset. It has so much to offer and is an integral part of the Rotherham town centre shopping experience."
To qualify, First Pitchers will trade for free for up to five days during 'Love Your Local Market' from 15th to 29th May, and then continue to trade on the market for a further 12 months at discounted rent.
Four pitches are available in Rotherham and the deadline for applicants is April 19th. Further information and application forms are available on the NMTF website.


text:
CDVD è un singolo del gruppo musicale italiano I Moderni, il secondo estratto da Troppo fuori e pubblicato nel 2012. In radio dal 24 agosto 2012.

Il brano
Brano pubblicato come secondo estratto da Troppo fuori primo album di inediti. L'autore del testo è Daniele Lazzarini dei Two Fingerz, alle musiche Yves Agbessi, i Two Fingerz e i I Moderni

Note

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Dereferencing an incremented pointer causing the pointer to change its value? #include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(void)
{
    int *x= 0;
    int y = 0;
    x = &y;
    *x = 1;
    printf("%i\n",x);//an address
    printf("%i\n",*x);//1
    *(x+1)=10;
    printf("%i\n",x);//10 ---->unexpected
    printf("%i\n",x+1);//14 ---->more wierd
    printf("%i\n",*(x+1));//seg fault
    return 0;
}

In this case the last printf statement will output a seg fault. The value of x changes to 10 after *(x+1)=10. However the value of *(&y+1) is indeed changed to 10. The statement *(x+1)=10 should not affected x imo.

A: You used wrong control string for pointer (%i)
printf("%i\n",x);//10 ---->unexpected

You should use %p instead
printf("%p\n",(void*) x);

Also the access to pointer (x + 1) is causes undefined behavior, because the initial pointer x points to a single integer, and so dereferencing (x + 1) is out of bound and undefined.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Even a small car accident can be a traumatic experience for most drivers. The road to recovery from physical injuries and money lost has many complicated pieces. Use this section of CarAccidentAttorneys.com on your journey to seeking answers about your car accident.
Can you ever be not at fault for a rear end car accident where you rear ended the other vehicle?


We provide first-rate physical rehab, physical medicine, and healthcare services in a one-on-one setting to restore optimal movement and function to those with pain and injuries. We use an eclectic approach of manual therapy, neuromuscular exercises, strength training, and education to provide the best treatment possible.
Our goal is to help you recover from your injury and alleviate your pain as soon as possible. Once you are feeling better, we also want to ensure that you are the best position to prevent future injuries from occurring.


Looking for a new workout partner? Try your dog.
A growing number of trainers and studios are offering classes designed to help exercisers and their four-legged friends burn calories together.
Like many pet owners, trainer Angi Aramburu found herself struggling to balance her fitness needs with her dog's. So earlier this year, she created Go Fetch Run, a Brooklyn, NY-based company that lets people enjoy fitness classes with their dogs.
Her outdoor boot camp classes include cardio that owners can do with their dogs. While the owners do strength training, the dogs have to stay still, making the class both a workout and a lesson in obedience.
Aramburu also works with dog trainers to make sure the workouts are safe for pets.
Although Go Fetch Run, which is in the process of becoming a franchise, is the first company of its kind in the New York area, similar classes have popped up across the country offering everything from "doga" (dog yoga) to "dogstacle" courses.
Aramburu attributes the popularity of dog fitness classes to the growing number of people looking for new workouts and trying to make their pets a bigger part of their lives.
"It's fun just to have that bonding time with your dog," Aramburu says. "The people are busy getting in a good workout, and the dog just thinks you're there to play with them. And no matter how hard the workout is, your dog is going to make you laugh and smile. I think it just increases the stress relief benefits of your workout."
"And you know, dogs are good workout partners," Aramburu adds. "They're never going to stand you up. They're never going to be late. Your dog will always be there."


There are tons of paid survey offers online, but not all of the offers are legitimate. So, how do you sort the real offers from the scams? Well, it's actually not too difficult. In fact, here are a few quick and easy ways that you can avoid scams and find legitimate paid surveys online.
The first step in finding legitimate paid surveys online is to do a little research on the companies that are offering to pay you for taking surveys. You might make a list of the companies that you think are the best and compare them to each other. You should look at factors like how much they pay, the quality of customer service and any guarantees they offer. After comparing the companies, you should be able to choose the best one.
If you've researched the companies but still aren't sure which company to choose, you may want to read online reviews. This is a great way to find legitimate paid surveys. Online reviews will tell you which company or companies other people just like you found to be the best. Just make sure that you read more than one review so you get a better idea of what other people thought of the company.
Another way to find legitimate paid surveys online is to use a paid survey membership site. There are several of these sites online. You pay a small fee to access hundreds of the top paid survey companies available. As long as you choose a reputable membership site, this is a great option. Most quality sites update their lists often and constantly research to find the highest paying paid survey companies around.
If you do decide to use a paid survey membership site to find legitimate paid surveys, make sure that you sign up through a site that offers a money back guarantee. There are several sites out there that will take your money and offer you a list of outdated paid survey companies. As long as they offer a money back guarantee, you won't have to worry about this. If you're not satisfied, you can get a full refund and try another site.
If you follow this advice, you shouldn't have any problems finding legitimate paid surveys online. Just remember that if you spend a little time at the beginning researching companies, it can save you a lot of time and money in the end.


All of the E.A.R.CO.S technicians are factory trained by the companies we service.
E.A.R.CO.S uses only factory parts on all repairs (unlike other repair facilities) which ensures proper operation and prolonged life of the equipment. We never use over-the-counter parts or substitute components. We service all forms of electronic instruments and musical equipment. We have a wide stock of re-cone kits, diaphragms and electronic components for fast repair and turnaround. If you do not find a brand on our list, please call us, chances are we can repair it.
Our labor rates are the lowest around at only $50 per hour for non-warranty repairs and we except UPS, Fed Ex, DHL, or a full truck pallet and NO RA's required.
Welcome to Earcos. We invite you to browse through our store and shop with confidence. E.A.R.CO.S. is a full service Electronic Musical Equipment repair company.
Speaker Re-Cone Service Available New and Vintage Tube Amp Service Available. We invite you to create an account with us if you like, or shop as a guest. Either way, your shopping cart will be active until you leave the store.
Earcos an authorized repair center for the Guitar Center's Performance Guarantee repair plan. Please contact us if you are unfamiliar with this service.
36 North Van Buren Ave.
Content copyright . Earcos. All rights reserved.


There are already other tourists there and we feel a bit out of line : we haven't come to walk on Jesus' s path, nor to go for a camel-ride, nor to buy trinkets... Tanguy who has already been here before gives us some information about what we can see : the towers, domes, steeples and minarets in the different districts of the Old Town, the Gates in the town wall, the Jewish and Muslim cemeteries that are lying at our feet, the Mount of Olives, the university buildings … and the development of the Jewish settlements around Jerusalem.
That wall is indeed a great strain on our nerves, especially when our taxis stop a few meters from a checkpoint... Our first checkpoint : a mere wire fencing, all of a sudden there across our way, watched over by young helmeted, booted and armed soldiers in their twenties who glance at us with distrust and palpable tension... We watch them from a distance, coming and going, exchanging brief words and smoking, having obviously not much to do but wait... "On the other side", the guide tells us, "it's Palestine..."
After a while, a dusty car stops on the other side of the fence with two elderly Palestinians on board. They are obviously accustomed to waiting patiently... The young soldiers ignore them for a long moment. Then one of them goes towards the wire fencing and, with an infinite nonchalance, pushes it open with one hand, the other one still firm on his M16 gun, that way clearing the road to the Palestinians who get their car started smoothly... An uncanny scene that reminds us of Avi Mograbi 's film and leaves us disconcerted... We get back into the taxis, turn round and drive down the hill alongside demolished buildings that should have been home for Palestinian leaders' offices.
Bethany is just the opposite of all this "perfection". It is one of those Palestinian villages that are now trapped between the separating wall and the Old Town. Unlike many others, it still exists, but under awful conditions : it is dirty, cluttered, overcrowded. Its buildings and roads are dilapidated, most shops have gone bankrupt : the inhabitants survive in a place that has become little more than an open-air prison that neither they nor their goods can leave.
Down the stone-barrier that keeps the non-Jews away from the holy place, about 15 Jewish men and teenagers are sitting in circle and discussing extracts of the Torah. They look totally caught in their argumentation and explanations... This habit of debating religious matters in public amazes us : we are not in the slightest accustomed to it.
So there we are, just letting ourselves be filled with everything we hear and see... All of a sudden, a Jewish woman (non-orthodox) calls out to us : "Do you know the 7 Laws of Noah?". Noticing our stupefied look she starts a lecture on those laws, hammering out how Different the Jewish People is, being the Chosen One. "One day", she assures us, "all the other people on earth will beg the Jews to accept them as their servants"... Both taken aback (is she completely crazy or just fanatic?) and kind of outraged by what she is saying, not at all certain either to see the point in it all, we stealthily creep away until there is nobody left with her but Tanguy and Anne-Claire who ask her if she would mind repeating what she has just said while they would record her. She accepts immediately because "Everybody should hear what I say about God and the Jewish people !"
Now, the learned attitude and tone she then puts on as well as the fact she phrases her sentences exactly the same way as before make us understand that she is in fact reciting a well-learned lesson. Again, we can't help thinking of Avi Mograbi' s film : Jewish schoolboys and girls are "drilled" to "their history" : "There will never be peace with the Palestinians. There will always be different (Jewish) groups and all of them say that if one group said it wanted to make peace, the other groups are not obliged to follow... The Jewish people is the Chosen People and the only one loved by God, and God will resuscitate all the bad people and will punish them for the bad things they did against the Jews... We are all waiting for God's punishment : He will punish all those who, by attacking the Jews, touched the Eye of God. Long live our Messiah !…"
"Even the Non-Jews understand we have to protect ourselves. The (Muslim) fundamentalists are not dangerous only for the Jews, they are a danger to everybody : people have so quickly forgotten September, 11 ! These criminals wanted to bomb America ! They didn't want to harm the Jews only!… We need the help of all the countries, of everybody. You can help the Jewish people with your propaganda, with your money or physically. God will reward you for helping us. Because all the crimes that are committed here… God will never forgive anybody who just sat there, watching what is happening without reacting, saying : I can't interfere !…. We are calling for your help, OK? Thank you!…."
She has only just left us when she addresses three (absolutely cute) hippies (a woman with long loose hair and two bearded fair-haired men, one of them a Jew, the other one the exact double of Jesus Christ !) who are sitting cross-legged on the ground and letting themselves be filled with the energy of the place. Watching them discuss with the lady, we come near them as soon as she has gone and ask them how they feel about what she has told them. "It doesn't really help with peace" , they answer.
"This kind of speech doesn't bring us closer to a solution nor to peace or anything of the kind… And it isn't even her fault. She belongs to a generation that believes in that… And this happens with all religions, creating separation : we went to the Muslim district, and we wanted to go into the Golden Mosque, but we couldn't. And then, I wanted to take a Koran in their library but they said to me : « No, you can't touch it, you are not a Muslim»… Religion, it begins with a great person, Mohamed, Jesus, Moses… and then people start interpreting it and it becomes something totally different. After several hundreds of years, it becomes something crazy, like this…"


text:
By Rashmi Menon Published: 7 Jan 2013, 12:00 IST
Fevistik: Copy act
In its latest campaign, Pidilite decides to wage war against competing and fake brands with the clever use of lookalikes to emphasise its originality.
Lookalikes should not be taken lightly and Fevistik's latest campaign proves this. After nearly two years since its last campaign that showed the brand's qualities, Pidilite's new campaign reiterates the brand as the only original glue stick in the market. And, it does so by using lookalikes of Sachin Tendulkar and Salman Khan.
The campaign takes on the competitor and fake glue sticks that are available in the market. Conceptualised by Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai, the two films are set in what looks like a stationery shop. In the film titled Duplicate, the owner of the store, 'Golmatol', and his assistant are visibly stumped when they see a Sachin Tendulkar-lookalike wearing the sky blue jersey walk into the store and ask for a glue stick. When the shopkeeper's assistant puts a glue stick on the counter, the character is aghast and asks, "Kya main aisa aadmi dikhta hoon jo duplicate cheez use karega (Do you think I look like a person who uses duplicate products)?' He then adds, "Original glue stick, Fevistik." The shopkeeper admonishes his assistant and quickly produces the brand.
In another creative, also on similar lines, a Salman Khan lookalike dressed like Chulbul Pandey (the role played by Khan in Dabangg2) breaks into a jig when he hears the ringtone of the shopkeeper's mobile phone. He, too, asks the duplicate stick to be replaced by the original one. The tongue-in-cheek humour is hard to miss in both ad films.
Anurag Agnihotri, group creative director, Ogilvy & Mather explains that the idea was to make people ask for the original glue stick brand, which is Fevistik. "Fevistik is generic to the product category and has a monopoly over it. But of late, Pidilite has received feedback that many other brands (China made) or glue sticks having similar names are taking advantage of Fevistik's brand presence in the market. So, the client wanted us to come up with something to counter this," he states, adding that the emphasis was to make the brand stand out as the original glue stick product.
The campaign will run for six weeks, with the TVCs being aired in six languages - Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Bengali. Pidilite will also carry out on-ground activities such as a collage contest, 'Who is your original hero', for kids in around 1,700 schools across India. Participants in the contest are required to create a collage on a given piece of cardboard and submit it to win a prize, says Vivek Verma, vice-president, Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai.
Asked if the Dabangg2 reference was intentional, considering the movie has a song based on Pidilite's Fevicol, Verma says, "We needed an iconic treatment, which people remembered and enjoyed."
The campaign targets SEC A and B, and children.
Mock up!
So, has the use of 'copies' helped reiterate the brand's point to 'stick' with the original? Worked beautifully, says Charles Victor, NCD, Law & Kenneth. "It's mad, it's entertaining and it makes a point that, quite literally, sticks! Here's a piece of communication that will really get consumed when it's on air. The use of lookalikes is integral to the campaign but that's the whole point of the campaign, isn't it?" he adds.
According to Arun Raman, executive vice-president, strategic planning, Lowe India, the planning input is strategically intelligent. "In order to position others as duplicates, use duplicates to make that point. And, in such an exaggerated manner, that the desired response is 'this guy is so poor in imitating Salman/Sachin'. On top of it, when that not-so-good Sachin mimic actually says if he looks like someone who uses a duplicate product, it is so incongruous that you agree with the brand, even as you ridicule the person. Point delivered without product windows and brand comparisons," he says.
The target audience, Raman ventures, is office-goers and school kids. Hence, the idea needed to be clever to make one's point to this audience, for whom "any brand will do".
PidiliteOgilvy & MatherLowe IndiaLaw & KennethCharles VictorArun RamanFevistikduplicateglue stickAnurag AgnihotriVivek Verma

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
More arrests in terror bomb probe
As the men suspected of being would-be suicide bombers were held, the police investigation continued apace with seven fresh arrests, following more anti-terror raids.
All four would-be July 21 suicide bomb suspects whose pictures were released by police hunting them are now in custody.
Muktar Said-Ibrahim, 27, accused of the failed Hackney bus bombing and Ramzi Mohammed - suspected of attempting the Oval tube bombing - were captured in raids in west London on Friday.
In Rome, Italian police held Hussain Osman, alleged to be the would-be bomber of a train at Shepherd's Bush, west London.
They also arrested Hussain's brother in the same raid at that man's apartment near Rome's main train station and later another brother in the industrial northern Italian city of Brescia.
The arrests - plus that of Ramzi Mohammed's brother Wahbi Mohammed in Tavistock Crescent, west London - followed Wednesday's detention of Yasin Hassan Omar, who is suspected of attempting to blow up a Tube train at Warren Street station in central London.
Omar, 24, was felled with a Taser stun gun when officers stormed the house where he was hiding in Birmingham on Wednesday morning.
He and Said-Ibrahim are thought to have been staying at a flat on the ninth floor of a tower block in New Southgate, north London.
Said-Ibrahim arrived in the UK from Eritrea in East Africa as a child refugee with his family in 1992 when he was 14. He attended Canons Hill school in Edgware, north London.
In November 2003 he applied to become a British citizen and was given a British passport last September.
Hussain was traced to the apartment near Rome's main train station after he used his relative's mobile phone in London.
Italian authorities said Scotland Yard told them a mobile call intercepted at the location of the July 21 attempted bombing had been in the name of someone who lived in Rome.
Hussain is thought to be linked to an address in Stockwell, south London, which was raided by police on Wednesday night.
The ground floor flat at Blair House is only 200 yards from Stockwell Tube station.
Three women there were arrested on suspicion of harbouring offenders, one later released on bail.
Yesterday, six men and a woman were arrested by anti-terror police at one of two addresses raided by police in Brighton, East Sussex.
The arrests were linked to the failed suicide bombings in London on July 21.
Also in custody in London are a man arrested in Stockwell, south London, on Friday, July 22, and two men held in New Southgate, London, on July 24 and 25. It emerged on Saturday night that police also arrested another man in Finchley, north London, on Tuesday.
A further man was seized in Kennington, south London, on Thursday.
Two women arrested at Liverpool Street station on Friday and later released are reportedly the girlfriends of Muktar Said-Ibrahim and Ramzi Mohammed.
The failed bombings on July 21 came two weeks after suicide attacks on three Tube trains and a bus killed 56 people, including the four bombers, and injured more than 700.
The attackers in the first wave were Husab Hussain, 18, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Mohammed Sadique Khan, 30, and Germaine Lindsay, 19.
A British al Qaida suspect reportedly wanted in connection with London suicide bombings has also been arrested in Zambia.
Haroon Rashid Aswat was detained last week in the African country and is being held for his alleged role in setting up a terror camp in the US state of Oregon, according to the Los Angeles Times.


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Typing About Movies
Movie-Goer's Bill of Rights
DVDs/Blu-Rays/Digital Reviewed
Radioland Murders
April 11, 2008 Matt	Leave a comment
Despite the fact that he wrote the story that has been the standard for Science Fiction movies for over 30 years, George Lucas has always been criticized for his inability to write good dialogue. Additionally, it seems that ventures not involving Star Wars or Indiana Jones end up being utter failures (i.e. Howard the Duck). In `994, Lucas took another chance on a non-SW/IJ story, Radioland Murders.
When it came out in the theaters, it did not last long enough for me to see it. Critics hated it and audiences didn't get it. As with Howard the Duck, everyone blamed Lucas, despite the fact that 4 people wrote the screenplay and someone else directed it. I finally got to see it on video when it came out and was pleasantly surprised. What I saw reminded me a lot of the movies my parents had made me watch growing up: predictable, simple story with madcap wackiness.
One of the first thing you notice in watching the movie is the amount of talent that signed up to participate, with stars ranging from George Burns to Ned Beatty. Each actor is used to their strengths and there is not a weak one in the bunch. Probably the one thing that helped the most in turning audiences off was casting a cable TV star as the lead: Brian Benben. Benben was just coming off of a successful run in one HBO's first original series, Dream On. Mary Stuart Masterson was great as the fast-talking romantic interest. The entire cast reflects a chemistry not often captured on film and it is a shame that many people missed this.
The story revolves around the first night of national broadcast for a fourth radio network. As the broadcast begins, there are issues with unfinished scripts, Benben's relationship with Masterson, and sponsors wanting out. As the night progresses, the stakes are raised for the radio network that could be with a murder happening every so often. What follows is orchestrated madness that is entertaining, but hectic.
Unfortunately, since the movie bombed, the DVD got the worst possible treatment: no surround sound, no extras; just the ability to jump to certain scenes.
My advice: this is a great date movie or Saturday afternoon veg movie. While it is not a perfect movie, you will be missing a movie severely underrated.
Justice League: The New Frontier
Over the past 15 years, animation has been moving steadily away from "traditional" hand-drawn looks to more and more computer-generated images. Watching old episodes of Batman:The Animated Series, I am shocked at how "crude" most of the images seem. Then I sit back and realize that it is the rough look that I enjoyed so much when watching the series first-run. With Justice League on Cartoon Network, the images looked sleeker and crisper, but seemed to lack humanity.
Enter Justice League: The New Frontier.
This straight-to-DVD movie is based on Darwyn Cooke's successful graphic novel of the same title. Cook wanted his story to center around the look and feel of the heroes of DC's Silver Age. This was a time period that he grew up with and felt that some today's versions of our favorite heroes had strayed too far from. His story is one of simple means: a threat forces our greatest heroes to band together to defeat it.
The movie is beautiful from an animation standpoint: great visuals, fluid motions, full of humanity. Like all of the DC animation projects over the past 15 years, the voice casting is spot on. David Boreanz has the right amount of cockiness for the role of Hal Jordan, aka The Green Lantern. Make no mistake: this story is more than the origin of the Justice League; it is the origin of Green Lantern and how he became the man he is now.
The DVD version watched is the 2-disc version. Its extras include:
Audio Commentaries with Darwyn Cook and the production crew
Documentary on the history of the Justice League — excellent documentary
Sneak Peek at the next project, Batman: Gotham Knight
Documentary on the Super-Villain
Comic Book Commentary from Darwyn Cook
3 episodes of Justice League Unlimited aimed at highlighting certain themes in New Frontier
My advice: watch this for great animation and story, particularly if you grew up on heroes and mythology.
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mySociety
mySociety Research
TICTeC
Our research approach
Research framework
Implementing our approach
Disseminating our findings
mySociety's overall mission is:
"To invent and popularise digital tools that enable citizens to exert power over institutions and decision-makers."
Citizens will only try to demand better from governments if those citizens have access to a rich mix of often scarce resources: from education, to wealth, to knowledge about government failings. At mySociety we are highly aware that we cannot give people most of these things: we can't help boost business in failing economies or bring teachers into schools that have none. These are the tasks of major development funders, political leaders and well-functioning markets, and we understand that we cannot help make citizens more powerful on our own. We do believe that we can bring something significant to the table, if other groups are doing their bit. What mySociety can definitely do is convert moments of everyday frustration and idle curiosity experienced by citizens into action, using the internet.
In the UK we proved that we could enable people to send demands to governments and companies: messages that got things done and changed. We also showed that we could help citizens to help uncover governance failings that were otherwise unknown in their own lives and communities. And, crucially, we know how to do this amongst people who aren't political junkies, and we know how to do it at scale.
mySociety's vision is for citizens around the world to feel empowered to interact efficiently, effectively and meaningfully with their governments and decision-makers using low cost and user-friendly civic technology. We want to enable citizens to communicate through accessible means, to solve their problems and to get what they are entitled to from institutions.
We believe that strong democratic accountability and a thriving civil society are vital to our common welfare, and that these cannot survive where people do not engage with government and communities. We work online because we believe that the internet can meaningfully lower the barriers to taking the first civic or democratic steps in a citizen's life, and that it can do so at scale.
Our ambition is to increase the impact of each service that we provide, and to increase the breadth of usage of those services through working with our international partners.
mySociety will contribute to the achievement of its ambitions through implementing a substantial increase in the research it conducts into civic technology. In particular, we will:
Build our understanding of how individuals and institutions use and are impacted by civic tech
Prioritise research that is novel, comparative and innovative
Accelerate the dissemination of research findings
Develop a global network of researchers interested in civic tech
To deliver these priorities, we will:
Invest in academic research activities exploring pertinent questions
Pursue high quality collaborative partnerships with academic and NGO organisations interested in civic technology
Publish all results and appropriate data in an accessible format and in a timely fashion
Organise and attend research conferences and events to disseminate ideas and results and to build a network of civic tech researchers
Our research is a fundamental facet of our operation, and it is our intention to use our research agenda to demonstrate how civic technology is impactful, meaningful and how it contributes to changes in governmental accountability, transparency and citizen engagement.
mySociety wants to understand where it can and does have meaningful impact upon the individuals and organisations that use its tools. Our technology is deployed by a wide range of groups around the world, and it is vital to understand how those deployments are operating, and whether they are in fact making a meaningful contribution to the local polity. mySociety also wants to understand how it can enhance the quality and take-up of those tools internationally in broadening citizen engagement with institutions and decision-makers.
Our approach will focus on points of impact within the user journey, and will be collaborative and comparative.
mySociety tools are primarily digital and used online. Citizens visit the differing mySociety platforms to either acquire information or to make a request to get something changed. Whilst some uses of mySociety tools are more passive than others (the user does not provide or request information or interact directly with the site, but simply finds and reads the desired information from the main website pages), all of the platforms are considered 'transactional' in that there is a linear progression through the site guided predominantly by an offline personal issue/interest, and that a transaction occurs when the user either acquires, requests or submits information. We do however understand the importance of the interaction of our tools with necessary offline processes, and acknowledge that there are regions where internet penetration is low. In such instances, we work with local partners to ensure the development of a nuanced approach that is compatible with the cultural and technological landscape.
The impact of mySociety tools can therefore manifest at multiple possible points surrounding the transaction, and at an individual and institutional level.
The points of impact mySociety is prioritising are categorised as:
(A) Individual factors – The journey individual users experience using civic technology
(B) Digital factors – The impact of the digital environment upon the user journey
(C) Environmental factors – The cultural, social and institutional environment in which the technology and individual user operates
These points of impact can also be assessed chronologically:
(1) Pre-transaction – Before the individual accesses the digital tool
(2) Transaction – The user experience on the online tool itself
(3) Post-transaction – The user behaviour and activity following use of the tool
At each of these points of impact, we want to understand what is happening and whether the impact is meaningful. The matrix demonstrates how we will use these impact points to prioritise our research and interrogate the process of using civic technology:
Research framework matrix
Citizens need… (A)
Civic technology must… (B)
Environmental pressures will… (C)
Before anyone visits a website… (1) What do individuals need to use civic technology? What does civic tech need to do to be prepared for citizens and institutions to interact with it? What socio-political environment will nurture civic tech? What might create cultural barriers?
When citizens are using the site… (2) How are citizens using the site? Are there barriers? Can we 'nudge' people to feel more comfortable to engage? What technical details will threaten the transaction? How will socio-cultural conventions, bureaucracy and legal parameters affect how transactions occur?
After people have clicked away… (3) What do citizens do after the transaction? Do they feel empowered? How can civic technology automatically nurture that engagement? How do institutions react to the transactions through civic tech?
The boxes within the matrix address differing points in the user journey and the impact factors associated with those points. Cross-referencing impact in this way will build a complete picture of the impact of mySociety tools, and will provide a preliminary framework for measurement. Multiple research questions can be asked within each box, and we envisage conducting a number of studies to analyse each point of impact.
We wish to examine our impact by:
Developing our understanding of how digital tools can instigate and support long-term attitudinal change in citizens with regard to their institutional engagement activities
Testing the best ways to present information and facilitate citizen-government digital interactions
Analysing how institutions and decision-makers react and respond to citizens using digital engagement tools
Contextualising how social, environmental and cultural institutions shape civic digital engagement
The scope of mySociety's research agenda is deliberately broad and ambitious. Multiple research activities and studies are planned, using multiple research methods. We will be using quantitative survey methods to assess demographics and public attitudes. We will be running randomized control trials to understand how the presentation of information can make citizens more likely to engage with institutions and decision-makers. We will also be undertaking an extensive qualitative study using in-depth interviews to unpick the motivations, frustrations and operations of both citizens and public bodies.
All of our work will include comparative elements, with studies being conducted in multiple regions around the world, and with civic technology organisations running platforms on different code. Research will be conducted by both mySociety research staff, and in partnership with academic institutions and NGOs around the world.
We aim to produce high quality, academically rigorous research, and to make a contribution to knowledge in this emerging field. Whilst we think that is important that the data collected through our research should be submitted for publication in leading academic journals, we recognise that this not only takes significant time, but that such publications are largely inaccessible to those outside of academia. Mindful of this, we aim to publish our findings regularly online and in a variety of blogs. Wherever possible, we also intend to publish full data sets so that other interested parties may use them.
We recognise the value of making connections and hearing about research first-hand, and as such plan to disseminate our ideas and our findings through networking and events. mySociety holds regular research evenings and will hold its first annual research conference in 2015. In addition, mySociety research staff attend relevant academic conferences with the aim of raising the profile of civic technology research and developing a global network of similarly interested individuals and organisations.
mySociety is a not-for-profit social enterprise, based in the UK but working with partners internationally. We build and share digital technologies that give people the power to get things changed, across the three areas of Democracy, Freedom of Information, and Better Cities.
Data and APIs
@mysociety


Re: LTO tape cartridge(200GB/400GB) stores data 500GB+.
will show the capacity used as 2000Gb.
modified ZL algorithm - similar to the algorithm used for pkzip etc.
compressed can grow if comressed again.
everything else you get is a bonus.
Subject: Re: LTO tape cartridge(200GB/400GB) stores data 500GB+.
> the total storage capacity.
> Subject: Re: LTO tape cartridge(200GB/400GB) stores data 500GB+.
> I'm sure plenty other things will confuse the hell out of you.
> Subject: LTO tape cartridge(200GB/400GB) stores data 500GB+.
> > 38D0, and devclass was defined with device-type=LTO and Format=ULTRIM2C.
> > the tape is storing more then 500GB of data, Is it normal behavior.
> > Tivoli Certified Consultant (TSM).
> > TIMKEN Engineering & Research - INDIA (P) Ltd., Bangalore.
> > Phone No: 91-80-51362222.
> > Email:cr.chandrashekar AT timken DOT com.
> to use this new name in future email addressed to this individual.
> > replying to this message, and then delete it from your system.
to use this new name in future email addressed to this individual.
> replying to this message, and then delete it from your system.


Enjoying wonderful views of the village and Mont de Grange, this luxury ski chalet will accommodate your family and friends in comfort and style. Sleeping up to 20 people, the chalet is extremely spacious and well-appointed.
The chalet is very well-appointed and comfortably furnished throughout. The ground floor has its own living room and kitchenette and is equipped with a convertible sofa bed, Satellite TV and DVD player. There is a laundry room, sauna and shower, as well as two bedrooms. Bedroom 1 is furnished with two sets of bunk beds (great for kids) and en suite shower and WC. The second bedroom has a double bed and en suite bathroom.
The main living and dining room is situated on the first floor with access to a furnished terrace and great views over the village and Mont de Grange. Perfect for entertaining, this spacious room has a large dining table and chairs and an open plan, fully-equipped kitchen. There is a bathroom and guest cloakroom, a double/twin bedroom and a further room with a double sofa bed, Sky TV and DVD player.
The remaining three bedrooms are situated on the upper floor. There is one double room with an en suite bathroom and two bedrooms which each sleep up to three people. There is also a family bathroom with bath, WC, washbasin.
Please contact us for information about an outside catering service from pre-prepared meals to fully catered 3 course meal options or half board.
This luxury ski chalet is ideally situated just 100m from the Barbossine ski lift in Petit-Chatel which sits above the main village. Petit-Chatel has its own boulangerie open at peak times, whilst a wide range of amenities, shops and restaurants are available only 1.5km away in Chatel's centre. The Barbossine lift gives access to the Super-Chatel pistes and the wider Portes du Soleil circuit via Torgon or Morgins. Other lifts in the Chatel sector are a short bus ride away.


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Given that neither Cary Grant nor Alfred Hitchcock won an Academy Award (supply your own copyright symbol) the Oscars are basically a knees-up for well-paid advertising campaigns and schmoozefests that often finish up in a very long snoozefest round this time of year with all our Best Films overlooked. However … Oscar 2017 was a different animal. The opening number by Justin Timberlake (his song from Trolls) leading a team of dancers down the steps of the auditorium and winding up onstage was great fun; Jimmy Kimmel's script and timing were immaculate, making great points without wearing everyone out (remember Chris Rock who just went on … and on … and on … throughout the three and a half hours last year? Because a snappy one-liner just wouldn't do.) The awards were surprisingly well spread – the first eleven went to different films – and the LA LA Land juggernaut wound up with six awards for thirteen noms including Director with the sound and film editing going elsewhere making a Best Picture win less likely. It looked like seven for fourteen … and briefly was … but this year something odd happened. For the first time in living memory, Best Actor was called before Best Actress, which went to Emma Stone (Natalie Portman didn't even show up.) And then Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway (allegedly – one couldn't be entirely sure) came onstage to celebrate 50 years of Bonnie and Clyde and hand out the award for Best Picture. But the accountants (the only two people on the planet who knew the result) had unwittingly given them a duplicate of the Best Actress envelope. After the usual spiel, Beatty opened it and looked at it curiously. Then he made a show of checking for something else in the red envelope, looked at the card again, played for time, handed the card to Dunaway as if for confirmation, and she called out LA LA Land. The entire production team or so it seemed was in the midst of their speeches, when all of a sudden there were some people with headsets running around behind them, Beatty was handed another envelope, and when a bearded man, LA LA Land producer Jordan Horowitz said that the real winner was Moonlight, Kimmel looked chastened, Beatty puzzled. Horowitz pulled the card rather roughly from the new envelope the legendary Beatty was holding and showed it to camera where it clearly made the announcement, Best Picture: Moonlight. Horowitz called up the team from that film. The cameras showed the shocked and confused reactions around the auditorium. Beatty calmly explained he'd been given the wrong card and it had not been a joke. Horowitz repeated none of it was a joke, Moonlight was the real winner for Best Picture. Kimmel manfully took the blame, and in truth, he was probably regretting live-Tweeting/trolling the POTUS earlier because, after all, if this isn't the biggest Fake News in history, what is?! You couldn't make it up. Was it the Russians? No, it was PricewaterhouseCoopers. An accounting firm. That's showbiz! Moonlight director Barry Jenkins was very gracious and referenced that the teams behind both films had done a lot of this awards show schlep together for the past few months and if this was a dream, that was okay. The little picture ($1.5m budget) that could went and did. Talk about a twist ending! It was a great show. And, as ever, a very, very long one. And the best one in oh so many years. Kimmel was terrific, even if the tour bus from Star Line was a little OTT – but boy did those tourists handle their sudden stardom effectively. Overall, Oscar 2017 was a display of (mostly) impeccable behaviour, some fun running jokes and rising to the occasion when everything went hopelessly wrong even if Emma Stone bizarrely decided to throw some shade at hapless Beatty by waving her envelope around in the Press room before clarifying anything with the floor managers. (Maybe she really did watch Rebel Without a Cause: she was like James Dean screaming "But I got the bullets!"). Beatty at least showed some class in comparison with both her and Horowitz. And I'm definitely getting new accountants: to quote a former Celebrity Apprentice judge, You're fired!
filed under Actors, Filmmakers, Hollywood, Television, Twist ending, Warren Beatty
Bill Paxton 05/17/55-02/25/17
Bill Paxton, pretty much the perfect actor, has died. Killed by Alien, Predator and the Terminator. Too, too sad. Vaya con Dios.
filed under Actors, Death, Obituary
Mildred Pierce (1945)
The film that marked Joan Crawford's comeback after she was unceremoniously dumped by Metro, this is a reworked and condensed adaptation of James M. Cain's Depression-era novel by Ranald McDougall, with uncredited rewrites by melodrama specialist Catherine Turney. And: William Faulkner, Albert Maltz, Margaret Gruen, Margaret Buell Wilder, Thames Williamson and Louise Randall Pierson. Director Michael Curtiz didn't want Crawford – she was the last of a long list that was topped by Bette Davis and Barbara Stanwyck – and they fought tooth and nail throughout production with producer Jerry Wald acting as go-between. She's the woman with the straying husband who starts baking cakes and waiting tables to support her daughters – the younger one, Kay, is a smart and funny tomboy, the elder, Veda (Ann Blyth) is a spoiled puss of a musician with a taste for the high life. The action takes place over four years in the Forties as Mildred starts up her own restaurant and builds a chain with the help of her husband's realtor partner Wally (Jack Carson) but when playboy investor Monte (Zachary Scott) enters the fray, a tangled web of business and adultery leads to murder. Crawford gets to show off her full emotional range in this superb maternal melo mix of independent woman, weepie and film noir, distinguished by Ernest Haller's deep shadowy photography and Max Steiner's score. And what about Anton Grot's sets! Crawford took home the Academy Award for Warner Bros. What a show!
filed under 1940s, Adaptation, Adolescence, Adultery, Architecture & Interiors, Atmospheric, B&W, Beach, Betrayal, Birthday, Business, California, Cars, Cinematography, Class, Clubs, Cooking, Costume, Dance, Daughters, Death, Deception, Divorce, Editing, Father, Feminist, Film Noir, Flashback, Food, Frenemy, Freudian, Guilt, Housewife, Independent woman, Legal, Marital, Medical, Melodrama, Mother, Music, Musicians, Narration, Party, Police, Post-war, Production design, Restaurant, Rivalry, Romance, Screenwriters, Soundtrack, Staircase, Stepfather, Teenagers, Woman writer, Women's picture
I wasn't in Nam. Hardly. The closest I ever got was playing Quasar and once being chased near Central Park West by an old one-legged vet on cheap wooden crutches. Maybe I reminded him of someone. But a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, this won a slew of Academy Awards. This being the season for it, time to pull it out again. And like the other big Nam movies – Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket – it's pretty schematised in its design. But the letters that Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) writes home make it more personal and immersive because he's so very young and idealistic (and ridiculously handsome) and in his first experience of ambush he's pretty much responsible for his new friend's death. It's unbearably tense. The guys are stuck between the noble warrior Willem Dafoe and the deranged psycho Tom Berenger – characterised as the good and bad fathers, thus giving us Chris' Freudian perspective on the drama. The final assault, a raid on the Cambodian border, is bloody and unbound. It's gripping, gritty and tense, the juxtaposition between the scenes of combat and those of male bonding is masterful and the emotion not supplied by the action is there in the incredible score by Georges Delerue, with Barber's Adagio for Strings touching the parts even he can't reach: you won't forget this quickly, its imagery sears the brain. Simply great filmmaking by that old tyro Oliver Stone, based on his own Nam and the first of his trilogy. Now, on the same subject entirely, where's my copy of Hamburger Hill?
filed under 1980s, Action, Atmospheric, Auteur, Biography, Cinematography, Colour, Combat, Communication, Drugs, Freudian, Friendship, Grenades, Guns, Helicopter, Military, Narration, Revenge, Rites of passage, Rivalry, Soldiers, Songs, Soundtrack, Vietnam, War
Bond of Fear (1956)
Smart little British B movie starring Irish-born stalwart Dermot Walsh as the man taking Land Rover and caravan on holiday from Birmingham to the South of France but he never gets there because he and his wife and kids are hijacked by Dewar (Canadian John Colicos) who's just murdered a policeman. The unlikely scenario of this middle class family hitting the road for Dover port and a crazed killer in the caravan holding them hostage is well measured with police checkpoints proving a test for Walsh as he has to lie while his son has a gun held to his head in the caravan. An indignant hitch hiker provides a particularly good scene and there's plenty of tension when the little boy Michael (Anthony Pavey) tries to defend his dad. It all comes to a head at Dover – so they never make it to France after all. Shot mostly at Nettlefold Studios at Walton-on-Thames (another to add to my list of British outfits) and around the burbs of Southern England, this looks pretty smart (courtesy of Monty Berman and operator Desmond Davis, a future director) and has an interesting soundtrack (an uncredited Stanley Black.) Walsh had made his mark on the Dublin stage following a few years studying law at University College Dublin. He was discovered by Rank and had good roles in films like Hungry Hill. After a brief return to the stage he spent most of the 50s doing movies like this and is best remembered for TV's Richard the Lionheart. He wrote a play and produced several works in the theatre. He is the father of the actress Elisabeth Dermot Walsh. He died in 2002. Digby Wolfe's story was adapted by horror director and writer John Gilling with additional scenes provided by Norman Hudis; and directed by Henry Cass, who made one of my favourite British movies, The Glass Mountain. Not chopped liver.
filed under 1950s, B&W, British, Caravan, Cars, Cat & mouse, Children, Cinematography, Daughter, Deception, Docks, Father, Ferry, Mother, Motorcycles, Murder, Police, Sons, Soundtrack, Thriller, Violent, Vroom!
The Goob (2014)
Guy Myhill's Fenland drama is brutal stuff. It's a long hot summer for Goob (Liam Walpole) who arrives home to find Mum (Sienna Guillory) shacked up at a transport cafe with ugly violent stock racing bully Gene (Sean Harris) and he has to grow up bloody fast. A gay cousin who likes to dance and cross-dress and a lovely foreign fruit picker create diversions and ultimately obstructions and Goob has to choose sides in a dangerous household that has already seen off his brother following a prank gone wrong. This is an intelligent story of violent sordid lowlifes with limited ambitions and worldviews and while convincingly and even poetically evoked at times it's a tough watch. Guillory's willing subjugation is hard to take while son Goob is the collateral damage. Harris, one of the least attractive individuals ever to grace a screen, is all too realistic; and the masturbation and sex scenes are somewhat de trop, as Celeste Holm might have said. Sometimes some things are best left … imagined. Spare and affecting with some really good faces inhabiting a fascinating landscape, beautifully captured in shimmering golden hour light, a new approach to British social realism.
filed under 2010s, Adolescence, Auteur, British, Cars, Cinematography, Colour, Cross Dressing, Dance, Deception, Desire, Drama, Farming, Homosexuality, Hospital, Jealousy, Mother, Motor racing, Motorcycles, Norfolk, Nudity, Parenting, Realism, Restaurant, Rites of passage, Romance, Sex, Songs, Sons, Soundtrack, Violent, Voyeurism, Vroom!, Woman in jeopardy
Your friends will abandon you. So true. Clive Barker's stories terrify me and The Forbidden in The Books of Blood series is a brilliant conflation of fairytale and horror, laced with social commentary about contemporary urban life in the parts of town you drive by pretty damn quick. Transferred by writer/director Bernard Rose to the Chicago Projects, this takes on a terrifyingly current resonance. Rose said when he recce'd Cabrini Green he sensed 'palpable fear.' The wonderful Virginia Madsen is researching urban legends with her postgrad colleague Kasi Lemmons while her sceptical lecturer hubby Xander Berkeley is carrying on with another student. The legend of Candyman exerts a hold over a ghetto building whose architecture mimics her own apartment block so she can forensically experience the way the idea literally infiltrated a drug-infested black community where vicious murders are taking place. She befriends a young mother and the graffiti pointing her to the origins of the story lures her back and she encounters the man whose name you do not want to say five times …. Bloody, sensual, exciting and a trip for the brain, this story of a tragic monster born of slavery is incarnated in the elegant, noble charismatic form of Tony Todd, blessed with a deep voice, a fur-trimmed greatcoat and a hook for a hand and boy does he use it to win the woman of his life, hypnotising her into his romantic history. Incredible from start to bloody finish, this is a brilliant exercise in genre, tapping into primal fears and political tensions and putting the sex into bee stings. Thrilling, with great cinematography by Anthony B. Richmond – get that titles sequence! – and an urban legend of a score by Philip Glass. Poetic and fabulous. Sweets to the sweet!
filed under 1990s, Adaptation, Adultery, Alienation, Architecture & Interiors, Atmospheric, Auteur, Babies, Bees, Betrayal, Books, Campus, Cars, Chicago, Children, Cinematography, College, Colour, Communication, Community, Costume, Crime, Cult, Death, Deception, Desire, Disguise, Drama, Drugs, Editing, Effects, Fairytale, Favourites, Ghost, Gothic, Hospital, Identity, Jealousy, Lecturers, Legends, Literature, Marital, Masculinity, Medical, Mental health, Mirrors, Morality tale, Murder, Narration, Newspaper, Paranoid, Pastiche, Police, Political, Psychiatry, Race, Revenge, Rituals, Romance, Screenwriters, Sex, Society, Soundtrack, Storytelling, Telephone, Thriller, Titles, Urban legends, Violent, Voyeurism, Woman in jeopardy, Writers
Wives and Lovers (1963)
Are you working these days or are you writing?! Stop me if you've heard this one before. Van Johnson has. He's the unsuccessful author in a NYC coldwater flat happily married to dental assistant Janet Leigh with a 7 year old kid. Then agent Martha Hyer ('the hottest agent in town' – 'in and out of the office!') suddenly sells his novel to Broadway, a literary publisher and Hollywood and they move to the posh burbs where neighbours Shelley Winters (formerly married to a movie star) and her house guest Ray Walston rock the marital boat. When actor Jeremy Slate takes the lead in the play, he finds in Leigh a neglected stage wife, ripe for plucking … A super-slick 60s drama with sharp performances by a great cast (particularly Leigh and Walston) who have some rare, acid dialogue and enjoy casting caustic social comment. The only disappointments lie in the monochrome filming and the fact that the Bacharach and David song performed by my beloved Jack Jones (and inspired by the film) never made it to the soundtrack, which is pretty good stuff by Lyn Murray. Adapted by Edward Anhalt from Jay Presson Allen's play, directed by John Rich with cinematography by Lucien Ballard. Biker movie fans will recognise Slate from his roles in The Born Losers (he takes on Billy Jack!), The Mini-Skirt Mob, Hell's Belles and Hell's Angels '69.
filed under 1960s, Adaptation, Adultery, Architecture & Interiors, B&W, Books, Cars, Children, Cinematography, Clubs, Comedy, Connecticut, Daughter, Divorce, Drama, Drinks, Family, Father, Food, Irony, Janet Leigh, Marital, Mother, New York, Sardi's, Screenwriters, Sex, Soundtrack, Suburbs, Swimming pool, Television, Theatre, Writers
Happy Birthday Len Deighton!
Len Deighton is one of the best writers in the English language. If you don't believe me, read The IPCRESS File, a book so smart, so fresh, clipped, stylish and expressive you'll think it was published yesterday – and not 1962. His unnamed hero (Harry Palmer in the films) became immortalised in Michael Caine's brilliant performances in the series of adaptations. Deighton is acclaimed as a spy novelist and his work also came to the screen with the little-seen Spy Story (1976). The Bernard Samson series (Game, Set and Match) appeared on TV in 1988 – I never saw it because I lived in mainland Europe at the time and a dispute between Deighton and the producers means it has never seen the light of day since its original broadcast. Deighton also produced cookery books which are legendary to people of a certain vintage; and he is the military historian many World War 2 buffs seek out particularly in reference to the Battle of Britain. Lemmy and Motorhead named and dedicated Bomber to him after his titular novel. But how appropriate that a day after his 88th birthday (which was last Saturday) the BBC adaptation (by James Bond screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade) of counterfactual/alternative history SS-GB (which commences 18th February 1941, when the author celebrated his 12th birthday!) should start its five-week run. So far, and aside from any quibble I might have with the casting of Sam Riley as Archer, it's practically word for word, scene for scene pure. Which is just as well because for this fan Deighton can do no wrong. Fingers crossed that this fidelity remains throughout the series. Happy Birthday to one of the greats! What an extraordinary man.
filed under Birthday, Food, Screenwriters, Spy, Thriller, Writers, WW2
Happy 50th Birthday Kurt
Thank you for the music.
filed under Birthday, Musicians, Rock band, Singers


Molded Case Circuit Breakers HS1 series is a new designed MCCB developed and manufactured adopting international advanced technology. HS1 MCCB rated insulating voltage AC 800V is suitable for using in the circuit of AC 50Hz/60Hz,rated Voltage up to 690v,rated working current up to 630A to distribute electric power and to protect the line and the equipment from being damaged due to overload,short circuit and under-voltage. It can also be used for frequently switching and starting of motor and for motor overload,short circuit and under-voltage protections.HS1 MCCB comply with IEC60947-1,-2,-4&-5.


text:
1 big thing: The future of private human spaceflight
Axios Space
A ban on regulating private rockets is set to expire this year, opening up human spaceflight companies to safety regulations for those flying on their systems — and defining the future of the industry.
"It is very unsatisfying to just wait for an accident. There is no guarantee that a regulation or a standard can save somebody ... but it builds a foundation," Josef Koller of the Aerospace Corporation tells Axios. "Safety is in the interest of all. It should not be a proprietary thing."
Full article available at: www.axios.com
Josef Koller
Systems Director, Center for Space Policy and Strategy
Dr. Josef S. Koller is a systems director for the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corporation.
https://csps.aerospace.org/experts/josef-koller
Enabling a New Space Paradigm: Harnessing Space Mobility and Logistics
By Rebecca Reesman
https://csps.aerospace.org/papers/enabling-new-space-paradigm-harnessing-space-mobility-and-logistics
Space Traffic Management Terminology
https://csps.aerospace.org/papers/space-traffic-management-terminology
Preserving the Value of Space
https://csps.aerospace.org/events/show/episode107-preserving-value-space


Another miniature we love. The detail and color are amazing. These are great on a desk, mantel or table. Each one is painted around the edges, comes with an easel and is signed on the back. Here's a chance to have an original by "Dickie" McNamee as we don't sell our larger originals (they are too valuable to our family). We are sure you will enjoy this one or any of the others. These make great gifts.


"I don't understand it. The techniques my parents used so effectively just don't seem to work with kids today." Does this statement sound familiar to you? A lot of parents today are wondering what to do with their kids and are frustrated because the old techniques just don't seem to get the job done.
At no time in history have parents been more unsure of their parental role. Even the best are not all that sure about whether they are using the best techniques. They say that their kids don't appear to be much like the ones they knew in years past.
A lot of conflicting philosophies have been presented over the last 30 years. Many of these sound good, but don't seem to do the job of helping children become respectful, responsible, and a joy to be around.
There is, however, an approach to raising kids that provides loving support from parents while at the same time expecting kids to be respectful and responsible.
This program is known as Parenting with Love and Logic, a philosophy founded by Jim Fay and Foster W. Cline, M.D., and based on the experience of a combined total of over 75 years working with and raising kids.
Many parents want their kids to be well-prepared for life, and they know this means kids will make mistakes and must be held accountable for those mistakes. But these parents often fail to hold the kids accountable for poor decisions because they are afraid the kids will see their parents as being mean. The result is they often excuse bad behavior, finding it easier to hold others, including themselves, accountable for their children's irresponsibility.
Jim Fay teaches us that we should "lock in our empathy, love, and understanding" prior to telling kids what the consequences of their actions will be. The parenting course Parenting the Love and Logic Way teaches parents how to hold their kids accountable in this special way. This Love and Logic method causes the child to see their parent as the "good guy" and the child's poor decision as the "bad guy." When done on a regular basis, kids develop an internal voice that says, "I wonder how much pain I'm going to cause for myself with my next decision?" Kids who develop this internal voice become more capable of standing up to peer pressure.
What more could a parent want? Isn't that a great gift to give your child? Parent child relationships are enhanced, family life becomes less strained, and we have time to enjoy our kids instead of either feeling used by them or being transformed from parent to policeman.
Dad then adds, "And you'll have another bike as soon as you can earn enough money to pay for it. I paid for the first one. You can pay for the additional ones."
Love and Logic parents know that no child is going to accept this without an argument, but Love and Logic parents can handle arguments. Jim Fay advises "just go brain dead." This means that parents don't try to argue or match wits with the child. They simply repeat, as many times as necessary, "I love you too much to argue." No matter what argument the child uses, the parent responds "I love you too much to argue." Parents who learn how to use these techniques completely change, for the better, their relationships with kids and take control of the home in loving ways.
People who are really successful implementing this skill purchased Parenting for Success.


text:
from __future__ import division

import inspect

from wagtail.wagtailimages.exceptions import InvalidFilterSpecError
from wagtail.wagtailimages.rect import Rect

class Operation(object):
    def __init__(self, method, *args):
        self.method = method
        self.args = args

        # Check arguments
        try:
            inspect.getcallargs(self.construct, *args)
        except TypeError as e:
            raise InvalidFilterSpecError(e)

        # Call construct
        try:
            self.construct(*args)
        except ValueError as e:
            raise InvalidFilterSpecError(e)

    def construct(self, *args):
        raise NotImplementedError

    def run(self, willow, image):
        raise NotImplementedError

class DoNothingOperation(Operation):
    def construct(self):
        pass

    def run(self, willow, image):
        pass

class FillOperation(Operation):
    vary_fields = ('focal_point_width', 'focal_point_height', 'focal_point_x', 'focal_point_y')

    def construct(self, size, *extra):
        # Get width and height
        width_str, height_str = size.split('x')
        self.width = int(width_str)
        self.height = int(height_str)

        # Crop closeness
        self.crop_closeness = 0

        for extra_part in extra:
            if extra_part.startswith('c'):
                self.crop_closeness = int(extra_part[1:])
            else:
                raise ValueError("Unrecognised filter spec part: %s" % extra_part)

        # Divide it by 100 (as it's a percentage)
        self.crop_closeness /= 100

        # Clamp it
        if self.crop_closeness > 1:
            self.crop_closeness = 1

    def run(self, willow, image):
        image_width, image_height = willow.get_size()
        focal_point = image.get_focal_point()

        # Get crop aspect ratio
        crop_aspect_ratio = self.width / self.height

        # Get crop max
        crop_max_scale = min(image_width, image_height * crop_aspect_ratio)
        crop_max_width = crop_max_scale
        crop_max_height = crop_max_scale / crop_aspect_ratio

        # Initialise crop width and height to max
        crop_width = crop_max_width
        crop_height = crop_max_height

        # Use crop closeness to zoom in
        if focal_point is not None:
            # Get crop min
            crop_min_scale = max(focal_point.width, focal_point.height * crop_aspect_ratio)
            crop_min_width = crop_min_scale
            crop_min_height = crop_min_scale / crop_aspect_ratio

            # Sometimes, the focal point may be bigger than the image...
            if not crop_min_scale >= crop_max_scale:
                # Calculate max crop closeness to prevent upscaling
                max_crop_closeness = max(
                    1 - (self.width - crop_min_width) / (crop_max_width - crop_min_width),
                    1 - (self.height - crop_min_height) / (crop_max_height - crop_min_height)
                )

                # Apply max crop closeness
                crop_closeness = min(self.crop_closeness, max_crop_closeness)

                if 1 >= crop_closeness >= 0:
                    # Get crop width and height
                    crop_width = crop_max_width + (crop_min_width - crop_max_width) * crop_closeness
                    crop_height = crop_max_height + (crop_min_height - crop_max_height) * crop_closeness

        # Find focal point UV
        if focal_point is not None:
            fp_x, fp_y = focal_point.centroid
        else:
            # Fall back to positioning in the centre
            fp_x = image_width / 2
            fp_y = image_height / 2

        fp_u = fp_x / image_width
        fp_v = fp_y / image_height

        # Position crop box based on focal point UV
        crop_x = fp_x - (fp_u - 0.5) * crop_width
        crop_y = fp_y - (fp_v - 0.5) * crop_height

        # Convert crop box into rect
        rect = Rect.from_point(crop_x, crop_y, crop_width, crop_height)

        # Make sure the entire focal point is in the crop box
        if focal_point is not None:
            rect = rect.move_to_cover(focal_point)

        # Don't allow the crop box to go over the image boundary
        rect = rect.move_to_clamp(Rect(0, 0, image_width, image_height))

        # Crop!
        willow.crop(rect.round())

        # Get scale for resizing
        # The scale should be the same for both the horizontal and
        # vertical axes
        aftercrop_width, aftercrop_height = willow.get_size()
        scale = self.width / aftercrop_width

        # Only resize if the image is too big
        if scale < 1.0:
            # Resize!
            willow.resize((self.width, self.height))

class MinMaxOperation(Operation):
    def construct(self, size):
        # Get width and height
        width_str, height_str = size.split('x')
        self.width = int(width_str)
        self.height = int(height_str)

    def run(self, willow, image):
        image_width, image_height = willow.get_size()

        horz_scale = self.width / image_width
        vert_scale = self.height / image_height

        if self.method == 'min':
            if image_width <= self.width or image_height <= self.height:
                return

            if horz_scale > vert_scale:
                width = self.width
                height = int(image_height * horz_scale)
            else:
                width = int(image_width * vert_scale)
                height = self.height

        elif self.method == 'max':
            if image_width <= self.width and image_height <= self.height:
                return

            if horz_scale < vert_scale:
                width = self.width
                height = int(image_height * horz_scale)
            else:
                width = int(image_width * vert_scale)
                height = self.height

        else:
            # Unknown method
            return

        willow.resize((width, height))

class WidthHeightOperation(Operation):
    def construct(self, size):
        self.size = int(size)

    def run(self, willow, image):
        image_width, image_height = willow.get_size()

        if self.method == 'width':
            if image_width <= self.size:
                return

            scale = self.size / image_width

            width = self.size
            height = int(image_height * scale)

        elif self.method == 'height':
            if image_height <= self.size:
                return

            scale = self.size / image_height

            width = int(image_width * scale)
            height = self.size

        else:
            # Unknown method
            return

        willow.resize((width, height))

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
{% extends 'core/base_lr_rail.html' %}

{% block left_rail %}

Registration Complete!

            Thank you for registering! Your registration for {{ config.SITE_NAME }} is now complete; however, we
            still need you to verify your email address before you can log in. We're sure you know the drill
            here, but just in case, we've sent you an email containing a verification link. Simply click
            on the link and you'll be all set!

{% endblock %}


Frog Medicine offers guidance on how to get out of the painful spiral of debt that can crush our motivation to pursue our goals in life.
Where these teachings are primarily about emotional health and wellness, this totem also has much to say about Finances. Frog medicine offer guidance on how to get on the fun side of the money game and out of the painful spiral of debt that can crush our motivation to pursue what we love in life.
If you owe money to credit cards that means you are still paying for a $20 dinner months ago, a $10 martini years ago, or a gift that broke yesterday. Maintaining a credit card balance from month to month means you are cool with being charged interest for the ability to not pay for all those things you've already bought in full. This means you could pay for an item five times over in the span of two or three years. You can not make money at a profit if you are shackled to an expensive credit card debt. You must pay for the things you've already bought so that you do not pay for them endlessly. How do you free yourself from that slippery slope?
Step 1 to getting out of debt: Take all credit cards out of your wallet and change your spending behavior to deal only in cash or debit card. When the monthly money is gone, it's time to stop buying until income is deposited. This may involve slightly uncomfortable adjustments to your life style but keep in mind- it isn't forever- just until the Credit Card Vacuum taking all your cash has been removed from your life. Vow to no longer deal in credit until you have the ability to pay off entire sums in full monthly. This could take a few months to a year, depending on how much debt you've accrued.
Step 2 to getting out of debt: Consolidate all debt across all credit cards onto one card so that you can see it all at a glance and not get overwhelmed, discouraged, or confused. Chose to consolidate onto the card with the lowest monthly Annual Percentage Rate. Or pay off the debt for the high APR as soon as you can.
Step 3 for getting out of debt: Play the Balance Transfer Game. Have you ever received big colorful junk mail with the phrase "0% apr for 6 months, 12 months, or 24 months?" If you have- open that envelope and give that credit card company a call. Playing the Balance Transfer game with credit card companies can work in your favor if you pay attention and remember- it is a game so stay alert. When you find a balance transfer offer that looks like a good deal- total the amount of debt across all credit cards and divide that amount by the number of months the company is offering you a 0% grace period. Example: I consolidate three cards into a sum of say, $6,000 onto a balance transfer deal with, say, 12 months of 0% interest. $6000 divided by 12 = $500 a month. That's how much I have to pay to be debt free in 12 months.
If your monthly payments are an amount that is unreasonable for you at this time- you can still play the transfer game and win. The objective is to make large, aggressive payments. Even if you pay less than the monthly minimum you are still getting quite agressive on getting that total amount down. And the key is- you are doing so at a time when you do not pay extra interest. You are in a 0% grace period for a certain number of months. When you start paying large amounts off to your debtor each month all the other companies start to take notice of you and begin to offer you more 0% offers. When your first grace period is coming to an end, take another offer and shift the remaining balance.
BUT REMEMBER*** To play this little monkey swing game right- YOU MUST MUST MUST- record the date that your 0% deal ends on your calendar. Put it on your calendar in all caps. If it looks like you are not going to finish up the debt by the end date, it is time to start looking for another 0% offer in the mail. If you've been making as large of payments as you can each month- You WILL receive more of those offers because you have become very attractive to credit card companies. And then it is a matter of timing out the best moment to jump ship and land your next 0% grace period. **If you do not keep track of when your 0% offer ends, you risk missing the cut off date and falling prey to an outrageous APR increase.** That could set you back right where you started- so be aware. That's the fine print game that the Credit Card companies are playing with you. They want you to forget and miss a payment or maintain a balance after the initial bait to lure you in. That's how they win this game. They will not show you the end date of your deal. And it will take effort to find it. Call the company and ask- and ask again. If you think about it, it is a zero risk game for credit card companies. If they get ten people to shift a balance, and 8 people stay in good payment standing but two forget and double their debt, the credit card company wins. But you can win if you stay on top of your payments- never miss one, and get out before the end of the grace period. Depending on how large your debt is you can do the balance transfer dance several times without paying interest. That is your goal. Stop paying interest on things you've already bought. When accepting a transfer deal you may find a one time fee. Look for the lowest fee you can find. Some deals even offer no-fee transfers.
The reason you want to seriously consider playing the 0% game is because if your debt is high, you could just be spinning your wheels each month paying off just the interest on your principal balance. Which means your debt isn't going anywhere. If you don't think you can risk the 0% offers, you want to at least do the following: Stop adding to the principal debt by using that credit card. And find out how much the interest is that you pay monthly. You see, Credit card companies pay off interest first and then the debt balance. So it is possible you could make a $100 payment one month and only end up reducing your debt by $50 because the APR took $50. When you sign up for 0% apr for twelve months, all your payments reduce the primary balance. Very appealing offer, but only if you can stay alert.
So- after making a balance transfer to say… Discover card, or Citi Bank- DO NOT for any reason use that card for further purchases. There is a dizzying and dubious amount of fine print to balance transfer deals when new purchases are added to a card. Steer clear of that red tape and just see that card as the holding ground for your debt. Take the card out of your wallet, tighten your belt, and pay cash for things. It won't be forever. You just need to pay for all the stuff you've already bought before you can start feeling the green growing in your life again.
Eat That Frog– an excellent guide on how to stop procrastinating.
Ask And It Is Given– by Esther Hicks- How to change your mental attitude about money and abundance.
Mint– a valuable web tool to manage all your banking. Lots of help with creating budgets and tracking where your money goes.