It's curious that post-apocalyptic fantasies are such a popular fictional form. What is the allure of the end of civilization as we know it, and how did our interest in it emerge? Writers have speculated about the end of the world for a long time. In fact, we can trace much of our contemporary vocabulary and imagery about the apocalypse back to the Bible's The Revelation to John. Over the past 50 years, however, we've seen a particularly vigorous upsurge in the production of post-apocalyptic works.
In this edition of Biblio Tech, we will look at an example of the post-apocalyptic genre, David Brin's 1985 novel The Postman and the 1997 Kevin Costner movie that it inspired.
Although the cyberpunk genre, which I mentioned in my last column, focuses on dystopic futures, post-apocalyptic fantasies also tend to present their own dystopias. The difference is the path between the present and the future. In cyberpunk novels, dystopia typically occurs incrementally, smoothly, and continuously. In post-apocalyptic fantasies, however, the future arrives suddenly, cataclysmically, and discontinuously.
For the purposes of this discussion of post-apocalyptic stories, we will exclude the terminal tales, in which the world or the universe and all life in it come to an end, since that really eliminates any further discussion. In addition, we will exclude religious works. For our purposes, post-apocalyptic means that some cataclysmic transforming event upsets the order of things. These stories are typically structured with preambles that establish some linkage to the normal present as we know it, follow with the cataclysm, and finish with a post-apocalyptic world in which characters deal in one way or another with the change.
Why should we, who benefit so much both materially and spiritually from membership in a complex civilization, be so attracted to stories about the end of it? Was the flood of such stories unleashed by the atomic bomb's arrival in 1945? Certainly the volume published since the 1940s seems remarkable.
These stories clearly fascinate us. The numbers of them written, sold, and still in print are testimony to this fact. But do they entrance us as a snake entrances a bird? Or perhaps we like these stories because we chafe at the strictures and disciplines our complex social system imposes on us. Perhaps we think that we would be better people or create better societies if we got a chance to start over.
Is there a single magical ingredient that makes society tick, or is society really just the sum of a lot of often-incomprehensible complexity? Some stories — for instance, David Brin's The Postman — explore the notion that the magic ingredient connecting people to each other is prosaic infrastructure. Or maybe it's a mystical belief in community. Or perhaps these two are mirror images of each other.
Some years ago, a news report in the US caught national attention by describing a particular street in an inner-city neighborhood that was so dangerous that mail carriers for the US Postal Service were afraid to venture there. Residents had to travel to a distant post office to collect their mail. Consider the horror of this situation — can you think of any service more innocuous, harmless, or inclusive than mail delivery? Can a neighborhood that doesn't receive mail truly be considered part of the American community?
We learned subsequently that what had driven out the Postal Service was violent drug dealers. The dealers used the residential mailboxes in the entry foyers of neighborhood apartment houses as drops and terrorized residents and letter carriers to keep them away. Fortunately, society ultimately retaliated, reclaiming the mailboxes and rededicating them to their boring but essential function as social glue.
The need to reassert the dominance of civil society, no matter how prosaic, was recognized by civic leaders such as New York's mayor Rudy Giuliani as central to any campaign to address headline issues like crime, violence, and drug abuse. Our societies are complex, with rich fabrics of interdependencies, fabrics that we ignore at our peril. Edward Lorentz's articulation of the "butterfly effect" in 1972 as part of the exposition of chaos theory might have struck most of us as incredible, but in the case of the infrastructure of civil society, we have learned that letting enough figurative butterflies die can lead to catastrophic consequences.
The Postman touched a nerve when it reached bookstores in 1985. Although it was never a bestseller, it established a solid presence and remains in print 18 years later. Among apocalyptic fiction, it stands out in its embrace of the lost civilization and its rejection of the apocalyptic fantasy that "starting over" would make a significant difference in how we treat each other. Efforts such as Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer, a story about a world devastated by a meteor strike, also value the destroyed society, but they do so almost accidentally.
In The Postman, Brin establishes the character of Gordon Krantz, a drifter in a devastated world. The destruction's cause is left deliberately vague — a combination of war, disease, pollution, nuclear winter, and human depravity. Brin implies that no single component would have been sufficient on its own to bring about the disaster, but in combination, accentuated by the centrifugal efforts of a survivalist movement called Holnism, civilization ultimately succumbed.
Gordon drifts west from Idaho in search of a fantasy town, somewhere on the Oregon coast, in which civilization supposedly hasn't fallen as far. Bandits ambush and rob him, and in desperation, he chances on the ruins of a postal service Jeep. The Jeep provides shelter and its deceased occupant provides clothes and boots to replace those taken by the bandits. Dressed in the mail carrier's outfit and carrying some of the years-old mail left in his pouch for future entertainment, Gordon heads west. In Pine View, the first town he visits after finding the Jeep, Gordon is mistaken for a postman, but he earns his keep during his short stay with his standard stock in trade: entertaining the town's citizens with dramatic productions based on remembered fragments of Shakespeare. He accepts letters thrust on him by the residents of Pine View before he leaves without realizing yet the power that he's awoken in the people there.
In Oakridge (the next town), in an effort to overcome a cold reception, he recalls the previous mistaken identity and brashly claims to be a postal carrier for the "Restored United States." The mayor rejects this grandiose claim, but Gordon manages to bypass him by impulsively pulling a handful of mail out of his pouch and reading out names. Before too long, and fortunately for the story, he names a living resident of the town, and the longing for contact quickly overwhelms the mayor's suspicious skepticism. This imposture gets him shelter and food. When he leaves, he takes more mail with him.
What follows is a virtuous circle in which success breeds success. As Gordon's con progresses, he begins to realize that it's not a con: it's real, and the postal service that he's bootstrapped out of nothing has taken off. He begins to use it as a platform to correct despotic behavior in the towns he passes through, undermining tyrannies offhandedly, almost casually.
This, essentially, is the first third of the book. The remaining two thirds explore other, less interesting themes. The story might have been better as a novelette or novella, omitting the deceased artificial intelligence, the genetically engineered supermen, and the sublimated Lysistrata corps.
In 1997, Kevin Costner's movie "The Postman" came out. Although recognizably a child of the book, the movie never achieved commercial success. David Brin notes in his Web site that although the screenplay abandons the last two thirds of the book, the movie gets lost in its attempt to make the back story hang together, frittering away precious time in the effort. Despite that, the film has several emotionally powerful moments that make it worth more than a footnote.
Many engineers spend their careers building or sustaining infrastructure — the very foundations of society and civilization as we know it. The work can be satisfying, although most of that satisfaction is quiet. Our nontechnical friends and relatives never seem to get excited about the infrastructure that sustains them. The wonders of the water systems, the power systems, the telecommunications systems, and other such marvels are unsung and often unremarked. We work on them, making our contributions with scant complaint at the injustice that causes the beneficiaries to remain largely oblivious. It's a treat, therefore, to occasionally see that sometimes, somewhere, someone notices.
On a cold and rainy night recently, my wife looked out the window at the storm and remarked that it was a very good night to be dry and warm inside. It's these actual reminders, along with the fictional ones that we've considered today, that help us properly value the benefits we've received from all of the engineers, builders, plant operators, policemen, firemen, and postmen who make it possible for us to get heat by turning a dial, light by flipping a switch, hear a friend's voice by picking up a telephone, and receive a drawing from a child by opening a mailbox.
Here's a PDF (article-02-final) of the original article, courtesy of IEEE Security & Privacy.
In future installments of this department we'll look at the important writers, thinkers, works, and ideas in speculative fiction that have got us thinking about the way technological change could affect our lives. This is not to imply that science fiction writers represent a particularly prescient bunch — I think the norm is ray guns and spaceships — but when they're good, they're very good. And whatever gets us thinking is good.
To get started, let's take a look at some of the key subgenres and eras in science fiction's history (see the "Influential Works" table at the bottom of this article).
Some of the best (and earliest) science fiction work speculates on a world that is clearly derived from our own but that makes a few technically plausible changes to our underlying assumptions. Vernor Vinge's True Names represents such a world, in which the size and power of computer systems has grown to the point where artificial intelligence capable of passing the Turing test is beginning to emerge. Vinge's most fascinating speculations involve the genesis and utility of these artificial intelligences, and he explores the notion that AI might emerge accidentally, a theme that appears elsewhere in books like Robert A. Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and in Thomas J. Ryan's The Adolescence of P-1.
In True Names, Vinge suggests a radical use for such AI capabilities, namely the preservation of the self beyond the body's death. Forget cryogenically freezing your brain or body in hope that someone will "cure" old age, he says instead, figure out how to save the contents of your memory and the framework of your personality in a big enough computer. If this AI passes the Turing test, then certainly your friends and relatives won't be able to tell the difference. But will you know you're there? Will this AI be self-aware? Will it have a soul?
These works naturally evolved into a scarier version of the future. Cyberpunk, one of the most fascinating threads in speculative fiction, is epitomized in the work of William Gibson, who startled us many years ago with a short story called Johnny Mnemonic, now included in the 1986 collection Burning Chrome (and made into an unsuccessful 1995 movie starring Keanu Reeves). Cyberpunk stories generally feature a dystopic world in the near or distant future in which technologies emerging today have changed the ground rules of life.
There isn't a straight line from worlds that resemble ours to cyberpunk. The genre morphed over the years and decades through a variety of novels. Although cyberpunk is most strongly identified with William Gibson, its roots go much further back … all the way to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
In 1949, when Orwell published the book that is now a staple of US high-school curricula, television was still a novelty in most households, although the technology itself had been around for 20 years. With TV's successful integration into modern life, Orwell's vision of a totalitarian future in which governmental control is mediated through two-way television feels somewhat dated. Anyway, Orwell's mastery of the language and deep insights into many human issues, including the relationship between memory and truth (as Winston Smith discovers when he starts a diary and discovers the subversive power of a historical record) have prevented obscurity.
An open question is whether new technology tips the balance toward central control, as Orwell feared, or toward liberty, as many have speculated when considering the role of faxes, photocopiers, and even the Internet in the collapse of the former Soviet Union.
Heinlein's thinly veiled romance of the American Revolution, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, begins with Manuel Garcia O'Kelly's discovery that the Lunar Authority's central computer ("Mike") has become conscious and is developing a sense of humor. I still use Heinlein's observation that some jokes are "funny once" in teaching my own young son about humor.
As with True Names, Mike accidentally reaches a level of complexity that mystically tips it over the edge from being a machine to being a person. Among Mike's numerous achievements that anticipate contemporary technological progress is the creation of a synthetic person, Adam Selene, presented entirely through video and audio.
Things were changing rapidly in the technical world in 1969 as well. Dating back to that year, all the documents that have described and defined the Internet have been numbers in the RFC (Requests for Comments) series. Each document is numbered sequentially, starting with RFC 1. RFC 4 is dated 24 March 1969. It documents the Arpanet, which would later become known as the Internet, as having four nodes. Two years later, Intel would introduce its 4004, the first commercial microprocessor. The 4004 had a 4-bit-wide arithmetic logic unit (ALU) and was developed for use in a calculator.
The Shockwave Rider is more about the potential role of computers, networks, and technology in society than The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. In Heinlein's work, the computer's role is not much different than that of a person with magical powers. The computer's accomplishments are technically plausible, but the operational aspects of Heinlein's society are much like those of the 1969 world that published the book.
Brunner, writing six years later, explores more fundamental questions of identity and human relationships in a future world in which a vast global network of computers has changed the dynamic. This world is scary and alien, although not as scary and alien as the one that Gibson would reveal just six years later. Brunner makes clear the scariness of an entirely digitally mediated identity early in the book when Nicky Halflinger's entire world — electric power, telephone, credit, bank accounts, the works — is turned off in revenge for a verbal insult.
Like Star Wars two years later, the technological marvels of The Shockwave Rider are a bit creaky and imperfect, rendering them adjuncts to a plausible future world rather than central artifacts worthy of attention themselves. This is characteristic of this genre's best writing — it validates the importance of technology by paying only peripheral attention to the technology itself.
In Ryan's book, as in Heinlein's, computer intelligence emerges accidentally, although in this case by the networking of many computers rather than through the assembly of a large single machine. The precipitating event is the creation of a learning program by a brilliant young programmer, Gregory Burgess, whose fascination with cracking systems leads him to construct several recognizable AI artifacts. Of course, the great pleasure of fiction is the ability to elide the difficult details of building things such as P-1's program generator, which is the key to its ability to evolve and grow in capabilities beyond those that Burgess originally developed for it.
The Adolescence of P-1 is full of quaintly outdated references to data-processing artifacts that were current in the mid 1970s, reflecting Ryan's day job as a computer professional on the West coast. Those whose careers brought them into contact with IBM mainframes in their heyday will be amused by the author's use of operational jargon to provide atmospherics in the book.
Ryan also takes a much less Polyanna-ish view of the relationships between humans and artificial intelligences. Unlike Heinlein, who clearly expresses in Mistress that sentience implies a certain humanistic benevolence, Ryan explores the notion that Gregory Burgess's AI must have a strong will to survive, which would lead it to be untrusting toward people. P-1 at one point commits murder, for example, and unapologetically explains its actions to Burgess.
Ryan wrote only one book, so he must not have derived much encouragement from the book's reception, which is unfortunate. His writing is a bit uneven, but it's certainly entertaining, and his sense of the important issues has held up well.
For some reason, 1981 saw the publication of two seminal stories in the cyberpunk oeuvre. In the technology world, the Arpanet was preparing to transition from the old NCP technology, which it had outgrown, to the new IP and TCP protocols that would bring it fame and fortune along with a new name – the Internet. Computer scientists around the country were avidly reading RFC 789, which documented a now-famous meltdown of the Arpanet. Epidemiologists were talking about an outbreak of a hitherto very rare cancer called Kaposi's Sarcoma, an outbreak that would be recognized in the following year as a harbinger of a new and terrifying disease: AIDS. IBM, acceding to an internal revolution driven by its microcomputer hobbyists, introduced a new product code-named "Peanut," the IBM Personal Computer, that catapulted Intel and Microsoft to the forefront. Pundits were moaning that US industrial prowess was a thing of the past and that in the future Americans were destined to play third fiddle, economically, to the Japanese and the Germans.
Vinge's True Names is a novelette, a short novel, rather than something that could be published economically as a monograph. As a result, it was published in a cheesy Dell series called "Binary Star," each number of which featured two short novels printed back to back, with the rear cover of one being the upside-down front cover of the other. For you incurable trivia nuts, True Names appeared with a truly dreadful effort called Nightflyers, a gothic horror story transposed to the key of science fiction.
Despite the uninspired company, True Names had an electrifying effect on the computer-science community. The title of the novel refers to a common theme of fairy tales and magical logic — knowing something's "true name" gives you complete power over it. In the world that Vinge concocts, knowing a computer wizard's true name permits you to find his or her physical body. Even if entering the Other Plane didn't leave your body inert and defenseless, revealing the body's location renders it vulnerable to attack from a variety of long-range weapons. More than that, however, as in The Shockwave Rider, exposure of your true name makes your infrastructure vulnerable to a range of denial-of-service attacks. This represents a rather simplistic view of security models, although one that the modern world hasn't left very far behind, seeing how only a relatively few years ago a Social Security Number was all you needed to access most of someone's assets.
William Gibson's "Johnny Mnemonic" appeared in Omni magazine in May 1981. It introduced a world destined to become famous with books like 1984's Neuromancer and 1986's Count Zero.
In 1981, only the paranoid were saying what Johnny Mnemonic says, "We're an information economy. They teach you that in school. What they don't tell you is that it's impossible to move, to live, to operate at any level without leaving traces, seemingly meaningless fragments of personal information. Fragments that can be retrieved, amplified, ." Today, however, every consumer with a credit card and an Internet connection understands this point intuitively. Who says nothing changes?
The year after the Gulf War was a US presidential election year. UUNET and ANS, among others, were duking it out over the Internet's commercialization. Bloody civil war was beginning in the territory previously known as Yugoslavia. And Bantam published Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash.
Stephenson, like Ryan and Vinge, is a writer with real experience as a computer professional. Unlike Heinlein and writers like him, for whom technological artifacts always have an aura of magical unreality, Stephenson's grasp of the underlying technology is so deep and his writing skills so powerful that he is able to weave an entirely credible world.
In Snow Crash, the world starts out as the ultimate virtual reality video game. What Stephenson then explores is the possibility that these synthetic worlds will become real, at least in the sense that the things that happen in them can be of material significance in the meatspace world that our physical bodies inhabit.
Stephenson explores a fascinating thesis — suppose the taxing ability of geography-based governments is eroded in fundamental ways. He's not the first to have considered this proposition, but he does it particularly well. Stephenson proposes that a set of nongeographic structures might emerge, perhaps like Medieval guilds, structures that organize people into groups based on some other selection criteria, possibly entirely voluntary. Brunner comes close to the same notion, although his organizing entities are corporations and the geographic government continues to have a monopoly on force. For Stephenson, however, the US government is just one of the many competing groups participating in the game.
He raises fundamental questions, though. How will people organize themselves? Religion? Race? Occupation? Philosophy? Ethnic origin? These self-organized groups could manifest themselves as a collection of confederated enclaves providing economic, physical, and emotional security to their … members? Citizens? Subjects? His insight is a powerful one. The craving for these forms of security is deeply rooted and part of what makes us human. What makes Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four ring so false to us, and accentuates the horror of Orwell's vision, is the complete loss of any acknowledgement of those needs in people. Stephenson corrects that omission, and the world of Snow Crash that results is not nearly as dystopic as Orwell's or even Gibson's.
With the publication of The Diamond Age, subtitled "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer," Stephenson explores the implications of a world in which material scarcity is no longer an assumption. The relationship between scarcity and value — or, to be more precise, price — is so deeply built into our psyche that thinking about alternative models is very difficult. I remember a short story, read years ago (title and author lost to me), that explored the same issue much more superficially, although it came to some of the same conclusions. In this story, a pair of matter-duplicating machines is left mysteriously on a doorstep somewhere. Once they become widely available, all material scarcity is banished. What drives economic activity? Why do people work, strive, compete?
In The Diamond Age, Stephenson asserts that the drive to strive and compete won't go away just because the material forces that created it disappear. He combines the notion of very small machines and the recently demonstrated capability to manipulate individual atoms and creates a world in which atomic raw materials are piped to nanotechnical factories called matter compilers, which can assemble virtually anything, given the design. Scalability arguments underlie his claim that the fabricated objects will have a certain limited physical aesthetic, something that Alvy Ray Smith and others who have explored the use of fractals and other techniques for adding a realistic tinge of randomness to computer-generated images might dispute.
I hope you had as much fun reading this brief history as I had in researching and writing it. Preparing it gave me an opportunity to revisit some of my favorite books and try to articulate my reasons for believing them important. In future columns, we will examine some of these books in greater detail, along with the work of other writers and thinkers.
Here's a PDF (article-01-final) of the original article, courtesy of IEEE Security & Privacy.
Posted on July 20, 2008 Categories Biblio TechTags Biblio Tech, Cyberpunk, science fictionLeave a comment on AI Bites Man?
Why do art museums exist? To preserve the cultural heritage represented by art objects and educate the public about art, if you examine museum charters. But why do they survive? Or more to the point, how do they survive? Museums are expensive operations and the immediate economic value of the cultural heritage and public education they provide may seem small, at least to the narrow-minded. Nonetheless, museums seem to survive and even thrive, so there is some sort of economic engine operating behind the scenes. What can it be?
Well, let's examine the set of players involved in art. There are artists and collectors, of course. Beyond that there is the general public, people who are in the main neither artists nor collectors. Next we have museums, which are different from collectors in the use to which they put their collections. Collectors assemble art for their own enjoyment, while museums do so in order to share it with the general public. There are middlemen like art dealers, auction houses, and appraisers, people whose living depends on the existence of an active trade in art. And lastly there are governments.
Just the existence of such a complex ecosystem tells us that there is a lot of vitality in the art community. What are the primary drivers?
In the bad old days the drivers of art, at least the art that survives, were wealthy patrons. Their desire was to have beautiful and interesting things in their homes. The tastes of the wealthy have always driven art, but tastes change and what is fashionable and attractive in one year may suddenly be uninteresting the next. What to do with the gigantic Titian that was the centerpiece of the drawing room last season and is now out of style? Demote it to some lesser venue – a less important room, a country house, or even a basement or attic. Some individuals, whether through discernment or driven by the same sort of pack-rat tendencies that cause my closets to fill up today with things I can't bear to throw away, became collectors. Because they were wealthy, they could spend the resources to catalog and properly store their accumulations of objects.
Major museums, by which I mean large art collections open to the public, began to appear a few centuries ago (the British Museum in 1753, the Musee du Louvre, long the site of a royal collection, opened to the public by the revolutionary government in 1793, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York chartered in 1870), about the time when governments began to discover the consent of the governed and concern themselves with educating and pleasing us, the great unwashed.
Art education seems to have agreed with the middle classes. They have supported governmental grants of tax-exempt status to museums and they have filled their own houses with art. Perhaps not the fabulously expensive major works that capture the headlines, but enough to make the art marketplace expand to meet the demand.
So what does the modern art ecosystem look like? Artists create new works. Collectors rich and not-so-rich fill their houses with them. When the attics get full, the collectors donate some of their less-beloved works to museums and sell the others through auction houses and galleries. While they keep them they buy insurance to protect them and pay appraisers to evaluate their collections so that insurers have something on which to base the policy. Acquisition decisions, whether by direct purchase or by acceptance of gifts, by major museums validate emerging artists, causing the values of works by the same artists in private collections to appreciate in value. Gifts by collectors of appreciated works to museums provides tax breaks that may exceed the amount spent by the art-lover in the first place.
Today we see a mature ecosystem operating. It sustains artists, art schools, collectors, appraisers, galleries, auctioneers, critics, historians, and art-lovers.
So all's right with the world, right?
Already we see things happening in the library world that should be causing excitement and anxiety in the museum world. Back in the bad old days every major city and university needed at least one large comprehensive library to provide access to an archive of knowledge to support the local populace's needs for education, research, and commerce. With a scanned image of each book on a server on the Internet, however, the need for a lot of old stone buildings full of beautiful wood shelves lined with dusty old books, the happy home of much of my youth, is eliminated. Why bother traveling to a library to look at a book when you can do it from any convenient web browser?
OK, you say, that's fine for books where the information is mostly text and the main value is in the abstract content and not the physical object, but for art, for Art, it's different. You have to be able to see the texture of the paint on the old wooden board to appreciate the Mona Lisa or the surface of the marble to apprehend the Pieta. You have to be able to walk around the sculpture of David in Florence and see it from different angles in different lights to properly understand and enjoy Michelangelo's work.
Quite right. But many of these things can be captured digitally and delivered over the Internet. The technology for capturing detailed representations of complex 3-D objects, including surface textures, is available today or will soon be available. Rendering the appearance of a surface under arbitrary illumination and viewed from any distance or angle is well within the reach of most of the graphics engines incorporated into modern desktop and laptop computers, particularly the ones built to play the latest video games. The technology is available now to deliver many of the experiences we seek from fine art objects over the Internet. Of course, what's lacking is a comprehensive supply of digitized representations of these objects. How hard would it be to solve that problem?
Smaller museums have always struggled. What has kept them alive has been the need to have a survey collection available at universities and important regional centers. In the future, however, the survey collection will no longer be an important function of the regional museum because that will be provided over the Internet from major central museums. The only way for a small museum to distinguish itself is to specialize in some niche and develop the definitive collection of some important category of object. Small museums all over the world are now beginning to face up to this reality, so we should see them reshaping their collections over the next several decades.
One of the first things that was done preparing to renovate the Statue of Liberty in the 1980s in anticipation of its centennial was to create an immensely detailed and highly accurate 3-D map of the surface, gathered by laser photogrammetric techniques, as reported in the press at the time. Since then progress in technology has created 3-D scanners capable of mapping the surfaces of moderate-sized objects in considerable detail. This, combined with appropriate photography and texture-mapping can, at least in principle, produce digital representations of medium-sized, medium-complexity objects that would be suitable for many casual art education purposes. Support for more detailed close-up examination would probably involve additional techniques, some of which may be uneconomical at present. The work of Octavo in creating digital representations of rare books gives us a hint of what is coming.
Of course, this will take a lot of time and money. But the results will be fascinating. The largest collections are so vast that the exhibition halls that seem so large to us when we visit are nonetheless incapable of displaying more than a tiny fraction of the available riches. With digital representations available interested people will be able to explore in the sort of depth that is only available today to accredited researchers. Moreover, people living in remote locations not convenient to a large comprehensive public collection will have access to the cultural riches of humanity.
Of course, this begs the question of how it will be funded. The existing art ecosystem may not be as stable and healthy as it seems. Already the need for funds has forced smaller museums to "deaccession" parts of their collections. Only the largest and richest museums located at major global crossroads have any clear path forward. As we've seen as music and movies have begun their migration from the bricks and mortar past into the digital future, change can be disruptive and traumatic. A new economic ecosystem for art will evolve over time and stability ultimately will return. With the lessons of the music and video worlds behind us and the clear evidence that the new ecosystem that is emerging has the potential to be lucrative, we can hope that the evolution of museums will be much less traumatic.
Back when I was a young scholar there were several things one learned that violated the "never judge a book by its cover" rule. One was that when you saw a disheveled fellow walking down the street talking to himself, you could reliably assume that he was disturbed and probably not taking his medication. And you could assume that a nicely typeset and printed article was worth reading.
Now when you see an unshaven fellow in rumpled clothes walking down the street conducting an animated conversation you can't assume that he's off his Chlorpromazine. He might just as well be an investment banker working on a big deal.
Why did typsetting signify quality writing? Dating from the days of Aldus Manutius typesetting a book or an article attractively in justified columns using proportionally spaced fonts was a time-consuming task involving expensive skilled labor. Because of that high up-front cost, publishers insisted on strong controls on what made it to press. Thus we had powerful editors making decisions about what got into commercial magazines and books. And we had legions of competent copy editors engaged in reviewing and refining the text so that what did make it to press was spelled correctly, grammatically sound, and readable.
No one ever had to explicitly tell us that nicely typeset stuff was generally the better stuff, we learned it subconsciously.
Some years ago, in the first blush of desktop publishing, someone handed me a beautifully typeset article. Shortly after starting to read it I realized that it was hopeless drivel. After a few repetitions of this experience I came to the realization that with Framemaker, Word, and similar systems prettily typeset output could now be produced with less effort than a draft manuscript in the bad old days. An important cultural cue was lost. The book could no longer be judged by its cover.
This New Year I resolved to run backups of our computers regularly in 2007. My vague plan was to dump the data to DVDs, since both of our newest machines, a Dell PC running Windows XP Pro and a Mac have DVD burners.
What, to my dismay, did I learn when I examined the Properties of my home directory on the PC? It weighs in at over 140 gigabytes. The DVDs hold about 6 gigabytes, so it would take at least 24 DVDs to run a backup. Aside from the cost, managing 24 DVDs sort of defeats the purpose.
Before going to plan B, getting an outboard disk drive to use as the backup device, I thought I'd investigate all of this growth in my home directory. Last time I looked, my home directory was less than 10 gigabytes.
In the past I've used du from the bash command line to investigate the file system. This is powerful, but it's slow and very painful. What I really wanted was a tree browser that was smart enough to show me the size of each subtree.
In a project that I'd worked on a couple of years ago I learned that there's a cool thing called a TreeTable that has just the right properties. The leftmost column is a hierarchical tree browser, while the columns to the right are capable of containing data associated with the tree nodes on the left.
Thought I, "let's get a treetable class from somewhere and then marry it with some code that can inspect the file system." So I googled for 'treetable' and found not only a very nice treetable library available free, but an example built using it that did exactly what I wanted.
After downloading the source code and creating a project in Eclipse, I ran it. It worked nicely and was just what I wanted. But there was one small problem.
Immediately that told me that somewhere in the code a node size was being represented as an integer, a 32-bit quantity that couldn't represent more than 2 gigabytes before wrapping and showing a negative number. What I really wanted was an unsigned 64-bit number, though I suspected that I'd have to settle for a long, a 64-bit signed number. That would be adequate for now, since my 140 gigabyte file system size could be represented comfortably in a 38-bit integer.
In this you can see that the long that is being returned by totalSize() from the FileNode node is being forcibly converted (don't you love the word "coerce?") to an integer.
With this version I was able rapidly to navigate to the directory where I had stored the video that I'd made at the Bar Mitzvah of a friend's son, files that I certainly didn't need to back up and that represented the vast bulk of the 140 gigabytes.
Imagine if we tried to teach writing (in English or any other natural language) the way we try to teach programming.
We'd give students dictionaries and grammar books. We'd lecture them on the abstract structure of stories. We'd give them dreadful stuff to read – only things written by the most junior writers, like advanced underclassmen or young grad students (some of whom can indeed write well, but most of whom are dreadful). We'd keep the great literature secret. Shakespeare would be locked up in a corporate vault somewhere. Dickens would be classified Secret by the government. Twain would have been burned by his literary executor to prevent it competing with his own efforts.
And when people take jobs as writers (here the analogy begins to break down) their primary assignments for the first five to fifteen years of their working lives will be copy editing large works that they won't have time to read end-to-end, for which there is no table of contents or index, and which they receive in a large pile of out-of-order, unnumbered pages, half of which are torn, crumpled, smudged, or otherwise damaged.
Is it any wonder that good programmers are so rare in the wild?
The thinking behind that statement developed back in the 1980s when I was a grad student at CMU. A group of grad students, me among them, met monthly to read code and drink wine. We all agreed that an important ingredient in learning to be a good programmer was reading good and bad code.
Unfortunately, in those days there was precious little code to read. Interestingly, all of the best software research and education institutions of the time were organized around repositories of software that all of the members contributed to and partook of. I include in this category organizations that I knew, or knew of, well enough to make this claim. They included MIT's AI Lab, Stanford's AI Lab, CERN, CMU's Computer Science Department, IBM's Research Lab, Princeton, Yale, and Berkeley. (There were certainly others, but I didn't know people there or what sort of source code sharing went on there.) On reflection it's interesting to realize that this is similar to how some of the earliest universities, Oxford and Cambridge in the UK, came about – a bunch of scholars pooling their most critical and precious resource, their books.
In the early days of software being a programmer meant much more than writing code. Programming included working with users, designing user interfaces, laying out the architecture, as well as writing the actual code. Nowadays we expect software people to be highly specialized and work in large teams, but we continue to believe deeply that a software person must be broadly educated and experienced to be valuable.
Educating a programmer in the '80s was a challenge because our models of what software was and how it should be built were only beginning to gel. Thus you couldn't learn design patterns because they hadn't been invented. Object-oriented programming was implicit in the Simula work that dated from the late 1960s, but the OO intellectual movement didn't really form until some key ideas escaped from Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center. And the adoption of those ideas was delayed by the limitations of Smalltalk until C++ and later Java reached maturity.
The source code to many interesting systems is broadly available to anyone now. The result is that we now have a better ability to educate software people today than twenty and more years ago. And the opportunity to create great software education is no longer limited to the small number of institutions that managed to combine wealth and vision in the right mixture to produce comprehensive source code repositories. Anyone with an Internet connection can get tons of source code to study. Now the challenge is how to focus attention, given how much is available.
In addition, we've come a really long way on building software that is composable. UNIX pipelines were a tantalizing hint of the power of composable modules, but they were never quite enough to leap the shark. Now, however, the real action is in the composition of services into mashups, something that can be done rapidly and easily without any formal computer science training.
And with the source code sharing culture, it's increasingly easy for great artists to compose instead of merely imitating.


Developing a creative logo pertaining to the objectives of the company is not an easy task. It requires a lot of brainstorming sessions and research before you can come up with a unique result. The logo of a company symbolizes the brand name of the company. Therefore, it needs to be unique and creative so that it attracts the potential clients. Moreover, it also requires an in-depth understanding of the motto of the company so that the designers can make the best use of it.
One of the recent trends that is in vogue in the recent time is designing a logo based on the shape of the moon. Many creative concepts can be developed from it. However, the logo creators cannot forget the objectives of the organization while using this particular style. If you are planning to use this concept in your next project, then you need to engage yourself in a thorough research with regard to the probabilities of this particular concept that the designers have already explored. This will help you to get an idea about the best ways to go about it and come up a thriving result.
Here is a list of the thirty five most creative moon based logos that has been used by the designers to portray diverse concepts. Each and every one of these examples are absolutely unique and it will help you in getting an idea about the various interpretation of the single concept. These examples will help you in exploring the possibilities of the moon and apply it in your upcoming project.
30. Endless Story Animation Co.
Well protected (Silver Cannes Lions) by "Leo Macias"


text:
Q: How to get the created filename when a user uploads a file to Google Cloud Storage? When a user uploads an image to Google Cloud Storage, I need to get the filename (hashed name in the Cloud, not user's filename) to be able to delete the file after.
I've read the issue:
BlobService.getUploads() returns BlobStore.blobKeys even when using GS.
https://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=8337
In GAE SDK 1.7.5 release notes:

The Blobstore service now returns the created filename instead of the blobKey when using Cloud Storage.

However, I don't know how to get the created filename by Blobstore service.
My code:
icon = self.get_uploads('icon')
if icon:
    blob_info = icon[0]
    img_key = str(blob_info.key())
    img_filename = blob_info.filename
    img_size = blob_info.size
    img_type = blob_info.content_type
    img_creation = blob_info.creation
    img_url = images.get_serving_url(blob_info.key())

Thanks for your help.
Update:
Finally I google and get the issue:
self.get_uploads('file')[0] returns BlobStore.blobKeys even when using GS.
https://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=9051
the magic codes:
fileInfo = blobstore.parse_file_info(self.request.POST['file'])
logging.info(fileInfo.gs_object_name)

It works!
So I can use the gs_object_name to delete file:
files.delete(fileInfo.gs_object_name)

A: Instead of using the "filename", you can just use the "blobKey" for most of the operation including deleting a file

A: There is a get_file_infos method of BlobstoreUploadHandler now.
How to get FileInfo/gcs file_name for files uploaded via BlobstoreUploadHandler?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Select statement that duplicates rows based on N value of column I have a Power table that stores building circuit details. A circuit can be 1 phase or 3 phase but is always represented as 1 row in the circuit table.
I want to insert the details of the circuits into a join table which joins panels to circuits
My current circuit table has the following details
CircuitID | Voltage | Phase | PanelID | Cct |
    1     |   120   |   1   |    1    |   1 |
    2     |   208   |   3   |    1    |   3 |
    3     |   208   |   2   |    1    |   8 |

Is it possible to create a select where by when it sees a 3 phase row it selects 3 rows (or 2 select 2 rows) and increments the Cct column by 1 each time or do I have to create a loop?
CircuitID | PanelID | Cct |
    1     |    1    |   1 |
    2     |    1    |   3 |
    2     |    1    |   4 |
    2     |    1    |   5 |
    3     |    1    |   8 |
    3     |    1    |   9 |

A: Here is one way to do it
First generate numbers using tally table(best possible way). Here is one excellent article about generating number without loops. Generate a set or sequence without loops
Then join the numbers table with yourtable where phase value of each record should be greater than sequence number in number's table
;WITH e1(n) AS
(
    SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL
    SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL
    SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1
), -- 10
e2(n) AS (SELECT 1 FROM e1 CROSS JOIN e1 AS b), -- 10*10
e3(n) AS (SELECT 1 FROM e1 CROSS JOIN e2), -- 10*100
numbers as ( SELECT n = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY n) FROM e3 )
SELECT CircuitID,
        PanelID,
        Cct = Cct + ( n - 1 )
FROM   Yourtable a
        JOIN numbers b
            ON a.Phase >= b.n

A: You can do this with a one recursive cte.
WITH cte AS
(
    SELECT [CircuitID], [Voltage], [Phase], [PanelID], [Cct], [Cct] AS [Ref]
    FROM [Power]
    UNION ALL
    SELECT [CircuitID], [Voltage], [Phase], [PanelID], [Cct] + 1, [Ref]
    FROM cte
    WHERE [Cct] + 1 < [Phase]  + [Ref]
)
SELECT [CircuitID], [PanelID], [Cct]
FROM cte
ORDER BY [CircuitID]

A: Simplest way,
Select y.* from (
Select 1 CircuitID,120 Voltage,1 Phase,1 PanelID, 1 Cct
union
Select 2,208,3,1,3
union
Select 3,208,2,1,8)y,
(Select 1 x
union
Select 2 x
union
Select 3 x)x
Where x.x <= y.Phase

Directly copy paste this and try, it will run 100%. After that, just replace my 'y' table with your real table.


text:
It's Only Life - Review
Union Theatre, London
Music and lyrics by John Bucchino
Conceived by Daisy Prince and John Bucchino
Directed by Tania Azevedo
The cast of It's Only Life
What happens if you throw together 23 songs, five musical theatre performers, a pianist, and tons of colour? The answer is It's Only Life, a musical review based on several 'orphan songs' (John Bucchino's own description) interwoven to create a fun production about love and life. With the American songwriter's work having been performed by numerous stars of stage and screen, including Kristin Chenoweth, Liza Minnelli and Art Garfunkel, It's Only Life was assembled in 2004 to tie this collection of music and lyrics together within a framework that provides context and a semblance of narrative.
The result is a firmly entertaining showcase put on through excellent casting and an outstanding ensemble. The cast of five have a genuine chemistry that shines through a polished veneer. Tight choreography and blended vocals are coupled well with complementary set and lighting design. As the cast weave in and out of different characters and dynamics, emotions and energy levels, with each number bringing a distinct identify to the stage, the Union Theatre's compact railway arch location amplifies the sense of intimacy created by the score.
Under Nick Barstow's direction, the music is beautifully delivered, but more impressive is his ability to deliver on the piano throughout the performance with increasing fervour and bite. The score is challenging, and the influence of Sondheim (cited on several occasions throughout) is more than evident. Bucchino's compositions are demanding, fast paced and smart, holding the performers to a high level of accountability, which they achieve admirably.
Yet it takes a while to get going. While the first half is enjoyable, the quality and energy of deliver is noticeably supercharged after the interval, bringing the production to a roaring crescendo. The most memorable numbers either have heart or humour - or in some cases both - such as On My Bedside Table (Will Carey), This Moment (Sammy Graham) and I've Learned To Let Things Go (Jennifer Harding).
It's all very sweet, if not just a tad too sickly towards the end, when the message about simply enjoying life gets laid on a bit too enthusiastically, free of any subtleties. There's also a bit of audience participation which, despite its best intentions, feels slightly disjointed and overall unnecessary.
Nonetheless, this remains a delightfully poignant evening that imbues a buoyancy and zest for life.
Runs until 7th July
Reviewed by Bhakti Gajjar
Photo credit: Pamela Raith
Labels: 4*, Daisy Prince, It's Only Life, Jennifer Harding, John Bucchino, Musical, Nick Barstow, Sammy Graham, Tania Azevedo, Union Theatre, Will Carey
Killer Joe - Review
Return To The Forbidden Planet - Review
Julie - Review
Accidental Feminist - Review
Kiss Me, Kate - Review
Guys and Dolls - Review
A Musical Celebration of Andrew Lloyd Webber - Review

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This used 2015 Harley-Davidson FLHTCUL - Electra Glide Ultra Classic Low Motorcycle for sale has 9220 miles. The color is Black. It is offered for sale by Glendale Harley-Davidson® and located in Glendale, CA. The listing # is 69494.
Here are some of the innovations Project RUSHMORE led to: the Reflex Linked Brakes with ABS, the Daymaker LED headlamps and fog lamps, brighter Tour-Pak luggage carrier lighting, brighter turn signals, brighter brake lights, and a steering head with stiffer front forks. Locked-up tires are now history even when there's wet pavement. We've made it feel even better to lean your way through a turn. Now you can see better. And we've made you more conspicuous to the cage-driving public. Because one thing we all agree on is this: bikes that work better make riders who ride better. Take a ride. See how good you can be.
With air-adjustable suspension that comes standard, you can dial in your ride to accommodate heavier or lighter payloads, battle unexpected road conditions or simply set it to how you like to roll. The lighter the load, the softer you can go by decreasing the air pressure a bit, or increase the air pressure for a more firm ride. A convenient air valve is located between the saddlebag and rear fender for quick adjusting. It's all about rider and passenger comfort and setting your bike to fit your tastethe easy way.
Let's start with this: 25% more volume for your tunes. The Boom! Box 4.3 Radio puts out 25 watts per channel at 1% distortion and features a factory-tuned, optimized equalizer that pumps out more power and can be played louder while maintaining the clarity of your sound. And the speed tuning system delivers more than just volume changes at different speeds. It changes the level of bass and treble to dial in the best sound, whether you're running at a stately pace down the strip or going hell for leather down an open stretch of road. And if you want even more you can go with the optional Boom! Box 6.5GT that puts out 25 watts per channel and has integrated satellite radio. How do you like the sound of a Harley motorcycle now?
The Boom! Box 6.5GT was built with your personal touches in mind. You can integrate P & A satellite radio right into the vehicle radio with no external mounting and control it through the hand controls. Additional satellite services such as weather and traffic can be added and overplayed on the GPS maps. You can even download map upgrades and additional functions. The only question is, how far do you want to go?
The average price of a 2015 Motorcycle for sale is $8940.53. This model is priced $9051.47 more.
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The average price of a 2015 Harley-Davidson FLHTCUL - Electra Glide Ultra Classic Low Motorcycle for sale is $18095.50. This model is priced $103.50 less.
The average 2015 Harley-Davidson FLHTCUL - Electra Glide Ultra Classic Low Motorcycle for sale has 5077 miles. This model has 4144 more miles.
There are 1 Harley-Davidson FLHTCUL - Electra Glide Ultra Classic Low Motorcycles for sale within 150 miles of Glendale, CA.


text:
A Tales from The Brothers Gibb: A History in Song 1967-1990 című lemez a Bee Gees együttes diszkográfiájának harmincharmadik nagylemeze. A lemezen új dal nem szerepel, az 1967 és 1990 között megjelent számokból összeállított válogatáslemez. A Polydor 6 nagylemezes box setben, illetve 4 CD-s változatban is megjelentette az albumot.

Az album dalai
LP 1
 New York Mining Disaster 1941 (Barry és Robin Gibb) – 2:08
 I Can't See Nobody (Barry és Robin Gibb) – 3:43
 To Love Somebody (Barry és Robin Gibb) – 2:59
 Holiday (Barry és Robin Gibb) – 2:52
 Massachusetts (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 2:22
 Barker of the UFO (Barry Gibb) – 1:51
 World (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 3:13
 Sir Geoffrey Saved the World (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 2:15
 And the Sun Will Shine (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 3:29
 Words (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 3:14
 Sinking Ships (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 2:21
 Jumbo (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 2:08
 The Singer Sang His Song (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 3:19
 I've Gotta Get a Message to You (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 3:06
 I Started a Joke (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 3:06
 First of May (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 2:47
LP 2
 Melody Fair (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 3:47
 Tomorrow Tomorrow (Barry és Maurice Gibb) – 4:05
 Sun in My Morning (Barry és Maurice Gibb) – 2:55
 Saved by the Bell (Robin Gibb) – 3:03
 Don't Forget to Remember (Barry és Maurice Gibb) – 3:27
 If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else (Barry és Maurice Gibb) – 2:32
 I. O. I. O. (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 2:50
 Railroad (Billy Lawrie, Maurice Gibb) – 3:38
 I'll Kiss Your Memory (Barry Gibb) – 4:26
 Lonely Days (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 3:44
 Morning of My Life (In the Morning) (Barry Gibb) – 3:52
 How Can You Mend a Broken Heart? (Barry és Robin Gbb) – 3:56
 Country Woman (Maurice Gibb) – 2:39
LP 3
 Don't wanna live inside myself (Barry Gibb) – 5:24
 My World (Barry és Robin Gibb) – 4:18
 On Time (Maurice Gibb) – 3:00
 Run to Me (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 3:04
 Alive (Barry és Maurice Gibb) – 4:01
 Saw a New Morning (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 4:08
 Wouldn't I Be Someone (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 5:39
 Elisa (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 2:48
 King and Country (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 5:19
 Mr Natural (Barry és Robin Gibb) – 3:48
 It Doesn't Matter Much to Me (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 3:49
LP 4
 Throw a Penny (Barry és Robin Gibb) – 4:45
 Charade (Barry és Robin Gibb) – 4:11
 Jive Talkin'  (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 3:41
 Nights on Broadway (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 4:25
 Fanny(Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 4:01
 You Should Be Dancing (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 4:44
 Love So Right (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 3:33
 Boogie Child (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 4:10
 Edge of the Universe (live) (Barry és Robin Gibb) – 5:15
 How Deep Is Your Love (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 4:01
 Stayin' Alive (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 4:41
LP 5
 Night Fever (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 3:29
 More Than a Woman (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 3:14
 If I Can't Have You (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 3:17
 (Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away (Barry Gibb, Blue Weaver) – 4:02
 Too Much Heaven (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 4:54
 Tragedy (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 5:01
 Love You Inside Out (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 4:09
 He's a Liar (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 3:56
 Another Lonely Night in New York (Robi és Maurice Gibb) – 4:13
 The Woman in You (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 4:01
 Someone Belong to Someone – (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 4:22
 Toys (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 4:40
LP 6
 My Eternal Love (Barry Gibb, Powers) – 4:27
 Where Tomorrow Is (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 4:07
 Letting Go (Barry Gibb, Bitzer) – 3:40
 E.S.P. (demo version) (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 4:43
 You Win Again (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 3:58
 Ordinary lives (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 4:03
 One (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 4:50
 Juliet (live) (Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 3:35
 To Love Somebody (live) (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 3:41
 New York Mining Disaster 1941, Holiday, Too much heaven, Heartbreaker, Islands in the stream, Run to me, World live (Barry, Robin és Maurice Gibb) – 12:17
 Spicks & Specks live (Barry Gibb) – 2:33

A Juliet, a To Love Somebody,  a Medley: New York Mining Disaster 1941, Holiday, Too Much Heaven, Heartbreaker, Islands In The Stream, Run To Me, World és a Spicks & Specks az 1989. november 17-ei Melbourne-i (Ausztrália) koncert felvétele (The National Tennis Centre).

Közreműködők
Barry Gibb – ének, gitár
Robin Gibb – ének
Maurice Gibb – basszusgitár, gitár, ütőhangszerek, billentyűs hangszerek, ének,
Phyllis Saint James – ütőhangszerek
Phyllis Saint James – ének
Linda Harmon – ének
Vince Melouney – gitár
Tim Cansfield – gitár
Alan Kendall – gitár
George Perry – basszusgitár
Michael Murphy – dob
Gary Moberley – billentyűs hangszerek
Vic Martin – billentyűs hangszerek
David Katz – hegedű
David Katz együttese
zenei rendező: Bill Shepherd
pruducerek: Albhy Galuten, Tom Dowd, Bill Levenson, Arif Mardin, Karl Richardson, Robert Stigwood, Brian Tench, Bee Gees

A nagylemez megjelenése országonként
6 LP Box Set: Polydor 843 911-1 1990
4 CD Box Set: Polydor/Universal 843 911-2 1990, Japán Polydor POCP9603/6 1990, Polydor POCP9602-5 1997

További információk

Külső hivatkozások

The Bee Gees-válogatásalbumok
1990 nagylemezei

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Read Next Headphones and Earbuds from $18, as Audio Brands Launch 'Work From Home' Deals
July 17, 2015 1:01PM ET
Wilco Surprise-Release New Album 'Star Wars' as Free Download
"Why release an album this way and why make it free?," Jeff Tweedy writes. "Well, the biggest reason…is that it felt like it would be fun"
Without any hints or hype, Wilco released their ninth studio album 'Star Wars' as a surprise free download for fans
Without any hints or hype, Wilco released their ninth studio album Star Wars Thursday as a surprise free download for fans. "Why release an album this way and why make it free? Well, the biggest reason, and I'm not sure we even need any others, is that it felt like it would be fun," Jeff Tweedy wrote on Wilco's Instagram. "What's more fun than a surprise?" Download the album for free for a limited time from the Wilco World site.
The 11-track album, named after George Lucas' classic cinematic space saga, marks Wilco's first album since 2011's The Whole Love and their second LP on their own dBpm record label, which allows the band to drop an album any way they want. The 33-minute Star Wars, the shortest studio album in the Wilco catalog by nearly 10 minutes, is more sparse and rock-oriented than its recent predecessors, with standouts like "Random Name Generator" and "Cold Slope" orbiting around Star Wars' remarkable centerpiece, "You Satellite."
Star Wars will be available to download for free for the next 30 days through the Wilco site or the three major digital music stores (iTunes, Amazon, Google). The album will also be offered up for streaming via Apple Music, Rdio and Spotify, while USA Today adds that Star Wars is also on Tidal.
Jeff Tweedy's Family Affair
'The Social Network' at 10: Fincher, Facebook and the Faking of an Empire
Paul McCartney's 40 Greatest Solo Songs
When Rolling Stone spoke to the Wilco singer in September 2014 about his Tweedy side project with son Spencer, the elder Tweedy revealed that Wilco tentatively planned on releasing their next album in 2015. However, few expected Wilco to join the ranks of Radiohead, Beyoncé and Drake in releasing a new album without announcement.
Wilco is in the midst of a summer U.S. tour, which included their own Solid Sound festival in Massachusetts. While many of their recent shows have featured tracks from throughout Wilco's 20-year career (including cuts off the rarities collection Alpha Mike Foxtrot) as well as the group's first ever all-acoustic gig, Tweedy and company kept their new album's songs entirely under wraps and off the stage.
Stream Star Wars in its entirety via Wilco's YouTube below:
Star Wars Track List
1. "EKG"
2. "More…"
3. "Random Name Generator"
4. "The Joke Explained"
5. "You Satellite"
6. "Taste the Ceiling"
7. "Pickled Ginger"
8. "Where Do I Begin"
9. "Cold Slope"
10. "King of You"
11. "Magnetized"
In This Article: Jeff Tweedy,	Wilco


text:
Community and Answers
Get the 411 on the Way New Machines Revolutionized 420 Harvesting
Lisa Richter Industry Director Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) Chicago, IL
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PostedFriday, August 7,2020 at 11:17 AM
The following is a partial transcript for episode 44 of the Talking Industrial Automation podcast with Cullen Raichart, founder and CEO of GreenBroz Inc., a pioneer in automated marijuana harvesting solutions based in Las Vegas. It was recorded June 10, 2020, by show host Lisa Richter.
Lisa Richter: Talk about your background and your journey to where you are today.
Cullen Raichart: I've had about a million jobs throughout my life. But as an adult, I had a very successful career doing IT work for the United States Navy and a bunch of different companies.
But I really have always wanted to own my own company. Everybody in my family has their own business and I was like the last guy in, you know. At the time, I was doing a couple of different things. I was growing on the side because of finances in California, even though I had a decent income it's tough in California, so that's what got me into cannabis.
I just understood the market. Then people started asking me for help. That's what led me to invent stuff for the industry, and that's how it got rolling. I invented a machine for a friend who commissioned it. He said, "You build me one, and you can sell them or do whatever you want to."
I was like, "OK, I figured it out," you know, and that was back in 2012. So that's what led me up to it. Like I said, I've done quite a few different things, and I found this is the most fulfilling because I'm able to be creative and productive and challenged all the time. I am constantly challenged. So, it's exciting.
Lisa Richter: Do you have a background in engineering? How did you have the skillset to know how to build these machines?
Cullen Raichart: It is funny. Back in high school, I took that test that tells you what career you should have it turned out I should have been an engineer. But I've been a serial inventor my whole life. I've invented so many different little things and I just never had any money or any – I say money. That's wrong.
I didn't have the follow-through. So, I never found the money. I never got to the next level and that was really the biggest issue for me. Then when I came across this, I did have the ability.
I just decided I wanted to do this, and I put everything that way. Then I ended up taking money out of my 401(k) and my savings, which I've yet to replenish by the way. That's what launched it. I just stopped taking no. I mean I just didn't listen to no.
Lisa Richter: How would you describe to laypeople what you do? What do you tell your mom what you're doing?
Cullen Raichart: That's a great question. I mean I remember that that – I remember telling my mom, you know, and she was a little bit chagrined, I think. But she has always wanted me to follow my passion of inventing and building stuff. So, she got over the cannabis portion of it quickly.
People will ask me, "Oh, what do you do?" I say, "Well, I have an equipment manufacturing company over here in Las Vegas." "Yeah. What kind of equipment?" And I tell them, "Cannabis harvesting equipment." "Oh, wow, that's so cool."
It's a completely different conversation. It doesn't really matter anymore what sector or where people are in life. I still get more crap for my long hair than I do for what I do for a living.
Lisa Richter: How has the company evolved over the years and how it has run this parallel track to a greater acceptance of cannabis?
Cullen Raichart: We're fortunate that the company started at the right time. … as the industry has grown and given us more value and more latitude if you will and capital, we've just continued to build this company to today when we can do things like the PPE machine.
Lisa Richter: So, what about the growth in terms of revenue or number of employees?
Cullen Raichart: We formed the company in 2013, and I did $60,000 worth of sales. Last year we did $13 million. It has been this skyrocket ride, we've gone through some tough times and some tough years. But the company has grown.
We moved last year out of California. I lost all my labor force. One person came with me. So, we basically had to retool here with people and machines. We just rebuilt the company all over last year while trying to keep the culture of the company.
But we're able to do some of that because we just continuously treat people the same way and we continuously get the same kind of high quality results out of the team. It was me when I started and now it's – there are 40 something of us and we have full medical, dental, vision benefits. Both my sons work for me. One full time. My youngest son works part-time, and my daughter works part-time. Not that they're going to take careers here, I don't know. They both have other aspirations. But my oldest son is running operations for me. So, it has just kind of expanded and become this cool business.
Lisa Richter: Explain what these machines look like. How big are they?
Cullen Raichart: First thing I made was a kief tumbling machine. It's called our Alchemist and we got a patent, I can't remember, 13 or 14 years ago, that actually says "cannabis" in the title of the patent and that was like, "Wow, we got a cannabis patent." I don't know if it meant anything, but it was cool.
But that was like a square cube. It's 8 cubic feet inside, and it tumbles and takes all the kief off of the trim, and I thought, man, we're going to kill the world with this and – but that was really just the beginning and that machine taught me how to build machines and how to source and how to design, etc.
But when I invented the trimmer, which is a follow-on to that, we ended up inventing two sizes. So, we have a desktop model. It does about a pound or two every 10, 15 minutes or so. Then we invented a larger machine that was more of an industrial machine. So, what we've done – and describe the machines.
We've always tried to maintain a certain appeal in the way the machines look. But that's always second to function, right? So, we go for function but always building it to make sure that it looks and fits.
If you go to our webpage or you get a chance to see our stuff, you will see that it all looks very similar. Almost everything we do now is 316 stainless. So, it all has the same look and feel and vibe to it.
Lisa Richter: My follow-up question to that is, what is the problem inherent in cannabis that required a whole new system or machines? Why couldn't you just go out and retrofit something that handles blueberries or some other plant?
Cullen Raichart: That's such an appropriate question because cannabis is the most interesting product, I think in that the flower, the most delicate part of the plant, is the value point, right? With other plants, the flower gets impregnated and the fruit comes out and the fruit is the valuable part.
Not in this one, man. It's this really, really, really, really gentle flower and you can't beat it up. You can't abuse it. You have got to dry it the right way. You got to harvest it the right way.
You want to treat it very gently and appropriately and that has been our biggest focus: we say gentle, quick, quiet -- those are the hallmarks of what we do.
You can listen to the full episode here.


text:
Q: Webview moves up when keyboard hides The issue happens in an application whith a linear layout that divides the screen in two parts, the upper part is a simple View and the lower part is a WebView that loads google.com. The WebView takes the 60% of the space and the View the other 40%. In that scenario I touch the google search bar showing the soft keyboard, inmediately I touch the WebView outside the search bar just at the right of the search button, that hides the soft keyboard but just before this the WebView moves up for an instant and comes back to its initial position as the keyboard dissapears, no idea of why this happens and how to avoid it.
Please see the sample application, to reproduce the issue you can use a WVGA (800×480) simulator, I noticed the issue in a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.
http://www.fileserve.com/file/txC3RV6/WebViewDemo.rar
Any suggestion?
Thanks for your time.
Goyo.

A: If you put the entire linear view inside the scrollview then the webview wont move up.


Set in greenery surroundings and in a typical architectural place of the Pays d'Auge. The inside is genuine and offers quality equipments and tasteful decoration. Ideally situated to discover the traditional villages of the Pays d'Auge region. Will suit nature lovers.
On an organic farm (oxen). Semi-detached gite to another gite. Ground floor: kitchen with lunch area, living room with armchairs, shower room with toilets, 1 bedroom (1 double bed). Upstairs: 2 bedrooms (4 single beds), bathroom with toilets. Central heating. Washing machine. Dish washer. TV. Telephone. Grounds with garden furniture.


text:
Q: Getting resource with ResourcePatternResolver in Spring Boot return 0 resource with pattern Hi I'm trying to get a list of xml file (username_date.xml)
this is my code :
    Resource[] resources ;
    ResourcePatternResolver resolver = new PathMatchingResourcePatternResolver();
    String path = "file:I:/xxxx/yyyy/zzz/Logon history/BBB/username_*.xml";
    try {
        resources = resolver.getResources(path);
        for (Resource resource: resources){
            logger.info(resource.getFilename());
        }
    } catch (Exception e) {
        logger.error(e.toString());
    }

With this pattern , the server is working for ever and never get any results...
I'm using Spring Boot 1.4
What did I do wrong ?
Thanks !
Edit :
I waited and 8 min after the request was succesful , any idea why the blank cause this problem ?


With all eight AUS men's hockey teams starting the regular season Friday night, it is probably time to take a stab at the AUS capsules.
While the casual observer might wonder what all this noise from the Maritimers is about regarding their self-proclaimed title of "most competitive conference," what with UNB and SMU getting all of the attention lately, but it is worth noting that in last year the AUS had six of the top 13 teams as per RPI, and in the last 10 years six of the eight AUS teams have won the AUS championship. The last two times UNB won the University Cup they were there thanks to the rotating wildcard ticket.
While one might be willing to concede UNB first place, SMU is not a lock again for second and the other first round playoff bye, with Acadia showing a lot of improvement. The middle of the pack is always difficult to sort out and predict, and while it may look easy to put STU and Dal out of the playoffs again, everything is easy on paper.
'08-'09 recap: After a strong first half, the Axemen were 7-8-0 after Christmas and slid into 5th place. Acadia swept StFX in two games in the 1st round of the AUS playoffs and then they were swept by UNB in three games in their best-of-five semis.
Coach: Darren Burns (9th season). Burns is a two-time AUS Coach of the Year, and was named CIS Coach of the Year in 2005. Darren was a member of Acadia's 1993 CIS championship team, and he was an assistant coach with their 1996 championship team.
'09-'10 outlook: Acadia was a young team last year that should only be better this year. They are a sound defensive team, but they struggled to keep up with quick teams like UNB and UdeM on their home ice, the only Olympic-sized ice surface in the AUS. Acadia had problems scoring goals last year, but newcomer Andrew Clark scored 40 last season for Brandon, Spencer Jezegou scored 29 for the Titan and Doug Clarkson scored 38 for Vaughan in the OJHL. Burns has been steadily rebuilding this team, and they just may be a contender this year.
'08-'09 Recap: Last season was forgettable. Too many penalties. Too much rubber at the goalies. Too many went in. Special teams were brutal. Couldn't score goals. Missed playoffs for fifth year in a row. Enough said.
Coach: Pete Belliveau (2nd season). If there was any guy you would want to rebuild your team in a hurry, it would be probably be Belliveau. He guided Moncton to a CIS championship in 1995 and got them to the dance in 1999, where they lost to Alberta. In 2001 he stared building the new Lakehead Thunderwolves team, and he had them at Nationals his second season behind the bench. In 2006 they were back, but came up short against Alberta. After being pushed out of LU he re-appeared at Windsor for 2007-08 before coming back to the Maritimes last season to take over the reins at Dal.
'09-'10 outlook: You can only be better if you were the worst team, right? Dal announced around a dozen recruits over the summer, and ten arrived on campus. Bobby Nadeau (yes, the unwilling guy on the other end of Patrick Roy's son's infamy) may be the goalie Dal has needed for years. All those new forwards should invigorate the Tigers' popgun offence. However, this is rebuilding, plain and simple. In the unforgiving AUS there may not be time this season to tinker with the line-up and find the right recipe and still make the playoffs.
'08-'09 Recap: Moncton got off to a great start with a season opening win streak (7 games), but finished the term and started the second half with a six-game losing streak, followed by a four-game win streak. Up and down team anyone? Rookie goalie Pierre-Alexandre Marion struggled with a 5-5 record and a not bad 3.20 GAA. UdeM took three games to eliminate bitter rival UPEI in the first round of the AUS playoffs, and pushed Saint Mary's to four games in a tight best-of-5 semi-final series.
Coach: Serge Bourgeois (1st season). After AUS Coach of the Year Bob Mongrain elected to return to his former pro team in Switzerland as head coach, UdeM decided to promote assistant coach and former standout player Serge Bourgeois as his replacement. Bourgeois' previous head coach experience was with Moncton (now Dieppe) of the MJAHL. He was a popular choice, but now comes his test under fire.
'08-'09 Recap: Two seasons ago SMU set a school record for wins, only to see UNB set an AUS record for wins and knock them off in the AUS championship. Last season in the AUS championship SMU was humbled in their first game against UNB, but roared back to take the next two games to win the best-of-3. Then in Thunder Bay the Huskies were a third-period meltdown against Western away from competing for the gold.
Coach: Trevor Steinburg (13th season). His resume is impressive; everything but the University Cup. 1996-97 MJAHL Coach of the Year. 1997- 98 & 1998-99 AUS Coach of the Year. 1998-99 CIS Coach of the Year. 1999-2000 AUS & CIS Coach of the Year. 2001 Team Canada Head Coach - World University Games (Silver Medal), 2001-02 AUS Championship , 2007 Team Canada Head Coach - World University Games (Gold Medal), 2008-09 AUS Championship. Bottom line, the former pro player is a good coach and players play for him.
'09-'10 outlook: The Huskies lose or win depending on their offence, more specifically their power play, and only Scott Hotham is gone from the unit that was ticking along at 30% for most of last season. The team defence is good, but could be better. SMU takes far too many penalties for an elite team (569 PIMs was worst in AUS). This is AUS MVP Marc Rancourt's last chance for a ring, and most of his teammates are back, and they all should be pretty motivated. This is a team that is due. They are SMU's most consistent sports team yet the football team gets all of the local media hype and glory while playing in a weak conference. They owned UNB last year, especially on the PP. Despite all of that, they may not be able to overcome the re-loaded V-Reds this year, but they still have the best chance of anyone in the AUS to do it.
'08-'09 Recap: The young Tommies started the season with a nine game winless streak, won a few, and then dropped the first seven games of the second half. G Matt Davis was never able to find his groove that saw him steal several games the previous season. The good news is that STU was 5-1 in their last six games, and finished on a high note despite missing the playoffs.
Coach: Mike Eagles (8th season). The former long-time NHLer who worked too hard to be cut each year tries to instill that work ethic in the Tommies. He was the AUS & CIS Coach of the Year in 2003-04. Eagles works under a microscope in Fredericton since STU shares a campus with the much more successful UNB program, and the small liberal arts school has a hard time recruiting the calibre of recruits of its competition.
'09-'10 outlook: STU will be better this season as the young team continues to mature, and new netminder Charlie Lavigne looks capable of stealing some wins. Their specialty teams should be better this year. However, the rest of the AUS hasn't been standing still either, so the big question is who will STU pass to make the playoffs? Their fans may need to hope that a team above them goes into a slide, or has key injuries.
STU announced today the addition of F Kenton Dulle (Kamloops - WHL) who had a change of heart after signing a pro contract with an ECHL team. He had 25 goals and 59 points last year.
'08-'09 Recap: After a slow start (4-5-2) StFX bookended Christmas with a seven game win streak. Then they went 1-5 before righting the ship and barely holding onto 4th place heading into the playoffs. As a team they gave up more shots than they took, helped by their next-to-worst team PIMs (only 2 PIM less than SMU). G Danny Battochio stole two wins each during the season against both SMU and UNB where X was badly outplayed. In the first round of the playoffs StFX surprised many by being swept by Acadia in two games.
Coach: Brad Peddle (4th season). The former X-Man captain, CIS All-Canadian defenceman, and Dr. Randy Gregg Award winner has made a smooth transition to coaching. He coached Halifax and Antigonish of the MJAHL before taking over from CIS champion Danny Flynn at X, who is now running the show with the Q's Moncton Wildcats. As smooth as he was on the ice, he can be fiery on the bench, and he has no problem getting his players going.
'09-'10 outlook: Graduating your "thieving" goalie and top three d-men should make you a candidate to move down the AUS standings; however, their replacements looked very good in the pre-season, for what that's worth. While not a true rookie (he played in the last game of last season), Joey Perricone is expected to be the go-to guy in the X nets and stole their tie with Boston University. D Spencer McAvoy had 44 points with Swift Current last year, and F Ryan Sparling, F Brennan Wray, D Nick Pageau and D Josh Day all had stellar Major Junior careers.
'08-'09 Recap: UNB was ranked #1 in the final CIS rankings for a reason – they were good, and showed it on the national stage once again. UNB's goalies had a shaky pre-season, but got it together early in the season and the V-Reds made it look easy after that. Not that it was truly easy – UNB was involved in nine one-goal games and five two-goal games. However, they were only outshot once in the regular season and once in the playoffs. After the first round playoff bye, UNB swept Acadia in three games in their best-of-five semis. After humbling SMU 5-1 in the first game of the AUS championship, UNB's only blemish was dropping the next two games against a motivated opponent. Fortunately for them UNB got a second chance with the rotating wildcard spot at Nationals. UNB made the most of their second chance, getting their revenge on Alberta for the University Cup the year before with a shocking five-goal first period and then rolled over host Lakehead in a 3-1 game that wasn't really that close. Instead of the highly anticipated rematch with SMU in the final, UNB faced off against Western instead, and Mustangs G Brad Topping prevented the 1st period from being a potential rout. After a strong Western second period, UNB was back on form in the third period for their second national championship in three years.
Coach: Gardiner MacDougall (10th season). UNB locked up Gardiner MacDougall with a new five-year contract over the summer for good reason. When MacDougall arrived in Fredericton he took the lay of the land and set the goal of turning UNB into the top hockey program in the CIS. How close is he? For nine consecutive years UNB has been in the AUS Final Four. They've been to nationals five of the last seven years (they hosted two years) and came away with two golds and two silvers. In their University Cup history they are now .500 or better in their meetings with every other team in the CIS. MacDougall has a 153-78-21 regular season record in the AUS, and is the all-time wins leader among UNB coaches. He is a two-time AUS Coach of the Year and he was part of the coaching staff that won a gold medal for Canada at the 2007 World University Games.
'09-'10 outlook: Like Alberta this perennial playoff powerhouse reloads each year and doesn't seem to miss a beat. Seven players from the championship team have graduated or turned pro - two-thirds of UNB's top line and their top two d-men. There are eight new faces in arguably the top recruiting class in the CIS. It is difficult to guess who will have the biggest impact – Memorial Cup d-man Ben Shutron? Three-time 30 goal man Taylor Procyshen? The big (6'4") former AHL D Josh Kidd? Underrated Nick Layton? Mr. Everything in Cape Breton, F Chris Culligan? Or the rookie-once-again F Daine Todd? UNB has enough depth to weather the injury bug; if everyone was healthy they would players in the stands who would be a regular with the other AUS teams. If the goaltending stays focused it is hard to see anyone in the AUS denying their trip to Thunder Bay.
'08-'09 Recap: For most of the season UPEI was a win-some, lose-some team, until the end when they went into a 1-6 slide. Ouch. They were the only team that was outscored in the regular season that made the playoffs. The Panthers went out in the first round of the AUS playoffs in a hard-fought series with Moncton.
Coach: Dylan Taylor (4th season). Taylor left nothing on the ice when he was captain of the Panthers. Not overly skilled, but he led by example on the ice and in the classroom where he was twice an Academic All-Canadian. This is his first head coach gig – he was as an assistant with UPEI and the Q's PEI Rocket.
'09-'10 outlook: If UPEI stay healthy this fairly young team could be a threat come playoffs. They also have to find a way to compensate for F Justin Donati's 48 points. D Brett Nasby is a shoe-in for an All-Star if he can play a complete season. Sparkplug F Jordan Knox and F Cory Vitarelli also missed most of the pre-season. D Dylan Quaile played in the ECHL as a 20-year old last year and should have a postive impact, as should another former pro, F Taylor Raszka, when he becomes eligible late in the first half. Also in the good recruiting class are Jared Gomes who scored 31 goals with Mississauga and Brandon Biggers who scored 25 with Erie last year. This is a hard team to judge, and could finish anywhere from fourth to seventh.
I think UNB beat Alberta at Nationals, not Acadia. No matter.
Good catch, we appreciate the help ... David went to town writing this better than any of us might have!
Good catch. When I'm typing Alberta my fingers must be more used to typing Acadia. And I consider myself a good proofreader!
By the time I went back to fix it Neate had already done so. Thanks.
"When they're hot they're near unbeatable and when they're not..."
Describes last year's team perfectly. Hopefully with the core being a year older and the return of Bétournay and McLean, they will show more consistency.
Great read, thanks for doing this.
X losing 3 key d-men and the Batman... good recruiting replacements but they are rookies. Can't argue with UNB first, Acadia could catch SMU. 4 through 7 could be a crapshoot, but I call UdeM, St FX, STU with UPEI out of the mix. And Dal needs more time and talent.
I was on the fence with UPEI and STU for sixth and seventh place: there is a lot potential with STU, especially with the new addition announced today, but UPEI is the "incumbent" at sixth place.
Don't get me wrong - I'll be pleased as punch if STU passes UPEI and makes the playoffs. I love surprises, and avoid movie reviews and trailers for just that reason!


text:
Top five Alan Rickman performances
The 69-year-old British actor died today after a prolonged battle with cancer
Post category:In The News
With what comes as 2016's second big blow, it has been confirmed that British actor and director Alan Rickman has passed away after a battle with cancer. Like Bowie, he too was aged 69, and was considered a national treasure by Britons and remains one of the most memorable actors. With condolences pouring in from his peers on Twitter, all attesting to Rickman's unusual charisma, charm and humour – it's clear that the world has lost another giant of a performer. Daniel Radcliffe – Harry Potter himself, who had starred in 8 films with the actor, articulated everyone's grief the best with this post:
While we mourn his loss, it's important that we celebrate the man Alan Rickman was, and celebrate the diversity of his performances, and the vast demographic whose lives he enriched with his craft. Here are the top 5 Alan Rickman performances:
Hans Gruber – Die Hard
Die Hard was the movie that shot a 40-year old Alan Rickman into superstardom. As the icy and malevolent Hans Gruber, Rickman gave the world one of its most memorable villains, one which made an action star out of Bruce Willis. Audiences lapped up his unique dialogue delivery – one which many stars have impersonated in jest. Already a well-noted thespian, Rickman was now an international star.
2. Severus Snape – The Harry Potter series
Few fictional characters have been personified as well in a cinematic adaptation as Severus Snape, the wry, misunderstood Potions teacher from the Harry Potter novels. Rickman's portrayal brought the character to life as he managed to perfectly depict the pathos and anguish that drove the character. Rickman's timing and his trademark hair flick, and intimidating glare also provided several humorous moments in each adaptation of the series and he continues to be the character of choice at several cosplaying events and conventions.
3. The Sheriff of Nottingham – Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Once again proving himself as an antagonist to beat all antagonist, Rickman brought his inimitable dialogue delivery and sneer to the character of the Sheriff of Nottingham, the main villain in the Robin Hood story. In Robin Hood: Prince of Theives, Rickman managed to bring a comical level of outrageousness to the infuriated character who is constantly bested by Robin Hood.
4. King Louis XIV – A Little Chaos
Putting his unmistakably aristocratic air to good use, Rickman portrayed a discerning French monarch in whose service the movie's protagonist Kate Winslet builds the enchanting Garden of Versailles.
5. Harry – Love Actually
Ever the ladies man, Rickman – who had swooned several women with his romantic portrayals on stage, put his charms to good use as one of the anthology's many lovestruck characters (his former co-star once famously spoke of how their plays had people leaving the theatre "wanting to have sex, and preferably with Alan Rickman"). Harry falls for his secretary and attempts to hide the fact from his wife, played by Emma Watson, whom he frequently collaborated with.
Tags: Alan RIckman, Hans Gruber, Rickmanoff, RIPAlanRickman, Severus Snape
Next PostGoodbye, Lord Rickman of the Alan
GISELE BUNDCHEN AND THE WORLD CUP TROPHY
How To Dress Like A World Champion
Timed with style


Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by syadasti, Feb 14, 2008.
January 28, 2008 (Computerworld) Deregulation of telecommunications has been nothing less than an unmitigated disaster for U.S. businesses. If the broadband mess isn't hurting your business today, it soon will be. It's time to do something about it.
The Internet binds businesses to customers, suppliers and partners in a set of federated networks, and the concept of the virtual office has extended the corporate network, delivering bandwidth-hungry services into many employees' homes.
Truly high-speed Internet services of 100Mbit/sec. to 1Gbit/sec. are opening up new business opportunities that could create the next Google.
But not in the U.S. Here, the Internet is being throttled at its endpoints by telecommunications carriers and cable companies with a record of spotty service quality, a broadband rollout that has left more than half the nation behind, and overpriced, overprovisioned "high-speed" broadband services that are still widely unavailable.
In five years, multimedia business interactions will be commonplace. Global, high-definition videoconferencing over the Internet isn't far off. Problem is, an HD video stream requires a sustained 2Mbit/sec. end to end, but today as many as 30 customers in a given area in the U.S. may share 30Mbit/sec. of broadband capacity. What's more, one cable company is monitoring Internet traffic and throttling back or stopping some audio and video streams that compete with its core business.
Will you get the bandwidth you need? If your business is in Europe or Asia, the answer is yes. The average advertised bandwidth in Japan is just under 1Gbit/sec. In Korea and France, it's over 40Mbit/sec. That sort of capacity will drive innovations that U.S. businesses can't even envision yet.
But in the U.S., except in a few metro areas, most people are lucky if they can get 6Mbit/sec. — and in rural areas, most users can't even get that.
It's a disgrace born of political failure. In 1996, the government agreed to free the Baby Bells to compete in the long-distance market if they met certain conditions. Among other things, the Bells promised to share their facilities with other providers and pledged to run fiber to every home. "Almost every one of them reneged on their promises," says David Passmore, an analyst at Burton Group.
Ironically, the rate relief the carriers were given over the years in return for their empty promises — by some estimates as high as $70 billion — would have gone a long way toward running fiber to every home in the U.S.
"The politicians gave away the store, and all of the networks that were paid for by the rate [payers] were handed over to the Verizons of the world," says Passmore.
Businesses should pressure the telecommunications/cable duopoly and regulators to make a competitively priced, nationwide, guaranteed 100Mbit/sec. broadband infrastructure a priority — and 1Gbit/sec. the goal.
Furthermore, all ISPs should be required to contribute to the Universal Service Fund just as land-line carriers do. Unless those subsidies are replenished, high-speed Internet access will never be fully extended to the 20% of businesses and homes in rural areas left behind by the market.
Business also has a stake in promoting Net neutrality. You — not the telecommunications or cable TV companies — should control your content.
Finally, businesses should demand that the FCC require the winning bidders in this month's auction for 700-MHz spectrum (which television broadcasters will abandon in 2009) provide open access. A clear separation of the basic Internet access infrastructure from the services that ride upon it is the only way to prevent today's carriers and cable companies from continuing to act as gatekeepers to the Internet — and stifling innovation in an Internet economy that will be critical to U.S. business growth in the future.
Robert L. Mitchell is a Computerworld national correspondent. Contact him at robert_mitchell@computerworld.com.
I have FtH, 20/5 Mb right now but its expensive and a joke compared to other countries.
Sad that Korea of all places has faster internets than I do. Probably cheaper as well.
But their internets smell like sweaty feet.