text:
Tony Barnette announces his retirement
Former Ranger reliever Tony Barnette has retired
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Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Tony Barnette, the righthanded relief pitcher who went to made his major league debut for the Texas Rangers in 2016 after spending six years in Japan, announced his retirement today.
The 36 year old was a 10th round draft pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2006 out of Arizona State University. After spending the 2009 season in AAA, Barnette joined the Yakult Swallows of the Japanese League and pitched for them from 2010-15.
Barnette signed with the Rangers prior to the 2016 and had a stellar year out of the pen for the A.L. West champs, putting up a 2.09 ERA in 60.1 innings. He struggled in 2017 and then dealt with injuries in 2018. Barnette signed with the Chicago Cubs in 2019, but only appeared in two games in the majors, and after being sent down at the end of June, didn't report and went on the restricted list, where he spent the rest of the year.


Greater payment for primary care, chronic care management, and telehealth services are among the changes that will go into effect in January as a result of final 2017 physician fee schedule recently released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Payment for physicians and other practitioners is made under this fee schedule.
Care Coordination: Primary care services such as chronic care management, care coordination and planning, and care for cognitive impairment will receive increased reimbursement under the rule. Such changes are intended to reward clinicians who are making time and resource investments in more coordinated, patient-centered care, according to CMS.
Critical care consultations furnished via telehealth using new Medicare G codes.
CMS also approved payment policies related to the use of a new-place-of-service code designed to report services furnished via telehealth.
Mammography: CMS is implementing new coding for mammography to reflect current technology, including a transition from film to digital imaging and elimination of separate coding for computer aided detection services. The technical component for mammography services is not being changed. CMS is implementing the new coding framework and descriptors through use of G-codes for Medicare.
Prevention: CMS is expanding the Diabetes Prevention Program starting in January, 2018. This is a structured lifestyle intervention program that uses dietary coaching and physical activity to help prevent the onset of diabetes in those who are pre-diabetic.
Appropriate Use: The CMS rule further implements a 2014 law requiring physicians to consult appropriate use criteria when ordering advanced diagnostic imaging services. The rule identified a number of priority clinical areas for use of such criteria—coronary artery disease, suspected pulmonary embolism, headache, hip pain, low back pain, shoulder pain, lung cancer, and cervical or neck pain. CMS said that it would not require clinicians to begin consulting appropriate use criteria and appending this information to Medicare claims forms before January 1, 2018.


The National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) was an unidentified flying object (UFO) research group most active in the United States from the 1950s to the 1980s. It remains active primarily as an informational depository on the UFO phenomenon.
Though NICAP was a non-profit organization, the group faced financial collapse many times in its existence, due in no small part to business ineptitude among the group's directors. Following a wave of nationally publicized UFO incidents in the mid-1960s, NICAP's membership spiked dramatically, and only then did the organization become financially stable. However, following publication of the Condon Report in 1968, NICAP's membership declined sharply, and the organization again fell into long-term financial decline and disarray.
Despite these internal troubles, NICAP probably had the most visibility of any civilian American UFO group, and arguably had the most mainstream respectability; Jerome Clark writes that "for many middle-class Americans and others interested in UFOs but repelled by ufology's fringe aspects, it served as a sober forum for UFO reporting, inquiry, investigation, and speculation". NICAP advocated transparent scientific investigation of UFO sightings and was skeptical of "contactee" tales involving meetings with space visitors, the alien abduction phenomenon, and the like. The presence of several prominent military officials as members of NICAP brought a further measure of respectability for many observers.
Throughout its existence, NICAP argued that there was an organized governmental cover-up of UFO evidence. NICAP also pushed for governmental hearings regarding UFOs, with occasional success.
Though any UFO-related group attracts a number of uncritical enthusiasts along with a small percentage of cranks, astronomer J. Allen Hynek cited NICAP and Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) as the two best civilian UFO groups of their time, consisting largely of sober, serious-minded people capable of valuable contributions to the subject.
Until the mid-1960s, NICAP gave little attention to close encounters of the third kind (where animated beings are purportedly sighted in relation to a UFO). However, longtime NICAP member Richard H. Hall related privately that this position was "tactical and not doctrinaire." In other words, NICAP did not necessarily dismiss occupant reports out of hand, but elected to focus on other aspects of the UFO phenomenon which would be perceived by mainstream observers as less outlandish. The attention given to the contactees of the 1950s (who typically claimed ongoing contact with benevolent "Space Brothers") was almost certainly a factor in NICAP's reluctance to study UFO occupant reports too closely. But with the 1964 Lonnie Zamora UFO encounter — regarded by researchers as one of the most reliable UFO occupant reports — NICAP loosened its restrictions on studying UFO occupant reports.
By early January 1957, however, Brown had proved so financially inept that the board asked him to step down. Fahrney replaced him, then convened a press conference on January 16, 1957, where he announced that UFOs were under intelligent control, but that they were of neither American or Soviet origin. The press conference received major attention, doubtless aided by Fahrney's stature.
In April 1957, Fahrney resigned from NICAP, citing personal issues. It was later disclosed that his wife was seriously ill. Fahrney was bothered by the whispers and ridicule his UFO interests generated among many of his peers in the military.
The organization had chapters and local associates scattered throughout the United States. Many of their members were amateurs, but a considerable percentage were professionals, including journalists, military personnel, scientists and physicians. One of NICAP's prime goals was thorough field investigations of UFO reports. They would eventually compile a significant number of case files and field investigations which Clark characterises as "often first rate".
By 1958, NICAP had grown to over 5000 members. Keyhoe's financial management and business skills were only slightly better than Brown's, and NICAP hobbled along throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, facing collapse on several occasions. For most of his tenure as director, Keyhoe sent irregular letters to NICAP's members, warning of the organization's imminent collapse, and soliciting funds to keep NICAP going. According to Jerome Clark (see sources below), Keyhoe often paid for much of NICAP's operating expenses himself.
The 1960s found much of the American public keenly interested in UFOs, and NICAP's membership crested at 14,000. This influx of members greatly improved the group's finances.
Hillenkoetter left the board in 1962.
In 1964, NICAP published The UFO Evidence, edited by Richard H. Hall, a summary of hundreds of unexplained reports studied by NICAP investigators through 1963. Sightings were systematically broken down by witness category and special types of evidence. For example, individual chapters were devoted to sightings by military personnel, pilots and aviation experts, and scientists and engineers. Another chapter was devoted to evidence of intelligent control and yet another to physical evidence or interactions, such as electromagnetic effects, radar tracking, photographs, sound, physiological effects, and so on. Another section examined observed patterns, such as descriptions of shape, color, maneuvers, flight behavior, and concentrations of sightings. The book is still considered an invaluable reference source in the field.
When the United States Air Force, in collaboration with the University of Colorado, established the Condon Committee (1966–68) to study UFOs, NICAP initially aided its investigations, but Keyhoe quickly became disenchanted, limiting NICAP's role. NICAP formally severed ties with the Condon Committee in early 1968. Following the Condon Committee's report (which concluded there was nothing extraordinary about UFOs), public interest in the subject abated, and NICAP's membership dropped to about 5000.
1969 saw the last NICAP efforts of any significance, two monographs: Strange Effects from UFOs and UFOs: A New Look.
NICAP's membership plummeted in the late 1960s, and Keyhoe faced charges of financial incompetence and authoritarianism. By 1969, Keyhoe turned his focus away from the military and focused on the CIA as the source of the UFO cover up. By December 1969, NICAP's board, headed by Colonel Joseph Bryan III, forced Keyhoe to retire as NICAP chief. Under Bryan's leadership, NICAP disbanded its local and state affiliate groups . Afterwards, John L. Acuff became NICAP's director.
NICAP's membership continued to drop as it was led by Acuff and then Alan Hall. By now, the organization was all but paralyzed by infighting, including unsubstantiated charges that the Central Intelligence Agency had infiltrated NICAP. In fact, several persons with CIA ties had joined NICAP; however, their motives and reasons for joining NICAP have been the subject of some debate.
One person specifically named as a suspected CIA infiltrator was retired Air Force Colonel Joseph Bryan III. His son, writer C. D. B. Bryan, dismisses this idea, suggesting that "Anyone who knows anything about the history of NICAP knows that the group didn't need anybody's help in its disintegration; it simply self-destructed." As to his father's involvement as an alleged CIA agitator, Bryan writes, "my father's unswerving, outspoken faith in UFOs ... was, I felt, something of an embarrassment ... I do not believe it was the sort of public position an agent would take whose covert goal was to smother interest in UFOs."
1980 saw the last publication of NICAP's newsletter; the organization dissolved later that year. NICAP's archive of UFO sighting case files was subsequently purchased by the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS).
The frequently UFO-themed X-Files made occasional references to NICAP, most notably in the season 1 episode Fallen Angel in the shape of NICAP researcher Max Fenig. Fenig later returned in the season 4 two-part episode Tempus Fugit/Max.
^ Swords, Powell (2012). UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry. Anomalist Books. p. 291. ISBN 978-1-938398-15-5.
^ "Adm. Fahrney Quits Saucer Probers". The Washington Daily News. Washington, D.C.: Scripps Howard. 10 April 1957. Retrieved 2009-03-31. Illness in my family and previous commitments on which I depend for my livelihood force me to take this step.
^ "Photo Bios". Francis L. Ridge. Archived from the original on 2009-01-30. Retrieved 2009-03-31. He resigned from NICAP in Feb 1962 and was replaced on the NICAP Board by a former covert CIA high official, Joseph Bryan III, the CIA's first Chief of Political & Psychological Warfare (Bryan never disclosed his CIA background to NICAP or Keyhoe).
Swords and Powell UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry. Anomalist Books., 2012; ISBN 978-1-938398-15-5.
Hall, Richard H. (Jan 6, 2003) . Ridge, Francis; Waskiewicz, Jean (eds.). "The Quest For The Truth About UFOs: A Personal Perspective On The Role Of NICAP". NICAP.
"NICAP". Correspondence. The Vault. FBI.


Euphony is the latest addition to our semi hollow line. It futures a smaller 13,5" body in single cutaway design and traditional craftsmanship.
We use premium select tonewoods for the solid and the laminated parts of the guitar, taking care through every step of the process, in order to obtain constant and balanced tone characteristics.
The American maple center block, has a special design and construction that allows the two body compartments to communicate, extending this way the "breathing" and harmony of vibrations through the guitar's body. It can be equipped either with a Bigsby tremolo system or a classic stoptail bridge.
Euphony comes equipped with two custom wound E-52S Fremediti pickups that provide warm, balanced articulation and excellent response, enough to cover any style of music and playing.
Vintage-voiced, extremely versatile pickup set.
The E-52S model pickup set is our champion of versatility. It's caries the spirit of the original P.A.F. humbuckers of the 1950s, with sweet sustain, full-sounding chords, clear and bright attack. With some modifications and few refinements to the original, we achieved a slightly modernized design that make it a more adaptable pickup to different styles. Hand wound in our Fremediti workshop E-52S uses a nickel silver bottom plate, 2-conductor shielded cable and is vacuum wax potted for squeal-free performance.
The E-65S a moderate output versatile humbucker set for those sweet sustained lead tones.
With our custom winding specs, combined with an alnico 5 bar magnet, this balanced set provides sustain, crunch, and midrange. It futures a nickel silver bottom plate with long mounting legs, 4-conductor lead wire for multiple wiring options and wax potting for squeal-free performance.


text:
Publicis Groupe Bulgaria
Search pressroom.msl.bg/en
Awards Blog Campaigns Events MSL Sofia Publicis Groupe Bulgaria
PUBLICIS LAUNCHES'WORK YOUR WORLD' ON MARCEL AS PART OF ITS COMMITMENT TO FUTURE OF WORK
Starting in 2022, every Publicis Groupe employee will be ableto work anywhere in the world for up to six weeks every year
Publicis Groupe [Euronext Paris FR0000130577, CAC 40] today announced 'Work Your World', a global employee-first experience unique to Marcel, which combines flexibility, opportunity and growth for all talent. Launching in January, with health and safety at the core, the program will allow every Publicis Groupe employee to work from any accessible country where the Groupe is present, for up to 6 weeks a year.
"We have been working hard on how to turn the hybrid world into new opportunities for everyone at Publicis, and make the future of work more creative and more daring. We know the pandemic isn't over, and we know that the world could close again at any time. But that's not a reason to close our horizons and perspectives. We will continue to move forward, because one day this crisis will come to an end and because we owe it to our people to make their professional and personal experience at Publicis truly unique" said Arthur Sadoun, global Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe.
"Our people have been incredibly resourceful despite the limitations of the pandemic. They deserve to work for a company as resourceful as they are. Work Your World can help every Publicis employee "work their world" in a bigger, better and brighter way thanks to our scale, diversity and Marcel" said Carla Serrano, global CSO of Publicis Groupe.
Work Your World will go live at the beginning of 2022. Through the landing page on Marcel, employees will be able to:
Browse local and global destinations, uniquely selected for them by Marcel's intelligence, in over 100 countries where Publicis has offices.
See dynamic updates on accessible countries and locations, with information on local health and business regulations, to take the necessary measures and precautions before travel.
Find accommodation through Home Swap Home, a feature open exclusively to the Publicis community, which enables our people to share and swap accommodation with colleagues.
Connect with other employees in different countries, via Marcel's profile intelligence, to discover what it's like to live and work in a given location the best time to go, and more.
Access a dedicated 24-hour contact center, to receive real-time support from experts for questions related to travel, health regulations, visas and work permits.
Participate in the Work Your World community, a network established by our people for our people.
Work Your World is a future-facing initiative, yet draws on Publicis Groupe's heritage and the values it has always stood for: Viva La Difference. Thanks to Marcel, every employee will have the chance to access this program and experience other offices, cultures and lifestyles, through a collaborative community.
Publicis Groupe will be sharing more details on Work Your World at their second Viva La Différence seminar on Marcel in December.
About Publicis Groupe - The Power of One
Publicis Groupe [Euronext Paris FR0000130577, CAC 40] is a global leader in communication. The Groupe is positioned at every step of the value chain, from consulting to execution, combining marketing transformation and digital business transformation. Publicis Groupe is a privileged partner in its clients' transformation to enhance personalization at scale. The Groupe relies on ten expertise concentrated within four main activities: Communication, Media, Data and Technology. Through a unified and fluid organization, its clients have a facilitated access to all its expertise in every market. Present in over 100 countries, Publicis Groupe employs around 80,000 professionals.
www.publicisgroupe.com | Twitter: @PublicisGroupe | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube | Viva la Difference!
About MSL Sofia
MSL is Publicis Groupe's public relations and integrated communications network, one of the world's largest. It provides strategic counsel and creative thinking while championing its clients' interests through fearless and insightful campaigns that engage multiple perspectives and holistic thinking to build influence and deliver impact.
MSL Sofia is the PR arm in Publicis Groupe, a global leader in communication and one of the largest groups in Bulgaria. The Groupe is positioned at every step of the value chain, from consulting to execution, combining marketing transformation and digital business transformation. Publicis Groupe is a privileged partner in its clients' transformation to enhance personalization at scale. Through a unified and fluid organization, its clients have a facilitated access to all its expertise in every market.
118 Bulgaria Blvd, Abacus Business Center, Fl. 5

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


At the end of 2013, we have spent some time taking photos of one more great projects. It was BMW E30 with M-Tech equipment, a project by Marko Knezevic.
Volkswagen Golf MK2, VR6, one of the newest projects from Club Golf Serbia. We were honored to take first photos of it. owner, Veljko Jovanovic says that project is almost finished.


text:
Q: Using lua_error with LuaJIT skips stack object destructors? I've compiled LuaJIT with MSVC x64, which means that there should be full C++ exception interoperability, according to the official LuaJIT website.
One of the points states that "Throwing Lua errors across C++ frames is safe. C++ destructors will be called."
I assumed that this means I can use lua_error in a C++ function and not worry about objects on the stack:
struct Test
{
    Test() {std::cout<<"Constructor"<<std::endl;}
    ~Test() {std::cout<<"Destructor"<<std::endl;}
};

int some_function(lua_State *l)
{
    Test t {};
    lua_pushstring(l,"error message");
    lua_error(l);
    return 0;
}

(The function is called from within a Lua-script)
However, the destructor is never called. So what does that point on the website actually mean? How can I use lua_error without having to worry about memory leaks?
According to this question, the problem can be solved by compiling Lua as C++-code, but since I'm using LuaJIT, I'm not sure if that won't cause me any problems?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: How to remove default black color border in react-responsive-carousel I am working in Ionic react . I have added react-responsive-carousel for swiping the content, but default there is black color border as show in the image .I have changed the CSS value from CSS file in node modules, but changes do not reflected in content .How can I solve the issue

    <Carousel>
      {
        assignedOrderData&&assignedOrderData.map((item1: any) => item1.map((item: any) =>

          <IonGrid id='dashboard-orders'>
            <IonList onClick={() => history.push(`/myorderdetails/${item.order_id}`)} >
              <IonRow >
                <IonCol style={{ height: '.5px', borderTop: '.5px' }} size='1' class="ion-text-end">
                  <IonIcon icon={timeOutline} color='primary' />
                </IonCol>
                <IonCol size='5'>
                  <IonText class="ion-text-nowrap" color='primary'> Delivery Time: 5 PM </IonText>
                </IonCol>

                <IonCol size='6' class="ion-text-end" >
                  <IonBadge onClick={() => { }}>View Delivery </IonBadge>
                </IonCol>
              </IonRow>

              <IonRow>
                <IonCol size='8' class="ion-text-start">
                  <IonText color='dark' style={{ fontSize: '.8em' }}>   {[item.shipping_address_1, item.shipping_city, item.shipping_postcode].filter(Boolean).join(',  ')} </IonText>
                </IonCol>
                <IonCol class="ion-text-end">
                  <IonText style={{ fontSize: '.8em' }} color='dark' class="ion-text-start"  >Order : # {item?.order_id} </IonText>
                </IonCol>
              </IonRow>

              <IonItem lines='full' color='medium' style={{ height: '.5px', borderTop: '.5px' }}></IonItem>

              <IonRow style={{ paddingTop: '5px' }}>
                <IonCol> <IonText color='dark' class="ion-text-nowrap">5.33 m </IonText></IonCol>
                <IonCol> <IonText color='dark' class="ion-text-nowrap">{item.delivery_time} </IonText></IonCol>
                <IonCol > <IonText color='dark' class="ion-text-nowrap">{item.total_text} </IonText></IonCol>
                <IonCol> <IonText color='dark' class="ion-text-nowrap">{item.payment_method} </IonText></IonCol>
              </IonRow>

              <IonRow style={{ paddingTop: '3px' }}>
                <IonCol> <IonText style={{ fontSize: '.8em' }} class="ion-text-nowrap">Dist </IonText></IonCol>
                <IonCol> <IonText style={{ fontSize: '.8em' }} class="ion-text-nowrap">ETA </IonText></IonCol>
                <IonCol> <IonText style={{ fontSize: '.8em' }} class="ion-text-nowrap">Amount</IonText></IonCol>
                <IonCol> <IonText style={{ fontSize: '.8em' }} class="ion-text-nowrap">Payment</IonText></IonCol>
              </IonRow>
            </IonList>
          </IonGrid>

        ))}
    </Carousel>}

A: you need to add some css for this in your page css file.
.carousel .slide{
    background: #ff442e!important;
}


text:
RUSSIA DEFENDS COOPERATION WITH IRAN.
April 4, 2002 08:00 AM Age: 21 years
Some six weeks after he abruptly canceled an earlier official visit to Moscow, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi was scheduled today to begin two days of talks in the Russian capital. The visit is a politically sensitive one for Moscow, coming against a background of exploding tensions in the Middle East and amid intensified efforts by the Bush administration to identify Tehran as part of an "axis of evil" that threatens U.S. national interests and, increasingly, those of Israel as well. Russian diplomats are therefore expected to walk a careful line between using the visit to assert Moscow's determination to conduct an independent foreign policy, while trying at the same time to ensure that the talks in Moscow do not undermine Kremlin efforts to build a partnership relationship with the United States, particularly in the run up to the Russian-U.S. presidential summit scheduled for late May.
Kharrazi's unexpected eleventh-hour cancellation of a visit to Moscow that was to have started on February 19 fully illustrated the tensions that the current U.S. war on terrorism have imposed on Russian-Iranian relations. Even six weeks later it is unclear exactly why Tehran chose to postpone the February visit, but speculation has tended to center on the fact that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State John Bolton was himself just winding up a visit to Moscow at that time. Indeed, in a concluding press conference Bolton said that he had used his visit to press home Bush administration concerns over continuing Iranian-Russian cooperation. The events in Moscow led some to conclude that Kharrazi may have been reacting to a new, U.S.-inspired shift in Russia's diplomatic posture away from Tehran. At the same time, there was talk that Kharrazi's postponement may have reflected other problems between Russia and Iran. The most prominent are alleged frustrations on the Iranian side with the pace of Russia's construction work at the controversial Bushehr nuclear power plant, and indications of tension between Russia and Iran on the subject of dividing up the resources of the Caspian Sea (see the Monitor, February 20).
Russian officials have nonetheless been at pains over the past few days to assert Moscow's intention to maintain friendly ties with Iran, and in particular to go forward as planned with both construction work at the Bushehr nuclear facility and in the implementation of military-technical cooperation agreements that have been negotiated by the two countries over the past eighteen months. These Russian intentions were put most forcefully by Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Losyukov yesterday. He said that Russian-Iranian cooperation in these "sensitive areas" was transparent and in no sense a threat to nonproliferation agreements. "We intend to continue cooperation in these spheres in line with current agreements and do not think that these contracts are detrimental to anyone's interests," he was quoted as saying. Losyukov also discounted recent Bush administration claims that Russia is aiding Iran in the development of ballistic missiles, telling reporters that "unfounded accusations are not the best way to act." He went on to say that "By cooperating with Iran, Russia is not pursuing any covert goals. Nor has it any secret agreements with Iran."
Meanwhile, reports over the past week have suggested that the US$1 billion Bushehr project will occupy a prominent place on Kharrazi's discussion agenda in Moscow. Last month there were reports of dissatisfaction in both Moscow and Tehran over Iran's alleged failure to meet scheduled payments to Moscow on the one hand, and over Russia's alleged failure to meet construction deadlines on the other. But late last month Russian Atomic Energy Minister Aleksandr Rumyantsev announced Moscow's intention to continue work at Bushehr and to have the facility up and running by 2005 (see the Monitor, March 28).
The two sides are also expected to talk arms. In November of 2000 the Russian government announced its withdrawal from a 1995 agreement that had limited Russian arms deliveries to Iran. Since then the Russian and Iranian governments have held negotiations on arms deals that various experts have said could be worth anywhere from US$4-10 billion for Russia over the next decade. In October of 2001 the two countries signed a preliminary arms accord that could reportedly bring Russia about US$400 million per year. Russia has defended the sales on the grounds that they involve only conventional weaponry that will not alter the military balance in the region.
Kharrazi is scheduled to hold talks in Moscow with his opposite number, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. He will reportedly also meet Russian State Duma speaker Gennady Seleznev and the chairman of the Federation Council, Sergei Mironov. Other meetings are said also to be on the agenda, but it is perhaps significant that there has been no talk of a meeting between Kharrazi and President Vladimir Putin. Some reports this past February suggested that Kharrazi had postponed his initial visit to Moscow at least in part because of the Russian president's unwillingness to meet with him. That appears not to have been a problem this time around (AFP, April 1, 3; IRNA, April 1; Interfax, April 1-3; Business Recorder, Strana.ru, April 3).
It is unclear, meanwhile, whether the deteriorating security situation in the Middle East will have any influence on Russia's posture during the Kharrazi visit. Earlier this week Russia joined with the European Union in warning Israel not to use its war against terrorism to seek the destruction of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian leadership. That warning was part of a broader effort by the EU to seek an enhanced role for itself in bringing peace to the region. European Commission President Romano Prodi was quoted in Brussels as saying that American mediation efforts have failed. He also urged the convening of a new international conference on the Middle East, one that would bring together representatives from the EU, the United States, the UN, Russia, the moderate Arab states, the Palestinians and Israel. Like Russia, the European countries have also been generally more sympathetic than the Bush administration to the idea of pursuing friendly relations with Iran. A sustained effort by the EU to seek out a more independent international role for itself could, therefore, serve ultimately to encourage Russian defiance of the United States with respect to maintaining ties to Tehran (AP, April 2-3; AFP, April 3).
KPRF VOWS TO MOUNT "STIFF OPPOSITION" TO POWERS-THAT-BE.
NEW UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT ELECTED.Next
RUSSIAN LAWMAKERS GET AN EARFUL IN BAGHD..


4-star apartments offer a home away from home.
Home / Blog / 4-star apartments offer a home away from home.
These stylish 4-star apartments are found in the heart of Liverpool. It's a short walk from Albert Dock and the landscaped gardens of Chavasse Park. Each apartment comes with a well-equipped kitchen, dining area, en-suite bathroom and a flat-screen TV. The hotel also offers 24-hour front desk service and laundry facilities.


text:
Bandwidth management of multimedia transmission over networks
Methods and systems are provided for managing bandwidth in transmitting multimedia over a network. An audio stream is created from transmission of audio information over the network at an audio rate. A video stream is created for transmission of video information over the network at a video rate. A data stream is created for transmission of data information over the network at a data rate. Each of the audio rate, the video rate, and the data rate is determined independently of others and they are collectively transmitted according to a priority hierarchy that gives precedence of the audio stream over the video stream and data stream, and gives precedence of the data stream over the video stream.
Apelbaum, Jacob (Sayville, NY, US)
First Data Corporation (Englewood, CO, US)
375/E7.146, 375/E7.158, 375/E7.271, 709/204
G06F15/16
20040111501 Network system connected with multiple master devices and method for operating the same June, 2004 Lee et al.
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20080140788 METHOD FOR COMMUNICATION FORWARDING June, 2008 Carter et al.
20040221037 IMS conferencing policy logic November, 2004 Costa-requena et al.
20100057925 Method For Processing A Network Service Request, And Network Element Comprising A Means For Processing Said Request March, 2010 Armbruster et al.
20070033261 Personalized discovery of services February, 2007 Wagner et al.
20060010215 Managing connections and messages at a server by associating different actions for both different senders and different recipients January, 2006 Clegg et al.
20070214218 Publication management system September, 2007 Ward et al.
20080040420 Content distribution network February, 2008 Twiss et al.
CEHIC, KENAN
Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP - West Coast (Atlanta, GA, US)
What is claimed is:
1. A method of managing bandwidth in transmitting multimedia over a network, the method comprising: creating an audio stream for transmission of audio information over the network at an audio rate; creating a video stream for transmission of video information over the network at a video rate; creating a data stream for transmission of data information over the network at a data rate, wherein each of the audio rate, the video rate, and the data rate is determined independently of others of the audio rate, the video rate, and the data rate; and transmitting the audio stream, the video stream, and the data stream collectively over the network and respectively at the audio rate, the video rate, and the data rate according to a priority hierarchy that gives precedence of the audio stream over the video stream and data stream, and gives precedence of the data stream over the video stream.
2. The method recited in claim 1 further comprising assigning a bandwidth for the video stream and data stream substantially equal to a total bandwidth for a connection with the network less a bandwidth used by the audio stream corresponding to the audio rate.
3. The method recited in claim 2 further comprising: determining a current average size of the data stream; assigning a bandwidth for the video stream equal to the bandwidth for the video stream and data stream less the current average size of the data stream; and determining the video rate from the assigned bandwidth for the video stream.
4. The method recited in claim 3 wherein the assigned bandwidth for the video stream is approximately zero, the method further comprising having the data stream and the video stream compete for transmission over the network.
5. The method recited in claim 3 further comprising receiving a specification of a network-connection type to define the total bandwidth.
6. The method recited in claim 5 wherein the network-connection type is selected from the group consisting of a 28.8 kbps modem connection, a 56.6 kbps modem connection, a cable connection, a digital subscriber line ("DSL"), an integrated services digital network ("ISDN") connection, a satellite link, and a local-area-network ("LAN") connection.
7. The method recited in claim 1 wherein the data stream comprises whiteboard information.
8. The method recited in claim 1 wherein the data stream comprises instant-messaging information.
9. The method recited in claim 1 wherein the data stream comprises program-sharing information.
10. A system for transmitting multimedia over a network, the system comprising: an audio subsystem configured to create an audio stream for transmission of audio information over the network at an audio rate; a video subsystem configured to create a video stream for transmission of video information over the network at a video rate; a data subsystem configured to create a data stream form transmission of data information over the network at a data rate, wherein each of the audio rate, the video rate, and the data rate is determined independently of others of the audio rate, the video rate, and the data rate; and a communications system interfaced with the audio subsystem, the video subsystem, and the data subsystem and configured to transmit the audio stream, the video stream, and the data stream collectively over the network and respectively at the audio rate, the video rate, and the data rate according to a priority hierarchy that gives precedence of the audio stream over the video stream and data stream, and gives precedence of the data stream over the video stream.
11. The system recited in claim 10 further comprising a controller in communication with the audio subsystem, the video subsystem, and the data systems and configured to determine the audio rate, the video rate, and the data rate, the controller having instructions to assign a bandwidth for the video stream and data stream substantially equal to a total bandwidth for a connection with the network less a bandwidth used by the audio stream corresponding to the audio rate.
12. The system recited in claim 11 wherein the controller further has: instructions to determine a current average size of the data stream; instructions to assign a bandwidth for the video stream equal to the bandwidth for the video stream and data stream less the current average size of the data stream; and instructions to determine the video rate from the assigned bandwidth for the video stream.
13. The system recited in claim 12 wherein: the assigned bandwidth for the video stream is approximately zero; and the controller further has instructions to have the data stream and the video stream compete for transmission over the network.
14. The system recited in claim 12 wherein the controller further has instructions to receive a specification of a network-connection type to define the total bandwidth.
15. The system recited in claim 14 wherein the network-connection type is selected from the group consisting of a 28.8 kbps modem connection, a 56.6 kbps modem connection, a cable connection, a digital subscriber line ("DSL"), an integrated services digital network ("ISDN") connection, a satellite link, and a local-area-network ("LAN") connection.
16. The system recited in claim 10 wherein the data stream comprises whiteboarding information.
17. The system recited in claim 10 wherein the data stream comprises instant-messaging information.
18. The system recited in claim 10 wherein the data stream comprises program-sharing information.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is related to the following commonly assigned, concurrently filed applications, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes: U.S. Pat. Appl. No.______, entitled "VIDEO CONFERENCING SYSTEMS AND METHODS," filed by Jacob Apelbaum (Attorney Docket No. 20375-066000US) and U.S. Pat. Appl. No.______, entitled "MANAGEMENT OF VIDEO TRANSMISSION OVER NETWORKS," filed by Jacob Apelbaum (Attorney Docket No. 20375-067700US).
This application relates to video conferencing systems and methods.
Effective collaboration in business and other environments has long been recognized as being of considerable importance. This is particularly true for the development of new ideas as interactions fostered by the collaboration may be highly productive in expanding those ideas and generating new avenues for thought. As business and other activities have become more geographically disperse, efforts to provide collaborative environments have relied on travel by individuals so that they may collaborate in person or have relied on telecommunications conferencing mechanisms.
Travel by individuals to participate in a conference may be very costly and highly inconvenient to the participants. Despite this significant drawback, it has long been, and still is, the case that in-person collaboration is viewed as much more effective than the use of telecommunications conferencing. Telephone conferences, for example, provide only a limited form of interaction among the participants, does not easily permit side conversations to take place, and is generally a poor environment for working collaboratively with documents and other visual displays. Some of these drawbacks are mitigated with video conferencing in which participants may see and hear other, but there are still weaknesses in these types of environments as they are currently implemented.
There is accordingly a general need in the art for improved conferencing capabilities that provides for high interactivity among conference participants.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the invention provide methods and systems for managing bandwidth in transmitting multimedia over a network. An audio stream is created from transmission of audio information over the network at an audio rate. A video stream is created for transmission of video information over the network at a video rate. A data stream is created for transmission of data information over the network at a data rate. Each of the audio rate, the video rate, and the data rate is determined independently of others of the audio rate, the video rate, and the data rate. The audio stream, the video stream, and the data stream are collectively transmitted over the network and respectively at the audio rate, the video rate, and the data rate according to a priority hierarchy that gives precedence of the audio stream over the video stream and data stream, and gives precedence of the data stream over the video stream.
A bandwidth may be assigned for the video stream and data stream substantially equal to a total bandwidth for the network less a bandwidth used by the audio stream corresponding to the audio rate. A current average size of the data stream may be determined. A bandwidth for the video stream may be assigned equal to the bandwidth for the video stream and data stream less the current average size of the data stream. The video rate is then determined from the assigned bandwidth for the video stream. In some instances, the resulting assigned bandwidth for the video stream may be approximately zero, in which case the data stream and the video stream may compete for transmission over the network.
A specification may be received of a network-connection type to define the total bandwidth. Examples of network-connection types includes a 28.8 kbps modem connection, a 56.6 kbps modem connection, a cable connection, a digital subscriber line ("DSL"), an integrated services digital network ("ISDN") connection, a satellite link, and a local-area-network ("LAN") connection. The data stream may comprise whiteboard information, may comprise instant-messaging information, or may comprise program-sharing information in certain specific embodiments.
The above methods may also be embodied in a system that comprises an audio subsystem, a video system, a data subsystem, respectively configured to create the audio, video, and data streams. A communications system is interfaced with the audio, video, and data subsystems and configured to transmit the audio, video, and data streams. A controller may be provided in communication with the audio, video, and data subsystems to implement aspects of the methods described above.
A further understanding of the nature and advantages of the present invention may be realized by reference to the remaining portions of the specification and the drawings wherein like reference numerals are used throughout the several drawings to refer to similar components.
FIG. 1 is a flow diagram summarizing multiple capabilities that may be provided with a conferencing application in an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 2A as a flow diagram that summarizes aspects of video and audio conferencing within the conferencing application;
FIG. 2B is an exemplary screen view that illustrates aspects of FIG. 2A;
FIG. 3A is a flow diagram that summarizes aspects of an instant-messaging capability within the conferencing application;
FIG. 4A is a flow diagram that summarizes aspects of a locator service within the conferencing application;
FIG. 5A is a flow diagram that summarizes aspects of a file-transfer capability within the conferencing application;
FIG. 6A is a flow diagram that summarizes aspects of a program-sharing capability within the conferencing application;
FIG. 7A is a flow diagram that summarizes aspects of a desktop-sharing capability within the conferencing application;
FIG. 8A is a flow diagram that summarizes aspects of a method for sequence optimization that may be used by the conferencing application;
FIG. 8B is a set of frames that illustrates aspects of FIG. 8A;
FIG. 9A is a flow diagram that summarizes aspects of a method for palette optimization that may be used by the conferencing application;
FIG. 10A is a flow diagram that summarizes aspects of a method for frame-reduction optimization that may be used by the conferencing application;
FIG. 10B is a set of frames that illustrates aspects of FIG. 10A;
FIG. 11A is a flow diagram that summarizes aspects of a method for motion analysis and frame keying that may be used by the conferencing application;
FIG. 12A is a flow diagram that summarizes aspects of a method for video-sequence transmission that may be used by the conferencing application;
FIG. 12B is a set of frames that illustrates aspects of FIG. 12A; and
FIG. 13 is a schematic representation of a computational unit that may be used to implement the conferencing application in embodiments of the invention.
Embodiments of the invention provide a multifunctional application that establishes a real-time communications and collaboration infrastructure. A plurality geographically distributed user computers are interfaced by the application to create a rapid work environment and establish integrated multimodal communications. In embodiments of the invention, the application may provide telephony and conferencing support to standard switched telephone lines through an analog modem; high-speed connectivity through an integrated-services digital network ("ISDN") modem and virtual private network ("VPN"), with adapter support; telephony and conferencing support through a Private Branch Exchange ("PBX"); and point-to-point or multiuser conferencing support through a data network. Using these internet-protocol ("IP") telephone features, collaborative connections may be established rapidly across private and/or public networks such as intranets and the Internet.
An overview of different types of functionality that may be provided with the application is illustrated with the flow diagram of FIG. 1. As with all flow diagrams provided herein, the identification of specific functionality within the diagram is not intended to be limiting; other functionality may be provided in addition in some embodiments or some functionality may be omitted in some embodiments. In addition, the ordering of blocks in the flow diagrams is not intended to be limiting since the corresponding functionality may be provided in a variety of different orders in different embodiments.
At block 104, audio and video conferencing capability is provided by using any of the supported environments to establish a connection among the geographically distributed user computers. For example, the connection may be established with a public switched telephone network ("PSTN"). Telephone connections made through a PSTN may have most calls transmitted digitally except while in a local loop between a particular telephone and a central switching office, where speech from a telephone is usually transmitted in analog format. Digital data from a computer is converted to analog by a modem, with data being converted back to its original form by a receiving modem. Basic telephony call support for modems is supported with the conferencing application using PSTN lines, such as dialing and call termination. In addition, computer-based support may be provided using any suitable command set known to those of skill in the art, such as the Hayes AT command set.
An ISDN may also be used in establishing the conferencing capability. An ISDN is a digital service provided by both regional and national telecommunications companies, typically by the same company that supports the PSTN. ISDN may provide greater data-transfer rates, in one embodiment being on the order of 128 kbps, and may establish connections more quickly than PSTN connections. Because ISDN is fully digital, the lengthy process of analog modems, which may take up to about a minute to establish a connection, is not required. ISDN may also provide a plurality of channels, each of which may support voice or digital communications, as contrasted with the single channel provided by PSTN. In addition to increasing data throughput, multiple channels eliminate the need for separate voice and data lines. The digital nature of ISDN also makes it less susceptible to static and noise when compared with analog transmissions, which generally dedicate at least some bandwidth to error correction and retransmission, permitting the ISDN connections to be dedicated substantially entirely to data transmission.
A PBX is a private telephone switching system connected to a common group of PSTN lines from one or more central switching offices to provide services to a plurality of devices. Some embodiments of the invention use such PBX arrangements in establishing a connection. For example, a telephony server may be used to provide an interface between the PBX and telephony-application program-interface ("TAPI") enabled devices. A local-area-network ("LAN") based server might have multiple connections with a PBX, for instance, with TAPI operations invoked at any associated client and forwarded over the LAN to the server. The server then uses third-party call control between the server and the PBX to implement the client's call-control requests. The server may be connected to a switch using a switch-to-host link. It is also possible for a PBX to be directly connected to the LAN on which the server and associated clients reside. Within these distributed configurations, different subconfigurations may also be used in different embodiments. For instance, personal telephony may be provided to each desktop with the service provider modeling the PBX line associated with the desktop device as a single-line device with one channel; each client computer would then have one line device available. Alternatively, each third-party station may be modeled as a separate-line device to allow applications to control calls on other stations, enabling the conferencing application to control calls on other stations.
IP telephony may be used in other embodiments to provide the connections, with a device being used to capture audio and/or video signal from a user, such information being compressed and sent to intended receivers over the LAN or a public network. At the receiving end, the signals are restored to their original form and played back for the recipient. IP telephony may be supported by a number of different protocols known to those of skill in the art, including the H.323 protocols promulgated by the International Telecommunications Union ("ITU") and described in ITU Publication H.323, "Packet-based multimedia communications systems," the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
At its most basic level, the H.323 protocol permits users to make point-to-point audio and video phone calls over the Internet. One implementation of this standard in embodiments of the invention also allows voice-only calls to be made to conventional telephones using IP-PSTN gateways, and audio-video calls to be made over the Internet. A call may be placed by the dialing user interface identifying called parties in any of multiple ways. Frequently called users may be added to speed-dial lists. After resolving a caller's identification to the IP address of the computer on which he is available, the dialer makes TAPI calls, which are routed to the H.323 telephony service provider ("TSP"). The service provider then initiates H.323 protocol exchanges to set up the call, with the media service provider associated with the H.323 TSP using audio and video resources available on the computer to connect the caller and party receiving the call in an audio and/or video conference. The conferencing application also includes a capability to listen for incoming H.323 IP telephony calls, to notify the user when such calls are detected, and to accept or reject the calls based on the user's choice.
In addition the H.323 protocol may incorporate support for placing calls from data networks to the switched circuit PSTN network and vice versa. Such a feature permits a long-distance portion of a connection to be carried on private or public data networks, with the call then being placed onto the switched voice network to bypass long-distance toll charges. For example, a user in a New York field office could call Denver, with the phone call going across a corporate network from the field office to the Denver office, where it would then be switched to a PSTN network to be completed as a local call. This technique may be used to carry audio signals in addition to data, resulting in a significant lowering of long-distance communications bills.
In some embodiments, the conferencing application may support pass-through firewalls based on simple network address translation. A simple proxy server makes and receives calls between computers separate by firewalls.
As indicated at block 108 of FIG. 1, the conferencing application may also provide instant-messaging capability. In one embodiment, a messaging engine may be provided that uses a TAPI subsystem for cross messaging, providing a common method for applications and devices to control the underlying communications network. Other functionality that may be provided by the conferencing application includes a locator service directory as indicated at block 112, a file-transfer capability as indicated at block 116, a whiteboarding capability as indicated at block 120, a program-sharing capability as indicated at block 124, and a remote-desktop-sharing capability as indicated at block 128. Each of these functionalities is described in further detail below. The whiteboarding capability may conveniently be used in embodiments of the invention to provide a shared whiteboard for all conference participants, permitting each of the participants to contribute to a collective display, importing features to the display, adding comments to the display, changing features in the display, and the like. The whiteboard is advantageously object-oriented (both vector and ASCII) in some embodiments, rather than pixel-oriented, enabling participants to manipulate the contents by clicking and dragging functions. In addition, a remote pointer or highlighting tool may be used to point out specific contents or sections of shared pages. Such a mechanism provides a productive way for the conference participants to work with documentary materials and to use graphical methods for conveying ideas as part of the conference. In addition to these functions, the conferencing application may include such convenient features as remote-control functionality, do-not-disturb features, automatic and manual silence-detection controls, dynamic network throttling, plug-and-play support and auto detection for voice and video hardware, and the like.
2.Conferencing Application
In a typical business-usage environment, the conferencing application may be used by employees to connect directly with each other via a local network to establish a whiteboard session to share drawings or other visual information in a conversation. In another application, the conferencing application may be used to place a conference voice call to several coworkers in different geographical locations to discuss the status of a project. All this may be achieved by placing calls through the computers with presence information that minimizes call cost, while application sharing and whiteboard functionality saves time and optimizing communications needs.
Gateway and gatekeeper functionality may be implemented by providing several usage fields, such as gatekeeper name, account name, and telephone number, in addition to fields for a proxy server and gateway-to-telephone/videoconferencing systems. Calls may be provided on a secure or nonsecure basis, with options for secure calls including data encryption, certificate authentication, and password protection. In some embodiments, audio and video options may be disabled in secure calls. One implementation may also provide a host for the conference with the ability to limit features that participants may enact. For example, meeting hosts may disable the right of anyone to begin any of the functionalities identified in blocks 108-128. Similarly, the implementation may permit hosts to make themselves the only participants who can invite or accept others into the meeting, enabling meeting names and passwords.
Further aspects of the video and audio conferencing functionalities are illustrated with the flow diagram of FIG. 2A and the exemplary screen view of FIG. 2B. The screen view 228 shows an example of a display that may provided and includes the video stream being generated. The video and/or audio connection is established at block 204 of FIG. 2A using one of the protocols described in detail above. With the connection established, information, ideas, applications, and the like may be shared at block 208 using the video and/or audio connections. Real-time video images may be sent over the connection as indicated at block 212; in some instances, such images may include instantly viewed items, such as hardware devices, displayed in front of a video collection lens. Options to provide playback control over video may be provided with such features as "pause," "stop," "fast forward," and "rewind." A sensitivity level of a microphone that collects audio data may advantageously be adjusted automatically at block 216 to ensure adequate audio levels for conference participants to hear each other. The conferencing application may permit video window sizes to be change during a session as indicated at block 220. The conferencing application may also include certain optimization techniques for dynamically trading off between faster video performance and better image quality as indicated generally at block 224. Further description of such techniques is provided below.
Further aspects of the instant-messaging functionalities are illustrated with the flow diagram of FIG. 3A and the exemplary screen view of FIG. 3B. The screen view 324 shows an example of a message that may be received as part of such an instant-messaging functionality and illustrates different fields for receiving and transmitting messages. This functionality is enabled by establishing an instant-messaging connection at block 304 of FIG. 3A. Text messages typed by one user may be transmitted to one or more other users at block 308. In instances where the messages are transmitted to all conference participants, as indicated at block 312, a "chat" functionality is implemented. In instances where a private message is transmitted to a subset of the conference participants, as indicated at block 316, a "whisper" functionality is implemented. The contents of the chat session may conveniently be recorded by the conferencing application at block 320 to provide a history file for future reference.
Functions of the locator service directory are illustrated with the flow diagram of FIG. 4A and corresponding exemplary screen view 420 of FIG. 4B. The locator service directory permits users to locate individuals connected to a network and thereby initiate a conferencing session that includes them. Such functionality is centered around a directory that may be configured to identify a list of users currently running the conferencing application. The directory is provided at block 404 of FIG. 4A, enabling a user to receive a selection of another user at block 408. A connection is established between the originating user and the selected user with the conferencing application at block 412, permitting conferencing functions between the two users to be executed. As indicated at block 416, a variety of server transactions may also be performed in some embodiments, such as enabling different directories to be view, creating directory listing of available users, and the like.
The file-transfer functionality is illustrated further with the flow diagram of FIG. 5A and corresponding exemplary screen view 520 of FIG. 5B. As indicated at block 504, this functionality permits a file to be sent in the background to conference participants. It is possible in different embodiments for the file to be sent to everyone included in a particular conference or only to selected participants, as indicated at block 508. Each participant may have the ability to accept or reject transferred files at block 512. Data-compression techniques may advantageously be used at block 516 to accelerate file transfers.
Further aspects of the file-sharing functionality are illustrated with the flow diagram of FIG. 6A and the corresponding exemplary screen view 620 of FIG. 6B. The file-sharing functionality generally enables share programs to be viewed in a frame, as indicated at block 604, a feature that makes it easy to distinguish between shared and local applications on each user's desktop. A user may thus share any program running on one computer with other participants in a conference. Participants may watch as the person sharing the program works, or the person sharing the program can allow program control to other meeting participants. Only the person sharing the program needs to have the program installed on his computer. The shared program frame may also be minimized so that the user may proceed with other functions if (s)he does not need to work in the current conference program. Similarly, this functionality makes it easy for users to switch between shared programs using the shared-program taskbar. Limitations may be imposed at block 608 by the conference initiator to permit only a single user to work in the shared program at any particular time. Access to the shared program by additional conference participants may be permitted in accordance with an instruction by the originating user at block 612.
An illustration of the remote-desktop functionality is illustrated with the flow diagram of FIG. 7A and corresponding exemplary screen view 712 of FIG. 7B. After the remote-desktop functionality has been enabled at block 704, users have the ability to operate a user computer from a remote location, such as by operating an office computer from home or vice versa. A secure connection with a password may be used to access the remote desktop in such configurations at block 712.
The various implementations described above may include different security features. For example, encryption protocols may be used to encode data exchanged between shared programs, transferred files, instant messages, and whiteboard content. Users may be provided with the ability to specify whether all secure calls are encrypted and secure conferences may be held in which all data are encrypted. User-authentication protocols may be implemented to verify the identity of conference participants by requiring authentication certificates. For instance, a personal certificate issued by an external certifying authority or an intranet certificate server may be required of any or all of the conference participants. Password protections may also be implemented by the originating user required specification of the password by other conference participants to join the conference.
3. Optimization
Embodiments of the invention use a number of different optimization and bandwidth-management techniques. The average bandwidth use of audio, video, and data among the computers connected for a conference may be intelligently managed on a per-client basis. In addition, a built-in quality-of-service ("QoS") functionality is advantageously included for network that do not currently provide RSVP and QoS. Such built-in QoS delivers advanced network throttling support while ensuring that conferencing sessions do not impact live network activity. This enables a smooth operation of the separate conferencing components and limits possible consumption of bandwidth resources on the network.
In one embodiment, audio, video, and data subsystems each create streams for network transmission at their own rates. The audio subsystem creates a stream at a fairly constant rate when speech is being sent. The video subsystem may produce a stream at a widely varying rate that depends on motion, quality, and size settings of the video image. The data subsystem may also produce a stream at a widely varying rate that depends on such factors as the use of file transfer, file size, the complexity of a whiteboard session, the complexity of the graphic and update information of shared programs, and the like. In a specific embodiment, the data stream traffic occurs over the secondary UDP protocol to minimize impact on main TCP arteries.
Bandwidth may be controlled by prioritizing the different streams, with one embodiment giving highest priority to the audio stream, followed by the data stream, and finally by the video stream. During a conference, the system continuously or periodically monitors bandwidth use to provide smooth operation of the applications. The bandwidth use of the audio stream is deducted from the available throughput. The data subsystem is queried for a current average size of its stream, with this value also being deducted from the available throughput. The video subsystem uses the remaining throughput to create a stream of corresponding average size. If no throughput remains, the video subsystem may operate at a minimal rate and may compete with the data subsystem to transmit over the network. In such an instance, performance may exhibit momentary degradation as flow-control mechanisms engage to decrease the transmission rate of the data subsystem. This might be manifest with clear-sounding audio, functional data conferencing, and with visually useful video quality, even at low bit rates.
Various optimization techniques used in different embodiments are illustrated with FIGS. 8A-12B. These optimization techniques generally seek to reduce the amount of data transmitted during a conference, thereby maintaining high performance levels for the users. FIGS. 8A and 8B respectively provide a flow diagram and set of frame views to illustrate a sequence optimization method. The codec assignments to the video feed are based on a number of parameters. As indicated respectively at blocks 804, 808, and 812, various parameters may be factorized, including the connection bandwidth, the RSVP and QoS provisioning, and the connection speed. Video hardware accelerators are identified at block 816 and requests for changes in frame size and quality are identified at block 820. The resulting codec assignment is implemented at block 824.
Graphical information may be sent as orders in some embodiment. Instead of sending graphical updates as bitmap information exclusively, the conferencing application may instead send the information as the actual graphical commands used by a program to draw information on a user's screen. In addition, various caching techniques may be used as part of the sequence optimization. Data that comprises a graphical object may be sent only once, with the object then stored in a cache. The next time the object is to be transmitted, a cache identifier may be transmitted instead of the actual graphical data. Maintenance of a queue of outgoing data may also minimize the impact on a local user when a program calls graphical functions faster than the conferencing application can transmit the graphics to remote conference participants. Graphical commands are queued as they are drawn to the screen, and the graphical functions are immediately returned so that the program can continue. An asynchronous process subsequently transmits the graphical command. Changes in the outgoing data queue may also be monitored. When the queue becomes too large, the conferencing application may collect information based on the area of the screen affected by the graphical orders rather than the orders themselves. Subsequently, the necessary information is transmitted collectively.
A method for color-palette optimization is illustrated with the flow diagram of FIG. 9A and corresponding set of frames 924 of FIG. 9B. This method reduces the color depth of insignificant pixels in order to reduce the overall size of a transmitted image by transmitting only pixels relevant to the image integrity. At block 904, global and local palettes are shrunk to reduce the color depth, and the local dependency on the client palette is removed. A global meta-palette is created at block 912, permitting the client palette to be removed at block 916 after a successful merge with a new global palette. The meta-palette is mapped to the new global palette at block 920.
A frame-reduction method may also be used, as illustrated with the flow diagram of Fig. 10A and the corresponding set of frames 1020 of FIG. 10B. The sequence frames are shrunk at block 1004, such as to the smallest possible rectangle. Duplicated pixels are replaced with transparency and alpha channels at block 1008, permitting creation of a complete pixel vector map for the new image at block 1012. Redundant and noncritical frames are marked and removed at block 1016. This method permits the conferencing application to check, prior to adding a new piece of graphic output to the outgoing data queue, for existing output that the new graphic output might obscure. Existing graphic output in the queue that will be obscured by the new graphic output is discarded and the obscured output never gets transmitted. This method also permits the conferencing application to analyze various image frames for redundant information, stripping that redundant information from the transmission.
A method for motion analysis and frame keying is illustrated with the flow diagram of FIG. 11A and the corresponding set of frames 1116 shown in FIG. 11B. Excessive motion patterns within a family of related frames are identified at block 1104 of FIG. 11A, permitting new anchor frames to be generated at block 1108, based on statistical trends and new frame variances. The intermediate frames on excessive motions may be eliminated at block 1112 so that the size of the transmission is correspondingly reduced.
A method for optimizing video-sequence transmission is illustrated with the flow diagram of FIG. 12A and the corresponding set of frames 1220 provided in FIG. 12B. This method is related to the method described in connection with FIGS. 8A and 8B and results in a dynamic reassignment of codecs based on certain identified parameters. For example, at block 1204, changes in connection bandwidth, RSVP and QoS provisioning, and/or connection speed are identified. At block 1208, video hardware changes are identified. At block 1212, changes in frame size and/or in image quality are identified. Based on these identifications, the dynamic reassignment of codecs is implemented at block 1216.
The conferencing application described herein may be embodied on a computational device such as illustrated schematically in FIG. 13, which broadly illustrates how individual system elements may be implemented in a separated or more integrated manner. The computational device 1300 is shown comprised of hardware elements that are electrically coupled via bus 1326. The hardware elements include a processor 1302, an input device 1304, an output device 1306, a storage device 1308, a computer-readable storage media reader 1310a, a communications system 1314, a processing acceleration unit 1316 such as a DSP or special-purpose processor, and a memory 1318. The computer-readable storage media reader 1310a is further connected to a computer-readable storage medium 1310b, the combination comprehensively representing remote, local, fixed, and/or removable storage devices plus storage media for temporarily and/or more permanently containing computer-readable information. The communications system 1314 may comprise a wired, wireless, modem, and/or other type of interfacing connection and permits data to be exchanged with external devices.
The computational device 5300 also comprises software elements, shown as being currently located within working memory 1320, including an operating system 1324 and other code 1322, such as a program designed to implement methods of the invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that substantial variations may be used in accordance with specific requirements. For example, customized hardware might also be used and/or particular elements might be implemented in hardware, software (including portable software, such as applets), or both. Further, connection to other computing devices such as network input/output devices may be employed.
Having described several embodiments, it will be recognized by those of skill in the art that various modifications, alternative constructions, and equivalents may be used without departing from the spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the above description should not be taken as limiting the scope of the invention, which is defined in the following claims.
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Imagine living in a community nestled in nature and three and one-half miles from public beach access— one where living space extends well beyond the walls of your home a community influenced by its natural surroundings, inspired by historic architectural styles and dedicated to providing an easy-going, comfortable lifestyle. Touching the banks of Lake Powell, one of Florida's largest coastal dune lakes, rests WaterSound, a 1,400-acre community with uncompromising ideals and standards in planning, architecture, aesthetics and amenities. As its name indicates, the community is surrounded by the sounds of water. Lake Powell borders the community's southern boundary, the intracoastal waterway its north, and the Gulf's friendly waves are located south. In celebration of its natural surroundings, this emerging community will protect sensitive habitats through conservation preserves while promoting an array of outdoor recreational activities. Kayak on Lake Powell, play with your children in the neighborhood parks, or walk along the trails and paths winding throughout the community. When living in WaterSound, you will be less than three miles from the beautiful beaches of the Emerald Coast and famed Scenic Highway 30-A, and within five miles of the conveniences of Panama City Beach, including grocery stores, shops and eateries.
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The Artstor Digital Library has released more than 1,500 additional images from the Rhizome ArtBase, an online archive of new media art, bringing the collection total to more than 3,100 images.
The Rhizome ArtBase is a Web-based archive of works that employ technologies in significant ways and contains more than 2,500 artworks by artists from around the world who use materials such as code, software, websites, games, and browsers to aesthetic and critical ends.
Rhizome's contribution to Artstor include works from notable new media artists including: JODI, collaborators Joan Heemskerk and Dirk Paesmans, who were among the first to explore the Web as a creative medium; Casey Reas, a creator of complex, algorithmically-programmed data visualizations and co-founder of Processing, a trailblazing computer programming language designed specifically for artistic implementations; Olia Lialina, a leading theorist and net artist; and Cory Arcangel, known for his modifications of video games and one of the youngest artists to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
For more detailed information about this collection, visit the Rhizome page in Artstor.


text:
Housing (Wales) Act 2014
Standards for housing provided...
Dangos Graddfa Ddaearyddol(e.e. Lloegr, Cymru, Yr Alban aca Gogledd Iwerddon)
Dangos Llinell Amser Newidiadau
Slip Cywiro - 22/11/2016
Newidiadau dros amser i: Section 115
Alternative versions:
01/12/2014- Amendment
Newidiadau i ddeddfwriaeth:
Ar hyn o bryd nid oes unrhyw effeithiau heb eu gweithredu yn hysbys ar gyfer y Housing (Wales) Act 2014, Section 115.
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(1)This section applies where it appears to the Welsh Ministers that a local housing authority may be failing to maintain or repair any premises in accordance with standards set under section 111 or guidance given under section 112.
(2)A person authorised by the Welsh Ministers may at any reasonable time, on giving not less than 28 days' notice of his or her intention to the local housing authority concerned, enter any such premises for the purpose of survey and examination.
(3)Where such notice is given to the local housing authority, the authority must give the occupier or occupiers of the premises not less than seven days' notice of the proposed survey and examination.
(4)An authorisation for the purposes of this section must be in writing stating the particular purpose or purposes for which the entry is authorised and must, if so required, be produced for inspection by the occupier or anyone acting on his or her behalf.
(5)The Welsh Ministers must give a copy of any survey carried out in exercise of the powers conferred by this section to the local housing authority concerned.
(6)The Welsh Ministers may require the local housing authority concerned to pay to them such amount as the Welsh Ministers may determine towards the costs of carrying out any survey under this section.
I1S. 115 in force at 1.12.2014 by S.I. 2014/3127, art. 2(a), Sch. Pt. 1
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Terrorism is a tactic used by a small set of extremists to fight against an overwhelmingly powerful opponent while surrounded by a large population that mostly just wants peace and quiet.
Terrorism can be defeated. To do this, first we need to understand how terrorists are kept away in the best case, then how terrorists can fight against this mechanism, and finally what works and what doesn't work to foil those aims.
Although terrorists are not merely criminals, it is helpful to think about what keeps criminals under control in our society. Ask any police officer: it is not the police and the courts who keep criminals at bay. It is the society as a whole. It is the ordinary people who call the police when they hear a problem starting. It is the ordinary people who trust the police and cooperate with them to bring criminals to justice. The "thin blue line" only works when it is backed up by the vast majority of ordinary people.
This, by the way, is why police brutality is so damaging to law and order in our society. If ordinary people lose trust in the police, they won't call and they won't cooperate. If they fear that calling the police to quiet down a loud party could result in their neighbors' kids being shot dead, they won't call. And they also won't cooperate in more serious cases. Without community backup, the "thin blue line" starts to feel very thin indeed. And criminals become bolder.
Likewise with terrorists. Terrorists are defeated when the large majority of the community feel that they can trust the local authorities to maintain law and order and work for the common good. Then ordinary people will turn the terrorists in to the authorities when, or even before, they strike.
The Unabomber was an insane but highly intelligent man living alone in the woods, writing a manifesto and killing and maiming people with mail bombs. After his manifesto was published, he was turned in to the FBI by his brother, who recognized the writing and made the correct but agonizing decision to be loyal to society over blood. We can only wish that a relative or neighbor of Timothy McVeigh had been in a position to make a similar decision before he struck in Oklahoma City.
In even the best, most civilized, law-abiding society one can imagine, there will be small numbers of extremists tempted by terrorist tactics. Ideally, the vast majority of people will see them as marginal nut-cases, and will report them to trusted authorities if they show signs of turning extreme ideas into dangerous action. Terrorist acts can never be totally eliminated, but a cohesive community that trusts its authorities can defeat a continuing terrorist movement.
One man's terrorist is another man's freedom-fighter.
But what if the society is not civilized? What if the authorities are hated and feared rather than trusted? Then the true terrorist can always find support and hiding places among sympathizers who are not willing to become terrorists themselves, but are not willing to support the authorities either.
The terrorists' best strategy is to drive a wedge between the people and the authorities. Then the "thin blue line" becomes thinner and weaker. The ordinary people, or at least some of them, protect and support those they see as fighting for freedom, religious faith, patriotism, or some other deep value, against overwhelming odds.
The biggest danger to the terrorist is the trust the people have in the authorities. As that trust is weakened or destroyed, the terrorists gain strength and freedom of action. Their prime goal must be to eliminate the trust between the people and the authorities.
How can they act most effectively to eliminate that trust? Here is where the meaning of terrorist violence is often misunderstood. The classic terrorist act is to blow up some innocent victims. But the actual destruction is not the goal, in a military sense. There is a symbolic goal of showing that the more-powerful enemy can be touched and deeply harmed, but even that is not the real goal.
The real goal is to provoke massive retaliation. The tiny group of terrorists who actually committed the act may escape entirely, may take casualties, or may even be entirely destroyed, but the larger terrorist movement feeds on the retaliation. The important thing (from the terrorists' perspective) is for the massive retaliation to harm many people in the general population, even among their own supporters.
The point is to incite the authorities to act in a way that erodes the people's trust in them. The people lose trust, the terrorists are seen as freedom-fighters, and they gain support, cover, strength, and freedom of action.
From the terrorists' perspective, the more horrible the original strike the better, since it will provoke a more drastic retaliation. And the more horrible the retaliation the better, since it will destroy the people's trust in the authorities and strengthen the terrorists. From the terrorists' perspective, the actual damage to their own people is a benefit, not a cost, of terrorist action.
Sadly, case studies of this strange dynamic are easy to come by, once you realize what to look for.
So, Hamas has reached the successful point of being able to provoke the Israeli Army to act to build up its strength among the Palestinians. The vicious cycle in that region is that hardliners in Israel use precisely the same method. When Israeli extremists create new settlements in Palestinian territory, or commit terrorist acts against ordinary Palestinians, they provoke the strongest retaliation the Palestinians are capable of, which is more suicide bombers to slaughter innocents among the ordinary people of Israel. This eliminates any trust in the Palestinian authorities (small "a"), and solidifies hatred against Palestine. This elegant pair of mutually-reinforcing feedback cycles strengthens terrorism on both sides, and makes the chances for peace remote.
Now let's think about Iraq. Terrorists strike US troops, provoking retaliation. The retaliation almost certainly involves collatoral damage, eroding trust in Americans and inflaming hatred. By now this cycle should look familiar.
But the terrorists' goal is the erosion of trust in the US authorities and our attempt to rebuild Iraq, even more than physical destruction. It's hard to imagine Al Qaida coming up with something more effective than the pictures from Abu Ghraib prison for destroying the trust of the ordinary Iraqi people in the civil authority of the US troops.
Because this abuse does such direct strategic damage to our mission in Iraq, the soldiers directly involved must be punished, of course, but so should the entire chain of command. Since our overall mission explicitly requires winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, it is military professional malpractice to fail to anticipate the pressures on the front-line troops and put discipline in place to prevent such abuse. This abuse is due to more than "a few bad apples", but even if it were only that, a military commander is responsible for knowing that a few soldiers may be "bad apples", and having controls in place to prevent them from acting out.
The decapitation of Nick Berg was a miscalculation on the terrorists' part. (They aren't all geniuses either, of course!) Ordinary Iraqis were revolted and offended by having this crime done in their name. Furthermore, the decapitation took attention away from the Abu Ghraib pictures, which were doing real damage to the US cause. We could still save their cookies by some sort of massive retaliation, but the responsible authorities seem to be handling this is a more controlled way. Finding and prosecuting the specific individuals involved and their accomplices would strengthen the US position significantly.
There are signs that not all the news from Iraq is bad. First, there is measurable progress in restoring the Iraqi infrastructure, providing water, sewers, electricity, oil pipelines, local government, and eventually jobs. [This is where the real war is fought. The soldiers are mostly there to keep the bad guys from interfering with the engineers and their work.] Second, the ordinary peole of Najf have demonstrated against the religious extremists and in favor of the moderates, and of course in favor of peace and quiet.
This view of terrorists, retaliation, and trust also helps us understand the terrible events of 9/11/01 and who has profited from the aftermath.
The destruction of the World Trade Center and the murder of 3,000 people was a horrifying act that devastated the victims' families and shook the economy for a while. The symbolic impact on the US and its effect on our national confidence was massive. But from a military perspective, the blow was not significant. Compare it with the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, which crippled the Pacific fleet as we entered a war with Japan.
Osama bin Laden's purpose for the 9/11 attack was (and is) to provoke massive retaliation from the US against Islam. He hoped that our retaliation would finally unite Islam against the US as a common enemy, and that his vision for a fundamentalist pan-Islamic state would sweep away all the more moderate governments in the region, as well as movements toward a pluralistic culture.
In the final chapter of his book "Against All Enemies", Richard Clarke gives an excellent description of the conflict we should have pursued after 9/11, and contrasts it with the wars we actually did pursue. The invasion of Iraq is not only a distraction from more important goals, but a provocation that is making Osama bin Laden's dream come true.
The purpose of the original attack was to provoke our retaliation, which would affect primarily the ordinary Islamic people, destroying what trust they had for the US, and making them more willing to give aid and comfort to the terrorists among them. To a surprising extent, we have fallen right into Osama bin Laden's trap. The future of the world depends on finding our way out.
When terrorists are isolated criminals, viewed with suspicion by the vast majority of the general public, and reported to the authorities when they turn violent, then the war on terrorism has been won.
What weapons will it take to win this war? Just as the Maginot Line in France was impotent against Nazi blitzkrieg at the beginning of World War II, purely military tactics and strategy will fail against the terrorists, and will even be exploited to their advantage. It appears to me that our current professional military leaders generally understand this point, while our hawkish civilian leaders without military experience generally do not.
It's tempting to think that a war against terrorism can be won by killing all the terrorists. In the real world, this naive plan doesn't work. A serious attempt to find and kill all the terrorists also sweeps up many ordinary people, and some of them and their relatives become new terrorists, creating more terrorists than were destroyed. The harder the authorities pursue this strategy, the more it looks like genocide, and the more effectively they recruit new terrorists.
the people will turn the terrorists in for trial and prosecution.
Obviously, implementing this strategy is far from simple. There are trade-offs between the actions required to avoid getting killed and the ones needed to gain trust. But since gaining trust is building the "weapon" that wins the war, it takes priority, and one can't be absolutely safe. Whether you call it nation-building or peace-making, it's a dangerous line of work, actively opposed by unfriendly people.
Aside from the obvious personal motivation to stay alive, the strategic reason to prevent terrorist attacks is to foil their attempt to provoke massive retaliation. Impotence is the worst-case outcome for a terrorist, not death. We need good enough intelligence to detect and prevent terrorist acts, but this cannot take absolute priority since it trades off against being a free and trustworthy society. Therefore, some attacks will occur, and there will be casualties.
It is important for both the terrorists and the general population to understand clearly that terrorist acts cannot possibly defeat our forces militarily. Failing to attend to this point led to disastrous errors by Reagan in Beirut and Clinton in Somalia. Currently in Iraq, terrorists can reasonably conclude that the US will leave under sufficient pressure. They may or may not be correct, but their ability to draw that conclusion is dangerous to us in itself.
A measured, deliberate, and appropriate response gains the trust and the cooperation of the people.
To do this we must be trustworthy. It also means that the training of our troops for this kind of war must be very different from past wars. Our soldiers must be more than warriors who kill people and destroy things. They must also serve as community police, and even as social workers and political advisors. News reports from Iraq make it clear that our soldiers are vividly aware of this dual role, and they are vividly aware of the fact that they are well trained and equipped as warriors, but not as community police.
Above, I've outlined some of the specific methods for building trust and cooperation from the people.
There are surely many other effective methods to be identified, improved, evaluated, and applied.
If the people trust the authorities, and respect the efforts taken to make their lives secure and safe, they will turn in suspected terrorists, knowing that they will receive fair trials. The Unabomber's brother turned him in because he was willing to trust the government's pledge not to seek the death penalty.
Terrorists are not merely criminals. Their extremist ideological motivation makes them far more dangerous than even large organized criminal gangs. Even so, to win against terrorism, in the end they must be treated as ordinary criminals. They must be tried and punished, with full legal rights and protections, not for their extremist beliefs, but for their terrorist actions that disrupt the safe conduct of society for ordinary citizens.
The Unabomber sits in federal prison for his bombs that killed and maimed. Timothy McVeigh was executed for murder many times over. Their public trials and the public safeguarding of their rights were not out of soft-heartedness or compassion for criminals. They are public ceremonies, reaffirming the value of law and order in our society. They both represent and cultivate the trust that the people have in their government.
That trust is the weapon that defeats terrorism. They cannot stand against it. We must not throw it away.
If we understand which weapons actually work against terrorists, and if we understand how they try to destroy our weapons, we can see what we need to do and what we need to avoid doing. We can see why the Abu Ghraib prison photos are so damaging to us.
Traditional war is not easy or certain. And the new ways are not easy or certain either. The "simple" strategy above for defeating terrorism requires great knowledge, cleverness, and wisdom to put into action.
War requires discipline. War requires sacrifice. War requires restraint at certain times, and carefully planned action at others. A war against terrorism is unlike the major wars of the past. If we try to fight like we fought wars in the past, we will lose, and we won't understand how or why. We need to learn how to fight with new weapons.
The alternative is a world of perpetual conflict between opposing groups of extremists, locked in a deadly embrace where each side confirms the beliefs of the other and helps them recruit more extremists. The ordinary people in the middle, who just want peace and law and order, are repeatedly savaged to cultivate more recruits for one side or the other.
This is indeed a "clash of civilizations", but not between Islam and the West. The clash is between extremists of all kinds on the one side, and the forces of pluralism, tolerance, peace, and law and order on the other.


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Greenland Group's last Canadian project, King Blue by Greenland, is a 122-key luxury boutique hotel, including 44 and 48-storey residential towers that sit adjacent to the TIFF Bell Lightbox. The vibrant destination will become a new cultural anchor in the neighbourhood, providing a permanent home for Canada's First Theatre Museum. The Group's commitment to Lakeside Residences comes with even higher expectation as they anticipate great success for this home grown project.


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