text:
The Roots of Christmas & Jesus
By Darryl James (Columnist)
It's December, and once again, the holiday season is upon us.
For most of the Free World, Christmas is a holiday season celebrated more for its shopping, overeating and gift giving than the actual religious significance it once contained.
The season is represented by silver and gold adorned trees, as well as colorful twinkling lights spilling over homes, churches and businesses.
Family and friends exchange gifts, kiss under mistletoe, burn Yule logs and yet, sadly, most people have no idea where the Christmas holiday traditions come from, but they swear that it is all about Jesus.
The Christmas holiday as we know it is really an aggregation of a bunch of mythology and customs that were actually around before the birth of Jesus. And, the actual birth of Jesus has been placed somewhere around September.
While some Christians may not want to hear it, even the story of a god's rebirth into a new being predates Jesus.
December 25th as a commemorative date was a Roman celebration of Saturn, who was the rebirth of the Sun God. According to the Romans, the Sun God was resurrected three days after his death. This resurrection caused the Romans to celebrate with gift giving and processions of celebration featuring priests carrying wreaths of Evergreen boughs.
So, how did the pagan traditions become merged with Christian traditions?
If we take a look at the history of the Roman Catholic Church, we see that the church repeatedly absorbed the traditions of as many groups as possible in order to increase its dominion.
We know that Martin Luther initiated the Reformation in 1517 and when the pagans came into the Christian church, they brought their pagan celebration of Christmas with them.
In 1611, when King James made his version of the Bible available to all people in England, other versions also became conspicuous and the roots of Christmas were revealed
Jeremiah 10:2-4 states: "Thus saith the Lord, learn not the
way of the heathen; and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven. For the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain. For one cutteth a tree out of the forest. The work of the hands of the workman with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold. They fasten it with nails and with hammers that it move not."
Eventually, the celebration of Christmas was outlawed as witchcraft.
However, as other versions of the Bible kept creeping up, so did the celebration of Christmas. The goal was to keep as many people under the Christian umbrella as possible, and allowing them to hold on to their traditions was a good way to continue the "Reformation."
The very word "Christmas" combines "Christ" and "Mass."
"Mass" literally means death and the ritual of Mass, once incorporated into Christianity referred to the death of Christ and the "Host," which is Latin for victim.
 As for the actual Christmas tree, the Germans used the Evergreen tree to worship the Yule God. Sound familiar? Of course-Yuletide greetings…Yule logs…"Yuletide carols being sung by the choir…" The Germans also had a tradition of giving gifts as a part of the Yule celebration.
A Winter Solstice celebration, Yule was Christianized as Christmas and imbued with the birth of Jesus story. The Romans incorporated this and a number of other pagan celebrations starting when Constantine recreated, rewrote and consolidated Christianity and the Bible in 432 AD.
And finally, the German Yule celebration included hanging mistletoe and holly. How "Christian" are these symbols? Let's see…going back to the Sun God, worshippers believed that the white berries on the mistletoe represented the Sun God's semen, while the red holly was held by witches to represent the menstrual blood of heaven's queen, Diana.
There are also other fertility references, including the evergreen tree, which was regarded as a symbol of the essence of life and was used as a phallic symbol in the rituals of fertility worship.
Of course, since many Christians never really read the Bible or study history, I will be seen as evil and a hater of Christians, which is okay, because those who will label me as such are stupid anyway.
But, let's take a look at who believes in God.
According to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive, ten per cent of Protestants, twenty-one per cent of Roman Catholics and fifty-two per cent of Jews do not believe in God. Surprised? Well, there's more that may also shock you.
Eighty-four per cent of women believe in God, while only seventy-three per cent of men do.
In terms of education and faith, eighty-two per cent of those with no college education believe in God, while only seventy-three per cent of those who went to college have faith.
Eighty-seven per cent of Republicans believe, while seventy-eight per cent of Democrats and seventy-five per cent of Independents have faith.
When it comes to race, guess who has the greatest faith? African Americans lead the faithful at ninety-one per cent, while eighty-one per cent of Hispanics and only seventy-eight per cent of whites have faith.
That brings us back to the holiday season. Many people do not believe in God and yet they celebrate Christmas. Still, others believe in God, but do not believe in Jesus Christ and yet, they too, celebrate Christmas.
The season has come to symbolize much more than the Christian holiday it originally was designed to be. It is now a season-a season of love and giving, a season of understanding and a season of peace and kindness.
Such a powerful season should have a powerful impact on people, particularly men and women who claim to love and believe in Jesus Christ, who, incidentally, was not a Christian.
I'll deal with that in depth next week.
Darryl James is an award-winning author of the powerful new anthology "Notes From The Edge." Now, listen to Darryl live on BlogTalkRadio.com/DarrylJames every Monday from 7-9pm, PST. View previous installments of this column at www.bridgecolumn.proboards36.com. Reach James at [email protected].
Cheney Certainly Didn't 'Dither' During Vietnam–He ...
Your Kisses
The Role of Poor, Minorities, and Middle Class in the New World Order
Mr. President: By Refusing to Look Back, You're Jeopardizing What Lie...


黑晶状体 是一种较为罕见的制作材料,会从恶魔眼和游荡眼球怪中有 1% (1/100) 几率掉落.
Blood moons and new moons are useful for collecting these, as Demon Eyes spawn more frequently. A common strategy is to make a tunnel under a block of material and then cover these blocks in enough lava to kill Demon Eyes, but not enough to burn the drops (a coin can be used to test for the correct depth). 水蜡烛s and 战斗药水s will further increase the spawn of Demon Eyes.


text:
SHAPEness: a SHACL-driven RDF Graph Editor
Submitted by Rossana Paciello on 01/28/2021 - 08:33
Rossana Paciello
Daniele Bailo
Luca Trani
Valerio Vinciarelli
Manuela Sbarra
Lorenzo Fenoglio
Sara Capotosti
Guest Editors KG Validation and Quality
Tool/System Report
The Shapes Constraint Language (SHACL) has been recently introduced as a W3C recommendation to define constraints (called shapes) for validating RDF graphs. In this paper a novel SHACL-driven multi-view editor is presented: SHAPEness. It empowers users by offering them a rich interface for assessing and improving the quality of RDF graphs. SHAPEness has been developed and tested in the framework of the European Plate Observing System (EPOS). In this context, the SHAPEness features have proven to be a valuable solution to easily create and maintain valid graphs ac-cording to the EPOS data model. The SHACL-driven approach underpinning SHAPEness, makes this tool suitable for a broad range of domains, or use cases, which structure their knowledge by means of SHACL constraints.
By Martin Necasky submitted on 10/Apr/2021
Major Revision
The paper presents a tool for asessing and improving the quality of RDF graphs called SHAPEness. It provides a rich user interface which enables users to create RDF graphs, visualize them as a network and validate them. The user interface is generated automatically on the base of provided SHACL shapes. The authors show the motivation for the tool, principles it is built on, its architecture and a user study on a use case of European EPOS-ERIC.
In my opinion, the paper has many serious drawbacks which need to be addressed before having a chance to be accepted. They are listed below in two groups. The first group (1) refers to the quality, importance, and impact of SHAPEness. The second group (2) refers the clarity, illustration, and readability of the paper. In (3) few typos are listed. In the end I summarize my comments.
(1) Quality, importance, and impact of the described tool or system (convincing evidence must be provided).
The argumentation for the desktop application is weak. It needs to be explained better.
SHAPEness is a desktop application and the authors argue in Section 2 that web applications need to be installed and configured. This is obivously not true. If a tool is distributed as a web application it usually does not require technical skills of users. On the contrary, distributing a software as a web application is usually the most effective if we speak about required technical skills. I could argue that many users today are not able to install a desktop application - they even do not know what it is.
Another argument for the desktop in Section 2 is the internet connection. This argument is failing in the world of today where connection is available everywhere and with low costs, especially everywhere where people need to edit RDF data. There could be special cases, e.g. a scientist somewhere in a jungle, but this would need a better argumentation. The current argumentation is weak. Moreover, even browser based applications can work even when the internet connection is not currently available.
It is not clear whether SHAPEness requires the whole model of the data edited and validate through SHAPEness needs to be expressed as SHACL shapes or only some constraints and the rest is expressed with RDF Schema or in OWL. The example with EPOS-DCAT-AP described later in Section 5 indicates that everything needs to be expressed as SHACL shapes and RDF schema expressions are not used by SHAPEness. If this is not true, it should be explained better in the paper. If this is true then I seriously doubt about such design decision. An alternative is to use the RDF schema / OWL, which exists and is easier to create in my opinion, also as an input for a tool which generates forms to create RDF statements. The shapes would then be only complementary. The authors may not agree with me and I can be wrong. However, such design is also possible and the authors should consider possible designs and argue for their decision.
It is also not clear what happens when the underlying model changes. What happens when new shapes are added? When an existing shape is modified or removed? What if a new shape affects other shapes? This is important in particular with files already created in the application and then loaded back after the model has changed.
Section 5 presents benefits and added value of SHAPEness. However, it would be possible to create also a classical application fixed to a concrete model (e.g., the model of EPOS-DCAT-AP). From the usability point of view, it would bring the same benefits to the end users. From the user's point of view, it is not important whether the application is programmed in the classical way or generated from the model (SHACL shapes). I do not argue for the classical way of hardcoding the model into an application. I want to support the low code / no code approach based on model-driven and data-centric approaches. However, the authors should do the same and argue for it in their paper. The audience sceptical to generating UI from the model will ask how this particular work shows that an application generated from a model (RDF schema/OWL/SHACL shapes) is better for users from the point of usability. Usually, tools generated from a model are criticizes for their generic UI with low usability. The authors do not show in any way how their approach helps with usability while they present this as one of their messages.
This section presents the results of a user study so it is crucial for demonstrating the quality and impact of the described tool. However, the user study is done only with SHAPEness. It was not compared to other tools mentioned in the related work. 1 or 2 related tools should be included in the user testing.
The user study is based on author's own methodology. However, the goal is to test usability and we have standardized methodologies for usability testing, e.g. System Usability Scale [James R. Lewis (2018) The System Usability Scale: Past, Present, and Future, International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 34:7, 577-590, DOI: 10.1080/10447318.2018.1455307]. The authors should explain why they used their own methodology or do also the System Usability Scale testing.
Moreover, it is definitely important to test usability but from the performed tests we do not get answers to the following questions which are important in my opinion:
1) How the usability of an application generated from the model differs from the usability of an application which is hard coded in the classical way?
2) If there is some loss of usability, do we get something else which is also important? For example, the authors talk also about extendability. Is this an attribute which is better in this case?
The paper should also answer these questions.
(2) Clarity, illustration, and readability of the describing paper, which shall convey to the reader both the capabilities and the limitations of the tool.
What do the terms "parent node" and "child node" mean in the context of RDF which is non-hierarchical? Is it in the context of a concrete SHACL constraint which can be considered hierarchical? This should be clarified.
Please clarify what does the term "properties compilation" mean and why it is important for users and why they need assistance.
In subsection 3.1, the structure of the presented user interface does not correspond to the structure described at the beginning of Section 2. Form based and tree based visualization is not visible on the screenshot. How these two different descriptions of the user interface map on each other?
The features in the 2nd paragraph of subsection 3.1 are very common and normal features of any tool (either web based one) so it is not so important for me to describe them in a paper.
Please clarify what does the term "close representation" mean. "Close" does not mean "the same". Is it some kind of simplification of the original RDF graph? The following specification shows that the graph view shows the original RDF graph as it is. So these two parts of the paragraph are not consistent.
Please clarify what do you mean by a node type, esp. in the context of 4th paragraph in 3.1. Is it an RDF class instantiated by the node or is it its SHACL shape? At first, I thought you mean RDF class but in the following paragraph you describe the palette view which shows SHACL shapes and I can see here the types you have in the graph view as types for filtering. And iIn the same paragraph, "frequently used" means used by the current user? What do you mean by frequently?
In subsection 3.3 the 2nd paragraph is redundant, it was already said earlier.
In subsection 3.3 you talk about customization. What exactly can be customized? A user may customize concrete visual properties?
4th paragraph in 3.3 also describes common and trivial features which I would not describe in a paper.
In subsection 3.4 you describe how SHAPEness reads SHACL shapes. SHACL is a rich language which can express complex RDF shapes. However, from all descriptions of the Properties View in the paper, it seems that only shapes which somehow restrict only primitive property types, allowed values and cardinalities are supported by SHAPEness. The paper lacks a more precise specification of what classes of SHACL shapes are supported. It is also not clear how exactly a SHACL shape is interpreted to build the user interface. It is not clear how parts of a SHACL constraint are mapped to the UI controls.
In subsection 3.5 you describe the notification mechanism for violations of SHACL constraints. Is it based on features of a SHACL validator which you just reused or you needed to implement your own validator because existing validators do not support this?
In 3.6 you describe that a PNG image of the graph view can be exported. A vector output is not supported? Please clarify.
At the beginning of Section 4 you provide the list of requirements. These requirements were defined by the author of the tool or they are the result of some survey among potential users? If they are your own, than I cannot agree with 3 and 4. If the application would be a web application you would not need 4. This needs to be clarified.
The requirements need some supporting evidence. While it is clear that it should have user friendly interface, it is not clear why offline usability or multi-platformness is necessary (it could be a web browser based application).
The requirement 5 is too vague. Does it mean adding new views? New shape constraints languages? New versions of SHACL? Adding SHACL constructs which have not been covered yet? This requirement can be many different things.
After the requirements there is a paragraph which tries to explain that the requirements are fulfiled by SHAPEness. However, it is not convincing. In particular, the descrition does not show that reqs 2, 4 and 5 are covered. Eclipse Rich Client Platform on its own cannot guarantee user friendly inteface. OSGi framework does not mean automatically that your application is easily extensible. Even if I have a perfect framework I can still create an ugly and hard to modify application. The platform means that it is locked in Eclipse which means a single platform which is in a contradiction with 4. By the way, the first sentence of 4.1 this sentence could be read as an argument against using RCP for building an application. As the sentence states, RPS provides a minimum set of plugins to build a rich desktop application. Why you used it when it does not support you?
Subsection 4.2 presents very technical implementation details of how a SHACL shape is transformed to a JAVA bean. However, I am missing something more important - how a shape is reflected in the user interface and its controls? How possible values a user can fill in for a new RDF resource? How object triples connecting different RDF nodes are created by users using which UI controls? These important questions are not answered by the paper in the necessary detail.
The diagram of EPOS-DCAT-AP should be in the paper.
(3) Typos
- (section 6) software responds to user expectation -> corresponds?
- Table 1, T5, ttl -> ttl file (to make it consistent with T6)
To wrap up, the paper presents an interesting tool which can be an interesting contribution to the field of low code approaches based on semantic domain models. This field is definitely worth of studying and viable and usable software tools are necessary to get academic results into practice. The authors made a significant step in this field. However, the paper has some serious drawbacks which need to be addressed before the paper can be considered for acceptation. Some of them are related to core design decisions of the authors. In may opinion, some of them are wrong and some of them just need (much) better explanation in the paper. Many of my comments are related too vague and unclear descriptions of various aspects of the tool. However, in my opinion the authors should get a chance to improve the paper as the tool itself seems interesting. I confirm that I tried the distribution of SHAPEness provided from the Github repository linked in the end of the paper. The distribution works and I am able to go through the tasks of the user study described in the paper.
The paper describes a desktop tool called SHAPEness, which provides users with an environment to edit and visualize RDF data and to validate RDF data with SHACL shapes. The design of SHAPEness was driven by requirements of an Earth sciences research project: the European Plate Observing System (EPOS). The SHAPEness tool was evaluated with users, who considered it a beneficial tool to support the creation and validation of RDF graphs within the EPOS ingestion pipeline.
The paper is on topic for the special issue, it is generally well written (though some clarifications are needed; see detailed comments), and I believe that the SHAPEness tool described here would be of interest to some of the audience of the journal.
It is not clear how the SHAPEness tool would handle large RDF graphs, both from the architectural point of the view (there were no performance tests), and the effect of the scale of the graphs on the users' understanding of the graphs' structure and semantics, which SHAPEness purports to improve.
The evaluation of the tool is highly specific, since it includes only experts with knowledge of EPOS resources. This does seem to have been by design. So my concern is that it isn't clear how the tool would be of general interest to users outside of the EPOS community. It would be good to add a discussion of the envisioned impact of the tool on general users. Also missing is a discussion of how users with no SHACL experience can benefit from the tool.
The tool's code isn't publicly available for viewing; at least no source code repository is provided in the paper. The tool can be downloaded through a cloud storage service (mega.nz). I would expect that there will be a persistent reference to the tool before the paper is accepted for publication.
Detailed comments
- "the content of RDF data graphs (called nodes)" (pg2) - The content of RDF graphs isn't just nodes.
- "graph properties can be edited and visualized using simple forms" (pg2) - Unclear what is considered an RDF graph property. Give example(s) of such properties.
- "data are stored in a SPARQL database" (pg2) - These databases are more commonly known as (RDF) triple stores.
- "ActiveRaUL does not provide users with a serialization of RDF data" (pg3) - Unclear whether the tool does not allow exporting data in general, or data in RDF format specifically. If the latter, then what format(s) does the tool output data in?
- "none of these tools combines the form-based visualization with a graph-based representation of data." (pg3) - It isn't exactly clear what it is that current tools are missing out of this combination. Is it that they allow form-based editing of RDF data, but not form-based visualization of (parts of) the RDF graph(s)?
- "a graph-based visualization, for helping users to analyze and better understand graphs' structure and semantic" (pg3) - It's not clear how the graph-based visualization will help to achieve the intended goals. In particular, how would it help to understand the semantics of graphs?
- "The application assists users in properties compilation" (pg4) - The term properties compilation isn't defined; what does it mean?
- "by concealing the schema complexity" - How is the "concealing" of the complexity achieved? (Why does it need concealing?)
- "by helping avoid typos" - Typos when typing what?
- "The Graph View is a close representation of an RDF graph" - How close a representation? What is ommitted?
- "The design of the SHAPEness application was conducted considering the following requirements" (pg7) - Scalability isn't in the list; what are the goals and expectations regarding that? What size RDF graphs can the tool handle?
- "advanced Java programming techniques were adopted" (pg8) - What techniques precisely, and to what end(s) were they used?
- Figure 8 (pg10) - Unclear why bytecode is provided here, instead of Java code.
- "The motivation for developing SHAPEness was triggered by the concrete requirements of a challenging Research Infrastructure (RI) for solid Earth sciences" (pg10) - What was especially challenging about the infrastructure?
- "paved the way for additional tests with a wider user-base" (pg12) - Are these the same kinds of tests as were (partially) done in the first release of the software?
- "to the Google web forms questionnaire" (pg13) - Missing link to the questionnaire defined here.
- Figure 10 (pg14) - Explain the axes in the figure caption.
- "non-expert users in order to meet SHACL compliance requirements of RDF data faster and more accurately" - How could the tool help those users who are just starting to use SHACL?
- "Future plans include tackling open issues" - What are these open issues?
- "These activities are planned and soon SHAPEness will be released as open-source" - I would expect that this happens before the paper can be accepted for publication.
By Eric Prud'hommeaux submitted on 01/Jun/2021
Per reviewer instructions,
> This manuscript was submitted as 'Tools and Systems Report' and should be reviewed along the following dimensions:
> (1) Quality, importance, and impact of the described tool or system (convincing evidence must be provided).
I think SHAPEness is an early example of schema-directed data interfaces. It seems to be well-written I expect it heralds many more to come.
> (2) Clarity, illustration, and readability of the describing paper, which shall convey to the reader both the capabilities and the limitations of the tool.
The example schema doesn't include node constraints beyond sh:datatype. I added a `pattern` constraint t ContactPointShape's schema:telephone: ```sh:pattern "^tel:" ;```. (I know, that should be an IRI, not a string, but it serves as a test.) The input form accepted a new schema:telephone of "asdf" so I don't believe that SHAPEness currently validates field input per the schema. I don't believe the paper or documentation mentions this limitation.
> Please also assess the data file provided by the authors under "Long-term stable URL for resources".
There wasn't such a heading in the paper, but the Conclusions include "Software availablity" () which I took to fill that role.
> In particular, assess
> (A) whether the data file is well organized and in particular contains a README file which makes it easy for you to assess the data,
Knowing the github.io URL schema allowed me to find the source repo: . I think this woulld be a better source link for the paper. (The other provides downloadable software and user guide.) The online documentation is pretty scant but the downloaded docs are thorough. There are online javadoc-style docs but they are oriented towards developers.
> (B) whether the provided resources appear to be complete for replication of experiments, and if not, why,
The software is easy to install and run. The docs include links to sample data which demonstrate the features. It would be mildly more convenient to have those wrapped up in an example project, but the example data in the docs were very helpful.
> (C) whether the chosen repository, if it is not GitHub, Figshare or Zenodo, is appropriate for long-term repository discoverability,
The repo is GitHub, though it could be useful to include a release tag or date so folks know what was documented/tested in this paper.
> (4) whether the provided data artifacts are complete.
The allowed me to install and start the software and play with the UI. I did not try to use it in a project.
Comments on the manuscript
"Resource Description Framework 1 (RDF) is the most popular format for..."
I'm not sure that it's documented as being the *most* popular. Unless you can back that up with a reference, perhaps better to s/the most/a/.
"... semantic (meta)data, structured as dynamic and schemaless graphs. However, the RDF flexibility turns out to be the source of many data quality and knowledge representation issues."
Well stated.
"the content of RDF data graphs (called nodes)"
The content isn't really called "nodes". I'd either remove "(called nodes)" or figure out some artful way to introduce the point that shape contraints are applied to the sets of triples into or out of nodes in the graph.
"and as an RDF structure query mechanism."
Indeed, a point often missed.
"target domain concepts (e.g. environmental science)"
Could add a couple more e.g.s to suggest the breadth
"limited knowledge of the domain, of its main concepts and data structures."
This sentence works, but this part is mildly awkward. Maybe "limited knowledge of the domain's main concepts and data structures."
"innovative visual tool in creating"
Perhaps "for creating"?
"section 2 provides an overview"
The rest of the sections in the sentence are capitalized.
"validating RDF data, against a set of constraints"
spurious ','.
2. Related Tools
"Schimatos serializes the created RDF data to RDF/Turtle format"
propose "data as RDF/Turtle" or "data in the RDF/Turtle format". Also, the "RDF/" is probably not helpful.
"..., but only for storing data in a SPARQL database."
As opposed to?
You may also want to include Inrupt's solid-sdk-forms [1] which maps ShEx to a form language. This is derived from annotations prototyped in shex-form [2] and the ShEx value constraints are re-expressed in that form language.
Not necessarily for the paper (your discretion), but if you click the
(layout in schema) button, you see some annotations (underlined in
teal) that provide the typical stuff you want to add for forms (label,
read-only). The prob with that is that the schema is now littered with
stuff that probably conflicts with other peoples litter.
The (layout by path (ShExC)) button moves those into a separate Layout
pane, allowing you to use a shared copy of the schema. The ShapePath
stuff is prototypical but we're working on it in the ShExCG and it
already has a spec (out of date) and a couple implementations.
Hopefully, we'll be done with it in a couple months. Though this might
interest you as it could make it easier to track changes to shared
schemas.
Re my field validation comment early in this review, the shex-form
example was a quick demo for a the solid-sdk-forms folks so it doesn't
have much field validation but the foaf:name has a minLength of 2
(accepts e.g. "ab") and the vc:telephone must match /^tel:\+?[0-9.-]/
(e.g. "tel:123"). Entering field values other than that will give you
a red border and a tooltip.
3. SHAPEness features
"understand graphs' structure and semantic;"
number agreement; either "understand a graph's structure and semantics;" or "understand graphs' structures and semantics;"
I don't know how easy it would be to stuff more resolution into the image, but that could help folks who want to zoom in.
3.1 User Interface
"The SHAPEness user interface consists of five views..."
This repeats the caption of Fig.1, but I'm not sure there's any way around this.
"a toolbar which provides"
Could add "a toolbar (upper right-hand corner) which provides"
I assume there's no screen shot of the filter panel but if you're re-doing the screenshot, you could include a context menu.
"and the edges are represented by arrows in order to indicate the subject to the object of the relationships"
Awkward. Maybe "and the edges are indicated by arrows showing the relationship to some object", adjusted according to whether these work for inverse triple constraints?
3.2. Using a SHACL schema to set up SHAPEness
"SHAPEness creates two subfolders for each project folder. One for ... Another one for ..."
Technically, those last to sentences have no verb. ": , ," would be pretty long; I propose "One *is* for" or maybe s/One/The first/.
3.3. Browsing and Authoring RDF graphs
"via graph-based intuitive interface"
"via *a* graph-based intuitive interface"
"Every element of the graph, be it a node or an edge, when clicked is highlighted with a black border."
propose "Clicking an element of the graph, be it a node or an edge, highlights it with a black border."
3.4. Assisting properties compilation
"as well as dedicated widgets to avoid typos"
Is creation of additional widgets done in Java? Are there provisions for user-defined widgets or would they all be added by PR on the SHAPEness project? RCP may provide this, but it also depends on whether the SHAPEness widget library is itself dynamically extensible.
"A help button functionality is provided to assist users in understanding the meaning of IRI labels."
Could be shorter, e.g. "A help button pops up the RDFS label or defintion of IRIs."
Fig 2. caption
"The SHAPEness user interface helps users in node properties compilation"
"The SHAPEness user interface helps users enter valid node properties" is probably less awkward and more informative.
3.5. Validating RDF graphs
"upper side of the view an error"
Needs a ',': "upper side of the view, an error"
3.6. Exporting RDF graphs
"by inserting the Git repository URL,"
Propose "by *providing*(or supplying) the Git repository URL," to clarify that it's not inserted into the graph.
4. Architecture of SHAPEness
"application was conducted considering the"
Propose: "application driven by the"
4.1. Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP)
"pushing the serialized graph (i.e. Turtle file) to a Git repository"
Is that normalized to provide minimal/readable diffs? Jena sorta does that (judging from Protégé output), though it can produce spurious diffs so formal canonicalization would be necessary to eliminate that. This info could also go into 4.2.3.
4.2.1. Loading SHACL content
"The shapes graph contains two types of shapes.
Node shapes which declare constraints on a node and Property shape which declares constraints on the attributes of a node through a path property."
Propose either
"The shapes graph contains two types of shapes: Node shapes, which declare constraints on a node, and Property shape*s*, which declare constraint on the attributes of a node through a path property."
Node shapes, declare constraints on a node, and Property shape*s*, declare constraint on the attributes of a node through a path property."
4.2.2. Generating model classes
"enhanced by Javassist 26 library"
"enhanced by *the* Javassist 26 library"
"Such library allows for"
Probably "This library allows for"
"implement the Serializable interface"
Do they serialize back to SHACL?
"This allows the Engine to use an instance of a subclass wherever an instance of Node is needed and therefore to manipulate, at runtime, objects differently depending on their class type."
Presumably, this is how shape-specific widgets are invoked.
Fig. 8. The Java bytecode of the class Person generated by means
of Algorithm 1 and Algorithm 2.
If there's a corresponding Java class you could compile and get the same bytecode, showing that instead would be helpful to folks who haven't recently implemented a JVM.
4.2.3. Serializing/deserializing the data model to RDF/Turtle
"into a stream of bytes objects"
Maybe "into a stream of bytes"?
5. Application of SHAPEness in EPOS
"Being EPOS committed to provide the integrated"
Propose "Since EPOS *is* committed to provide the integrated"
"challenges in EPOS a methodology"
add ',': "challenges in EPOS, a methodology"
"In the first phases of the project the population"
add ',': "In the first phases of the project, the population"
"In the next phase the RDF graph"
add ',': "In the next phase, the RDF graph"
"in a consistent consolidated knowledge graph"
add ',': "in a consistent, consolidated knowledge graph"
"metadata is validated it requires"
add ',': "metadata is validated, it requires"
"As illustrated in Figure 9 SHAPEness plays"
add ',': "As illustrated in Figure 9, SHAPEness plays"
"In the next section the approach adopted"
add ',': "In the next section, the approach adopted"
6.1. Testing Objectives
"It was decided to perform a user testing"
remove 'a': "It was decided to perform user testing"
"It was decided to perform a user testing, ..., as the structural or behavioral testing [2], both already performed..."
This sentence is long and rambles a bit. Could it be broken up? (Sorry, I don't have a specific suggestion.)
"raised by what user profiles, allows the developer"
remove ',': "raised by what user profiles allows the developer"
"with very low knowledge of the metadata concept"
Maybe "with minimal experience or awareness of metadata"?
6.2. Testing methodology
"the Google web forms 33 questionnaire."
33 refers to general info about Google forms (), not the specific form used for user testing.
6.3.2. Software Usage
"each of which split in several tasks:
a) Creation of an RDF/Turtle file from scratch, including 6 tasks;
b) Creation of a project from an existing RDF/Turtle file, including 7 tasks."
Could use a forward ref to Table 1. Propose: "each of which split into the six tasks listed in Table 1
a) Creation of an RDF/Turtle file from scratch (includes all 6 tasks);
b) Creation of a project from an existing RDF/Turtle file (includes the 6 tasks plus ???."
I didn't figure out what the 7th task as.
"as in the case of the spatial coverage"
Maybe "as was the case for the spatial coverage"?
"not clear why and ID is needed"
s/and/an/
The technical description of the functionality and interface of SHAPEness was detailed and well-written. As a write-up of an implementation, this paper is a strong candidate for publication.
The user study was underpowered, with apparently a total of six respondents. I recognize this as a common result of minimal resources and/or a highly-specialized user base. Expressing the stats as "33%" glosses over this point. Writing them instead as "2/6" would at least confront this paucity of data head-on. Applying this tool to more domains would provide much more confidence by expanding the user base and ensuring that the tool was repurposable.
6.1 abstractly described the user feedback forms, which appeared to be focused on how well this tool was implemented. Without access to the actual form, I'm guessing that the questions didn't include more meta questions like "was the schema validation helpful?" (vs. being redundant against dedicated widgets). In order to evaluate the efficacy of such a tool (vs. the implementation of this tool), it would be helpful to ask green-field functionality questions like "Given the tasks you've just performed, can you imagine any different approach that would have made them easier and less error-prone?", i.e. "How best could the machine help you?". The real proof of this approach comes when no one imagines something more helpful approach, like a DSL or a domain-specific program. With such feedback, the authors could evaluate whether that wish-list could be reallized simply with information available in the schema, or would it require additional configuration.
Sometimes a little verbose about process, e.g. 6 describes the development of the testing protocol, rather than just the final protocol.
1 https://github.com/inrupt/solid-sdk-forms
2 https://ericprud.github.io/shex-form/?manifestURL=examples/manifest.json

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
title: Vim Setup Changes in 2020
date: '2020-08-01'
---

It's been such a long time since talking about my Vim setup.
This coupled with three fairly large changes throughout the year,
has completely changed the way I use the little editor that [no one can quit][quit].
As a caveat for people reading,
2020 will mark my 24th year using Vim as a way to manipulate text.
I can't even think of another program that I have used for half that amount of time.

The three main changes that have come about this year all revolve around exploration,
namely exploring these three things:

1.  Files
2.  Tasks
3.  Versions

### Files

When it comes to exploring files,
I almost always have been a Netrw fan.
It's built in,
historically it's been pretty fast,
and although it has arcane defaults,
it's something that a developer can always count on being in any version of Vim.
Due to this,
there's never been any real need to look for a file tree replacement.
Until recently.

[Neovim][nvim] recently released their own [Language Server][lang]
and to use it,
one needs to run a nightly build of Neovim itself (for now).
Most nightly builds, these including, are usually filled with bugs and have been doubly so surrounding Netrw.
Often times the whole Netrw experience becomes broken when refocusing the specific pane.

Since Language Servers do make programming a much better experience these days,
I decided to branch out and look for an alternative that wasn't [NerdTree][tree].
One of the main criteria behind the alternate file tree is that it needed to be built for speed yet have low cognitive overhead.
This is often not the case with NerdTree or other trees that depend on third party installs.
Namely, [LF][lft], [NNN][nnnt], or [Ranger][rtre].

After spending a good amount of time sifting through /r/vim and /r/neovim on reddit,
I landed on a [Lua][lua] powered Neovim specific package named '[nvim-tree][nvtr]'.
Due to Neovim [having lua built in][lunv],
plugins written in Lua act like first class citizens.
Not to mention,
they are light years easier to build and debug over the constantly dreaded [VimScript][vsct].

The use of file trees is fairly subdued due to fuzzy file searching but,
they do come in handy.
Especially when orienting one's self around a new project/microservice/whatever.

### Tasks

When folks think about running tasks in Vim/Neovim,
they often reach for tools like [ALE][ale].
Linting and file fixing is usually what most folks want to do when saveing anything new to a buffer.
Although ALE runs asynchronously,
it tends to be a tremendous resource hog.

Fans to compensate with CPU and RAM utilization make Vim
feel way more like an IDE than it should.
In addition,
ALE is constantly underlining problems and stealing a programmers focus away from their process of 'building'.

VSCode has a wonderful concept of [build tasks][bld] which are often times used to run make tasks/build steps.
These tools are capable of more than **just** a way to build a project.
If we restructure our thinking around these tools and see them more as porject runners,
then a whole new world opens up before us.
This allows users to run linters and formatters on their own chosen time.

With Vim there used to be no great way of doing this but,
recently a new project has popped up called [asynctasks][atask].
It's a way to define these build tasks and load them throughout the file system or a project.
The task definitions are powerful enough to be scoped to specific file types.
If that isn't flexible enough,
there is the ability to have profiles per task, per file type!

Utilizing this task based approach,
Vim remains devoid of little red lines that steal a programmer from focusing on what matters.
During a break,
it allows a programmer to lint, build, and fix any issues that have crept up along the way.
This process makes Vim much more 'pure' to me and injects a lot less 'chrome' around the Vim UI.
Instead, displaying issues directly in the quick open window.
This again allows the programmer to pay attention to them or close the quick open window and get back to focusing on the problem at hand.

### Versions

Last large change for the moment is the move from [Fugitive][fug] to [Gina][gina].
Both of these plugins provide a GIT like integration into Vim buffers.
However,
over the years, and especially with the move to Neovim,
having asynchronous tasks has become a huge win to my productivity.

Gina's built around this notion of asynchronous interactions with a GIT repo which makes it super snappy.
It also has a small cognitive mapping load and a single command.
These features create a simple interface to an otherwise not simple CLI tool.

Honestly there was nothing wrong with Fugitive and
my move to Gina wasn't a result of a failure in Figitive.
One of the tennants of my Vim usage throughout 2020 is to 'remove the chrome'.
What this comes down to is removing UI bits that attempt to mimic ideas in other editors or IDE's.
I want vim to be a place to write prose and build software.
There is no need to be able to communicate with peers in Slack through Vim.
And certainly no need to move cards around in a specific Kanban board.

All of these changes edge, nudge, pivot my usage of Vim back to when I picked the little editor up (way back in 1994).
With these big changes, I am also excited to see how other pieces of my Vim workflow change in 2020

[quit]: https://github.com/hakluke/how-to-exit-vim

[tree]: https://github.com/preservim/nerdtree

[nvim]: https://neovim.io/

[lang]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_Server_Protocol

[lft]: https://github.com/gokcehan/lf

[nnnt]: https://github.com/jarun/nnn

[rtre]: https://github.com/ranger/ranger

[lua]: https://www.lua.org/

[nvtr]: https://github.com/kyazdani42/nvim-tree.lua

[lunv]: https://neovim.io/doc/user/lua.html

[vsct]: https://learnvimscriptthehardway.stevelosh.com/

[ale]: https://github.com/dense-analysis/ale

[bld]: https://code.visualstudio.com/Docs/editor/tasks

[atask]: https://github.com/skywind3000/asynctasks.vim

[fug]: https://github.com/tpope/vim-fugitive

[gina]: https://github.com/lambdalisue/gina.vim

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Keith and Amanda Hornsbury and their team are always on hand to give friendly advice on all aspects of Garage Door supply and installation.
Popular brands including Cardale, Garador, Hormann, SWS and Wessex.
Specialise in UPVC replacement fascias, soffits, guttering and cladding.
Paul Wade is always on hand to give friendly advice on all aspects of Garage Door supply and installation and unlike our other branches this office does not have display facilities.
Will and Jean Oakley and their team are always on hand to give friendly advice on all aspects of Garage Door supply and installation. The showroom has both static and working displays of up and over, sectional overhead, side hung and roller garage doors.


text:
GO! Fellows
Talent Market
If you're a liberty lover in Austin, Texas, you're hardly alone! You have the chance to connect with a group of friendly, fun-loving, and passionate individuals. AF-Austin is a professional development network for those who believe in the power of personal liberty, entrepreneurship, and innovation–channeled through free markets–to promote positive social change.
AF-Austin events bring the "doers" of Austin together to network, learn from each other, discuss key issues, and ultimately collaborate to improve themselves and the city as a whole.
Currenly no events. Please check back for updates!
AF-Austin: Musicians and Microbrews: Understanding Austin's Music Culture
Come hear from two Austin Musicians as we explore the robust artist community and have a beer on AF at the Lucky Tiger on South Lamar! Janis Joplin and Willie...
AF-Austin – In Search of Sanity: COVID-19 & Government Spending
As the conversation around the COVID-19 response continues and the debate about what metrics must be reached before society can return to normal rages on, Americans should prepare themselves for...
AF-Austin: Texas on Target – Constitutional Carry & Axe Throwing
Join AF-Austin for our July networking event! This month we will be joined by Gun Owners of America's Texas Deputy Director Felisha Bull who will discuss constitutional carry, which goes...
Chapter Leader
Ivy El-Zaatari
Ivy El-Zaatari is the Acting Chapter Leader of AF-Austin. Ivy is a realtor serving the greater DFW community and an Amazon area manager at DHX5. Formerly, Ivy was the executive assistant to Senator Rand Paul and director of donor relations for RandPac. Prior to this, Ivy was the Youth Leadership School director at the Leadership Institute where she traveled the country every weekend to train college students on the importance of political technology and keeping faith in their principles. Ivy began her career as the recruitment director for the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS) College Republican club. Her second year in college she interned with the Office of Governor Susana Martinez's communications department in Santa Fe. Upon returning to school Ivy became the chair for the UCCS College Republican club and the Manager of the UCCS Ice Hockey Team. Along the way Ivy worked as the El Paso County Chair for the Greg Brophy for Governor Campaign and managed Vickie Tonkins for City Council Campaign. Taking a step back from campaigning, she was hired as Representative Justin Everett's legislative aide in 2014 and stayed with him until 2016. Ivy also served as the Colorado State Youth Director for Students for Rand. In June of 2016, Ivy returned to the YLS advanced class and learned the tools necessary that placed her as the Youth Director for the Mary Thomas for Congress campaign. In her first two weeks she recruited 22 interns and was promoted to the political director. Ivy ran a youth campaign that knocked 15,000 doors and made 70,000 phone calls.
Since 1995, America's Future has been the premier nationwide network of liberty-minded young leaders, providing unique opportunities to learn the ideas of liberty and develop the skills necessary to articulate them.
1633 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 300
© America's Future. All Rights Reserved. v2


Armed Forces' fans in association with HMS Westminster, 217 Field Squadron RE, Number II (Army Co-operation) Squadron RAF, London Area Sea Cadets, the Middlesex and North-West London Army Cadet Force, and the London Wing of the Air Training Corps.
And to use all the skills of a mixed Livery in the promotion and development of such enthusiasm and expertise.
Support HM The Queen, the Royal Family, the Lord Mayor of London, the Sheriffs and the City Corporation.
Play a full part in the promotion of the status of the City of London.
Pursue charitable objectives, especially with The Fan Museum.
Develop educational objectives, especially with The City of London Academy and Lansbury Lawrence School.
Promote the Fan Museum and organisations dealing with antique fans.
Promote the modern fan industry and the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers.
Develop the companionship of the Livery and increase membership to the number permitted by the Court of Aldermen.
Increase the value of the Company's investments.
Strengthen corporate governance by the Master, the Wardens and the Court, with all committees, sub-committees and office bearers reporting to them via the General Purposes and Finance Committee.
Interact with other Livery Companies and Groups of Livery Companies such as the Construction Liveries Group.
Play our part in the spiritual life of the City of London.
Adopted by the Court at its Meeting on Thursday 23rd October 2008 following a review in preparation for the Company's Tercentenary Year 2009.
* Examples are the Cercle de l'Eventail, the Fan Association of North America, the Textile Society, the East Bay Fan Guild, Associazone Cultare Il Ventaglio , the International Society for Collectors of hand-held fans, and the auction houses.


We've told you pretty much everything you need to know about our student rooms but we're sure that some of you may like to try before you buy. So why not pop along and let one of our awesome team show you around?
Simply fill out the form below and let us know your preferred date and time to pop along, we will check the diary and get straight back to you to book in your show around at your selected properties so you can see how fantastic they are for yourself.
You're welcome to come and pop in to take a look around any day between Monday to Friday from 9am and 5pm. Evening viewings are available upon request.
Please note - This is a request, we will be in touch with you to confirm your booking.


I joined the Emory & Henry Admissions Department in August of 2014 after working and learning at the Washington County Recreation Department for two years. Hailing from Conyers, Georgia, I found Emory & Henry College to be the right place for my higher education needs — playing four years of football at the collegiate level and graduating with B.A. in Sports Management, and a Minor in Mass Communications. Inspired, I went on to earn my M.A.COL. in Community & Organizational Leadership. I loved it so much here, I ended up becoming an Admissions Counselor, helping others receive the enlightenment I have found from Emory & Henry College's exceptional education.
I am thrilled at the opportunity to work at my alma mater and give prospective students the opportunity to gain the experiences that I did from Emory & Henry College.


text:
Pampa (bolet) (Clitocybe geotropa)
 Pampa (geobotànica), terres baixes i planes de l'Argentina, Brasil i Uruguai
 Toponímia:
 Pampa (Castellar de la Ribera), entitat de població de Castellar de la Ribera (Solsonès)
 Abra Pampa, ciutat de l'Argentina
 La Pampa, província de l'Argentina
 Rasa de Pampa, torrent entre els municipis de Castellar de la Ribera (Solsonès) i Bassella (Alt Urgell)
 Serrat de Pampa, serra entre els municipis de Castellar de la Ribera i d'Odèn (Solsonès)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Voyagin is an online platform that allows you to make and manage different bookings related to travel. Although the company is based in Tokyo, you can find special bookings and travel opportunities for such destinations as Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul, Bali, Bangkok, Kyoto, and many others. You can browse their best-selling events. You can also browse your possibilities by focusing on a specific city or country. Once you have found something of interest, the process of making the booking is extremely straightforward. You will also find that this website has a robust customer service section, if you have any questions or concerns about a booking.


The 11th stage of the Giro d'Italia (156 km), in its final part passed through Filottrano, has been held in honor of Michele Scarponi. For Astana Pro Team it was a special day and it was clear, that team riders will try their best to fight for a stage win.
Astana Pro Team is happy to announce the beginning of the new partnerships with the water company Acque Minerali d'Italia and its brand Sangemini. Starting with the current Giro d'Italia, Sangemini presented by Acque Minerali d'Italia will become the official water supplier of the Kazakh team.
The Spanish rider Pello Bilbao is spending the second season in Astana Pro Team and this year he already did a big step ahead in his career: he won a nice stage at the Tour of the Alps, did 7th in the GC of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and 8th in overall of the Itzulia Basque Country. But the main fact is that after 10 days of racing and three tough mountain climbs Pello still holds a solid 8th place in the general classification of the Giro d'Italia, fighting on a very high level with the biggest favorites of the Italian Grand tour.


Lake Shore Cabins: 'ON THE WATERFRONT' of beautiful Beaver Lake! Luxury log cabins feature Jacuzzis, fireplaces, full kitchens, satellite tv/VCR, cd players, BBQ grills, large decks with SPECTACULAR lake views. Covered boat dock with slips, large swim/fish deck. One and two story cabins accommodate 2-10 guests. Open year around.


text:
What is a Design Language… really?
Originally published on Medium
The term "Design Language" is used to describe the overall visual design of a digital product. Chances are, you've already got a set of resources that you refer to as your Design Language. But what makes a set of UI elements a design language?
At first glance, it appears to be: an amalgamation of component designs with a consistent visual aesthetic and brand, typically accompanied by usage guidelines in the form of online documentation. This is all good, but there's a tremendous amount missing from this picture; arguably the very things that make it a language in the first place.
Visual communication is a complicated beast, and in most cases we over-simplify it in order to ship a consistent UI. I'm as guilty as anyone in this. However, what we cannot ignore the fact that a visual interface is in fact a very sophisticated method of visual communication that warrants attention to detail and an understanding of how the elements of design are used to speak to our users.
For the purpose of this article, when I refer to "design elements," I am speaking to foundational elements such as color, shape, line, contrast, repetition, economy, shadows, animation types, measurements of time, etc. If thinking in terms of Atomic Design, these are the sub-atomic particles.
What is a Language?
Let's start with a cliché. The definition of a Language (Dictionary.com):
"[4.] any set or system of such symbols as used in a more or less uniform fashion by a number of people, who are thus enabled to communicate intelligibly with one another."
"[5.] any system of formalized symbols, signs, sounds, gestures, or the like used or conceived as a means of communicating thought, emotion, etc."
"[7.] communication of meaning in any way; medium that is expressive, significant, etc."
Pretty clear here that in order to call a set of designs a "design language", they need to have a formal, unified system of meanings as a way to intelligibly communicate with our users.
If we look to written and verbal communication as a framework to guide us, we can see an atomic structure and patterns emerge that parallel UI design.
Words have meaning
Punctuation has meaning
Types of words (nouns, adjectives, and verbs) have meaning.
Grouped words have meaning & give formal structure
Sentences have meaning & give formal structure
Paragraphs have meaning & give formal structure
From here it continues to grow and we define more complex, larger methods of communication above these, level such as how to structure scientific objectives (hypothesis, method, result), term papers (thesis statement, outline, content, conclusion), and a myriad of story structures.
It's clear that languages are complex systems. Everything has meaning and intent, and the structures and ways in which we combine these structures expand upon their meanings or create new ones altogether.
Clear and consistent rules are what make languages successful. Inconsistencies, ambiguity, or straight-up contradictions can make languages very hard to learn, teach, and understand. How many times have you been confused by the rule "I before E, except after C"?
Language as it relates to the visual interface
A component can be a combination of atoms and molecules, so we need to define the atomic design elements in a way that gives semantic meaning, just like languages define punctuation and word types. The foundation of creating a Visual Design Language is
Clearly defined semantics (and no, "error", "warning", "success", and "info" aren't nearly enough
Thorough and mature mapping of core elements of design with clear purposes and meanings
A solid family of UI components and patterns that effectively support the semantics, and use design elements (based on their meanings) to support the meaning of the components
Thorough, comprehensive documentation about the visual communication system
Colors are a great example of semantics, and may have multiple meanings, or no meaning at all.
Your pattern library or style guide is the dictionary and thesaurus for your Visual Design Language. Documenting the core semantics, structures, and meanings behind the elements of design (color, line, shape, etc) will add a concrete foundation behind the decisions that are made in designing and the usage of components in your interface.
Give yourself a Litmus test
When you're working on your pattern library, UI Kit, or however else you prepare your Visual Design Language, there are some ways to ensure your design is truly linguistic. Comb through every single element of the designs and ask yourself:
What does this color mean?
What does dimensionality mean (such shadows/bevels)?
What does the thickness of a border mean?
What does a rounded corner mean?
What do my fonts say/mean?
What does the use of italics mean?
A simple framework is to fill in the blanks of this statement:
The ______ used in the ______ helps to communicate _________.
The first item of the statement is a specific design element, the second line is the component or pattern you are analyzing, and the final item is the semantic.
Example: The line thickness used in the primary button component helps to communicate important interactive elements.
Most design elements may have no meaning at all when you create your first design language. But evolving your system to follow and support semantics of the most atomic or subatomic elements will help your system to mature into a true visual language.
© 2020 Nate Baldwin. All rights reserved.


text:
Interview with Paul Lawler: "'Opus' is a good representation of what I can do as a composer and a producer."
by Rok Podgrajšek
Paul Lawler's reputation already precedes him. I knew he had done music for films and broadcasting companies, so I was aware he had quite a discography behind him. However, I still didn't know what to expect from his new album, Opus.
Hey Paul, first of all congratulations on your excellent new album, Opus. It's definitely one of the highlights of the year for me. How long did it take to make?
Thanks ! It took in the region of 2 months to write and record the album in-between other work I had at that time. It was actually finished in May 2012 and I was subsequently messed around by 2 record labels for the following nine months before I decided to release the album myself. The silver lining is that I had more time to tweak the mixes and add bits of any new instruments I bought.
What got you interested in 70s electronic (progressive) music in the first place? It is the predominant style on Opus.
I grew up with it in the 70s. I used to listen to a band called 'Systems Music' who were the main inspiration for 'Opus', along with TV and Film music of that time. Then in my teenage years I discovered Tangerine Dream, Jarre and Vangelis.
Gearheads will be interested in your equipment. The synths have that great vintage 70s Tangerine Dream sound. Can you tell us about the equipment you use on Opus and also other releases?
When I started working on 'Opus' I had just bought my first analogue synths, the 'Vermona perFOURmer mk2', 'Moog Voyager' and a basic Doepfer Modular System. I was always using software before this, but after realising that Analogue hardware gave me infinitely more performance and sound possibilities than software alone, I really started collecting as much vintage gear as I could find, so by the time the album was finished it featured : 1974 Minimoog, Korg MS-20, Mixed Modular synth, Roland SH101,Roland SH1, Moog Minitaur, PerFOURmer Mk2, Moog Voyager, Dave Smith Mopho. and a selection of guitars, Fender,PRS etc.
Since then I've started to add some real classics like the VCS3 mk2 and the Arp2600. I've been obsessed by these 2 instruments for a while so it's nice to own them finally, I also recently started to add a few boutique synths like the Subtle Noise Generator and Macbeth Micromac-R.
How did you get in touch with Zlatko Perica (ex Tangerine Dream), who features on 2 pieces?
I took a chance and sent him the track 'Opus' via Facebook, and I just asked if he would be interested in playing on the album. It was touch and go for a while whether he would get the time to record anything as he was touring with his band, but luckily for me he did, and with incredible results.
Another big star to feature on the album is Paul Speer. How did your acquaintance occur?
I met Paul Speer via Myspace some years ago. We both liked each others music and I suggested we do an album together, so after a while sending tracks back and forth over Skype we released the album 'Wonders'. I've always admired his guitar playing so I wrote and asked if he would also guest on one of the album tracks.
How do you think the sometimes very heavy guitars work together with the hypnotic synths? Was the result all you could have asked for?
It's exactly what I hoped for. I always liked Zlatko's guitar work with TD, but once I heard his solo work I knew right away his style would fit perfectly. It's almost like having Jeff Beck playing on my album.
Overall, has Opus met your expectations that you perhaps had before you started recording or even arranging it?
I think 'Opus' is the album I'm most proud of. Of course it had to be, I announced the album and the title on my Facebook page after the first track was written so I was then stuck with writing an actual Opus.
You have worked in soundtracks and major broadcasting companies in Britain. Is Opus something you did simply for your soul, with no thought of putting money on the table at all, so to speak?
We live in an age now where very, very few people put any kind of decent money on the table from releasing albums due to streaming and file sharing, or just the fact that an overwhelming amount of people are releasing albums these days, and a lot of music fans just stick with artists they already know as a result. Who has the time to search through endless new albums by a million keyboard owners ?
Of course I went into writing 'Opus' knowing full well it was just going to be a labor of love. I'm extremely fortunate that my other music can pay the bills.
I know you have an extensive discography. But still, how do you think Opus compares to some of your other works?
'Opus' is the album I have needed to release for a long time. My biggest problem is that I am a perfectionist, and my early electronic music albums were written when I had very basic equipment and much less experience as a producer, and of course they sound very dated now, so with 'Opus', I finally have an album that is a good representation of what I can do as a composer and a producer.
Which of your works are you most proud of?
That's a difficult question because I have a huge back catalogue of music, but 'Opus' is definitely one I'm very proud of. I wrote another album this year called 'A Tale of Unease' which was released under my 'Arcane' pseudonym, and with this album I wanted to achieve the same thing I did with 'Opus', but in the Berlin School genre (1970s-80s Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze style) and this album was composed with almost 100% authentic vintage analogue gear. I'm very pleased with the result.
When you're composing, what are you hoping to achieve? Is it to write something very tricky with difficult arrangements or something that will crawl under people skin, so to speak, or something completely different?
It all depends on the style of music. If I'm writing to a brief for my professional jobs then you have to achieve what your employer wants from you and nothing more, but if it's an album then I have to consider the audience it is aimed at, and whether or not it is something I would like to listen to personally, and more importantly, is this something I could honestly accept payment for.
What's the situation with Paul Lawler playing live?
I've played live a few times. There aren't a great deal of gigs out there for this kind of music, and they tend to be very small and poorly attended, which as you can imagine is a little dis-heartening when you put in a lot of work and rehearsal time beforehand. I know some people say they like to play to a small audience in an intimate setting, but that doesn't appeal to me at all. The last time I played live was at a Polish film festival on a big outdoor stage to 1000s of people while being filmed for national TV. That job really spoiled me for the small gigs.
I believe you have very eclectic musical tastes. What other projects (and styles) do you have lined up?
I currently have two collaboration projects on the go. One is an album of songs with the Polish singer, Jozef Skrzek who is from the legendary Polish Prog band, SBB The other is with Anthony Paterra who is also known as Majeure, and one half of the Electronic band 'Zombi'. I'll also be writing a second album using the pseudonym 'C-60', which is a new project in the 1980s Dreamwave genre, kind of Kavinsky style.
Of course I will make time for more Arcane music, and some experimental music along the way.


text:
Pablo Martin Becomes First to Win on European Tour as Amateur and Pro
By Ryan Ballengee
Pablo Martin emerged victorious in the European Tour's first official event of their 2010 season (even if it's played in December 2009). With the win, Pablo Martin becomes the first man in European Tour history to have won on Tour as both an amateur and a professional.
Warren Little/Getty Images
Martin won the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa. Aided by a second round 63, Martin held on for a one stroke win over Charl Schwartzel of South Africa.
The Spaniard was the first amateur to ever win on the European Tour. He did so in 2007 by winning the Open de Portugal. That win, too, was by a shot - over Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin.
For that win, Martin could not take prize money. This time, he took home 158,500 Euros. The total prize pool was just 8,000 Euros smaller than last year.


CancerConnect News: This week, Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide (BMDW) and the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA) announced that a record 25 million people worldwide are currently listed as potential volunteer marrow donors in hopes of saving the lives of those battling life-threatening blood cancers and diseases. The significant milestone gives greater hope to searching patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals around the world.
BMDW was created in 1989 as a collaborative effort of eight countries and has grown to a community of 53 countries that are working together to achieve a centralized file of all potential volunteer marrow donors worldwide. This resource is crucial for patients in need of a blood stem cell transplant, because in nearly 50 percent of blood stem cell transplants, the donor and the patient come from different countries.
BMDW works closely with the WMDA—an association responsible for establishing consistent, high-quality standards for worldwide marrow donor registries—and provides a comprehensive list of potential marrow donors and donated umbilical cord blood units, primarily from WMDA member registries and cord blood banks. The BMDW global database is easily accessible to physicians to search on behalf of their patients in need of a blood stem cell transplant.
Every year, thousands of people are diagnosed with a blood cancer. A marrow or cord blood transplant is a potentially life-saving treatment for more than 70 different diseases, including leukemia, lymphoma and sickle cell disease. Other diseases include aplastic anemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, inherited immune deficiency disorders and inherited metabolic disorders.
Michael Boo, J.D., president of WMDA and chief strategy officer of the National Marrow Donor Program®(NMDP)/Be The Match®, was thrilled to announce the milestone. "We are so grateful for the millions of people around the world who have volunteered to be the cure. Every person who has joined a marrow donor registry moves us closer to finding a marrow donor for every patient in need," said Boo. "Our goal as a global community is to continue to grow this inventory of donors and cord blood units by adding more than one million potential volunteer marrow donors and cord blood units from an increasing number of countries each year," continued Boo.
The importance of adding more potential marrow donors and cord blood units to the worldwide registries is underscored by the constantly increasing use of transplants as a treatment for a wider range of diseases. An exponential rise in all types of blood stem cell transplants, particularly from unrelated donors, has occurred since the first successful unrelated transplant in 1973. U.K.-based Anthony Nolan, the world's first marrow donor registry, began recruiting potential volunteer marrow donors in 1974. Today, unrelated transplants are often as successful as those that use sibling donors.
The BMDW global database provides a unique service to transplant centers and registries searching on behalf of patients from around the world who are trying to find the best match for patients in need of a life-saving blood stem cell or marrow transplant and who do not have a matching sibling. By providing a single registry for listing all available adult volunteer marrow donors and cord blood units, it provides a quick and thorough search service, reporting on whether and where a good match can be found. In 2014, over 225,000 search requests were made for patients in need of a blood stem cell transplant.
Be The Match is proud to be part of this unique international network. The U.S.-based Be The Match Registry® is the world's largest and most diverse donor registry with nearly 12.5 million potential marrow donorsand more than 209,000 donated cord blood units. Be The Match facilitates more blood stem cell transplants every year thanks to generous volunteer marrow and cord blood donors. Since the organization began operations in 1987, Be The Match has facilitated a total of 68,000 transplants, including nearly 6,300 transplants in 2014 alone, for patients in need of a cure.
Worldwide, over 50,000 patients per year are looking for a matched donor outside their family.
Nearly 50% of the patients that find a donor find his or her perfectly matched donor in another country. WMDA works towards a global standardization by establishing an accreditation program for registries. The accreditation program ensures that organizations protect the welfare of the donors and high-quality stem cells for patients worldwide.


text:
Radioactief jodiumtherapie is therapie in de nucleaire geneeskunde voor de behandeling van adenoom in de schildklier, de ziekte van Graves, schildkliervergroting en bepaalde vormen van schildklierkanker. Voor de behandeling wordt gebruikgemaakt van het radioactieve isotoop 131I, met overwegend bètastraling en een halfwaardetijd van acht dagen en die in het menselijk lichaam alleen in de schildkliercellen wordt opgeslagen.

Nucleaire geneeskunde
Schildklier


If I had a Franken for each time someone asked me how to set s.products and List Vars using DTM, … but I don't. And the question is valid. And it comes up a lot, so let me write down how it is done.
Note: my friend Pedro was faster this time, see his post on products and the W3C data layer. But since I had written most of this post, and since more is always better, I decided to post this anyway.
On my site, I want to track the products that people look at, put into their basket, and buy. How do I populate s.products using DTM?
I have teasers on my homepage, I want to track impressions and click-through rates for them. List Vars seem like the answer, but how do I set them using DTM?
Neither s.products, nor s.list1 — s.list3 are available in the UI in DTM. There is simply no place where you could assign a value to them!
Thinking back to "pre-Tag Management" days, … no, sorry, that sounds wrong.
The difference now is that when you use DTM, other "variables" can directly be assigned in the UI, usually using Data Elements.
But the non-visual way of assigning values still exists, albeit slightly hidden.
Have you ever noticed the little "Open Editor" button at the bottom of the "Adobe Analytics" section in your rules?
Let me walk you through an example: setting s.products on cart add.
As a pre-requisite, I shall presume that your site is built with a CEDDL-compatible data layer, which means we can see product information in digitalData.product, digitalData.cart, or digitalData.transaction. Nice.
There are two different ways of implementing cart adds: you can take the visitor to the cart when they add something, or you can just make a subtle change to the cart symbol on the page to show that the add was successful.
If you use the first approach, you'll likely track the cart add on the cart page itself, but if you use the second, you'll use an Event-based or a Direct Call Rule, because you track the interaction. We'll use an EBR.
After you have configured the EBR according to your needs (set conditions, select "s.tl" for tracking, adding eVars and events), you can click the "Open Editor" icon at the bottom of the Analytics section to open up a code editor.
This is a cart add, so we don't need quantities or prices.
To DE Or Not To DE?
Since I mentioned Data Elements: should we use them?
I disagree, out of a non-specific feeling of unease.
Having a Data Element (itself containing custom code for the loop, presumably) means that if DTM ever introduces an option to set s.products or s.listX in the UI, I can easily switch.
Nicely encapsulated, and, more importantly, ready for the big day when assigning s.products in the DTM UI will be possible.
Great post! I've been trying to collect/document examples at http://www.digitaldatatactics.com/examples/products.html.
So thanks for showing the DE-ified method. Maybe my solution in registering the list-variable with the s.linkTrackVars and having an s-object in the code might help some others.
Do you know, why I was not able to just add the following?
I have no idea why this did not work.
Thanks a lot non the less, as this answered a current question of mine and led me to a working solution.
There's code in DTM that explicitly checks for "products" and "events" in rules that fire s.tl(), then adapts trackLinkVars and trackLinkEvents accordingly. But there is no such code for listX.
Your code is what I'd recommend as a workaround.
which seems to work fine. Is there anything I should watch for?
Whether you can directly access "s" or not depends on how Analytics has been added in DTM.
If you use the standard approach of letting DTM manage the Analytics library, DTM will not create an "s" object outside its own scope, which means you will have to retrieve it using the getS() method.
It seems that in your case, the Analytics library is managed either outside DTM or using the editor window in DTM (an approach Jenn Kunz uses). In that case, you're fine.


5.6. In certain circumstances, we may have to contact you and ask you to provide further information to us directly in order to complete the Checks. If you do not or cannot provide us with such information then we may suspend Your Account until you have provided us with such information or permanently close Your Account. Additionally, you will have to provide identification whenever you make a withdrawal of funds amounting to C$2300 or more.
6.1. If a player account remains inactive (For example: when no login is performed at the Website) for a period of more than 12 months, the Company is entitled to charge a monthly account maintenance fee of C$5, starting on the 13th month of inactivity. Following 12 months of uninterrupted inactivity, the Company will send a reminder mail to the user via the e-mail address saved in his/her account details. Upon receipt of this reminder mail, the user will have 30 days to log into his/her player account. If no login is registered within this 30-day period, C$5 of real money credit or bonus money credit will be deducted from the balance. If the balance is less than C$5 then the whole amount will be deducted. If the account remains inactive after 13 consecutive months, the user will be sent a reminder mail every month and a monthly charge of C$5 will be incurred and deducted from the real money credit or bonus money credit of the player account accordingly.
6.2.If the player account remains inactive for more than 12 months and the account balance is C$0, no further charge will be incurred. The inactivity fee will be incurred on a monthly basis until the next login is performed at the website; in this case, the Company is entitled to block the player account.
8.2. The minimum deposit accepted by SpinIt is C$10.
8.7. The maximum amount of money you will be allowed to deposit in any one transaction is C$5000.
9.1.3. For your protection, you may withdraw the maximum amount of C$22,000 per month and no more than C$5500 per week, with the exception of progressive jackpot wins where no limitation will apply. VIP players may also be entitled for higher withdrawal levels.
14.1. It is company policy in the interests of security and in accordance with Maltese legislation, that if no transaction has been recorded on Your Account for thirty months (an "Inactive Account"), we shall remit the balance in that account to you. If you cannot be satisfactorily located any funds in that account will be handed over to the Malta Gaming Authority. Thus, the funds are available to the player wishing to withdraw them. For UK players, once your Player Account has been deemed to be inactive, we will be entitled to charge you an administrative fee equivalent to 5% of your total account balance ("Administration Fee") The minimum deduction amount is C$10 and the maximum amount deduction is C$400. We will deduct the Administration Fee from your Player Account balance every 30 days from the moment your account has become inactive-that is, if you have not placed a wager or made a deposit in the last 12 months. You will be given 30 days written notice by e-mail of the fact that your account is about to become inactive and subjected to Administration Fees.


Beeswax lip balms are generally firmer than lip balms made with vaseline or petroleum jelly. They serve the same purpose, however, protecting your lips from chapping and the harsh effects of dry air, wind, sun and cold.
Melt the base ingredients in the microwave or in a double boiler. Don't overheat: watch carefully, use small increments of microwave time, and heat only until just melted.
and oils. Beeswax is usually available in white or yellow pellets or solid blocks and you may find it locally at health food stores.
. Pour into lip gloss pot. Hint: if you like firmer lip balms, add a little more beeswax.
. Color, if desired, by adding 1/4 teaspoon grated lipstick. Set aside until lukewarm, then add 5 to 6 drops of essential oil. Puncture a Vitamin E capsule and add two drops to the balm mixture. Stir ingredients together, the pour into a lip balm pot. Suggested essential oils include peppermint, orange, lemon or coconut.
Melt one teaspoon of beeswax with one teaspoon of honey. Add two teaspoons of almond oil. Whisk together until well combined; pour into a small pot and let set before using.
, with one and a half teaspoons of cocoa butter. Let cool slightly and add 4-6 drops of flavored oil and the contents of one Vitamin E capsule. Pour into a pot and let set. Note: flavored oils suitable for lip balms are available in a wide range of flavors from apple to wintergreen.
Melt two tablespoons of beeswax with one tablespoon of coconut oil. Crush dried rose petals to a very fine powder using a mortar and pestle. Add five drops of rose essential oil and half a teaspoon of powdered rose petals to melted beeswax and oil. Stir to combine thoroughly, pour into a pot and let set.
What size labels do I need for these and how do I save and copy images to print onto labels?
Hi, Jill, I often provide labels to print for bath and body projects, but I haven't got any for this one, partly because there is a wide variety of container sizes that people might use and one label won't fit them all. You can buy pre-made labels in office supply stores, and I found these Avery Self-Adhesive Round Removable Labels, 1-Inch Diameter, White, Pack of 600 (5410) which people have used for the top of spice jars and bottle tops. I think they would work. Just follow the directions on the packet to print with images from your computer.
I made the honey sweet almond lip balm in two batches. The first batch I used a sweet almond oil that had a lovely fragrance. The second sweet almond oil had absolutely no smell at all. I prefer the first but wondered if there had been a fragrance added to that oil. Which is a true representation of the sweet almond oil?
You made me curious and I went and checked the bottle of sweet almond oil that I had; it has no fragrance really other than a mild oily scent that would easily be overwhelmed by any added scents whether they were natural, herbal or chemical. Not sure if that answers your question, but I suspect the first oil that you used was perfumed in some way.


Oil is formed from the remains of tiny plants and animals (plankton) that died in ancient seas between 10 million and 600 million years ago.
What is Vision 2020 Club?
The Vision 2020 Club is intended for young supporters of the Vision 2020 initiative. The supporters include Senior Secondary School Students 1 to 3 and Year 1 and 2 polytechnic and university students. However, all young people intending to pursue a career in the Oil and Gas industry are welcome to join.
The Vision 2020: Youth Empowerment and Restoration Initiative is born out of a conviction of Lonadek Nigeria Limited to fill a gap in awareness creation, career counseling vis-à-vis oil and gas opportunities.
The Young Transformers/Innovators is a community of young enterprising, vibrate, creative and talented students who are passionate about transforming their immediate communities and the world at large through scientific and technological innovations and development.
The YTI program aim to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in secondary schools by mobilizing talents from state and private schools in Nigeria. It create a platform for developing the next generation of creative and innovative thinkers by turning ideas into reality.
To be a part of YTI and showcase your talents, download the YTI Participation form, fill and forward it to Vision 2020 Youth Empowerment and Restoration Initiative.
Only shortlisted participants will be contacted. Qualified participants will be invited for mentoring and coaching at our Summer Camp Retreat while the top three (3) entries will be showcased and awarded at our annual Career Counselling and Industrial Awareness Workshop.
Prospective participants have a maximum of six (6) months to put their projects together for submission and review.
The main difference between oil and gas is the size of the hydrocarbon molecules. The molecules in natural gas have one to four carbon atoms while the molecules of crude oil may have as many as 60 carbon atoms!
Light Crude oil is regarded as the best type of crude oil because it can be more easily refined.
One barrel of crude oil, when refined, produces about 20 gallons of finished motor gasoline (petrol), and 7 gallons of diesel, as well as other petroleum products.
You can learn so many things as your teacher explains than when you are less attentive.
Always revise what you have done for the day. It helps to have a clear understanding of the subject taught.
Don't keep your problems to yourself whatever topic you don't understand should be addressed immediately.
Have time for relaxation. Remember all work and no play makes jack a dull boy.
To succeed in life you need you need organisation and focus.
The "Vision 2020: Youth Empowerment and Restoration Initiative" is a youth and national development initiative of Lonadek Nigeria Limited.
The initiative aims to enlighten the Nigerian Youth on industrial awareness and help develop their leadership, entrepreneurial, professional and vocational skills.
- Dr. Ibilola Amao, Project Consultant.
To see Nigeria become one of the top 20 countries by the year 2020 and utilize accelerated development programmes to ensure that restive energy is converted to constructive energy.
To empower youths and prepare them for a fulfilling and rewarding career ahead. To add value to the Nigerian economy through the "catch-them-young" strategy of reaching out to the grassroots for promising students who can drive Nigeria into a position of dominance in science, technology, engineering and mathematics by year 2020 and beyond.
An average Nigerian youth engages in social vices that adversely affect their educational career, self-development, realisation of their innate talents and socio-economic transformation of the country. The remote causes are not farfetched. Extreme poverty, poor standard of education and education facilities, peer pressure and societal influence, lack of educational guidance and career counselling at the early stage and complacency on the part of the youths are the contending factors impeding our collective national growth and development.
Counselling and Industry Awareness Workshops in major cities across Nigeria. Students have access to educational materials such as notebooks, mathematical sets, career technical and non - technical handbooks, graph book, pens and bags, watch documentaries on various key job positions that require the application of skills developed through education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).The forum offer the participating youths opportunity to listen to Industry professionals deliver presentations relating to activities within high technology industries; students learn about the variety of career paths available in the industry and the pre-requisite qualifications for these jobs.
Young Transformer and Innovators (YTI) or Junior Engineers, Technologists and Scientists (JETS) Science Project Competitions: This competition exposes the striking abilities of enterprising, vibrant, talented and creative students who are passionate about transforming their immediate communities and the world at large through scientific and technological innovations and developments. The best projects are selected from various secondary schools in Nigeria. These youths are meant to work on their project for six months under strict mentoring and coaching for them to come up with potent solutions that can lead to societal transformation. These projects are then showcased during Career Industry Awareness Workshop. The three (3) best projects are given cash award and plaques. Usually, some of the best projects are created by members of JETS Clubs.
Summer Retreats Program: The one week summer retreat camp is focused on career and leadership programmes for 45 selected Senior Secondary School 1- 3 students based on their academic performance during the assessment organised by YERI to help them make important decisions on their career choice. The retreat is free to the students and offer boarding, sports activities, field trips to Oil and Gas facilities and class based teaching on STEM with integrated entrepreneurial themes.
Annual Essay Competition: The program is geared towards encouraging and nurturing the creative writing and communication skills of young people. Writing and communication is key to professional and career development ; hence the major reason why the competition has become age long tradition of YERI. The best three write-ups are awarded and such essay is displayed in the YERI newsletter.
The Role Model initiative involves collaboration with CEOs, professionals, vocationals and entrepreneurs who have demonstrated commitment & excellence in their chosen career and can act as role models to Youths and SS1-3 students in secondary school in Lagos and its environs.
The qualities required in the role models include; Integrity, Diligence, Honesty, Dignity and Exemplary Conduct. The Role Models shall be expected to make a commitment to visit Government secondary schools close to their offices or Residence at least once each term to interact with the students thus motivating and inspiring them to excel. Students are expected to learn about the various career paths available in different industries and pre-requisite qualifications for jobs that may interest them. Through mentoring, coaching, guidance & counseling, the students will be empowered with information and leadership skills such as Time Management, Team Work etc.
In addition to the once a term interactive forum, role models will maintain continued communication, and respond to questions that students may have in any challenging areas that relate to their education and future careers.. The ultimate aim of the CEO Role model initiative is to bridge the gap between Education & Empowerment so that national transformation will result through Human Capital Development.
Students are enlightened on the opportunities available and the pre-requisite required to function as professionals, vocationals and entrepreneurs in their chosen fields.
Stimulate the minds of our youths such that they transform Nigeria from a consumer nation to a high–technology producer and manufacturer export nation.
Guide students in their career plans, assist them in evaluating their options based on opportunities that exist and help them face their academic challenges.
Continued communication & networking between the students and the Role Models even after the programme.
The Vision 2020 Youth Empowerment and Restoration Initiative largely supports and underpins the Vision 2020 goals of Nigeria to become one of the 20 largest economies in the world, a significant player in the global economic and political arena through youth empowerment and industry awareness ,leadership ,entrepreneurial and vocational skills development. By the year 2020, YERI would have successfully impacted one hundred thousand youths across Nigeria with relevant skills, industry and professional awareness trainings. In the long run, more youths would have been prepared to take up challenges in different spheres of our national development and add tremendous value.to the socio-economic transformation drive of the nation.
Your financial commitment as sponsors and donors will enable us to accomplish our mission to empower youths and prepare them for a fulfilling career ahead.
Assist in funding the venue for the workshop.
Provide educational materials for approximately 1,000 students.
Provide Educational materials for approximately 500 students.
Provide educational materials such as notebooks, mathematical sets, career technical and nontechnical handbooks, graph book, pens and bags for approximately 250 students.
Thank you for your resolve to donate to this wonderful cause. We believe your contribution will go a long way to make a difference in the life of the youths out there.


Route 414 North to the intersection of 414 & 14. Right at the Stoplight.
Route 14 North to Watkins Glen. First motel on left upon entering the Village.
Route 14 South through the Village of Watkins Glen, last motel on right leaving Village.


text:
Q: Export grouped shape as image I need to export grouped shapes named 'center' to a share folder as .jpg.
I have code that does the job if using keyboard button f8.
If code runs as normal it exports a blank picture.
Sub Export_JPG()

Dim ws1 As Worksheet: Set ws1 = Worksheets("KPI")
Dim ws2 As Worksheet: Set ws2 = Worksheets("ChartPage")

Dim chtObj As ChartObject
Dim SharepointAddress As String
Dim myshape As shape

ws1.Range("A1").FormulaR1C1 = "=NOW()"

Set myshape = ws1.Shapes("center")
Set chtObj = ws2.ChartObjects.Add(myshape.Left, myshape.Top, myshape.Width, myshape.Height)

myshape.CopyPicture
chtObj.Chart.Paste

SharepointAddress = "C:\Users\me\Desktop\1.jpg"
Kill SharepointAddress
chtObj.Chart.Export Filename:=SharepointAddress, Filtername:="JPG"

chtObj.Delete
Set chtObj = Nothing

End Sub

A: Please insert a line between CopyPicture and Paste:
myshape.CopyPicture
 chtObj.Select
chtObj.Chart.Paste 'it works only for a selected chart!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange