Minimax has been one of the leading brands in fire protection for more than 110 years now. The current Minimax Viking Group posted turnover in the region of €1.3bn in 2013 and employs around 7,000 people worldwide. The company headquartered in Bad Oldesloe, Germany, runs several research, development and manufacturing facilities. Be it in car plants, power plants, logistics centers, office and administration buildings, data centers or on ships, Minimax provides tailored solutions wherever there is a threat of fire and offers a comprehensive range of services after installation of fire protection systems.
Minimax uses FLS VISITOUR to manage and schedule its over 650 service engineers throughout Germany. Maintenance calls created in SAP are scheduled in FLS VISITOUR, dynamically updated with emergency callouts, and sent to the field engineers in real time. The engineers use a version of FLS MOBILE, which is tailored to the special needs and challenges of Minimax.
Permanent synchronization of the FLS VISITOUR and FLS MOBILE systems ensures that central dispatching management is provided with real-time data that can be incorporated in the current route schedule. Furthermore, real-time synchronization guarantees field engineers access to reliable data for scheduling their working day and for providing customers with appropriate information on-site.


Uncomfortably held…yes, that describes exactly what I felt a few weeks ago when Jason was in the hospital for a kidney stone that was causing blockage in his ureter; It is what I felt this morning as we discussed the problems our car has been having; It is what I feel when I dwell on when we will be leaving for Brazil; let's face it, it is how I feel almost every second these days….if I allow it.
When I got off the phone I starting talking with God again and I said "God I do feel uncomfortably held, why do I feel this way? I trust You, I seek You, I pray!!!" Then He gave me an image of what babies do when they are held backward on a hip. Have you ever had a baby throw their head back and bang you in the mouth with their head while they wrestle free of your grip? Or have you ever moved a baby to that position because they were not comfortable in the forward facing position? Or have you ever experienced a baby just lay back and rest against you? Yeah, that's the best feeling.
So here lie my choices…I can buck, or I can lean back, because He IS holding me. I choose to lean back and held perfectly by His righteous right hand.
I just had to write all that down.


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Pamela K.M. Beall
Ms. Beall is executive vice president and chief financial officer of MPLX GP LLC.
Ms. Beall began her career with Marathon as an auditor and held positions with the Corporate Risk and Environmental Affairs and Domestic Funds organizations before transferring to USX Corporation as general manager, Treasury Services. She was vice president and treasurer at NationsRent, Inc. and OHM Corporation, and served on the boards of directors of System One Services, Inc. and Boyle Engineering.
Ms. Beall rejoined Marathon in 2002, as manager, Business Development for Marathon Ashland Petroleum1. She was named director, Corporate Affairs in 2003 and appointed director, Business Development in 2005. She then served as organizational vice president, Business Development - Downstream for Marathon Petroleum Company LLC2 in 2006. Ms. Beall was named vice president of Global Procurement for Marathon Oil Company in 2007, vice president of Products, Supply and Optimization for Marathon Petroleum Company in 2010, and vice president, Investor Relations and Government and Public Affairs in 2011. She was named president of MPLX GP LLC in 2014, and executive vice president, Corporate Planning and Strategy in 2016. She assumed her current position in 2016.
Ms. Beall graduated from the University of Findlay with a bachelor's degree in accounting. In 1984, she received her master's degree in business administration from Bowling Green State University. Ms. Beall is a licensed certified public accountant in Ohio (non-practicing). She attended the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies in 2003.
Ms. Beall is a member of the board of directors of MPLX GP LLC. She also serves on the board of directors of National Retail Properties, Inc., the board of trustees of the University of Findlay, and is a member of the Ohio Society of CPAs.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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ComputerXplorers is all about having fun with technology - not just computers but also digital art, rocketeering, digital microscopes, film making and much more!
We work with hundreds of software titles and an amazing array of peripherals. Our sessions provide a fantastic blend of tangible education and technology skills delivered in a fun-filled package for children from the ages of 3 to 13.
The ComputerXplorers clubs and classes run in a variety of settings – from after school, lunchtime and breakfast clubs to pre-schools and holiday programmes. Specialist ICT classes during core curriculum time are also part of our service. We provide the instructor, the lesson plans, the software and extraordinary technology peripherals. Our programmes can be tailored to your own individual requirements and are always fun, educational and engaging.


text:
The association "Friends of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich" creates a unique framework for design achievements. For, in addition to the support from the public authorities, good design also needs private involvement. As a "friend of the house" you make it possible for the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, to continue presenting design, visual communication and architecture for discussion at an international level. The museum's task includes preserving the history of design in our collections, presenting contemporary positions in exhibitions and publications, and taking an enquiring look into the future.
Exclusively for members
As a member you support the museum and you enjoy numerous privileges that allow you to explore even more intensively the rich variety of facilities we offer:
Free admission to all exhibitions in the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
Free admission to all museum events: tours, podium discussions, lectures, and concerts
Exclusive pre-opening viewings of all exhibitions
Special tours of the exhibitions and the collection archive
Free admission to the exhibitions in the museums MUDAC and Photo Elysée
Special events, for members only
20% discount on all editions, publications and exhibition posters of the museum (available at the museum shops of both locations)
Reduced prices in the café of the site at Ausstellungsstrasse
Detailed annual report of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
Thu, 16.2.2023
6.30–7.30pm
Tue, 13.6.2023
Wed, 28.6.2023
Mon, 10.7.2023
The circle of friends launches new artist's editions on a regular basis.
Members benefit from 20% discount!
All available editions are available in the museum shops on Ausstellungsstrasse and in the Toni-Areal.
Selected editions may also be ordered online (members via welcome.freundeskreis@zhdk.ch).
(available from April 29)
Edition_Le-Corbusier_2022_en-1
Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris)
Edition_Le-Corbusier_2020_en
Become a friend of the museum and enjoy numerous privileges.
ZHdK student CHF 30
ZHdK member CHF 50
Junior (young people up to 16, students up to 26) CHF 50
Senior citizens, alumni ZHdK CHF 80
Single members CHF 120
Couples, families (including all children up to 16) CHF 180
Combined member Netzhdk CHF 110, registration: netzhdk.ch
New members pay half of the annual fee from July and no annual fee from October.
Please note that the correspondence as well as events of the Friends of the museum are offered in German language exclusively.
Contributions are tax deductible.
Become a friend of the museum with your company and enjoy numerous privileges.
Annual subscriptions:
Franziska Barmettler (b. 1982)
Master of Science in Economics. Since 2019 Head of Sustainability at IKEA Switzerland and member of parliament of the Canton of Zurich for the Green Liberal Party. Member of the Boards of Operation Libero and swisscleantech; co-founder and Head of Policy of the swisscleantech business association from 2009 to 2016 and Co-CEO from 2015 to 2016.
Daniel Freitag (b. 1971)
Trained as a graphic designer from 1988 to 1992, worked as a freelance graphic designer for various Zurich advertising agencies. Since 1993 employer and idea generator, bag maker, truck tarpaulin recontextualizer, designer, developer, representative, and with Markus Freitag founder and owner of FREITAG lab. ag.
Vice President: Niklaus Haller (b. 1974)
Master of Arts in Secondary Education, Master of Advanced Studies in Business Administration (Zurich University of Applied Sciences). From 2001 to 2018 Director at Credit Suisse Schweiz AG (Senior Management), since 2019 Head of Clients and Member of the Executive Committee at Globalance Bank AG.
President/Treasurer: Markus Helbling (b. 1961)
Self-employed independent management consultant and board member. Chairman of the Board of Directors of Soeder AG since 2021. From 1986—2022 various positions at BDO AG, including member of the Executive Committee.
Arthur Rüegg (b. 1942)
Architect ETH BSA SIA. Professor emeritus at ETH Zurich. Own architecture firm in Zurich since 1971. From 1991 to 2007 Full Professor of Architecture and Construction at ETH Zurich. Researches and publishes on contemporary Swiss architecture as well as on classical modernist construction, colors, and interiors.
Office Manager: Nadine Forster (b. 1983)
Assistant to the Director of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich since 2019. Trained as commercial employee, human resources administrator/assistant. Assistant Director at the Swiss Institute for Art Research (SIK-ISEA) from 2011 to 2019, back office at Mira Film from 2013 to 2019.
Megi Zumstein (b. 1973)
Trained as a signwriter, followed by studies in visual design at the Zurich School of Art and Design (today Zurich University of the Arts). Won Swiss Design Award in 2002. Lecturer at the Lucerne School of Art and Design. Worked with Claudio Barandun at the graphic design studio "Hi" from 2007 to 2019 before founding Megi Zumstein Visuelle Gestaltung in 2020.


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The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/2018/05/in-wake-of-witchcraft-accusation-concerns-arise-over-religious-regulation.html)
In wake of witchcraft accusations, concerns rise over religious regulation in South Africa
By Terence P Ward | May 16, 2018
PRETORIA, South Africa –A self-styled prophet and leader of the Enlightened Christian Gathering is being sued because he accused a businessperson of being a witch on live television, and some South African Pagans fear the case may bolster a push to regulate religion. If that were to come to pass, members of minority traditional and Pagan groups may be disproportionately affected in this country.
Witchcraft is a complicated topic throughout Africa. Witch accusations can lead to violence, arising out of negative associations made to traditional practices. The emergence of Neopagan movements such as Wicca make the use of the word "witch" all the more confusing. In South Africa, while practicing one's religion is protected by a constitution, it is also illegal to accuse another of practicing witchcraft.
Flag of South Africa [public domain.]
Shepherd Bushiri reportedly made such as accusation against one Lebohang Mpane during a church service which was broadcast live on television in 2016. In essence, he accused Mpani of using witchcraft to steal her husband and his children away from another woman.
Mpani has filed charges of crimen injuria against Bushiri. According to Damon Leff, director of the South African Pagan Rights Alliance, "Crimen injuria is a common law criminal offence, defined as the act of unlawfully and intentionally impairing the dignity or privacy of another person. If found guilty, Bushiri could receive a jail sentence." She is also seeking monetary damages, which suggests a civil defamation lawsuit as well. "A crimen injuria case does not automatically initiate a civil action for defamation, but both matters can be pursued separately," Leff explained.
Controversy swirls around Bushiri like flies around a picnic. He is being investigated for laundering money and for rape, in addition to the present situation, during which his bodyguards prevented police from questioning the preacher at his compound. Leff is worried that controlling people like this preacher will be the excuse used to push for more regulation of religion generally.
"The Bushiri matter will no doubt be used by those seeking to motivate for the regulation of religious leaders and organisations," Leff said. There is already a proposal, brought forth by members of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural' Religious and Linguistic Communities, "to license and regulate religion, religious organisations and leaders." Leaders of another group, the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, have rejected this idea.
"There is currently no legal requirement for religious practitioners to register with any peer review mechanism," Leff said, and the SAPC position supports keeping it that way. The only requirements are for religious leaders to either register their organizations as nonprofits, or comply with pay-as-you-earn tax rules. The Enlightened Christian Gathering is a taxable entity under South African law.
According to Leff, "Religious leaders have objected to regulation and certification by the state primarily because they do not believe the state has any constitutional right to interfere in or with their beliefs and religious practices." There is no requirement for regulation of religion in the constitution.
The reason Leff believes the specter of regulation will be raised is because, in addition to the allegations of money laundering and rape against Bushiri, he denounced Mpane as a sangoma. These are diviners in traditional African practices, and painted as witches. "Within African traditional religions in southern Africa, 'witchcraft' is regarded as a taboo practice and the terms 'witch' and 'witchcraft' are never used to identify either practitioners or practices of these religious specialists," Leff said.
Sangomas are "respected practitioners, and consulted widely as diviners and traditional healers," at least within their communities, Leff said. "An accusation of witchcraft against a traditional healer usually results in a public lynching, and most often ends in arson and murder of the accused."
A push to crack down on leaders like Bushiri would not go well for sangomas, Leff believes, nor would it for contemporary Pagans in the country.
He and other SAPRA leaders "remain convinced that should minority faiths be legally required to register their religions with the state . . . . Pagans would be discriminated against. Our concerns were partly confirmed in August, 2017," when a commissioner refused their comments "on the grounds that 'Only religions which were broadly represented at a percentage above three percent were [permitted to be] part of the hearings.'"
An additional aspect of the rights commission plan also brings pause to Leff and his colleagues. This is the "recommendation that all places of worship also be registered. Pagans in South Africa almost exclusively practice our faiths in our own homes, gardens, or public spaces. Pagans, especially Witches, do not want the state to know where they live (given the high incidence of witchcraft accusations), as this would be inconsistent with the constitutional right to privacy."
Regardless of how the case against Bushiri unfolds, its thread will likely be a prominent one in the rich religious tapestry of South Africa.
Damon Leff
South African Pagan Rights Alliance
About Terence P Ward
Terence P Ward is a moneyworker, journalist, Hellenic polytheist and convinced Friend who lives in the bucolic Hudson Valley with his wife, five cats, and multiple household shrines.
More by Terence P
Circle Sanctuary's Beltane threatened by washed out road
Patron saint of the Romani honoured in Hamilton


text:
Agerhumle (Bombus agrorum) er én af vore mest almindelige humlebiarter. Den findes på så at sige alle åbne biotoper, både de helt urørte (skovbryn, krat og gravhøje), de ekstensivt dyrkede som (overdrev, heder og klitter) og de intensivt dyrkede (haver, parker og frugtplantager).

Arten er meget væsentlig for bestøvningen af en lang række vilde og dyrkede planter, hvis blomster har langt kronrør. I modsætning til andre humlebiarter har den så lang en snabel, at den ikke fristes til at bide hul i blomsten, så den får adgang til nektaren uden om støvdragere/støvfang.

Arten er kendt for at foretrække steder som musehuller til at bygge bo i, men  velegnet er også et insekthotel.

Eksterne henvisninger

 Feltbestemmelse: Agerhumle (Bombus pascuorum)

Humlebier

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


E3 2017 has come and gone, and as always what follows is a feeling of emptiness and sadness. Have no fear, though -- SuperPhillip Central is here to keep the hype flowing with the site's list for the top ten newly announced games from the show! This titles must have officially been revealed at E3 2017 and not leaked beforehand or unveiled elsewhere (sorry, Dragon Ball Fighter Z). Now that the stuffy official rules have been sorted through, let's get to the games!
We begin with a game announcement that has been long past due for many who absolutely adored the PlayStation 2 era original Beyond Good & Evil. The sequel has been officially announced, but it's a bit of monkey's paw. Not only was the game presented just a teaser trailer that had an obnoxious teenage edge to it with how many times they could fit in the word "f--k" or some variation of it, but after the show it was revealed that the game is hardly even in development (actually, "day zero" according to the team) and the devs were thinking about putting the game on Early Access. If there was meat to this game and there was a chance it was coming out any time soon, then Beyond Good & Evil 2 would be much higher on this list.
The more 3D platformers put front and center at the big three's E3 showings, the better, and that's exactly what Microsoft did with the reveal of Super Lucky's Tale. Lucky isn't a new IP, as it appeared as an Oculus Rift VR-only game, but now the precocious young fox gets his own charming 3D platforming adventure, which is right up my alley. Sure, it definitely won't appeal to the main demographic for the Xbox One or Microsoft's newly announced Xbox One X (formerly known as Scorpio), but that will be those players' losses. Everyone else will get to play what appears to be an engrossing run and jump with captivating worlds and characters to engage with. As a lover of 3D platformers and just the platforming genre in general, this was a good get by Microsoft to expand its library on Xbox One.
Lots of games were revealed with gameplay footage at Nintendo's E3 2017 showcase, but Kirby for Nintendo Switch is one of the only ones that didn't get a live gameplay demonstration at the Nintendo Treehouse Live three-day series of streams that followed. Based off of the adorable footage in this 2D entry in the Kirby franchise, and the first traditional Kirby game on a home console since 2011 with the Wii's Return to Dream Land, Kirby's first Switch game has him able to recruit enemy helpers to join his cause, combine powers a la Kirby 64, and use a wide assortment of copy abilities, as per usual with most Kirby games. With a 2018 planned release year, there's certainly plenty more to uncover about Kirby for Nintendo Switch, and I'm quite excited to see what other surprises HAL and Nintendo have in store.
From one cute Nintendo platforming staple to another, Yoshi's last outing was on both the Wii U and later the Nintendo 3DS with Yoshi's Woolly World. Developer Good Feel continues the real world influence with a diorama style to the scenery and level design with Yoshi's first expedition on the Nintendo Switch. The game offers cooperative play with two players, worlds constructed out of cardboard, felt, toilet paper rolls, shoe boxes,and many other materials (sort of how my middle school self thought Yoshi's Story looked at the time of release), and interaction with Yoshi's egg on the Z-axis level to make a much more 3D-like adventure. Like Kirby's Nintendo Switch adventure, Yoshi for Nintendo Switch will also be making a 2018 appearance.
Seemingly everyone is gunning to take the multiplayer throne from Destiny, even a development team known for its single-player RPGs with BioWare. The Mass Effect developer now has Anthem, originally revealed at EA's press conference at E3, but fully shown at Microsoft's. The game allows for epic battles on a hostile post-apocalyptic planet Earth teeming with waves upon waves of enemies that don't take too kindly to you and your crew. Select between multiple classes occupying a number of different abilities to them, and aid your teammates in hectic battles against an enormous swath of foes. Obviously it's far too early to guess if BioWare's new direction towards a multiplayer-centric Destiny-inspired game will work out for them, but it's not too early to say that Anthem definitely looks the part.
Third time's the charm, hopefully! No, I'm not saying that the past two iterations of Shadow of the Colossus, its PS2 original and its PS3 remastering, were bad. I'm saying I'm hoping that after this third time, this magnificent looking PlayStation 4 remake that I'll finally play the darn thing in full! Shadow of the Colossus is frequently mentioned in debates and conversations of best PlayStation games, and moreover said to be one of the better games of all time. That makes it fantastic that Sony's Japan Studio is taking the time and dedication to make sure that this remake checks all the boxes of what a fantastic remake should be, such as balancing a fine line between new improvements and familiar gameplay. Shadow of the Colossus is set to release some time next year.
You might consider me a hypocrite for arguing that a game with zero real gameplay footage in Beyond Good & Evil 2 is listed at number ten on my list while a game like Metroid Prime 4 with no footage outside of a logo is number four. Well, in some ways, you would be correct, and I can't really argue against that. However, I strongly doubt that Metroid Prime 4 hasn't even begun development, nor will the franchise take such a contrasted direction like Beyond Good & Evil 2 seems to be. (That is unless Metroid Prime 4 has Samus spouting f-bombs all over the place and it's a totally different genre than what fans loved about the originals.) Regardless, this announcement was long awaited after much of the Nintendo and Metroid fandoms were going nuts with pessimism if the series would ever be seen again. As someone that has the very first Metroid Prime game as one of his favorites of all time, just the promise of a new Metroid Prime game in development was a winning one for me.
I personally don't care about the console war politics about Monster Hunter. Really, the only thing that bums me out is that the Nintendo 3DS audience in the west was the one that made Monster Hunter a success over here, and now that segment of gamers is being "thanks for your help, but you're fired" by Capcom essentially. However, Monster Hunter World (first releasing on PS4 and Xbox One early next year with a PC release to follow) looks to take everything fans of the franchise love and makes it bigger and better. I was so happy to see Monster Hunter in full HD with all of the things that the franchise is known for while adding new additions to spice things up. Here's hoping that Capcom's bet that western PS4, Xbox One, and PC players will take to Monster Hunter is a winning one!
There's no question that Metroid Prime 4 shook the rafters with the hype of Metroid fans longing for a new Metroid game, but the fan base didn't just get that game to look forward, they got a second one! Metroid: Samus Returns is a Mercury Steam-developed re-imagining of Metroid II: Return of Samus, built exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS. With Nintendo's careful watching over the project and Mercury Steam doing the heavy lifting of the game, Samus Returns is shaping up to be everything Metroid fans wanted out of the franchise for longest time. To many, Metroid: Other M and especially Federation Force (both games I happened to like for different reasons, regardless) were disappointments to put it lightly, so this 2D Metroid takes the series back to where it belongs. Plus, with a September 15 release date, 3DS owners won't have to wait long at all for the game!
After a couple of months of bickering and complaints that this was the dumbest crossover in gaming history, many of these same people ate some serious crow (and did so with great satisfaction for being proven wrong) after Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle was officially revealed for Nintendo Switch after it had been previously leaked via marketing materials. The game looks absolutely insane and in a good way while showing obviously love and appreciation for the project and all of the characters included. The creative director at Ubisoft's E3 show, after months of leaked materials and most calling the game a horrible idea, was so happy that he was on the verge of tears that his project was being accepted and applauded by the gaming media and public is one of my highlights of the entire show. I can't wait to get my hands on Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle when it launches this August.
Of the three major BioShock games released, BioShock 2 seems to be the least appreciated due to having so many similarities to its predecessor. Sure, returning to Rapture didn't cause as much excitement as the theatrics of seeing it for the first time and how that reveal was handled in the original BioShock, but the first-person shooting elements, playing as a prototype for a Big Daddy, and taking on hordes of psychotic human enemies made for an engaging and enjoyable campaign. We got to see an expansion of the ideas presented in the original BioShock, and again, while BioShock 2 did feel like retreading familiar ground, it's very much worthy of being a part of the exquisite BioShock trilogy.
Prince of Persia's 2008 reboot brought with it equal amounts of freshness into the series and disappointment in regards to ending on a cliffhanger that will most likely never be resolved. The game's superb cel-shaded art style made it stand out from the crowd, especially in a gaming generation that was consumed by a lot of brown, grey, and dark colors when it released. With a partner in crime, each needing each other to get through the game's maze of chambers and pathways, the amount of ways the main character could use his agility and mobility to progress was astounding. Unfortunately, Prince of Persia as a franchise is back on hiatus after a series of low-selling entries, despite the 2008 offering being one truly fantastic title.
Between being on a failed system and having so many Nintendo fans ticked off that Retro Studios' talents were somehow "wasted" on another Donkey Kong Country game, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze was a mighty 2D platformer that stands tall as one of the greatest of the genre -- yes, even outdoing Rare's efforts, something I never thought I'd ever write. From its levels that bring a wide assortment of thematic obstacles and challenges together to form cohesive stages to its wild abundance of character and charm, it's an absolute shame that Tropical Freeze is currently stuck on the Wii U. More people need to play this amazing game that surpasses even many of the 2D platforming god, Mario's many exploits. No hyperbole either.
When people talk about Pokemon, most of the time they refer to or allude to the handheld releases. After all, that's where Nintendo and The Pokemon Company puts most of their releases in the series and where Pokemon originated. Some table scraps, if you will, have been thrown out to console owners, but most of the time if you want a Pokemon game, you better have one of Nintendo's handhelds. Pokemon Colosseum wasn't just a new console spin-off for the Nintendo GameCube, but it was also a full-blown adventure -- not to be confused with a traditional mainline Pokemon release. As Wes, you explored the Orre region, investigating a nefarious group known as Team Cipher who was corrupting Pokemon, turning them into Shadow Pokemon. Having an adventure-based Pokemon game with the traditional battles of the handheld games was a breath of fresh air for the franchise, and although it did well commercially for a GameCube release, few really talk about it nowadays. A shame, as it's really a worthwhile entry for a console Pokemon game.
Originally released on the Super Famicom in Japan only, Western gamers finally got an official (see: legal) chance to play Mega Man & Bass, although it was on the smaller screen of the Game Boy Advance. This meant there was less room to see upcoming hazards unlike the fuller Super Famicom release. Regardless, the ability to play as either Mega Man or Bass (introduced in Mega Man 7), each with their own advantages and disadvantages, a challenging difficulty, multiple collectibles in the form of data discs featuring every Robot Master in past Mega Man games, and the same, fun, old Mega Man gameplay fans knew the series for made this 15th anniversary game a great one. Sure, I've never beaten the damn thing because it gets ridiculously hard after the initial eight Robot Masters are defeated, but Mega Man & Bass remains an enjoyable handheld romp, and an underrated Mega Man game in general.
ND Cube is a collection of developers who used to work for Hudson Soft, making past Mario Party games. However, since ND Cube has taken over as developer of the Mario Party series, the quality of the games has been up and down (mostly down). That said, Mario Party: Island Tour for the Nintendo 3DS featured some of the most engaging and enjoyable mini-games as a whole in any Mario Party in history. Plus, the whole "let's all ride in one car" mechanic introduced in Mario Party 9 was gone. Instead, each of Island Tour's six boards (one of which was only available for 3-4 players) had a different objective to it with varied obstacles that got in the way of doing that. Whether it was playing cautiously by hiding in an alcove or chancing fate by being in the possible path of a Banzai Bill, or collecting as many Mini-Stars as possible before reaching the end of a board, each board gave some form of variation. Throw in some appealing bonus modes like a mini-game tower to unlock secret characters, and I feel that this Mario Party was unfairly criticized and spat on.
Hello, everyone! I hope you're enjoying E3 2017 whether you're actually in Los Angeles or consuming every bit of new possible via video or on sites like these. Welcome to another installment of Classics I, your owner and main operator of SuperPhillip Central, Phil, Can Return To! This series of articles goes into seemingly infinitely replayable games that I either actually do play quite often or will come back to eventually. They're either games that are full blown classics or games that I perceive to be modern classics. This part of Classics contains a mix of the two, featuring franchises like The Legend of Zelda, Mario Kart, and Grand Theft Auto, to name a few. What games that you consider classics do you find yourself coming back to?
For past parts of Classics I Can Return To, here are all seven for your convenience.
Certainly a contender for Game of the Year so far, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild "breathed" new life into The Legend of Zelda franchise as a whole after so many entries following the same standard formula for so long. It took inspiration mostly from the very first game as seen on the NES, featuring a world you can easily get lost in (where that was most of the fun), little direction to guide you from place to place, and a means to go wherever you wanted (but not without it own obvious risks in doing so). Just one play-through can feel infinite in itself with everything you can do. I've played over 80 hours (and that's on the short side of most folks' time with the game), and I'm still witnessing new things in the world, new places to find, and things I can do with enemies, the environments, and objects that I never even knew existed. Breath of the Wild is an insanely well crafted open world game that didn't just breathe new life to Zelda as previously mentioned, but breathed new life into the open world sub-genre of games.
It says something about the quality and entertainment factor of a game where I can enjoy the original and play it for so many dozens of hours and feel compelled to buy an upgraded and updated version on another console. Mario Kart 8 was one of those games that did well on the Wii U but was limited in features for the most part (and stuck on a doomed console). Nintendo cleverly ported the game to the Nintendo Switch, which is doing awesomely so far, but added new content to make the upgrade worth it. Such new content included a totally revamped and improved Battle Mode (featuring five modes and actual battle arenas this time around instead of retro-fitted tracks from the Grand Prix mode), new characters, new kart pieces, new accessibility features, and much more. This was all while including every bit of content including the DLC from the original Wii U Mario Kart 8. With that, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a winner in my book, a worthwhile purchase despite already logging so many hours into the Wii U original, and a game I obviously can replay without issue.
Speaking of games I purchased again because I loved them so much and the upgrades were wholly worthwhile, we have one of the best selling games of all time with Grand Theft Auto V. Rockstar and Take Two are killing it with the game, constantly showing up on monthly and weekly bestseller charts in both North America and Europe respectively. The story campaign alone is deep enough and filled with so much content that it could take months to fully digest it all, especially if you just like to joyride around the city, causing trouble, and having an entourage of cops cars on your tail. However, the real longevity of Grand Theft Auto V comes from its online counterpart, included with the game. Constantly updated with fresh features, Grand Theft Auto Online continues to get support from Rockstar and is key in why the game is easy to want to come back to for many players, including myself.
With a new trailer shown at E3 2017 of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, which is an expansion story to Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, why not mention Nathan Drake's final chapter? It is in fact a modern classic by every meaning of the world. The globetrotting adventure is larger than ever before, the stakes are positively at their highest, the story is engrossing and engaging, and the various action moments in the game are to die for. Well, not literally, unless you let an enemy flank you, or you miss a jump, or you get blown to smithereens by a grenade. That notwithstanding, I hope to have a review of Uncharted 4 by the end of this month as a means to have a look back at the game a year after its release and far beyond the hype. Though as the game is on a list of games I'll come back to, it's probably no surprise how much I still enjoy it.
With not one but two new Metroid titles announced at E3 (which should appease Metroid fans for all but a minute probably), it's the perfect opportunity to bring up one of Samus Aran's most fondly remembered missions. That mission was in the Super Nintendo classic, Super Metroid. Whether I was intricately exploring every inch of Zebes for secret alcoves containing energy or missile upgrades, or trying to complete the game as fast as possible by speed-running it, Super Metroid was a game got in to far after its initial release. In fact, my first time playing it was on the Wii Virtual Console. You could say with all of my play-throughs of the game now that I've more than made up for lost time.
We conclude this edition of Classics I Can Return To with by far my favorite 2D Sonic the Hedgehog game, Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It combines both Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and its expansion, Sonic & Knuckles, into one lengthy adventure encapsulating multiple playable characters, Chaos and Master Emeralds to collect, and new story elements not found in either Sonic 3 or Sonic & Knuckles by themselves. This cyborg of Sonic games (even the construction of putting the Sonic 3 cartridge into the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge looked some mechanical monstrosity) features my favorite collection of zones in any Sonic game, and there are seldom any moments I dread playing, which I can't say for any other Sonic adventure. While I enjoyed other 2D Sonics, even modern ones like the Sonic Advance and Sonic Rush series, Sonic 3 & Knuckles remains my top tier 2D Sonic the Hedgehog game.
It was quite the busy day here at SuperPhillip Central, digesting all of the new trailers put out by both Nintendo and other publishers today. Now that we have a breather, let's see the return of a segment that I've wanted to continue for a very long time now. Finally, we've reached Volume Two of the weirdly titled "How Was I Supposed to Know THAT!?" This series talks about things in video games that are so hard to find, figure out, or solve that they're almost obtuse, if not counterintuitive. Volume Two starts with The Legend of Zelda before going a bit more modern with its picks. Do you agree with SuperPhillip Central's selections?
And here's Volume One for your convenience!
The Legend of Zelda for the NES can be credited as one of the earliest examples of the open world sub-genre of game. It's no secret to everyone that NES games were quite obtuse for the most part, and that was a great deal of the mystique and made you feel like you were on your own adventure. Right away, you begin in a hostile land with enemies ready to send you, as the player, to the Game Over screen. There are few clues in the world, and what is on offer in Hyrule is all cryptic -- though in some part due to the funky translation of the game.
Players were left on their own to find where to go and even what to do to begin with. The main quest was to venture to Hyrule's eight main dungeons before tackling Ganon's domicile in Death Mountain. Of course, that meant meticulously exploring the overworld for helpful items to get through the game and reach different dungeons to earn pieces of the broken Triforce.
Some dungeon entrances were as simple as happening upon them through pure exploration. You'd just happen upon them, enter them, and if your luck was good, you'd be ready to take that specific dungeon on. Others required some examination of the world and just trying things out, One example is burning a lone bush in a forest to reveal the entrance to Level 8.
However, as a player of The Legend of Zelda in the early '90s when I was old enough to have a fighting chance at the game, one particular dungeon that stifled my progress considerably was attempting to discover the location of Level 7. The secret to finding it is in finding a woman who gives a cryptic clue when you give her one of three Rupee amounts, specifically the middle amount. The clue says something about a lake without a fairy, but that's the limit of assistance you get. Not only did the idea of not just spending the maximum amount of Rupees for the best clue not come in my mind (and most players' minds), but there is no hint at all that you have to use the Whistle found in Level 5 to reveal the entrance to Level 7. When you play the Whistle, the lake where there is no healing fairy dries up, showing the steps leading downward into this difficult-to-discover dungeon.
Let's go from one classic Nintendo franchise to another, though with an entry far more recent than Link's first outing. After all, this was Nintendo's day to shine at E3, and I think the publisher did a wonderful enough job to earn two places on Volume Two of these obtuse things in games. We turn our attention to New Super Mario Bros. 2, which didn't have a lot to separate itself from other 2D Mario games, especially of the New Super Mario Bros. series, but it was enjoyable all the same with some neat level design.
One of the fun things about the New Super Mario Bros. series was its inclusion of optional Star Coins to collect, three in each main level. This both encouraged and rewarded exploration that players might not have otherwise done. After all, is a 1-up really that big of a reward when they're so easy to get? Maybe if this were the original Super Mario Bros. NES trilogy it would be, where they're such a rare commodity, but this is the New Super Mario Bros. series we're talking about here. Other than Star Coins, many levels includes secret exits just like Super Mario World introduced to the series.
Most of the time the secrets in New Super Mario Bros. 2 are pretty intuitive. They're logical in the sense that if there is something off with a platform or something, most likely there's something there. However, this isn't exactly a rule to the game. One of the most challenging secret exits in New Super Mario Bros. 2 appears in World 5-1. In the level itself, you need to reach a rope Mario can bounce off of to hit a block that reveals a beanstalk to a bonus area. Inside this bonus area is a circle of revolving Parakoopas that guard an aforementioned Star Coin.
The thing of this is is that you wouldn't think there would be anything else in this room. After all, you got the Star Coin, and that was obviously all the room was good for. Time to fall down the hole and continue the level, right? Of course not, but that's not the rub here. The rub comes from the secret exit only being reachable by hitting an invisible block that reveals yet another beanstalk, and then taking that across two rings of circling Parakoopas to the secret exit. The invisible block in this bonus room is over an innocuous rope in the area, and completely unassuming. You dastardly level designers! This was the only thing in New Super Mario Bros. 2 that I needed to look at a guide for, as not finding that secret exit until then made me miss out on two bonus levels in the game.
Despite being heckled by some in the Mega Man fan base, I quite enjoyed Mega Man 7, the only classic game in the series to hit the Super Nintendo. (But I would take Mega Man X1 - X3 over any classic Mega Man game any day. Truth.) Anyway, you can play through the game normally, going through all eight Robot Masters and then taking on the Wily Stages if you want, but Mega Man 7 offered the most longevity for one single play-through than almost any other classic series Mega Man game on offer.
One of the most time-consuming tasks in Mega Man 7 is done by finding Proto Man who can initially be discovered in a room Cloud Man's stage. This is performed by using Mega Man's trusty canine companion's Rush Coil to reach the area. Here, Proto Man gives the Blue Bomber a hint on what to do next, albeit however obvious it would be to use a flame weapon to burn down a forest's leaves. Regardless, continuing from here is something I didn't even know was possible. It's something that had eluded me for over 15 years since originally playing Mega Man 7 via Blockbuster rental in my childhood. Proto Man can once again be found, but his location is in such a "how was I supposed to find THAT!?" spot that it's no wonder I never found him as a kid.
Proto Man is next located in Turbo Man's stage, where he's hidden inside a false wall. Ah, the false wall, how I hate you. With no hint at all of a false wall being there, Proto Man was waiting for me to finally find him for a looong time. With another tip that goes in one eye and out the other (get it, since players are reading the dialogue instead of hearing it?), you finally can go to Shade Man's stage. With the mid-boss in that level, you have to destroy it a particular way to be able to go downward in the level to continue. A Sniper Joe, another enemy of my childhood alongside the false wall, stands before another false wall which leads to the grand culmination of all of this exploring -- the battle with Proto Man.
After all of this moving from one level to another and defeating Proto Man, he gives Mega Man his Proto Shield as a prize. In a cruel twist of fate, the shield actually is worthless if you like to use any type of substantial offense (like in, y'know, any Mega Man game for it to be fun), but alas, at least the journey was a fun one. It's just a shame that over 15 years of wondering about Proto Man didn't end with a more satisfying conclusion for me.
Just in time for the PlayStation 4 remastering of Final Fantasy XII with Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is this obtuse item in the game. Your mother should have taught you not to be greedy. Well, certain people in power in my country didn't get that lesson taught to them, but that's a post for another site. Back on subject, in Final Fantasy XII, if you're too greedy, then you might just give up a chance for one of the rarest weapons in the game, and you might not even ever have known it existed because of it!
It's Final Fantasy XII's Zodiac Spear. Usually you have to do something to get a really valuable weapon, but with the Zodiac Spear's case, you have to not do something. In this case, it's not opening four of the game's treasure chests out of countless ones throughout the game. These specific chests don't look any differently than any other in the game, so even if you know about this dilemma about opening chests, you don't know which ones not to open. If you don't even know that, then unless you're insanely lucky (opening a certain chest that ridiculously rarely gives you the spear right then and there), you won't even know the Zodiac Spear even exists.
For me, Tales of Symphonia fills me a nice sense of nostalgia. It was my first Tales game, and it was lovely game to play during one of my summers off from high school. However, until reading a Brady Games strategy guide on Symphonia much later after having beaten the game, I was absolutely shocked to learn about a piece of the game I never considered.
As Lloyd Irving, the main character of Tales of Symphonia, you occasionally get the opportunity to choose between two lines of dialogue for him to say to various characters. Seems harmless enough, and it did to me while playing the game originally at the time. However, what is completely left out by the actual game is a relationship system where these choices of dialogue affect how the numerous party members tagging along with Lloyd think about him, as well as affecting their affinity with him. Since I generally make the most rational of choices the first time around as main characters in games that give me this opportunity, I ended up with a default ending. That said, Lloyd can end up with any number of characters, and it can even affect the makeup of Lloyd's party in the long-term as one character can die with another taking their place.


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Hardware's business-model shift: Finding a new path forward
March 3, 2021 | Article
By Himanshu Agarwal, Chandra Gnanasambandam, Mitra Mahdavian, and Srinath Nagarajan
New business models present an opportunity for IT-infrastructure providers, who are facing a migration in value as buyers demand cloud-like, customer-centric experiences.
IT-infrastructure providers face an unenviable challenge. Technological change has led their customers to view hardware appliances as commoditized. At the same time, cloud-based vendors and hyperscalers have set new norms for simplifying customers' experiences of purchasing IT infrastructure. As a result, savvy chief information officers (CIOs) and IT buyers now demand a cloud-like experience even when buying on-premises IT infrastructure, such as pay-per-use models for on-site equipment to help them manage the complexity of their hybrid deployments and IT needs.
Take the case of networking. Advancements in software-defined networking (SDN) help centralize the network's intelligence and control to the software layer, resulting in the standardization of the underlying hardware. The opportunity for OEMs to compete on hardware-feature innovation has all but dried up as a result. Intense competition from new software-led competitors and cheaper substitutes coming onto the market further accentuate this challenge.
Given these forces, IT-infrastructure OEMs have little choice but to reinvent their business models to increase the share of recurring revenue from subscription, software, and services. Yet many OEMs struggle with their business-model-transformation strategy and its execution. A successful transition requires four key elements, starting first and foremost with selecting a new business model that works best for that particular company. After that critical decision is made, the process involves reinventing core business functions, managing the economic risks of such a major shift, and embracing a flexible and agile new organization and operating model.
IT-infrastructure OEMs have little choice but to reinvent their business models to increase the share of recurring revenue from subscription, software, and services.
The rewards of a business-model transformation
IT-infrastructure providers typically adopt a combination of different approaches to reinventing their business model. When done right, IT-infrastructure providers can see an increase in market share and improvements in customer experience. For example, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) says its Greenlake 3.0 solution—a bundle of traditional computing and storage hardware with software products and services that is priced using a single "unit of consumption" such as terabytes or number of virtual machines—has onboarded more than 1,000 customers with over $4 billion in total contract value within three years of its launch. In 2019, it also said that the consumer-satisfaction rating for the Greenlake 3.0 solution is more than 80 percent, which is in the 99th percentile for IT-service delivery.
Furthermore, we believe that investors will reward new business models with a higher enterprise value if providers can consistently demonstrate that revenue is recurring in a manner that's disconnected from the life cycle of the hardware and that's subject to low customer churn while sustaining or expanding profit margins. Drawing a parallel, software companies that underwent successful business-model transitions from perpetual software-license models to software as a service (SaaS) or SaaS-like recurring-revenue models were rewarded with higher enterprise valuations. The most well-known example is Adobe's switch to subscriptions, which is widely cited as evidence of what is possible with the model: the multimedia-and creativity-software provider increased its share of subscription revenue from 10 percent to 88 percent between 2010 and 2018. 1 1. Adobe SEC filings, US Securities and Exchange Commission, sec.gov. During the same period, its price-to-sales multiple increased from 4.1 to 12.2. 2 2. Trailing 12-month price-to-sales ratio as of December 31, 2010, and December 31, 2018 (Source: Thomson Reuters, reuters.com).
Finding the right model and approach
In our research, we have observed four principal ways that IT-infrastructure providers can transform their business model. They involve redesigning offerings, for example, to separate the use of software from the underlying hardware appliance it runs on, or to allow the software to operate across cloud or hybrid setups, or to provide for subscription options (Exhibit 1).
Each model comes with its own set of considerations, so selecting the right model involves fully understanding how it would play out for a particular OEM and the type of products it sells.
Software-led product restructuring
Recognizing the migration of value from hardware to software, some IT-infrastructure providers have restructured their products and offerings to separate the use of embedded software from the hardware to offer it on a stand-alone basis. For example, in 2017 Nutanix, a leading provider of hyperconverged-infrastructure (HCI) technology, 3 3. A hyperconverged infrastructure is a turnkey data-center hardware that combines server, storage, and networking into a single appliance prebundled with server and storage virtualization software. began to shift its focus from sale of hardware appliances with integrated software to the sale of HCI software (Acropolis, sold in software-only form) to be run on hardware appliances from any IT-infrastructure provider. Since then, it has seen its high-margin stand-alone-software-based billing grow in share to about 90 percent of its bookings (a large share of the company's increased software bookings is also from stand-alone-software add-ons and cloud products). The company reported its overall gross margins increased to 82 percent in 2020, compared with 66 percent in 2016. 4 4. Nutanix investor presentations for fourth quarter 2020 and first quarter 2018.
However, embracing a software-led product restructuring presents a risk of loss in market share to other hardware-appliance vendors. For example, most IT-infrastructure vendors that run Nutanix HCI software also offer their own competing HCI offerings. To manage these risks, hardware companies need to avoid the trap of offering embedded software on its own without added features or functionality. Customers rarely perceive such offers as sufficiently differentiated and independent from the underlying hardware. Such moves done poorly could prove counterproductive since customers often view them as mere payment-model changes.
In our experience, companies that successfully restructure their solutions to be software-led follow three steps. First, they disaggregate the hardware appliance down to its granular features and performance attributes (throughput, input/output operations per second, and latency, for example) and match them to their users' performance needs. Second, they create a wholly new solution entirely of software, operable on any hardware appliance featuring an integrated control center to manage hardware-performance attributes and adjust underlying hardware or virtual resources as needed. Finally, they offer several value-added software features (performance monitoring and administration, advanced analytics on usage, and proactive maintenance of underlying hardware, for example). Only with these changes do customers view the software form-factor product as a viable stand-alone offer independent from the underlying hardware appliance.
Public-cloud and hybrid-cloud extension
Today, IT buyers manage their workloads seamlessly across multiple deployment models, including on-premises data centers and private-cloud, public-cloud, and remote environments. Many IT infrastructure OEMs have embraced the change by extending their product and offers to cloud and hybrid-cloud deployment models. For example, NetApp is a leading provider of on-premises file-based storage technology. 5 5. A storage technology best suited for hosting high-performance computing workloads, enterprise web applications, databases, et cetera. NetApp has teamed up with Microsoft Azure to help offer file-based storage technology on the public cloud, which allows enterprises to run file-based applications in Azure. Another example is Palo Alto Networks, which not too long ago was a cybersecurity company predominantly focused on selling on-premise enterprise firewall hardware. Over time, the company has expanded its offerings to include a wide selection of software-based cloud and hybrid-cloud security applications such as threat prevention, SaaS security, and cloud network protection. As a result, the company's share of software and services revenue has steadily increased from approximately 40 percent in 2014 to approximately 60 percent in 2018. These cloud-based offers are viewed as differentiated and command higher price-to-sales multiples (typically between five and seven times) than traditional on-premises hardware offers (which are typically between one and a half and three times ). 6 6. Palo Alto Networks SEC filings, US Securities and Exchange Commission, sec.gov. During this period, Palo Alto Networks' share price increased from an average of just over $80 per share to approximately $190 per share, an increase of about 130 percent, which is about 1.3 times the approximately 98 percent increase that the S&P 500 Information Technology Index experienced in that same period. 7 7. Palo Alto Networks' average stock price for 2014 was $82.95 and for 2018 was $215.59; the S&P 500's Information Technology Index for 2014 was 630 and for 2018 was 1,210 (Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices, spglobal.com). (Of course, multiple market factors affect share prices, and the percentage of recurring software revenue a company generates is just one of them.)
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Public-cloud and hybrid-cloud product extensions often expose the companies offering them to competition from software-only players and public-cloud providers that are increasingly looking to offer value-added hybrid-cloud service. In our experience, companies that have successfully scaled such public-cloud and hybrid-cloud extensions do three things. First, they position the cloud offers with their existing customers as an extension of their on-premises value proposition in the cloud. Second, they design creative buying programs that allow buyers to migrate their spending seamlessly between on-premises and cloud products. That drives a preference for the company's cloud offerings over others as customers migrate their workloads to the cloud. Finally, they enter partnerships with one or more public-cloud providers to tap into a new customer segment of cloud-first buyers previously not exposed to the company.
Software-adjacent portfolio expansion
Another approach adopted by companies to reinvent their business models is to expand their portfolio of software products. Typically, these expansions center on software add-ons that can serve various parts of the technology stack.
Companies that have expanded their portfolio of software products have often relied on acquisitions of stand-alone software products. For example, Cisco has strengthened its presence in networking and security by acquiring software companies in this space. Since 2017, the company purchased three companies: Viptela, which offers SDN in a wide-area network (SD-WAN); AppDynamics, which offers application-performance management and IT-operations analytics; and Duo Security, which offers unified-access security and multifactor authentication delivered through the cloud. Since the acquisitions, Cisco's price-to-sales multiple increased from 3.1 to 3.9. 8 8. Trailing 12 months price-to-sales ratio as of December 31, 2016, and December 31, 2018 (Source: Thomson Reuters, reuters.com).
Companies that expand their portfolio in this way face the risks of low return on investments, whether that's in-house R&D spending or acquisition costs. They also face the risk of improper integration of new products with existing hardware-based offers.
The companies that have made successful portfolio moves first start by understanding their target decision makers' typical buying processes. They then expand to other products that these decision makers either already need or are likely to want in the future. Once launched, companies integrate these new products with their existing portfolio and create packages or bundles that holistically address those target customers' needs.
Cloud-like subscription-pricing models
IT buyers desire a seamless purchasing experience from their on-premises OEMs that parallels the experience they get from their cloud-service providers. IT-infrastructure providers can respond to these demands with cloud-like subscription-pricing models for both software and hardware.
Companies that introduce software products (through one of the approaches already discussed) often offer the hardware on an up-front-payment model while increasing profitability through subsequent sales of software on a subscription model. For example, since moving to a software-led model, Nutanix's subscription-based billing has grown. In the fourth quarter of 2020, about 65 percent of its billing was subscription-based, compared with 31 percent in 2017 (when it first started reporting subscription-software revenue). 9 9. Nutanix investor presentations for first quarter 2019 and first quarter 2018.
Even for traditional hardware products, IT-infrastructure providers are innovating on pricing models by offering hardware with turnkey on-site deployment, flexibility to scale on demand, and seamless periodic upgrades. Also, they can offer customers the option to pay on a per-use or consumption model. HPE Greenlake, for instance, is a leading example of such a cloud-like subscription model for hardware. Another example is the data storage provider Pure Storage's Pure as-a-Service product, which commits to technical outcomes around input/output operations per second (IOPS), effective capacity, and uptime of 99.999 percent. Pure Storage then delivers and installs the appropriate equipment at the customer's premises with additional storage media preinstalled to cater to on-demand storage needs.
Almost all major infrastructure providers offer cloud-like subscription-pricing models for their storage, server, and hyperconverged offerings. And cloud-like subscription-pricing models for hardware appliances are gaining adoption among customers. Yet these cloud-like recurring-pricing models are easier to pull off for high-margin, software-only products than for hardware appliances.
For that reason, cloud-like pricing models for hardware appliances are suitable only for certain offerings and providers. Companies that launch and scale hardware appliances successfully make this pricing model's economics viable by using contracting levers such as minimum contract commitments or cancellation fees. In the case of Pure as-a-Service, Pure Storage requires customers to reserve capacity (at a set cost per gigabyte) and pay in 12-month installments. True-consumption-based pricing is offered only for the on-demand add-on capacity. (For more on best practices in moving to flexible subscription models, see the article "Subscription myth busters: What it takes to shift to a recurring-revenue model for hardware and software.")
The right business model will be bespoke
IT-infrastructure providers looking to change their business model will likely need to come up with their own tailored combination of the models we describe here to pivot away from appliance-based, low-margin, lumpy revenue to sustainable recurring-revenue business models. In our experience, providers identify the right combination by defining their business-model-transformation aspirations in one or more of the following ways:
Increase the percentage of software revenue
Increase the percentage of subscription or recurring revenue
Increase the services mix
Improve the customer experience
The right combination of business-model moves to achieve these aspirations is company specific and needs to be decided based on in-depth research into, first, customer demand, buying preferences, and life-cycle journeys and, second, company opportunities to unlock additional value with premium pricing, new upsell and cross-sell pathways, and new total-addressable-market unlock.
Regardless of the path chosen to reinvent the new business models, successful shifts of this kind require transformation across three major areas—key business functions, economics, and governance.
Pulling it off
Overhauling a business model requires reinventing all core business functions. In our experience, changes to six of these functions have a disproportionate impact on success (Exhibit 2). These include the following changes:
Offer design, packaging, and pricing execution. Simplify product pricing and packaging.
Sales and marketing. Revamp sales and marketing for new business models.
Services, customer success, and renewals. Define your North Star for post-purchase customer journeys and tailor your go-to-market strategy.
Operations. Redefine the supply chain and invest in capabilities for asset-life-cycle management.
Systems and IT. Digitize end-to-end administration of new offers.
Product and engineering. Restructure products and solutions to be software-led and backed by customer needs.
Economics of the transformation
Business-model transitions result in a radical change in revenue, margin, and balance-sheet profiles for companies. CFOs constantly fear that these changes could destroy market value and internal finance risks, such as cash-flow constraints and capital and credit risks. Four best practices for managing economic risk have emerged so far among hardware companies that have undertaken business-model transformation:
Accelerating the pace of transition of existing customers to the new business model to minimize the period of uncertainty for them
Creating transparency with investors around the business-model transition plan and reporting against new business success metrics
Partnering with players along the value chain, such as suppliers, distributors, and value-added resellers, to jointly share and manage financial risks
Exploring inorganic moves to mitigate financial risks, such as setting up a separate financing arm, or entering joint ventures with a financial institution, or undergoing corporate restructuring to separate the revenue stream of the new business model from that of the old
To succeed at transforming a business model, IT-infrastructure OEMs have to embrace fully the new organization and operating model around it. The actions required to do so fall into four buckets:
To succeed at transforming a business model, IT-infrastructure OEMs have to embrace fully the new organization and operating model around it.
Aligned vision, aspiration, and direction. The top team has to be on the same page around the aspiration for and ownership of the transition and carry out a full communications and engagement plan, just as for any foundational change.
Agile operating model for execution. It will take a central control tower to orchestrate the transformation with speed, with cross-functional initiatives broken up into a manageable portfolio of workstreams.
Right people, right skills, and right mindsets. This level of change means reconsidering the talent throughout the organization, to ensure the capabilities to run the new business model are in place.
Right goals. Cascading objectives and key results (OKRs) designed around recurring revenue and the customer experience will hardwire the change and drive desired transformation outcomes.
We believe reinventing the business model for an IT-infrastructure OEM is an 18- to 24-month journey that requires a total overhaul of a company's approach to doing business. Gleaning lessons from similar business-model shifts undertaken by software companies, we have seen that it is critical for companies to set bold aspirations and timelines and commit to the change. Companies that adopt a slow and incremental approach to driving change often find they're not able to truly achieve it.
Himanshu Agarwal is a partner in McKinsey's Silicon Valley office, where Chandra Gnanasambandam is a senior partner and Mitra Mahdavian is a partner. Srinath Nagarajan is an associate partner in the San Francisco office.
This article was edited by Daniel Eisenberg, a senior editor in the New York office.
The next software disruption: How vendors must adapt to a new era
New demand, new markets: What edge computing means for hardware companies
Transforming infrastructure operations for a hybrid-cloud world


Slime for sale!! Brand new!! Made it myself!! Selling at $3!!
Ebonywood laughing Buddha~Cash and Carry at our shop located at 404 Upper Paya Lebar Road.
mac n' cheese slime !!
Easter Themed slime 4.5oz heart container - $4.50 8oz round container - $8 Half floam slime Scented sugary lollipops All orders come with candy and activator! Payment - bank transfer/paylah/cash deposit Strictly no meet ups! Mailing only! 3x 4.5oz for $12! ( only applies for slimes below $5!
Maple Pancake super pretty java chip slime !! topped w gold glitter ( not shown in pic ) can choose between thick and glossy / slay / butter slime texture!:) base is slightly brown:) can be scented for $0.20 extra ! ( lemon,rose,chocolate,buttermilk,banana ) 1 for $4!


It is the end of the month and that means it is The Daring Bakers Challenge deadline. This month's Challenge was hosted by Rosa's Yummy Yums. Our challenge is something that we love in our house and that is homemade pizza. When people think of baking, typically something sweet, creamy, and chocolatey come to mind, at least that is what comes to my mind. I am so glad that this month our challenge involved something I could serve my family for dinner.
This month's recipe is €œPizza Napoletana€ from Peter Reinhart's €œThe Bread Baker's Apprentice€. Included in part of the challenge was capturing yourself tossing the dough. I, unfortunately, do not have a picture of this, so please check out the Daring Bakers blogroll for wonderful pictures of my fellow bakers who have mastered the toss. We also had to use both a sauce and toppings, but it was left up to our imagination as to what those included.
I know a couple secrets to great pizza is a HOT, HOT, HOT oven and don't overload the toppings. This is a recipe I want to try when I am at my in-laws' place because they cook their pizzas on the grill. My father-in-law has a BGE (Big Green Egg) and it makes for some amazing pizza. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. However, this dough cannot be whipped up on a whim. You need to plan for it because it takes needs to rest in the fridge OVERNIGHT.
My pizza toppings include marinara sauce (very little), cheddar cheese, Canadian bacon (ham), pineapple (that has been blotted dry), dried Italian herbs, and fresh shredded Parmesan cheese.
I do want to make a pizza with apples. I have a whole crisper drawer full in my fridge.
Original recipe is taken from €œThe Bread Baker's Apprentice€ by Peter Reinhart.
You can store the dough balls in a zippered freezer bag if you want to save some of the dough for any future baking. In that case, pour some oil(a few tablespoons only) in a medium bowl and dip each dough ball into the oil, so that it is completely covered in oil. Then put each ball into a separate bag. Store the bags in the freezer for no longer than 3 months. The day before you plan to make pizza, remember to transfer the dough balls from the freezer to the refrigerator.
Remember that the best pizzas are topped not too generously. No more than 3 or 4 toppings (including sauce and cheese) are sufficient.
Add the oil and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water.
With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you want to make larger pizzas).
Put the pan in the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days.
At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C).
Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.
When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter – for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan.
Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for about 5-8 minutes.
After 2 minutes baking, take a peek. For an even baking, rotate 180°.
If the top gets done before the bottom, you will need to move the stone or jelly pane to a lower shelf before the next round. On the contrary, if the bottom crisps before the cheese caramelize, then you will need to raise the stone or jelly.


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En les estadístiques i l'aprenentatge automàtic, els mètodes de conjunt utilitzen diversos algorismes d'aprenentatge per obtenir un millor rendiment predictiu del que es podria obtenir a partir de qualsevol dels algorismes d'aprenentatge constitutius. A diferència d'un conjunt estadístic en mecànica estadística, que sol ser infinit, un conjunt d'aprenentatge automàtic consta només d'un conjunt finit concret de models alternatius, però normalment permet que hi hagi una estructura molt més flexible entre aquestes alternatives.

Els algorismes d'aprenentatge supervisat realitzen la tasca de cercar a través d'un espai d'hipòtesis per trobar una hipòtesi adequada que faci bones prediccions amb un problema concret. Fins i tot si l'espai d'hipòtesis conté hipòtesis que són molt adequades per a un problema en particular, pot ser molt difícil trobar-ne un de bo. Els conjunts combinen múltiples hipòtesis per formar una (esperem) millor hipòtesi. El terme conjunt es reserva normalment per a mètodes que generen múltiples hipòtesis utilitzant el mateix aprenent base. El terme més ampli de sistemes de classificadors múltiples també cobreix la hibridació d'hipòtesis que no són induïdes pel mateix aprenent de base.

L'avaluació de la predicció d'un conjunt requereix normalment més càlcul que l'avaluació de la predicció d'un sol model. En un sentit, es pot pensar que l'aprenentatge en conjunt és una manera de compensar els mals algorismes d'aprenentatge realitzant molts càlculs addicionals. D'altra banda, l'alternativa és fer molt més aprenentatge en un sistema no conjunt. Un sistema de conjunt pot ser més eficient a l'hora de millorar la precisió general per al mateix augment dels recursos de càlcul, emmagatzematge o comunicació utilitzant aquest augment en dos o més mètodes, que no s'hauria millorat augmentant l'ús de recursos per a un únic mètode. Els algorismes ràpids com els arbres de decisió s'utilitzen habitualment en mètodes de conjunt (per exemple, boscos aleatoris), encara que els algorismes més lents també es poden beneficiar de les tècniques de conjunt.

Per analogia, les tècniques de conjunt s'han utilitzat també en escenaris d'aprenentatge no supervisat, per exemple en l'agrupació de consens o en la detecció d'anomalies.

Tipus comuns de mètodes de conjunts: Classificador òptim de Bayes, Agregació de bootstrap (empaquetament), Boosting, Mitjana del model bayesià, Combinació de models bayesians, Cubeta de models, Apilament.

Referències

Aprenentatge automàtic


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Honoring Excellence: Q and A with Amanda Lezanski-Gujda, DO
2021 David C. Leach Awardee Amanda Lezanski-Gujda, DO is the head of teledermatology at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Honoring Excellence: Q and A with Thomas R. Greenwood, DO
2021 David C. Leach Awardee Thomas R. Greenwood, DO is the project lead for the family medicine department at Central Washington Family Medicine.
#ACGME2021 Summary: In His President's Plenary, Dr. Nasca Makes a Call to Action
ACGME President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Thomas J. Nasca addressed the virtual crowd of approximately 6,000 in his President's Plenary, kicking off the ACGME Annual Educational Conference with a powerful call to action on Thursday, February 25, 2021.
Honoring Excellence: Q and A with Henry J. Schultz, MD, MACP
2021 John C. Gienapp Awardee Henry J. Schultz, MD, MACP works as a professor of medicine in primary care internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education.
Honoring Excellence: Q and A with Stacey Quintero Wolfe, MD, FAANS
Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Awardee Stacey Quintero Wolfe, MD, FAANS is associate professor and residency program director and director of neurointerventional surgery at Wake Forest School of Medicine.
#ACGME2021 Day 1 Recap: Pre-Conferences and Looking Ahead
The first day of the ACGME's first all-virtual Annual Educational Conference kicked off with inspiring and informative pre-conferences for a variety of audiences and roles in graduate medical education.
Honoring Excellence: Emory University School of Medicine, Emergency Medicine Receives 2021 ACGME Diversity and Inclusion Award
Emory University School of Medicine, Emergency Medicine is one of two inaugural recipients of the ACGME's Diversity and Inclusion Award.
Honoring Excellence: Morehouse School of Medicine receives 2021 ACGME Diversity and Inclusion Award
Morehouse School of Medicine is one of two inaugural recipients of the ACGME's Diversity and Inclusion Award.
ACGME e-Communication - February 22, 2021
This week's edition of the e-Communication includes information on #ThankaResidentDay; the Annual Educational Conference; the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leadership Forum; ACGME Award nominations, and more.


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B&N Launches 2 HD Tablets
New York – Barnes & Noble is adding its first two HD-resolution tablets to the tablet market's fourth-quarter competitive fires.
One is the company's first 9-inch model. Both Wi-Fi tablets increase their processing power over B&N's existing models and will be compatible with the company's new Nook Video service.
Their introduction follows the introduction of Amazon's expanded selection of Kindle Fire tablets, Kobo's latest tablet, and the first house-brand tablet from retailer Toys "R" Us. The Amazon and Kobo tablets also offer HD display.
The two new B&N models are the 7-inch Nook HD, priced at $199 for the 8GB version and $229 for the16GB version, and the 9-inch Nook HD+, which is priced at $269 for the 16GB version and $299 for the 32GB version. The price of the Nook HD+ undercuts the price of Amazon's new 8.9-inch Kindle Fire tablet, which starts at $299 for the 16GB version with HD display.
Both models ship in late October and be available in stores in early November.
Both will be compatible with B&N's new Nook Video service, which lets consumers purchase or rent movies and TV shows for downloading or streaming. The two tablets are also UltraViolet-enabled, so users who buy physical DVD and Blu-ray movies will be able to link their UltraViolet locker-service accounts to the Nook Cloud service to view the purchased movies on the Nook HD, Nook HD+, and Nook Video apps running on other mobile devices.
B&N is touting the Nook HD as the industry's lightest and highest-resolution 7-inch tablet and the 9-inch NOOK HD as the world's lightest FullHD tablet.
Nook HD's 7-inch IPS display features 1,440 by 900 resolution with 243 pixels per inch (ppi) and HD 720p video playback. Its display is promoted as offering 25 percent more pixels than the Kindle Fire HD. Optical bonding technology with no air gap is said to deliver low glare and a wide viewing angle.
The Nook HD weighs in at 11.1 ounces, said to be more than 20 percent lighter and almost a half-inch narrower than Kindle Fire HD. It's only 5 inches wide.
The Nook HD also features dual-core 1.3GHz high-speed processor, up from the Nook Tablet's dual-core 1GHz CPU and the Nook Color's 800MHz CPU. The Nook HD's speed is said to be 80 percent faster than the Kindle Fire HD for graphics processing. It offers 1GB of RAM.
B&N's second new tablet, the 9-inch Nook HD+, features a FullHD 1,920 by 1,280 resolution with 256 ppi for playback of 1080p video. It weighs in at 18.2 ounces, said to make it the lightest FullHD tablet announced to date. The tablet also features 1.5GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM .
Both new tablets also feature expandable memory via a 32GB MicroSD slot.
B&N also launched new e-readers.
B&N Launches Two HD Tablets
Barnes & Nobles Cuts Prices On Carryover Tablets
B&N Color Nook Bridges Tablets, e-Readers
Samsung, B&N Team On Second Nook Tablet
Samsung, B&N Roll Out Co-Branded Reading Tablet
B&N Names New COO
B&N To Add Nook Video Service
B&N Teams Up With Samsung For Co-Branded Tablet


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Андерсен (авіабаза) (, AFB) — військова база Військово-Повітряних сил США, розташована в 6,5 км на північний схід від містечка Йіго на острові Гуам, що входить до складу США і має статус неприєднаної території.

На авіабазі базується 36-е авіакрило ВПС США, що відноситься до Командування ВПС у зоні Тихого океану. 36-е авіакрило забезпечує розгортання і підтримку військово-повітряним і космічним силам США, а також ВПС країн-союзників.
Авіабаза була створена в 1944 році і названа на честь бригадного генерала Джеймса Роя Андерсона (1904-1945). Командує 36-м авіакрилом бригадний генерал Філіп М. Рулмен.

Огляд
Андерсен є однією з чотирьох позицій стратегічних бомбардувальників ВПС США. Розташування бази забезпечує пряму підтримку екіпажів бомбардувальників для розгортання сил в Європі, Південно-Західній Азії і Тихоокеанському регіоні. Андерсен є однією з двох найважливіших військових баз США в Азіатсько-Тихоокеанському регіоні. Іншою є острів Дієго-Гарсія в Індійському океані. Майже необмежений цивільними маршрутами повітряний простір Гуаму і безпосередня близькість військового полігону на острові Фаральон-де-Медінілья, приблизно в 240 кілометрах на північ, робить його ідеальною базою для навчання військових льотчиків.

Військові частини
На авіабазі Андерсен базуються:

 36-е авіакрило
 734-й авіаескадрон підтримки
 Військово-морське вертолітне авіакрило і ряд інших частин.

Перелік найменувань авіабази

 заснована в грудні 1944 року як North Field (почала приймати літаки тільки з 3 лютого 1945)
 North Field AB Command (з 9 травня 1946 р. по 20 грудня 1947)
 North Army Air Base (з 20 грудня 1947 по 1 березня 1948)
 North Air Force Base (з 1 березня 1948 по 22 квітня 1948)
 North Guam Air Force Base (з 22 квітня 1948 по 1 лютого 1949)
 North Field Air Force Base (з 1 лютого 1949 по 1 березня 1949)
 North Guam Air Force Base (з 1 березня 1949 по 7 жовтня 1949)
 Andersen Air Force Base (з 7 жовтня 1949 —)

Історія
Авіабаза Андерсен була заснована 3 грудня 1944 р. і названа на честь бригадного генерала Джеймса Роя Андерсона (1904-1945). Джеймс Андерсен закінчив Військову Академію США у 1926 році, служив у різних авіачастинах ВПС США. У 1943-1944 служив у військовому міністерстві Генерального штабу. В січні 1945 року Андерсен був призначений у штаб командування США в Тихому океані. Загинув 26 лютого 1945 року в катастрофі літака B-24 між островом Кваджалейн і островом Джонстона, під час польоту на Гаваї.

Друга світова війна
Витоки бази ВПС Андерсен починаються 8 грудня 1941 року, коли Гуам піддався нападу з боку збройних сил імператорської Японії в битві за Гуам (1941) через три години після атаки на Перл-Харбор. Гуам здався японським силам 10 грудня. У розпал війни приблизно 19000 японських солдатів і матросів були розквартировані на острові. Гуам був звільнений морською піхотою США 21 липня 1944 року в битві за Гуам (1944), через 13 днів після початку битви за звільнення острова від японських загарбників.

Японцям вдалося стримувати морських піхотинців на двох плацдармах, але їх контрнаступ зазнав невдачі. Морські піхотинці поновили свій наступ і досягли північного краю острова 10 серпня 1944 року. Японці вели партизанську діяльність аж до кінця війни.

Гуам розглядався як ідеальне місце для створення військово-повітряної бази для бомбардувальників B-29, які могли б завдавати ракетно-бомбові удари по Японії. Токіо знаходиться на відстані близько 1500 км від Гуама. Перша згадка про військові бази на Гуамі відноситься до листопада 1944 року, коли був створений аеродром «Норт Філд». Був створений великий комплекс, що включає в себе чотири основні злітно-посадкові смуги, руліжні доріжки, майданчики для більш ніж 200 бомбардувальників B-29, і великий комплекс будівель та споруд для персоналу авіабази.

Першим на авіабазі став базуватися 314-й бомбардувальний авіаполк у складі бомбардувальників B-29. Він прибув на Гуам 16 січня 1945 р. з авіабази Петерсон Філд, штат Колорадо.
Основним завданням авіаполку було бомбардування стратегічних цілей в Японії в денний час і з великих висот. Починаючи з березня 1945 р., тактику змінили і почали проведення нічних бомбометань запальними бомбами по площинним цілям. В ніч з 9 на 10 березня 1945 року 325 американських важких бомбардувальників В-29 взяли курс на Токіо. Цей рейд став найбільш руйнівним з всіх військових операцій ВПС США. В ту ніч в Токіо живцем згоріло: за американським післявоєнним даними - близько 100000 осіб, за японським - не менше 300000 (в основному старих, жінок і дітей). Ще півтора мільйона залишилися без даху над головою. Операція в ніч з 9 на 10 березня 1945 року вважається у американців найуспішнішою за всю історію Другої світової війни. В ході штурму союзників на Окінаві групи 314-го авіаполку бомбили аеродроми, з яких злітали літаки-камікадзе японських сил. Після війни B-29 брали участь в доставці продовольства і предметів життєзабезпечення для союзників, військовополонених.

База Андерсен, розташована на Гуамі, розглядалася військовим командуванням Сполучених Штатів, як ідеальний плацдарм для атак на Японію. Планування стратегічних бомбардувань Японії було доручено генералу Кертісу Лемею, який розробив дійсно вбивчу тактику. Генерал звернув увагу на те, що японські ППО слабо працюють в темряві, а нічні винищувачі на озброєнні Імперії майже відсутні. Так виник план нічних бомбардувань японських міст з малих висот (півтора-два кілометри). Крім того, Сполучені Штати задовго до 1945 року зламали японські шифрувальні машини, отримавши доступ до більшої частини секретних відомостей противника. Американські генерали розуміли, що незабаром японці будуть вже не в змозі продовжувати війну з фінансових і матеріальних причин. Військово-морська блокада з боку США задовго до 9 березня позбавила Японію поставок нафти, металів і інших важливих матеріалів. Японія опинилася в такій потужній ізоляції від поставок основних сировинних матеріалів, що літаки їй доводилося робити практично з дерева. В ніч на 10 березня з аеродромів на Маріанських островах піднялися в повітря 334 стратегічних бомбардувальника Б-29 і попрямували на столицю Японії. Метою їх було знищення цивільного населення, оскільки вони несли на борту тільки запальні бомби з напалмом. Це був найсмертоносніший день за всю Другу світову війну. За 10 попередніх нальотів Токіо втратив менше 1300 жителів — тут за одну ніч загинуло більше 100 000 осіб. Ще 40 000 жителів були поранені. Більше чверті мільйона будинків згоріло, залишивши близько мільйона людей безхатніми.

Повоєнні роки
Через три дні після того, як Північна Корея напала на Південну Корею в 1950 році, сформоване на Гуамі 19-те бомбардувальне авіакрило почало завдавати бомбові удари по всій Південній Кореї. Кілька днів потому авіагрупа була відокремлена від 19-го авіакрила і розгорнута на авіабазі Кадена на острові Окінава, Японія, хоча інша частина авіакрила залишилася на базі Андерсен і забезпечувала обслуговування для військових літаків і управління складами боєприпасів до 1964 року.

Війна у В'єтнамі
Андерсен позбулася ролі обслуговуючої авіабази, коли на аеродром прибули перші стратегічні бомбардувальники B-52 Stratofortress. Перший B-52, «Ель-Пасо», прибув зі складу 95-го бомбардувального авіакрила з авіабази Біггс, штат Техас, у березні 1964 року.
З початком операції у В'єтнамі в червні 1965 B-52 і KC-135 почали регулярні бойові вильоти над В'єтнамом, і продовжили в цій ролі до 1973 року, з перервою в період між серпнем 1970 року і початком 1972 року.

Бомбардувальники авіабази взяли безпосередню участь в операції Linebacker II, коли за 11 днів у період з 18 по 29 грудня понад 150 бомбардувальників B-52 вчинили 729 літако-вильотів. Із закінченням активних бойових дій більше 100 B-52 були переведені на інші авіабази США в жовтні 1973 року. Восьма повітряна армія, що знаходилася на Гуамі всю війну, була переведена на авіабазу Барксдейл, штат Луїзіана, і з 1 січня 1975 року тут стала базуватися 3-я авіадивізія.

Коли комуністичні сили захопили Південний В'єтнам в 1975 році, база Андерсен брала участь у наданні надзвичайної допомоги для тисяч в'єтнамських біженців у рамках операції «Поривчастий вітер». Після падіння Сайгона Гуам отримав майже 40000 біженців та авіабаза Андерсен брала участь у перекиданні в США 109000 біженців.

База повернулася до рутинних операцій до кінця 1970-х роках, але продовжувала служити в якості однієї з стратегічних точок Стратегічного командування США. Літаки здійснюють регулярні вильоти до Австралії, на Алясці, до Кореї, і підтримують операції ВМС США.

Після В'єтнаму
У 1983 році 43-е бомбардувальне авіакрило завершило перехід з модифікації бомбардувальників B-52D на B-52G, і таким чином стало одним з лише двох стратегічних авіаційних підрозділів США, які було оснащене протикорабельними ракетами «Гарпун».

База зазнала великих змін в 1989, коли управління було передано від стратегічних військово-повітряних сил до Командування ВПС США в Тихому океані. 633-є авіакрило було сформовано 1 жовтня 1989 року, що призвело до розформування 43-го бомбардувального авіакрила 26 березня 1990 року, а 60-го бомбардувального ескадрону 30 квітня 1990.

У серпні 1990 року персонал бази Андерсен поставив більше 37000 тонн боєприпасів силам у Перській затоці в підтримку операцій «Щит пустелі» та «Буря в пустелі».

При виверженні вулкана Пінатубо в червні 1991 року Андерсен зіграв важливу роль в евакуації американських громадян і їхніх домашніх тварин в рамках операції «Вогняне бдіння». У грудні Андерсен став домівкою для військових, які були евакуйовані з авіабази Кларк на Філіппінах після виверження.

Сучасна епоха
633 авіакрило було перейменовано в 36-те авіакрило 12 квітня 2006 року.

База була одним з небагатьох місць в світі, де «Спейс шаттл» міг здійснити посадку у випадку аварійної ситуації.

23 лютого 2008 року тут розбився стратегічний бомбардувальник B-2 (серійний номер 89-0127, «Дух Канзасу»). Це був перший випадок аварії літака цього типу. Двом пілотам вдалося катапультуватися. Літак же вартістю 1,4 млрд дол. США впав поруч зі злітною смугою і згорів. Після аварії польоти всіх літаків цього типу були припинені. В кінці квітня 2008 року польоти були відновлені. Причиною була названа технічна неполадка.

21 липня 2008 року B-52 впав у море під час тренувального польоту, який повинен був включати проліт під час параду на Гуамі в честь визволення острова від японської окупації в 1944 році.

B-2 з 13-ї бомбардувальної ескадрильї і 393-та бомбардувальна ескадрилья у складі B-52 забезпечує постійну присутність бомбардувальників на базі. У березні 2009 року на базі почалося постійне чергування 4 стратегічних бомбардувальників B-2.

18 травня 2016 року B-52 розбився незабаром після зльоту з авіабази, екіпаж вижив.

Примітки

Посилання

 Офіційний сайт авіабази
Бази повітряних сил США
Гуам
Вікіпедія:Статті з іншим значенням на Вікіданих


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Fit a inline fuse to both + and Negative terminals 10amp as a safety then once settled in you can fit a 50 amp fuse.
Please note that these blades are very sharp and can cause severe injury if handled improperly. Treat these blades with the same respect you would have for a sharp sword.
These blade sets can turn at well over 2000 RPM on a windy day and can cause severe bodily injury when they are spinning. Use extreme caution! Never mount or work on a wind turbine on a windy day. Never place a turbine in any area that can be accessed by inexperienced persons or children. We assume no liability for ANY injuries caused by these products.
NOTE: WIND TURBINES SHOULD BE LOWERED BEFORE ANY MAJOR STORMS JUST AS GOOD PRACTICE!
if in doubt ask me first, I am a exspert and will answer all questions.
The Hornet turbine has no furling or other protection device for high wind speeds as it does not need it like some other turbines.
When the wind is galing you should be making power and not hiding.
We are one of the few companies that offer high speed power ratings!
This turbine is designed to take full advantage of punishing wind conditions.