text:
Behind The App: The Story Of Pushbullet
Andy Orin
Nov 13, 2014, 10:00am
We all live across multiple screens as our gaze hops from our phones to our laptops and to our tablets. How do you keep yourself in order when your digital life is sprawled about like a messy office? Pushbullet is working towards an answer.
In its simplest form Pushbullet acts as a relay between your desktop and phone, so you can receive text messages and other notifications on your desktop — or push or data to your phone. Of course, this sort of functionality is baked in to some newer operating systems, but Pushbullet is aiming to bridge any device and OS.
It began as a side project from Ryan Oldenburg in 2012, and launched the following year to a welcome reception from Android users who were looking for better ways to relay information between devices. We caught up with Ryan to learn more about why the project started and what he has in mind for its future.
Where did the idea for the app come from? Were you trying to solve a problem you'd experienced, or did the inspiration come from somewhere else?
Ryan Oldenburg: I got started on Pushbullet because of the pain I felt trying to send stuff between my phone and computer. I'd literally end up emailing myself links and files just to get them from one to the other. I know almost everyone still doe too, which is funny in a depressing kind of way. Pushbullet started as an easier and faster way to move links and files between devices.
The way Pushbullet could actually achieve this hit me when Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) came out. Jelly Bean added support for rich notifications, which let you see content within a notification, and even have buttons. When I saw that this let me read my email (and even archive them) without opening the Gmail app, it became obvious to me that the notification tray was now the most useful part of my phone.
Near the same time, I'd tried Google's Chrome to Phone extension and thought it was really cool. The extension lets you instantly send a webpage into the notification tray on your phone. Google abandoned the project as just a tech demo, but I knew there was a huge amount of potential to the concept of instant transfers combined with a notification for super easy access.
After making link and file transfers between devices dead simple, I realised that the system for sharing information between devices that we'd built had a ton of other potential uses. The first feature we added next enabled people to see and dismiss notifications from their phone while on their computer.
Being able to see and dismiss my phone's notifications on my computer came 100 per cent out of personal desire. Not having to grab my phone all the time while working at my computer is both incredibly convenient and also essentially "how things should work." The fact that I got an email isn't meant for just my phone — it's meant for me. I should see this notification on all of my digital devices and should only need to dismiss it once, too. This seems obvious, but before we built it, this didn't exist.
After you came up with the idea, what was the next step?
Getting started building.
I started working on Pushbullet as a side project while working full time at Hipmunk. First I decided on the functionality I'd need to have in the first version to prove that I wasn't the only one that would want this app (I started with simple link transfers), and then I got to work over the holidays building the Android app, website, and backend.
How did you choose which platforms to target and which to ignore or wait on?
I started on Android because I'd been an Android developer for a few years, which made this choice an easy one.
What was your biggest roadblock and how did you overcome it?
My biggest roadblock was probably just getting all of the pieces working together and into a shippable state. This was difficult since, as I said, Pushbullet started as a side project. It's not easy to work full time and then spend all of your free time on a side project. I think a countdown starts when you begin a side project: you need to get your first release out in time or you'll run out of steam.
For me, while I was confident on Android, I hadn't built a backend nor a website in years. And when I had, it was on top of an existing system. Getting everything working from nothing, including the front-end design, the database, servers, the authentication system, the sign-up email — even deciding the app name and colours — it all adds up fast and can get overwhelming for one person.
What was launch like for you?
Pushbullet's launch was actually quite successful. I think we got lucky in that, but I'm certainly not complaining.
I released Pushbullet on a Sunday so I'd be off of work and able to focus on whatever happened.
Launching consisted of just submitting the launch blog post to Reddit's Android community and to Hacker News. Both of the submissions are linked to at the bottom of the post.
While Hacker News was somewhat receptive, Reddit's Android community reacted extremely enthusiastically, which was awesome. Based on their feedback, I rushed out a Chrome extension to Pushbullet the next week.
From there, Pushbullet hit 15,000 users in just those two weeks. You can imagine how excited I was, and we've basically been at it since.
How do you handle user requests and criticisms effectively?
Handling user requests and criticism well for us is largely about seeing the feedback and being seen responding to it. We get a lot of our feedback in public, so we respond in public as well.
This includes the Android subreddit and our own subreddit, our Google+ page and beta community, as well as the comments on our blog posts and any posts written by the media about us.
We read all of these posts and the comments on them, and try to reply to a large amount of them every time. As a result, we've earned a reputation for being responsive and accessible. This reputation has earned us a lot of good will and made people more willing to give us feedback. This is a great benefit considering how critical great feedback is to continuing to grow.
Now, how do you split time between developing new features and managing existing ones?
I believe there are few things more annoying than software that isn't reliable. This means we focus on squishing bugs as soon as we hear about them.
It does take time, but by staying on top of them so the bug list never gets out of control, it really doesn't take that much time. It's also how Pushbullet has earned it's status as one of the best reviewed and most reliable apps out there.
Developing new features is what we spend most of our time working on. New features, however, isn't quite how I'd describe it. I consider most of what we work on to be "missing features" — meaning things that we should obviously add but just haven't been able to build yet.
Our focus on filling the gaps in our functionality instead of "new tricks" means we've avoided losing focus and our app just "getting bigger." Instead, Pushbullet is always actually getting better.
I've noticed you tend to release new features as you develop them, rather than doing sporadic but larger revisions to the app. Are fast iterations something you prioritise?
Iterating on ideas and getting things out fast is a sort of classic piece of advice given these days. I believe it is definitely correct as well. Though many people believe the reason to do so lies in being able to quickly respond to feedback and improve the product, I'd say the reasoning for us is a bit more complex:
First, it feels good to have a real momentum behind you. It keeps us pushing forward and keeps our users excited to hear about the next update too, because they know it's coming.
It also means we avoid having those really scary launches where everything has changed and you just sort of pray it goes alright. These can be seriously demotivating.
Not getting locked into a giant release also means we can respond to feedback or fix bugs fast. Not "fast" as in weeks or months — I mean fast as in hours or days, depending on what we're talking about.
When it comes down to it, our experience as developers has taught us that releasing often is simply better for our motivation and energy. When things slow down, basically everything gets worse.
What do you picture Pushbullet being like a few years from now?
Everyone is only going to have more devices in their lives over the next few years. Phones, tablets, and computers continue to become more ubiquitous. This means Pushbullet's opportunity to save people time and enable unique and convenient functionality only gets more exciting going forward.
What advice would you give to others that want to take on a similar project?
Pushbullet has grown into a quite large piece of software that, in many ways, seems deceptively simple. If I'd started working on it with both the ambition to build what it is today and the stubbornness to require that all our current features were included very first version, however, Pushbullet wouldn't exist. So many great ideas never make it out into the world because the person working on it doesn't get the project to a release before stopping.
If you're really excited about a project, the best way to make it to the finish line is to keep it simple at first. There is always some single element you can distil your app or service down to. Get that most basic value-add released and feel what the real world thinks of it as soon as you can. It's great to grow from there.
Lifehacker's Behind the App series gives an inside look at how some of our favourite apps came to be — from idea to launch (and beyond).


text:
Images from Egyptian Hall: Charles Carter
by John Lovick | May 17, 2016 | Articles, Curious and New, Magic News, Magicians
This exotic looking wizard did not travel to America from the mysterious East. His name was Charles Joseph Carter, born in New Castle Pennsylvania in 1874. As a teen-ager he was already performing as Carter –The Boy Magician and what he lacked in artistic ability and creativity he more than made up for with ambition and fortitude. Attending law school in Chicago provided him with skills that served him well throughout a long career. He formed a booking agency called The National Theatrical Exchange; he started a theatrical magazine called The Chicago Footlights and for a few short years he owned the famous New York magic company (Martinka's Magical Palace) before selling it to Harry Houdini.
In 1921 Carter lost a fortune filming The Lion's Bride in South Africa, a movie that was written, produced, directed and starring Charles Carter. Orson Welles he was not. In 1933 he lost another fortune when his Temple of Mystery at the Chicago World's Fair closed after just two months of miserable business. But over the course of three decades Carter the Great made seven long trips around the world where he presented a three-hour show of magic and illusions. The secret to his success was that rather than appearing in major cities where he would be competing with the greatest magicians in the world, he played the far corners of the globe where audiences rarely saw anything like what Carter had to offer. His world tours could easily last more than two years and during those circumnavigations of the earth he lived like a king, staying in fine hotels, eating in the best restaurants and traveling in first-class cabins aboard trains and steamships. Back in the States he eventually built a beautiful home overlooking San Francisco Bay and purchased a large apartment building as an investment.
If you look closely into the crystal ball you can see "Wilcox SLC." Rather than being a peek into the future this is actually an inscription by Ida Wilcox, the photographer in Salt Lake City, Utah who took this photo in 1922.
Egyptian Hall Museum is the oldest private magic museum in America, started in 1895 by W.W. Durbin and later nurtured for nearly fifty years by David Price of Brentwood, Tennessee. Mike Caveney and George Daily acquired the museum in 2000 and today Mike curates the collection in Pasadena, California. Mike Caveney is a well known magician, historian, writer and publisher of books on the history and practice of magic. His historical works include biographies on The Great Leon, Servais Le Roy, Harry Kellar and Charles Carter. For Taschen Books he co-wrote a massive tome called MAGIC 1400s–1950, which has been translated into six languages.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Like most extensions, Zephir extensions are able to show information in the phpinfo() output. This information is usually related to directives, environment data, etc.
By default, every Zephir extension automatically adds a basic table to the phpinfo() output showing the extension version, and any INI options the extension supports.


text:
7. ceremonia rozdania Węży – gala rozdania antynagród filmowych przyznawanych najgorszym polskim filmom za rok 2017. Nominacje do nagród ogłoszono 7 marca 2018 roku, a ceremonia wręczenia zazwyczaj organizowana 1 kwietnia, została z powodu zbiegu terminów ze świętami wielkanocnymi przesunięta na początek kwietnia 2018 r. Rekordową liczbę nominacji, 11, zdobył film PolandJa. Najwięcej nagród – 9 – zdobył film Botoks, co jest rekordem w historii nagród. Ogłoszenie laureatów odbyło się w klubie Jack's Cinema w Warszawie.

Nominowani

Najgorszy film
 Botoks
 Labirynt świadomości
 Na układy nie ma rady
 PolandJA
 Szatan kazał tańczyć
 Zerwany kłos

Najgorsza reżyseria
 Patryk Vega - Botoks
 Konrad Niewolski – Labirynt świadomości
 Christoph Rurka – Na układy nie ma rady
 Juliusz Machulski - Volta
 Witold Ludwig – Zerwany kłos

Najgorszy scenariusz
 Patryk Vega - Botoks
 Piotr Czaja – Na układy nie ma rady
 Cyprian T. Olencki/Dawid Kornaga/Sławomir Krawczyński/Maria Wojtyszko/Jakub Nieścierow – PolandJA
 Katarzyna Rosłaniec – Szatan kazał tańczyć
 Juliusz Machulski - Volta

Żenujący film na ważny temat
 Botoks
 Dwie korony
 Mały Jakub
 Zerwany kłos

Najgorsza rola męska
 Piotr Stramowski – Botoks
 Szymon Bobrowski – PolandJA
 Grzegorz Małecki – Na układy nie ma rady
 Andrzej Zieliński – Volta

Najgorsza rola żeńska
 Małgorzata Krukowska – Totem
 Magdalena Berus – Szatan kazał tańczyć
 Katarzyna Glinka – Na układy nie ma rady
 Weronika Rosati – Porady na zdrady

Występ poniżej talentu
 Grażyna Szapołowska – Botoks
 Janusz Chabior – PolandJA
 Roma Gąsiorowska – PolandJA
 Jerzy Radziwiłowicz – PolandJA
 Bartek Topa – Po prostu przyjaźń

Najgorszy duet na ekranie
 Marieta Żukowska i Piotr Stramowski – Botoks
 Szymon Bobrowski i jego samochód – PolandJA
 Katarzyna Glinka i Grzegorz Małecki – Na układy nie ma rady
 Borys Szyc i pluszowy miś – PolandJA

Najbardziej żenująca scena
 seks z psem - Botoks
 kupowanie prezerwatyw w aptece – Botoks
 Milowicz zabiega o pracę u Małeckiego - Na układy nie ma rady
 konfrontacja Olgi Bołądź z Andrzejem Zielińskim w pociągu - Volta
 product placement Berlinek – Porady na zdrady

Efekt specjalnej troski
 płód po aborcji – Botoks
 przyklejane tatuaże – Po prostu przyjaźń
 wieś ze skansenu – Zerwany kłos
 wybuch bomby – PolandJA
 wypadek samochodowy - PolandJA

Najgorszy teledysk okołofilmowy
 Dempsey & Tune Seeker – "Dwie korony" – Dwie Korony
 Contra Mundum – "Już dopala się ogień biwaku" – Wyklęty
 Ania Dąbrowska – "Porady na zdrady (Dreszcze)" – Porady na zdrady
 Zofia Nowakowska – "Warto jest wierzyć" – Zerwany kłos
 Popek, Sobota, Matheo – "Totem" – Totem

Najgorszy plakat
 Na układy nie ma rady
 Dwie korony
 PolandJA
 Ptaki śpiewają w Kigali
 Zerwany kłos

Najgorszy przekład tytułu zagranicznego
 Once Upon a Time in Venice – Jak dogryźć mafii
 American Made – Barry Seal: Król przemytu
 Miss Sloane – Sama przeciw wszystkim
 Rock'n'roll – Facet do wymiany
 The Zookeeper's Wife – Azyl

Podsumowanie liczby nominacji
(Minimum dwóch nominacji)
 11: PolandJA
 9: Botoks
 8: Na układy nie ma rady
 6: Zerwany kłos
 4: Volta
 3: Dwie korony, Porady na zdrady, Szatan kazał tańczyć
 2: Labirynt świadomości, Po prostu przyjaźń, Totem

Przypisy

Ceremonie wręczenia Węży
2017 w filmie

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
using System;

class SingOfProductOfThreeRealNumbers
{
    static void Main()
    {
        double firstNumber, secondNumber, thirdNumber;
        Console.Write("Input the first number: ");
        firstNumber = double.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
        Console.Write("Input the second number: ");
        secondNumber = double.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
        Console.Write("Input the third number: ");
        thirdNumber = double.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
        int minus = 0;
        if (firstNumber < 0)
        {
            minus++;
        }
        if (secondNumber < 0)
        {
            minus++;
        }
        if (thirdNumber < 0)
        {
            minus++;
        }
        if (minus % 2 == 0)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("The sing is \"+\" ");
        }
        else
        {
            Console.WriteLine("The sing is \"-\" ");
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
UT Arlington, EPA join forces for workforce needs
A. Lee Grahamlgraham@bizpress.net
EPA Region 6
www2.epa.gov/aboutepa/epa-region-6-south-central
A newly announced partnership between The University of Texas at Arlington and the Environmental Protection Agency targets a growing need for environmental engineering workers.
"What we're trying to do is focus on the larger areas of environmental and occupational safety training," said Vistasp Karbhari, UTA president, referring to his school's longtime role in training EPA workers in occupational safety and health.
"We have increasing demand from employers around here for more programs that are related to their areas of need," Karbhari said.
To that end, Karbhari and EPA Regional Administrator Ron Curry this month announced a partnership that sees UTA continue to support EPA education and outreach programs through the university's Environmental Training Institute and its Occupational Safety and Health Administration Education Center, while introducing new opportunities for student mentorship and internships.
"This agreement opens new pathways for our faculty members and students while ensuring that the EPA has a strong partner to meet the needs of professionals working in these essential fields," Karbhari said.
In turn, the EPA is expected to strengthen UTA's professional curriculum in all areas of environmental policy and programs, Curry said. It provides new opportunities for EPA staff to mentor students and encourage them as they identify potential careers.
"Together, we will put these students on a path to improve the environment and shape the future," Curry said.
The four-year partnership, outlined in a memorandum of understanding, focuses on several key areas:
· Improve the quality of environmental engineering, science, technical, health, safety, and risk management education;
· Increase the relevance of UTA research projects to EPA's environmental and public health mission;
· Mentor students especially in the study of science, engineering, and mathematics;
· Integrate UTA's community service and EPA's environmental justice programs, policies, and activities; and
· Establish a reciprocal relationship focusing on educational and outreach programs with UTA's Division for Enterprise Development Environment Training Institute and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Education Center.
The partnership sees the EPA participate in joint research projects, share research information and enhance opportunities for UTA students through career fairs, mentoring and internships.
The partnership builds on UTA's scholarship and research accomplishments of faculty in areas related to environmental science, engineering and innovation.
The new effort will require no additional funding, as costs are primarily borne by those taking the school's continuing education courses, Karbhari said.
"In the future, as well go into potential research collaboration, the potential for us getting funding for that would be through the EPA or other government agencies," Karbhari said.
UTA's Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center, an affiliate of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, has been a recipient of the EPA Region 6 Pollution Prevention Grant program since 2001 and since 2014 has worked under an EPA grant to create sustainable food manufacturing management systems.
The Division of Enterprise Development at UTA holds a cooperative agreement with the EPA to help area businesses reduce hazardous waste and manage the EPA's pollution prevention resource exchange, known as the Zero Waste Network. The training program developed under those grants created the foundation for UTA's Environmental Training Institute. The division also has a two-year EPA grant that supports oil and gas environmental programs.
human_resources
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Lansoprazole is available as a capsule in 15 mg and 30 mg strengths. Direction for use specific to the route and available methods of administration of this dosage form is presented below. Lansoprazole should be taken before eating. Lansoprazole delayed-release capsules SHOULD NOT BE CRUSHED OR CHEWED. In the clinical trials, antacids were used concomitantly with lansoprazole.
*Please refer to amoxicillin and clarithromycin full prescribing information for CONTRAINDICATIONS and WARNINGS, and for information regarding dosing in elderly and renally-impaired patients.
† Controlled studies did not extend beyond indicated duration.
‡ For patients who do not heal with lansoprazole for 8 weeks (5 to 10%), it may be helpful to give an additional 8 weeks of treatment. If there is a recurrence of erosive esophagitis, an additional 8 week course of lansoprazole may be considered.
§The lansoprazole dose was increased (up to 30 mg twice daily) in some pediatric patients after 2 or more weeks of treatment if they remained symptomatic. For pediatric patients unable to swallow an intact capsule please see Administration Options.
¶Varies with individual patient. Recommended adult starting dose is 60 mg once daily. Doses should be adjusted to individual patient needs and should continue for as long as clinically indicated. Dosages up to 90 mg twice daily have been administered. Daily dose of greater than 120 mg should be administered in divided doses. Some patients with Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome have been treated continuously with lansoprazole for more than 4 years.
#Controlled studies did not extend beyond 12 months.
о Sprinkle intact granules on one tablespoon of either applesauce, ENSURE pudding, cottage cheese, yogurt or strained pears.
о Sprinkle intact granules into a small volume of either apple juice, orange juice or tomato juice (60 mL – approximately 2 ounces).
о To ensure complete delivery of the dose, the glass should be rinsed with two or more volumes of juice and the contents swallowed immediately.
о Mix intact granules into 40 mL of apple juice. DO NOT USE OTHER LIQUIDS.
о Inject through the nasogastric tube into the stomach.
о Flush with additional apple juice to clear the tube.


to ensure I am on top of various Java code layout approaches. The one that requires the most faffing about is nested classes. In Java the nested class gets access to members of the outer class, thanks to having an implicit this parameter passed through the constructor. That requires a bit of manual rewiring, which is a bit of a bore, but no big deal.
to get some exposure to various additional Android programming areas.
to run more and more code through Oxygene for Java and report any latent bugs that show up when trying it out.
to find out what issues and bugs are lying in wait for unsuspecting newcomers to Android programming within the recesses of those SDK demos.
I've uploaded a bunch of them to Google Play now (see the end of this post) so anyone interested can check them out and report any problems left in there so I can try and remedy them. Of course they are demo apps and so you shouldn't expect too much of them. They're just there to demonstrate certain Android programming techniques and so aren't professional-level applications.
In the last post I looked at the poor support for the exit-the-app-and-come-back situation with Lunar Lander and JetBoy. Well, poor support isn't really accurate as the apps just crash out when you try and resume them. Poor implementation, poor planning, something like that perhaps.
Background image resources are not resized to accommodate screen sizes. Perhaps back when these demos were written, the various bitmaps used in AccelerometerPlay, JetBoy were larger than the largest of screens. Not now with tablets and large display phones.
If you're working with a SurfaceView and have implemented the SurfaceHolder.Callback interface then you can do much the same thing in the surfaceChanged() method.
Older games were coded to assume the presence of a directional touchpad (D-Pad). Most modern devices come without one of these, so to make them usable on current devices I've had to add in onTouchEvent() overrides in either the View or Activity for simple screen touch responses. In the case of the Snake demo app I implemented GestureDetector.SimpleOnGestureListener to handle directional swipes.
Some demos have been updated over the Android releases to take on newer behaviour. For example, there is a simple Bluetooth Chat demo. You can install it and run it on two devices and the users can connect and do a simple Instant Message type chat. In the most recent SDKs for Android 4.0.x (Ice Cream Sandwich) this demo has been tweaked compared to what you see in the samples for the older Android versions. This newer version uses the so-called Holographic theme introduced in Android 3, which adds an ActionBar to the app as a side-effect. What are menu options in the earlier version are now ActionBar actions when installed on a more recent OS.
Also the newer version of the app offers both secure and insecure Bluetooth connections, something the original version didn't as insecure Bluetooth connections were introduced in Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread MR1).
The initial question was which version of the demo to bring over to Oxygene. In the end I got the translated app to operate on any Android version from 2.0 (Eclair) onwards.
To get the Holographic theme to be applied for Android 3 (Honeycomb) and later (and thus get the ActionBar) I took advantage of Android's resource system (as mentioned here). I defined an app theme to be based on Android's default old-school Theme in a resource file in res\values as per usual.
But then I defined the same app theme to be based on Theme.Holo in a resource file in res\values-v11.
That's the appearance. But it was also important to ensure the option for establishing an insecure Bluetooth connection was removed from the menu if running on Android earlier than 2.3.3. Since the menu is defined in a menu resource file this simply involved having two menu definitions, one in the usual res\menu directory and one in res\menu-v10. The menu definition in res\menu has the problem option removed; the menu definition in menu-v10 will be used on Android API 11 (2.3.3) or later and has all menu options defined.
Ok, so I'm done pulling Java code over to Oxygene and making it work properly for the time being. I've tidied up the demos that I've ported and uploaded them to Google Play, giving as useful a description as I can for each of them. The following are online – if you encounter any problems or have any simple improvement suggestions (bear in mind they are meant to just be ports of existing demos) I would appreciate hearing from you.
[AccelerometerPlay](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blong.accelerometerplay): demonstrates the accelerometer sensor by representing a slab of wood with three shiny balls on it. Tilt the device and the balls roll in a quite realistic manner.
Cube Live Wallpaper: two live wallpapers. One is a rotating wire cube. One has a settings page to allow to to choose between a rotating wire cube and a rotating wire dodecahedron. On Android home screens that support it (not HTC Sense 3.0 or later, or Android 4.0 or later) the wallpaper responds to offset messages, meaning that the shape will rotate as you move from home screen to home screen.
JetBoy: a scroller game that demonstrates Android's JET audio engine. Destroy a certain number of asteroids in a certain amount of time by firing in time to the music.
Lunar Lander: use direction and thrusters to safely land on the landing pad. I've mapped touches on areas of the screen (as per the app description on Google Play) to the D-Pad controls, but apparently it's still a but tricky. This could just be a function of the game implementation, or maybe the D-Pad to screen mappings. Any thoughts, let me know!
Snake: The classic snake game. Swipe the screen to change the snake's direction and reach the apples. Mind yourself and mind the walls!
Wiktionary 'Word of the Day' Widget: install on your home screen and you get Wiktionary's word of the day displayed, along with the word's definition. Touch the widget to open up a Wiktionary browser where you can follow links to other words, search for words or go to a random word.
The full set of Oxygene-ported Android SDK apps can be found at this link.
Alternatively all my Oxygene-powered Android apps can be found at this link.
I've been porting some of the Android SDK samples from their original Java over to Oxygene for Java, with the hope they'll be included in a forthcoming update to the product.


text:
MSx/Sloan Alumni
Jorge Rojas
MS '07
Vice President of Supply Chain for South America and the Caribbean, CEMEX
It's people who really make things happen for a good leader.
The Programs MSx Why Stanford MSx Alumni Voices Jorge Rojas
Stanford GSB Staff
When Jorge Rojas entered the Stanford Sloan Program in 2006, he had already been to business school.
Rojas had studied at the University of the Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, where he earned his MBA in 1997.
"I was really young and I wanted a change," Rojas says of his time transitioning from a career in engineering to one in business. "At that time, I did a lot of finance and marketing, but I wasn't that worried about people management. What really prepared me as a leader was Stanford."
Rojas has been leading global teams at CEMEX for the last 18 years. He started for the multinational building supply company as director of strategic planning in Bogotá.
He knew he would be stepping into a global cohort at Stanford, but he didn't anticipate that his bonds with the diverse group would become as tight as they are. He and his wife lived in Escondido Village during their time on campus and had dinner three or four times a week with classmates and neighbors from Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina.
Making Friends from Far Corners
"I expected to have friends, but I didn't expect to become as close as we did," Rojas says. "I think Stanford was one of the best, happiest years of my life. We made great friends from all over the world."
Rojas remembers learning about supply chains during Professor Hau L. Lee's operations course from a peer who had experience in clothing production in China. Another classmate taught him and others how to spell their names with Japanese characters at one of many multicultural events throughout the year.
As a manager, the most difficult tasks are related to people: how to choose the right team, how to empower them, how to let someone go. It's people who really make things happen for a good leader.
International students were first included in Sloan Program cohorts in 1963. By the 1970s, about 20% of the fellows held international passports. In the 2000s, when Rojas attended, about half the program's participants were non-U.S. citizens.
After completing the Sloan Program, Rojas went on to lead CEMEX's strategy for a new geography — all of South America. His role later shifted to cover Panama and Central America. In 2011, he took on a position leading strategic planning, marketing, and public affairs for CEMEX in the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean.
Rojas says he applies the lessons he learned at Stanford every day and, like many alumni, says that Interpersonal Dynamics aka "Touchy Feely" was one of his most useful classes. "As a manager, the most difficult tasks are related to people: how to choose the right team, how to empower them, how to let someone go," Rojas says. "It's people who really make things happen for a good leader."
In the Eye of an Actual Storm
Rojas's next position at the company put him in a management role he likely never anticipated — literally in the eye of a storm. As CEO of CEMEX Puerto Rico, he had to ensure the safety and well-being of 280 employees when Hurricane Maria struck the island in September 2017.
"My first priority was to make sure all of our people were safe," Rojas remembers.
Soon after the storm hit, supervisors reached out to teams to make sure employees were accounted for. A handful of staffers needed help relocating to hotels. About a dozen had no lines of communication, and their managers needed to track them down in person.
One week after the hurricane, everyone in CEMEX's Puerto Rico operation was accounted for, Rojas says. But it would take more than 45 days for operations to return to normal. "We resumed our operations soon compared to other players in the industry because we had a business continuity plan that worked well, and because of the hard work of our people," he says.
His next order of business was to lead the organization as the country rebuilt. "The biggest challenge was to move beyond that event and start planning and executing for the future," Rojas says.
Rojas recently took on a new role with CEMEX as vice president of Supply Chain for South America and the Caribbean. He leads a team of more than 1,400.
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MS, Stanford University, '07
MBA, Universidad le Los Andes, '97
BS in Civil Engineering, Universidad de Los Andes, '97
CEO, CEMEX Puerto Rico
Director of Strategic Planning, CEMEX
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Six Ways Stanford GSB's MSx Program Has Changed in 60 Years
The Sloan — now Stanford MSx — Program has evolved in many ways in the last six decades. Here are six of the most significant changes.
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If you've lost a single tooth, you may be thinking, "Do I really need to replace it? You can't even see it when I smile." The short answer is yes. Even one lost tooth impacts the function of your entire smile. At the most basic level, the pressure that your individual lost tooth absorbed during chewing has to go somewhere when a tooth is lost. That means the surrounding teeth receive greater amounts of pressure, putting them at increased risk for chips and cracks. Leaving a tooth unreplaced can also allow teeth to shift, filling the gap in your smile. If you've already invested in costly orthodontic treatments, leaving a tooth unreplaced is like throwing that time and money away. When you're ready to get started with a restoration plan, call our Park City dental office to schedule a tooth replacement consultation. We'll review your treatment options and help you to find the best solution to put the smile back on your face.
To replace one lost tooth, we will recommend either a traditional fixed bridge prosthetic or a single tooth dental implant. Both options offer effective solutions that will last for years with proper care, but because of its close to natural results, we most often recommend an implant supported dental crown.
A fixed bridge restoration is composed of three main parts, the replacement tooth and two dental crowns. The crowns are placed on either side of the replacement tooth. Then, the entire prosthetic is fixed in place by attaching the crowns to surrounding healthy teeth for support. Unfortunately, this does require us to remove a small amount of healthy tooth structure to provide support for the fixed bridge.
A single tooth dental implant uses just one implant post to support a customized dental crown, replacing a lost tooth from the roots up. Once the dental implant post is in place, a custom, tooth-colored dental crown is designed and positioned, attaching to the implant post. This offers a seamless recreation of the entire lost tooth that will continue to look, feel, and function like a natural smile for years to come.
Long-lasting implant supported dental crowns can last for three decades or longer with proper care compared to dental bridges that need to be replaced at least every ten years.
Natural-looking and feeling, your single tooth implant will blend seamlessly into your smile line, allowing you to speak and smile confidently, eat all of your favorite foods, and brush and floss each day as usual.
Because the dental implant post mimics the natural function of your lost tooth root, your implant-retained dental crown will be fully self-supporting. This means that you won't have to worry about removing healthy enamel from surrounding teeth.


The goal of hospice is to promote quality of life with a focus on managing pain. The skin deterioration observed in pressure ulcers or other wounds is a symptom of body systems breaking down.
Even in the final stages of life, good wound care can contribute to physical, psychological and emotional comfort. Wounds can generate feelings of fear, aversion and suspicion of neglect. Poor wound care—or lack of wound care—can be devastating to the patient and family's experience of death.
Pressure ulcers (bedsores) occur in more than 40 percent of hospice patients. Even with aggressive preventive measures, critically ill patients experience compromised healing response due to impacted muscle cell and immune function, among other factors. For these patients, pressure ulcer formation may be a visual biomarker that the critical illness has overwhelmed the body; skin breakdown is neither preventable nor treatable.
Family members of terminally ill patients may view pressure ulcer formation as a failure on the part of the healthcare staff caring for the patient—or even as their own failing, if they are responsible for providing care. Their emotional response may lead to requests that compromise the patient's comfort-focused plan of care.
However, in general, prevention and treatment should not compromise the hospice philosophy of providing comfort care. Studies show that when patients are more comfortable in one position due to advanced illness, comfort should supersede preventive measures. If hospice staff deem that routine patient turnings contribute to increased pain, turnings may be suspended.
Arterial insufficiency—Often appears as ulcers with black eschar on the lower leg and foot. The skin surrounding the wound appears to be very thin, shiny and usually hairless. The foot may feel cold and appear dusky red or pale.
Diabetic ulcers—Typically on the plantar surface of the foot and the second metatarsal head. They are usually painless.
Venous ulcers—Occur in the so-called gaiter area, halfway up the calf and down to just below the ankle. The skin likely feels itchy and appears mottled brown or has black staining and may appear crusty. The legs may become painful with sitting.
Tumors or fungating lesions—Occur most often in cancer of the breast, but may occur with other types of cancers, including head and neck, malignant melanomas and sarcomas. The lesion may be a small crusted area or a large ulcerated area with profuse exudate and capillary bleeding. They are often disfiguring, distressing and isolating. Odor and exudate management may be a particular problem in this type of wound.
Risk assessment upon admission is crucial and must include a full body check. Pressure ulcers are caused by intrinsic and extrinsic factors, including immobilization, cognitive deficit, inability to verbalize discomfort or numbness, chronic illness, aging and poor nutrition.
Once risk factors are established, preventing wounds from occurring is the best practice. Prevention measures include, but are not limited to, inspecting the skin and monitoring for proper moisture control. Proper positioning, transfer techniques and nutrition are essential for the comfort of the patient.
Avoid pressure on the heels and bony prominences of the body, and use positioning devices whenever feasible. As always, remember to document the condition of the skin after assessment.
Stage I—The skin is intact with non-blanchable redness of a localized area. Darkly pigmented skin may not have visible blanching, but its color may differ from the surrounding area. The area may be painful, firm, soft, warmer or cooler as compared to adjacent tissue.
Stage II—Look for partial-thickness loss of dermis presenting as a shiny or dry shallow open ulcer with a pink wound bed, without slough or bruising. It may also present as an intact or ruptured serum-filled blister. Stage II does not describe skin tears, tape burns, perineal dermatitis, maceration or excoriation.
Stage III—Indicates full-thickness tissue loss. Subcutaneous fat may be visible, but bone, tendon or muscle is not exposed. Slough may be present but does not obscure the depth of the tissue loss. There may be undermining and tunneling. The depth of a stage-III pressure ulcer varies by anatomical location.
Stage IV—Full-thickness tissue loss with exposed bone, tendon or muscle. Slough or eschar may be present on some parts of the wound bed. This wound often includes undermining and tunneling. The depth of a stage-IV pressure ulcer varies by location. Stage-IV ulcers can extend into muscle and/or supporting structures, making osteomyelitis possible.
Deep-Tissue Injury—A purple or maroon localized area of discolored intact skin, or a blood-filled blister due to damage of the underlying soft tissue from pressure and/or shear. The area may be preceded by tissue that is painful, firm, mushy, boggy, warmer or cooler as compared to adjacent tissue.
Unstageable—Full-thickness tissue loss in which the base of the ulcer is covered by slough (yellow, tan, gray, green or brown) and/or eschar (tan, brown or black) in the wound bed. Until enough slough and/or eschar is removed to expose the base of the wound, the true depth, and therefore stage, cannot be determined.
The first step in determining a successful wound plan of care involves establishing the patient's prognosis, condition and potential for wound healing. For instance, a less aggressive approach will be necessary for someone in the final days of life, or when it is evident that healing is not realistic.
When developing a care plan for a patient, it is important to factor in their status and desires. Interventions should be re-evaluated every two weeks to determine whether the plan is still appropriate. A wound's failure to heal does not necessarily imply that other measures are more appropriate, or that all possible approaches should be attempted. Instead, focus on developing the best option for the patient based on their present condition and their desires.
In hospice care, the pain, appearance, odor and perceived implications of wounds can be incredibly distressful for the patient and family. To stay in alignment with hospice's mission of comfort care, the entire hospice team must operate with vigilance, assessing and documenting wounds and condition changes in detail, maintaining proper preventive measures and developing plans of care that consider the patient's needs and desires.
By reducing the occurrence and severity of wounds and mitigating their effects, the hospice team contributes to quality of life and facilitates a peaceful death experience for both patient and family.


The Buffalo National River begins as a trickle in the Boston Mountains, where it flows north and then eastward through the Ozark Mountains until it merges 150 miles later with the White River at Buffalo City.
The upper Buffalo, where Ponca is located, offers the river's---and Arkansas'---finest scenic beauty. With its massive towering bluffs, countless waterfalls, watchable wildlife, ties to both historic and prehistoric cultures, and remote unspoiled location, the upper Buffalo River wilderness is surely mid-America's finest outdoor destination.
This unique status protects the Buffalo from commercial or residential development, along with other destructive operations such as damming and gravel mining, thus preserving its scenic beauty and natural wild state forever.


When you live a life where you try to stay as connected to your Creator as this broken world and your sinful ways allow, you change your perspective on the big picture and the details. He has control over all of it. He can guide your path, deal with the obstacles on the way and every pebble upon which you may trip. Living in faith is not something I do perfectly. Mother Teresa, she was pretty close. The Blessed Mother had it down.
Well, I try. I try to trust that God will guide my life down to the details. I understand that this doesn't mean that the devil can't tempt me or attack me. I understand that this definitely doesn't mean that my life will be easy or free from trial. I understand that this doesn't mean I won't fail. However, it does mean that God's plan is perfect, and if I submit to it, it will all be for the best in the end.
A couple weeks ago, I drove home in my dented van, following a parking lot mishap brought on by low blood sugar and I lost the eyes of faith. How to do it all? How can I continue the work of Making Music Praying Twice, a work we took on in faith, believing He called us to it when it requires so much more time, energy, and resources than we have? How can I really educate and care for my five children properly? How can I handle another high-risk pregnancy? How can I get some sleep? Where is this new baby going to sleep? Can I keep on top of the food allergies, learning disabilities and the character of these children? When are we going to fix this car? Will we ever paint the house? This went on for a few days.
Overestimating me. Of course I know God doesn't make mistakes, but I complained anyway. I even joked with friends about it. But what I came to see, is that in being overwhelmed, in complaining, I was underestimating. I wasn't underestimating me, but Him. Because He's the one who makes it happen. If I'm doing this right, than He is providing for our needs, doing the ministry, working through me, His creation. My problem is that I'm not getting out of the way. Pope Francis made it clear that complaining is not compatible with a Christian life. So, I'll put my head down and get to work and trust Him to do more than I ever could with my little life.


text:
Bell Could Have FVL Ready By 2025
By: Lara Seligman November 11, 2015
Originally published Wednesday, Nov. 11.
Clarification: Due to incorrect information provided by a Bell Helicopter executive, this article has been updated. An earlier version incorrectly stated that Bell is in talks to deliver the V-280 for the US Navy and US Air Force before the US Army.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — As the Pentagon considers the future of military vertical lift, Bell Helicopter is talking with the US services about designing a next-generation tiltrotor solution that could begin low-rate production in the mid-2020s, one company official said.
Bell is partnered with Lockheed Martin to build a rotorcraft flight demonstrator as part of the US Army's Joint Multi-Role program, which will gauge the art of the possible for the path ahead. The demonstrator program will inform the Army's Future Vertical Lift effort to buy a new state-of-the-art family of helicopters in the 2030s.
The demonstration effort may have implications beyond the Army. The Pentagon has indicated that FVL may eventually replace the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force military helicopters as well.
But for now, Bell is working with the Army and Marine Corps to shorten the time line for fielding the aircraft, the V-280, program manager Chris Gehler told Defense News Nov. 16.
"Bell Helicopter is working closely with the Army and the Marine Corps on informing the requirements of FVL, exploring the options for shortening the time required to field this aircraft," said Gehler said. "We'll work with our primary customers in the Army and Marine Corps to explore different ways to enter into a low rate production by the mid 2020's. We are in close communication with the DOD to bring the V-280 onboard as soon as possible with limited risk to better take advantage of the industry and DOD investment."
The Bell-Lockheed team is offering its V-280 Valor tiltrotor, which builds on the technology developed for Bell-Boeing's V-22. The competing team, made up of Sikorsky Aircraft and Boeing, is working on a coaxial helicopter known as the SB-1 Defiant for the demonstrator effort.
Although the demonstrator prototypes will fly in 2017, the Army is currently not planning a contract award until the late 2020s, Richard Harris, Bell's vice president for international military business sales, said in an interview with Defense News. But he stressed that company officials believe the Bell-Lockheed team could achieve initial operational capability by 2025.
"The Army and DOD are exploring options for shortening the V-280 development timeframe, given the significant investment by DOD and industry," Gehler said. "The Army intends to enter a technology maturation and risk review (TMRR) phase around 2020. We feel a case could be made to instead jump ahead to the Engineering Manufacturing and Development (EMD) phase, given the technology readiness levels we will demonstrate. This has the potential to move the entire timeline up, and deliver this leap-ahead capability to the warfighters years earlier."
Bell's goal is ultimately to replace all the Pentagon's helicopters with the V-280, Harris said, touting the plane's speed and flexibility. The Valor will have twice the speed and range of the Army's UH-60 Black Hawk, more than doubling operational reach, according to Bell's website. The future plane will also outperform the V-22, Harris said, with a combat radius of 1,200 nautical miles compared to the Osprey's 900 nautical miles.
In one major difference between the two tiltrotors, the Valor's engines remain in place for transition to forward-flying position, while the rotors and drive shafts tilt, Harris explained.
The V-280 will also build on the V-22's offensive capability. Unlike the Osprey, the Valor will have a forward-firing capability, likely achieved by integrating Hellfire missiles into the plane's side panels, he said.
While the new aircraft's cabin will look much like a Black Hawk's, the advanced glass cockpit uses similar technology to the F-35, Harris said, touting the plane's fly-by-wire flight control system.
Bell just received the first cabin, and is getting ready to integrate the wings and engine onto the plane, Harris said, adding that "it went together like Lego blocks."
"When you take a look at the dynamic world that we live in these days and how fast things happen and how far away things happen, a conventional helicopter just does not meet the requirements of all the services," Harris said. "We are trying to define the standard for what future vertical lift is based upon [Bell's] legacy and the fact that we are the ones that developed the secret sauce for the V-22."
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — As the Pentagon considers the future of military vertical lift, Bell Helicopter is talking with the US Navy and US Air Force about designing a next-generation tiltrotor solution that could be ready by 2025, one company official said.
But the demonstration effort may have implications beyond the Army. The Pentagon has indicated that FVL may eventually replace the Navy, US Marine Corps and Air Force military helicopters as well.
This week, Richard Harris, Bell's vice president for international military business sales, told Defense News that the company is in discussions with service officials on potentially building Navy and Air Force FVL variants before the Army solution is ready.
"We've also caught the interest of the Marine Corps and the Navy ... as well, and the Air Force," Harris said Nov. 10 during an interview at the Dubai Airshow. "We think, moving forward, we may have one of those services grasp onto that and promote it ahead of the Army."
Although the demonstrator prototypes will fly in 2017, the Army is not planning a contract award until the late 2020s, Harris said. But he stressed that company officials believe the Bell-Lockheed team could achieve initial operational capability by 2025., he stressed.
"It wouldn't be with the Army then, unless we could get the Army to come to the left," Harris said. "The other services are already thinking ahead of the power curve, and they are thinking that they can move that to the left. We can actually be in full-rate production of this aircraft for another service by 2024, or 2025."
Neither the Navy nor the Air Force has committed to the project yet, Harris said. He expects to have a better idea of what the services are looking for after the V-280 starts flying in 2017.
Bell's goal is ultimately to replace all the Pentagon's helicopters with the V-280, Harris said, touting the plane's speed and flexibility. The Valor will have twice the speed and twice the range of the Army's UH-60 Black Hawk, more than doubling operational reach, according to Bell's website. The future plane will also outperform the V-22, Harris said, with a combat radius of 1,200 nautical miles compared to the Osprey's 900 nautical miles.
Email: lseligman@defensenews.com
Twitter: @laraseligman
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