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Onboarding New Clients
Our panel dives into client onboarding — what it means, how we've approached it in our businesses, and how you can customize and improve your onboarding over time.
Meg Cumby
Badass by Kathy Sierra (Kai Davis)
Calendly (Meg Cumby)
The Expanse by James S. A. Corey (Erik Dietrich)
Kai: Hey, folks on today's episode of the Business of Freelancing, we're going to dive into Client Onboarding. What it means, what it means for each of us, how we've approached it in different ways over our businesses and clients and how you really customize, iterate, and improve onboarding over time. You're going to love this episode.
Hey, folks, today on our panel, we have me, Kai Davis, we're joined by Meg Cumby.
Meg: Hello.
Kai: And Erik Dietrich,
Erik: Hi, everybody.
Kai: So when it comes to Client Onboarding, how would you grade yourself like one to 10? What score do you give? Starting off just for me, I'd say I'm maybe a 4 or a 4.5. I definitely feel like I know what to do, but getting the implementation in place and moving right forward through it, there's always stuff left to do and stuff left to iterate on and develop. How about you all?
Meg: That's a hard question. For me, the projects are often let's say, just for context, they're smaller, they're not often in the five or six figures. There's a couple of five figures, but they're usually in the four-figure range, and often not that big. So, for new clients, it's often a smaller, smaller engagement. So in that context, maybe a 5 out of 10. I've got some, some processes in place, remembering to always rely on those processes is the key for everybody.
Erik: I might say, a six, silver business, Hit Subscribe. We have Erin who handles account management, so she does onboarding. So some of this it's not directly me involved anymore. We have welcome collateral, like a welcome bouquet that we send to clients, and it lays out who their points of contact are, and a lot of different things. I have to give myself a fairly good score or our business a fairly good score, because not only is that down, and there's collateral and things involved, but it's repeatable, like Erin could train someone else to do it.
So there's room for growth and improvement in that. I don't know, if currently, it completely explains everything or clears up all the client's questions or establishes everything, we think of it as a work in progress. But it is fairly sophisticated, there's a clear procedure, and between that and a sales call, we're establishing how we operate, how working with us goes, etc.
So yeah, if I think back two years ago, when I was just doing freelance app dev, or what have you, there was no onboarding, there was just you take on the work and have some kind of discovery call and then start going. So I feel like, conceptually, that's come a long way, at least, with businesses, I preside over.
Kai: One thing you hit on there, I just want to echo. Starting to turn it into a process like documenting it somewhere, be it, on paper, in a Google Doc, in Notion, just someplace that says, okay, these are the four steps and we can improve and change them over time. But this is what we start with and what we always try to do. It can be such a huge step forward, it just makes it easier to remember and not, dig back in the memory banks, Oh, what did we do three months ago or a year ago last time we onboarded someone instead, but we captured some version of the process to iterate on?
How did you get started with capturing that process, Erik? Was it you writing it down, delegating it to someone else? How did you get that first version on paper?
Erik: It was the delegation. When we brought… In the early days of Hit Subscribe, I did everything that was client-facing. My wife and I partnered on the business, and she was kind of internal like managing. Well, the business started as just me writing blog posts and her editing them. But as we brought people on internally, she would handle the management of the author process and the editors and stuff that we're creating the content, and I was doing everything external.
I knew our sales pitch, and I knew what we would do, but it was bringing on Erin, who we hired specifically to do account management, it was that at that point, like it almost had to get documented because she was going to be picking it up. So the documentation around that initially was rudimentary. As an improved, she drove a lot of that because she was recognizing I'm often answering the same questions.
So the creation of some of the collateral, the elaboration of the documentation was her but it was really kind of that moment of hiring that it happens. So if you are looking at getting better at Client Onboarding, the thing you might do is almost pretend that you were about to make a hire to do it, even if you weren't, and document what that person would need to know.
Meg: Awesome way of looking at it.
Erik: Yeah, I wish I could say I discovered that other than accidentally, it wasn't like I thought of that. It's just retrospect.
Meg: That's true of most, realizations in businesses. You just discovered along the way, oh, the design comes, after you've come across something by accident sometimes.
Kai: Meg, how about for you? Is your onboarding documented? Does it live in the brain? Since you're a solo shop, what does that process look like?
Meg: Yeah, a combination of column A and column B, a little bit. Thinking about onboarding, what it actually encompasses? When it starts, for me, it would start, right before after the client and I agree to work together. So, because the process is pretty simple, there's some documentation, and it's pretty simple, where it's after we agree to work with together, I send a welcome packet, which encompasses what some people would find in a proposal since it's a productized service.
Here's what we'll do, what you get, confirmation of the price we've talked about. Then outline next steps, which are, I send an invoice they pay it, they connect me with the needed contact, and I send some background questions for them to answer which are pretty brief again.
That's usually for a sub $2,000 service, that's often, how else a new client want and what we'll be working on. But most likely all those questions exist, the documentation, obviously, the welcome packet, I keep that pretty simple, and that exists. I'm sure I've had that written down, but it's so ingrained in my memory now, just yep, here are the steps we go through.
Kai: Especially with a productized service, it's natural that the onboarding just becomes part of the service overall, since like, hey, they're getting this experience, it isn't a separate thing. It's part of what they're paying for, and it just flows forward.
Meg: Yeah, if I think about it, really, the onboarding is written in the welcome packet, because it has the next steps in there. So yeah, it's written down for me and the client, so they know exactly what's going to happen next.
Kai: As I was thinking about this topic, and this episode, one thing that came to mind is the difference between, say, a $500 project and the onboarding you do. The $500,000 project and the onboarding you do on one level, there is a bit of difference there. Like for a $500 project, I'm going to send them a PDF, they get an automated email, hello, thank you for working with me, share me on this, click here.
With a $500,000 project, me and my imaginary team of expert, consultants will fly out to their location, do an onboarding, do a kickoff, talk with them, have the celebratory beer and steak as every large project has. But maybe, within that, the details, the actions we're taking, it's kind of identical, I am setting expectations, I'm laying out boundaries, I'm sharing information and requesting information. I'm confirming the timeline of the next step and no matter the magnitude of a project, even like the $50 million project, it's still those same beats, nothing really changes there. How about for you guys? In your own businesses, do you see something similar? Or does that resonate with you?
Erik: Yeah, for me, with Hit Subscribe our customer lifetime value tends to be usually in the six-figures, maybe sometimes, five-figure one-off engagements. For anyone listening out there, people in custom app dev, in particular, would understand this. But if you are doing a lot of lengthy custom projects, you'll know intuitively that you're going to have at least a call, if not an in-person meeting for something that's in the five-figures, six-figures, plus, if it's like three-figures or four-figures that might just all get done over email.
So there is this sense that the bigger the project, the more high touch the sales processes, but I think that there are elements that are common across that. For instance, almost without exception, because we're in that middle area for Hit Subscribe. Our sales cycle is a series of emails, then one, maybe two phone calls, and then we work together.
If we were for some reason, negotiating, like an absolutely enormous like seven-figure content process, a lot of our onboarding would be the same we just might, as you mentioned, fly-out or have the steak dinner or what have you ahead of it. But it would largely be the same kind of activities, expectation setting, defining the rules of engagement, how you do and don't work. All of that would go on regardless.
Meg: That's true. What would be the definition of onboarding for people that may not have thought about this in the exact term?
Erik: Actually to back up if I think about myself like in the early days of freelancing, just doing like freelance app dev or coaching, the kind of things I was doing. I might have thought of this of like, well, what do you mean onboarding? It's like they have an RFP or whatever, and you answer the RFP, or you talk to someone and you discuss and maybe they hire you, or maybe they don't, and then you do what they say.
So, it might be worth clarifying, what is onboarding for people that don't have that experience. My take on it would be even if you don't, aren't aware of it, you're doing some form of onboarding, it's just probably what's mostly happening is that it's your client, defining how everything's going to work rather than you. The thing is, that you might want to become aware of is that's not inevitable. As you get more mature as you get a standard operating procedure in the business that you're doing, you'll start to have…
It might come initially in the form of rules, like, I don't answer email on the weekends, but gradually, you build up a series of things that you do that are true of how you work with clients. Then it's like, if nothing else, introducing clients to those rules, so to speak. So setting expectations, informing them how you work, etc.
So I'm surrounding it and defining it with examples more than like an actual definition. But that's how of it like the rules of engagement if you will, and if you don't define it, they will. So it's better if you do.
Kai: Yeah, very much agreement for me. You're right, Erik, it's kind of is squishy, it could encompass a time, it could encompass just like that they have paid, I have requested access to GitHub, we are done, but you're right. In my mind, onboarding is really intentional time to define the parameters, the boundaries, and the expectations on both sides within a working relationship. The dating metaphor always comes to mind if I'm onboarding, you go on your first or second date, you're still saying like, Oh, no, I don't text on the weekend, because it's my personal time, or I love yoga, whatever it might be, hello, please date me.
But it's exactly the same when it comes to onboarding a client. Here's what it's like to work with me. Here's how to get in touch. These are common questions I have for clients, ask me the common questions you have. Here's what other folks have asked me in the past, just to make sure you're on that same floating, or on that same level when it comes to Okay, what is this multi-month or multi-year working relationship going to be?
Not to say it's locked in stone with onboarding, but onboarding is at least an intentional time to say, hey, let's have these important conversations. Let's level set in terms of communication responsibilities, who should ask the dumb questions that come up, that always come up? Just so everybody's on that same plane?
Erik: Yeah. So does it include the sales call? I think is a good… I think yes, it's almost to me, I think of onboarding is once for us, there's a sales call, that's when things are serious. So I conceptually, think of me getting ready for the sales call, the sales call itself, and then sending a proposal and some of the stuff we do, so everything from sales call through, Okay, now we're working together, I think of it as onboarding personally. Is that kind of the right timeline for both of you? Or does it start earlier?
Meg: Interesting. But what do you think, Kai? And then I will [inaudible].
Kai: I'm not opposed to sales overlapping or being part of onboarding. Since you're absolutely right. It's when you start to find like, Oh, no, we're only available two days a week or we're here, no matter what you need. We're in Slack, ask us the question. So there definitely are onboarding elements that move into the sales process. What comes to my mind, though, is I often think of onboarding as extending into honestly, the second month of the engagement, since there's going to be meetings, there's going to be conversations. You're going to realize three weeks in Oh, I did not tell them this very important thing, let's have a call, have a DM, just catch them up to it.
So if we're saying onboarding, can move into those initial conversations and sales calls, it also could spread out or some elements of it spread out to month to working together as you start to get everything moving forward, just because there always are parts that need to be explained or need to be synched upon.
Meg: Yeah, it's interesting how it could be very much that moving target and people can define it for what makes sense to them. For me, I would probably do it after. But it depends on how you're… Like if you're thinking about onboarding as setting expectations and setting up a great experience for both parties, you could see it as starting with the sales call, for sure, and really even as far back as you're setting an expectation, your website.
For me, I've always considered it more like if I'm thinking how I'm defining it and so there's obviously fuzzy. It is more and more after maybe at the sales call point and then through to the point where I get that background information and the work is starting on. The official what they are paying for has started. That for me is because I've got a productized service that's very defined deliverables. Let's say it's not a coaching arrangement or it's not a custom, often not a custom arrangement. So that's where I put the parameters but it could shift, by the way.
Kai: And discovery within a project also overlaps with onboarding, since you're requesting information, sharing them on information. I think of my podcasts tour service where I get clients, booked on a dozen to two dozen podcasts that are looking to appear and there's the audience. We start off me requesting information, me laying out the engagement of the next steps. But even at the start of the second month, we're still saying, Okay, let's run through a real pretend it's live, podcast recording to make sure we could overcome unexpected things and smoke test these different topics. So there is an element of still leveling up that client to working with you that far into the engagement.
I'm just doing a reread of Kathy Sierra's excellent book Badass. One thing that comes to mind through this conversation is really onboarding serves to help make the client badass at working with you. You've worked with dear listener as on this recording dozens of clients, but a client working with you, it's the first time ever working with you. So onboarding helps say here's how to work well with me, here's how to make sure this is a great relationship.
If you're not spelling out, I don't work on Fridays, or submit through the forum, please don't email me if you find a bug. It's going to be a hard relationship to get started. But if you lay out these expectations, shared expectations, it becomes even easier just level that client up over time.
Meg: Yeah, I like that view because often when we're talking about our onboarding, it's about setting expectations of do not, this is the limits of what I'll do. But like I said, that does help frame it more, it's is like, okay, yes, it's not just me putting up my boundaries, it's making sure that we both have a great experience and that everything's clear on how things will go so that everybody's happy with or not happy, necessarily, but everybody's not that the expectations are not mismatching, with the experience.
Erik: It's paradoxical, but as part of onboarding, and why I conceptually think of it starting in around the sales call, is there's also an element of disqualification there potentially, as in if you're saying, I don't answer calls on the weekends, or what have you. If that's going to be a deal-breaker for that client, even though passing on businesses, though, is always a bummer, you want to surface that right away and say, this isn't going to be a fit.
So as you're establishing this is how you can best work with us. There's also this element of assessing fit. Part of the onboarding process is going to be that it's a lot better for both of you to learn now than six months from now that it's not a fit. So I do think there is this element of like on the optimistic side, we're ensuring it's a fit, here's how to work well with us. Here's how we're going to make sure this is a home run. But then on the flip side, or maybe we're not the right solution for you, is an important part of the process.
Kai: Yeah, full and enthusiastic agreement for me on that point, in a sense of your onboarding a week or a month in returns, whoa, this is not a good relationship. I view that as a success for onboarding because if you didn't surface it, then maybe it doesn't surface until a month three months six, or when you could have collected testimonial.
They're like, no, we pass because oh, we weren't a good fit. We didn't identify it, and a better onboarding process would have led us surface this or address it and eliminated, oh, I could compromise in this way. You'll compromise in that way. Great. This is now a fit again. But if you are doing onboarding, you don't really have that space to surface those objections or figure out how to problem-solve through them.
Meg: Yeah, in designing your onboarding process, you want to… It's not only about making sure that you're setting the boundaries that you need to set so that you can perform well and be able to be the best you can do for it. But like also, jus surfacing those early really does make sense too, so that people, like you're really not causing problems later on.
Kai: Switching tracks for a second, if somebody in the audience is listening, they're saying this onboarding thing sounds kind of good might have handed off a couple of those disaster clients in the past. I'm curious what each would recommend as like the minimal viable onboarding, just get started with this. You definitely don't want to make it too fancy or overwrought or over-engineered at the start. But what are the essential elements that we each see as being both essential?
For me, the thing that I've always tried to short circuit or pull back from has been a kickoff call since sometimes it's like, oh, I don't want to get on yet another call but time and time again I've seen just getting on a video call spending 20 or 30 minutes talking with the other person, seeing their face, hearing their voice letting them see you are an actual person, not just an avatar and some flair based emojis in Slack, really helps develop a better relationship there.
So whenever I get that urge, maybe I'll just skip the kickoff call this time, I'm starting to see that as a signal, oh, no, I'm having a little resistance to it. This is probably when I especially need that kickoff call. when we need to get on the line and just have a chat. How about for you guys similar experience or other things that come to mind as those onboarding essentials?
Meg: Agreed on that? Would you kickoff call and client qualification call? Would those be separate for you?
Kai: For me, they would. I think of that client qualification whole is more of that sales call, hey, let's see if you are a good fit for this service and [inaudible]. Hey, now that you've paid, let's talk through the nuts and bolts, what happens next, the timeline for this engagement and answering those questions.
Meg: It makes sense.
Erik: I'm trying to think through what I would consider in retrospect, our business is like minimum viable onboarding. I think that establishing the particulars around communication, so when and how you're available, as a chat phone call. That's a big one. Laying out the next steps, okay, so we're engaging, one, two, three, four, this is what's going to happen.
Then another thing that comes to mind is getting an agreement on essentially the scope of the project. So one of the things that we do as Hit Subscribe, it's relatively easy to build the custom packages that we do around creating content for clients. But to call out exactly what it is, we're delivering this many blog posts a month, and maybe a white paper this often or whatever. Here is exactly what it is we've agreed and what some of the specifics around it are, and here is the price. So all of those things come together, what happens next, what the rules of engagement are, how we communicate, and what does the project look like in very well defined terms.
Kai: Mmhm, mmhm.
Meg: Yeah, agreed. For me, the kickoff call, definitely for anything. I used to do the background questions, I get the information I need for my productized service, rather than a kickoff call I get through there. But I 100% percent agree that you need to talk to the client. So I'll talk to them. I combined my qualification call and my kickoff call. Once I get a sense of if they're good sense, then we'll do a little bit of preliminary information on that call. So, I combined those two for a smaller service. That might make more sense.
I don't think I'd had much of communication. Certainly setting up expectations around if you haven't done it in a proposal around when you're getting paid and how you're getting paid, that would be another one maybe to add in there. It's actually a really good time during our onboarding to… I'd be remiss if I didn't mention it, it's a really good time to set the expectation that you'll be asking for a testimonial or a case study.
Kai: Mmhm. Excellent, polite.
Meg: [laughs] As somebody who does social helps, people get social proof for a living. I don't think I could miss that. It's so much easier if you set that expectation at the very beginning to do that.
Erik: I'm really interested in that. Do you recommend that people kind of build in and say, hey, here's the terms of success? If that goes well, I'd love to get a testimonial about it, something like that when there?
Meg: Yeah, sort of the line? I like the basic line, and again, this depends on the scale, like what scale of clients are you working for? What's your service, but I've seen as complex as having it in the contract terms, that there'll be a good fit of effort for asking to provide a testimonial. So, if you're, at a certain level that might be great, but really, it can be as simple as in a welcome material saying near the end of our engagement, I'll ask for feedback, and indicate how that will happen.
I like doing it on a wrap-up call. With your permission, I'll use that feedback as part of a testimonial or case study that you can review. It's just sort of setting up that expectation that you'll be making the ask, assuming things go well, but certainly you'll ask for feedback either way. Then saying that with your permission. We'll use it as a testimonial that lets them know that they can say no later if they don't want, but at least they'll know that the ask it's coming
Kai: I always avoid unexpected surprises too, it's not like hello, we have three days left in this project. Please give me a testimonial. It's, we've touched on this three or four times maybe just once or twice, but we've raised it and they might not remember but they at least know this has happened that you'll be asking for a testimonial.
One thing I've often seen and recommended in the same approach is saying that oh, I'm going to ask for referrals to people that you'd love to see me work with, as this project wraps up, or if we hit these success metrics, just to again, plant that early seed and have it be a natural segue into it, as the project starts winding down or wrapping up.
Meg: Mmhm. Certainly it removes that awkwardness for you and them like so now at the expectation. I like saying like, you've almost made the commitment to get that stuff so now, you can't ask for it because you've already told them you're going to ask for it, it just removes the awkwardness. Maybe that's a way to think about onboarding as just removing awkwardness for people and the opportunities for misunderstandings. That's just in the interest of everybody.
Kai: I love that framing of it in a sense, that gives a nice natural way for a listener to iterate on their onboarding, like, document what you're already doing, or what you want to be doing, run through it. As you go through that engagement, make a note to yourself, okay, what felt awkward Oh, when I sent them the invoice for the second leg, it felt a bit awkward. What can I do earlier on to outline how this is going to move forward, or at least address these potentially awkward points and just slowly smooth it over with time? It won't ever be perfect with one iteration, but it'll at least be heading in that direction.
Meg: How to deal with scope changes, there's another thing to put in your onboarding. Like, what happens if the project deviates, the needs deviate from both of your expectations? How you're going to handle scope changes?
Kai: Mmhm.
Meg: Definitely, yeah. Anytime noting where there's friction during your projects and seeing if that could that have been solved with better expectations set at the beginning or a better process than at the beginning?
Erik: This is something that just struck me as interesting because it comes up with our business, but do you in your businesses ever see turnover in your client contact and then have to re-onboard a new person that's coming up to speak as that is something that happens with us. On a somewhat regular basis that are our former sponsor leaves, and then a new person comes in, and we help them get up to speed and rerun our onboarding? Is that common? Do you both experience that?
Kai: I do not. I work with definitely smaller, more indie based businesses. Typically the point of contact for me is the decision-maker, is the sponsor. But what I do sometimes run into is we'll start off on project A, project A raps off, and then they decide to move forward to project B, maybe it's a one-off project into a recurring project. So there are elements of re-onboarding them or resetting these expectations. But it's not as heavy as ellipta, as the first time is that it's like, oh, we were doing A, B and C before now it's C, D, and E, no more A and B, and just sort of level setting again with that same person. How about you, Meg?
Meg: Yeah, turnover? Not as much of an issue because usually, I am working with smaller indie companies. So usually, I'm working with the people that don't turn over as much. So, that's not so much of an issue. Again, like I said, what I end up doing is often having recurring, them come back, not for other engagements. So there's a much smaller, it's more like project onboarding, than it is Client Onboarding, we've already talked. Certainly, it's good to have a sense of whether or not something's changed since the last time you've worked with the person and do you need to re-onboard them with new expectations or things like that.
Kai: What's the process like for you, and Hit Subscribe, Erik?
Erik: Typically, it's as you were saying, it's not as heavy a lift. Because often, if somebody that's our main contact, transfers into a new role, or leaves the company or something, they're backfill is usually coming up to speed. They're leaning on us, educate me about the prior history of this arrangement, and you're an incumbent, so you're in there as a favorite vendor. So that tends to be easier, but we'll typically maybe offer like, there is some precedent to get on and essentially rerun our sales call, like I have a deck that I run through with some information that's specific to the client, and then some general information about how we work.
So sometimes we'll actually get on a call and go through that or we'll just send the collateral and agreements that we've sent in the past and do some explanation. So it's the same process as sales and post-sales onboarding, except to almost by definition, a more receptive audience. If it's something that comes up for anyone that's where having documentation and things that you share with the client comes in really handy, because then it's a no brainer, the new person emails you and says, hey, how do you work?
Oh, here you go, you can read all about it, let me know if you have any questions. Versus if you didn't have that collateral, then it's, oh, well, , let's get on a phone call. Then that's more improvisational conversation.
I remember this from a lot of years where, without a deck, for instance, I could do a pretty consistent sales call, but I might forget to cover a certain point or miss something. So when it's documented, written down, and you have collateral, you don't forget things. So, if re-onboarding is something that's going to come up for you, having that stuff is super valuable.
Kai: A huge, yes for me. I have been doing consulting, freelancing, and contracting work for over a decade now. I'm only at the point where I'm like, Oh, nicely designed collateral, nicely designed resources. They provide so many benefits in terms of keeping me on script, making it easier, and not rewriting the same thing again, and again, and again, for the client or the lead. We could do an entire episode, we should do an entire episode on that sometime. But yeah, hugely [inaudible]. If anybody out there is saying, should I create these evergreen assets? One thousand percent, yes, it helps more than you think it well.
Meg: Yeah, the importance of good templates, too, and unlike just having templates. I remember, in earlier days, even though I used largely the same thing, just re-jigging a lot of not having to have too many fields that you have to re-customize because it can waste so much time on stuff. For example, one thing I took out of my onboarding because I found I changed it so much was that my hours of work.
Number one, it doesn't really matter for the types of projects I do, whether I'm working from 8 to 4 my time, or 10 to 6, it doesn't really matter. What I found was actually that was causing more friction than anything, because if I answered an email outside of those hours, then it looked like I was breaking, then those boundaries don't matter. Yeah, it's more important. So yeah, just keeping the customize of like, that's something that changes too. But yeah, keeping those customizable, or those more of changing things, maybe somewhere, at least all in one place, so that you're not constantly, rewriting things is huge.
Erik: Something that I'll say too that it's hard to overstate is if you have a documented and scripted process for sales, and then between sales and engagement, and through the beginning of engagement, not only does all of that help you and potentially help you in business, or at least make winning business more smooth, but it's like very persuasive to clients. Because, if it's you, and then some other people that are just coming in, in the sales call is almost them interviewing you, for those people. But you say this is how I work, it shows that you have experienced that you've encountered different scenarios in the past and that you are a pro at this, and you know exactly how to walk them through it.
Just from experience over the years, I can't tell you how different that makes sales and post-sales go. Because it is the adage, I've heard a lot there is like somebody is going to define that call, somebody is going to get organized. The default for a lot of clients is it'll be them. Then it's almost like they're giving you a job interview, but if you lead and you say this is how we work. Here are how we handle these various situations, etc. The client flips into a more passive mode and says, Oh, this person knows what they're doing. I'm going to defer to you on these things.
You wouldn't believe some people might think that this wouldn't even work with the enterprise. It does. It works with like companies and people are companies of all sizes, people at all levels of the org chart. If you lead with that organization, and you demonstrate that you're experienced and organized, they will naturally defer to how you were saying things should go.
Kai: It's a strong self vote of confidence. I'm confident enough in my skills, my abilities, my sense of business to say, this is how I work best. Yes, we can customize the engagement or how we're working together, depending on mutual agreement, but this is the starting spot. I always think of the dentist and the dental office as a good comparison for the type of business I want to run.
Not once I got into the dental office and been like, so tell me about how you work and they're like, I don't know, what do you need?
Kai: I want dental advise. I'm scared I want to run out of this dental office. But if they show up in there like we start with this, we do an inspection we do a cleaning da da da, if you have a cavity da da da data, and it shows like, Oh, they have done this 10 million times. I don't have to even think they will ask me when I need to share input. It's exactly the same for our clients. If somebody shows up and it's like, how can you help? I don't know. I need some marketing. It's not an expert level look.
Meg: Agreed.
Erik: That's a great analogy, by the way. I sometimes think of that in terms of like you're picking among a couple, a few housing contractors or something like fixer leaky basement, if one shows up and is like, alright, this is what I do I run this inspection, it might be one of these two types of problems, and so on and so forth. Then another one shows up and is like, well, I don't know, show me what's going on? What do you want me to do?
They will inspire different levels of confidence. But like the dental metaphor, hits home a lot harder, because that's like a visceral terror. The idea of you show up at the dentist, they're like, oh, what do you want done? What do you think I should? I would run out very quickly.
[crosstalk]
Meg: I don't want to go to the dentist's office to begin with.
Meg: Oh, dear.
Kai: One more advanced move that I've done in the past, I don't do it currently, just because business model has shifted, but when I was doing when… When basically, the bread and butter, and the main thing I would sell is multi-month, typically three to nine-month marketing promotion, digital PR engagements.
I would intentionally set aside 33 to 50% of that first month's payment and say, Okay, this is now my budget for gifts, onboarding expenses, or resources to send to the client. Because I also view onboarding as building a stronger or a stronger relationship with that client, and just being able to set aside and say, Okay, I got $500 in the bank here, oh, I saw a client tweeted about enjoying this author. Let me see if I could get like a signed copy of a book and send it to them.
Or, oh, we need to create this little asset or resource or, hey, let's send them a bottle of wine, they just had an anniversary. It's just small touches, you could do that help show a high level of polish and show attention. For me, at least, it was a lot easier to spend that money when I said, Oh, it's already set aside, and not, do I really want to spend this money, it could be my profit, yada, yada.
So small things, definitely not an intro were a beginner move. But for people selling larger ongoing projects, it can be useful to both think of onboarding again in that larger, longer timeframe. Set aside some cash set aside a budget line item, just so you could spend on things that relate to onboarding, over that onboarding period.
Erik: That's really interesting. Not something that would have occurred to me, but that is probably an unrivaled way to make a great impression on people is those types of touches.
Kai: Also helps move over any rough bits in the first month or two, like, Oh, communication on that call was a bit nasty, or I thought we were doing A and B, we're doing B and C but that relationship is good. They sent us this thing, it feels positive and feels like a friendship or working friendship, then Oh, they are vendor number 347. Let's get vendor 348 in here, we go do a better job.
Also how to referrals and referral asks just to strengthen that relationship early on. So when you move into testimonial ask or referral ask, it feels… I'm not what word to use, not like they owe you something, but it just feels easier for them to reciprocate in that way.
Meg: It generates the good feelings, the brand loyalty.
Kai: Moving into a wrap up here. One thing that stands out to me from our conversation here is there's no absolutes when it comes to onboarding, it's squishy both in terms of what you can do, where you can start and swishing in terms of well, where does it really start and end? For some of us, it starts within the sales call for others. For me, it extends, into that month, too.
So dear listener, if you're saying, hey, where do I get started? Well, just starting to document, what you've been doing, what that standard operating procedure looks like. Using that as that base template to iterate on, really is the easiest and most successful way to get started.
How about for you guys, what feels like the absolute essentials or the most important takeaways for our listener?
Erik: I would say, if you have no concept of how to do your onboarding process, the very first thing I might start with is write down what are non-negotiables or deal breakers for you. I wouldn't have an onboarding process that's just you telling a client what are deal breakers for you. But's it's a great way to get started, what are the things that would just blow up an engagement that would be terrible, and you write those out because those are probably the easiest thing to come up with.
Then once you've got that in place that might start you thinking about other aspects of getting to know the client and working together. So I'd say start with those because those will help you get in the spirit of what you're thinking but then don't actually make this your official process until there's some positive stuff to go alongside and here's how we don't work. That's how I don't work but here's how I do. Try to think of what would, it was Kai, you said like, make the customers awesome. I forget the name of the book.
Kai: Badass.
Erik: Yeah, okay. But balance that out. So here's what I don't do. But here's what I do. Here are some of the nice things that I found valuable over the course of time and helping clarify things. I have my patented discovery call or whatever it is. So start with the non-negotiable bads and then balance those out with good. Then you've got… The beginning of a pretty solid onboarding process that's just educating them about how to work with you.
Meg: Yeah, plus one to everything you both said. As a starting place, like writing down what you already do, at the beginning of a new engagement, and figuring out like I said, even just documenting that, or if you don't have a regular process, figure out what might be commonalities and just try to put together a process.
Then I like the idea of starting with a welcome packet, which can literally just be a PDF, a couple pages of PDF, and just to put that in, like, here's how dear client we're going to start working together. That's a good one on one level step.
There's certain things that are going to happen anyway, the payment, communication, what you need from them to start working to get like, or there's something that happens that, was intentional or not, there are things that happen there. So just documenting those, how they happen, and maybe start doing those the same way each time and then letting the client know, even just a PDF, that's a good way to start.
Kai: I like it. How about a picks? Anybody has top of mind picks resources, books, whatever you may have to share with the listeners to help them along on their business and freelancing journey.
I'll start with one of mine, I referenced it already in the call but strong recommendation go out and buy a Badass by Kathy Sierra. It's a book really about making users awesome. But it extends so much beyond like, hey, how do I make this program or make a customer awesome to, hey, how do you make a client? How do you make somebody who's buying your services, truly awesome, changed them for the better? One of the most impactful books I've ever read? Definitely on the top five lists. So we have a link on show notes, strong recommendation for me. How about you, Erik?
Erik: I don't have anything topical this week for onboarding per se. I'm trying to remember I've definitely read tidbits here and there about it. But I don't know if I could give a concrete book recommendation that would be good. But just as a personal fun thing. I know a lot of people are probably familiar with the Expanse, the sci-fi series, and the books by pen named James S. A. Corey.
What I discovered recently is that James S. A. Corey is actually two people. I read a book series by one of them whose name is Daniel Abraham. It's in the fantasy side of the fantasy sci-fi genre, but it was really enjoyable. So, to me, it's almost like discovering this author, it's a weird situation, but it's like discovering that there's this whole bunch of other books by this author that I like. So in case, anyone doesn't know that I can give a link to his site. But Daniel Abraham is his name, and he's written a bunch of other books besides the Expanse, and I definitely thought they were a fun read.
Kai: Oh, yeah. good tip, and good recommendation. I did not realize it was a Voltron team of authors.
Kai: About for you, Meg. Pack a goal, one non-topical.
Meg: For topical. I'm sure a lot of people have heard of Calendly before but for picking, getting helping people to offer times up for calls or meetings. Calendly, I don't think there's a day that I don't use this. There's a free plan for one type of event, a paid plan I can say worth its weight in it well worth what you pay for it. I think it's $8 a month for the lower tier of the pay plan.
But just to be able to show people times available, you can set your availability, it syncs with your Google Calendar, probably a couple other calendars so that you won't you won't get double-booked. It just removes that whole dance of here's three times I'm available. Are you available? No. That back and forth. I would not be able to live without that. So be very handy for those kickoffs and meetings and with the client.
Kai: I will chime in one thing I love using Calendly for especially when it comes to onboarding is just setting up like a different meeting type. So I have a normal like quick conversation one and I'll just share that in Slack, share that on onboarding. But for this kickoff meeting, oh, if I maybe it's a 90-minute meeting, maybe I'm asking specific questions in that Calendly forum, I'm like, hey, what are the top of mind questions? We have consultant experiences gone poorly on your site before just to start surfacing some questions or some comments or topics for me to work into my agenda.
So strong, enthusiastic plus one on Calendly. It's a powerful resource and when you start using it for like, oh, what do I want to ask for this specific type of event, it truly leaps forward to an even better resource.
Meg: I like that a lot. I also like with the multiple day types, I can customize the availability so that the times are not bananas for the person's time zone so I've got a Europe time and West Coast time, being on the East Coast, so I'm not offering times that are like four o'clock in the morning their time they're just to help make that experience a little bit better.
Kai: Thank you, dear listener, for tuning in and listening to our Perspective On Client Onboarding. If you've got a question or you've got something you forgot, when it comes to onboarding, you want to make sure we hear it. Go ahead and take a look in the show notes, and shoot us an email, or shoot us a message.
We're always delighted to hear from you all, but until next time, have a great one.
Previous: Diving into the World of RFPs with Dave Hulsen
Next: Communicating with Your Clients


text:
package fileIO
import java.io._

class OutputFiles(file: String) {
	val bw = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(new File(file)))

	def write(line: String) {
		bw.write(line)
		bw.newLine()
	}

	def close() {
		bw.close()
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Bag for four Fantasy Football Teams.
Feldherr MINI PLUS case for Blood Bowl and other Fantasy Football miniatures. The bag is ideal for transporting four Blood Bowl teams. It fit exactly 64 miniatures in the bag.


text:
package com.insano10.puzzlers.puzzles.codility.sorting;

import java.util.Arrays;

public class Triangle
{
    /*

    These 3 conditions need to hold true for a triangle:

    1) A[P] + A[Q] > A[R],
    2) A[Q] + A[R] > A[P],
    3) A[R] + A[P] > A[Q].

    If we sort the array and look for consecutive triplets from lowest to highest then 2) and 3) always hold true as R is always the biggest number of the 3

    We only need to check consecutive triplets as this gives the greatest possible value of A[P] + A[Q]
    So there may also be non-consecutive triplets present but we only have to return whether any are present at all.

    So the only condition we need to check for a valid triangle is 1)

     */
    public int solution(int[] A)
    {
        Arrays.sort(A);

        for (int i = 0; i < A.length - 2; i++)
        {
            long p = A[i];
            long q = A[i + 1];
            long r = A[i + 2];

            if (p + q > r)
            {
                return 1;
            }
        }
        return 0;
    }
}


Look no further than this exquisitely eye-catching Gucci watch for a timepiece that stands out and stuns for all the right reasons. Crafted from shimmering silver-tone steel, it is a highly designed and intricately crafted watch with a masterful aesthetic approach. The round face is emblazoned with a stunning guilloche pattern which sees a symphony of lines and patterns converge and combine in a captivating manner. The steel link bracelet also features a textured element at the central links - thus adding cohesion to the design. With an automatic movement and meticulous aesthetic, this automatic Gucci G-Timeless watch is destined to impress all who see it.


Radio Islam was registered in November 1993 as a section 21 company. It was granted a license in April 1997 and our first signal broadcast was on the 10 April 1997. Since inception, the station has established a captive audience based on its specific religious content. With internal growth, wider expertise and a broader range of content has attracted a wide audience in areas well beyond its licence mandate. We are guided by the Noble Qur'aan and the Sunnah (traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him).
What is done at Radio Islam?
Radio Islam aims to promote the message of Islam. It has also become synonymous with Islamic values and a tool to dispel misconceptions relating to Islam and Muslims in South Africa and abroad. The station has become a beacon of guidance and an invitation to the world. Through the broadcast of high quality info-edutainment, Radio Islam has become a bridge a cross the community divide. Radio Islam is opposed to discrimination based on gender, race, political persuasion, class, religion, belief, language and disability. The station has lived up to the adage, "Your Favourite Learning Station" and "The World is our Community".
• The promotion of Islam to all via the airwaves.
• The upliftment of humankind.
• Striving to be an authentic Islamic voice.
• Alternative news and current events programmes.
(Parts of Greater Johannesburg) Lenasia, Eldoradopark, Soweto, Ennerdale, Mayfair, Newclare, Bosmont, Crosby, Bertrams, Ophirton, Turfontein.
We broadcast from Cape Town to Uganda +/- POTENTIAL 100,000 LISTENERS via SATELLITE.
Radio Islam can now be heard throughout the world via our website, Streaming Audio - The website is updated daily and over 1 765 000 hits has been recorded from countries as far away as Australia, the USA, Saudi Arabia and the UK. This is testimony enough to our growing appeal.
"Radio Islam is very educative, very professional." Farouk Valiallah – Azaadville, South Africa.
"I'm glued to Radio Islam. As a lady I have learnt so much about Islam." Fatima Mangel – Lenasia, South Africa.
"I am an ardent listener of Radio Islam (though I am not a Muslim myself) and was at first surprised by values and morals the Islam(ic) religion…as compared to the reality… people have about Islam." Kweletsi Maphopha – South Africa.
Good service delivery leads to happy customers and employee satisfaction for a job well done. As a rule, Radio Islam is dedicated to this policy of Batho Pele or People First. Through consultation we know how to meet the needs of our listeners. If we know what is important to our customers then we can set service standards that must be realistic depending on the resources we have. Access applies especially to the previously disadvantaged sectors of the community and to people with special needs. Our diverse staff makeup includes people from these sectors and our programming services these communities as well.
Courtesy: is not only being polite to customers, but also being friendly, helpful and treating everyone with dignity and respect. Radio Islam excels in all these categories.
Information: about our station is readily available. Just tune into MW 1548. Our station is also open and transparent.
Honesty: is a fundamental rule in Islam.
Redress: is making it easy for people to tell us they are unhappy with our service. Our staff is trained to deal with complaints in a friendly, helpful manner. Complaints can help us improve our station. At Radio Islam we always give the best value using all our resources.
Assalamu Alaykum! Peace! Jazakallah! Thank You!
Operation Brightsight – collection of spectacles given to TIBA.
Collection of books and clothes given to deserving school children.
• The Islamic Helpline – Radio Islam helped to establish this project.
Operation Winter Woollies - collection and distribution of clothing in winter. The station has become a channel for publicising community events, programmes and needs, thereby earning not only the respect but also the assistance of the broader non-Muslim community.
The advertising and marketing departments have embarked on a massive campaign to acquire maximum advertisers and sponsorship for the smooth running of the radio station. Alhamdulillah many businesses are advertising on a long term basis and are reaping the benefits of advertising which is very cost effective. Sponsorship have been acquired for a whole variety of programmes. The Advertising and marketing departments have become more professional in their approach with regards to their adverts. Customer care has become a vital part of our business. This can be clearly seen in the remarks made by our well wisher and customers in our registers and faxes sent to us.
Advertising charges forms the bulk of the radio station's revenue. The business community supports the radio and this is borne out by the fact that monthly slots are booked out regularly.
Small enterprises, including housewives are also encouraged to take up advertising slots.
Radio Islam regularly attends meetings of the National Association of Broadcasters and the Independent forum of Religious Broadcasters of which we are members. We were also invited to an Open Society Conference hosted by the National Community Radio Forum. Besides this we are also signatories to the BCCSA and the Advertising Standard Authorities of South Africa.
Alhamdulillah, Radio Islam has two auditors serving on the Board of Directors and an external auditor Karolia & Jeena Inc. Our finances are audited annually and displayed to the general public at every Annual General Meeting since inception.


text:
package io.rsocket.frame;

import io.netty.buffer.ByteBuf;
import io.netty.buffer.ByteBufUtil;
import io.netty.util.IllegalReferenceCountException;
import org.assertj.core.presentation.StandardRepresentation;

public final class ByteBufRepresentation extends StandardRepresentation {

  @Override
  protected String fallbackToStringOf(Object object) {
    if (object instanceof ByteBuf) {
      try {
        String normalBufferString = object.toString();
        String prettyHexDump = ByteBufUtil.prettyHexDump((ByteBuf) object);
        return new StringBuilder()
            .append(normalBufferString)
            .append("\n")
            .append(prettyHexDump)
            .toString();
      } catch (IllegalReferenceCountException e) {
        // noops
      }
    }

    return super.fallbackToStringOf(object);
  }
}


text:
lufthansagroup.com
Flugsicherheit und Gesundheitsschutz
The Lufthansa Group is a global aviation group with a total of more than 550 subsidiaries and equity investments. In the financial year 2016, they were structured into the Passenger Airline Group, Logistics, MRO, Catering and Other segments.
Locating turbulence
A new measurement method makes turbulence forecasts more reliable and flying more pleasant for both crews and passengers.
Martijn Karssemeijer, Senior First Officer on a Boeing 747, looks at the visualization of his flight route. There are dots everywhere between Tehran and Frankfurt. If they are white, then the air is calm. Green dots indicate minor vertical air movements, while yellow or orange dots mean turbulence.
Sometimes turbulence literally comes out of a clear blue sky. First, there is slight juddering and then a sudden loss of height and the "Fasten seat belt" signs light up. "We still don't have comprehensive forecasts that are accurate and reliable enough," says 43-year-old Karssemeijer. Currently pilots are given a weather forecast during their briefing, showing flight legs of several hundred kilometers in length where it might or might not be bumpy. "That's not a great help to us," says A380 Copilot Oliver Matz.
But Lufthansa pilots may soon have more accurate information about the location and strength of turbulence. Model forecasts will show turbulence on the navigation map in the cockpit. The eddy dissipation rate (EDR) measurement method is used on the electronic flight bag (EFB) in the cockpit to check the forecast. This produces a trail of white, green, yellow and orange dots. The EDR identifies how the energy in the atmosphere is distributed, regardless of the size, weight and speed of the aircraft. When an aircraft passes through turbulence, the system automatically records the strength of the shock on a scale from zero (calm) to one (extreme turbulence).
In the future, aircraft will be able to send the figure and the coordinates via a server on the ground to other planes in real time. Pilots will be able to move to a different altitude or at least warn flight attendants and passengers in good time, according to Karssemeijer. This will also allow dispatchers to make their flight schedules more accurate.
Karssemeijer, who is not only a pilot but also a project manager at Lufthansa, was responsible for implementing the EDR measurement method on the EFB. "We make use of a variety of avionics data and the different concepts of in-flight connectivity," explains Matz. Together with Karssemeijer, Matz carried out successful tests of the new system on two flights to Frankfurt.
The results are currently being used to assess the quality of the model forecasts. This will lay the foundations for a system that predicts turbulence for the airlines in the Lufthansa Group. Both of the pilots are certain that "this will make flights safer and more pleasant for both passengers and crews."
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ONE LHAG
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Hiding toolbar / status bar with javascript in CURRENT browser window? Is there some way to hide the browser toolbar / statusbar etc in current window via javascript? I know I can do it in a popup with window.open() but I need to do it this way. Is it possible at all?

A: I believe this is not possible. And anyway, just don't do it. Your page can do what it wants with the rendering area, but the rest of the browser belongs to the user and websites have no business messing with it.

A: As per the previous answer, this isn't possible to my knowledge and is best avoided anyway. Even if a solution can be found, bear in mind that most browsers these days allow the user to prevent Javascript from interfering with their browser settings and window chrome, even when using window.open. So you've got absolutely no way of guarenteeing the behaviour that you're looking for and consequently you're best off forgetting about it altogether. Let the user decide how they want their window configured.

A: Marijn: ok thanks. This is for an intranet site and we display InfoPath forms as separate, no-toolbar, no-statusbar windows. This is a client requirement, I'm not trying to do evil ;)

A: To Martin Meredith, Luke, Marijn: thanks for your quick reply. It is now settled that it's not possible.
I agree with you all about this being an undesirable behavior, but as i stated before, this is for a bank intranet application where all users are running a tightly controlled, centrally-configured, customized and hacked to death browser they have no control over anyway, and the client actually wants this behavior for the application. It would be dumb and annoying to do this in a public facing/general website, of course. But sometimes we just have to get the job done :(

A: No. This would be a massive security hole if it were possible... not to mention annoying.
My browser wont even let you do this in popups... which can be annoying aswell!

A: You may want to investigate using an HTA (HTML Application).
It will render HTML pages with zero browser chrome, a custom icon can be shown on the task bar, and the entire "caption" can be removed. The last option yields a floating window without eve a close button.
For how I imagine your needs to be, you would want to start with something like:
<html>
  <head>
    <title>HTA Demonstration</title>
    <hta:application innerborder="no" icon="magnify.exe" />
  </head>
  <body style="overflow: hidden; margin: 0;">
    <iframe src="http://www.yahoo.com" style="width: 100%; height: 100%;"></iframe>
  </body>
</html>

Save the above HTML into a file and give it "example.hta" as the file name. You'll then have a generic icon on your desktop which you can double click on to start.
<hta:application innerborder="no" caption="no" icon="magnify.exe" />

This change will remove the title bar when running the script. Press Alt-F4 to exit the script if you do this.
This will also only work with IE, however that should not be an issue on an intranet.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
About Carli Lloyd
Carli Lloyd CL10 Soccer Clinics
Carli Lloyd Keynote Speaker
Sponsors & Sponsorship
Carli Lloyd was estranged from her family. How the postponed Olympics healed a 12-year rift
The combination of a knee injury and the Tokyo Olympics being postponed due to the pandemic turned out to be a life-changing blessing in disguise for soccer star Carli Lloyd.
After undergoing the first surgery of her career last year and having a schedule cleared of all obligations, she had time to reflect on a rift with her family that had stretched past a decade.
If the Olympics went off as planned last year, they might still be estranged to this day.
Written by: Scott Stump
https://www.today.com/today/amp/tdna223867
News, events, promotions, new products and sales. Directly to your inbox.
Copyright © 2022, CL10 Merchandise. Created by www.etosconsulting.com


text:
You are here: Home » Years 5 to 8 » Years 5 to 8
Former Skippers pupil creates drone video of school grounds. Watch it now.
Former pupil Verity and her mum, Karen, reflect on their time at Skippers - watch video
Find out about our Challenge Award for Years 6, 7 and 8, here.
Book a tour of the school with our Headmaster, Mr. Makhouli here.
Watch a video of our Woodland Explorers programme in action here.
Sport Drama Music Extra-Curricular Preparation for Senior School Votes for Schools
From Year 5 onwards, subjects are taught by experienced specialist teachers, many of whom are Secondary School trained and who will teach the pupils right through to Year 8.
Latin is introduced to the timetable for Years 5 & 6, enhancing a stimulating and demanding curriculum. By Years 7 & 8, the Common Entrance syllabus is thoroughly covered and pupils are challenged with a number of topics taken up to GCSE level.
Pupils continue to develop their individuality and are encouraged to explore every avenue that is presented to them, with a wide variety of opportunities for personal development and leadership, and responsibilities such as House Captains, School Council Representatives, Charity Committee Members and Table Monitors. Year 8 pupils can also be elected as School Prefects, with a wide range of duties to help develop their confidence and enable them to practise a new range of skills.
Skippers Hill's Challenge Award also engages pupils in Years 6, 7 and 8 in a variety of tasks and projects to aid their personal development - learning new skills, carrying out personal projects, volunteering in the local community and taking part in expeditions.
A full range of sports are available to pupils including Netball, Soccer, Rugby, Hockey, Cross Country, Gymnastics, Dance, Volleyball, Swimming, Rounders, Cricket, Stoolball and Athletics, and we have an extensive sports fixture list which includes matches and Tournaments against a wide range of other schools, providing every pupil with the chance to represent Skippers.
Pupils in Years 5 & 6 regularly complete work using our portable Chromebooks, whilst in Years 7 & 8 pupils have their own Chromebooks, enabling a varied and stimulating approach to their learning across the whole curriculum.
In Years 5 to 8, pupils enjoy regular trips and outings to enrich their learning. Our annual Year 7 and 8 Sports Tour to the beautiful island of Jersey, sees the children spend five days away from home, joining a number of other English schools and playing matches and tournaments against the island schools. The Year 8 residential trip to Dorset following the ISEB Common Entrance is also particularly popular amongst pupils and provides an ideal way for them to relax and have fun after the rigours of the exams.
Read a Year 8 pupil's account of their favourite trips and visits during their time at Skippers, here.
View our Years 5 to 8 timetables below:
Year 5Y Timetable
Year 5Z Timetable
Years 5 to 8 Latest News
Performing Arts Goes Virtual
Seeking Challenge in the Senior Years


text:
Wellness Wheel
Sex & Health
Hey there! How are you doing?
How are things going with your love life? Work? Family? Friends? And sex... what about sex? We all juggle and deal with a lot in our lives. Sometimes it's easy; other times it can be more challenging.
This wheel is a fun and fast tool that will reflect back a snapshot of your life, at this moment.
To get ready, I encourage you to take the time to really think about each section, the questions asked, and be honest with how you feel. Keep in mind, every section of the wheel represents a part of your life, is connected, and can influence your overall picture.
Once you've gone through all ten sections, the wheel will highlight each area of your life. Take a look and see what parts of your life you're happy with and those you may want to explore a bit more.
We're all working towards finding balance in life. This wheel is a great way to check in with how you're feeling about all the different parts of your life. It may help you understand why you're feeling the way you do; and consider options that lead to new possibilities.
Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions Site Map
Copyright © 2021 Gay Men's Sexual Health Alliance. All Rights Reserved.


text:
A Case of Low Book Yields
By Kerry Pechter Fri, Nov 1, 2013
"Even if rates were to slowly rise, they would still be historically low. There would be less pressure on companies, but the overall portfolio rate of return could continue to go down," said Mary Pat Campbell, a life insurance investment analyst at Conning.
The "overall downward trend" in book yields of U.S. life insurance companies "presages challenges ahead," according to the twelfth and latest edition of the review of life insurance company investments and returns that Conning's Insurance Research group has published since 2001.
The review, titled "Life Insurance Industry Investments: A New Perspective on Asset Allocations and Returns," described the investable assets of 470 U.S. life insurers, who collectively earned $177.5 billion on assets of $3.2 trillion in 2012, down from earnings of $178.9 billion on about $3.16 trillion in 2011.
One takeaway: The effects of low rates will persist, even after rates begin to rise.
Conning provided RIJ with a 16-page executive summary of the 131-page report. The information below is based on the summary and on a telephone interview with its author, Mary Pat Campbell. The names of individual life insurers didn't appear in the summary.
Regarding the life insurance industry as a whole, the review's outlook for the future was subdued. With some 85% of its investable assets in bonds, the industry is especially vulnerable to low bond yields. Overall book yields for life insurers hit an all-time low of 5.24% in 2012, which in turn has maintained downward pressure on life insurance company stocks, making it more difficult for them to raise capital and encouraging stock buy-backs.
Looking at the bond portfolio alone, "Gross book yields… (including cash, short-term bonds, and long-term bonds) decreased by 21 bps in 2012 to 5.01%, 72 bps lower than the yield in 2008," the report said. "Realized capital gains and positive change in unrealized capital gains and losses, together with investment income, caused the total return for bonds to decrease to 7.54% in 2012, less than the gross total returns seen from 2009 to 2011."
But the averages mask a wide range of differences in the health of individual life insurers. The industry is made up of more than 200 companies with less than $100 million in assets while the biggest 50 or so companies account for some 83% of the industry's investable assets, according to the Conning report.
Larger companies tend to have larger, more sophisticated research capabilities that enable them to shop more confidently among riskier but potentially higher-yielding investments in hedge funds and other so-called Schedule BA assets. In 2012, insurers with at least $20 billion in assets held about 90% of the industry's Schedule BA assets, and just seven large life insurers held 60% of those assets.
One limitation of the report: it doesn't cover the other side of the insurers' balance sheets, their liabilities. Liabilities range widely from company to company depending on the types of products it has sold over the past decade. Some insurers, for instance, have large books of under-risky variable annuity contracts. Others may have books of long-term care policies and second-guarantee universal life policies whose prices were based on over-optimistic lapse estimates.
"Some life insurers are doing much better than others," said Mary Beth Campbell, the author of the review. "The results used to be a lot closer but now they're spreading out." The health of life insurers today depends to some extent on how they reacted to the financial crisis of 2008. "Some companies reacted to the financial crisis by fleeing into Treasuries and cash and didn't get out of that," Campbell told RIJ this week.
"Others have been actively seeking yield and explicitly taking on portfolio risk in the portfolio. They went after bonds of lower credit quality, primarily the BBB and not below-investment grade."
Companies also differed in their reactions to the Federal Reserve's low interest rate policy, with some continuing to offer products with underpriced benefits in the belief that rates would quickly recover and others recognizing that a low rate environment could last indefinitely—which turned out to be the right call.
"Some companies were in denial about the low rates. But if you didn't think that low rates could last for a long time, you weren't paying attention. Japan has been in that scenario for 20 years," Campbell said.
Regardless of what happens to rates next year, the residual effects of low-rates will be felt for years to come. "Even if rates were to slowly rise, they would still be historically low," Campbell told RIJ. "There would be less pressure on companies, but the overall portfolio rate of return could continue to go down," she pointed out.
"We've been in a decreasing rate environment for quite a while. As older, higher-yielding assets have rolled off, newer, lower-yielding assets have replaced them. That process continues to pull down overall portfolio return rates. It could take a while before the life industry recovers."
Companies have responded by not locking themselves into generous guarantees. Campbell said that more insurers are selling market-value adjusted fixed annuities to protect against a surge in surrenders as rates rise, variable annuity issuers are putting equity hedges inside the separate account portfolios, and crediting rates on universal life policies continue to fall.
On the other hand, life insurers won't capture a big share of the retirement market from mutual fund companies unless they can offer attractive products. If and when rates rise, competitive pressures may compel them to share the newfound yield with customers by matching new higher-paying liabilities with new higher-paying assets.
"Life insurers still need to compete," Campbell told RIJ. "Fixed annuities, for instance, have to compete against CD rates. What may happen is that crediting rates on in-force business may go down, but, as rates rise, new products might offer better rates. [Life insurers] can segment their portfolio. Their ability to offer new products [at new rates] would still be limited by capital constraints, and that may be one reason why they've been building up capital."


text:
/*
Author: Georges-Antoine Assi
Repo: https://github.com/DrShavargo/animal-card-game
*/

#pragma once

#include "Table.h"
#include "Player.h"

using namespace std;

class QueryResult{
public:
	bool _valid;
	Player* targetPlayer;
	int oldRow;
	int oldCol;
	int newRow;
	int newCol;
	QueryResult(bool);
};

class ActionCard : public NoSplit{
public:
	ActionCard(char);
	virtual QueryResult query() = 0;
	virtual void perfom(Table&, Player*, QueryResult) = 0;
};

class BearAction : public ActionCard{
public:
	BearAction() : ActionCard('B'){};
	QueryResult query();
	void perfom(Table&, Player*, QueryResult);
};

class DeerAction : public ActionCard{
public:
	DeerAction() : ActionCard('D'){};
	QueryResult query();
	void perfom(Table&, Player*, QueryResult);
};

class HareAction : public ActionCard{
public:
	HareAction() : ActionCard('H'){};
	QueryResult query();
	void perfom(Table&, Player*, QueryResult);
};

class MooseAction : public ActionCard{
public:
	MooseAction() : ActionCard('M'){};
	QueryResult query();
	void perfom(Table&, Player*, QueryResult);
};

class WolfAction : public ActionCard{
public:
	WolfAction() : ActionCard('W'){};
	QueryResult query();
	void perfom(Table&, Player*, QueryResult);
};


In 1912, he travels for several months to the city of Kiev in tsarist Russia, in order to work there. He gets to know the country and its people, and he notices the thirst for knowledge and how people will often fill their spare time with the reading of books. He is also quite impressed by their ability of solving seemingly unsolvable problems, in quite unorthodox ways. Streets, for instance, are widened, by simply moving the houses that stand in the way: they get sawed off at the base and are ultimately 're-placed' a few metres further away from the street side! The experience gathered during his time in Russia may have later helped him in his realistic assessment towards the occupying Soviet army when in 1945 Berlin is freed by the Allies. He exercises caution, without giving in to panic.


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Children's Multi Probiotic by Natural Factors offers 3 billion active cells per dose via seven different strains of probiotics. Four strains of Lactobacillus offer support for the small intestines, and three strains of Bifidobacterium offer support for the large intestine. This supplement is in powder form which is convenient for children and helps restore intestinal balance of healthy microflora. It contains B. infantis, a strain of probiotic that is particularly beneficial for children.
The human intestinal tract contains trillions of bacteria in a natural but delicate state of balance between the beneficial bacteria and their good effects and the pathogenic microorganisms and their potentially adverse effects. Under conditions of high stress or prolonged stress, antibiotic therapy, vacation or business travel, and encounters with food or water-borne pathogens, this natural protective balance can be disrupted, resulting in a decline in the number of beneficial or probiotic bacteria.
Maltodextrin, silica, ascorbic acid, skim milk, trypticase-soy broth, sucrose.
Natural factors generally offers great products at low cost. I, in fact, use that same brand for my own probiotics. Unfortynately, this powder version for kids is a lot more expensive. I was able to find better quality at better price with another brand.


text:
Tearful Oscar Pistorius breaks down in court as he faces murder charges
PARALYMPIAN Oscar Pistorius broke down in court this morning after facing charges that he murdered his girlfriend.
Ed Riley
Paralympian Oscar Pistorius breaks down in tears at court
Pistorius, 26, sat with his head bowed when he was brought before magistrates this morning, charged with one count of murder.
The gold-medal winner was earlier met by a media frenzy as he arrived at the packed court house, having left a police station with a coat over his head.
He attempted to obscure his identity, covering his face with a note pad as he was driven into the precincts.
The South African star was said by detectives to have blasted cover girl lover Reeva Steenkamp in the head, chest and arm with a 9mm pistol in his mansion.
The sprinter is believed to have told police he thought the 30-year-old was a burglar and did not realise she had sneaked into the property to surprise him for Valentine's Day.
A pistol was found at Pistorius's Pretoria home by police.
But last night police dismissed the Valentine's claim. Detectives said they had been investigating reports of "shouting and screaming" heard by neighbours at around 4am yesterday.
Brigadier Denise Beukes also said there was no evidence of forced entry into the house, which is situated within a secure gated community.
Brig Beukes added: "The South African Police Service was surprised to hear allegations on the radio this morning that the deceased had been perceived to be a burglar. The alleg-ations did not come from us."
Police also revealed they were aware of previous incidents at the property of a "domestic nature".
Pistorius was seen after his arrest shielding his face from waiting photographers as he left a police station.
He made his way by armed police convoy to a local hospital for forensic tests to be carried out.
The athlete, who made history by competing in both the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, was later held in custody and was due to appear in court this morning.
Police said they would oppose bail "based on the evidence that is currently being gathered".
Meanwhile, details emerged yesterday showing the athlete's paranoid obsession with security at Silver Lakes Golf Estate on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
He told last year how he slept with a pistol next to his bed, a machine gun by the window and a cricket and baseball bat behind the door.
In a tweet last November he feared that an intruder had broken to into his home.
He wrote: "Nothing like getting home to hear the washing machine on and thinking its an intruder to go into full combat recon mode into the pantry! waa."
Pistorius was also a regular visitor to the local shooting range to fire his handgun.
In 2009 he was arrested and spent the night in the cells after claims he assaulted a woman during a party at his house. He was eventually released with a warning.
Police continued their forensic investigations at the property in the Silver Lakes Golf Estate yesterday.
The estate is regarded as one of the country's best protected and has electrified fences, armed 24-hour security guards and manned gates. A police spokesman said they were called to the house in the early hours of yesterday morning when paramedics were desperately trying to revive Reeva.
She was later pronounced dead at the scene.
Pistorius is understood to have begun dating Reeva in November after breaking up with high school sweetheart Vicky Miles in the summer.
Dubbed the "Posh and Becks" of South Africa, he and Reeva were not thought to be living together.
Just hours before her death, the model wrote on Twitter about Valentine's Day.
She said on Wednesday: "What do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow??? #getexcited #ValentinesDay"
Pistorius, who was born without fibula bones, had his limbs amputated below the knee when he was just 11 months old.
He won two gold medals and a silver at the London 2012 Paralympics and held five medals from previous Games.
His father Henke said his son was "sad" and a "bit emotional" yesterday, adding: "I don't know nothing.
"It will be extremely obnoxious and rude to speculate. I don't know the facts."
Pistorius's agent Peet van Zyl said: "Oscar is a humble person and a lovely guy. I'm sure what's happened has been a terrible mistake but I really don't have the details at the moment." The killing stunned the world of sport with athletes around the world reacting to the news on Twitter.
Olympian Jessica Ennis, 27, described "the horrendous news" as "an awful tragedy".
And retired heptathlete Denise Lewis, 40, added: "Not a good morning athletics fans – News reports on Oscar Pistorius are unbelievable."
The International Paralympic Committee said: "We offer out symp-athy and condolences to all involved."


DRC USA Inc. helps to improve the performance of those who have difficulty with reading, writing and arithmetic.
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Biddulph Grange is a great example of the Victorian desire for learning. From 1842 trees, shrubs and plants from all around the world were brought to the site and set amongst an assortment of eccentric rockeries and buildings. Biddulph was the first garden in the world to use natural planting screens for separating out different rooms or gardens and it is appropriate that yew is the major tree in the more formal hedging nearest the main house.
The garden at Biddulph Grange was mainly created by James and Maria Bateman and their friend the marine painter Edward Cooke. James Bateman was fascinated by orchids and established an important collection at his first home Knypersley Hall, also at Biddulph in Staffordshire. In 1838 he married Maria who came from a gardening family and was particularly interested in lilies, fuchsias and camellias. In 1840 the Bateman's moved to Biddulph taking their collections with them. Edward Cooke paid the first of his many visits to the garden in 1849. He was the Son-in-law to a nurseryman and was passionate about designing gardens and so the great creation of Biddulph Grange gardens began.
The Dahlia walk is instantly recognisable as a world class view. The yew hedges with their flying buttresses separate the beds into sections and each contains a different variety of dahlia.The plants are relatively new having been planted as part of the National Trust's authentic restoration in 1990. The fact that dahlia's have a lot of green foliage makes then blend in to the view and their colourful heads which are all "natural" colours add a sense of excitement and uniformity, but that uniformity that you used to get from the brilliant designed uniforms of Napoleons cavalry.
Biddulph has a great number of high yew hedges on the upper terraces nearest to the house. They separate different rooms similar to those at Hidcote but there the similarity ends. In one you will find a lovely box parterre which transports you directly to Italy. A lot of the Victorian gardeners would scour the world for new and exotic plants and at Biddulph this sense of traveling round the worlds is heightened by different sections emulating Egypt and China and other places in Europe.
Biddulph has such a sense of journey that they have to give you a map. You take long paths which disappear under tunnels, through trees, up onto ridges with bridges, through tight spaces and suddenly you find yourself in a pagoda complete with bells and a wonderful view of a highly painted bridge. Of course you want to run on instantly and stand on the bridge and look back at where you have just come from but the effort is well worthwhile.
Perhaps the most romantic part of the garden is one called Egypt where yew hedges form the walls of an Egyptian temple. This is a must see on any topiary tour. You can disappear inside a small network of tunnels and then re-appear in another garden altogether. There is much inspiration here for the more modest garden owner to replicate one of the areas that takes their fancy.
A nice touch at Biddulph amongst all the yew and box are the cotoneaster hats or teacakes or whatever you will. This reminds the topiarist that there are many hardy species which can be shaped and cotoneaster has the added attraction of having red berries in season. Of course female yew trees also have small red berries late on but that's another story.
One small note on a garden that is so vast and attracts so many visitors. The tea room is rather small so do not plan to eat out in style otherwise you may well be disappointed as it gets full in no time at all. If you are heading back south on the M6 then the sat nav can take you through endless suburbs of Stoke on Trent so you may want to plan your journey. Mind you I would definitely recommend making the journey as Biddulph Grange is like no other garden and particularly attractive to children.


text:
Q: Different framework for Model, View and Presenter in iOS? I am new to iOS development, so please excuse me in case my question sounds trivial.
I am planning to introduce MVP or VIPER pattern. I am from Web background and in web application we used to follow different layers/dlls (for model, view, common etc.). Does it make sense to follow the same layered approach (frameworks in this case) in iOS and or it will be overkill? I have not come across any sample project (based on MVP) which create different framework for model, View and Presenters? It would be great if someone can share any sample project (based on MVP) which we can use as a starter project.
Thanks In Advance

A: In iOS, we generally use MVC - Model/View/Controller. So, if you're looking for the analog in the iOS world, that's it. If you're saying that you've really dug into MVC and there's something that you find deeply unsatisfying, and therefore want to introduce a different pattern, then that's a different question.
So, no, the sort of logical separation of responsibilities that you see in approaches like MVC is not overkill. In fact, the division of "view" and "controller" classes are fairly central to everything we do (e.g. UIView subclasses, UIViewController subclasses, etc.), so the only thing you really have to do is design appropriate "model" classes and you're off to the races.
But, in answer to your question, you don't generally use separate framework targets for the model, the views, and the controllers. That probably would be overkill. Usually you can keep track of everything through through judicious use of Xcode groups/folders within your project. We generally only pull stuff into frameworks for more technical or logistical reasons (live views, app extensions, sharing code between multiple apps, etc. ... see WWDC 2015 Building Modern Frameworks for discussions of when you'd generally use frameworks).
But to the question of MVC vs MVP or VIPER (or MVVM or whatever). I'd suggest that you simply embrace the shared spirit of all of these patterns (namely the separation of responsibilities) and apply it to your iOS MVC code. Once you've got some iOS experience under your belt, you can then re-evaluate this pattern question.

A: If you're starting with iOS developement and is looking for a good architecture, go with VIPER. It's not at all an overkill as long as you:
1 - Automate VIPER files generation
2 - Automate VIPER modules initialization
To accomplish both requirements above, use this Xcode plugin (https://github.com/natangr/ViperTemplate) to generate and intialize VIPER files automatically. It works like charm!
And read this post https://www.ckl.io/blog/best-practices-viper-architecture to get more tips on how to automate things when using VIPER.
I do use it, even for very small projects (160h of development)


text:
Q: My css is not working in magento 2 I had installed Magento 2.0.2 and also override the templates I am stuck on a point that where do i write my css for my own styling. How do i change the css of existing template.
i have done these steps
create _theme.less
app/design/frontend/vendor/theme/web/source/_theme.less

and deploy the content by using
php bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy

also change the Front-end development workflow into client side less compilation and i found the styles.css file included at backend which source was
pub/media/styles.css

if i make changes in styles.css then it will apply on frontend and backend both.
now i want to write my own css to apply my own created theme how can i do that?
thanks alot!

A: Try this steps.

*

*Create css file under this directory.
app/design/frontend/Vendor/theme/web/css/customcss.css

*Create default_head_blocks.xml file if not exist at this path
app/design/frontend/Vendor/theme/Magento_Theme/layout/default_head_blocks.xml
Put below code in default_head_blocks.xml
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<page xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:View/Layout/etc/page_configuration.xsd">
    <head>
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no"/>
        <css src="css/customcss.css" />
    </head>
</page>

Hope this helps you!!

A: app/design/frontend/vendor/theme/Magento_Theme/layout/default_head_blocks.xml
add your custom theme and try to make changes there.
<head>
<css src="css/style.css" />
</head>

A: Make sure your tree looks like this:
-app
--design
---frontend
----VendorName
-----VendorTheme
------Magento-Theme
-------layout
--------default.xml
--------default_head_blocks.xml
------media
-------preview.png
------web
-------css
--------yourcss.css
------registration.php
------theme.xml


Quality Policy of Vietnamese Rubber: Always perfect.
It is a way of observing, thinking, living and working.
Business is the life experience.
VietRubber see the unsuccessful times are also achievements.
"Always look at ourselves" while succeeding and not succeeding.
Perfecting not always try to rise, find ways to expand or find ways to grow.
Perfection is a slow reminder.
Always perfect not to fill up, but to reduce the non-conformities.
Understand, life is not always easy.
Love the job and cherish the companions.
Looking forward to the beloved customers.
All rights reserved. Please do not copy.


Large Format Photography Forum > LF Forums > Business > Professional layout shoots and LF?
View Full Version : Professional layout shoots and LF?
How often are LF cameras still used today for high end architecture layouts and magazines?
I guess not only architecture but any other genre' as well.
I was reading my my View CAmera book that a large percentage of the really slick magazine advertising was shot with 4x5?
Key word "was". No one has time for film any longer. Quality=quantity.
Back in "The Day", when film was the only option, LF was the choice of many pros for advertising work. Primarily 4x5 from the time that drum scanners(being used for color separations) were employed by printing houses/pre-press companies, and emulsions got better. Still, 8x10 was widely used, but 4x5 was the primary format. Even less(and primarily in Europe),5x7 was used as well. "Chromes"(transparencies) were the "golden standard", not because photogs liked to show them off, but because the clients preferred them(easier to judge which one's best, vs color negatives due to the orange mask, you'd need a print to judge really which was best).
So, the primary reason for using LF was actually 2(or 3)-fold. Bigger pieces of film can hold more information, and retain better fine details when enlarged(simple physics here).
Reason #1.An 8x10 piece of film can hold 4x the amount of data that a 4x5 sheet can, due to 4x the surface area to record upon. Many times(even for high-end work like photographing cars or expensive products), 4x5 provided more than enough "resolution" for clients needs, and the smaller expense left more room for profit for the photographer. 8x10 film costs 3.5-4x as much as 4x5(again, 4x the surface area, 4x as much emulsion and base to create), so for circumstances where fine detail was of the UTMOST IMPORTANCE(say, with jewelry, or other small items) to be blown up to large, poster-sized proportions, 8x10 came in to save the day.
Reason #2. LF cameras allow perspective control. There are a few MF camera that allow *some* movements of the film plane or lens plane, but none like a true, LF view camera. This has its ups and downs. Ups: total control of plane of focus/defocus. The ability to bring into(or take out of) focus what you want, allows total creative freedom on the part of the photographer. Many people used rollfilm backs on their 4x5's the last few years before moving to full-time digital capture, primarily because of reduced budgets, and now, with the web coming "of age"(mid-late 1990's), the need for glossy, hi-res brochures was slowly diminishing due to digital marketing(and less resolution needed for monitor displays).
ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY: The view camera allows for movements, and a straigh-up shift(rise/fall) of the lens, which is PARALLEL to the film plane, will keep the "keystoning effect" from happening. Kodak had a book, IIRC titled "View Camera", they're widely available used(amazon, ebay, maybe even yard sales(where I found mine :))).
Reason #3. IDK, there's another reason I'm sure, but my brain is short on sleep, so I'm fuzzy-headed ;).
moreover, FILM is still used commercially by SOME. I worked on a job(assisting) last week, the photographer(I'll hold back names) used film(along with digital 5dII for shots for the A.D.'s "sanity"). It was great getting to load RZ backs on and off for 3hrs(editorial job), much better than everyone crowding around a monitor. It was a much more FLUID way of working, everyone FOCUSED on the image, and not the monitor. We even used polaroids(well, fuji-roids) for a few shots. I have one on my white-board right next to me here :).
now, I'd venture to guess that 99% of commercial work is now shot completely digital. TIME=$$$(what's available now). Clients have tightened their advertising dollars("digital's cheaper", all the typical BS), and the middlemen(ad agencies) are taking a bigger cut than before, sometimes even requesting RAW files(un-edited) for THEIR people to edit/photoshop. So the photographer in some cases is basically just a trained monkey pushing a button and directing assistants(if budget for any).
So the photographer in some cases is basically just a trained monkey pushing a button and directing assistants(if budget for any).
Dan, I pretty much agree with everything you have stated except this last part. Bottom line, and this has not changed is that the trickiest part of a photograph was always the lighting, and digital hasn't changed that too much. It takes skill and talent to light well and years to really master it (especially still life). And while there are people who are satisfied with lighting that is equivalent to florescent lighting in an office, the better photographers can go far beyond that.
now, I'd venture to guess that 99% of commercial work is now shot completely digital. TIME=$$$(what's available now). Clients have tightened their advertising dollars("digital's cheaper", all the typical BS), and the middlemen(ad agencies) are taking a bigger cut than before, sometimes even requesting RAW files(un-edited) for THEIR people to edit/photoshop.
Agreed, the Canon EOS 1D started tapping away at professional 35mm film use back in 2001, then two years later the Canon EOS 1Ds took a huge gigantic axe to professional use of 35mm and MF too, and a lot of 5x4 studio use too. The 1Ds produced images that were "good enough" for most customers and you had the result right after pressing the shutter button, and the agency could have it in an email very quickly after. I recall an interview with the now late Lord Litchfield, where he said he had gone completely digital and estimated that he saved around £80k GBP PA on film and developing costs.
The whole professional industry has changed, forever. The only area of commercial work here in the UK I can think of where things have not too changed much and 5x4 is still regularly used in any meaningful (though very small) amount is photographing very very large groups of people (e.g. a school photograph with 400+ people all lined up on staging). The other one would be landscape photography, in even smaller numbers.
Things have changed for the general public too, they have gone from 35mm to digital compact and now more and more camera phones for their everyday snaps. In the world we live in cost, speed and convenience (and perhaps the ability to upload to Facebook straight away :confused: ) all too often champions absolute quality.