text:
"use strict";

// imports
var fs = require('fs-extra');
var path = require('path');
var webbuild = require('webbuilder');

// fields
var now = new Date();
var libraryDir = path.resolve(__dirname, "..");
var moduleName = require('../package.json').name || path.basename(libraryDir);

// clean the target directory
fs.removeSync(path.join(libraryDir, 'target'));

// Build a standalone package
var singleOut = path.join(libraryDir, "/target/single/"+moduleName+".js");
fs.mkdirpSync(path.dirname(singleOut));
webbuild(libraryDir, {
	out: singleOut,
	prefix: "// "+ moduleName + " built for browser standalone " + now.toISOString() + "\n",
	includeSystem: true,
	withDependencies: true
});

// Build a 'standalone' package that doesn't include emitr (so it must already be on the page).
var noEmtrOut = path.join(libraryDir, "/target/single/"+moduleName+"-no-emitr.js");
webbuild(libraryDir, {
	out: noEmtrOut,
	prefix: "// "+ moduleName + " built for browser " + now.toISOString() + "\n",
	includeSystem: true,
	withDependencies: true,
	dontBundle: "emitr"
});

// Build a bundle that expects there to already be a require/define
var systemOut = path.join(libraryDir, "/target/system/"+moduleName+".js");
fs.mkdirpSync(path.dirname(systemOut));
webbuild(libraryDir, {
	out: systemOut,
	prefix: "// "+ moduleName + " built for bundle module system " + now.toISOString() + "\n",
	includeSystem: false,
	withDependencies: false
});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Ipswich Town captain Carlos Edwards says some of his team-mates have been taking advantage of boss Paul Jewell's "nice" approach.
Jewell has admitted to after a run of 10 games without a win.
"He's a genuine man. He's too nice for his own good sometimes," Edwards told BBC Radio Suffolk.
"I think we as players take advantage of the situation and not perform in the way that we should."
Ipswich spent much of last season - Jewell's first full term in charge - trying to avoid relegation from the Championship before finishing 15th.
They are currently 23rd, with just one league win all season, and host Derby in a pivotal game on Tuesday night.
"I had a quick word with the gaffer on Monday morning to reiterate he has got the players' support," said 33-year-old Edwards, who was already at Portman Road when Jewell succeeded Roy Keane in January 2011.
"Yes it is a hard job at the moment because of the results. He's thanked me for the players being there.
"We just hope we can put a smile on his face. I hope the players can open their eyes to the bigger picture because there's still a long way to go and we do have to start getting results sooner rather than later.
"Are all the players behind the manager? I would say 'yes'. But there are players who hide their feelings and will not come out and say they want him sacked or to stay.
"I'm just one person who can say I would like him to stay, but that's just me."
The Trinidad-born full-back has urged Jewell, who has won promotion to the Premier League with Bradford and Wigan, to show a nasty streak.
"I told him he needs to get back to the horrible guy he was when he first came. If he does that you'll see who wants to be at the club and who doesn't," Edwards said.
"He's changed loads. He's too nice for his own good. That means his job is up in the air. He's not the type of person to be horrible and doesn't want to be branded as that.
"Some players still need breast feeding. Players are not like they once were and you need to put an arm around them.
"But sometimes they need a kick up the backside rather than an arm around the shoulder."


I just bought a Horizon Hobby Sportsman S+ and plan to be out at the field Saturday afternoon if anyone else is out there and would be willing to assist me with a maiden and some newbie training on fixed wings I would appreciate it.
Congrats looks like it lands itself.
Sunday 10a is club meeting. Would be many more people. The earlier the better on Saturday too.
I'll help how I can. Look for the only person with a Tactic radio.
I was there last weekend on Saturday Afternoon. There were a couple members there, and left shortly after I arrived.
I made a newbie error in pre-flight and believe my rudder and aileron trims were all the way left. On taxi out and takeoff I had a pull to the left and making my first circuit I believe I tip stalled (throttle to low and altitude to low as well).
slight crash and some wing damage resulted. The trims were so far out that the SAFE system would not correct it either. and I got nervous.
I think the next time, I will have a skilled pilot maiden her and try and get someone to be there for sure.
Technology albeit great, can not be replaced by a good Human trainer.
I will not be at the field this weekend as we are heading out for the holiday.


For the leadership theories, there are many version of theory regarding leadership, its function and its execution. Referring to the Situational Leadership Theory, proposed by Hersey and Blanchard, it suggests that there are four main types of leadership style, which are telling, selling, participating and delegating. It implies that good leaders adapt their leadership style to situation and that each style has its place; that is, that there is no 'one size fits all' method when it comes to leadership.
Telling involves a large amount of involvement on behalf of the leader, essentially, they 'tell' their staff what to do and how to do it. This style is necessary when employees are lacking the requisite skill sets and motivation to do the job. An example of where this would be most effective is a shift supervisor at McDonalds, where, having to deal with a high staff turnover and often-immature workers, the leader would be required to strictly monitor tasks to ensure that quality is maintained.
Selling still involves heavy direction, but provides more communication and "back and forth" with the staff. Another name for selling is coaching, and, as the name suggests, allows the leader to provide both guidance, advice and direct task supervision to his subordinates. The leader attempts to 'sell' their proposed task to his employees in order to motivate them.
Participating, also referred to as 'supporting', sees leaders focusing more on relationship building than providing staff with direction. It emphasises the sharing of ideas, as well as group decision making. This style is most effective when there is a highly-skilled group of staff that require little direction or guidance to do their job, but lack the motivation to carry out tasks effectively. This style allows the leader to focus on improving efficiency and motivation, as well as providing indirect direction and support, rather than spending time heavily involved in the specific tasks undertaken by the staff.
Finally, when a workplace has both highly skilled and highly motivated staff, leaders are able to use the delegation style, assigning tasks with full confidence that they will be carried out. In this manner, leaders are able to minimise direct task supervision and maximise relationship building, focusing on removing any impediments to their subordinates work.
Each of this leadership styles was determined by two factors, it is the skill of the employees and their motivation. For example, the telling style works best when employees lack the necessary skills and don't have high motivation. Participating is suitable for a workplace where the staff have a high degree of technical skill, but might lack the motivation or resources necessary to complete their tasks.
As for the DGL international and John Terrill case, Terrill as a manager had showed a great concern of the engineer's personel welfare while demonstrating a focus on relationship building. He calls for a meeting and give opportunity for the engineer to set a group in order to voice their complaints. Terrill did not delegating tasks to his staff neither directing them but rather giving space for the engineers to do their own work. Terrill listen to what the engineers have to say and identified the issues then act as a middle person between the engineers and the top management so that the issues can be solved. From all this traits, it is clear that Terrill has used the participation leadership style.
The definition of power is often being relates with the ability to influences, affect and mobilize the attitudes and behaviours of others. From the case, we conclude that John Terrill's main source of power is legitimate power. Besides that, he also has a referent power over his subordinates. What shows his legitimate power is due to he being positioned as a manager of the technical services division and he calls a meeting of the engineers. All the reports was being turned in his desk rather than to head office after he issues the order to engineers to do so. His referent power comes from his strong interpersonal skills that allow him to empathise and want to help his subordinates. This fosters a positive environment where Terrill is respected and admired, as demonstrated by the engineers cheering as he left for the meeting with the CEO. In examining the engineer's reaction for their leader, we can see that he possesses referent power over them.


I just put down the last, nine-page edition of Diamond Intelligence Briefings written by Chaim Even Zohar. Clearly, succinctly, he outlines a pretty scary scenario.
Consumer confidence is something of a buzzword nowadays. Every industry and every product segment spouts mantras about it all the time. Yet defining it clearly and getting the consumer to actually buy into the idea that a particular product or segment has value, can be trusted, is worthwhile or is dependable is not a simple, one-dimensional process. Consumer confidence is made of dozens of different things.


Tina Fey surprises superfans while they film video messages to her, sharing how her career and Mean Girls impacted them, and Jimmy surprises Tina with a heartfelt message of his own.
Tina Fey is out there impacting people's lives…and falling like a potato whenever she gets emotional.
Dude Jimmy! Her name is Megan!!! One job, bruh!
Jimmy, you're message truly made me cry.
one of these days they gotta do one for Donald Trump. instead of having him hide behind the poster just send him the tapes when you're done. label them "Pee Tape".
This video made me Laugh and cry.
Jimmy's speech was so sweet!


Idiot_Irishman posted a message on How do I remove this?
Thank you been trying to remember it for too long!
How do I remove this I can't remember for the life of me what mod it is!
Idiot_Irishman posted a message on Help me remove this I can't remember//find it!
Simple question, how do I remove the box in the red circle?


text:
Q: What is dev.stackoverflow.com? If you visit dev.stackoverflow.com it says:

Beta Access
This site is currently in private beta
  testing.

Is this a new site coming or is it just the test server?

A: It's just the test server.

A: We have three tiers of development

*

*localhost

*dev

*production

That is the test server -- development tier. So test locally, then build and deploy to dev, test there, and then if that's good, build and deploy to production.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Adhering towards the theory of "quality, support, efficiency and growth", we've attained trusts and praises from domestic and international client for Regulated Box Mod Vape , regulated box mod vape , unregulated box mod vape , we sincerely welcome customers all over the world to cooperate with us.
Our company since its inception, constantly regards product or service high quality as business life, continually improve creation technology, make improvements to product high-quality and consistently strengthen business total high-quality management, in strict accordance together with the national standard ISO 9001:2000 for Regulated Box Mod Vape , regulated box mod vape , unregulated box mod vape , Each customer's satisfactory is our goal. We are looking for long-term cooperation with each customer. To meet this we keep up our quality and deliver extraordinary customer service. Welcome to our company we have been expecting to cooperate with you.


Do You Know How Animals Breathe Through Their Butts?
If you want to be able to breathe underwater, you're going to need to get creative. So some turtles, dragonfly nymphs, and sea cucumbers decided to use their butts.


Let's go on a date: this Friday, downtown Minneapolis, Dakota Jazz Club. I'll play music (some solo, some with the band), and you can sample the lovely jazz club menu.
I can't wait to get my hands on that legendary grand piano!!


text:
Q: Questions about nested direct descendants in LESS So I was looking into some code recently, and trying to learn more about LESS, and there is one thing that I am not able to wrap my head around completely. I saw the use of something structured like:
.class{
    >*{
        /*some css*/
    }
}

NOTE: The >*{} is nested inside of the .class block
I think have an idea of what this is doing, but there are a couple things I don't understand.
What I think it's doing: I am assuming that it is taking all of the direct descendants of that class and styling them accordingly. so the actual(compiled) css might be something like .class > *{}
My questions:

*

*Am I right in my assumption, or is this doing something completely different?

*If that is correct, why does this statement not need the & in front of it like other concatenations?
I apologize if this is something that has come up before, I simply don't know what other way to ask google the same question.

A: *

*Your assumption is correct.

*The & can be omitted from nested selectors that start with a combinator like > or +, or start with a compound selector where the intended result is a descendant combinator, such as
.a { .b {} }

resulting in .a .b.

A: It's actually as simple as:
Nested selector elements are always combined with whitespace. E.g. [1a]:
a {
   b {}
}

results in:
a b {}

Same way, [1b]:
:
a {
   > b {}
}

results in:
a > b {}

etc.
---
& has to be used only if you need to suppress that whitespace, as in [2a]:
a {
    &:hover {}
}

for:
a:hover {}

Or if parent selector elements are not to be placed in front, [2b]:
a {
   b & {}
}

c {
   & & {}
}

d {
  & {}
}

e {
   f ~ g:not(&) > & & + &&& {}
}

// etc.

resulting in:
b a {}
c c {}
d {}
f ~ g:not(e) > e e + eee {}

---
Combinators never affect anything and the only requirement is that a combinator must be followed by an identifier, e.g:
a { > b {} } // ok
a > { b {} } // error


This is a foundation course for Process Safety Management as applicable to petroleum refinery. The course provides an in-depth study of each PSM element of HSEMS PSM program and how the overall architecture applies to each. The course introduces each PSM element and the specific guidelines for integrating PSM element requirements into other corporate programs (such as quality and reliability programs) and evaluating program compliance throughout the implementation phase. This course also covers how to expand your PSM program to include the RBPS (risk-based process safety) elements as proposed by the CCPS (Centre for Chemical Process Safety), AICHE, PSM program.


Life is like a good backpack: your important things will always fit in easily. The Powerslide bag collection is great for carrying your skates and everyday life. They include helpful features, like integrated laptop departments or detachable parts. Besides small & big backpacks, we also offer carrying bags, hip bags and duffle bags. All of these are comfortable, lightweight and essential in urban use with great functions, making your skating & commuting life more flexible. Free your hands with tons of space on your back!


Can we use GPIOs to trigger the power button functionality?
I have a Mega Drive II housing I want to use as ropi case, and I'm thinking about making the buttons on it functional.
If I connect the reset button of the MD to the GPIOs, is there a way to make it function as the Opi power button, since the latter won't be accessible?
GPIO is programmable, but since you only want to use the power button, connect the wires to 2 (5V) and 6 (GND).
(02-06-2018, 11:45 PM)alexkidd Wrote: GPIO is programmable, but since you only want to use the power button, connect the wires to 2 (5V) and 6 (GND).
I didn't make myself clear. I want to use the orange pi power/reset button (the small black one on the side of the orange pi, with the programmable behavior via retrorangepi menu).
But instead of pushing it (which will not be possible when the board will be inside the MD housing), I was wondering if I could use a GPIO and trigger the respective action (is it a shell script or something?).
it should be possible with python, just like the GPIO controller support, but tbh we never tested ourselves or added any feature with direct GPIO programming.


text:
10 Av 5764 - July 28, 2004 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
In Exile With the Torah
Memoirs of a survivor of Yeshivas Bialystok in Poland -- HaRav Binyomin Grodke
In the first part, HaRav Grodke discussed his early years briefly and then went on to describe his years in yeshiva. He entered the Novardok yeshiva of Bialystok at the age of 16 in 1936, and was able to learn there for three years before the War broke out in Elul, 5639 (1939). He discussed the Yomim Noraim that year and what it was like to learn and live with the clouds of war hanging low. Many yeshivas from Poland and Russia went to Vilna and Lithuania in the hope that it would be independent of both Germany and Russia. A week before Pesach 5700 (1940) Rav Grodke arrived in Birzh with the yeshiva and the rosh yeshiva HaRav Yaffen and the mashgichim HaRav Yisroel Mowshowitz and HaRav Nissen Patchinsky. However soon Russia took over Lithuania.
The Russians sent all the foreign citizens away from the European front and to Siberia. Though life was very harsh in Siberia, the Russians did not engage in mass murder. The yeshiva bochurim had to work very hard, but they struggled to keep whatever they could. HaRav Grodke managed to save three pairs of tefillin, once, when the jailers went through everyone's belongings.
In the Image of Man
Three months of harsh, backbreaking labor passed in Krasnoyarsk, but boruch Hashem we maintained our dignity and scrupulously guarded the mishmeres hakodesh.
Until Elul, we worked in Camp 1 as two brigades of yeshiva students from Poland who were exiled for declining Russian- Communist citizenship. The Germans ym'sh penetrated deep into Russia; by the end of 1941, the Germans were already at the gates of St. Petersburg (then Leningrad).
Russia was forced to seek aid from America and England, who had signed the Atlantic agreement against offensive attacks, and promised freedom in order to win their favor. The Communists, who were by nature very far from promises of freedom, were forced to reach an agreement with the leaders of the Polish government in exile. All Polish citizens in Siberia would stop working in the labor camps and be freed first to the kolkhozes of Kazakhstan and then to the Polish army to fight the Germans.
During Elul, the yeshiva students started being released from the work camps because they were citizens of (conquered) Poland. The mashgiach HaRav Yisroel and a number of talmidim were freed first. They went to the city of Merke through Novosibirsk, where they obtained a sefer Torah and some sifrei kodesh. The Yomim Noraim found them in Merke and that's where they davened.
We were transferred to Camp 7 where we continued working as usual but the conditions were much better than at Camp 1.
It was Elul and we were agitated about how the Yomim Noraim would pass in Siberia (as a shonoh sherosho techiloh . . .) We were obviously not zoche to hear a shofar.
HaRav Yitzchok Orlansky zt'l, who was in Siberia, was freed during Elul and on his way to the kolkhoz "Barnhil" he searched in the marketplaces and found a head of a ram in the depths of the garbage. He managed to scratch out the center of the bone and make a shofar out of it and even blew it on that bitter Rosh Hashonoh, of the year "tosheiv enosh ad dako."
On Yom Kippur we received special treatment by the overseer. He did not draw his rifle and told us that he considered us intellectuals. We all stood behind a bundle of wood and davened and he did not get angry or scream at us. He merely wanted us to move the wood a little and then wrote in his journal that the prisoners cleaned the forest today.
It was hashgochas Hashem that we were able to stand for hours in tefilloh without any disturbance, like sons confessing to their Creator and begging for mercy. We saw much chasdei Hashem in the darkness, hail and hunger.
Indeed, we are living proof that Hashem's Hashgocho shines even in the dark and gloom. "Ki cheilek Hashem amo, Yisroel chevel nachaloso. Yimtzo'eihu be'eretz midbar uvesohu yelleil yeshimon; yesovevenhu yevoneneihu yitzrenhu ki'eshon eino, Because Hashem's portion is His nation and Yisroel is the rope of His plot. He found him in desert land, in wailing emptiness; He surrounded him, He built him, He guarded him like the pupil of His eye" (Devorim 32:9).
From Siberia to Bolshevik Kazakhstan
Many people are amazed and ask us how we were able to remain staunch in emunah and shemiras hamitzvos and guard our souls through the difficult trials of exile in heretical Communist Russia, the Siberian labor camps and then among the Kazakhs in the Kazakhstan deserts and other far- flung places in Russia. The answer is the avodas hamussar that we learned in Yeshivas Novardok and the avodoh in middas habitochon and yiras Hashem.
I remember that in Bialystok we learned to: "Increase the yir'oh and decrease the nisoyon!" If we work on increasing fear of Heaven, this will decrease the trials of faith and the temptation of the evil inclination. Indeed, we proved that the more we worked on increasing yiras Hashem, the more the nisyonos decreased, as well as the effort to overcome nisyonos.
One of the talmidim, HaRav Shlomo Naftali Hertz Semiatitzky (Drogozhiner) author of Ner Leyitzhor, was one of those who encouraged and strengthened us, as well as HaRav Kehos Barak zt'l, who was later mashgiach ruchani of Beis Yosef in Brooklyn.
One of the main words of chizuk was the answer to the question of Yeshayohu (40:27), "Lomo somar Yaakov usedaber Yisroel, nisteroh derochai meiHashem? Why should Yaakov say and Yisroel speak: `My ways are hidden from Hashem?' " The answer the Novi gave was, ". . . Elokei olom Hashem borei ketzovos ho'oretz lo yi'af velo yiga, ein cheiker letevunoso! Hashem is the G- d of the world Who created edges to the earth He does not get tired or weary; there is no plumbing the depth of His understanding."
Even though Hakodosh Boruch Hu is unlimited and unbounded, He created "edges to the earth" with boundaries, and there is "no plumbing the depth of His understanding." Because the puny human mind cannot understand Hashem's deep understanding when He brings us to a land of harsh decrees and slavery, but there will soon be a boundary and end to the slavery. (See the droshos of HaRav Hertz Semiatitzki, Ner Leyitzhor)
We celebrated chag simchoseinu, Succos, in the forced labor camps under the natzalniks' and stroloks' oppression. Nevertheless, we were happy and full of hope that the time was ripe for freedom from the harsh labor in a desolate land. Indeed, the mercy of Heaven does not end and the hour did arrive.
Despite the tremendous difficulties in the camps and the back- breaking labor, this period of our lives is a shining chapter of observing Torah and mitzvos with tremendous mesiras nefesh. Anyone who never saw a Siberian labor camp cannot understand this. The mashgiach HaRav Yisroel Mowshowitz zt'l wrote, "The weakest students stood strong in the nisyonos even more so than other bnei Torah. Because they absorbed mussar into their very essence -- in yeshiva."
After Simchas Torah 5602-1942, we were freed as Polish citizens. We made a small party in the camp. We were very happy and thanked Hashem for freeing us from the prison labor camps.
We traveled a one week's journey from Novosibirsk to the Bolshevik kolkhoz, arriving in the warm summer areas of Russia, the Kazakhstan settlements in the Merke area near Zambyl.
It is now appropriate to describe the kolkhozes in Kazakhstan and the Kazakhs. The Kazakhs, mainly Muslim Turks, were independent farmers and shepherds before the Communist revolution and were extremely wealthy. After the Communist revolution (by 1920), their land was owned by the government and they were just considered government employees. They were forced to give the Communists a portion of their produce, power over their property and a quota of cattle and sheep.
The mashgiach HaRav Yisroel Mowshowitz and a number of his students came to Kazakhstan during the bad days and did agricultural work in the kolkhoz in Merke-Zambyl.
Kazakhstan is a republic in southwest Asian USSR, and it extends from the Ural Mountains and Siberia in the North until the Tien Shan mountains in the south, and from the Caspian Sea in the west until the border of China in the east (including a wide strip of sand deserts in south Kazakhstan, the largest of which was the Kiezel Kum desert).
Kazakhstan has an abundance of copper, iron, coal, phosphate and various metals, gold and silver mines; the seas contained various industrial salts, and there is oil around the Caspian Sea shores.
During World War II, many industrial factories, which produced machinery and vehicles, moved to Kazakhstan. The main work on the kolkhozes however, was agricultural work.
The climate was extremely dry and the difference between summer and winter was most extreme, with winter temperature reaching 45 degrees below zero and the snow and ice piling five meters high or more.
The Kazakhstan land was very interesting and varied. Low plains lay next to high plateaus. On the east and southeast, high ranges and mountains rose majestically, while the lowest area in the USSR lay on the west -- the Kragian hollow on the east of the sea, which is 132 meters below sea level.
Most of Kazakhstan is desert. Extensive cattle raising developed, due to the aridity. The Communists, however, carefully supervised the animal count and agricultural produce and instead of sending food to the starving Siberian plains, they exported choice food abroad.
The Kolkhoz
A kolkhoz was supposed to be a joint settlement in which the farmers were all partners. The land did not belong to any private person; everything was shared. Calculations were made based on the work done, how many days of work, etc. and the profits were divided among the "partners."
Everything depended on the quality and quantity of the produce -- if it was successful, the income grew, and if it was a bad crop, the income diminished. The same applied to other profits.
The kolkhoz secretary used to write down how many work days each person had on his account. A person could work all week and be credited with only one day's work or one day could be considered a few, depending on the quality of the work.
It seemed, officially, that the wheat produce belonged to the partners, the farmers. However, they were required to give the lion's share to the government as "payment" for the ground, seeds, machines, plows, harvesting and threshing machine ("combine"), horses, cows, etc. After paying for all the expenses, the rest of the wheat was distributed to the farmers to grind in the government mill. Only then could they bake their bread.
If the crop was bad, which happened every year in Siberian areas, there was barely anything left for the farmer himself. He did have permission to use a small plot of land to cultivate a small garden where he grew potatoes, some carrots, some onions and a little garlic. In the summer, he was also able to plant cucumbers and cabbage, but was forbidden to plant wheat and corn. The farmer had to depend on the kolkhoz for flour, in order to force everyone to work in the kolkhoz.
Every farmer had permission to raise one cow, a dog and a few lambs. If a calf or any young one was born, the farmer had to raise it and then give it to the kolkhoz or government. Out of the little milk the cow produced -- two, sometimes four, cups -- ninety percent belonged to the government. The farmer himself obtained food from the kolkhoz, but there was nothing for the animals. So, as any dairy farmer knows, if a cow doesn't eat it doesn't produce milk.
The farmers did not own chickens or roosters and they fed their dog or cat a bit of the potato that the farmer himself really needed. The farmer only received bread as a salary for his work days. He mixed the little flour he received with some cooked potatoes and that was the daily fare for him and his animals.
When we arrived in Boshevik, we worked the ground in the desert fields and received a portion of food (rice and vegetables) as a salary. When Shabbos came however, we hid in the mountains and did not come to work. The Kazakh woman overseer said, "If you work well during the rest of the week, you can get food on Shabbos also." (We didn't come to take the food on Shabbos in front of everyone.)
Once, the Kazakh natzalnik came riding on a horse and told the overseer not to give us food on days that we don't work. However Hashem helped us and she said to us, "Children, come, before they return from work." Thus we were spared working on Shabbos kodesh and even received a humble portion of food.
The hunger and lack of bread affected us adversely and I contracted the terrible typhus disease. Only few are zoche to completely recover from this difficult disease. I layed on straw on the hospital's floor, burning with fever and hallucinating. The mashgiach, the tzaddik HaRav Yisroel Mowshowitz zt'l walked a distance of seven kilometers through the Kazakhstan deserts to visit me through the hospital window.
When Hashem helped me overcome the disease, he was the first to pass expensive pieces of sugar through the window to help me recover. Blessed is Hashem Who did not leave me, and I left the hospital in peace.
Victims of Hunger and Suffering of Plagues
HaRav Pinchos Menachem Malach (in the sefer, Lev HaAri), who was close to the mashgiach in Merke, described the hunger and diseases as follows: The first year we lived in Merke, we worked in the kolkhoz where terrible hunger reigned. (We had not yet begun receiving care packages.)
As a result, a plague of harsh diseases erupted. During one winter, out of a room of ten bochurim, half were niftar and only five remained.
The intense hunger is difficult to describe. We used to eat any kind of vegetable or fruit that we found, even if it was rotten and moldy. This obviously caused more diseases.
The first winter of 5702 (1942), I [Reb Pinchos Menachem] also got sick. Reb Moshe Yunver (Goren) took me to the hospital where I lay for a total of ten weeks, suffering from pneumonia. I could not move a limb or roll over, and I did not recognize anyone. Boruch Hashem, after six weeks my condition improved somewhat. There was a bochur from Yeshivas Mir, Yitzchok Brezer, who lay next to me and when he was released from the hospital he brought me milk every day. To our sorrow however, he got sick again and was niftar (z'l).
The terrible suffering in the work camps weakened the students' bodies and lowered their resistance to the diseases that plagued the camps. In that winter of 5702 (1942), the first one to pass away was Nosson Bialer, a dear, beloved bochur, a talmid of Yeshivas Bialystok. He was only sixteen.
The mashgiach HaRav Yisroel, who eulogized him amidst crying and sighing, cried out, "How will I go up to my father and the boy is not with us?" Then the talmid Meir Kanishner, who had tried to obtain the sefer Torah in the city Novosibirsk, was niftar. In two consecutive days, three of our friends died on us, Reb Sinai Valkvisker z'l, Reb Avrohom Pietrkover and Reb Yaakov Kalishner z'l.
Two brothers from Valkavisk passed away -- Avrohom Yosef and his younger brother Chaim. The two were real tzadikim, students of Yeshivas Bialystok. Yehi zichrom boruch.
The filth was terrible. Because it was impossible to change clothing and wash, a plague of lice broke out, which caused harsh and dangerous diseases. There were some robust men and talmidim who went to the streams that flowed from high mountains when the snow melted, and they washed themselves in the frigid waters.
From 5701 (1941) to 5706 (1946), we not only suffered from hunger, but also from the Communist government which conscripted men to the front lines of the war and to fix the train tracks. There, it was extremely dangerous.
The tragedies that befell us could have plunged us into the depths of despair and destruction, if not for the powerful influence of the mashgiach HaRav Yisroel, who was our anchor of salvation. He succeeded in strengthening our hearts and our bitochon in Hashem, the Eternal Rock.
The Mashgiach, HaRav Yisroel Mowshowitz zt'l
The yahrtzeit of HaRav Yisroel Mowshowitz zt'l, who was a true ish tzaddik tomim, is 5 Menachem Av. He is buried is Har Hamenuchos in Yerushalayim next to the Alter of Novardok zt'l. We dedicate a few words to his memory and his extraordinary deeds.
The Mashgiach's Personality
In Lev HaAri, the talmidim describe the exalted personality of Morenu the mashgiach HaRav Yisroel zt'l.
Rev Pinchos M. Malach said, "I was close to the mashgiach HaRav Yisroel zt'l, and I was zoche to serve him. He spoke with me a lot and strengthened my bitochon in Hashem yisborach . . . I saw how he suffered difficult blows and pain, and in spite of everything, his face radiated happiness and his joyful words lifted everyone's spirits. He had menuchas hanefesh, serenity and confidence.
"He could heal another person's sorrow with his words. Even mentioning the name `Reb Yisroel' was enough to strengthen and encourage everyone. I saw him on a bitterly cold day, his feet wrapped in worn-out clothing, coming from a great distance away. He had gone to the hospital to visit the sick and bring them some milk and bread to revive their souls. His main concern was for others -- the bochurim -- and we never saw him get angry."
An Amazing Story
Reb Pinchos Michoel continued relating, "There was a man of German extraction who lived near our beis hamedrash in Merke, who was a sonei Yisroel. He was extremely angry that the beis medrash existed. What did he do? He got drunk and started to throw stones into the window of the beis medrash. When one of the talmidim, Reb Simcha Radiner (who passed away in Bei, France), tried to stop him, the vulgar German bashed him with a bottle, opening a wound in his head. Just then, HaRav Yisroel was leaving the beis medrash. He saw the incident and said, `You'll see, the end of this rosho will come.'
"The wound was treated, and boruch Hashem, the bochur recovered. The tzaddik's words were completely fulfilled.
"A few days later, the German went to the nearby train station and shoved himself into the car. The ticket-taker came and pushed him off. The German fell onto the train tracks, the train moved and he was cut into two under its wheels. We saw with our eyes the power of the tzaddik, HaRav Yisroel zt'l."
The Bnei Hachaburoh Remember
Rav Moshe Turner zt'l spoke at the yahrtzeit of morenu the mashgiach zt'l in 5751. "In Merke, we divided one masechto (maseches Menochos) into chapters, due to the lack of seforim. After much effort, we arranged a place for tefilloh and learning. Who was our pillar, who strengthened us so we didn't break? It was HaRav Yisroel Mowshowitz zt'l. We can testify that Reb Yisroel did not change. His gadlus and tzidkus in Bialystok remained unchanged in Merke. He was a man of Torah every step of the way. We saw him when he distributed the care packages according to halocho without any personal bias. He was on the elevated level of a true sonei botza."
Reb Avrohom Yitzchok Linzberg told the following story. "Robbers broke into our apartment because they knew we had care packages, so there was something to steal. It was a miracle that it happened at the beginning of the night and not in the middle. Terrible cries and wails, which could be heard from one end of the city to the other, pierced the night. The only one of us who was not frightened was Reb Yisroel. He remained his usual quiet and calm, engrossed in thoughts and tefilloh; his tremendous zchus definitely saved all of us. The robbers shot and made noise until they finished all their bullets and left. The next day, the police arrived and declared that they had never seen such a robbery, with the walls of the house covered with bullet holes. We were not only scared to sleep in the house, but even feared going near it and we moved someplace else. Reb Yisroel, however, was not scared and he remained in that house alone and slept there as usual."
On another occasion, Reb Moshe Turner added his memories of HaRav Yisroel zt'l. "I was in Bialystok for a long time and did not appreciate his noble strength because he was a modest person. His greatness and glorious character traits were especially apparent in Merke. I was amazed and told myself, `How did he succeed in hiding his noble character traits and greatness until now?' Behold a vessel that is overflowing must let out some of its content. However, this was also an expression of his greatness -- the fact that he was able to hide it."
Reb Abba Burshtein of Bnei Brak spoke about Reb Yisroel's gadlus. "In Yeshivas Bialystok, Reb Yisroel did not want to transmit mussar and his'orerus in public. (The mashgiach HaRav Nissen Patchinsky Hy'd zt'l gave the shmuessen.) But when he spoke with bochurim individually, he was not silent; he completely dissected the bochur's middos and actions. His moving tefillos as baal tefilloh on the Yomim Noraim, however, he was unable to hide from the public.
"When I was in the Bolshevik kolkhoz as well, we gathered in Merke-Zambyl for the Yomim Noraim to hear Reb Yisroel's tefillos.
He was a man of halocho, an expert in all halochos of Shulchan Oruch, and was able to rule in halocho anywhere. When we were in the forced labor camps, Reb Yisroel worked extra in the arduous forests for the weak students who were unable to fill their quota. HaRav Yaakov Galinsky described how he once obtained some extra food and brought it to Reb Yisroel, but he refused to take it.
Reb Moshe Turner in Lev HaAri concludes, "`Zechor yemos olom binu shenos dor vodor, Remember the days gone by, understand the years of each generation.'" If we want to understand our generation, we have to understand the past generations. Reb Yisroel zt'l was our model in the forced labor camps. After we left and were still suffering in the Red Exile, he was the one who encouraged, supported, strengthened and forged our spirits. Tehei nishmoso tzeruro bitzror hachaim."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Reviews > Current Releases
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues; Inside Llewyn Davis; Her; Nebraska; Contracted
Sunday, Dec 22, 2013 by Joseph "Jay Dub" Wade (@JayDubSA), Martin "Vargo" Schneider (@SchneidRemarks), and Sean "Keanu Grieves" Hanson (@keanugrieves)
Our heads are all spinning this week after the onslaught of incredibly mediocre films we've had to deal with. There is only one real exception in the form of Her, which gets by on the power of sincerity.
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
by Sean "Keanu Grieves" Hanson
EXPECTATIONS: I'm not the biggest fan of Will Ferrell, the man who has come to define "trying too hard." That said, as a journalist, I've always had a huge soft spot for Anchorman and, because this is a sequel no one asked for or expected, I hope Anchorman 2 will live up to the original.
REALITY: Here's how you fuck up a joke: Give Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell), the face of white male privilege, a seat at his black girlfriend's family dinner and allow him to talk the way he thinks all black people talk. That part's funny - squirmy, but funny. And his girlfriend, Linda Jackson (Meagan Good), the rare black woman in a position of power as a television executive in 1980, has every right to be incensed by his behavior - and she is. On the cab ride home, she berates him for referring to her relatives as "pipe-hittin' bitches." But then, in a moment that's neither true to the joke nor her character, she tells Burgundy she's just work-stressed and apologizes for yelling at him. If ever a cinematic moment deserved a record scratch, that's a top contender. It casts a pall over the last half of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues and the film never quite recovers, despite a series of incredibly creative blind jokes and a cameo-packed sequence that skewers all manner of niche television news programs.
It's hard to make jokes about images that are already jokes, you know?
See, what transpires in that moment is a sudden reversal of the comedic agenda that made its predecessor a minor classic. In Anchorman, Burgundy and his all-male news team - bigoted sports anchor Champ Kind (David Koechner), super-sexy investigative reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) and permafried meteorologist Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) - had to deal with their television network's decision to hire its first female co-anchor, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate). Some of the jokes, such as Burgundy's insistence that menstruating women attract bears, were aimed squarely at the cultural dominants of the late 1970s, the mustached bigots who ran the workplace like a clubhouse: no girls allowed. Most of the others viciously attacked the hollow, homogenous nature of television reporting, in which anchors promise to give their viewers all of the top stories, plus a few commercials and maybe a segment on a panda bear on a slow news day, in thirty minutes or less.
In Anchorman 2, Burgundy finds himself jobless and on the brink of divorce when he gets an offer to host the 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. slot at an upstart cable network promising round-the-clock reporting. One need not be a journalism historian to recognize that Anchorman 2 is poking fun at CNN, which also launched in 1980 and remains a ripe target for satire. Unfortunately, writers Ferrell and Adam McKay have less to say in a film that's thirty minutes longer than its predecessor, which makes for a lot of dead air. Whereas Anchorman had a narrow target, time and place, Ferrell and McKay cast the net wider, pack this one full of jarring anachronisms and attempt to mock the modern face of 24-hour news within the context of CNN circa 1980. That doesn't always work.
Will Ferrell is a frightening figure. Look at his huge shoulders and his face full of rage.Worse, they finally surrender to their own worst tendencies, making fewer jokes at Burgundy's expense and hewing their characters, especially the women, to easy stereotypes of the "bitches be crazy" variety. Previously, Corningstone was independent and career-driven. Here, she is finally reduced to fighting with Jackson over Burgundy's affections. He suggests they kiss. I wouldn't have been surprised if they had. For her part, Jackson begins as a proud black woman. Less than an hour has passed before she "rapes" (the film's word, not mine) Burgundy, throwing him against a wall and forcing him to bark while she purrs and grinds against his crotch. What are the go-to stereotypes about career women again?
Fortunately, Rudd and Carell - both of whom are funnier than Ferrell - have become marquee names in the decade since Anchorman and get beefier roles to match their elevated stature. They, along with the underrated Koechner, provide the film's best moments and carry Ferrell through any scene in which they appear as an ensemble. At least they're remaining faithful to the spirit of Anchorman, which is like the guy at the party who runs around yelling, "Dude, that's so random!" Except this guy's actually funny. In the most memorable subplot, Tamland forges a romance with a similarly nutty office worker (Kristen Wiig), which basically serves as an excuse for Carell and Wiig to out-weird each other. They succeed admirably. As he did in Anchorman, Tamland gets a moment of shocking lucidity to sidestep any accusations that his character exists to mock the retarded, despite Brick's assertion in Anchorman that he is, in fact, legally retarded. Yes, he's really fucking weird and childlike, in an absurd extension of the popular perception of meteorologists, and maybe he's done too many drugs or took shrapnel to the head, but he definitely isn't as retarded as the Channel 9 News Team would like to believe. Yeah, let's go with that. Because to say that his character is offensive to the mentally handicapped is to say that, finally, Anchorman 2 has nothing to offer, and I'm not about to go that far.
I mean, there's a really smart joke about celebrity wife murderers.
A Few of the Jokes
Some of the Other Jokes
Most of the Jokes
The Blind Jokes
The Woman Jokes
MINORITY REPORT: Anchorman exists in this weird area where it's more remembered for being a series of amusing YouTube clips than for the film as a whole. I've seen Anchorman multiple times and remember many of the jokes, but if asked for a plot description, I don't think I could tell you anything that happens after Steve Carell kills a man with a trident. It's nice to see Anchorman 2 decided to go so far in the other direction, and just be unmemorable entirely. - Martin R. "Vargo" Schneider
Previous More Current Releases Next
Something Awful reviews the latest films in a straightforward (for SA) manner.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug; Saving Mr. Banks; Blue is the Warmest Color
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty; Out of the Furnace; The Book Thief
Oldboy; Homefront; Frozen; Philomena
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire; Dallas Buyer's Club; Delivery Man
How I Live Now
The Butler; Jobs; The Conspiracy; Planes; Paranoia; Fruitvale Station; Magic Magic; Blue Jasmine
Green Lantern; Mr. Popper's Penguins; Midnight in Paris
The Master; The House at the End of the Street; End of Watch
Magic Mike; Ted; Killer Joe; Lay the Favorite
Oz the Great and Powerful; Dead Man Down; The Guilt Trip
Compare Your Genitals to Musicians!
World War Fun II (Part 2 of 2)
Two and a Half Mensch
Blazing Grace
The ABCs Of Music
Midnight Outlaw: Illegal Street Drag
Sensational News Stories!


for over 10 years for his observations.
The true purpose of a DAQ system systems that do just that - gather data - but are good for little else.
your DAQ system and their physical placement.
meet 3 criteria: It must be accurate, fulfill.
the DAQ system to extract Mission Critical Information.
gather and store data - and often faulty data at best.
The following is an overview of each of those components.
to accurately measure a certain type of physical phenomenon.
a true MCI system, as opposed to a DAQ system.
efficiently deploying, managing, usable information.
and adjusting a DAQ system.
therefore are able to communicate the most accurate data.
also much higher than a digital signal.
also less vulnerable to disturbances from harsh environments.
Second, transmission medium and configurations.
Industrial Wireless: Solving Wiring Issues by Unplugging).
transmission systems are the best echo, channel sharing and congested radio environments.
interference and noise levels that tend to corrupt your data.
normalized and stabilized without losing any data quality.
your sampling resolution - will need to be at 1800 Hz.
sampling rates will really be and balance that with budgeting needs.
Analog Signal Sampling (click here).
Ethernet, Internet, Wireless (802.11 or proprietary), and PCI slots.
between the computer system and DAQ hardware.
hardware at the hardware's register level.
changes to your overall system, and reduce programming errors.
about securing and understanding Mission Critical Information.
Information. In turn, this loss renders your DAQ system useless.


Mintel's internet market research reports provide a comprehensive and extensive overview of the marketplace including information on the internet market size and internet market share.
Mintel's internet industry reports can help you gain further insight into the internet market trends and gain valuable internet consumer data.
Make sure you stay one step ahead of your competition – Mintel's market analysis can help you make informed business decisions by providing up-to-the-minute internet industry intelligence. Our market intelligence reports span hundreds of countries and regions.


text:
SAD lamps
Opticians stores
Laser eye surgery - best and worst companies
Laser eye surgery companies compared
By Anna Studman
Laser eye surgery costs
Your eyesight is precious - use our expert research to choose the best laser eye surgery company.
Choosing where you're going to have laser eye surgery is extremely important. You can use the results of our laser eye surgery patient survey to help you make the right decision.
Undergoing surgery is stressful enough, without worrying whether the clinic is going to be absolutely upfront about the small but far-reaching risks to your eyes, rather than giving you sales hype. One in five (18%) of our survey respondents were given promises about their eyesight that they now know to be unrealistic.
We've surveyed nearly 1,000 people who have had laser eye surgery or lens replacement surgery and asked them about their experience with clinics, ranging from Optical Express to Moorfields. One in 10 of those we surveyed said their experience was worse than expected in terms of their vision.
You're making long-term decisions about your eyesight, so let us help you make the right choice for your needs.
Whether you're deciding whether laser eye surgery is right for you, or how to choose between big chains and independent clinics, our expert advice is here for you.
Best laser eye surgery companies (and worst)
Who is a candidate for laser eye surgery?
Types of eye surgery to correct eyesight
Common laser eye surgery myths busted
What are the risks of laser eye surgery?
Laser eye surgery is expensive and can cause complications. So who do you trust when you're choosing between high street companies, such as Optical Express, Optimax and Ultralase, and weighing up laser eye surgery costs?
We're independent and we've been meticulous in analysing the opinions of nearly 1,000 people who have had Lasik, Lasek, ReLEx Smile and lens replacement surgery. As well as the companies already mentioned, we have results on Advanced Vision Care, London Vision Clinic and Moorfields Eye Hospital.
Logged-in Which? members can find out which laser eye clinics were rated the best. Not yet a member? Join Which? and get access to our results below and to unlock our analysis, plus all the reviews on our website including opticians stores compared and choosing varifocals.
How customers rate laser eye surgery companies
Company Explaining procedure Enough time with surgeon Sales practice Pricing transparency Customer service Dealing with queries After-care Value for money Customer score
Click to view full table and results
Based on a survey of 958 Which? members and members of the public who have had laser eye surgery in the last five years, conducted in June 2019. Individual sample sizes are as follows: Advanced Vision Care - 61, London Vision Clinic - 59, Moorfields Eye Hospital - 31, Optical Express - 304, Optimax - 166, Ultralase - 71.
Ultralase and Optimax have been jointly owned since 2012.
The biggest chain is Optical Express: it is said to do 6 out of 10 laser eye procedures in the UK, and has over 100 clinics.
Its prices vary, depending on your eyes and prescription (simple and lower prescriptions will be cheaper).
Hard to compare laser eye clinics? We have the information you need on laser eye surgery costs.
Ultralase and Optimax
These sister companies have 20 clinics between them (the Eye Hospitals Group Ltd), across the UK.
Smaller chains and independents
Moorfields Eye Hospital's private arm 'Moorfield Private' does its laser eye surgery at its City Road, London site.
Centre for Sight has three clinics, with Focus, Advanced Vision Care and London Vision Clinic having one apiece.
Optegra
This chain has nine hospitals and clinics across England.
Optegra offers ReLex Smile (this makes up around 10% of laser eye treatments done in the UK) as well as more common laser eye surgery options of Lasik and Lasek, and lens replacement surgery.
Optegra is not included in our survey as we did not have enough respondents who had been Optegra customers in the past five years.
Moorfields Eye Hospital's private arm 'Moorfield Private' has five private clinics.
Centre for Sight has three clinics.
Focus, Advanced Vision Care and London Vision Clinic have one apiece.
To be suitable for eye surgery, you have to be over 18 with a stable eye prescription (no change greater than 0.5 units or dioptres) in the past two years.
Eye clinics have different criteria, which may depend on the surgeon's expertise and the laser being used. You might well find that clinics are more cautious if one of these applies to you:
a significant (high) prescription (over +10.00D of myopia or short sight, over +4.00D of hyperopia or long sight, and over + or -6.00D of astigmatism)
Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes
existing medical dry eyes
you're over 50 or have early cataracts (lens replacement surgery - see below - could be a more suitable option).
Only the detailed eye scans carried out at a laser eye surgery clinic (more detailed than those you normally get at the optician) would reveal problematic issues that you wouldn't know about, such as having corneas that are too thin for surgery.
The laser eye (refractive) surgery we're talking about is to correct vision such as short sight, rather than - for example - sealing the leaking blood vessels in the retina that can happen as a result of diabetic retinopathy, or making a small hole in your iris to allow fluid to flow freely around it (for people with acute glaucoma).
The main types of laser treatment are:
Lasik and Lasek (PRK, the forerunner of Lasek, is rarely performed these days)
and ReLex Smile.
Lasik (laser-assisted in-situ keratomileusis)
The cornea is cut by a mechanical blade or infrared laser, creating and then lifting a precise flap of tissue.
The surface underneath is sculpted using a different (excimer) laser.
The flap then adheres without stitches.
It usually causes minimal pain and vision recovers quickly. 95% of people have Lasik, which can be less painful than Lasek, and heals more quickly (people often return to work the day after surgery).
Lasik is less suitable for those with thin corneas as - for example - it leaves less tissue if re-treatment is needed.
Wavefront is a laser technology that is customised to treat the individual shape of your eye. It's usually an add-on to Lasik or other treatments and costs more.
Older people are much more likely to have refractive lens surgery (see below). But Lasik may be possible for those over 65 with no signs of cataract and good eye surface health.
Lasek (laser epithelial keratomileusis)
Lasek uses dilute alcohol to soften and roll back a thin flap of the cornea to do the excimer laser treatment.
It's generally more uncomfortable and slow-healing after surgery (expect to be off work for a week), but better if you have thin corneas as it doesn't waste precious tissue.
The lack of a flap in the eye can be especially useful for sportspeople, who risk an injury such a finger nail snagging the edge of their Lasik flap. Lasek doesn't leave any flaps.
ReLex SMILE (Small Incision Lenticule Extraction)
To re-shape the cornea, an infrared (femtosecond) laser creates a small disc [lenticule] of tissue inside the intact cornea of your numbed eye.
The surgeon then removes the lenticule from inside the cornea through a small incision measuring a few millimetres, using a minimally invasive procedure.
The surgeon doesn't need to cut a flap (as with Lasik), and the surface corneal layer remains intact, but this is still surgery. . So you can probably return to sport more quickly than with Lasik (where a flap has been created in your eye).
As with a Lasik procedure, you should experience minimum discomfort and rapid restoration of vision after a SMILE procedure. It can be suitable for patients with a thinner cornea (something you'll find out after initial eye testing) who are not eligible for a LASIK procedure or with higher prescriptions.
However, recovery can be a little slower. Re-treatment - if needed - can be more tricky.
Intraocular lenses (refractive lens exchange or surgery)
This is an increasingly common alternative to laser eye surgery.
You have your eye lens replaced by a synthetic one
This is either monofocal (single vision) or multifocal.
Lens replacement is effectively the same as a cataract operation. It's an alternative where laser eye surgery isn't possible. It's often suggested for older people or those with early cataracts - it wouldn't be worth having laser eye surgery if it was likely you'd need your eye's lens replaced in the near future.
Like cataract surgery, you're likely to have one eye treated at a time, with procedures a week apart.
But it's more expensive than laser eye surgery such as Lasik, as it's a more complex and invasive procedure.
It's not the natural alternative for younger people where their own eye lenses are flexible.
Implantable (intraocular) contact lenses
You can have an additional soft, very thin lens inserted in front of your eye's natural lens to change the eye's power (prescription).
Implantable contact lenses can be an option for younger people whose prescription is too high for laser eye surgery and who can't tolerate contact lenses, but want to retain the natural flexibility in their own lenses.
It's also a potentially good option for people with medical dry eye or keratoconus.
Lens design is improving all the time, and these lenses don't have to be cleaned and you won't be able to feel them.
You'll either have monofocal lenses to reduce the need for glasses for distance, or multifocal lenses to correct your vision at multiple distances including near and distance.
We've mystery-shopped laser eye surgery clinics twice in the past, and have put our findings together with expert know-how to let you know the sales tricks and weasel words to look out for.
The quotes are taken directly from laser eye clinics during our last mystery-shop:
Better vision guaranteed
They say: 'You are definitely going to get a better vision than you get with your glasses or contact lenses...'
Our experts say: A false promise: a very small proportion of people don't see as well as they did with glasses before surgery. In about 1 in 200 eyes, this can't be corrected with specs because the eye's optical quality has been reduced.
Misleading stats
They say: '...because with this laser 99.3% of patients achieve 20/20 [vision].'
Our experts say: What you want to know is, is this true for your particular eyes? Ask for statistics to be for your individual prescription.
No need for glasses
They say: 'The next day you'll have 20/20 vision and no need for glasses'.
Our experts say: A vital fact is missing: even if your eyes are fully corrected for distance vision, most people need reading glasses when they reach 45-50 years old.
In fact, one in five of our survey respondents told us they needed to wear reading glasses when they weren't expecting to after laser surgery.
Downplayed risks
They say: 'it's more like a procedure, it's not ...erm...that much surgical involved... [it's] something like a Botox injection...'
Our experts say: Unrealistic. Sales staff may avoid using words such as 'surgery', 'cut' or 'blade', but, unlike Botox, Lasik and Lasek are operations, and you should consider complications and risks as well as benefits.
Personal recommendation
They say: 'My husband had treatment about two years ago now and he had like a highest prescription [sic] that the surgeon had ever treated...'
Our experts say: On our past mystery-shop visits, we heard staff refer to a surprising number of relatives, and in our survey one in five (20%) had been told about the staff member's friends or relatives getting great results. While it may be comforting to hear this and true, don't let it influence your decision.
Laser eye surgery and replacement surgery are generally very safe and the majority of people will do well, with problems likely to be short-term.
However, some people do experience longer-term and more serious problems and it's important that the risks are explained to you, especially for your prescription as risks are likely to be higher if you have more complex eyes or a very high prescription.
Read on to find out what side-effects do occur, and the likelihood of experiencing them:
Dry eye after laser eye surgery
This is common after surgery (a third of those we surveyed experienced it) and usually clears up, but it can persist in the longer term and be very debilitating. It's more common in certain people - including those with a history of dry eye - who should be specifically warned of the increased risks for them.
Infection after laser eye surgery
Infection is rare and usually due to bacteria under the flap caused by the laser (the risk of developing an infection after surgery is around 1 in 4,000). It's usually picked up quickly and treated successfully with anti-biotics.
However, some cases can't be easily controlled by medication - which could cause some reduction in vision or, in extreme cases, loss of some sight.
Cornea problems
Scarring after an infection, abnormal healing or an unstable corneal shape (corneal ectasia) can - in the worst case scenario - lead to a damaged block of tissue in the cornea meaning that corneal transplantation is needed. This is significant surgery.
More commonly, these problems can be corrected without transplant surgery, with less than 1 in 5,000 people needing a corneal transplant.
Even when transplantation is needed, good vision can normally be restored, although glasses or contact lenses may be required.
Some people experience permanent corneal nerve damage (corneal neuralgia).
This is a very rare but distressing condition, whereby the patient experiences chronic eye pain and eye sensitivity like a neuralgia (nerve pain) elsewhere in the body, after LASIK. This is usually treated by a neurologist.
Loss or reduced quality of vision
A small proportion of people don't see as well without glasses or contact lenses following surgery as they did with their spectacles or contact lenses before surgery.
In up to 5% of cases, the person can be left with a prescription (ie still having some long or short sight) and will need glasses or further surgery.
For a smaller group of patients, this can't be corrected with spectacles and relates to a reduction in the optical quality of the eye.
One in seven people we surveyed told us they weren't well informed that their vision could be worse after surgery.
Some patients (a quarter of those we surveyed) experience glare or halo effects around lights when driving at night, or increased flare from oncoming car headlights.
This is more likely for those whose vision needed greater correction, and possibly those who also have larger pupils.
These problems are usually mild and last for a few months, but very occasionally, problems are permanent and can affect activity such as driving.
Under-correction or over-correction
It's difficult to know exactly how an individual's eyes will heal, so around 5% of people (depending on the clinic and the patient) require another treatment - 10% of our respondents who had laser eye surgery did.
People with very complex prescriptions are more likely to need this (for people with prescriptions over -10D, around 10-15% are likely to need re-treatment). Ask clinics about their specific results for your prescription.
Re-treatment is similar to the first treatment in terms of the procedure and recovery.
Eye appearance
Red blotches on the white of the eye may be seen, especially after Lasik, but are usually temporary (up to six weeks) although they can persist.
Future cataract surgery
Successful cataract surgery is possible after laser eye surgery. But if you have had Lasik, you should request and keep a copy of all eye measurements taken before and after their surgery.
You can also contact your original clinic and ask for your notes.
This makes it easier - but is not essential - for your cataract surgeon to identify the correct power (prescription) of the lens to be implanted during your cataract surgery.
Are there risks with having lens replacement surgery?
Yes, this is a surgical procedure and there are always risks involved. This includes the rare risk of infection and inflammation that can lead to some reduced vision, a detached retina, or night vision problems.
Talk to your surgeon about the risks for you, as they vary for each individual.
Want to find out more? What you get from every company is very different so we've put together what you need to know about laser eye surgery costs.


Lt. Beebe And Crew Members Of The 439Nd Troop Carrier In Front Of A Douglas C-47 At An Airbase Somewhere In England. 14 July 1944.
Original 4" x 5" negative received 20 March 1950 from Organizations Records Branch, AGO, St. Louis, Missouri.


Thanks to a flat tyre en route, we arrived at YHA Pwll Deri just as the sun was beginning to set and the landscape was draped in a beautiful golden light. The hostel sits on the edge of a cliff on the Pembrokeshire coast and has one of the most stunning views of any I've stayed in. We spent a serene evening watching the sun gradually descend below the horizon and the sky transform into a pink and orange vision above the water. Other guests joined us in the experience, bringing to the fore the joy of youth hostels – community.
The next morning we eagerly set out to explore some of the walking routes shooting off from the front door. First we headed upwards, enjoying the panoramic views of the surrounding countryside and coastline. Following this we took the coastal path, a route that eventually leads to a lighthouse, a popular area with seals. We had to cut our walk shortly unfortunately as Snowdonia was calling to us.
The next day held the biggest challenge – reaching the peak of Snowdon. A task that has evaded me on multiple occasions due either to ill health or dangerous weather conditions (even as a child attempting to reach the top via the mountain railway the fog was so dense it would not ascend fully). We chose the Snowdon Ranger Path as it is heralded as a good route for your first attempt, quiet and picturesque. Thought to be the oldest route to the summit, it rises swiftly to begin before a gentle section leading to the start of the steep climb, a relentless hour or so of ascent on loose grave before joining the Llanberis Path in a more gentle climb to the summit. It was 27 degrees on the day and with no relief of shade we were thankful for the presence of the café and the ability to purchase cold drinks. The railway and café do somewhat ruin the peacefulness that you find at other peaks however. Every half an hour or so a new train load of tourists unload and climb the few steps leading to the summit. Thankfully, we arrived between trains and so had a few moments of relative peace before the onslaught of tourists.
Once we were safely back at the base our next challenge was to find somewhere to refuel. All of the pubs we passed had stopped serving food and we had begun to think we'd have to go without when we found Y Sgwar, a lovely restaurant in Tremadog. I felt out of place in my dust covered boots and walking gear when all the other diners had clearly dressed up for their evening date. The staff didn't bat an eyelid however and with good food and excellent service it was a lucky find.
It was with a heavy heart that we began the journey home the following day. There was one stop still to make however, Cardiff Castle. Part Norman castle, part Georgian mansion, it made a fascinating break on a long drive. We enjoyed a tour of the areas once inhabited by the Marquess of Bute and his family with a knowledgable, friendly tour guide. The interior is lavish with no expense spared. The rooms are themed with inspiration taken from different countries, periods of history, and children's stories. With the nationalization of the coal industry the Marquess decided to pass the castle to the people of the city of Cardiff after being in the family for two centuries.
The Norman castle still stands although it was damaged badly in the Civil War. The tower provides excellent views across the city. Furthermore, the walls of the castle were used during the Second World War as an air raid shelter. Visitors are able to walk the length of the tunnels, dark and unsettling with recorded air raid warnings playing.


text:
info@prostatecare.co.uk
Clinicians We Work With
Biopsy Plan
On-Site Fusion Biopsy
On-Site HIFU
Home Technical Partners
SonaCare Medical designs and manufactures HIFU surgical ablation systems that offer physicians and patients both clinical effectiveness and quality-of-life interventions. SonaCare Medical's strategic vision is to develop and commercialize a range of products aimed at bringing the benefits of therapeutic focused ultrasound to as many patients as possible.
The name SonaCare Medical integrates our legacy, characterizes our product's uniqueness and accentuates our consistent focus as a global medical device manufacturer. SonaCare Medical leads in the development and advancement of minimally invasive HIFU technology. SonaCare Medical is sound medicine.
www.sonacaremedical.com
For more than 40 years, BK Ultrasound solutions have played a central role in procedure-driven markets that include urology, surgery and point-of-care. With award-winning systems and unique transducer designs, BK directly addresses the specialized needs and clinical challenges of physicians worldwide, offering unsurpassed imaging capabilities that enable real-time image guidance with easy-to-use, mobile platforms.
BK Ultrasound is proud to be part of Analogic Corporation, a recognized leader for advanced imaging technologies and real-time guidance systems in disease diagnosis and treatment as well as automated threat detection in security systems.
www.bkultrasound.com
MIM Software Inc. provides practical imaging solutions in the fields of radiation oncology, radiology, nuclear medicine, neuroimaging, and cardiac imaging. MIM offers solutions for PC and Mac® workstations, as well as mobile iOS and cloud-based platforms. MIM is a privately held company that sells its products globally to imaging centers, hospitals, specialty clinics, research organizations, and pharmaceutical companies.
www.mimsoftware.com
Questions? Contact Prostate Care Limited today!
© Prostate Care Limited 2021 – All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy
Website Design | Aqua Media


text:
Steep haircut for creditors to rescue AirAsia X
Kathy Fong
theedgemarkets.com
October 06, 2020 21:15 pm +08
KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 6): AirAsia X Bhd (AAX) has unveiled a massive debt restructuring proposal in which the airline will reconstitute RM63.5 billion worth of debts, including future lease rentals, aircraft purchase commitments and advanced ticket sales, into a principal amount of up to RM200 million.
Besides a steep haircut for creditors, the long-haul low-cost carrier also proposed a capital reduction of 90% of its issued share capital in order to offset its accumulated losses. This means a reduction of RM1.38 billion from its share capital.
AAX, which slipped to the brink of insolvency as the Covid-19 pandemic added to its financial woes, has also proposed share consolidation to combine every 10 shares into one, according to a bourse filing.
The cash-strapped airline did not propose any cash call to recapitalise its balance sheet in the announcement.
However, the group said it intends to raise up to RM500 million, including by applying for a government-guaranteed loan under the Danajamin PRIHATIN Guarantee Scheme and/or raising funds from equity providers.
As at June 30, AAX's total borrowings were at RM6.09 billion, while its current lease liability amounted to RM856.41 million, and its non-current liabilities stood at RM4.95 billion.
AAX's proposal comes just a few days after Malaysia's national carrier, Malaysia Airlines Bhd, revealed on Oct 2 that it had reached out to its lessors, creditors and key suppliers, seeking steep discounts, under an urgent restructuring exercise.
Similarly hit hard by the pandemic, the group's holding company Malaysia Aviation Group had said in a letter to lessors that the group was unlikely to make payments owed after November, unless it received more funding from state fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd.
Meanwhile, in its announcement today, AAX said the principal sum of RM200 million is an amount which the group's future operational cash flow may accommodate, and is payable annually over a period of up to five years via three equal payments from the third to the fifth anniversaries of the implementation of the proposed debt restructuring.
"The debt settlement amount shall be unsecured and carry an interest rate of 2% per annum payable in arrears, commencing on the anniversary of the implementation date of the proposed debt restructuring.
"In the case of airline customers and travel agents, they will receive travel credits with extended validity for future travel or purchase of seat inventory," said AAX in the announcement to Bursa Malaysia.
Tune Group Sdn Bhd, which is the investment vehicle owned by Tan Sri Tony Fernandes and Datuk Kamarudin Meranun, is the largest shareholder of AAX, holding a 17.83% stake. AirAsia Group Bhd owns 13.76%, while Kamarudin holds an 8.94% direct stake and Fernandes has a 2.69% direct stake.
Its director Datuk Lim Kian Onn, who will assume the deputy chairman post tomorrow to lead the airline's restructuring, owns a 4.24% stake.
AAX said it will rationalise its network plan (by suspension and/or termination of unprofitable and/or immature routes), shift its focus from market share to that of sustainability and yield to drive profitability, and focus on routes that have proven load and yield performance.
The carrier has been loss making in most of the years since it was listed in 2013. (see chart)
For the six-month period ended June 30, AAX's net loss widened substantially to RM854.9 million as its revenue halved to RM1 billion.
The board has appointed Mercury Securities Sdn Bhd as the principal adviser for the proposed corporate restructuring.
AAX's share price closed at five sen today, giving it a market capitalisation of RM207 million.
AirAsia X redesignates Lim Kian Onn as deputy chairman
Tan Choe Choe


text:
Label Spot: Dark Entries
Dark Entries was born in the spring of 2009 to release out of print and unreleased underground 80's music as well as contemporary bands referencing that sound. The project was named after the first Bauhaus' 7" and the man behind this project was Josh Cheon, a vinyl-focused DJ and collector.
Dark Entries takes great care in preserving sound quality and respecting the aesthetics of its artists. All of their releases reflect the DIY days of the 1980's independent record labels. The label entrusts all of their projects with the best engineer in California, George Horn at Fantasy Studios, who has remasters each release using his 50+ years of knowledge in the industry.
The label founder Josh Cheon has had a rich musical background and music was always part of his life. He grew up in New York, enjoyed the dance in the clubs with dark synthesizer driven sound. He was working for several different record labels and radio stations and when he moved to San Francisco he started a night called 'Radio Lines' at the Transfer. Sharing the decks with another avid minimal synth collector, Phil Mailer who ran the blog 'A Viable Commercial', Josh learned about the band Eleven Pond, whose debut LP was going for $500 on Ebay. Luckily Jeff Gallea from Eleven Pond left a comment on the blog post: "If people are interested in a re-release I would love some feedback? I'll dust off the Masters and see what could happen?" Josh contacted him and eventually obtained a copy of the master tapes, had the songs remastered for vinyl and released the LP in July 2009 with a silk screened cover like the original LP had. This is how things stated to roll on Dark entries Records.
From its foundation in 2009, the label has reissued music by artist such as Dark Day, Second Decay, The Neon Judgement, Parade Ground, Starter and many more and released new material by Linea Aspera, Inhalt and many more.
www.darkentriesrecords.com
https://www.facebook.com/DarkEntriesRecords
Dark Day Darkwave Label Spot Linea Aspera Minimal synth Parade Ground


Currently, Bonnie is without a centre rope hook.
We've been using the rails to tie the rope to. This chafes the paint off the sides, which now I've nearly finished the painting, is going to cause a problem.
Previously had a quote of £80 for fitting a centre rope from the ABC in Gayton.
After some gentle negotiation, managed to reduce the price with the ABC marina at Gayton.
I provided them with the eyehook, (which is a .34 tonne). The guy welded that onto a square plate.
I believe there's a picture of it in my previous video.
The insulation is POLYSTYRENE which is not a fire hazard for welding jobs of this kind.
After a short call, I invited myself in to discuss the job with them.
Presenting the materials and information about the job. We agreed that it should be fairly straightforward on the face of it, and we arranged to bring the boat over today and do the welding.
There are a couple of options. T-hook cleats, inverted brackets. I personally preferred the eye hook option.
This is what the finished job looks like.
Looks like it needs a bit of painting.
The engineer said blistered paint where he'd been welding needed to be stripped and re-painted.
Primed, painted, painted, painted, painted.
Well it looks pretty sturdy. Overall, I think that the welding approach is much less anxiety prvoking than just having the bolt onto the upper surface – well negotiated. Have you been able to put it through its paces as yet?


Here we are with Balmain's fall/winter 2017-18 ready-to-wear collection, which was one of Paris Fashion Week's most anticipated runway shows. For his autumn/winter season, Balmain's creative director Olivier Rousteing figuratively covered his stunning models' army with fierceness and music, infusing the whole runway show with strong, grunge rock-inspired notes.
Rousteing's trip to the next colder seasonal fashions got him space and road travelling to the Nineties, where he brought only Nirvana's albums. As a result, his creative stream of consciousness began mixing his iconic maximalist, ultra-embellished aesthetics with Nirvana's grunge-inspired layered, darker looks, creating one of his most complex, intricate and boldest Balmain ranges ever.
Imposing indeed, this latest Balmain fall/winter 2017-18 runway show is already on everybody's lips, mainly for three different reasons. First and foremost, Rousteing's aesthetics went literally wild for this collection, as he took his notorious urban-jungle motif to its extreme, solely focusing on rich, dark browns and black colors, reinforcing the patterns with textured leather fabrics, dynamic fringed embellishments and animal prints.
The collection was all about separates, which allowed him to play with layered styles, as well as with monochrome motifs better. Only a few dresses made it to the show, leaving it to the abounding amount of waistcoats, oversized blazers, skinny trousers, jackets and curve-hugging tops to dominate the scene.
To please us visually, he then even unveiled the proposals in a coherent continuum that went darker and stronger as the staples passed by, ultimately leaving us in awe and thrilled with one of the most hard-rock-inspired grand finales ever showcased. All in all, the collection consisted of a dream array of 80 looks, meaning that Rousteing definitely has inspirations aplenty for his next Balmain fall 2017 ad campaign (like the runway show, Balmain's campaigns are always highly anticipated).
Secondly, the Balmain fall/winter 2017-18 runway show was undeniably remarkable in terms of hairstyles and makeup looks, too, with the latter being as extreme as the clothing pieces. Styled by makeup artist Tom Pecheux, Balmain's army of models rocked the catwalk with shining highlighters, thick brows, geometrically perfect contouring techniques and metallic pigments aplenty, both on the eyes and the lips, exuding covetable empowering accents one cannot help but fall in love with.
Last but not least, among the clothing proposals, Olivier Rousteing treated us to one of his most abounding and astounding array of accessory pieces ever, which not only included tailored handbags with urban animal patterns, but also must-have thick chokers, corsets, leather belts, and open-toed boots. It really couldn't get any better!


You are here: Home / Featured Information / Important Rule Every Business Must Follow!
All businesses, no matter the size, are subject to the 1099-MISC filing requirements. In order to be prepared at year-end to timely file any Forms 1099 that are required, you must obtain complete & accurate W-9 forms annually from any vendor you pay $600 or more for services (including mixed services/materials) or rent/lease.
For a simple task, this is very complicated and errors can cause a multitude of problems for you and your vendors!
In order to have the information needed to prepare these forms you need to obtain a completed Form W-9 from your vendors before issuing any checks.
The vendor must check one of the boxes in Section 3.
If they check the Limited liability company box, then they must enter a tax classification code to the right of the box.
If they select the Individual/sole proprietor or single-member LLC box, they are required to provide their name and social security number that they use on the page 1 of their Form 1040 not the business name and EIN. They may list business name on line 2.
They must sign and date the form.
Payments made via credit card, debit card or PayPal.
1099 Forms for your business, please provide us with copies of all completed W-9 forms as you receive them so we can review and to have on hand to expedite the preparation of your 1099s at year-end.
If your vendor refuses to provide a complete W-9, you are required to withhold and submit 24% backup withholding from any payments to the vendor. You can be responsible for this backup withholding even if you do not collect it from your vendor. Additionally, the IRS may assess penalties ranging from $50-$530 per 1099 for failure to timely file.
Related to your 2018 filings, you may receive a notice from the Treasury Department (Notice CP-2100A) stating that a 1099 that was filed for 2018 by your business had an incorrect name or SSN/EIN. Read the notice carefully; you may not need to respond to this notice, but you do need to follow up with the recipient to verify that you have the correct information on file.
Before issuing any checks to vendors as a good business practice we recommend that you obtain a fully completed W-9 before issuing any checks.Blank W-9 forms along with other tax forms are available on our website on the Forms and Worksheet page under Common IRS Forms. If you have any questions, we are always happy to help!


Mobile payments platform LevelUp is developing a custom-branded payment and loyalty app for First Trade Union Bank. The new app will launch for Android and iOS devices "early next year" and allow users to pay with their smartphone at any existing LevelUp merchant location.
It's the first time that LevelUp has built an app for a bank and follows the company's reveal of LevelUp White Label in September, which offers businesses "a fully white-labeled, custom-branded mobile payment app" powered by the existing LevelUp payment infrastructure.
At the time, it kicked off its new offering with a custom app for Sweetgreen, a rather healthy looking chain of restaurants based in DC, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
So why does First Trade Union Bank want to start offering its customers a mobile payment app? Well, LevelUp believes that following the rise of online banking and mobile banking apps, this kind of service will be the next big offering for most high street banks.
Launching such an app will help the banks to sever their customers' relationship with traditional credit card companies such as Visa, Mastercard and Discover, while strengthening their own ties.
On that last point, once consumers have downloaded the new app and linked it to their existing First Trade Union Bank mobile banking app, they will have instant access to rewards, discounts and other loyalty schemes which are tied to the LevelUp payment platform.
The new app will also have some other helpful features built in, including a map to help user's first their nearest bank branch or ATM.
On the other side of the fence, LevelUp will undoubtedly benefit from the new partnership by giving it instant access to millions of bank customers, who, provided they download and use the app, will further endorse and support its payment infrastructure and growing network of vendor locations.
LevelUp is recognizable for its use of QR codes in order to help users make payments with their smartphone. At the moment, users need to download the app and then link their credit or debit card before making payments. As a nice touch, users can also have a push notification sent to them after a purchase detailing the receipt and how much money they've saved.
In October we reported how the LevelUp platform had been added to Genius hardware, further expanding its vendor support. Back in July, meanwhile, we noted the company's $12 million investment from Google Ventures, which brought its total funding up to $32 million.
Creating apps for local businesses will help LevelUp gain crucial support from merchants and vendors. The link with an organisation such as First Trade Union Bank, however, is a smart way of tapping into new potential users, and could pave the way for greater growth against its closest rivals, such as Square.


text:
The Networking Nerd
Networking With A Side of Snark
About The Networking Nerd
Disclaim This!
Cisco Live Twitter List
My Other Work
Tech Field Day
Packet Pushers
Are We Living In A Culture Of Beta?
Posted on February 7, 2013 by networkingnerd
Cisco released a new wireless LAN controller last week, the 5760. Blake and Sam have a great discussion about it over at the NSA Show. It's the next generation of connection speeds and AP support. It also runs a new version of the WLAN controller code that unifies development with the IOS code team. That last point generated a bit of conversation between wireless rock stars Scott Stapleton (@scottpstapleton) and George Stefanick (@wirelesssguru) earlier this week. In particular, a couple of tweets stood out to me:
There are some pretty damn signifciant limitations to the Cisco 5760 WLC currently.. and it's supposed to be the next gen. WLC it would seem
— Scott Stapleton (@scottpstapleton) February 5, 2013
@scottpstapleton @jsnyder81 as much as a bleed Cisco this hw is way early. More focus should driven to code quality on existing platforms.
— Orthos (@wirelesssguru) February 5, 2013
Overall, the amount of features missing from this new IOS-style code release is bordering on the point of concern. I understand that porting code to a new development base is never easy. Being a fan of video games, I've had to endure the pain of watching features be removed because they needed to be recoded the "right way" in a code base instead of being hacked together. Cisco isn't the only culprit in this whole mess. Software quality has been going downhill for quite a while now.
Our culture is living in a perpetual state of beta testing. There's lot of blame to go around on this. We as consumers and users want cutting edge technology. We're willing to sacrifice things like stability or usability for a little peak at future awesomeness. Companies are rushing to be the first-to-market on new technologies. Being the first at anything is an edge when it comes to marketing and, now, patent litigation. Producers just want to ship stuff. They don't really care if it's finished or not.
Stability can be patched. Bugs can be coded out in the next release. What's important is that we hit our release date. Who cares if it's an unrealistic arbitrary day on the calendar picked by the marketing launch team? We have to be ready otherwise Vendor B will have their widget out and our investors will get mad and sell off the stock! The users will all leave us for the Next Big Thing and we'll go out of business!!!
Okay, maybe not every conversation goes like that, but you can see the reasoning behind it.
Google is probably the worst offender of the bunch here. How long was GMail in beta? As it turns out…five years. I think they probably worked out most of the bugs of getting electronic communications from one location to another after the first nine months or so. Why keep it in beta for so long? I think it was a combination of laziness and legality. Google didn't really want to support GMail beyond cursory forum discussion or basic troubleshooting steps. By keeping it "beta" for so long, they could always fall back to the excuse that it wasn't quite finished so it wasn't supposed to be in production. That also protected them from the early adopters that moved their entire enterprise mail system into GMail. If you lost messages it wasn't a big deal to Google. After all, it's still in beta, right? Google's reasoning for finally dropping the beta tag after five years was that it didn't fit the enterprise model that Google was going after. Turns out that the risk analysts really didn't like having all their critical communication infrastructure running through a project with a "beta" tag on it, even if GMail had ceased being beta years before.
Software companies thrive off of getting code into consumer's hands. Because we've effectively become an unpaid quality assurance (QA) platform for them. Apple beta code for iOS gets leaked onto the web hours after it's posted to the developer site. There's even a cottage industry of sites that will upload your device's UDID to a developer account so you can use the beta code. You actually pay money to someone for the right to use code that will be released for free in a few months time. In essence, you are paying money for a free product in order to find out how broken it is. Silly, isn't it? Think about Microsoft. They've started offering free Developer Preview versions of new Windows releases to the public. In previous iterations, the hardy beta testers of yore would get a free license for the new version as a way of saying thanks for enduring a long string of incremental builds and constant reloading of the OS only to hit a work-stopping bug that erased your critical data. Nowadays, MS releases those buggy builds with a new name and people happily download them and use them on their hardware with no promise of any compensation. Who cares if it breaks things? People will complain about it and it will get fixed. No fuss, no muss. How many times have your heard someone say "Don't install a new version of Windows until the first service pack comes out"? It's become such a huge deal that MS never even released a Service Pack for Windows 7, just an update rollup. Even Cisco's flagship NX-OS on the Nexus 7000 series switches has been accused of being a beta in progress by bloggers such as Greg Ferro (@etherealmind) in this Network Computing article (comment replies). If the core of our data center is running on buggy unreliable code, what hope have we for the desktop OS or mobile platform?
That's not to say that every company rushes products out the door. Two of the most stalwart defenders of full proper releases are Blizzard and Valve. Blizzard is notorious for letting release dates slip in order to ensure code quality. Diablo 2 was delayed several times between the original projected date of December 1998 and its eventual release in 2000 and went on to become one of the best selling computer games of all time. Missing an unrealistic milestone didn't hurt them one bit. Valve has one of the most famous release strategies in recent memory. Every time someone asks found Gabe Newell when Valve will release their next big title, his response is almost always the same – "When it's done." Their apparent hesitance to ship unfinished software hasn't run them out of business yet. By most accounts, they are one of the most respected and successful software companies out there. Just goes to show that you don't have to be a slave to a release date to make it big.
Tom's Take
The culture of beta is something I'm all too familiar with. My iDevices run beta code most of the time. My laptop runs developer preview software quite often. I'm always clamoring for the newest nightly build or engineering special. I've mellowed a bit over the years as my needs have gone from bleeding edge functionality to rock solid stability. I still jump the gun from time to time and break things in the name of being the first kid on my block to play with something new. However, I often find that when the final stable release comes out to much fanfare in the press, I'm disappointed. After all, I've already been using this stuff for months. All you did was make it stable? Therein lies the rub in the whole process. I've survived months of buggy builds, bad battery life, and driver incompatibility only to see the software finally pushed out the door and hear my mom or my wife complain that it changed the fonts on an application or the maps look funny now. I want to scream and shout and complain that my pain was more than you could imagine. That's when I usually realize what's really going on. I'm an unpaid employee fixing problems that should never even be in the build in the first place. I've joked before about software release names, but it's sadly more true than funny. We spend too much time troubleshooting prerelease software. Sometimes the trouble is of our own doing. Other times it's because the company has outsourced or fired their whole QA department. In the end, my productivity is wasted fixing problems I should never see. All because our culture now seems to care more about how shiny something is and less about how well it works.
This entry was posted in Bugs, Wireless by networkingnerd. Bookmark the permalink.
3 thoughts on "Are We Living In A Culture Of Beta?"
Blake Krone on February 7, 2013 at 9:31 am said:
I will be posting a blog post this weekend on my take but I really don't see the issue here like everyone else does. IOS WLC code is not beta, are we considering it beta because it doesn't have the same features as AireOS? One thing everyone needs to remember is that this wasn't a simple insert AireOS source code into a converter program and press go. Cisco had to rewrite the base code and needed to start somewhere. The process was long, so they picked a fairly stable 7.0 version as their base code to work off of. If they were to try to keep up with all the 7.x releases we probably would never see the IOS WLC! I can assure you this isn't "beta", I've seen the beta code, it was messy. Feature parity will come soon, patience my young grasshoppers.
Pingback: Internets of Interest for 10th February 2013 — EtherealMind
TJ Evans (@trejrco) on February 10, 2013 at 1:58 pm said:
There is a big difference between intentional beta and "unintentional beta"; that is code that is expected to be buggy / incomplete and code the vendor thought was ready for release.
And yes, I too am guilty of craving the latest and greatest, bleeding edge versions – in my personal life. Not all of that is appropriate for critical / production operations … although it is fun to complain when "feature X" isn't available at work but is at home! (Favorite whipping post is IPv6; all native at home 🙂 )


New Coke: A Marketing Fail or Success?
Marketing is a game. You can choose to play it safe or take a risk and hope for the best. Even with the most exhausting research and expert opinions, a bold marketing campaign is a roll of the dice.
Book Depot has taken many shapes and forms over the years, but the roots really go back to the year 1985 and the entrepreneurial vision of John Hultink.