I’m sitting in a 89-year-old building, and through the large windows that surround me I can see just the top of the San Francisco Federal Building, an 18-story metal and glass monolith in the deconstructivist architectural style. I can also see two run-down, single-room-occupancy (SRO) hotels, a bank, a nightclub. Inside, along a mix of modular tables, Herman Miller office chairs surround me. Roughly half of them are occupied by my coworkers. Except, they’re not really my coworkers. These people are my “co-workers.”
This is the Hub, a co-working space in the city’s South of Market neighborhood that occupies two floors and 20,000 square feet of the building, which is also home to the San Francisco Chronicle. In front of my perch, three men are gathered around a rolling whiteboard, working out a flow chart. Behind them, a techy duo are sitting in a soundproof privacy booth (think of those quiet study cubes in your local library). One is arguing his point, his arms flailing around for punctuation as a laptop teeters on his cubemate’s lap.
There is a low buzz in the room, as casually-dressed professionals — mostly white, mostly in their 30s, though evenly split between genders — mill around, talking in hushed tones with each other and on their phones.
The noise level is not as distracting as I’d expected, and nothing I would not be able to drown out with my headphones. But Megan McFadden, who handles communication for the Hub Bay Area (which includes this location and one in Berkeley), later tells me it’s actually a pretty mellow day. “Sometimes this place is just pulsing,” she says.
Aside from noise, there are some other things I consider downsides. For one thing, my pants are soaking wet from my walk in the pouring rain from my house, to the subway, and to the Hub. I cannot change into sweat pants, as I would in my normal office (my house). I cannot blast Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend” and dance around the room, as I occasionally do when I need a mental and physical break from writing. And now, some guy five feet away is watching a Web video — without his headphones — and that is something I find very irksome. Of course, all these things would be true if I had any kind of office job, but in that case I would lack the flexibility to opt for working at home, which of course Hub members can do if they want.
In terms of perks, the Hub offers a kitchen, coffee, printers, meeting rooms, couches for casual confabs, all at my disposal. Over the lunch hour, Sprouts Cooking Club, a cooking school for kids, made a pot-luck-style lunch for Hub members, a weekly event. If I were here on a Friday, I could enjoy the “wine down” at 5 PM. If I needed a software coder, an illustrator, a lawyer, a social investing expert, a human rights advocate, a carbon tracker or a venture capitalist, I could probably find one by just walking around and asking.
Indeed, it’s the connections that the Hub helps members make that appear to be its biggest draw.
The Hub was founded in London in 2004 as a non-profit, which still serves as an umbrella and branding clearinghouse for all 50 (and counting) Hub co-working spaces around the globe. There are around 6,000 Hub members worldwide, but the Bay Area Hubs are especially large, with more than 1,000 members combined. Each Hub is individually owned and Hub Bay Area is actually a for-profit firm started in 2009 by Mission Hub LLC, which is a partnership between Hub Cities, a consulting arm that helps launch other Hubs around North America, and SoCap, a social investing conference company.
The Hub is so focused on attracting socially conscious businesses that “Where Change Goes to Work” serves as its tagline. As I head to the kitchen for coffee, I run into an acquaintance who rents a small dedicated office — called a Hublet — inside the Hub, from which he runs a small firm that links grant-makers with grant-seekers for projects that address human rights, health care and violence against women around the world.
Later, I pop in to visit former colleagues who run Triple Pundit, a sustainable business media company. They also rent out a Hublet.
“It feels like Facebook or any social media network, except that it’s real life and you have an idea of what the people around you are working on,” says the company’s editor-in-chief, Jen Boynton. Through the years (Triple Pundit has worked from the Hub since it opened in 2009) she has found many subjects for articles among her Hub co-workers — and has been pitched stories by many, as well.
But what sets the Hub apart from generic co-working spaces is its focus on attracting members whose work focuses on environmental and social issues. If you work outside those fields, it’s certainly not a barrier to entry, but McFadden says, “People self-select.”
Most of the time, though, Hub members are busy and aren’t necessarily sure how to approach other members and begin networking. “People come for the community, but when they’re at work they’ve got their heads down. It’s such a wealth of people here but [members] don’t know when or how to engage with each other,” says McFadden.
For that, the Hub Bay Area runs an event series that focuses on connecting members and helping them with skills development or networking advice. At occasional “town hall meetings” members are asked to play an active role in shaping the Hub’s future and its programming.
2013年2月28日星期四
2013年2月27日星期三
Guardly Releases Industry-first Integrated Indoor Positioning System
Guardly today announced the launch of its Indoor Positioning System (IPS), the industry's first mobile safety solution that offers integrated indoor location detection capabilities. Guardly IPS further enhances Guardly's existing mobile safety solutions for the enterprise by transmitting the building, floor and specific room of a mobile emergency caller in under 5 seconds and tracking indoor location changes in real-time thereafter.
Guardly provides mobile safety apps and cloud infrastructure for enterprise and public safety. Guardly's mobile safety apps act as personal emergency phones that broadcast real-time location, identity and support two-way communication with private security, authorities and personal safety groups. For enterprise security and police dispatch, Guardly provides a cloud-based incident management system rich with situational data to monitor, manage and respond to on-premise and remote worker emergencies.
Guardly Safe Campus, a solution designed for schools, was shown to help reduce emergency response times by around 44% at a university in a customer-led study performed 6 months ago. "Our IPS technology is another step towards Guardly delivering on its corporate mission to reduce emergency response times for people needing immediate assistance, and for those responding to requests for assistance," says Josh Sookman, Guardly Founder & CEO. "With Guardly IPS, all someone needs to do is launch our safety app and it will result in a personalized response to their exact indoor location. The implications of this innovation are truly game changing."
When an emergency occurs on a school campus or within a corporate office, hospital or public venue today, most calls made to local security personnel or police come from mobile phones or fixed emergency call boxes. Traditional emergency calls from mobile phones handled by the enterprise lack any form of indoor or outdoor location data, making it difficult to initiate response efforts; this can be further exacerbated if the mobile caller is unable to speak. While calls from emergency call boxes may have associated location data, emergencies can shift in location over time resulting in difficulties maintaining communication and coordinating response efforts.
"When a police dispatcher is working an emergency call, one of the first pieces of information required is an accurate location. Having the indoor location of mobile callers immediately available to dispatchers serves to reduce response times, especially for any campus that has multi-story buildings," said Rocco DelMonaco, Past VP University Safety at Georgetown University.
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) estimates that 70% of 911 calls today are from wireless phones and that percentage is growing.i In context of 911 public safety networks, as of September 11, 2012 the FCC enforces Wireless E911 Phase 2 requirements, which state that wireless network operators must provide the GPS location of callers within 300 meters, within 6 minutes of a request by a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). Guardly IPS delivers at least an order of magnitude improvement in mobile emergency caller location accuracy over current public safety standards, giving its customers more precise data to act on and share with first responders to ensure more immediate and personalized emergency responses.
“Over the past few years, our applications such as asset tracking, patient security and environmental monitoring have delivered proven and substantial benefits to hospitals worldwide,” said Baruch Yoeli, Vice President of Engineering at Stanley Healthcare. “Combining the leading data visualization and analytics capabilities from Tableau with our widely used healthcare solutions unlocks vast new opportunities to extract additional value from location, status and condition data, and will help customers make quicker and better informed decisions.”
More than 17,000 healthcare organizations worldwide rely on Stanley Healthcare solutions. Its Wi-Fi Real-Time Location System (RTLS) has the exclusive endorsement of the American Hospital Association, and the recent 2012 Best in KLAS Report named Stanley Healthcare’s solutions the Category Leader for RTLS for the second year in a row. In the report, 97 percent of Stanley Healthcare customers surveyed stated that they would “buy again” their RTLS solutions.
Tableau is a global leader in rapid-fire business intelligence software. It is known for its dashboards and advanced visual analytics, which allow anyone to quickly uncover valuable insights from vast amounts of data. In fact, Gartner positioned Tableau as a “Leader” in its 2013 Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms* report.
Tableau’s software will be integrated with Stanley Healthcare’s MobileView software, the application platform and graphical user interface of its EcoSystem of healthcare solutions. Tableau analytics and data visualizations will be available first for Stanley Healthcare’s Asset Tracking & Management, Environmental Monitoring, Patient Safety, Security & Protection and Patient Flow solutions.
“Healthcare RTLS applications generate substantial amounts of data containing important intelligence that in the past has been difficult to attain,” said Dan Jewett, Vice President of Product Management at Tableau Software. “It’s a classic Big Data challenge and our software, combined with Stanley Healthcare’s solutions, can help departments across healthcare organizations easily gain access to this intelligence and act upon it in a way that directly impacts their business.”
With MobileView and Tableau, hospital staff will be able to drill down deeper than ever before into the large data sets generated to quickly solve critical business problems. For example, many hospitals use Stanley Healthcare’s Wi-Fi RTLS to track the real-time location and status of critical medical equipment throughout the hospital. Using Tableau’s advanced analytics capabilities, hospitals will not only be able to see the real-time location and status of items such as infusion pumps, they’ll also be able to quickly analyze historical and current par levels to predict and better plan future par levels, improving inventory allocation and utilization.
Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), a long-time Stanley Healthcare customer, is among the hospitals with early access to the MobileView and Tableau integration. According to Dennis Minsent, Director of Clinical Technology Services at Oregon Health & Science University, “We’re using Stanley Healthcare’s solutions to track the real-time location of nearly 4,000 infusion devices. The system is generating a significant amount of data, and we know there’s a tremendous amount of insight contained within that data. The combination of MobileView and Tableau Software will empower us to delve deeper into our asset tracking data to discover trends and solve resourcing issues without having to waste the time of IT analysts. This will help further extend the benefits of real-time location tracking to more aspects of hospital operations.”
Guardly provides mobile safety apps and cloud infrastructure for enterprise and public safety. Guardly's mobile safety apps act as personal emergency phones that broadcast real-time location, identity and support two-way communication with private security, authorities and personal safety groups. For enterprise security and police dispatch, Guardly provides a cloud-based incident management system rich with situational data to monitor, manage and respond to on-premise and remote worker emergencies.
Guardly Safe Campus, a solution designed for schools, was shown to help reduce emergency response times by around 44% at a university in a customer-led study performed 6 months ago. "Our IPS technology is another step towards Guardly delivering on its corporate mission to reduce emergency response times for people needing immediate assistance, and for those responding to requests for assistance," says Josh Sookman, Guardly Founder & CEO. "With Guardly IPS, all someone needs to do is launch our safety app and it will result in a personalized response to their exact indoor location. The implications of this innovation are truly game changing."
When an emergency occurs on a school campus or within a corporate office, hospital or public venue today, most calls made to local security personnel or police come from mobile phones or fixed emergency call boxes. Traditional emergency calls from mobile phones handled by the enterprise lack any form of indoor or outdoor location data, making it difficult to initiate response efforts; this can be further exacerbated if the mobile caller is unable to speak. While calls from emergency call boxes may have associated location data, emergencies can shift in location over time resulting in difficulties maintaining communication and coordinating response efforts.
"When a police dispatcher is working an emergency call, one of the first pieces of information required is an accurate location. Having the indoor location of mobile callers immediately available to dispatchers serves to reduce response times, especially for any campus that has multi-story buildings," said Rocco DelMonaco, Past VP University Safety at Georgetown University.
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) estimates that 70% of 911 calls today are from wireless phones and that percentage is growing.i In context of 911 public safety networks, as of September 11, 2012 the FCC enforces Wireless E911 Phase 2 requirements, which state that wireless network operators must provide the GPS location of callers within 300 meters, within 6 minutes of a request by a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). Guardly IPS delivers at least an order of magnitude improvement in mobile emergency caller location accuracy over current public safety standards, giving its customers more precise data to act on and share with first responders to ensure more immediate and personalized emergency responses.
“Over the past few years, our applications such as asset tracking, patient security and environmental monitoring have delivered proven and substantial benefits to hospitals worldwide,” said Baruch Yoeli, Vice President of Engineering at Stanley Healthcare. “Combining the leading data visualization and analytics capabilities from Tableau with our widely used healthcare solutions unlocks vast new opportunities to extract additional value from location, status and condition data, and will help customers make quicker and better informed decisions.”
More than 17,000 healthcare organizations worldwide rely on Stanley Healthcare solutions. Its Wi-Fi Real-Time Location System (RTLS) has the exclusive endorsement of the American Hospital Association, and the recent 2012 Best in KLAS Report named Stanley Healthcare’s solutions the Category Leader for RTLS for the second year in a row. In the report, 97 percent of Stanley Healthcare customers surveyed stated that they would “buy again” their RTLS solutions.
Tableau is a global leader in rapid-fire business intelligence software. It is known for its dashboards and advanced visual analytics, which allow anyone to quickly uncover valuable insights from vast amounts of data. In fact, Gartner positioned Tableau as a “Leader” in its 2013 Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms* report.
Tableau’s software will be integrated with Stanley Healthcare’s MobileView software, the application platform and graphical user interface of its EcoSystem of healthcare solutions. Tableau analytics and data visualizations will be available first for Stanley Healthcare’s Asset Tracking & Management, Environmental Monitoring, Patient Safety, Security & Protection and Patient Flow solutions.
“Healthcare RTLS applications generate substantial amounts of data containing important intelligence that in the past has been difficult to attain,” said Dan Jewett, Vice President of Product Management at Tableau Software. “It’s a classic Big Data challenge and our software, combined with Stanley Healthcare’s solutions, can help departments across healthcare organizations easily gain access to this intelligence and act upon it in a way that directly impacts their business.”
With MobileView and Tableau, hospital staff will be able to drill down deeper than ever before into the large data sets generated to quickly solve critical business problems. For example, many hospitals use Stanley Healthcare’s Wi-Fi RTLS to track the real-time location and status of critical medical equipment throughout the hospital. Using Tableau’s advanced analytics capabilities, hospitals will not only be able to see the real-time location and status of items such as infusion pumps, they’ll also be able to quickly analyze historical and current par levels to predict and better plan future par levels, improving inventory allocation and utilization.
Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), a long-time Stanley Healthcare customer, is among the hospitals with early access to the MobileView and Tableau integration. According to Dennis Minsent, Director of Clinical Technology Services at Oregon Health & Science University, “We’re using Stanley Healthcare’s solutions to track the real-time location of nearly 4,000 infusion devices. The system is generating a significant amount of data, and we know there’s a tremendous amount of insight contained within that data. The combination of MobileView and Tableau Software will empower us to delve deeper into our asset tracking data to discover trends and solve resourcing issues without having to waste the time of IT analysts. This will help further extend the benefits of real-time location tracking to more aspects of hospital operations.”
2013年2月24日星期日
Age of Context Draft Introduction
In the 2005 movie Batman Begins, the caped guy appears out of nowhere as Commissioner Gordon is taking out his trash. He delivers a cryptic message: “Storm’s coming.” Then, just as suddenly as he appeared, he is gone.
For the next two hours of the movie all hell breaks loose. Finally, peace is restored. After so much tumult and trouble, people can resume their normal lives. And they discover that life after the storm is better than it had been before.
We are no caped crusaders, but we are here to warn you there is a storm coming. It has already started. There will be tumult but, when the disruption subsides, life will be better.
This imminent storm is no natural creation. Instead, it is being created by thousands of people, some of them the world’s smartest technologists and business strategists. Some work for tiny startups; others represent the likes of GE, Walmart, Heineken, the NFL, Apple Computer, Nike, Oakley, Google and Qualcomm, to name just a few. They are investing billions of dollars in technology that will change the world, including your particular part of it. They are forward-thinking decision makers in banks, the military, government, health, robotics, space exploration, marine biology and many other categories.
These companies are among thousands of organizations worldwide who are changing the lives of people as varied in their needs as: skiers who wear goggles that give them realtime information as they careen downhill; paraplegics who use robotic arms powered by their own brainwaves; stadium fans who order food and beverages via a mobile app and get delivery in express lines; and technologists who reduce energy costs by billions of dollars a year by chatting in a social network with jet engines in flight.
This is a storm of change and it is extremely powerful. It’s already upon us and is growing ever more powerful as you sit reading these words. It is going to change your work, your life and the lives of the people you love or just casually meet online or in the real world.
Perfect storms change the face of the land when they hit. At first there’s havoc and debris. Then there is rebuilding. The landscape heals, and very often the places hit hardest end up better off than they were before the storm hit.
Our storm is comprised not of three forces, but five. They are not natural. They are technological, and they’re already causing havoc and making waves. As separate entities each is already a part of your life today: mobile devices; social media; big data; sensors; and location-based services. Together, they have created the conditions for an unstoppable perfect storm of epic proportion.
Each of our five forces is growing exponentially in mass and velocity. But that story has been told. What is new and different is that these five forces are converging into one great superforce, one whose impact will be far greater than the sum of its parts.
This superforce will change work and life for most people in the developed world so fundamentally and universally, that we believe it will usher in a new age.
Robert Scoble and Shel Israel are two veteran Silicon Valley journalists, covering two interdependent communities. Picture them sitting on a fence looking out in opposite directions.
Scoble looks out at the tech sector, where he spends much of his time talking with innovators who build little chunks of tomorrow for the rest of us. Collectively, they give Scoble a good look at what technologists are building for tomorrow.
These days, he is hearing considerable use of the buzzword context. Investment dollars are pouring in. Big companies are recruiting contextual technologists by the truckload. New products are coming to market at an accelerating rate. There is great excitement.
Israel looks out upon the other side of our virtual fence. He writes and consults for the business community and in business publications such as Forbes. He talks a lot to business people who are interested in how technology can help them make customers happy and their companies more profitable.
He is not seeing much excitement. Most business people are still trying to push rocks up the hill into business recovery. They know little or nothing about contextual technology. They don’t think about how contextual tools and wearable computers will make them more efficient and acquire them more customers and sales. No manager we know has pondered what they should invest in context to make their quarterly fiscal goals.
But they will and it will happen sooner than many people realize. In fact it is imminent.
When the tech community is this unified in focus, and excited about what they are building and introducing, it follows as surely as the day follows the night that technologists make waves that invariably land on the shores of business.
They invent the stuff that the rest of us use.
Sitting on the fence, Scoble and Israel are currently in the eye of a superstorm. The business community may sense nothing, but the winds of fundamental change are blowing at them. Bracing for it is wiser than trying to evacuate.
Like the good folk of Batman’s Gotham City, the best option for you is to brace yourselves for this storm of change and prepare to ride it out. It will be followed by good times in a new age—the Age of Context.
For the next two hours of the movie all hell breaks loose. Finally, peace is restored. After so much tumult and trouble, people can resume their normal lives. And they discover that life after the storm is better than it had been before.
We are no caped crusaders, but we are here to warn you there is a storm coming. It has already started. There will be tumult but, when the disruption subsides, life will be better.
This imminent storm is no natural creation. Instead, it is being created by thousands of people, some of them the world’s smartest technologists and business strategists. Some work for tiny startups; others represent the likes of GE, Walmart, Heineken, the NFL, Apple Computer, Nike, Oakley, Google and Qualcomm, to name just a few. They are investing billions of dollars in technology that will change the world, including your particular part of it. They are forward-thinking decision makers in banks, the military, government, health, robotics, space exploration, marine biology and many other categories.
These companies are among thousands of organizations worldwide who are changing the lives of people as varied in their needs as: skiers who wear goggles that give them realtime information as they careen downhill; paraplegics who use robotic arms powered by their own brainwaves; stadium fans who order food and beverages via a mobile app and get delivery in express lines; and technologists who reduce energy costs by billions of dollars a year by chatting in a social network with jet engines in flight.
This is a storm of change and it is extremely powerful. It’s already upon us and is growing ever more powerful as you sit reading these words. It is going to change your work, your life and the lives of the people you love or just casually meet online or in the real world.
Perfect storms change the face of the land when they hit. At first there’s havoc and debris. Then there is rebuilding. The landscape heals, and very often the places hit hardest end up better off than they were before the storm hit.
Our storm is comprised not of three forces, but five. They are not natural. They are technological, and they’re already causing havoc and making waves. As separate entities each is already a part of your life today: mobile devices; social media; big data; sensors; and location-based services. Together, they have created the conditions for an unstoppable perfect storm of epic proportion.
Each of our five forces is growing exponentially in mass and velocity. But that story has been told. What is new and different is that these five forces are converging into one great superforce, one whose impact will be far greater than the sum of its parts.
This superforce will change work and life for most people in the developed world so fundamentally and universally, that we believe it will usher in a new age.
Robert Scoble and Shel Israel are two veteran Silicon Valley journalists, covering two interdependent communities. Picture them sitting on a fence looking out in opposite directions.
Scoble looks out at the tech sector, where he spends much of his time talking with innovators who build little chunks of tomorrow for the rest of us. Collectively, they give Scoble a good look at what technologists are building for tomorrow.
These days, he is hearing considerable use of the buzzword context. Investment dollars are pouring in. Big companies are recruiting contextual technologists by the truckload. New products are coming to market at an accelerating rate. There is great excitement.
Israel looks out upon the other side of our virtual fence. He writes and consults for the business community and in business publications such as Forbes. He talks a lot to business people who are interested in how technology can help them make customers happy and their companies more profitable.
He is not seeing much excitement. Most business people are still trying to push rocks up the hill into business recovery. They know little or nothing about contextual technology. They don’t think about how contextual tools and wearable computers will make them more efficient and acquire them more customers and sales. No manager we know has pondered what they should invest in context to make their quarterly fiscal goals.
But they will and it will happen sooner than many people realize. In fact it is imminent.
When the tech community is this unified in focus, and excited about what they are building and introducing, it follows as surely as the day follows the night that technologists make waves that invariably land on the shores of business.
They invent the stuff that the rest of us use.
Sitting on the fence, Scoble and Israel are currently in the eye of a superstorm. The business community may sense nothing, but the winds of fundamental change are blowing at them. Bracing for it is wiser than trying to evacuate.
Like the good folk of Batman’s Gotham City, the best option for you is to brace yourselves for this storm of change and prepare to ride it out. It will be followed by good times in a new age—the Age of Context.
2013年2月18日星期一
Hungry Horse Cafe has fed locals for 20 years
A small cafe and convenience store on Washington Road is a “real throwback” that has thrived for two decades.
The Hungry Horse Cafe celebrated its 20th anniversary on Saturday. Owner Pat Phelan, 60, celebrated by doing what he does every day: biking to the store at 5 a.m. to bake fresh pastries and get ready for another day of serving breakfast and lunch to his loyal customers.
“Everything here is fresh,” he said. “We bake just enough to get us through the day.”
Phelan's strategy for longevity is simple. He strives to keep overhead low so he can continue to provide low prices on coffee, bacon and eggs, and sandwiches and subs. He said some customers have actually told him he should raise prices, but that's just not his way. He said the only time he raises prices is when it is truly necessary, like when a California frost recently damaged lettuce crops and inflated the price of the leafy vegetable.
“I hate like hell to raise prices. You have to do it sometimes,” he said.
Like most eateries, the economy has made things difficult for the Hungry Horse. Phelan noted it is a popular spot for contractors, and that when landscapers and roofers have less business, so does he. The rising price of gas and other costs of living don't help, either, he said.
“It's a struggle in the food business this time of year,” he said. “Talking to sales reps, they all say the same thing.”
But Hungry Horse continues to trot forward, thanks to the relationships forged with its customers. Phelan said the cafe has its share of regulars who show up right on schedule.
“I come back here for the people,” said Matt Willmer, who lives down the road and eats lunch at Hungry Horse three times a week. “They're good to me and always have been.”
He said his children like joining him on trips to the cafe because “they like the fact they can order their sandwich any way they want.”
Despite its success, Phelan was skeptical about the store's chances when his business partner, John Abbott, first pitched the idea after the two had success working together at their Honeybee Donut Shop in Seabrook. Abbott owns the North Hampton Grocery on Route 1 as well as the building that houses the Hungry Horse.
Phelan said he thought the location was too obscure to be a success, until he sat inside one day and watched the traffic drive by.
“I sat in here one day and I watched the cars go by and thought, 'Maybe I'll make a go of this,'” he said.
Phelan noted that some things have changed since 1993, while others have remained the same. He brews less coffee daily now, from 25 to 30 pots a day down to 12 to 15, which he blames on the proliferation of Keurig coffee brewers. He also noticed that people are more conscious about spending and health nowadays, and are more likely to opt for a smaller bag of chips or drink.
But through it all, Phelan remains a “real throwback.” He doesn't own a cell phone, and his store doesn't have its own Facebook page. He tried to create a Web site for it, but found out the town of Hungry Horse, Mont., had already taken the good names.
When he played Hamlet as a young man, Richard Briers, who has died aged 79 after suffering from a lung condition, said he was the first Prince of Denmark to give the audience half an hour in the pub afterwards. He was nothing if not quick. In fact, wrote the veteran critic WA Darlington, he played Hamlet "like a demented typewriter". Briers, always the most modest and self-deprecating of actors, and the sweetest of men, relished the review, happy to claim a place in the light comedians' gallery of his knighted idols Charles Hawtrey, Gerald du Maurier and No?l Coward.
"People don't realise how good an actor Dickie Briers really is," said John Gielgud. This was probably because of his sunny, cheerful disposition and the rat-a-tat articulacy of his delivery. "You're a great farceur," said Coward, delivering another testimony, "because you never, ever, hang about."
Although he excelled in the plays of Alan Ayckbourn, and became a national figure in his television sitcoms of the 1970s and 80s, notably The Good Life, he could mine hidden depths on stage, giving notable performances in Ibsen, Chekhov and, for Kenneth Branagh's Renaissance company, Shakespeare.
Paired with Felicity Kendal as his wife, Barbara, and pitted against their formidable, snobbish neighbour Margo Leadbetter (Penelope Keith) and her docile husband, Jerry (Paul Eddington), he gave one of the classic good-natured comedy sitcom performances of our time. Briers was already an established West End star when he started in The Good Life. In the same year as the first series, he up-ended expectation as Colin in Absent Friends, Ayckbourn's bitter comedy about death, and the death of love, at the Garrick theatre. Like the playwright, he proved once and for all that he "did" bleak, too.
Briers was born in Raynes Park, south-west London, and educated at schools in Wimbledon. He described his bookmaker father, Joseph, as a feckless drifter. His mother, Morna Richardson, was a pianist. Richard's cousin was the gap-toothed film star Terry-Thomas. While doing his national service with the RAF, Briers attended evening classes in drama. He then worked as an office clerk before taking a place at Rada, where he won the silver medal. He won a scholarship to the Liverpool Rep for the season of 1956-57 and was never out of work thereafter. At Liverpool he met Ann Davies, whom he married in 1957; they spent most of their married life in Chiswick, west London, in a house they bought around 10 years later.
Seasons in Leatherhead and Coventry were followed by a London debut in 1959 at the Duke of York's as Joseph Field in Lionel Hale's Gilt and Gingerbread. He played in Harold Pinter's A Slight Ache at the Arts theatre and went on tour as Gerald Popkiss in Ben Travers's Rookery Nook, before giving an irresistible Roland Maule, the importunate playwright from Uckfield, in Coward's Present Laughter, at the Vaudeville in 1965.
He was back at the Duke of York's in Ayckbourn's first London hit, Relatively Speaking, in 1967, forming a wonderful quartet with Celia Johnson, Jennifer Hilary and Michael Hordern, who inadvertently trod on a garden rake that sprang up to hit him on the nose ("What hoe?!"). He was Moon, the stand-in critic, in Tom Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound at the Criterion in 1968 ("a performance of sharp hopelessness and vindictiveness," said Helen Dawson), and played several roles in Michael Frayn's The Two of Us, with Lynn Redgrave, at the Garrick in 1970. He took over from Alan Bates in Simon Gray's Butley in 1972 and proceeded, he said genially, to empty theatres all over Britain in the leading role of Richard III on tour.
The Hungry Horse Cafe celebrated its 20th anniversary on Saturday. Owner Pat Phelan, 60, celebrated by doing what he does every day: biking to the store at 5 a.m. to bake fresh pastries and get ready for another day of serving breakfast and lunch to his loyal customers.
“Everything here is fresh,” he said. “We bake just enough to get us through the day.”
Phelan's strategy for longevity is simple. He strives to keep overhead low so he can continue to provide low prices on coffee, bacon and eggs, and sandwiches and subs. He said some customers have actually told him he should raise prices, but that's just not his way. He said the only time he raises prices is when it is truly necessary, like when a California frost recently damaged lettuce crops and inflated the price of the leafy vegetable.
“I hate like hell to raise prices. You have to do it sometimes,” he said.
Like most eateries, the economy has made things difficult for the Hungry Horse. Phelan noted it is a popular spot for contractors, and that when landscapers and roofers have less business, so does he. The rising price of gas and other costs of living don't help, either, he said.
“It's a struggle in the food business this time of year,” he said. “Talking to sales reps, they all say the same thing.”
But Hungry Horse continues to trot forward, thanks to the relationships forged with its customers. Phelan said the cafe has its share of regulars who show up right on schedule.
“I come back here for the people,” said Matt Willmer, who lives down the road and eats lunch at Hungry Horse three times a week. “They're good to me and always have been.”
He said his children like joining him on trips to the cafe because “they like the fact they can order their sandwich any way they want.”
Despite its success, Phelan was skeptical about the store's chances when his business partner, John Abbott, first pitched the idea after the two had success working together at their Honeybee Donut Shop in Seabrook. Abbott owns the North Hampton Grocery on Route 1 as well as the building that houses the Hungry Horse.
Phelan said he thought the location was too obscure to be a success, until he sat inside one day and watched the traffic drive by.
“I sat in here one day and I watched the cars go by and thought, 'Maybe I'll make a go of this,'” he said.
Phelan noted that some things have changed since 1993, while others have remained the same. He brews less coffee daily now, from 25 to 30 pots a day down to 12 to 15, which he blames on the proliferation of Keurig coffee brewers. He also noticed that people are more conscious about spending and health nowadays, and are more likely to opt for a smaller bag of chips or drink.
But through it all, Phelan remains a “real throwback.” He doesn't own a cell phone, and his store doesn't have its own Facebook page. He tried to create a Web site for it, but found out the town of Hungry Horse, Mont., had already taken the good names.
When he played Hamlet as a young man, Richard Briers, who has died aged 79 after suffering from a lung condition, said he was the first Prince of Denmark to give the audience half an hour in the pub afterwards. He was nothing if not quick. In fact, wrote the veteran critic WA Darlington, he played Hamlet "like a demented typewriter". Briers, always the most modest and self-deprecating of actors, and the sweetest of men, relished the review, happy to claim a place in the light comedians' gallery of his knighted idols Charles Hawtrey, Gerald du Maurier and No?l Coward.
"People don't realise how good an actor Dickie Briers really is," said John Gielgud. This was probably because of his sunny, cheerful disposition and the rat-a-tat articulacy of his delivery. "You're a great farceur," said Coward, delivering another testimony, "because you never, ever, hang about."
Although he excelled in the plays of Alan Ayckbourn, and became a national figure in his television sitcoms of the 1970s and 80s, notably The Good Life, he could mine hidden depths on stage, giving notable performances in Ibsen, Chekhov and, for Kenneth Branagh's Renaissance company, Shakespeare.
Paired with Felicity Kendal as his wife, Barbara, and pitted against their formidable, snobbish neighbour Margo Leadbetter (Penelope Keith) and her docile husband, Jerry (Paul Eddington), he gave one of the classic good-natured comedy sitcom performances of our time. Briers was already an established West End star when he started in The Good Life. In the same year as the first series, he up-ended expectation as Colin in Absent Friends, Ayckbourn's bitter comedy about death, and the death of love, at the Garrick theatre. Like the playwright, he proved once and for all that he "did" bleak, too.
Briers was born in Raynes Park, south-west London, and educated at schools in Wimbledon. He described his bookmaker father, Joseph, as a feckless drifter. His mother, Morna Richardson, was a pianist. Richard's cousin was the gap-toothed film star Terry-Thomas. While doing his national service with the RAF, Briers attended evening classes in drama. He then worked as an office clerk before taking a place at Rada, where he won the silver medal. He won a scholarship to the Liverpool Rep for the season of 1956-57 and was never out of work thereafter. At Liverpool he met Ann Davies, whom he married in 1957; they spent most of their married life in Chiswick, west London, in a house they bought around 10 years later.
Seasons in Leatherhead and Coventry were followed by a London debut in 1959 at the Duke of York's as Joseph Field in Lionel Hale's Gilt and Gingerbread. He played in Harold Pinter's A Slight Ache at the Arts theatre and went on tour as Gerald Popkiss in Ben Travers's Rookery Nook, before giving an irresistible Roland Maule, the importunate playwright from Uckfield, in Coward's Present Laughter, at the Vaudeville in 1965.
He was back at the Duke of York's in Ayckbourn's first London hit, Relatively Speaking, in 1967, forming a wonderful quartet with Celia Johnson, Jennifer Hilary and Michael Hordern, who inadvertently trod on a garden rake that sprang up to hit him on the nose ("What hoe?!"). He was Moon, the stand-in critic, in Tom Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound at the Criterion in 1968 ("a performance of sharp hopelessness and vindictiveness," said Helen Dawson), and played several roles in Michael Frayn's The Two of Us, with Lynn Redgrave, at the Garrick in 1970. He took over from Alan Bates in Simon Gray's Butley in 1972 and proceeded, he said genially, to empty theatres all over Britain in the leading role of Richard III on tour.
'Revenge' Episode 14 Recap: Sacrifice
Sunday night's episode was a powerful, emotional and plot-shifting hour of "Revenge". At least two lives were lost, and one is in limbo by the end of "Sacrifice". Picking up exactly where last week's episode left off, we find Jack and Amanda enjoying their honeymoon at sea on Jack's boat. They are content and in love, sleeping on the bow of the boat deck. Unfortunately, as we know from the previous episode, danger lurks below deck for the newlyweds in the form of Nate Ryan.
Back on shore, Helen Crowley lies dead in the Grayson's home, a casualty they must work to conceal with utmost perfection knowing that the Initiative is watching. Helen's chauffeur begins calling her cellphone when she doesn't return from the Grayson home for an extended period of time, so Victoria disguises herself and gets in the car, driving off as if she herself were Helen. She also instructs Daniel of exactly what to say inside his office at Grayson Global, knowing that the Initiative is watching him meticulously via hidden cameras. It seems nothing gets past Victoria!
Ashley arrives at Emily's beach house to warn her about their "mutual friend" Amanda. She fears Amanda may have gotten in over her head with the Graysons and informs Emily that Amanda blackmailed Conrad into backing out of the Stowaway deal with Nate by showing him damning evidence on a laptop. Hearing that, Emily realizes that Amanda stole her laptop with all the video evidence against the Graysons on it. Moreover, she knows Amanda is likely in trouble and heads over to the Stowaway to find Nolan and try to uncover more information.
Out on the ocean, Nate has made his presence known on "The Amanda" with a drawn gun. Having stowed away underneath the boat deck, he is now isolated on the boat with Amanda and Jack and is out for blood. He asks for the laptop with the information on it and Amanda digs in her backpack to pull out a gun instead- but it's unloaded. Nate has already gotten to it first. Jack and Amanda tangle with Nate for several scenes trying to convince him to drive back to shore. Amanda also tries to "come clean" with him about her hatred for the Graysons and convince him not to trust them. All efforts buy them time, but ultimately Nate is still violent and insane.
Emily and Nolan took out a speedboat as soon as they realized Jack and Amanda were in danger. They speed out into the ocean tracking the sailboat by GPS and get glimpses into the cabin via Declan's computer. Watching Emily and Nolan on a sailboat to the rescue is pretty awesome!
In a press conference, I mean, um, Labor Day party, at Grayson Manor, the family takes the opportunity to stand with Conrad as he announces his candidacy for governor. During the soiree, Conrad and Victoria are approached by a creepy man who identifies himself as a member of the press. This confuses Victoria, as the press was not invited to attend. In a private room they learn that the man is a henchman from the Initiative looking for Helen, who is missing in action. Victoria and Conrad tell him that Helen's disappearance is likely due to Amanda Clarke's resentment about the loss of her father. To strengthen their story, Victoria planted Helen's missing cellphone in Amanda and Jack's apartment, which the henchman quickly finds.
As threatening as the Initiative has been (and controlling of her family) Victoria seems to have found a new sense of strength in regards to the group. Perhaps murdering Helen had something to do with it. Toward the end of the episode we even see Conrad give her a sly smile, clearly impressed by her strength against the Initiative's henchmen.
Aiden is with Padma in NYC coming clean with her about his sister and situation with the Initiative. Aiden is trying to learn more about her father's disappearance and support her so that the Initiative does not trick her as they did with him. In a pivotal scene, Padma is on the phone with the creepy new henchman from the Initiative. As he demands the program Carrion from her, Padma implores him to assure her whether her father is still alive. "The answer is in the package you just signed for, feel free to check the finger print" he says. The camera shifts to a small package on the table. Aiden takes it from Padma to open it- concerned what might be inside- and his face falls. It is a severed finger.
Out in the ocean, things are getting more dangerous as Nate continues to battle with Amanda and Jack. Emily and Nolan continue racing toward their boat, but not quickly enough. Jack and Amanda get into an argument, which seems partially staged and partially heartfelt when Jack hears Amanda say she only came to the Hamptons and married Jack to get back at the Graysons. Jack "turns" on Amanda revealing to Nate that the laptop with Conrad Grayson's precious information is actually onboard. As Nate digs around and opens the laptop (which is actually Declan's), Jack and Amanda scramble to barricade him in the bottom of the boat, blow up a rescue boat and make a run for it. As they attempt to climb over the side of the boat onto the raft, Nate shoots blindly from the cabin, and a bullet hits Jack right in the chest. He slumps over (still coherent at this point) as Amanda puts him on the raft and insists on sending him to safety on his own. She sacrifices herself and stays on the sailboat with crazy Nate.
Back on shore, Helen Crowley lies dead in the Grayson's home, a casualty they must work to conceal with utmost perfection knowing that the Initiative is watching. Helen's chauffeur begins calling her cellphone when she doesn't return from the Grayson home for an extended period of time, so Victoria disguises herself and gets in the car, driving off as if she herself were Helen. She also instructs Daniel of exactly what to say inside his office at Grayson Global, knowing that the Initiative is watching him meticulously via hidden cameras. It seems nothing gets past Victoria!
Ashley arrives at Emily's beach house to warn her about their "mutual friend" Amanda. She fears Amanda may have gotten in over her head with the Graysons and informs Emily that Amanda blackmailed Conrad into backing out of the Stowaway deal with Nate by showing him damning evidence on a laptop. Hearing that, Emily realizes that Amanda stole her laptop with all the video evidence against the Graysons on it. Moreover, she knows Amanda is likely in trouble and heads over to the Stowaway to find Nolan and try to uncover more information.
Out on the ocean, Nate has made his presence known on "The Amanda" with a drawn gun. Having stowed away underneath the boat deck, he is now isolated on the boat with Amanda and Jack and is out for blood. He asks for the laptop with the information on it and Amanda digs in her backpack to pull out a gun instead- but it's unloaded. Nate has already gotten to it first. Jack and Amanda tangle with Nate for several scenes trying to convince him to drive back to shore. Amanda also tries to "come clean" with him about her hatred for the Graysons and convince him not to trust them. All efforts buy them time, but ultimately Nate is still violent and insane.
Emily and Nolan took out a speedboat as soon as they realized Jack and Amanda were in danger. They speed out into the ocean tracking the sailboat by GPS and get glimpses into the cabin via Declan's computer. Watching Emily and Nolan on a sailboat to the rescue is pretty awesome!
In a press conference, I mean, um, Labor Day party, at Grayson Manor, the family takes the opportunity to stand with Conrad as he announces his candidacy for governor. During the soiree, Conrad and Victoria are approached by a creepy man who identifies himself as a member of the press. This confuses Victoria, as the press was not invited to attend. In a private room they learn that the man is a henchman from the Initiative looking for Helen, who is missing in action. Victoria and Conrad tell him that Helen's disappearance is likely due to Amanda Clarke's resentment about the loss of her father. To strengthen their story, Victoria planted Helen's missing cellphone in Amanda and Jack's apartment, which the henchman quickly finds.
As threatening as the Initiative has been (and controlling of her family) Victoria seems to have found a new sense of strength in regards to the group. Perhaps murdering Helen had something to do with it. Toward the end of the episode we even see Conrad give her a sly smile, clearly impressed by her strength against the Initiative's henchmen.
Aiden is with Padma in NYC coming clean with her about his sister and situation with the Initiative. Aiden is trying to learn more about her father's disappearance and support her so that the Initiative does not trick her as they did with him. In a pivotal scene, Padma is on the phone with the creepy new henchman from the Initiative. As he demands the program Carrion from her, Padma implores him to assure her whether her father is still alive. "The answer is in the package you just signed for, feel free to check the finger print" he says. The camera shifts to a small package on the table. Aiden takes it from Padma to open it- concerned what might be inside- and his face falls. It is a severed finger.
Out in the ocean, things are getting more dangerous as Nate continues to battle with Amanda and Jack. Emily and Nolan continue racing toward their boat, but not quickly enough. Jack and Amanda get into an argument, which seems partially staged and partially heartfelt when Jack hears Amanda say she only came to the Hamptons and married Jack to get back at the Graysons. Jack "turns" on Amanda revealing to Nate that the laptop with Conrad Grayson's precious information is actually onboard. As Nate digs around and opens the laptop (which is actually Declan's), Jack and Amanda scramble to barricade him in the bottom of the boat, blow up a rescue boat and make a run for it. As they attempt to climb over the side of the boat onto the raft, Nate shoots blindly from the cabin, and a bullet hits Jack right in the chest. He slumps over (still coherent at this point) as Amanda puts him on the raft and insists on sending him to safety on his own. She sacrifices herself and stays on the sailboat with crazy Nate.
2013年2月16日星期六
Moving Into The Cloud
Many of us use ‘cloud computing’ every day without even realising it. Web-based e mail and social media sites such as Facebook and Spotify all use the technology to store data such as pictures, videos and text files. But what exactly is ‘the cloud’? Even many people who have heard of the concept aren’t always sure about what it involves.
Cloud computing relies on sharing computing resources rather than having local servers or personal devices to handle applications. In cloud computing, the word cloud (also phrased as “the cloud”) is used as a metaphor for “the Internet,” so the phrase cloud computing actually means “a type of Internet-based computing,” where different services – such as servers, storage and applications – are delivered to an organisation’s computers and devices through the Internet. The files are stored in massive data centres containing hundreds of servers and storage systems that are compatible with nearly all computer software. When you wish to access your information, you simply connect to the ‘cloud’ from your PC, smartphone or tablet.
The advantages are numerous. Users for example don’t have to buy or maintain expensive servers and data-storage systems. For corporations, the technology helps them lower their costs by reducing the need for in-house IT support and extra office space.
The European Commission’s Digital Agenda is the EU’s strategy to help digital technologies, including the internet, to deliver sustainable economic growth. The reduction in the cost and complexity of mobile application development using cloud technologies is one of the objectives of the European Commission. The 4.45M Mobicloud project, co-funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (PSP) Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP), aims to do just that.
The project’s objective is to stimulate the provision of new mobile services in the cloud and help support the emergence of a European ecosystem of mobile cloud application developers. With MobiCloud, it will become feasible for smaller companies, and not only global enterprise resource planning vendors, to quickly develop and market mobile extensions of their existing business applications. The Commission therefore aims to enable and facilitate faster adoption of cloud computing throughout all sectors of the economy. This will have the knock-on effect of cutting ICT costs, and boosting productivity, growth and jobs when combined with new digital business practices.
MobiCloud will become an online technology marketplace where end-users, mobile developers, application vendors, system integrators and cloud service providers can collaborate to develop end-to-end solutions with high return on investment (ROI). This collaborative platform will develop, deploy and manage mobile cloud applications for business-critical scenarios such as public transport, field service or construction. Its initial demonstration scenarios focus on industries where collaborative mobile applications can support a more efficient, greener organisation. It provides a composite screen (mobile mash-up) that aggregates data from various corporate IT systems. Depending on context the application displays different services which react in real-time to changes.
Despite its ubiquity, cloud computing is at an early stage. As analyst firm Gartner puts it: “Many factors, including advances in cloud, mobile, information and social technologies, change how applications can be built and the value they can deliver to the enterprise. To keep their enterprises competitive, application development leaders must continuously embrace new technologies and disciplines.” Through the Mobicloud project, this is exactly what Europe is doing.
If Magpul Industries follows through on its threat to leave Colorado, it could harm more than a dozen Front Range firms specializing in plastic injection molding and reduce the region's capacity in that manufacturing process.
The Erie company, which makes weapons components and high-capacity ammunition magazines, has threatened to leave if the state bans individuals from owning magazines with more than 15 rounds.
"It is an if/then statement at this point. We don't have a choice," said Duane Liptak, the company's director of product management and marketing.
Magpul employs 200 people directly, ranging from basic assembly workers to product designers and other professionals specializing in weapons-related components, Liptak said.
As much as possible, the company tries to contract with Colorado vendors, who represent about 90 percent of its supply chain, he said. Those suppliers received about $46 million last year from Magpul, with the company projecting that number to reach $85 million for 2013, Liptak said.
A large share of those dollars goes to manufacturers that mold the company's mostly plastic components, including the controversial cases that can hold more than 15 rounds.
North Denver's Alfred Manufacturing Co. has grown from 40 employees in 2008 to 150 largely because of the work provided by Magpul, said the company's third-generation chief executive, Greg Alfred.
Cloud computing relies on sharing computing resources rather than having local servers or personal devices to handle applications. In cloud computing, the word cloud (also phrased as “the cloud”) is used as a metaphor for “the Internet,” so the phrase cloud computing actually means “a type of Internet-based computing,” where different services – such as servers, storage and applications – are delivered to an organisation’s computers and devices through the Internet. The files are stored in massive data centres containing hundreds of servers and storage systems that are compatible with nearly all computer software. When you wish to access your information, you simply connect to the ‘cloud’ from your PC, smartphone or tablet.
The advantages are numerous. Users for example don’t have to buy or maintain expensive servers and data-storage systems. For corporations, the technology helps them lower their costs by reducing the need for in-house IT support and extra office space.
The European Commission’s Digital Agenda is the EU’s strategy to help digital technologies, including the internet, to deliver sustainable economic growth. The reduction in the cost and complexity of mobile application development using cloud technologies is one of the objectives of the European Commission. The 4.45M Mobicloud project, co-funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (PSP) Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP), aims to do just that.
The project’s objective is to stimulate the provision of new mobile services in the cloud and help support the emergence of a European ecosystem of mobile cloud application developers. With MobiCloud, it will become feasible for smaller companies, and not only global enterprise resource planning vendors, to quickly develop and market mobile extensions of their existing business applications. The Commission therefore aims to enable and facilitate faster adoption of cloud computing throughout all sectors of the economy. This will have the knock-on effect of cutting ICT costs, and boosting productivity, growth and jobs when combined with new digital business practices.
MobiCloud will become an online technology marketplace where end-users, mobile developers, application vendors, system integrators and cloud service providers can collaborate to develop end-to-end solutions with high return on investment (ROI). This collaborative platform will develop, deploy and manage mobile cloud applications for business-critical scenarios such as public transport, field service or construction. Its initial demonstration scenarios focus on industries where collaborative mobile applications can support a more efficient, greener organisation. It provides a composite screen (mobile mash-up) that aggregates data from various corporate IT systems. Depending on context the application displays different services which react in real-time to changes.
Despite its ubiquity, cloud computing is at an early stage. As analyst firm Gartner puts it: “Many factors, including advances in cloud, mobile, information and social technologies, change how applications can be built and the value they can deliver to the enterprise. To keep their enterprises competitive, application development leaders must continuously embrace new technologies and disciplines.” Through the Mobicloud project, this is exactly what Europe is doing.
If Magpul Industries follows through on its threat to leave Colorado, it could harm more than a dozen Front Range firms specializing in plastic injection molding and reduce the region's capacity in that manufacturing process.
The Erie company, which makes weapons components and high-capacity ammunition magazines, has threatened to leave if the state bans individuals from owning magazines with more than 15 rounds.
"It is an if/then statement at this point. We don't have a choice," said Duane Liptak, the company's director of product management and marketing.
Magpul employs 200 people directly, ranging from basic assembly workers to product designers and other professionals specializing in weapons-related components, Liptak said.
As much as possible, the company tries to contract with Colorado vendors, who represent about 90 percent of its supply chain, he said. Those suppliers received about $46 million last year from Magpul, with the company projecting that number to reach $85 million for 2013, Liptak said.
A large share of those dollars goes to manufacturers that mold the company's mostly plastic components, including the controversial cases that can hold more than 15 rounds.
North Denver's Alfred Manufacturing Co. has grown from 40 employees in 2008 to 150 largely because of the work provided by Magpul, said the company's third-generation chief executive, Greg Alfred.
Welcome to the club
The Alpena wrestling team has battled through some rough patches this season, but coach Jake Stenz has been patient with his wrestlers and they've improved as the season has progressed and have achieved some great individual success.
Four Alpena wrestlers have made it to a Division 1 individual regional today at Saginaw Heritage High School: R.J. Centala, Aleco Hantzis, Dakota Patterson and Felix Suszek.
Getting to regionals is always a big deal, but for Centala (140 pounds) and Hantzis (heavyweight) it's epic: Centala picked up his 100th win with his last match at individual districts, a win that sent him to regionals. Hantzis is making it to the regionals as a sophomore, something his older brother Andreas also achieved.
"Getting it (the 100th win) on the last match of the day, on the match that sent me to regionals was amazing. I can't imagine a better feeling in the world. I got a whole lot of congratulations from everybody, from my family and friends and all my teammates," he said.
Centala also participates in cross country and track. Beyond the family connection, he was drawn to wrestling due to its achievement-based nature.
"It's individual. There's no politics. If you're better than somebody else, you start. There's no second guessing or favoritism," Centala said. "I've been wrestling since I was four. There's a huge history of wrestling in my family, mostly on my dad's side. My dad, my uncle, my cousins and basically all the guys on that side wrestled for Rogers City."
Stenz finds that this support from a young age was key to Centala's success.
"Part of his success is due to the youth programs he participated in, but a lot of it has to due with his practice partners. He spent two years with Andreas Hantzis who really helped mold him into a great wrestler," he said.
"I've had constant support from my dad, from the school and from my coach (Stenz). They've really helped me get up into the higher levels and have constantly taught me new things about wrestling," he said.
Centala hopes to attend either Grand Valley State or Olivet to become a middle school history and science teacher. He is leaning towards Olivet as Grand Valley has no wrestling program.
Hantzis' family history of wrestling may not be as intensive as Centala's, but his brother Andreas made it to regionals several times and has helped spark Aleco's interest in the sport. Aleco has been wrestling since junior high.
He participates in wrestling and track too but finds wrestling to be his favorite sport by a long shot.
"It's really aggressive. It's one of those sports that really takes a lot of talent. You can't fake your way through a match you really have to wrestle hard and earn a win," he said.
Hantzis is looking forward to the chance to compete in the regional championship.
"Everybody looks really equal this year. It's really a fair field but I definitely think there's a chance I could win," he said.
Stenz praised his wrestlers, noting that their hard work has helped them reach this point.
"R.J. is really getting great as is Aleco. They're always key wrestlers n every meet. Dakota Patterson has to be getting really close to hitting 100 at this point and J.D. Niergarth is gonna end up just shy," Stenz said. "It's really a testament to the skill of these kids. They've competed against wrestlers from schools like Davison who are the second in the state and in the top 50 in the nation. And they've beat them! The fact that they can pick up 100 wins playing against teams like this just shows how talented and hard working they are," he said.
"Sports has been the most positive thing that I've been involved with throughout my life. You have expectations when you're part of sports teams. It was good for me to have that. Coming to school every day. Going to practice. Getting good grades," Gormley said.
"For him, who cares about the playoffs? The big picture for him is June. He's got a future. He's a bright kid and he listens and he wants to learn," said Jason Briggs, Waterville's boys basketball coach. "This is a game. You have to remind him, with all you've been through, this is a game."
It was the January of Gormley's sophomore year when he gave up on school. You don't go to school for a day. Then you skip the next day, and the next. Then you realize, you're a drop out.
"I didn't come for a week, then I'd come for a couple of days," Gormley said. "I was dealing with a lot of problems outside of school, and basically I made some bad choices that resulted in me dropping out."
Briggs remembers Gormley coming off the bench and playing well, helping the Purple Panthers win at Mt. View on a Friday night.
Four Alpena wrestlers have made it to a Division 1 individual regional today at Saginaw Heritage High School: R.J. Centala, Aleco Hantzis, Dakota Patterson and Felix Suszek.
Getting to regionals is always a big deal, but for Centala (140 pounds) and Hantzis (heavyweight) it's epic: Centala picked up his 100th win with his last match at individual districts, a win that sent him to regionals. Hantzis is making it to the regionals as a sophomore, something his older brother Andreas also achieved.
"Getting it (the 100th win) on the last match of the day, on the match that sent me to regionals was amazing. I can't imagine a better feeling in the world. I got a whole lot of congratulations from everybody, from my family and friends and all my teammates," he said.
Centala also participates in cross country and track. Beyond the family connection, he was drawn to wrestling due to its achievement-based nature.
"It's individual. There's no politics. If you're better than somebody else, you start. There's no second guessing or favoritism," Centala said. "I've been wrestling since I was four. There's a huge history of wrestling in my family, mostly on my dad's side. My dad, my uncle, my cousins and basically all the guys on that side wrestled for Rogers City."
Stenz finds that this support from a young age was key to Centala's success.
"Part of his success is due to the youth programs he participated in, but a lot of it has to due with his practice partners. He spent two years with Andreas Hantzis who really helped mold him into a great wrestler," he said.
"I've had constant support from my dad, from the school and from my coach (Stenz). They've really helped me get up into the higher levels and have constantly taught me new things about wrestling," he said.
Centala hopes to attend either Grand Valley State or Olivet to become a middle school history and science teacher. He is leaning towards Olivet as Grand Valley has no wrestling program.
Hantzis' family history of wrestling may not be as intensive as Centala's, but his brother Andreas made it to regionals several times and has helped spark Aleco's interest in the sport. Aleco has been wrestling since junior high.
He participates in wrestling and track too but finds wrestling to be his favorite sport by a long shot.
"It's really aggressive. It's one of those sports that really takes a lot of talent. You can't fake your way through a match you really have to wrestle hard and earn a win," he said.
Hantzis is looking forward to the chance to compete in the regional championship.
"Everybody looks really equal this year. It's really a fair field but I definitely think there's a chance I could win," he said.
Stenz praised his wrestlers, noting that their hard work has helped them reach this point.
"R.J. is really getting great as is Aleco. They're always key wrestlers n every meet. Dakota Patterson has to be getting really close to hitting 100 at this point and J.D. Niergarth is gonna end up just shy," Stenz said. "It's really a testament to the skill of these kids. They've competed against wrestlers from schools like Davison who are the second in the state and in the top 50 in the nation. And they've beat them! The fact that they can pick up 100 wins playing against teams like this just shows how talented and hard working they are," he said.
"Sports has been the most positive thing that I've been involved with throughout my life. You have expectations when you're part of sports teams. It was good for me to have that. Coming to school every day. Going to practice. Getting good grades," Gormley said.
"For him, who cares about the playoffs? The big picture for him is June. He's got a future. He's a bright kid and he listens and he wants to learn," said Jason Briggs, Waterville's boys basketball coach. "This is a game. You have to remind him, with all you've been through, this is a game."
It was the January of Gormley's sophomore year when he gave up on school. You don't go to school for a day. Then you skip the next day, and the next. Then you realize, you're a drop out.
"I didn't come for a week, then I'd come for a couple of days," Gormley said. "I was dealing with a lot of problems outside of school, and basically I made some bad choices that resulted in me dropping out."
Briggs remembers Gormley coming off the bench and playing well, helping the Purple Panthers win at Mt. View on a Friday night.
2013年2月6日星期三
Eco Building Products Receives Customer Purchase
Eco Building Products continues to provide protected lumber, now meeting building code requirements for wood-rot decay and termites coupled with the industry's first mold and fire protection in an all in one application for the entire structure. E Build & Truss continue to supply superior framing services building a quality product for Brookfield Homes. The Company continues to secure additional home builder contracts leveraging the recent accomplishments of Eco Building Products, Inc.
"As the Home Builder news indicates signs of recovery and our releases continually increase our Eco Red Shield is making more and more news in the national supply chain. ECOB is very involved in the rebuild efforts on the east coast, hosting town hall meetings to educate contractors and homeowners on embracing defensive building practices and technologies like Eco Red Shield rather than rebuilding with raw lumber," stated Steve Conboy, President and CEO of Eco Building Products. "ECOB's press release last week introduced an open web floor truss built with Eco Red Shield lumber now QAI listed for Class A fire protection. This demonstrates another way of building defensive especially on the east coast for the Hurricane Sandy rebuild when other products subjected to water and fire cannot hold up as good as our open web assemblies," added Conboy.
About Eco Building Products, Inc.Eco Building Products, Inc. is a manufacturer of proprietary wood products treated with an eco-friendly proprietary chemistry that protects against fire, mold/mycotoxins, fungus, rot-decay, wood ingesting insects and termites with ECOB WoodSurfaceFilm(TM) and FRC(TM) technology (Fire Retardant Coating). Eco Building products, "Eco Red Shield" utilizing patent pending technology is the ultimate in wood protection, preservation, and fire safety to building components constructed of wood; from joists, beams and paneling, to floors and ceilings.
Safe Harbor Statement: This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). In particular, when used in the preceding discussion, the words "believes," "expects," "intends," "plans," "anticipates," or "may," and similar conditional expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Act, and are subject to the safe harbor created by the Act. Any statements made in this news release other than those of historical fact, about an action, event or development, are forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the Company's actual results in future periods to be materially different from any future performance that may be suggested in this release. ECOB takes no obligation to update or correct forward-looking statements, and also takes no obligation to update or correct information prepared by third parties.
The start comes on the same day that an interview Gasol gave the Los Angeles Times' T.J. Simers was published. In it, Gasol doesn't try to sugarcoat his unhappiness or lie about his motivations. He's just refreshingly honest that he doesn't see eye-to-eye with coach Mike D'Antoni -- who opted to put Gasol in the second unit because he prefers a smaller lineup -- but also says that he'll do his best to make it work while he is still on the Lakers roster.
"He has his philosophy and system, and the Lakers hired him," Gasol tells Simers. "It's not his fault. His philosophy is to play with one big guy and four guys spread out, so then he had to make a decision: Dwight or Pau?"
Gasol also acknowledges that if both D'Antoni and Howard return next season, it would be difficult for him to accept being back.
"It would be hard for me to deal with another season knowing the facts you just mentioned," Gasol said.
Gasol gave the kind of straight-forward answers you don't get much from athletes anymore. Contrast this to the answer Howard gave ESPN's Stephen A. Smith when asked about his departure, after repeated stops and starts, from Orlando.
"I'm not a crybaby," Howard told Smith. "I didn't try to cry my way out of Orlando. That was never my intention, or not what I did at all. And I understand everybody thought it was that way because of what was being put out there. I'm not indecisive. I love this game. You know I play it because it inspires me; it inspires millions of kids around me, adults and all. And, I'm going to have fun while I do it."
"I've been hated on my whole life," Hunter tells Spears. "Why should it be any different now? I don't care. But if people aren't hating on you that means you're not making an impact. Prominent people in our country were hated on because they made an impact."
The circumstances of the coaching change were about as sloppy as possible. After Gentry was fired, players reportedly wanted assistant Dan Majerle to get the spot, while another assistant, Elston Turner, had been under the impression that he would be first in line after the Suns had blocked an interview to join Rick Adelman's staff in Minnesota.
Hunter does have support. Spears points out that Hunter got texts from Larry Brown, Rip Hamilton, Grant Hill and Rasheed Wallace, and has also spoken to Mark Jackson and Doc Rivers.
Spears notes that the Suns could have their pick of Avery Johnson, Mike Brown, Stan Van Gundy and Nate McMillan as their next coach, but Hunter is determined to try his best to keep the position.
"You got to fight," Hunter said. "No matter what, you have to battle and people have to know that win, lose or draw they have something on their hands. That's the way I approach this thing and that's the reason why they chose me."
If you're one of those fans who likes to keep an eye on what former Blazers are doing in the league, well, the Knicks have been disappointing for that, unless you really enjoy seeing what Kurt Thomas is doing (11 points against Sacramento on Saturday!).
That's starting to change, though, as New York's three other former Blazers are starting to work their way back into the lineup. In fact, point guard Raymond Felton is already there, having returned Jan. 26 from his right pinkie break. However, Felton aggravated the same finger Saturday against Sacramento, and there was concern that he could lost for the season if he suffered another break.
"As the Home Builder news indicates signs of recovery and our releases continually increase our Eco Red Shield is making more and more news in the national supply chain. ECOB is very involved in the rebuild efforts on the east coast, hosting town hall meetings to educate contractors and homeowners on embracing defensive building practices and technologies like Eco Red Shield rather than rebuilding with raw lumber," stated Steve Conboy, President and CEO of Eco Building Products. "ECOB's press release last week introduced an open web floor truss built with Eco Red Shield lumber now QAI listed for Class A fire protection. This demonstrates another way of building defensive especially on the east coast for the Hurricane Sandy rebuild when other products subjected to water and fire cannot hold up as good as our open web assemblies," added Conboy.
About Eco Building Products, Inc.Eco Building Products, Inc. is a manufacturer of proprietary wood products treated with an eco-friendly proprietary chemistry that protects against fire, mold/mycotoxins, fungus, rot-decay, wood ingesting insects and termites with ECOB WoodSurfaceFilm(TM) and FRC(TM) technology (Fire Retardant Coating). Eco Building products, "Eco Red Shield" utilizing patent pending technology is the ultimate in wood protection, preservation, and fire safety to building components constructed of wood; from joists, beams and paneling, to floors and ceilings.
Safe Harbor Statement: This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). In particular, when used in the preceding discussion, the words "believes," "expects," "intends," "plans," "anticipates," or "may," and similar conditional expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Act, and are subject to the safe harbor created by the Act. Any statements made in this news release other than those of historical fact, about an action, event or development, are forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the Company's actual results in future periods to be materially different from any future performance that may be suggested in this release. ECOB takes no obligation to update or correct forward-looking statements, and also takes no obligation to update or correct information prepared by third parties.
The start comes on the same day that an interview Gasol gave the Los Angeles Times' T.J. Simers was published. In it, Gasol doesn't try to sugarcoat his unhappiness or lie about his motivations. He's just refreshingly honest that he doesn't see eye-to-eye with coach Mike D'Antoni -- who opted to put Gasol in the second unit because he prefers a smaller lineup -- but also says that he'll do his best to make it work while he is still on the Lakers roster.
"He has his philosophy and system, and the Lakers hired him," Gasol tells Simers. "It's not his fault. His philosophy is to play with one big guy and four guys spread out, so then he had to make a decision: Dwight or Pau?"
Gasol also acknowledges that if both D'Antoni and Howard return next season, it would be difficult for him to accept being back.
"It would be hard for me to deal with another season knowing the facts you just mentioned," Gasol said.
Gasol gave the kind of straight-forward answers you don't get much from athletes anymore. Contrast this to the answer Howard gave ESPN's Stephen A. Smith when asked about his departure, after repeated stops and starts, from Orlando.
"I'm not a crybaby," Howard told Smith. "I didn't try to cry my way out of Orlando. That was never my intention, or not what I did at all. And I understand everybody thought it was that way because of what was being put out there. I'm not indecisive. I love this game. You know I play it because it inspires me; it inspires millions of kids around me, adults and all. And, I'm going to have fun while I do it."
"I've been hated on my whole life," Hunter tells Spears. "Why should it be any different now? I don't care. But if people aren't hating on you that means you're not making an impact. Prominent people in our country were hated on because they made an impact."
The circumstances of the coaching change were about as sloppy as possible. After Gentry was fired, players reportedly wanted assistant Dan Majerle to get the spot, while another assistant, Elston Turner, had been under the impression that he would be first in line after the Suns had blocked an interview to join Rick Adelman's staff in Minnesota.
Hunter does have support. Spears points out that Hunter got texts from Larry Brown, Rip Hamilton, Grant Hill and Rasheed Wallace, and has also spoken to Mark Jackson and Doc Rivers.
Spears notes that the Suns could have their pick of Avery Johnson, Mike Brown, Stan Van Gundy and Nate McMillan as their next coach, but Hunter is determined to try his best to keep the position.
"You got to fight," Hunter said. "No matter what, you have to battle and people have to know that win, lose or draw they have something on their hands. That's the way I approach this thing and that's the reason why they chose me."
If you're one of those fans who likes to keep an eye on what former Blazers are doing in the league, well, the Knicks have been disappointing for that, unless you really enjoy seeing what Kurt Thomas is doing (11 points against Sacramento on Saturday!).
That's starting to change, though, as New York's three other former Blazers are starting to work their way back into the lineup. In fact, point guard Raymond Felton is already there, having returned Jan. 26 from his right pinkie break. However, Felton aggravated the same finger Saturday against Sacramento, and there was concern that he could lost for the season if he suffered another break.
An Impressive Retina Display
Initial reports believed the iPad Mini 2, Apple’s sequel to the 7.9-inch iPad said to arrive in the coming months, would feature a Retina display when it was released but didn’t say what exactly that would entail. But according to a new report from investment news service BrightWire, alleged sources from within Apple’s foreign supply chain say the iPad Mini 2 will feature a 7.9-inch Retina Display with an identical resolution to the full-size iPad 4 with Retina display.
The resolution on the alleged iPad Mini 2 is said to measure 2048 x 1536 pixels, which would be roughly four times the resolution of the first-generation iPad Mini, but by packing this many pixels into a smaller device, Apple actually boosts the density of the iPad Mini with Retina display to 324 pixels per inch (ppi). As a frame of reference, the iPad 3 and 4 both have display densities of 264 ppi, while the iPhone 5 has a similar density of 326 ppi.
This rumor sounds like a very realistic piece of news: Considering how Apple transplanted the screen resolution of the iPad 2 to the original iPad Mini, it’s likely that a Retina-capable iPad Mini would follow that same process, repeating the Retina display resolution within the iPad Mini’s 7.9-inch confines and giving a slight boost to the density in the process.
Rumors of an iPad Mini with Retina display have been swirling ever since Apple released its first-generation iPad Mini. Back in early November, just six days after the iPad Mini hit store shelves, Chinese news site DoNews said Apple had tapped Taiwan-based AU Optronics to begin development on a Retina display for its 7.9-inch iPad Mini. The report said the new 7.9-inch displays would have the same 2048 x 1536 resolution as the iPad 3 and 4.
AU Optronics specializes in in-cell panel technology, which is the new process Apple has started using for all its desktop and mobile computer displays. In contrast to the on-cell display processes Apple used in prior iPhones, in-cell displays effectively remove a layer between the multitouch screen and LCD display, making the screen thinner, stronger, more resistant to scratching and significantly less reflective of light sources — all heavily desired features in any smartphone or tablet display. Apple's latest iPhone and Mac models, including the iPhone 5 and the 21-inch and 27-inch iMacs, feature such display processes.
"Compared to in-cell technology, the conventional technologies have an additional sensing glass, which not only increases the overall thickness of the LCD, but which also adds an extra lamination process step, translating to increased cost and relatively lower yield and reduced transmittance," AUO says on its website. "Compared to the traditional resistive touch control, in-cell voltage sensing not only has the above advantages, but also is superior in that its sensitivity is less subject to environment changes, no calibration mechanism is required, and it is capable of supporting multiple-point touch control."
AUO's plans to develop a Retina display for the next iPad Mini were also detailed in a separate report from the Middle East North Africa Financial Network, or MENAFN, on Nov. 7.
"With the disclosure of the specifications for the next-generation iPad Mini by Apple Inc., AU Optronics Corp. has been developing a retina panel with resolution as high as 497 ppi," reported the SinoCast Daily Business Beat via MENAFN. "It is said that ultra-high resolution cannot be developed without the technology of indium gallium zinc oxigo (IGZO), and the technology of Gate IC on array (GOA) is also indispensable since the next-generation iPad Mini will have an ultra-narrow frame. The technology of GOA helps save the room of IC on the rim and narrow the frame of the screen to the largest extent."
However, while many reports have stated the iPad Mini 2 would feature an enhanced display resolution, several have noted that the screens themselves will be made from a different material. According to several sources, including SinoCast, DigiTimes and a host of Apple analysts, Apple apparently wants Sharp’s IGZO display technology in its next-gen iOS devices, including the iPad Mini 2.
Last July, Gotta Be Mobile believed the first-generation iPad Mini would feature an IZGO display made by Sharp Inc., which can be fitted for extremely thin hardware devices and can reportedly handle pixel densities above 330 ppi. IZGO displays are also said to feature better brightness than most LCD screens on the market, but the important part of the statement is that Apple sought the displays to be made by Sharp: A note from Apple analyst Horace Dediu dated Nov. 7 said Apple spent $2.3 billion for "product tooling, manufacturing process equipment and infrastructure." Dediu believed this massive pile of money was used to bail out Sharp, which was reportedly in dire financial straits earlier in the year.
"Sharp is a key supplier of screens to Apple but is also in financial distress," Dediu wrote in his analysis. "Sharp has also been the object of an intended investment by Foxconn [Hon Hai]. That deal fell through as Sharp’s finances deteriorated. My guess is that these attempts to shore up Sharp are directed by Apple to ensure both continuity of supply and a balanced supplier base (offsetting Samsung, another supplier.) If Sharp were to enter into some form of bankruptcy, the key plant(s) used in producing screens for Apple might be 'up for grabs' by creditors, and they might be taken off-line, jeopardizing Apple’s production capacity, irrespective of contractual obligations."
Apple's first-generation iPad Mini, launched Nov. 2, features a non-Retina display resolution of 1024 x 768, weighs just 0.68 pounds — as light as a notepad — and measures just 7.2 mm thick — roughly the thinness of a pencil. The tablet runs on iOS 6 and is compatible with the new Lightning dock connector, and specific models also support the high-speed LTE network. Apple starts selling the Wi-Fi-only model at $329, while the cellular-capable models start selling at $459.
The resolution on the alleged iPad Mini 2 is said to measure 2048 x 1536 pixels, which would be roughly four times the resolution of the first-generation iPad Mini, but by packing this many pixels into a smaller device, Apple actually boosts the density of the iPad Mini with Retina display to 324 pixels per inch (ppi). As a frame of reference, the iPad 3 and 4 both have display densities of 264 ppi, while the iPhone 5 has a similar density of 326 ppi.
This rumor sounds like a very realistic piece of news: Considering how Apple transplanted the screen resolution of the iPad 2 to the original iPad Mini, it’s likely that a Retina-capable iPad Mini would follow that same process, repeating the Retina display resolution within the iPad Mini’s 7.9-inch confines and giving a slight boost to the density in the process.
Rumors of an iPad Mini with Retina display have been swirling ever since Apple released its first-generation iPad Mini. Back in early November, just six days after the iPad Mini hit store shelves, Chinese news site DoNews said Apple had tapped Taiwan-based AU Optronics to begin development on a Retina display for its 7.9-inch iPad Mini. The report said the new 7.9-inch displays would have the same 2048 x 1536 resolution as the iPad 3 and 4.
AU Optronics specializes in in-cell panel technology, which is the new process Apple has started using for all its desktop and mobile computer displays. In contrast to the on-cell display processes Apple used in prior iPhones, in-cell displays effectively remove a layer between the multitouch screen and LCD display, making the screen thinner, stronger, more resistant to scratching and significantly less reflective of light sources — all heavily desired features in any smartphone or tablet display. Apple's latest iPhone and Mac models, including the iPhone 5 and the 21-inch and 27-inch iMacs, feature such display processes.
"Compared to in-cell technology, the conventional technologies have an additional sensing glass, which not only increases the overall thickness of the LCD, but which also adds an extra lamination process step, translating to increased cost and relatively lower yield and reduced transmittance," AUO says on its website. "Compared to the traditional resistive touch control, in-cell voltage sensing not only has the above advantages, but also is superior in that its sensitivity is less subject to environment changes, no calibration mechanism is required, and it is capable of supporting multiple-point touch control."
AUO's plans to develop a Retina display for the next iPad Mini were also detailed in a separate report from the Middle East North Africa Financial Network, or MENAFN, on Nov. 7.
"With the disclosure of the specifications for the next-generation iPad Mini by Apple Inc., AU Optronics Corp. has been developing a retina panel with resolution as high as 497 ppi," reported the SinoCast Daily Business Beat via MENAFN. "It is said that ultra-high resolution cannot be developed without the technology of indium gallium zinc oxigo (IGZO), and the technology of Gate IC on array (GOA) is also indispensable since the next-generation iPad Mini will have an ultra-narrow frame. The technology of GOA helps save the room of IC on the rim and narrow the frame of the screen to the largest extent."
However, while many reports have stated the iPad Mini 2 would feature an enhanced display resolution, several have noted that the screens themselves will be made from a different material. According to several sources, including SinoCast, DigiTimes and a host of Apple analysts, Apple apparently wants Sharp’s IGZO display technology in its next-gen iOS devices, including the iPad Mini 2.
Last July, Gotta Be Mobile believed the first-generation iPad Mini would feature an IZGO display made by Sharp Inc., which can be fitted for extremely thin hardware devices and can reportedly handle pixel densities above 330 ppi. IZGO displays are also said to feature better brightness than most LCD screens on the market, but the important part of the statement is that Apple sought the displays to be made by Sharp: A note from Apple analyst Horace Dediu dated Nov. 7 said Apple spent $2.3 billion for "product tooling, manufacturing process equipment and infrastructure." Dediu believed this massive pile of money was used to bail out Sharp, which was reportedly in dire financial straits earlier in the year.
"Sharp is a key supplier of screens to Apple but is also in financial distress," Dediu wrote in his analysis. "Sharp has also been the object of an intended investment by Foxconn [Hon Hai]. That deal fell through as Sharp’s finances deteriorated. My guess is that these attempts to shore up Sharp are directed by Apple to ensure both continuity of supply and a balanced supplier base (offsetting Samsung, another supplier.) If Sharp were to enter into some form of bankruptcy, the key plant(s) used in producing screens for Apple might be 'up for grabs' by creditors, and they might be taken off-line, jeopardizing Apple’s production capacity, irrespective of contractual obligations."
Apple's first-generation iPad Mini, launched Nov. 2, features a non-Retina display resolution of 1024 x 768, weighs just 0.68 pounds — as light as a notepad — and measures just 7.2 mm thick — roughly the thinness of a pencil. The tablet runs on iOS 6 and is compatible with the new Lightning dock connector, and specific models also support the high-speed LTE network. Apple starts selling the Wi-Fi-only model at $329, while the cellular-capable models start selling at $459.
2013年2月3日星期日
Rudy Gay heads to Toronto in Grizzlies' makeover
Rudy Gay is on his way to Toronto in the latest and most dramatic move in the Memphis Grizzlies' money-motivated makeover.
The Grizzlies agreed to trade their star swingman to the Raptors on Wednesday, parting with the leading scorer on a team that has aspirations of making a run in the powerful Western Conference.
The Raptors gave up point guard Jose Calderon and forward Ed Davis in the deal that also included Grizzlies backup center Hamed Haddadi, and Memphis then shipped Calderon to Detroit for Austin Daye and Tayshaun Prince. Memphis general manager Chris Wallace thanked both Gay and Haddaddi for their time with the Grizzlies.
"We are excited to add three players who bring with them a tremendous amount of value to our team and have achieved incredible success on the pro, college and Olympic levels," Wallace said in a statement Wednesday night. "In these players, we welcome NBA Champion and Olympic gold medalist Tayshaun Prince, as well as up-and-coming athletic forwards Ed Davis, who won an NCAA title at North Carolina, and Austin Daye."
"It's been my home for eight years," Calderon said in Atlanta, shortly before leaving the arena. "I've done everything possible for this team. It's tough. The fans have been with me since Day 1. It's tough."
Prince and Daye have both spent their entire careers with Detroit, and Prince was the last link to the proud championship team of 2003-04.
"Trading a player like Tayshaun Prince, who has meant so much to our organization and contributed to our championship success, is never easy," Pistons president Joe Dumars said in a statement. "We want to thank Tayshaun for his professionalism and contributions over the last 10 years. We also appreciate everything that Austin Daye has done for our team both on and off the court over the past three-plus years."
Gay, averaging 17.2 points and 5.9 rebounds, signed a five-year, $82 million maximum contract in July 2010 with Memphis. The 6-foot-8 small forward is due $16.5 million this season with $37 million more over the next two years. That's a big number for new owner Robert Pera, who took over the franchise last November and has quickly started addressing the team's salary situation.
Just over a week ago, the Grizzlies sent valuable reserve Marreese Speights and two other players to Cleveland in a move that cleared $6.4 million in salary and avoided a $4 million luxury tax hit this season. Team officials said that move put the Grizzlies in position not to have to make a move this season.
Memphis coach Lionel Hollins had been lobbying to keep his five starters together the rest of this season, but he apparently lost that fight. It's a significant move for a team that was fourth in the Western Conference and three games behind the third-place Clippers.
Trading away Gay also eases a luxury tax hit due next season, while concentrating the team around center Marc Gasol and All-Star forward Zach Randolph. The Grizzlies had their best playoff run in 2011 when they knocked off then-No. 1 seed San Antonio before losing to Oklahoma City in seven games in the Western semifinals — all with Gay on the bench after needing season-ending shoulder surgery.
The collective bargaining agreement negotiated after last year's lockout makes the penalties for exceeding the salary cap far more punitive, and the system begins in earnest next season. Playing in a smaller market, the Grizzlies don't have the extra revenue from lavish television contracts like teams in Los Angeles or New York, which makes it that much more difficult to go over the cap. But even teams such as the Lakers and Bulls will likely have to be more responsible with their spending under the new deal, where repeat offenders are taxed at rates that multiply with each consecutive year they go over the cap.
The first domino fell before the season, when Oklahoma City sent James Harden to Houston instead of signing him to a big-money extension, and more are sure to follow.
All told, the Grizzlies shaved nearly $40 million over the next three years after the two trades.
They'll get a hard-nosed defender in return in Prince, the 32-year-old forward who was drafted by the Pistons in the first round in 2002. He is averaging 11.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game this season. Bringing in Calderon gives them a veteran mentor for young point guard Brandon Knight.
"We are pleased to welcome Jose Calderon, knowing that he fits our mold as a high character individual who is a great competitor," Dumars said. "Jose is a great facilitator at the guard position and a player that we feel gives us tremendous flexibility on the court when added to the core of guards we have on the roster."
Calderon joined the Raptors from Spain in 2005 and has been a fan favorite and trusted veteran on the team. He is averaging 11.1 points and 7.4 assists this season for the Raptors (16-29), who are desperately trying to scratch their way into the playoff picture. Toronto was in 11th place before the games were played Wednesday, 5? games behind Boston for the eight seed.
Calderon and Davis had both been starting for the Raptors, but they do have Kyle Lowry waiting in the wings at point guard and likely see Gay's scoring punch as the key to vaulting back into the discussion in a mediocre conference.
Coach Dwane Casey will have to deal with a bit of a log jam with Gay, DeMar DeRozan, Terrence Ross, Landry Fields and Alan Anderson as wing players with similar skill sets. But getting a player with Gay's natural scoring talent, even at the expense of parting with a valued player like Calderon, proved too enticing to pass up.
The Grizzlies agreed to trade their star swingman to the Raptors on Wednesday, parting with the leading scorer on a team that has aspirations of making a run in the powerful Western Conference.
The Raptors gave up point guard Jose Calderon and forward Ed Davis in the deal that also included Grizzlies backup center Hamed Haddadi, and Memphis then shipped Calderon to Detroit for Austin Daye and Tayshaun Prince. Memphis general manager Chris Wallace thanked both Gay and Haddaddi for their time with the Grizzlies.
"We are excited to add three players who bring with them a tremendous amount of value to our team and have achieved incredible success on the pro, college and Olympic levels," Wallace said in a statement Wednesday night. "In these players, we welcome NBA Champion and Olympic gold medalist Tayshaun Prince, as well as up-and-coming athletic forwards Ed Davis, who won an NCAA title at North Carolina, and Austin Daye."
"It's been my home for eight years," Calderon said in Atlanta, shortly before leaving the arena. "I've done everything possible for this team. It's tough. The fans have been with me since Day 1. It's tough."
Prince and Daye have both spent their entire careers with Detroit, and Prince was the last link to the proud championship team of 2003-04.
"Trading a player like Tayshaun Prince, who has meant so much to our organization and contributed to our championship success, is never easy," Pistons president Joe Dumars said in a statement. "We want to thank Tayshaun for his professionalism and contributions over the last 10 years. We also appreciate everything that Austin Daye has done for our team both on and off the court over the past three-plus years."
Gay, averaging 17.2 points and 5.9 rebounds, signed a five-year, $82 million maximum contract in July 2010 with Memphis. The 6-foot-8 small forward is due $16.5 million this season with $37 million more over the next two years. That's a big number for new owner Robert Pera, who took over the franchise last November and has quickly started addressing the team's salary situation.
Just over a week ago, the Grizzlies sent valuable reserve Marreese Speights and two other players to Cleveland in a move that cleared $6.4 million in salary and avoided a $4 million luxury tax hit this season. Team officials said that move put the Grizzlies in position not to have to make a move this season.
Memphis coach Lionel Hollins had been lobbying to keep his five starters together the rest of this season, but he apparently lost that fight. It's a significant move for a team that was fourth in the Western Conference and three games behind the third-place Clippers.
Trading away Gay also eases a luxury tax hit due next season, while concentrating the team around center Marc Gasol and All-Star forward Zach Randolph. The Grizzlies had their best playoff run in 2011 when they knocked off then-No. 1 seed San Antonio before losing to Oklahoma City in seven games in the Western semifinals — all with Gay on the bench after needing season-ending shoulder surgery.
The collective bargaining agreement negotiated after last year's lockout makes the penalties for exceeding the salary cap far more punitive, and the system begins in earnest next season. Playing in a smaller market, the Grizzlies don't have the extra revenue from lavish television contracts like teams in Los Angeles or New York, which makes it that much more difficult to go over the cap. But even teams such as the Lakers and Bulls will likely have to be more responsible with their spending under the new deal, where repeat offenders are taxed at rates that multiply with each consecutive year they go over the cap.
The first domino fell before the season, when Oklahoma City sent James Harden to Houston instead of signing him to a big-money extension, and more are sure to follow.
All told, the Grizzlies shaved nearly $40 million over the next three years after the two trades.
They'll get a hard-nosed defender in return in Prince, the 32-year-old forward who was drafted by the Pistons in the first round in 2002. He is averaging 11.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game this season. Bringing in Calderon gives them a veteran mentor for young point guard Brandon Knight.
"We are pleased to welcome Jose Calderon, knowing that he fits our mold as a high character individual who is a great competitor," Dumars said. "Jose is a great facilitator at the guard position and a player that we feel gives us tremendous flexibility on the court when added to the core of guards we have on the roster."
Calderon joined the Raptors from Spain in 2005 and has been a fan favorite and trusted veteran on the team. He is averaging 11.1 points and 7.4 assists this season for the Raptors (16-29), who are desperately trying to scratch their way into the playoff picture. Toronto was in 11th place before the games were played Wednesday, 5? games behind Boston for the eight seed.
Calderon and Davis had both been starting for the Raptors, but they do have Kyle Lowry waiting in the wings at point guard and likely see Gay's scoring punch as the key to vaulting back into the discussion in a mediocre conference.
Coach Dwane Casey will have to deal with a bit of a log jam with Gay, DeMar DeRozan, Terrence Ross, Landry Fields and Alan Anderson as wing players with similar skill sets. But getting a player with Gay's natural scoring talent, even at the expense of parting with a valued player like Calderon, proved too enticing to pass up.
Queensbury company keep eye on air quality
About three and a half years ago, McAuley started a small air quality consulting firm in Massachusetts and since then, he has moved back to Queensbury — the area where he grew up, works with clients on air quality studies all over the world out of his home office on Stonehurst Drive.
“It’s about giving people solutions, not just reasons why they should be doing something,” McAuley said. “A lot of times it’s investigative, we have a strong investigative approach to what we do.”
McAuley named his firm Change, which stands for Consulting for Health, Air, Nature and a Greener Environment.
McAuley has worked on studies that range from the air quality effects of electronic cigarette use to the prevalence of respiratory infections among children in Vietnam from different socioeconomic statuses. Last year, McAuley co-authored a Safe Routes to School study focused on reducing traffic pollution exposure to children.
The firm works with hospitals, non-profit organizations, paper companies, boards of health and others, performing indoor and ambient air quality assessments and monitoring, providing recommendations for fixing air quality problems, doing energy audits and air quality permitting.
Air quality regulations and laws vary, so the firm partners with firms overseas in China, Taiwan and New Zealand to provide services to clients there, McAuley said.
“You really need to have that local knowledge,” he said. “When opportunities come up, they have the means locally to move a project forward.”
The testing the firm does could be asbestos, mold or dust in a work place, or it could require people to wear air quality exposure monitors. McAuley can analyze data from some studies in his home office, while other results may be sent to an accredited lab. The firm studies a range of issues, and could be called in to study air quality after a gas leak or to examine potential carcinogens in areas where there is a cluster of cancer cases, McAuley said.
The study McAuley worked on recently about electronic cigarette use was published in the academic journal Inhalation Toxicology, and found that the use of the device, which mimics tobacco smoking, has a minimal effect on indoor air quality.
McAuley could see a study that looks at air quality a little closer to home — he would love to do a study in downtown Glens Falls and make some recommendations about how to cut down on pollution. He noted the outdoor seating at downtown restaurants with the congestion of nearby Centennial Circle, and said in such environments, even reducing parking along the main strip can make a dramatic difference.
“I would love to do a study in downtown Glens Falls,” McAuley said. “Studying air quality issues isn’t about picking on anybody, it’s just about making the air cleaner downtown.”
Change has associates that do work for the company in the Syracuse area, in New York City, Massachusetts and North Carolina. McAuley is able to conduct much of the business out of his home office in Queensbury, but he travels two or three months out of the year, visiting clients, he said.
McAuley and his firm were profiled in the January 2013 issue of Success Magazine, a publication that focuses on the achievements of home-based and small business entrepreneurs.
“I see it continuing to grow, I could see in five or 10 years someone acquiring the firm if I decide I want to sell it,” McAuley said. “I don’t think it’s going to be where 100 years from now the company is still going and has 10,000 employees — it doesn’t need to be that. I just want it to continue to be a stand-out company in what we provide.”
We can't really take a good look at Garrosh Hellscream without taking a look at his Alliance counterpart, King Varian Wrynn. Varian is an enigma in his own right, although for different reasons than Garrosh. Where Garrosh was a character that was introduced and shown in every aspect in the game itself, Varian is notable for being ... absent. He wasn't there for vanilla WoW. He wasn't there for Burning Crusade. Varian didn't make his first appearance in game until the launch event for Wrath of the Lich King, and exploded onto the scene with an attitude that threw a lot of players off.
Where Garrosh saw all of his development play out in-game, even the odd disconnected moments, Varian saw his play out through a series of comics and novels. Most of his history is a big question mark to many players. While not quite as big an unknown as Lor'themar Theron, people still wonder -- who is this guy? Where did he come from, and why was he so angry when he returned? And perhaps most importantly -- where did he turn from angry leader in the Ulduar cinematic to the far more patient leader we're seeing in Mists?
“It’s about giving people solutions, not just reasons why they should be doing something,” McAuley said. “A lot of times it’s investigative, we have a strong investigative approach to what we do.”
McAuley named his firm Change, which stands for Consulting for Health, Air, Nature and a Greener Environment.
McAuley has worked on studies that range from the air quality effects of electronic cigarette use to the prevalence of respiratory infections among children in Vietnam from different socioeconomic statuses. Last year, McAuley co-authored a Safe Routes to School study focused on reducing traffic pollution exposure to children.
The firm works with hospitals, non-profit organizations, paper companies, boards of health and others, performing indoor and ambient air quality assessments and monitoring, providing recommendations for fixing air quality problems, doing energy audits and air quality permitting.
Air quality regulations and laws vary, so the firm partners with firms overseas in China, Taiwan and New Zealand to provide services to clients there, McAuley said.
“You really need to have that local knowledge,” he said. “When opportunities come up, they have the means locally to move a project forward.”
The testing the firm does could be asbestos, mold or dust in a work place, or it could require people to wear air quality exposure monitors. McAuley can analyze data from some studies in his home office, while other results may be sent to an accredited lab. The firm studies a range of issues, and could be called in to study air quality after a gas leak or to examine potential carcinogens in areas where there is a cluster of cancer cases, McAuley said.
The study McAuley worked on recently about electronic cigarette use was published in the academic journal Inhalation Toxicology, and found that the use of the device, which mimics tobacco smoking, has a minimal effect on indoor air quality.
McAuley could see a study that looks at air quality a little closer to home — he would love to do a study in downtown Glens Falls and make some recommendations about how to cut down on pollution. He noted the outdoor seating at downtown restaurants with the congestion of nearby Centennial Circle, and said in such environments, even reducing parking along the main strip can make a dramatic difference.
“I would love to do a study in downtown Glens Falls,” McAuley said. “Studying air quality issues isn’t about picking on anybody, it’s just about making the air cleaner downtown.”
Change has associates that do work for the company in the Syracuse area, in New York City, Massachusetts and North Carolina. McAuley is able to conduct much of the business out of his home office in Queensbury, but he travels two or three months out of the year, visiting clients, he said.
McAuley and his firm were profiled in the January 2013 issue of Success Magazine, a publication that focuses on the achievements of home-based and small business entrepreneurs.
“I see it continuing to grow, I could see in five or 10 years someone acquiring the firm if I decide I want to sell it,” McAuley said. “I don’t think it’s going to be where 100 years from now the company is still going and has 10,000 employees — it doesn’t need to be that. I just want it to continue to be a stand-out company in what we provide.”
We can't really take a good look at Garrosh Hellscream without taking a look at his Alliance counterpart, King Varian Wrynn. Varian is an enigma in his own right, although for different reasons than Garrosh. Where Garrosh was a character that was introduced and shown in every aspect in the game itself, Varian is notable for being ... absent. He wasn't there for vanilla WoW. He wasn't there for Burning Crusade. Varian didn't make his first appearance in game until the launch event for Wrath of the Lich King, and exploded onto the scene with an attitude that threw a lot of players off.
Where Garrosh saw all of his development play out in-game, even the odd disconnected moments, Varian saw his play out through a series of comics and novels. Most of his history is a big question mark to many players. While not quite as big an unknown as Lor'themar Theron, people still wonder -- who is this guy? Where did he come from, and why was he so angry when he returned? And perhaps most importantly -- where did he turn from angry leader in the Ulduar cinematic to the far more patient leader we're seeing in Mists?
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