text:
Dirt Bags = Awesomeness

Hey Everyone.

I just want to let you know that I’m really proud of all the work you guys did for the Dirt Bags Open House. The awesomeness of the event was because of all your hard work and energy. It was so cool to see everyone come together and accomplish a great thing. In one of the e-mails leading up to Friday, I said something about making sure we set the bar for awesomeness … And we certainly did that. You guys stepped up to the plate in a big way. So, congratulations and I can’t wait for next year.

BOOM. Outta here.

Go Dirt Bags.

See you in the studio.
Prof Brian

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0488 851 508 Get a Free Quote
Flood Damage Carpet Restorations NSW

Flood Damage Carpet Restorations Bardwell Valley

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Flood Water Damage Restoration Bardwell Valley
Flood Water Damage Restoration Bardwell Valley

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Emergency Carpet Restorations Bardwell Valley
Emergency Carpet Restorations Bardwell Valley

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Water Damage Restorations Bardwell Valley

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Flood Damage Carpet Restorations Bardwell Valley
Flood Damage Carpet Restorations Bardwell Valley

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Location: Bardwell Valley, NSW, Australia

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Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India

Reviewed by Sujaini | Updated on Jul 30, 2021

The Indian Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts (ICFAI) is a not-for-profit organisation registered under the Public Societies Registration Act of Andhra Pradesh (Telangana Area), 1350 Fasli (Act I of 1350 F). The institute was established in the year 1984 to provide high-quality, world-class education.

ICFAI has an exemplary track record in the higher education sector for around three decades. It launched the Financial Analysts certification programme, the CFA Programme in 1985 and was instrumental in the development of a new generation of Indian professionals.

ICFAI established the ICFAI Business Schools (IBS) throughout India in the year 1995 at eight locations to offer high-quality two-year post-graduate management programmes with different specialisations. In the independent research conducted by several magazines, IBS Hyderabad is ranked among the top ten B-Schools in India over the years.

In line with its vision of fostering high-quality higher education growth and enhancing access, ICFAI has funded 11 private universities in different states contributing to the pan-Indian presence of ICFAI Universities, promoting equity and encouraging excellence. ICFAI Group is one of India's largest private-university groups.

Every year ICFAI University publishes more than 300 case studies in the professional quarterly research journals in various areas of management, accounting, science & technology, law, economics, and liberal arts.

  • Establishing a Pan-Indian network of research and teaching universities in various states to ensure high-quality academic delivery and promote an influential research culture among faculty members.

  • Delivering quality career-oriented educational programmes and developing a growing pool of faculty members through rigorous PhD programmes.

  • Working with leading universities/institutions for student-exchange programmes and faculty-exchange programmes.

ICFAI's primary purpose is to create a framework of professionals who have been given specialised skills, who have learned to consider issues from a broad perspective, and who have acquired a greater sense of moral and social responsibility that their future leadership positions demand from them. In short, "Learning for leadership" is the mission.

Related Terms

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Wildcat Homestead
Contact: Heather and Hudson Smith
Address: 317 Windy Hill Rd. Central, SC, 29630
Email Address:
Phone: 704-534-0319
About Us
We are a small family homestead between Six Mile, Central, and Clemson. We have a small flock of chickens, a garden, an orchard, and a large bamboo grove.


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Cleolinda Jones (cleolinda) wrote,
Cleolinda Jones

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True Blood 1x01: "Strange Love"

Okay, I got a lot of work done this weekend and I am burned out on doing any more for the moment, so I feel like doing some recappin'. We're up to four episodes of True Blood now, but I'm going to go back and start from the beginning. This one's going to be a bit in-depth because we've got all the who's who and what's what to establish. And because I said so. (Man, I love HBO OnDemand.)

I would like to interject here that "Strangelove" is one of my favorite Depeche Mode songs, although I don't know that the episode title is alluding to it in any way.

So there's opening credits and they're full of strippers and baptisms and wailing church ladies and decaying fox heads in speed-mo. It's all about life and death and sex and religion, don't you get how deep it is? And yet I forgive it all, because there's a shot of a church marquee that reads GOD HATES FANGS, and I laugh every time I see it.

(The theme song, by the way, is Jace Everett's "Bad Things," and I know because I looked it up after spending four episodes trying to figure out if it was Chris Isaak or not.)

So the first scene is basically to set up the universe of the show, which is that vampires have "come out" (I believe the phrase "come out of the coffin" is used, sigh) and so now we're dealing with a somewhat heavy-handed racial/sexual allegory about vampire civil rights in the background of the show, complete with the vampires' national spokeswoman (hey! It's Gillian from Judging Amy !) debating Bill Maher on TV. An obnoxious young drunk couple staggers into a 7-11 or whatever and asks if they sell "Tru Blood," the new Japanese synthetic blood that has allowed vampires to go public, and the point the show wants to make is that the goth poser behind the counter is just that, a poser, and the tubby good ol' boy in camo is the actual vampire, because THINGS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEE~EEM.

Look, I actually like this show. I just get a little impatient waiting on the She Reads Minds, He Broods Broodsomely, Together They Fight Crime part. This scene does get points from me, however, because Stupid Young Drunk Guy says, "Fuck you, Billy Bob!," and the Camopire outs himself by retorting, "Fuck me? I'll fuck you, boy, and then I'll EAT ya!" And then he tells the goth poser he'll kill him if he ever poses again. I like this guy.

I should mention here that the language and/or sex quotient of any given episode is unusually high (IT'S NOT TV! IT'S HBO!), so... consider yourselves warned.

So. Sookie Stackhouse is a blonde goody-two-shoes Anna Paquin who waitresses at Merlotte's restaurant/bar in the little bayou town of Bon Temps, and Sookie's life is somewhat complicated by the fact that she can hear (and sometimes see) what everyone's thinking as they mentally grumble over their burgers and fries ("Please, Jesus, if you'll just help me say no to Beer Number 2"; "... after what you made me do in the bedroom last night, which was disgusting even though I kinda liked it"), and if that person is a guy, it generally involves what sex act they'd like her to perform right now. Yes, I know we've heard this before. No, Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books predate Twilight. Also, I would just like to note here--has Anna Paquin lost weight? Because she has way less badonkadonk than she had in the X-Men movies. And I remember very clearly going to see X2 and being like WHOA FLORA GREW UP, and now she looks way... younger. I don't know, maybe I'm imagining it.

So here's Sookie's life: she works at Merlotte's for floppy-haired, hangdog Sam Merlotte, who is pitifully in love with her and can't say "cher" properly. Her best friend Tara is angry and bitchy and mouthy all the time and I love her. Look, I can't help it. The first time we see her, she quits her job at a Home Depot clone for no particular reason, shouting, "I'ma get my babydaddy who just got outta prison to come over here and KICK YO TEETH IN!" "Jesus, Tara, don't do that--" "I'm not being SERIOUS, you pathetic racist! I don't HAVE a baby! DAMN." Back in Merlotte's kitchen is Tara's cousin Lafayette, who is fabulous and given to saying things like, "What I know is that every man is terrified... OF THE PUSSY." And here's Dawn, one of the other waitresses (the slutty brunette one): "What are we talkin' about?" "PUSSAY!" And then Dawn slaps her short-shorted ass while Sookie clutches her metaphorical pearls. Consider yourselves properly introduced to the gang, y'all.

Oh, wait, there's also Sookie's brother Jason, who is a gigantic slut and going down on Maudette Pickens (Maudette? Seriously?) the first time we meet him. Until he sees a vampire bite on her thigh, which totally harshes his buzz because "fangbanging" is sick and wrong, y'all, unless she has amateur homemade porn tapes of it, in which case it's kind of hot. Well, it's hot in theory, because in practice, the True Blood vampires move really fast (as movie vampires often do), and the jerky speed-mo the show uses is really dorky (as vampire speed-mo usually is), but it's super dorky when you're watching a bald, tattooed vampire humping some girl. While waggling his tongue and mugging at the camera. In speed-mo. So blah blah, Maudette likes it rough, Jason has vampire inferiority issues, and... things get kind of dorky ugly. We'll get back to that later.

Note: We are twelve minutes into the show.

Back at Merlotte's, Sam is getting his yearnings all over Sookie when suddenly everything goes quiet and the lights go down and sad, old-timey piano and ancient violins of woe (woevolins, if you will) start playing and in walks Bon Temps' first vampire. Sookie: "SQUEE!" She bounces over there to take his order but sadly, Merlotte's is all out of Tru Blood, in the sense that their stock went bad a year ago because no one ever came in to order it, and she stops fangirling her vampire long enough to ask if there's anything else he drinks. "Actually... no," he says regretfully. Because HE'S A VAMPIRE, SOOKIE. So instead he orders a glass of red wine so he can sit and stare at it and "have a reason to be here." Apparently beer just doesn't have the same brooding potential.

Blah blah Maudette vampire porn, unf unf unf.

So back at Merlotte's, the vampire has fallen in with sleazy drug-dealing Mack and Denise Rattray in the five minutes it took Sookie to get a glass of wine from the bar. Sookie is incensed--even more so when she reads the Rattrays' minds and realizes that they intend to drain Sookie's vampire and sell his blood on the black market. Which is one of the things I love about the show (and, by extension, the universe Charlaine Harris has created): it takes this idea of vampires joining the mainstream and goes into how that would trickle down to regular people and everyday life--people doing vampire blood as a drug, taking money to let vampires bite them, and... well, you'll see. Anyway, rather than pull her vampire aside and warn him in a timely fashion, Sookie runs to go get Tara and Sam, neither of whom are willing to help, and so when Sookie turns around, both the Rattrays and the vampire are gone. GO YOU, SOOK. So Sookie runs after the vampire, and Sam makes Tara tend bar so he can run after Sookie and... disappear for the next ten minutes. Huh.

Jason, Maudette, unf unf unf. And then Jason chokes Maudette to death. Maudette is also taping this encounter, by the way. Or... she was, rather.

So out in the parking lot, Sookie's vampire is already sprawled out on the ground getting his dumb self drained, which I love because now the girl has to come save the vampire the first time they meet. So while Mack Rattray is tweaking out about how bad he "needs to get some V inside [him]," Sookie grabs a chain off the back of someone's truck and wallops him with it. Speaking of chains, that is also how they're holding the vampire down--with long silver chains (like, jewelry-quality chains) just kind of lightly draped over his wrists and neck, because... apparently silver is a weakness for these vampires. Look, everybody's vampires are different, that's cool. Anyway, the big gnarly iron chain wrapped itself around Mack Rattray's neck when Sookie whaled on him with it so now he's staggering around choking (HEY A LITTLE HELP BACK HERE?) while Sookie's holding off Denise Rattray with Denise's own knife, and Sookie and Denise Have Words and Denise swears to kill her and seriously, Mack has somehow not asphyxiated yet. In fact, Denise ends up dragging him off without even helping. Blah blah sleazy tweakers, attempted road rage blah.

On the ground, Sookie lifts the silver chains off her vampire and he heals himself in a little puff of mist (steam? I don't know), and she watches this with a gasp of "Shut... up!" Hee! And then, a sympathetic "Oh, bless your heart!" Man, I love how Sookie is like 50% teenage girl and 50% my grandmother.

And then this dog runs up to them--I don't know, maybe a border collie? The collie gives Sookie a good licking upside the face, barks at the vampire for like five minutes, and runs off. "He's checkin' on you," observes Sookie's vampire. "Oh, that's just a dog that hangs around the bar sometimes," says Sookie. I'm just laying the groundwork here, y'all. You'll thank me later.

And then Sookie realizes she can't hear the vampire's thoughts at all. He's thanking her for saving him and she blurts out, "I can't hear you!" "THANK YOU," says the vampire (HA!). Sookie kneels down next to him and grabs his face and gasps, "I can't hear you! Oh my stars!" And Sookie's vampire is all like, what the hell is your deal? Not to mention the fact that he's in need of a refill now, and there she is all alone in a dark empty bayou/parking lot with him. But Sookie's not afraid! She'll wrap the Rattrays' silver chain around her neck, that'll show him! Except that she also has "other, very juicy arteries," he rasps, however, including one "in the groin" that he particularly likes (apparently Sookie's vampire is a leg man). Sookie shoots back, "You just shut your nasty mouth, Mister! You may be a vampire but when you talk to me, you will talk to me like the lady that I am!" God, I love her.

So... then her vampire offers her the bags of blood the Rattrays left behind. To... make up for insulting her, I guess? I don't know. It may just be an excuse to explain that vampire blood makes humans feel great (and horny). Sookie's all like, "Yeah... you can keep that." Seriously, why doesn't he? Can't he drink it himself? He needs it, after all. Is it weird to drink your own blood? Am I thinking about this too much? So anyway, Sookie's vampire says that she could sell it if she didn't want to keep it. "I wouldn't touch it," she says, very seriously. So then he speed-mos over to sit by her and it's less dorky than Sexxor the Bald up there. But not by much. "What are you?" he demands huskily. (I should mention here that Sookie's vampire has this particularly sultry, husky-rough, broodsome tone that he uses off and on. It's pretty much got flashing neon lights reading SEXY VOICE, I AM USING IT NOW over it. What makes it really funny is that you sit there and go, "Hee! He's using the SEXY VOICE again! How obvious can you get? It's like... a parody of... omg it's working.") And I love how now he wants to know what her deal is. Not when she grabbed a hungry vampire's face and babbled about not being able to hear him. No, turning down black market goods, that shit is weird. So now Sookie's freaked out by the SEXY VOICE and she's like, "Well--I--I'm a waitress. What's your name?" "Bill," he says, and Sookie's like, "Bill? Your name is Bill? Bill the vampire? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA." And that was when I knew I was going to love this show. And Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin have crazy chemistry (awkward), so the show can afford to be funny about it.

(Okay, look, I know I've seen Stephen Moyer somewhere before. Seriously, I know I have, there's no way he hasn't been in some... oh my God, Princess of Thieves with Keira Knightley. That's what it was. You have got to be shitting me.)

So... anyway, Bill the Vampire disappears in time for Sam to FINALLY arrive and make sure that Sookie's okay. So... where was he all this time? He ran outside at the same time that Sookie did, but he only now just got here. Interesting.

Then, back inside the restaurant, Tara convinces Sam to give her a permanent bartending job by appealing to his Sookie-protecting instincts. But is she qualified? "Sam, I was mixin' whiskey sours for my mom when I was in first grade." "That's fucked up." "Ya think?" I don't know--she's not the best actress ever and she's still settling into the character, but something just about Rutina Wesley's line readings has just won me over.

And here's Jason dropping by the bar at quitting time. Jason is really hot and built and dumb as a rock, and so for some reason I just can't bring myself to be interested in him. Like, the later Jason hijinx are really funny, but... well, I'm really weird this way, but people actually get more or less attractive in my mind based on their personalities. If someone turns out to be a jerk or an idiot, that's all I can see on their face, even if I can recognize that objectively they're pretty hot. So Jason and his constant nude scenes are kind of wasted on me at the moment. But--and here's another example of what I'm talking about--if the actor playing him turned out to be a fantastic guy, the switch would be flipped the other way, and I would think that he was even more awesome than before. It's weird, I know. Anyway, Tara is still in love with Rock-Stupid Jason. He macks on Dawn instead. Tara seethes.

Chez Stackhouse: Gran is waiting up for Sookie to get off work, and then they squee together over her vampire. Hee.

Then Sookie wakes up in the middle of the night and looks out the window and there's Bill lurking in the Stackhouse front yard. (Edward, there's someone I'd like to introduce you to. I think y'all will have a lot in common...) So she puts on a tiny robe and goes out to meet him, because she's too dumb to live. Bill takes off his shirt, and she stammers, "I never thought I would be having sex with you.... at least, not so fast"--and in the front yard at that--and he rasps, "Who said anything about sex?" FANGS! And then Sookie wakes up with a gasp.

So the next day Sookie's getting her sunbath Lolita on in the yard when Jason arrives to tell her off for tangling with the Rattrays, at which point he finds out what they were doing out in the parking lot of Merlotte's in the first place, and his vampire issues rear up again. "They could have killed him!" cries Sookie. "HE'S ALREADY DEAD!" shouts Jason. Sookie: "THAT'S NOT HIS FAULT!" Wait, wait, what did Bill look like? "Handsome in a sort of old-fashioned way, like from a movie on TCM," says Sookie (hee!). BUT WAS HE BALD OR TATTOOED? This is important, because if Sexxor the Bald has been with his sister, JASON WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO UNSEE THAT.

But then Gran gets off the phone and reveals that Maudette's been found strangled in her apartment, and Jason starts acting really shady about it. And then when he goes back to work--he and Lafayette and their Cajun friend Rene all work on a construction crew, apparently--Jason gets picked up by the sheriff after hemming and hawing about what he does and doesn't know, continually messing up his story about whether he did or did not know that Maudette was dead, or know her personally, or ever sleep with her, particularly on the night in question, which he didn't. By which he means that he did. Because he really is too dumb to live (at least his sister's only a dumbass in her sleep). Also, it doesn't help that the sheriff and the detective have already seen Maudette's secret Jasonsex tape and have just been letting Jason spool out plenty of rope to hang himself with.

Meanwhile, Gran wants to know if Bill the Vampire might have lived through the Civil War, and if Sookie could possibly get him to come speak to the Descendants of the Glorious Dead. Bless.

Let's go back to Merlotte's and watch Tara be sassy some more! She's toying with a nice plump redneck. "Idn't," she says--I don't know how to spell it, but it's pretty much how we all say "isn't" around here, too--"Idn't that funny, a black girl being named after a plantation? [Redneck laughs politely.] NO, I DON'T THINK IT'S FUNNY AT ALL." Apparently Tara isn't black in the books, which may be the reason for this scene, I don't know. Meanwhile, I can't tell whether Lafayette is hitting on the redneck for fun or for serious ("He can be my Santa Claus"). And everyone knew about Jason getting carted away to the pokey before Sookie even found out and they all assumed she "just knew," because she always "just knows," and Sookie shouts, "I AM NOT PSYCHIC!" before storming off. It's a complicated workplace, Merlotte's.

Oh, look! The woevolins have ushered Bill the Vampire back in. Sam mentally seethes, and I quote, "He's got her in his sights. I NEED TO PROTECT HER." All the customers' disapproving voices swirl around Sookie as she slowly walks over to Bill's table, and then he takes her hand, and everything goes quiet. Yeah. I'm thinking that Bill is Sookie's new best friend. "Your hand is cool," she marvels. Yes, Sookie, BECAUSE HE'S DEAD. Bill says he must not be like the men she's accustomed to, but then, Sookie doesn't date (and there's a great scene in the next episode where we find out why). "What are you?" Bill sexyvoices again. "You're something more... than human." Which is an odd way of looking at it, and probably exactly the way Sookie wouldn't want him to look at it. "Sookie," by the way, is not short for anything, she tells him; it's just her name. (Although, technically, "Sukie" originated as a nickname for Susanna.) How her brother got off with "Jason" and she got saddled with "Sookie," I don't know.

So then Bill asks if he may call on her sometime. No, really: "May I call on you sometime?" That is just adorable, y'all. Sookie has no idea what he means. "May I come and visit you at your home?" he says, enunciating carefully, not sure exactly how slow Sookie might be. I mean, she's been whaling on drug dealers and flirting with vampires and turning down black-market goods, the girl clearly ain't right. Oh, at her home! Sure, that'd be awesome! "My grandmother would love to meet you!" And Bill kind of squints at her like, what? But he's lonely and she's crazy, so sure, he'll meet her after her shift's over, that'll work. "Do you realize that every person in this establishment is staring at us right now?" he growls. Really, they seriously are, everyone in the entire bar. Like they're watching TV or something. Oh, but see, that's just because Sookie's brother got hauled in by the police and everyone's talking and-- "THEY ARE STARING AT US BECAUSE I AM A VAMPIRE," says Bill. MY SEXY VOICE, IT IS RASPING OVERTIME. And he can't have the staring because he wants to make Bon Temps his home and be a good little mainstream vampire. And then he lets go of her hand and all the voices flood back.

And then Sam drags Sookie away and shoves her into his office. Sookie: "Am I fired?" "NO!" he shouts, which made me laugh for some reason. And then he yells at her for being a stupid vampire-saving vigilante until she starts crying. "Oh, share cher," he says and hugs her, looking yearnful. And then Sookie hears him thinking, "I can't help it, I want you so bad, DAMN YOU SMELL SO GOOD," and Sookie's all like OH MY GOD EVEN MY SAINTLY PROTECTOR WANTS IN MY PANTS. And then Tara bursts in to duet with Sam on "Sookie, You Are Gonna Get Yourself Killed (And I Care Too Much About Your Dumb Ass to Let That Happen)," but then Tara's thoughts spin off into a tangent about Jason's dreamy eyes, so Sookie screams at both of them and storms off in a righteous huff.

So Merlotte's closes for the night. Sam, contrite, offers to wait with her until Bill gets there, and Sookie says no, because her ass, it is dumb.

Aw, Sam lives in a trailer out behind the bar, y'all. Now I just feel sad.

Hey, is that Bill down the way there? No, it's the Rattrays kicking Sookie's guts in. Somewhere, Edward Cullen is very disappointed in Bill the Vampire's stalking skills.

(Continue: 1x02 "The First Taste.")

(All True Blood recaps.)

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Polite professional responses – from the experts.

I thought these responses to the BEST study from the leading experts are worth posting (comments collected by our friends at the UK Science Media Centre).  A far cry from the response of ideologues such as Anthony Watts and Andrew Bolt:

Prof Sir John Beddington, Chief Scientific Adviser to HM Government, said:

“Clearly this study needs peer review, but if correct it is pleasing to hear that this new analysis conforms with US work at NASA and NOAA and that of Phil Jones and his colleagues at the UK Hadley Center-UEA Climatic Research Unit. This work adds to the evidence about how climate change is

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Oops – its real after all.

Richard MullerGlobal warming is real, according to a major study released today. Despite a issues raised by climate denialists, the Berkeley Earth’s Surface Temperatures study finds reliable evidence of a rise in the average world temperature of approximately 1°C since 1950.

Professor Richard A Muller, who led the study, is UC Berkeley physicist, and long-time climate skeptic has publicly admitted that he was wrong about the IPCC and the evidence for global warming.  See press release here.  One wonders why Muller was motivated to repeat what the IPCC has been doing that much greater scales of rigor.   Whatever the reasons, the conclusions that Muller has come to has thrown a ‘cat among the pigeons’ with respect to climate deniers like Anthony Watts and Fred Singer.

UPDATE:  Here is Kelly Rigg in the Huffington Post – is climate denial unraveling? Continue reading

Pesticides and the Great Barrier Reef: Extensive new data and analysis and increased concerns (a note from Jon Brodie)

As a result of an extensive research and monitoring program funded by the Queensland and Australian Governments over the last 5 years  a greatly better understanding of the risks to Great Barrier Reef ecosystems from pesticide residues is now available and in the process of being published in the scientific literature. Most of the papers are or will be published in special issues of Marine Pollution Bulletin and Agriculture Ecosystems and the Environment. Some of the MPB papers are already published online and the rest from both issues will follow over the next few months. While the complete set is still uncertain (due to reviewing still in progress) the following are already out:

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Cognito authentication integration with Django using authorization code grant.

Note: Assumed knowledge of AWS Cognito backend configuration and underlying concepts, mostly it’s just the setup from an application integration perspective that is talked about here.

Recently we have been working on a Django project where a secure and flexible authentication system was required, as most of our existing structure is on AWS we chose Cognito as the backend.

Below are the steps we took to get this working and some insights learned on the way.

Django Warrant

The first attempt was using django_warrant, this is probably going to be the first thing that comes up when you google ‘how to django and cognito’.

Django_warrant works by injecting an authentication backend into django which does some magic that allows your username/password to be submitted and checked against a configured user pool, on success it authenticates you and if required creates a stub django user.

The basics of this were very easy to get working and integrated but had a few issues such as:

  • We still see username/password requests and have to send them on.
  • By default can only be configured for one user pool.
  • Does not support federated identity provider workflows.
  • Github project did not seem super active or updated.

Ultimately we chose not to use this module, however inspiration was taken from its source code to do some of the user handling stuff we implemented later on.

Custom authorization_code workflow implementation

This involves using the cognito hosted login form, which does both user pool and connected identity provider authentication (O365/Azure, Google, Facebook, Amazon) .

The form can be customised with HTML, CSS, images and put behind a custom URL, other aspects of the process and events can be changed and reacted upon using triggers and lambda.

Once you are authenticated in cognito it redirects you back to the page of your choosing (usually your applications login page or custom endpoint) with a set of tokens, using these tokens you then grab the authenticated users details and authenticate them within the context of your app.

The difference between authorization code grant and implicit grant are:

  • Implicit grant
    • Intended for client side authentication (javascript applications mostly)
    • Sends both the id_token (JWT) and acccess_token in the redirect response
    • Sends the tokens with an #anchor before them so it is not seen by the web server
    • https://your-app/login#id_token=n&auth_token=n
  • Authorization code grant
    • Intended for server side authentication
    • Sends a authorization code in the redirect response
    • Sends this as a normal GET parameter
    • https://your-app/login?code=n
    • Your application holds a preconfigured secret
    • Code + secret get turned into id_token token and access_token via oauth2/token endpoint

We chose to use the authorization code grant workflow, it takes a bit more effort to setup but is generally more secure and alleviates any hacky javascript shenanigans that would be needed to get implicit grant working with a django server based backend.

After these steps you can use boto3 or helpers to turn those tokens into a set of attributes (email, name, other custom attributes) kept by cognito. Then you simply hook this up to your internal user/session logic by matching them with your chosen attributes like email, username etc.

I was unable to find any specific library support to handle some aspects of this, like the token handling in python or the django integration so i have included some code which may be useful.

This can be integrated into a view to get the user details from Cognito based on a token, this will be sitting at the redirect URL that cognito returns from.

import warrant

def tokenauth(request):
    authorization_code = request.GET.get("code")
    token_grabber =

    id_token, access_token = token_grabber.get(authorization_code)

    if id_token and access_token:
        # This uses warrant (different than django_warrant)
        # A helper lib that wraps cognito
        # Plain boto3 can do this also.
        cognito = warrant.Cognito(

        # Their lib is a bit broken, because we dont supply a username it wont
        # build a legit user object for us, so we reach into the cookie jar....
        # {'given_name': 'Joe', 'family_name': 'Smith', 'email': ''}
        data = cognito.get_user()._data
        return data
        return None

Class that handles the oauth/token2 workflow, this is mysteriously missing from the boto3 library which seems to handle everything else quite well…

from http.client import HTTPSConnection
from base64 import b64encode
import urllib.parse
import json

class CognitoToken(object):
    Why you no do this boto3...
    def __init__(self, client_id, client_secret, domain, redir, region="ap-southeast-2"):
        self.client_id = client_id
        self.client_secret = client_secret
        self.redir = redir
        self.token_endpoint = "{0}.auth.{1}".format(domain, region)
        self.token_path = "/oauth2/token"

    def get(self, authorization_code):
        headers = {
            "Authorization" : "Basic {0}".format(self._encode_auth()),
            "Content-type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded",

        query = urllib.parse.urlencode({
                "grant_type" : "authorization_code",
                "client_id" : self.client_id,
                "code" : authorization_code,
                "redirect_uri" : self.redir,

        con = HTTPSConnection(self.token_endpoint)
        con.request("POST", self.token_path, body=query, headers=headers)
        response = con.getresponse()

        if response.status == 200:
            respdata = str('utf-8'))
            data = json.loads(respdata)
            return (data["id_token"], data["access_token"])

        return None, None

    def _encode_auth(self):
        # Auth is a base64 encoded client_id:secret
        string = "{0}:{1}".format(self.client_id, self.client_secret)
        return b64encode(bytes(string, "utf-8")).decode("ascii")

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Kitchen knives

Any knife that is sharp is better than the best branded dull knife.

As consultant, I’ve either been at clients or worked at home. Because I used to spend 35+ weeks a year on the road, eating out wasn’t special. Plus I grew up with mom and dad who believed you needed to be able to take care of yourself including fix a flat, mow the lawn, mend a shirt, cook a decent meal, etc. I enjoyed the cooking, married a wife who loved to cook, and raised a family that thought a good day was going to market, making big meal, and discussing the world over a home prepared meal and several bottles of wine with friends.

In addition, I like fixing and making things. I like the tools that help you make things, too. Knives the single most important tool in the kitchen. The best one is the one that is highly effective for you. Bad technic, wrong shape, or dull knives will be produce poor results, be frustrating, and can be dangerous. As your skills improve, you may find a “better” knife will up your game. The general rule is take care of your knives (tools) and your knives (tools) will take care of you.

Any knife that is sharp is better than the best branded dull knife.

Either send your knives out once a year for most home chefs or buy a good diamond sharpener or equivalent. If you are going to sharpen your own knives, it is as skill that must be learned.  Plan on spending $100-$200 unless you want to go manual with traditional wet stones. I haven’t tried the pendulum style sharpeners, but they do help guide the wet stones, so they look promising. The only problem is that the bevel will be flat instead of the ideal convex of a belt sharpener or proper use of wet stone.

I keep looking for the ideal home sharpening system. I probably have half dozen knife sharpeners in the shed I don’t like. The NY Times Cord Cutter recommends the powered Chef’s Choice Tri-razor. I am disappointed on manual version especially on smaller knives. In a follow up comment, they say use it only on inexpensive knives, so what good is it. I was also really disappointed by the Global Manual sharpeners. I’ve got a few wet stones that work better, but not without a lot effort. I just got a Worksharp Ken Onion sharpener. Other than making a lot of dust, it does put an amazing edge on my knives. I am waiting a few months to see how they wear.

Every cook needs to buy a steel of steel or ceramic. You can keep your knives in good cutting shape using a steel made of steel or ceramic. Ceramic is preferable as it will remove less material. You don’t sharpen with steel, but you straighten the cutting edge and it will keep a knife cutting for a long, long time. Here’s a short video with Alton Brown on the topic ( When the steel no longer gives you a good edge, you need to sharpen the knives. You try avoid sharpening because it removes material and eventually will wear the knife out. A steel just straightens the blade so far less material is removed.

When cutting, be sure to use a cutting board. Cutting on your counter probably won’t hurt your counter, but it will quickly wear your knife. A good cutting board is religious debate equal to the topic of which knife is best, so I won’t go into it today. I use both food grade nylon and hard, non-porous, non-toxic wood boards (mostly maple).  I’m mixed on bamboo. I love teak and have added to boards I’ve made ( as few to date (see knife pictures). It is great skill builder for wood workers and you’ll have friends for life. If you are buying, Boos is the best known high quality wood cutting board maker. They are not cheap, but they will last a lifetime for most home cooks. Using a good grade cutting board oil on it every year or so will make it look better and last longer.

Learning good cutting technics are also critical. Some things like using your knuckles and keeping your fingers curled back will feel awkward at first (“the claw”). There are some great YouTubes, classes, simply watch any of the 100’s of cooking shows. I’ve got a half century in the kitchen with a knife and I’m still learning.

Please never ever put your kitchen knives in the dishwasher. The dishwasher soap especially at high temperatures is corrosive. It will etch the blade and destroy the cutting edge. In addition, if you have wood handles, you’ll destroy them (makes me cry). Woodworkers are sensitive about ruining good wood.

For safety’s sake, keep your knives separate from your dishes. Don’t throw them into sink full of dishes or soap water. You’ll reach in to wash a cup and lose a finger. I recommend washing them with soap and water, rinse with warm water and either gently dry them or place them aside where they will dry.

Do not put them back in the knife block unless they are dry. Even stainless will pit, rust, or grow mold from the dust in the air (mostly your dry skin particles in a home – another story).  Who wants to have their food prepared with rusted, dull, stained, moldy knives? Please take care of your knives and treat them with respect.

You need at least 5 knives. You probably only need these knives or their equivalent.

  • Chef knife for slicing, chopping, mincing and splitting a spaghetti squash typically 8 – 10″, but can be 12″ – 14″. Buying a small Chef or Santoku (see below) is a great way to see if you like brand, blade, and handle. If you have a good Chef knife, you will grab it 75% of the time.
  • Medium prep knife for everything you don’t use your chef knife on – typically about 5″ blade and not as thick at top.
  • Paring knife for peeling and cutting toward yourself, mostly – typically 3″ blade.
  • Serrated bread knife mostly for bread typically 8-10″, but go 10-12″ if you like those giant loves of round bread.
  • Slicing knife for long slicing cuts typical in carving meat – thinner and 10-14″. These are often boudsght in a set with carving fork. Usually the knife and fork looks great great on the table. I don’t carve at the table, so I just have ugly forks I use with good knives in the kitchen and use the pretty set to serve the food.

Every knife after that is extra, but can be useful, but tends to be a variation of theme above. In addition, the Japanese or Asian style knife sets are slightly different. My wife prefers these styles partially because they are lighter blades and the handles tend to be slightly smaller, too.

  • Santoku knife is a thinner blade designed for more slicing and less chopping. The tip is rounder, too. Rachael Ray has been a big fan of these over a traditional chef’s knife and they are workhorse knives.
  • Vegetable (Nakari) knife is designed to allow you to slice and chop vegetables. Unlike the medium prep knife, the height of the knife allows you to use your knuckles more effectively.
  • Lots of variations on the theme with boning, cleavers, breaking, bird beak paring , etc.
Misen Paring & Chef, and Global Santoku & Vegetable

Every knife has cutting edge angle. All German style knives used to have 20 or 25 degree edges. Most Japanese and Asian knives were 17.5 or 15 degree edges. Now almost all kitchen knives except cleavers are 17.5 or 15 degree edges. The sharper angle does make for a sharper blade, but it also wears much faster. The compensation is  harder materials which I find makes it harder to use a steel or sharpen.

Every knife has a balance point. The experts tell you that the ideal point is right where the blade and handle meet. Larger knife blades have larger handles up to a point. Cleavers are blade heavy. Paring knives are handle heavy. The exact balance point is a really a personal choice.  For a chef’s knife, the key is when you use chef’s control grip (thumb and finger on the blade), the knife should be balanced and rock almost effortlessly.

Every knife is attached to the handle. The tang, the unsharp part of the blade, extends into the handle. Partial tangs do not extend the full width and length of the handle. Full tangs do. In general, full tangs are considered better as they lessen the chance the blade will pull out, counter balance the blade, provide direct leverage on the blade, and I believe allow you to better feel blade cutting. A full tang yields better control.

I have owned numerous kitchen knives including Global, Henkel, Misen, Wusthoff, Victorinox, and bunch of knock offs.

I haven’t tried a ceramic knife, but I would like to do so. If you go this way, I’d start Kyocera who invented the blades and are well known for ceramic materials. They are brittle and can break.  They are sharp, very sterile, and non-oxidative. Using metal to cut vegetables can oxidize the edges which is why you tear lettuce rather than chop it unless you are going to eat it the next 30 minutes.

Victorinox  are inexpensive. You can get a good set for about $100. The fibrox (plastic) handles clean easily and you can throw them in bleach water every day and they’ll stay in good shape. The blades are stamped, thin and light. The come sharp and stay reasonably sharp. I especially love their bread knives. I tend to throw away my serrated knives every 10 years since they don’t sharpen well. They also work well as small paring knives. They won’t tire you out.  If you use them long enough, you’ll eventually want a better knife. They have a partial tang so they are light, out of balance, and in my opinion will always make them good, but never great. They are wonderful for a cabin, a boat, or to give as a wedding gift to entry level cook. I’d hate to give someone a $600 forged knife set to hear through the grapevine they aren’t working too well after they ran them through the dishwasher and cut with them on the granite counters.

Two bread knives

Japanese knives are personal taste as is Scotch, Bourbon, Rum and Vodka – so no judgment.  They are scary sharp out of the box. My wife loves our Global knives. The balance is perfect. I find them proportionally slightly light and the handles a bit small for my hands. For medium and paring, I like them and use them for very delicate work. For chopping and heavy slicing, I find the back of the knife too thin and it wears on my thumb from pressing down. I do like the seamless design from handle to blade which keeps the knives spotless. Japanese knives stay sharp, but are hard to sharpen because the thinner blade angle requires harder steel to avoid wearing out too fast. Most people send them out to someone who knows how to do sharpen them. In some cases the factory will sharpen them for free. If you do a lot vegetables, the santoku and vegetable (nakari) knives are terrific additions.

Misen and Global Paring knives – notice the much smaller, flatter handle

Shun knives are common amongst professional chefs and I’d love to try them.  The wavy unique patterns emulating Damascus Steel looks terrific. On my list of knives to try out. The wavy, hammered effect, or hollow grounds on any knife are supposed help food fall away from the knife after slicing by breaking the suction. I’ve heard and seen mixed results. I do know thin slices of tomato or cucumbers do tend to stick to the blade.

Misen is recent Internet only cookware site. They try to provide semi-pro products at consumer prices. I have chef, medium, and paring knife I use almost daily. They sharpen easily, stay reasonably sharp, and have larger handles that are easy to grab and hold. I don’t like that the knife will lay on its back with the blade aimed up. This is a safety concern especially if you are cooking with others (e.g. kids). For the price, just a bit more than Victorinox, you get a full tang robust near professional grade knives. I use their chef knife daily and I only sharpened after 18 months.

Henkel and Wusthoff are great German steel knives. They dominated professional cooks and semi-pro kitchens until the early 2000’s when Japanese knives became popular. German knives did use slightly softer stainless steel than Japanese knives had 20 degree angles. In the last decade, German knives have improved their steel and shifted to 17.5 or 15 degree angle. These are great traditional style knives. I think the Wusthoff are getting a little better press right now. I used older Henkels up until the late 90’s when we switched to Global. I might go back to Henkel or Wusthoff now that they’ve emulated the Japanese styles.

Honestly, any good brand of knife with a sharp edge will cut well. The real key is comfort of the handle and balance of the blade. The only real way to know is try it out. A good set of knives is a decade or more purchase. I’d advise its worth trip to department or specialty store to put your hands on them.

You can read the NY Times Cord-cutter review on build your own knife set ( I find I don’t always agree with their best pick, but it is usually in the top 3 or so. Sometimes when I read the discussion of the competition, I find another I like better such as we thought it was too big of a handle or would have been our first pick, but it was more expensive and the other was almost as good. It is worth a read.

If you really want to go off the deep end, check out Jay Fisher. He’s dedicated to building the best knives in the world and he really, really likes to write about it. The net of his discussion is new stainless steel is better than old carbon steel blade so ditch grandma’s old knives. He does have knives for sale but they start at $2000 per knife. I’m sure they are awesome, but not my idea of how to spend a few grand.

Based on reviews, I’d also look at MAC and Dalstrong.  Dalstrong has good aesthetics, great Amazon reviews, and has good stats on hardness, etc; however, I’ve yet to see anyone run it through its paces. MAC has been around. Unless you know the knife or have a very liberal return policy and warranty, you might spend a few dollars more and buy at a store until you find a line you like.

Two medium knives – notice the handle difference
Same medium knives – very different handle shapes

Knives in the kitchen are very personal. In the end, it will be what you and your family likes the best. You may find that it varies between individuals in your household. It’s part of the adventure of good food. Enjoy the journey.

It’s been too long…

To benefit my thought process, and hopefully for the benefit of at least a few others, I am going to start writing this blog again.

Maybe you didn’t notice, but I quit regularly writing this blog a few years ago with a few dribbles in-between. More than one person told me it was a shame and they missed it. I know I missed writing it. The blog forced me to organize my thoughts and prioritize my ideas. If I could come up with cogent idea on paper, it might be worth pursuing.

To benefit my thought process, and hopefully for the benefit of at least a few others who honor me with their time, I am going to start writing this blog again. I will try to put out 40 blogs in 2021 aiming for 1 per week with a few weeks of non-productivity.

For topics, I’ll stay mostly focused on science and technology. SAP will still show up, but not as prominently. I may stray a little bit into some of the policies and politics around technology. I’ll commit to telling you when it is fact and when it is an opinion.

My opinion is that the year of 2020 has sucked, stinks, been horrible, etc. for almost everyone. At the same time, not all of us have suffered as much. For those of you who have suffered, I hope you are able to move on quickly. If you’ve lost someone close to you, all I can offer is my condolences. If you were fortunate, and really haven’t suffered substantial setbacks other, please consider helping those less fortunate with your money or your time. People who have never asked for anything are hungry.

If you’re giving money, please make it count. There are some horrible charities out there that only seek to enrich those that run them. I find Charity Navigator a good source of information. A charity with 3 or more stars out of 4 is effective. You might want to reconsider if your thinking about giving to charity with less than 3 stars. If your charity is not listed that doesn’t mean don’t give, but you will have to make sure you are not being grifted.

A source for evaluating the effectiveness of your donations of your hard earned cash.

2020 has been tough. Please be generous if you can.

Be well.

Simple Coronavirus COVID-19 facts

Every statement in this blog came from a reasonable source. None of the information is unique. I hope it helpful.

Coronavirus is the disease. COVID-19 is the name of the virus.

Viruses are basically living chemicals. They are strips of RNA which get into our bodies and force our DNA to replicate the virus. This happens over and over building up more and more active viruses in your body.

The test for COVID-19 is nasal swab, like a flu test, and testing for the replication. It is only effective if you have enough of the virus in your system that they virus can infect a DNA sample and force replication which is the sign of the disease. Generally, you don’t have enough if you are NOT showing symptoms. There is NO antibody test to date which would show your body has been exposed and has some level of resistance.

COVID-19 is *NOT* an airborne virus. Yes, you can get it from mist of cough or sneeze, but it doesn’t live in the air. When it’s in that “mist”, it’s living on droplets, not the air. This is why it’s important to cover up (blocks the mist) and why sick people in public must wear a mask.

COVID-19 can live on surfaces. Smoother ones seem to let it live longer – up to 48 hours. Rough ones like paper and cardboard less so – a few hours. This is why it important to disinfect surfaces. If the surface is warmer, it they tend to die/denature dfaster.

COVID-19 can be killed with exposure to heat. Viruses are mostly proteins and especially the active part – RNA. Heat denatures (breaks the bonds and links) of the protein and effectively kills it. It is one of the reasons we cook our food – think pressure cooker.

Wash your hands. Washing your hands for 20 seconds or more in plain soap and water frequently can greatly reduce your chances of getting virus. The most common path is you pick up the virus on your hands and rub your face, eyes, mouth, nose, etc. and place the virus where it can enter your body. If you got to rub your face, wash first, then its ok, but still don’t pick your nose in public.

Will warmer weather will end Coronavirus. This is an extrapolation of the lab data. COVID-19 is related to cold viruses which don’t die back in summer. Viruses are remarkably resistant. Even if it dies back, it might come back even worse in the fall.

Optional medical procedures are being canceled. Hospitals are overwhelmed either with Coronavirus or preparing for it. If that hospital is treating Coronavirus, you are better off not being in the building being exposed while in a weakened state. Truly urgent patients are being treated. The other danger is medical treatments place us in close proximity to others (doctors, nurses, other patients) which is to be avoided, too.

Social distancing works by preventing the spread. The virus depends on humans spreading it via fluid contact (sneeze, cough, contaminated surface, etc.). If we don’t come in contact with each other, COVID-19 has no way to reproduce and spread. Coronavirus will be stopped if we don’t cheat.

Naming of the disease – 2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease. There was an active effort by the WHO and others to avoid confusion by calling it SARS (accurate) or flu (inaccurate) or demonize a group of people (Chinese). The disease has been called Novel coronavirus pneumonia, Wuhan pneumonia, Wuhan coronavirus or just “Coronavirus”. The gene bank labeled it SARS-CoV-2. Calling in Chinese Flu is about as helpful as calling it “meat eaters pneumonia” or “wild game eaters disease”. This wouldn’t have happened if everyone was vegetarian or vegan so say my vegan and vegetarian friends. Let’s agree to keep racial prejudice and conspiracy theories out of medicine and science.

While I haven’t put a source with each entry, each came from reputable source and can be verified as of time of publication. Many of these are covered in World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) myth busters.

Why soap works courtesy of Alton Brown:

Good information and data analysis:

Informative presentation from Dr. Michael Lin.

#flattenthecurve – work from home tips

The virus, Corona Virus, or COVID-19, is not going to be quick based on what we’ve seen from other countries. If you are fortunate, you are one of the people who can work from home and get paid. Keep in mind a lot of people can’t, so be a little extra patient when out in public for one of your limited errands. Remember, we are not stopping the virus. We are simply slowing the transmission (#flattenthecurve) so we don’t overwhelm the healthcare system. Keep in mind the sun will come up tomorrow, too.

Why we need to do social distancing and what it does and doesn’t do.

I’ve read a lot of great entries on working from home. I’ll put the links at the end of this post. I have my take on it. I’ve spent most of 30+ years working from home when not at client sites or gathering at an office to do proposal work.

  1. Get a good chair. Most of us grab any chair, but you when you spend about 8+ hours a day sitting, a good chair is necessary. I have Herman-Miller Aeron which drooled over at most high tech companies. I found one on e-bay almost brand new.
  2. Avoid your chair. Find ways to not be in the chair. If you are just listening, consider taking your conference calls while walking.
  3. Get a good headset. I use Apple products, so my AirPods work great for me. They aren’t so tight in my ear that it goes numb. The Jabra’s have great ratings if you like. If you have noise canceling, please don’t wear them when you are walking (see #2). The headset will keep your family / roommates from killing you, too, as they listen to all that boring work monologues.
  4. Continue or start Exercising. Your gym closed down but there are lots of solo alternatives. You can try the 6-minute workout, 7-minute workout (lots of apps for this), weights (order if not owned), pull-up bar, or isometrics (bands – low tech, ActiveBody Activ5 – high tech) are just a few options.
  5. Set your work hours. For me, it’s an approximate time to start and stop my day along with a total number of hours for the week. If you have more of 9-5 job then keep those hours. Bottom line, don’t start working 100 hours just because you are not going to the office. A Do Not Disturb sign on the door of even a post-it note can be as effective, too. Just don’t expect others to read your mind.
  6. Cable Modem and Internet Speed. Get as much speed / bandwidth as you can comfortably afford. If you are renting your cable modem, see how much it sets you back because a good one is usually <$100 and buying your own might break you even with the faster speeds. All of the cable modems use a DOCSIS standard, so they can be swapped out.
  7. Router & WiFi. If you haven’t applied the latest software / patches, do so now. If you haven’t physically updated your Router & WiFi in 2 or 3 years, it is probably worth buying another one especially if you have large house. The mesh WiFi routers do a great job of giving you seamless coverage as you walk around your house and maybe even yard. Most management is done via smartphone app. Nest is great value if you don’t mind Google. Eero comes up strong and easy to use. NetGear’s Orbi is a top performer requires a browser to access the advanced functions.
  8. Indicate you are working. Try to get a separate work space. Make it very clear that you are working especially if you are on calls and video calls. Having your roommate / spouse / visitor / child parade across you video conference inappropriately dressed (use your imagination) or you might become an international sensation (see Professor Robert Kelly). A door is great if you have your own room. I also have an “On Air” sign that I use different colors to indicate (voice call or watching video / training, voice call with client, webcam call, webcam call with client).
  9. Desk. I try to get a leaf blower and clear mine, but I confess, I’m not good at the clean desk scenario. Try to do your best tidy up each day. I did purchase an adjustable height desk and I sometimes raise it to stand and take calls. I prefer to avoid the desk and take a walk (see # 2).
  10. Conference calls and WebCam chats. Learn to use the features of your ZOOM, Webex, FaceTime, or other tools. Mute when not speaking. Turn off the camera if you need to do something distracting including stepping away. Wear solid colors and avoid small patterns and checks if using video (makes your image appear fuzzy). If you are mediator, learn how to mute a persons line, mute everyone, and eject someone from the session.
  11. Be kind to others. People are stressed out of their minds due to fear of the unknown. Keep this in mind when you react to your family, friends, co-workers and clients. Take a deep breath and then respond. If it is an e-mail that can wait, let it sit in draft for a few hours. Try to take out all the trigger and emotional words in your note. Also be as brief as possible. If the topic is loaded with subtleties, pick up the phone or do a 1:1 WebCam chat where you can better understand the non-verbal part of the discussion.

Where I usually go for advice on gear:

The Wire Cutter

If you’ve got kids, try to recognize they are just kids and they look to you to support. If you’re nervous, they’ll see it. Keep them busy. Scholastic also put together free resources for school age kids. Use this as time to educate your kids on some life skills like changing the oil, a tire, pruning a bush, deep cleaning and organizing, and cooking and sharing great meals. In my family, we cook together. Whatever you do, share, keep positive, have patience, and make sure the activity is age appropriate.

Scholastic Daily Class for free

One of many cooking with kids

Cincinnati Zoo Facebook Live feeds including Fiona the Hippo

Another great blogger with a great list:

As one of the memes going around said, “Your grandparents went to war to save the world. You’re only being asked to sit on your couch.” Take walk, be kind to yourself, close friends, and family, and the sun will come up tomorrow.

Computer Security

No one would dare drive a car with a rope tied around their lap, but you’d access your life’s savings with 4-digit PIN. Neither action makes sense. Good passwords are a minimum requirement.

A recent article, How Biometrics Is Becoming the Security of the Future, made me think about digital security. While biometrics are convenient, they are really just an access method and doesn’t invalidate the use of a good password. I don’t know of single biometric tool that isn’t tied to password. So if your password is “p@ssw0rd”, you still have poor security even though your face or fingerprint is unique.

My rules for passwords are simple.

Lock your devices with solid passwords. Your smartphone and your PC are your digital twin and probably have access to your entire financial world. Why would you leave them wide open for someone to grab and gain access to almost everything about you?

Use a password locker. A password locker enables you to have a master password that access your other passwords. Why is this so important, because then you can use really good individual password such as 15 characters or more with lots of non-standard characters for your passwords for every account. There are free ones, but I think it might be worth the price of a couple of latte’s month to protect yourself and gain the integration features found in the paid versions.

Use two-factor authentication. I have 2-factor on all my important accounts or require it when I make major changes to account such as updating passwords, addresses, or transfer funds. I use an authentication application on my smartphone to provide me the 6 digit code where it’s allowed. In other cases, I just have the system text me the 6 digit code. Two-factor proves you have control of the device.

Use strong passwords. Strong passwords are not that hard to come up with. If you are using a password locker, most have strong password generators. I set mine so the characters are password characters are easy to read. So it avoids putting “1’s” next to “l’s” or “0’s” next to “O’s”. I know I’ve spent 5 minutes trying get serial numbers entered when I have a lot of similar looking characters. Another great trick is us longer passwords that are phrases. I find song titles from my youth relatively easy to remember.

Use shared passwords via a password locker. This is probably controversial, but we provide support for some older relatives. I also share access to household accounts like utilities, drug stores, and groceries with my spouse. In the case of the relative, they write the password on a post-it stuck to the refrigerator where anyone coming in sees it. Even then, they get stuck. Having secure access to the account and password, we can help them. In the case of shared household activities, it means we can back each other up and don’t end up texting passwords to each other. Where there is a family feature, we do use it, but until all accounts have family sharing, we’ll be using shared passwords.

Change the passwords. Change is hard. About the time I get comfortable with a password, it seems it’s time to change it. I’m less hard core about this requirement, but if you even suspect something is going on, be sure to change your password.

Lock your accounts down. If you can, lock up the features of your accounts that can rob you or take control of your accounts. I’m not old enough to use my 401k, so they are locked for withdraws. Most other accounts, don’t allow significant changes without additional confirmation. Also, the change in law lets you lock your credit reporting accounts so no one can open loan or charge without you unlocking them. They can still report on you, but it protects you. Spend some time getting to know the features of your major accounts.

Audit everything. While you are in locking, you should turn on your audit features. For example, I get get an email or text if someone makes a foreign charge or charges over $500 on my credit card. It takes 5 seconds to read and delete if it is OK. If it’s not, I can contact the credit card company in seconds to stop the problem before it becomes my problem. The only draw back, it is really hard to buy a gift for my spouse when traveling because she gets the alerts. I can live with it.

No matter what anyone tells you or how great your biometrics are, you still need good passwords. I think a password locker is helpful and certainly better than pad of paper, post-it notes, or Excel spreadsheet. After that, it is up to you to use it, set good passwords, and monitor your account statuses. Access anywhere is a great super power and with great power comes the responsibility to use it with care.

Using a DJI Drone to record house build

Using waypoints to make amazing drone videos.

Drones provide an inexpensive, easy way to record from high above and far away with little or no training. There is no pilot’s license required for small but competent drones, but you do have to avoid no fly zones such as airports, certain municipalities, or harassing individuals. As a person who builds and fixes computing systems (technology, process, people) for a living and a person who tinkers with everything from computers to IoT to cars and boats to houses for fun, it was always my desire to build a house. I’ve been using my DJI Phantom 3 SE (no longer manufactured) drone to thoroughly document the build process.

Modern drones are relatively easy to fly. That doesn’t mean the pictures, especially video, will look any good. I took lot of ugly video at first. There always is the thrill of being aloft, which you can observe from your phone. The DJI Phantom 3 SE (my older drone) and newer drones use GPS or GPS+GLONASS, typically fly for about 20 to 30 mins, range 1/2 to 1 mile, record at 720p or 1080p, hover within 0.5 to 0.1m if you just let go of everything even in a stiff breeze, newer ones avoid objects, and fly at up to about 50 MPH.

I prefer a dedicated controller, but many can be flown from just a smartphone. Many  have advanced abilities to follow-you or at least the controller, circle a known point, do special effects, respond to hand gestures, or fly a pre-assigned flight path made up of waypoints.

Waypoints are your friend when making a video. The best way I’ve found to get a good video, excluding editing (not covered here), is to set a flight path via waypoints, save the mission, and then run the mission.  There are numerous youtube videos out that illustrate the process. I’ve included a video from DJI below to illustrate the process using my DJI drone, but other drones and drone manufacturers have similar abilities.

The real trick is when you run your mission is to set the “Head to:” setting to “FREE”. In head to mode FREE, you control where the camera points. So now you know the drone will fly the mission, not crash, and you can focus on pointing the camera. Shots always are more dramatic if you can move the camera on 3-axis. You already have motion, but you tilt up and down and pan side to side. You’ll get a pretty decent video without editing.

In addition, you can repeat the mission since it saved for you. By flying the same mission, you can see changes over time. In the case of my house build, I have flown around the home site in each stage of the build. I now have a video library I can check to see the house slowly being built.

Enough people have expressed interest in my house build in Florida that I am going to write a new blog on it. Once I get enough content, I’ll post the new WordPress site here.

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Looking at Salesforce & dreaming big

SalesForce (SFDC), more than any other SaaS company, has paved the way for SaaS as model for selling a business service underpinned by technology. SFDC understood before most that SaaS was not a new way to pay for software and software implementations, but a way to swiftly create value. No business wants to buy software, hardware, networks, computers, data centers, and IT people (gag! cough! expensive!). Businesses want buy solutions to their problems and enable more revenue and profit. All that other “stuff” which I personally care a lot about, is not the core of business.

I saw the following article in TechCrunch. It looks at what is right, wrong, and what are the ongoing trends base on SFDC.
There are a lot of important messages. I think older IT businesses found before the iPhone fail to understand or take advantage of the “the consumerization of IT” or the fact that “compute is very inexpensive”. On the other hand, a more established providers do understand need for  “enhanced security due to increased exposure” and “computing is location agnostic” (hybrid cloud). A lot of compute will grow outside of corporate data centers, but I don’t think corporate data centers will entirely disappear in the near term.
Under computing is cheap, I saw this little snippet.
“By comparison, at the same time that Salesforce was founded, Google was running on its first data center—with combined total compute and RAM comparable to that of a single iPhone X. That is not a joke.”  And 11 years before that I was in class with professor lamenting they paid more for 256 bytes of memory than we were paying for 256 kbytes of memory.
Around the same time (1988), I was reading an article that has stuck with me for 30+ years which I can’t find. It basically stated that at the time “X Windows System”  was developed, it ran so slow it was impossible to use (minutes to paint a scree), but that developers had confidence that the CPU, Networks, and Graphics would catch up – and they did. We’ll see this same pattern with AI, VR, Blockchain, etc. today.
The real lesson is go BIG when you are innovating. The computing, often driven by IBM (see Summit – worlds fastest computer with whole new architecture), has an amazing history of catching up and passing our wildest dreams.
So dream big and go innovate. There are whole new technologies being built to meet the challenge.

GitHub purchase by Microsoft

From my view, Microsoft bought GitHub for 2 major reasons – access and information. Access is the first reason and it enables an extension of their own tools and cloud. My assumption is GitHub will soon find the first option for tools and for cloud to be Microsoft’s unique line up. Why would a developer publish to AWS, Oracle, Google, or IBM if a single button press got you the latest features and tightest integration by going to Azure. They won’t eliminate or block the others, they’ll just make Microsoft the default.

I don’t think Microsoft is buying GitHub to bury it or ruin it. Microsoft is not exactly the biggest promotor of open source, but they are an active player. This is not like Gillette buying the stainless steel razor blade patent so they could drag their feet on producing one and get more money out of their existing products. If Microsoft blocked GitHub, I think the world would just develop an alt-GitHub or shift to competitor.

The second is probably the more important: information. GitHub is where developers, programmers, and coders dream. They put snippets of code which are glimmers of the future. Simply understanding what libraries, language, databases, tools, and clouds are being used, frequency, and in what combinations will yield bright headlights into the near future. If you release a new library, you can now easily see its uptake in the community. Put more money into it if it’s yours, alter yours to look more like the winner, partner where you can’t win, or buy it up if it’s a good investment.

As long as Microsoft uses a respectful hand and doesn’t become the evil overlord, I think the purchase of GitHub will yield a bounty of information by which they can steer their own development of tools and products. For a company that has jumped in late on the Internet, Open Software, and Cloud, they sure do an impressive about faces.

Digital Twin: the 2018 agile wind tunnel with quantum future

Digital Twins enable testing of real world testing of complex systems. The concept of living test lab has been dream for testers. Digital Twins are not static, but allow for constant new input based on the real world from IoT sensors. Digital Twins make use of AI, Machine Learning, and IoT to simulate complex system behaviors. IBM is working in our labs and with our clients to find exciting new ways to use and create digital twins.

When flight first started, a man had to risk his life to test each innovation. An innovation had a high threshold since the bet was a human life. Eventually, engineers built wind tunnels where they could simulate the effect of the air flow over the plane. While it no longer was risking a life, it had limitations on size (can’t fit an entire 747 in wind tunnel), was artificial, and was costly.  Also how do you simulate more complex events like sudden down drafts, lightening strikes, rough landings, wear and tear over years (metal fatigue, corrosion)? Now with digital twin, you can test the effect of changes to the digital twin of the airplane. We can run 100’s or 1,000’s of changes and combinations of changes to identify the impacts. Only the best of these changes will be put into use.

The while the changes put into use could be small, similar to agile built software application, they would add up to significant impacts. The feedback from the IoT devices in the real world will then update the digital twin allowing new sets of changes to be developed, deployed, and tested before the best combinations are rolled out in rapid succession. As most planes are now fly by wire and highly digital, incremental changes are possible to many of the systems. Today it might not be possible to reshape physical parts like wings, fuselage and rudders, but maybe in the future technologies could reshape the surface to change physical parts of the plane. Clearly there would need to be progression from test bed, to unmanned, to test flights before it went into passenger aircraft, but the rate of innovation in safety related industry goes up by orders magnitude and the risk and costs come down proportionally, too.

The ability to try millions and even billions of combinations in each digital twin is not yet possible as it would overwhelm the compute power of traditional binary computers. The rapidly evolving Quantum Computer may provide the power required to make machine learning nearly unlimited in capacity enabling deep learning and unlimited numbers of combinations of factors in our digital twins. You can even try out quantum for yourself in IBM’s DevOp environment – bluemix.

Benefits of digital twins can apply to almost any machine, group of machines, or ecosystem of lots of groups of machines. I wonder if in the future, a quantum digital twin could be more complex and subtle in its simulation than the real world. As of today, our models of reality pale in complexity to the real world. Below is simply mind map machine systems with a focus on transportation machines. It shows how digital twins can use data from other digital twins. It is model composed of multiple models.

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A network of machine ecosystems that can become digital twins

How could a digital twin help your industry? How can you take advantage of a digital twin to improve the quality of life and leverage the vast amount of data pouring out from mushrooming number of IoT sensors? It is an exciting problem to explore with real business implications.

Blockchain – enabling true digital transformation

Blockchain will significantly change how we hold and transmit items of value. The business process can finally be designed from the ground up as a digital process – truly transformed. The record of choice for the last 100+ years has been paper. Even when you scan a record, if the paper exist, it is the legal record.

We have birth and death certificates, laws, deeds, bank statements and even money (bills) on paper. The problem is we are becoming a digital society and paper is hugely inefficient. In addition, the processes for handling paper have stayed in place even with digital systems and are highly error prone. How likely is it that an error occurs upon copying or reading a document. Blockchain offers the opportunity for  processes to become 100% digital, secure, and low friction from birth to destruction.

The simplest definition of a blockchain is a digital ledger that is not terribly different from an old fashioned paper accounting ledger. A well implemented blockchain has 3+1 key characteristics. It is immutable meaning once a transaction is entered, it can’t be removed or altered. It is sequential in that each transaction is tied to the one before it and after it. It has consensus based peer nodes that can be distributed. I’ll add a fourth for a “well implemented” blockchain, that it has inherent security with multiple levels and is highly resistant to attack.

A blockchain is not Bitcoin or any single crypto-currency. Crypto-currencies like Bitcoin do run on blockchain technology. The data entered in the ledger for crypto-currency are financial transactions representing value. What fascinates me, and is the subject of this blog, is what else can you do with a Blockchain.

In 3 recent experiences with obtaining a mortgages, I’ve had a 10%, 50%, and 90% paper based process. I’ll exclude the closing process which is still done on paper thanks to the government being nearly 100% paper based.

Bank 1 was 90% paper based. Everything went to the branch office as paper which they put in a box and shipped to the home office where it was processesed. Only the communication via e-mail was electronic.

Bank 2 was about 50% paper based. They allowed us to submit our documents via an upload, most documents were e-signed, and a few that presumably the government required wet-ink signed, we’d print, sign, and then upload them.

Bank 3, actually a mortgage service, never gave us a piece of paper, but I’d argue it was still only 90% digital. Someone was still transcribing from the uploaded images into the lender’s databases. Even if all of the paper was eliminated, Bank 3 still was working workflow designed for paper. It took limited advantage of the fact that everything was now digitized.

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Blockchain will change the above mortgage process. There will be no transcription and therefore less chances of error. Hypothetically, you’ll upload your information from a digital store on blockchain of IDs which will include multiple biometric authentication methods to confirm it’s really you. You’ll permission your lender to do research on your credit worthiness in various financial blockchains. It may even eliminate the need for the credit scores and credit bureaus as credit data can be gathered directly and relatively quickly (more on that later). At the same time, they will review your deed and other documents with the government making sure you are lien free.

All of the approvals, audits, and additional documents will be kept in the lending agency’s blockchain, but can link with permissions to other blockchain’s or simply make copies with reference to the source. Finally, your signatures will cause the down payment to be transferred along with the signatures of everyone involved from the bank, regulators, attorneys, auditors, county and state tax authorities, county court records, insurance agencies, buyers, and sellers. In theory, from discussion of the mortgage to the completion of the mortgage a day or few day process.

The biggest issue with blockchains, besides they are new and we are just starting to build applications for them, is that they are slow in terms of computer transactions. The slowness is mostly due to the consensus element. For all the nodes (computers) to agree it is valid entry, it can take up to a few minutes. While this is huge leap forward in terms of recording a legal records which can now take weeks or months, it far is too slow for sub-second transactions like purchasing on the internet or recording an entry at help desk. So for now, it is best applied to large block type transactions of higher value which fit the characteristics of blockchains.

Here are a few areas where blockchains are a natural:

  • Medical records (individual, hospital, doctor, etc.)
  • Government documents (deeds, judgments, laws, titles, licenses, etc.)
  • Financial documents (bank ledgers, investments, statements, etc.)
  • Supply Chains (farm to fork, inspections, transportation, etc.)

Where else might blockchains fit? What other technologies like AI might be integrated?

If you like to learn more about how you can build on the blockchain, IBM provides FREE tutorials on the Hyperledger, an open sourced blockchain.


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Open Edition Glacier Point 2
Warehouse Sale

Glacier Point Half Dome
Open Edition Inkjet Print This spring we cleaned our warehouse and found old inventory from 10 years ago.  We no longer produce these. Get them while they last!  All sales are final. D E S C R I P T I O N Printed with an Epson Inkjet printer Scanned negative turned into a digital file with Photoshop Scanned signature Sold as-is in existing matting Local Florida customers may opt to pick up at Clyde’s Venice Gallery by selecting local pick up in the drop-down at checkout. All other orders will be shipped via UPS ground within 1-2 weeks. Question? Call us at 941-486-0811.

To begin ordering and to view prices select an image size or you may call us at (941) 486-0811:

22in x 32in
Due to your photograph being an over-sized package we will contact you in the next 48 hours with the shipping total if you decide to order this.


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I.V. Fluid Hydration Helps Reverse the Effects of Dehydration

Dehydration can be caused by losing too much fluid, not drinking enough water or fluids, or both. The human body loses water by sweating and producing urine, so you must replace the lost fluids constantly, by drinking water and other beverages.

Frequent urination, persistent diarrhea and vomiting, excessive sweating, and burns are some of the most common causes of dehydration in adults. Dehydration in sick children is often a combination of refusing to eat or drink and losing fluid from vomiting, diarrhea, or fever.

Know the symptoms of dehydration.

  • Lethargy
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Drinking fluids is usually enough to reverse mild dehydration. In more severe cases, however, intravenous (I.V.) fluid hydration is necessary to rehydrate the body and avoid potentially serious health consequences.

Severe dehydration may cause additional symptoms.

  • Low blood pressure
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If you have any of the symptoms of persistent or severe dehydration, come in to Coastal Urgent Care of Baton Rouge for immediate treatment any day of the week. We offer IV fluid therapy for severe dehydration.

Fluid replacement via intravenous hydration.

With intravenous fluids, your Coastal Urgent Care of Baton Rouge provider can replace fluids lost through sweating, vomiting, diarrhea, and frequent urination. These fluids often contain potassium, glucose, and sodium, which are electrolytes your body needs to function normally.

There are different types of intravenous fluids used to treat dehydration. Normal saline contains sodium and chlorine, so it replaces lost fluid and prevents or corrects some types of electrolyte imbalances. We may also use a solution of dextrose and water to treat dehydration. One of our experienced medical professionals will determine the right fluid to treat your condition and help you feel better as soon as possible.

You may also need to replace lost fluids by drinking sports drinks or sipping clear broths or plain water. Because caffeinated beverages promote fluid excretion, you should avoid them if you have any symptoms of dehydration.

To be seen seven days a week, just come on in. Or, for more information about intravenous fluid hydration near you in Baton Rouge, call 225-224-8121.


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Clementon Park's new owner creates new division to run the park

Posted Monday, November 12, 2007 9:48 AM | Contributed by cpc3289

The new owner of Clementon Lake Park - Angelo, Gordon & Co. - said today it created a division to increase and run its amusement park business. The division, called Adrenaline Family Entertainment Inc., will be headed by Hue Eichelberger, formerly an executive at Six Flags Inc., which owns the Great Adventure amusement park in Jackson, N.J.

Read more from The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Related parks

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Home / Cookers & Appliances Leicester

Cookers & Appliances Leicester

At Cookers of Distinction we understand how important it is to provide excellent quality cooking appliances in Leicester with a great service. That’s why you can trust us to deliver professional cookers in Leicester and an excellent service every time.

Our experience just goes to show how knowledgeable and passionate we are about our cooking appliances in Leicester. We take pride in transforming your kitchen into something magical, that everyone will love.

We can even supply and install extraction products to suit your cooker.

From modern and stylish to more traditional looks, we have a lot of cookers in Leicester to offer. Most cooking appliances in Leicester also come in a range of sizes, so you can choose whatever is most suitable for your kitchen.

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We are an official distributor of many brands, so whatever make or model you are after we can take care of it for you.

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For your free quotation or to discuss some ideas with us please fill out our form, and we will get back to you or give us a call today on 01530 443648.


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Collecting Seashells | The Ordinary Moments

Just before Christmas, Graham started a new job. It’s meant a whole new routine for us all – lots more walking because he has the car and having to think carefully about leaving enough time to do all the school runs.

On his first day at work, Benjamin and I went for a wander down to our favourite little cafe at the harbour in Rhyl. It’s only a ten-minute walk and we go there a couple of times a week for a hot chocolate and to watch the boats. Sometimes, if we are lucky, we get to see the bridge lift up to see a boat go under. It was a lovely, sunny day so instead of heading straight home after our drink, we took the scenic route home along the promenade, stopping off to collect some seashells for our candle vase.

It was the first time I had taken Ben out and spent some time just with him on his own since we’ve moved to Wales, and it was really lovely. He loves going down to the beach and we spent a very happy half hour climbing the sand dunes and looking for pretty seashells and interesting stones.

Country Kids

The Ordinary Moments

15 thoughts on “Collecting Seashells | The Ordinary Moments

  1. My daughter loves collecting stuff from the beach too. We usually go away with our pockets filled to the brim! It’s lovely that they enjoy exploring and collecting stuff, isn’t it? Even though most times they forget about the stuff they’ve collected at the end of the day 😉 Lovely photos. #countrykids

  2. This looks like a lovely way to spend the first day of just the two of you, it looks like a lovely refreshing start. Shell hunting is a fun activity for little ones to take part in and they really can get lost in their own exploring. Ben looks enthralled by all the pebbles and shells he can see, it’s fab that the beach is still magical to him.

    Thanks for linking up with me on #CountryKids.

  3. I am loving your beautiful photos on here and Instagram at the moment. We love visiting the beach and J especially loves coming back with a pocketful (or 2!) of shells #TheOrdinaryMoments

  4. Oh how lucky are you to have this just ten minutes away. We are so far away from the beach it’s untrue. Shell collecting is the best. We still have a jar of ones at my parents that we collected as kids!

  5. What a beautiful place to have on your doorstep. Totally jealous and what a great place to blow the cobwebs away! x

  6. Such lovely photographs – what great light. My daughter loves to collect stones and shells too – I always have to check her pockets when she comes in! I wish I lived close to a beach like that! #countrykids

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Epson Receipt Printer Form

For ideas, tips and tricks and comments on using or creating MoneyWorks Forms (invoices, statements, labels etc.),
Forum rules
This forum is not the official Cognito Software support channel for MoneyWorks. If you need help from Cognito, then please contact us (or your local regional support representative) directly using the contact information on the Support page of the web site.

Please try the search facility before posting a new topic to see if your topic has already been covered.

If you do post a new topic, it's a good idea to choose a Topic Subject that it a bit more informative than "Help!" or "A problem". If your topic is actually recognisable by people scanning the forum, you'll have a much better chance of getting a response. Thanks and have fun.
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Joined: 13 Jul 2018 02:50
Product: Gold

Epson Receipt Printer Form

Post by Frank » 13 Jul 2018 04:02

Please has anyone has a designed form for epson receipt printer that he/she can share with me.

I would be grateful.

My email address is

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Re: Epson Receipt Printer Form

Post by johnsonberry » 24 Sep 2018 23:19

Sorry, I have only Brother Receipt Printer Form Because I use Brother Printer. If you have any issue regarding Printer Errors like Brother Printer keeps going offline Error Then you can contact our website.

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