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Common Core debate doesn't divide Madison school board candidates

MADISON, Alabama - Most Madison school board candidates don't have a problem with having a Common Core standard for school districts.

common core protesters 2.jpgDemonstrators encourage legislators to repeal Alabama's common core curriculum standards recently outside the Statehouse. Most Madison school board candidates are OK with the standards. (Evan Belanger/Alabama Media Group)

The hot debate landed in the middle of the Madison City Council's interviews of the eight candidates this week as it prepares to fill a vacancy on the Madison Board of Education on Monday.

In preparation for that, each council member generally asked two questions during the 30-minute interview sessions with the candidates.

They were looking for knowledge on issues as well as the manner in which responded to tough questions. Many of the questions received nearly identical responses. But there were some topics that revealed differences of opinion as well as knowledge of the subject.

The following is the fourth in a series that will share candidates' responses to some of those questions. The first looked at the Alabama Accountability Act. The second report looked at what type of person would they seek if required to hire a new superintendent. The third looked at a wish list for spending $26 million on school improvements.

Question: What do you think of the controversial Common Core as a statewide requirement?

Timothy Holtcamp: Understands concerns about sharing individual student information with federal officials, but overall, it's nothing to fear. Main cause for fear is that President Obama wants to attach it to his Race to the Top funds.

Alabama will still set its own standards and it doesn't mandate certain curriculum, materials or teaching plans.

"I think it's a very forward thinking way to go. If you strip all the politics away, it's just standardization, and I see anything wrong with it."

Charles Brand: Both sides of issues are valid. Agrees with business community that it's important for students coming into and leaving the community to have the same set of standards. Doesn't' want local standards and values "usurped" by U.S Department of Education.

"I think it does serve some purpose. But also, I don't want someone in Washington D.C. dictating what we teach."

Cathrine Summer: Controversy comes from President Obama tying Race to the Top grants to Common Core scores. Agrees with state's stance to only give composite scores and not individual results. Worries it can add more stress on teachers.

Common Core should get away from being tied to testing and focus more on what teachers are doing in the classroom, particularly combining undertaught subjects at younger grade levels.

"Common Core has some really good attributes. It was not set up by federal government in order to raise minimum standards across the nation."

David Hergenroeder: Because Common Core suffers from bad marketing, would like to see it redone by taking the best pieces and calling it something else, such as College and Career Readiness.

"I do agree with the Common Core. There's some wisdom out there. It's not all in Alabama."

Marc Jacobson: School systems love it and military families who move regularly love it. It's a good way to ensure students learn basic life skills.

"I think it got a bad rap when the president attached it to the Race to the Top. It got looked at as federally mandated program, and it was never meant to be that."

Stephen Brooks: Though he has thoroughly read news reports and blog posts on the subject, he believes the subject has been too much of a lightning rod to get the real facts.

"I cannot tell you and educated answer. I don't think the man on the street is educated enough to make an honest decision about it."

Matthew Smith: Admitted he doesn't know much about Common Core and asked council to update him. Then he said having national standards sounds bad because it can remove decision-making from the local school officials who know their community best.

"I don't like the state even having a common calendar. I don't agree with anything that takes power away from (local school board)."

NOTE: Due to a scheduling conflict, school board candidate Jason Matheney had to move up his interview to last Friday. The Times was not present during his interview to show his answers, but would welcome his thoughts in the comment section below.


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'DJ Hero:' Turning the tables on music games

The Associated Press By The Associated Press The Associated Press
on November 02, 2009 at 12:01 PM
DJ HeroAn animated version of DJ-Z-Trip is shown in the video game, "DJ Hero." (AP Photo/Activision)

I was never much one for "Guitar Hero." Playing "Smoke on the Water" 50 times while holding a pint-sized plastic guitar just never really got the blood flowing. I've been waiting for something better, and now it's here.

Activision's new "DJ Hero" has solved my music video game plight. It's got better music, better action and is frankly just a lot less goofy feeling than "Guitar Hero."

"DJ Hero" ($120; Xbox360, PS3, Wii; Rated "T'' for teen) consists of the game disc and a wireless turntable and mixer controller. The mixer can be attached to either side of the turntable, so lefties and righties can scratch and fade as they choose.

The turntable has a nicely weighted platter that spins freely both clockwise and counterclockwise when you nudge it. A row of three colored buttons sits on the platter, in similar fashion to the buttons on the "frets" of "Guitar Hero" controllers.

On the screen, one side of a vinyl LP spins toward you with three brightly colored tracks (green, red and blue) to coincide with the physical buttons on the platter. When a hit point appears along the grooves on the screen, you'll need to tap the corresponding button. Easy right? You're a turntable God, just like DJ Qbert from the Invisibl Skratch Piklz. Right?

Hold on to your hoodie, there's a bit more to it than that.

There are also long paths of arrows that appear on the screen, indicating you'll need to hold down the correct button and move the platter back and forth to "scratch" the track. Let up off the scratching too soon and you'll lose the groove, the music will grow a little more silent, and the club crowd on screen becomes less active.

I began my "DJ Hero" career with a little bit of training courtesy of legendary old-school turntablist Grandmaster Flash, who narrates the action throughout. After getting the basics down, I hit the nightclub circuit as the "DJ Kid Itch" character, dressed in a fur-lined jacket with three spray paint cans tucked in the hood for added B-Boy street cred.

Along the way through the different club venues and set lists, I would notice a track that I really wanted to hear. But I had to perform well enough to get to it. For instance, in the "On The Wheels Of Steel" set list, I wanted to tackle Fedde Le Grande's ultimate body mover, "Put Your Hands Up For Detroit." But I had to muddle through some lackluster Gwen Stefani and Gorrilaz tracks to get to it. This is akin to killing forest rodents in "World of Warcraft" to build up enough power for a decent group raid.

Thanks to a solid performance on an early level, I acquired some "stars" which unlocked new set lists, club venues and DJ gear, such as new headphones and decks (turntables). That kept my diminutive DJ character looking and performing sharp as he tackled some of the 90-plus songs that come with the game.

The "DJ Hero" controller feels solid and has a decently demanding learning curve. The crossfader was tough to master. Sure, slamming it all the way to the left or right was easy, but quickly getting back to the middle when I needed to was tough. There is also a "euphoria" button that glowed red when I'd done well in a featured segment of a song. At that point, I hit the red button and the crossfader was set to auto, so I could pump one hand in the air and really get the crowd going. Never mind that the club was my living room and the crowd was my dog.

A second DJ controller can be added for head-to-head action, or you can connect a "Guitar Hero" axe and do a blend of turntable and guitar gaming.

"DJ Hero" is an excellent game. Best music title yet for my taste.

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USA! USA! Panama City Beach takes bikini parade record back from Australia (photos)

Dennis Pillion | By Dennis Pillion |
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on March 06, 2012 at 3:10 PM, updated April 11, 2012 at 5:03 PM

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Florida -- It's official. Panama City Beach is now the bikini-est beach of them all.

The city successfully broke the existing world record for largest bikini parade by getting 450 women to don their favorite two-piece swimsuits and march a mile across Panama City Beach.

Participants traveled from as far away as Maine, South Dakota, Alaska and Canada to be in the record-breaking parade.

Guinness World Record adjudicator Philip Robertson flew in from London to certify the results.

The previous record of 357 was set last year on Australia's Gold Coast.

Here are six photos from the event to tide you over, but we have... umm... a few (hundred) more to add.
We'll also have video of the parade itself and interviews with the young ladies who worked so hard to take the world record back from Australia. So, you'll probably want to revisit later tonight and tomorrow. Just sayin'.

EDIT: Here's 150 more photos so you too can verify that a record was broken. (Why else would you need to see that many photos of the same parade?) Still working on that video. Check back later today.


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1 dead, 6 injured in Columbus, Ga. club shooting

Erin Edgemon | By Erin Edgemon |
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on January 02, 2013 at 3:33 PM, updated January 02, 2013 at 5:13 PM

COLUMBUS, Georgia -- One man is dead and six others were injured in two shootings this morning at Club Majestic in Columbus, Ga., the Ledger-Enquirer reported.

Charles Foster Jr., 24, of Columbus, was pronounced dead at 3:28 a.m. He was shot in the chest.

The first of two shootings started at 2:15 a.m. following an altercation inside the club, police told the newspaper. Some 12-15 rounds were fired.

Shortly after, more shots were fired in the parking lot. Someone sitting in a parked car was shot.

The injuries of the six others shot are not believed to be life threatening.

No suspects have been identified.

Read more here on the Ledger-Enquirer website.


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Prince Hall keeps Alabama alive

Jon Solomon | By Jon Solomon | The Birmingham News
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on September 29, 2007 at 6:16 PM, updated September 29, 2007 at 6:17 PM

Huge interception by Hall at the Alabama 7-yard line, when it looked like FSU would go up 14-0. If Xavier Lee put some air on the ball, he had his tight end open. First one to 10 wins this game.


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Birmingham police report states "minimum force" used in arrest outside nightclub (video)

Jeremy Gray | By Jeremy Gray |
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on March 30, 2011 at 3:56 PM, updated March 30, 2011 at 5:13 PM

Birmingham Nightclub Video Shows Police Beating Man (Short Version) BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Security video shows Birmingham police officers beating a man in front of a Birmingham nightclub. Attorney Charles Salvagio presented the video from a security camera that shows a man with his hands in the air beaten by several police officers.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- An arrest report from the night a security guard was beaten outside a downtown nightclub said "minimum force" was used by Birmingham police officers.

Attorney Charles Salvagio today presented a video from a security camera that shows a man with his hands in the air beaten by several police officers with Birmingham police headquarters clearly visible in the background.

Undercover officers with the burglary unit working in the 1600 block of Morris Avenue saw Travarious Daniel, 29, take the keys off an "unmark car," the report states.

The report then states Daniel drove his own car from 16th Street North onto Third Avenue North. Daniel at first refused to stop the car, the report stated.  He pulled over in the 1600 block of First Avenue North, according to the report. Daniel works as a security guard at the Downtown Lounge, which is the place where he pulled over and across the street from the Birmingham Police Department Administration Building.

  "The def. (defendant) received several cuts to the face and elbow," the report says of his injuries. "Minimum force required."

A stolen gun was found during the search of the car, the report stated.

The report states Daniel was treated at the scene by Birmingham firefighters. He was charged  with receiving stolen property and unlawful breaking and entering a vehicle as a result of the arrest, according to court records.

Birmingham William Bell has asked Police Chief A.C. Roper to investigate the alleged incident.

"At the end of the day, facts are what we are looking for," Bell said. "It is hard to gather up information when the only source of information are the rumor mills," Bell said.

Mayor Bell Addresses Allegations of a Police Beating Mayor William Bell Addresses Allegations of a Police Beating
He has asked Roper to conduct an investigation including the date and location. The mayor also said he wants to secure a copy of the video.

Minister Tremon Muhammad said Daniel is a member of his mosque and he has known Daniel for about eight years.

Daniel had "bruises, a lot of swelling. There's still a lot of swelling," Muhammad said.

Muhammad said he has discussed the case with Minister Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam.

"The first thing he told me was to make sure he gets more" medical treatment, Muhammad said.

Muhammad said the beating shows there needs to be a department-wide retraining of Birmingham police officers.

"I want this to never happen again," Muhammad said.

Muhammad noted that all of the officers in the video are white while Daniel is black.

Despite having a black police chief and mayor, Muhammad said the beating demonstrates the problems of the Bull Connor era still exist in Birmingham.

"The only difference are those tapes were in black and white and this one is in color," Muhammad said.

Want to see more?

Full-length video version


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Celebrity Buzz

Your daily dose of hot news & gossip.

Ashton Kutcher in bust-up at country music festival

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Ashton Kutcher allegedly became embroiled in a heated bust-up with a security guard at a country music festival in California over the weekend.

The Hollywood star was watching the acts at the Stagecoach event in Indio on Saturday when he was approached by a fan in the VIP area close to the stage.

Kutcher is said to have moved towards the woman to greet her when a security guard intervened and shoved the actor out of the way. The confrontation turned nasty and a heated argument is then said to have broken out between the “Two and a Half Men” star and the employee, with Kutcher subsequently stormed out, according to TMZ.com.

The star has been tweeting from the festival but had yet to mention the alleged incident as WENN went to press.

Categories: General

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Rick Perry 2012 Campaign for President– News and updates

Our coverage of TX Governor Rick Perry\'s 2012 campaign for president including news, updates, and media from the Houston Chronicle, MySA, and Hearst.

Perry compares his campaign to Bill Clinton’s

Gov. Rick Perry, working to make some headway on the comeback trail, cited the “Comeback Kid” in an interview with Fox’s Neil Cavuto.

“I mean we’re a long way from having the election over with. You can go back and look at history and whether it was the ’92 election when Bill Clinton was up and down and back and forth and you go back in time, even in 2008. So a long way before this election is over with. I will guarantee you, Iowa, South Carolina and even New Hampshire, those states are wide open.”

When the primary is over, Perry said, “I’m going to support the Republican nominee.” He went on:

“Anyone on that stage is better than the President we have today. This country is in trouble and any of those individuals on the stage will beat what we’ve got today. Our country is on the precipice of a huge economic disaster and foreign-policy wise, none of our allies know where America is going to be on any given day. We’ve got huge issues facing this country today and he’s in Burma talking about relations with a country that I’ll be real honest with you, I don’t know what America’s interest is there.”

Peggy Fikac

One Response

  1. Disgusted Texan says:

    Perry proves once again that he lacks knowledge of foreign policy. And, he’s no Bill Clinton. Much more intelligent than Perry.


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UH greats Olajuwon, Drexler, Hayes to be honored Wednesday night

Hakeem Olajuwon will join Elvin Hayes and Clyde Drexler in being honored Wednesday.

University of Houston basketball legends Elvin Hayes, Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler will be recognized Wednesday for being among the top 75 all-time March Madness players.

Each will receive an award during halftime of the Cougars’ final home game against Rice at Hofheinz Pavilion. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.

The list of players was determined by a panel of experts commissioned by the NCAA in celebration of the 75th anniversary of March Madness.

Categories: Cougars, General
Joseph Duarte


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SWF Seeking Baby

My journey to motherhood

Say what??

Quick post today…

During the course of all of this I will probably start using abbreviations soon to describe things that are happening. They’re very common in the fertility world and the more I become involved in that world, I see why!  Here is a list of the ones I will most likely be using.

Categories: General

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Upgrade your geek with Dwight Silverman
Posts filtered on Tag

aero glass

In praise of Aero Glass

Since the unveiling of Windows Vista, Microsoft’s flagship operating system has included an interface element called Aero Glass. The borders and title bars of windows on the desktop are translucent, allowing users to see through to what’s underneath. For many, this is little more than eye candy. Yeah, it looks cool, but depending on how […] [Read More]


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Blogging TV, one show at a time

‘The Voice’ sends home the wrong contestants

I used to love Sheryl Crow. I had “Tuesday Night Music Club” and knew every word and bought almost every album after. But that was a long time ago. Now, I can’t think of a less relevant way to kick off tonight’s “Voice” results show. (HAPPY FOURTH Y’ALL.)

She’s joined by the Swon Brothers, Danielle Bradbery and Holly Tucker. This looks like a high school music class.

Talk, talk, talk. Coaches, coaches, coaches. Filler, filler, filler. Something about donating to Starbucks. I’ll ask in the morning.

Duets tonight! Judith Hill and Michelle Chamuel, both strong performers, duet on the Calvin Harris/Florence Welch hit “Sweet Nothing.” This starts wobbly but ends pretty fantastically.

On to the saves. Michelle! Yay Michelle!

More filler Duet No. 2: Sasha Allen and the Swon Brothers on the Jason Aldean/Kelly Clarkson power ballad “Don’t You Wanna Stay.” No, I don’t, but thanks for asking. Neither do they, it seems, given the icy lack of chemistry.

Another save, and it’s our Cypress girl Danielle Bradbery. She joins Sarah Simmons to duet on Christina Perri’s “A Thousand Years.” WOW, THIS IS DULL. Right down to the pageant gowns.

Sasha is safe, and even coach Shakira is surprised. Sasha seems shocked. Or something. I wish she’d show more emotion. But I’m glad she’s still in. This was an off week, but she’s still more talented than much of the competition.

Amber Carrington and Holly Tucker round out the duets with the best song of the night — the Reba/Linda Davis diva-off “Does He Love You.” Amber completely owns it.

The Swon Brothers are safe. Groan. Let’s really stop this, America. STOP IT RIGHT NOW. Amber is safe. And the finale save goes to HOLLY TUCKER? REALLY, AMERICA? That’s who you like?

Goodbye to Sarah and Judith. I’m not devastated, but it doesn’t seem quite right. Far less talented people are still in the running.

“The Voice” airs at 7 p.m. Mondays and 8 p.m. Tuesdays on NBC.

Joey Guerra | Music Critic/Writer

34 Responses

  1. cheng says:

    im really surprised that Sarah and Judith are eliminated by America. team Adam is the strongest team but now only Amber remains. at the start of the show, i had a feeling that any of his team will win this season but based on the turnaround of the voting, it seems Americans are more into the lesser talented singers and country. maybe it has something to do with what happened to oklahoma. the voice is getting boring now. i hope Amber wins but since the votes are against the better performers, i think
    she will be eliminated as well. same goes with sasha allen. so it will be Blake’s team against Michelle Chamuel and since they want country, they will make Danielle the winner. and the voice 4 will be just a history.

    • captain cook says:

      Everyone we know LOVES the Swon Brothers. They could have a variety show of their own because of their likability. Glad Judith and Sarah are gone because Sarah seemed to always be just a hair off key and Judith does that annoying head shake whenever she tries to hold a note. On Memorial Day, couldn’t any one of these folks have thought to do a patriotic song or something interesting. Who wanted to hear Justin Beaver or another version of Somebody I Used to Know. Not America apparently. Danielle is just a natural and deserves to win. Amber and Holly are great. Amber was fabulous Monday night – best of the show. Michelle seems to me like she is straining too much but good too. Sasha is fantastic as well. This is going to be a very hard call because all are so likeable. We just hope that these artists get some of the money from the i-tune sales, etc. Many of the people we know watch and love The Voice but none of us would ever consider spending time or money to vote. Just won’t ever happen because we don’t care enough. Love the chemistry of these judges and hope they bring them all back for another year. – minus the drinking jokes / real or serious / about Blake.

    • T.D. Reid says:

      Very boring…they need to go back to the original judges. This season has turned out to be a very crappy one. The best artists are gone and we are left with country singers who are just not very good. It is always political though, not usually about the music. But in the end, Judith will get a contract and the 16 year old will go back to her choir room at school. So it all works out.

  2. Tressa Kaszowski says:

    Just b/c Sasha can hit a high note dies not mean she has star power or talent. Everything sounds so high vibrato & she doesn’t capture me at all. I think both Shakira & Usher used their own star power & fans to save their artist who both should have gone home. Now someone with bigger talent, more showmanship & star power is going to get sent home. I don’t think Michelle has ‘it’ despite the fact she has improved & seems like a sweet person. They should not be selling her as the under dog who represents all others who are quirky. It’s about being the best voice! I think Danielle is getting a huge ego & Blake should teach her about being humble. She also shows incongruent emotions sometimes i. e. serious song & smiling away. She is young so that last one makes sense. I have grown to appreciate country music & Blake has the best singers. I’m upset that America votes, it always gets political & not necessarily about the singing. Cringe. Michelle & Sasha should be gone. My pvr cut off so i dont know who was kicked off but i can see it should not be any of the 4 up there! Infuriating!

    • Joe Haines says:

      Our family is really close with Danielle and her family, and I can tell you Danielle is one of the most humble people you could ever meet. She has basically gone from being very uncomfortable singing in front of anyone but her closest friends to the top 6 on the voice. This is all very surreal to her and she is learning to adjust to what has happened to her life over the past couple of months, again she is only 16. Win or not she will definitely have a very bright career in country music, and she will probably sell more music than anyone else that is on the show. Most all of her itunes songs have charted to the #1 spot on the country chart each week, she has broken into the top ten of overall on itunes for all genres, and she has even showed up on the billboard chart without any radio air play. To have that kind of success already covering other artist songs, some of which are now considered classic country and with no radio air play, I just can’t wait to see what she does when she gets to nashville with songs and producers that really know country music – so proud of her.

    • SingingGuy says:

      @ Joe Haines, be careful with that “pride”, after all it is only singing, not discovering a new science or finding a cure for cancer. Let’s keep it in perspective, entertainment as a life’s destination can be very hollow if it is all you stand for.

    • Joe Haines says:

      @SingingGuy – why would we not be proud of her, she is following her dreams and they are coming true much quicker than anyone ever expected. Pretty sure her dreams are not to find a new science or cure for cancer, those are great feats to be celebrated, but not her dreams.

    • Crawdadct says:

      Only singing? I cant sing a lick, but my whole family is great singers and musicians. They may never make big money at it, but music touches you in a way nothing else can. This young lady has just started getting her confidence and the sky is the limmit for her. A lot of her compition already has started their carriers and are trying to take the next step. Danielle is just starting. I dont really watch the voice, but what I have seen, she is a good young lady and her family and friends should be proud.

  3. BrianJones says:

    What a train wreck of a top 6!!! Loved JH and SS!!!

  4. Music Fan says:

    Funny blog, but so true! It is refreshing to hear candid music and entertainment reviews. You expressed everything everybody is thinking and had to be said out loud eventually if we are going to effect some major changes in future talent contests.

    • PaytonB says:

      Obviously that is not what ‘everyone’ is thinking since it’s the voters who sent them home. Do you people really have such a narrow view of the world that you feel everyone should agree with your viewpoint? This mentality has always astounded me..

  5. TheRealRick says:

    What creeps me out about this entire entertainment frenzy is that it is reported as news on television. I love Channel 2 but in the middle of their format when Owen Conflenti announces the winners on the voice it’s like fingernails on a blackboard. Who cares? It’s not news. It’s crap!

  6. SingingGuy says:

    You wrote, “Talk, talk, talk. Coaches, coaches, coaches. Filler, filler, filler. ”

    And that is precisely why we don’t watch “The Voice” or most other reality talent shows. They seem intent on killing the Golden Goose.

    But we DO hope the local girl does well, she seems very nice and can actually sing, from the couple of snippets we have seen.

    • captain cook says:

      You are right. We love that fast forward button! Wouldn’t watch the show without the ability to scroll through the filler and so many many many horrible commercials. When will everyone get together for a class action suit against the cable companies for forcing us to watch commercials even after paying an absorbent amount for “on demand” service? That’s double dipping at the lowest level.

  7. Josh says:

    Most accurate headline you have ever had.

  8. Juan says:

    The Voice have and will never produce a good artist like American Idol does, this show is all about the judges anyways not the singers…

    Sasha is my favorite, I like her voice, but her song choices are just too bad

    • captain cook says:

      Sasha is great – hope she picks better songs too. We wouldn’t ever watch AI but love The Voice and used to LOVE Sing Off. Sorry they cancelled it. Wanted to see Pentatonic sing for the blind audition of The Voice.

    • PaytonB says:

      Interesting response, everyone I know says just the opposite. The Voice actually cares about and fosters growth in the contestants whereas American Idol is all about the drama of the judges. As for the singers, Voice contestants on a pure talent level far surpass American Idol contestants on average. I think all one has to do is point to the tryouts and how American Idol ridicules the ‘less talented’ singers and makes them a laughing stock to see what the show really cares about.

  9. Sempersmom says:

    I really thought it would be The Swon Brothers and Sarah. I don’t know what you guys see in that girl. She ruined that song Monday night. Glad she’s gone.

    • captain cook says:

      We love the Swon Brothers. They are just too cute and funny. A very welcome change!

    • Josh says:

      Oh it’s called “The Cute and Funny”. I was mistaken – thought I was watching “The Voice”

  10. pdh42 says:

    Judith and Sarah went home because they were of lesser talent then the ones who stayed…. Not that they were not good, but their last performance was not up to par….

  11. Ken says:

    The top 10 singers are some of the best I have ever heard in competition shows. Judith Hill is the best ever and the reason I watched the show! Unbelievable!

  12. R44flyer says:

    Judith should not have been there anyway. You are THAT good that you sing one-on-one with Michael Jackson and you turn down record deals??? Got to be more to that story…..Anyway, America obviously wants the true struggling amateurs, not the hard to work with divas. I like the show and I think it is better than AI.. THAT show is all about the judges and and they let a lot of crap through….remember William Hung????

    • Sherry says:

      From the beginning I also wondered why Judith was on The Voice. Being so close with Micheal Jacson, and being so good to sing at his memorial, what did she need from The Voice? I enjoyed her singing but felt like she just didn’t belong there.

  13. MsKishaRenee says:

    Sasha and Michelle are my favorites!

    Sad to say…I really haven’t been following any of the others.

  14. J says:

    I’m sorry but this is the second season in a row that the voice has disappointed me by sending home obvious front runners to be the winner of the voice. Last season the voted off the obvious front runners, Amanda Brown and Trevin Hunte.. U can’t be serious by voting off Judith Hill???? Seriously??? That woman has an awesome voice and was an obvious front runner to be a winner. I don’t understand what is wrong with either the people voting or the show but this is just ridiculous!! And then we have to deal with the cattiness of Christina A. again next year as she takes the focus off the show and directs it more towards her cattiness towards Levine.. UGHHH!! I really love this show but stuff like this is really making it hard to keep loving the show as much. But on a brighter note, at least Michelle is still there cause shes pretty awesome!

  15. Mike Springer says:

    The fact that Judith Hill was voted off does it for me as far singing competitions. She was with out a doubt the best, most talented, confident singer on the show. It is a shame that this predicament happens way too often. It happens on American Idol occasionally and that’s why they have a built in save. Ms. Hill will go on and be more successful than anyone else on the show. My prediction!

  16. archy says:

    Does anyone else think that the judges lack of constructive critique led to the wrong singers going home? Are all the performances that great that no one has even a suggestive comment? Adam, you have to take some of the blame by not helping the lay person rate the singers. Danielle has no emotion, the Swan brothers are sharp sometimes, Michelle needs to work on her vocal skills, etc. Danielle and Sarah are completely different and would it not help to explain the differences? If all the singers are “great” and “fabulous” viewers vote purely on personality and style. I’m not saying bash anyone, but some criticism might help.

  17. Dandy says:

    Believe it or not, they don’t take the losers out into the back lot and let them loose without a ticket home. I saw AMANDA BROWN, one of last year’s late ‘victims’ on last weekend’s ‘FOX & FRIENDS’ singing to accompany Michael Bolton on a stage outside the NY studio. So, there’s still life after TV. You can catch her performance on their website.

  18. John says:

    Well, for me personally, I am just disgusted with the producers of “The Voice,” allowing MR. Shelton the unique privilege of degrading his fellow judges, particularly Mr. Levine, with his frequent ON AIR vulgarities and epithets. He is embarrassing and a disgrace; I don’t care how BIG a country artist he is or THINKS he is; the fact remains that his behavior is inexcusable, and I frankly believe that Adam just finally blew a fuse over the fact that the show has turned into a CMA Event, thanks to the preferential treatment that Shelton is receiving, courtesy of the producers of the show, which I now NO LONGER will watch.

    • PaytonB says:

      I love how narrow minded people are. Just because some of you do not like country music you somehow feel that voters are ignorant for voting for the country artists. You may not appreciate the nuances of country, but clearly by the same token many voters may not appreciate the nuances of the genres you like. All the results show is that the majority of viewers are connecting and appreciating the artists left more than those gone. Those of you bad mouthing remaining artists and taking some kind of offense to the voting are doing nothing but showing your ignorance and narrow minded way of thinking. As for how Blake behaves on the show, apparently you’ve missed Adam’s almost identical behavior? They are very close friends and jab at each other constantly, if you don’t like it, quit bitching at the producers and turn the channel.

  19. blathering says:

    Dear John,
    Are you sure that you’ve really watched the show? Blake Shelton a disgrace? Degrading Adam Levine? Really? There is a lot of good-natured teasing going on during the shows, but Adam Levine teases as good as he gets. In fact, their interaction is partly why I watch the show because it makes me laugh. It doesn’t really bother me that so many of the contestants left are country because a country sing has never won The Voice, so maybe it’s time.

  20. I love the voice and all the judges are great dont change a thing and this could be the best show on tv!!!!:)


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Big 12 Sports

Here's your chance to share your opinion and views on Big 12 football and other sports.

Stoops still feels appreciated by Sooner Nation — for the most part

DALLAS — The common perception might be that Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops has a little of his coaching mojo losing at least three games in three of the last four seasons.

Such is the nature of the beast that Stoops created after winning a national championship in his second season with the Sooners.

But even with recent criticism for “only” 10-win seasons, Stoops said he still feels appreciated — for the most part.

“Yes, I do feel appreciated by our fans, administration and everybody,” Stoops said Tuesday at the Big 12 media days. “I’ve never been appreciated by everybody, even in 2000 [after the national title]. So not everyone’s going to ?? that’s always going to be the case, and any time you’ve been somewhere 15 years, that’s something to consider.”

Veteran Texas Tech coach Spike Dykes used to say that 10 percent of a coach’s base of support erodes each season.

If that’s the case, considering Stoops is starting his 15th season with the Sooners, he should be well below a negative figure.

But he’s not, and that just indicates the success he’s had with the program over the years.

Tim Griffin

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Clocking In

You have clocked in to's business news blog about San Antonio and South Texas businesses and business people.

GDP declines 1 percent, less than expected

Commerce.jpgNeed some positive economic news? You’re welcome.

The U.S. Commerce Department said Thursday that GDP in the second quarter shrank at an annual rate of 1 percent.

While it’s still shrinkage, it’s less shrinkage than many economists were expecting.

The number was helped by smaller contractions in consumer spending, exports and housing construction.

Creighton A. Welch

Categories: Economy
Tags: |

Creighton Welch

Creighton Welch

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High School Sports

Multi-sport coverage from the Express-News staff.

Boys basketball: Best bets

Tonight’s big game is Holy Cross vs. Antonian. I’ll be heading to Central Catholic vs. Antonian on Saturday, so I can’t make it to this one (Sorry, Holy Cross.)

The Knights are coming off a huge 79-70 victory against Central, where junior JD Hernandez had 25 points, 14 assists and 8 rebounds.

Right now, Holy Cross, Central and Austin St. Michaels are all in a three-way tie for second place.

I’m also looking forward to Friday’s Judson vs. Wagner game, Wagner’s fourth No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup of the season.

Wagner (26-1) is clearly the area’s dominant team. Last time the T-birds played Judson, they won by 15.

But the last time they played, Wagner and Judson were even for the second half. If Judson can get an early run, the Rockets might have an outside chance.

I haven’t seen Wagner since non-district play, and I’m intrigued to see how much the T-birds bench has developed over the course of the season.

There are a few young players like Jacorey Phoenix who might need to come up with a big shot in the playoffs…like a young Jordan Clarkson did two years ago when he was a sophomore for Wagner.

Categories: Uncategorized
Lorne Chan

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Dallas Cowboys and the NFL

Latest news on the Cowboys

Felix the fabulous

IRVING – Hard to believe Wade Phillips was reluctant just a few weeks ago to use Felix Jones as a kick returner.

Jones proved Monday night that he can do the same kind of damage as a return guy that he did at Arkansas, where he averaged 28 yards per attempt.

The first-round draft pick’s 98-yarder against the Eagles was the first kickoff return for a TD by a Cowboy since Randal Williams returned one 38 yards against Philadelphia in 2003. It was also the longest kickoff return by a Cowboy since Reggie Swinton returned one 100 yards for a score at Philadelphia in 2002.

Jones finished with 247 kickoff return yards to establish a club record. His 41.2 average (six for 247) was good for the fourth-best in club record books.

Categories: Uncategorized
mysa admin


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Pray Tell

An open forum on faith.

New Schoenstatt chapel drew Marian Catholics from across region, nation

For Catholic devotees of the Virgin Mary, Saturday’s dedication of a local chapel in her honor marked a historic occasion.

The Schoenstatt Movement, a Marian community that was founded in 1914 in Germany, opened the doors to a long-awaited chapel in the Hill Country of Helotes. Schoenstatt members from Mexico and Wisconsin joined their Texas counterparts in the celebration.

It was full of pageantry, especially during the focal point of the dedication: the carrying of the framed picture of the Virgin Mary through a crowd waiving yellow roses, white handkerchiefs and chanting “Viva Nuestra Reina” (Hail our queen). The picture was placed inside the chapel and onto the altar where the Virgin Mary is believed to inhabit.

Here’s the story I wrote. I did a short video with interviews but look for a new video soon on our website of the actual dedication.

Categories: Uncategorized
mysa admin

3 Responses

  1. Anonymous says:

    Folks, Please leave faith at your home or church or wherever you worship. This election is to important to ignore all the issues that concern our country. Please remember country first and whatever your faith beliefs, vote to strengthen our country.

  2. Abe Levy says:

    It was pretty moving for the devotees from the Schoenstatt Movement and should get a lot of vistors to the San Antonio land, a 52-acre site in the heart of the Texas Hill Country.

    And I was able to produce a video finally of the dedication:

    Our photographer, Edward Ornelas, did a remarkable job of producing a slide show too of the event:

  3. It sounds like it was a moving ceremony!


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Weekender 24/7

News and views from the Express-News' arts and entertainment writers.

Pink not skipping S.A. after all

Pink, making a spectacular entrance at a show in Houston last month, will stop in San Antonio Nov. 14. (Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle).

From the Better Late Than Never Dept. — Pink, whose spring leg of her Truth About Love Tour bypassed San Antonio in favor of (stop me if you’ve heard this before) Houston and Dallas, will catch us on the next go-’round.

Extended by popular demand, according to a LiveNation news release, the tour backing her sixth studio album will stop at the AT&T Center Nov. 14. Tickets go on sale March 30.

From the Live Nation release concerning the tour so far:  ”The tour’s electric crowds have enthusiastically embraced her unique brand of high-energy theatrics and emotion-fueled performances that have secured her place in history as one of the most spectacular performers of her generation.”

Pure unadulterated hype, right? Well, Mario Tarradell of the Dallas Morning News didn’t exactly disagree in his account of her stop last month in the American Airlines Center.  He wrote that the two-hour show “mixed spectacle with intimacy, naughtiness with kiss-off humor and sophisticated acrobatics with seductive dancing. It was a superstar concert with all the trappings while underscoring the deserved appeal of a performer with raw talent and an everyday approachability.”

Hard to believe she started off as a dance-pop artist before switching to a grittier, rock-based sound with 2001′s “M!ssundaztood.” Obviously she made the right choice.

Categories: Uncategorized

Robert Johnson

Robert Johnson

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text: Beer Blotter: Seattle Based. World Focused. » Chinook Hops A Seattle beer blog with an eye on the world around it. A collection of beer news, stories, editorials, columns and reviews from beer nerds with social skills. Fri, 11 Jan 2013 18:42:58 +0000 en-US hourly 1 The Hop Brief: Avery Brewing Maharaja Fri, 26 Nov 2010 08:00:00 +0000 0


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UW Huskies Insider

Press conference scheduled … to announce Holt?

Post by Don Ruiz / The News Tribune on Jan. 5, 2009 at 8:10 am with No Comments »
January 5, 2009 8:10 am

USC defensive coordinator Nick Holt is reported in Seattle today to discuss the Huskies defensive coordinator position, and now a 3 p.m. press conference has been called amid speculation he will get the job.

New UW head coach Steve Sarkisian confirmed his interest in Holt to the Los Angeles media over the weekend.

If Holt joins Sarkisian, that would put the offensive and defensive coordinators from the 2008 Trojans on the UW sidelines in 2009.

Holt coordinated what is generally thought to be one of the great defenses in college football history. He also has a bit of a Northwest connection, having served as head coach at Idaho in 2004-05 and serving on the Vandals staff from 1990-97.

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See this film series: Gotta Dance: The American Movie Music 1929-1953 @ ArtsEmerson

Swing! (1938)

You can see how far Hollywood has come in its depiction of African Americans by comparing the multiply-Oscar-nominated The Help with Hearts in Dixie (1929 | 6:30 pm), screening as part of the ArtsEmerson Gotta Dance: The American Movie Musical 1929-1953 series. Made by whites and starring an all-black cast, Hearts tells the story of cotton-pickers in the Deep South coping with the deaths of loved ones. There's no plucky white girl to bail them out so they must deal with their grief themselves - and do so musically, with traditional spirituals. Also on the program is pioneering black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux's Swing! (1938 | 8 pm), an African American version of 42nd Street. They screen on Friday, February 3 in the Paramount Center's Bright Family Screening Room, 559 Washington St, Boston | $10; $7.50 seniors; $5 students | 617.824.8400 or

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Mike Huber to entertain Delmar Rotary

The Rotary Club of Delmar welcomes Michael Huber, Times Union Interactive Audience Manager, at its next breakfast meeting—Wednesday, January 12, 7:30 a.m., at the Normanside Country Club in Delmar. Members of the community are invited to join the club, but we would like to know numbers in advance. Breakfast is on me. Please respond by Monday evening, January 10, if you are attending:

Looking forward to a Wednesday morning wakeup with Huber.

Categories: General
Sandra DiNoto

One Response

  1. S DiNoto says:

    If Bethlehem schools are closed or delayed due to weather, there is no Rotary on Wednesday and this will be rescheduled.


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What’s With Utica?

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, is on his way to Utica as we “speak” (provided his plane gets off the ground in New York City). He’s scheduled to make an economic development announcement there this afternoon.

On Monday, Silver, Gov. George Pataki and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, announcedÂ the state would contribute $5.25 million ($1.75 million from each of their personal development funds) forÂ a $14.1 million, 470-space garage in downtown Utica.

Who knew Utica was such a development hub?

The city is represented by Assemblywoman RoAnn Destito, a Democrat, and Sen. Raymond Meier, a Republican who briefly flirted with a run for governor. Neither of their seats are considered particularly marginal, which is why this flurry of attention there strikes us as odd.

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Unfreakingbelievable Letter to the Editor “Chickens don’t belong in the city.”

Two hens and a ROOSTER! Photo by Lori Van Buren

Almost choked on my breakfast perusing the newspaper this morning.  Check out this ‘Letter to the Editor’ given the heading, “Chickens don’t belong in the city.”  A copy is below:

“One of the dumbest and most poorly thought out ideas I’ve heard in a long time is to allow Albany city residents to keep chickens in their yards. We have many situations with irresponsible dog owners that are annoying for residents, what with the barking, the flies and dog excrement.

Now some people want to curse us with the noise (ever hear a rooster at sunrise?), disease-causing insects and aroma of manure from the farmyard. With the animal feed comes a proliferation of mice, rats and all manner of vermin. What’s next? Cows, goats, horses or worse? This is a bad idea that should be nipped in the bud.

If we allow city residents to turn their property into farms, it will be a disaster for public health, property values and everyone who lives here.”

Richard Marcley

Click here for my blog post – Albany is Cluckin’ Chickenphoboic

with a link to the original Times Union Article

I sense some ignorance here.  Anyone else?  I don’t even know where to start with this except that Mr. Marcley might need a little help in the farm animal education department particularly with the fact that hens don’t crow.  Yes, I’ve heard a rooster at sunrise, lovely sound at that.  Still, if Mr. Marcley had his facts straight he would know that people are requesting to keep HENS – for eggs, not roosters.   And I have no doubt all would be amenable to have that as a requirement.

I think we’ll find that the folks wanting to keep a few hens are more responsible than the letter-writer is giving them credit for.

I’d go on but, clearly Mr. Marcley is on his own page.  I mean really, who the heck would raise chickens to attract vermin?

Categories: chickens, General, politics
Teri Conroy

43 Responses

  1. Donald says:

    @#29- “…an uninformed voice can be dangerous. Yep, right on the money about that, but what you have here is some people wanting to stifle rather than to educate the uninformed voice, and yet others promoting the notion that it’s just fine to ignore the rule of law.

    Not looking for controversy, just the right to keep a few backyard hens, but I don’t think a whole lot of censorship and I think even less of ignoring the law. Work to change it, yeah, but obey it until you get there. Bad message to send to our kids otherwise, I think.

  2. josephcea says:

    My mother is from Brooklyn and as a kid she used to raise chickens. My grandmother used to give them baby chicks as Easter gifts to raise and then one day they would “disappear”!

    Wonder is Mr. Marclay is an animal rights guy? They are always crowing about factory farms and how awful they are and they very well may be but raising your own is certainly a more humane alternative. You can see how factory farms may have evolved since the “city attitude” toward livestock.

    I’m working on an article for my blog called “City Folk” – wait until you read about the turkeys on Staten Island and how those folks are actually afraid of them!!!

  3. Teri Conroy says:

    @30/Andrew Gregory….sounds to me like you’re trying to stir up some trouble. Let me think, I love my dogs but I’ve not branched into coyotes or wolves…..

  4. Teri Conroy says:

    It’s official: A CHICKEN REVOLUTION! Get Happy – Get Chickens!

    Check out the proposed Albany Chicken Amendment:

  5. llamacutus of borg says:

    Oh no – It’s been brought-en!!

    Teri, you have to advise Mark on coup construction ;)

  6. Big Bird was a city bird, had a nest in a vacant lot. He caused no trouble, that I’m aware of. He did have this friend, tho’…

  7. Keeper of the Gardens says:

    @Andrew Gregory- the answer to your question is NO! Support what is appropriate and oppose what is not appropriate.

  8. wow. humor is lost.
    nevermind – for the record i have no problem with hens.
    probably should of used the ;)
    nice blog terri.
    see ya.

  9. Teri Conroy says:

    @Andrew – I get it :)

  10. Teri Conroy says:

    @Andrew – I should have said ‘I got it’ sooner, sorry about that. The wink face helps in the big picture…

  11. Diane says:

    I have six hens, and I can attest to the great danger they pose, as well as their carnivorous nature. They usually limit themselves to savagely attacking and eating helpless worms and insects, but one time they heartlessly attacked and murdered a mouse that ventured too close to their food dish and then blinked at me innocently when I asked them about it. They have also been known to fiendishly attack a pair of my garden clogs that have a ladybug design on them. Terrifying, I tell you! There would be no end to the mayhem should hens find their way into a major population center such as Albany. I can only imagine the terror of unsuspecting citizens fleeing down State Street with a flock of small brown hens in pursuit (well, at least until one of them spots a bug and side-tracks the chase). And the noise! Oh, the racket caused by their tiny soft trills of contentment as they settle into the coop for the night, or the deafening cacophony of their gentle mumbles as they forage in the grass. And then there is the horror of eating food that didn’t come packaged in styrofoam, and the sheer audacity of using a fertilizer that doesn’t come in a plastic bag. Well, I for one think Albany should focus on increasing the supply of nightclubs and condemned buildings – think of the quality of life!

  12. urban freedom says:

    Donald – puhleeze lets not bring the innocent children into this. If our government wasn’t so screwed up there wouldn’t be a law on the books preventing this in the first place. Laws are passed into effect everyday unbeknownst to most of us and it’s not until someone asks what they can and can’t do on their own property that all the red flags go up. For example there is a municipality in Vermont that doesn’t allow you to hang your laundry outside because all the rich yuppies that started to move to the country felt it was an eyesore. Geez I wonder if I can plant vegetable garden in my yard, maybe I should ask just to be sure… is this really what property owners and municipalities should be worrying about especially in downtown Albany come on never mind the rapes and shootings. Oh I feel like such a rebel lawbreaker.

  13. Linda Langevoort says:

    I tried to just have 3-4 chickens as a sustainable food source in Cohoes and I went to the town meeting to ASK for a coop and run in my yard. Two neighbors, I’d never met and a councilwoman spoke against me. So, NO CHICKENS. I can’t believe how “backward and ignorant” peoples’ thinking is. The main reasons for not allowing it in my “spacious” yard was: 1) smell 2)noise(referring to roosters I assume, because hens are pretty quiet)3) other intruding preditors 4)what might someone want in their yard next??? A goat, a pig? 5) proximity to their house. Well, all I can say is until people become educated and see the benefits of raising a few backyard chickens, it’s really sad to say, but “fear” presides in most people for the worst! I haven’t thrown in the towel yet. I’ll keep working on it.


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[Insert fracking joke here]

Courtesy AP.

Antoine Dodson warned us. “They’re climbing in yo’ windows, snatching yo’ people up, so you better hide ya kids, hide ya wife, and hide your husbands ’cause they raping everybody out there.”

He was talking about the fracking industry and none of us took notice. His propethic tale seems so much more so in the light of news that the industry has come out with a children’s book promoting the “benefits” of fracking, while igorning the risks. All the risks. Every. Single. One of them. Listen up people: they’re fracking your children while you’re not looking, polluting not only the land we walk on, the water we drink, but also the minds of the future generations.

Hitler and his Nazi’s had nice coloring books. They promoted the “joys” of anti-semitism and racism, white power and concentration camps. I’m not going to argue fracking is the same as the holocaust, but the threat to the environment is grave. And graves we’ll all be in earlier than later if we are subjected to the poisonous water fracking brings us.

But no one will know about that if they are brainwashed from birth into believing fracking is an energy utopia, God’s own way of bringing power to humanity. It’s a lie, but the kids won’t know that.

They’re climbing in your children, snatching their minds up, so ya better hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wife, and hide yo’ husbands ’cause they raping everybody out there.”

Devin Wallace

One Response

  1. Ridley says:

    “I’m not going to argue fracking is the same as the holocaust”

    Then why even make the comparison?

    Regarding earthquakes – Anything below a 4.0 will cause little to no damage. Anything below a 3.0 will hardly be felt. Anything below a 2.0 will NOT be felt whatsoever. Globally, the number of earthquakes in a 3.0-3.9 range number approximately 130,000; for 4.0 to 4.9, 13,000. So a jump from an average of 21 earthquakes to less than 150 over three years, while statistically significant relative to the American Midwest, is inconsequential with regards to the sheer number of minor earthquakes that occur annually.

    Regarding groundwater – Most fracking is done beneath the water table, and thus does not affect water wells. Fracking is simply a technique, a tool: it can be handled well, or handled poorly (as seen with those that contaminate water wells inadvertently). Sure, those who contaminate wells can be fined for appropriate damages, but casting all fracking – which, as a drilling technique, has existed since 1947 – in such a negative light is disingenuous.

    Either way, natural gas is cleaner than coal. You need oil anyway to power America’s automotive industry (and to keep prices low for things like, say, food; it takes energy to transport). Or if you want to be really green, try and lobby for most of our electricity generation to be done by nuclear power (ask France, they love nuclear energy).

    There are certainly risks with obtaining fossil fuels, but better that we in America do it than in other places, where standards are not as high. Our energy reserves in coal, oil, and natural gas are such that the whole concept of ‘peak oil’ or ‘peak energy’ is downright laughable.

    As for the children’s book by Talisman…do you really think it’ll have the market penetration to brainwash children to the effect that you’re suggesting?


WARC-Truncated: length

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« Previous | Main | Next »

July 31, 2008

Stinky gambler fuming over NJ casino ejection

(Thanks to Jeff Meyerson and sjhaller)

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

"I would like an apology,"
Okay. We're sorry you stink.

This gentlemen is probably not wearing pantyhose or guyliner.

They should have tossed him in The River.

What?? The fishes don't want him sleeping with them...

After an entire week of Don Rickles references, you fail to include Don in a story of a stinky gambler in Atlantic City????

This is Atlantic City. Surely there are more civil ways to handle this?

The only thing to do in this case would be to sue the Ca$ino for not providing shower facilities.

This guy is ripe to appear in a Degree commercial. "You won't need to count the hours since your last bath so you can get back to counting cards."

The smoke level in casinos being what it is, I'm surprised they could smell him. The guy should have just rubbed a stogie butt all over his body, then he'd be socially acceptable there.

Am I missing something here?

The manager followed him into the restroom and told him there that patrons were complaining about his robust odor. But he complains that the manager told him about it in front of the other patrons.

What, he was supposed to wait for the mens room to be completely EMPTY?

Then the guy demanded a FREE room to take a shower?

Sounds to me like he was looking for a free ride when his luck at the table wasn't so hot.

I think I sat next to this guy on a flight last year.

I used to work in a ca$ino and there were slot players who would (do something in their pants that they would need Depends for) in their chairs to avoid losing their "lucky" machine. Worst 2 years of my working life... I saw things I wouldn't even THINK of doing -- EVER!

An apology? Sure. No sweat.

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text:
Buck Hodges

Visual Studio ALM (VSALM, formerly VSTS) - Team Foundation Service/Server (TFS) - MSDN

December, 2006

  • Buck Hodges

    Brian Harry's explanation of Rosario

    Brian's post What's in a Code Name? provides some explanation behind the Orcas and Rosario code names.  You won't hear the word "Rosario" normally, and here's a bit on why.

    What's in a Code Name?

    Mary Jo Foley is writing about one Microsoft code name per day on her blog.  I think it's pretty cool and there's a few code names I've never even heard of before.  She has written about a couple of Developer Division code names so I thought I'd add my own colorful commentary.

    So we get to Rosario.  Rosario is a resort on Orcas island.  It is a code name that the VSTS team has been using to describe our next version (after Orcas).  Actually when you see me talk in many forums about "the release after Orcas" what I really mean is Rosario but I don't use that term publicly - a bit more on that in a minute.  We created the Rosario code name to describe some work that we (VSTS) really want to get done and doesn't fit in the Orcas release.  In a sense Rosario is a place holder code name.  As Orcas unfolds and the rest of the division turns their attention to what is next for them too, we may see changes in what we currently believe our Rosario plan is.  For now we'll plow ahead with what we think we are doing :)

    Lastly and specifically, one of the reasons you don't hear us (and I think still won't) using the Rosario code name much is we don't want to take the focus off of Orcas.  Orcas isn't even in Beta yet.  It's a great release with tons of cool stuff.  Yes, we're doing even more cool stuff after Orcas and once Orcas gets a little closer we'll probably start to talk more openly about it.  But until then, we'd like to keep your focus and feedback on Orcas so we can make that the best release possible.

    tags: , , , , ,

  • Buck Hodges

    How to add your own message in the build report

    If you've ever wanted to add your own message in the "Build Steps" section of the detailed build report, Aaron Hallberg provides a custom task to do it.

    Aaron, along with the rest of the team, had been focused on finishing up the continuous integration feature for Team Build.  I'm happy to say that we got it finished and checked into the main-line code this week.  It'll be in the next CTP that's released.  It's also in a Channel 9 interview that Brian Keller taped yesterday where Jim Lamb and I talk about Team Build as well as demonstrate the new features.  Brian recorded interviews with a number of TFS folks here in NC, which should be available in the near future.

    The Triumphant Return?

    In any case, during a conference call the other day, a Team Build user expressed a desire to easily insert build steps into a build from within a csproj file... In previous posts I have laid out custom tasks which, as part of their execution, insert build steps. In this post, I lay out a simpler custom task which inserts arbitrary text as a build step - think of it as a <Message> task in Team Build form.

    tags: , ,

  • Buck Hodges

    Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 released

    Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 was released yesterday.  Here are the direct download links.

    · VSTS SP1: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=BB4A75AB-E2D4-4C96-B39D-37BAF6B5B1DC&displaylang=en

    · TFS SP1: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=A9AB638C-04D2-4AEE-8AE8-9F00DD454AB8&displaylang=en

    · Quiescing GDR (required for the TFS patch): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c18c756e-8f80-4987-b3bf-600068a9e3c4&DisplayLang=en

    Heath Stewart has a blog post on how to slipstream Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1.

    tags: , , , ,

  • Buck Hodges

    Third party add-in: Test Manager Add-In for Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers

    Many customers have expressed their disappointment with the fact that test lists (.vsmdi files) can only be created and managed in VSTS for Testers or VSTS Suite, leaving VSTS for Developers users in a bind.  There is now an add-in from Ekobit that solves this problem!  Check it out!

    Here's the announcement on Ognjen Bajic's blog.

    Test Manager Add-In

    Do you have lots of unit tests (or other automated tests, for that matter)? How do you organize them in lists? Using Visual Studio Team Suite? Nice, you’re covered. In Team Suite you can use the Test Manager window to easily build hierarchies and lists of tests.

    But what if you are just an ordinary developer using Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Developers? Test Manager window is not there to help you. A simple Test Window window with possibly endless list of tests is the best tool Visual Studio can offer. The only two Visual Studio Editions supporting Test Manager and management of tests are the all-encompassing Team Suite and the one specialized for testing: Team Edition for Software Testers. Are the developers really left in cold?

    Not any more! :-)

    As of today, Test Manager Add-In for Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Developers (what a mouthful) comes to rescue! Test Manager Add-In offers everything needed to successfully manage and execute tests and organize them in hierarchical lists in the developer’s own working environment. Being a VSIP package, Test Manager Add-In is seamlessly integrated in the Visual Studio environment and works flawlessly with other parts of the Visual Studio integrated testing framework.

    Read more about Test Manager Add-In here (http://www.ekobit.com/testmngr.aspx).

    Download the free 30-day trial of Test Manager Add-In from here (http://www.ekobit.com/download_testmngr.aspx)

    tags: , , , , ,

  • Buck Hodges

    Submit questions for the Channel 9 interviews of the NC TFS team

    Brian Keller, technical evangelist for VSTS, is coming to the North Carolina office to interview Brian Harry and folks from each of the feature areas developed here (I'll be in the Team Build segment).

    Submit Your Questions for the Upcoming Channel 9 Interviews of the Team Foundation Server Team

    On Dec. 14 & 15 I will be filming more Visual Studio Team System Channel 9 interviews on-site with the Team Foundation Server team in Raleigh, North Carolina. I am pleased to announce that Brian Harry has graciously agreed to take some time on camera to talk about the roadmap for Team Foundation Server which he posted last week. I am also scheduling time with several of the other engineers on the team to go deep on areas such as the Migration Toolkit, the upcoming Power Tools, the Team Build enhancements, and some of the Administrative and Operations improvements being planned for Team Foundation Server.

    In preparation for these interviews I want to give everybody a chance to submit your own questions! I will use as many of your questions as possible during the interview. So send me your questions by December 13th, and if you want me to mention your name during the interview please be sure to let me know who you are, what you do, and where you are from. And remember, there's no such thing as a stupid question. So if you simply want to know what Brian ate for lunch the day of the interview, just let me know. (Though I'm sure you can come up with far better questions than my example. <g>)

    So, head over to Brian Keller's post and leave a comment with your question.

    tags: , , , ,

  • Buck Hodges

    More on the Orcas features for Team Build

    Brian Harry posted a TFS roadmap.  I'd like to expand on the portion that describes the features specific to Team Build.  Keep in mind that these features can change before Orcas ships, so there are no guarantees that it will match what's described below.

    1. Support multi-threaded builds with the new MSBuild.
    2. Continuous Integration – There are many components to this, including build queuing and queue management, drop management (so that users can set policies for when builds should be automatically deleted), and build triggers that allows configuration of exactly how when CI builds should be triggered, for example – every checkin, rolling build (completion of one build starts the next), etc.
    3. Improved ability to specify what source, versions of source, and other build properties.
    4. Improved extensibility of the build targets – such as ability to easily execute targets before and after each solution/project is built.
    5. Improved ability to manage multiple build machines.
    6. Stop and delete builds from within VS.
    7. .NET Object model for programming against the build server.
    8. Simplified ability to specify what tests get run as part of a build.
    9. The ability to story build definitions anywhere in the version control hierarchy.

    There's a lot there.

    The first item refers to the feature in msbuild where it spawns multiple processes to build projects in parallel, for projects that don't depend on each other.

    Continuous integration is the flagship feature for Team Build in Orcas.  There's a build definition dialog that lets you specify all of the build "metadata," such as the name, workspace mappings, location of the tfsbuild.proj file, the build agent (aka build machine), and so on.  The workspace mappings for a build definition (called build type in v1) are stored in the database, so that we can efficiently determine which build definitions are affected by a particular check-in and thus need to be queued for building.  The dialog allows you to select one of your workspaces to be used as the "template" for the build workspace.

    Build agents are first-class objects in the system.  A build agent encapsulates a computer name, port number, description, build directory, and status (enabled, disabled, unreachable, or initializing).  Build agents can be added and removed as needed.  When a build agent becomes unreachable or unresponsive, the error message is stored with the agent and is displayed in the GUI to aid in determining what went awry.

    Every build goes into the queue for a build agent, and queued builds have priorities, can be postponed (paused), and removed from the queue.  CI builds are queued with a version that specifies which version of the sources should be built.

    Drop management is really about build management.  You can specify build retention policies for a particular build outcome (failed, stopped, partial success, successful), and the policy controls how many builds should be kept (none, all, or a particular number).  You can override the policy for a particular completed build and specify that it should be kept until it is deleted manually.

    With CI you get the ability to build each individual check-in, or you can choose to accumulate checkins over a period of time such that builds start no more often than the number of minutes that you specify.

    In items 3 and 4 we've really tried to address a lot of the feedback from users, including the MSDN forum.  There are a lot more extension points in the targets file.  You can have different targets executed before and after each project or solution, get separate log files for each project and solution, create workspaces spanning multiple team projects, specify additional msbuild switches when starting a build, experience better error reporting, and more.

    The tfsbuild.proj file can be located anywhere in the tree, and all of the paths in it can be relative to either local or server paths, allowing it to work well with branch and merge (i.e., there are no branch-specific paths in the proj file).

    Yes, you can stop and delete builds from inside Visual Studio.  You no longer have to fire up the command line to do that.

    With Orcas, Team Build gets an object model.  Version 1 shipped with only the wsdl.exe-generated proxies.

    The "simplified ability to specify ... tests" refers to the product version of the TestToolsTask enhancement I posted about earlier, which allows you to specify test "containers," such as assemblies, rather than having to use test lists (.vsmdi files).

    There's a lot more that we want to do in the future.  This is really just the beginning.

    tags: , , , , , ,

  • Buck Hodges

    TeamPrise 2.0

    Congratulations to the TeamPrise team for shipping version 2.0!  Martin Woodward posts about it and includes screenshots.

    Teamprise Turns 2.0

    Tuesday marked the beginning of my second year with Teamprise and today I'm very happy to report that we have just released Teamprise 2.0.  To celebrate I thought I'd give you a quick run through of some of my favorite features.

    tags: , ,

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Browse by Tags

Tagged Content List
  • Blog Post: Events This Week – March 2nd, 2009

    Here are the events listed in Community Megaphone for the next week (or so) for the Mid-Atlantic area…this list now includes events imported from the UGSS event calendar , and all events entered in Community Megaphone are also now automatically synced to the UGSS event calendar: Tuesday, March 03, 2009...
  • Blog Post: MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshow Q3 Resources

    Thanks to all the folks who came out for Tuesday’s MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshow in Reston, VA. Below you’ll find links to the slides, demos, and other resources mentioned during the presentations. If you have any questions, please let me know . Decks: Around the World (of Windows Client) in 75 Minutes...
  • Blog Post: MSDN Roadshow – Windows Client Technologies

    The MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshow rides again…our next series of roadshow events kicks off later this month in Reston, VA. Currently, we’ve got the Reston event, and also a roadshow stop scheduled for Richmond, VA in March. We’ll have more cities to announce soon, but I wanted to get word out about these...
  • Blog Post: SideSight – DO WANT!

    This looks very cool: h/t NewScientist
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James Newkirk's Blog

Adding to the kipple... One post at a time.

April, 2005

  • James Newkirk's Blog

    Change is good

    As some of you may already know, I have decided to leave the patterns & practices team. I have been working with the team as a consultant and as an employee for 2 1/2 years. I have enjoyed my tenure with the group. I was able to work with great people...
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J.D. Meier's Blog

Software Engineering, Project Management, and Effectiveness

SourcesOfInsight.com is Now Live

SourcesOfInsight.com is Now Live

  • Comments 1

Sources of Insight.com is now live.  It's a blog I use to share insights and actions for improving work and life.  I have a lot of mentees at Microsoft so it helps me scale.

I have a very simple goal for the blog.  It's to share the best insight and action to help you be your best in any situation.

It's a work in progress, but I treat it as a living KB of the best insight I can find from books, people, and quotes.  While books are great mentors, I also draw from a lot of people.  Some mentors have a knack for saying just the right things at just the right times.   Sometimes the right quote says it best.

To make the most of the sight, first, start with the About.  That will give you a pretty good sense of what the blog is about.  Next, visit the Archives.   Unfortunately, I haven't fixed all my links yet, so the Archives is the fastest way to hop around.

I'm still experimenting with format, style, and voice so that will continue to evolve.  Sometime's it's tough for me to switch gears from writing technical guidance to writing life changing insight.  The engineer in me wants precision.  The writer in me wants impact.  In the meantime, I can say that my mentees, friends, family, and colleagues have been using the nuggets to improve the quality of their lives.


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After watching the Mobile World Congress press conference kicked off by Steve Ballmer this afternoon in Barcelona, I’m sure you haven’t missed the news: Windows Phone 7 Series has been announced!

Windows Phone 7 screenshot Windows Phone 7 screenshot image

While Joe Belfiore showed us a peek at the new features and interface, you will still be left at a loss for developer related information. The good news: make it to MIX10 in Las Vegas and you will heard first-hand. Check out this post on the MIX10 site with updated information: “snippet: All MIX10 attendees will receive access to the Windows Phone 7 Series development tools… ”.

What if you can’t make it to Las Vegas? If you live in Belgium I encourage you to register very quickly for the “Las Vegas MIX’ing at Microsoft Belgium” free event. This includes the keynote live stream on a big screen and a fun activity as well, in the evening of March 15th (Belgian time).

In the meantime, get acquainted with Windows Phone 7 Series

Resources and folks to follow

So… really nothing about the development for Windows Phone 7 Series? Not at this time, what better than Scott Guthrie’s twitter update to get you looking ahead to MIX10:

Twitter update by ScottGu


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Education Insights

Education news, trends, and highlights by Anthony Salcito, Vice President, Worldwide Education, Microsoft

February, 2011

  • Education Insights

    Microsoft's Global Education Partner Summit

    I have had a great time connecting with our education partners the last two weeks. Last week, we had an opportunity to talk about students and technology with a lot of our OEM partners from around the world. This week, at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, we hosted close to 200 education partners from 45 countries for our sixth annual GEPS...or the Global Education Partner Summit.

    This is an opportunity for us to connect with partners who are supporting education, to not only identify ways in which we can collaborate together, but really understand the issues and trends, and how we can best support the needs of education institutions around the world. And it's interesting, because a lot of these partners are working with schools and universities in countries all over the world, and have real insight in terms of the on-the-ground transition and transformation with technology...and I think we can see some interesting trends that are true across the industry.

    One of my key takeaways from conversations with partners here...its seems like the next phase of technology evolution is happening. Schools are onboard with either data analytics and using some sort of business intelligence to inform learning opportunities and improve school outcomes, but they're actually looking for a higher level connection, as opposed to just aggregating data, actually using it to drive decisions and outcomes.

    Digital content, it's less about acquiring digital content, it's more about how it becomes effective. So, publishers are sharing ideas and thoughts around not only how they can get content digitally, but actually how to make that content to come more alive, to enable personalized learning experiences with students, and outcomes.

    We're seeing partners who work with governments around access start to think not only about just getting access to a device to a school and supporting our Shape The Future initiative, which helps make technology possible for students and a new population of students around the world. And partners are not only working through how to get that technology into the hands of kids, but actually really drive outcomes and make sure that teachers are prepared and trained, that schools have the back-end technology to support learning, both with regards to things like security and identity, but also thinking about how they can enable experiences with the cloud, etc.

    On the cloud, there's been a lot of enthusiasm for Microsoft's Live@edu solution set, and what partners can do to enable Live@edu to really come alive with schools. One of the things that was mentioned by partners is that we need to think about helping reinform our education institutions about the potential of the cloud, and the way in which they think holistically about the integration of services, support, content with cloud-based services extending that to scale. What we've been really focused on with Live@edu and certainly for Office 365 for education down the thinking about how partners can extend and really provide those solution sets in real ways with customers.

    I love to see the enthusiasm from our partners around the potential technology has, and the increased meaning of technology and its impact to students and educators, and thei impact that is having on conversations. What this means is...we're shifting away from discussions on why to invest in technology, or how do we fundamentally do it, to what's the impact. Getting to this next level of conversation I think will not only improve education outcomes and the value proposition for technology investments, but it's going to enable a richer set of solutions and leverage the talents of a lot of our partners to really drive effective change across the I'm really excited about that.

    One of the things we highlighted at GEPS is the progress we are making with getting applications on Windows Phone 7, and a lot of our partners are going to be helping us drive that next generation of change. We had a student from Gonzaga University, one of our Microsoft Student Partners, come on stage and highlight an application that was built by a team of students participating in last year's Imagine Cup. It is an application to help with malaria research using the Windows Phone 7 platform. By giving students powerful toolsets like Microsoft DreamSpark with access to software like XNA, Visual Studio, Silverlight and more, they will help us create a new distribution platform with the phone. We're going to see lots of Windows Phone 7 applications from students in the Imagine Cup this year and I hope to see some great examples in the regional finals and at the worldwide competition happening in New York City this July.

    I'm excited about the potential of the phone, how students are using it, and how it will open up opportunities for schools...but it's really just about the embrace of mobility. It's not just about Windows Phone 7, it's about how they integrate with other devices. We've shown progress with the iPhone application for OneNote. It's how we think about the increased proliferation of devices, both laptops and slate devices, and how schools bring that into a language of broader change and evolution. This is what is really exciting for Microsoft, and a lot of the partners.

    Keep in touch on my blog and let me know topics you'd like to learn more about. You can also join our Microsoft Education Partner Network here, and track details of our upcoming Worldwide Partner Conference happening this July in Los Angeles here.

  • Education Insights

    Microsoft Supports Safer Internet Day

    As technology has advanced in our lives…and increasingly the way in which we communicate, collaborate, consume information and content…I think the pace at which technology has evolved has probably outpaced some of the fundamentals that we've trained our kids on how to be safe in the world around us.

    Because many parents did not grow up with technology, the things that we've long taught our kids around just basic human safety hasn't included the recognition or awareness of all the potential of technology to provide both good and harm for kids. So, we've got to continue to alert folks to the value of identity protection and online privacy, and certainly help prepare teachers, family members and parents understand what this new world of opportunity brings, but also the potential threats it could have.

    At Microsoft, we believe it’s our responsibility to help make the Internet a safer place for people, including children, to learn and communicate. Since we are often the ones driving a lot of this technology change, we have a direct connection to understand how these tools are used and how they should be effectively used. With today being international Safer Internet Day, the company is expanding its involvement and taking part in events across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the United States and partnering with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America to engage with families about online safety.

    Microsoft has recognized the importance of things like identity, and the integration of identity across a number of platforms and experiences. It starts with parental controls in Xbox…everything from not only providing parents the opportunity to monitor and control what games their kids are playing…but also to limit how many hours a day or a week a student is playing a game.  That kind of control provides parents the power to make changes, but sometimes parents need support to understand those feature sets exist or how to take action.

    I also think we need to teach students fundamental appreciation of the value of identity protection and privacy.  In a world where this generation of students has become much more transparent…they share their likes and dislikes, who they are, etc…we need to sensitize them to the dangers and making sure that they can do that in the safest way as possible so not only their physical safety, but also their identity is kept sacred.

    Microsoft has been committed to doing this for a very long time, both with regards to core ICT digital literacy training, but making parents more and more aware of the opportunities, and how to monitor their child's safety. We've also made efforts to embed this technology to make it easier discover and more powerful and flexible to use in products like Xbox, Windows 7 and Internet Explorer.

    Please check out our security, privacy and online safety awareness and education resources here -- You will find fact sheets and guidance on many computing and Internet safety issues facing consumers today, including cyberbullying, tips for Internet safety at home and at work…and even an online safety toolkit for businesses, NGOs, non-profits and schools.

  • Education Insights

    Taking Action: State of the Union

    By 2035, today’s preschoolers and kindergarteners will be entering the workforce.  The students of today are laying the core building blocks for the workforce of 2035. That is why I applaud the focus from President Obama’s State of the Union address last week focused on innovation, education and students.

    This triad is a critical and core focus for Microsoft, our partners and our customers. As President Obama explained, “In a single generation, revolutions in technology have transformed the way we live, work and do business.” He went on to state that “over the next 10 years, nearly half of all new jobs will require education that goes beyond a high school education.  And yet, as many as a quarter of our students aren’t even finishing high school.”

    Here at Microsoft, we are taking the President’s call to action to prepare 100,000 new teachers in the fields of science and technology and engineering and math seriously. There is a big opportunity across the country to drive excitement in the student community for these subjects and a dire need for great teachers to inspire them. As the workforce continues to evolve, the jobs students in school today will enter tomorrow and in the future, in many cases, will look vastly different than the workforce of today. So we need to help students build skills for the future that will constantly evolve and increasingly involve technology. This is true for teachers too.

    But what does Innovation + Education look like?  And how can we amplify best practices that will help our students reach their full potential?

    While we certainly don’t have all of the answers, I believe it takes a broad community effort to prepare our students today for the jobs of tomorrow. I think Microsoft has two great programs that are helping students and educators  pave the way to a brighter future.

    Partners in Learning and the Innovative Education Forum: Registration is now open for educators to showcase and celebrate innovative teaching & learning practices.

    As described in the State of the Union, President Obama emphasized, “We want to reward good teachers.” As I’ve blogged about before, we need to up-level the importance of the role of teachers in our society. Microsoft believes that a great education starts with great teachers. We work hard to help train, recognize and reward educators through our Partners in Learning program. One of the events we host each year is the Worldwide Innovative Education Forum.  This is an opportunity to recognize some of the top teachers and build a community of support for them to share their best practices and knowledge of preparing students for the future with their peers.

    Regional events are happening around the world right now. The UK has already awarded their winners to compete at the next level. We invite educators to get involved with the program and register for this year’s Innovative Education Forum.

    Imagine Cup: More than 50,000 students in the U.S. have already registered for the world’s premier technology competition.

    During his speech, the President shared, “The first step in winning the future is encouraging American innovation.”  Microsoft created the Imagine Cup nine years ago with the idea that students can and will change the world. Through the competition, they are already solving some of the world’s toughest problems.  The Imagine Cup is the Olympics of technology and the solutions they create are extraordinary. This is one way that Microsoft is encouraging innovation in America and all over the globe.

    Last year, more than 325,000 students worldwide registered to participate in the competition and engage in the dialogue of how students can change the world.  Their solutions turned a phone into a tool   to diagnose vascular disease, allowed visually impaired students to learn more effectively in the classroom and delivered vaccines more efficiently to patients.  This year, more than 50,000 students in the United States have already registered and we are seeing incredible solutions.  Students who are interested can still register and participate.

    While for me and my work in education, the biggest take away from the State of the Union speech is that we need to do more to support our educators and our students...I hope the entire country and our citizens take it just as seriously. As we look to the future and the year 2035…Microsoft is committed to working with the broader education community to be part of the solution.

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NTDebuggers Debug Puzzler 0x00000001 "Where did my process go?"

NTDebuggers Debug Puzzler 0x00000001 "Where did my process go?"

  • Comments 10

Hello NTDebuggers, in the spirit of Click and Clack (The Tappet brothers), a favorite troubleshooting show of mine, we thought it would be fun to offer up some Debug puzzlers for our readers.

That said, this week’s Debug Puzzler is in regard to Dr. Watson.  I’m sure most of you have seen Dr. Watson errors.  This typically means your application has crashed due to an unhandled exception.  Sometimes however the process just seems to disappear.  The Just-in-Time (JIT) debugging options configured via the AEDebug key does not catch the crash…  Does anyone know why this may happen?

We will post reader’s comments as they respond during the week, and next Monday will post our answer and recognize some of the best answers we received from our readers.

Good luck and happy debugging!

-  Jeff Dailey

[Update: our answer, posted 4/11/2008]

Hello NTDebuggers.  Let me start of by saying that we were very impressed by our reader’s answers.    Our two favorite answers were submitted by Skywing and molotov.

When a thread starts, the ntdll Run Time Library (RTL) for the process inserts an exception hander before it calls the BaseThreadInit code to hand control over to the executable or DLL running in the process (notepad in the example below).  If anything goes wrong with the chain of exception handlers, the process can’t make it back to the RTL exception handler and the process will simply terminate.  See http://www.microsoft.com/msj/0197/Exception/Exception.aspx for details.

ChildEBP RetAddr

000ef7ac 75fbf837 ntdll!KiFastSystemCallRet

000ef7b0 75fbf86a USER32!NtUserGetMessage+0xc

000ef7cc 00b21418 USER32!GetMessageW+0x33

000ef80c 00b2195d notepad!WinMain+0xec

000ef89c 76e24911 notepad!_initterm_e+0x1a1

000ef8a8 7704e4b6 kernel32!BaseThreadInitThunk+0xe

000ef8e8 7704e489 ntdll!__RtlUserThreadStart+0x23  << Exception Handler is inserted here.

000ef900 00000000 ntdll!_RtlUserThreadStart+0x1b

Secondly, the process that crashes is actually responsible for starting the debugger via the RTL exception handler.   The debugger is registered under the AeDebug registry key.    Even if you are able to unwind to the RTL exception handler you may still run into trouble.  If the computer is low on system resources such as desktop heap, you may not be able to create a new process and thus will not be able to launch the debugger.   As SkyWing stated, it’s a relatively heavyweight operation.   Applications may also call TerminateProcess from within their own code based on an error condition.    If we have a customer that sees this symptom on a regular basis we typically recommend having them attach a debugger to monitor the process.   Simply run via ADPLUS -crash  -p (PROCESSID).

Good work folks!  We’ll have another puzzler ready next Monday.

Good Luck and happy debugging!

- Jeff

Leave a Comment
  • Please add 4 and 1 and type the answer here:
  • Post
  • My guess: a regular process termination by some obscure component in your application, or alternatively regular terminate process from a global unhandled exception filter/handler.

    bp ntdll!zwterminateprocess usually gets me a tiny little bit closer to the problem.

  • A thread exhausted it's stack because stack expansion was disabled by dereferencing an invalid pointer in an exception handler.

  • Anything sufficiently broken/corrupted in the critical path for JIT debugging, which is a lot of things (the process heap is a big one) can cause secondary failures in the JIT path (CreateProcessW is fairly heavyweight of an operation).  These secondary failures typically lead to the process getting hard killed instead of being able to create the JIT debugger process successfully.

    Monitoring from an external process instead of doing things from the point of an AV in a program is much better as it avoids exposing the fault handling code to whatever corruption claimed the process and caused the AV in the first place.

  • This is probably not the answer but annoyed the heck out of me for a bit.  On my Vista x64 machine, the JIT (windbg) was not launching properly because it was not configured correctly in both the Wow6432Node and the standard registry hive.  So for 32-bit processes I would get the Visual Studio JIT and for 64-bit I would get WinDbg like I expected.  Manually updating the registration in both locations fixed it.

    In the absence of that, I would vote for Skywings answer.

  • A stack overflow seems one case where Dr. Watson may not kick in.

    In testing, unhandled C++ exceptions ("This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.") may give one the impression that the good doctor is doing some work (do get a visual/audio notification, if configured) but in fact no dump is generated and only the header is written to drwtsn32.log. Similar results when terminate() is called due to an exception being thrown from a destructor during stack unwinding.  In these cases, it would seem to be an intentional behavior of Dr. Watson, for whatever reason.

  • Apologies for the addition...

    > it would seem to be an intentional behavior of Dr. Watson, for whatever reason. <

    "whatever reason" could include, as seems to be the case here, that the failing process that invoked Dr. Watson has exited by the time Dr. Watson is ready to go.

  • We had exactly this issue.

    In our case, it turned out to be a 3rdParty library calling abort() after encountering RTL heap memory corruption.

    I think there are other cases:

    - The VC RTL heap might popup a dialog box, and the user might decide to terminate the application.

    - Service failed to start, caused by some loader issues (Missing DLL, or missing API, or even DllMain exception ).

  • Well, im kind of new to NT Development and i'm more into .Net development but i faced a problem like that. And what was happening was that some exception was raised, caught and the catching code silently closed the app (which is legal exit of an application).

  • Interesting series.

    Vista just improves this limitation(problem) and moves the "unhandled exception handling" code in the kernel-mode by using the WER service. We finally will not get silent process exit now. I provided a reply in the link below:

    Jeffrey Tan

  • To put a finer point on the stack overflow reponses, this will specifically happen if you attempt to write to the hard guard page.

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I have released a minor update to EasyRegex. Turns out a little bug in my licensing code would cause some machines to report the beta license as being expired. Before installing the update, you will need to uninstall the previous version. The updated version can be downloaded from

I have also released EasyBarcode 1.0.0 today. A quick and easy little software to generate print-ready EAN/ISBN barcodes.

  • Generate EAN barcodes for both ISBN and ISBN-13 numbers
  • Built-in ISBN validation to ensure the numbers input are valid
  • Generates barcodes which also include the ISBN information and the optional price UPC-5 supplement
  • Exports barcodes to PDF files for easy inclusion in your layouts and projects
  • An EasyBarcode trial can be downloaded from:


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The Standard Has Your Back

The Standard Has Your Back

  • Comments 3

Final few hours in LA – I’m hitting Santa Monica for the last hours of sun in the City of Angels. If I’m ever back I’ll stay at The Standard again. The staff aint the best but the place has a great sense of humour. I found the motivational speaker button too hard to resist. Fluffer was not used.

  • Did Paul Dawson turn up as your motivational speaker? He'll take any excuse.

  • I did turn up, but as the uninvited party guest to crash a halloween party on the roof!

    What Steve failed to post is the rather large image painted on the wall of the shared handwashing area of the public toilets... that took me somewhat by surprise!

  • Gotta say there was a lot of nice-ness at The Standard, but the maid service sucked. First day they took my toothpaste. Second day they took my shampoo, and third day they took my toothbrush. I'm sure they were just messing with me for throwing away so much SWAG.

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