text:
Big, Bad XO Network

XO Communications, despite all the issues and problems, is back to building big networks. The company says it has finished its next generation network that connects 75 cities and spans about 18,000 route miles is now complete.

The new XO long-haul network initially delivers 100 Gbits/sec of capacity and sets the stage for a ten-fold capacity increase up to 400 Gbits/sec between any two cities on the network. The increased capacity enables XO to deliver 10-Gbit/sec high-speed transport services to meet the increased bandwidth needs of businesses and wholesale customers. In addition, the deployment of digital optical technology enables XO to provision or upgrade customer circuits in a matter of hours versus days.

The network is based on Infinera technology. In order to better sell the network, XO also announced two new divisions, including XO Carrier Services, which will well sell wholesale bandwidth, wholesale voice, and IP services to other carriers including cable operators. The current trends in the market are helping companies like XO, Level 3 and Global Crossing make a strong comeback after having near death experiences after the telecom bubble popped. Do you think these companies (and several others) continue to do well in the near future?

We have been a customer of XO for sometime. We are in the process of switching to another carrier because XO would not give us an even remotely competitive rate to retain us as a customer.

Today I find out that they disconnected our service. A month too soon. Now I don’t have time to get the new carrier line in place, and XO wants to charge us a hook-up fee to reconnect the line and then want to charge us early termination fees to disconnect the line on the day it should have been disconnected in the first place. Their justiication is that a connection of a ‘new line’ is an automatic 1 year contract so I’d owe them for 11 months of service to terminate early. What?!?!

Of course I have the appropriate CYA emails in place and the battle will begin tomorrow when I talk to my ‘customer service’ rep.

The quality of the data service has been good for some 5+ years, but every time we have to actually deal with a human being at this company it is just one problem or mistake after another. It confounds me that I was willing to sign a 2 year contract to extend my service if they’d just match the rate of the competition. They wouldn’t so I’m voting with my dollars. And the new company is giving me so much more for my money that is is almost crazy.

The connectivity has been good, but XO customer service definitely leaves something to be desired. They have ‘customer retention’ agents, it is surprising to me that they actually don’t do anything to retain their customers. They act like they are doing me a favor by allowing me to pay them big bucks every month for the same service 10 other companies provide for much less money and far less hassle. Goodbye XO.

3 Time Telecom GUY

OK. I have worked in the telecom industry for 5 years. My experience has all been sales related. I have extensive knowledge in IP Voice, IP Data, IP SEC, Opteman, Optewan, Ethernet, wirless, POTS, PRI, DSL, MPLS you name it I have sold it to companies big and small. I will tell everyone on this forum this. There are three major providers of telecommnications services in respect to landline base commnications. These providers are as follows AT&T (SBC, Legacy T, Southwestern Bell, Pac Tel) Verizon and Quest. Depending on were your service locations is your LEC (Local Exchange Provider will always own the last mile) 99% of the time you get a T1 or DS3 it will come from one of the LEC’S with the exception of independent Telco’s. It does not matter what company you use the last mile can and will eventually go down. XO Commnications must call AT&T to put in a trouble ticket to fix a local loop. I will this every company that I have sold for has issues. For those people who believe AT&T is best provider out there and the CLEC’s don’t get the job done HA. There are problems with getting port orders issued, delayed installation, service outages, billing issues, customer complaints. Trust me unless your company is spending 5K and up a month you will not get first class attention. Xo is a great company to do business with and they will go to back for customer when needed. The problem is that when a customer has a issue they always want money.

My favorite line is when an IT vendor wants to get involved in the service aspect of telecom and thinks he understands the complex world of telecommnicaitons think again. Find a knowledgable sales rep and use that person for the services

Absolutley horrendous customer service!!!
Sit on hold forever for any kind of tech support!
I am an independant IT guy & cringe when I have to make a call to XO!
I am doing all I can to get my customer to leave them!

What large company, for the most part, regardless of industry they are in doesn’t have long hold times? “Independant IT” guy I sit on hold for answers about my car insurance be realistic and have a legitimate complaint, please because there are some out there I admit but stop posting to articles/sites like this just for the sake of doing it.

I work for XO currently. I’m a Senior Sales Executive out of the New York Downtown office. I think it’s funny that all the guys who work for XO have neglected to hone in on their markets or really give details.
Somewhere up there, in the earlier posts, someone said that the most important aspect about your relationship with a provider is your sales rep. Someone else said that you should probe reps with questions that you KNOW will yield a “no” answer to see if you’ve got a “yes” man… cheap tactics. If you want to know if you have a good Sales Rep on your hands, the best question to ask him is, “What happens, step by step, from the moment I call you with an issue.”
A seasoned, responsible rep can walk you through the entire process, from start to finish- it should be reflexive. S/he should know everything about the departments that support the customer, not just, “Sure Mr. Customer, you call me- I fix it.”
In reality, a Sales Rep can get most (and I mean 75%) of issues resolved intra day. There are some issues that are BEYOND service, a Rep should reach out and explain that BEFORE he earns your business. A car driven at 100mph into a telephone pole is pretty much going to leave your XO Sales Rep with his hands in the air when you scream, “all my phones are down!!” It’s all about setting the correct expectations.
Look, I have dozens of satisfied customers, and I have a hanful of customers that make me feel very good about the fact that they don’t know where I live. I’ve had accounts go down for a month! I’ve had accounts where they were the only people who kept their services up when everyone was down for a mile in every direction so, go figure.
I do everything in my power to run my customer’s complaints, moves, add, changes and even (painfully) their cancels, in an effective manner. If you’ve all had shoddy service, or just need help with your account, reach out to me, I’ll change your ideas about XO. [email protected]

New XO Guy

Paul, it amazes me in reading some of your comments, even though you have been enlightened on how business works in the real world, versus the world of the obvious free-ware type mindsets. In the real world, as was described before, companies which have a clear view of critical components/services to support revenue generation, fully understand that cost-saving shortcuts such as consolidated lines for voice and data (needless to say words like fail over/redundancy provisioning do not exist) equals in the end lost revenue potential. As it appears that you are more of a technical person versus a person with business aptitude, I highly suggest the next time you ask your management team to consider service contingencies, present you requests with a vision on how service down-time impacts business. It does not matter which service provider you go with in the end, non-operation of service in EVERY case equals loss of operation.

Risk management is a discipline that applies to many situations, other than communications services. Imagine if you had a heart condition, your family had the option of putting you on a single device that could keep you heart pumping … but if it looses power, you’re dead. They also have an option where a backup heart device can be configured in the case of failure; it kept your heart working even in the case where the primary device fails. It may sound like a simple scenario, but it really is that simple.

You are trying to defend an argument which really has no real merit, and speaks disgruntled person â€¦ not necessarily disgruntled customer. Donâ€™t fully rely on XO to take care of your issues, take some ownership and perform some proactive steps to optimize your service uptime.

Thank you tech cougar, you made my decision not to go with XO. We looked into XO on our own and it looks fine but Time Warner was submitted to us by the company supplying the hardware. Having their support to get all this technology to work together and consistantly in harmony makes sense. The cost isn’t the issue, nor is the 50,000 toll free minutes, it is the SUPPORT that will be critical in the long term.

Thank you TechCougar

All small and medium size business need to quit being cheap with IT support. This is the core of all these issues. Customers are buying more complicated and integrated solutions, expecting “plug and play” like P.lain O.ld T. S.ervice. LECs and CLECs are too big to coddle customers and provide the level of butt kissing customers seem to be expecting. UNEDUCATED CUSTOMERS = UNSATISFIED CUSTOMERS

Example: The post from the unsatisfied customer listed shows 4 big holes. The product he bought is a full data T with voice IP based. He expects repairs to be done in minutes if not hours. UNREALISTIC AND UNDEDUCATED. All circuits will drop, it’s just a matter of when. All COMPETENT IT groups will have a backup for emergencies and this is not the providers responsiblity.
All LECs have frontline tech desks that will go through scripts to weed out issues that are on the customer side.(87% of support calls) If you are unprepared for this it will drive you up the wall. That’s why most customers complain about the IVR systems LECs use…they were designed for IT to call….not the end user.
Lastly, if you are spending under 5 grand per month, you are a “bottom tier customer” and will never have “world class customer support”. It’s just not possible with the size of LECs and the scope of products they sell.
No company will ever tell you the limitations and restrictions of their products, (including LECs). Itâ€™s not good business and you would never sell anything.

The sooner companies realize IT cannot be marginalized or done on the cheap side, the better off we will all be.

Potential XO Customer

Wow! I went to the web to find information about XO as we are considering a transition of our small business data and phone lines. I have had glowing verbal reviews from current customers, hand selected by my XO rep., but reading these comments – I have to ask, is it really that bad?

Can anyone offer objective, sound advice on whether XO is a good alternative for a small business? Or should we steer clear to avoid alot of pain?

Our current solution was a real pain to implement and the sales rep was done with us once we signed the contract. We were left to deal with a “customer service” rep in a distant place who could care less about the business interruption we endured. Three years, the memories are still bitter and something we want to avoid going forward.

Lifetime Telco Employee

It sounds to me like XO is just like every other Telco company. I have worked for Tyco, Lucent, Nortel, and several other smaller companies and none of them, NONE of them, come through on what they promise to deliver. As the customer has squeezed the price they are willing to pay tighter, the vendor has been forced to lower their prices. One problem though, skilled employees are still expensive. Therefore a customer cannot possibly expect to pay the lowest price, yet get the best service. However, people do tend to go with what they want to hear. Telco, unfortunately, is a business where liars rise to the top – industry wide.

Future XO Sales Guy

Xo Sales Guy, Kudos to you for standing behind your company and products. I worked for a telecom company called Deltacom in the Southeast but I’m leaving to start with Xo in Oct. I’m leaving because deals I’ve sold aren’t getting the attention from corporate like they need. After struggling with my clients and fighting on their behalf I’m sick of losing the fight. Therefore, I’m taking my clients with me. The thing you need to understand if you don’t work in telecom, is each and every company out there has provisioning problems, billing issues, network outages. I’ve done my research about Xo and they care about the strife the sales rep goes through to make their customers happy. I don’t know if this is a recent inititive but I’ve made sure not to get into the same predicament. Xo has assured me and after talking with other employees they give customers attention and follow up with issues which was lacking with my former company.
What you as the consumer need to do is to do your research before signing the line. Find a sales rep that has morals and will go to bat for you and work on your behalf. Not the lazy lying sales reps that couldn’t care less about service after the sale. I see that all too often in this industry. Like Xo Sales Guy I’m an ethical person and I won’t lie to sell a deal. There is a ton of misconception put out in this industry by many sales reps out there. Use your gut to feel your sales guy out. Ask questions that you know should yield a “No” for an answer. If he’s a “Yes” guy you may need to look elsewhere. Not necessarily base your judgement on the company due to one unethical sales guy. Call another from the same company. Hell, call me and if my company isn’t the best solution for your situation I’ll tell you. Seems like Xo Sales Guy and I are a dying breed but once in a while guys like us come along. You the consumer just need to make sure you find us.

Dissatisfied XO Customer

XO Sales guy. Allow me to tell you my story. Just over a year ago my company was in the process of moving to a new building. We were looking for a T1 provider as well as VOIP. We were drawn to the XOptions Flex product as it would take care of both the T1 and VOIP lines.

During the first 3 months, we had a few routing issues with our voice lines, some people weren’t able to reach our lines directly and would get ‘number is not in service’ messages. Fair enough, these seem like usual problems when porting numbers.

During this period we discussed whether we should try to get out of our 3 year contract. But wait! It was already too late! You see, an XO salesperson smartly talked us into signing on for service early so we could take advantage of a $2000 rebate. That’s like 2 months of service free! He had us signed up as customers in March 2006 even though we weren’t moving until June 2006. So, our 90 day escape clause in our contract was already up by the time we moved into our new building and could actually use the service!

Eventually we started having local loop problems with our T1. Each time the T1 goes out, we go through the same song and dance with the XO technicians. They have us reboot the router even though the T1 card is showing no lights! They run intrusive testing and hours pass before they actually start to dispatch a technician from either their own office or the local carrier.

Now we are stuck with a provider who has no permanent solution for our local loop problems and per our contract, we would have to PAY XO thousands of dollars to escape! Needless to say we feel like we’ve been duped!

Beware of the company you work for XO Sales guy. You

Business is like life: Universal Truth= Yin / Yang. What successful large company doesn’t have ethical issues? Maybe Ben & Jerry’s, but I would consider them as pushers for sugar junkies. Wherever you look, especially government, there’s a dark-side.

Ex XO employee

XO Sales guy. You are having a conversation with 3 people who know what they are talking about. I don’t blame you for your lack of knowledge. XO had me fooled at first but, it did not take long to see what I was dealing with. Some of the people in mgmt are unethical and if it keeps going on it will catch up the company soon.
However, I found most of the sales people and other employees to honest and hard-working.

It is the managment staff that is really ethically challeged and does not seem to understand the concept of customer service.

Good job XO guy! Nice to see a calm voice of reason appear to defend his company & challange some of the chronic whiners & crybabies that these boards seem to attract. My company uses XO, ATT & Sprint & I can say you guys give us the least amount of trouble by far. Thanks for posting…

XO Sales Guy

I feel like I am having a conversation with one guy with three names here. Fine you win, whatever you wish to believe sir.

But I take care of my customers and any service issues and i work for XO Communications.

Ex XO employee

XO sales guy. I worked on plenty of disputes at XO and you just donâ€™t know what is really going on with this company. (LOL)

XO Sales Guy

we do charge access recovery fee on many products which is passed on from the LEC this is true. We do have our new flex data T1 which we do not charge access recovery. and for the voice lines on that circuit we also do not charge LDAC, LNP, PICC charges either. the new flex T1 is a great deal.

and in addition if you know anything at all about real T1 you know it is not distance sensitive. you buy 1544k or 1.5 and you get the entire thing.

you may be referring to DSL which is distance sensitive. this product provides less bandwidth at greater distances from the collo facility.

I personally sell coast to coast and have sold in DC and i have all my customers check dsl reports dot com to check bandwidth on their internet.

I have no need to lie i just feel people should understand that many customers become bitter for many reasons and make up stories.

I have been with the company for 3years and know all the issues with my company and i know it has less issues than other providers.

Of that i am certain. All telecom, collo, or voice providers have a percentage of dissatisfied customers. We have a very high customer retention though. In the business size we are now pursuing.

Bob Dobb

Oh, and XO Sales guy is lying….no suprise.

Most customers ARE NOT installed in 30-60 days, well MAYBE 60 days.

I will agree, they have moved away from the 3-5 line customers….and in the process left ALOT of people swingin’ in the breeze.

They gouge people on their T1 prices (charging an “access recovery fee” which is making the customer pay twice for the loop!)

In the DC/MD/VA market they were selling T1’s and telling people they were “full T1’s” and provisioning them at 512K.

If this guy does work for XO, he is just believing the lies they tell thier own staff. Open your eyes and ask some questions…you’ll be amazed.

XO Sales Guy

Wow some crazy wild emotional responses. For a different perspective i see with 99% of customers with problems they consistantly pay 60 to 90 days and with these issues it is hard to get approval for upgrades.

Also it is important to judge the size of the customer. XO IS moving away from the 3 line and 5 line customer. the smallest customer XO now services is a T1 circuit. if your smaller than that XO IS letting you move away as you cost more in customer service than the revenue you provide.

business is about a profit and XO cannot succeed on tiny mom and pop operations.

Allow me to join in the chorus of dissatisfied customers. Iâ€™ve been with them for 6 years and from sales to delivery, you never get what you think youâ€™ve bought. Not only does it take months to get billing errors resolved, you canâ€™t possibly imagine the horror if you try to upgrade your service. XO, Iâ€™ve got three more offices to switch and then I can say GOODBYE!!!

Not trying to pile on, but I pity the single “Fortune 500” poster who loves XO. They just havent been screwed yet like the rest of us, but they will. The senior leadership team at XO is unscrupulous to say the least. The CEO, Carl Grivner, doenst have a clue and it is just a matter of time before their #1 owner, Carl Ichan, sends him to the CEO graveyard. He allows his HR hencelady (Ms Burke) to do stupid things and his VP of sales, Tom Cady, to encourage sales tactics that are just immoral, if not illegal. Stay away from XO !!!

XO is horrible, lie across the board, i’ve hear during company training that they encourage phone support to lie to the customers about when they are going to receive support. I had to basically fake tears on the phone to the carrier of my local loop to get answers, answers that XO wouldnt provide and otherwise had lied to me about. THE WORST!!! XO IS JUST GOING TO END UP BANKRUPT AGAIN AT THIS RATE!

Alan S.

I don’t know what the previous posters are talking about. I work for a Fotune500 company that has used XO Communications for years with excellent results. We are now in the process of expanding our relationship with them…

As km4 mentioned above – that person knows what going on…

I worked for this company in a upper leadership role during those years & received very FAT bonus checks before, during, & after our claims. I’m no longer in telecom but stay away from this group. In fact,there was a bunch of us who left soon after we cleared (including the CEO & CFO)

XO stinks.. they have an amazing sales staff who will make up anything on the planet to get your business but no implentation staff to back up what they sale you. Beware of this company. they will not be around for long

Wow how in the world does this company do it. They have one of the most unprofessional and uoeducated staff I have ever come in contact with. Believe me save your money and go with ANY of the other companies.. Anything is better than Xo.

What’s really amazing is how cheap the stock is (XOHO)– it won’t be for long as they’ve positioned themselves for strong revenue growth via both their wireline division AND broadband wireless thru Nextlink…

The current trends in the market are helping companies like XO, Level 3 and Global Crossing make a strong comeback after having near death experiences after the telecom bubble popped. Do you think these companies (and several others) continue to do well in the near future?

Please do some due diligence. The only reason XO and Global Crossing are coming back is because of fradulent bankruptcies that were allowed.

As the formula went in telecom bubble then burst days:

-Build it
-Bankrupt it ( and scew the common shareholders)
-Come back stronger

The corporate BK laws in this country are a joke. The super rich get richer at the expense of many middle class Americans most of which haven’t yet really experienced real pain…but many will in next few years.

Erez Elul

Sorry to bother, but this a draw for the YouTube events, which attracted me to here.

Ok, what is The Next after Web 2.0 ?

If Web 2.0 is syndicating, sharing and taking the internet to its elementary pieces, then the Next is applying activates on the elements of Web 2.0.

If sharing is exercised by delivery of contents, then another scale of processing the information in a sharing manner is opened up for communities.

If Content is an elementary piece, then the Next is relations per se.

Imagine peers employing each other’s machines, as in the manner of grid computing or distributed computing, but shortly, where the peers themselves form the tasks and where their machines have their exclusive and different knowledge base.

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Block or report user
  • Tokyo, Japan

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Updated the v3/url library to include the qrcode url #21

merged 1 commit into from Apr 1, 2013

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beingben commented Apr 6, 2012

Let me know if it looks okay to you. I didn't write any test for it as there is no external interaction.

@philnash philnash merged commit bf4a175 into philnash:master Apr 1, 2013
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Hong Kong's Striking Dolphins Dwindle to Just Dozens

ABC News Blogs
Hong Kong's Pink Dolphins Dwindle to Just Dozens

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Hong Kong's Pink Dolphins Dwindle to Just Dozens (ABC News)

BEIJING - The Chinese white dolphin, treasured by the people of Hong Kong people for its pink color and friendly nature, is in danger of being exterminated by pollution and a traffic jam of boats.

The dolphin, once the official mascot of the 1997 sovereignty changing ceremonies, draws tourists from around the world.

But the delightful dolphins are rapidly becoming in danger of extinction with the population decreasing by nearly 60 percent in the last decade. Conservationists warn that action must be taken if people hope to be able to see the dolphin in the coming years.

According to the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society the number of dolphins has decreased from 159 in 2003 to 61 just last year. This figure is expected to be significantly lower when the organization releases its updated report in late June.

Experts attribute this population decrease to five main factors: habitat loss from coastal development, water pollution, underwater noise pollution, vessel collision, and overfishing.

Beginning in the mid 1990's, over 3,500 acres of sea have been reclaimed in Hong Kong's western waters. This has inadvertently damaged a large portion of the dolphin's habitat in addition to greatly affecting the fishing industry. This has subsequently lead to a decrease in the dolphin's food supply.

The decline of the pink dolphins gained attention earlier this spring. During a dolphin watching tour, a popular activity for tourists visiting Hong Kong, a group watched as a mother dolphin struggled to lift the body of her dead calf above the water. This scene continued for about 30 minutes. In the end the dolphin was ultimately unable to revive the calf and was forced to swim away without it. A video of this tragic event quickly became viral, inciting considerable discussion among netizens worldwide.

A spokesperson from Hong Kong Dolphinwatch, Janet Walker, believes that the calf died due to "toxins in the mother's milk, accumulated from polluted seawater."

The pink dolphin is currently classified as a "near-threatened" species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (ICUN) Red List of Threatened Species while China places it as a Grade 1 National Key Protected Species, a list that includes the giant panda and golden monkey.

The announcement made earlier this week was not the first time a conservation group has attempted to increase public awareness about the dwindling dolphin population. During January 2012 the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation Hong Kong joined forces with a Chinese university to set up a DNA bank in order to save the animal from extinction.

Samuel Hung, head of the Dolphin Conservation Society, urges both government officials as well as Hong Kong citizens to stand up for the dolphins, claiming that the health of the dolphins is a reflection of "the overall health of our marine ecosystem."

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20. Kherson, Ukraine
  • 110 lb - 50 kg
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  • blonde hair
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More details about me
  • 06/07/1996
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Self development
  • university
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Marriage & children
  • I'm single
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About me, my character

I've never believed in popular dating sites, but I decided to try. I am a girl, who does not want to be alone, who wants to care about my partner. I think that the most important thing in the life is to forgive and never have an offend in your heart. It is better to say truth about your feelings and then I think there will be strong and beautiful relationship in our life.

My hobbies

reading, dancing, cooking

Partner I'm looking for

Have you been dreaming to find your ukraine bride? I need a serious man who knows how to treat his beloved and cares about her, very kind, with sense of humor and gentle.

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insightsoftware.com: New Entrant in 2016 Gartner Magic Quadrants

insightsoftware.com, provider of Hubble Reporting, Analytics, and Planning software, is recognized in this year’s Gartner Magic Quadrant for Financial Corporate Performance Management (FCPM) solutions. As a new entrant to Gartner Magic Quadrants, insightsoftware.com is positioned highest for execution as a niche player. We feel this reflects our seamless, real-time integrations for JD Edwards and Oracle E-Business Suite.

Each year Gartner recognizes those paving the way in FCPM through development of next-gen technologies and innovative approaches which helps redefine the future of business management. This year, Gartner has split the CPM market into two different quadrants: Financial and Strategic CPM.

The Gartner report summary includes:

  • An overview of the FCPM market
  • Objectives and purpose of the FCPM Quadrant
  • Summaries of competing vendors along with evaluations of their strengths and weaknesses
  • Quadrant inclusion, exclusion, and evaluation criteria

Download the report to gain:

  • An understanding of the solution attributes that matter most for creating high-performance Finance organizations
  • A detailed explanation of why integrations between FCPM and ERP solutions are critical
  • An evaluation of the 10 FCPM vendors including Oracle Hyperion, IBM Cognos, Host Analytics and more

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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Woman Drinks A Gallon Of Water A Day For 4 Weeks And The Picture Results Are Shocking

Woman Drinks A Gallon Of Water A Day For 4 Weeks And The Picture Results Are Shocking

Sufficient daily water intake is vital for virtually every function within our bodies yet fewer than one in five of us drinks enough. Read on to see the results of this experiment.

Sarah Smith is a 42 year old mother of two young kids in the UK. She, like many others, openly admitted to not drinking the recommended 2 to 3 liters of water daily. She suffered from poor and sluggish indigestion and regular headaches. Following consultations with medical professionals for both issues she decided to take heed of the advice given – in both cases she had been told that she needed to up her intake of water. She decided to document and photograph what happened in a self imposed experiment whereby she would drink 3 liters, just over 5 pints, of water per day, every day for an entire month and see if she could feel any benefits.

At the outset Sarah took a long hard look at her face noting that “I am 42, but have to admit I look more like 52 in this picture, which is shocking. There are dark shadows under and around my eyes, which make me look exhausted, a profusion of wrinkles and strange reddish blotches, and my skin lacks any lustre. It looks dead….even my lips look shrivelled.” She spread the water out during the day aiming to drink a big jug of water in the morning, another in the afternoon with a third in the evening.

At the end of the FIRST WEEK she had already noticed that her bowel function was improved and her urine was virtually clear as the water was flushing out her previously dehydrated poorly functioning kidneys. She noticed sudden skin breakouts, which were a result of the toxins being eliminated from throughout her body. However her headaches were already gone and her previous joint stiffness first thing in the morning was vastly improved. Water is vital for lubricating the joints.

WEEK TWO saw an improvement in her skin tone and general complexion although she noted that her eyes were still wrinkled but said “they look less creepy and shadowy than before”. She also had a visibly flatter stomach and her smart husband paid her the ultimate compliment by noting that her cellulite had vanished! Significantly she had another week headache free.

On to WEEK THREE when Sarah was happy to find that her eye wrinkles and dark circles had all but disappeared and her skin was plumper and healthier looking. She noted that she was actually eating less by this stage as she had fallen into the common trap of reading signals from her stomach as being hunger pangs whereas they were actually thirst pangs. Research has shown that 37 per cent of people actually mistake thirst signals for hunger signals. The plentiful water had now stopped her from continually falling into that unhealthy trap.

So what about the end of WEEK FOUR? Sarah said “I genuinely can’t believe the difference in my face. I look like a different woman. The dark shadows around my eyes have all but disappeared and the blotches have gone. My skin is almost as dewy as it was when I was a child. The transformation is nothing short of remarkable.” She was leaner, fitter and nobody can deny the astonishing change to her appearance. She changed nothing else in her daily routine apart from the water intake. Here are the before and after photographs:

Source: healthypeoplelifestyle.com


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Mondello Boys Slide Show Featuring Joe, Pete and Geno

Entering tags on each photo I upload to flickr is sometimes a painstaking process but when you think about the sheer number of photos taken (say 100,000 or more) there would be absolutely no way to ever locate a particular photo without going through all 100,000 photos unless you have each one tagged with an identifying name.

It is through this tagging system that I can locate and isolate certain photos. It may be painstaking but the archive of photos from Gloucester and of my family that I can access with a few clicks of the keyboard are pretty remarkable.

Click the Picture for the Mondello Boys Gloucester Waterfront Slideshow

Click the picture for the Mondello Boys Slide Show

One comment

  • There it is Joey. I told you a long time ago I love this picture because it’s just perfect. The snow on the boats, the yellow of Dog & I, the lights reflecting off the water. That picture deserves a trophy. Simply beautiful.

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Category Archives: Etsy

Grin & Bear it.

Hi there! How is your week going so far? We are getting so much sun here in Portland that I’m a bit giddy! It’s a little bizarre but I’ll take it!

Maybe it’s the extra Vitamin D but even my dreams have been stranger than usual. You see, I have recurring dreams with a bear in it. Yup. A big ole’ grizzly bear that I always see on the outskirts of a forest. He is always tromping through the trees on two feet appearing rather ferocious. He never actually gets me or even gets very close but the dream is alarming and always stays with me all day. This last time, I woke up from the dream and this thought entered my mind – “The bear represents change.”  It hit me like a bolt and thinking back I realized that I have my “bear dream” when lots of change is entering my life. All of a sudden both the changes and the bear seemed less frightening.  I decided to look up what a bear stands for in dreams and found that actually the bear can symbolize being brave, facing the world alone and encourages independence and strength in motherhood. Be the Mama Bear. Okay. I can do that.

To remind me of this, I just bought this print from Corella Designs on Etsy. The wonderful artist is Donna McKenizie. I love this big bear and I love that what at first seemed scary is now making me stronger.

Here are some more of her gorgeous illustrations.

Do you connect with a special animal or see one in your dreams? Maybe it’s trying to tell you something…

Have a wonderful Tuesday.

Filed under Art, Etsy, Shopping, Stories

Hello, Sydney.

il_570xN.295996781{artwork via here}

Hi there my lovely readers!

Well, I have some exciting news to share with you today – we are leaving for Sydney, Australia on Thursday – yes, as in two days from now!! A last minute opportunity landed in our laps yesterday, when one of my hubby’s clients invited him to an executive retreat in Sydney. Well…as many of you know, that is my birthplace and there was NO way in hell that I wasn’t going with him. So we scrambled and made arrangements for my parents to fly in and take care of the girls! I’m in total shock!

I’ve gotten in touch with several of my childhood friends, so I hope to meet up with them and catch up! I haven’t been back since we left in 1994!! I was in the 11th grade. It was so hard to leave all my friends but at the time we kinda idolized America and I had fanciful notions of becoming a cheerleader, dating a quarterback and going to Prom! ha! Things didn’t quite pan out like that…

Anyway, I have always wanted to go back and visit so I feel incredibly grateful for this chance! I will be taking tons of photos and hope to post a bit while I’m there!

See you when I return from the land Down-Under…

Filed under Etsy, News, Travel

A Cup of Spring

Hi there friends!

How was your Easter? We had a fabulous time visiting the gorgeous Brasada Ranch in Central Oregon. I have so many pictures to share with you but they need to be processed, so while I’m working on all that, I wanted to show you some pretty pics of the recent teacup I found. She’s a real beauty and so perfect for Spring.

pretty pink teacup3

She is a lovely example of 1940’s lusterware by Royal Halsey and has a beautiful pearl like shimmer. The sweet clusters of rose blossoms go from petal pink to deep garnet and are paired perfectly with swirling gold embellishments.

pretty pink teacup

pretty pink teacup4

She is in the shop now just waiting to be loved.

Hope you are enjoying all the beautiful blossoms of Spring!

Filed under Etsy, Shopping, vintage

Etsy Love: Pastels

Hello lovelies! Hope your week is going well so far. I gathered up some pretty Etsy treats to get your excited for the approach of Spring. I adore Spring and pastel hues always remind me of all the beautiful flowers about to bloom and the soft sunlight peeking through the gray…

Pastels for Spring with numbers1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6| 7 | 8 | 9

Go make a cup of tea and enjoy browsing these lovely shops.

Filed under Art, Etsy, Paris, photography, Shopping, vintage

Winter White Roses for you.

I’m stuck in bed, sick as a dog with the flu. So I won’t say much but I did manage to edit these photos today, so I thought I would share some winter white roses with you. Flowers always cheer me up…

I will be listing this sweet, vintage silver rose bowl in the store very soon!

I hope that you and your family are staying healthy!

Filed under Etsy, flowers, photography, Shopping, vintage

A few of my favorite things…French treasures

Hello all! Hope you enjoyed your weekend. I have been nursing my family back to health after an awful flu struck our home! I’m the only one who hasn’t gotten sick – somehow? Anyway, I don’t want to tempt fate so I’m just staying positive and gobbling down Vitamin C.

So, I know I don’t often write about my vintage shop on Etsy but with Valentine’s just around the corner, I thought it might be fun to share some of my favorite French treasures that I have listed right now. Taking photographs of these gorgeous objects has become such a delight for me, almost as rewarding as the hunt! Just click on the images to visit my shop and learn more about these…

cafe au lait collage with text

vanity jar Collage with textfrench tin Collage with text

swallow compote Collage with text

I just loved finding these lovely French treasures! I hope you enjoy them too.

Have a beautiful Monday!

Filed under Etsy, favorite things, Home, Paris, photography, Shopping, vintage


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Monte Carlo Marina

by PhillipMinnis

Boats Crowded Into The Monte Carlo Marina, Monaco

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Boats crowded into the Monte Carlo marina, Monaco

apartments, blue, boat, boats, bridge, building, cafes, cars, city, cliff, coast, dock, docked, europe, harbour, harbourside, homes, houses, jetty, luxury boats, marina, masts, mediterranean, monaco, monte, monte carlo, nautical, pier, pleasure craft, port, principality, residences, riviera, road, rock, sailing boats, sea, shops, steep, trees, urban, vehicles, vessels, view, water, wharf, whiteluxury, yacht, yachts

By PhillipMinnis
Image ID: 165115
Added: March 24, 2010

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My Nonprofit Reviews

RicciR - charity reviews, charity ratings, best charities, best nonprofits, search nonprofits

178 profile views
1 reviews

Review for National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, Inc., Santa Paula, CA, USA

Rating: 5 stars

As a donor, volunteer and now a board member, my relationship with the Search Dog Foundation started shortly after the tragic 9/11 events. I worked with the founder Wilma Melville and current Executive Director, Debra Tosch in creating a database of the multitude of people who discovered the existence of the SDF during those events. Over the years, my involvement has continued to grow both as a donor and now as a board member. The SDF is an exemplary organization due largely to a phenomenally dedicated staff that never loses site of the goal of rescuing dogs and training them to rescue people. They are more mission focused than any organization I have supported. I will continue to support their efforts as we move forward in quest of making sure that when disaster strikes no one will be left behind.

Will you volunteer or donate to this organization beyond what is required of board members?

How much of an impact do you think this organization has?

Will you tell others about this organization?

When was your last experience with this nonprofit?

Role:  Board Member


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Thursday, November 04, 2004

first thoughts after the election...

Arlington 48

Arlington 48” x 36” oil on linen 2004

From the funeral of Chanawongse Kemaphoom 22, of Waterford, Connecticut. Killed in action during operations on the outskirts of An Nasiriyah on March 23, 2003. Chanawongse was assigned to 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

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it out
Guide to Increasing Conversion

In our 7-part Guide to Increasing Conversion we'll introduce you to proven e-commerce functionality including, but not limited to, live chat, loyalty programs, and back in stock notifications! Sign up now and we'll deliver tips and best practices about each straight to your inbox!

Four Steps in Starting an E-Commerce Business with Dem Vibes

Four Steps in Starting an E-Commerce Business with Dem Vibes

Four Steps in Starting an E-Commerce Business with Dem Vibes

Recently I had the chance to sit down with Brian Anderson, Founder of Dem Vibes, and discuss his experience starting an e-commerce business. Dem Vibes is a leading brand for high quality EDM inspired clothing. Brian started Dem Vibes in April 2015 and in less than 6 months into the top 2% of Shopify stores for growth performance and traffic. During our conversation, we explored how Brian got started with Dem Vibes and some of the advice he wish he had received when first getting off the ground. In this article, we'll look at four key take-aways from that conversation that can help entrepreneurs grow their e-commerce businesses:

Testing a Market

One of the first pieces of advice Brian offered to those starting an e-commerce business was, "the key to early success comes before you even launch your Shopify store; you need to pick a good product and define a specific niche that would be interested in that product." Certainly a fair statement to make given that a good understanding of your audience and the right product for that audience serves as the entire basis for you business. Many first-time entrepreneurs usually come to the table with a strong sense of either product or audience. They've identified something they'd love to have personally or seen others demand; or they've identified a particular group of people with a problem that is generally under-served. The challenge is marrying the two and determining whether there is a sizeable enough market to warrant building an entire business. Brian suggested three methods for testing out market demand before investing in inventory or extensive marketing:

Kickstart Your Sales
Kickstarter has emerged as a crowdfunding tool for entrepreneurs to find an alternative means of raising capital without the typical dilution associated with equity financing. Even more importantly, Kickstarter has become a platform for entrepreneurs to test the interest in a product by actually pre-selling that product and using those proceeds to fund their initial inventory. It serves as a mechanism to determine whether a larger 'business' would be viable. Although one would need to study the many nuances associated with running a successful Kickstarter campaign, it's a 'testing' channel worth considering.

Sell Before you Buy
If the 'work' involved in a Kickstarter campaign doesn't seem like a good fit for your business, you could just as easily apply the 'pre-sale' method to a traditional e-commerce website. If you can clearly communicate your shipping policies with customers, given that you are technically selling something you don't have, running a pre-sale campaign could be another way to test demand. Set up a digital advertising campaign that drives customers to the website and determine whether you can achieve a fair enough conversion rate and cost of customer acquisition before building out the full business.

Explore the Amazon
Similar to Kickstarter, in that it has many of its own nuances, Amazon is a great channel to test out the demand for products. Using tools such as CamelCamelCamel you can research product pricing information from competitors. For companies that are selling new, innovative products, you could look into Amazon's Launchpad program which offers rapid listing on Amazon, ability to market unique content to Amazon customers and boost exposure across the Amazon marketplace.

Understand the Competitive Landscape

Once you've got a solid sense for the market you're looking to target, it's critical you analyze the existing incumbents and understand how they run their businesses. What we're really looking for in this analysis, is whether there is some sort of 'gap' in the competition. This gap could be in their marketing, technology, design, etc. We're trying to identify some way to differentiate ourselves when starting an e-commerce business from others in the space. Brian suggests three things in particular to review:

How is the Competition Marketing Itself?
Understanding how your competitors are marketing themselves can often lead to uncovering huge advantages as a newcomer to the market. If your competitors are over-investing in paid and ignoring SEO, you might have found a gap you can exploit. If they're aggressive on social but don't spend anything on paid, you might have found another gap. Using tools such as SEMRush and SpyFu, you can gain insights on what's working and where the marketing dollars are flowing among your competitors.

What is the Competition's Technology Stack?
Often in established markets, existing companies are relying on older technology to power their business. The ecosystem of e-commerce platforms is growing rapidly and often the use of a newer shopping cart such as Shopify or email marketing tool such as Klavio, is enough for you to run a better company than the 'other guys'. Using a tool such as BuiltWith, you can 'peak under the hood' of your competition and see what's driving their technology.

What is the Competition's Customer Experience Like?
An often overlooked but worthwhile activity with key competitors is to go through the experience as a customer yourself. Simply making a purchase through a competitor's website will answer a number of interesting questions around how they run their business. What is their product packaging? How is their customer support? How do they use email marketing to stay in touch with clients? How aggressive are they with discounts? All of these questions can be figured out just by placing an order with a competitor and provide significant insight into planning your own business.

Determine your strategy for ROA (return on assets); High Volume vs High Order Size

One thing to consider when starting an e-commerce business is the argument over Order Size vs Order Volume. Order Size pertains to the total dollars received on a per order basis and is directly impacted by the average price per product. Order Volume pertains to the total number of repeat purchases over the lifetime of a customer. Often the higher the price of an item, the less frequently a customer is going to purchase it. Some products are inherently low frequency purchases such as mobile phones and computers while others are consumed regularly such as stationery and food. Unfortunately, there is no particular formula to calculating your prices or analyzing Size vs Volume. However, the higher the cost of acquiring a customer, the higher either the Order Size or Order Volume needs to be. Perhaps approach the analysis from the perspective of customer acquisition costs so you at least have a place to start.

Handling Fulfillment
A major consideration to make as an e-commerce company is in regards to how orders will be fulfilled. How are you going to produce your goods? Are you going to house your inventory? Are you going to package and ship your orders? There is no right or wrong way to run your e-commerce company, but you will need to consider these questions in detail. Brian suggests a few resources for each:

Sourcing Products
If you're not in the situation where you'll be manufacturing your own products, which is often the case, you'll likely be looking for suppliers to help produce the necessary goods and materials. Two online resources to consider for sourcing materials include Alibaba and Makers Row. Alibaba is a global product marketplace and a good resource for companies looking to procure low-cost, off-shore products. Maker's Row is a directory of American-based manufactures and factories great for high-quality and finely processed goods. Brian’s personal recommendation is to search for relevant industry trade shows and go to one as you might be surprised how much progress you can with a high quality domestic suppliers during one show.

Housing Inventory
Companies often choose to either house inventory within their own warehouses, find a dropshipping partner to both produce and fulfill orders or ship finished goods to a third party logistics (3PL) company who will house and ship orders. If choosing to handle inventory internally, take a look at Stitch, an inventory management platform great for small businesses. If considering a 3PL, many companies choose to work with Fulfillment by Amazon or Shipwire to both house inventory and ship orders.

Managing Shipping
Companies that choose to handle their shipping internally could consider a tool such as Shipping Easy or ShipStation. These platforms allow merchants to purchase discounted shipping, print labels and automatically notify customers of their tracking codes.

The above should provide you with some of the first few critical steps in starting an e-commerce business off-the-ground. In asking Brian as final takeaway, he said above all, "select a product space that you're super passionate about, even regardless of the business opportunity. If you don't wake up every day excited to work on your business, chances of success are very slim." Every entrepreneur's path is unique, but start from a place of passion and use the above as a roadmap to get started.


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Southwest Supply and Acquisition Center (SSAC)

GSA’s Southwest Supply and Acquisition Center (SSAC) provides a variety of products and services to meet your needs, from the simplest products to complex total solutions requiring products and services. We have Schedule contractors who can provide stand alone services such as:

  • Professional Security Services;
  • Guard Services;
  • Security System Design and Integration;
  • Mechanical, Chemical, Electrical and Geophysical Testing Services; and
  • many other services designed to support our various product lines.

SSAC currently manages four distinct schedules with product lines that include:

  • Security, facilities management, marine craft and emergency/disaster response;
  • Test and measurement equipment, unmanned scientific vehicles, geographical environmental analysis equipment;
  • Building materials/supplies, alternative energy solutions; and
  • Hospitality, cleaning equipment, sanitizers, and toiletries.

GSA Multiple Award Schedules can provide solutions to support your agency’s needs by providing you access to thousands of pre-qualified product and service providers.

GSA continuously works to assist its customers in obtaining the integrated state-of-the-art solutions needed to support your unique requirements.

The following Schedule numbers will direct you to GSA eLibrary and the title will direct you to the Schedules web page:

Number Title
56 Buildings and Building Materials/Industrial Services and Supplies
66 Scientific Equipment and Services
73 Food Service, Hospitality, Cleaning Equipment and Supplies, Chemicals, and Services
84 Total Solutions for Law Enforcement, Security, Facilities Management, Fire Rescue, Clothing, Marine Craft and Emergency/Disaster Response

GSA operates a website that allows customers to order, free-of-charge, or view and download PDFs of publications. Users can conduct a keyword search or browse publications by areas of interest at GSA's Centralized Mailing List Service (CMLS). The MAS Desk Reference addresses using GSA Multiple Award Schedules (MAS) in compliance with the Federal Acquisition Regulations.

The shortcut to this page is

Last Reviewed 2016-01-29


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Default company panoramic image

Professional Ebusiness Training

  • Stage Full Product Ready
  • Industry IT Services
  • Location Toronto, ON, Canada
  • Currency CAD
  • Founded July 1993
  • Employees 1
  • Website

Company Summary

As a long term IT professional I've mastered every major skillset involved with creating and running an ebusiness, from web development to server and network management I've done it all. JBDevelopments provides informational materials, training, software and support to individuals and businesses looking to establish an online presence. My clients include individuals, businesses and even other IT professionals.

  • Default avatar
    James A Brown

    Began programming in 1980 at age 14. Using the internet since before the World Wide Web. Intimately familiar with most TCP/IP based services, Web Development, System and Network Administration, All Windows since 3.1, several flavours of UNIX, computer hardware, several programming languages and possessor of 12 Terabytes of electronic information on everything.


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Who was awarded compensation in past ISDS awards?

Only foreign investors can sue countries in ISDS. So, all ISDS awards involve a transfer of public money from a country to one or more foreign investors.

One way to assess who benefits from ISDS is by examining the types and sizes of foreign investors that received money in ISDS awards. I and Pavel Malysheuski, a civil/ commercial litigation lawyer, examined this question.

We tracked amounts awarded in all known cases to the spring of 2014. We found 45 awards for over US$10 million. We did not include 31 awards for less than $10 million since the total awarded in those cases was relatively small, less than $200 million in total.

In the 45 cases, about USD$5 billion in total was awarded to foreign investors. Adding pre-award (as opposed to less controversial post-award) interest, about USD$6.5 billion in total was awarded.

What types and sizes of foreign investors were awarded this money?

  • About 64% was awarded to companies with over $10 billion in annual revenue.
  • About 29% was awarded to companies with $1 billion to $10 billion in annual revenue or to individuals with over $100 million in net wealth.
  • About 7% was awarded to companies with less than $1 billion in annual revenue or to individuals with less than $100 million in net wealth.

These findings indicate that to date the primary beneficiaries of ordered financial transfers in ISDS awards have been large or extra-large companies and very wealthy individuals (aka tycoons). The figures are approximate and descriptive of amounts awarded sizes in past cases.

Type of foreign investor Size of foreign investor No. of awards (of over $10 million) Total awarded, raw sums only % of total awarded, raw sums only Total awarded, with pre-award interest % of total awarded, with pre-award interest
Extra-large company >$10 billion in ann. rev. 19 $3.218 billion 63.9% $4.178 billion 64.3%
Large company >$1 billion and <$10 billion in ann. rev. 10 $590 million 11.7% $756 million 11.6%
Medium or small company <$1 billion or <$100 million in ann. rev. 7 (incl. 5 where DU for ann. rev $184 million 3.7% $219 million 3.4%
Very wealthy individual >$100 million in net wealth 4 $896 million 17.8% $1.060 million 16.3%
Other individual <$100 million in net wealth 5 (incl.3 where DU for net wealth) $151 million 3.0% $288 million 4.4%
Totals 45 $5.039 billion $6.501 billion

The method of classifying of sizes of foreign investors was determined by Pavel Malysheuski (PM). PM coded claimant types and sizes based on award texts and online information from e.g. SEC, Google, Wikipedia, Bloomberg, and Reuters. Where data was unavailable on claimant size, a corporate claimant was classified as having less than $1 billion in annual revenue and an natural person was classified as having less than $100 million in net wealth. Cases involving multiple claimants were coded based on the largest or wealthiest member of the group including corporate and natural person owners of corporate claimants.

Data on size of awards was collected by Osgoode Hall Law School student research assistants, who collected information based on publicly-available English-language awards up to the spring of 2014. Pre-award interest was calculated based on information on raw sums awarded, pre-award interest rate, and relevant time period in award texts. All amounts were converted to USD based on exchange rates at the time of the award.

The award in France Telecom v Lebanon was not included due to the lack of a publicly-available award to verify reports of a $266 million award in favour of France Telecom, an extra-large company. The $17 million award in Metalclad v Mexico was treated as the raw sum amount and as the raw sum + pre-award interest amount due to the limited information in the award. The ordered adjustment for net taxes in the $29 million award in Achmea v Slovakia was not accounted for due to limited information in the award. Annulments and set asides of amounts awarded were not accounted for. All figures were rounded to the nearest million and are reported in USD.

The data does not include awards decided or becoming public after cut-offs in the spring of 2014. So, it does not include the $50 billion award in the Yukos-related claims against Russia in July 2014. Based on his inferences from online sources, PM classified the claimant size as very wealth individual in these cases, prior to the award being issued. However, this classification may be contentious, so it’s best for readers to make up their own minds about the claimant size in that case and to treat it as an outlier in relation to the descriptive data otherwise presented here.

The data for the above findings is as follows.

Case name Foreign investor type (company or natural person) Foreign investor size Amount, raw sum Amount, with pre-award interest
Occidental v Ecuador No 2 C X-large 1770 million 2358 million
EDF v Argentina C X-large 136 million 205 million
BG Group v Argentina C X-large 185 million 219 million
CMS v Argentina C Large 133 million 151 million
CGE/ Vivendi v Argentina No 2 C X-large 105 million 169 million
Siemens v Argentina C X-large 238 million 278 million
Enron v Argentina C X-large 106 million 142 million
Azurix v Argentina C X-large 165 million 186 million
Sempra v Argentina C Large 128 million 171 million
CME v Czech Republic N Tycoon 270 million 395 million
Stati v Kazakhstan N Tycoon 498 million 498 million
Rumeli v Kazakhstan C Large 125 million 165 million
Micula v Romania N Tycoon 117 million 156 million
National Grid v Argentina C X-large 39 million 54 million
LG&E v Argentina C X-large 57 million 57 million
Occidental Petroleum v Ecuador No 1 C X-large 72 million 75 million
Chevron v Ecuador No 1 C X-large 78 million 96 million
Duke Energy v Ecuador C X-large 5.58 million 28 million
Siag v Egypt N Non-tycoon 75 million 129 million
ADC v Hungary C DU 76 million 76 million
Cargill v Mexico C X-large 77 million 86 million
Impregilo v Argentina C Large 21 million 28 million
El Paso v Argentina C X-large 43 million 66 million
SAUR International v Argentina C Large 40 million 60 million
Saipem v Bangladesh C X-large 6.3 million 11 million
Guaracachi v Bolivia C Small 29 million 36 million
Pey Casado v Chile N DU 10 million 14 million
Eastern Sugar v Costa Rica C X-large 35 million 35 million
Wena Hotels v Egypt C DU 8.82 million 19 million
OKO Pankki Oyj v Estonia C X-large 11 million 14 million
Kardassapoulos (and Fuchs) v Georgia N DU 30 million 90 million
RDC v Guatemala N Tycoon 11 million 11 million
TECO v Guatemala C Large 21 million 23 million
White Industries v India C DU 4.09 million 11 million
Sistem Muhendislik v Kyrgyztan C DU 8.5 million 10 million
Abengoa v Mexico C Large 40 million 42 million
ADM v Mexico C Large 34 million 37 million
Metalclad v Mexico C DU DU 17 million
SGS v Paraguay C Large 39 million 64 million
Achmea v Slovakia C Extra-large 29 million 29 million
Deutsche Bank v Sri Lanka C Extra-large 60 million 70 million
Walter Bau v Thailand C Small 41 million 50 million
PSEG v Turkey C Large 9.06 million 15 million
Desert Line Products v Yemen N DU 25 million 30 million
Funnekotter v Zimbabwe N Non-tycoons 11 million 25 million
C: 36

N: 9

X-large: 19

Large: 10

Below large: 7 (includes 5 DU)

Tycoon: 4

Non-tycoon: 5 (includes 3 DU)

Total awarded: 5,039 million

X-large: 3,218 million (63.9%)

Large: 590 million (11.7%)

Below large: 184 million (3.7%)

Tycoon: 896 million (17.8%)

Non-tycoon: 151 million (3.0%)

Total awarded: 6,501 million

X-large: 4,178 million (64.3%)

Large: 756 million (11.6%)

Below large: 219 million (3.4%)

Tycoon: 1,060 million (16.3%)

Non-tycoon: 288 million (4.4%)


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The Competitive Landscape for Machine Intelligence

November 02, 2016
The Competitive Landscape for Machine Intelligence

Three years ago, our venture capital firm began studying startups in artificial intelligence. AI felt misunderstood, burdened by expectations from science fiction, and so for the last two years we’ve tried to capture the most-important startups in the space in a one-page landscape. (We prefer the more neutral term “machine intelligence” over “AI.”)

In past years, we heard mostly from startup founders and academics — people who pay attention to early, far-reaching trends in technology. But this year was different. This year we’ve heard more from Fortune 500 executives with questions about machine intelligence than from startup founders.

These executives are asking themselves what to do. Over the past year, machine intelligence has exploded, with $5 billion in venture investment, a few big acquisitions, and hundreds of thousands of people reading our earlier research. As with the internet in the 1990s, executives are realizing that this new technology could change everything, but nobody knows exactly how or when.

If this year’s landscape shows anything, it’s that the impact of machine intelligence is already here. Almost every industry is already being affected, from agriculture to transportation. Every employee can use machine intelligence to become more productive with tools that exist today. Companies have at their disposal, for the first time, the full set of building blocks to begin embedding machine intelligence in their businesses.

And unlike with the internet, where latecomers often bested those who were first to market, the companies that get started immediately with machine intelligence could enjoy a lasting advantage.

So what should the Fortune 500 and other companies be doing to get started?

Make Talent More Productive

One way to immediately begin getting the value of machine intelligence is to support your talent with readily available machine intelligence productivity tools. Some of the earliest wins have been productivity tools tuned to specific areas of knowledge work — what we call “Enterprise Functions” in our landscape. With these tools, every employee can get some of the powers previously available only to CEOs.

These tools can aid with monitoring and predicting (e.g., companies like Clari forecasting client-by-client sales to help prioritize deals) and with coaching and training (Textio’s* predictive text-editing platform to help employees write more-effective documents).

Find Entirely New Sources of Data

The next step is to use machine intelligence to realize value from new sources of data, which we highlight in the “Enterprise Intelligence” section of the landscape. These new sources are now accessible because machine intelligence software can rapidly review enormous amounts of data in a way that would have been too difficult and expensive for people to do.

Imagine if you could afford to have someone listen to every audio recording of your salespeople and predict their performance, or have a team look at every satellite image taken from space and determine what macroeconomic indicators could be gleaned from them. These data sources might already be owned by your company (e.g., transcripts of customer service conversations or sensor data predicting outages and required maintenance), or they might be newly available in the outside world (data on the open web providing competitive information).

Rethink How You Build Software

Let’s say you’ve tried some new productivity tools and started to mine new sources of data for insight. The next frontier in capturing machine intelligence’s value is building a lasting competitive advantage based on this new kind of software.

But machine intelligence is not just about better software; it requires entirely new processes and a different mindset. Machine intelligence is a new discipline for managers to learn, one that demands a new class of software talent and a new organizational structure.

Most IT groups think in terms of applications and data. New machine intelligence IT groups will think about applications, data, and models. Think of software as the combination of code, data, and a model. “Model” here means business rules, like rules for approving loans or adjusting power consumption in data centers. In traditional software, programmers created these rules by hand. Today machine intelligence can use data and new algorithms to generate a model too complex for any human programmer to write.

With traditional software, the model changes only when programmers explicitly rewrite it. With machine intelligence, companies can create models that evolve much more regularly, allowing you to build a lasting advantage that strengthens over time as the model “learns.”

Think of these models as narrowly focused employees with great memories and not-so-great social skills — idiot savants. They can predict how best to grow the business, make customers happier, or cut costs. But they’ll often fail miserably if you try to apply them to something new, or, worse, they may degrade invisibly as your business and data change.

All of this means that the discipline of creating machine intelligence software differs from traditional software, and companies need to staff accordingly. Luckily, though finding the right talent may be hard, the tools that developers need to build this software is readily available.

For the first time, there is a maturing “Stack” (see our landscape) of building blocks that companies can use to practice the new discipline of machine intelligence. Many of these tools are available as free, open-source libraries from technology companies such as Google (TensorFlow), Microsoft (CNTK), or Amazon (DSSTNE). Others make it easier for data scientists to collaborate (see “Data Science”) and manage machine intelligence models (“Machine Learning”).

If your CEO is struggling to answer the question of how machine intelligence will change your industry, take a look at the range of markets in our landscape. The startups in these sections give a sense of how different industries may be altered. Machine intelligence’s first useful applications in an industry tend to use data that previously had lain dormant. Health care is a prime example: We’re seeing predictive models that run on patient data and computer vision that diagnoses disease from medical images and gleans lifesaving insights from genomic data. Next up will be finance, transportation, and agriculture because of the volume of data available and their sheer economic value.

Your company will still need to decide how much to trust these models and how much power to grant them in making business decisions. In some cases the risk of an error will be too great to justify the speed and new capabilities. Your company will also need to decide how often and with how much oversight to revise your models. But the companies that decide to invest in the right models and successfully embed machine intelligence in their organization will improve by default as their models learn from experience.

Economists have long wondered why the so-called computing revolution has failed to deliver productivity gains. Machine intelligence will finally realize computing’s promise. The C-suites and boardrooms that recognize that fact first — and transform their ways of working accordingly — will outrun and outlast their competitors.

*The authors’ fund has invested in this company.

Shivon Zilis is a partner and founding member of Bloomberg Beta, which invests heavily in the future of work. She focuses on early-stage data and machine intelligence investments.

James Cham is a Partner at Bloomberg Beta where he invests in data-centric and machine learning-related companies.

This article is about TECHNOLOGY
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Diagnosed at 40

Having been diagnosed with CLL on Tuesday I have had a week of many emotions. I am 40 years old and fit and healthy, but for a infected facial spot in November which lead to a routine blood test. I have read a fair amount on the subject now and luckily found this forum. I am on the doctors 'watch list' which, as someone aptly described as a time bomb with no timer. It would be good to hear from anyone of similar age or any useful advice relating to coping with life post diagnosis. Richard

51 Replies

  • Hi Richard

    Welcome to the CLL Support group ...

    I was first told that I had CLL by my GP after a routine blood test due to another illness ... I was not ill due to having CLL.

    I was diagnosed aged 47 in 2006, and have not as yet needed treatment although my blood counts have been gradually increasing ever since.

    I hope that you make good use of the site which is kept up to date on any information developing in the world of CLL, plus the wealth of experience of the members who are only to pleased to help with any questions that you may have.

    There are NO stupid questions on here, so if there is anything that you need to know, or anything that you don't understand, just ask.

    My experience was of being checked every three months for a couple of years, then it became every six months, and now every year. Others on the site have reported the same pattern.

    Have a look at the ' Pinned Posts ' and ' Topics ' section.

    PaulaS compiled a three part topic called - Coping strategies for Living with CLL - Parts 1- 2 - 3.

    We all remember how hard it is when we were first diagnosed ... on here, you are not alone ... so if it's information you need, someone will answer any questions you have ... if it's just to blow off steam,it's the right place for a rant.

    ... I remember all too well that my stupid brain went into overdrive and wouldn't give me any peace for a while.

    Best not to troll the net, a lot of it is out of date ... any news, treatments or breakthroughs are covered on here.

  • How long did it take for you to start feeling somewhat back to normal? It's only been a month since diagnosis and I feel like I'm going crazy!

  • Hello Richard,

    I understand the feeling of terror associated with with the diagnosis of CLL. I was informed of my CLL by a haematologist in Guy's hospital (London) almost two years' ago. At 56 at the time, I was older than you. I feel for you, but my blood levels' have stayed pretty much the same since being diagnosed.

    I have met only one person with CLL and she had been diagnosed 30 years' ago, with no treatment. There is ALWAYS HOPE.

    There are far wiser people on this site than I, they are better placed to advise you.

    Good luck.

  • I responded to your other post. Here it is again:

    The sanity will return. We all went through it hopefully your family is standing with you.

    Advice, see a CLL specialist. That is a MUST!

    Stop having conversations with yourself. They won't help.

    I am borrowing a re-quote from someone on the ACOR site: "Worry does not empty tomorrow of it's sorrow, it empties today of it's strength." This was authored by Corrie ten Boom, a holocaust survivor.

    This site will give you some help. WE understand. Come here and vent, ask questions, whatever.

    There is hope of a cure now. Ask some of the veterans on this site how remarkable that is. Everything they have been through and all they want is to listen and also be heard. Most of all, to help. Welcome to the club we all hate being a member of. The cancer sucks but the people in the club are wonderful.

  • Glad to see you've done your own post Richard. As I said before, this is an excellent forum. Also wanted to say, don't fry your brain trying to understand everything at once (hard I know, I did it!) A lot of what you hear won't make sense to you and you may be years away from treatment by which time a lot of things going on now won't apply.

    Believe me when I say that you will calm down from where you are now. Hang in there. Peggy

  • Hi there Richard I am just having a bad day today but will pick myself up again. When I first got diagnosed at 55 a bit older than you I also found this site while looking through the internet and I found it a god send because I usually just read the post and can find the answers to any questions I have in between hospital visits. I hope your journey is a long one take care it will get easier to understand love buzzybab

  • Hi Richard - sorry you had to join us.

    I was diagnosed at 38, when I had 3 children under 7. It was devastating and the period you're going through is by far my worst time living with this disease. I know it sounds trite but it does get easier. It helps to know what you're dealing with so please see a CLL expert - I have found them to be reassuring. My story is quite unusual - many people never need any treatment but I'm now on my second treatment - I'm 42 and in a clinical trial at Barts hospital in London. So much hope in that and the other new therapies. I'll give you the advice someone gave me - be kind to yourself and don't mourn yourself too quickly - you will get through this.

    Best wishes

  • Deb,

    I just read your blog. You are an absolutely courageous and incredible woman. God bless.

  • Aw thanks Jeff. Haven't updated it since my return to Australia two weeks ago but you'll be pleased to hear I'm lying in the sunshine with my children playing around me as I type this. Back on the plane to London this weekend for my 6th and final cycle of the obinutuzimab and will be back home for Easter. I'm sure it will all be worth it!

    It's been quite the journey but all about turning a massive negative into a positive for the children (and for me!). Had no idea this time last year that I'd be travelling to California, Niagara Falls and New York then moving to London and having the children travel with me to Paris and ski in the French Alps! Life is what happens when you're making other plans to quote the great John Lennon.

    I was asked on camera the other day what I would say to myself if I was newly diagnosed today and I replied that I would say get on with your life, the scientists are on the cusp of a cure and it will happen in the timeframe you need it so make the most of today and try not to fear for tomorrow.

    Thanks again for the lovely comment.

  • Hi deb. My name is louise. I am 42 and live in australia. Was diagnosed in dec 2015. X

  • Hi Louise, sorry you had to join us. Where in Australia are you. We're lucky in that we have some very good CLL Experts - hope you've managed to see one of them.

  • Deb,

    You are welcome. Enjoy the kids. They grow up way too quick and I'm glad you're doing well and enjoying the ride.

    You're an inspiration to me and many others. I'm hoping for Venetoclax or Acalabrutinib next go around. Thanks for blazing one of those trails.

  • Hi Richard, my family doc gave me the news at 43 (confirmed by specialist at 44). First weeks, it's all I thought about...but now 15 months later, it's on a slow boil, just like my blood counts. Believe it or not, it becomes something you just learn to live with, while we wait for the braniacs to find us a cure! Take care.

  • 48 and W&W. Just remember this isn't a death sentence and nothing is about to steal you. Many can live decades and that's before the latest round of promising drugs.

    Take the positives you can from this and learn to live life like you stole it and love like there is no Tomorrow. Many people have been killed in car accidents sadly since you found out this. They were perfectly healthy and your still here and have s great chance to be here for many more years.

  • Thank you for all your reassuring comments. A question, when should I be concerned about small bumps in my groin? not sure if they have always been present, but now I'm aware of them I am a little worried. I was checked over by a haematologist 6 days ago. Thanks again. Richard

  • Richard

    Small expanded lymph nodes in the groin are common as the lymphocytes congregate and hide in the nodes from time to time.

    You may find they go down and appear again .

    During your examination did your doctor chech for nodes?

    It is quite likely that these will have been there for some time but you haven't noticed them.

    Unless they become troublesome let's say large and painful just keep your eye on them and report when you have your next check up.

    I know it's difficult at this early stage but don't panick go with the flow and things will come together in your head.

    After 16 years living with this condition I can assure you the psychological side gets better.

  • Hi Geoff,

    Yes, the doctor did check for nodes. They do ache slightly today, but that could be from all the prodding yesterday!

  • Yes probably the poking around Richard.

    Don't worry about them you will possibly find several areas of enlarged lymph nodes over the years underarm, neck and groin quite common. Mine went to 3-5 cm on occasions so we're not too much of a problem although the neck node did press slightly on the artery so occasional giddy spell from which I was diagnosed.

    Some patients do have extremely enlarged nodes and this can be the reason to start treatment when they start causing other problems.

    In many cases they are up and down all the time.

    As said before just be aware but don't worry.

    Best wishes

  • I was diagnosed at the age of 18 and needed treatment 2 years later.

    My CLL started acting as aggressive lymphoma 4 months ago.

    Being prepared for a bone marrow transplant . But first I need to be in remission

  • Hi Ausrine, I am so sorry to hear this. Hope all goes well for you. Richard

  • Welcome Richard,

    I would say do not be fooled ;you have an illness ,a serious illness.Many of your friends may not see the seriousness of it ,even you will not because you will feel and look good.Even when you start or are feeling the symptoms you will not appear outwardly sick and they or you may express doubt about your condition.You know the truth and are the real expert as to how your body is functioning .Just keep aware and follow your on counsel .I wish you all the best.

  • Rich,

    Read these posts from Paula.

    Part 1-

  • Hi Richard, I was diagnosed with SLL/CLL last May at the age of 50 through a routine mammogram. Someone was sure paying attention and noticed that a couple of my nodes were a bit larger than the last year. I was in shock and it was this site and a good hematologist and SLL/CLL expert that made me feel a bit calmer. Another thing that keeps me positive (most days) is the fact that my Uncle has CLL and he has been on watch and wait for 20 years. One day at a time in my new mantra. Keep living and laughing as often as possible and do visit this site regularly. There are better treatments now than ever and even better ones in the pipeline Be well - Susan

  • Hi Richard,

    So sorry to hear about your diagnosis, but you have come to the right place for excellent advice and support.

    Like you I was diagnosed by chance in June at the age of 40! and like you and many others I was so afraid (still am, feeling better about things now), I was lost, couldn't look forward, wishing my life away in terms of that I wished I was 70 and was told then, wikl I make it 70+. I have my next appt in May and on W&W, my advice to you my friend is;

    1) Careful who you share your diagnosis, people will not really understand and you don't want to be seen as the condemned man. Which you are not!

    2) Being so young, I guess you are working, you don't want to be prevented in career progression.

    3) Did you know 33% of people diagnosed don't ever need treatment!!! Although this condition is an individual thing in how it progressive in you, however the stats are impressive!

    4) If and when you do need any treatment, there are lots available and not all chemo, my good friend Cammie who has already replied has lived with this for over 17yrs, after various treatments.

    5) I found it helped searching for people near me on this forum to meet for a coffee and chat. I live in the Midlands and happy meet you if you are close and upto it.

    6) There are meetings arranged by the committee of this forum, I found it very beneficial to attend and listen to various speakers inc specialist doctors. I will warm you that it was a shock to the system at first seeing a room full of people and me being the youngest, the feeling of doom and how will I get through this came rushing back initially.

    I wish you well, no question is stupid!

    Regards to

  • Thank you so much for this email, it means so much. I'm in Kent, but do have the need to occasionally go to Birmingham and Leicester. Richard

  • I'm glad it helped, I live in Birmingham, so if you are around let me know.

  • Hi Richard,

    Sorry you were diagnosed. I was diagnosed in December, and I'm 47. Last week, I found they finally got my second test results back (screwed up the first ones) and I learned I dreaded 17p deletion. A day later, they call to tell me my WBC doubled in 6 weeks. So much for 2 years watch and wait, worst case scenario. Now we're looking at this month maybe.

    You probably don't have my poor prognosis, but I would highly suggest getting all the genetic testing done just so you know what you are headed for. In either event, don't panic. If I can keep it together, so can you.

  • Welcome to our community Thompsonellen! You haven't stated what your starting white blood count was and you may be unnecessarily concerned. You should measure your Absolute Lymphocyte Count doubling time and only once it has climbed above 30. I was rather worried about 6 years ago when my count doubled in about 3 months, but my haematologist wasn't that concerned (because my ALC was under 30) and 6 years on I'm still in W & W.

    17p is only to be dreaded if you need treatment and you are limited to chemotherapy treatment. 17p patients treated on the new non-chemo drugs respond well, so if you do need treatment, depending where you live, you may already have access to the new treatment drugs or may be able to gain access to them via clinical trials.

    Check out the pinned posts to the right:

    * Why we need to track the absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) not white blood cell count (WBC)

    * When to Treat

    * When do white count numbers trigger treatment?

  • Lymphocytes went from about ~20-40K in 6 weeks and when she say this, the hematologist called me and told me to expect 1-2 months to treatment (Ibrutinib) and referred me to Penn's Abramson Cancer Center because I'm ultra high risk and might as well see a dr who does stem cell transplants now. I'll know more Thursday when I get down to Penn. Lost faith in my Dr after several bigs mistakes, the smallest of which was losing the first set of labs.

    But as I've read elsewhere, worrying today only robs my strength today.

  • I'm glad you are going for a second opinion, but given your situation, I'd write a specific post asking if any members can recommend a good CLL specialist near you. Meanwhile, please check out the link below for a list of CLL specialists recommended by Dr Jeff Sharman, a highly respected CLL specialist who practices in Oregon. In his post (link below), there's also a list of doctors recommended by CLL patients. These doctors may not be CLL experts, just doctors that CLL patients feel understand their CLL:

    I suspect a CLL specialist would monitor your ALC for a few months to see if it settles down or continues to climb before starting treatment. We have some members with ALC numbers well over 200 and still in watch and wait.

    CLL specialists are also using stem cell transplants much less than used to be the case. It is a high risk procedure - with risk increasing with age and success is not guaranteed. If it is successful, it is a cure for CLL - which with a 17p deletion is not currently recognised as possible with other treatments. Ibrutinib has been shown to work very well with 17p deletion patients and you may do well long term on Ibrutinib and not need a stem cell transplant.

  • Thanks. The doctor I am seeing tomorrow is on the list. Given there are only three in PA, that is a good sign. :)

  • Great news! Meanwhile, to reassure you that people with your CLL prognostics do well on Ibrutinib, read this reply and my response:

  • Let's hope I do well. Treatment starts April 8. I feel in my gut that I will have a rough go of it but will be cured someday. :)

    And while most people do watch + wait a long time, a rare few of us go from visit to the primary care doc to treatment in months, which is the case for me. My expectations would have been managed better if my doc hadn't told me the "worst case scenario" was 2 months to treatment 6 weeks ago. Again, I get that I'm the exception, not the rule, but it's sort of a sick joke to me that my GP told me I got the "good" kind of cancer in December.

  • Let us know how you go with your Abramson Cancer Center appointment. Given the information you have shared, I wouldn't be at all surprised if your Abramson specialist suggests you defer treatment for a while to see if your CLL stabilises.

    Also, most do well on Ibrutinib with manageable side effects that lessen over time. They rarely post to forums because there's nothing to write about!

  • I had the appt yesterday. His first reaction when he saw 3 cm lymph nodes was "it's time." But I like the doc - Dr. Mato. PS hope the person you posted who had pneumonia is doing ok.

  • I was treated with FCR by the age of 45. My best advice is to find the information that is relevant and then return to you normal life. Dont hunt for answers you dont need and dont blame every little niggle on the CLL. Carry on with life as best as you are able. Far too many people waste the W+W time worrying. Look at it like this, you will now be monitored more than any other person you know therefore its less likely that you will get any illness and when you do it will be jumped on. You may 1 day need treating but with the speed of change in treatments currently its not worth worrying about treatment because you have no idea what treatments will be used by the time you need it. Its a big shock to get your head round but you just have to live with it, My consultant always says diabetics can die in a day, Cll takes years to get you. Diabetics dont panic like we all do. Its harsh but true.

    Dont get caught up in a world of worry, it will only make things worse.Trust me!

    Journey well

    The bear

  • Well, I've had 9 days since being diagnosed and I agree wholeheartedly.

    A question, I have heard nothing from the hospital since being given the news, I have no idea what my blood count is or what the next step is. Should I be trying to contact a CLL specialist? Do I just wait until I get called for another blood test? Anyone know if Tunbridge Wells, Kent is a specialist hospital? Any info would really help.

  • Hemo will send an appointment. Then if another blood test confirms it you might be scanned. Just to see if you have any mass. Then they can work out how often to see you. Im leicester who are great but some hospitals take a while. Remember you have had this thing for years already, a few more weeks wont hurt. If your worried nag your GP for an urgent referal.

  • Had it for years??? I've had 8-10 blood tests in the last 3 years and only one picked it up!?

    I do have business in Leicester occasionally at High Cross.

  • Oh and if your ever in leicester you can buy me a coffee while i bend your ear.

  • It crowds your bonemarrow until eventually it spills into your blood. Thats why we have BMB tests.

  • CLL doesn't need to crowd your bone marrow before it spills into your blood. Bone marrow infiltration can trigger treatment due to falling blood counts, but many with CLL are treated for other CLL caused conditions while their bone marrow is still working adequately. We are all different...

    BMB tests do tell us directly what's happening with our CLL though, with blood tests being more of a surrogate measurement - easier and cheaper to do but an indirect measure.

  • Hi richard. I am 42 and was diagnosed december 2015

  • Hi Richard. I'm 42 diagnosed 4 months ago and on watch and wait. Sorry to hear that you have been diagnosed. You can get done great advice on hear. I recently attended CLLSA meeting which was very informative and beneficial, I would highly recommend attending one. Good luck. Melissa

  • Hi Melissa, where would I find out where my nearest meeting is?

  • Hi Richard. If you join the CLLSA website they will advertise. Dates have not been confirmed yet but I think London in November at some point. They are also planning an Oxford one.

  • Hi Richard, sorry to hear of your diagnosis. I was diagnosed with CLL this week, three months after giving birth to my baby boy. Cannot fully describe my emotions right now. MBL was picked up during pregnancy. I have no symptoms. Does anyone know whether you're more likely to need treatment sooner if you're diagnosed before the age of 55? I read this but don't know how reliable the article is. Thank you.

  • Oh bless you Suzejc. What a mixed range of emotions you must be going through right now.

    Firstly, please please try not to panic. I know how things must seem to you right now but I promise you, you will feel better than this

    You are young and strong. The future looks brighter than ever for us now and is ever changing for the better.

    First and foremost DON'T rely on what you read on the internet. Many articles are wrong or out of date. DO find yourself a Dr you can trust, essential. Certainly a CLL specialist is a plus, (particularly depending on what stage you are at) but a day to day 'go to' person is a must.

    Make use of this great forum. So many people here willing to help and support you through these early days and beyond. People who feel or have felt just like you.

    Write your own post and introduce yourself, I promise you will get some great responses.

    You are going to learn to LIVE with this-you'll see.

    Peggy x

  • Thanks Peggy. I was starting to feel a bit more positive before reading research articles this evening. I'm going to ask my specialist nurse the question tomorrow and will write my own post. Thank you for your response x

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text:
I found out my op will be in October but have to postponed it later. Do you know how long I would have to wait on average for another date?

Obviously, would like it earlier because I'm more free but in October it clashes badly with my job. I was informed that i should have the operation in April. What is it that I need to say to these people to get it even in September? My hospital is based at UCH in London.

8 Replies

  • A_leck1,

    Have you considered to on the cancellation list? When I had an op it would have been in 2010 and then I had a phone call because they had a cancellation for the 31st December 2009 so I had a great new year lol.

    It could be anything from weeks or months till you get a new appointment. But with it being for a hospital operation it should be ok for work?

    Hope it helps

  • Thanks, I will try that. At the moment there wouldn't be a problem for me to have the operation from now to august. My workplace won't mind but anytime from October will not be good because its a contract job. I know I'll take more than 3wks to recover because I have suffer from severe chronic muscle pain in my hip flexor muscle which is separate problem.

  • That's not good Hun,

    I hope it all works out keep me updated if you like? I know it's not nice having endo.

  • I had this happen to me but ended up having my lap 2 weeks ago.

    My original appointment was April, they changed it to June, then July, at the time it would have been another 4 months wait. I wasn't happy about being messed around as I had the usual symptoms and pain and had a life I wanted to get on with. I contacted PAL's (patient advise) most hospitals have one I believe, they got in touch with the management team at the hospital and when the cons came back from his holiday I received a phone call (and letter followed) to say my operation was going to be in less than 2 weeks time, (which was now 2 weeks ago).

    I would suggest you get in touch with your local PAL,s if they have one and go see your GP, get him/her to write to hospital explaining you are not willing to wait and it is inconvenient and I am sure something can be done as regards to moving you forward, I think a GP letter can help a lot in these circumstances. (I also went to my GP and I also phoned the gynea secretary). Get as much backing as possible and as soon as possible and you just never know. If you don't say anything they just think you are happy to wait. Good luck X

  • Apologies Oops my original appointment wasn't April it was May. X

  • There's a long wait at UCLH and I don't think you'd have any luck getting it earlier, but you've got nothing to lose by contacting PALS. I was put on the list in February there and am expected to have my operation in August.

  • Thanks guys I will try that

  • I'm going to have my operation next week. Wohoo!

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