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How to get something accomplished December 22, 2016

Posted by mareserinitatis in family, humor, teaching, work, younger son.
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I’ve been wondering why I felt like I got little of what I wanted done the beginning of the year, but the past four or five months have been amazingly productive.  Part of that is, of course, due to the fact that I have been regularly employed since August, and having a job to go to makes you feel productive just because you show up not wearing pajamas.  At least I haven’t yet… (And I must’ve had an exceptional class because I don’t think any of them did, either, despite our class meeting at 8 a.m.)

I think I realized the other thing that helped: I moved to another town.  You may laugh, but I’ve been back home a couple days now, and it’s kind of hitting me that driving my offspring around really chews up my day.  (No wonder I was under a lot of pressure to get a drivers license when I was in high school.) Doubly unfortunate, we are down to one vehicle because someone ran into Mike last week and his vehicle is waiting to be assessed by our insurance company, so I’ve been responsible for driving him around, too.  However, he begins his vacation tomorrow, which means he gets to play chauffeur, even if only to himself.  Conveniently, there’s no activities for the offspring to go to, starting tomorrow.

My next goal is to get him to do all the cooking…but I already failed that one since I promised to make meatloaf.

Anyway, the gist of the story is that people are more productive when they have a lot of time to themselves.  That being said, I am glad I get to spend some time with the family, even if some days it feels like it’s mostly in the car.

Annoying parenting advice May 16, 2016

Posted by mareserinitatis in personal, societal commentary, younger son.
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A couple days ago, for some odd reason, I came across a LOT of parenting advice online.  The funny thing was, so much of it was contradictory.  Half of it was, “pay attention to your kids and have rules and structure,” and the other half was, “Let your kids make mistakes and learn from them.”

I have to laugh because I think the approach you use as a parent is probably somewhere between these two extremes…or maybe sometimes one extreme is appropriate and, at other times, you want to swing to the other extreme.  There is no ‘one size fits all’ style of parenting: our parenting has to be as unique as our kids and, as the adult, we need to be the ones who adapt to the situation.

Let’s take an example: my younger son was a climber.  Within about a week of learning to walk, he was climbing.  At 13 months, the kid could kick my ass at climbing anything, due in part to the fact that he hadn’t developed a healthy fear of heights, and I have an overdeveloped one.  I’m seriously in awe of his climbing skills, especially now that he’s gotten into a bit of rock climbing.  How much climbing I let him do when he was younger depended on where he was doing it.  If he was climbing on my exercise bike to sit down, I didn’t worry about it.  However, sometimes he liked to stand up and try climbing the handle bars.  In that situation, I would hover so that I could catch him if he fell, and if he got too high and/or unstable, I’d take him off and say he’d gone past his limit.  If he was climbing a very low rock wall at the local shopping mall with big pads underneath to cushion any falls, I’d sit back and do some reading.  If he was climbing the 8-foot wall and the playground surrounded by pea gravel, you better believe I was standing there so that I could catch him if he did lose his grip (which never happened, though there was once a bad incident with a trampoline).

Another thing I learned was to try to mute my own reactions to situations and watch the kids reactions when they got hurt.  I basically would ask if they were okay and then let them tell me how they felt about it.  Sometimes they would get up and dust themselves off while other times they would grab on to me and start sobbing.  If they were crying, I let them cry.  Maybe they weren’t physically hurt, but they will cry if they get very scared as a reaction to something bad happening, just like most adults do.  It’s perfectly okay for a kid to cry and ask a parent for reassurance in that situation: emotional hurts are just as real as physical ones.  Of course, you also need to get them to learn to talk, even if they are upset, and explain what’s wrong.  (If the event was particularly stressful, after things were done, I would need to take break and have a good cry myself just to get it out of my system.  Sometimes parents do it, too.)

I don’t believe in letting kids do things completely independently so that they can “learn from their mistakes.”  Sometimes kids DON’T learn from their mistakes, or the path they choose ends up resulting in just as bad an outcome.  I do think it’s reasonable to let them fail, though, and then let them know that if they’d like some ideas on how to handle it better, you’re always there for advice.  People in general are good at realizing they’ve made a mistake but they’re not always so good at figuring how to do better next time, and I think it’s unrealistic to expect kids to figure it out without a little guidance from people with a bit more life experience.  (Of course, they have to be open to hearing about that experience.)

The gist of this is that you have to do what works for you and your kid and there’s no “right way” to parent.  One tactic that works one time may not work another, and you’ve got to learn how much space to give your kids.  It’s a balancing act that takes practice, and you’re going to make mistakes yourself.  Any article that tells you that they’ve discovered the best way to deal with their kids is taking all the nuance out of parenting.

Yo mama is SO stupid she can’t explain plate tectonics! December 4, 2014

Posted by mareserinitatis in education, feminism, science, societal commentary, teaching.
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When selling something or conveying information, particularly when it is technical, one wants to make it easy and understandable.  Unfortunately, one of the most common approaches I’ve seen is to say one needs to make it easy enough for an older woman to understand, particularly a mother or grandmother.  One example of this issue was the IEEE article posted about the making of the Arduino that was erroneously titled, “With the Arduino, Now Even Your Mom Can Program.”  They corrected it and apologized.

Last week, I came across another one about having a “grandmother talk.”  Once people got upset about the sexist trope, the author changed it.  However, it was more out of frustration because people weren’t paying attention to his main point about communication.  (Note: if you piss off half of your audience with your title, chances are your communication may weak in certain areas.)

I don’t understand why they don’t just come out and title these things as such:

Yo mama is so stupid she can’t program an Arduino

Yo nana is so stupid she can’t science

I don’t think anyone would intentionally pick on grandma, but they apparently do so without realizing it.

The problem with using this terminology is that it assumes older women have no interest or ability when it comes to technical or complex information.  Frankly, I’m pretty sure that, with the right instructions, both my mother and grandmother could handle a lot of technical topics.  Being older females, however, people often assume that they are too ignorant to really learn things in depth.  But despite myriad counter examples, the stereotype still exists.  Some women really have little interest and ability in science, but there are also many, many women who are exceptionally talented scientists and engineers.

I have not yet seen, however, what seems to me a much better analogy: the kid talk.  What if your kids ask you questions and you have to simplify it to be developmentally appropriate or to meet the constraints of a limited attention span?

When I try to make things understandable to kids, I take the approach that there may be developmental challenges that they’re not ready to meet, such as a particular level of abstract reasoning.  Perhaps they don’t yet have enough math to follow the technical details of a topic.  There is also the reality that even the most mature five-year-old is not going to listen to me go on and on for hours about a particular topic, except perhaps Legos.  The point of meeting them where they’re at is not because they are ignorant but because they’re inexperienced and uninformed.  While I suppose a few would get offended at such a characterization, it also acknowledges that they’re capable of learning more once they’re a bit more mature or if they have a particular interest.  It gives you some wiggle room, and you don’t have to stereotype anyone or be condescending.

I decided to put this into practice and once asked my older son to sit in on my classes.  He would’ve been a year or two younger than most of the kids in the class, but being tall, he blended in very well.  (It also helped that we don’t have the same last name.)  I felt the information would be useful for him, but I also wanted to get his take on what parts were confusing or needed work.  Beyond actually having a kid give you live feedback (because, let’s face it, they aren’t always available), it’s useful to even contemplate explaining concepts to kids.

There are a lot of marketing slogans to the effect of “so easy, a kid could do it,” but science and engineering communicators don’t generally seem to think this way.  Part of the problem is that they don’t view children as a potential audience, even though I think they’re a rather important subset of most groups.  I’m not saying you have to communicate on the level of a four-year-old, but an educated and curious 14-year-old will get you a long way.  I wonder if science would be more interesting if we saw these kids as our intended audience in most communication ventures.  At the very least, I’m sure there’d be more jokes.

“I’m busy” is a euphemism July 22, 2014

Posted by mareserinitatis in education, family, grad school, personal, work.
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I’ve read a couple articles about how we all get caught up in being so busy.  A lot of them talk about how we need to escape the busyness spiral.  Xykademiqz expressed frustration with people who are always busy.

I guess I’m coming at it from a different angle.

I’ve come to realize that the phrase “I’m busy” is just a polite way of saying, “My priorities are different from yours.”  That is, the requested action is more important to the person asking than the person who is supposed to perform the action.  Particularly relevant to my personal situation, it’s also a way to avoid saying, “I need time to work on my thesis.”

Because I’m starting to find that pretty much nobody cares if you need time to work on that.

“Aren’t you done with that yet?”

“You sure have a lot of time off.”

“I’m sure you can do that some other time.”

“Can’t you put it off for just one day?”

Except I’ve been asked to put it off more days than I even have available to push it off from.  As much as I hate telling people I’m busy, I hate even more that people won’t respect my schedule.  Part of the issue is that I am technically only part time at my job.  If you’ve ever had to work part time at a job without a very explicit schedule, you can forget that.  People want things done on their schedule, and when you’re gone you’re taking “time off.”  Apparently raising two kids and a PhD is “time off.”  I’m jealous of those people who actually get to take vacations on their time off.

A lot of times the outright rejection of working on a dissertation isn’t verbalized.  Kids, in particular, really don’t get that you have other things to do besides take care of their needs night and day.  Not that I can blame them as I sure wouldn’t mind if my mom showed up to clean my house once in a while.  (I know, Mom…you’re busy, too.)

Admittedly, doing all of this is a choice.  It’s just unfortunate that a lot of people don’t respect that choice.  It’s particularly frustrating when people want you to do things that they’re capable of doing but are “too busy” to do themselves.  It seems that rather than get into a verbal sparring match with them about how they disagree with my priorities, it’s just easier to say, “I’m busy.”

How to be condescending when you’re trying not to be February 9, 2014

Posted by mareserinitatis in career, family, societal commentary.
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There are few topics more fraught with angst than the mommy wars. A friend recently posted a link to a defensive volley from the stay-at-home mom court.  Supposedly, this response was amazing.

I thought it undermined its own point.

Let’s start with the first paragraph:

It’s happened twice in a week, and they were both women. Anyone ought to have more class than this, but women — especially women — should damn well know better.

The opener disgusted me immediately, and I almost quit reading.  Let’s start with the fact that I agree with his main point: that women who choose one path over another (in this case, motherhood or career) are not necessarily superior to one other.  However, the whole tone of the post was condescending toward women (and men!) and did ultimately end up being judgemental of working women.

But the opener set the tone, and the tone was that women are held to a higher standard than men.  It’s okay for men to say stupid things about stay-at-home mothers (but not parents?), but women somehow have this innate, caring response that ought to be the first thing out of their mouths.

Sorry.  It doesn’t work that way.  I’ve been a SAHM and a working mom.  People’s response to this is always one that comes from their perspective and takes no account of whether you’re doing what you want to or why.  When I wanted to be a SAHM mom, people told me I needed to be supporting my family.  When I didn’t want to be but was, people told me they were so jealous that I got to be at home.  When I was working, people told me I was selfish and needed to pay more attention to my kids.

At all of these points, I was also told by other people that I had made the right choice.  It’s funny how few people ever asked me what I wanted to do or if I was doing it.  The reality is that, in each of these situations, I was doing what needed to be done for the good of my family, and each response had nothing to do with me and everything to do with the perspective of the person speaking those words.

When I find out someone is staying home or working, my response is, “How do you feel about that?”  If they’re enjoying their current situation, a good response is, “Glad it’s working out for you.”  If they’re not, I wish them luck in getting things sorted out so they can be more comfortable.  It’s really not my place to say what’s best for them.

The post that started all this, however, didn’t.  It came down firmly on the side of women needing to be stay at home moms.

Of course not all women can be at home full time. It’s one thing to acknowledge that; it’s quite another to paint it as the ideal. To call it the ideal, is to claim that children IDEALLY would spend LESS time around their mothers. This is madness. Pure madness. It isn’t ideal, and it isn’t neutral. The more time a mother can spend raising her kids, the better. The better for them, the better for their souls, the better for the community, the better for humanity. Period.

No.  It’s not as cut and dried as that.  Some moms really don’t want to be home.  Some moms are better being around other adults: being the sole caretaker for children with no adult interaction makes them depressed or anxious.  (I believe this was covered in the 60s in Friedan’s Feminine Mystique.)  I wouldn’t doubt that having mom home all the time may be advantageous for some kids, but I don’t know that it’s always the best choice for the whole family.

If mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.

If mom is going nuts staying home with the kids, I seriously doubt that’s the best situation for the kids, either.  Having a depressed or anxious mom who views you as a toddling, diapered impediment to her happiness isn’t good for anything.  What do we tell people to do if they’re unhappy with their job?  Quit and find another because it’s not good to be in a stressful situation.  Obviously, quitting being a parent isn’t an option, but finding time away from parenting certainly is.

The other thing that irritated me about this post was this:

Yes, my wife is JUST a mother. JUST. She JUST brings forth life into the universe, and she JUST shapes and molds and raises those lives. She JUST manages, directs and maintains the workings of the household, while caring for children who JUST rely on her for everything. She JUST teaches our twins how to be human beings, and, as they grow, she will JUST train them in all things, from morals, to manners, to the ABC’s, to hygiene, etc. She is JUST my spiritual foundation and the rock on which our family is built. She is JUST everything to everyone. And society would JUST fall apart at the seams if she, and her fellow moms, failed in any of the tasks I outlined.

Moms don’t need to be SAHMs to do this.  In fact, what’s most irritating about this that you don’t need to be a mom at all: dads do this, too.  This paragraph basically went back on the whole “I respect the choices that other parents make comment” and went ahead and tried to put those SAHMs up on a pedestal…doing exactly the thing to working moms (and ALL dads) that the writer was originally complaining about.  In fact, he even says so.

The people who completely immerse themselves in the tiring, thankless, profoundly important job of raising children ought to be put on a pedestal.

No, I disagree.  Parenting is a tiring, thankless, profoundly important job.  And a lot of people have tiring, thankless, and profoundly important careers, too, although they at least usually get monetary compensation.  Also, many people have jobs where they are greatly appreciated and are not easily replaceable.  Okay, maybe someone who is only looking at your payroll may think so, but chances are that many of your coworkers don’t think that…even if you do get on their nerves.

We get a lot of things wrong in our culture. But, when all is said and done, and our civilization crumbles into ashes, we are going to most regret the way we treated mothers and children.

No, I don’t think that mothers and children will be the only victims.  I think the problem is simply how we treat other people in general.  In general, we tend to be caught up in the “grass is always greener” syndrome without a realistic view of what other people are dealing with.  Most people are really just trying to get through their day and don’t realize that they may be simultaneously in worse and better situations than the next person.

I once was very jealous of a friend because of all the academic honors he had achieved.  He was so accomplished, and I felt like a failure next to him.  One day he told me he felt the same because I had a happy marriage and a wonderful family.  That was the day I realized that we all picked our own paths and had our own priorities.  We always have to give up something to get what we want because no one has infinite time and resources.  We almost always find the path of our lives takes unexpected twists and turns.  And if people could respect and understand that, we’d all be in a better place.  We’re not going to get there, though, by saying we respect all those paths and then telling someone they chose the wrong one.

Time to get out of the lab November 3, 2011

Posted by mareserinitatis in electromagnetics, engineering, humor.
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I received a card in the mail from a friend.  When I opened it, and without reading it, my eyes feel on the letters Zo.

My first thought was, “Characteristic impedance?  I didn’t know she was interested in electrical engineering, let alone transmission line theory.”

Upon closer reading, I discovered she was actually making a reference to her daughter Zoe.

I think I need to spend less time around electrical engineers.

Why I really work with my husband October 31, 2011

Posted by mareserinitatis in family, grad school, papers, research, work, younger son.
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This past week, I’ve been trying to get a paper ready to submit to a conference.  My husband is a co-author on the paper, so we spent a good chunk of the day cranking away at it.  I worked on the text while he fixed all the LaTeX issues we encountered.  This is my first time submitting a conference paper using this method, and I wasn’t acquainted with all the nuances of the IEEE style.  I guess I’ve lucked out because I either used Word (up until I finished my thesis) or let my co-authors deal with the issues that arose from LaTeX.  Either way, the paper was submitted at 5:30 p.m., a whole 5 1/2 hours before the deadline.

Then we came home.  He took the dog for a walk, and I went for a run.  He cooked dinner, I showered.  He took younger son trick-or-treating, I handed out candy while trying scarf down my dinner.  (Older son held back Gigadog so that she wouldn’t a) try to steal candy out of the dish and b) slobber all over the trick-or-treaters to show them how much she loves them.)  And now I can finally get to writing tomorrow’s lecture and grading while he gets the younger boy to bed.  Oh yeah…and Mike has work to do, too.

It’s a good thing I work with my spouse or I’d never get to see him.

Kinetic theory of kids July 23, 2010

Posted by mareserinitatis in humor, science.
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It’s always fun to bring my kids to play when visiting with my scientist and engineer friends. Inevitably, the most haggard of us will comment on “how much energy they have!”

My response for the past few years has been, “Oh, we have the same amount of energy as we do, they just have less mass.” This has elicited laughter, groans, and, more often than I care to admit, blank stares.

Therefore, I have decided it is time to proffer a full explanation as more than once I have wanted to say, “Go look it up on my blog.”

Energy, as you may know, has an amorphous quality about it: it makes things move, makes them hot, makes them roll downhill, but it’s hard to define. It’s just one of those things things that we assign a number to and use it to do calculations.

The most important things about energy are that 1 – it is conserved because 2 – it can change from one form to another. As an example, a ball rolling across the floor will slow down because it’s transferring the motion from its energy into heat. The energy doesn’t go away (is conserved) but simply changes to a different form.

Fortunately, for this explanation, we’ll only deal with one form of energy: kinetic, or energy due to an object’s motion. It turns out that kinetic energy is proportional to the object’s mass and the square of its velocity. Specifically,

As I said, energy is conserved. This means it can’t go away but just can be transformed into another type of energy. However, I half jokingly assert that kids have the same amount of energy as adults, so I’m corrupting the meaning. But, moving along, we’ll assume this means that we can set the energy of an adult equal to that of a child. We’ll use the subscript A for adult and C for a child. (The use of the subscript k would be for kid, but that leaves a certain amount of ambiguity as to whether the topic of the post is human children or goats.)

If we want to know how fast a child should move relative to an adult, we can rearrange the terms to get:

In words, the root of the ratio of the adult mass to child’s mass will give the factor describing how much faster the child moves than the adult. Practically speaking, this means my younger boy moves about twice as fast as me.

One may wish to assert that the above equation is obviously false because infants, as we all know, can’t move very fast. While they may initially appear to be an exception, it is useful to note that they make an awful lot of jerky, uncontrolled movements which would probably average to the correct mean velocity.

I have, on occasion, considered taking measurements to validate the theory, but I just haven’t had enough energy.

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Nine Calendars for 2015

I’ve made it a little tradition to round up some of the best printable calendars for the new year, because there’s nothing I like better than cute and free organization. Although I feel I just shared seven for 2014 {seriously, time flies}, 2015 is only a few days away – that certainly calls for some new calendars, does it not?! You can download and print the following nine to your heart’s content all in the comfort of your home; there’s no need to buy a calendar at the store with these colorful freebies only a click away!

Printable Calendars for 20151 | 2015 Free Printable Calendar in Three Styles from Lemon Thistle

2 | Free Printable 2015 Calendars from Oh So Lovely

3 | 2015 Calendar from Cocorrina

4 | Planner Calendar 2015 from Design is Yay!

5 | Free Printable 2015 Monthly Calendar from Design Eat Repeat

6 | Free Printable Motivational Desk Calendar from Elegance and Enchantment

7 | Free Printable Calendar for 2015 from Landeelu

8 | 2015 Free Printable Calendar from Tricks of the Motherhood Trade

9 | 2015 Year at a Glance Calendars from Red Stamp

I haven’t selected a favorite yet, but I’ll be sure to as I spend some time organizing over the next few days! Which calendar do you like best?

2 thoughts on “Nine Calendars for 2015

  1. These are all so cute! Thank you for putting together a list. I’m always in need of a calendar to help me stay organized. And it’s even better if they’re as pretty as these!

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Call me old fashioned but……..

19 Nov

The age old problem of what to get children for christmas. How to get them enough without being spoilt, how not to disappoint and how to stop it being to commercial!

One I’ve been fighting with for a few years now is technology or not?

This is my opinion and how I personally feel about it. Please feel free to comment on your views on children and technology.

Olivia is 7 and a half now. 8 in March and so far ive been trying to resist all the gadgets and computer games whereas her dad is all for it! As we aren’t together anymore I can tell him I don’t want her to have certain things but I cant actually stop him buying things for her. This year he is planning on getting her either a nexus or windows tablet! I repeat she is 7! Finding it hard to come up with a reason for her to be having one. Yes I know it’s the age we live in and most of our lives depend on or are based around the Internet be it our mobiles, laptops, tablets etc and children will need these skills far more than a lot of us do now. But why do they need these things of their own?

At home I have a laptop, wifi, blackberry smartphone and a kindle fire, so she has the technology available for her to use if she needs to, she is also much more adept at using them than I am too!

They also have tablets and computers at school for her to use, failing that this is also in abundance at her dad’s! So im thinking it’s maybe an expensive way being too lazy to think of proper presents to entertain her.

So onto what I think young children should be getting for christmas.

Children’s imaginations should be encouraged, creativity allowed accompanied by mess and fun. Out door toys dressing up should be made available, after all they do grow up too fast these days and they have all their teenage years to be glued to a tablet or games console in their rooms.

This year, as previous years, Olivia is all about the dolls. Not baby dolls, the barbie type dolls. Barbie, bratz, Moxie, Monster High, Teen beach Movie and so on. She is also a lover of games, monopoly is her favourite currently owning 3 versions! And anything craft related.

Her main presents are a set of Big Sister Little Sister Dolls (as I won’t give her a real life baby sister!), a new scooter that sparks, Frankie Stein Doll, Cabbage Patch Doll, a large Bratz Doll amongst others.

I love seeing her playing make believe with her dolls and dressing up. Playing mum with her babies and drawing me so many pictures and collages. With this in mind I aim to keep buying her toys actual toys that she can play with that encourage her to be a child just like me and my sisters did and as will my nieces too.

What will your children be getting this year? Do you agree with me or you happy to buy all the latest gadgets?

Just to let you know Olivia has an iPod touch, ds console, and a wii most of which hardly get used and mainly remain at her dad’s again reinforcing my resistance to her having her own top of the range tablet!

Spoilt is an understatement don’t you agree!

Posted by on November 19, 2013 in Uncategorized

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2 responses to “Call me old fashioned but……..

  1. Taswegian1957

    November 30, 2013 at 9:49 am

    I have never had children myself but I so agree with you. It is true that children today need to learn these skills but as you say that doesn’t mean they need to have their own if technology is readily available to them. It’s nice to see children playing with dolls and toys and games and being children for longer. It seems to me that the 8 year olds of today are more like the 12 year olds of my day. The other thing I wonder is if a young child has a computer, phone, music player and TV of their own before reaching the teen years what the heck do you get them after that? Nothing would impress them. I think you are doing the right thing and it sounds like Olivia prefers real toys, she might not use the tablet that much anyway.

    • choccyaddict

      November 30, 2013 at 10:34 am

      Exactly! What do you get them when they’re older if they have it all at such a young age! Olivia does love playing with her dolls and doing arts and crafts and I would prefer it that she received these kinds of things whilst she’s still young enough to enjoy it save the other stuff until she’s older!

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Christians Encouraged to Be a Voice During National Adoption Awareness Month

Photo Credit: Life Matters Worldwide

(Mission Network News) Did you know that November is National Adoption Awareness Month in the United States? According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Adoption Awareness Month is celebrated across the country to bring attention to children and youth in foster care still waiting for a family.

The observance started in 1984 as National Adoption Awareness Week, announced by President Ronald Reagan. It was expanded by President Bill Clinton in 1995 to National Adoption Awareness Month for the entirety of November.

The concept of adoption seems like something everybody would naturally be on-board with and support as a positive thing, right? If so, why do we need to raise awareness?

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October 6, 2012

How You Can Organize and Run Your Own Blog Tour – Part 2

Posted in Blog Tours tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , at 1:41 pm by Christine Rice

In Part 1 I covered: how to begin organizing a blog tour by announcing your plans in various online locations, and how to find bloggers who would be willing to host you on their blogs. In part 2, I will discuss: what to write in emails to bloggers, how to maintain an effective “contacts list” in your email program, how to have effective exchanges with bloggers, and what to do when bloggers don’t respond to your emails.

Part 1 left off with contacting bloggers that you find on Book Blogs or on your list of followed blogs. Before I go into the new topics for today’s post, I want to mention that it is a good idea to follow the blogs of the bloggers you contact, because it is polite, and because you will be adding to your list of followed blogs which can be a helpful resource in the future. You can adjust your notification settings for the blogs you follow according to your preferences.

Now, on to how to compose and send emails to bloggers. I know it saves time to type up a standard email and send it to all the people you wish to contact, but you won’t get as many responses that way. It is more effective to write a custom email message for each blogger and to send the emails individually. The bloggers will really appreciate that you put in extra effort to speak to them individually and personally.

So when you find a blogger you wish to contact, you should first set them up as a “new contact” in your email program by adding their name, email address, and blog URL to the contact form. Before, during, and after your blog tour you should add notes to your blog tour contacts so that you will have a record of what your exchange was about. This is so if you delete their email in the future, which you probably will do eventually, you will know how you met and what your interaction was.

After adding the contact, open a new message and select their name from your contacts list. This is so they will see their name at the top of the email instead of their email address, which is more personal and effective.

Create a subject line that says: “Book review request,” “Author interview request,” “Giveaway request,” etc. Keep it short, simple, and direct so that it will avoid getting sent to the blogger’s spam folder. Compose the email message based on your instinctive feelings about the blogger and their blog, and what services they provide to authors. At minimum, you should do the following: introduce yourself, mention how you found them (e.g. I saw your post on Book Blogs that says you are looking for authors to interview…), explain briefly why you are contacting them and what your needs are (e.g. I am having a blog tour in November and I want to know if you would like to review my book/interview me/host my giveaway, etc.), state your book’s full title, provide a short description of your book if the genre or subject matter is not assumable by the title, state what you will offer them in return for their services (e.g. Free ebook in your choice of format), and include a “call to action” (e.g. Please contact me at your earliest convenience and let me know which ebook format you prefer). Each of these parts should be only one sentence long in order to keep the email short and more likely to elicit a response. Edit and proofread your email and then send it.

Create a new folder in your email program and title it “blog tour.” Move and keep all emails related to your blog tour in this folder until the blog tour is over. Next, you will just wait for the responses to come in. Don’t send a second email if you don’t hear from them on the first contact, because it likely means they are not interested. After you receive most of your responses, you can create a separate email folder for “no/no response” and put into it emails in which you didn’t receive a reply from the blogger (yet) or if the blogger said they are unable to host you (I did not have many of either of these).

Generally speaking, the best way to communicate with bloggers is by being professional, friendly, and assertive – all at the same time. You want to be professional, because you are a professional writer and a blog tour is a business exchange; you want to be friendly so that the bloggers will be more receptive to your emails; and you want to be assertive to get your needs (a successful blog tour) accomplished. (Maintain this style of communication before and during the blog tour.) Respond to your emails promptly, because there is no time to waste. Show your gratitude to the bloggers for agreeing to host you on their blog. Communicate with clear language so that your messages will be easily understood. Edit and proofread your messages before you send them to make sure they: follow the rules of your language, communicate your needs clearly, and are assertive and friendly. Think about all the information you need to provide the blogger and all the information you need from them in order to set up your blog tour. Then try to include as much information as possible in each email (without overwhelming the blogger or asking too many different questions) to keep the number of emails to a minimum. Each time you email someone, there is a chance they won’t respond, so the less emails there are (that effectively get your needs met), the better. Always end the email with a clear call to action if you need a response from them.

If you don’t get a reply from a blogger after they have already agreed to host you on their blog, you can send a followup email 3-7 days later if you need a response from them. No responses and having to follow-up makes setting up the blog tour take longer than when the blogger responds to every one of your emails promptly. This is the reason why a blog tour must be organized one month in advance. (Plus, it gives the bloggers time to read your book.) On the other hand, if you don’t need a response from the blogger at that time, wait until they contact you or until you need to send them another email.

In part 3, I will discuss how to schedule blog tour posting dates with bloggers, how to keep track of blogs and dates for your blog tour, how to network and market the start of your blog tour, and how to start the blog tour with a bang.

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Are you a reader?

This post is virtually unrelated to movies, but it’s still important. (What? Not movies? Important? Unheard of!)

I’ve spent the past two weeks writing a novella, and now I’ve self-published it. It’s called Disco, Lucifer!, and as crazy as that sounds, don’t be led to believe that it’s about Satan learning how to dance. In all honesty, I took inspiration from my own life, as well as The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.

So if you wish to purchase my book, click below:

Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

Thank you greatly, and Happy Independence Day!

4 thoughts on “Are you a reader?

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Audio analysis 12.10.2015

, Autor:

Marcin Lipka

Lockhart, Dudley and Fisher from the Fed clearly suggest what will be at the centre of attention for the Federal Reserve in the following weeks.

Marcin Lipka, analityk

This audio analysis is not a recommendation within the meaning of Regulation of the Minister of Finance of 19 October 2005. It has been prepared for information purposes only and should not serve as a basis for making any investment decisions. Neither the author nor the publisher can be held liable for investment decisions made on the basis of information contained in this commentary. Copying or duplicating this report without the written permission from Sp. z o.o is prohibited.

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Free 3D Virtual Globe Java API and SDK

World Wind is an open source API for a virtual globe written in Java – the project is curated by NASA and released under the NASA Open Source Agreement (NOSA).

The most basic usage of the SDK displays the default globe with its default layers - it requires only 6 lines of code to instantiate everything seen here.

World Wind provides a rich set of features for displaying and interacting with geographic data and representing a wide range of geometric objects.

On the pages there is a getting-started guide, impressive list of features, demos and examples.

Among the features are

  • Open-source, high-performance 3D Virtual globe API and SDK
  • Adds geographic visualization to any application
  • Runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and in web pages
  • Huge collection of high-resolution imagery and terrain from NASA servers
  • Open-standard interfaces to GIS services and databases
  • Large collection of geometric and geographic shapes
  • Uses Java and OpenGL
  • and more …

I’m not sure if the common phrase “It’s not exactly rocket-science, or is it?” applies here. 😉

, , , , , , ,

  1. #1 by cistronic on 2012/03/08 - 11:51

    An online-resource to maps of the world with a more historic angle is at

  2. #2 by cistronic on 2012/04/12 - 11:32

    Similar resources of interest :
    The Marble Project
    and MapServer (an Open Source platform for publishing spatial data and interactive mapping applications)

further hints, constructive criticism, questions, praise

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Classical education is like a very large museum with many beautiful, wonder-filled rooms that could be studied over a lifetime. It is a long tradition of education that has emphasized the seeking after of truth, goodness, and beauty and the study of the liberal arts and the great books. What are the liberal arts? They are…

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C.S. Lewis and Classical Christian Education III

~ by Louis Markos~ In my previous post, I discussed how Lewis, in his book Out of the Silent Planet, the first installment of his Space (also called the Ransom, or Cosmic) Trilogy, frees his protagonist, Ransom, from his modernist prejudices and invites him into a...

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Dickinson, Commonplacing, and a Bump on the Head

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Try our beta test site
IMPORTANT: Listing of a study on this site does not reflect endorsement by the National Institutes of Health. Talk with a trusted healthcare professional before volunteering for a study. Read more...

Resection vs. Best Supportive Care for Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) With Portal Venous Thrombus

This study has been completed.
Guangzhou 8th People's Hospital
Kaiping Central Hospital
The 458 Hospital of Chinese People's Liberation Army
Information provided by (Responsible Party):
Shi Ming, Sun Yat-sen University Identifier:
First received: May 13, 2012
Last updated: May 15, 2012
Last verified: May 2012
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the long-term efficacy and safety of surgical resection compared with best supportive care in patients with resectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with portal venous thrombus (PVTT) in the first branch of portal vein.

Condition Intervention Phase
Hepatocellular Carcinoma With Portal Vein Tumor Thrombus
Procedure: Liver resection plus Thrombectomy
Phase 4

Study Type: Interventional
Study Design: Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Open Label
Primary Purpose: Treatment
Official Title: Surgical Resection Versus Best Supportive Care for Resectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma Invading the First Branch of Portal Vein

Resource links provided by NLM:

Further study details as provided by Sun Yat-sen University:

Primary Outcome Measures:
  • Survival time [ Time Frame: 5-years ]

Secondary Outcome Measures:
  • Number of Adverse Events [ Time Frame: 30 days ]
    Number of adverse events, and number of patients who developed adverse event. Postoperative adverse events were graded based on the Clavien-Dindo classification.

Enrollment: 126
Study Start Date: January 2006
Study Completion Date: July 2011
Primary Completion Date: July 2009 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
Arms Assigned Interventions
Experimental: Resection arm
Liver resection Plus Thrombectomy
Procedure: Liver resection plus Thrombectomy
Liver resection plus Thrombectomy
Other Name: Removal of all tumor tissue by surgery
No Intervention: Best support care arm
Best supportive care

Detailed Description:
Advances in surgical techniques have made it possible to remove all macroscopic tumors in more hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with portal venous thrombus (PVTT). However, the benefit of such surgery remains largely controversial. On one hand, many clinicians believe that surgical resection offers the only chance for long term survival. Many studies reported a median survival of 6-40 months after liver resection and thrombectomy, and some cases achieved long term survival.On the other hand, the strength of evidences arising from these studies was widely questioned because of their retrospective nature and study design. Most of them were single arm cohort study. A few studies used control groups consisted of patients with unresectable HCC and PVTT underwent transarterial chemoembolization. This led to obvious selection bias. Because patients with unresectable HCC and PVTT have a much poorer prognosis compared with resectable disease because of more widespread tumor focus and less residual liver, even if their baseline characters are comparable.

Ages Eligible for Study:   18 Years to 75 Years   (Adult, Senior)
Sexes Eligible for Study:   All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:   No

Inclusion Criteria:

  • The diagnosis of HCC was made according to AASLD guidelines
  • Main tumor ≥ 7 cm
  • Imaging confirmed the presence of PVTT in the first branches but not
  • Extend into the main trunk of portal vein
  • Eastern Co-operative Group performance
  • Resectable disease

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Child-Pugh class B or C liver cirrhosis
  • An American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score ≥ 3
  • Extrahepatic metastasis
  • Patients had access to sorafenib.
  Contacts and Locations
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the Contacts provided below. For general information, see Learn About Clinical Studies.

Please refer to this study by its identifier: NCT01600196

China, Guangdong
Cancer Center, Sun Yat-sen University
Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, 510060
Sponsors and Collaborators
Sun Yat-sen University
Guangzhou 8th People's Hospital
Kaiping Central Hospital
The 458 Hospital of Chinese People's Liberation Army
Principal Investigator: Ming Shi, MD. Sun Yat-sen University
  More Information

Additional Information:
Responsible Party: Shi Ming, Professor, Sun Yat-sen University Identifier: NCT01600196     History of Changes
Other Study ID Numbers: HCC2005009
Study First Received: May 13, 2012
Last Updated: May 15, 2012

Keywords provided by Sun Yat-sen University:
Hepatocellular carcinoma
Portal vein tumor thrombus

Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular
Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial
Neoplasms by Histologic Type
Liver Neoplasms
Digestive System Neoplasms
Neoplasms by Site
Digestive System Diseases
Liver Diseases
Embolism and Thrombosis
Vascular Diseases
Cardiovascular Diseases processed this record on May 23, 2017


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Prophylactic Use of Entecavir for HBsAg Negative/HBcAb Positive/Hepatitis B Virus DNA Negative Patients With Lymphoma

This study is currently recruiting participants. (see Contacts and Locations)
Verified January 2017 by Peking University
Information provided by (Responsible Party):
Jun Zhu, Peking University Identifier:
First received: January 9, 2013
Last updated: January 8, 2017
Last verified: January 2017
No Study Results Posted on for this Study
  Study Status: This study is currently recruiting participants.
  Estimated Study Completion Date: December 2017
  Estimated Primary Completion Date: December 2017 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)


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Try our beta test site
IMPORTANT: Listing of a study on this site does not reflect endorsement by the National Institutes of Health. Talk with a trusted healthcare professional before volunteering for a study. Read more...

Brief Intervention Study for Quitting Smoking (BISQUITS)

The recruitment status of this study is unknown. The completion date has passed and the status has not been verified in more than two years.
Verified April 2012 by Heidelberg University.
Recruitment status was:  Enrolling by invitation
Information provided by (Responsible Party):
Felix JF Herth, University of Heidelberg Identifier:
First received: April 27, 2012
Last updated: April 30, 2012
Last verified: April 2012
To investigate the effectiveness of a smoking cessation intervention of two sessions (120 min at a time) in a group setting on the basis of Motivational Interviewing (MI) and important elements of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). According to national and international guidelines patients are advised to quit and pharmacologically supported with one of the established first line smoking cessation treatments.

Condition Intervention
Tobacco Use Cessation
Smoking Cessation
Behavioral: Brief advice
Behavioral: Compact cessation course
Behavioral: Standard cessation course

Study Type: Interventional
Study Design: Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Open Label
Primary Purpose: Prevention

Resource links provided by NLM:

Further study details as provided by Heidelberg University:

Primary Outcome Measures:
  • Continuous abstinence rate [ Time Frame: 12 months ]
    Biochemical validation by measurement of urine cotinine levels

Secondary Outcome Measures:
  • Continuous abstinence rate [ Time Frame: 6 months ]
  • Time point abstinence rate [ Time Frame: 6 and 12 months ]
  • Quality of life [ Time Frame: 0, 6 and 12 months ]
  • Depression [ Time Frame: 0, 6 and 12 months ]

Estimated Enrollment: 800
Study Start Date: December 2011
Estimated Study Completion Date: December 2013
Estimated Primary Completion Date: November 2012 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
Arms Assigned Interventions
Active Comparator: Brief advice
A brief advice to stop smoking of about 10 min accompanied with self-help material
Behavioral: Brief advice
Brief advice of about 10 min accompanied by self-help material
Experimental: Compact cessation course
Cessation intervention of 2 x 120 min in a group setting
Behavioral: Compact cessation course
Compact cessation course on the basis of Motivational Interviewing (MI) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Group setting. 2 x 120 min.
Active Comparator: Standard cessation course
Cessation course in a group setting over 6 dates
Behavioral: Standard cessation course
Cessation course over 6 dates. Group setting.

Detailed Description:
The study design is multicentric, prospective, randomized and controlled. The study is taking place in cooperation with smoking clinics of 5 centres in Germany (Heidelberg, Stuttgart, Munich, Chemnitz, Berlin). A total number of 800 smokers is calculated to participate in the study. After enrollment participants are randomized in one of the three intervention groups: (A) "Advice only", (B) "Brief intervention", (C) "Intensive therapy". The follow up includes a telephone interview 3 months after the last intervention, and two visits at the smoking clinics after 6 and 12 months with biochemical validation of the smoking status by measurement of the exhaled carbon monoxide and the concentration of cotinine in an urine sample respectively. The primary endpoint is the continuous abstinence rate after 12 months. Several secondary endpoints are determined amongst others the continuous abstinence rate after 6 months, point prevalence cessation rates after 6 and 12 months, life quality, weight gain, predictors of a successful cessation attempt.

Ages Eligible for Study:   18 Years and older   (Adult, Senior)
Sexes Eligible for Study:   All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:   No

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Smoker
  • Age > 18 years
  • Motivation to quit smoking

Exclusion Criteria:

  • severe somatic comorbidity or reduced life expectancy
  • severe episode of a psychiatric disease
  • reduced cognitive ability
  • abuse of alcohol or illicit drugs
  • other reasons at the discretion of responsible local study tutor
  Contacts and Locations
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the Contacts provided below. For general information, see Learn About Clinical Studies.

Please refer to this study by its identifier: NCT01589211

Thoraxklinik Heidelberg
Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, 69126
Zentrum für Tabakentwöhnung Stuttgart (ZfT)
Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, 70178
Klinikum der Universität München - Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie
Munich, Bavaria, Germany, 80331
Technische Universität Chemnitz - Institut für Psychologie
Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany, 09120
Institut für Raucherberatung und Tabakentwöhnung am Gemeinsschaftskrankenhaus Havelhöhe
Berlin, Germany, 14089
Sponsors and Collaborators
Heidelberg University
Principal Investigator: Alexander Rupp, Dr. Heidelberg University
Study Chair: Michael Kreuter, PD Dr. Heidelberg University
Study Director: Felix JF Herth, Prof. Heidelberg University
  More Information

Responsible Party: Felix JF Herth, Dr. med. Alexander Rupp, University of Heidelberg Identifier: NCT01589211     History of Changes
Other Study ID Numbers: WS899101
Study First Received: April 27, 2012
Last Updated: April 30, 2012

Keywords provided by Heidelberg University:
brief processed this record on May 23, 2017


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Deep Sea Volcano Bacteria mop up CO2 emissions

Carbonic Anhydrase of T. crunogena (Mahnon et al., 2015) and Hydrothermal Vent showing the hostile environments where these bacteria are found (

This week, scientists have found that deep-sea bacteria living at high temperature deep-sea volcanoes could have the answer to our carbon emissions woes.

Fossil fuels account for 80% of the world’s total energy, despite the detrimental effects of CO2 increases on climate change.

For this reason, biological methods of “carbon scrubbing” to remove CO2 from emissions are heavily researched.

Schematic of a Carbonic Anhydrase-solvent based system for Carbon Scrubbing. (Mahnon et al., 2015).

Schematic of a Carbonic Anhydrase-solvent based system for Carbon Scrubbing. (Mahnon et al., 2015).

There is a type of enzyme found in organisms called Carbonic Anhydrases (CAs). They are dubbed “bio-catalytic agents” because they are being studied for their ability to remove CO2 produced in industry.

Until now, study success has been limited by the fact that the enzymes they have studied “denature” (break-down) at high temperatures. The best studied CA is from humans, and so function best at a measly 37 degrees! This is no use for carbon scrubbing technologies which will have to operate under high industrial temperatures.

This is why these little extremophiles, T. crunogena, are of such interest. They are found at deep-sea hydrothermal vents where temperatures are very high, reaching up to 350 degrees at super-hot vents! Because the bacteria live very close to the hot vent fluid, their CA enzymes have a high thermal stability and can operate up at 72 degrees!

Maybe we should think about the potential our deep sea holds for the human race before we destroy the last great wilderness of our planet with pollution and deep-sea mining…

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Senior Engineers: Enterprise Startup, San Francisco  RSS feed

Brian Seitzman
Posts: 3
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CGTime is a VC-funded startup located in San Francisco, CA. We're developing a new kind of enterprise software for Global 2000 companies whose product lines don't lend themselves well to traditional e-commerce models. We've already assembled a great team, from executive management down, and we have opportunities available for a few more top-notch individuals to join our development team.
All of these positions require hands-on software development experience of 5+ years, including at least 2 years of experience in commercial Java software development. Applicants must be thoroughly familiar with MVC architecture, OO design and development and XML. Additionally, you must have team spirit and strong communication skills.
Relocation within North America is available, and we will sponsor H1B transfers as long as you are a current resident of the USA.
Tech Lead, Server Development (up to $140K salary)
Tech Lead, Application Development (Up to $140K salary)
Senior Engineer, Business Logic (Up to $120K salary)
Integration/System Engineer (Up to $90K salary)
Professional Services Engineer (Up to $100K salary)
For immediate consideration, send your to
For more information about CGTime, see our website at
sam fahy
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Matt A. Seif
6355 DanBrook Park
Charlotte, NC 28227
Ph#(704) 573 1025
SUMMARY Extensive background in software development with emphasis in object-oriented technologies such Java (3 years), Java Server Pages (1 � years) Servlets (1 � years), C++ (2 years) as well as XML (2 months).
Sun Certified Programmer.

TECHNOLOGYOperating Systems Windows95, Windows2000, and NT.
Databases SQL Server, DB2 and Access.
Languages Java, JavaScript, C/C++, Java Server Pages, Servlets,
XML, HTML, and Visual Basic.
Tools VisualAge3.5, Visual Caf�4.0, Tomcat3.2.1, WebSphere3.5, IBM MQSeries WorkFlow Web Client, MQSeries WorkFlow3.2.0, JDK1.3 and CVS.
EducationUniversity of North Carolina at Charlotte
M.S. in Computer Science, May 1999. (Post Graduate)
Arabic University of Beirut
B. S. in electrical engineering. May 1992.
Feb 2001-Present First Union National Bank Charlotte, NC
�Current project (LLO) has extensive work with Java, JSP, Servlets, XML, HTML, JavaScript, WebSphere3.5.2, Tomcat3.2.1 and VeniceBridge API.
Collateral Follow-Up WorkFlow System (LLO) is a process
necessary to secure collateral against loan obligations.
With the implementation of LLO data is extracted from the
backend systems and presented to the Follow-Up Team Member
to begin working on the appropriate items.
�Developed performance test.
�Involved in developing prototype.
�We�re in the testing and enhancement mode.
�Team members are 6.

Aug 2000-Present Central Piedmont Community College Charlotte, NC
�Currently Teaching Java, object oriented Concepts and Design (2 classes).

Oct 2000 � I- SILVER, Inc. Charlotte, NC
Feb 2001 Contractor
�Mentored team members in the development and design cycle of the software.
�Developed web-enabled server appliance starting from scratch .(Phase one completed on time).
�Involved in the Research Development of future releases
and other software and tools needed for I-Silver development
� Team members were 7.

Technologies: JavaInstalledShield java edition (3.5), JSP, Servlets, HTML, XML, JDK1.2, VisualCafe Expert Edition (4.0), CVS, SQL, Tom-Cat3.1 and Apache server.
Jan 2000 - UNIFI TECHNOLOGY Charlotte, NC
Oct 2000 Software Engineer
�Worked on multiple projects, for multiple customers simultaneously.
�Most recent project has included extensive work with Java, JSP and Servlets for the Conventions Visitors Bureau of New Orleans.
� Designed two Applets; the primary one is a Calendar to select timing.
�The second one is a generic bar Chart.
�This Applet is database driven, allowing the user to connect to the database and pull out values (defects values) and see them as graphical representation.
�An alternate version of this Applet is a multi-bar Chart. This function also displayed bars on the screen based on values from database. JavaScript was also used for communication.
�Both applets have completed on time (2 months).
�Promoted to Senior Developer.
�Team members were 12.
Technologies: Visual Caf� Expert Edition (4.0), Tomcat3.1, JSWDK and JDK1.2.2.
Jun 1997 - Virtual Age Technology Charlotte, NC
Jan 2000 Contractor
�Analysis/Design/Development of marketing agency�s online Catalog system:
�Implemented GUI (Swing, AWT components)
�Implemented and advising-monitoring system calendar-schedule system, and online purchasing system used by the sales representatives.
�The system gives them statistical data based on certain criteria like (time-date, Geographical location, and some history about the client).
�The calendar-schedule system is to help the sales representative to set their schedule in certain time. Also it archives the history of their visits to a particular area and the results.
�The online purchasing system allows the client to order from a list of items and select methods of payment and shipping.
Technologies: Java, JavaScript, HTML and JDK.
Jun 1997 Developer
�Developed tracker automated reporting system: this is a Stored
Procedure, which sends/receives data to/from Database.
�This system generates two reports, the first one is to update the inventory and generates a sales order and send it to the ordering system to order the needed supplies from the suppliers .The second report is to keep track of billing and cost related and stores them in the archive-system.
Technologies: C, C++ and access.
Mar 1997 Contractor
�Designed and implemented a Payroll System and provided systems enhancement and technical support.
Technologies: C and C++.

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Performance issue while painting on a Graphics2D  RSS feed

Steffen Reinhard
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Hi all!

I wrote an Applet for demonstration purposes which includes 64 vectors moving away from a common starting point and rebounding from the surrounding walls, thus gradually filling the applet window and masking part of the underlying signal. The animation works all right but tends to get boringlymind-bogglingly slow after a couple of seconds, as the underlying thread has to draw 64 GeneralPaths consisting of virtually thousands of Line2D objects with every rendering of the BufferedImage.

Is there a way to bypass the cleaning of the bufferedImage so I would only have to render and draw the current line segment?

For the actual code see below:

To view the Applet itself see Hallradius-Demo

I'll be glad to receive any suggestion to improve the shameful performance of my Applet ...

Thanks in advance!

Cheers -

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7 super-friendly robots that are changing our world for the better

TECH | | | | | | |

(Photo: Clement127/Flickr)

In partnership with NRG

There’s nothing to fear from the robot revolution. In fact, life’s about to get a whole lot easier thanks to these do-good droids

You must have read the headlines: robots are coming at us in a big, big way. Yup, in the next, um, 20 years, they’re going to rise up, take our board-games, our burger-flipping jobs and, well, kill us all. Really? No, not really. Automatons, actually, are going to do us a whole lot of good. For one thing, robotics is a cool way to get young people into careers in science, tech, engineering and maths (STEM). Or so says FIRST – an ace non-profit that’s been inspiring would-be tech-tinkerers to go after careers in STEM since 1989.

Every year, they run a pretty awesome annual FIRST Robotics Competition – basically, teams of high-school students go head-to-head in a giant robot war with bots they’ve designed and programmed themselves. The project is supported by the power company NRG (one of Collectively’s partners) who help out with funding and providing employees who volunteer to mentor the students throughout. And after six weeks of prep, all the teams meet up and duke it out.

This year, the challenge was to create bots that could kind of play a medieval type of basketball (that’s a difficult one to do justice to in words… Please, just watch the video). The final happened last week and, with 20,000 people in the crowd, it was the biggest robot battle in history (so far). The winning alliance came from five states across the US. Still, it’s not just about the win. It’s about inspiring the next gen of science-smart engineers to go pro in tech that can build bots like these that can recycle, save lives, grow food. And then kill us all.

1. Liam – Apple’s awesome, if limited, recycling super-bot

Tim Cook reckons that producing one billion iPhones worldwide comes with a “significant responsibility”. And, yep, he’s probably right on that one. The answer? Liam. Apple’s new, 29-pronged, pro-planet super-bot that can de-assemble iScrap – in other words, old iPhones, iMacs – and extract the good, re-usable bits for recycling (like, say, lithium, which can be rebooted to work in good stuff like solar panels).

According to Apple, Liam can dismantle one iPhone every 11 seconds. A lot of iPhones, then. The idea is to put a dent in the 40 million tons of e-waste the UN reckons the world produces each year. But there’s a catch: Liam only works on the iPhone 6S and, even at that speed, it can only recycle a fraction of iPhones Apple produces. Still, it’s a start, right? As Wired recently said: “that a manufacture is planning for end-of-life at all is a game changer”. Agreed.

2. Bob – robo-empathy humanoid that could be the end of loneliness

Remember Bob? Right, of course you do: he’s the first ever VR-controlled humanoid to give a TED talk in the UK last year. And, yes, he smashed it (we know because, ahem, we were there). Created by Bristol Robotics Laboratory, co-developer Paul Bremner explained that Bob’s human-gesture capabilities are what’s going to make digital, flat-screen communication a whole lot more real.

So, yes, now, you can totally own that board meeting without actually being there. Kind of. Which is, um, all great, of course. But Bremner reckons Rob has a broader social purpose: “The ultimate goal? To tackle social isolation”. An avatar that can show human sensitivities, it’s hoped, could be massive in helping people with social challenges. This, amazingly, is already happening in the US, where two robot bros – Zeno and Milo – are being used to diagnose kids with autism.

3. Nadine – the scary-real service-bot that remembers your name

OK, it’s a thing: robots have human-y names. Like, Ms Nadine here – a properly creep-out realistic robot-receptionist from Singapore made by Nanyang Technological University. Named after its creator, professor Nadia Thalmann, this bot is powered by software similar to Apple’s Siri. So, kind of like a personal assistant or companion that definitely knows when you’re swearing. Always fully aware, Nadine has a spectrum of moods and can strike up conversation with people she’s already met based on their previous meets.

Yup, scary is right. Still, kind of like Bob, Thalmann is shooting for social good: “As countries worldwide face challenges of an ageing population, social robots can be one solution to address the shrinking workforce, become personal companions for the elderly, and even serve as a platform for healthcare services in future.”

4. Nanorobot – cancer-crushing micro-droids that go to war in your bod

Imagine a teeny-weeny little micro solider-droid you could send into your body to kill the bad stuff in there and feel amazing again. Well, that’s real and happening. Seriously. Professor Ido Bachelet of Bar-Ilan University in Israel is now testing nano-bots that can be injected into your bod to selectively kill cancers cells. Apparently, they look a bit like clam shells and work like small carrier cells for toxic cancer drugs – they’re programmed to find them and, when they do, open fire – literally.

No kidding. Human trials only started last year. But Bachelet reckons that in animal trials he found he could successfully remove cancer cells in just over a month. And he’s not the only one developing millimetre-sized micro-medicins sans frontieres: a team of scientists at Drexel University have just started trailing nano-bots that can drill, yes, drill, through blocked arteries. Should be ready by 2019, they say. Go tech.

5. Spread – the world’s first robot-run farm in Japan

So, with a huge bump in population on the way, the UN reckons that by 2050 the world is going to need to produce a whole lot more food. That’s going to be tough for everyone but doubly so for countries with shrinking, ageing populations like Japan. The answer? Spread – a completely robot-run super-farm based in Kyoto where pretty much everything – watering, trimming, harvesting – will be fully automated by agri-bots that can also monitor stuff like carbon dioxide levels, lighting and heat to optimise growth.

According to the company, the farm will be able to produce something like 51,000 lettuce heads a day at full clip using super-efficient LED lights and 98 per cent recycled water. But the point is not to replace humans with humanoids, say Spread. It’s all about syncing man and machine and rebooting agriculture as a cool, tech-smart industry to get a new generation of people interested in farming. Which is pretty damn important if 9.2 billion people are going to get anything to eat in 2050. Goes live in 2017.

6. Tug – the R2D2-like drug dispensing doctor-bot that’s going to save loads of lives

Super cute, right? This little medical automaton is currently at work in UCSF Medical Centre in San Francisco. Yes, they’re already fully operational – and could be hitting a hospital near you. Right now, there are two kinds of Tug: one that does super-menial stuff like pick up trash, deliver food or clean linen, and one that ferries (password-secured) drugs to doctors all over the hospital. Both can talk (in Australian, surfer-bro accents because, well, why not?) and both are totally free rolling – they can even summon elevators and level up and down without human help (via wi-fi).

And get this: each Tug can deliver 1,000 meals and usually travels around 12 miles per day. But, wait, aren’t they just killing work hours for humans? Well, yeah, kind of. But the point, says the makers, is to give healthcare pros more time to spend with patients are cut costs in order to reduce the price of healthcare in the US. And, then there’s, well, the cuteness – can’t forget the cuteness.

7. OceanOne – a deep dive into haptic robotics

In one of the most important leaps forward in mermaid technology since Darryl Hannah, artificial intelligence scientists at Stanford have been trialling OceanOne, a remote-controlled humanoid diver who can sink to new depths in undersea exploration. She moves through the deep using eight thrusters while her arms are controlled with impressive precision from the comfort of a ship on the surface. Moving in sync with her pilot’s body, OceanOne is able to transfer sensory information from the objects she comes into contact with, so the controller feels what she ‘feels’ (jargon alert: this sort of sensory symbiosis is known as haptic technology).

Removing the limitations of human diving – exhaustion, that whole oxygen-requirement thing – opens up endless possibilities for exploring and understanding our oceans deeper and better than ever before. So far she’s been tested in salvage operations on the seabed. Watch OceanOne hunt for sunken archaeological treasure in this video:

Isn’t she amazing? We’re not sure she’s female, by the way – we’re just a little taken by the whole mermaid thing. And maybe, possibly, a tiny bit in love.

Produced in collaboration with NRG, a Collectively partner

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Crossbow (atari 7800)

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Crossbow for the Atari 7800. Based on the Exidy coin-op game, you can use either the light gun or a joystick to protect your characters as they travel across a dangerous land. It has most of the elements from the arcade versions and plays qui

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    Iron Man (2012-2014) #22

    MANDARIN CITY is aflame. Troy is in ruins. Who comes to help TONY STARK in his hour of need? Will Tony make the ultimate sacrifice to save the city? And WHO is hunting the ring-bearers?
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DePaul University College of Communication > Internships > Graduate Internship Program > Course

About the Internship Course

CMN 591 must be taken concurrently with the internship. It is a fully online class designed to prepare you to be gainfully employed regardless of the state of the economy. Topics include leveraging your strengths, identifying and articulating your transferable skills, relationship-building, and career planning in the context of your work at the internship site. NOTE: You cannot enroll yourself in the class.


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VirtualHost/Subdomain Redirect Help

Alles, was den Apache betrifft, kann hier besprochen werden.

VirtualHost/Subdomain Redirect Help

Postby antwonw » 13. March 2013 00:19

I am trying to setup a subdomain and/or virtual host to redirect to a specific port and path. I am, however, having great difficulties doing this.

I have setup my server with DDYNS through my domain name registar.

Through the ddyns client I have set it to assign a subdomain of "" so that my server will have a easy name to get to instead of a dynamic ip address.

I have also setup on my registrars host records another subdomain of "" with a static IP address for internet network accessing to my server.

My problem is that I have a service/program on my server that I need access to both internally and externally and this service can only be access through a port of 32400 and HTTP address of /web. (e.g. or

This is annoying for others to type out and I am just wanting to make it look pretty. Is there a way that I can create a VirtualHost or Subdomain of "service.*" that redirects them to ":32400/web" of the hostname they're on? (e.g. automatically forwards or proxies--to keep it pretty--to

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0 Replies Latest reply on Nov 17, 2010 12:17 AM by 815274

    Windows Java 6 Update 22 fails to load signed applet from 1.5 build

      I built and signed my applet using Java build 1.5.0_21-b01 with a Versign cert. We're finding during testing that the applet simply does not load, but the Java Control Panel lists our cert as expected. We haven't seen this issue with earlier releases of the Java plugin (e.g. before 6u22). Any ideas how to solve?


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This morning I noticed the flashing red light on my Blackberry alerting me to a new message. Since this device is connected to my work email account, I decided to give it a look to see what was so important that it couldn’t wait until Monday. I was lucky that I did check it. The [...]

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Ben Strong

Ben Strong
founder, vline, vline

Website | @bscode

Ben is hacker whose idea of a good time is building apps on top of stacks that aren’t fully baked yet. He built a mobile web browser in 2000, a real-time sync service in 2005 and some of the core technology in the ill-fated WebOS.

His newfound love is WebRTC, an emerging web standard that will bring HD video conferencing capabilities to Chrome, Firefox, and Opera later this year.

Javascript & HTML5
Location: Portland 251 Level: Intermediate
Ben Strong (vline)
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(3.45, 11 ratings)
WebRTC is a new web standard for HD video calling and conferencing that will be supported in Chrome and Firefox this summer. We'll give an overview of the APIs and protocol stack and explore how it will change the way people communicate. Read more.

For information on exhibition and sponsorship opportunities at the conference, contact Sharon Cordesse at (707) 827-7065 or

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“Second World America” an essay by Brian

Today’s Guest Saturday post comes to us from Brian of the Frankenstein Government blog. He published this essay originally on November 9, 2014.

Second World America

By Brian

When I was a child and later a young man, there was a sense of optimism in our lives. I knew and my friends knew- that if you worked hard and made wise decisions you could accumulate a small fortune and have a good life. We took for granted that our system of laws protected us. Who thought that laws actually protected our way of life- the kids of the 60s and 70s?

Do today’s kids think like that?

Several weeks ago, I had a reader write and ask that I write a little bit about the damage inflicted upon us by lawyers and lawyer legislators. It goes something like this. Legislators, state and federal, are forever creating new laws. All this new law gets implemented and then the fallout takes place. In our system many of us assume that good laws are kept and that bad laws are somehow thrown out.

Lawyers create laws, they steward the law, and they make legal decisions regarding the law. If they adhere to simple principles regarding the law- such as the Constitution and the Bill of Rights- then things would work fine. When lawyers deviate from freedom guided principles and begin to authorize let’s say- politically motivated laws or laws designed to unreasonably seize citizen assets- then the system starts to break down.

In a nutshell, it’s really hard to support any person, groups of persons, or any other institution which is seizing or really- just simply stealing your assets through the force of bad law. People who extort money from others used to be called thieves. These days we refer to them as government.

Even the most staunch libertarian like myself believes in the necessity of government for the safety and protection of our citizens. I am more than happy to pay taxes and fund our national defense (not offense) for agencies like the FCC and the FDA, and any number of other alphabet agencies that protect our citizens.

Where I get crazy is when government starts stealing my money for home loans, student loans, TARP programs, cell phones, medical insurance, bond interest, or any number of other programs ranging from ridiculous grants to farm subsidies where farmers are paid not to grow crops. All of this garbage has nothing to do with the PRIMARY job description of government. The safety and protection of our citizens.

Or more succinctly from Publius Huldah- a true constitutional scholar- comes the following:

The parallel in our Constitution is that the Constitution is the Supreme Law which the civil authorities are to obey. Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary defines “constitution”:

“…In free states, the constitution is paramount to the statutes or laws enacted by the legislature, limiting and controlling its power; and in the United States, the legislature is created, and its powers designated, by the constitution.”

So our Constitution is the Standard by which the validity of all Acts of Congress, all acts of the Executive Branch, all judicial opinions, and all Treaties is measured and judged (Art. VI, cl. 2).

So law comes from a higher source than the civil authorities. The “Rule of Law” prevails when the civil authorities obey that higher Law – be it God’s Law or our Constitution.

So how do all of these bad laws come about and stay? Could it be as simple as legislators who create law and who are often lawyers, lawyers who steward these laws once created, and judges who are lawyers and make decisions regarding these laws?

Of course. Let me give you one little example.

Lawyers blew it and I do in fact lay the blame at their doorstep. In fact, in a very simplistic way, John Roberts of  the Supreme Court while casting the tie breaking vote could have ended Obamacare dead in it’s tracks. Instead, Roberts threw out any rationale regarding the 4th amendment and authorized the greatest asset seizure and forfeiture in American history. Say that again. The greatest asset forfeiture in American history.

What did Roberts, a lawyer and judge, steal from me?

Roberts stole my liberty and freedom to choose how to live and direct  my life. He seized my work product without due process and apparently suspended the 4th amendment- which is supposed to protect me against unreasonable seizure. In short, Roberts stole my freedom, my rights as a human being, and ultimately my money. I don’t see things any differently than if my government ordered me to buy satellite television because my participation would allegedly keep the costs of TV watching down for everyone else. Roberts could have stopped all of this stupid shit. But he didn’t because he is a fallible, human being who’s credentials far exceed his common sense.

When I was a child, that law would have never been written- let alone passed and upheld by a room full of Harvard jurists. Not in my wildest dreams have I ever seen a finer example of socialism in a country that once detested socialism as the graveyard of dead republics.

In a few months I am going to have to file my taxes and I am completely angered by the fact that I must pay a penalty for a service that I didn’t want, didn’t ask for, and can’t afford anyway. This, in the land of the free.
What a joke that is. It didn’t use to be that way.

I suppose that’s how a great republic declines. It abandons the concepts and principles that once made it great. It’s an entirely odd concept to think that embracing freedom, capitalism, and a rule of law meant everyone participated on a level playing field maintained by our country’s jurists.

Today we embrace statism, socialism, and we ignore the rule of law- choosing to let mob rule democracy decide who can keep what. Our jurists are largely missing now, their bad decisions now setting bad judicial precedent which will form a foundation for the laws that will surely follow. Soon the mob will find ways to take more and more wealth from the people who possess it- making it a criminal act to possess something they want- like Russian wheat farmers under Stalin.

Why would anyone produce anything if they knew they would have to surrender it to the state? Isn’t that the essence of socialism or communism?

You can’t keep seizing the assets of our hard workers and give them to the non workers. This is how you take a well run country that embraced the concepts of freedom, the rule of law, and ruin it. By stealing the property of hard working and innovative Americans and delivering it to couch potatoes and deadbeats by passing terrible law- you most assuredly will steal the motivation of the best and brightest in America.

That’s why today, we have become “also rans.” In virtually any category, from birth to death rates to tax rates- we have dropped dramatically. We no longer sit at the top of anything except the amount of money we spend on our military and our 18 trillion dollar debt. And our costs for health care. I laugh when people still maintain that we have the best health care (certainly the most expensive and wasteful, we win that hands down) and I run across those statements from time to time. Let’s just say the World Health Organization disagrees.

The laws of this country violate the tenets of the 4th amendment which was designed to prevent unreasonable searches and most importantly- seizures. Those unreasonable seizures are destroying our way of life. They cannot be allowed to continue or we most assuredly will become a second world country. The truth is- we have probably already arrived at that destination.

As a child I never thought I’d live to see these days. We took our way of life for granted back then and they stole it from us. Sometimes when people steal your shit- you have to steal it back. Sometimes a lot of people get jailed and a lot more get killed. History teaches that lesson over and over again. You’d think at some point- we’d pay attention.

3 thoughts on ““Second World America” an essay by Brian

  1. So. Let’s see if I get this. You like some programs, but you don’t like others, so, the ones you like are constitutional, but the ones you don’t like are not? Right?

    Here’s your problem. Here is where you do not understand the constitution. The congress can pretty much tax and spend as it pleases. The CONGRESS. That is a function granted them by the CONSTITUTION. Nowhere does it say that because something is for security, or welfare, or the pleasure of CoF, therefore that is only what congress may tax and spend for. The reality is that the politics of congress, more than any other estate, are what determine what our federal government does. Contrary to idiotic conservative talking points, the President, this President or any, is not tyrannical, but rather either a reflection or refraction of congress, and not much else.

    And remember, TARP or any of those other bail-out programs, was not foisted on anyone. They came hat in hand and the congress gave it to them. Government borrowing, the Fed, the military, public pension and insurance, all these big expensive things exist at the bequest of people who want them and the congress gives it to them. It is up to voters to set the priorities – or it is up to congress without them. As long as we bleat around like sycophants, crooked people are going to raid our tax dollars in the name of things we really don’t need.

    1. If you had read anything about what I have written then you understand my simple premise. Government was created for the safety and protection of its citizens.

      In fact in this very piece, I state that. I am all about agencies that protect our people as a WHOLE and provide safety for our citizens. If it does not fall under that heading- then I am against it.

      That would be wars, bailouts, students loans, housing, etc. Anything that does not protect our citizens is a deviation of the Constitutional intent described more accurately- in the federalist papers.

      And oh btw you are wrong on many counts- but I’m not gonna argue each point.

  2. Good essay. I don’t know anyone who has an optimistic outlook for the future now. The atmosphere is one of despair — or, even worse, resignation.

    Something will continue until it stops. At some point “the machine” will stop. I think that day may not be far off now.

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