text:
, , , , , , , , , , ,

Continued from here.

Company:   Karelian Diamond Resources

Prior Post:   Here

Ticker:   KDR:LN

Price:   GBP 0.525p

Seriously, is this a company, or a joke?! It’s literally held together with spit & baling twine… I shouldn’t be surprised: It’s another Dick Conroy vehicle, and he runs it as tightly as John Teeling does his companies. The company had a mere EUR 10 K on hand at end-May 2012 (no results since!?), EUR 1.0 mio in loans, and EUR 0.8 mio in accrued director compensation. And it goes without saying the company has nothing tangible (in terms of reserves & resources) to show for its exploration efforts…

In the last year, the share price declined 70% – most of the way to my price target. Now, with an (absurd) GBP 0.5 mio market cap, KDR still remains ridiculously over-valued – in fact, it’s quite obviously worthless. Really, who on earth owns shares like this? Please contact me – I’ll shove a thermometer up your ass, and check for high fever.

Price Target:   Zero

Upside:   (100)%

Company:   Bank of Ireland

Prior Post:   Here

Ticker:   BKIR:ID

Price:   EUR 0.137

For me, Bank of Ireland’s still a reach too far… Sure, their most recent Core Tier 1 Ratio is at 13.9%, but really, that’s just a crock! B/I only has EUR 8.8 bio of equity, supporting EUR 158 bio in total assets – see the disconnect?!

Isn’t that just 5.6% of equity? Nope, not if you rely on the magic of Risk Weighted Assets. Now, before somebody corrects me, I do understand the concept (well, say about as well as a regulator ;-)), and it has a certain charm & logic (like most dangerous ideas). I’d probably even find it handy if I was performing a comparative risk analysis on some potential bank stocks. But lift your eyes from the white paper & look around the real world – it won’t be long before you’re painfully reminded how God-awful quickly risk-free assets can turn risky! And tomorrow‘s risk isn’t necessarily a risk you’ve seen before…

If you really do want to invest in bank stocks, it seems obvious the v first requirement should be an equity ratio of at least 8%, even 10%. And that’s something you should calculate yourself – it isn’t difficult, just ignore everything management says. To mangle what Buffett said, a good investor only needs simple arithmetic: Just hit the balance sheet, and calculate equity/total assets – go on, you can simply eyeball it!

Even now, investors & home-owners aren’t quite sure if the decline in Irish property prices is actually over. Which explains the continued increase in B/I’s ‘impaired’ loans & their never-ending write-downs. Which may not be over yet: Their latest (total) impairment provision is only EUR 7.1 bio. Only..?! Well, I take a pretty simple top-down approach to loan losses: Picture the average loan B/I was making some years back – let’s say it was a house loan for a middle manager, up to his neck in debt & desperation. I’m probably being kind if I presume the LTV was only 80%. But for every 80 cts of debt, the bank’s original 100 cts of collateral has now melted away to say 40 cts, at best. Sure, they probably have impaired loans in better shape, but you can bet they’ve plenty in far worse shape too…

So, a 50% haircut on impaired loans looks about right to me, which would be about EUR 7.7 bio. Well, that doesn’t compare too badly with B/I’s current provision…except we can’t forget another EUR 5.7 bio in ‘past due but not impaired’ loans. If you’re pessimistic, you may want to assume these loans also end up impaired. If you’re optimistic, you might just be deluded..! But let’s take the middle road & assume a 25% haircut on these – that’s another EUR 1.4 bio of potential losses that could show up (and certainly haven’t been provisioned for). That all amounts to an incremental EUR 2.1 bio adjustment I’d make to B/I’s total provision & equity.

Basing a valuation even on this adjusted equity might prove too generous. Stripping out losses/provisions, underlying return on equity is in the low single digits. This can be directly traced back to the current 1.20% net interest margin – which has been horribly affected by B/I’s elevated cost of funding. Most banks need at least a 200 bps margin to start generating decent returns on equity. But it’s not at all clear when that might happen – granted, things have been feeling a little rosier recently, but we all know the European sovereign debt crisis could kick in again at any time.

But then again, B/I offers a great long-term play on the entire Irish economy. [Though I’ll humbly suggest FBD Holdings (FBD:ID) offers similar exposure, but with far less risk]. And it’s clearly in the catbird seat when les bon temps rouler, with the other Irish banks on life-support (or gone terminal). Recognizing this, let’s apply a 1.0 P/B ratio to my adjusted equity figure – despite everything, B/I actually offers some pretty decent upside.

Price Target:   EUR 0.224

Upside:   64%

Company:   Kentz Corp

Prior Post:   Here

Ticker:   KENZ:LN

Price:   GBP 380p

KENZ has evolved totally at odds with my previous price target! In fact, the shares have fallen 16% in the past year – and I’m really at a loss to explain why… In their recent trading update, their backlog is +7% yoy at $2.57 bio, and their pipeline of prospects is +32% yoy at $13.2 bio. Their last results were equally creditable, with revenues increasing 9%, while PBT jumped 36% yoy. Unfortunately, 4% growth in diluted EPS didn’t keep abreast – a substantial portion of the (incremental) profit was earned in JVs, and dropped down into minorities. However, if there’s similar revenue & pre-tax profit growth in the coming year, we should see significant earnings growth drop directly to Kentz’ bottom line.

I think a lot of investors simply find it hard to wrap their heads ’round the risks an engineering contractor like Kentz presents. I can definitely sympathize… Sometimes, no matter how much analysis you do, there’s the risk you wake up some day to learn of a project that’s gone horribly wrong – and suddenly the company’s finances are hanging by a thread. One fairly drastic solution is to avoid the sector altogether – no harm in that, I often say ‘If it’s too difficult, just move on!‘.

But Kentz’ exposure to natural resources, and the growing number of complex/multi-billion dollar projects in the sector, is a secular trend I’d like to embrace more. The fact most of their exposure comes from oil, gas & petrochemical projects is doubly encouraging for me – I particularly like the increasing emphasis on gas & LNG. Kentz has an impressive history of revenue growth, margins are consistent & increasing, and there’s no history of project disasters. Their prudence is also reflected in the fact 70% of their contracts are on a reimbursable basis (and another 8% are unit rate reimbursable), and by the $220 mio of net cash on the balance sheet.

Kentz’ operating margin (adjusting for average minority interest in the past year) remains around 6.3%, so a 0.6 Price/Sales ratio still looks about right, together with a substantial debt adjustment to reflect their financial strength (they’re interested in acquisitions). Recent EPS growth was surprisingly low, but should be balanced against historical growth & a likely re-acceleration in earnings – a 15 P/E ratio now seems a fair compromise (though I suspect it might prove conservative in due course). This drops my price target marginally (vs. last year’s), but with the yoy drop in the share price, Kentz offers significant upside.

Price Target:   GBP 552p

Upside:   45%

Company:   Great Western Mining Corp

Prior Post:   Here

Ticker:   GWMO:LN

Price:   GBP 3.25p

The O’Connells are firmly in the driving seat here, with a major stake, but I can’t help noticing GWMO comes from the same stable – or should I say, pub – as the likes of US Oil & Gas (USOP:G4) & a couple of others. It mystifies me how the rest of the portfolio have been (unsurprising) duds, while USOP managed an astonishing $450 mio market cap at one point?! Perhaps they should all merge – some of that USOPian desert ‘magic’ might rub off…

[Actually, I take it back. There’s a much better company for USOP to merge with – it’s called USA Graphite Inc (USGT:US). It’s another Nevada desert dweller, but boasts the usual multi-billion dollar potential. Sound familiar? It’s also enjoyed a ridiculous amount of ramping – at one point, if I recall, a paid ramper claimed the $1 share price would reach $72! Needless to say, this piece of crap has collapsed instead, even more spectacularly than USOP. Put them together, and I’m sure you’d have an unstoppable double-barreled drilling/digging machine – they could adopt USOT as a new ticker?! ;-)]

Actually, seriously, a merger might be the best news all ’round for GWMO. ‘Cos if you consider their current cash-burn rate, vs. their latest cash (EUR 0.3 mio) & placing (about EUR 0.6 mio), the company is otherwise worthless. [Rather than pointing out how worthless most junior resource stocks are, perhaps I should just remind shareholders how long they’ve been peddling their promises… Might be more effective? If GWMO’s prospects are so great, how come it’s got nothing tangible to show for itself almost 9 years after incorporation?]

Price Target:   Zero

Upside:   (100)%

Company:   Grafton Group

Prior Post:   Here

Ticker:   GN5:ID

Price:   EUR 4.80

I saw significant upside for Grafton last year, but nothing like the near-doubling in the share price we’ve actually seen. I guess investors now see a tipping point, with UK revenues slowly & steadily advancing, and Irish revenue decline now limited to low single digits. To me, that seems a little too enthusiastic… I was certainly positive on the stock, but that was based on a sustained rebuilding of margins (complemented by hefty operating free cashflow (Op FCF)), rather than a sudden acceleration in revenues.

And the recent surge in EUR/GBP spells looming trouble for revenue & earnings – 75% of Grafton’s revenues now come from the UK, but it still reports in EUR. If the current 0.86+ rate (or even 0.88+) is sustained, don’t be surprised to see Grafton suggesting a GBP re-denomination later this year. And if there’s scope for a UK index admission, they might just go the full hog & dump their Irish listing in favour of the UK.

Meanwhile, they continue to keep their heads down, and are making steady progress. Their latest trading statement confirms revenues of EUR 2.17 bio for 2012, and an adjusted operating margin of not less than EUR 70 mio. I think it’s reasonable to expect Op FCF will continue to run well in excess of that, which suggests a FY Op FCF margin of 4.3%. This now puts interest coverage within tolerable levels, with further improvement to come.

At worst, I think any 2013 currency impact will be glossed over as a once-off – at best, it won’t even be an issue. Continued progress on revenue & margins will absorb some of the brunt anyway. I think it’s reasonable to stick with my existing investment thesis – Grafton will eventually build Op FCF margins back up towards peak levels (around 7%). This will be achieved through further rationalization, and slow but steady growth. Acquisitions will likely feature again, fairly soon, once confidence improves further & the company frees up some cash/debt capacity. Averaging current & prospective margins, an improved 0.5 Price/Sales ratio seems justified – Grafton appears to be fairly valued right now.

Price Target:   EUR 4.68

Upside:   (3)%

As usual, I’m attaching my latest/detailed Excel file here. For all previously reviewed companies (year-to-date), share prices have been updated (plus FX rates & certain other inputs), so the attached file is actually a real-time ranking (by potential upside) of all companies covered.

2013 The Great Irish Share Valuation Project VI     (xlsx file)

2013 The Great Irish Share Valuation Project VI     (xls file)


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

WARC-Type: response

text:
Jimmy Thomas, David Anthony Collings

To visualise the development of spiral grain in young pine trees, a novel technique was developed that is based on tracking the orientation of axial resin canals. 60 µm-thick complete serial transverse sections covering a stem length of nearly 10 mm were imaged at high resolution with a professional flatbed scanner using circular-polarised transmitted light. Lignin autofluorescence from compression wood in these sections was also imaged with a stereo-fluorescence microscope, using blue excitation and green fluorescence. Images were aligned and canals detected with ImageJ macros. A series of image processing steps were applied to the image stack and only resin canals were identified as black dots in the resultant image stack which was used to generate a 3D view of spiral grain using a plug-in ‘3D Viewer’ in ImageJ. The 3D visualisation showed the organisation of resin canals and spiral grain inside the wood. 3D reconstruction to show the compression wood was made from overlays of the fluorescence and the scanner images. Imaging confirmed the rapid onset of spiral grain, with a near vertical adjacent to the pith reorienting to a strong left-handed spiral within the first year of growth. There were fewer canals in the compression wood which appeared to be straighter than the twisted canals found elsewhere. This new method provides new insights in to our understanding on the formation of spiral grain and compression wood and a possible link between their occurrences.

circular polarised light, compression wood, radiata pine, resin canals, spiral grain, 3D visualisation

Full Text:

Arpin TL, Mallol C, Goldberg P. Short Contribution: A new method of analyzing and documenting micromorphological thin sections using flatbed scanners: Applications in geoarchaeological studies. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal (2002) 17:305-313.

Cown DJ, Haslett AN, Kimberley MO, McConchie DL. The influence of wood quality on lumber drying distortion. Annals of Forestry Science (1996) 53:1177-1188.

Cown DJ, Ilic J, Butterfield B. Compression wood in New Zealand radiata pine (2003). Wood Quality Initiative Report No. STA 3, Rotorua, New Zealand.

Cown DJ, Young GD, Kimberley MO. Spiral grain patterns in plantation-grown Pinus radiata. New Zealand Journal of Forestry Science (1991) 21:206-216.

Higgins MD. Imaging birefringent minerals without extinction using circularly polarised light. The Canadian Mineralogist (2010) 48:231-235.

Johansson M, Perstorper M, Kliger R, Johansson G. Distortion of Norway spruce timber Part 2. Modelling twist. Holz als Roh- und Werkstoff (2001) 59:155-162.

Sepúlveda P. Measurement of spiral grain with computed tomography. Journal of Wood Science (2001) 47:289-293.

Tarvainen V. Measures for improving quality and shape stability of sawn softwood timber during drying and under service conditions - Best practice manual to improve straightness of sawn timber. (2005) VTT Publications Otamedia Oy, Espoo, Finland.

Thomas J. An investigation on the formation and occurrence of spiral grain and compression wood in radiata pine (Pinus radiata D. Don.). (2014) PhD Thesis, School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Thomas J, Collings DA. Novel imaging and 3D rendering techniques to visualise spiral grain in Pinus radiata. In: 57th International Convention of Society of Wood Science and Technology, Barnes HM, Herian VL, eds. Technical University in Zvolen, Zvolen, Slovakia. Society of Wood Science and Technology, USA (2014) 984-992

  • There are currently no refbacks.

warcinfo:
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-18
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for April 2019
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-169-175-90.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.1-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

text:
The one where I got a bit of a fright

Alt title: why GPs are amazing and you should probably find one and hug them right now.

Balcombe-Viaduct-1282-Edit(This photo’s only relevance to this piece is that it’s pretty and it’s where I live)

Two months ago I went to the doctor with a stabbing tummy ache that wouldn’t budge. Like any sensible person I went online and self-diagnosed – in this instance I had decided I had an ovarian cyst. Don’t worry this isn’t going to get gross, graphic or talk about girly parts, at ALL. (NB. Never Google your symptoms, it nearly always says you are dying).

I had my abdomen scanned and it turned out I was right (I should clearly be in the medical profession) – but the doctor told me not to worry, to take pain killers and bugger off, because it would be gone in a few days (she was very nice and did not use those words). But I was booked in for a follow-up scan two months later, just in case…

The afore-mentioned follow-up scan was the week before last. And the doctor that did it was not nice to me at all – cold and unfriendly, she wouldn’t answer any of my questions and just told me to go back to my GP. I considered putting in a complaint – rude and unnecessary, I thought. But it turned out there was method to her (mean) madness.

I got a call the next evening from my GP, which I picked up on the hands-free in the car. She told me to pull over before she spoke to me. A bit OTT I thought, but health is her game, so my safety is of interest I suppose – I pulled over.

She told me the scan had come back looking ‘sinister’. I can’t actually remember a lot of what she said, but she kept using the word ‘sinister’ and wanted me to go to hospital ASAP. She repeated the words ‘try not to worry’ a lot, but was talking in very urgent tones, and saying that I was on a fast-track and would be seen as soon as they could possibly see me.

I interrupted her near the end to ask what on earth she meant by ‘sinister’? – Cancer. She meant Ovarian Cancer.

So I phoned my nearest and dearest and told them the score, while still pulled over by the side of the road. They all tried not to sound terrified, as did I.

And all credit to the brilliant NHS, everything did move very fast. I had a CA125 blood test the next morning, and was told that if my levels came back high it didn’t mean I had Cancer, and if they came back low it didn’t mean I didn’t – but that if they were high it was more likely I did (I think – I still don’t really understand this bit in truth).

They came back high.

Then I got a call to say I had a scan booked in at the hospital a few days later and a consultant’s appointment there two days after that.

So my mother made immediate plans to drive down from Herefordshire, and Eoin (my boyfriend) and I booked the days off. And in the meantime I kept busy, and filled all my time with work, or horses, or something – because every time there wasn’t something there was Cancer.

Royal Sussex County Hospital

The scan came around and the lovely, chatty woman at the hospital in Brighton was talking me through everything that she was doing, before she suddenly fell quiet. It felt like ten minutes of silence but it was probably more like two. Mummy was holding my hand and rubbing my arm and I think we were both trying very hard not to cry.

But then she did break her silence to say she couldn’t see the cyst, which was confusing, and that we should wait to see what the consultant said. With this in mind we all felt optimistic, but still pretty terrified, about the possible outcome.

In the waiting room for the consultant, who was running late (not his fault – he had masses of people to see before us), we ran out of polite things to talk/joke about. We are British after all, and it is always best to laugh when you think you might cry, as it’s so much less awkward for all involved.

So we fell silent for a good 15 minutes. In this time I went over in my mind how I would react when they told me I had Cancer – that I wouldn’t cry or make a scene, because that would just upset everyone and not be helpful.

We went in to the consultant’s room and straight away he apologised. He said not only did I not have Cancer, but the irregular scan that my GPs had picked up on never looked like Cancer, so the whole hospital visit – and week and a half of worry, and parental phone calls, and days off, and journey to and from Herefordshire – should never have happened.

Having made sure he was absolutely sure, which he was, he called my GP while we were still in the room. Well not her herself, the practice. He told them what he had told us – and asked them what they thought they had seen.

They had seen an irregular looking cyst, with an odd-looking membrane around it that they thought looked dangerous, sorry, sinister.

Am I cross with them for putting me through it unnecessarily? GOD NO.

My GP was absolutely professional, supportive and kind throughout. And if it had been the other way round, and they had seen something they didn’t feel happy with, DIDN’T refer me to the hospital, and then missed something – that would have been far, far, far worse.

I do not mind one iota that they were careful, precautious, thorough – because GPs have to be experts in a million and one things in the human body. So no, they didn’t see what they thought they saw, but if there was even a teeny weeny weeny chance that it was something bad, then they did exactly the right thing, and I am very, very grateful.

So here’s to them, and to GPs the country over, for being simply brilliant.

And I would also like to say a very heartfelt thanks to all the people I know who it turns out have had Cancer, (some of which I never even knew about), and have fought it like absolute champions, and won. And also those who have lived through the less positive end results …because they are all amazing and unspeakably brave – and without exception were very happy to support me 100% if this story had turned out a little differently.

So this week – Macmillan Coffee Morning week – eat cake, raise money, and as cheesy as it might sound, enjoy every single day. I will be doing all of the above.

….I hope this blog in no way trivialises what is a truly horrendous ordeal that I cannot even begin to understand. This was the tiniest drop in the ocean, and I still wouldn’t wish it on anyone.


text:
Stones In His Pockets on in Gaiety Theatre

A small village in rural Ireland is turned upside down when a major Hollywood film studio descends to make a historical blockbuster on location. The story is told through the eyes of Charlie Conlon and Jake Quinn, employed as extras along with numerous other locals. As cultures clash, it becomes clear that Tinseltown’s romanticized dream of Ireland is a long, long way from reality. Just two talented actors brilliantly bring to life a multitude of extraordinary characters, ranging from the spoilt American starlet to the English director and the village old timer.

Often hysterically funny, thought-provoking and witty, this wonderful comedy has won numerous awards including both the Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best New Comedy, as well as three Tony nominations on Broadway. Stones in his Pockets ran for four years in the West End and has delighted audiences around the world.

One of the UK’s greatest directors of comedy, Lindsay Posner’s many acclaimed productions include Noises Off at The Old Vic, and Abigail’s Party, Relatively Speaking and Hay Fever in the West End. He was Associate Director of the Royal Court Theatre from 1987 – 1992, where his production of Death and the Maiden won two Olivier Awards. He recently directed God of Carnage for the Theatre Royal’s 2018 Summer Season.


text:
Ex-Disney Channel Star Caroline Sunshine Joins Donald Trump Press Team

  • Cs wt

    Source: pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com / Via: variety.com

  • Sometimes it feels like the goal of the Donald Trump presidency is to destabilize the spirit of democracy, and other times it feels like it just wants to put us in the surreal reality of a living lucid dream. Take for example the news that actress Caroline Sunshine, the ex-star of Disney Channel’s “Shake it Up,” a television show that ran from 2010 to 2013, will join the Donald Trump Press Team. Caroline Sunshine is currently 22 and will be working as a press assistant, and this is following her work as a White House Intern. So congratulations to Caroline Sunshine on doing the near impossible — turning an internship into a job.

    Caroline Sunshine, while being young enough for this assignment to not be completely ludicrous, is joining the trend of Donald Trump hiring media personalities to fill up his White House. For today, it will just be a deeply weird headline in a series of deeply weird headlines that this year will shake out.

    What do you think of this story? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter at @WhatsTrending.


text:
My Daily Routine ft. Lively

I’m one of those people who thrive in their routine. I can’t help it, but I need a routine to function. Recently I’ve become obsessed with The Skinny Confidential podcast in which they ask each one of their guests about their A.M. & daily routines, especially their skincare routine. So, what better time than the present to share my morning routine in collaboration with my new go-to comfy bralette provider, Lively. For those of you that haven’t heard of Lively before, they blur the aesthetic lines of lingerie, active, and swim, taking the best elements of high-style and comfort from each category.

The most comfortable bralette

 Lively all-day-long lined bralette

No competition, this bra is by far the most comfortable I own. Lively uses the softest fabric in their designs that rival even my most comfy VS bras. Which is really saying something because I have zero tolerance for uncomfortable bras. No joke, all I wear are wireless lightly lined bras. This bra is so comfy that I put it on only to take pictures, and ended up changing my white shirt so I could wear it the rest of the day.

Lively Bralette

Because my day is never a 9-5 (more like a 6-9) I need a bra that can keep up. Literally! I refused to be constantly pulling up my bra or fixing my straps. That’s why the all-day-long line bralette was the perfect piece to add to my closet! It fits like a dream and is so comfy and soft so that sometimes I forget I’m even wearing a bra.

My morning routine

In the morning, I wake up anywhere from 6 a.m. – 7 a.m. depending on my class schedule, work schedule, etc. I always roll out of bed and stumble to my Keurig for my cup of coffee, (my day can’t start until I have my coffee in hand) I then respond to emails, check Instagram and all my social accounts, and eat breakfast. For breakfast, I either have oatmeal with dried cranberries and brown sugar or Honey Bunches of Oats with almonds. (Shout out to Matt for getting me hooked on Honey Bunches…)

After my coffee has kicked in, I’m ready to start my day! As mentioned above, I’ve been obsessed with skin care since I started listening to The Skinny Confidential podcast, so I’m going to walk you through my a.m. skincare routine. First off, I cleanse with an exfoliating cleanser. I’m currently loving this charcoal cleanser, but in the winter months, I’ll opt for something a little more gentle. (Side note… I’ve always wanted to try the Kate Somerville ExfoliKate. It’s SO expensive, so if you use it an think it’s worth the price, let me know.) I then use an oil & alcohol-free toner and finally either the Elemis Superfood Day Cream or the Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream. (Read more on the Elemis Superfood line here.)

Shop my a.m. skincare:

evenin skincare routine

Maybe I’m the only one like this, but at the end of the day all I want to do is shower and take off my makeup. For makeup remover, I either turn to Elemis Pro-Collagen Cleansing Balm or the much more budget-friendly Garnier SkinActive Micellar Cleansing Water. After I’ve removed my makeup with either the balm or water, I cleanse to ensure no makeup is left behind. I’m currently loving this charcoal cleanser. Next, I use the S.K. Basics Rosewater Sprayfollowed by an acne treatment product (either SkinCeuticals or my Curology prescription), and finally my all-time FAVORITE Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream.

Shop my p.m. skincare:

Lively is a brand “inspired by women with wild hearts and boss brains.” My morning and evening routines help me to look and feel my best every day, so it’s fitting that I now have a brand that can keep up with my lifestyle.

Lively strapless bra

picture via Lively

ALSO… I have exciting news for those of you who hate wired bras as much as I do. Lively just recently released their no-wire strapless bra I CANNOT wait to get my hands on! It is perfect for travel because you can bend and roll this bra without losing its shape and pack it anywhere.

Use code AMB-whattheclique for $10 off your first Lively purchase!

Thank you to Lively for the bralette featured in this post. All opinions are my own.

Leave a Reply


text:
Dry skin woes during air travel

Dry skin is a bad news. Often when I fly I spend the whole day moving from plane to plane and it’s such skin-dehydrating business, this flying!

I find myself needing to re-moisturise my hands nearly every 2 hours. If my hands get that dry, I can only imagine what my face feels like! That’s why I do all of this the night before I travel. I try to avoid dry skin like the plague.

I’m writing this while air bound right now, and I made a mistake this time round. I was so sleepy last night that I forgot to mask, and only remembered to do so this morning. As a result, my skin is not as moisturised and supple as it would have been if I had masked and laid on the moisturiser very heavy last night. Actually I can’t even remember how much moisturiser I used last night, or which one! This is bad, this is very bad! This is definitely What Catherine Should Not Do!

My mask (a very lucky find I picked up in Norway) is very efficient, sucks out all that bad stuff and purifies, but if not followed with an adequate moisturiser, things may start to go SNAFU. Couple that with a whole day of travel, and I’m definitely feeling the effects.

Being ever the Duty Free shopper, I made my dutiful stop at the cosmetics counter, tried on a few things, and when I pulled my skin back towards the ears as I applied, it’s elasticity was wanting, it looked drier than usual. Thankfully I know just why, and how to remedy this.

Don’t be like forgetful Catherine, be more like the smart-traveling Catherine, your skin will thank you!

Read my previous post on how to keep gorgeous supple skin when travelling.

Leave a Reply

Your e-mail address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.


text:
Synopsis: Seth Brundle, a research scientist, is close to completing a machine that can teleport an object between two locations however when he tests the machine on himself things go wrong.

Director: David Cronenberg

Runtime: 96 minutes

MPAA Rating: R

IMDb: 7.5/10  Rotten Tomatoes: 91%

Netflix (US): No

Jump Scares:  2 (0 major, 2 minor)

Jump Scare Rating: A couple of minor scares towards the end of the movie but nothing significant.

WARNING: The jump scare descriptions listed below may contain minor spoilers
Show Descriptions

Jump Scare Times

1:21:36 – Brundlefly bursts through the glass window of the hopsital room where Veronica is about to have an abortion.

1:25:10 – Brundlefly jumps down from the ceiling onto Borans.

Download a .srt file of the jump scares in The Fly [more info].


text:
Yesterday, I told you about Russell Brunson's Zero To $100 Million Challenge. I've only been in it for a day, and already I can tell you that this thing is genius on so many levels. But it's not only what he's teaching, it's also what he's doing.

First, you may already have noticed that he's ensuring a huge number of signups by paying $1 for each referral on the first level and 25 cents (I think) on the second level. If you do something like that, you do have to be ready to detect fraudulent referrals to avoid losing your shirt, but as Russell has said, they have experience with that from doing a similar promotion last year. Last night, Russell said they have a few new signups every second.

Second, every time someone signs up, a blog is created for them on the DotComSecrets website. So they're going to get a ton of content generated on their site. Some of us have and are using our own blogs, but many will use theirs.

Third, throughout the series, there are going to be 24 assignments, and I'm fairly certain that each of them is going to involve posting to one's blog. In each of those blog posts, many people are going to talk about and link to the Challenge website, and perhaps others of Russell's webpages. This is going to generate an unbelievably massive number of links to his sites.

Fourth, throughout the series, I'm sure he's going to be posting affiliate links to useful products and services that people can use to complete their assignments. I don't think there's anything underhanded about this -- he's not locking people into any particular product or service, and I trust that he won't make bad recommendations to earn commissions (he often recommends free products when they're available and the quality is good enough). But I'll bet he makes a ton of money off those affiliate links -- probably more than enough to pay all the commissions he's going to be sending out.

Reader Comment:
Jared| said:
I just checked the video and I think what you've mentioned are very much a strategy to keep his name circulating in the web. He's trying to tell his viewers to join and make money but at the same time, his actual purpose is still for self benefits.
(join the conversation below)

Fifth, by frequently personally engaging with the participants over a long period of time, he's going to build a lot of loyalty to himself as a teacher, so I'm sure he'll be able to get a lot of people into his membership sites, coaching programs, etc.

I knew from the start that this was going to be great for his business, but the more I see, the more obvious it is that this is going to be absolutely huge.


text:
Cyanotech Farm Goes Solar with New Array

Kailua-Kona, HI— Microalgae supplement maker Cyanotech has unveiled a 2,280 panel solar array on its microalgae farm.The installation was celebrated with local business and community leaders during a blessing ceremony led by Hawaiian culture expert and founder of the Na Wai Iwi Ola Foundation Kumu Keala Ching.

Installed by Neighborhood Power Company, this array will cover 1.3 acres of the 90-acre farm, and produce 1,147,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each year. This amount of energy is enough to power the entire farm’s operations during daylight hours, and will reduce energy costs for Cyanotech by 10%. Power costs in Hawaii are among the most expensive in the country, and in addition to reducing costs, the array will reduce Cyanotech’s greenhouse emissions by 791 metric tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 147 passenger vehicles.

“Environmental stewardship is a key tenet of Cyanotech’s corporate mission,” said Gerry Cysewski, PhD and Cyanotech’s chief science officer, executive vice president and co-founder. He also remarked that the fact that this array will reduce greenhouse emissions as well as power costs makes the move “a win-win for the environment and our bottom line.” To offset the environmental impact of the project, Neighborhood Power planted 14,000 trees through nonprofit Trees for the Future.

Published in WholeFoods Magazine, January 2015 (online 12/1/2014)


text:
Criss Cross Olive

A CHIC ALTERNATIVE EVERYDAY: VIDA Leather has the most comfortable platform espadrilles women just for you! These womens espadrilles sandals are easy to wear and easy to look at. The espadrilles sandals are perfect for every ocassion, to look and feel at ease but still fashionable. These espadrilles for women are what you've been looking for. Invest in quality and get yourself an outfit complement that gives you a young and easy-going hip vibe. VERSATILE AND CONVENIENT USE: Working, travelling or running errands? We have the best answer to your prayers, VIDA Leather espadrille sandals for women . Our getable womens espadrilles are perfect for wearing with different outfits, combine them with a colorful blazer, jeans or a casual little dress. These women ankle strap espadrilles won´t let you down anywhere you go and will defenitely become a must-have in every woman's wardrobe. SMOOTH AND DURABLE FABRICS: The best in the art of women sandals making, which also bring to life espadrilles women ankle ties ! VIDA Leather places at your feet the best of Colombian leather wearing these espadrilles women . Stunning colors from espadrilles sandals womens color red , black, olive and yellow; softness and quality are main advantages of VIDA Leather ankle tie espadrilles women . TRENDY AND CLASSY DESIGN: Concerned about finding the perfect platform espadrilles for women ? Don't miss the opportunity to have the best Colombian platform sandals .

LO MEJOR DEL CUERO COLOMBIANO A TUS PIES: VIDA Leather women espadrilles sandalias hechos con los mejores procesos en el arte de hacer sandalias de moda . Prometen brindarte esa comodidad que no logras conseguir en otros zapatos. ¿Deseas encontrar sandalias plataforma de moda con un toque extra? Integramos comodidad y elegancia en todos nuestros sandalias de plataforma de moda.

subscribe to our newsletter


text:
Category Archives: woo

Intelligent Design advocates finally sneak God back into their “science”

  The video below, in which Intelligent Design creationist Stephen Meyer explains ID to conservative writer and speaker Ben Shapiro, accomplishes two things—beyond demonstrating that Meyer, director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, continues, despite withering criticism from scientists, to bang on about supposedly unevolvable “complex specified information” and the Cambrian Explosion […]

HuffPost pushes erotic astrology

What is it with the Leftist media now? The other day Greg pointed out how the New York Times is growing soft on astrology (see here and here), dramatically increasing the number of columns it’s published on the topic, with almost all of those columns being either neutral or slightly positive. Now HuffPost has this […]

The New York Times has an ongoing soft spot for astrology, but not everyone there has drunk the Kool-Aid

by Greg Mayer After Jerry posted about the recent New York Times piece touting astrology and its harmlessness, I came across some good news, and some bad news. First, the good news: some of the Times‘ writers continue to be able to exercise their critical faculties. In a piece, “#MAGA Church“,  about a loony, apocalyptic […]

I get emails

The volume of comments I have to deep-six has increased, and I’m not sure whether it’s because the moon is full or because the volume of traffic has increased over time. Either way, I thought I’d put up two that were especially striking. Here’s a comment from “The Knot Specialist” whose website is, unsurprisingly, private. […]

Templeton Prize awarded to physicist for blending science and woo

Well, once again the canny John Templeton Foundation has awarded its million-pound Templeton Prize to someone who’s not a religious figure but a scientist who enables religion and criticizes materialism and atheism. This time the Big Dosh went to Marcelo Gleiser, a professor of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth College. He’s a theoretical physicist and […]

NYT goes soft on astrology

“It is wrong, everywhere and for every one, to believe anything on insufficient evidence”. —W.K. Clifford, The Ethics of Belief If a newspaper has an astrology column, write it off. Unsubscribe. It may be justified as a form of amusement, but many people accept astrology, and such a justification feeds into the acceptance of woo […]

Good news and bad news. Now the bad news: the Canadian government funds homeopathy!

It’s bad enough that Justin Trudeau seems to be going down over his government’s political interference with a criminal prosecution, but now we hear that the Canadian government has also given hundreds of thousands of dollars to homeopaths to practice their woo in another country—Honduras.  Click on this CBC report below to see the bad […]

CNN uncritically covers a “miracle”

UPDATE: Now Seth Andrews has weighed in on the thread, and he has supporters! (Remember, Seth used to be a pious Christian.) ___________ I suppose that if I weren’t an atheist, I wouldn’t notice things like this, nor pay attention to the media’s uncritical coverage of it. In this case the media is the liberal […]

New Hindu nationalism erodes science in India

When I was lecturing in India a bit more than a year ago, I heard repeated complaints from scientists (in five cities) about how the Modi government and its Hindu-centric BJP Party was destroying Indian science. As was reported by the BBC in January (and in the article below from Science), some Indian scientists are […]

Templeton gives half a million dollars to demonstrate that science and religion can help each other find truth

Lest you think that the Templeton foundations have changed their mission, have a gander. As you may recall, when Sir John died in 2008, he left much of his fortune—acquired by creating investment funds and moving to the Bahamas to avoid taxes—to his own foundations, with the aim of showing that science and religion are […]


text:
Print Notes
Favorite DILLON VALLEY CONDO # 205 110 Evergreen ROAD - DILLON, Colorado 80435 | Dillon
$260,000 $255,000
  • 1 Bed
  • 1 Full
  • 501 +/- Sqft
  • Reduced Price

  • Property Type
    Residential – Condo
  • Subdivision
  • Furnished
  • Listing Date
  • MLS#
  • Year Built
  • County
  • Area
  • Parking

Property Description

Beautifully remodeled one bedroom condo in Dillon. Upgrades include new carpet, fresh paint throughout, upgraded lighting and fixtures. The bath has been completely upgraded with new plumbing, new fixtures, tiled floor and tiled surround in tub. New window and sliding glass door has been installed with new trim throughout. Kitchen has all new appliances including refrigerator, range, and microwave surrounded by knotty cherry cabinets. Easy walk to restaurants, Lake Dillon, and free shuttle stop.

Presented By

I'm Interested

  • Bus Route
  • In Town
  • Mountains
Neighborhood Features
  • On Site Management
Interior Features
  • Cable Available
  • Deck
Available Utilities
  • Cable Tv
  • City Sewer
  • City Water
  • Electricity
  • Snow Removal
  • Trash Pickup
  • Baseboard
  • Common
  • Common

Financial Information

Current Tax Amount
Current Tax Year
Transfer Tax
Association Fee
Association Fee Frequency

About Dillon

Come experience the magic of the Colorado high country and fall in love with the town of Dillon. Perfectly situated on the scenic shores of the Lake Dillon Reservoir with recreation, entertainment, relaxation, and pure fun all at your doorstep. Dillon is a great getaway close to Breckenridge, Keystone, Arapahoe Basin, Copper Mountain, Vail, Beaver Creek and Denver. Aside from being an excellent, central location for embracing Summit County’s winter activities, Dillon bustles with summer events for all ages, from the Thursday Nature Nights series and Friday morning Farmers Markets to the popular weekend concerts at Lake Dillon Amphitheatre. Spend an afternoon at the Dillon Marina where rental boats, guided sailing tours or sailing lessons are available, or visit the School House Museum and historical park where relics from the mining days come to life. World-class lodging, dining and shopping are within minutes.

Area Market Data

How’s the Market?

We get asked this question a lot. Below is a tool that gives you the ability to see what the market is like in your community. Find out what homes like your own are selling for right in your back yard. Simply enter in your address, choose the proximity of the search and find out market data for other homes that are selling near you.

While we'll provide you with plenty of information, this is a snapshot of your market data and there are real people behind the high-tech and automated tools. If you would like more detailed information or help in understanding the results we are here to help.

Until then, enjoy the tools!

The data relating to the real estate for sale on this website comes in part from the Internet Data Exchange program of the Vail Multi-List Service, Inc.

Copyright © 2019 Vail Multi List, Inc. (VMLS). The information displayed herein was derived from sources believed to be accurate, but has not been verified by VMLS. Buyers are cautioned to verify all information to their own satisfaction. This information is exclusively for viewers’ personal, non- commercial use. Any republication or reproduction of the information herein without the express permission of the VMLS is strictly prohibited.

Listing courtesy of Re/Max Properties/66


text:
Baker On Baker: He Will Cooperate

Governor Charlie Baker says he's  confident the U.S. Attorney's office will conduct a fair and independent  investigation of his adult son.

Andrew Baker is accused of groped a  woman on a JetBlue Airways flight from Washington DC to Boston  last week.

Baker says there are questions that he cannot answer at  this time, citing the ongoing inquiry.

The governor is pledging that  his son will fully cooperate with any investigation.

He spoke to reporters for 2 and a half minutes and said that his son would cooperate with the investigation a total of seven times.

Content Goes Here


text:
Improving performance

From ArchWiki
(Redirected from Maximize performance)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

This article provides information on basic system diagnostics relating to performance as well as steps that may be taken to reduce resource consumption or to otherwise optimize the system with the end-goal being either perceived or documented improvements to a system's performance.

The basics

Know your system

The best way to tune a system is to target bottlenecks, or subsystems which limit overall speed. The system specifications can help identify them.

  • If the computer becomes slow when large applications (such as LibreOffice and Firefox) run at the same time, check if the amount of RAM is sufficient. Use the following command, and check the "available" column:
$ free -h
  • If boot time is slow, and applications take a long time to load at first launch (only), then the hard drive is likely to blame. The speed of a hard drive can be measured with the hdparm command:
Note: hdparm indicates only the pure read speed of a hard drive, and is not a valid benchmark. A value higher than 40MB/s (while idle) is however acceptable on an average system.
# hdparm -t /dev/sdX
  • If CPU load is consistently high even with enough RAM available, then try to lower CPU usage by disabling running daemons and/or processes. This can be monitored in several ways, for example with htop, pstree or any other system monitoring tool:
$ htop
  • If applications using direct rendering are slow (i.e those which use the GPU, such as video players, games, or even a window manager), then improving GPU performance should help. The first step is to verify if direct rendering is actually enabled. This is indicated by the glxinfo command, part of the mesa-demos package:
$ glxinfo | grep direct
direct rendering: Yes
  • When running a desktop environment, disabling (unused) visual desktop effects may reduce GPU usage. Use a more lightweight environment or create a custom environment if the current does not meet the hardware and/or personal requirements.

The effects of optimization are often difficult to judge. They can however be measured by benchmarking tools.

Storage devices

Multiple hardware paths

Tango-edit-clear.pngThis article or section needs language, wiki syntax or style improvements. See Help:Style for reference.Tango-edit-clear.png

Reason: Subjective writing (Discuss in Talk:Improving performance#)

An internal hardware path is how the storage device is connected to your motherboard. There are different ways to connect to the motherboard such as TCP/IP through a NIC, plugged in directly using PCIe/PCI, Firewire, Raid Card, USB, etc. By spreading your storage devices across these multiple connection points you maximize the capabilities of your motherboard, for example 6 hard-drives connected via USB would be much much slower than 3 over USB and 3 over Firewire. The reason is that each entry path into the motherboard is like a pipe, and there is a set limit to how much can go through that pipe at any one time. The good news is that the motherboard usually has several pipes.

More Examples

  1. Directly to the motherboard using pci/PCIe/ata
  2. Using an external enclosure to house the disk over USB/Firewire
  3. Turn the device into a network storage device by connecting over tcp/ip

Note also that if you have a 2 USB ports on the front of your machine, and 4 USB ports on the back, and you have 4 disks, it would probably be fastest to put 2 on front/2 on back or 3 on back/1 on front. This is because internally the front ports are likely a separate Root Hub than the back, meaning you can send twice as much data by using both than just 1. Use the following commands to determine the various paths on your machine.

USB Device Tree
$ lsusb -tv
PCI Device Tree
$ lspci -tv

Make sure that your partitions are properly aligned.

Multiple drives

If you have multiple disks available, you can set them up as a software RAID for serious speed improvements.

Creating swap on a separate disk can also help quite a bit, especially if your machine swaps frequently.

Layout on HDDs

If using a traditional spinning HDD, your partition layout can influence the system's performance. Sectors at the beginning of the drive (closer to the outside of the disk) are faster than those at the end. Also, a smaller partition requires less movements from the drive's head, and so speed up disk operations. Therefore, it is advised to create a small partition (10GB, more or less depending on your needs) only for your system, as near to the beginning of the drive as possible. Other data (pictures, videos) should be kept on a separate partition, and this is usually achieved by separating the home directory (/home/user) from the system (/).

Choosing and tuning your filesystem

Choosing the best filesystem for a specific system is very important because each has its own strengths. The File systems article provides a short summary of the most popular ones. You can also find relevant articles in Category:File systems.

Mount options

The noatime option is known to improve performance of the filesystem.

Other mount options are filesystem specific, therefore see the relevant articles for the filesystems:

The data=writeback mount option improves speed, but may corrupt data during power loss. The notail mount option increases the space used by the filesystem by about 5%, but also improves overall speed. You can also reduce disk load by putting the journal and data on separate drives. This is done when creating the filesystem:

# mkreiserfs –j /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1

Replace /dev/sda1 with the partition reserved for the journal, and /dev/sdb1 with the partition for data. You can learn more about reiserfs with this article.

Tuning kernel parameters

There are several key tunables affecting the performance of block devices, see sysctl#Virtual memory for more information.

Input/output schedulers

Background information

The input/output (I/O) scheduler is the kernel component that decides in which order the block I/O operations are submitted to storage devices. It is useful to remind here some specifications of two main drive types because the goal of the I/O scheduler is to optimize the way these are able to deal with read requests:

  • An HDD has spinning disks and a head that moves physically to the required location. Therefore, random latency is quite high ranging between 3 and 12ms (whether it is a high end server drive or a laptop drive and bypassing the disk controller write buffer) while sequential access provides much higher throughput. The typical HDD throughput is about 200 I/O operations per second (IOPS).
  • An SSD does not have moving parts, random access is as fast as sequential one, typically under 0.1ms, and it can handle multiple concurrent requests. The typical SSD throughput is greater than 10,000 IOPS, which is more than needed in common workload situations.

If there are many processes making I/O requests to different storage parts, thousands of IOPS can be generated while a typical HDD can handle only about 200 IOPS. There is a queue of requests that have to wait for access to the storage. This is where the I/O schedulers plays an optimization role.

The scheduling algorithms

One way to improve throughput is to linearize access: by ordering waiting requests by their logical address and grouping the closest ones. Historically this was the first Linux I/O scheduler called elevator.

One issue with the elevator algorithm is that it is not optimal for a process doing sequential access: reading a block of data, processing it for several microseconds then reading next block and so on. The elevator scheduler does not know that the process is about to read another block nearby and, thus, moves to another request by another process at some other location. The anticipatory I/O scheduler overcomes the problem: it pauses for a few milliseconds in anticipation of another close-by read operation before dealing with another request.

While these schedulers try to improve total throughput, they might leave some unlucky requests waiting for a very long time. As an example, imagine the majority of processes make requests at the beginning of the storage space while an unlucky process makes a request at the other end of storage. This potentially infinite postponement of the process is called starvation. To improve fairness, the deadline algorithm was developed. It has a queue ordered by address, similar to the elevator, but if some request sits in this queue for too long then it moves to an "expired" queue ordered by expire time. The scheduler checks the expire queue first and processes requests from there and only then moves to the elevator queue. Note that this fairness has a negative impact on overall throughput.

The Completely Fair Queuing (CFQ) approaches the problem differently by allocating a timeslice and a number of allowed requests by queue depending on the priority of the process submitting them. It supports cgroup that allows to reserve some amount of I/O to a specific collection of processes. It is in particular useful for shared and cloud hosting: users who paid for some IOPS want to get their share whenever needed. Also, it idles at the end of synchronous I/O waiting for other nearby operations, taking over this feature from the anticipatory scheduler and bringing some enhancements. Both the anticipatory and the elevator schedulers were decommissioned from the Linux kernel replaced by the more advanced alternatives presented above.

The Budget Fair Queuing (BFQ) is based on CFQ code and brings some enhancements. It does not grant the disk to each process for a fixed time-slice but assigns a "budget" measured in number of sectors to the process and uses heuristics. It is a relatively complex scheduler, it may be more adapted to rotational drives and slow SSDs because its high per-operation overhead, especially if associated with a slow CPU, can slow down fast devices. The objective of BFQ on personal systems is that for interactive tasks, the storage device is virtually as responsive as if it was idle. In its default configuration it focuses on delivering the lowest latency rather than achieving the maximum throughput.

Kyber is a recent scheduler inspired by active queue management techniques used for network routing. The implementation is based on "tokens" that serve as a mechanism for limiting requests. A queuing token is required to allocate a request, this is used to prevent starvation of requests. A dispatch token is also needed and limits the operations of a certain priority on a given device. Finally, a target read latency is defined and the scheduler tunes itself to reach this latency goal. The implementation of the algorithm is relatively simple and it is deemed efficient for fast devices.

Kernel's I/O schedulers

While some of the early algorithms have now been decommissioned, the official Linux kernel supports a number of I/O schedulers which can be split into two categories:

  • The multi-queue schedulers are available by default with the kernel. The Multi-Queue Block I/O Queuing Mechanism (blk-mq) maps I/O queries to multiple queues, the tasks are distributed across threads and therefore CPU cores. Within this framework the following schedulers are available:
    • None, no queuing algorithm is applied.
    • mq-deadline is the adaptation of the deadline scheduler to multi-threading.
    • Kyber
    • BFQ
  • The single-queue schedulers are legacy schedulers, they can be activated at boot time as described in #Changing I/O scheduler:
    • NOOP is the simplest scheduler, it inserts all incoming I/O requests into a simple FIFO queue and implements request merging. In this algorithm, there is no re-ordering of the request based on the sector number. Therefore it can be used if the ordering is dealt with at another layer, at the device level for example, or if it does not matter, for SSDs for instance.
    • Deadline
    • CFQ
Note: Single-queue schedulers were removed from kernel since Linux 5.0.

Changing I/O scheduler

  • The block multi-queue (blk-mq) mode must be disabled at boot time to be able to access the legacy CFQ and Deadline schedulers. This is done by adding scsi_mod.use_blk_mq=0 to the kernel parameters. The multi-queue schedulers are no longer available once in this mode.
  • The best choice of scheduler depends on both the device and the exact nature of the workload. Also, the throughput in MB/s is not the only measure of performance: deadline or fairness deteriorate the overall throughput but may improve system responsiveness. Benchmarking may be useful to indicate each I/O scheduler performance.

To list the available schedulers for a device and the active scheduler (in brackets):

$ cat /sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler
mq-deadline kyber [bfq] none

To list the available schedulers for all devices:

$ cat /sys/block/*/queue/scheduler
[mq-deadline] kyber bfq none
mq-deadline kyber [bfq] none

To change the active I/O scheduler to bfq for device sda, use:

# echo bfq > /sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler

The process to change I/O scheduler, depending on whether the disk is rotating or not can be automated and persist across reboots. For example the udev rule below sets the scheduler to none for NVMe, mq-deadline for SSD/eMMC, and bfq for rotational drives:

# set scheduler for NVMe
ACTION=="add|change", KERNEL=="nvme[0-9]*", ATTR{queue/scheduler}="none"
# set scheduler for SSD and eMMC
ACTION=="add|change", KERNEL=="sd[a-z]|mmcblk[0-9]*", ATTR{queue/rotational}=="0", ATTR{queue/scheduler}="mq-deadline"
# set scheduler for rotating disks
ACTION=="add|change", KERNEL=="sd[a-z]", ATTR{queue/rotational}=="1", ATTR{queue/scheduler}="bfq"

Reboot or force udev#Loading new rules.

Tuning I/O scheduler

Each of the kernel's I/O scheduler has its own tunables, such as the latency time, the expiry time or the FIFO parameters. They are helpful in adjusting the algorithm to a particular combination of device and workload. This is typically to achieve a higher throughput or a lower latency for a given utilization. The tunables and their description can be found within the kernel documentation files.

To list the available tunables for a device, in the example below sdb which is using deadline, use:

$ ls /sys/block/sdb/queue/iosched
fifo_batch  front_merges  read_expire  write_expire  writes_starved

To improve deadline's throughput at the cost of latency, one can increase fifo_batch with the command:

# echo 32 > /sys/block/sdb/queue/iosched/fifo_batch

Power management configuration

When dealing with traditional rotational disks (HDD's) you may want to lower or disable power saving features completely.

Reduce disk reads/writes

Avoiding unnecessary access to slow storage drives is good for performance and also increasing lifetime of the devices, although on modern hardware the difference in life expectancy is usually negligible.

Note: A 32GB SSD with a mediocre 10x write amplification factor, a standard 10000 write/erase cycle, and 10GB of data written per day, would get an 8 years life expectancy. It gets better with bigger SSDs and modern controllers with less write amplification. Also compare [1] when considering whether any particular strategy to limit disk writes is actually needed.

Show disk writes

The iotop package can sort by disk writes, and show how much and how frequently programs are writing to the disk. See iotop(8) for details.

Relocate files to tmpfs

Relocate files, such as your browser profile, to a tmpfs file system, for improvements in application response as all the files are now stored in RAM:

Compiling in tmpfs

See Makepkg#Building from files in memory.

Optimize the filesystem

Filesystems may provide performance improvements instructions for each filesystem, e.g. Ext4#Improving performance.

Swap space

See Swap#Performance.

Storage I/O scheduling with ionice

Many tasks such as backups do not rely on a short storage I/O delay or high storage I/O bandwidth to fulfil their task, they can be classified as background tasks. On the other hand quick I/O is necessary for good UI responsiveness on the desktop. Therefore it is beneficial to reduce the amount of storage bandwidth available to background tasks, whilst other tasks are in need of storage I/O. This can be achieved by making use of the linux I/O scheduler CFQ, which allows setting different priorities for processes.

The I/O priority of a background process can be reduced to the "Idle" level by starting it with

# ionice -c 3 command

See ionice(1) and [2] for more information.

Overclocking improves the computational performance of the CPU by increasing its peak clock frequency. The ability to overclock depends on the combination of CPU model and motherboard model. It is most frequently done through the BIOS. Overclocking also has disadvantages and risks. It is neither recommended nor discouraged here.

Many Intel chips will not correctly report their clock frequency to acpi_cpufreq and most other utilities. This will result in excessive messages in dmesg, which can be avoided by unloading and blacklisting the kernel module acpi_cpufreq. To read their clock speed use i7z from the i7z package. To check for correct operation of an overclocked CPU, it is recommended to do stress testing.

Frequency scaling

See CPU frequency scaling.

Alternative CPU scheduler

Tango-view-fullscreen.pngThis article or section needs expansion.Tango-view-fullscreen.png

Reason: MuQSS is not the only alternative scheduler. (Discuss in Talk:Improving performance#)

The default CPU scheduler in the mainline Linux kernel is CFS.

An alternative scheduler designed to be used on desktop computers is MuQSS, developed by Con Kolivas, which is focused on desktop interactivity and responsiveness. MuQSS is available either as a stand-alone patch or as part of a wider patchset, the -ck patchset. See Linux-ck and Linux-pf for more information on the patchset.

Real-time kernel

Some applications such as running a TV tuner card at full HD resolution (1080p) may benefit from using a realtime kernel.

Adjusting priorities of processes

See also nice(1) and renice(1).

Ananicy is a daemon, available in the ananicy-gitAUR package, for auto adjusting the nice levels of executables. The nice level represents the priority of the executable when allocating CPU resources.

See cgroups.

Cpulimit is a program to limit the CPU usage percentage of a specific process. After installing cpulimit, you may limit the CPU usage of a processes' PID using a scale of 0 to 100 times the number of CPU cores that the computer has. For example, with eight CPU cores the precentage range will be 0 to 800. Usage:

$ cpulimit -l 50 -p 5081

The purpose of irqbalance is distribute hardware interrupts across processors on a multiprocessor system in order to increase performance. It can be controlled by the provided irqbalance.service.

Xorg configuration

Graphics performance may depend on the settings in xorg.conf(5); see the NVIDIA, ATI and Intel articles. Improper settings may stop Xorg from working, so caution is advised.

Mesa configuration

The performance of the Mesa drivers can be configured via drirc. GUI configuration tools are available:

  • adriconf (Advanced DRI Configurator) — GUI tool to configure Mesa drivers by setting options and writing them to the standard drirc file. || adriconf
  • DRIconf — Configuration applet for the Direct Rendering Infrastructure. It allows customizing performance and visual quality settings of OpenGL drivers on a per-driver, per-screen and/or per-application level. || driconfAUR

As with CPUs, overclocking can directly improve performance, but is generally recommended against. There are several packages in the AUR, such as amdoverdrivectrlAUR (ATI) and nvclockAUR (NVIDIA).

See AMDGPU#Overclocking or NVIDIA/Tips and tricks#Enabling overclocking.

RAM and swap

Clock frequency and timings

RAM can run at different clock frequencies and timings, which can be configured in the BIOS. Memory performance depends on both values. Selecting the highest preset presented by the BIOS usually improves the performance over the default setting. Note that increasing the frequency to values not supported by both motherboard and RAM vendor is overclocking, and similar risks and disadvantages apply, see #Overclocking.

Root on RAM overlay

If running off a slow writing medium (USB, spinning HDDs) and storage requirements are low, the root may be run on a RAM overlay ontop of read only root (on disk). This can vastly improve performance at the cost of a limited writable space to root. See liverootAUR.

Zram or zswap

The zram kernel module (previously called compcache) provides a compressed block device in RAM. If you use it as swap device, the RAM can hold much more information but uses more CPU. Still, it is much quicker than swapping to a hard drive. If a system often falls back to swap, this could improve responsiveness. Using zram is also a good way to reduce disk read/write cycles due to swap on SSDs.

Similar benefits (at similar costs) can be achieved using zswap rather than zram. The two are generally similar in intent although not operation: zswap operates as a compressed RAM cache and neither requires (nor permits) extensive userspace configuration.

Example: To set up one lz4 compressed zram device with 32GiB capacity and a higher-than-normal priority (only for the current session):

# modprobe zram
# echo lz4 > /sys/block/zram0/comp_algorithm
# echo 32G > /sys/block/zram0/disksize
# mkswap --label zram0 /dev/zram0
# swapon --priority 100 /dev/zram0

To disable it again, either reboot or run

# swapoff /dev/zram0
# rmmod zram

A detailed explanation of all steps, options and potential problems is provided in the official documentation of the module here.

The systemd-swap package provides a systemd-swap.service unit to automatically initialize zram devices. Configuration is possible in /etc/systemd/swap.conf.

The package zramswapAUR provides an automated script for setting up such swap devices with optimal settings for your system (such as RAM size and CPU core number). The script creates one zram device per CPU core with a total space equivalent to the RAM available, so you will have a compressed swap with higher priority than regular swap, which will utilize multiple CPU cores for compressing data. To do this automatically on every boot, enable zramswap.service.

Swap on zRAM using a udev rule

The example below describes how to set up swap on zRAM automatically at boot with a single udev rule. No extra package should be needed to make this work.

First, enable the module:

Configure the number of /dev/zram nodes you need.

options zram num_devices=2

Create the udev rule as shown in the example.

KERNEL=="zram0", ATTR{disksize}="512M" RUN="/usr/bin/mkswap /dev/zram0", TAG+="systemd"
KERNEL=="zram1", ATTR{disksize}="512M" RUN="/usr/bin/mkswap /dev/zram1", TAG+="systemd"

Add /dev/zram to your fstab.

/dev/zram0 none swap defaults 0 0
/dev/zram1 none swap defaults 0 0

Using the graphic card's RAM

In the unlikely case that you have very little RAM and a surplus of video RAM, you can use the latter as swap. See Swap on video RAM.

According to wikipedia:Watchdog_timer:

A watchdog timer [...] is an electronic timer that is used to detect and recover from computer malfunctions. During normal operation, the computer regularly resets the watchdog timer [...]. If, [...], the computer fails to reset the watchdog, the timer will elapse and generate a timeout signal [...] used to initiate corrective [...] actions [...] typically include placing the computer system in a safe state and restoring normal system operation.

Many users need this feature due to their system's mission-critical role (i.e. servers), or because of the lack of power reset (i.e. embedded devices). Thus, this feature is required for a good operation in some situations. On the other hand, normal users (i.e. desktop and laptop) do not need this feature and can disable it.

To disable watchdog timers (both software and hardware), append nowatchdog to your boot parameters.

To check the new configuration do:

# cat /proc/sys/kernel/watchdog

or use:

# wdctl

After you disabled watchdogs, you can optionally avoid the loading of the module responsible of the hardware watchdog, too. Do it by blacklisting the related module, e.g. iTCO_wdt.

Note: Some users reported the nowatchdog parameter does not work as expected but they have successfully disabled the watchdog (at least the hardware one) by blacklisting the above-mentioned module.

Either action will speed up your boot and shutdown, because one less module is loaded. Additionally disabling watchdog timers increases performance and lowers power consumption.

See [3], [4], [5], and [6] for more information.

See also


text:
User Tools

Site Tools

Structured Freeform

Swe. Strukturerad friform

Focused on structures, principles, and techniques rather than game mechanics. “Freeform” and “structured freeform” are the same things, but some people tend to think freeform means rule-less, which it is not true.

An example

freeform.txt · Last modified: 2017/02/14 08:06 by rickard

Translations of this page:


text:
Luminescent Scepter

From Guild Wars Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search
Luminescent Scepter
Luminescent Scepter.jpg
Type Wand
Campaign(s) Prophecies
Domination Magic
Damage type(s) Chaos Damage
Value Can't be sold
Salvage Not salvageable
Inventory icon Luminescent Scepter.png

Luminescent Scepter is one of the bonus items available from the Game of The Year edition of Prophecies or the upgrade which can be purchased from the in-game store.

Chaos Dmg: 11-22 (req. 9 Domination Magic)
Halves casting time of Illusion Magic spells (Chance: 20%)
Energy +5 (while Health is above 50%)

Dye has no noticeable effect on the item.

Shares its skin and stats with the Quicksilver.

Game of the Year Edition items
Luminescent Scepter Nevermore Flatbow Rhino's Charge Serrated Shield Soul Shrieker Tiger's Roar Wolf's Favor


text:
File:Trafo 10 04 kV 1000 kVA (2).jpg

From Open Electrical
Jump to: navigation, search
Original file(480 × 640 pixels, file size: 38 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Media library

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

current05:22, 18 February 2017Thumbnail for version as of 05:22, 18 February 2017480 × 640 (38 KB)Maintenance script (talk | contribs)Media library
  • You cannot overwrite this file.

The following page links to this file:


text:
From Open Source Ecology
(Redirected from OSE IRC)
Jump to: navigation, search

Open Source Ecology IRC

OSE Internet Relay Chat. To connect, select a nickname, do the Captcha, click Connect, and you will be taken to a channel that is open around the clock for discussion related to OSE work.

Other Allies

RepRap IRC

Apertus Open Source Professional Grade Camera

Alternate Channel Access


text:
I, Csaba Kertész, apply for <MOTU>.

Who I am

I am Csaba Kertész, a Hungarian who works/lives in Finland now. I worked as a consultant/architect/scrum master for Maemo/Nokia (Debian based distribution for Nokia handsets e.g. N900) in Finland in the past three years.

My Ubuntu story

I use Debian/Ubuntu at home and my workplaces since ~2002. I contributed to Ubuntu only forum activities from the community side so far.

My involvement

I would like to include my hobby research project in Ubuntu+provide fixes for existing softwares. (See below)

Examples of my work / Things I'm proud of

I have a hobby research project (AiBO+, http://aiboplus.sf.net) to enhance the artificial intelligence of the Sony's AIBO robot dog. I use OpenCV (http://opencv.willowgarage.com/wiki/) for computer vision in this project and I contribute to this upstream project as a developer since ~2004. At my workplace, I worked together/contributed to various open source projects (e.g. libical - iCalendar implementation, libkcal - KDE's calendar library in kdepimpi).

Areas of work

My main experiences in developer means: - C/C++ - maintaining debian packages - cmake/qmake/autotools - Gtk/Qt - svn/cvs/git - gstreamer etc.

Plans for the future

Near future: I would like to contribute fixes to the OpenCV in Ubuntu and add my research project to Ubuntu. Later: Contribute fixes/reviews for other softwares in Ubuntu.

CsabaKertesz/MOTUApplication (last edited 2009-12-08 18:20:03 by csaba-kertesz)


text: The window industry, just like any other, has its bad apples. While the process of purchasing windows can feel like a daunting task, you are often at the mercy of replacement window companies. Unfortunately, some replacement window companies take advantage of this opportunity and twist the truth to score a sale. Next time you are glancing at an ad or sitting through a sales pitch, you can pick out the false claims with the help of our newest document: The Top 4 Deceptive Claims By Replacement Window Companies.


text:
48 Hours in Tromso, Norway

Where Your Arctic Adventure Begins

The fjords and mountain ranges of Tromso are simply magical. Here, the northern lights sparkle across the same navy blue sky that’s illuminated by the midnight sun. You’ll be spellbound by Tromso’s enchanting fishing villages, fragrant botanical gardens and crystalline waterfalls. Music is a major part of the Tromso culture, particularly techno and electronic music, which adds some thumping thunder to the city once a year during the annual Insomnia Festival.

Tromsø has a rich history dating back around 11,000 years. The rock carvings in the region provide an insight into the ancient history. Tromsø has an exciting history as a starting point for polar expeditions and the city had a key role during World War II, functioning for a brief period as Norway’s capital. Tromsø gained international trading partners at an early stage and to this day remains an extremely international and multicultural city.

For Foodies

  • Breakfast
    1. Lugar 34 – Cafe, European, Norwegian – Homemade cakes & pastries with great coffee
    2. Art Cafe – Cafe, European, Soups – delicious homemade food, desserts, tea, coffee and various alcoholic drinks
    3. Smortorget Kaffe & Mat – Cafe, European, Soups – Great toasts, good coffee, scrumptious pastries.
  • Lunch
    1. Mathallen – Scandinavian, European, Norwegian – Mathallen offers great tasting, locally sourced products including fresh fish, meat products, cheeses, hams, and other delicious treats. In short: the best the culinary world has to offer.
    2. Bardus Bistro & Bar – European, Scandinavian, Norwegian – Bardus bistro is a Norwegian reflection of the traditional bistro concept and our menu is based on the ingredients and culinary history of the north. Priding ourselves on our strong personal relationships with suppliers, Bardus is able to create inventive and ever changing menu’s using ingredients such as moose, reindeer, king crab fresh fish and whale.
    3. Suvi – Sushi, Vietnamese, Japanese – Vegetarian options available
  • Dinner
    1. Restaurant Smak – European, Scandinavian, Norwegian – Restaurant Taste in Tromsø serves top quality local food. The seasonal menu of dishes made from local short-lived ingredients reflects the North Norwegian wildlife. Restaurant Taste was located earlier in Bodø, and was then voted the city’s best restaurant. In 2017, we opened the doors in Tromso, and aspirations are the same as before: Servers experience fine dining in a pleasant atmosphere with the same enthusiasm and the same service as always!
    2. Fiskekompaniet – Seafood, European, Soups – The forces of nature are dominant in the Arctic. The ocean controls the climate and influences the weather conditions, but it also provides us with a wide selection of different tastes to offer our customers – at any given time. Similar to the ocean, our menu is constantly changing, always offering something fresh and new.
    3. Kitchen & Table Tromso – American, European, Scandinavian – When you mix our Arctic ingredients with flavours from Manhattan you certainly have a recipe for success! Top chef Marcus Samuelsson has achieved global status with his culinary achievements in the United States. He has cooked for Barack Obama, appeared as a judge on numerous American television programmes and done a great job putting Scandinavian cooking on the map!

  • Midnight Sun – Like a prolonged sunset and sunrise all at once, this natural phenomena colours heaven and earth in a reddish yellow light. Welcome to “the land of the midnight sun”. The midnight sun is a natural phenomenon that occurs during summer in places south of the Antarctic Circle and north of the Arctic Circle – including Northern Norway. The earth is rotating at a tilted axis relative to the sun, and during the summer months the North Pole is angled towards our star. That’s why, for several weeks, the sun never sets above the Arctic Circle.
  • Northern Lights – The city is situated in the middle of the auroral oval, the area with the highest probability of seeing the northern lights. Combine your northern lights excursion with a wide range of exciting daytime activities such as dog sledding, whale watching, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling, or try for a selfie with the reindeer and huskys in the surrounding nature. Tromsø is the largest city in Northern Norway. With a location at nearly 70° north, and between fjords, mountain peaks, and islands, it is a prime starting point for your Arctic adventure.
  • Fjord Excursions – The breathtaking fjord landscapes in the Tromsø region are some of the finest Norway can offer. This is among the wildest and most beautiful nature experiences you can find. And believe us, you would want to see this from land. That is where you get the whole story – and often the best photo opportunities!
  • Dog Sledding – Dog sledding is a tradition of travel in the Arctic.  Dog sledding consist of a musher, a sled and Alaskan huskies. It´s an adventurous activity for your Arctic holiday in Tromsø. Dog sledding is available from October through May.

  • Reindeer & Sami Experiences – The reindeer and the Sami have been living and working on this land for centuries and have only recently invited guests to be part of their daily life. You will be hosted by Reindeer herders who will show and teach you about Reindeer herding and Sami culture. With thousands of reindeer in the mountains and a herd of around 200 at the camp during the winter months you are guaranteed to experience the joy of being close to these wonderful creatures, the feeling of coming into a warm lavvu (Sami tent) and the sounds of the traditional joik (Sami singing). This is a ritual which for us is an important way of life and it is our pleasure and aim to let you experience it.
  • Rock Carvings – Two large areas of rock carvings have so far been registered in the Tromsø area. They have been partially developed so they are easily accessible to the public. Skavberget (Hella) on the island of Kvaløya has three vertical areas. One of the fields (the youngest) is easily accessible, while the other two are located on private property that is fenced and locked. The oldest area, which is at the top, is believed to date from around 7000 BC, while the youngest field, which is also more accessible, is from about 2600 BC. As this rock art is on vertical rock faces, it is also visible in the winter. There is also prehistoric rock at Tennes in Balsfjord. There are two large areas of rock carvings here located in several fields, which have been dated to between 600 and 2500 BC. Both areas are situated near the historic Tennes Church and have been developed for visitors, including wheelchair users. The fields are located on sloping terrain and are therefore not particularly visitor friendly in the winter.
  • Polaria – Discover Polaria, the world’s northernmost aquarium and educational center. Housed in a very distinctive building meant to mimic ice floes pressed up against land by rough Arctic seas, this unique attraction lies just five-minutes’ walk from the city center of Tromsø. Polaria boasts an Arctic aquarium, interesting knowledge-based exhibits, a panoramic cinema, and a gift and souvenir shop. In the panoramic cinema, you can watch two films: Ivo Caprino’s “Svalbard – Arctic Wilderness”and the Ole C. Salomonsen production “Northern Lights in Arctic Norway.”
  • Arctic Cathedral – Tromsdalen Church or the Arctic Cathedral is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Tromsø Municipality in Troms county, Norway. It is located in the Tromsdalen valley on the east side of the city of Tromsø. It is the church for the Tromsøysund parish which is part of the Tromsø domprosti (arch-deanery) in the Diocese of Nord-Hålogaland. The modern concrete and metal church was built in a long church style in 1965 by the architect Jan Inge Hovig. The church seats about 600 people.

Windy City Travel is Here to Help

Call (312) 951-0710 and let Windy City Travel plan your next Arctic Circle escape.
Trust in our travel professionals; let us handle the travel details so you can relax and enjoy!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.


text:
View on Floor Plan:
Third Floor - Ballroom - 2320

11300 Sanders Dr. #30
Rancho Cordova, CA 95742
United States of America

P: 916-260-6959

My Notes

HERTI is a leading European company with 25 years of experience in manufacturing a great variaty of aluminum, plastic and composite closures, combining unique design with functionality and convenience. Each year Herti manufactures more than one billion aluminum, composite and plastic closures for almost any kind of bottle across various industries. The portfolio includes more than 40 different sizes aluminum screw caps for different kinds of spirits, wine and non alcoholic beverages. Herti’s screw caps for wine guarantee the absence of 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA), the main cause of cork taint. They prevent the wine from oxidizing too swiftly and allow the wine aroma to emerge only when it comes into contact with the air. These benefits contribute to the wine's overall quality and aging potential. HERTI offers various liners for the wine makers: • Saranex Liners • Tin Liners • PVC free gaskets. HERTI provides the two most preferred sizes PP30x60 mm BVS and PP 28x44 mm. More and more popular for bottling wines become other sizes of aluminum screw caps that Herti can offer: PP25x33 mm, PP22x30 mm, PP25x43 mm, 30x24 mm. HERTI offers numerous options for printing and finishing: • Up to 5 colors offset printing • Matt, Semi-matt and Glossy finish • Hot-foil printing • Embossing and shaving • Relief for the plastic caps. The company is certified by ISO 9001-2015 and BRC/IOP. We can offer: - Competitive Pricing - Customized Packaging Solutions - Exceptional Customer Service - Technical Support - On Time Deliveries. Visit our web site www.hertius.com and come to our booth 2320 at the Unified Wine&Grape Symposium 2019 in Sacramento .
Product Categories (5)
  • Closures - Capsules (ID 27a)
  • Closures - Other (ID 27d)
  • Closures (ID 27)
  • Packaging Materials (ID 100)
  • Other (ID 154)


text:
Main Content

HP Slideshow

Vast Majority Think 2019 First Quarter is Good Time to Buy Home, says Realtor® Survey

WASHINGTON (March 20, 2019) – New findings from a National Association of Realtors® survey show that more Americans believe that now is a good time to purchase a home. Consumer opinions about home buying bounced back in the first quarter of 2019, with 37 percent stating that they strongly believe now is a good time to buy, up from 34 percent in the last quarter of 2018 but down from 38 percent one year ago. Only 35 percent of respondents said that now is not a good time to buy a home, compared to 37 percent in 2018’s fourth quarter.

NAR’s first quarter Housing Opportunities and Market Experience (HOME) survey 1 also found that a majority of those polled, 53 percent, said that the economy is improving – down slightly from 59 percent at the end of last year. In 2019, optimism is the greatest among those who earn $100,000 or more and those who reside in rural areas. Fifty percent of Generation X said the economy is improving, while 42 percent of urban area residents reported the same.

NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun says several factors are helping to improve the attitudes of potential homebuyers. “First, inventory has been rising, so those buyers interested in making a purchase will not be limited in choices. Additionally, more stable home price trends are leading to more foot traffic at various open house gatherings.”

Quarter four of 2018 broke the trend for respondents who thought home prices had been steadily increasing over the last 12 months. The first quarter of 2019 followed that trend, as 61 percent of respondents said they think home prices in their communities have increased over the last 12 months; a drop from 63 percent in 2018’s fourth quarter. Thirty-one percent said prices within their community had remained the same, unchanged from a year ago.

This quarter’s survey asked respondents to look ahead regarding local housing prices in the near future. Forty-three percent said they expect prices in their communities to stay the same over the next six months, up 2 percent from last quarter. However, 47 percent believe prices will rise in the coming six months, while 10 percent believe prices will drop in the next six months.

Those who live in the Northeast and South, those who earn $50,000 to $100,000, or those who rent are most likely to believe prices will increase in their communities. Yun says the West is experiencing the most variation in expectations surrounding home prices. “A high percentage of the Western population believes that prices increased in the past year, while – possibly for the same reason – a higher segment from the West compared to other regions say prices could fall in the next 12 months,” Yun said. “As to the broader economy, the perception is weaker and showing cracks in the Midwest.”

Amid those polled who do not presently own a home, 27 percent believe it would be very difficult to qualify for a mortgage given their current financial situation; 28 percent said it would be somewhat difficult to qualify. Twenty-four percent of that group said they expect no difficulty at all in qualifying for a mortgage; up significantly from 21 percent last quarter and 19 percent this time last year.

Nonetheless, Yun notes that mortgage affordability in 2019’s first quarter has been more favorable for would-be homebuyers than it has been in recent quarters. “The Federal Reserve’s decision to refrain from any foreseeable rate hikes was beneficial to potential buyers,” Yun said. “That move directly contributed to mortgage rates declining in quarter one, which provided a second-chance opportunity to those looking to buy who were priced out last quarter.”

About NAR’s HOME Survey

From January through March, a sample of U.S. households was surveyed via a random-digit dial, including a mix of cell phones and landlines. The survey was conducted by an established survey research firm, TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence. Each month approximately 900 qualified households responded to the survey. The data was compiled for this report representing a total of 2,710 household responses.

The National Association of Realtors® is America’s largest trade association, representing more than 1.3 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

# # #

1 NAR’s Housing Opportunities and Market Experience (HOME) survey tracks topical real estate trends, including current renters and homeowners’ views and aspirations regarding homeownership, whether or not it’s a good time to buy or sell a home, and expectations and experiences in the mortgage market. New questions are added to the survey each quarter to reflect timely topics impacting real estate. HOME survey data is collected on a monthly basis and will be reported each quarter. New questions will be added to the survey each quarter to reflect timely topics impacting the real estate marketplace.

Copyright NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Reprinted with permission


text:
Gaining Willpower at Work

Taking a look at all great things, accounting the most beautiful art pieces, the strongest endurance, there is one element needed: Willpower. If you have a dream and a passion, willpower is essential to its fulfillment. At the foundation of all legendary performance in sports, arts, medicine, etc. is the art of self-discipline.

If you aim to reach your goals, here’s what we can learn about willpower:

1)   Self-Control (scientists refer to as Self-Regulation) is like a muscle.

The more you exercise it the stronger it becomes. (1) The greatest myth we face is that successful people were born with innate powers. Michael Jordan never practiced and Michelangelo through some paint of a canvas. The truth is great accomplishments derive from self-discipline. Working diligently on a constant basis will grow your will power muscle.

2)   We have a limited amount each day.

Science shows that we operate from a reservoir of willpower. (1) There is an allotted amount everyday, and our choices and actions dictate its usage. Save willpower for the biggest, most important tasks.

3)   The self-control “muscle” can get tired.

Because there is a limited amount, our self-control will deplete throughout the day. (1) This means we have to strategically think where to a lot our self-control. Structure your day to where the most important projects get your time first.

4)   Levels of glucose lower our self-discipline.

The science behind why we behave is fascinating.  For example, when we are tired, we have low glucose levels. These low glucose levels lead to poor decision-making and low self-discipline. By eating low glycemic index foods like meat, vegetables and nuts, you can avoid the opportunity to make bad choices. (1)

Knowing how our bodies can enable optimal willpower takes us one step closer to higher performance at work and reaching our goals.

For more information on this topic (Gaining Willpower at Work), please visit this article and the webpage of Robin Sharma:

– See more at: