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Software United States

Massachusetts Builds Open-Source Public Repository 135

An anonymous reader writes "Massachusetts on Wednesday took the wraps off a new software repository designed to let government agencies make more efficient use of open-source software. The repository will be managed by the Government Open Code Collaborative, a newly formed group of seven states and four municipalities that will contribute and download open-source software and proprietary software designed by government agencies for their use."
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Massachusetts Builds Open-Source Public Repository

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  • by DeadSea ( 69598 ) * on Friday March 19, 2004 @11:05AM (#8610453) Homepage Journal
    This makes me proud to live in Massachusetts. I can't find the repositor that the article is talking about, but it appears to come out of the Massachusetts Government Information Technology Division [] headed by Peter J. Quinn, CIO. He seems be putting quite a bit of support behind moving the Mass. Government to open source [].

    The ITD website has some really kewl stuff on it like a legal toolkit for using Open Source software []. Press releases on the sit seem to indicate that Republican Governer Mitt Romney is behind the move to open source []. He'll be getting my vote when he runs for re-election.

  • by tcopeland ( 32225 ) * <> on Friday March 19, 2004 @11:06AM (#8610472) Homepage
    ...this []? It sounds like the same thing.

    Sounds like a perfect opportunity for another GForge [] installation... one more for the list []!
    • i actually brought this up with them this past week at the conference for OpenSource in Government, where they initially announced the GOCC thing. the developer's been talking with tim, it seems, and they're trying to figure out of GF is really a good fit for them, especially with the security restrictions they want to have in there. maybe this will be a good push for that old RBAC patch i submitted to get dusted off and fixed? :)
      • > they're trying to figure out of
        > GF is really a good fit for them

        Cool. Maybe I'll email them with some current government usages of GForge... can't hurt.

        > that old RBAC patch i submitted

        Actually, Tim and Guillame were chatting about that on IRC just yesterday, I think...
  • Nice Zealotry (Score:1, Interesting)

    by USAPatriot ( 730422 )
    from the seeing-the-light dept.

    More proof that open-source is a religion here. No evidence of whether this repository will be any good or contain anything of value, just that's its OSS, hip hip hooray.

    I've seen the light on sourceforge, and it ain't pretty.

    • Re:Nice Zealotry (Score:2, Interesting)

      by J. Jacques ( 708438 )
      As I understand it, the point is to make OSS more easily available to government agencies which should in theory save the state a sizeable chunk of money that might otherwise be spent on other software. The thinking is that OSS = cheaper = a good thing.
      • Re:Nice Zealotry (Score:3, Insightful)

        by goldspider ( 445116 )
        "The thinking is that OSS = cheaper = a good thing."

        Before you call it a "good thing" did you ever stop and consider whether that statement is accurate?

        Just because it's open source, it doesn't automatically make it more useful, or imply sufficient support, or even meet the specific needs of the government.

        Hell, using OSS doesn't even mean that it is in fact cheaper! I work at a government institution and we have worked with free software. Sure, the software itself didn't cost us anything, but getti

        • Re:Nice Zealotry (Score:2, Interesting)

          by J. Jacques ( 708438 )
          Did you notice that I qualified my statements with "in theory" and "the thinking is"? Of course OSS is not going to be cheaper in EVERY SINGLE SITUATION. In this case, however, a number of people who have clearly done quite a bit of research into it have decided that OSS could be cheaper in this particular situation. They think it worthwhile to establish a means of distributing it more easily among government agencies.
        • Just curious: What were the pieces of free software that y'all had so much trouble with? It'd be nice to know, and perhaps the maintainers could be made aware of the difficulties and fix it in future releases. Granted, it won't help you now, but surely you'd like to help the next bunch who look at it...
          • Just curious: What were the pieces of free software that y'all had so much trouble with?

            I've had a lot of trouble finding a FTP over SSL Linux client that uses client certificates.

            Any suggestions?

          • by TWX ( 665546 )
            mainly just Common Unix Printing System...

            Though the wardriving software for Linux wasn't as easy to use as the wardriving software for OSX, last time I looked at both.

            That's about it so far...
        • If you RTFA, you would've noticed that:

          " The repository will consist of a MySQL database, Z Object Publishing Environment application server, Apache Web server, OpenLDAP authentication service for storing membership data, and Debian Linux"

          At least the software they are using for the repository aren't considered pieces of crap. As for the support, any decent sys admin shouldn't have trouble learning new O/S and software. If the sys admin sucks, then there plenty good out of work sys admins out there.
        • True, a piece of software being open source does not necessarily imply that it's the best tool for the job. However, I imagine that if a piece of software doesn't meet some government agency's needs, they'll modify it so it does or ask someone else to modify it. Then they can put it back in the repository for the next government agency to use. If the states involved in this effort play their cards right, and try to make sure that the code they produce is reusable and generally good quality, the developme
      • Maybe I'm just not understanding something, but if it applies to existing OSS projects, they are already on the internet for everyone to get/use (sounds pretty easy to me). If it's for new projects, why not just use something again already available publicly for creating/managing projects?
    • from the seeing-the-light dept.
      Either that, or he watched Stargate SG-1 last week and wants a Repository of the Ancients downloaded into his brain. (And who can blame him?!)
      It uses lots of flashy, colored, pretty light.
    • Re:Nice Zealotry (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I'm not an open source advocate, but I don't see how this could be a *bad* thing.

      I could be mostly worthless, but the idea, at least, is sound.

      At the very least, if another department needs software, they already have a catalog of what other departments are using.

      As for SourceForge...true, lots of unfinished and probably worthless stuff there. But I've gone there plenty of times and gotten exactly what I needed.
      • And how much taxpayer money will get pissed away maintaining this OSS repository?
        • The hardware/software setup doesn't sound very complicated. Administration will be the biggie, as always. But in the bigger picture, how much it costs to maintain isn't relevant; the hope is that the dollar figure will be dwarfed by the savings that come from better software, reduced licensing fees, reduced development costs, and more efficient government services.

          The trouble is, it's easy to quantify the costs of running the repository, and much harder to quantify the savings that it produces.
    • That's a rather inane comment. People here are really just interested in one thing, when you get right down to it: being able to make software work the way they want it to behave. It seems that Massachusetts' CIO is also interested in seeing this happen. What is wrong or zealous about being happy to see a state government doing its part to use open source software and possibly lower costs and improve productivity in the process? If you don't like it, don't participate. There's no reason to troll or rain
    • Re:Nice Zealotry (Score:5, Insightful)

      by homebrewmike ( 709361 ) on Friday March 19, 2004 @11:26AM (#8610724)
      Well, as I see it, the government is directly involved with developing software. Well, since we are the government WE are paying for the development of software, and yet WE don't get access ot that source

      Here's an example. The state of MN just wrote some software to help track the amount of salt that it uses during the winter time, allowing them to better track and order salt in a timely manner.

      Who paid for that? Well, me, and a bunch of other Minnesotans. Well, don't cha think that Wisconsin, our happy go-lucky-badger-fearing state would LOVE to have the code? Sure WI could buy that package from MN, but I'll bet that Wisconsin will just go ahead, and reinvent that wheel. Government works like a business (but with a bit more transparancy) and most businesses are heavily involed with the NOT INVENTED HERE SYNDROME.

      So WI and MN tax payers are paying twice what they need to. So, why not share the code? Chances are that WI will have projects that MN would want. Is it going to cut jobs? Probably not - it's just going to make things more efficent. Developers will still need to adapt the packages to the current environment.

      We're paying to have this software developed - we might as well get a copy of it!
      • "Well, since we are the government WE are paying for the development of software, and yet WE don't get access ot that source"

        There are many goods and services that the government buys without receiving any IP, what's so special about software? To be consistent, shouldn't we demand the design specs to the office equipment, vehicles, recipes, etc that the government buys. Perhaps we should also be able to obtain personal information about anyone that works for the government, since we are paying their salary
      • We're paying to have this software developed - we might as well get a copy of it! ... which is why it should be released under the Public Domain, and not under any Open Source license.

        That, after all, is one of the legal requirements that the government is held to - and for good reason.
      • One reason that existing software developed by the government will not be made open-source, is security. While a program to calculate salt usage is probably not a security risk, what about the software used to run a government web site, or to manage social security benefits?

        Programmers are lazy, and (IMO) security-by-obscurity is the most common type in use today in closed-source apps. If the code becomes open, then the security is invalidated, and sensitive data becomes at risk of being exposed. It cos
        • Programmers are lazy, and (IMO) security-by-obscurity is the most common type in use today in closed-source apps.

          No. Wrong. Backwards. Bizarro. That's all lies.

          Nobody uses security-through-obscurity in software. Especially in government military/espionage matters! The NSA simply isn't moronic enough to let that happen.
      • I don't know the current state of affairs in the US, I live in Canada.

        Years ago I found that it was the policy of the US government that if software was developed with public funding it had to be made available to the public. Agencies were able to charge a nominal fee to cover the cost of distribution, mag tapes at that time.

        I requested a listing of available software and was told that as a non-resident my access was restricted. Moreover the policy was under review and I would be kept informed if access

    • More like not RTFA is a religion here.

      " "We want to create a central place where the public sector can go and see what other projects are being developed,"

      This project looks more like the government opening up their projects for the public viewing, not the anti-MS, must use open-source project.
    • by LaCosaNostradamus ( 630659 ) <LaCosaNostradamus@mail . c om> on Friday March 19, 2004 @01:50PM (#8612720) Journal
      For many OSS proponents, it's not religious zeal. It's JOY ... joy over finally having a critical alternative to closed-source AND proprietary systems.

      The world is attempting to wake up from the Microsoft Age -- the Nightmare, the Dark Ages of Information -- which have been filled with secrecy, hidden potholes and vast mistrust. DRM is coming like a chariot being whipped by Microsoft and media corporations, and it frankly hates you, the common man. It's coming to turn your computer into a television set (and if I have to explain to you what's so horrible about TV, then you're intellectually lost).

      Some OSS repository in one state government is not hurting you at all. I'm sure Mass. has plenty of Microsoft, Oracle, etc. licences floating around. Now they have more choices. More alternatives. And this kind of thing is quite beneficial; after all, your government should be able to make data without having it held for ransom by a proprietary and closed provider.

      I'm warning you now. If you reside in willful ignorance long enough, you become STUPID. Is that what you really wanted in your life?
  • Other states (Score:4, Insightful)

    by hey ( 83763 ) on Friday March 19, 2004 @11:14AM (#8610582) Journal
    I wonder if other states could use it.
    If so it would make it easier for them to
    move to open source.
    • Re:Other states (Score:4, Informative)

      by mrscott ( 548097 ) on Friday March 19, 2004 @11:17AM (#8610622)
      If you contact one of the members of the GOCC, they can likely get any government entity into the project that is willing to work with open source. It's actually a really cool initiative and will hopefully drive consistent open source applications in government.
  • by Saeed al-Sahaf ( 665390 ) on Friday March 19, 2004 @11:14AM (#8610585) Homepage
    The is great. I suppose this might be a little "off topic" but I think it is due in no small part to the growing public awareness that has come about because of the SCO case. We are starting to see a much more critical eye from the press and public officials to FUD put out by anti-OOS pundits. This is in no small part to the fact that more than ever, the OSS position is more organized and sounds a lot less like a bunch of hippies frothing at the mouth against "big business". We (many of us) have known for a long time the benefits to society and by way of those that work in the Public Sector, bodies that are here to benefit society, the ideas behind OSS, but in the past these ideas have not been articulated in a way that is understandable to the non-geek, non-IT centered thought patterns. A good PowerPoint wouldn't hurt (joke). You have to tailor your arguments for your audience.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 19, 2004 @11:20AM (#8610651)
    "Government agencies looking to use the repository must sign a contract with the collaborative. This grants an agency a license to any open-source and proprietary software it finds in the repository and prohibits that software from being used to make a profit."

    Im not suggesting this idea is a _bad_thing_, it looks like a worthy endeavour, but doesn't this restriction go against the underlying GPL. ??
    • Ohmigoodness they aren't practicing the gospel according to RMS!

      This isn't linux or the HURD. This is stuff developed with taxpayer dollars. All the bits and bobs written for various agencies stuck in one pile. Under MA law, taxpayer dollars can not be used for corporate R&D.

      This isn't incompatible with the GPL, the GPL is incompatible with this. Doesn't stop them from using linux, but it does prevent them from contributing to it.
    • What underlying GPL? Not all the software in the repository is GPLd. There is proprietary software and non-GPL software in there as well.
    • My thoughts precisely. Surely that violates section 4 of the GPL, and I quote: "You may not... sublicense... except as expressly provided under this License", which would therefore invoke section 5, preventing them distributing it.

      Are they getting permission from the authors to sublicense the software under their own scheme? That's the only way I can see them getting around it.
    • IANAL

      Elsewhere in the article it explains that whenever states wanted to reuse each others software they needed to meet with lawyers and come up with a contract. This "collaborative" is like an ongoing contract/project. Instead of meeting after meeting you sign one contract and all future software in the collaborative comes under those terms.

      That being understood, the collaborative is not public. It is a private agreement among state governments. The software used by the collaborative is not public. You m
  • Not open source (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 19, 2004 @11:21AM (#8610671)
    Government agencies looking to use the repository must sign a contract with the collaborative. This grants an agency a license to any open-source and proprietary software it finds in the repository and prohibits that software from being used to make a profit. This is a crucial component, since Massachusetts law prohibits commercial entities from making money off products developed by the commonwealth using taxpayer money.

    The key words in the above are "prohibits that software from being used to make a profit". This means that any software they develop will either have to be done from scratch or from a very permissive license such as BSD, which allows the modification of the license of the code.

    Furthermore, this license does not fall under The Open Source Definition [] or The Free Software Definition [] for this same reason.
    • Exactly my point (Score:5, Interesting)

      by agslashdot ( 574098 ) <(moc.liamg) (ta) (nanhsirk.namararadnus)> on Friday March 19, 2004 @11:35AM (#8610848)
      Look at the hurdles I'd face if I want to sign up -

      Must sign a contract

      Must use only stuff already in the repository

      Can't ever make money - prohibited by diktat - so what's my incentive ?

      Furthermore, how do you enforce these things ? If the repository is public, I could very easily take bits & pieces & repackage it as proprietary software & sell it, thus making money off products developed by the commonwealth using taxpayer money. If the repository is not public, then how is it open source ?

      Seems overly complicated. Why doesn't the government of MA simply provide monetary incentives for programmers to contribute to existing repositories like sourceforge ? You could get things moving so much faster that way...or am I missing something here ?

      • The point you are missing is that Mass laws in question are not going to change any time soon. Right or wrong (and I think its very wrong...), its the reality that we must live with, at least for now.

        The people doing this are not in a position to change the law to allow comenwealth employees to contribute to GPL (and many other F/OSS licenced) projects, but they want the benifits of it, and they want to have a nice way of documenting the need to change this in the future.

        While I have not seen this system
      • While I agree with most of your points, I must take issue with:

        If the repository is not public, then how is it open source?

        Open source does not necessarily mean that everyone has access to the source. It means that everyone who has access to the binary also has access to the source.

        That's a very different proposition, but it's enough to ensure code freedom. (For common values of 'freedom', anyway.) That's how companies can legally modify open-sourced software for their internal use without releasin

        • It means that everyone who has access to the binary also has access to the source.

          That's a little different from the definition of Free Software, which requires that everyone with access to the binary also has access and rights to the source.
  • Incentive issues (Score:4, Interesting)

    by agslashdot ( 574098 ) <(moc.liamg) (ta) (nanhsirk.namararadnus)> on Friday March 19, 2004 @11:24AM (#8610698)
    Government managing something, anything, almost always results in inefficiency and bereaucracy. I'd hate the state government managing OSS or anything else. Let them build roads & such...

    Would there have been a Linux if the Government of Finland stepped in, instead of Linus & his bunch of highly caffeinated sharpshooters ?

    I don't have a problem with government embracing OSS that is privately built using legions of programmers, because the programmers then have the incentive - fame ( in the OSS community), fortune ( ok, takes much longer to go IPO these days), hopefully both. But government managing OSS, where's the incentive ?

    • Come on... they'll have to internally manage anything that they use to some extent. What agency that writes their own code doesn't have some way to manage it? Why does making it sharable with other agencies make it different?
      • by agslashdot ( 574098 ) <(moc.liamg) (ta) (nanhsirk.namararadnus)> on Friday March 19, 2004 @11:57AM (#8611164)
        Whoever modded the grandparent a troll simply doesn't get it.

        See, the last outfit I worked for, a private brokerage company, had 15,000+ employees scattered across a dozen cities. They wanted to do the SAME EXACT thing - "build and manage an OSS software repository". Same spiel - "We are using OSS all over the place, but each department has its own variant & version, so lets get together & pool our resources, build an internal repository of OSS & then manage it ourselves".

        Guess what ? After a few months & a few hundred thousand dollars, the thing simply fell apart. The "department to build & manage OSS repository" was disbanded & people moved on.

        Why ? Because folks in insurance wanted functionality that folks in mortgage didn't want that compliance wanted that legal didn't want that sysadmins wanted that webmasters didn't want that Perl hackers wanted that Java developers didn't want get my point.

        Different versions and variants exist because different people want different things. Trying to come up with a common software repository is just a pipedream.

        Now, all the above happened in a PRIVATE company, where there are things like profit margins & paychecks - real incentive to make things happen. Imagine a government trying to "build and manage an OSS repository", with umpteen departments, terrific bereaucracy, and absolutely no commercial incentive. The mind boggles...

        • I think the big distinction was that the sofware these states wanted to manage would be code that was written by them specifically for governmental purposes... as opposed to something like a standardized version of Apache.
    • Re:Incentive issues (Score:3, Informative)

      by jks ( 269 )
      Would there have been a Linux if the Government of Finland stepped in

      In fact, the Government of Finland, via the University of Helsinki, funded the beginnings of Linux by keeping Linus employed and not bothering him. Of course, nowadays the university is, shall we say, much more proactive about IPR issues, so it won't probably happen again.

  • You mean like this? (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward []
  • by Xzzy ( 111297 ) <> on Friday March 19, 2004 @11:33AM (#8610821) Homepage
    Granted much of the software isn't as user-oriented, but that's not the point. The point is it is another government institution that has put real effort into making free software available to the public. []

    This is just one example I personally know of. Is this common at all? I'm too lazy to sift through every *.gov domain hunting for a software page. ;)
  • Mostly good (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Mjlner ( 609829 ) on Friday March 19, 2004 @11:39AM (#8610906) Journal
    Any government that invests money in any sort of software development should make sure that the money goes back to tax payers. Just as with anything else, the government (in theory, at least) invests money in stuff that is for the peoples benefit. Eg. defence fundings are spent in order to defend the people.

    Free / Open source software is an effective way of making sure that the people benefits from the development. It's the ultimate public service. A penny spent on FOSS is a penny earned in future projects and software for the masses, while a penny spent on proprietary software is merely a penny spent.

  • Here in MA (Score:4, Funny)

    by superpulpsicle ( 533373 ) on Friday March 19, 2004 @11:39AM (#8610917)
    Ok if there is one thing about the state of MA. Every project with the word "government" begins with a budget and end with an infinite budget.

    Just look at Big Dig, that thing is never going to finish. It's a political blackhole for sucking up $$$.
    • Are you serious? (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It is finished. The tunnels are open.
      • It is finished. The tunnels are open.

        No, it's not. The tunnels might be open, but they're not complete, and won't be for at least a year. Currently they're open to the elements (tunnels couldn't be completely enclosed until the elevated artery was demolished) and the southbound tunnel near Dewey Square only has 2 lanes instead of the 3-4 lanes it was designed for. It's scheduled to be finished in 12-18 months or so, I think, which only makes ita decade or so behind schedule.

    • Future of Freedom (Score:3, Interesting)

      by bstadil ( 7110 )
      I just finished Fareed Zakaria's book Future of Freedom [] and he makes a point why it is that Programs never dies.

      The reason is the Cost / Benefit of the two groups involved.

      The benefactors of the program stands to gain a huge amount per member and as such is very motivated to Lobby and exercise Democratic rights for keeping the program.

      The group paying (General Public) is large and the impact on each member is VERY small so they have little incentive to stop it through democtatic pressure. Result: N

    • Just look at Big Dig, that thing is never going to finish. It's a political blackhole for sucking up $$$.

      Er, the Big Dig is very nearly complete [] and open to traffic now.

  • The way I see it... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by innerweb ( 721995 ) on Friday March 19, 2004 @11:46AM (#8611005)

    .. one of the huge problems for software developers is that so much of the money in software development goes to people who have relatively little if anything to do with software development. OSS will actually (IMHO) do more to correct this than any other business model.

    The step the state is taking will actually allow more money to be targeted at solutions and less money to be given to people who understood how to legally "appropriate" others ideas. Lets face it, with the IP world going the way it is going, if the government does not step in actively to fight the Copyright Law the fed has created, it will become fiscally dangerous to write and release code.

    If the governing bodies develop their own code base by paying internal people to write what they need, sharing and building upon the efforts of other similar bodies, not only will they evolve better standards (happens easier when you share code development), but we will wind up with more "fill in your state here" based coders. I am sure that outsourcing will happen with much of the development eventually, but they will still need internal brain trust to make it all work, and the code will be available for others to build upon. So, instead of paying forever for marginally valuable software, they pay once for targeted solutions that can be expanded, replaced or enhanced as they see fit. Then they only pay to enhance or fix what they have. Since the code base is shared by other government programmers (or actually is OSS), they gain the benefits of OSS at least to a limited degree. In the end, it will be less expensive, a better use of tax dollars and more productive at the user end.

    Maybe the states can use the savings to improve the education system. How many other professions can you attend school for 12 years of you life and only expect to make 50k to 60k per year? Heck, my wife worked at a cosmetics counter selling Cli**que and made more money than a teacher with less than a few years experience.

  • As a MA resident and one of the developers of the upcoming Zope 3 [] release, I was very positively surprised to see Zope [] (Z Object Publishing Environment) on the list of supported projects. I know that Zope has been used by the government for a long time, but that it is being embraced in this way is even better!

    Go MA and Peter Quinn!

  • For a minute there, I thought they'd made an open-source suppository.

    That would be bad in innumerable ways.

  • The repository will be managed by the Government Open Code Collaborative

    Given government's love of acronyms I can't believe that nobody though of Government Reusable Open Code Collaborative; aka, GROCC.
  • Not GPL compatible (Score:3, Informative)

    by 0x0d0a ( 568518 ) on Friday March 19, 2004 @06:59PM (#8616680) Journal
    The license being used by the repository is explicitly not GPL-compatible. It prohibits any commercial use of the code. This is a primary reason for setting up the repository, as commonwealth-produced software cannot (under the current system) be used by entities to make money, according to the article.
  • in the Nordic countries:

    Me like.
  • The best way to kill an idea is to let a government do it.

    Especially the government of the People's Republic of Massachusetts. Even with the best of intentions they will screw up.

"For a male and female to live continuously together is... biologically speaking, an extremely unnatural condition." -- Robert Briffault


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Journal Journal: Getting a Job 4

Someone on Slashdot recently claimed I hadn't read Keep the Aspidistra Flying because I thought the ending was depressing. After I finished my PhD in 2007, I've managed to avoid the same fate and have successfully avoided having a real job for almost five years. I've done freelance programming and written four books, and had a lot of time to post on Slashdot (as you can tell from the fact that, so far, I've posted more than anyone else this quarter) and do open source stuff (Ohloh ranks me in the top 2,000 geeks with no life^W^W^W^Wopen source developers).

That's about to change though. I had two interesting job offers recently (I seem to get job offers from banks very often, but I have a very low tolerance for tedium, so I'd probably have been fired around day 3 if I'd taken any of them). One was from Google in Paris (yay!) but working on boring things (boo!). The other was from Cambridge University, which is about as well paid as you expect in academia (aww!) but basically involves working on the same stuff I do for fun (yay!) with some very intelligent people (yay!). Oh, and it's in a city where a quick search found four tango classes (yay!) and property prices not much lower than London (oops!) and which is both small and flat enough that I can cycle everywhere (yay!) and so does everyone else (look out!).

So, in a few weeks I'm moving to Cambridge. I'll miss looking out at the sea, but being able to dance tango more than once a week should be some compensation. There also seems to be a lively salsa scene, although having to learn yet another set of names for the same Rueda steps is going to be a little tiresome...

When I visited, I went for drinks with some of the makerspace guys the night before my interview (I have no idea how much I drank, but it didn't seem to affect my interview performance too badly...) and met someone who worked on the C++11 atomics spec (which I was in the middle of implementing at the time) and someone who had ported 2BSD to a 32-bit PIC with 128KB of RAM, so it definitely seems like a city with no shortage of geeks...

User Journal

Journal Journal: Tracking Recent Slashdot Astroturfing/Shilling/Trolling 5

Lately there have been a number of accounts created for a short period of time that dump very large posts right after stories make the front page. The posts are usually very long, containing multiple links and having a clear Pro-Microsoft Anti-Google bias. I'm really only making this journal entry to keep a track record of the accounts I believe are sock puppets for this movement. I may get some of these wrong, but more likely than not, I feel this will be pretty accurate.

User Journal

Journal Journal: Wow, I Need to Get a Life 5

This weekend (I think, maybe earlier), Slashdot published some statistics about the most active people. Apparently I am in the top four most active commenters for the past month and the past quarter. This is quite depressing.

In happier, and unrelated news, my FreeBSD commit bit was approved this weekend, so I can now cause untold destruction on the Internet at large...

User Journal

Journal Journal: What Phone? 6

My current phone is a Nokia N80. I've had it a few years and I'm reasonably happy with it, but it has a fault with the charging circuit and it's pretty bulky, so I'm thinking about replacing it. Unfortunately, there seem to be about 3,000 different options with no competent way of way of working out which one is sensible.

I mainly use my phone as... a phone. So, the most important feature for me is the ability to make and receive calls. Because I am a cheapskate, this includes SIP (and WiFi), since my SIP provider charges a lot less than my mobile provider when calling landlines. I really like WebOS in terms of UI, but that seems to rule the Pre out because the only WebOS SIP client is alpha quality and doesn't integrate with the address book. This is something that Nokia does really well - the SIP client is fully integrated, so I can just select someone from my address book and select Internet Call to make the call. No extra skill required.

Beyond that, the only thing I really need is to be able to sync contacts via bluetooth and to use it as a modem via bluetooth - both pretty standard features, I'd assume, since my last three phones have had them.

In terms of smartphone features, I'm not that bothered. A programming environment that supports native code so that I can port my ObjC runtime would be nice - I have no interest in VM-based crap - but aside from that I don't have any strong requirements.

I would, however, like decent battery life and a small size, and ideally a nice camera. The bulk and poor battery life of my N80 means that I quite often leave it at home.

So, any suggestions?

Journal Journal: XSS or something worse? 1

I have a customer that surfs those "porntube" style sites and I kept getting emails from him consisting of a single link, obviously randomly generated. Now since I had just cleaned this machine and knew it to be good I asked "WTH?" and he swore up and down that the ONLY thing he had done was watch some videos on those porntube sites. So I figured he was probably lying, so I figured "I've just made a disc image, have AV and NoScript, lets experiement". So I went to several porntube style sites, DrTuber,XHamster, etc, just clicking links to bounce from one to the other when sure enough about an hour later I started getting emails from myself along with everyone in my address book!

Now since it was the yahoo account that I only use as a spam dump I didn't care about that, what I DID care about is it looks like every. single. person. that looks at any of the porntube sites is vulnerable to having their Yahoo addresses stolen! I tried Chromium and FF 4, I tried with NoScript enabled, no matter what I did after surfing those sites for an hour or less, even after using CCleaner first to make sure there wasn't any info in the cache, there it was.

Now all I can tell you is that it doesn't seem to affect GMail or Live Mail, just Yahoo, but with Yahoo Mail it seems to be pretty damned consistent no matter what the user does! So has anyone else run into this, know how it works, or know how to stop it? I wish I could tell you the exact site but I was looking for the effect more than the cause, but if you start at DrTuber and XHamster and start clicking on video links leading to affiliates you WILL end up seeing it first hand, just don't use a Yahoo account you care about! Although since I saw the effect WITHOUT logging into Yahoo and WITH private browsing on who knows if you'll be able to stop it? I'm starting to wonder if the new yahoo beta isn't storing your address book unencrypted in the browser somewhere for speed. If it is the case we are talking a serious security flaw here folks!

User Journal

Journal Journal: Of Dice and Men

Ok, I don't post to my journal very often. Blogging is cool for some, but I don't live by it. BUT, there is something I have been meaning to post for quite some time...

I go to PAX every year since it blesses my fair city. This last year, I saw an event that I mentally pegged as a 'must see', and it was amazing. I am speaking of the staged theatrical production, 'Of Dice and Men'. I will say it was one of the most amazing productions that I have seen in recent years, for it was funny and ribald, but at the same time spoke to something deeper about gamers and why we play the games. If you get the chance, go see it, it is a remarkable piece.

Of Dice and Men website

The Internet

Journal Journal: Ghost Article: Tea Party Win Shake Up Net Neutrality

This ungrammatical ghost (either "win shakes" or "wins shake" would have been correct) was a clear duplicate of another story, so I knew it was doomed when I saw it.

Tea Party Win Shake Up Net Neutrality
Date: 11/04/2010
Original link:
Posted by CmdrTaco in The Mysterious Future!
from the tea-shake dept.

GovTechGuy found a story discussing the Republican and Tea Party congressional wins and what that means for Net Neutrality. Apparently most of the dems who signed the net neutrality pledge last week are now looking for work.

United Kingdom

Journal Journal: Sale of Goods Act beats AppleCare 2

A little while ago, someone on Slashdot pointed me at the Sale of Goods Act in relation to purchased electronics. The act, for those unfamiliar with it, requires that goods be 'suitable for the purpose for which sold.' This is a fairly broad term, but it basically means that they must be able to do anything that the seller claims that they can do. Under this law, you have 6 years from the date of purchase to file a lawsuit if the item does not match the claims.

This was relevant to me because my MacBook Pro is now out of warranty and the battery is dying. Looking in the System Profiler, its full charge capacity was showing up as 1476mAh after 56 charges. When new, it was 5500mAh. These numbers don't mean anything by themselves, but Apple claims that their batteries retain 80% of their full charge capacity after 300 charge cycles. Claiming this means that a battery that does not retain 4400mAh after 300 charge cycles is not suitable for the purpose for which sold, and they are legally required to refund or replace it (irrespective of the time that has elapsed, although I can only sue them if they don't within 6 years of the time of sale).

I called their support line and was put through to an Indian woman, who explained that the warranty had expired. I quoted the relevant parts of law to her, and (after being kept on hold for a bit), was transferred to someone senior. He very quickly agreed to send out a replacement battery.

Interestingly, he did not ask that the original battery be sent out, nor that I provide a credit card number where I would be billed if the battery turned out not to be defective. I've had two batteries replaced in warranty, and this was standard procedure then, so apparently I get better service out of warranty. I don't have a great deal of use for a battery that only lasts about 35 minutes on a full charge, but I'll probably keep it as a spare.

As always, it pays to know the law. It's a shame that Apple, which claims to be a customer-focussed company, doesn't educate its support team about this though. Possibly the Indian call centre deals with people from everywhere English speaking, while the Irish one only deals with people in the UK and Ireland, so the people there are more familiar with British law, but if I had not quoted the relevant act then I would have been charged Â£99 for a battery, on top of the Â£1.50 it cost to call their support line for half an hour.

User Journal

Journal Journal: Oh, shit. 28

About a year and a half ago, my wife met a really cool lady while doing community theater. Her boyfriend turned out to be a computer nerd, like me. In that year and a half, my wife and this woman grew very close, having similar interests and character. Although I tried to befriend the boyfriend, he always seemed distant. We knew, from his girlfriend, that he had had a "bad" childhood. We just never knew how bad, I guess. Yesterday at six AM, their house was raided by a fifteen man task force including state police, the FBI, and the district attorney's office. Because they had been investigating him for a year, and had the house under observation for a month, they knew they did not need the SWAT team for a flash-bang entrance, as was common in these cases. They were looking for child pornography, and they found it. Not "barely legal" stuff, two to six year olds, in violent and incestuous situations. He admitted guilt, at least according to the police, who questioned him away from his girlfriend. Yes, I realize that could be an interrogation tactic, but he also never protested his innocence to her, and seemed to know exactly why the raid was happening.

The raid was professional and the police were amazingly courteous. They found about an eighth of pot and quite a bit of paraphernalia, and asked whose it was. She admitted that her mom is an old hippie and had left a bunch of bongs there, but the rest was hers, that she used to calm herself down because she had hyperthyroidism, which is true. They let her keep everything and joked that, after this, she'd probably need it. The police doing this kind of work probably look on pot like they look on jaywalking, technically illegal, but not worth their time. They had a list of specific files that had been downloaded and came prepared with the utilities to scan any electronic device or media on the premises. The fact that he used Linux didn't phase them for a second. She gave up all the passwords she knew. As soon as they found the first match, about an hour and a half into things, he was cuffed and taken away. The raid lasted another three and a half hours after that, as the police methodically searched for additional evidence.

She had class, and needed her laptop, so they scanned that and gave it back to her right away, but she couldn't go to class because, if you leave the scene of an investigation, you can't come back until they are done. Which meant she couldn't go buy cigarettes, either, she was out, and none of the police smoked, the poor thing. So she pulled some hair out, strand by strand. The police had a rookie with them they assigned to her, probably like "Watch what we do and make sure she doesn't freak out." They set up two tables in her driveway. Anything potentially dangerous was brought there, as well as electronics and media. Other things were opened, searched, and placed on the floor. They took all hard drives and electronic components. They searched stacks of blank CDs, looking for any hidden amongst the blanks. They took all hand labeled CDs. They felt all cushions carefully, but not finding anything, did not rip them open. They opened all boxes, jars, bags, etcetera, and searched them.

I know all this because we spent about five hours last night going over it with her. If you ever have a friend go through a traumatic experience, this is the best thing you can do for them. Just listen, as they say the same things over and over again. Heck, when they slow down, ask questions to get them going again. Encourage them to show their feelings about it, too, if they cry or rage or shake or whatever, so much the better. The earlier you can get them to do it, the better, because (according to some psychological theories as I understand them) during traumatic, emotional events, the rational mind shuts down and disassociates at least a little. The experience is stored in memory as an undifferentiated lump with heavy emotional triggers attached. If it isn't processed, anything associated with the event can trigger strong emotions, once again causing the rational mid to shut down a little. Having one's rational mind shut down all the time is sub-optimal. She is going to clean up, move all his stuff to storage, and smudge the place with sage, which normally would earn an eye-roll from me, but this is exactly the place for that ritual. It's not magic, it's psychology.

The thing is, she had broken up with him the week before, and it was under consideration for a long time, because he just couldn't get his shit together after his dad died two years ago. He hadn't worked in years, he didn't do anything around the house, he just didn't do anything. He never wanted to hang out with me, even though we have similar interests and had fun conversations at parties. She would come home and find him crying on the couch. He doesn't remember much of his childhood, what he does remember is terrifying. His dad was a hoarder, and they were divorced when he was very young. His mom treated him like a boyfriend. His girlfriend reported seeing his mother sit on his lap and stroke his hair. He's thirty five. He had not had sex with his girlfriend in six or eight months.

I knew some of this before the incident so if it seems I rushed to judgment yesterday it is only because so many things suddenly made much more sense in this new light. It is still possible he is innocent of everything. It depends on exactly what they found, I suppose, and they have a year long record of someone, using several different IP addresses which they can now connect securely to him, I believe, viewing a great deal of very disturbing things online. They read the titles and descriptions of all of them to my wife's friend. We had a large bust of a child pornography ring here last month, actual production of the stuff, and the police admitted that there were fifteen additional people being raided here yesterday. I believe he had also recently befriended a young autistic man of twenty four or so who has young children. The police asked if he he had had any contact with people with young children, and his girlfriend told them that he had, and who they were, so they could question them. In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't get closer to this guy. My cousin has young kids and they are over at our house a lot. Again, I'm not saying this man actually did anything to children himself or intended to. But I see a lot of data points that fit a certain class of patterns of human psychological illness here.

So that's about it. That's all I know at this point. My wife and I are glad that we can be there for her friend while she goes through this, it isn't over for her yet, not by a long shot. Her family owns the trailer park (no snickers, it's very nice) where she lives (in a three bedroom double wide that is as nice as my place, and why am I worried about class issues right now?) She may have to testify, that depends a lot on him, I imagine. We don't even know where he is being held. No local police were involved, it was all state and federal. He called and left a message for her, said not to believe anything they said, asked her to pray for him, and asked her to help bail him out. His bail is eighty thousand, so someone would have to some up with eight. There is no way in hell she is going to put up any money. Note that in his message, again he did not directly protest innocence, he said, "Don't believe them." I believe there is a high risk that if he did get out, he would kill himself, which is why I made the comment yesterday. I was empathizing with what I can only imagine a person in his apparent situation must be going through. That's one of my flaws, I can't really shut off my empathy. It makes it hard to be around people sometimes, or even watch certain kinds of movies or television, like the original British version of The Office took me a really long time to warm up to, I always felt too much empathy towards the character Michael Scott to laugh at him. But I'm babbling now, I guess I don't really have anything else to say at present.

Journal Journal: Ghost Article: BSA Inflate Their Piracy Losses 2

My guess is that this Monday-morning submission turned out to be a duplicate of something that came in over the weekend. But I haven't had a chance to check.

BSA Inflate Their Piracy Losses
Date: 09/20/2010
Original link:
Posted by CmdrTaco in The Mysterious Future!
from the thats-just-marketing dept.

superapecommando noted that Glyn Moody reckons
"The IDC numbers turn out to be reasonable enough, the conclusions drawn from them are not. Reducing software piracy will not magically conjure up those hundreds of billions of dollars of economic growth that the BSA invokes, or create huge numbers of new jobs: it will simply move the money around â" in fact, it will send more of it outside local economies to the US, and reduce the local employment. And it certainly won't do anything to ameliorate the quotidian problems of poorly-written software..."

Journal Journal: Ghost Article: UK Government Refuses To Ditch IE6 1

I was expecting this one to resurface -- it disappeared right about the time Slashdot posted a big political story -- but it hasn't come back yet. I'm guessing it's a dupe of a story over the weekend, but I haven't had time to go searching.

Your Rights Online: UK Government Refuses To Ditch IE6
Date: 08/02/2010
Orig link:
Posted by CmdrTaco in The Mysterious Future!
from the good-plan-guys dept.

ChiefMonkeyGrinder writes
"The UK government has said it will not upgrade its departments computers from Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 because it would not be 'cost-effective'. A recent online petition posted to received 6,223 signatures that called for the 'Prime Minister to encourage government departments to upgrade away from Internet Explorer 6' due to its alleged vulnerability to attack, and because it requires web developers to specially craft sites to support the browser. This raises the question, what is the cost of an upgrade compared to a massive security breach?"

Slashdot Top Deals

Those who can, do; those who can't, simulate.

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Slashdot Top Deals

"For a male and female to live continuously together is... biologically speaking, an extremely unnatural condition." -- Robert Briffault


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The Almighty Buck

The Rules of Thumb For Tech Purchasing 401

Hugh Pickens writes "Sam Grobart writes in the NYT that buying gadgets can sometimes be like buying a car; it requires sorting through options because the reality is that most of us are usually dealing with a finite amount of money to spend, and that means making trade-offs. Grobart puts forward his set of rules for getting the most for your tech dollar when buying computers, cameras, cellphones, data plans, and service contracts. For example, Rule No. 1: pay for PC memory, not speed. 'When buying and configuring a new computer, companies often give the option of upgrading the processor and adding more memory, or RAM. If it is an either/or proposition, go for the RAM,' writes Grobart. 'Processors are usually fast enough for most people; it is the RAM that can be the bottleneck.' Other rules include 'Pay for the messaging, not the minutes,' 'Pay for the components, not the cables,' 'Pay for the sensor size, not the megapixels,' and 'Pay for the TV size, not the refresh rate.' Kevin Kelly expands on Grobart's rules of thumb with 'Pay for the glass, not the shutters,' 'Pay for reliability, not mileage,' and 'Pay for comfort, not for weight.' Any others?"

Slashdot Top Deals

"For a male and female to live continuously together is... biologically speaking, an extremely unnatural condition." -- Robert Briffault


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Echo HCA-266 Hedge Trimmer 20" Double Sided Articulating 25.4cc Engine

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The Echo HCA-266 Articulating Hedge Trimmer features a 59" shaft for long-reach cutting ability and a versatile 180 degree articulating gear case. The unit's 20" double sided, double reciprocating blades are laser cut long-lasting sharpness.

Availability: In stock

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Delivery Cost: $25.00

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Three Things That Will Get Cheaper in 2014

By Michael Essany | Small Business

Every year, millions of holiday shoppers not only set out in search of great deals to gobble up for friends and family, but also for themselves.

Unfortunately, the best deals of the holiday season will soon be topped early in the New Year across a wide array of products, but particularly in the realm of consumer electronics.

While you can’t delay the holidays to satisfy your shopping list for others, the chance of a bigger bargain in the New Year should give you reason for pause when shopping for personal reasons for the remainder of 2013. According to industry analysts and market watchers across the tech and retail industries, prices will be falling in 2014 on a number of products that you would likely never expect.

1. 3D Printers

Three Things That Will Get Cheaper in 2014 image 273398 a 3d printer for 10 year olds 2Three Things That Will Get Cheaper in 2014

Image: PCMAG

3D printers – small machines capable of making a three-dimensional solid plastic object of almost any shape from a digital model – arrived with gusto on the market in 2013, quickly becoming a hot novelty item of the holiday shopping season. But due to their lofty price tags and rudimentary 3D printing proficiency, most consumers say the technology must improve and become more affordable before they’ll consider procuring one.

Well, it looks like they won’t have to wait much longer. In 2014, 3D printers are expected to ascend to the next level in quality while declining a few rungs on the ladder in price. Why? Early in 2014, a number of patents pertinent to 3D printing will expire, the result of which will open the flood gates for competing makers of 3D printers to cook up a greater number of alternative products to those presently available.

Specifically, the liberation of patents related to “laser sintering” – a process by which 3D printing is conducted with a high degree of precision and resolution – will no longer prevent tech makers and entrepreneurs from capitalizing on this resource to dramatically bolster the quality of 3D printers.

By mid-2014, the market for 3D printers may look entirely unfamiliar from what we see today.

2. Smartphones

Three Things That Will Get Cheaper in 2014 image smartphones cheaperThree Things That Will Get Cheaper in 2014

How could something like a cutting edge current-generation smartphone produced by any of the world’s top mobile device makers possibly get cheaper in the New Year when demand remains so strong? The anticipated price drop across many leading smartphone lines can be attributed to substantially lower component costs.

From HD touchscreens and batteries, to processors and cameras, virtually every component of a smartphone is getting cheaper to mass produce. And that will translate to lower prices (although modestly, of course) for smartphones.

With emerging mobile markets like China and India hankering for more affordable smartphones, the world’s preeminent manufacturers are expected to give these markets and the rest of the globe connected communities exactly what they want – cheaper smartphones that in no way compromise a quality experience.

3. Mobile Apps

Three Things That Will Get Cheaper in 2014 image apps cheaper 2Three Things That Will Get Cheaper in 2014

The last and probably most surprising entry on our list is the mobile app. And not just one. We’re talking most of them. The overwhelming majority of iOS and Android aps will either be cheaper or available for download at no cost at some point next year. The reason for the cascading prices of mobile apps is due, in large part, to changing customer preferences and outright demands. The basic fact of the mobile matter today is that smart-device owners don’t want to pay much for content.

In reality, most are willing to tolerate a handful of ads or other small-screen nuisances in order to get their games, music, or general reading material at no charge. Consequently, the average price of the top selling mobile apps of 2014 could be dramatically lower than those that topped the 2013 list.

Most excitingly, perhaps, is the reality that technology – especially in the realm of consumer electronics – is evolving so quickly that by the end of 2014, the rundown of technologies that managed to get cheaper during the year could surprise us all and be much, much longer than it presently is.

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A1 – B1 German Grammar Course

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(16 customer reviews)

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    Hope more people can enjoy this different way of studying!

  3. 5 out of 5

    I began in 2012 to study German at the local community college. I enrolled for three semester, but I have I learned more about speaking the language and understanding grammar from A1-A2 in Smarter German. I found Michael on youtube and was a fan from the start. It was the Yes-Yes and No-No table that got me hooked. Then I got serious and purchased the course. Now I have a tutor for 1-1/2 hours each week, do homework for that, and spend the rest of my German study with Michael’s material online. I’m perhaps not as disciplined as when I had scheduled classes and required labs to attend. However, I am learning so much more about the language and it’s nuances. I love the tables, phrases, and general analytical, linear approach. Michael, I am so happy you will be offering the beginner’s online Smarter German course. I would probably enroll just as an A-2 review. Hope you continue teaching and someday offer this approach to higher levels. Hope to get to meet you some day in Germany. Perhaps learning and culture tours next. I am an adult student, retired from a career, who “just” wanted to learn a little German. It got to be so much more than that because of you. Vielen Dank!

  4. 5 out of 5

    I started learning German on my own, simply using what I could find on the internet. It was difficult at first to stay motivated as things seemed to take a while to sink in, especially grammar. I found smarterGerman and things took off in a way I had not expected. The material caters specifically to a lot of areas which are known to cause difficulties for learners. It is surprising to find, for instance, that you can “suddenly” use the right Adjective ending in the majority of cases in no time at all, when other learning material will always point out that, “This is difficult” or “Many learners have trouble with this part”… Not exactly motivating. The course will get you right into the heart of learning and “understanding” German from the start. I can not recommend the material enough! If you have tried to learn German before but have been put off or if you are thinking of learning German… This would be your Smartest move!

  5. 4 out of 5

    I needed some means of revising my grammar and keeping it honed; this is it – thanks!
    Great presentation skills, Michael – engaging and entertaining [yes, I too love the shirts and sweaters!].
    I hope at sometime you’ll be taking us forward to .. .. B2 … C1 … perhaps?
    Vielen Dank, und alles Gute,

    • :

      Danke Dir David, I surely will produce a B2 course and who knows, maybe next year a C1 one. But you got all the fundamental techniques and grammar that you need to make these stages of your German learning already a lot easier. Thanks once more for your kind words. Alles Gute auch Dir und einen schönen sonnigen Tag. Michael

  6. 5 out of 5

    German language for me was a nightmare unless i met Michael. I tried many courses both at the university and at private institutes but nothing made my life easier. Finally I decided to go for it and we sorted out an arrangement. All my friends say that I have a big improvement in my German in such a short time. Thanks to Michael. Its always better to get what you want/need in an hour than to exhaust yourself in a German course for three hours every day.

    SmarterGerman => Makes life easier

    Danke Michael

  7. 5 out of 5

    This is the first German learning software I’ve ever payed for and I already feel that this has been a very good investment. The methods are straight out awesome; the Dative prepositions song, the Superman Technique. It simply works.

    Consider this a warm Thank you!

  8. 5 out of 5

    Engaging, fun, and what’s important is that the lessons sticks in your head. This is way better than attending classes at Goethe.

  9. 5 out of 5

    I’ve been studying German language for many months ( for cultural reasons only) and I found it so difficult to the point that I’ve been about to give up studying it . But after having followed your videos on Youtube and the ones you’ve sent me I find it much more easier and interesting , Believe me if I tell you that I can’t stop watching them that within 48 hours I’ve finished all the A1 videos ( Sure I’ll come back to focus on them one by one ) given that I work for 9 hours daily.

    I can strongly recommend these courses for any German learner no matter what motivation.

  10. 5 out of 5

    Dear Michael it is really amazing way to study German language. you have your simple and smart way to teach language.
    I tried many times to download the pdf table of content but unfortunitelly there is a massege that site not available. so, please solve that problem or please send me the table of content by email because I want to buy the A1-B1 Grammer set. If there is also B2 I will appreciate. Best of luck and thanks a lot for your effort.

  11. 5 out of 5

    I bought the Complete set today(from A1toB1), and i have to say: for the symbolic price of 50 euros, i got 10x more of what i expected.
    The sheer amount of content, the charisma of teacher, the nice little ebook at the end of download list, with the english translation side by side with german, just…amazing.
    And i went through a lot of language learning programs… This is the first (language learning) content i ever bought with money. And i’m happy.
    This guy is giving you all he has. Not holding back on anything. As the one review above asked, i would also like a B2, or all the way to C2 even.
    Thanks a lot Michael, for this. I felt like a kid opening presents. Content, content, and more content. I feel like i owe you more than i payed 🙂
    Cheers 🙂

  12. 5 out of 5

    When someone is so passionate about what they do, it always shows through their work.

    In every facet of this system, Michael’s drive to teacher better and more effectively gives the learner a priceless advantage. The videos are enjoyable and top quality, the techniques are backed by the latest neuroscience, the layout is intuitive, and explanations couldn’t be more helpful or clear. And just like that the “horrible German Grammar” becomes ” surprisingly simple and easily systematic German Grammar”. I have now finished the A1-B1 set and all I can do is wish for more! With learning brought together like this, I was able to reach a strong understanding of German grammar and answer all the questions that I never thought I’d solve. The grammar of German finally clicked with me and I owe it completely to SmarterGerman.

    Truly invaluable for anyone learning German, and a brand that takes pride in being the best at what they do. I would buy B2 and beyond without a moments question.

  13. 5 out of 5

    (verified owner):

    i will say this man is a genius the way he is explaining everything its not even improving my German but also English grammar as well. the tricks he developed to learn the grammar are simply amazing and i will rate him 5/5 and i am strongly recommending his course

  14. 5 out of 5

    Hello, i have a question when i pay for the course will i receive it by e-mail or in my address ?

    • :

      Hi Wael, you will receive an email with download links instantly after your payment has gone through. The video-files will be zipped. The book is a pdf. You can’t download zips on an iPad or iPhone but you can download them on your desktop or laptop, unzip them there and then transfer everything to your mobile phone or tablet.
      Viel Erfolg mit Deinem Deutsch

  15. 5 out of 5

    (verified owner):

    This material is awesome, worth buying it. Michael makes it a lot eaiser to understand.
    Good work, thank you.
    I recommend it to anyone.

  16. 5 out of 5

    (verified owner):

    Definitely the best German (and language) course I’ve ever seen! Intuitive, simple and contains a huge amount of useful information without ovewhelming the reader. It’s a shame that not all language teachers can be like Michael. This course is worth every penny.
    Vote Michael for president!

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Napa! See you in May!
This dad life tho!?! Nothing better. Happy holidays you guys... #family
Me and my lil bro Tim Haggerty at the function
Thank you Ellen DeGeneres for asking me to perform Wednesday Morning on the show. Much love ❤
It started with an idea, a $5,000 budget and a community of folks that lent us there stores, clothes, cars, time, energy & love. It now has a billion plays. 1,000,000,000. Who could have ever imagined.... thank you all.
Centro De Bogota
The face you make when you gotta leave Colombia...❤
Rest In Peace Alaina. Sending love to her family and friends. Another beautiful life lost to the disease of addiction.
Botero Museum
Lil Rev Run in Bogota
Columbia Sportswear's OutDry ECO Jacket is made from 100% recycled materials. 21 plastic bottles, to be exact. No PFCs. Job well done. REI [ Link ]
Drug Dealer with Ariana DeBoo on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon [ Link ]

Macklemore ft. Ariana Deboo: Drug Dealer
2020 olympic starting squad. Simone Biles
Drug Dealer. Tonight...
My thoughts last night as I was going to bed...
Young Budo


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This app is an advanced software that make you can extract images from a video. It will be a necessary tool for any video editors, movie fans and video analyst. Many video formats can be supported by this app, such as mov,avi,mp4,mpeg,m4v,3gp,3g2,m4v etc.

You can use this app in two ways:

One is to extract one image at a certain time.

Another way is to extract a series of images from the video. If you use the second way, you can choose start time and end time on the movie player.
And a slider can help you to set time gap. Small value can produce more frames, but large value will be helpful when you choose a large duration.

Images are saved in .png format since it is the best image format in mac. The image size will equal to your video image's true size.

In a word, It has complex functions but is very easy to use. Not only video expert will like it, but also common people.

Try it now!

Video Image Extractor (com.mob.095) is a Mac software application that has been discovered and submitted by users of

Operating System: Mac

Default Install Path: /Applications/Video Image

Minimum OS version: 10.6

Copyright: Mac Render


text:
Ninja 3x3x3 Ghost Cube

Product Description

A spooky surprise awaits with the Ninja 3x3x3 Ghost Cube.  This take on the ghost cube includes smooth rotations and a durable design making this item very desirable for enthusiasts.

-1 Ninja 3x3x3 Ghost Cube

-1 Cube Stand

-1 Gold Sticker Set

-1 Silver Sticker Set

Transparent Blue
Transparent Green
Transparent Orange
Transparent Pink
Transparent Purple
Transparent Red
Transparent (Stickers)
Transparent Yellow
$ 22.95

Shipping Hours

Monday -Friday: 8am - 4:30pm

Saturday: 8am - 12:30pm

Sunday: postal service closed

Shipping Cutoff

If an order is submitted after the shipping cutoff, the order will still be prepared and will be shipped out on the next business day.

Shipping Services / Delivery Time

We currently offer several shipping services through USPS, FedEx, and DHL for your convenience.

  • Free Shipping (Domestic) (3-5 business days)
  • First Class Mail (1-5 business days)
  • First Class Mail International (7-21 business days)
  • Priority Mail (1-3 business days)
  • Priority Mail International (6-10 business days)
  • Priority Mail Express (1-2 business days)
  • Priority Mail Express International (3-5 business days)
  • Retail Ground (2-8 business days)

  • 2-Day (2 business days)
  • 2-Day AM (Delivered by 10:30am)
  • Express Saver (3 business days)
  • Ground (1-5 business days)
  • Ground International (3-7 business days for Canada and Puerto Rico)
  • Priority Overnight (Delivered by 10:30am)
  • Priority Overnight Saturday Delivery
  • Standard Overnight (Delivery by 3:00pm)
  • International Economy (2-5 business days)
  • International Priority (1-3 business days)

  • Express International (2-3 business days)

In the rare occurrence that an item arrives defective or if you would like to conduct an exchange, you will have 15 days after delivery of the product(s) to do so.  If conducting an exchange, all items will need to be brand new and still have the original packaging in the same condition that it arrived in.


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Kunitz Loses Hat Trick, Helps Pens Beat Bruins

A modest Chris Kunitz told reporters after the Penguins beat the Bruins 6-4 Sunday afternoon that he did not deserve the hat trick he was credited with. Upon further review after the game, officials took his third period goal away and handed it to former Bruins defensman Sergei Gonchar.

“I didn’t hit the puck, the replay might look like that but I didn’t hit the puck,” Kunitz said. “I’m not highly skilled with the puck. I just kind of go and get it and give it away, but the puck comes back to you (if a player works hard).”

Kunitz still helped the Penguins with two goals in the win over the Bruins. Boston’s loss and current 4-5-1 stretch over the last 10 games cut the Bruins lead over second place New Jersey to six points in the Eastern Conference.

The Penguins rallied from 3-2 and 2-1 deficits to run their loss-less streak to 10 games (8-0-2).

Former Bruin Bill Guerin got the scoring started with his 18th goal just 50 seconds into the game. 16 seconds later, new Bruin Mark Recchi knotted the score at 1-1. Phil Kessel added his 31st goal 10 minutes later, and Kunitz responded six minutes later to tie it 2-2.

The Bruins took a 3-2 lead on Blake Wheeler’s second period goal, which they held until Gonchar’s goal less than a minute into the third period. The Pens finally took a 4-3 lead on Kunitz’s second goal 20 seconds later.

Michael Ryder tied the game less than three minutes later, but the Pens pulled away with Petr Sykora’s game-winning goal at 9:29. Jordan Staal added an empty-netter to get the Pens the 6-4 win.

Tim Thomas finished with 28 saves in the loss.

The Bruins next face the Kings on Thursday for the first time this season.

About KC Downey - @kc_downey

KC is the "head coach" of the Sports of Boston, LLC blog network. Follow him on Twitter: @kc_downey

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Bringing the Economy Home

Boise Subdivisions “Dressed Up to Look Occupied” as Housing Market Faltered

Molly Messick / StateImpact Idaho

This foreclosed home in the Boise suburbs was put up for sale in September.

Boise’s housing market gains a bit of unwelcome and retroactive notoriety, thanks to a New York Times article published this week. Using newly released Fed transcripts, the article details Federal Reserve officials’ apparent lack of concern about the housing bubble and its potential effects on the broader economy, even as the housing market showed signs of weakness.

As an example, the piece gives this account of former Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Janet Yellen relaying information from her region:

One builder she spoke with, she said, “toured some new subdivisions on the outskirts of Boise and discovered that the houses, most of which are unoccupied, are now being dressed up to look occupied — with curtains, things in the driveway, and so forth — so as not to discourage potential buyers.”  – The New York Times

According to the article, the anecdote brought laughs in September 2006.  In the years to come, Idaho’s housing market, like overheated markets all over the country, would plummet.  According to RealtyTrac’s recent year-end report, Idaho had the tenth highest foreclosure rate in the nation in 2011, with 1.77 percent of its housing units experiencing at least one foreclosure filing during the year.

John Starr, a broker in the Boise office of Colliers International, has a more colorful description of Idaho’s foreclosure problem.  “You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting somebody who has been personally affected, or has a family member who has been affected, or an acquaintance,” he said.  “It’s just pervasive.”

About StateImpact

StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives.
Learn More »


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Term Paper
Finance & Accounting
Pages 10 (2510 words)
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Financial management in Non Profit Organizations Name of the Student University Executive Summary The need to portray effectiveness in any kind of organization requires the utilization of resources and transforms them into valuable products, services and offerings…

The report is prepared with the sole intent to study the various financial management practices in a non-profit organization. The author of the study will highlight the various financial management practices that ensure smooth operations of the business. It also highlights the difference in the financial management practices between profit and nonprofit organizations. The author of the study will also provide certain inputs which will help in the betterment of the nonprofit organization and help in achievement of goals and objectives. It was essential to conduct this study to understand the impact of financial management practices on the organizational performance of NPO. Introduction: Financial Management in Non-Profit Organization Nonprofit organizations form an essential part of the society and exist to provide certain benefits for the members of the society. They actually vary in size from large to small clubs and the operations are based on receipt of grants, donations, fundraising or receipt from members as the principal source of income. In certain instances nonprofit organizations (NPO) supplement income with the trading activities. Although, NPO operate on a nonprofit basis suitable practice of financial management ensures that there are sufficient resources and cash meant for operations of NPO. ...
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Setting Up Email with Microsoft Outlook 2010

This guide is for stores created prior to March 16, 2015. If your store was created after this date, see Creating and Checking Email Accounts.

This article walks you through setting up a BigCommerce email address in Microsoft Outlook 2010. You'll first need to create an email account, if you haven't already done so.

1. Launch Microsoft Outlook 2010.

2. Click File, then Add Account. If editing an existing account, click Account SettingsAccount Settings.

3. Select Manually configure server settings or additional server types, then click Next.

4. Leave Internet E-mail selected and click Next.

5. Enter Your Name as you'd like it to appear in sent messages, and your E-mail Address.

6. Select either POP3 or IMAP for Account Type.

7. To find your Incoming and Outgoing mail server (they are the same), in your BigCommerce control panel, go to Server Settings › Email Accounts. Click the Action button next to your account and select Account Details.

Select Account Details from the Action button

8. User Name is your full email address, and Password is the password you set up when creating the account.

9. Click More Settings.

10. Click the Outgoing Server tab and check the box marked My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication. Leave Use same settings as my incoming mail server selected.

Adjusting Outgoing Server settings

11. Click the Advanced tab.

  • a. If you're using a POP3 account:

    Beneath Incoming server (POP3), check the box marked This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL). This should update Incoming server (POP3) to 995 (if not, change it).

    Adjust Advanced POP3 Settings

  • b. If you're using an IMAP account:

    Beneath Incoming server (IMAP), for Use the following type of encrypted connection, select SSL from the dropdown. This should update Incoming server (IMAP) to 993 (if not, change it).

    Adjust Advanced IMAP Settings

Beneath Outgoing server (SMTP), for Use the following type of encrypted connection, select SSL from the dropdown. Update Outgoing server (SMTP) to 465. Click OK to close the More Settings window.

12. Click Next, and Outlook will test the account. You should see two green checkmarks indicating success with checking the account and sending a test message. Click Close, then Finish.

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Using Socialize to distribute your feed on social networks

The FeedBurner Socialize service makes it easy to distribute your content to interested subscribers or followers on social networks using any FeedBurner feed you already have. The Socialize service currently supports distribution on Twitter.

The Socialize service offers the following options:

Select Account

At this time, the Socialize service only supports Twitter. You may have one or several Twitter accounts associated with your Google account (which is shared by FeedBurner and other Google products), but each feed may only post to one Twitter account at a time. If for some reason you need the same feed to post to multiple Twitter accounts, you may create a copy of your feed and have that version post to a separate Twitter account.

Formatting Options

You may format your feed for Twitter with a number of options. In all cases, the formatting must fit within the 140 character limit imposed by Twitter. If the options you choose create messages longer than 140 characters, FeedBurner will automatically truncate your messages into 140 character tweets.

Post Content
You may post the feed title, title and body, or just the body as the tweet. If you choose to include a link to the feed item, your feed item permalinks will be rewritten as a shortened URL by Google on the domain. These links redirect to your normal FeedBurner URLs so that analytics tracking will not be affected. If you select "Leave room for retweets" we will truncate the message to leave room for rewteeting using the many Twitter clients that support this function.

Hash Tags
Hash tags are the way that Twitter supports tagging or labeling tweets so that they can easily be grouped by Twitter clients that allow sorting and filtering by these tags. By default, the Socialize service does not add any hash tags to your tweets, however if you select "Create hash tags from item categories" we will automatically create hash tags in the tweet according to any <category> elements attached to the feed item. These categories may be added by your blogging platform or CMS publishing system. In Blogger, these are called "Labels" so if you label your posts in Blogger, these labels will get added as hash tags in Twitter.

Additional Text
You may choose to add a custom message preceding or following the message that is created from your feed item to add more context. As an example you may choose to prepend "From my blog:" to the beginning of the tweet so that Twitter followers can see which messages you are tweeting directly versus posting links from your long form blog.

Item Selection

Item Limit
As your feed updates throughout the day, FeedBurner picks up your feed and looks for new items. The Socialize service will detect these new items and post up to 5 of them to twitter at a time. Note that the speed with which feed updates can get to FeedBurner will affect this service. To ensure your feed updates in near real time, make sure you ping us immediately after your feed updates and that your blog platform is configured to use PubSubHubub. If none of these options are used for making your feed near real time, the Socialize service will look for and update with any new feed items every 30 minutes.

Keyword Filter
You may choose to only send certain feed items to Twitter, filtered either by the Category, or text in the title, body, or the entire item. To enable this filter enter text, with terms separated by commas, and then choose where you would like Socialize to look for these keywords. If this service is enabled, an item will only be tweeted if one of the filtered terms is found.

Preview lets you see how your tweets will look in your feed as you change Socialize options. If your feed content is not available, the preview uses its own sample text. Note that Preview uses the existing items in the feed, but only new feed items published after the service is activated will actually get posted to Twitter.


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UBR7114 BPI+

Unanswered Question
Nov 10th, 2007

Hi guys, I tried to configure BPI+ in the UBR7100 and I have the following problem:

5w2d: Got a new manufacturer certificate.

5w2d: Fail in verifying new manufacturer certificate 000b.06ca.00e4

5w2d: %UBR7100-3-MANUFACTURE_CA_CM_CERTIFICATE_FORMAT_ERROR: <133>CMTS[DOCSIS]: Manufacture CA Certificate Format Error

I uploaded the Motorola Certificate. The Modems are status "reject(pk)".

How configure for these work fine?

I have this problem too.
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