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The XtremIO Sessions At DellEMC World 2017

Yes, its this time of the year where we are getting very close to DellEMC World 2017, this year will be special in so many ways that I can’t really wait!

Below you can see the XtremIO sessions, their abstracts and timing so you can plan accordingly, Do NOT miss them, as always, the timing, content may chance so ensure to check the url below for the most up to date information.

Session Name Abstract Scheduling Options
XtremIO: Next Generation XtremIO Deep Dive – Architecture, Features & Innovations Monday, May 8, 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM

Wednesday, May 10, 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM

Top 10 Tips & Tricks To Rock Your XtremIO World Learn the top 10 things to get the most out of your XtremIO system. Our panel of technical experts will share best practices of configuration, operation and management, and will  provide insights into your specific questions during a live ‘Ask-The-Expert’ session Tuesday, May 9, 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
XtremIO: Virtualization Best Practices With XtremIO XtremIO provides extreme performance and efficiency for virtualized environments and pioneered integrated Copy Data Management (iCDM). Join us as we detail what the new capabilities of next generation XtremIO will mean for virtualized enterprise solutions hosted on this platform. Various deployment models will be examined and best practices for both VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V environments will be discussed. In addition, integration options for enhanced monitoring, orchestration & automation when using management platforms such as VMware vRealize and Microsoft System Center with XtremIO will be highlighted. This is a complete overview for those looking to better understand what XtremIO can do for their business, or alternatively for those interested in learning how customers are leveraging XtremIO today to efficiently run their virtualized workloads with stringent SLAs
Tuesday, May 9, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Wednesday, May 10, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
XtremIO: Empowering MS SQL & Oracle DBAs With XtremIO Microsoft SQL and Oracle DBAs can benefit greatly from the unique Integrated Copy Data Management (iCDM) capabilities of XtremIO. Use cases will be explored in a series of demos, highlighting XtremIO’s application integrations and workflows. Learn how to enable your DBAs to deploy multiple terabyte AlwaysOn databases replicas in <5 minutes without massive network traffic. Enable self-service for rapid and nearly limitless copies of databases. Watch how a PowerShell script can take XtremIO Virtual Copies, remove sensitive data and make the database available for repurposing in a test/dev environment. Empower your DBAs today with an updated look at best practices for SQL and Oracle on XtremIO.
Tuesday, May 9, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Thursday, May 11, 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
XtremIO: A Deep Dive In Integrated Copy Data Management XtremIO’s unique integrated copy data management offering combines performance & scalability with reduced operational risk through automation and self-services. Maximize the value of your XtremIO deployment by simplifying application workflows and reducing development timelines. In this session, we will discuss how application admins and DBAs can repurpose different copies of Oracle, SAP and SQL Server DBs instantaneously and become more agile.
Tuesday, May 9, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Wednesday, May 10, 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM
Introduction To Next Generation XtremIO All Flash Array (Hands-on Lab) Welcome to the next generation XtremIO platform! In this lab, you can explore the new HTML.5 based GUI. You will also be able to explore the workflows of the XtremIO data services being released.
XtremIO: Advanced Data Replication With Next Generation XtremIO Platform Come and learn about Dell EMC’s replication innovations for XtremIO! In this session, we will first provide an overview of replication options currently available with XtremIO. Then we will introduce the industry unique metadata-aware, highly efficient native replication for the next generation XtremIO platform. Details of the replication architecture — built on inline data reduction and XtremIO in-memory snapshots to reduce data transfers between primary and secondary sites — will be presented. We will also discuss different key features required to manage DR requirements for business critical applications in a customer-centric model.
Wednesday, May 10, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Thursday, May 11, 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM
XtremIO: Simplicity & Extensibility Of The XtremIO Management System – A Guided Tour A simplistic management model is one of the corners stones of XtremIO’s differentiation. The next generation XtremIO redefines storage management and the user experience. In this session, we will go over the 1-2-3 provisioning model built with new HTML5 web UI. In addition, we will discuss the simple user guided wizards, new auto-balanced architecture, single click real-time reports, new data savings tracking, data protection, and scalability.
Tuesday, May 9, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Wednesday, May 10, 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
XtremIO: End-User Computing – Updates & Best Practices Hundreds of customers are running millions of virtual desktops in production today with XtremIO. The XtremIO platform offers opportunities to start even smaller than ever before, scale more granularly. In this session, we will present a holistic overview of an XtremIO enabled VMware End-User Computing (EUC) environment. You will also learn about XtremIO sizing and best practices for VMware EUC. An end-to-end EUC datacenter solution leveraging Dell EMC servers, networking, and storage will be presented and examined in detail.
Wednesday, May 10, 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM

Thursday, May 11, 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
XtremIO: Introducing The Next Generation XtremIO Platform Come and learn about the next generation XtremIO All-Flash array! This session will review our learnings from the largest All-Flash customer base and provide an update on the latest XtremIO capabilities and how they wil help transform many workloads to deliver even greater agility, tremendous TCO, and business benefits. We will discuss the use cases and benefits for workloads focusing on VDI and business apps leveraging integrated Copy Data Management.
Monday, May 8, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Wednesday, May 10, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Transforming Healthcare IT With Dell EMC All-Flash Storage In this session, learn about practical IT solutions from Dell EMC that are accelerating insights and transforming patient care shaping the future of health. We will discuss consolidation and simplification of your Electronic Health Records (EHR) infrastructure with integrated Copy Data Management (iCDM), transformative VDI solutions, highest level of data protection and availability, and performance at cloud scale leveraging VMAX All-Flash and XtremIO. Customer perspectives of their healthcare IT journey with All-Flash solutions will be another cornerstone of this session. Monday, May 8, 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
World Wide Technology: The Evolution Of Flash Key decision points between the various flash arrays, based on our flash lab findings and customer use cases for Unity, XtremIO, All-Flash VMAX Monday, May 8, 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
Enterprise Copy Data Management: Primary & Protection Copy Management Best Practices See how eCDM discovers data copies on VMAX, XtremIO, and Data Domain. Learn how to create Protection Plans within eCDM to monitor service levels with storage groups, consistency groups, snapshots, and ProtectPoint copies. This session demonstrates how eCDM helps manage and monitor the creation and deletion of copies to ensure compliance of SLOs. A customer will speak to their experiences. Monday, May 8, 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
Data Migration: Cheaper, Faster, Easier…& Now At Scale! It is your most precious possession: your data. And usually one of the last and most frightening steps in modernizing your business critical systems is migrating the data. It doesn’t have to be so scary. It doesn’t have to be so hard. This session demonstrates the migration tools we’ve built into VMAX, VNX and XtremIO, and share the software, resources, and services that will make your data migrations dreamlike instead of scream like.
Tuesday, May 9, 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM

Wednesday, May 10, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM

A Bonus Session!

RecoverPoint & RecoverPoint For Virtual Machines: What’s New For 2017 So much has happened in the past year with RecoverPoint and RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines. See how fast deployment can be done and how seamless operations are. Understand how to achieve the most efficient data protection for your VMware environment. A customer will speak to their experiences. Monday, May 8, 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM

Wednesday, May 10, 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM

My session is the virtualization best practices one, can’t wait to see you all there

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Thanks in advance

Dear Universe,

I’m looking for a job. I thought I’d drop you this little note so that you can help me find one. I have many talents and abilities, but you know all about that. I would like you to find me a job that feeds my passions while I maintain my fiscal responsibilities.

I want to help people. One of my missions in life is to make everyone I meet realize how wonderful they are. I’d like to work for a person or company that has the same mission, and who treats me like the magical creature that I am. My ideal employer will realize that I don’t need to wear a suit to excel at my position. My ideal boss doesn’t wear a suit either. She knows that we don’t have to wear a uniform to impress others, and that I can dress nicely while still expressing my own happy energy.

I’d like this position to nurture my writing, to tie into what I do creatively. It’ll give me the flexibility to attend writing retreats and give speeches. Perhaps sometimes I’ll work from home and other times I’ll travel. If there’s an office to go to I won’t be trapped inside of a gray fabric box. There will be artwork and color. I’ll be able to see trees, even if those trees live in planters in the courtyard. My co-workers will be people it is a joy to know, true individuals. We will appreciate that about each other.

I’ll excel at this job, dear Universe, because we’ll be a great match. I believe in the Buddhist concept of Right Livelihood, and I’ll work hard at this job because my profession and I will take care of each other. I’ll appreciate the health benefits and the way my workplace is simply a wonderful place to be. I’ll work hard simply because I believe in doing my best. My boss will recognize and appreciate my efforts. I’ll be able to grow in this position, and it will be a great place for me to be. The job and I will be made for each other.

I look forward to the results of your search. I can hardly wait to see what you find for me. As always, I sincerely appreciate your help.

Love and hugs,

Cathy Tenzo

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it:

75. What do you want or need right now? Ask the universe for it. All letters will be answered.

I'd love to hear what you have to say.

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Blog Archives

2015 Clean Up: Week 1 is All Done!

As promised, I’m back to give an update on how the first week of my three week intensive cleanse went. I guess the first point is that I survived! Yay, me! Apart from 5 cherry tomatoes, I was 100% perfect! Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

So, what did I notice in this first week…

1. My worst sugar cravings happened on the first day

The kind of crazy you feel when you are craving sugar, HARDCORE!

The kind of crazy you feel when you are craving sugar, HARDCORE!

Yes, I had them all week. Cravings for sugar, fried foods, dairy and pastries. I persevered with only minimal amounts of whining, but that first evening was the hardest part of all. Suddenly at around 8 p.m. it’s like my body woke up and was like, “Hey, uh, I didn’t get any sugar today…hello? HELLO!!!!! FEED ME SUGAR NOW!!!” Or, maybe it was my brain saying it, I’m not sure but I definitely knew it was being said! I even had dreams of gorging myself on cakes and cookies that night, the whole time racked with guilt over what I was eating.

2. Water, water and more water

I drink a lot of water, but after a few days it was like my body was reset from always hungry to always thirsty. I’ve often read that we get our signals crossed on this and I feel like this particular cleanse is uncrossing those wires because I can’t get enough water, my body is constantly telling me to drink more. Not too long ago I could go hours without a sip, now I need that water bottle next to me at all times and I regret when I go somewhere without one.

3. The first week is EXPENSIVE!

Yes, in the long run I will be saving loads of money because I won’t be going out to eat…at all, but I had to purchase many ingredients that aren’t a normal part of my pantry in order to have healthy options for the length of the cleanse. If anyone is thinking of doing the Alejandro Junger “Clean” cleanse and use his cookbook “Clean Eats”, I would say make sure that you have an extra $150 budgeted for that first shop, because you are going to need it! Of course, after that it is much less expensive and will cost you your usual budget, plus a wee bit more if you aren’t accustomed to buying organic.

4. Yawn!!!

I was pretty tired the first couple of days, but I’m gradually finding that I wake up more easily in the morning, provided I got a good night’s sleep. For a long time, I’ve been one of those people who can get that solid 8 hours of sleep and still wake up tired. This week, when I got a solid night’s sleep of 7 hours or more, I woke up more refreshed than usual. I won’t say I sprung out of bed like a bad Viagra commercial, but there was more alertness and dare I say…more pep, than I would usually have.

Those have been my biggest observations so far, though definitely not the changes I’m feeling. My moods have been fluctuating, as well as my bathroom habits, but we’ll get to those.

What are some of the biggest changes you’ve noticed in yourself the first week of a major dietary shift? Did they disappear after some time or did they stay with you the whole time ?


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The Real Deal: Young Adult Book Club

Story Of A Girl April 11, 2009

Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr When she was only thirteen, Deanna Lambert became involved with her older brother’s friend Tommy. Tommy was seventeen at the time and Deanna thought he was gorgeous. Within a few weeks, Tommy starts picking up Deanna and driving to the local make-out spot in town. They start doing much more than make out, and sex becomes a regular occurrence even though Deanna is so young.

One day, Deanna’s father finds them having sex in Tommy’s car. He tells Tommy never to see Deanna again. Tommy ends up sharing this story with others, and it turns into gossip and rumors about Deanna.

Everyone thinks it was all Deanna’s idea, that she’s a “slut” at thirteen.

Two years later, Deanna’s reputation still follows her around. Her father will barely look at her. Her classmates still spread rumors about her. She doesn’t have the confidence to flirt with guys because she worries what they think about her.

When she receives a summer job at a pizza shop in town, she finds out that Tommy will be her co-worker all summer. She must come to terms with the regret of what happened and try to forgive him for the rumors he spread about her.

Discussion Questions:

Do you think rumors and reputations can change the way people act and feel about themselves?

What do you think the benefits and drawbacks are to living in a small town like Pacifica?

Why do you think Deanna’s relationship with her father has changed so much the past two years? Why hasn’t her relationship with her mother changed as much?

Why do you think Deanna’s co-worker Michael is so nice to her?

Why do you think Deanna changes her opinion of Tommy?

National Book Award Finalist

ALA Best Book for Young Adults

Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers

IRA Honor Book

Capitol Choices Book

Utah Book Award Finalist

Other Works

* Sweethearts (2008)
* Once Was Lost (2009)

* Does This Book Make Me Look Fat?, edited by Marissa Walsh, 2008

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A recent review article by T. F. Heatherton and D. D. Wagner draws many studies together in support of a simple view of temptation and resisting temptation. The latter is also known as self-regulation. That’s what you exhibit when you do not do something that conflicts with your long term goals, even though it is something you would quite enjoy doing.

The view, referred to as a “balance model”, comes complete with an illustration of a beam balanced on a fulcrum. The beam may tip in the direction of giving into temptation for two kinds of reasons. One is that the temptation, or the pleasure anticipated from it, becomes more forcefully represented. That might happen because of signs of the temptation’s presence or easy availability, like the smell of tobacco smoke, or the sight of a high calorie food.

The other route to tipping the balance toward temptation is weakening of the opposition to giving in to temptation. That might happen because of fatigue, drug indulgence (most familiarly, alcohol), disease, or interference from passing a strong electromagnet near the head (TMS: transcranial magnetic stimulation).

The article cites evidence that opposition to giving into temptation importantly involves the prefrontal cortex (PFC). In contrast, different temptations are reflected in increased activation of neurons in different brain regions. Fortunately, the PFC has connections to these different regions, and rise in activity in PFC neurons tends to lower activity in neurons in these other regions.

The struggle to resist temptation, then, is reflected in the competition between activity in the PFC and activity in regions it’s connected to that are turned on by reminders of rewards that you would enjoy, but that would conflict with your longer term goals.

As noted, this balance model rests on many studies, so it has a lot going for it. There is, however, a minor oddity in the description that goes with this model. The article’s authors contrast brain regions representing the value of a tempting stimulus with “prefrontal regions associated with self-control” (pp. 134-135). They refer to the idea that “resisting temptations reflects competition between impulses and self-control” (p. 136).

It would be more natural to think of the opposition as a tension between regions that represent the attractions of immediately available temptations, and a region that represents long term goals. It is, after all, the achievement of long term goals that is the reason for resisting temptations, and it should be increased activation of representation of long term goals that competes with representation of immediate pleasures.

If we think of the PFC as representing long term goals, we can properly locate “self control” as a feature of the person whose brain houses both the PFC and the other regions that represent temptations. Self control is what you (the whole of you) exhibit when you avoid treating yourself to an immediately available pleasure, where indulging in it would conflict with a long term goal (sobriety; weight loss; avoidance of STDs, saving money for the future, and so on). The PFC is only a part of you. Activation of its neurons can certainly inhibit activation of neurons in other regions, but it is not a self, and it’s not the right kind of thing to exert “self control”.

If we think of the PFC as representing long term goals, its ability to inhibit activity in a variety of other regions also seems quite natural. After all, to hold a long term goal is to be directed on a result in the face of whatever obstacles may present themselves. We are not omniscient. We do not know in advance what the obstacles to a long term goal will be. So, the more temptation-promoting brain regions our representations of long term goals are able to inhibit, the more useful they will be to us.

[The model discussed here is found in Heatherton, T. F and Wagner, D. D. (2011) “Cognitive neuroscience of self-regulation failure”, Trends in Cognitive Science 15(3):132-139.]

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It has been tough going for Sean Emmett as he tries to get his latest single ‘Tattoo’ to get some airplay on the many radio stations across Australia, with many radio stations preferring to play only the charting hits constantly, it appears that the only way to get on radio is by requests and so fans are browsing through the internet looking for stations to request ‘Tattoo’ on, fans efforts have been rewarded with some success and this no doubt is a morale booster to Sean and his many fans with the results giving them more energy to keep on trying to reach as many people’s ears as possible.

One place that could result in great success is Triple J Unearthed, Sean has a page there with ‘Tattoo’ and previous single ‘Say Goodbye’ having four and a half star ratings out of five with lots of positive reviews written, songs can also be streamed and downloaded on the page although if you would really like to help Sean please also consider buying it on iTunes, readers can click here to be taken to the Triple J page and YMA will continue to update readers on Sean’s progress as it happens.


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Microsoft Operating Systems Windows Your Rights Online

Should Microsoft Be Required To Extend Support For Windows XP? 650

An anonymous reader writes "If Windows XP were a photocopier, Microsoft would have a duty to deal with competitors who sought to provide aftermarket support. A new article in the Michigan Law Review argues that Microsoft should be held to the same duty, and should be legally obligated to help competitors who wish to continue to provide security updates for the aging operating system, even if that means allowing them to access and use Windows XP's sourcecode."
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Should Microsoft Be Required To Extend Support For Windows XP?

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  • by will_die ( 586523 ) on Monday April 07, 2014 @03:29AM (#46681411) Homepage
    Microsoft has been really clear on their end of life policy for probably a decade if not more. The only way to say they have not is if you say all those increases in time they have given are an indication of unclearness.
    However with your definition of $100 USD, cost to upgrade OS from XP to Windows 7, as being "an arm and a leg" not to sure about the rest you wrote.
  • by gnasher719 ( 869701 ) on Monday April 07, 2014 @04:02AM (#46681537)

    Oh c'mon, you know how it would work in this time and age. If some blunder in MS software caused a nuclear meltdown, MS would be declared too big to fail and you can shove your damage claims where the sun doesn't shine.

    If you use MS software (or anyone else's software) in a situation where it could cause a nuclear meltdown, you are using it against Microsoft's explicit terms and conditions, so they wouldn't be at fault at all.

  • by ShieldW0lf ( 601553 ) on Monday April 07, 2014 @07:09AM (#46682135) Journal

    "The Joint Stock Companies Act 1844 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that expanded access to the incorporation of joint-stock companies.

    Before the Act, incorporation was possible only by royal charter or private bill and was limited owing to Parliament's jealous protection of the privileges and advantages thereby granted." []

    Prior to this Act, companies were governed by the Bubble Act of 1720. They had a charter given to them by the nation. They earned profits, ridiculous profits, but they were a governmental entity responsible for enriching the nation at the expense of other nations, in the same way that a non-profit earns profits but reinvests them in the pursuit of the company charter rather than paying out to shareholders. This was the time of Mercantilism, not Capitalism.

    In the USA, forming each individual corporation required a separate act of legislation until New Jersey adopted an "enabling" corporate law, with the goal of attracting more business to the state in 1896. Citizens governed corporations by detailing operating conditions not just in charters but also in state constitutions and state laws. Incorporated businesses were prohibited from taking any action that legislators did not specifically allow. States also limited corporate charters to a set number of years. And, if you broke the rules, you didn't get a fine, the company had its charter revoked.

    In 1819 the U.S. Supreme Court tried to strip states of this power by overruling a lower court’s decision that allowed New Hampshire to revoke a charter granted to Dartmouth College by King George III. This was done on the basis that the charter was a contract between the King and the College, and that it violated the Constitution to pass laws to invalidate a contract. The US was no longer a part of the Commonwealth at this time, but that was deemed non-relevant to the contract. []

    That decision was the beginning of the modern corporation. This was when they moved beyond the control of democratic processes, were relieved of any duty to serve humanity and became all about contracts and shareholders and their duty became empowering the shareholders above all other concerns.

  • by sjbe ( 173966 ) on Monday April 07, 2014 @08:20AM (#46682443)

    7 is a nice upgrade over XP, if you don't see or understand that, I'm not sure what I can say, 5 years on, that will help you understand.

    If you say so. I'm typing this on a Windows 7 machine and running my older XP machine in a virtual machine. Frankly Windows 7 does not have a single feature I need that I did not have with XP. NOT ONE. I know I am not alone either. I'm sure it's better here and there under the hood but frankly not in any way that was causing me problems. Plus it requires a much faster machine to accomplish the same tasks I already could do.

    Besides proper 64 bit support, the seamless way it installs and updates drivers and software for almost anything you plug into it is vastly improved over XP.

    64 bit doesn't provide me any noticeable benefit as an end user that I can discern and Windows 7 does not handle drivers any more gracefully for me than XP does. I still have to download and install a googly percentage of my drivers and software manually and it doesn't update them any more effectively either. I'm sure you can find some cases where that is not true but whatever differences there are are so small as to be trivial for most of us.

  • by Zmobie ( 2478450 ) on Monday April 07, 2014 @10:45AM (#46683645)

    Bear in mind that aside from security patches, Microsoft essentially provides ZERO support to most users of XP anyway. Not like I can call them up and get questions answered. Claims that continuing to support XP would be some enormous financial burden on the company are pretty absurd.

    You CLEARLY do not understand how time consuming and costly it is for a company to provide even basic patches for a piece of software. On SMALL SCALE application my company has deployed it is costly to have even one developer have to do this repeatedly (I know because for one of our system I am this guy...). Having repeated interuptions for support calls, entire sets of days that have to be blocked off to patch some bullshit, and a sales department breathing down my neck because the longer this goes on the worse it looks on the company. All the while the 3 other projects I was working on (as the damn lead at that) are getting behind and it is my ass to catch them up.

    It IS an enourmous financial burden, especially when they have to invest in researching the security vulnerabilities because if one is discovered and exploited before they patch it hits them in the court of public opinion (and their sales directly). Upgrading is expensive, yes everyone knows this, but guess what, this happens with every other consumer product on the market today. It is unreasonable for people to expect software companies to do it indefinitely FOR FREE. Even if they could do it with a paid service, they do still have the right to refuse service. Normally I am all for the consumer over the business (because most businesses are cut-throat douches), but what people expect with Windows XP is just insane and they don't apply basic sense to their arguments.

  • by BUL2294 ( 1081735 ) on Monday April 07, 2014 @12:33PM (#46684975)
    XP was legally sold on netbooks made as late as October 22, 2010 ( [] ). Those computers were still in the sales pipeline into early 2011.

Much of the excitement we get out of our work is that we don't really know what we are doing. -- E. Dijkstra


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Questions for Google

25 May

Unless you just crawled out of a rock, you would have known that Google has pretty much become a verb. If you don’t know how to make something, don’t know what that word means, don’t know what the difference is between two things – you just Google it!

Eversince starting this blog, I’ve seen questions or search items that people have been asking Google that has inevitably led to this blog. I feel like I have a personal obligation to answer these questions since somehow Google has pinged them to this blog, and I know that some of the answers just cannot be found here (not yet anyway!).

So, I’d thought that I would start this new series, where I try and answer these questions in the hope that the next time someone else with the same question comes here, they will know exactly what the answer is…

(Who am I kidding…I just wanted to share all the funny search terms that I’ve found :))

So Questions-for-Google of the month of May 2011…

Q: Can you just have puff pastry on it’s own?

A: Er….last time I checked…YES! In fact its the best thing ever 🙂
Try it, and you won’t turn back!
But please er…put it in the oven first.
If in doubt, google “how to eat puff pastry on its own”

Teehee…stay tuned for next month’s Questions for Google!

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Mr. Triplett,

I wish to thank you for your interest in my blog and especially for your recent reply to the “Tale of the Pretenders”.  You call me friend and I am honored.  The sentiment is mutual.

I was invited by Mr. Ben Raiche, a 33rd Scottish Rite Mason from S. Dakota back in the 80s when finishing Med School.  I was a member of the local musician’s union and got a call to play piano in his band.  He was a fine guitar player who wrote a lot of ‘ditties’; clever tunes the Disney crowd loved.  He was also an engineer and security director for the Geo-Satellite Station in Sioux Falls. I was both surprised and honored by his invitation.  He even gave me his personal copy of Pike’s “Morals & Dogma”.  Trouble is, I’m one of the few fellows who actually read it.  By the time I finished and was ready for induction to the 2nd and 3rd degrees, I was also convinced the lodge was little more that a fettishist club for ‘has beens’, ‘never weres’, and ‘opportunists’.  I never went back.

I was also in training at the time for initiation to Rudolf Steiner’s Anthro-puppies and faithfully did the exercises for 14 years. One night, in the wee hours, I was out of body and confronted by a great door with a brass handle.  All I had to do was enter.  As I reached for the handle, a voice called me by name and said, “It isn’t necessary.”  The voice was so gentle, warm, and all-embracing that I withdrew my hand.  The trance ended and, once again, I never went back.

What you describe in your brief rejoinder to Mr. Alexis’s report fits well with my own experiences.  Mysticism is a dangerous path, full of twists and turns that most likely lead all of its followers to perdition.  So I was thrilled to read your denunciation.  Kudos.

Now, the thing is that your narrative describes the traditional approach to natural degrees of human maturation, ability and acuity pursued by many cultures universally, each to its own.  These narratives have been obscured and almost destroyed since the so-called Enlightenment, and to my mind, much of this has been deliberate.

It so happens that the Masonic Guilds were infiltrated at that very same time by mystic speculators rather than real scientists.  I have just finished a book on this same phenomenon in Muslim culture.  There is a need for the youth to hear from an authentic zakan such as yourself Mr. Triplett.  The tale is begging to be told.  I am begging you to tell it with Almighty God’s blessing and direction.

All that is noble in what you briefly described is hidden behind a veil  Lift it my friend. Lift the veil on the road less traveled.

Dr Zaid,

I got a big Kick out of the Research and for a person like me to read this stuff – well where do I begin? There are so many “Pretenders” that associate themselves with Freemasonry, but few are actual descendants of the true Craft. People like Crowley are not recognized by true Gu brath Scotish Rite Freemasons like Myself.

A 33 degree Freemason must be a man that is Master of some field of science: example would be Stephen Hawking- a true 33 degree accepted Free Mason.

Now in order to understand the craft would require a book, but let me set a couple simple things straight. First my credentials: I am 17th Generation Sephardic Jew/ Gypsy descended from the Templar Knight Robert De Threlkeld. It is documented (just google) My ancestors were closer to Washington Family as blood kin in Rite of the Scotts. Francis Triplett, Thomas Triplett, Daniel Triplett buried George Washington in the ground my Friend. My ancestors are documented by West Minster Abbey and the Ramanchal and Kale Gypsy line which fought the Revolution in America is well documented.

I speak from “experience” which, as Socrates says, is the only true authority. Second, Freemasonry was simply formed by Cistercian Monks and Templars to protect Muslims, Jews and Hindu Master builders. Europeans did not build with stone and they had very poor civil Engineers. It was Gypsy and Jew and Muslims that built the Cathedrals of Gothic Europe. These people practiced their religions in “Free Mason Guild Halls”.

You see Isa was a trained Master stone Mason and is this is not recorded in Koran or the Bible? Realize his whole family from Maryam were stone cutters with Arab and Greek ancestors. Jesus, as the Europeans call him, was the the First Master Mason and the whole Mystery cult he taught came from the order of Mechizadech- Moses- Solomon.

Jesus did not become evil and go mad like Solomon, but he did have to flee the Holy Land. It was actually his brother James that many Muslims and Christians attribute Ingil and Bible to Isa or Jesus.

Long story short is that it is a Oral history held by people like me in rural America that is the true Freemasonry. The Rite of the Scotts is for Jew and Gypsy where as the York Rite is where people like Crowley come from- totally different. It was the Rite of the Scotts of Rosslyn that true Freemasonry began- around 1450. The poor fallen Knights of Europe bent knee and became students to the Jew and Gypsy tinkers and Stone workers and learned there humble meditations and eastern ways.

My uncle John Morgan laid foundation for St Louis Arch- he was a Master Civil Engineer- he became 33 degree Freemason, and this is the 33 degree of the Scottish Rite- its all about Science and Engineering, not phony mysticism. Here is a poem of the old Rite kept by my Family- all of the true knowledge is Oral poems and recitation- just like our middle eastern fathers taught us :)

“Know well the names of your fathers and keep them for our children to tell. We are descended from John who first sought the Rite of the Scots with the Freemasons of Lord St. Clair:

Alban De Threlkeld who fought to free the Scotts begat Robert the Threlked; Robert owned lands in England and prospered there and begat Robert; Robert built distilleries and Mills for the harvest of the land and begat John the bookmaker who deciphered the Rosslyn Templar script; John begat Robert who continued to translate Greek for the Tudors; Robert begat Thomas who called his name Triplett in audience with the Virgin Queen; Thomas begat Thomas and he kept his father’s fortunes intact; Thomas begat John whose youngest son would take us to the land of Promise; John begat Francis who came to America on a ship chartered by John Washington; Francis begat Francis who expanded our land in Virginia; Francis begat Francis who would father Daniel Protector of his Excellency General George Washington; Daniel fathered Jesse who would settle in the State of North Carolina; Jesse fathered Daniel who would have 12 children now ancestors of thousands; Daniel fathered Wilson who caught the public enemy Talt Hall; Wilson fathered Henderson who reunited us with our people in West Virginia; Henderson fathered General Francis who would not take the company script; General Francis fathered William who would fight in world war II defending our country from tyrants; William fathered Johnny Q who listens to the names of his fathers………”

This is from the Midrash of true Freemasonry my friend. We are descendants of the Muslims-Jews and Gypsies and the Cathar Merovingian Christians (Also Gypsies) killed by the Pope at Montesgur and the Inquisition of the thieving French and Spanish Kings that killed the Templars.


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2006 Official Poverty Statistics In Philippines: Worse Than It Looks

March 19, 2008 at 3:01 pm | Posted in 1 | Leave a comment

Poverty in the Philippines has become so prevalent that it can no longer be hidden, only downplayed through the statistical manipulation that has become an Arroyo hallmark.

With the recent release of 2006 poverty statistics, the Arroyo administration was finally forced to admit that its much-hyped “28 quarters of continuous growth” has failed to benefit the ordinary Filipino.

According to the official figures by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), some 32.9% of the population, or 27.6 million Filipinos are poor. This was a reversal of the trend experienced in 2003, when the poverty incidence fell to 30% from 33% in 2000. It should also be noted that there were actually more Filipinos in 2006 than in 2000 (when some 25.5 million Filipinos were poor).

But despite the admission that poverty has risen despite high economic growth, the official poverty figures may actually be understated and obscure how widespread poverty is in the Philippines. This is because of the low poverty threshold the NSCB uses to estimate the extent of poverty.

For 2006, the NSCB pegged the per capita annual poverty threshold at P15,057, or P75,285 for a family of five members. The poverty threshold is defined as the minimum income/expenditure required for an individual to meet its basic food and non-food requirements. The poor are thus considered as those individuals or families whose incomes fall below the official poverty threshold and cannot afford to provide in a sustained manner for their minimum basic needs for food, health, education, housing and other social amenities of life.

The use of the term minimum basic needs highlights the limitations of the government’s definition of poverty. The government considers only minimum survival standards to measure poverty, thus capturing only those who are desperately poor and cannot meet even their most basic needs. But those individuals and families who fail to meet decent living standards should also be considered poor.

For example, a family with one or two minimum wage earners whose incomes fail to meet their needs are also poor, even if their income is above government’s poverty line.In fact, the government’s own National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) accepts this reasoning.

Thus, the NWPC releases regular estimates of family living wages; such figures measure what is needed for a decent standard of living plus a 10% allowance of total expenses for savings or investments.

As of 2005 (to ensure compatibility with the 2006 poverty threshold since the next estimate was as of December 2006), a family of five needs P16,218 for decent living, or 258% of the P6,274 that the NSCB claims that a Filipino family needs to stay out of poverty in 2006.

If only the NWPC’s food and non-food expenses estimates are considered, then the poverty incidence is 42.5% of NWPC’s estimates.

Thus, it is clear that the actual extent of poverty in the country is grossly understated. In IBON’s January 2008 nationwide survey, 7 out of 10 Filipinos rated themselves as poor.Poverty Despite GrowthThe increased poverty incidence also raises the question of why the number of poor increased even as government figures showed increasing economic growth.

Gross domestic product (GDP) grew an average of 4.6% from 2001 to 2006, while gross national product (GNP) grew by 5.1% over the same period. From 2004 to 2006, when the poverty increase was recorded, GDP and GNP grew by 5.5% and 6.1%, respectively; this was substantially higher than the 3.7% and 4.1% recorded from 2001 to 2003.

The NSCB attributed the higher poverty incidence to the insufficient rise in personal incomes coupled with higher prices, thus making it difficult for poor Filipinos to meet their basic needs.

NSCB also admitted that the implementation of the reformed value-added tax (RVAT) increased prices.But what economic planners failed to point out was that government itself is responsible for low wages prevailing in the country.

Government actually uses the poverty threshold as the basis for setting the minimum wage– thus, a low poverty line justifies low subsistence-level wages as part of government’s foreign income-driven development strategy.

Despite this, the NSCB still said that a worker in the National Capital Region earning the minimum daily wage of P362 (or P9,412 a month) can support a family of five based on a monthly poverty threshold of P8,569.Also contributing to the rise in poverty figures was record-high unemployment rates. From 2001 to 2006 the country suffered from an average of 11.3% unemployment and 18.5% underemployment, the worst such six-year period recorded in the country’s history.

If jobs were created during the period, these were mostly poor quality, low-paying jobs. According to the NSO Labor Force Survey, from 2001 to 2006 the most number of jobs created were in agriculture, wholesale and retail trade, and private households with employed persons. These were among the lowest paying and most insecure jobs in the country.

Thus, majority of Filipinos did not enjoy the benefits of growth. And what growth there was did not result in an improvement in income inequality. According to the 2006 Family Income and Expenditures Survey (FIES), which is used to compute poverty, the richest 20% of families (accounting for some 3.5 million families) account for 52.8% of total family income.

Further, the income of the richest 10% was nineteen times that of the poorest 10 percent.Not surprising It should not really be surprising that the numbers of poor Filipinos increased.

Agriculture and manufacturing, which should experience growth in order to generate jobs and contribute to overall national development, continue to experience moribund growth. In fact, the number of new manufacturing jobs from 2001 to 2006 was just 153,000 and the sector even lost 18,000 jobs in 2006.

Sectors driven by speculation and with uncertain contributions to real development, on the other hand, were the ones that drove the increased GDP growth.What is surprising is how the Arroyo administration finally owned up to this growing problem. But then again, poverty in the Philippines has become so prevalent that it can no longer be hidden, only downplayed through the statistical manipulation that has become an Arroyo hallmark.

In typical fashion, Malacañang spokespersons brushed aside the poverty figures, simply saying that with the additional money from collections of the RVAT would be used as “payback” for the poor and that poverty would undoubtedly decrease again by 2009 when the next FIES would be conducted. But sans any resolute change in fundamental economic policies, the poverty problem in the Philippines can only get worse. (Joseph Yu)

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Constructors Considered Mildly Confusing

Development Consulting

A problematic quote

Consider this quote from Flanagan 2006, page 111 that came up in a comp.lang.javascript question in january 2008:

In javascript, every object has a constructor property that refers to the constructor function that initializes the object.

Sounds nice: it makes constructors sound static like classes in Java. Even the new Constructor() syntax looks like it. And it seems true:

function MyConstructor() {}
var myobject = new MyConstructor();
myobject.constructor == MyConstructor;     // true

But life isn’t that simple:

function MyConstructor() {}
MyConstructor.prototype = {};
var myobject = new MyConstructor();

myobject.constructor == MyConstructor;  // false

What’s going on? Some definitions

Objects and methods

Javascript1 objects are simply bags of named properties that you can read and set. Javascript does not have classes.

Functions in javascript are first-class objects. Methods in javascript are just properties that are functions.

The prototype of an object is an internal property that I’ll refer to here as {Prototype}. In other words, obj.prototype is in general not the obj’s {Prototype}. The standard does not provide any way to retrieve the {Prototype} property from an object.

Property lookup

Javascript objects can delegate properties to their {Prototype} and their {Prototype} can do the same; all the way up to Object.prototype.

Whenever a property propname of an object is read, the system checks if that object has a property named propname. If that propery does not exist, the system checks the object’s {Prototype} for that property, recursively.

This means that objects that share a {Protoype} also share the properties of that {Prototype}.

Setting properties

Whenever a property propname of an object is set, the property is inserted into that object, ignoring the {Prototype} chain of that object.

The {Prototype} property is set from the (public) prototype property of the constructor function when constructor function is called.

What’s going on? Line by line.

This is what the relevant prototype and {Prototype} properties look like. The ellipses are objects, the arrows are properties that reference other objects. The {Prototype} chain(s) are in green.

#1: Define constructor function

function MyConstructor() {}

Fairly simple. MyConstructor.prototype is an object that’s automatically created which in turn has a constructor property pointing back at MyConstructor. Remember that: the only objects that in fact have a constructor property by default are the automatically created prototype properties of functions.

The rest isn’t really relevant but may confuse and enlighten (and hopefully in that order):

MyConstructor’s {Prototype} is Function.prototype, not MyConstructor.prototype. Also note that the {Prototype} chain for each object ends up at Object.prototype.

Object.prototype’s {Prototype} is actually null indicating that it’s the end of the chain. 2

For the next steps I’m leaving out the {Prototype} chain of MyConstructor for clarity, since it doesn’t change and it’s not relevant.

#2: Assign new prototype property

MyConstructor.prototype = {}

We’ve now done away with the predefined MyConstructor.protoype object and replaced it with an anonymous object, shown here as {}. This object does not have a constructor property,

#3: Call constructor to create new object

var myobject = new MyConstructor();

From this graph, following the L</property lookup> rules, we can now see that myobject.constructor is delegated to Object.prototype.constructor, which points to Object. In other words:

function MyConstructor() {}
MyConstructor.prototype = {};
var myobject = new MyConstructor();

myobject.constructor == Object // true

What about instanceof ?

Javascript provides the instanceof operator that’s intended to check the prototype chain of the object you’re dealing with. From the above you might think that the following would return false:

function MyConstructor() {}
MyConstructor.prototype = {};
var myobject = new MyConstructor();

myobject instanceof MyConstructor  // true

But in fact it works. It also notices that myobject delegates to Object.prototype:

function MyConstructor() {}
MyConstructor.prototype = {};
var myobject = new MyConstructor();

myobject instanceof Object  // true

When instanceof is called it checks the prototype property of the given constructor and checks it agains the {Prototype} chain of the given object. In other words, it’s not dependent on the constructor property.

All nice and dandy, but you can still break it if you try hard enough:

function MyConstructor() {}
var myobject = new MyConstructor();
MyConstructor.prototype = {};

[ myobject instanceof MyConstructor,     // false !
  myobject.constructor == MyConstructor, // true !
  myobject instanceof Object ]           // true

This is what the prototype chains look like after running that:

Constructors are not classes

In a class-based object system, typically classes inherit from each other, and objects are instances of those classes. Methods and properties that are shared between instances are (at least conceptually) properties of a class. Properties (and for some languages, methods) that should not be shared are properties of the objects themselves.

Javascript’s constructors do nothing like this: in fact constructors have their own {Prototype} chain completely separate from the {Prototype} chain of objects they initialize.

Constructors do not work like class-based initializers

A constructor call associates a new object with a {Prototype} the constructor function may set additional properties on the object. Constructor calls do not call “inherited” constructors, and they shouldn’t because the object’s {Prototype} (the constructor’s prototype) is assumed to be shared and (probably) already initialized.

Constructors are just functions

Any user-defined function in javascript automatically gets a prototype property which in turn has a constructor property that refers back to the function.

Any user-defined function in javascript can be called as a constructor by prepending new to the call. This will pass a new this object to the function and its {Prototype} property will be set to the prototype property of the function.

A comp.lang.javascript question

Subject: "x.constructor == Foo" vs "x instanceof Foo".
Message-ID: <fniu6a$2cn$>>

Flanagan 2006

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, Fifth Edition. ISBN 10: 0-596-10199-6 | ISBN 13:9780596101992

2008/02/11 - initial version

2008/02/13 - added footnote 2

2008/02/17 - rewrote footnotes

2013/05/06 - Reformatted to org-mode, remove some cruft.

Author & copyright

© 2008 - 2013 Joost Diepenmaat, Zeekat Softwareontwikkeling.

“Javascript” in this text refers to implementations of Ecma-262.

John G Harris wrote in on comp.lang.javascript to say that this isn’t quite true. Theoretically, the host system may swap the Object.prototype property with something else. As far as Javascript code is concerned, Object.prototype should be read-only. In the only browser I’ve tested (firefox) you can assign a new value to Object.prototype without raising an error, but the assignment is ignored.


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Home > Uncategorized > A CES Highlight

A CES Highlight

What last month’s Consumer Electronic Show did for in-store packaging and design.

Back in 2002, Steven Spielberg’s somewhat dystopian Minority Report, set in 2054, featured many a futuristic thing that has influenced the way companies think about product interface. The film also had a brief scene where our hero returns home at the end of the day to munch on some cereal. The marketing technique employed on the cereal box he uses (and is totally jaded by), was this month revealed in its embryonic stages, courtesy of Trix and Honey Nut Cheerios. Shopper Culture reports the technology is courtesy of Fulton Innovation, using their patented eCoupled [wireless] technology. According to their website, they are playing “a vital role in developing the international standard for wireless charging—Qi (pronounced “chee”)—through our participation as a founding member of the Wireless Power Consortium, an international collaboration of companies.”

It’s quite a fascinating leap in the way we can market packaged goods. While certainly eye-catching, and hence good for impulse buys, it’s questionable as to what effect this kind of technology will have on shoppers at such a simple stage of its evolution. This is merely the beginning though. Look for packaging to become much more malleable and digitally on-brand. Just don’t ask about how environmentally sustainable it is.

  1. February 4, 2011 at 10:37 am

    Great new technology but i agree is it sustainable, probably not but its still great

  1. February 3, 2011 at 11:02 am

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Tag Archives: contacts

Collaborative Alien Project: Who Are We?

Got my little butt into gear and finally plucked up the courage to ask Grant Herron (a fellow Jewellery student) about possibly collaborating as I heard he was into Film props. He was well up for it surprisingly so we went ahead and got started a couple of weeks later.

We decided to take our own interpretation on a Sci-Fi Film ‘Alien’ by Ridley Scott. Both of us thought we should create some kind of arm piece. Grant, being more experienced in electronics, designed the upper arm which consisted of small LEDs, a small rotating satellite dish and hinged parts. This is what I also wanted to learn from him. For me, well I went all out making a silicone corset forearm piece (as I’d never really played with the material before but was very keen to), a prosthetic glove with ribbed tubes and long hinged creepy fingers, all made from latex of course.

As we were both passionate about film, we discussed perhaps making a short film which would be able to present our piece on the body, moving and electronics in operation. For that we would need a storyboard:

My buddy filling in the storyboard

Here are photos from the making of our pieces:

Grant’s upper arm piece in the making. The circular piece with small tubes protruding from (right of picture) is the joint so I can allow movement like bending my elbow.

The satellite Grant made. Also some LED lights you were able to turn off and on.

This sequence of photographs is me attaching my prosthetic latex glove using Pros Aide glue. You can only really glue prosthetics in stages to make sure you have glued it on properly.

Still loose flapping bits of latex.

After repeatedly applying the glue all the latex should be attached to the skin with no loose parts.

Here is the whole of my lower arm piece put on. The fingers are divided into 3 and there are 2 hinged joints on each finger so they can move. The finger tips are square copper wire soldered together and I have created clear latex windows on each so light can pass through.

Below this you can see tubes extending down from the knuckles which are made from latex and copper wire and lastly the piece on the forearm is made from silicone.

The Silicone Piece

I had to create a mould in plaster to cast the silicone in. It is very weird and squishy to touch which I thought went well with the nature of this project.

The Facial Prosthetics

Just experimenting where it looks best. I thought it would look good to exaggerate the cheekbone.

Samples of prosthetics. They kind of look like slugs to me.

Attached only using the prosthetic glue. You can still see that the edges have not been blended with the skin but that comes next.

The beginning of the blending process… but you can see that later!

Here is me and Grant and a few other helpers on the set just setting and cleaning it up.

Day time

Night time

My 20th time trying to put in contacts

Final Make-up

Midnight on the set. So so cold! Kept my dressing gown on as long as possible!

Just altering a wee bit

Final arm in the dark

Movie making in process

One of the Stop Motion pictures

Final scene

Such a good experience. Think we’ll be collaborating again for our final year as I think it is good practice for the future. You can learn a lot from each other and take things a step further. For me, I want to go into Prosthetics as I see it diminishing due to Computer Aided Graphics (CGI). Yes it can be extremely useful for big things but with it, you lose that sense of actually holding and feeling the object as it is all done on computer. Some makers use it because they are just being lazy and it saves time, but some actually use it for good purpose. For instance, in The Matrix when Neo dodges the bullets, that is a good example of well-used CGI.

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Design & The Market: Me Choosing My Path

Oh dear. So yes – putting life in my hands. Today in our Design Market group we looked at choosing the path we would take into achieving our potential business. What you need to think about to make it a sustainable and successful one. Scary stuff.

To begin with, we had a look at our ‘would-be’ customers and wrote down a list of the customer groups they would be. For example: Students; Fashion Runway Buyers; Hospital Buyers; etc. For each one we had to outline what their needs would be, what we would be offering them, how many there are, and so forth. Through this method of analysing our future customers it helps to see if your business has potential and whether it is actually needed. For my business, I found a number of different customer groups which I think is good because it brings range and excitement of varying customers. However, I think I would need a rather large team to back me up on the amount of work I would need to do!

Next, we headed into the Blueprinting Modelling sector. This, I found, was the most difficult. Just couldn’t get my head round where to put things! Blueprinting is a detailed flow diagram of your business’s stages in carrying out, for example, a commission piece. It just shows how your business will function when it’s actually doing business. For me, I looked at where I would go to create contacts then try get some of my work out to the public somehow, find people to work with me and so on. Sounds do-able. This allowed me to view the process of my hopeful business at hand. How it might work. How I can change it tomake it work.

Lastly, we looked at the importance of building relationships in business. Not lovey-dovey ones, professional team-work ones. It is important because it makes all stages in the process work. Imagine doing it all yourself? We focused on the four areas of activity in business. The Generator, the Realiser, the Distributor and the Customer. We had to find people we would need for each of the areas. I placed myself in the Realiser zone, as well as other collaborators, because I feel that is where my strengths lie. However, I would over-see other areas frequently. This exercise allows me to see who I would need to build relationships with and it’s importance. Building relationships improves and makes your business stronger. More sustainable. You just need to make sure there is plenty of trust and that they love the business as much as you do.

These exercises were helpful in outlining how my business would operate, create contacts/clients and who I would need to make it happen. Building relationships crops up again and again. It seems now that who you know can help greatly in business – like the old saying: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”.

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Winner's Edge

Focused on strategic communications

Breaking through the noise of social media

Proven sources like academics and experts gain influence as people become more skeptical of peer recommendations.

Way back in the 20th century, “buzz” was the je ne sais quoi of the marketing world. Every company wanted it, but few presumed to know how to get it. Back then, corporations generally lobbed their products into the marketplace, bombarded consumers with repetitive messages and sat back and prayed that buzz would magically appear.

That, of course, changed as companies learned how to harness the Internet. And, as social media like MySpace and Facebook emerged, marketing became less of a monologue and more of a multiparty conversation. It suddenly wasn’t enough for companies and their spokespersons to speak down to consumers from the mountaintop. The new challenge was how to get consumers to say good things about a product to one another.

The rise of social media has been part and parcel of the devolution of authoritative information and the flowering of a million cacophonous voices. It not only changed the way companies looked at consumers but how consumers looked at each other. By 2005, surveys showed that when it came to the marketplace, Americans were beginning to trust their peers more than well-known authorities and experts. The following year, according to the Trust Barometer Survey conducted by Edelman, an international public relations firm, saw the emergence of “a person like me” as a credible spokesperson for companies and products.

By 2010, nearly four in five corporations were planning to move money they once spent on television advertising to some sort of social media campaign. Two weeks ago, Pepsi chose to forgo a high-profile TV spot at halftime of the Super Bowl for a social-media-driven charity campaign that will award the nonprofit organizations that muster the most votes through virtual social networks. Could there be any better proof that social media is the future of marketing?

But hold on, now comes Edelman’s 2010 Trust Barometer. The latest findings fly in the face of that formerly new conventional wisdom.

According to the survey, since 2008 the number of people who view their friends and peers as credible sources of consumer and business information dropped by almost half, from 45% to 25%. Similarly, in the past year, the number of people who view peers as credible spokespersons also slipped. Even more strikingly, however, after a precipitous decline earlier in the decade, informed consumers have regained trust in traditional authorities and experts.

What’s going on? Are Facebook friends turning on each other? Did we lose faith in ourselves? Is social media just a fluke?

None of the above, says Gail Becker, Edelman’s Western regional president. After sifting through the data, she concludes that consumers are merely rebelling against all the noise and reflecting the effects of uncertain times.

A few years ago, when peer-to-peer trust was at a peak, social media was still relatively new and its circles were manageable. But since then, the number of friend networks has exploded and every kind of business, for-profit and not, has sought to harness — we might say, exploit — them for their gain. That, according to Becker, has made people more skeptical of peer recommendations.

“Social media is more professionalized now and less organic,” says Becker. “It’s harder to know who to trust.”

And in troubled times, such uncertainty is magnified. All of this explains the rise in the number of people willing to pay attention to sources like proven academics and experts. After indulging the thoughts and opinions of anyone who was “just like me,” it seems that people are now looking for a firmer guarantee of clarity, objectivity and accuracy.

Although these findings are mostly about business and financial matters, they surely also have broader significance. They suggest that the flattening of authority may not go on forever, and that there are limits to Americans’ belief in Everyman.

I’d like to think that this bodes well for one of the old, authoritative sources of information, the traditional media. Unfortunately, so far the survey also shows that the credibility of television and radio news and newspapers continued to take a beating over the past two years.

Cacophony and crisis prove the need for objectivity and expertise. What a relief. Call it old-fashioned, hierarchical or elitist, but in an era in which issues are only becoming more complicated, it’s about time.

(reprinted from Los Angeles Times. OpEd by Gregory Rodriguez)

February 17, 2010 Posted by | Uncategorized | , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Public Opinion: Offshore Drilling

While public opinion on offshore drilling may still be somewhat divided, recent survey research shows increasing support for its expansion, both in California and in Florida, which have been known for their opposition to offshore drilling.

A series of surveys conducted in Florida during the summer of 2008 found support for offshore oil drilling to be around 60 percent. More recently, surveys in California have also shown support for offshore drilling to constitute a slight majority of public opinion. For example, a July 2009 Public Policy Institute of California survey found 51% of Californians in support of expanding offshore drilling, the same as in their July 2008 survey.

In addition, one of the research firms I frequently partner with, Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin &Associates (FMMA), recently conducted statewide research in California regarding a new offshore drilling project proposal. Fifty-three percent of respondents indicated that they would favor the project, with just 36 percent opposing it and 11 percent undecided.

Interestingly, while there has been speculation that support for drilling is being driven largely by high levels of concern about dependence on foreign oil imports and high energy prices, the results of the FMM&A survey showed that support was strong across the board, regardless of whether respondents have a high or low degree of concern about foreign oil dependence.

Other attitudes and factors may be at play in both California and Florida – two states where the current economic downturn has played havoc with balancing state budgets – such as the desire to capture a portion of offshore drilling revenues for state coffers. For example, in the California case, mention in the survey of billions of dollars in new state government revenues from offshore drilling drives the numbers for support for the California offshore drilling proposal to nearly two-thirds. Further, there is simply the passage of time. It has been 40 years since the Santa Barbara oil spill galvanized offshore drilling opposition nationwide. Perhaps as memories and concerns fade, economics are taking over.

February 13, 2010 Posted by | Uncategorized | , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Telling Your Story: Translating Tech Talk into Plain Talk

You know you’ve got the facts on your side. You’ve spent millions on a world class environmental study, investing in top notch science and data collection. Or, perhaps your team has spent thousands of hours compiling exacting documentation of the law and economics that support your regulatory case. Whatever your situation, you’ve put major resources on the project because the upside potential — and perhaps the downside risks — could be enormous, maybe even a game changer for your organization.

Having made the up-front investment to get this far in the game, and with so much at stake, it’s time to ask yourself whether you’ve done everything possible to enhance your chances of success and reduce the risk of failure.

Here’s the question: Can you tell your story in a way that’s so compelling that you will win the day? Policy makers, legislators, regulators, juries, the general public — these decision makers control the destiny of your project, but they generally do not have the technical background to understand massive volumes of data and reams of argumentation. You must help them understand and believe in your case — in your story.

Every set of facts can be summed up by a compelling story, a logic train that makes clear why your efforts – your facts – should matter to those making a decision. A compelling story opens up a gateway of understanding, making it possible for your audience to easily grasp the gist of your case, and to achieve emotional buy-in.

Finding the story behind volumes of technical information and crafting that story into compelling words, diagrams, charts, pictures and video — while remaining true to the underlying facts – these story telling skills are the essential element in the process of persuasion.

How do we go about developing and telling your story? It’s a multi-step process, customized to each client’s needs, but based on some fundamental principles developed over decades of work on hundreds of complex and challenging public affairs situations.

To begin, we study and absorb all the details of your fact case. Only when we understand the nuances can we craft the most compelling story that will win over sometimes very skeptical audiences.

Next, we use our understanding of your information and your story, on the one hand, and the interests of your audiences, on the other hand, to bridge the gap between you and them. Every communications situation, no matter how dry or technical, offers themes that help us forge this bond.

We do this by weaving your facts and themes into a story that is designed to appeal to your audiences on multiple levels and lead to understanding of your efforts and agreement with what you are trying to achieve.

Finally, in presentations, fact sheets, white papers, brochures, website materials, speeches, documentary films and other communications tools we tell your story in a manner that optimizes for success and protects against failure.

December 29, 2009 Posted by | Uncategorized | , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Added Value

Most companies are eager to stretch their advertising budgets as far as possible – which is why media buyers frequently negotiate perks for their clients beyond the price of the advertising itself.

15 second television ad

15 second television ad

These benefits – known collectively as “added value” – can come in the form of bonus commercials, sponsorships, free PSAs, on-air promotions, public relations opportunities and/or online links. How much value they add to a paid advertising campaign depends upon their execution and their relevance to the company. In many ways, it depends upon how well the media agency knows its client.

With careful planning, thought and collaboration, a small “added value” benefit can not only add tremendous value to a specific advertising campaign, it can transcend its immediate purpose and support other business objectives as well.

Case in point

As the agency of record for Southern California Edison (SCE), Winner & Associates produces branding commercials and seasonal commercials for the utility’s various energy-efficiency programs – for example, tuning up central air conditioners in the spring, recycling refrigerators in the summer, and switching to CFLs in the fall.

In 2008, when SCE began seeking new ways to tie their discrete seasonal programs together to raise awareness of the many ways customers could save energy, money and the environment, Winner & Associates negotiated added-value air time with TV stations running SCE’s branding ads. The result: we produced a handful of 10- and 15-second spots starring three SCE employees delivering energy-saving tips.

Soon after the spots began airing for the general market, SCE expanded the program into six ethnic markets. The award-winning ads were well-received – both internally and externally – and helped SCE exceed campaign goals for all three seasonal campaigns.

Buoyed by the success of the initial energy-saving tips campaign, Winner & Associates expanded the tips campaign in 2009. For one week in April, Winner & Associates and SCE auditioned nearly 600 employees. “We really only expected about 100 employees to be interested and were thrilled by the overwhelming response,” the utility’s corporate communications manager said at the time.

In the end, 37 SCE employees were selected as “on-air” talent for the 2009 campaign, and Winner & Associates produced a total of 80 spots in six different languages – English, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Korean. Already, the tips have increased traffic on SCE’s website by 50 percent, and they’ve enhanced employee morale.

“All I could hear when walking anywhere in the office was, ‘Good morning, superstar,’ and ‘Can I have your autograph?” said one SCE engineer who appeared in the ads. “I was bombarded with all kinds of questions concerning the filming and the audition. It was a great experience.”

Now that’s added value.

September 24, 2009 Posted by | Uncategorized | , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Trust in California State Government Reaches Record Lows

A new survey by the Public Policy Institute of California finds that Californians’ trust in their state government has reached a record low and their desire for change is high.

Californians are cautious about the types of reforms they are willing to support. Huge majorities are willing to support a shift to an open primary system (70%) but only 23% favor reducing the legislature to part-time status.

The research by the PPIC shows deep distrust in state government on the part of the voters. Nearly three-fourths (73%) say it is pretty much run by a few big interests looking out for themselves, a new high in the 11-year history of the PPIC Statewide Survey. Just 20 percent say that state government is run for the benefit of all of the people.

Residents retain more confidence in their own abilities to make policy decisions. A small majority (56%) say that decisions made through the initiative process are probably better than those made through the legislative process and only 28% say they are probably worse. Californians continue to feel that Proposition 13 and term limits—two constitutional changes made by initiative—have mainly been good for the state.

Not surprisingly, Californians are in agreement that the budget situation is a problem and two-thirds see it as a big problem–78 percent seeing it as a big problem and 18 percent calling it somewhat of a problem. The 78 percent figure matches a record high first reached in September 2008. A majority (60%) are very concerned about the effect of spending cuts on local government services—far more than when PPIC asked a similar but less detailed question five years ago (35% August 2004).

80% see the budget process as in need of major changes which marks a steady increase since March of 2008. This view is held across political parties, demographic groups, and regions. Californians were asked to consider three fiscal reform ideas under discussion:

• Spending cap: Most (65%) say it would be a good idea to strictly limit increases in state spending each year (28% bad idea).
• Two-thirds vote to pass a budget: A majority (53%) say it would be a good idea to lower the threshold needed for budget passage to 55 percent of the legislature (38% bad idea).
• Two-thirds vote for local special taxes: Half (50%) say it would be a good idea to lower this requirement to 55 percent of voters (42% bad idea).

There have been increased calls for review and perhaps revision of the constitution, but the survey does not show support for this among the voters. Only 33 percent of Californians say major changes to the constitution are needed, while 36 percent say minor changes are needed and 24 percent say the constitution is fine as it is.

Two landmark initiatives are seen mostly as a good thing for California. Proposition 13 (55% mostly a good thing, 30% mostly a bad thing, 12% don’t know), which limits property taxes on both residential and commercial buildings, and term limits (59% good thing, 15% a bad thing, 23% no difference), which limits state legislators’ terms to six years in the assembly and eight in the senate.

However, the survey found that residents also support changes to these measures. A majority (58%) say it would be a good idea to tax commercial properties according to current market value, known as a “split roll.” A majority (65%) also say it would be a good idea to modify term limits by reducing the total number of years lawmakers could serve—from 14 to 12—but allowing years of service to be in either house or a combination of both.

Even though residents are pleased with direct democracy, overwhelming majorities favor two possible reforms to the initiative process:

• Increasing public disclosure of funding sources for signature gathering and campaigns (81% favor, 14% oppose)
• Having a period of time in which the initiative sponsor and the legislature could meet to see if a compromise is possible before putting the measure on the ballot (80% favor, 15% oppose).

Support has grown since March for a change in the state’s primary system that would allow voters to cast ballots for any candidate, with the top two vote-getters advancing to the general election regardless of party with 70% favoring support regardless of party, region, and demographic group. But residents’ negative views of their full-time legislature do not mean they see a shift to a part-time legislature as a solution: 44 percent say it would be a bad thing, 23 percent a good thing, and 27 percent say it would make no difference.

Californians’ perception of the economy has improved since July, perhaps in response to recent positive economic indicators. But residents’ views are far from positive: 67 percent say the state can expect bad times financially in the next 12 months.

The negative views about the direction of the state are reflected in views about state leaders. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s approval rating (30%) is near his record low in July (28%), and his disapproval rating has hit a new high of 61 percent. The legislature’s rating (21%) inched up from its low (17% July). Californians’ approval of their own legislators (34%) remains near its lowest level (32% March 2009).*

*Information in this post based on a recent article in California Progress Report

September 12, 2009 Posted by | Uncategorized | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Media Training Before You Make the News

If your company has ever been in the media spotlight, you already know it’s hard to control news coverage. But most companies underestimate their ability to influence what’s written or said about them. Whether preparing your CEO or spokesperson for a television interview, a legislative hearing or a high profile event, or responding to a crisis, you have more control than you might think.
Prepare Before you make the news…
It all starts with an understanding of how the news media function, and what is likely to attract their attention. Now is the time to do a thorough assessment of your company’s strengths and vulnerabilities, and prepare for unexpected events or crises that could damage the company’s reputation or its brands. In the Internet world and the 24-hour global news cycle, even a seemingly small problem in a far-off location can become a significant national or international issue within hours.

An invaluable part of your preparation is media training for your company’s senior management and primary spokespersons. Their performance under pressure can create long-lasting impressions on the media and public.

At our firm, Winner & Associates, our one-on-one or group training focuses on communicating about issues strategically and not just reacting to events. We emphasize developing and implementing communications strategies that support your company’s business goals and objectives. Our formula for success in media interviews and speaking opportunities is:

Preparation + Practice = Performance

We recommend that before you talk to the media, you should identify three or four key messages and practice how you would deliver them. Regardless of any reporter’s agenda, it is your job to deliver these key messages persuasively several times during any encounter with the media. Your ability to do this is enhanced through careful preparation, including mock interviews.
The time to prepare for the media spotlight is before you make the news.

Winner & Associates has had more than 30 years of experience training clients, including senior executives from numerous Fortune 500 companies, for some of the most challenging encounters with the media and other vital audiences. We prepare our clients by showing them in advance how to communicate strategically on issues and by simulating one-on-one interviews, press conferences and other events. We give them the tools they need to understand audiences, anticipate tough questions and craft effective messages.

To schedule a media training session, or learn more, contact Zach Winner at

July 7, 2009 Posted by | Uncategorized | , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What is the “Smart Grid” that Obama and Congress Want?

We’ve heard about the “smart grid” in the news and advertising. It’s a part of the new Waxman – Markey Energy Bill, and the President even mentioned it in his inaugural address. It all sounds promising, if a little short on details. So what exactly is a smart grid?

First a quick review of how electricity gets to us.

Electricity travels through wires, sometimes hundreds of miles, from power plants, solar panels and wind farms to homes and businesses. If you imagine these wires are roads, the high voltage lines you see strung on huge metal towers are eight-lane freeways with the capacity to move a large volume of electricity.

Substations are off-ramps, where the high voltage electricity is stepped down by transformers before moving out on lower voltage distribution lines into neighborhoods and commercial zones. Think surface streets.

This complex system was built over decades and has grown with each new wave of development. The responsibility for maintaining the extensive grid belongs to the utilities that use it to deliver electricity. Utilities act both as road crews – building and repairing lines and other system hardware – and as traffic cops – monitoring and controlling the flow of electricity as demand varies by region and fluctuates hour to hour. It’s a big job that includes everything from the critical (finding the source of power outages), to the technical (gathering information about supply and demand throughout the system), to the routine (measuring the amount of power delivered). All these functions have been performed by individuals since electric utilities first began.

Enter the digital age of wireless Internet connections… and the advent of the smart grid.

The smart grid combines technologies, hardware and software applications that make it easier to gather and relay information and respond more quickly to changing conditions.

For the utility, the hardware includes sensors positioned at regular intervals along the lines and transceivers to relay reports of downed lines or points in the system where congestion is occurring, so power can be re-routed. New software will calculate availability of renewable energy sources – when the wind is blowing and where the sun is shining – and factor that into the overall picture, so utilities will be able to maximize the use of renewable sources in the power they generate.

On the consumer side there are a number of “smart home” components that interface with the smart grid. Smart appliances will let you monitor your power usage from any Internet-connected computer and program them to run during off-peak hours or put them on standby when you’re away. Smart fueling will make it possible to charge up electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles at night when electricity is in lower demand and return some of that stored power to the grid at times of the day when it’s most needed. Smart meters will replace meter readers, and price electricity based on the time it’s used. That way, consumers can save money by conserving power and using certain appliances during “off-peak” hours. By logging onto your account with your utility, you’ll be able to check your consumption and decide where to cut back or change usage habits.

That same instant information from the new meters will also be useful to the utility.  A direct connection with your smart appliances will allow utilities to power them down for periods so brief you won’t even notice.  And the cumulative effect over millions of households will help to balance supply and demand, avoid system overloads, and prevent brownouts and blackouts.

Simple, but ingenious, smart grids represent a long range vision for electricity that will make this indispensible service more efficient, responsive and easier on the environment. For those who struggle with change, it’s important to remember that one thing won’t change; At the end of the day, when you turn on the lights, the lights will still go on.

July 2, 2009 Posted by | Uncategorized | , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Public Opinion: Raising Local Taxes May be More Acceptable to Californians Than Higher State Taxes

California’s perennial struggle to balance its state budgets has national importance. Among the issues with which the nation’s most populous and socially diverse state is grappling are:

How to define and pay for quality public education.
How to sustain a safety net for the economically desperate
in a period of shrinking state and local revenues.
How to overcome structural obstacles to efficient budget making.

The resolution of these and other issues could have significant political, economic and social impacts across the country in the years ahead.

California’s fiscal process, as well as its social priorities, will have a lot to do with this and future years’ mix of service cutbacks and new taxes and fees. Since the 1930’s, California has been Constitutionally required to adopt the state budget by a two-thirds Legislative majority. Because of a 1978 initiative statute, the Legislature must also agree on any new taxes by the same supermajority. Thus, in recent years disproportionate influence over these decisions rests with a minority of tax and spending-averse conservative Republicans, in spite of large Democratic majorities in both houses of the Legislature and a 44 to 31 percent Democratic advantage in the state’s electorate.

But do California voters want to change the rules to adopt state budgets and to make it easier to pass new revenue measures? Recent public opinion research says, “No”, as shown in the first three sets of bars in the graph below. This explains, in part, why California is having such a difficult time balancing its 2009-10 budget. However, the fourth set of bars, on the far right, suggests that under certain circumstances Californians might support raising revenues.

It would seem that California voters are much more likely to end the two-thirds supermajority for new taxes if the lesser vote requirement were to apply to issue-specific local taxation proposals. Thus, California may eventually see financial responsibility for education, public safety and social welfare — which in the past three decades has been increasingly concentrated at the state level – devolve to local governments, where voters seem to feel more immediately connected and believe there would be greater accountability. If this devolution occurs in California, it could be echoed in other states, much to the inconvenience of national policy makers and interest groups, which look to state government as the principal conduit for Federal aid and support.

June 28, 2009 Posted by | Uncategorized | , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Reputations at Risk in Web 2.0’s ‘Global Village’

Explosion of User-Generated Media in the Age of Social Networks Creates Important New Reputation Management Challenges

Today, two thirds of what Nielsen Online calls “the world’s Internet population” visit social networks or blogs, which have become the fourth most popular online sector after search, portals and PC software applications (Nielsen, Global Faces and Networked Places, March 2009). Enabled by Web 2.0 technology*, this thriving new type of user-generated media, often designated as social media, is proliferating on public and private virtual spaces at an incredible rate. Blogs, wikis, podcasts, message boards, virtual communities and networking tools flourish every day, challenging traditional outlooks on how issues are framed, messages are circulated and reputations – brand, corporate and personal – are managed.

Thanks to Web 2.0, tweets, posts, and other forms of digital communications are redefining the way people and organizations communicate, opening the door to a new world of free and easily accessible information sharing, unedited and uncensored contents, and global – borderless – interactions. This is exemplified by the ability of citizens in Iran breaking through government censorship to communicate with the outside world on civil unrest in the country through Facebook and Twitter posts.

Worldwide reach in seconds
For organizations and individuals who value their reputations, this development creates new and increasingly serious challenges. In fact, in the Web 2.0 global village – where anyone can initiate a worldwide controversy almost instantaneously, frame an issue positively or negatively, or feed international debate with a simple blog post – every reputation is at risk.

For example, social media tools such as blogs and social networks enable anyone frustrated with a company’s practices, products or services to spread their complaints virally and potentially stimulate a local, national or global campaign against the company. For consumer activists and special interest groups, these tools have become powerful instruments to stage attacks on companies and rally support for their positions.

Companies like Amazon, recently faced the anger of thousands of bloggers for its re-classification of gay and lesbian themed books as “adult” books. Even Apple, a favorite of the wired crowd, came under fire from Greenpeace bloggers for its alleged lack of involvement regarding environmental issues. Starbucks, the “socially progressive” coffee giant, is currently dealing with a media campaign rooted in social media which alleges the company as anti-organized labor.

In today’s digital world, disgruntled workers, distraught ex-workers, whistleblowers and digital spies are now one click away from spreading confidential information, classified reports and/or stories on questionable practices they might have encountered. On websites such as,, or, they are now able to gather and archive leaked information, which then becomes searchable and printable by anyone at anytime.

The risks to reputations are real, and because there is no such thing as a digital eraser to remove individual attacks and negative publicity, every polemic growing in the Web 2.0 global village can potentially become an exponential threat to corporate – and individual – interests worldwide.

Using Web 2.0 to your advantage
However, as much as social media creates risks, Web 2.0 can also be a valuable tool for those who want to understand and potentially manage the actions, trends, and opinions that shape their reputations. As a borderless window to millions of minds around the world, Web 2.0 offers the opportunity to better understand global trends and opinions in the making – a knowledge which is critical to anticipating issues and/or crises and developing effective response strategies.

That is why organizations and individuals who consider their reputation a valuable asset should invest the time and resources needed to understand today’s global digital village and actively engage with its burgeoning pool of bloggers, twitters and social networkers.

Protecting reputations and maximizing opportunities in the world of Web 2.0 involves three basic steps:

1. Monitor

2. Analyze

3. Engage

Blogs and social networks can be global focus groups, borderless suggestion boxes which gather the first formulations of business, cultural, political and social trends and evolving developments. To leverage the benefits of social media, one must, first and foremost, put in place a system to MONITOR online word-of-mouth interactions, using various tools to listen and dig through myriad tweets, posts and blogs to find insights into public opinions and actions.

Organizations must then ANALYZE their findings; evaluate the meaning of aggregated individual thoughts and reactions; assess the evolution of online networks and communities; and locate and map trends and their initiators.

Ultimately, organizations must actively ENGAGE with the millions of digital minds which aspire to discuss, debate and influence the decisions being made about the products they purchase, the services they use, the environments in which they live and the issues they care about.

Whether it is by blogging, tweeting, linking, or creating their own forums, organizations must be proactive online if they want to maintain control over their reputations. They must engage with online communities, be aware of participant concerns and, when appropriate, develop responses to those concerns. In the Web 2.0 global village – where people live and learn through uncensored dialogue and near instantaneous interactions – traditional external communications utilizing earned and paid media are no longer enough.

Managing issues and enhancing the reputations of our clients has been the highest priority of my firm, Winner & Associates, since its founding in 1975. Our global Advanced Reputation Management System gives our clients a competitive advantage in the constantly evolving world of Web 2.0. For more information, please contact Zach Winner at

* Web 2.0 refers to a second generation of web technologies and applications that facilitate communications, information sharing, and collaboration online in ways previously unavailable. Examples of Web 2.0 applications include social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis and blogs.

June 17, 2009 Posted by | Uncategorized | , , , , , | 1 Comment