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  1. CYS, SERVICES YOUTH WORK. A Brooks Video Production.

    from Paschal Brooks Added 20 0 0

    CYS Youth Office Ennis Clare Youth Service, Carmody Street, Ennis, Co.Clare 065 6845350 info@clareyouthservice.org They do great work !!

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    • Packie Ryan Memorial Race, Newmarket-On-Fergus, Co.Clare. (DROMOLAND CASTLE)

      from Paschal Brooks Added 481 0 0

      Packie Memorial Race. 4th Year Newmarket-On-Fergus, Co. Clare. Many thanks to Mark Nolan and all the 50 Staff at Dromoland who took part. Part of the Dromoland Castle 50 years celebration. This…

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      • Joe Saunders : Contact 087/2502550. web content, web HD footage.

        from Paschal Brooks Added 23 0 0

        Web Content. Full HD. Nationwide Service. Get your message, across ! Joe Saunders, 087/2502550. joe@joesaunders.ie Filmed / Edited by Paschal Brooks 086/2588565. info@brooksvideo.com Freelance…

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        • ennisapp.ie

          from Paschal Brooks Added 27 0 0

          Ennis Ennis app ennisapp.ie ennisapp.ie Co.Clare Filmed / edited Paschal Brooks 086/2588565. Nationwide Service. www.brooksvideo.com

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          • Ciaran and Fran, 16/March.2013 JUST A GREAT DAY ! brooksvideo.com

            from Paschal Brooks Added 564 0 0

            Ciaran from Galway marries Fran from Co.Mayo. Ballyhaunis Church. Reception Claregalway hotel, Amazing wedding venue. The Gill family do a great job. Nora Gill takes care of everything. Staff…

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            • LONDIS Owned by retailers for retailers.

              from Paschal Brooks Added 35 0 0

              Londis, web promotional video. Test one. Filmed by Paschal Brooks 086/2588565. Nationwide Service. info@brooksvideo.com Nationwide Service.

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              • Michelle and Robert 2013, Clondalkin Dublin, Enjoy !

                from Paschal Brooks Added 172 0 0

                "Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness." Clondalkin Church. Reception Springfield Hotel, just a great wedding venue. A Brooks Video Production. Filmed by Paschal…

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                • STRINGSCHOOL

                  from Paschal Brooks Added 97 0 0

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                  • TTM Healthcare. Recruitment - Medical jobs, Nursing jobs.

                    from Paschal Brooks Added 73 0 0

                    Insert in FBD Awards ceremony 2013. TTM Healthcare, interview with Brian Crowley. WINNERS ON THE NIGHT. TTM HEALTHCARE RECRUITMENT, Ireland's leading specialists in placing healthcare…

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                    • Sarah & John Flavin, Grow old with me, enjoy ! Brooksvideo.com

                      from Paschal Brooks Added 277 0 0

                      Sarah and John Flavin wedding highlights. Grow old with me, the best is yet to come. Church in the North Cathedral Cork City. Wet Christmas wedding, John and Sarah were just a fantastic couple. John…

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                      • Wedding of Mary Russell and Brendan O'Sullivan, brooksvideo.com

                        from Paschal Brooks Added 239 0 0

                        Mary Russell from Sixmilebridge marries Brendan O'Sullivan, Kildysart Co.Clare. An amazing day had by all. C&M limousines provided the transport, a cream Princess and a black Mercedes…

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                        • Stalks and Stems Florist Cooraclare and Kilrush Co.Clare

                          from Paschal Brooks Added 289 0 0

                          Stalks and stems Florist Cooraclare and Kilrush. On of the best in the business. Caroline O'Doherty 065/9059455 info@stalksandstemsflorist.ie Euro 150 worth of extra's FREE when you…

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                          Browse Videos

                          Videos Paschal Brooks

                          Here are all of the videos that Paschal Brooks has uploaded to Vimeo. Appearances are videos that Paschal Brooks has been credited in by others.

                          Also Check Out


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Skip Bettencourt

Friday, March 1, 2013

Two common dolphins were observed in the inner coastal waters of Chappaquiddick this week. The pair were observed swimming close to shore in an area known as the narrows, near the opening to Cape Pogue, north of the Dyke Bridge. On Thursday, a team of field volunteers working with the New England Aquarium watched the animals for five hours. By Friday morning, they were believed to have left the area.

Read more about the dolphins, and what they were believed to be doing in the area.

Add a comment

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VP 18 - UK to USA Grounded Plug Adapter

If a UK visit is on your schedule, it is time to get a plug adapter before you begin packing your bags. None of your electrical appliances are likely to work until you have the right adapter for UK. It is time you find the correct voltage converter for your appliance. Find out the voltage and wattage rating of the appliance to determine the adapter which will be required.

  • Weight : 0.5 lb
  • Dimension : NA
  • Converts grounded UK plug to grounded American plug.


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Autonomía digital y tecnológica

Código e ideas para una internet distribuida

Un brujo tántrico demuestra el poder de la magia negra intentando matar a un científico

• Por
On 3 March 2008, in a popular TV show, Sanal Edamaruku, the president of Rationalist International, challenged India’s most “powerful” tantrik (black magician) to demonstrate his powers on him. That was the beginning of an unprecedented experiment. After all his chanting of mantra (magic words) and ceremonies of tantra failed, the tantrik decided to kill […]


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A Quick Guide to Data Visualization with Tableau

I have been a fan of Data Visualization for quite some time now and I have shared a few posts revolving around this subject in past. With this post, I want to share how you can get started with Tableau… and how it can save a lot of time your analytics team/department is wasting in creating dashboards with Excel macros.

If you are not familiar with the software, here is a short note to help you get the most out of this post:

Consider a case where you have multiple data sources that you are supposed to use in order to come up with a dashboard that your board of executive members want to see, use and interact with.

To achieve this, you will probably create charts out of your data-sets. Well, you can be extremely skilled and comfortable creating beautiful charts based off of your data-sets, but the question is whether your stakeholders are seeing the same thing that you are trying to convey with your charts… because, at the end,  isn’t it more about ‘storytelling’ than it is about ‘data analytics’ ?! :)

With this, you would want to draw actionable insights out of your charts. Here, the keyword is ‘actionable’. No one wants to see a bunch of charts that glorifies or denigrates facts; you, as a data analyst (read: storyteller) want to give actionable insights at the end! Now, your story can be compelling enough in your view, but it is important to have your audience (aka decision-makers) get equally compelled by the story… and this is where the third step comes into the picture, interaction!

Suppose you have a great story with excellent actionable insights… but as a good storyteller, you would want to consider all the layers and all the dimensions of your story to have it make complete sense to your audience! Interaction, as the term suggests, allows you to see your data from all the angles and helps you make the close-to-perfect recommendations for your decision-makers. On top of that, you would also want to empower your stake-holders by allowing them to interact with your data!

Tableau does exactly this! It lets you see your data through beautiful charts (FYI: there are 24 different ways you can see your data through Tableau charts), helps you understand your data to come up with actionable insights that you and your decision makers can use… and at the end, it lets you play with your data through interactive dashboards. And surprisingly, the tool is extremely easy to use and get comfortable with!

If, by now, the tool has captured your interest, the following three parts of this post will help you get started with creating some AWESOME data visualizations on your own! :)

Part One: Show me some cool data visualizations and dashboards

Tableau offers a free public edition of the software anyone and everyone can use to create awesome data visualizations and upload them on Tableau’s public server! Here is a collection of Tableau Dashboards that people have created for different industries and have uploaded them on the Tableau Gallery for everyone to see, use and interact with!

Part Two: Tell me what edition of Tableau I should go for

Based on your requirements, you can get one of the different editions of Tableau. Here is a quick-guide for you to decide which one to go for:

> Tableau Public: If you want to learn and explore Tableau for research or experimental purpose, Tableau Public should suit you the best. Although the public version has its limitation (in terms of type of data you can use to create dashboards with), it has everything you may need to get started with this software.

> Tableau Desktop: If you are a data-driven organization or have an exclusive analytics department or team, you can consider investing into this tool. As an extension, Tableau also provides Tableau Server through which your analytics team can share the dashboards and visualizations with the stakeholders on Tableau Server. There is also a cloud-based alternative to Tableau Server named Tableau Online.

> Tableau Reader: This is a cheaper solution for you if you want to consider getting a Tableau Desktop for your organization and don’t want to invest in Tableau Server. Tableau Reader is a free tool offered by Tableau for people to see, use and interact with your dashboards. All one needs to do in order to play with dashboards created by someone is: Download the ‘reader’ and open the Tableau dashboard shared with them using Tableau Reader. If you have a comparatively small analytics team, you can probably buy one license of Tableau Desktop and get Tableau Reader for all your decision-makers.

> Tableau for Students (One of the many reasons I love and respect Tableau for): If you are a student, this is what you want to get for yourself! Tableau gives a free copy of Tableau Desktop to students who want to learn and expand upon this tool!  All a student needs to do is: register as a student, download the software, install it and activate it using the key provided in the registration email.

Part Three: Getting Started With Tableau

Alright, if you have already got Tableau (Desktop or Public) up and running on your machine, here is a quick guide (OK, maybe not that quick) for you to get started with the software:

Click here for more Slideshares on Technological and Managerial topics.

For past few months, I have been using Tableau for Social Media Analytics; please share what you use (or would like to use) Tableau for – I would be very much interested in learning all different use-cases and exploratory research you do with Tableau.

(Note: I am not affiliated with Tableau Software company in any way, this post is created just out of my love for the software.)

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A Matter of Fact

Last week, a question was asked by a local news station for people to comment on. I was going to let the question slide, but then some of the comments got out of hand, and I felt the strong desire to say something. Actually, I felt the strong desire to hit someone, but common sense took over and I used my brain, not my brawn.

This was the question:

If you’re receiving federal crop insurance payments or government money as a farmer, are you a hypocrite if you’re against government subsidies?

Nice one, eh?

The funny thing is, I have no problem with the conversation taking place. And I have no problem with trying to brainstorm for better solutions. But I DO have a problem with people accusing farmers of wrong-doing, when they haven’t a clue as to how the system works to begin with.

To begin with, if you aren’t familiar with crop insurance, perhaps you should check out this link and read up on it. But to give you a quick, few-word synopsis, it boils down to this: you cannot be eligible for disaster payments if you don’t have crop insurance. That’s right, they’re intermingled. One comes with another.

So, that being said, I don’t necessarily favor government payments…but I’m not stupid. We have to protect our farm and our family from disasters, because contrary to what some say, you can’t just walk away from a natural disaster and wait for the weather to get nice and start farming again. You can lose everything in an instant.

I’m sure you’re thinking, “But Val, no one would ever think that.” Wrong.

This is a direct quote from the conversation on facebook, “As a wife of a carpenter, when the weather gets bad and he can’t work he doesn’t get paid..period…sorry if the crop was ruined due to weather, but why should you get help and us nothing? We grew up in farming families also, so we know alittle of what we are talking about.” (Name withheld to protect the…well, uneducated? I guess?)

My response was a little sharp-tongued, but served the purpose:

“Dear carpenter’s wife, I believe a more appropriate analogy would be your husband building a two-story, $300,000 house. Paying all of the inputs, including electrical work, lumber and labor, and then watching as the house burns down in a fire caused by lightning and then being told that he could try again next year. We’re not talking about being out of work for a day or two, we’re talking about losing a whole year’s worth of costs…and those bills get paid, whether the crop makes it or not. There are fewer farmers feeding more people every year. Yes, there are problems with the system and we need to make changes, and yes, there are cases of abuse, just like any industry. But we need to work together, not criticize and point fingers.”

So why am I writing this? Read the last line. We need to work together, and work towards a future that makes sure that farmers can do what they do best, and lawmakers and constituents and interest groups can all work together and make sure that there is a future to be had.

Do you understand the power that you have? Do you understand the strength of your voice? Your vote?

Please, don’t misjudge how important you are…and please, don’t shrug off such serious issues as disasters and insurance without putting some thought and time into it. Our future…all of our future…is needing some change.

And don’t be mistaken. The only one who can provide that is us.

4 thoughts on “A Matter of Fact

  1. Val, I saw your responses on Facebook and the one thing that troubles me with this whole political system today is no one wants to have the conversation. Yesterday, the Boston Bruins went to the White House. The Playoff MVP was their Goalie Tim Thomas. Thomas is one of 2 people on that team born and raised in the USA. Most people would consider this an honor to go to the White House but because of his political leanings and beliefs, he decided not to go to meet the President. While it’s a bigger deal if Thomas would skip a game because of his political beliefs (I don’t know how an NHL player would do that), the issue that I find troubling is no one wants to have the conversation. What does an NHL player skipping a meeting at the White House have to do with your message? I find people take a look at things too quickly, don’t educate themselves, and make a very quick and blind judgement. Don’t be afraid to have a conversation people. That’s what our country needs more than ever. Things aren’t as black and white as most of the media tries to put it. It’s ok to have a little gray in there…and pink, purple, green, and blue. Having the conversation and working together is what makes this country great and will hopefully put our country back to where it needs to be.

  2. Well put!!!!!!! The U.S. government has always believed in cheap food and has spoiled the consumer with “cheap food” prices… If they let us charge what it really costs to produce America’s food, it would be a complete shock to the consumer. Just how many people do you know purchase insurance so they are guaranteed that there will be food on their table? You, as a farmer, still have to purchase the insurance to make sure you even qualify for support if that crop fails. Take the American farmer out of the equation and you will remove not only food, but fiber and fuel. The average consumer does not get that no matter what they do in their day to day life…the American Farmer is the rooted source.

    Another thought…when you purchase an item in the store, you pay tax on it. With any land which is purchased, you pay taxes when you first buy it and then every year after. Those property taxes support schools, communities and government programs.

    Lastly, subsidies are created to get a program up and running. Our goal is to see that program sustains on its own, but some programs will never be this way, since the U S wants everyone to have cheap food. Remember only 10 percent of every person’s disposable income is spent on food.

    Just my thoughts! Keep educating them, Val!

  3. Your reply to the “uneducated” was very well done. You are right, we MUST stick together & work out the problems. The majority of Americans seem to be clueless as to how their food and fiber gets from field to plate or closet. I for one am tired of being put down and told how to live ( with wolves in MY livestock on PRIVATE property) by people with “their mouths and bellys FULL” ! But I digress…. just wanted to say – THANK YOU for your input, blogs & hard work.

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Fluffy Kabocha Squash Steamed Mini Cakes

Fluffy Kabocha Squash Steamed Mini Cakes

Kabocha has a simple and gentle sweetness. These are fluffy when freshly made. Even the next day, these steamed mini cakes are still moist, fluffy, and soft when eaten.

Ingredients: Makes about 8-10

Kabocha squash (uncooked, with the skin and seeds removed)
180-200 g
Cake flour
100 g
Bread (strong) flour
50 g
Baking powder
5 g
Light brown sugar
100 g
40 g
Vegetable oil
40 g
2 large eggs
Vanilla oil (if you have it)
a few drops

1. Take the kabocha squash and remove the skin and the seeds. Cut it into 2-3cm cubes. Cover them with plastic wrap and heat them up in the microwave. Once you can easily insert a toothpick into them, they are ready.
2. With a fork or a masher, mash the kabocha squash.
3. Mix the margarine with a whisk until it forms a whipped cream like consistency. Add in the vegetable oil, mixing well. Add in the sugar and the vanilla oil next and mix well.
4. Add in the eggs one at a time and quickly mix them in.
5. Combine the flours and the baking powder, sift them into the mixture from step 4 and mix. Once the batter is no longer floury, add in the kabocha squash.
6. Once the mixture has become smooth and well mixed, the batter is done. Start heating the water in your steaming pan.
7. Either oil your molds or line them with paper liners. Add the batter until they are 80-90% full. I used aluminum pudding cups here.
8. Once the water is boiling, steam the batter for 15-18 minutes in the steamer. Once the middle has cooked through, they are done.
9. I used a steamer like this (it's from the dollar store). I had the water boiling in a shallow pot, and just steamed it like this. There were no problems doing it this way.
11. This is the color of the fluffy kabocha squash. Once they have cooled, you can cover them with plastic wrap and store them. This is to keep the surface from drying out.
12. When you open them up, they look like this. Even though the batter was not whipped they are smooth and fluffy when they are steamed. They will still be fluffy and soft the next day.
13. This actually used to be a banana muffin recipe and one time I swapped the bananas out for kabocha squash. If you bake them in the oven though, they will be muffins. You can bake them at 180℃ for 22 minutes.
14. You can also add any kind of jam, chocolate chips, or cream cheese and it will be delicious.

Story Behind this Recipe

When you're dealing with a brownout, or you're in a disaster struck area, you can make these... These steamed mini cakes are easily made and take almost no time. I took Recipe ID: 1203420 "Easy Banana Muffins" and swapped in pumpkin and steamed them to make something that I think is rather delicious.


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Projects In Alphabetical Order

Rwamagana School Water Project - Rwanda

Rwamagana School Water Project - Rwanda
Rwamagana, Eastern Province, Rwanda

Community Description
Rwamagana is located in the Eastern Province of Rwanda. The majority of the population farm, many subsistence. The Eastern Province has very high rates of intestinal and waterborne illnesses, many of which are Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Rwamagana School Water Project - Rwanda

Excel Bilingual Nursery and Primary School is committed to preparing its students for the future through a challenging and stimulating curriculum. The school posits that a greater understanding of the world and fluency in English are two keys to success in the emerging East African Community. Excel also provides primary education to about 60 orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), free of charge.

The school struggles with water access year round, but it becomes more of a pressing need during the dry seasons. They currently have no system for collecting or storing water.

Project Description
This project is to install a 2,000 liter rainwater collection and storage system for Excel Bilingual Nursery and Primary School. The rainwater collection system will be attached to the Nursery. This will help to provide a consistent water source for the school and staff.

Project funding will be used to purchase the plastic storage tank and materials. Skilled laborers will construct a proper base for the tank.

Age-appropriate lesson plans on sanitation, hygiene, water use and conservation are being integrated into the school's curriculum. The staff will also be trained on proper water treatment, hygiene and maintenance of the system.

Project Impact
250 students and staff will directly benefit from the project.

Rwamagana School Water Project - Rwanda

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Malcolm Cunningham

This project represents the appropriate technology for bringing water to the school. It is implemented and sourced locally, and includes the necessary educational compo

nent to ensure sustainability.

Dollar Amount of Project

Donations Collected to Date

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has been fully funded through the generosity of the Elmo Foundation.

We encourage others to continue to donate using the Donate button below, and we will notify Peace Corps Volunteer Malcolm Cunningham of your donation. Additional funds will be used to fund the next project by him and/or those of other PCVs in the country of service.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Funds Needed :

Follow Us

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Donate $25 or more for Water Charity projects.

GlobalGiving vetted Organization 2016

***  Copyright 2017 ©  -  Water Charity is a 501(c)(3) non-profit (DLN 17053217312048) based in California & operating Worldwide  ***

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Projects Currently Underway

Dariganga Village Water Filter Project - Mongolia

Dariganga Village - Mongolia Location
Dariganga Village, Sukhbaatar Province, Mongolia

Community Description
Dariganga Village is a small community of 2,800 people and is home to one of the most sacred mountains in Mongolia (Altan Ovoo) as well as the only summer camp in the province.

This summer there will be over 500 children attending summer camp over a period of two months. There is not a safe water supply at the camp.

Currently, children and counselors are forced to purchase bottled water, which must be brought in during camp sessions. This is costly, not environmentally friendly, and not an effective use of resources.

Summer Camp - Mongolia Project Description
Project funds will be used to purchase a water filtration system to make current well water safe and drinkable for the children at the summer camp.

This filtration system will use the newly acquired electricity which arrived at the summer camp this year and allow children, counselors and camp staff to drink water at the camp at any time.

The community decided to use individual filters, which are available in the provincial capital city, and are well known and widely used throughout the country. These use electricity to boil the water, which is then filtered and rendered safe to drink.

Travis Hellstrom, PCV - Mongolia Filters, pitchers and 5-gallon water containers will be purchased for each room in two large dormitories.

Project Impact
The water filtration system will supply these 500 children, and over the years thousands more, with safe drinking water.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Travis Hellstrom

The need for the project arose from the community. The solution uses a product that is well-known and tested. In bringing safe water to a large number of people, it makes environmental and economic sense.

Dollar Amount of Project

Donations Collected to Date

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded, through the generosity of The Soneva SLOW LIFE Trust as a part of their Clean Water Projects initiative.

We encourage others to continue to donate using the Donate button below, and we will notify Peace Corps Volunteer Travis Hellstrom of your donation. Additional funds will be used to fund the next project by Travis and/or those of his counterpart PCVs in Mongolia.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Funds Needed :

Follow Us

Twitter icon
Facebook icon
Google+ icon
YouTube icon
RSS icon

Donate $25 or more for Water Charity projects.

GlobalGiving vetted Organization 2016

***  Copyright 2017 ©  -  Water Charity is a 501(c)(3) non-profit (DLN 17053217312048) based in California & operating Worldwide  ***

Support Us


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Projects Currently Underway

Sare Djiba Women’s Garden & Primary School Well Project – Senegal

Sare Djiba Women’s Garden & Primary School Well Project – SenegalLocation
Sare Djiba, Southern Kolda region, Senegal

Community Description
Sare Djiba is a Pulaar village with a population of approximately 350, located 16 kilometers from Velingara, a small city in the Southern Kolda region of Senegal.

The predominant source of income in Sare Djiba is subsistence farming of millet, corn, peanuts, and cotton.

The Sare Djiba Women’s Garden is being built with funds from a USAID food security grant

Sare Djiba Women’s Garden & Primary School Well Project – SenegalLocated next to the women’s garden is the Sare Djiba primary school, which is making the transition from a grass shade structure to government-funded school buildings this year.

Access to safe water is a challenge in the village. Both the women’s garden and the school are in need of a safe and consistent water supply, as currently the nearest well is over 500 m away.

Project Description
This project is to dig a well which will benefit both the women’s garden and the primary school.

The women’s garden will obtain needed water for irrigation, while the primary school will receive drinking water for the students and also water for school sanitation.

The well will be dug by a local well digger, with the help of men from the village. It will be dug to a depth of 20 meters in order to ensure year-round access to water, and will be covered with zinc sheets to avoid outside contamination. The well will function with a traditional rope and pulley system used to pull up water.

Sare Djiba Women’s Garden & Primary School Well Project – SenegalProject funds will be used to buy the materials needed for the well such as cement, iron supports, rope, pulley and bucket, as well as to pay for the transportation of materials from the nearest city of Velingara to Sare Djiba, and for the labor for digging the well itself.

Project Impact
This project will serve a population of 350 people, specifically the women who are participating in the Sare Djiba Women’s Garden project as well as the students and teachers of the Sare Djiba primary school.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Olivia Kenna

This is the third project implemented by Olivia. The first two were the Community Health Hut Construction Project - Senegal and the Foulamory Health Hut Well Project - Senegal.

The well will have a lasting impact on the quality of work that can be carried out in the garden by ensuring year-round access to water, and in the primary school by ensuring sanitary conditions and access to potable water for the students and teachers.

Dollar Amount of Project

Donations Collected to Date

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of an anonymous donor in Philadelphia, PA, USA, with the message:

I dedicate this to my brothers and sisters in Islam.

We encourage others to continue to donate using the Donate button below, and we will notify Olivia of your donation. Additional funds will be used to fund the next project by Olivia and/or those of other PCVs in Senegal.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Funds Needed :

Follow Us

Twitter icon
Facebook icon
Google+ icon
YouTube icon
RSS icon

Donate $25 or more for Water Charity projects.

GlobalGiving vetted Organization 2016

***  Copyright 2017 ©  -  Water Charity is a 501(c)(3) non-profit (DLN 17053217312048) based in California & operating Worldwide  ***

Support Us


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朝倉涼子 (Asakura Ryouko) Bunny!

Posted by meronpan on November 4, 2008

Probably needs no introduction, but today we’ll have a look at FREEing‘s asakura ryouko bunny.  Hailing from suzumiya haruhi no yuuutsu, this bunny is delicious!

I’m not sure if it’s the blue, the pose, the stockings… but something about her really clicks for me. ryouko wasn’t at all a favorite character of mine but this bunny just screams must get! ^_^

Box is the usual FREEing bunny fare. Thick cardboard, no window, just little peep holes.

No detachable parts (as far as I can tell) so just ease her out and remove some loose plastic..

At long last!

Really gorgeous, if you have the any other bunnies she’s definitely in the top tier.

Outfit is really vibrant and begs for attention.

Personally I think I prefer nekomimi but I’ll this one slide :P

ii oppai~ ^^;

It feels like my shots are improving… and yet it feels like each review I do I’m no happier with the photos than the last one ^^;;  I’m hoping it’s my standards getting higher rather… but I think it’s just the quality leveling out ^^;;  Had to do some heavy adjustments to make up for my lack of skill and lighting…

Luckily ryouko looks great regardless ^^

Just love her legs.  At 1/4, fully extended on her side, ryouko has an impressive footprint – over 30cm long!  Wish her heels were a little more detailed, especially for the scale, but, honestly that (probably) won’t be your focal point anyway :P

View from behind is great too.

Hard to stop taking shots… ^^;

ryoko21 ryoko22 ryoko23

With so many shots I think I sometimes forget the regular straight up angles ^^;

For whatever reason my ryouko doesn’t quite lay flat… her hair’s floating a little off the group… I figured she’ll bend herself into place eventually?

Nice hips.

Super macro… knee shot? Well if you needed it, there ya go :P

Obviously had to be paired with haruhi.

They really look great together.  Wish I liked the others enough to collect ’em all.

On the other hand my roommates were in my room today and one asked how much figures usually cost… so I throw out, “Oh, well, like $30 to $100…”

“How much is that one?”

“… $100”

“is this one $100 too?”

My other roommate pointed out… I could pay someone in rl to dress up and pose like this for that money ^^;;;

Anyhow, back to the review… covered some figma gets in my last post…

"Cancel my appointments for the rest of the day."

Glad lulu could balance on his own without the stand.

Also some more kemeko love~

"Don't get any ideas!"

Absolutely love emuemu peaking out of kemeko ^_^  Review with 1/8 emuemu later~

"On second thought, cancel everything for the rest of the month."

Nanoha finds a new friend.

awww~ ^_^

As you can see, quite a presence compared to 1/8.

"All who oppose nagato must die!"

"...I need a bigger gun."

I’m usually not too prolific in the actual critiques of my figures… and in this case even less so ‘cuz she’s got me under her spell.  Going for over 10,000￥ she’ll hit your wallet pretty hard, but definitely delivers!

Danny’s got some coverage too, along with foobarbaz and …I thought I saw some other reviews, but I can’t remember (ugh, it’s 3am ^^;;;)… if I remember later I’ll update :P

19 Responses to “朝倉涼子 (Asakura Ryouko) Bunny!”

  1. Nice site & wonderful review on Ryoko.

    We get election day off(our school is a voting site), and I was looking for figure blogs to spend the time while I wait for my Haruhi Gothic Lolita figure to arrive!

    I plan to check back often! :)

  2. phossil said

    Cool pictures and very funny. I also think you are taking great pictures.

    I like the dress for this figure. I guess because its all shiny.
    I also like the picture with Nanoha, (Very kawaii…)

  3. Panther said

    Though I would love to have this figure despite hating Haruhi, the high price tag is unjustifiable for me. The blue does it, but the series and the price, nah.

  4. sonic_ver2 said

    Hmm… now i know why people throwing off some number of cash for this beauty. Just watching your photos making me drool even more. I wish i had more money T_T.

    Anyway, your photos are really great. Some photos also have interesting angle which showed her sexiness even more.

  5. meronpan said

    @uzumakiworld thanks! hopefully i’ll be able to keep delivering content ^^;

    @phossil glad ya like the pics, my philosophy is that if i’m enjoying myself, hopefully others will enjoy the review too ^_^ wish i had tried to seat nanoha a little better, but yeah, i liked that shot too ^^

    @panther maybe freeing should churn out a lower priced 1/8 version of the bunnies ^_^

    @sonic_ver2 if you value size at all, she definitely delivers for the price – for example the 4-leaves chizuru is a smaller scale, higher prices, and lesser quality ^^; I think a great thing about these bunnies is that despite their large scale and relatively simple outfits, they don’t feel awkwardly huge.

    it’s kinda too bad they decided to go with the 1/4 scale… the size is neat and all but makes it quite a commitment for the buyer. everyone needs this bunny!.

    I believe finally getting a tripod made a difference although it has been a challenge getting some of the angles that I used to do when free handing it. thanks for the encouragement, i’ll continue to drive towards better shots ^_^

  6. Blowfish said

    From the Quality point of View shes excellent but since i dont really like the Haruhi series ill pass on this one.The only one i like is Tsuruya^^

    Im still envious of that background effect

  7. meronpan said

    @blowfish i also really love tsuruya but for some reason her bunny version doesn’t quite do it for me. well, at least lucky for you you can save some money ^^;

    you’re not talking about the colored gradient background are you? in my previous response I for whatever reason thought you meant the ever so slight darkening of the white background. if it’s the colored one you’re talking about… magic wand tool + new layer + gradient tool ^^;; Because the white background is nice and uniform, as long as the figure has a well defined outline, you can easily select a surrounding region and then just add the gradient.

  8. Blowfish said

    I was talking about both^^
    Im really bad at photoshop but i think even i can achieve that! Ill try it on my next shot.Whenever my next figure will arrive ^^;;

  9. gordon said

    ryoko must be the only freeing bunny without those unsightly “scars” on the knees.

  10. meronpan said

    @blowfish looking forward to it ^_^

    @gordon hmm does haruhi have’em then? if so, i never noticed ^^;;; guess i can check when i get home…

  11. Q said

    Nice bunny indeed. It comes to no surprise as to why Ryouko is one of the most popular one for the FREEing line.

    30cm in length and the price tag… Hmph, it is a bit too much for me to take. Really good pictures though, keep it up!

  12. meronpan said

    @q she is quite demanding ^_^;

    thanks! i’ll try my best ^^

  13. optic said

    Well, if I find her on my trip then I will pick definitely pick it up. Wait, on second thoughts, she’s gonna take up half the space on my suitcase.-_-
    Either way I could ship it home which is another alternative.
    Love the detail put into her. I find it’s the colour which gives out that appeal. ^^

    “I could pay someone in rl to dress up and pose like this for that money ^^;;;”

    The differences is, that will last for a day while these will last with u forever. ^^

  14. meronpan said

    @optic i’m kinda afraid to go back to japan now that i have figure fever… you can fit quite a bit of manga in a carry on, but no so much for figues ^^;

    true, figures do last longer ^^;

  15. James said

    I so want her , i hate you now :D

  16. meronpan said

    @james ^^; she demands a lot of space and a lot of money, but she’s worth it! :P

  17. James said

    no no , i can’t accept that , just send her to me , NOW !

    i think i preordered her in a french shop (not sure) so i’ll get her in one month or two (if i find the money :/)

    and i don’t have anymore space :'(

  18. Yes, you can pay someone $200 to pose for you, but they don’t look as good as the FREEing bunnies ^^ I got the Yuki Bunny, but I think she’s the worse of the releases because her pose is rather boring ^^; But I love my Yuki Bunny.

    • meronpan said

      i think the yuki bunny is an awkward case… it’s yuki in a bunny suit… but to stay in character… she has to look bored/static ^^;; wish i had spare cash to get the rest of the gang…

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Vintage Textile Panels: Foundling Art

June 2011

Vintage Textile Panels: “Garden Cloth” series

Here is the latest work in my collection,  “Garden Cloth” . The current series is made with vintage textile panels, developed from a plain cloth and layered with print, paint, applique and stitch to create a new and vibrant textile.

 “Garden Cloth: Abundance” began its journey to new life as four vintage linen fragments, green-blue, which I first rust (eco) printed, then assembled into a whole panel. The panel was hand stitched extensively with gold and green vintage threads. These initial layers were followed by  flour-paste resist-printing in greens and reds. More stitching (free machine embroidery), then several layers of applied motifs cut from various vintage prints, including William Morris designs and Hawaiian bark cloth patterns. Yet more stitching , with areas of foiling stitched over, completed the textile. The finished panel was stretched over a custom canvas and framed in white painted wood.

( Click on the images below to see larger versions)

“Garden Cloth: Abundance”  (24″ x 52″)

-Mixed media textile: Rust printing, resist printing, applique, foiling, hand and machine embroidery.

Detail 1: “Garden Cloth: Abundance”

Detail 2: “Garden Cloth: Abundance”

A Second Spring for Vintage Textiles 2010

I am creating a series of vintage printed textile wall panels from my stash of fabrics collected over the years. Intrigued by the ” Pop Life: Art In A Material World” exhibit at the National Gallery in Ottawa in  summer 2010 ( showing the work of Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami et al) I am creating my own Pop Life textile show that aims to reinvent the vintage textiles in my collection. )

Some textiles here on my blog are actually from that era’s designers (the 1960’s and 1970’s) while others look just like wannabes but could perhaps be the real thing…many simply represent the fads and fashions of the day – e.g., the 60’s Beatnik/Hippy love of embroideries, bright colours, bold design, etc.

 I am reprising parts of my collection: “Mu-Mu” dresses become wall panels, coats become cushions, large printed blooms might be Marimekko’s own… Assembled into new forms are fragments as well as complete lengths of bark cloth, loud cottons, graphic prints, wax batiks and other ethnic textiles, printed with traditional designs or elaborately embroidered.   Some panels are constructed from whole cloth,  others are assembled from fragments of the same fabric and still others are a collage of various fabrics.

The artistic challenge I have set myself is to make a pleasing design that highlights the textiles’ appealing aspects but which sometimes also subverts them.   To give all these vintage beauties their Second Spring, I interpret and interpolate, make allusions and inferences and use an unlimited palette to create a new textile treasure trove.

Here’s to Stash Busting!

1. Vintage Textile Panel: Tonga printed bark cloth

 Sila ‘o Tonga pattern

This ethnic beauty is genuine bark cloth panel with a pedigree (link above). This cloth design is in the collection of the Textile Museum of Canada.  The curatorial essay says:

“An elaborate, multi-panel pattern often seen on Tongan bark-cloth is called Sila ‘o Tonga. It was devised at the time of the Second World War and represents the friendship of Tonga, Britain and the United States. The American eagle and the British lion are shown with Norfolk pines and the Tongan coat of arms. The pines, originally from nearby Norfolk Island in the South Pacific, line the approach to the Tongan royal palace and are shown with the sun, moon and stars. The Tongan coat of arms was devised in 1873 by the Reverend Shirley Baker, who was the Tongan king’s private counsellor. The motto translates as “God and Tonga are my inheritance.” The three stars represent the three main groups of islands in the Kingdom, and the dove with the olive branch represents an ideal of peace and unity.”

I can hardly believe this treasure had been in the sallyann!

 Some of the design elements in the panel:

Norfolks pines with sun, moon and stars

Not sure what this one is. It looks like a fringed textile, like a shawl. Not a hammock, surely?

Norfolk Pine tree (the motif appears horizontal on the textile, as here)

Dove of Peace Carrying an Olive  Branch

The Tonga Coat of Arms: “God and Tonga is My Inheritance”. I like the Cross inside the Mogen David.

The American Eagle

2. Vintage Textile Panel : Pink Sixties

These are pics of the work in progress. The fragments of the textile have been assembled and stitched together so far. Next is the stitching of the panel to a wool melton backcloth. Finally, the panel will be glued with archival glue to a high quality archival canvas  over stretcher bars.

I did not have enough of the fabric to see what a full design repeat looked like. The source was a tiny dress, size 2 maybe, home made with oodles of pattern pieces. It was impossible to reassemble the printed design in its entirety. So I simply assembled the fragments in whatever way would fit a  large canvas. The original design has been well and truly subverted. Which I see as a metaphor for many aspects of life …

 Vintage Textile Panel : Pink  Sixties.  Detail shots

The design and colours in the panel are so spectacular that I took several detail shots of the newly arranged design elements.  Here are three:

Detail 1 Pink Sixties

Detail 2  Pink Sixties

Detail 3  Pink Sixties

3. Vintage Textile Panel : Marimekko Reprise In Blue

This design looks like a knock-off of Scandi style but I love it – even if it is printed on cotton not typical of this genre.  I had enough fabric to make three wall panels and this is the last.

Marimekko Reprise In Blue 20″ x 40″ Printed cotton

4. Vintage Textile Panel: Lattice

This textile is an assemblage from two sources:  a lattice print and an oversize bloom appliqued to the background. The flower resembles a  waterlily – maybe.  I enjoyed contrasting the scale in the two like-coloured prints.  If the flower is a waterlily, I like the incongruity of placing it on a garden lattice.  Out of its depth.

 “Lattice”  30″ X 48″ . Printed cottons; applique.

 5. Vintage Textile Panel: Marimekko Reprise In Orange

A real Marimekko textile fragment came my way as a small cushion cover that I unpicked to make a larger panel. The colour is brilliant, eye-popping orangey-red printed with nature motifs in black. The cushion fabric had an   incomplete repeat of a Turkish-inspired traditional floral (including carnation) motif.  I completed the missing portion of the printedcarnation design  by embroidering the same motif  in red thread on a piece of added black fabric to reverse the background/print colours.

Marimekko Reprise In Orange 16″ x 48″

Cotton print with added embroidery.

Detail (Marimekko Reprise In Orange)

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Book Reviews, Trading

Book Review of Trade the Trader by Quint Tatro

I learnt about Quint Tatro after seeing a YouTube video of a talk that he gave to traders at SMB Capital. I read up a little bit more about him and found out about this book, which had this interesting title.

I was expecting a book totally focused on trading other traders, and how to analyse what other traders were thinking or doing, but it turned out that the trade the traders part (i.e. trading pattern failures) is only a portion of the book.

The book goes through the major aspects of being a trader: doing homework (charts), developing a trading plan, setting stops, risk levels, profit levels, trade review, emotional control, avoiding blowups, etc. These are all good stuff that every trader needs to know or would already know (if not they would be out of the game sooner or later). As such, I felt that this book is more catered towards the beginner trader.

One interesting thing mentioned in the book was about Quint learning from Rev Shark, who introduced him to works of Bill O’Neil, Investor’s Business Daily, Nicolas Darvas, and Richard Smitten. These are also the same key influences for my own trading strategy currently.

One last thing to note, from my reading of the book and from viewing his talk at SMB Capital, my impression is that Quint is mainly a reactionary pattern trader (non-intraday). In his talk, he mentioned that he would literally go through thousands of charts every weekend, which I think is just amazing.

Angular Trend Lines are Created by Strong Demand / Supply

  • For whatever reason, something that is irrelevant to you the technical trader, the stock does not retrace its entire 15% move. Instead after coming back toward the $10.75 range, the stock turns up again and advances to $12. The recent advance creates what is called a higher low, and marks the second inflection point needed to create our ascending angular trend.
  • For whatever reason, traders were not willing to wait for the stock to give back the entire move and instead decided to buy up shares on the first sign of weakness.
  • It is at this point, after the angular trend has been established, that you can seek to profit from the pattern.

Technical Influences on Patterns Come After Emotional Influences

  • After the trend has been established, traders actually playing the trend influence it much more than do initial traders who have an emotional tie to the price point.

Three Methodologies for Capital Deployment

  • Anticipatory
    • Take a position in anticipation of a bounce or break occurring.
    • For a passive / part-time trader.
    • Higher returns, but lower probability of trade working.
    • Not for trading pattern failures (i.e. betting that a pattern would fail).
  • Reactionary
    • Take a position after seeing the bounce or break occurring (but still on the same day).
  • Delayed Reactionary
    • Wait until the trading day is coming to a close before executing an order, so that you make a purchase only after you are certain the break will hold.
    • This improves the success rate of trades and avoids same-day reversals. This may help to avoid being whipsawed and stopped out the same day.
    • The risk is that you might miss a significant move if the initial break transpires early in the day and continues to move aggressively all throughout the day. You should learn to gauge this based on the environment you are in.
    • Passive strategy for part-time traders.

When Your Have an Edge, Increase Your Size, Not The Number of Trades

  • Rather than increase the size of the casino floor, I just want to hone in on the time frame and patterns that I find most comfortable.
  • I want to strive for perfection within this world, and rather than increase the number of trades I enter, I want to increase the risk I take per trade. I accomplish the same end results without the manic activity.

Plan Your Trade and Trade Your Plan

  • You are human and therefore possess emotions that can alter your actions, especially when you see your money increase and decrease before your eyes.
  • Simply put, you must have already laid out what you should be doing ahead of time so that you do not make snap decisions on-the-fly.

Key Variables In Trade Journal

  • Stock symbol
  • Long or short
  • Stop level and reasoning
  • Trade reason
  • Risk per share
  • Total risk for the trade
  • Profit levels (profit taking levels)
  • Updates and comments

Set Stops At Levels Which will Invalidate the Pattern

  • I much prefer to set a stop based on a level at which the pattern that originally attracted me to the trade is no longer valid. To me, that makes much more sense and does not open one up to the susceptibility of being stopped out within a pattern that is still valid.
  • For breakouts, the same trend line that was used to determine the breakout level may also be used as a stop level.
  • For anticipatory trades, most of the time, you can find an alternative trend line on the opposite side of the level you are watching. It does not matter whether the trend line you are using to determine your stop is the same type of trend line you are using to determine the trade in the first place.

Pattern Failure Results in a Force in the Opposite Direction

  • Consider the fact that you were not the only one who saw this pattern, nor were you the only one who acted on this pattern.
  • The number of traders following this strategy could be significant, thus creating an incredible amount of force once the traditional stop on the failure was taken.
  • Once the traditional pattern failed, you made your move with a much higher probability of reward.
  • It has been my experience that trading pattern failures is best done only after the traditional pattern has in fact failed, thereby giving you a clear level from which to place your stop.

Pattern Failures May Be Rampant When a Trend is Obvious

  • I believe that 2009 was a year filled with pattern failure. Most of the time, it was bearish patterns turned bullish that caught unsuspecting shorts off guard and resulted in incredible snaps higher.

Before Entering Any Trade, Set a Fixed Portfolio Percentage you are Willing to Lose

  • For a $100,000 portfolio, risk per trade is 0.5% of the portfolio.
  • For a much larger portfolio, which is susceptible to liquidity issues and being not as flexible, a typical risk of 0.2% of the portfolio is acceptable for each trade.
  • For passive portfolios with a much longer time frame (weeks or months), a risk between 0.5% and 1% per trade is acceptable.

Book Gains and Raise Stops as your Trade Works in your Favour

  • Gains are taken at one and two times my initial risk level for the trade.
  • At each level, I sell or cover a third of my initial position.
  • After selling the first one-third of the position, raise your stop to your entry price to ensure you do not allow a winning trade to turn into a losing trade.
  • After selling the second one-third of the position, raise your stop to your first profit target (i.e. one times initial risk level)
  • The final third of the position is allowed to move freely.
  • Although you will never hit the proverbial homerun, the multitude of singles and doubles will result in what should become a continuously rising equity curve.
  • I strongly encourage all strategies to include two basic principals: booking partial gains as the stock is becoming profitable and raising stops to ensure profits do not become losses.

Go for a Steadily Rising Equity Curve over Swinging for Home Runs

  • There was a time in my trading when I would swing for the proverbial fences, seeking outsized returns by taking outsized risk. The results were erratic and at times yielded great returns, but rarely allowed for sustained progress. Regardless of how great the success, it seemed I always went through extreme periods of heavy drawdowns.
  • This emotional roller coaster led me to develop a trading system that seeks much more consistent and sustainable returns. Over time, this resulted in a steadily rising equity curve, correlating with a much more balanced and unemotional approach to trading.
  • There is something invigorating about seeing a continuous flow of profits into my account.

Use Moving Averages to Identify the Trend

  • I usually review the S&P 500 daily chart to determine where the index is in relation to its 50-day simple moving average.
  • If the index is above this line, I assume the trend is up and I look for buying opportunities.
  • If the index is below this line, I assume the trend is down and I look for shorting opportunities.
  • If the index and its relation to the 50-day moving average suggest a specific direction but this conflicts with my personal view, I do nothing.

Handling Blowups – Remove the Position

  • Through the years, I have learned that when the blowup ensues your natural tendency is to freeze. You begin by hoping the blowup reverses course and that your misfortune will be restored (and so you take no action at all). You immediately are stuck in a hope trade and will more than likely begin watching each and every tick of the stock in question.
  • Your zombie-like state will not only paralyze you from taking action on the particular stock but will hinder you from playing any other areas.
  • My primary goal has remained the same: remove the position as quickly as possible so that I can psychologically and financially accept the loss. After the position has been removed, I then move forward looking to repair the financial damage in [using] other areas.
  • Whenever I face a blowup, I immediately take off one-half of the position.
  • While most stocks never returned to where they were before the blowup, some did improve from their initial price immediately following the blowup. Based on this observation, I decided to hold at least one-half throughout the day with the goal of removing the balance by the day’s end.

Avoiding Blowups

  • Earnings announcement
    • You must get into the habit of checking when your stocks report so as to not be caught off guard.
    • A company’s earnings report is usually a catalyst for a large move, and your success should never depend on guessing this outcome.
    • I never hold more than one-third of a full position in a stock through a company’s earnings announcement. In fact, I prefer to not hold any shares at all.
    • I will pass on a trading opportunity if I see their earnings release is too close to the date for which I’m pondering the trade.
  • Special events
    • E.g. FOMC meeting, employment report, government change.
    • Reduce my exposure dramatically prior to this taking place.
    • Rather than bet on the outcomes, I prefer to see how the action transpires.
  • Biotechnology
    • I generally choose to avoid the sector altogether.
    • For every solid winner, it has been my experience that there are four or five terrible losers.

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Private Workshops

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Our Private Workshops allow groups to select a project, time and date that works for them!  Perfect for Birthdays, Bachelorette parties, Bridal Showers, Team Building, and more. And did we mention you can bring food...and WINE?

You can have up to 15 people in your party. You will need a minimum of 5 people to book a private party and will pay the first 5 fees to secure your spot. ($250) We do NOT hold dates unless you have paid your $250 starting fee. The hostess(you) is only responsible for the first 5 so you will email us their projects and design choices by the deadline. They can find all the choices they can pick from in the Personal Link you will receive. If they choose a project more than the $50 you paid to sign them up, they can pay the balance when they show up for class. Everyone else who will be adding onto your class can go to your Personal link and sign up there.

Private parties need to be booked no shorter than  2 weeks ahead of time. Since we build and and premake each individual stencil design, the cutoff for added people to your group is 7 days before the date of your party.

PLEASE NOTE: We have moved to a new location- 310 Central Rd #11 Fredericksburg Va 22401.Make sure you forward our address (some search engines give our old address)

FORWARD THESE RULES to your people!!

ONE project per person.

MUST BE 18yrs and Up to attend our workshops!

Due to the customizations at ALL our workshops, there are NO REFUNDS FOR WORKSHOPS! However, if you cancel with at least 48 hours notice your FULL reservation fee will be turned into a store credit that can ONLY be used for future workshops. If your cancellation falls within 48-24 hours of the workshop, HALF of your reservation fee will be turned into a workshop credit. If unforeseen circumstances require you to cancel the SAME DAY of a workshop you are scheduled to attend, we suggest you find a friend or family member to come in your place so that you are not out the reservation fee you paid. Same day cancellations or no-shows will NOT get a credit for a future workshop! Please private message us on Facebook or email us to cancel. If you no show for a workshop that you have a spot reserved, you forfeit your payment.


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Twenty Three Steps to Goodbye

Martha Brentwood stood stoic against the first arctic gale of the season, as she waited for the number-seven to carry her to Saint Ann’s Cathedral for the sixth time in two years. A trip she never got used to. The harsh breath of winter bit at her as rabid flecks of crystalline powdered snow threatened to bury her where she stood. Her mourning-black Cashmere coat was faded by time, and it did nothing to cover her bare hands, but she didn’t shiver, she didn’t blink, and she didn’t move. Her heart was warmed by the precious memories of Anna, as she recalled their first encounter at the fourth street USO where they both worked so many years ago…Lost in her memories she hadn’t heard the number-seven slide to a halt in front of her—she was somewhere in time.

A barrel chested man bounced off the bus with the grace of a younger man. His chiseled features, leather skin, and gray hair—all marked by time, gave him the look of distinguished charm, contrasted only by his simple black slacks, and weathered pea coat. Blinded by the snow he stumbled to a halt mere inches from the statuesque beauty before him. Her soft-powdered-pale skin was nearly lost in the backdrop of winter’s fury. But her sea-green eyes and luscious ruby lips cast a luminescent glow like a watch keepers lantern meant to guide lost sailors home. He knew this beauty, and rusted memories of a love long past broke free from their moors as he recalled a four day furlough, a sailors first kiss, an enchanted honey moon, and a sobered divorce sent first class mail from Normandy.

“Martha—Martha, are you ok dear?” Martha was pulled back into the ferocity of the storm as her memories faded back into the shadows of yesteryear.

“Excuse me, do I know you?” Martha asked.

“It’s me, your ex-husband, John Brentwood.” As frozen tears of remembrance welled in her eyes, John asked, “Where are you going, Martha?”

“I’m going to say good bye to an old friend at Saint Ann’s.”

“Me too,” John said, “but why are you standing here?”

“I’m waiting for the number-seven to take me there,” Martha said with a tremble in her voice.

“Martha, honey, you’re standing in front of Saint Ann’s.”

Startled by this revelation, Maratha’s knees buckled and John reached out to her. As they clasped hands, the cold-cheap -gold bands they had given one another over half a century ago were reunited. But this reunion was cut short by the somber chimes of funeral bells.

They turned, facing the marble steps of Saint Ann’s, solemnly remembering why they were there. It was Anna who had introduced them all those years ago, it was Anna who had brought them together on this day, and it was Anna they were going to see. Arm in arm, walking silently, they faded into the storm as they climbed the last twenty-three steps to good-bye.


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Lazarus Lynch: Son of a southern chef

Pulling from his roots, this risk-taking chef has launched his own brand building on his social network.

Never one to listen to the naysayers, Lazarus Lynch found a way to combine his culinary creativity with his desire to connect people, and his brand “Son of a Southern Chef” was born. A blend of teaching cooking as a life-skill and inspiring you to try something new, Lazarus’ online show invites you to “cook with soul, eat with pleasure.”

His business is an homage to his dad, who taught him the importance of using food to create community, as well as how to treat risk like an old friend. To grow his brand, Lazarus actively seeks out collaborative partners, harnesses an unflagging optimistic spirit, and does all that he can to learn from the masters.

He may call his success a “happy accident,” but knows deep down that “if you’re not taking risk, it’s likely not worth it.” Find more stories about fellow Risk-Takers and how to protect your financial future.


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2017 Keynote Speakers Nominations

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Nominations for invited speakers/keynotes for Code4Lib 2017 in Los Angeles. Please include a description and any relevant links and try to keep the list in alphabetical order.

Please follow the formatting guidelines:

== Nominee's Name ==

Description of no more than 250 words.

[[Link(s) with contact information for nominee]]

Jane Doe (example)

Jane works at ________, doing _______.

Some pertinent history/biography/hyperlinks that elucidates why Jane would be a good keynote speaker.

Gene Ambaum

For over a decade, Ambaum has been the writer behind the popular library webcomic Unshelved. Based on his own experiences working in a library, the webcomic has expanded into talks at library conferences and a well respected book reviewing service. With the comic sadly ending soon, Ambaum can share a collection of humorous and serious insights on how librarianship has changed and not changed over the years.

Unshelved (comic site)

Interview at Anaphora

Chris Bourg

Chris Bourg is the Director of Libraries at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she also has oversight of the MIT Press. Prior to assuming her role at MIT, Chris worked for 12 years in the Stanford University Libraries, most recently as the Associate University Librarian for Public Services.

Chris is keenly interested in issues of diversity and inclusion in higher education; and in the role libraries play in advancing social justice and democracy. She is currently serving as Chair of the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion of the Association of Research Libraries and has written and spoken extensively on diversity, inclusion, and leadership.

Chris has a PhD in Sociology from Stanford University, and spent 10 years as an active duty U.S. Army officer, including 3 years on the faculty at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Watch Chris's Access 2016 keynote address.

Maciej Celgowski

Maciej Celgowski is the founder of the bookmarking site Pinboard, a friend to librarians, a writer of popular internet essays, and an entertaining speaker on topics including data, privacy, webpage bloat, and online fandom. He also operates a snarky Twitter account. His most recent talk was Deep Fried Data, given at the Library of Congress Collections as Data event in September of 2016. Other talks of interest include The Internet With a Human Face and Fan is a Tool Using Animal.

Talks archive: http://idlewords.com/talks/ (contact info is at the bottom of the page)

Brooke Cunningham

Brooke is an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota Family Medicine and Community Health research. She was previously a research fellow at the Medica Research Institute, exploring how providers and health system factors shape the way organizations address health care disparities. She's talked about how the healthcare system collects and profiles patient data in relation to recommended treatments. She offers insight and perspective on how racial bias is built into our systems and how we should approach how we use the data we collect.

Brooke has a specific interest in race and racism and thinking about race as a system of social stratification, not a biologically valid category. "Cunningham is committed to being part of the next generation of health disparities researchers that advances the field, from the documentation of differences in the health status of population groups to identifying solutions to reduce disparities." [1]

Brooke Cunningham UMN bio Physicians’ Anxiety Due to Uncertainty and Use of Race in Medical Decision-Making Teaching medical students to challenge ‘unscientific’ racial categories

Dragan Espenscheid

Dragan Espenschied (*1975 in Germany) is a media artist, home computer folk musician and digital culture researcher and conservator living in New York City. Starting out as a net activist in the late 1990’s, he created several online interventions concerned with digital power structures and live network traffic analysis/manipulation together with Alvar Freude. In his artistic career, Espenschied focuses on the historization of Digital Culture from the perspective of computer users rather than hackers, developers or “inventors”. Together with net art pioneer Olia Lialina he has been creating a significant body of work concerned with how to represent and write a culture-centric history of the networked age. Since 2011, they together have been restoring and culturally analyzing 1 TB of GeoCities data, supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Espenschied worked with the transmediale festival’s archive and the Vilem Flusser Archive to conceptually and technically integrate large scale emulation while working as a researcher at the University of Freiburg and the University of Applied Arts in Karlsruhe. Publications include papers on large scale curation of complex digital artifacts, emulation and digital culture, the influential reader Digital Folklore as well as musical releases on Aphex Twin’s label Rephlex and several underground/net labels, performing and lecturing in between raves and museums in Europe and the United States. Since April 2014, he is leading the Digital Conservation Program at Rhizome.

Paul Ford

Paul Ford is a Brooklyn-based writer and web technologist. He often writes about the web, archives programming, the nature of information, and living in the information age. Past projects include tilde.club and the semantic web-ified harpers.org (back in 2003). Ford's 30,000-word article What Is Code? was the entire June 11, 2015 issue of Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Learn more at his website, on Twitter, or on Medium, or watch his talk at XOXO 2014 or his interview on Charlie Rose. Paul was also interviewed at at In the Library with the Lead Pipe, along with Gina Trapani.

Kelsey Gilmore-Innis

Kelsey Gilmore-Innis is the Chief Technology Officer at Sexual Health Innovations, creating technology that advances sexual health and wellbeing in the United States. SHI is currently building Project Callisto to provide a more empowering, transparent, and confidential reporting experience for college sexual assault survivors. Kelsey co-founded the Lambda Ladies group for women in functional programming and speaks regularly around the world on technical topics. As part of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, she led the development and deployment of the searchable Anti-Eviction Pledge site. Outside of SHI, Kelsey pursues the study of baseball, R&B, presidential trivia and other all-American pursuits.

Christina Harlow

Christina is not a consortium of people (I know, I've thought that also) She is a brilliant technologist who works at Cornell University beating data into submission. When she isn't doing that (here's why you've thought her twitter account is a consortium) she is talking about the aforementioned data to likeminded people all while managing to run brilliant conferences. Her ability to describe data munging to "non-natives" is something the entire code4lib community should experience, not just the few who've managed to sit in on her workshops, follow her on Twitter etc., Her generosity has likely impacted many in the code4lib community directly or indirectly. It would also be a chance for her to expand on her Missy Elliot themed talk in Philadelphia.

Twitter: @cm_harlow

April Hathcock

April is a scholarly communication librarian at New York University (formerly a corporate attorney) who specializes in issues of ownership and rights. She does research on copyright, diversity, libraries, and feminism. April has presented on digital scholarly work and the affects it's had on scholarly communication systems, Open Access, racial bias, whiteness and racism/anti-racism in libraries. https://aprilhathcock.wordpress.com/writings-and-ramblings/.

You can find her on twitter @AprilHathcock

From Dusty Boxes to Data Bytes: Acquiring Rights to Special Collections in the Digital Age

White Librarianship in BlackFace: Diversity in LIS

Wendy Hsu

Wendy Hsu is a researcher, strategist, and educator who engages with hybrid research and organizing agendas for equality in arts, technology, and civic participation. A former ACLS Public Fellow, Hsu currently works as the digital strategist of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, providing research and strategy to redesign the department’s data and knowledge architecture. Hsu is also the founder of Lab at DCA, a city staff innovation incubator.

Hsu has published on digital ethnography, sound-based pedagogy, public humanities, open access publishing, Asian American indie rock, Yoko Ono, Taqwacore, and Bollywood. Their academic research on street sound cultures in postcolonial Taiwan focuses on the urban underclass experience of mobility and low-resource technology. Their civic sound data project LA Listens explores the sensory, social, and ecological aspects of Los Angeles streets by providing a creative and engagement platform for community-oriented artists, planners, and organizers. Most recently, Hsu led the maker collective Movable Parts through Movable Karaoke, a Metro-funded project that evokes and explores the collective mobility experience in LA.

Bergis Jules

Bergis is the University and Political Papers Archivist at University of California, Riverside, and is the Community Lead for Documenting the Now, which focuses on ethically collecting and preserving social media content. Background reading - Documenting the Now: #Ferguson in the Archives

Bergis in the Ethics of Social Media Collection and Use panel at DocNow

Twitter: @BergisJules

Sarah Mei

Sarah is a Ruby and JavaScript developer based in San Francisco. She founded RailsBridge and Bridge Foundry . She is the director of Ruby Central, the non-profit that runs the two largest Ruby conferences in the world.

She's particularly interested in Object Oriented design and pair programming, the effects of dev team social dynamics on code, and increasing community involvement in open source.

Video of some past talks

Dangers of shiny technology

Twitter @sarahmei

Andreas ("Dre") Orphanides

Dre is the Associate Head of User Experience at NCSU. He is also a long time participating Code4Lib community member. He is one of the co-founders of the beloved Code4Lib workshop, Fail4Lib, which created an inclusive and safe space to talk about project failures and generate constructive conversation around the failures. He's given brilliant and thoughtful talks on user experience and system design.

Code4Lib talk Architecture is Politics http://2016.code4lib.org/Architecture-is-politics-the-power-and-the-perils-of-systems-design

Fail4Lib http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/03/technology/fail4lib-problematic-projects-generate-constructive-conversation/

How to Nail In-Building Communication Channels https://docs.google.com/a/ncsu.edu/presentation/d/1FTc9QWUKPNCTCbel7puDkqnqy8z-YXfvx2O2tt_e1ek/edit?usp=drive_web

David S. H. Rosenthal

Dr. David Rosenthal started the LOCKSS Program, which is aimed at long-term preservation of web published materials. https://www.lockss.org/contact-us/dshr/ http://blog.dshr.org/

Sonali Sridhar

Sonali Sridhar is cofounder of the Recurse Center (formerly Hacker School.) Prior to starting the Recurse Center in 2011, she worked as an Interaction Designer at R/GA, and has now taken on the challenge of designing experiences at the Recurse Center, as she aims to create a Bauhaus for programmers. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is a founding member of QUILTBAG++, a New York City-based queer and trans tech group committed to social justice. She is also part of the 2015 Creative Ecology Advisory Board at the The Banff Centre's Peter Lougheed Leadership Institute.

Whitni Watkins

Whitni is a Web Systems Engineer for Analog Devices, Inc. where she manages multiple systems for their Technical Marketing and Information Services group. She is an active code4lib community member. With her experiences from academic institutions to a semiconductor company, she would bring in various angles of working in the library and technology field.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitniwatkins

Twitter: @_whitni

Greg Wilson

Greg Wilson is the co-founder of Software Carpentry, a volunteer organization that teaches basic computing skills to researchers in a wide range of disciplines. Greg has worked for 30 years in both industry and academia, and is the author or editor of several books on computing and two for children.

Twitter: @gvwilson

Gene Luen Yang

Comic artist and author, Gene Yang has greatly broadened diversity representation in comics with successful titles such as American Born Chinese, Boxers and Saints, and The Shadow Hero. In 2016, the Library of Congress named him as an Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. In this capacity, Yang has pushed a mission of 'Reading Without Walls' to encourage literacies of all types. Additionally, he has recently started a graphic novel series, Secret Coders with artist Mike Holmes. This series aims to introduce kids to actual magic they can perform at home: computer programming. As several kids try to uncover the mysteries of their school, they face puzzles and challenges that teach readers about programming.

Juan Benet

California-native Juan Benet works at Protocol Labs, and is the original designer behind the IPFS (Inter-planetary File System) protocol [1]. According to very smart people (Vint Cerf, Brewster Kahle, and Tim Berners-Lee, to name a few), decentralized networks are the future of the web and IPFS is at the cutting edge of this technology [2]. The impact on digital preservation alone is enormous. In a lecture at Stanford last year, Juan did a deep dive of IPFS and discussed the principles they followed to to make sure that their protocol would get used and adopted, and not simply be a cool experiment [3]. Addition bio info at the Stanford Computer Forum website [4].

[1] http://ipfs.io/

[2] [Inventors of the Internet Are Trying to Build a Truly Permanent Web https://www.wired.com/2016/06/inventors-internet-trying-build-truly-permanent-web/]

[3] [Stanford Seminar: IPFS and the Permanent Web https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUVmypx9HGI]

[4] [Juan Benet Bio (via Stanford Computer Forum) http://web.stanford.edu/class/ee380/Abstracts/151021.html]

Cap Watkins

Cap Watkins is a product designer and VP of Design at BuzzFeed. He is based in Brooklyn, but often works out of the Los Angeles Buzzfeed office. Cap is also a blogger [1], podcast guest, conference speaker, and lover of start-ups and technology. Cap has a compelling argument for why designers should learn to code and coders should learn to design. He also has revolutionary proposals for managers that have proven to work at Buzzfeed, Etsy, and Amazon, where he has led both design and development teams.

[1] [Cap Watkins' blog http://blog.capwatkins.com/]

[2] [99u Talk: Treat Your Life as a User Experience Problem http://99u.com/videos/54317/cap-watkins-treat-your-life-like-a-user-experience-problem]

Peter Van Garderen

Peter is the original designer and developer of the Archivematica and AtoM software systems. These tools are used to manage the accessibility, usability and authenticity of digital information objects at hundreds of organizations worldwide. These days, Peter is focused on the Decentralized Web and what it means for the future of Archives and the Web in general [1][2].

[1][Decentralized Autonomous Collections https://medium.com/on-archivy/decentralized-autonomous-collections-ff256267cbd6]

[2][As we build a Decentralized Web, what values do we want written in the code? https://archive.org/details/DWebSummit2016_Panel_Values]

Max Ogden

Max Ogden is a developer, open government, geospatial and CouchDB enthusiast from Portland, OR. This year he is a fellow at Code for America, an organization dedicated to helping US cities become more transparent and efficient. He is working with the City of Boston on a project focused on helping high school students better engage in their communities.

Max also works on privacy centered social networks, open civic data standards, web based mapping tools and neighbor facing “civic web” software.[1] He builds open source tools to unlock the potential of important datasets in science, journalism and government.

He is one of the founders of the Dat project, a grant-funded, open-source, decentralized data sharing tool for efficiently versioning and syncing changes to data [2].

You can see his projects at https://github.com/maxogden

[1] [Bio from OpenSource Bridge Conf http://opensourcebridge.org/users/750]

[2] [Dat project http://dat-data.com/]

Daniel Shiffman

Daniel Shiffman works as an Associate Arts Professor at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts [1]. His focus is on teaching Creative Coding to non-coders and works on developing tutorials, examples, and libraries for Processing, the open source programming language and environment created by Casey Reas and Ben Fry. He is the author of Learning Processing: A Beginner’s Guide to Programming Images, Animation, and Interaction and The Nature of Code (self-published via Kickstarter), an open source book about simulating natural phenomenon in Processing. Daniel runs Coding Rainbow, a highly popular YouTube channel on how to code [2].

[1] [Website http://shiffman.net/]

[2] [Coding Rainbow http://codingrainbow.com/]

Primavera De Filippi

Primavera De Filippi is a permanent researcher at the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris. She is faculty associate at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, where she is investigating the concept of "governance-by-design" as it relates to online distributed architectures. Most of her research focuses on the legal challenges raised, and faced by emergent decentralized technologies —such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and other blockchain-based applications —and how these technologies could be used to design new governance models capable of supporting large-scale decentralized collaboration and more participatory decision-making [1].

Primavera gave a highly lauded talk that explored the possibilities that live at the intersection between the blockchain and art, society and work, imagining what the future might look like when creative people use the full power of this technology.

[1] [Berkman Klein Center Bio https://cyber.harvard.edu/people/pdefilippi]

[2] [Blockchain Technology and the Future of Work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN-JLKBiVGY]

Wendy Seltzer

Wendy Seltzer is Policy Counsel to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Visiting Fellow with Yale Law School's Information Society Project, previously a fellow with Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy; the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado; and with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.

Wendy also serves on the Board of Directors of The Tor Project, supporting privacy and anonymity research, education, and technology, and the World Wide Web Foundation, dedicated to empowering people through Web technology.

She helped public interest ISP Online Policy Group to win the first case for damages under DMCA Section 512(f) for abusive copyright claims (OPG v. Diebold), and defended the privacy of Internet users as amicus in Verizon v. RIAA and Charter v. RIAA.

Her work at the Berkman Center focuses on the legal issues and intellectual property questions surrounding Free Software. She helped to start and now lead the Openlaw project, an experiment bringing the methods of open source and Free Software development to legal argument in the public interest.

[1] [Personal Bio https://wendy.seltzer.org/]

Bret Victor

Bret Victor is a designer, developer, activist, and teacher. He has been a UI visionary, making a huge splash with Magick Ink (anticipatory design)[1], and then followed up by proposing new UI's for Math [2], the importance of interactive coding [3], scholarly communication [4], and most recently what technologists can do about climate change [5], among many other works. Victor talks about technologists' power to invent a better world, as can be heard in one of his most influential talks, Inventing on Principle [6]:

"The purpose of this talk is to tell you that this activist lifestyle is not just for social activists. As a technologist you can recognize the wrong in the world. You can have a vision for what a better world could be. You can dedicate yourself to fighting for principle. Social activists typically fight by organizing, but you can fight by inventing." - Bret Victor, Inventing on Principle

[1] [Magick Ink http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/]

[2] [Kill Math http://worrydream.com/KillMath/]

[3] [Interactive Programming http://worrydream.com/LearnableProgramming/]

[4] [Scientific Communication as Sequential Art http://worrydream.com/ScientificCommunicationAsSequentialArt/]

[5] [What Can a Technologist Do About Climate Change? http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/]

[6] [Inventing on Principle https://vimeo.com/36579366]


text:
From Technologic Systems Manuals
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Hardware Reliability
OPS AlaCarte HALT Report

1 Overview

In January of 2006, Technologic Systems and a customer jointly commissioned a professional and independent HALT test (Highly Accelerated Life Testing) for the TS-7250 single board computer design.

The goal of HALT testing is to break the product in order to reveal design weaknesses, but testers were unable to destroy a single off-the-shelf TS-7250. This article provides some general information about HALT testing and outlines the details of the TS-7250 HALT test.

2 Introduction

One of the most critical competition factors in the embedded systems market is the reliability of an embedded application, given that the simplest system failure may stop entire factory assembly lines or other expensive processes. In the same line, military and medical systems in particular are intolerant of failures, as lives may depend on the reliable functioning of equipment. In industrial or scientific applications, embedded systems may be outside the reach of humans, making failures costly in terms of down time of the system and the human labor involved in getting to the board.

Therefore, embedded computers must be designed to run continuously for years without errors, often in hostile environments that no desktop PC could endure. To meet these higher quality requirements of the industry and consumer market, it is required sophisticated testing processes and new performance evaluation techniques which provide a company the capability to figure how their design would hold up over the years, without having to wait that long.

Highly Accelerated Life Testing, or HALT, is a time compression testing protocol that utilizes a step stress approach in subjecting products to varied thermal and vibration stresses. It is used to uncover design limitations and weaknesses in the preliminary design phase, helping designers of embedded systems to find and fix errors before they occur in the field

The goal of HALT testing is to break the product by subjecting the test unit to progressively higher stress levels, incorporating thermal dwells, rapid temperature transitions, varied vibration stresses, and a combination of temperature and vibration to precipitate inherent defects. Through this intense stress, long term failure modes that would show up under normal operating conditions in months or years can be revealed in just hours or days. Moreover, some typical problems that occur during the various stress test cycles include circuit design issues; intermittent, failed, degraded or cracked components; cold or insufficient solder joints; broken leads; screws that back out; socket failures; detached wires; and other failures that may reveal potential design weaknesses. Stressing the product to failure allows designers to assess design ruggedness and margin above its intended operation.

In general, HALT testing can provide engineers the information they need to improve designs before products fail in the field. Used properly, it can save money and time in the design phase of a product as well as increasing the reliability and profitability in resulting products. The HALT testing pushes a product past its limits so that engineers can see where and when failures occur, ensuring the overall ruggedness of the test product through more appropriate techniques of project and design.

3 Halt in Action

In order to evaluate the performance of the Technologic Systems Single Board Computers (SBCs) under stress conditions and the typical hostile industrial environments which the embedded systems are subjected, four TS-7250 RevA units were submitted to the HALT process, realized by the OPS A La Carte LLC specialized partner (

High precision measurement equipment was used to perform the test, such as thermocouples, a spectrum analyzer, accelerometers, a data acquisition interface and a signal conditioner.

The testing setup inside the HALT chamber is shown in the picture to the right. Also, a mounted board is shown below with placement measurement equipment, such as the accelerometer:

With the testing equipment all in place, the four TS-7250 boards were subjected to stress conditions using repeatable testing techniques such as thermal step stress, rapid thermal transitions, vibration step stress and combined temperature and vibration environments. These testing cycles create conditions that quickly reveal weaknesses in the product design and failure modes.

One good example which demonstrates the high stress conditions achieved by the HALT process is the combined temperature and vibration cycle. According to the official HALT report, during the test, the testing unit was exposed to 10 ½ rapid temperature cycles starting at -50°C to +110°C and ending at -85°C and +120°C. The vibration level is set to 5 Grms for the first temperature cycle and then increased in 5 Grms increments before each additional cycle through the cycle 5. For cycles 6 through 11, vibration levels started at 25 Grms and ended at 65 Grms. The dwell time at each temperature extreme was 10 minutes and the thermal transition rate was set to the chamber maximum (> 60°C/min. empty table). The graphic below illustrates how the temperature and vibration varied over time inside the testing chamber:

The HALT test quickly determined that the real world operating and destruct limits of the TS- 7250 are well outside the stated operating temperature range of -20°C to +70°C . In the context of this HALT test, the operating limit is defined as the last operational temperature or vibration set point to failure, while the destruct limit is the level at which the product stops functioning and remains inoperable at normal operating conditions. The table below shows the impressive results reached by off-the-shelf Technologic Systems boards:

Stress Condition Operation Limit Destructive Limit
Cold Temperature -50°C (-58°F) -60°C (-76°F)
Hot Temperature +110°C (230°F) >+120°C (248°F)
Vibration 25Grms >55Grms

4 Engineering Analysis

Analysis done by Technologic Systems engineers and HALT test operators result in interesting conclusions and highlights, including:

  • Even though the intention of the HALT test was to test the boards until they broke, testers were unable to destroy a single TS-7250. Actually, testers reported that the vibration table used in the testing started malfunctioning before anything on the board did.
  • A +70°C rated TS-7250 board actually continues to work properly from -60°C(-76°F) to +110°C (230°F). At the high end temperatures, the epoxy inside the null modem cable started melting and seeping out yet the board continued to run fine. At the low end temperatures frost and snow was forming on the board. These temperatures were where the boards started exhibiting strange behaviors. Once the temperature was brought back down between -60°C and 110°C, the boards snapped back to life without any permanent damage.
  • Boards still held together at 55 Grms. However, in a extreme high vibration environment, power connections need to be soldered down and loctite should be used on any DB9 screws, since they have a tendency to unscrew at extreme G force ratings. USB is not an industrialized connector and shouldn't be used in high vibration environments.
  • The fast temperature cycles caused no problems. This is quite surprising as this is one of the most brutal things you can do to a board. Keeping the number of passive devices to a minimum and hand-routing the traces on the board paid off here.

5 In Conclusion

The HALT test proved what our engineers and customers have long known - Technologic Systems products are built with quality and reliability in mind. You can feel secure incorporating Technologic Systems single board computers into your embedded system design.

If you would like to read the details of the HALT test with the TS-7250 boards, please refer to the official test report provided by the OPS A La Carte LLC.

6 Contact Technologic Systems

Technologic Systems builds rugged computers because we know how important reliability and longevity is to embedded applications. The internal electronics of our product are very simple to manufacture and operate with huge margins all around, using fewer layers, vias, chips, solder points and less exotic manufacturing technologies. If your embedded system is designed into medical, safety or security equipment, demand reliability in the hardware you choose.