History.

Price Club and the birth of the retail warehouse concept.

Costco's history began with Sol Price and his son, Robert, opening the first Price Club warehouse on July 12, 1976, on Morena Boulevard in San Diego, California, thus giving birth to a new concept: a retail warehouse club. The Price family placed Price Club Warehouse inside a series of old airplane hangars previously owned by Howard Hughes; that warehouse, now known as Costco Warehouse #401, is still in operation today.

Costco opens.

Costco opened its first warehouse in 1983 in Seattle on by James (Jim) Sinegal and Jeffrey H. Brotman. Sinegal had started in wholesale distribution by working for Sol Price at FedMart; Brotman, an attorney from an old Seattle retailing family, had also been involved in retail distribution from an early age. He began his retail involvement as a grocery bagger. A second store opened in Portland in October, and a third in Spokane in

The "PriceCostco" merger.

In 1993, Costco and Price Club agreed to merge operations themselves after Price declined an offer from Sam Walton and Walmart to merge Price Club with their warehouse store chain, Sam's Club. Costco's business model and size were similar to those of Price Club, which made the merger more natural for both companies. The combined company took the name PriceCostco, and memberships became universal, meaning that a Price Club member could use their membership to shop at Costco and vice versa. PriceCostco boasted 206 locations generating $16billion in annual sales. PriceCostco was initially led by executives from both companies, but in 1994, the Price brothers left the company to form Price Enterprises, a warehouse club chain in Central America and the Caribbean unrelated to the current Costco.  In 1997, Costco changed its name to Costco Wholesale Corporation, and all remaining Price Club locations were rebranded

Locations.

, Costco has 785warehouses worldwide as shown below:

Other company milestones.

On April 26, 2012, CNBC premiered its documentary, "The Costco Craze: Inside the Warehouse Giant".  In 2014, Costco was the third largest retailer in the United States. That year Costco announced plans to open an online store in China using Alibaba Group.

Costco today.

In the United States, Costco's main competitors operating membership warehouses are Sam's Club and BJ's Wholesale Club. Costco employs 254,000 full and part-time employees worldwide. In 2016, Costco had 86.7million members. This increased to 90.3million members in 2017. and 94.3million in 2018. In 2019, Costco had 98.5million members.  Costco was the first company to grow from zero to $3billion in sales in under six years. For the fiscal year ending on August 31, 2012, the company's sales totaled $97.062billion, with $1.709billion net profit., Costco is ranked on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. The ACSI (The American Customer Satisfaction Index) named Costco number one in the specialty retail store industry with a score of 84 in 2014.  From December 2013, Costco's board of directors was chaired by co-founder Jeffrey H. Brotman and included James Sinegal, co-founder and director, and two officers of the company: president/CEO W. Craig Jelinek and CFO Richard A. Galanti. On August 1, 2017, Jeffrey Brotman died., James Sinegal and W. Craig Jelinek remain on the board. Jim Sinegal stepped down in 2018.

Finances.

For the fiscal year 2019, Costco reported earnings of US$3.659billion, with an annual revenue of US$152.703billion, an increase of 7.9% over the previous fiscal cycle. Costco's shares traded at over $205 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at over US$95.7billion in October 2018.

Sales model.

A typical Costco warehouse carries only 3,700 distinct products, while a typical Walmart Supercenter carries approximately 140,000 products. If Costco feels the wholesale price of any individual product is too high, they will refuse to stock the product. For example, in November 2009, Costco announced that it would stop selling Coca-Cola products, because the soft-drink maker refused to lower its wholesale prices. Costco resumed selling Coca-Cola products the following month.  Lighting costs are reduced on sunny days, as most Costco locations have several skylights. During the day, electronic light meters measure how much light is coming in the skylights and turn off an appropriate percentage of the interior lights. During an average sunny day, it is normal for the center section of the warehouse not to have interior lights in use.  Although the brand engages in visible efforts to reduce costs, the stores themselves are expensive. In 2013, Costco spent approximately $80million on each of the new stores it opened. The cost is partly driven by the cost of real estate, as each new store means that they need enough space to support a building of approximately in size, a large parking lot, and often a gas station.  The company has no public relations department and does not buy outside advertising.  The company's rule is that no item may be marked up more than 14% over cost and no Kirkland Signature item may be marked up more than 15% over cost. The company runs very lean, with overhead costs at about 10% of revenue and profit margins at 2%. Costco's annual membership fees (US$60/year for Gold Star, US$120/year for Executive ) account for 80 percent of Costco's gross margin and 70 percent of its operating income.

Products.

Costco has a frequently changing inventory and is known for carrying products for a time, then discontinuing them or using them as seasonal products. Over the years, Costco has gradually expanded its range of products and services. Initially, it preferred to sell only boxed products that could be dispensed by simply tearing the stretch wrap off a pallet. It now sells many other products that are more difficult to handle, such as art, books, caskets, clothing, computer software, fine wine, furniture, home appliances, home electronics, hot tubs, jewelry, perishable items (such as dairy, fresh baked goods, flowers, fresh produce, meat, seafood), solar panels, tires, and vacuum cleaners. Many warehouses also have gas stations, pharmacies, hearing aid centers, optometrists, eye and sunglass centers, photo processors, and tire garages. The produce items that require refrigeration are kept in a walk-in refrigerator, and several locations even have a walk-in refrigerator for dairy items.  Some locations have liquor stores, often kept separate from the main warehouse in order to comply with liquor license restrictions. In some states (such as Texas), the liquor store must be owned and operated by a separate company with separate employees. In 2006, Costco lost a lawsuit against the state of Washington in which it was seeking to purchase wine directly from the producer, bypassing the state retail monopoly. In Australia, Costco has to comply with regulations set by each state they choose to trade in; their first store in the Australian state of Victoria benefits from some of the most liberal alcohol licensing laws in that country, with retailers permitted to sell alcohol on shelves within the store, in a manner similar to most European countries. In the Canadian province of Quebec, beer and wine are sold within the stores from pallets.

Kirkland Signature.

"Kirkland Signature" is Costco's private label. It is sold by Costco at their website and warehouses, and is trademarked by the company. Costco introduced Kirkland Signature as its private label in 1992, deriving the name from the location of Costco's then corporate headquarters, Kirkland, Washington (their headquarters later moved, roughly, to Issaquah, Washington). It accounts for almost a third of all Costco sales and is growing faster than Costco sales. Kirkland branded bottled water is produced by private label bottler Niagara Bottling.  The idea for the private label was to provide the appearance of brand name quality products at discounted prices. To counteract the consumer confidence problem common in store-name branding, Kirkland Signature occasionally employs co-branding. According to Costco, while consumers may be wary of same-store branding, they are less likely to be wary of brands that they are familiar with and trust.

Publications.

"Costco Connection".

"Costco Connection" is a magazine sent free to the Costco executive members for free; it can also be accessed online by anyone, free of charge. Until end of 2018, the magazine was known as "The Costco Connection". But with the January/February 2019 issue, "the", the definite article was dropped from the name and now the magazine is known as just "Costco Connection".  It was established in 1987 as a newsprint publication and converted to a magazine in 1997. It features articles which regularly tie into the corporation along with business, celebrity features, cooking, entertaining, health, home improvement, and social articles, as well as coupons and ads. MediaPost reports: "While about 90% of the magazine's advertising is co-op, increasingly national advertisers such as Procter & Gamble are buying space, notes Roeglin -- presumably because of the pub's gargantuan reach and the data it has on its subscribers (whose average household income is $156,000 a year). 'We see about 56% of our subscribers a month buy something at one of our stores based on something they've read in the magazine,' says Roeglin." The magazine is one of the largest-circulation print monthly in the United States and presently is the third in circulation figures in the United States after "AARP The Magazine" and "AARP Bulletin".

Other publications.

Costco also publishes the "Costco Household Almanac", an annual edition started in 2007. The 200+ pages almanac carries a lot of helpful tips to Costco readers and carries ads from suppliers. Costco also publishes a cookbook series.

Services.

Concierge service.

Costco offers a free "concierge" service to members who purchase electronics, to help answer questions regarding setup and use and avoid potential returns due to not understanding how to use the products.

Costco Auto Program.

, Costco was the second largest auto seller in the US, just behind AutoNation. Costco regularly teams up with various automobile manufacturers to offer special deals to customers, e.g., Polaris (a leading seller of powersport vehicles) in 4Q2015 and General Motors from October 2015 through January 2016. "Addicted to Costco" lists the following as some benefits of the Costco Auto Program:

Costco business services.

On March 9, 2005, NOVA Information Systems (NOVA) partnered with Costco to market and support payment processing services to Costco Canada's Business Executive Members.  Costco acts as an investment broker and travel agent. Costco has an agreement with Ameriprise for auto and home insurance.

Costco photo services.

Costco Photo Center is a multi-functional photography printing lab offering services at the warehouses as well as through their web site, costcophotocenter.com. The website provides free unlimited digital file storage with a current membership. Previous to May or June 2010, Costco had an agreement with Mypublisher.com for custom book and calendar publishing. Now, they print the photobooks and calendars themselves.  In December 2005, Costco signed an agreement with PhotoChannel Networks Inc., whereby Costco could deploy the PNI Digital Media Platform to offer online photo printing for Costco members through the website.  On July 17, 2015, Costco disabled their online photo site. In common with other retailers, there is currently no confirmation about whether hackers had stolen Costco customers' photographs or data., Costco was estimating the website might return in mid-August, after a four-week outage.

Costco Optical.

Costco Optical ranks as the fifth-largest optical company in the US,. Optometrists working at Costco locations will see patients without Costco memberships, although a membership is required to fill a prescription at the optical department.

Costco Travel.

Costco Travel is a wholly owned subsidiary of Costco Wholesale and offers leisure travel to Costco members of the United States and Canada. The program was established in 2000 as a service to Costco members. Costco Travel's offices are located in Issaquah, Washington, adjacent to Costco's corporate headquarters. Costco Travel employs over 700 travel professionals, all of them Costco employees.  The program offers vacation packages to the Caribbean, Europe, Florida, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Mexico, and the South Pacific. Other products include car rentals, cruises, guided vacations, and theme park packages. Select products feature additional benefits for Costco Executive Members.  The program is marketed directly to Costco members through various Costco avenues, including the "Travel Guide to Savings" (found in all U.S. Costco warehouses) and in the Travel section of Costco.com.

Food service.

Most (if not all) Costco locations have a food court. They can be indoors or outdoors, but the menu is essentially the same: hot dog with drink (one of the food court's most popular items), pizza, frozen yogurt, various drinks, baked items, and sandwiches. Sometimes, items are added to the menu seasonally. Costco offers a quarter-pound 100% beef hot dog and drink (with refills) for, the same price since 1985. In Australia, the hot dog is made of pork and is sold with a large soda for AUD$1.99. In Canada, the price for a hot dog and soda with refills is C$1.50. In Mexico, the hot dog is made of 100% beef and includes a drink (with refills) for MXN$35. In the UK, the hot dog is also made from beef and customers also get a drink (with refills) for £1.50. Costco sold more than 137million quarter-pound (113 g) hot dogs in its food courts in 2017. In Taiwan and Japan, the hot dog is made of pork as well.  Cheese, pepperoni, veggie, or combo pizza is also available in most locations, and can usually be ordered to go, making Costco arguably the 14th largest pizza chain in the U.S. in 2010. Frozen yogurt is also served in chocolate, vanilla, or swirl. Costco also offers fruit smoothies, latte freeze (without chocolate), mocha freeze (with chocolate), beef bake, chicken bake, turkey provolone sandwiches, twisted churros, chicken Caesar salads, beef brisket sandwiches, organic beef-based cheeseburgers, beef chili with beans, and in some locations, gelato. Various locations also began offering acai bowls in 2018. French fries are also offered in some locations. Some of the food court items are only available in certain countries. For example, the bulgogi bake is only available in Taiwan, Korea, and Japan; poutine is only available in Canada. There are, however, temporary menu items available exclusively in several countries, like the pastor taco-topped pizzas in Mexico. The nutrition data for the Costco Food Court items is posted online.  Due to slow sales, in 2009, the pretzel was replaced by the churro. In April 2013, Pepsi replaced all Coca-Cola fountain drinks at U.S. locations because Coke had raised its prices; this helped keep the hot dog combo with soda at its original price.  In select Costco food courts, Costco is selling cheeseburgers for a limited time to experiment sales. It will possibly be a new menu item if it has a success.

Online shopping.

On April 17, 2001, Costco Wholesale opened a B2B (Business to Business) online shopping site at "Costco.com" for faster and easier business shopping.  The domain "Costco.com" attracted at least 58million visitors in 2008, according to a Compete.com survey. Costco.com is for United States members; costco.ca is for Canadian members, and other countries, such as Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan and the UK, each has its own online Costco shopping website.  Instacart offers Costco delivery in a select number of states including Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia. No membership is needed to order from Costco on Instacart, but Instacart charges delivery fees and the prices may not necessarily be the same as in a Costco warehouse.  Similarly, in March 2017, Costco initiated a partnership with Shipt, an online grocery delivery service. Unlike Instacart, Shipt charges its own membership fee, $99 a year or $14 a month, in exchange for free delivery on orders over $35., Shipt offers Costco delivery in select Florida markets.  In October 2017, Costco launched same-day and two-day grocery delivery options for members.Costco Business Centers provide a variety of different goods for clients that differ greatly from their traditional in-store wares. More than 70% of the items that can be acquired from a Costco Business Center cannot be found in a typical Costco store. They are primarily utilized by smaller businesses who seek to make purchases in bulk. There is a delivery charge of $25 for orders that are below $250.

Costco credit card.

On April 1, 2016, in US, Citigroup became the exclusive issuer of Costco's branded credit cards.

Labor relations.

Employee rights.

While some former Price Club locations in California and the northeastern United States are staffed by Teamsters, the majority of Costco locations are not unionized although there seemed to be a move in 2012 to unionize some locations in Canada. The non-union locations have revisions to their Costco Employee Agreement every three years concurrent with union contract ratifications in locations with collective bargaining agreements. The Employee Agreement sets forth such things as benefits, compensations, wages, disciplinary procedures, paid holidays, bonuses, and seniority. The Employee Agreement is subject to change by Costco at any time and offers no absolute protection to the workers., non-supervisory hourly wages ranged from $11.00 to $21.00 in the U.S., $11.00 to $22.15 in Canada, and £8.50 to £11.50 in the United Kingdom. In the U.S., eighty-fivepercent of Costco's workers had health insurance, compared with less than fifty percent at Walmart and Target. Health benefits include coverage through Aetna, remote primary care through Teladoc, second opinions and clinical navigation by Grand Rounds, and wellness coaching by Omada.

Contractors.

Product-demonstration (e.g., food samples) employees work for an independent company. In the western U.S., the company is called Warehouse Demo Services, Kirkland, Washington. Costco also uses Club Demonstration Services (CDS), based in San Diego, California. Demonstration employees receive a pay and benefit package that is less than that of Costco employees., demonstrations/samples are provided by CDS in Canada.

Public health.

Following the COVID-19 outbreak, the first Costco store in Perth, Australia unexpectedly opened on March 19, 2020 without an opening ceremony and earlier than its planned time of 8:00AM due to high demand, especially for toilet paper products, to ease panic buying in mainstream supermarkets in Australia, although toilet paper was limited to only one per transaction. Carts and other objects were cleaned regularly to minimize the risk of contracting the virus.  As of March 6, 2020, Costco contractor CDS has temporarily stopped providing free food samples in several Costco stores globally amid public health concerns regarding COVID-19.

International locations and other centers.

Warehouses outside the U.S. are similar to those in the US. Layout, signage, and even parking lot markings are generally identical to warehouses in the US. Food court menus are tailored to international tastes, with meat pies on offer in Australia, poutine in Canada, seafood-topped pizza in Asian locations, pastor taco-topped pizzas in Mexico, clam chowder in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, plokkfiskur in Iceland and jacket potatoes in the UK. Additionally, Costco has led a strategic initiative to enhance their merchandise mix available within international warehouses to tailor products to local tastes, with a mix of both American and local products available.

Expansion worldwide.

Costco announced it opened 29 new locations in 2016, the most in one year since 2007. Span Construction, led by King Husein, has been constructing almost all of Costco's buildings since 1989.  In August 2019, Costco opened its first Chinese location in Shanghai. The popularity of the store's opening led to its opening day being cut short over safety concerns.

Largest location.

In 2005, the world's largest Costco was located in Hillsboro, Oregon. In 2015, Costco completed an expansion in Salt Lake City, making it the new largest Costco at. In 2011, Costco's highest volume store was in Seoul, South Korea. Taiwan's Taichung ranks at the very top in the number of members and is second in the world in sales volume (the exact figures are confidential), behind South Korea's Yangjae store in Seoul; moreover, 13 Costco operations in Taiwan, three – Taichung, Neihu, and Chungho – rank in the top 10 in the world in sales volume.

Costco Business Centers.

Costco Business Centers are warehouses similar to regular Costco warehouses, and are open to all Costco members, regardless of membership type. Their merchandise, though, cater predominantly to enterprises, with a focus on small businesses. Business Centers do not carry most consumer items like clothing, jewelry, media, and tires, while carrying larger quantities and more options for the business products they do carry. They do not offer most of the consumer-oriented services found at regular Costco warehouses, but some locations do have a food court or a gas station or both. Also unlike regular warehouses, most Costco Business Centers have a Print & Copy Center which provides printing professional services. They have large parking spaces for trucks and are capable of delivering goods to businesses in bulk quantities. Finally, opening hours are shorter than regular warehouses (usually opening at 7:00 am on Mondays to Saturdays and closed on Sundays), while discounts and coupons for Business Centers are issued separately from regular warehouses.

Locations.

, there are 19 Costco Business Centers in the United States, located in Orlando, Florida; Dallas, Texas; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Phoenix, Arizona; California (Commerce, Hawthorne, Hayward, North Hollywood, San Diego, South San Francisco and Westminster); Denver, Colorado; Morrow, Georgia; Bedford Park, Illinois; Hackensack, New Jersey; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Washington (Lynnwood, and Fife).  The first Costco Business Center outside the U.S. opened in Canada in Scarborough, Toronto in spring 2017.

Vertical integration.

Like many other retailers vertically integrating their food supply chains, Costco has brought in-house poultry production for their rotisserie chickens, which are a major driver of customer traffic and sales. This is to allow keeping their pricing intact while maintaining a consistent quality control of its chickens as a result of annual growth of per-capita chicken consumption in the United States.

Discontinued concepts.

Costco Home.

The first Costco Home warehouse opened in 1983, and was rebuilt / expanded in 2002, in Seattle. The warehouse's concept was to combine the value, setting and members-only elements of Costco's warehouse clubs with the product array one would find at an upscale home store, such as Fortunoff or Crate & Barrel. The Costco Home warehouses sold furniture, housewares, kitchen products and accessories from higher-end brands such as Lexington, Ralph Lauren and Waterford in a warehouse-club setting. Costco claimed that, similar to its main warehouses, it accepted lower margins in return for greater volume with minimal overhead.  Over time, the concept was adjusted to include home electronics, some major appliances, office furniture, and a large selection of outdoor furniture and window treatments. Costco also partners with Glentel subsidiary WIRELESS etc. to sell mobile phones and plans in Canada and Wireless Advocates in the US.  On April 2, 2009, the company announced that it would be abandoning its Costco Home concept, closing the two existing stores in Kirkland, Washington and Tempe, Arizona on July 3, 2009, and abandoning plans for a third store on the West Coast. The company cited cutbacks in consumer spending on home products and its interest in focusing on its core business as the main reasons.

Controversies.

In 2010, Mercy for Animals conducted an undercover investigation at Buckeye Veal Farm, a veal supplier to Costco. Immediately following the investigative release, Costco adopted a policy against purchasing veal from producers that use the crate-and-chain production method. The case prompted Ohio lawmakers to vote in favor of a veal crate phase-out in the state.  In 2012, Mercy for Animals conducted another undercover investigation of a pork supplier to major retailers such as Costco, Walmart, Safeway, Kroger, and Kmart. Before the public release of the investigation, Costco announced they would begin requiring their pork suppliers to phase out gestation crates.  In 2014, "The Guardian" reported that Costco is a client of Charoen Pokphand Foods. Over six months, "The Guardian" traced down a supply chain from slave ships in Asian waters to leading producers and retailers. Costco has published a statement saying it has had a supplier code of conduct since 1999 which does not allow this practice, and that independent auditors check for violations regularly.  In 2015, The Humane Society of the United States conducted an undercover investigation at an egg supplier to Costco. An undercover worker at Hillandale Farms, a major egg supplier to Costco, filmed conditions in which egg-laying hens lived in tiny, wire cages. Following the investigations, several celebrities including Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling publicly wrote to Costco to address this issue. Following efforts by animal protection nonprofits including The Humane League, Costco released an updated commitment to source exclusively cage-free eggs in its operations.  In 2016, a follow up to Costco's shift to cage-free eggs by animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) reported cannibalism and high mortality at a cage-free Costco egg supplier. Costco denied the allegations, but the video sparked a discussion about animal welfare problems continuing to exist at cage-free egg farms. Writing in "The Huffington Post", DxE co-founder Wayne Hsiung argued that the new investigation, rather than suggesting that Costco should keep birds in cages, indicated that hens should have the right not to be raised for food or kept on farms at all.  In August 2017, a federal judge ordered a "deceptive" Costco to pay Tiffany & Co. $19.4million for misleading consumers into thinking they could buy legitimate Tiffany merchandise at warehouse club prices.  Costco was criticised in 2019 by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Sumofus for using virgin Canadian boreal forest to make its toilet paper. NRDC says that over the last twenty years, 28 million acres of Canadian boreal forest have been cut down to make toilet paper.

Costco Wholesale Corporation, doing business as Costco, is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only warehouse clubs., Costco was the second largest retailer in the world after Walmart, and, Costco was the world's largest retailer of choice and prime beef, organic foods, rotisserie chicken, and wine., Costco is ranked #14 on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.

Costco je největší členský velkoobchodní řetězec ve Spojených státech amerických, který je založen na systému "cash and carry". K červnu 2009 byl třetím největším velkoobchodníkem ve Spojených státech a devátým největším na světě a k říjnu 2007 byl největším prodejcem vína na světě.


Designs.

Balance bikes have been made out of both metal and wood. It can be a normal bicycle with pedals and related parts removed, or it can be purpose-built (especially for very small children, for whom normal bicycles are generally not available). Some are fitted with brakes and come with either air tires or solid foam tires. Most commercially available designs have flat handlebars.  To function properly, a balance bicycle must be small enough for the rider to be able to walk the bicycle while sitting comfortably in the saddle, putting both feet flat on the ground. The rider first walks the bicycle while standing over the saddle, then while sitting in the saddle. Eventually, the rider feels comfortable enough to run and "scoot" while riding the bicycle, then to lift both feet off the ground and cruise while balancing on the two wheels.

Learning method.

Manufacturers of balance bicycles say that children can learn to bicycle faster because they learn to balance and countersteer first and then to pedal later, and that training wheels slow learning because kids become too dependent on them, acquiring bad habits, Training wheels that prevent the bike from leaning also prevent countersteering, so that, as with a tricycle, kids learn to turn the handlebars the wrong way, which must be unlearned later.  Sheldon Brown wrote that training wheels can become an obstacle to learning if they are adjusted incorrectly, because they prevent the bike from leaning if they are too low, and can inhibit braking if too much weight is taken off the rear wheel by training wheels that are too low. Adjusting training wheels correctly, and raising them higher as the child's skill increases, avoids these problems. Balance bikes with no brakes at all except the rider's feet might stop poorly as well, though very young children might not use brakes effectively anyway. Brown recommended simply removing the pedals from a normal kid's bicycle, avoiding the extra expense of a balance bike, and parents have had success with this approach. USA Cycling President Derek Bouchard-Hall said in a Wall Street Journal article that balance bikes "have made training wheels obsolete."

History.

The first balance bicycle was the dandy horse, and was invented by Karl Drais, the earliest form of a two-wheeler - without pedals. His first reported ride from Mannheim to Rheinau (now a section of Mannheim) took place on June 12, 1817. Drais was a German inventor and invented the Laufmaschine ("running machine"), also later called the velocipede, "draisine" (English) or "draisienne" (French), or nicknamed, dandy horse. This incorporated the two-wheeler principle that is basic to the bicycle and motorcycle and meant the beginning of mechanized personal transport. In 1997, German designer Rolf Mertens developed the first commercially produced Laufrad "running bike" called LIKEaBIKE. https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/095974-000-A/karambolage-der-gegenstand-die-draisine/

A balance bicycle or run bike or no pedal bike or dandy horse is a training bicycle that helps children learn balance and steering. It has no foot pedals, no drivetrain, no chain, no gears, no gear shifters, no derailleurs, and no freewheel.

Odrážedlo nebo také tréninkové kolo je jízdní kolo, které není poháněno prostřednictvím pedálů, ale odrážením nohama o zem. Od koloběžky se liší tím, že jezdec sedí na sedle a odráží se střídavě oběma nohama.


Lyrics.

The song is about a shell-shocked soldier who lost his leg in World War II. He is described as having a medal of "orange, red and blue", which may be a reference to the Burma Star. It is the first mention of war in a Pink Floyd song, something that would become a common theme in Roger Waters' lyrics, Roger having lost his father thus in 1944. Waters told "Mojo" magazine that this song is autobiographical. He explained: "Corporal Clegg is about my father and his sacrifice in World War II. It's somewhat sarcastic—the idea of the wooden leg being something you won in the war, like a trophy." This can be seen as rather lighter in tone than Pink Floyd's later tackling of the subject, though, despite the irony (Clegg "won" his wooden leg in the war) and darkness behind the lyrics; indeed, among the cacophony of voices towards the end we hear an officer telling his one-legged man: "Clegg! Been meaning to speak to you. About that leg of yours! You're excused parade from now on!" and members of the band actually corpsing in the chorus. It is possible that the main character got his name after Thaddeus von Clegg, a German clockmaker, who invented the kazoo in the 1840s. The song also marks the first and only lead vocal by drummer Nick Mason on any Pink Floyd album except for his one line vocal in "One Of These Days."

Music videos.

Although the song was never performed live, two videos of the song exist. The first one was shot on 19 or 20 February 1968 for Belgian RTB TV's "Tienerklanken " show, and features the band miming to a work-in-progress version of the song with a different ending. The second one was shot on 22 July 1969 for the West-German SDR TV and broadcast on 21 September that year. The video takes place in a room with a dining table covered with exquisite food, and all four band members, wearing helmets, officer's caps, and Roger Waters wearing a trench coat, are there enjoying the food. An accidental spillage of wine triggers a full scale food fight, resulting in the room getting completely trashed and all four band members covered in food (even the cameraman gets dragged into it), whilst the Dove of Peace (an actual white dove) is caught in the "crossfire". Interspersed throughout the video is footage of war and the band performing the song.

Reception.

In a negative review for "A Saucerful of Secrets", Jim Miller of "Rolling Stone" described "Corporal Clegg" as having "the virtue of brevity, as well as not sounding like it was written in a drugged stupor." Continuing, Miller described the song's "unoriginal melody" as being "much too Beatley for these post-"Sgt. Pepper" days."

Personnel.

with:

"Corporal Clegg" is a song by the English psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd, and is featured on their second album, "A Saucerful of Secrets" (1968). It was written by Roger Waters and features David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright sharing the lead vocals, which is the only Floyd song to do so. The song also features a kazoo.

„Corporal Clegg“ je skladba britské rockové skupiny Pink Floyd, poprvé vyšla jako čtvrtá v pořadí na albu "A Saucerful of Secrets" v červnu 1968. Jejím autorem je baskytarista Roger Waters.


Development.

In the early 1920s, the Washington Naval Treaty imposed limits on the maximum size and total tonnage of aircraft carriers for the five main naval powers. Later treaties largely kept these provisions. As a result, construction between the World Wars had been insufficient to meet operational needs for aircraft carriers as World War II expanded from Europe. Too few fleet carriers were available to simultaneously transport aircraft to distant bases, support amphibious invasions, offer carrier landing training for replacement pilots, conduct anti-submarine patrols, and provide defensive air cover for deployed battleships and cruisers. The foregoing mission requirements limited use of fleet carriers′ unique offensive strike capability demonstrated at the Battle of Taranto and the Attack on Pearl Harbor. Conversion of existing ships (and hulls under construction for other purposes) provided additional aircraft carriers until new construction became available.  Conversions of cruisers and passenger liners with speed similar to fleet carriers were identified by the U.S. as "light aircraft carriers" (hull classification symbol CVL) able to operate at battle fleet speeds. Slower conversions were classified as "escort carriers" and were considered naval auxiliaries suitable for pilot training and transport of aircraft to distant bases.  The Royal Navy had recognized a need for carriers to defend its trade routes in the 1930s. While designs had been prepared for "trade protection carriers" and five suitable liners identified for conversion, nothing further was done mostly because there were insufficient aircraft for even the fleet carriers under construction at the time. However, by 1940 the need had become urgent and was converted from the captured German merchant ship MV "Hannover" and commissioned in July 1941. For defense from German aircraft, convoys were supplied first with fighter catapult ships and CAM ships that could carry a single (disposable) fighter. In the interim, before escort carriers could be supplied, they also brought in merchant aircraft carriers that could operate four aircraft.  In 1940, Admiral William Halsey recommended construction of naval auxiliaries for pilot training. In early 1941 the British asked the US to build on their behalf six carriers of an improved "Audacity" design but the US had already begun their own escort carrier. On 1 February 1941, the United States Chief of Naval Operations gave priority to construction of naval auxiliaries for aircraft transport. U.S. ships built to meet these needs were initially referred to as auxiliary aircraft escort vessels (AVG) in February 1942 and then auxiliary aircraft carrier (ACV) on 5 August 1942. The first U.S. example of the type was. Operation Torch and North Atlantic anti-submarine warfare proved these ships capable aircraft carriers for ship formations moving at the speed of trade or amphibious invasion convoys. U.S. classification revision to escort aircraft carrier (CVE) on 15 July 1943 reflected upgraded status from auxiliary to combatant. They were informally known as "Jeep carriers" or "baby flattops". It was quickly found that the escort carriers had better performance than light carriers, which tended to pitch badly in moderate to high seas. The was designed to incorporate the best features of American CVLs on a more stable hull with a less expensive propulsion system.  Among their crews, CVE was sarcastically said to stand for "Combustible, Vulnerable, and Expendable". Magazine protection was minimal in comparison to fleet aircraft carriers. was sunk within minutes by a single torpedo, and exploded from undetermined causes with very heavy loss of life. Three escort carriers—, and —were destroyed by "kamikazes", the largest ships to meet such a fate.  Allied escort carriers were typically around long, not much more than half the length of the almost fleet carriers of the same era, but were less than of the weight. A typical escort carrier displaced about, as compared to almost for a full-size fleet carrier. The aircraft hangar typically ran only of the way under the flight deck and housed a combination of 24–30 fighters and bombers organized into one single "composite squadron". By comparison, a late "Essex"-class fleet carrier could carry a total of 103 aircraft organized into separate fighter, bomber and torpedo-bomber squadrons.  The island (superstructure) on these ships was small and cramped, and located well forward of the funnels (unlike on a normal-sized carrier, where the funnels were integrated into the island). Although the first escort carriers had only one aircraft elevator, having two elevators (one fore and one aft), along with the single aircraft catapult, quickly became standard. The carriers employed the same system of arresting cables and tail hooks as on the big carriers, and procedures for launch and recovery were the same as well.  The crew size was less than of that of a large carrier, but this was still a bigger complement than most naval vessels. It was large enough to justify the existence of facilities such as a permanent canteen or snack bar, called a gedunk bar, in addition to the mess. The bar was open for longer hours than the mess and sold several flavors of ice cream, along with cigarettes and other consumables. There were also several vending machines available on board.  In all, 130 Allied escort carriers were launched or converted during the war. Of these, six were British conversions of merchant ships:,,,, and. The remaining escort carriers were U.S.-built. Like the British, the first U.S. escort carriers were converted merchant vessels (or in the, converted military oilers). The "Bogue"-class carriers were based on the hull of the Type C3 cargo ship. The last 69 escort carriers of the and "Commencement Bay" classes were purpose-designed and purpose-built carriers drawing on the experience gained with the previous classes.

Royal Navy.

Originally developed at the behest of the United Kingdom to operate as part of a North Atlantic convoy escort, rather than as part of a naval strike force, many of the escort carriers produced were assigned to the Royal Navy for the duration of the war under the Lend-Lease act. They supplemented and then replaced the converted merchant aircraft carriers that were put into service by the British and Dutch as an emergency measure until the escort carriers became available. As convoy escorts, they were used by the Royal Navy to provide air scouting, to ward off enemy long-range scouting aircraft and, increasingly, to spot and hunt submarines. Often additional escort carriers also joined convoys, not as fighting ships, but as transporters, ferrying aircraft from the U.S. to Britain. In this case, the aircraft cargo could be doubled by storing aircraft on the flight deck as well as in the hangar.  The ships sent to the Royal Navy were slightly modified, partly to suit the traditions of that service. Among other things the ice cream making machines were removed, since they were considered unnecessary luxuries on ships, which served grog and other alcoholic beverages. The heavy duty washing machines of the laundry room were also removed since "all a British sailor needs to keep clean is a bucket and a bar of soap" (quoted from Warrilow).  Other modifications were due to the need for a completely enclosed hangar when operating in the North Atlantic and in support of the Arctic convoys.

U.S. Navy service.

Meanwhile, the U.S. discovered their own use for the escort carriers. In the North Atlantic, they supplemented the escorting destroyers by providing air support for anti-submarine warfare. One of these escort carriers,, was instrumental in the capture of off North Africa in 1944.  In the Pacific theater, escort carriers lacked the speed to sail with fast carrier attack groups, so were often tasked to escort the landing ships and troop carriers during the island-hopping campaign. In this role they provided air cover for the troopships and flew the first wave of attacks on beach fortifications in amphibious landing operations. On occasion, they even escorted the large carriers, serving as emergency airstrips and providing fighter cover for their larger sisters while these were busy readying or refueling their own planes. They also transported aircraft and spare parts from the U.S. to remote island airstrips.  The attack on Pearl Harbor brought up an urgent need for aircraft carriers, so some T3 tankers were converted to escort carriers, is example of how a T3 tanker hull AO-33 was rebuilt to be an escort carrier. The T3 tanker size and speed made the T3 a useful escort carrier. There were two classes of T3 hull carriers: "Sangamon" class and "Commencement Bay" class.

Battle off Samar.

A major battle for these escort carriers was the Battle off Samar in the Philippines on 25 October 1944. The Japanese lured Admiral William Halsey, Jr. into chasing a decoy fleet with his 3rd Fleet. This left aircraft from 16 small and slow escort carriers in three task groups armed primarily to bomb ground forces; along with their protective screen of destroyers and slower destroyer escorts, with "Taffy 3" bearing the brunt of the fight. They faced a Japanese force of four battleships, including the formidable, eight cruisers, and 11 destroyers. The American ships held off the Japanese.  The slow carriers could not outrun cruisers. They launched their aircraft and maneuvered to avoid shellfire for over an hour. They took dozens of hits, mostly from armor-piercing rounds that passed right through their thin, unarmored hulls without exploding., sunk in this action, was the only U.S. carrier lost to enemy surface gunfire in the war, and the Japanese concentration of fire on this one carrier assisted the escape of the others. The carriers′ only substantial armament—aside from their aircraft—was a single 5 in (127 mm) dual-purpose gun mounted on the stern, but the pursuing Japanese cruisers closed to within range of these guns. One of the guns caused critical damage to the burning Japanese heavy cruiser and a subsequent bomb dropped from one of the task force's aircraft hit the heavy cruiser's forward machinery room, leaving her dead in the water. Several "kamikaze" aircraft were shot down by carrier gunners, with only lost to air attack. The Americans lost a similar number of ships and men to the Battle of Coral Sea and Battle of Midway combined.

The ships.

Many escort carriers were Lend-Leased to the United Kingdom, this list specifies the breakdown in service to each navy.  In addition, six escort carriers were produced by the British during the war (all converted from other vessels).  The table below lists escort carriers and similar ships performing the same missions. The first four were built as early fleet aircraft carriers. Merchant aircraft carriers (MAC) carried trade cargo in addition to operating aircraft. Aircraft transports carried larger numbers of planes by eliminating accommodation for operating personnel and storage of fuel and ammunition.

Post-World War II.

The years following World War II brought many revolutionary new technologies to the navy, most notably the helicopter and the jet fighter, and with this a complete rethinking of its strategies and ships′ tasks. Although several of the latest "Commencement Bay"-class CVE were deployed as floating airfields during the Korean War, the main reasons for the development of the escort carrier had disappeared or could be dealt with better by newer weapons. The emergence of the helicopter meant that helicopter-deck equipped frigates could now take over the CVE's role in a convoy while also performing their own traditional role as submarine hunters. Ship-mounted guided missile launchers took over much of the aircraft protection role, and in-flight refueling abolished the need for floating stopover points for transport or patrol aircraft. As a result, after the "Commencement Bay" class, no new escort carriers were designed, and with every downsizing of the navy, the CVEs were the first to be mothballed.  Several escort carriers were pressed back into service during the first years of the Vietnam War because of their ability to carry large numbers of aircraft. Redesignated AKV (air transport auxiliary), they were manned by a civilian crew and used to ferry whole aircraft and spare parts from the U.S. to Army, Air Force and Marine bases in South Vietnam. However, CVEs were useful in this role only for a limited period. Once all major aircraft were equipped with refueling probes, it became much easier to fly the aircraft directly to its base instead of shipping it overseas.  The last chapter in the history of escort carriers consisted of two conversions: As an experiment, was converted from an aircraft carrier into a pure helicopter carrier (CVHA-1) and used by the Marine Corps to carry assault helicopters for the first wave of amphibious warfare operations. Later, "Thetis Bay" became a full amphibious assault ship (LHP-6). Although in service only from 1955 (the year of her conversion) to 1964, the experience gained in her training exercises greatly influenced the design of today's amphibious assault ships.  In the second conversion, in 1961, had all her aircraft handling equipment removed and four tall radio antennas installed on her long, flat deck. In lieu of aircraft, the hangar deck now had no fewer than 24 military radio transmitter trucks bolted to its floor. Rechristened, the ship was used as a communication relay ship and served dutifully through the Vietnam War as a floating radio station, relaying transmissions between the forces on the ground and the command centers back home. Like "Thetis Bay", the experience gained before "Annapolis" was stricken in 1976 helped develop today's purpose-built amphibious command ships of the.  Unlike almost all other major classes of ships and patrol boats from World War II, most of which can be found in a museum or port, no escort carrier or American light carrier has survived: all were destroyed during the war or broken up in the following decades. The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships records that the last former escort carrier remaining in naval service — USS "Annapolis" — was sold for scrapping 19 December 1979. The last American light carrier (the escort carrier's faster sister type) was, which was broken up in 2002 after a decade-long attempt to preserve the vessel.  The U.S. designed the Sea Control Ship to serve a similar role; whilst none were actually built, the Spanish "Principe de Asturias" and the Thai "Chakri Naruebet" are based on the concept.

See also.

For complete lists see:

The escort carrier or escort aircraft carrier (US hull classification symbol CVE), also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the United States Navy (USN) or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slow type of aircraft carrier used by the Royal Navy, the United States Navy, the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army Air Force in World War II. They were typically half the length and a third the displacement of larger fleet carriers, slower, carried fewer planes, and more-lightly armed and armored. Escort carriers were most often built upon a commercial ship hull, so they were cheaper and could be built quickly. This was their principal advantage as they could be completed in greater numbers as a stop-gap when fleet carriers were scarce. However, the lack of protection made escort carriers particularly vulnerable, and several were sunk with great loss of life. The light carrier (hull classification symbol CVL) was a similar concept to escort carriers in most respects, but were capable of higher speeds to allow operation alongside fleet carriers.

Eskortní letadlová loď byla typem malé, levné a pomalé letadlové lodě, sloužící zejména k doprovodu konvojů, vyhledávání ponorek, podpoře vyloďovacích operací a k přepravě letadel. Nebyly určeny pro vedení námořních bitev proti hlavním kategoriím válečných lodí. Eskortní letadlové lodě byly specifickou kategorií lodí vzniklou za druhé světové války a používanou britským královským námořnictvem, americkým námořnictvem a japonským císařským námořnictvem. K jejich stavbě bývaly využívány trupy civilních nákladních lodí: ať už se jednalo o přestavby již hotových lodí, či nově stavěné trupy. Jelikož byla jejich stavba relativně rychlá a plavidla sama levná (lehce vyzbrojená a nesoucí omezený počet letadel), byly zejména v USA stavěny ve velkých sériích. To dovolilo zmenšit akutní nedostatek letadlových lodí v prvních fázích války. Jelikož byly zranitelné, posádky jejich označení CVE překládaly jako "Combustible, Vulnerable and Expendable" (Hořlavé, Zranitelné a Postradatelné). Přesto se za války osvědčily. Po jejím skončení ovšem jejich bojová hodnota klesala, protože byly příliš malé pro provoz moderních bojových letounů (ovšem mohly z nich startovat vrtulníky).


Medical uses.

Ipratropium is administered by inhalation for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma exacerbation. For that purpose, it is supplied in a canister for use in an inhaler or in single dose vials for use in a nebulizer.  It is also used to treat and prevent minor and moderate bronchial asthma, especially asthma that is accompanied by cardiovascular system diseases.  It is also combined with salbutamol (albuterol — USAN) under the trade names Combivent (a non-aerosol metered-dose inhaler or MDI) and Duoneb (nebulizer) for the management of COPD and asthma, and with fenoterol (trade names Duovent and Berodual N) for the management of asthma.  Ipratropium as a nasal solution sprayed into the nostrils can reduce rhinorrhea but will not help nasal congestion.  Combination with beta-adrenergic agonists increases the dilating effect on the bronchi.

Contraindications.

The main contraindication for inhaled ipratropium is hypersensitivity to atropine and related substances. For oral administration, contraindications are similar to other anticholinergics; they include narrow angle glaucoma and obstructions in the gastrointestinal tract and urinary system.

Peanut allergy.

Previously atrovent inhalers used chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) as a propellant and contained soy lecithin in the propellant ingredients. In 2008 all CFC inhalers were phased out and hydrofluoroalkane (HFA) inhalers replaced them. Allergy to peanuts was noted for the inhaler as a contraindication but now is not. It has never been a contraindication when administered as a nebulized solution.

Side effects.

If ipratropium is inhaled, side effects resembling those of other anticholinergics are minimal. However, dry mouth and sedation have been reported. Also, effects such as skin flushing, tachycardia, acute angle-closure glaucoma, nausea, palpitations and headache have been observed. Inhaled ipratropium does not decrease mucociliary clearance. The inhalation itself can cause headache and irritation of the throat in a few percent of patients.  Urinary retention has been reported in patients receiving doses by nebulizer. As a result, caution may be warranted, especially by men with prostatic hypertrophy.

Interactions.

Interactions with other anticholinergics like tricyclic antidepressants, anti-Parkinson drugs and quinidine, which theoretically increase side effects, are clinically irrelevant when ipratropium is administered as an inhalant.

Pharmacology.

Chemically, ipratropium bromide is a quaternary ammonium compound (which is indicated by the -ium per the BAN and the USAN) obtained by treating atropine with isopropyl bromide, thus the name: isopropyl + atropine.  Ipratropium exhibits broncholytic action by reducing cholinergic influence on the bronchial musculature. It blocks muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, without specificity for subtypes, and therefore promotes the degradation of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP), resulting in a decreased intracellular concentration of cGMP. Most likely due to actions of cGMP on intracellular calcium, this results in decreased contractility of smooth muscle in the lung, inhibiting bronchoconstriction and mucus secretion. It is a nonselective muscarinic antagonist, and does not diffuse into the blood, which prevents systemic side effects. Ipratropium is a derivative of atropine but is a quaternary amine and therefore does not cross the blood–brain barrier, which prevents central side effects (anticholinergic syndrome). Ipratropium should never be used in place of salbutamol (albuterol) as a rescue medication.

Ipratropium bromide, sold under the trade name Atrovent among others, is a medication which opens up the medium and large airways in the lungs. It is used to treat the symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma. It is used by inhaler or nebulizer. Onset of action is typically within 15 to 30 minutes and lasts for three to five hours. Common side effects include dry mouth, cough, and inflammation of the airways. Potentially serious side effects include urinary retention, worsening spasms of the airways, and a severe allergic reaction. It appears to be safe in pregnancy and breastfeeding. Ipratropium is a muscarinic antagonist, a type of anticholinergic, which works by causing smooth muscles to relax. Ipratropium bromide was patented in 1966, and approved for medical use in 1974. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the safest and most effective medicines needed in a health system. Ipratropium is available as a generic medication. The wholesale price in the developing world is about 6.60 USD for a 200 dose inhaler. In the United States, a month worth of medication costs 100 to 200 USD. In 2017, it was the 216th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than two million prescriptions.

Ipratropium bromid (obchodní jména Atrovent, Apovent, a Aerovent) je anticholinergické léčivo používané pro léčbu chronické obstrukční plicní nemoci a akutního astmatu. Blokuje muskarinové acetylcholinové receptory v hladkém svalstvu průdušek v plicích.


Background.

Most computer programs consist of code that requires external shared libraries to execute. These libraries are normally integrated with the program at run time by a loader, in a process called dynamic linking.  While dynamic linking has advantages in code size and management, there are drawbacks as well. Every time a program is run, the loader needs to resolve (find) the relevant libraries. Since libraries move around in memory, there is a performance penalty for resolution. This penalty increases for each additional library needing resolution.  Prelinking reduces this penalty by resolving libraries in advance. Afterward, resolution only occurs if the libraries have changed since being prelinked, such as following perhaps an upgrade.

Mac OS.

Mac OS stores executables in the Mach-O file format.

Mac OS X.

Mac OS X performs prebinding this in the "Optimizing" stage of installing system software or certain applications.  Prebinding has changed a few times within the Mac OS X series. Before 10.2, prebinding only happened during the installation procedure (the aforementioned "Optimizing" stage). From 10.2 through 10.3 the OS checked for prebinding at launch time for applications, and the first time an application ran it would be prebound, making subsequent launches faster. This could also be manually run, which some OS-level installs did. In 10.4, only OS libraries were prebound. In 10.5 and later, Apple replaced prebinding with a dyld shared cache mechanism, which provided better OS performance.

Linux.

On Linux, prelinking is accomplished via the prelink program, a free program written by Jakub Jelínek of Red Hat for ELF binaries.  Performance results have been mixed, but it seems to aid systems with a large number of libraries, such as KDE.

prelink randomization.

prelink will (when run with the "-R" option) randomly select the address base that libraries are loaded at. This makes it more difficult to perform a return-to-libc attack on the system, because the addresses used are unique to that system. The reason prelink does this is because kernel facilities supplying address space layout randomization (ASLR) for libraries cannot be used in conjunction with prelink without defeating the purpose of prelink and forcing the dynamic linker to perform relocations at program load time.  As stated, prelink and per-process library address randomization cannot be used in conjunction. In order to avoid completely removing this security enhancement, prelink supplies its own randomization; however, this does not help a general information leak caused by prelink. Attackers with the ability to read certain arbitrary files on the target system can discover where libraries are loaded in privileged daemons; often libc is enough as it is the most common library used in return-to-libc attacks.  By reading a shared library file such as libc, an attacker with local access can discover the load address of libc in every other application on the system. Since most programs link to libc, the libc library file always has to be readable; any attacker with local access may gather information about the address space of higher privileged processes. Local access may commonly be gained by shell accounts or Web server accounts that allow the use of CGI scripts, which may read and output any file on the system. Directory traversal vulnerabilities can be used by attackers without accounts if CGI script vulnerabilities are available.  Because prelink is often run periodically, typically every two weeks, the address of any given library has a chance of changing over time. prelink is often used in an incremental mode in which already prelinked libraries are not altered unless absolutely necessary, so a library may not change its base address when prelink is re-run. This gives any address derived a half-life of the period in which prelink is run. Also note that if a new version of the library is installed, the addresses changes.  Jakub Jelínek points out that position independent executables (PIE) ignore prelinking on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora, and recommends that network and SUID programs be built PIE to facilitate a more secure environment.

Issues.

Occasionally, prelinking can cause issues with application checkpoint and restart libraries like codice_1, as well as other libraries (like OpenMPI) that use codice_1 internally. Specifically when checkpointing a program on one host, and trying to restart on a different host, the restarted program may fail with a segfault due to differences in host-specific library memory address randomization.

In computing, prebinding, also called prelinking, is a method for optimizing application load times by resolving library symbols prior to launch.

prelink je v informatice název programu určeného pro linuxové systémy. Slouží pro výpočet optimálního rozložení dynamických knihoven v adresním prostoru procesů. Výsledkem jsou knihovny, které jsou předem optimálně relokovány a tím je uspořen čas, který při startu programu potřebuje na rozmístění knihoven zavaděč.


Services.

Microsoft lists over 600 Azure services, of which some are covered below:

Messaging.

The Microsoft Azure Service Bus allows applications running on Azure premises or off-premises devices to communicate with Azure. This helps to build scalable and reliable applications in a service-oriented architecture (SOA). The Azure service bus supports four different types of communication mechanisms:

Media services.

A PaaS offering that can be used for encoding, content protection, streaming, or analytics.

CDN.

A global content delivery network (CDN) for audio, video, applications, images, and other static files. It can be used to cache static assets of websites geographically closer to users to increase performance. The network can be managed by a REST-based HTTP API.  Azure has 54 point of presence locations worldwide (also known as Edge locations) as of August 2018.

Azure Blockchain Workbench.

Through Azure Blockchain Workbench, Microsoft is providing the required infrastructure to set up a consortium network in multiple topologies using a variety of consensus mechanisms. Microsoft provides integration from these blockchain platforms to other Microsoft services to streamline the development of distributed applications. Microsoft supports many general-purpose blockchains including Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric and purpose-built blockchains like Corda.

Functions.

Azure functions are used in serverless computing architectures where subscribers can execute code as an event driven Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) without managing the underlying server resources.

Regional expansion and examples.

Azure is generally available in 54 regions around the world. Microsoft has announced an additional 12 regions to be opened soon (as of October 2018). Microsoft is the first hyper-scale cloud provider that has committed to building facilities on the continent of Africa with two regions located in South Africa. An Azure geography contains multiple Azure Regions, such as for example “North Europe” (Dublin, Ireland), “West Europe” (Amsterdam, Netherlands). Where a location represents the city or area of the Azure Region. Each Azure Region is paired with another region within the same geography; this makes them a regional pair. In this example, Amsterdam and Dublin are the locations which form the regional-pair.  Microsoft has some Gold partners available across the globe to sell its products. In August 2018, Toyota Tsusho began a partnership with Microsoft to create fish farming tools using the Microsoft Azure application suite for IoT technologies related to water management. Developed in part by researchers from Kindai University, the water pump mechanisms use artificial intelligence to count the number of fish on a conveyor belt, analyze the number of fish, and deduce the effectiveness of water flow from the data the fish provide. The specific computer programs used in the process fall under the Azure Machine Learning and the Azure IoT Hub platforms.

Design.

Microsoft Azure uses a specialized operating system, called Microsoft Azure, to run its "fabric layer": A cluster hosted at Microsoft's data centers that manage computing and storage resources of the computers and provisions the resources (or a subset of them) to applications running on top of Microsoft Azure. Microsoft Azure has been described as a "cloud layer" on top of a number of Windows Server systems, which use Windows Server 2008 and a customized version of Hyper-V, known as the Microsoft Azure Hypervisor to provide virtualization of services.  Scaling and reliability are controlled by the Microsoft Azure Fabric Controller, which ensures the services and environment do not fail if one or more of the servers fails within the Microsoft data center, and which also provides the management of the user's Web application such as memory allocation and load balancing.  Azure provides an API built on REST, HTTP, and XML that allows a developer to interact with the services provided by Microsoft Azure. Microsoft also provides a client-side managed class library that encapsulates the functions of interacting with the services. It also integrates with Microsoft Visual Studio, Git, and Eclipse.  In addition to interacting with services via API, users can manage Azure services using the Web-based Azure Portal, which reached General Availability in December 2015. The portal allows users to browse active resources, modify settings, launch new resources, and view basic monitoring data from active virtual machines and services.

Deployment models.

Microsoft Azure offers two deployment models for cloud resources: the "classic" deployment model and the Azure Resource Manager. In the classic model, each Azure resource (virtual machine, SQL database, etc.) was managed individually. The Azure Resource Manager, introduced in 2014, enables users to create groups of related services so that closely coupled resources can be deployed, managed, and monitored together.

Privacy.

Microsoft has stated that, per the USA Patriot Act, the US government could have access to the data even if the hosted company is not American and the data resides outside the USA. However, Microsoft Azure is compliant with the E.U. Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC). To manage privacy and security-related concerns, Microsoft has created a Microsoft Azure Trust Center, and Microsoft Azure has several of its services compliant with several compliance programs including and HIPAA. A full and current listing can be found on the Microsoft Azure Trust Center Compliance page. Of special note, Microsoft Azure has been granted JAB Provisional Authority to Operate (P-ATO) from the U.S. government in accordance with guidelines spelled out under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), a U.S. government program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud services used by the federal government.

Significant outages.

The following is a list of Microsoft Azure outages and service disruptions.

Microsoft Azure, commonly referred to as Azure (), is a cloud computing service created by Microsoft for building, testing, deploying, and managing applications and services through Microsoft-managed data centers. It provides software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and supports many different programming languages, tools, and frameworks, including both Microsoft-specific and third-party software and systems.

Windows Azure Platform je cloudová platforma společnosti Microsoft. Využívá se k vytváření, hostování a škálování webových aplikací prostřednictvím datových center Microsoftu. Windows Azure tak nabízí tzv. Microsoft Online Services – balík online aplikací fungujících jako služby (bez instalace), které umožňují výměnu dat, sdílení, online komunikaci (online konference), atd., to vše založené na bázi cloudu. Všechny tyto nabízené aplikace a služby se rozdělují do tří obchodních značek: Windows Azure, SQL Azure a AppFabric.


History.

TextMate 1.0 was released on 5 October 2004, after 5 months of development, followed by version 1.0.1 on 21 October 2004. The release focused on implementing a small feature set well, and did not have a preference window or a toolbar, didn't integrate FTP, and had no options for printing. At first only a small number of programming languages were supported, as only a few “language bundles” had been created. Even so, some developers found this early and incomplete version of TextMate a welcome change to a market that was considered stagnated by the decade-long dominance of BBEdit.  TextMate 1.0.2 came out on 10 December 2004. In the series of TextMate 1.1 betas, TextMate gained features: a preferences window with a GUI for creating and editing themes; a status bar with a symbol list; menus for choosing language and tab settings, and a “bundle editor” for editing language-specific customizations. On 6 January 2006, Odgaard released TextMate 1.5, the first “stable release” since 1.0.2. Reviews were positive, in contrast to earlier versions that had been criticised.  TextMate continued to develop through mid-2006. On 8 August 2006, TextMate was awarded the Apple Design Award for Best Developer Tool, at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, to “raucous applause.” In February 2006, the TextMate blog expressed intentions for future directions, including improved project management, with a plug-in system to support remote file systems such as FTP, and revision control systems such as Subversion. Throughout 2007, the core application changed only minimally, though its “language bundles” continued to advance.  In June 2009, TextMate 2 was announced as being about 90 percent complete, but with an undisclosed final-feature list. A public alpha was made available for download on the TextMate blog in December 2011, followed by a release candidate at the end of 2016. In September 2019, a final version was released.  In August 2012, TextMate 2's source code was published on GitHub under the terms of version 3 of the GNU General Public License, an attempt by the developer to counteract restrictions Apple placed on software distributed through the Mac App Store. TextMate licenses continue to be sold on macromates.com, however. Odgaard stated he prefers receiving patches as public domain as this preserves his ability to release a future version under a more permissive license, or to make a version available on the Mac App Store. Odgaard also stated he has a friend who uses some of TextMate's frameworks in a closed-source project, and they could not incorporate patches released under GPL.

Features.

Hierarchal scopes.

TextMate allows users to create their own arbitrarily complex syntax highlighting modes by using a modified version of the Apple ASCII property list format to define language grammars. These grammars allow nesting rules to be defined using the Oniguruma regular expression library, and then assigned specific “scopes”: compound labels which identify them for coloration.  Therefore, each point of a document is assigned one or more scopes, which define where in the document the point is, how it should be colored, and what the behavior of TextMate should be at that point. For instance, the title of one of the links in the “External links” section has the scope:  This scope tells us that we are looking at a link title within a link within a list within a MediaWiki document.  TextMate themes can mark up any scope, at varying levels of precision. For instance, one theme may decide to color every constant (codice_1) identically, while another may decide that numerical constants (codice_2) should be colored differently than escaped characters (codice_3). The hierarchal scope syntax allows language authors and theme authors various levels of coverage, so that each one can choose to opt for simplicity or comprehensiveness, as desired.

Commands.

TextMate supports user-defined and user-editable commands that are interpreted by bash or the interpreter specified with a shebang. Commands can be sent many kinds of input by TextMate (the current document, selected text, the current word, etc.) in addition to environment variables and their output can be similarly be handled by TextMate in a variety of ways. At its most simple, a command might receive the selected text, transform it, and re-insert it into the document replacing the selection. Other commands might simply show a tool tip, create a new document for their output, or display it as a web page using TextMate's built-in HTML renderer.  Many language-specific bundles such as bash, PHP or Ruby contain commands for compiling and/or running the current document or project. In many cases the STDOUT and STDERR of the code's process will be displayed in a window in TextMate.

Snippets.

At their simplest, TextMate “snippets” are pieces of text which can be inserted into the document at the current location via a context-sensitive key stroke or tab completion. Snippets are "intelligent", supporting "tab stops" dynamic updating, access to environment variables, and the ability to run inline scripts. This allows complicated behaviors. Tab stops can be cycled through using the “tab” key and support default text, drop-downs, to complete elements of the snippet. The results of these tab stops can be dynamically changed in another portion of the snippet, as the user fills in a stop. TextMate environment variables can be used, supporting information about the current scope, line number, or author name, etc. Snippets also have the ability to run inline shell scripts.

Bundles.

TextMate language grammars, snippets, macros, commands, and templates can be grouped into “bundles” of functionality. Any snippet, macro, or command can be executed by pressing a keyboard shortcut, by typing a particular word and then pressing the “tab” key (so-called “tab triggers”), or by selecting the command from a menu. Tab triggers are particularly useful; the combination of tab triggers and snippets greatly eases coding in verbose languages, or languages with commonly typed patterns.  Snippets, macros, and commands can be limited to a particular scope, so that for instance the “close html tag” command does not work in a python script, freeing up that keyboard shortcut to be used for something else. This allows individual languages, and even individual scopes, to override built-in commands such as “Reformat Paragraph” with more specialized versions. Even special keys such as the return key and spacebar can be overridden.  A Subversion repository is available containing many more bundles than are shipped with the editor package, for everything from Markdown to blogging to MIPS assembly language.

Project management.

Several documents or folders can be opened at once in a TextMate project window, which provides a drawer along its side listing file and folder names, and a series of tabs across the top. In TextMate 1.5, this drawer provides a means for users to organize files and folders from across the file system, as well as the ability to create virtual folders for further organization. This feature was removed from TextMate 2 and replaced with an ordinary file browser. Search and replace can be undertaken across an entire project, and commands can interact with the selected files or folders in the drawer. Bundles for CVS, Subversion, darcs, and other revision control systems allow TextMate to manage versioned code.

Other features.

TextMate has many features common to programming editors:  In addition, TextMate supports features to integrate well with the OS X graphical environment:

Limitations.

TextMate does have a few limitations when compared to other editors in its class:

Community.

TextMate has a community of users, who contribute to the git repository of open-source TextMate bundles. The TextMate wiki has hints and tips, feature suggestions, and links to external resources. A ticket system exists for filing bug reports and feature requests, and an IRC channel () is usually active.  TextMate bundles exist to support code written in many dozens of programming languages. The Ruby and Ruby on Rails bundles are supported by David Heinemeier Hansson, Ruby on Rails’ creator.

Awards.

TextMate 1.5 won the Apple Design Award for best developer tool in 2006.

TextMate is a general-purpose GUI text editor for macOS created by Allan Odgaard. TextMate features declarative customizations, tabs for open documents, recordable macros, folding sections, snippets, shell integration, and an extensible bundle system.

TextMate je univerzální GUI textový editor pro Mac OS X,který vytvořil Allan Odgaard. Obsahuje některé zajímavé vlastnosti zahrnující deklarativní úpravy, záložky pro otvírání dokumentů, záznam maker, integrovaný shell a rozšířitelný systémový svazek.


Life.

Gleyre was born in Chevilly, near Lausanne. His parents died when he was eight or nine years old, and he was brought up by an uncle in Lyon, France, who sent him to the city's industrial school. He began his formal artistic education in Lyon under Bonnefond, before moving to Paris, where he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts under Hersent. He also attended the Academie Suisse and studied watercolour technique in the studio of Richard Parkes Bonington. He then went to Italy, where he became acquainted with Horace Vernet and Louis Léopold Robert.  It was through Vernet's recommendation that he was chosen by the American traveller John Lowell Jr. to accompany him on his journeys round the eastern Mediterranean, recording the scenes and ethnographic subjects they met with. They left Italy in spring 1834 and visited Greece, Turkey and Egypt, where they remained together until November 1835, when Lowell left for India. Gleyre continued his travels around Egypt and Syria, not returning to France until 1838. He returned to Lyons in shattered health, having been attacked with ophthalmia, or inflammation of the eye, in Cairo, and struck down by fever in Lebanon.  On his recovery he proceeded to Paris, and, establishing a modest studio in the rue de Université, began carefully to work out the ideas which had been slowly shaping themselves in his mind. Mention is made of two decorative panels "Diana leaving the Bath", and a "Young Nubian" as almost the first fruits of his genius; but these did not attract public attention until much later, and the painting by which he practically opened his artistic career was the "Apocalyptic Vision of St John", sent to the Salon of 1840. This was followed in 1843 by "Evening", which received a medal of the second class, and afterwards became widely popular under the title "Lost Illusions". It depicts a poet seated on the bank of a river, with his head drooping and a wearied posture, letting his lyre slip from a careless hand, and gazing sadly at a bright company of maidens whose song is slowly dying from his ear as their boat is borne slowly from his sight.  In spite of the success of these first ventures, Gleyre retired from public competition, and spent the rest of his life in quiet devotion to his artistic ideals, neither seeking the easy applause of the crowd, nor turning his art into a means of aggrandizement and wealth. After 1845, when he exhibited the "Separation of the Apostles", he contributed nothing to the Salon except the "Dance of the Bacchantes" in 1849. Yet he worked steadily and was productive. He had an "infinite capacity of taking pains", and when asked by what method he attained to such marvelous perfection of workmanship, he would reply, "En y pensant toujours". Many years often intervened between the first conception of a piece and its embodiment, and years not infrequently between the first and the final stage of the embodiment itself. A landscape was apparently finished; even his fellow artists would consider it done; Gleyre alone was conscious that he had not "found his sky".  Gleyre became influential as a teacher, taking over the studio of studio of Paul Delaroche – then the leading private teaching atelier in Paris – in 1843. His students included Jean-Léon Gérôme, Jean-Louis Hamon, Auguste Toulmouche, Whistler and several of the Impressionists: Monet, Renoir, Sisley, and Bazille. He did not charge his students a fee, although he expected them to contribute towards the rent and the payment of models. They were also given a say in the running of the school.  Though he lived in almost complete retirement from public life, he took a keen interest in politics, and was a voracious reader of political journals. For a time, under Louis Philippe, his studio had been the rendezvous of a sort of liberal club. To the last—amid all the disasters that befell his country—he was hopeful of the future, "la raison finira bien par avoir raison". It was while on a visit to the Retrospective Exhibition, opened on behalf of the exiles from Alsace and Lorraine, that he died suddenly on 5 May 1874. He had never married.  He left unfinished the "Earthly Paradise", a picture, which Taine described as "a dream of innocence, of happiness and of beauty—Adam and Eve standing in the sublime and joyous landscape of a paradise enclosed in mountains", a worthy counterpart to the "Evening". His other works include "Deluge", which represents two angels speeding above the desolate earth from which the destroying waters have just begun to retire, leaving visible behind them the ruin they have wrought; the "Battle of the Lemanus", a piece of elaborate design, crowded but not encumbered with figures, and giving fine expression to the movements of the various bands of combatants and fugitives; the "Prodigal Son", in which the artist has ventured to add to the parable the new element of mother's love, greeting the repentant youth with a welcome that shows that the mother's heart thinks less of the repentance than of the return; "Ruth and Boaz"; "Ulysses and Nausicaa"; "Hercules at the Feet of Omphale"; the "Young Athenian," or, as it is popularly called, "Sappho"; "Minerva and the Nymphs"; "Venus and Adonis"; "Daphnis and Chloë"; and "Love and the Parcae". He also left a considerable number of drawings and watercolours, and a number of portraits, among which is the sad face of Heinrich Heine, engraved in the "Revue des deux mondes" for April 1852. In Clement's catalogue of his works there are 683 entries, including sketches and studies.

Marc Gabriel Charles Gleyre (2 May 1806 – 5 May 1874), was a Swiss artist who was a resident in France from an early age. He took over the studio of Paul Delaroche in 1843 and taught a number of younger artists who became prominent, including Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Auguste Toulmouche, Louis-Frederic Schützenberger, and Henry-Lionel Brioux.

Marc Gabriel Charles Gleyre (2. května 1806, Chevilly, kanton Vaud, Švýcarsko – 5. května 1874, Paříž, Francie) byl švýcarský malíř žijící ve Francii.


Education.

Tiselius was born in Stockholm. Following the death of his father, the family moved to Gothenburg where he went to school, and after graduation at the local "Realgymnasium" in 1921, he studied at the Uppsala University, specializing in chemistry.

Career and research.

Tiselius became a research assistant at Theodor Svedberg's laboratory in 1925 and obtained his doctoral degree in 1930 on the moving-boundary method of studying the electrophoresis of proteins. From then to 1935 he published a number of papers on diffusion and adsorption in naturally occurring base-exchanging zeolites, and these studies continued during a year's visit to Hugh Stott Taylor's laboratory in Princeton University with support of a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship. On his return to Uppsala he resumed his interest in proteins, and the application of physical methods to biochemical problems. This led to a much-improved method of electrophoretic analysis which he refined in subsequent years.  Tiselius took an active part in the reorganization of scientific research in Sweden in the years following World War II, and was President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry 1951–1955. He was Chairman of the Board for the Nobel Foundation 1960–1964.

Quotes from Arne Tiselius.

We live in a world where unfortunately the distinction between true and false appears to become increasingly blurred by manipulation of facts, by exploitation of uncritical minds, and by the pollution of the language. "Arne Tiselius"

Awards and honours.

The lunar crater Tiselius was named in his honour.

Personal life.

Tiselius was married, with two children. He died of a heart attack 29 October 1971 in Uppsala. His wife died in 1986.

Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius (10 August 1902 – 29 October 1971) was a Swedish biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1948 "for his research on electrophoresis and adsorption analysis, especially for his discoveries concerning the complex nature of the serum proteins."

Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius (10. srpna 1902 Stockholm – 29. října 1971 Uppsala) byl švédský biochemik, který v roce 1948 získal Nobelovu cenu za chemii za „výzkum elektroforézy a adsorpční analýzy“.


The 7 Habits.

Covey introduces the concept of paradigm shift and helps the reader understand that different perspectives exist, i.e. that two people can see the same thing and yet differ with each other.  Covey also introduces the "Maturity Continuum". These are three successive stages of increasing maturity: "dependence", "independence", and "interdependence". At birth, everybody is dependent, and characteristics of dependence may linger; this is the first and lowest stage of maturity.  Each of the first three habits is intended to help achieve independence. The next three habits are intended to help achieve interdependence. The final, seventh habit is intended to help maintain these achievements. Each of the seven habits has a chapter of the book (or a section of the videotape or DVD) devoted to it:

Independence.

The first three habits surround moving from dependence to independence (i.e., self-mastery):

2 - Begin with the end in mind.

All things are created twice. Before we act, we should act in our minds first. Before we create something, we measure twice. This is what the principle is about. Do not just act; think first: Is this how I want it to go, and are these the correct consequences?

3 - First things first.

If habit 2 advises that you are the programmer, habit 3 advises: "write the program, become a leader"! Keep personal integrity: what you say vs what you do.

Interdependence.

The next three habits talk about Interdependence (e.g., working with others):

Continual improvement.

The final habit is that of continuous improvement in both the personal and interpersonal spheres of influence.

7 - Sharpen the Saw; Growth.

"See also": Kaizen (continuous improvement)  Covey explains the "Upward Spiral" model in the sharpening the saw section. Through our conscience, along with meaningful and consistent progress, the spiral will result in growth, change, and constant improvement. In essence, one is always attempting to integrate and master the principles outlined in The 7 Habits at progressively higher levels at each iteration. Subsequent development on any habit will render a different experience and you will learn the principles with a deeper understanding. The Upward Spiral model consists of three parts: learn, commit, do. According to Covey, one must be increasingly educating the conscience in order to grow and develop on the upward spiral. The idea of renewal by education will propel one along the path of personal freedom, security, wisdom, and power.

Reception.

"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" has sold more than 25 million copies in 40 languages worldwide, and the audio version has sold 1.5 million copies, and remains one of the best selling nonfiction business books in history. In August 2011 "Time" listed "7 Habits" as one of "The 25 Most Influential Business Management Books".  U.S. President Bill Clinton invited Covey to Camp David to counsel him on how to integrate the book into his presidency.

Abundance mentality.

Covey coined the term "abundance mentality", or "abundance mindset", a concept in which a person believes there are enough resources and successes to share with others. He contrasts it with the "scarcity mindset" (i.e., destructive and unnecessary competition), which is founded on the idea that if someone else wins or is successful in a situation, it means "you lose", because you are not considering the possibility of all parties "winning" in some way or another in a given situation (see zero-sum game). Individuals having an abundance mentality reject the notion of zero-sum games and are able to celebrate the success of others, rather than feel threatened by them. The author contends that the abundance mentality arises from having a high self-worth and security (see Habits 1, 2, and 3), and leads to the sharing of profits, recognition and responsibility. Similarly, organizations may also apply an abundance mentality when doing business.  Since "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People"'s publishing, a number of books appearing in the "business press" have discussed the idea.

Formats.

In addition to the book and audiobook versions, a VHS version also exists.

Adaptations.

Sean Covey (Stephen's son) has written a version of the book for teens, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens". This version simplifies the 7 Habits for younger readers so they can better understand them. In September 2006, Sean Covey also published "The 6 Most Important Decisions You Will Ever Make: A Guide for Teens." This guide highlights key times in the life of a teen and gives advice on how to deal with them.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, first published in 1989, is a business and self-help book written by Stephen Covey. Covey presents an approach to being effective in attaining goals by aligning oneself to what he calls "true north" principles based on a character ethic that he presents as universal and timeless.

7 návyků skutečně efektivních lidí je kniha (), kterou napsal Stephen Covey, americký odborník na rozvoj osobnosti, vedení lidí a motivaci. Knihy se prodalo více než 20 milionů výtisků ve 40 světových jazycích. Časopis Time ji v roce 2011 zařadil mezi 25 nejvlivnějších knih o managementu.