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Inflation Hawks Are Waging War Against Their Own Hallucinations
The golden phantom menace.
Earlier this week the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly inflation report. The numbers came in at 1.7 percent a year for all items. Excluding the ever-volatile food and energy, it was 1.9 percent.
That's about as low as inflation has been in the last 50 years. Only 1986 (1.1 percent), 1998 and 2001 (1.6 percent), 2008 (0.1 percent) and 2010 (1.5 percent) have come in lower, and a few years in the mid-2000s registered the same.
The disappearance of inflation over the past 20 years, however, has barely dented the pervasive belief that inflation remains one of the greatest threats to economic stability. These convictions persist in spite of all evidence to the contrary: Inflation is nowhere visible. For many, that is just proof that we are living in a lull -- a phony war soon to be disrupted when that age-old enemy reappears and wreaks havoc.
At the Federal Reserve -- legally mandated guardian of price stability and responsible for monitoring and containing inflation -- the president of the Richmond Fed, Jeffrey Lacker, has been warning that the current policy of very low interest rates and expansion of the balance sheet is almost certain to spark inflation in the near future.
In Europe, those views are even more deeply held. The German Bundesbank -- still seared by memories of hyperinflation in the 1920s and the collapse of political order that gave rise to the Nazis -- remains ever vigilant. Its president, Jens Weidman, is strongly opposed to many of the recent sovereign bailouts to preserve the euro on the grounds that good money chasing bad will spark inflation.
These officials tend to be firm yet measured in their concern ‑ something that cannot be said of populist politicians and analysis. The Tea Party is fueled not just by debt animus but by a deep-seated belief that "real" inflation is much higher than what the government reports, and it insists that the spending habits of the government will end in the collapse of the dollar, hyperinflation and the government's de facto stealing from hard-working Americans' money.
That is the fear of gold bugs, and added to the mix are the views of former Representative Ron Paul and his son, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), that the Fed is putting the United States in inflation peril. Many professional investors and economists are similarly convinced that the current policies of zero interest rates and deficit spending are setting the stage for massive inflation.
How to explain the inverse relationship between inflation concerns and inflation realities? Yes, low inflation in recent years has been juxtaposed with modest economic growth and wage stagnation for most Americans ‑ as well as for most Europeans and Japanese. Given that perceptions of economic well-being are ultimately tied to disposable income, these forces have largely canceled each other out.
In addition, people tend to be acutely aware of the volatility of energy and food prices, which have spiked - and then receded - many times in past years.
Yet even with food and fuel, inflation perceptions can be deceptive. Many people are aware that the price of a loaf of bread has risen from less than 40 cents in the 1970s to an average of more than $2 today. Food prices have also risen periodically over the past few years in the face of global demand and droughts. That cements a perception of inflation.
Yet over the past few decades, food as an overall percent of income has gone down, down and down. In 1972, Americans spent 15 percent of their disposable income on food; today, that figure is 11 percent. The only shift has been in eating out ‑ people spend more on restaurants and much less on food at home. And that has happened even as incomes have stagnated. Gasoline, which has fluctuated widely, has maintained a steady share of disposable income for decades, at about 3.5 percent, which is now decreasing because of production from shale oil deposits and ever-more-efficient vehicles.
One of the strongest arguments for vigilance against inflation comes from economists following the dicta of Milton Friedman that "inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon." In that view, the actions of governments and central bankers are the determining factor, and the experience of the 20th century was that inflation often followed government policies, especially promiscuous government spending. Since that is what happened in the past, many are firmly convinced that it will, perforce, happen in the future.
One pernicious cliché is that history repeats itself. It doesn't. Historians repeat each other ‑ and economists then pile on with theorems based on a limited amount of history that then constitute "laws" of economics.
Unquestionably, inflation was a systemic threat not just in the 20th century but for centuries before. Thus the absence of inflation today is explained as an anomaly soon to end; an artificial state of affairs generated by easy-money policies of governments and central banks around the world; or a false statement in that inflation is underreported by governments interested in pretending it doesn't exist.
The virtue of these arguments is that they are not falsifiable. You can't prove there isn't a government conspiracy about "real" inflation, and you can't prove that something isn't about to happen. If you argue that there has been a systemic shift - that, say, technology and globalization have combined to send manufactured goods ever lower (with food as much a manufactured good as a computer) - you can easily be dismissed for foolishly contending that "this time it's different."
What, then, is the statute of limitations for inflation? How long must there be low, low inflation before the risk of it is judged as de minimus?
Yes, it might rear up in future. Yes, past patterns may prove correct. It would be foolish not to be on guard about the possibility and the risk ‑ just as it would be foolish not to forget that we still live in a world suffused with nuclear weapons.
Yet it would be equally foolish to ignore the weight of evidence about low inflation everywhere around the globe, not just for the past few years but over the past few decades. The consequences of planning for a war that never happens can be just as deleterious as fighting that war unprepared.
If inflation is not the proximate risk of today's economy, then we are radically misjudging our problems and missing solutions. If inflation is not a dire threat, then we need not be so concerned about government spending or central bank policy. We should instead focus on the ability of our national economies and the global economic system to generate sustainable living standards for billions of people.
Right now, so many are so fixated on inflation that these other challenges receive short shrift. If inflation revives, that fixation may be justified. If not, we will have squandered our time chasing echoes instead of meeting our present with eyes wide open to the possibilities of the future.
This post originally appeared at Reuters.com, an Atlantic partner site.


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PROG: 109 – Sacrifice!
Script: Alan Hebden
Art: Mike White
Letters: Jack Potter
Plot: The Planetary Assessment Group approach Tarka III, a dust-bowl planet that they have funded the gradual reclamation of by paying billions to let settlers attempt to colonise. They have arrived to assess progress and decide on future funding. Met by Reed Benson, the colonial leader, they immediately take against the thin air and small pockets of growth they witness. Benson explains to them how they are unleashing deep pockets of air from underground and another ten years will see the planet flourish with growth. Distinctly unimpressed they tell Benson they will give their verdict in the morning. Deeply frustrated, Benson returns home and joins his daughter at a nearby archaeological dig. Wandering alone in an uncovered ancient chamber he uncovers a room where a mysterious 'telepathic recording' informs him it is the voice of the ancient inhabitants and they are offering him a choice – if he sacrifices himself the ancient's mining devices will be reactivated and massive amounts of oxygen will be released; if he refuses the planet will be destroyed rather than fall into the hands of the unworthy…
Shock: Benson makes the sacrifice and the aliens unleash their technology to furnish vast amounts of air on the planet. The PAG representatives reverse their decision to cut funding when they realize the sudden re-oxygenization will make the cost of the program much less. As they depart the planet they scoff that Benson would be delighted as 'he couldn't care less about the cost of anything' Their craft flies off as Benson writhes in pain, enduring the cost he has shouldered for saving the planet he loves.
Thoughts: A luxuriant seven pages given to a slightly strange scoff at penny-pinching accountants as opposed to the sacrifice of the idealist. The story has doesn't have a 'shock' per se, more a choice for Benson and a juxtaposed disparaging comment by a PAG member on the final panel. Outside of that the story fails to make a lot of sense. Searching hard one could think of reasons why the aliens just didn't re-inhabit the planet themselves (since they are able to do it almost instantaneously after Benson's decision) and why Benson must actually suffer a painful fate rather than be excused after having shown the requisite commitment, but none of it is explained by the story. At seven pages the story-telling is extremely flabby by the standards of 2000AD; Benson isn't introduced until the bottom of page 2 and by the end of page 4 the tour of the agricultural facilities is just ended. High on tension and drama this tale is not. The art has lots of nice individual panels showing a similar 'space meets Midwest America' as seen in Angel Zero and a fantastic panel where Benson steps up to make his choice but for seven pages there is a lot of talking heads and shots of farmland. An interesting Shock in the context of the series, both for page count and political content, and featuring two creators who would go on to work on many more one-shots for the Prog, but overall not a great outing for the series.
Shock'd?: The story doesn't read at all like a Future Shock. The nearest thing to any formal shock is the callous remark of the departing PAG member. It seems more a general small sci-fi tale and perhaps was originally commissioned for something other than Future Shocks.

subset: commoncrawl


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Students sue antiplagiarism website for rights to their homework
As the Internet democratizes publishing and companies build databases containing other people's work, similar court challenges may increase.
In a table-turning episode in the digital copyright wars, four teenagers are suing a business for allegedly trampling on their copyrights. Their product: homework.
The saga began last year when McLean High School in Virginia adopted a widely used antiplagiarism service called Turnitin. Under the system, students electronically submit essays to be stored and compared against millions of others in a massive database. Teachers can see if students are lifting work – a valuable tool given that research has found that 40 percent of undergraduate students admit to copying and pasting passages from websites.
But the setup rankled some students, who argued they shouldn't have to surrender their personal writing and persuasive essays – along with their names and e-mail addresses – to a computer bank in California.
"The suit is not about plagiarism; it's about the school forcing the students to turn their work over to a for-profit company," says Kevin Wade Sr., the father of a plaintiff. His son, a freshman in high school, whom Mr. Wade describes as a good student, "felt it was a privacy issue, and also [creates] an assumption of guilt."
Turnitin's creator, however, insists the gathered material goes no further than teachers and students, and is kept for the beneficial – and legal – purposes of stopping the scourge of plagiarism.
"This is really a social good to make sure that students who are not doing their own work are not rewarded for that," says John Barrie, president of the Oakland-based iParadigms, the company behind Turnitin.
Top copyright lawyers say both sides have compelling arguments. The Turnitin case highlights the mounting tensions between the social utility and economic value of searchable databases, and the ire they provoke over issues of privacy and profiting from another's work.
"There are a lot of businesses that depend on making [digital] copies in order to index, or make things searchable, or create filters, or [perform] matching. All of these kinds of things today are valuable and in high demand," says Fred von Lohmann, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. "You'll see a lot more cases involving indexing copy."
7,000 schools use Turnitin
Some 7,000 schools and other institutions now use Turnitin, including the California State University system, the University of Florida, and Georgetown University. The pricing has proved attractive, at less than a dollar per student for an entire year.
Students submit their papers – some 100,000 a day – through a Web form, and Turnitin calculates a "similarity index." This score is a percentage of the paper that closely matches the wording found in other sources, either online or in the database.
About 30 percent of papers received by Turnitin are found to be more than a quarter unoriginal, says Dr. Barrie. Half of that copied work comes from online sources. "Students are using the Internet like an 8-billion-page, searchable, cut-and-pasteable encyclopedia," he says.
Limited access to content
When matches are found to an existing student paper, the teacher can ask the other student's teacher to see the earlier work in full.
Critics of Turnitin such as Mr. Wade point out that this process doesn't seek the permission of the authors – the students. They also worry where the work could wind up in the longterm since iParadigms reserves the right to sell the database and its contents.
These "republishing" avenues are at the heart of the lawsuit filed late last month, which seeks $150,000 – the legally stipulated penalty – per paper registered by the four students.
"There is no way on God's green earth that we're ever going to turn a student's paper over to anybody except that student and their instructor until the end of time," says Barrie.
There still are those exceptions, which critics point out. But Barrie says, when a student's teacher decides to pass a paper to another teacher, no name is attached. And, in the event iParadigms is bought out, institutions can exercise their ability to cancel service and get their papers expunged.
That still doesn't give students any control, however, and parents say their children are facing coercion. Wade says his son was told by a teacher to use Turnitin and accept the company's terms of use, or face getting an F.
Lawyers weigh in on students' case
Experts in copyright law say that the age of the students helps their case, as minors aren't held as tightly to agreements that sign over rights.
Several top intellectual property lawyers say that if the case goes to court it could come down to a "fair use" judgment call. Fair use carves out exceptions to copyright to allow for a freer flow of information.
"It's been a confused and ambiguous issue long before the Internet came along," says Andrew Beckerman-Rodau, a professor at Suffolk University Law School in Boston. "The Internet just has made more cases come up because previously a lot of works that had no real value suddenly have value because you can distribute them on the Internet."
Demand is almost certainly nil for a teenager's ruminations on Moby Dick. At the university level, the issue is more pressing. Michael Smit, a critic of Turnitin, says he wrote papers with marketable ideas during his time as a computer science graduate student at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia a school that uses the system.
"I have applied for patents. I came up with unique ideas during my university days. And I'm not a big fan of sending them to a company forever to store," he says.
However, databases like Turnitin, as well as Google's book-scanning project and search engines for images, also create a value of their own.
In some ways, the modern Web has been built upon such services where material is gathered and reused in ways that the original creators never had in mind, says Jonathan Zittrain, professor of Internet governance and regulation at Oxford University.
"One does not have to be a kind of copyright anarchist," he says, to appreciate the thicket that can arise when at any moment that somebody benefits from the action of another [online], the person can say, uh-uh-uh, pay me."


text:
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Jennifer Landon Exits The Young And The Restless
Read about Christel Khalil staying on Y&R.
Catch up with what happened between Deacon and Bill on "B&B" through Soap Opera Fan Soap Summaries, and get the scoop on Lindsay Lohan's shoes and latest troubles through Soap Opera Fan Blog's Star Gazing.
Join us on Twitter @soapoperafan and Facebook. Come tweet and Facebook with us about "The Young and the Restless," all the other soap operas, "Dallas," "Glee," "Grey's Anatomy," "Vampire Diaries," and "Venice The Series."
- Candace Young
Out as Heather.
According to an interview with "Y&R" head writer Josh Griffith in TV Guide, actress Jennifer Landon has been let go from her role as Heather Stevens. Landon formerly played Gwen on "As The World Turns." Griffith told the magazine that the cast cuts were done for the time being.
Soaps.com wishes Landon all the best in her future endeavors. Would you like to see Heather recast (again!) or just written off? Let us know by voting below.


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NASCAR: Montoya ready for return to Sprint Cup
BROOKLYN, Mich. – Juan Pablo Montoya is ready for his abbreviated return to Sprint Cup racing.
Montoya will be in the No. 12 Ford for Sunday's 400-mile race at Michigan International Speedway, his first Cup race since moving back to IndyCar after last season. Montoya's last win in NASCAR was in 2010, a year after he made the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship and finished a career-best eighth in the standings. This weekend's race is in some ways a tuneup for next month's Brickyard 400, another NASCAR event Montoya added to his full-time IndyCar schedule.
"Our goal here, I think, is we'll take it as it comes this weekend," Montoya said. "But the way we really look at it is it's really good preparation for the Brickyard."
Montoya is one of the world's most decorated drivers, with an Indianapolis 500 victory and wins in Formula One, NASCAR and the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. He left Formula One for NASCAR in 2006.
Montoya returned to open-wheel racing this year to drive for Roger Penske, the IndyCar Series rival of Montoya's longtime boss, Chip Ganassi. Montoya is seventh in the IndyCar standings and finished third last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.
Now he's hoping for a strong showing for Penske on the NASCAR side, even if this isn't his full-time focus anymore.
"With Chip we had good years, bad years, good races, bad — we had everything," Montoya said. "The way Team Penske is running right now, they look like every week they have a shot at winning, so if we do a good job here and we have a decent race we'll easily get a top 10, and if I'm really comfortable in the car we could even look at a win."
Montoya had eight top-10 finishes in 36 Cup starts last year. He's made 14 Cup starts at MIS, finishing as high as sixth in 2009.
Penske's other two drivers in Sunday's race — Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano — are fifth and ninth in the Cup standings. Montoya isn't competing for that title, but both he and his owner would love a good showing at the Brickyard in July.
Montoya is in position to become the first driver to start three feature races at Indy in the same season. He finished 16th in the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis on May 10, then placed fifth in the Indianapolis 500.
Montoya was 28th in qualifying at Michigan on Friday. Ford has won the last three Cup races at MIS. Logano took last year's August race, and Greg Biffle took the two before that.
"This is probably one of the best tracks for the Fords," Montoya said. "They always excel here and have a car that can win, and the way Team Penske is running right now, if it clicks from the beginning, and we hope it does, we might have a shot at winning this. And then going to the Brickyard, is a place that I run really well."
Montoya raced in Michigan recently, finishing 13th in the June 1 IndyCar race at Belle Isle. At MIS on Friday, Montoya joked that he got away with blocking during that race. He was asked if some of the familiar faces in NASCAR might be a bit less sensitive about that sort of thing.
"If you think about every series I've done, the longest series I've been in, in my career, was NASCAR," Montoya said. "I was in Formula One for six years and I was here for seven. In IndyCar I've only been there for two-and-a-half. So I know the game here — and it's fun knowing that you're not doing the whole season."


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Microsoft today kicked off its second attempt at cracking the tablet market, unveiling replacements for both the Surface RT and Surface Pro.
"We only set out to make them better," said Panos Panay, the Microsoft general manager who leads the Surface team, in a roll-out in front of an invitation-only audience of reporters and analysts in New York City on Monday.
The Surface 2, a renamed and revamped Surface RT -- it's no coincidence that Microsoft ditched the "RT" label, which few consumers knew referred to the Windows RT that powered it -- will cost $449 for 32GB or $549 for 64GB of storage space when it reaches retail next month, said Microsoft.
Those prices were $50 less than the original prices for the Surface RT, but $100 more than the heavily discounted prices of 2012's version after Microsoft began unloading it this summer.
Meanwhile, the Surface Pro 2 will swap pride-of-place in Microsoft's lineup with the Surface Pro. Like its ancestor, the Surface Pro 2 will run a full-fledged Windows able to handle legacy applications, and is not a scaled-back device like the Surface 2, which is capable of running only tile-style "Modern" nee "Metro" apps. The Surface Pro 2 will be priced at $899 for a 64GB device, $999 for one with 128GB of storage space.
The prices were identical to the initial prices of the Surface Pro when it launched in early February, but $100 more than the discounted prices the now-superseded tablet currently sports.
Both tablets will come with the 8.1 update for their respective operating systems: The Surface 2 with Windows 8.1 RT -- there's the "RT" again -- and the Surface Pro 2 with Windows 8.1 Pro.
Panay touted the changes in each tablet, citing 20% faster performance overall, a 50% increase in graphics performance, and a 75% boost in battery life for the Surface Pro 2, all largely -- though not entirely -- due to the use of Intel's new "Haswell" Core i5 processor.
The Surface 2 is also faster, said Panay, who claimed a three- to four-time increase in performance courtesy of the Nvidia Tegra 4 ARM-licensed processor, and an increase of battery life to 10 hours.
Microsoft also revealed several new accessories for the Surface line, including a keyboard-cover combination that packs an extra battery, new Touch Covers in five different colors, and a docking station for connecting the tablet in the workplace to peripherals such as multiple monitors and a full-fledged keyboard.
The Power Cover, a modified Type Cover -- the more true keyboard-like of Microsoft's two covers -- will cost $199.99, but will not hit retail until early 2014, said Microsoft.
The Docking Station for Surface Pro, as the new add-on is called, will also cost $199.99 and launch early next year. It will work with both the original Surface Pro and the Surface Pro 2, and will offer one USB 3.0 port and three USB 2.0 ports for connecting peripherals.
The accessories, and much of Panay's time on stage, reinforced the pitch that Microsoft has long made: That the Surface Pro should be envisioned as a two-in-one purchase, not only a tablet but also a replacement for a notebook or even a desktop PC.
"You now have the full ability to use, literally, what I believe is the most powerful tablet for professional use in the world," Panay boasted.
Carolina Milanesi of Gartner, who was at the New York event, praised the move to expand the Surface Pro 2's functionality with the add-ons. "Accessories are key not just to add to the devices but to show the commitment to the platform and kick-start the ecosystem," she tweeted today.
But other analysts were unimpressed.
"It doesn't look like Microsoft has done much which is compelling with these to overcome the negative perceptions [of the originals]," said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates, in an email. "Seems like Microsoft is just maintaining the traditional PC mantra -- keep upgrading the chip and hardware a little bit every year at a slightly lower price.
"I think they needed to do something that was innovative beyond the first generation, and I don't see that in these devices," Gold continued. "I think they'll continue to sell a few, but I don't think this will dramatically alter their sales trajectory."
Microsoft will take pre-orders beginning tomorrow at 8 a.m. ET on its online store, in its own chain of retail stores, and at those of its Best Buy partner in the U.S. and Canada. The on-sale date will be Oct. 22, several days after Microsoft and its OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) release Windows 8.1 and their own new devices, respectively.
Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His email address is email@example.com.


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text: The Way of Wood Mary Alice Hostetter It all started with the floor loom. My friend Robin said her mother was downsizing and wanted to sell hers. I had taken a basic weaving class at the local art center the year before, and the place mats I had made for Christmas gifts on a very simple table loom—only a step up from a Playskool toy—had impressed the recipients. For some reason I don't now understand, I thought a floor loom was a good idea. I imagined myself after a stressful day sitting at the loom, rhythmically tossing the shuttle back and forth, perhaps some soothing music playing in the background. It would be so relaxing. I went to look at the torn-down loom in Ms. Harper's garage. The pieces were tied up in bundles, and it might just as well have been a pile of lumber. Ms. Harper said she hadn't had it together in thirty years but was sure it was all there. I could undo the bundles and check if I wanted, she said. She thought one hundred dollars was fair. I wasn't sure about either the loom or the price, but I paid her and loaded it into the truck. "Bring it back if you have any trouble," she said. Once home, I undid the ropes and, with considerable trial and error, fit the pieces together. There hadn't been nearly so many pieces on the table loom. The assembled loom took up more space in a small house than I imagined it would, but I convinced myself that the handmade loom was really a piece of art and imagined how it would look with a colorful weaving in process. When I was trying to fit in some of the smaller pieces, I noticed that one of them was broken, but it seemed such a small repair. I was sure I could find someone to fix it. It was no reason to return it. A friend dropped by and saw my loom. It was hard to miss, dominating the end of the dining room. I showed him the broken piece. "That would be so easy to make," he said. "You could do that." "Except that I don't have any tools and don't know what I'm doing." "Oh, that." He laughed. "Why don't you take an evening class at the tech school? They have all the tools you need there." The loom was sitting there in its needing-to-be-repaired state the following week when the adult evening class catalog arrived in the mail. I checked, and there was a basic woodworking class. I put it aside. I would think about it. I needed to let the idea of me in a woodworking class bounce around in my head for a while.I received my primary and secondary education in the fifties and sixties before Title IX mandated gender equity in education and school athletics. In that time the curriculum was set: girls took home economics, and boys took shop. In PE, when boys played basketball, they were permitted to run the length of the court; girls' rules stopped players at the center line, and each player was permitted only three dribbles. In the sewing unit of home ec., I made an apron I would never wear, the mandatory first sewing project, and then the green shorts. They were my first shorts, and I thought they would provide me something to wear in PE, since the girls in my family were not permitted to wear shorts. My green shorts were longer than the ones sold in the school store, and, although my mother wasn't happy about them, she did allow me to buy the fabric I needed and the Simplicity pattern. She would not, however, let me buy a new zipper, since she had some she had torn out of my brothers' worn-out pants. I never could get the recycled zipper to work, so I had to use safety pins to fasten the shorts. With my shirttail out in PE, I hoped no one noticed. In high school, the shop was a totally unknown and mysterious space to me. On the way to the chorus room, I could see through the window, and there was usually a group of guys, the "shop boys" we called them, hanging out with Mr. Brenner, the teacher. They would be leaning against big power tools, straddling sawhorses. Only occasionally did I see anyone cutting a piece of wood on one of the roaring saws. Now and then I would see someone loading a picnic table or a cedar chest. The shop always felt like an exclusive boys' club. They were learning to work with brawny, dangerous power tools, while the girls were trusted with irons, sewing machines, stoves, and ovens. But all of that changed when someone discovered that there was no chromosomal predisposition determining how many times you could dribble a basketball, work with a saw rather than a needle, a mixer rather than a drill. After Title IX nothing was ever quite the same. But old habits die hard, and, even though I was in my forties, I had never had occasion to learn my way around a workshop.The evening class catalog lay there on my desk for a few weeks, waiting for my decision, until one day I filled out the registration page and sent in my check, just before the deadline. After I sent it, I had moments of hoping I would be notified that the class was filled, but I received no such news. I was committed. With some anxiety I entered the shop the evening of my first class, not knowing what to expect. There was a cluster of older men standing around one of the tables chatting, looking like they could be Mr. Brenner's "shop boys," all grown up, with less hair. There was a twenty-something looking guy, a sullen teenager, and one older woman. At first I couldn't tell who was the teacher. Then one of the men in the group chatting picked up a clipboard and came toward me. "You must be Ms. Hostetter," he said. I could see when he pointed to his list that he was missing half of his right index finger and the tip of the next one. "Yes." "I'm Bob McDaniel. Everyone calls me Mac. You done any work with wood before?" "No," I said. "I thought this was Basic Woodworking." "Well, it is, but some of these people've been taking it for years." He pointed toward the group of older men and then at the gray-haired woman who had invited me to share her worktable. "Like Margaret here. Margaret, how many times is this for you?" "I'd have to think about it," she said, "but I'd say at least two years, maybe three." "So it's fine, no matter how much experience you have." "Believe me. I don't know anything," I said. Mr. Mac had already walked away. He stood in the middle of the room and said loudly enough that he could be heard over the ventilation system, "For those of you who are new, or if you need a review, I'd like you to come into the classroom. I've set up the safety film for you to watch before you start in with any of the equipment. The rest of you can work on whatever you've got going. If you need me, you know where to find me." I moved toward the classroom. Only one other person, the teenager named Tony, was in there to watch the safety film. "I'm Mary Alice," I said. "You new to woodworking too?" "No. Been taking it for a couple years. I'm in the day class, but they kicked me out. Said I was disruptive. Only way I can graduate is if I come to the evening class the rest of the year. They were going to expel me but said they'd give me one more chance." "So you've probably seen this film before?" "Yeah, but anything to get me out of the shop. Hate that dirt and noise." The man in the film was explaining the importance of the safety devices on all of the power tools. So many kinds of saws, so many kinds of shields and feathers and clamps and fences, the names started to blend into each other. "That's some pretty scary stuff," I said when the film finished. "Boring. I've seen it all before," Tony said. Tony sat at the table in the classroom and started flipping through books and magazines. I went into the shop and walked toward the table where Margaret had spread out her wood. Her gray hair looked as though one day, in a moment of frustration, she had taken out her scissors and hacked it ov. And the waistband of her jeans was too tight to button, so she had a big safety pin holding it together. "So what are you going to make?" she said. "I need to make a replacement part for my loom," I said. "I brought the good one along for a pattern." I put it on the table, and Margaret looked at it. "That's it? Cutting that out won't take five minutes. Class goes for ten weeks." "I've got some old furniture I need to repair, stuff I picked up at auctions and antique stores. I think some of it may just need to be glued." "Why don't you make something?" she said. She pulled some books out of her canvas bag and got more from the bookshelf. "You could look through these for ideas." "It would need to be simple. I've never done any of this before." "Look in that Shaker book," she said. "They have some good designs, and they're really basic." I started flipping through the books, marking here and there designs I liked. Power tools were roaring, and everyone except me and Tony seemed busy with a project. Margaret was laying out her boards for a tabletop, turning them this way and that, trying to get the best match on the grain. It was walnut, she said. She had shown me the drop-leaf table design in the book. "So what have you marked there in the book?" she said. "This little Shaker candle stand doesn't look too hard. And I could really use a table like that to put a lamp on." She looked at the picture. "You could easy do that," she said. "I'll be glad to help you out with it." "I don't quite understand this materials list," I said. "That is a little confusing. I'll write it out for you, so you know exactly what to get. And the best place for lumber is Barnes. They're really helpful. Just tell them Margaret sent you." "What kind of wood you think I should use?" "First project I think I'd go with something easy to work with . . . pine or fir. Soft wood. This piece isn't going to take much. And for that broken piece you have to replace, just get a finished quarter-inch pine board. No need to plane down a board for that little thing." I looked at the list she had written out for me, wanted to make sure I understood. "And you need goggles and ear plugs, too, if you don't already have them." She shifted her boards again, still trying to get the perfect layout. "That book's mine, so you can take it along if you want to read over the instructions for the table or look at ideas for your next project."The following week I unloaded my lumber. Margaret was already there. She cleared half the table for me, and I spread my wood out. "Nice wood," she said. "Barnes," I said. She helped me plane the boards, joint the edges so they would be good to glue together, cut everything to length on the radial-arm saw. She showed me how to use the doweling jig, glue the boards and clamp them. "You can leave the clamps on until next week," she said, "and then we'll cut our circle for the top. Mac's going to have to help you turn that stem. I'm not that good on the lathe. Notching that joint on the bottom crosspiece shouldn't be a problem. You're going to have yourself a nice little table." Tony was lurking about, looking in books now and then, as if he was still undecided about his project. Margaret had him help her carry some boards from the storage closet, and he was brushing sawdust ov his black Guns N' Roses T-shirt when she said, "So Tony, what are you planning to make?" "I don't know. Maybe something for my girlfriend." "Like what?" "Maybe something for Valentine's Day." "That's a good idea. What does she like?" "Other than me, you mean?" Tony smiled. "She's crazy about butterflies. That's like her trademark. Even dots her i's with a little butterfly if she's not in a big hurry. When she writes me a note, there's always at least one butterfly somewhere." "Well then, make something with a butterfly," Margaret said. "Like what?" Before I remembered that I wasn't really in the conversation, I said, "You could do little wooden butterfly cutouts, attach them to each other, and she could hang it in her room, like a mobile." "And I could paint them," Tony said. "I could put a little heart on each of them somewhere, since it's for Valentine's Day." "Do you still have a note with one of her butterflies?" Margaret said. "Sure. I have every note she ever wrote me." "What you need to do is trace it ov and make a pattern out of cardboard or something to trace around on the wood. We'll enlarge it on the Xerox up in the office if we need to." "What about wood?" Tony said. "For something like that, you could find more than enough over in the scrap bin," Margaret said. Tony spent the rest of the evening sorting through wood scraps, pulled out a whole pile and put them on the shelf in the storage closet with his name on them and a sign that read, Do Not Touch. I worked with Mac getting my four-by-four ready to turn on the lathe and got the pieces ready for the base. Margaret said we would do the lap joints the next week, since someone was working on the radial-arm saw, and that was the one I needed.My Shaker table was finished by the sixth week of class, and I almost finished a bench and step stool before the semester ended. Tony's mobile turned out well, and he said his girlfriend liked it. He made a little box for his mother for Mothers' Day. He thought he might put something special in it for her, maybe not. He made a wooden frame for his graduation picture. On Saturday mornings I started watching The New Yankee Workshop, amazed that Norm Abrams could finish a complicated piece of furniture in thirty minutes, and it took me weeks to do a simple piece. I knew he had all the pieces ready and organized and just put them together, but still. My home library expanded to include books on furniture designs, box designs, birdhouse designs. I dropped hints about woodworking tools and accessories I might enjoy as gifts and soon had my own collection of clamps, a sander, a drill, a router, a circular saw, and an accessory to turn a drill into a drill press. The language of wood joinery was no longer alien to me—dado, rabbet, dovetail, miter and spline, mortise and tenon, tongue and groove. After a while I tore down the loom and put it in storage. The replacement piece I had made, with the stain and oil, had aged nicely to match the rest of the seasoned wood on the old loom. The house filled with handmade furniture: a couple desks, tables, a nightstand, a coffee table, indoor benches, stepstools, outdoor benches. I made pieces for friends, a communion table for my sister's church. When I no longer was enrolled in the evening class, I would go to Margaret's house to work in the shop in her basement. We would work together on her projects, then on mine. When I would suggest something I had considered making, no matter how complicated, Margaret would say, "We can do that." She was sure we could do hand-cut dovetails for a blanket chest I had in mind. She had always wanted to try those. The lumber piled up as friends heard I was working with wood. Margaret frequently gifted me with lumber, especially after she was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive cancer and became too weak to make furniture. At first we tried to do woodworking together, with her sitting on a stool in her workshop explaining what needed to be done, but it wasn't the same without her being able to show me. Soon she was too weak to make it down the basement stairs.The loom has been in storage now for twenty-plus years. Weaving never really took ov for me, and I know it is time for the loom to go. It needs to get out of the way for the new workshop I am designing. I hope to donate or sell the loom to someone whose passion for weaving has not waned. The dogwood tree we planted after Margaret died, next to the grape arbor she helped me design and build, has thrived. I can see the top of it from the window over the desk where I write in my second-story room. I can't believe she has been gone that long. The tree was so small when we planted it. I still have books and tools Margaret lent me. Her husband said I should keep them; she would want me to have them. They will join the rest of my collection in the new workshop, right next to the dogwood tree. Mary Alice Hostetter has had the opportunity to devote more time to her lifelong passion for writing since recently retiring from a career in human services. She lives and writes in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she continues to work with wood, rubbing tung oil into her handmade furniture. "The Way of Wood" appears in our Summer 2012 issue.


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An interesting blog post from Microsoft Fellow Mark Russinovich:
Windows Vista SP1 includes a number of enhancements over the original Vista release in the areas of application compatibility, device support, power management, security and reliability. One of the improvements highlighted in the document is the increased performance of file copying for multiple scenarios, including local copies on the same disk, copying files from remote non-Windows Vista systems, and copying files between SP1 systems. How were these gains achieved? The answer is a complex one and lies in the changes to the file copy engine between Windows XP and Vista and further changes in SP1. Everyone copies files, so I thought it would be worth a dive deep into the evolution of the copy engine to show how SP1 improves its performance.
Copying a file seems like a relatively straightforward operation: open the source file, create the destination, and then read from the source and write to the destination. In reality, however, the performance of copying files is measured along the dimensions of accurate progress indication, CPU usage, memory usage, and throughput. In general, optimizing one area causes degradation in others.
During Vista SP1's development, the product team decided to revisit the copy engine to explore ways to improve both the real and perceived performance of copy operations for the cases that suffered in the new implementation. The biggest change they made was to go back to using cached file I/O again for all file copies, both local and remote, with one exception. With caching, perceived copy time and the publishing scenario both improve. However, several significant changes in both the file copy algorithm and the platform were required to address the shortcomings of cached I/O.
One final SP1 change worth mentioning is that Explorer makes copy duration estimates much sooner than the original Vista release and the estimation algorithm is more accurate.


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Chad Kellogg Killed in Patagonia
American speed alpinist Chad Kellogg was killed by rockfall in Patagonia.
American speed alpinist Chad Kellogg, 42, was struck and killed by rockfall while descending the Supercanaleta on Fitz Roy in Patagonia. Kellogg, with Jens Holsten, had summited via the Afanassieff and were rappelling the Supercanaleta when a rappel rope became stuck. The two attempted to pull the rope free, and dislodged the block that struck Kellogg, who was killed instantly.
Kellogg made a career of climbing mountains quickly, and was most recently in the news for his attempts to break the speed record on Mount Everest, the last in May, 2013.
According to his blog post out outdoorresearch.com, Kellogg began climbing in 1984, in his home range, the North Cascades. Kellogg made the first ascent of Pangbuk Ri (22,015) in Nepal, the first ascent of Black Crystal Arete on Kitchatna Spire, Alaska, the first ascent of the SW Ridge of Siguniang in China, and the first ascent of the Medicine Buddha on the South Face of Aconcagua.
Kellogg's career had its triumphs and tragedies. His wife, Lara Karena Kellogg, died when she rappelled off the end of her rope on Mount Wake in Alaska's Ruth Gorge, in 2007, and one of his best friends, Joe Puryear, died when a cornice collapsed on him while attempting an unclimbed peak, Labuche Kang, in Tibet, in 2011.


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EMINEM - It's Murda (Cable Guy Remix) lyricsrate me
(feat. Jay-Z, DMX & Ja Rule)
i'll shove a gun in your grill
grease it and heat it
smother it in hot mustard
so when i feed it to you
it's easy to eat it
you need to be immediately
while you breathen
and you'll be leavin
in the recieven room
in the seat of a jesus
you hate on this
we'll be waiting on eight corners
swarming your hood with
a thousand angry skateboarders
i'll hop in a jeep
and slam down on the gas
and charge you
and bombarde you
in the car that your mom bought you
fucked around and get choked
and found remote
floatin around
down face down
in a boat
i'll pile five dudes
and a tentor will pull up
to a seven mile drive through
in mcdonalds and pile drive you
i've got the power
to snap the driver
out of his
zeddy bower
while he drives by it ninety miles an hour
this place is my house
i might as well erase my face with white out
cause y'all can't see me like mace's eyebrows
(where you at?)
climbed out of a nice house through the front window and heard this guy shout
(Hey!! thats my couch)
pulled a nine out during a rhinebout while i'm rippin the shit with a clip
and i spit 5 rounds and murder you ho's worse than a convertable flippin vertical nose
first with the top off landing upside down.
Or get tied down with duct ape,
fuck rape i'd rather just hump a sluts legs with my nuts shaved


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From Britney to Miley and back again…
Britney Spears called into a radio show yesterday to talk about Work Bitch. At one point, the conversation became about how "sexy" the video is – "sexy" highlighted because that it's up for interpretation.
Anyway, apparently Britney is uncomfortable with it. And is sort of apologising and rationalising:
"Oh my god, we showed way more skin and did way more stuff for the video than what is actually there. Like, I cut out half the video because I am a mother and because, you know, I have children, and it's just hard to play sexy mom while you're being a pop star as well. I just have to be true to myself and you know, feel it out when I do stuff."
Which was the radio host's cue to ask her, "Are they pushing you further than you wanna go and then you sit in the editing room and say, 'No that has to go' and that's pretty much how that's all lined up?"
Britney kind of chuckles awkwardly and then answers: Yes.
And now everyone's freaking out that in asking her to be suggestive and "sexy" etc, her people are taking advantage of her.
Um. Just the suggestive and sexy part?
What about the WORK BITCH part?
What about the part where she's not legally in charge of her own life and they're still putting her on the hustle?
The sexiness – as I noted in the previous Miley Cyrus article – is not the only concerning aspect of Britney's situation. The most concerning aspect of Britney's situation is that she is over 30 years old, a mother of two, and has a conservator. Someone who decides what she works on, where she performs, WHO SHE DATES.
And only NOW people are wringing their hands? Over a video? That's the least of our worries, isn't it?
So if were up to Britney – if anything can be up to Britney anymore – how would it be different?
"A lot of sex goes into what I do. But sometimes I would like to bring it back to the old days when there was like one outfit through the whole video, and you're dancing the whole video, and there's like not that much sex stuff going on. It's about the dance and it's about being old school, it's like keeping it real and just making it about the dance. I'd love to do a video like that."
Um, yeah, Britney. Me too.


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The battle for barely there computing supremacy continues unabated. Over the past couple of years, we've seen PC makers brag about releasing the lightest 13-inch laptop ever, the most svelte MacBook ever, and the thinnest notebook of all time (though that last one apparently overlooked 2009's Dell Adamo). Today, Acer launched the Swift 7, the newest usurper of the "thinnest laptop ever" crown.
The Swift 7 measures in at a scant 9.9mm thick, compared to 10.4mm for the HP Spectre 13.3, and 10.16mm for the aforementioned Dell Adamo. You could slice cheese with these things. The MacBook 12, meanwhile, clocks in at a comparatively chunky (ha!) 13.2mm thick.
Another aspect common to all these limit-pushing laptops: premium design. The 2.48-pound Acer Swift 7 is carved from unibody aluminum, and awash in a black-and-gold finish. Those high-end touches extend to the 13.3-inch 1080p display, which features IPS technology for wide viewing angles and color clarity, Gorilla Glass for durability, and Acer's own BluelightShield tech to minimize eye fatigue. Under the hood, the Swift 7 packs an Intel Core i5-7Y54 processor, a 256GB SSD, 8GB of RAM, and 802.11ac Wi-Fi support, along with a pair of USB C ports and dual Dolby Audio speakers.
Of course, premium features come at a premium price. The Acer Swift 7 starts at $1,099.
The story behind the story: Thin doesn't necessarily mean anemic battery life. Like Apple's diminutive MacBook 12, Acer's Swift 7 promises up to nine hours of juice. Always take manufacturer endurance claims with a grain of salt, but if that proves true, it's a seriously impressive feat.


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I remember when I first started backpacking as a kid in the early-to-mid 70's (I know, I know… that dates me, and I really don't like thinking about it!). My family had been backpacking for years, so as soon as I got old enough to carry a pack I got a hand-me-down Kelty external frame from my older brother. Some family friends decided to get into it a few years later; they bought simple packs, sleeping bags, foam pads that rolled up, and a tarp or tent. Scrounged a few more items up around the house, and they were ready to go! Pretty easy to get up and running, right?
The gear back then was pretty simple. The packs were just one big bag (one compartment) with a few zippered pockets on the sides. That was it. Over the years, manufacturers have made use of advances in materials, using more durable plastics instead of metal, lighter and tougher fabrics, etc. At the same time, manufacturers have created lots of bells and whistles for the packs. Daisy chains, removable fanny packs, water bottle holders, more zippered pockets, and all manner of straps to tailor the fit to any hominid body type in the known universe.
All of these "advances" have resulted in a few things. Many packs today really aren't much lighter (while some are even heavier!) than when I was a kid, despite all the technological advances. And they've become freakin' expensive! And this has happened with other gear besides packs: tents, sleeping bags, you name it.
Additionally, now there are tons of companies out there creating all sorts of gadgets and gear for going out into the woods. Don't get me wrong; many of these are pretty cool. The problem is, if you completely outfitted yourself for backpacking from scratch, you'd have to take a 2nd mortgage out on your house! It's become a barrier to entry for some folks who think they need all this gear to get out and enjoy a weekend on the trail. The fact is, they don't.
It's time to Get Back to Basics! We need simple gear that will meet the needs we actually have when out on the trail. I mean, really! Some of this gear was built to go out into the wilderness for weeks or months at a time. With the economy of today, those who are lucky enough to have jobs must work their tails off to keep 'em. So why would they need a pack like that if they can barely get away for an occasional weekend?
When buying gear (whether you are just getting started in the sport, replacing some worn-out gear, or just adding to your kit), here are a few "rules of thumb" to follow:
- Buy gear that matches what you will actually use it for (length of trip, type of terrain, etc.)
- Search for the simplest, lightest and most inexpensive gear that meet those particular needs
- Don't go out and buy every piece of gear you think you'll need; on your next hike try similar items that are lying around the house first… then you can decide whether they will suffice, or if you want to upgrade (or if you got that raise!)
- Look for great deals at Mountains Plus (we frequently put backpacks on clearance in our Outlet), or let us know if we don't have what you are looking for
Backpacking is a great way to "decompress" from the harsh realities of our lives (jobs, mortgages, etc.). Don't let hype complicate this simple yet addicting activity.


text:
While it was previously reported that production on Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 would be heading to Rochester, New York at some point, ABC 13 WHAM now has a few more details about the shoot.
Set to shoot in Rochester the first two weeks of May, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is planning to film a car chase scene along the city's Main Street. There's no word yet on how much of an impact the production will make to Rochester residents.
In the 2014 sequel, Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) finds life is busy – between taking out the bad guys as Spider-Man and spending time with the person he loves, Gwen (Emma Stone), high school graduation can't come quickly enough. Peter hasn't forgotten about the promise he made to Gwen's father to protect her by staying away – but that's a promise he just can't keep. Things will change for Peter when a new villain, Electro (Jamie Foxx), emerges, an old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns, and Peter uncovers new clues about his past.
Also starring Shailene Woodley, Colm Feore, Paul Giamatti, Sally Field and Chris Cooper, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 hits theaters on May 2, 2014.


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One-Stop Intel TXT Activation Guide Intel® S2600GZ Based Server Systems
Intel® Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT) for Intel® Xeon® processor-based servers is commonly used to enhance platform security by utilizing the underlying hardware-based technology found in modern server platforms. Using a combination of the Intel Xeon processor-based and other industry-leading platform technologies, such as Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT), trusted platform module (TPM), and appropriately configured BIOS with the authenticated code module; Intel TXT provides security against hypervisor, BIOS, firmware, and other pre-launch software-based attacks by establishing a "root of trust" during the boot process. Enabling Intel TXT to protect your systems is a simple process and this will be showcased in this document.


text:
I had recently lost my joie de vivre. Looking over my last post I can see why many of you were less than optimistic about my feelings for my husband. The truth of the matter is, however, that when one is really down, it's easy to lose perspective, and that's what happened. I adore my husband and always will, but for about two weeks, I was feeling a bit sorry for myself.
The pity party is officially closed.
I also have to respectfully disagree with those of you who were quick to comment "Leave him." How sad. Has the state of marriage really gotten to the point where if someone goes thorugh a rocky point the alternative is to take off? We are NOT our feelings only. Love is a conscious decision that we must make every single day. It's about working with our partners and ourselves to make changes, as hard as it might be, to get back on track. I am grateful to God that my husband and I both know that. That the positives far outweigh the negative. That the trust and love we have built together can weather the storms that are bound to hit us from time to time.
More From Good Housekeeping
It would be awesome if life were a honeymoon phase twenty four hours a day, but it's not. It changes. Parents get older. Kids get sick. The economy bites. It's easy to get down and blame your spouse. I fell into that trap and was honest enough to admit it. But I'm also strong enough to know when it's time to shut up and be thankful for everything I have - which is a A LOT.
With some time to think (as opposed to many of you who would be busy packing your bags to find the next person to dump) I realized that silence, not my husband, was the crux of my blues. Being the outgoing, over-the-top-gimme-stimulation input person that I am, my soul was slowly dying being in front of a computer all day rather than people. When Rex would return from work - my calm, quiet, pragmatic Rex - I unfairly turned to him to fix everything.
In closing, I am staying put in my marriage. I know a great guy when I see it. But I am definitely going to leave him for short bursts to work in the arena I have always loved best - one full of bells and whistles and so much energy I'll never complain again about my quiet existence: Hollywood, baby!
For tonight, though, I'm going back upstairs to the other place I love best now that the fog has lifted. It's a bed - and trust me - there won't be sleeping.
I'm back! Love you Rex!


text:
(visited by Richard Smith)
29-Dec-2002 -- Almost three years to the day after Ross
Finlayson's initial visit to 36°N 117°W, my wife and I decided
to pay a visit to this confluence as part of our annual retreat to
Death Valley National Park. This is one of two confluences that lie
within the official boundaries of the park, the other one being 37°N 117°W.
As Ross mentioned in his report, the confluence lies in the Panamint
mountains about 1 mile north of Warm Spring Canyon Road where it
crosses 117°W longitude. It's about 15 miles west from the West
Side Road and is an easy trail for a 4WD vehicle, or even a 2WD with
good ground clearance. The road is well-graded for the first ten
miles and rocky for the last five. The trail north for the last mile
requires a modest degree of technical 4WD skill.
My wife René and I started out around noon with the intention
of getting some good late-afternoon pictures. The drive was easy and
quite beautiful as expected. What we weren't prepared for was what a
fascinating section of the park this is. The Panamints are quite rich
in natural beauty as well as California history. As we drove along we
saw mines that have probably been worked since the days of the
49'ers and the famous 20 Mule Teams, and some of them are still being
worked today. Although most people think of gold and silver when they
think of mining, the honest truth is that unglamorous substances like
talc seem to draw the most attention these days.
Since we took our time and did some sightseeing, it was around 3:30 PM
when we got to the intersection of Warm Spring Canyon Road and
117°W. I had my wife get out and do some spotting for me, then
proceeded north for 3/4 of a mile in my truck. I picked a spot about 1/4
mile away from the confluence to park and after a five-minute
hike I was there! However it wasn't a total cakewalk due to the
upward slope of the land in this area, which forms a sort of plateau
that is not visible from the road and feels quite remote once you get
there. It would have been an excellent site for wilderness camping if we had
come equipped for that.
Even though this is the first visit reported to the DCP since
selective availability was turned off in May 2000, to my surprise
there were at least two small rock "sculptures" quite close to the
confluence point so it was obvious that this location was of interest
to people even if they hadn't heard of it through the DCP web site.
Although it was nice to get late-afternoon pictures of the confluence,
I found myself regretting that we hadn't started earlier. Instead of
turning back we could have continued on to the Striped Butte and
perhaps gone all the way into Panamint Valley through Ballarat via
Goler Wash, which is the only 4WD route across the southern Panamints
that remains open at present due to closures by the NPS and BLM in
response to pressures from environmentalists and private land owners.
A few notes about the equipment I used. As always my Garmin Etrex
Vista was excellent. I fashioned a primitive dashboard mount using
Garmin's bicycle handlebar mount, the advantage being that it's bolted
to the dash and therefore vibration-proof (this is important for
off-road use). My camera is a Canon EOS D30 which I've had for two
years now, and even though it's not the "latest and greatest" anymore,
I still think this is one of the best digital cameras for outdoor use due to
its outstanding image quality and above-average battery life. And of
course my 2000 Toyota Tacoma acquitted itself with no trouble at all.
Please visit my web site www.rssnet.org for more information
about my adventures with René, including detailed trip reports
and more pictures.


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Before actually ordering service, there are several things you may want to explore. Please note, that there are many ways any given telco might decide to handle qualification and installation procedures. Much of what is described in this section, is how it is commonly done in the U.S.
In many parts of the world, there is no choice on who you get DSL from: your friendly local telco, of course! They own the copper wires, and thus they hold all the cards.
However, in the U.S. de-regulation has opened this up somewhat. Beyond the obvious consideration of price, there are reasons to investigate which alternate providers may be offering DSL services in your area. The large Telephone companies are everywhere, and may advertise the most. But increasingly smaller ISPs and independents are getting into the act. This has created some diversity in the DSL marketplace. A good thing of course, but possibly creating a little confusion too. Conversely, in areas where there is only one choice, then we have no choice but to accept whatever service is being offered.
If your telco has a monopoly on phone service and DSL, you may skip the rest of this section. And probably the next few sections. They will probably control the installation and qualification processes, and you just wait for them to get finished.
Not all DSL services are alike. Just because two local companies are offering "ADSL", does not mean that necessarily there is much in common at all. In fact, there are potentially a number of factors that make one ADSL provider's service significantly different from another's. Some things to consider:
Speed vs Price.
What hardware is provided, i.e. modem or router. It is best if this is external ethernet in either case.
The ISP's Network architecture. PPPoX? Static IP? Servers allowed?
Is it an "always on" service, at least theoretically? Are there supplemental usage fees, or idle timeouts?
Linux friendly, Linux hostile, or Linux agnostic? This is not as much of a problem as it used to be in most areas. Some providers are still very restrictive on allowing "servers", and possibly even LAN connections. Buyer beware. Talk to other users, and read their TOS (Terms of Service) to get a feel for their attitude.
Quality of service. How is news, mail, etc.? News particularly seems to be inconsistent with low-end broadband providers. Probably because of the dramatic increase in binary news content, which is compounded by the higher bandwidth and increased usage of such groups.
For a more lengthy discussion on some of these considerations and related issues, see the DSL Overview appendix for more on modems, qualifying for service, and choosing a provider.
Once you have chosen a provider, and ordered service, the next step is for the telco to "qualify" your loop. This essentially means testing your line to make sure it can handle the DSL signal, and possibly what level of service may be available to you. This may take some time, especially if the telco encounters problems with the loop. If no problems are found during this phase, then possibly there will be a one to three week wait for the installation. YMMV.
After the telco has qualified the loop and readied their end of the connection, the next step is installation of the necessary components at the customer's end of the connection: wiring modifications, splitter or filters, and, of course the modem and any necessary software.
You may or may not have a choice on how the installation is done, or who does it. This is totally at the discretion of the provider. In much of the world, this is done by the telco, and there is little flexibility. Many providers in the U.S. offer a "self install" option where you do all the work. In this scenario, the provider will send a kit in order to save them from sending a tech, and thus reducing cost. Typically, self install kits will include microfilters for the POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) or ISDN (where ADSL over ISDN is used) phone jacks, the modem (and maybe a NIC), and a CDROM with drivers, etc. on it. In some cases, a splitter may be included instead of microfilters. In any case, some type of filtering is necessary on the non-DSL lines. If not the noise generated by the DSL signal may interfere with regula telco devices such as phones and answering machines.
The other possibility is for the provider to do the installation. Again, this may be your only option. Obviously, the cost is higher here, but it may have the advantage of having a trained tech do any wiring. There is also a better chance of getting a "splittered" installation with this option (a good thing!). Another benefit is that if something is wrong with the line, or the telco has not provisioned the line properly, an on-site tech may be able to help sort out certain kinds of problems quickly.
The self-install kit should come with full instructions, regardless of whether the installation will be splittered or filtered. So we won't go into much detail on this aspect.
There are various wiring schemes depending on how your service is being provided, who is providing it, and which DSL service is being provided. If your telco is performing the installation, you may skip this section.
Dedicated Line. Some DSLs require a dedicated, or "dry", wire pair, e.g. IDSL. This means a separate, physical line without dial-tone for DSL and Internet connectivity. Also, DSL services from CLECs (independent telcos like Covad), may use a dedicated line, depending on their line sharing agreement with the local incumbent carrier. (Instead the CLEC will actually lease a loop from the ILEC.) On your end, this simply means using one of the unused wire pairs in the telco wire bundle, and connecting it to the DSL jack.
Shared Line with Splitter. For DSLs like ADSL, that are provided over the same line as regular voice service, the signal must be filtered somehow so that voice services are not adversely effected. Installing a splitter splits the line into two pairs, and filters the DSL signal from one of them. This results in a inside wiring scheme where DSL goes to only one jack, and then regular voice type service to all other jacks. This is considered by many to be a better type of installation than "splitterless", i.e. with microfilters instead. See below.
Splitters are available from various manufacturers and come in various shapes and sizes. Some are small enough to fit in the NID itself (sometimes called SNI, this is the telco phone box on the outside of your house), while others have a housing as large as the NID itself. Typically this is mounted near the NID, on the customer's side of the demarcation point.
Shared Line with Filters. Again, for some DSLs that piggyback on the POTS (or ISDN) line, the signal must be filtered or split at some point. This is not necessary for g.lite or RADSL however. The other way of doing this is by placing RJ11 "microfilters" in each phone jack -- except where the DSL modem will be. These filters are relatively small, plug-in devices and remove the higher frequencies associated with DSL. This is obviously much easier since no tools or wiring is required. This is often what is included in self-install kits, and is often referred to as a "splitterless" installation. This is a very common approach in the U.S. Note that in areas where ADSL over ISDN is provided, filtering is required also, but the filters themselves are quite different and are not interchangeable with POTS filters!
Similar microfilters are sometimes used by some telcos to reduce the excessive "whine" on the line that is produced by some modems. This is a little different approach as the filter is put on the same jack as the modem.
Shared Line, Splitterless and Filterless. Some newer DSLs, like G.Lite, have no adverse effect on regular POTS devices and thus require no filters or splitters. This would seem to be the wave of the future. Just plug and play. Though still not very common.
<--------Home/Office-----><---Loop---><--Central Office-->
phone, |
fax, |
etc, |
| -------
| | |
| | |
| ----- | |
POTS X-------+----Voice--=| S | | D |
| P | | S |=- Voice Switch
| L | 2 wire | L |
| T | Local Loop | M |=- ISP --> INET
Linux X--=| Modem |=-Data-=| E | | |
----- | |
<--------Home/Office-------><----Loop---><--Central Office-->
POTS X--Voice---[RJ11]------+
phone, (filter) |
fax, D CO
etc, a -------
t | |
a | |
POTS X--Voice---[RJ11]----- & | D |
(filter) V ----- | S |=- Voice Switch
o | N | 2 wire | L |
i-=| I |=-----------=| A |
c | D | Local Loop | M |=- ISP --> INET
e ----- | |
----------- | | |
Linux X--=| Modem |=-------| | |
----------- -------
If you are not doing a self-install, then you may skip this section and move to Configuring Linux. If you are doing a self-install with microfilters, skip to the mircofilter section. The following procedures are meant to illustrate the wiring process. Please note that your procedures may be different at your location. Make sure you follow any warnings or safety instructions provided, that you RTFM, and that you are familiar with telco wiring procedures.
The first step will be to wire up the connections from your provider. Identify the line on which service will be installed, and the locations of your splitter and DSL jack(s). (For perhaps a better wiring scheme, see the Homerun section immediately below.)
Be aware that typical telco wire has more than one pair per bundle. Often, two pairs, but sometimes more. If you have but one phone line, the other pair(s) are unused. This makes them available for use with wiring for DSL. Wire pairs are color coded for easy identification. SDSL and IDSL require a dedicated, or "dry", pair. If an unused pair is available, then no real re-wiring is required. It is just a matter of re-wiring an existing jack for the correct pair of wires, and attaching the modem.
" I would not use microfilters if I lived across the street from my CO. A splitter is the only way to go. "
|--A retired BellSouth ADSL installer
The optimum method of wiring for the DSL modem is sometimes called a "homerun". It is called this because it is one, straight shot from the splitter to the modem's DSL jack. What this does is bypass the existing inside wiring altogether, and any problems that might be lurking there -- like a corroded connection somewhere on a voice jack. Inside wiring deficiencies can cause a degradation of the DSL signal.
This also allows you to route the cable to avoid any potential RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) sources. RFI anywhere in the circuit can be a DSL killer. Routing the cable away from items that may have electric motors, transformers, power supplies, high intensity lighting fixtures, dimmer switches and such, is a smart way to go. And you are also less likely to have a failing microfilter cause problems -- one potential point of failure instead of several. You can also use a better grade of cable such as CAT 5.
If your existing installation is "splitterless" (i.e. using microfilters) now, converting to a homerun will entail purchasing a splitter. And, of course, will also mean some new wiring will need to be run. Microfilters also add to the effective loop length -- as much as 700 ft per filter in some cases! So if you have several microfilters installed, and your sync rate or distance is marginal, eliminating these filters may result in a significant improvement.
A poor man's splitter can be rigged by using a microfilter inside the NID. This is not "by the book", but seems to work just fine for many.
If you have the splitterless design (i.e. using "microfilters") or a dedicated line, you may skip this part.
The splitter will typically consist of two parts, the splitter and a small outdoor housing. Mount the splitter and accompanying housing per the telco's instructions at the Network Interface Device (NID) point (also sometimes called the SNI or ONI), usually the side of your house where the phone line is located. Put it on your side of the NID. The phone company may need to access the splitter for maintenance, so its advisable to locate it on the outside where they can get at it, but outside is not absolutely necessary.
The wire bundle should have at least two separate wire pairs. The splitter takes one pair, and separates the signal onto two pairs. One pair in the bundle will then go to all phone jacks, and the other to the modem's DSL wall jack. So connect the incoming telco line to the LINE side of the splitter. Then wire the inside pair for your telephone to the VOICE, and your inside wire pair for the modem to DATA.
Checkstep At this point, you should be able to pull dial tone off the voice side of the splitter. If this doesn't work, then you've wired it wrong. You can also plug the modem into the test jack in the NID box (most should have this). Plug in the modem's power cord, and if the line is provisioned correctly, you should "sync" in less than a minute. This test only requires the modem. (Internal and USB modems will require a driver to be loaded before syncing. This would mean having the computer there too.)
Wire the DSL wall jack (RJ11) at your computer location, which should already be connected to the DATA side of the splitter. The specifics differ for each situation, but basically you will have a wire pair that you will connect to the DSL jack. Make sure you read the directions, as the DSL-RJ11 wiring may be different for phones and DSL jacks. AND -- different modems may expect the signal on different pairs -- most on the inside pair, but some on the outside pair.
/ \
| |
^^ <-- Inside Most modems on inside pair
^ ^ <-- Outside Some on outside, e.g. Alcatel 1000, SpeedTouch Home
Pretty much a no-brainer here. If you are doing a "splitterless", self-install installation, then install the provided microfilters in all phone jacks except the one where the DSL modem will be connected. Don't forget devices like fax machines and analog modems. The filters filter out the higher DSL frequencies and will keep the DSL noise from interfering with POTS (or ISDN) equipment.
Warning! Alarm systems can present various problems, depending on the type of alarm and how it is installed. This may require telco help for proper installation so the one does not interfere with the other. Common microfilters tend not to work because most alarm boxes use a different size jack. Filters are now available just for alarm boxes, though traditionally this has been handled with a splitter type installation.
To install, connect the modem's (or router's) power cord, and connect the phone line between the DSL wall jack and the modem. This cable should be provided. If not, a regular phone cord will suffice. With the ethernet interfaced modems, you may also connect the ethernet cable between the NIC and the modem (but not really necessary at this point just to verify an ethernet modem is working).
Checkstep At this point, verify that the modem syncs with the telco's DSLAM signal. Most modems have a green LED that lights up when the signal is good, and red or orange if not in sync. The modem's manual will have more details on the LEDs. If it doesn't sync, then check your wiring, or make sure that the DSL signal is being sent. Do this by calling your telco and verifying they have activated the service. Or by testing the modem at the test jack on the NID (see above). Note that having dial tone on the line does NOT confirm the presence of the DSL data signal. And vice versa -- perfectly possible to have dial tone and no DSL, or DSL and no dial tone. There should also be no static or noise on the voice line when everything is installed and functioning properly.
Ethernet modems will, of course, require an ethernet network card. If you haven't already done so, install the NIC in your Linux machine, configure the kernel, or load modules, etc., etc. This is sometimes the biggest stumbling block -- getting the NIC recognized and working. See the various Linux references for doing this, such as the Ethernet HOWTO for more information. Also, see the Troubleshooting Section below. This is certainly something you could conceivably do ahead of time if you already have the NIC.
Be sure the RJ45 cable between the NIC and the modem is now connected. You can "hot plug" this cable, meaning there is no need to power down to do this.
We can do a few quick tests now to see if the NIC seems to be functioning properly. First we'll attempt to bring up the interface. Then we'll see how well it is responding by pinging it. And lastly use ifconfig to check for errors:
# ifconfig eth0 10.0.0.1 up $ ping -c 50 10.0.0.1 PING 10.0.0.1 (10.0.0.1) from 10.0.0.1: 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from 10.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=0.2 ms 64 bytes from 10.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=0.2 ms 64 bytes from 10.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=0.1 ms <snip> - 10.0.0.1 ping statistics - 50 packets transmitted, 50 packets received, 0% packet loss round-trip min/avg/max = 0.1/0.1/0.2 ms $ ifconfig eth0 eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:04:C2:09:AC inet addr:10.0.0.1 Bcast:10.255.255.255 Mask:255.0.0.0 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:428 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:421 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:100 Interrupt:10 Base address:0xc800
If "eth0" comes up without errors, and you can ping it without errors, and ifconfig shows no errors, we most likely have all our hardware in working order now, and are ready to start configuring Linux. If not, see the Troubleshooting section below.
Gotcha: A few modems may already be wired as a 10baseT crossover, and require a direct Category 5 cable for a direct connection to a NIC, rather than a crossover cable. I lost around 12 hours figuring this one out, so don't make the same mistake - make sure you RTFM first.
The physical installation of a USB modem is similar to an ethernet modem. There is no ethernet card necessary obviously. So connect the phone line between the DSL wall jack and the modem's DSL port, and attach the USB cable to the computer's USB port.
USB modems will require vendor and model specific drivers in order to sync and function properly. Assuming you are using the Alcatel SpeedTouch USB, this will require both a binary firmware driver available from Alcatel's driver page: http://www.speedtouchdsl.com/support.htm, and a separate modem driver.
This driver also supports both PPPoE and PPPoA, though the steps for getting either to work are quite different. See the Appendix for more on this modem.
The Eci Hi Focus ADSL Modem has some support in Linux now too. See http://eciadsl.sourceforge.net/.


text:
Japan: China used weapons radar in disputed waters
The Japanese defense minister accused Chinese navy vessels of locking a weapons-targeting radar on a Japanese ship and helicopter in the East China Sea last month.
Japan on Tuesday accused Chinese navy vessels of locking a weapons-targeting radar on a Japanese destroyer and helicopter amid escalating territorial disputes between the Asian powers.
Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera accused Chinese navy vessels of using the weapons radar in two incidents last month, on Jan. 19 and Jan. 30. He said it happened in the East China Sea, suggesting it was near disputed islands controlled by Japan but also claimed by China. He did not give an exact location.
Onodera said the action could have led to a dangerous situation. Shots were not fired on either occasion.
"It is extremely abnormal to use such fire-control radar, or radar for (weapons) firing," he told reporters in an emergency briefing. "The incident could have led to a dangerous situation in case of a misstep."
"We will sternly call on the Chinese side to refrain from such dangerous acts," he added.
Chinese maritime surveillance vessels have repeatedly entered Japanese-claimed waters around the islands since last September, when Japan's government nationalized some of the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. The purchase triggered violent protests across China.
Japan's Foreign Ministry lodged a formal protest with China earlier Tuesday through the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo and the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, officials said. China said it would look into the alleged incidents, according to Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.
Onodera said Japan waited to report the incidents because it took time to verify the source and nature of the radar allegedly used by the Chinese frigates.


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Dixie, Lady Florence Caroline Douglas
Dixie, Lady Florence Caroline Douglas, 1857–1905, British traveler and writer; daughter of the 7th marquess of Queensberry. She visited Patagonia (1878–79) and wrote Across Patagonia (1880), the first of several vivid travel books. She was field correspondent (1879) of the London Morning Post in the Zulu War and was instrumental in securing the short-lived restoration (1883) of Cetshwayo, the Zulu king.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: British and Irish History: Biographies


text:
LAS VEGAS – Eddie Wineland would probably have liked a one-punch knockout on Saturday. Instead, he settled for dozens and dozens of punches to get the job done.
Wineland set a personal best for strikes landed in a fight as he avoided the bulk of Pickett's power with his head movement and footwork on his way to a split-decision win.
The bantamweight bout closed out the preliminary card of Saturday's UFC 155 event at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It aired on FX following additional prelims on Facebook and prior to the main card on pay-per-view.
Wineland took the center quickly, but both fighters came out throwing. Wineland landed a right hand a minute in, then ducked out of the way of one from Pickett. Wineland followed that with another right, but Pickett stayed throwing. As Wineland moved his head back and forth, Pickett landed a shot. But Wineland returned fire and landed several big shots. He stayed patient coming forward, though, delaying a a possible chance to go for the finish.
As Pickett came forward, Wineland again landed a cracking right hand, then another one that bloodied Pickett's nose. With Wineland's success in the standup, Pickett shot for a takedown – but Wineland was back on his feet almost immediately. Pickett looked for shots to the body, but Wineland continued to get the better of the strikes to the head.
Early in the second, Pickett landed a left hook, perhaps his best of the fight. But Wineland, who hasn't been finished with punches in nearly eight years, walked through it. Wineland landed a right, then slipped away from Pickett's counter attempt. When Pickett worked to get inside, Wineland was able to use his footwork and head movement to duck and slip any damage. As Pickett continued to find less and less success with his strikes, his punches got wilder as Wineland kept his offense technical. A Pickett left hand opened up a cut near Wineland's left eye, but it didn't appear to hurt him.
In the third, Wineland's strategy from the second round continued. He circled away from Pickett's power and looked for his moments, going over 100 strikes landed in the process. Pickett, midway through the last round, looked to kick Wineland's lead leg out and his corner called for more of that. Pickett came over the top with a right hand as Wineland slipped. Pickett tried to mount some pressure in the fight's waning moments, but Wineland still was able to land strikes down the stretch.
The crowd booed a presumed lack of action in the second and third rounds, at least compared to what was going on in the first. But despite what appeared to be a dominant performance from Wineland in the striking department, one judge gave a 29-28 score to Pickett. But two others saw it 30-27 for Wineland to give him the split nod.
"That dude has a melon on him like a coconut," Wineland said. "He regained his composure really well, and he's just a tough, solid dude. I hit him hard. I like to pride myself on the way I push myself. I train hard, I fight hard, and I train to go from the first minute through minute 15."
Wineland (20-8-1 MMA, 2-2 UFC) won for the second straight time to get his UFC record back to even. The win follows a "Fight of the Night" knockout of Scott Jorgensen in June. Pickett (22-7 MMA, 2-2 UFC) falls back into the loss column after a "Knockout of the Night" win over Yves Jabouin in front of his home England fans in September.
Up-to-the-minute UFC 155 results include:
- Eddie Wineland def. Brad Pickett via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 30-27)
- Erik Perez def. Byron Bloodworth via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 3:50
- Jamie Varner def. Melvin Guillard via split decision (30-27, 27-30, 30-27)
- Myles Jury def. Michael Johnson via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27
- Todd Duffee def. Philip De Fries via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 2:04
- Max Holloway def. Leonard Garcia via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
- John Moraga def. Chris Cariaso via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 3, 1:11
For more on UFC 155, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.
(Pictured: Eddie Wineland)
John Morgan contributed to this report on-site in Las Vegas.