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AB-H 6-1-09- "…Davis and the commission have exhibited a continuing lackadaisical attitude toward the state open meetings statue…."
....................AVOC- Melvin Davis is not solely responsible for some of his mess. He had four commissioners at all times he made the changes and commitments. They were frequently passive and did not stop it.
June 2, 2009
Oconee's Melvin Davis – Open Meetings Violations & Mistaken Policies adopted in secrecy
By Wendell Dawson, Editor, AVOC, Inc
The Athens Banner-Herald Editorial today again takes Davis and two other commissioners to task for their lackadaisical attitude about Open Government. Thanks to Lee Becker and Adam Thompson's reporting, the behind the scenes 'wheeling and dealing' of the Melvin Davis administrations is getting more exposure.
With my predecessor's insight, early on I realized Melvin Davis was changing policies without real public involvement. It started in 2002 with changes in sewer and dense housing. BOC at a "Retreat" in September 13-14, 2002: 4-09-04 Oconee County MPD Ordinances Were "Hatched and Birthed" in Secrecy
Melvin Davis is no fan of Open Government
Not only was Davis's conduct disappointing but the local press has consistently let him 'get away with it'. Sometimes, it takes a while to realize the consequences of bad decisions. Had we had more public discussion about sewer service to residential development, MPDs (Master Planned Developments) and Hard Labor Creek, we may have avoided some of the problems of today. Projected growth, revenue and water customer increase estimates led to more debt, and 'ghost towns' for the county.
Melvin Davis seems to want a legacy of new buildings, new parks etc. However, for long time residents, his legacy will be the results of his secret deals. PVC Farms and abandoned yards and houses are Davis real legacy. Overly optimistic revenue and growth projections were not vetted enough. We will all be paying for those mistakes as water and tax revenue declines.
House Boarded up off Whippoorwill Rd- Pebblebrook @ Coldwater 6-2-09
Melvin Davis is not solely responsible for some of his mess. He had four commissioners at all times he made the changes and commitments. They were frequently passive and did not stop it. Without Don Norris's automatic vote, he is now subject to more effective challenge. The Commission needs to do its job.
Any one commissioner could have let the media know about some of the "retreats", secret meetings, and "non-meetings". They can object to Executive Sessions, used primarily to keep the public in the dark. The recession and changed circumstances will not wear well with voters. However, we let things 'slide' to the point of damaging our fine community before we woke up.
It is time for the Commissioners to STOP SECRET MEETINGS!
Pebblebrook @ Coldwater Entrance @ Whippoorwill Road 6-2-09
Subdivision 'ghost towns' and boarded houses may be Melvin Davis' Real Legacy
The Athens Banner-Herald
Editorial: Oconee officials must respect open meetings law
Oconee County Commission Chairman Melvin Davis knew he might be violating the state's open meetings law when he convened a Dec. 1 meeting of various county elected officials, but there is plenty of blame to go around in connection with what is a troubling lack of regard for doing the public's business in the open in Oconee County.
Oconee County Commission Chairman Melvin Davis knew he might be violating the state's open meetings law when he convened a Dec. 1 meeting of various county elected officials, but there is plenty of blame to go around in connection with what is a troubling lack of regard for doing the public's business in the open in Oconee County…………….
Oconee County Observations
May 23, 2009
Oconee Officials Met Secretly to Discuss Assembly Session
By Lee Becker
Davis Set Two December Meetings Without Public Notice
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis sent out an email message on November 14 of last year to 18 local governmental officials, including the four other members of the board, inviting them to a special meeting on Dec. 1 with Sen. Bill Cowsert and Rep. Bob Smith.
The secret meeting, held at the Civic Center on Hog Mountain road, is a previously undocumented part of the complex story about the unsuccessful efforts by the Board of Education to increase its salary during the most recent legislative session……..
June 1, 2009
Leaders: Plenty of sunshine in Oconee County
Chairman defends unadvertised meetings
By Adam Thompson
Officials haven't tried to hide the meeting or keep residents from hearing what they're talking about with state Sen. Bill Cowsert and state Rep. Bob Smith, officials said last week.
"Generally, when we meet with the representative and the senator, we pretty much ask them, don't pass any laws that are going to cost the local taxpayers any money," said Oconee Commissioner Chuck Horton, who was at last year's Dec. 1 session. "That's pretty much the gist of it."
But, it's not that the officials don't understand the state's Open Meetings Law, either.
While quorums of both the commission and school board usually attend, most officials said they haven't considered it a formal meeting of either governing body - so, they never thought the meeting might need to be advertised under the law………………………………
…….."It never dawned on me that it wasn't being published in the paper," Commissioner Margaret Hale told the newspaper. "It's not like there's anything to hide. ... I can't imagine why it wasn't posted."
Commissioner Chuck Horton told the newspaper he'd never considered the annual prelegislative sessions to be an official meeting, then went on to say, "I wish there had been some type of notice. I went; I'll take my licks on that one. But ... if I don't go, I don't know stuff."
With all due respect to Commissioner Hale, asserting "(i)t's not like there's anything to hide" sounds a bit disingenuous in reference to a meeting that was, in fact, hidden from the public.
And with all due respect to Commissioner Horton, the public needs and deserves the same opportunity as its elected officials to "know stuff."
If the circumstances surrounding the Dec. 1 meeting were an isolated incident, they might not even bear mentioning. But Davis and the commission have exhibited a continuing lackadaisical attitude toward the state open meetings statue.
4-09-04 Oconee County MPD Ordinances Were "Hatched and Birthed" in Secrecy
5-5-04 Oconee County Opened Pandora's Box With Residential Sewer Policy Change
5-10-04 Oconee's "˜Pot of Gold" Fuels MPDs & Land Rush
5-14-04 Thoughts on Changing Oconee County Policies on Sewer Service & Growth
April 8, 2004
Oconee Sewer Policy and Dense Residential Development Just "Slipped In"
Information and documentation has been made available to AVOC about the history of the drastic change in policy in Oconee County about sewer service for residential lots. Some folks lobbied for it and even helped to write the ordinances according to memorandum and minutes of the County Commissioners.
The subject was discussed by the full BOC at a "Retreat" in September 13-14, 2002. The consultant hired by the BOC participated.
Notes of the session reveal that at least two of the members of the BOC and the County Attorney, Daniel Haygood, were in favor of it. (See copies of the notes handwritten at the retreat and a typed transcript below. (Other documentation shows that Haygood participated in real estate transactions involving several of the developments.There will be more articles documenting this and the names of the Parties and Lenders involved.
The first 'official action' by the BOC took place at a CALLED MEETING held on Friday afternoon at 5:00 PM (GA-FLA Game Weekend) on November 1, 2002. Coincidentally, the voters of the county were preoccupied with the November 5 Alcohol Referendum and the vote on the 'Big Park'. (See Minutes of That Meeting Below)
The next step in the process was a CALLED MEETING of the Planning Commission on November 25, 2002, the week of Thanksgiving. It then went through some more hoops, rewritten by a committee including design planners and engineers, and was finally adopted around April 1, 2003. (See Minutes of Meeting Below)
Davis moved Oconee Connector Extension Project along 'Behind the Scenes"
$ 6 Million on Right of Way
Madison 'Retreat' on December 7, 2007
1-7-08 Oconee County BOC held "retreat" – (secret meeting) in Madison on 12-7-07
See 12-7-07 Madison Retreat Minutes
9-26-01 Oconee BOC Changes Agenda Format
Many Oconee County Development Decisions were made in secret- problems later apparent
12-20-04 Oconee's Behind the Scenes "Wheeling & Dealing"
Charlie Baugh's analysis of legal and tax implications for Oconee with Hard Labor Creek Project
5-7-08 Davis' spending and debt will haunt Oconee County in years to come – Part 2
Graph of Oconee Water Revenues 2007-2008
Graph.Oconee.Water.Sewer.Sales.6.3.08.pdf x
Article-Engine © by AlexScriptEngine.de


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UNC Wilmington Holds Classes With Gunman at Large
WILMINGTON, N.C. – Classes were scheduled to proceed as usual Tuesday morning at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, as the search continued for a gunman who ran toward the campus after a holdup overnight.
Instructions for students to remain in secure locations that had been issued after the holdup shortly before midnight Monday were lifted at 5 a.m. Tuesday, school spokeswoman Dana Fischetti said.
The suspect in the robbery of four people at a nearby fast food restaurant was still at large early Tuesday, but extra police officers were on campus as the search continued, Fischetti said. Students were free to move about the campus, but should be alert and report suspicious activity to police, she said.
The school had issued alerts via email, text message, voicemail and on the university's website after the robbery. Those on campus were warned to find a secure location, lock doors and stay away from windows.
Wilmington police used a helicopter and K-9 unit to try to find the man, who was wearing a red cloth over his face, Officer Kenneth Reichard told The Associated Press.
Campus Police Chief David Donaldson told the AP the alert was issued as a "precautionary measure." The suspect was carrying a small-caliber handgun, Donaldson said.
Located on North Carolina's coastline, the university has about 13,000 students and has grown significantly since a 2002 bond issue that paved the way for more than $508 million to be spent on capital projects at the campus. Although well-known for its ocean and marine research programs, the school offers dozens of majors and has also been used as the preseason training camp of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats.
In August, another situation involving a gunman on campus raised concerns from university officials who said the school's emergency alert system failed to properly notify the campus as police searched for a man accused of a shooting in a nearby apartment complex.
After the shooting, Donaldson ordered a campus-wide alert via phone, text message and email to warn the community about the armed man on the loose. The alert was never sent.
Officials said at the time the lapse appeared to be a case of human error rather than a technical problem, and Fischetti said updates were being sent to the campus via text message, email and voice message late Monday night and early Tuesday morning.
The alert system at UNCW encompasses not only phone calls, emails and text messages, but can include everything from social media to the interruption of cable television on campus. The system was adopted by the university after the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech as a way of getting emergency information out in as many formats as possible in a short amount of time.

subset: commoncrawl


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A third jury trial in a patent dispute between Samsung Electronics and Apple in a court in California has been postponed pending a U.S. Supreme Court review of the principle for the award of damages for infringement of design patents.
The third trial in the case that dates back to April 2011 had been set for March 28 to reassess the damages to be paid by Samsung on five products that were earlier found to infringe certain Apple patents and dilute its trade dresses, which refer to the overall look and feel of the product. An appeals court had struck down the damages on trade dress dilution relating to these devices, as the court decided they were not protectable.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld damages for utility and design patent infringements of these products. In general, utility patents protect the way an article is used and works, while a design patent protects the way an article looks, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The third trial was called to recalculate the damages payable by Samsung.
The Supreme Court's decision to hear an appeal on the procedure for calculation of damages is significant because Samsung is questioning whether it has to pay as damages all the profits from the sale of infringing products even though the patented designs are only minor features of the product. A number of tech companies and industry trade groups are supporting Samsung on this issue.
Samsung has already paid up $548 million conditionally in damages out of a total award to Apple of $930 million by a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The third jury trial was to reassess the remaining $382 million in damages. Samsung's challenge in the Supreme Court, if successful, would impact $399 million in damages.
The Supreme Court partially granted Samsung's petition, limiting itself to the question: Where a design patent is applied to only a component of a product, should an award of infringer's profits be limited to those profits attributable to the component?
Samsung asked the district court to stay proceedings, including the damages retrial, until the decision of the Supreme Court. "All three of the design patents at issue in the 2016 damages retrial are also at issue in the Federal Circuit opinion that will be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court," wrote District Judge Lucy H. Koh in her order late Tuesday.
"The question of the proper measure of damages for these design patents is central to the 2016 damages retrial, as design patent damages make up the bulk of Apple's damages claims," Koh added.


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I had noticed that TS of Video, meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor had been reading through Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics by Ross Douthat and quoting passages from it. The title and subtitle intrigued me as does the author and so I added it to my wish list and finally got around to buying and reading it.
This book is sort of a history and critique of Christianity as practiced by Americans especially in the last seventy or so years. His critique is that we are a nation of heretics and that really we have always been a nation of heretics from the foundation of the country. What has changed is the amount of orthodoxy as practiced by the various strains of American Christianity. His use of the word heretics is the more general term of use and not a precise canonical one.
As a critique the history provided is of the major trends and personalities involved along with snapshots of data to help you put it all into context. We see how these religious trends often intersected with societal ones and how more and more they took on political tones. These movements within Christianity as practiced in America paralleled movements of thought from Europe resulting in very American formulations of it along with negative reactions to this. He breaks up these movements into two basic areas of accommodation and resistance and reviews both the Protestant and Catholic sides of it. Accommodation being the various forms predominate in a more liberal Christianity along with resistance like the neo-Orthodox movement. This makes up the first half of the book and provides a very readable summary of this history along with exploring the philosophies and personalities behind it.
The second half of the book looks at the various heresies that are predominant now. The culture and the media's fascination with some of the so-called lost gospels and other gnostic writings used to beat Christianity shows the old adage about "any stick will do." From the inept translation of the Gospel of Judas as headed by the National Geographic to so much nonsense that has made it to the History Channel we see how that stick is used. They will call the Catholic Church anti-women while promoting the "Gospel" of Thomas where you have to become a man to go to Heaven.
He also explores those who promote a materialistic prosperity gospel of "Name it and claim it" the Word of Faith movement. I find it no surprise that this movement developed in the U.S. and also not a surprise that it runs parallels to the New Age teaching of the "the law of attraction" as espoused in so many books Oprah promoted. Strains of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale "The Power of Positive Thinking" have taken some strange paths.
New Age emphasis on the "God within" has also made many inroads and entries into not only the popular culture, but also the retreat house. It is almost despairing when books like Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray. Love" which exhibit a toxic selfishness not only becomes a best seller, but a movie also. But when the god is within you than sin is dispelled and whatever you happen to be doing is of course part of the will of the god within for you. Mystical pantheism dressed up in radical selfishness.
I found especially interesting the last chapter "The City on the Hill" which looks in part at the various religious/political intersections and how they have played out in our history. The alternations between messianic and apocalyptic views which more and more are existing in parallel. These intersections were to the good in the Civil Rights movements where we had both sides of the political divide along with the parallel elements in various churches. Ross Douthat analysis of this success of this only highlights the failure of modern religious and political partisanship. This is certainly not a simple "liberal bad, conservatives good" book as I think he gives a fair analysis regarding both sides. I certainly did not agree with all of his analysis, but when I didn't I was more apt to look at my own ideas and see if perhaps I was mistaken or needed to reevaluate something. The conclusion of the book reflects both his "spirit of pessimism" and a hopeful optimism.
This book has been written in a spirit of pessimism, but for both Americans and Christians, pessimism should always be provisional. Even in an era of disarray, Americans can draw confidence from our nation's remarkable past, with its stories of expectations confounded, obstacles overcome, declines reversed, and better futures attained. Christians have an even stronger source of confidence: the belief that history has an Author and that the destiny of both their country and their creed is in God's hands.
Ross Douthat as a Catholic knows that the promise concerning the Church's protection from the Gates of Hell does not mean a protection of American Christianity as he points out. He does not pretend to predict how this ebbs and flows of Christianity within the context of the United States will play out, but he also knows that there have been many predicted ends for it.
As a writer Ross Douthat is really a joy to read and I especially liked the precision in what he wrote. Some people will use their large vocabulary as a spotlight to show how bright they are. I don't think that was the case here, but I am glad I read the ebook version where a dictionary definition was only a finger press away. When he did use unfamiliar words I found they were perfected fitted to what he was saying.


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Roatan, Honduras
A one week diving trip to the island of Roatan in Honduras. Not much travel and my first try at underwater photography. I like it so far but will need to get some new gear to get better light for the deeper waters and for night photography.Read More


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Monday's little diatribe on git seemed to stir up quite a bit of strong opinion, both agreeing with me and disagreeing. As is often the case, they two camps seem to be split about 50-50, which makes me happy. It means I can be confident that I'm not talking complete arse-gravy, but I have a good chance of actually learning something.
For anyone who wasn't around on Monday, the substance of my post was "git is bad because I don't understand it". Or to paint myself in a slightly less bad light, "git is bad for me because it makes assumptions about how I work that don't match how I actually work". Or, to summarise the summary, "git is the work of Sauron Gorthaur, the Abhorred, servant of Morgoth Bauglir, the Dark Lord that was called Melkor, destroyer and despiser, the corrupt Ainu and corrupter of Arda".
I'll admit that yesterday's post was more a howl of anguish than a reasoned argument (although I still like the Harrier analogy). Having now calmed down a little, I thought it might be worth explaining myself a bit more, and addressing some of the comments, both here and at Hacker News.
Explain yourself, Taylor!
First, I was a bit shocked at the number of people (mostly at HN) who seemed to think that my whole problem with git is the need to specify -a when doing a git commit of all changed files. Folks, that was what is known as an example of how its model isn't a good fit for how a lot of us work. There are many more of these — for example, the fact that if you run git tag and subsequently push your repo, the tag doesn't get pushed.
Here is a more serious problem that I run into all the time (including once this very day):
- I make a one-line change to a single file.
- I commit my change.
- I git push, only to be told "! [rejected] master -> master (non-fast forward)". (This is git's cuddly way of telling you to do a pull first.)
- I git pull, only to be told "CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in filename. Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result."
So far, so good — someone else edited the same region of the same file as I did (among their other edits): of course its a conflict, there's nothing git could do differently here but notify me and ask me to fix it. So I edit the file, fix the trivial conflict, and git commit filename.
Nuh-uh. "fatal: cannot do a partial commit during a merge."
Well, darn. So, OK, no problem, I already fixed the conflict, so now I'll just git merge again to get it to make its world consistent, right? Nope: "fatal: You have not concluded your merge. (MERGE_HEAD exists)". Well, duh! I was telling you to merge, you stupid git. You're the branches-and-merges-are-easy version-control system around here.
All right, so I will just git pull again, and this time the merge will work OK. Gotta work, yes? No. "You are in the middle of a conflicted merge." Well I knew that! That's why I am trying to resolve it. In fact, that's why I have resolved it! All I am asking you to do is accept my resolution. Please? Is that so much to ask?
But wait — it's worse than that! Not only can I not commit the file that had the conflict: I can't commit any other file. My whole repo is stuffed until I satisfy the hungry god.
But wait — it's worse than that! git status shows that there are many, many modified files even though I know full well that I only edited the one line of the one file. Because all the other changes that my colleague made have been splunged across my tree and suddenly, what the heck, they're my responsibility!
The solution turns out to be that I have to use git commit -a, i.e. commit all my changes in one go. But, dammit, git, that's not what I wanted to do! If I like to commit on a file-by-file basis, what business is it of yours to forbid me? And: much, much worse: my commit -a re-commits all the changes my buddy had already made and commited! Seriously, git: what the hell?
Something is rotten.
A handy household hint: how to abandon your changes when dealing with a conflicted merge
Of course, in the merge-conflict scenario above, you may sometimes see that your friend's changes are correct and leave yours irrelevant, so that you just want to throw your own changes away and use the version you pulled. Should be pretty simple, huh? Well, according to the top-voted answer to this question on Stack Overflow, the correct thing to do is:
Talk about intuitive.
Here's another one that I hate.
I needed to get back an older version of a binary file, foobar.doc, so I could compare it with the current version and see what had changed. (git diff is no use in this situation, because it works on text: I needed to get hold of the earlier revision so I could pull it into OpenOffice, which knows how to compare documents.)
The command that does this is git show, which writes the old version on standard output so you can redirect it into the file of your choice. In general, the command is git show revision:pathToFile. revision can be HEAD^ to mean "the one before the current one". But when I did git show HEAD^:foobar.doc, I got back a more than usually incomprehensible error message.
fatal: ambiguous argument 'HEAD^:foobar.doc': unknown revision or path not in the working tree.
Use '–' to separate paths from revisions
It turns out that this is because the file in question isn't at the top level of the git module: when I said pathToFile earlier, I really meant it — you have to give the whole path relative to the root of the module. (The bit of the error message about using '–' turns out to be complete red herring.) So I have to use git show HEAD^:dino/epub/foobar.doc, even though I am already in the directory dino/epub.
You can't tell me that's right.
What makes it much, much worse
I just know that someone — probably several someones — are going to reply to this article saying: "you are mistaken; git is correct." These people, most of them kindly and gently, will talk me through my misconceptions about what a version is, what a commit is, how it affects the index, what a merge means, why it has to be this way and why I am sadly mistaken in thinking it should be otherwise. If we were discussing this in a pub rather than over the Internet, they would probably find a scrap of paper and draw a nice state-transition diagram for me, showing how the various change-sets propagate between the various checkouts, branches, indexes and repositories. Nine times out of the ten, this will be done with patience and tact, with a side of burning evangelistic fervour.
Here is my rebuttal:
I. Do. Not. Care.
This is what I meant last time about git not degrading gracefully. It's great that it handles multiple local and remote branches and merges and all the other stuff, but you can't Just Not Know about that stuff. You start out believing what you're told, that you can just use clone, pull, add, commit and push, and ignore the other 139 git commands(*). But you can't. You have to keep learning more of them, and learning new and baroque ways of invoking them; and, more importantly, learning more of the concepts. Any day now, I expect to learn that before git moves files into the index, it first keeps them in a top-secret pre-index stash-cache area.
(*) I am not exaggerating: /usr/local/git/libexec/git-core on my Mac contains 144 commands. /usr/lib/git-core on my Ubuntu box is less promiscuous: it contains only 138 commands.
Who is the user around here?
Is it terribly old-fashioned of me to believe that when a user uses a tool, he should be the one who determines how it's used?
The bottom line for me with git is that I am sick of being pushed around. It swans about as though it owns the place. It make arbitrary demands. It tells me what to do. It's as though ext2fs insisted on particular file-naming conventions, or vi mandated a specific indentation regime for your C code.
Unless of course …
Unless git is a hammer and I am trying to use it as a screwdriver. Or perhaps more appositely, it's a bandsaw and I'm trying to use it as a bread-knife. Or indeed, it's a Harrier and I'm trying to use it as a bicycle.
Which I suspect is the case, and why I think the move back to CVS/Subversion might be the way to go.
Some responses to comments
But git does all these cool things!
I know it; and All These Cool Things are of course the main reason I sideways-graded to it in the first place. In particular, the ability to commit (and do other things) when offline and not connected to the master repository is a huge win, and if I do grade back to CVS or Subversions I am really going to miss it.
So I'm not saying, or didn't mean to say, that git doesn't offer real advantages over CVS and its brethren. I'm just saying that these things come at a cost; a significant cost, that git advocates are in a bad habit of greatly downplaying. (Sometimes git advocates remind me of The Borg, or perhaps Moonies — they seem so earnest and so committed to what they're doing, and so completely wired into their tribe's way of thinking that they can seem unable to contemplate the possibility of any other way of thinking.)
But git has cheap branching
I know it; but I don't want to branch. To read a lot of the tutorials it seems like git people branch all the time just for the fun of it (and therefore merge all the time, too). Sorry, don't want to play that game. Cheap branching is better than expensive branching, sure, but that's like saying influenza is better than cancer. I'd rather just not be ill at all, thanks.
Your mileage may vary, of course. The point is that git doesn't give you the choice. Oh sure, it pretends it does ("just use clone, pull, add, commit and push!"), but the truth is that branches lurk everywhere — in tags, for example — and you simply can't Just Not Use Them. That's not a good model for how I want to work.
(Git Advocate: "That's not a bug, it's a feature!" Sorry, not interested.)
But git lets you use any unique prefix of a commit ID, so you can use 23bbcf84 instead of 23bbcf847889c1fbfbb368b27e7b4ef3648879b1
And yet, I am unmoved. Call me weird, but somehow I still prefer 1.8.
This should not need pointing out, but typing 40-character nonsense identifiers is only one of their many drawbacks. That I can abbreviate them to a prefix that might be unique enough mitigates the pain, but in no way eliminates it. Anyone can tell that 1.9 is later than 1.8. Who knows whether 745a4a4275c0322e5e699b02f8783b86ec14dc99 is later than bb7619b6568507d696516b1dd663b7b343d782f6?
There aren't many sushi pictures in this article
Sorry, my bad. Here you go:
Try Mercurial instead, it's similar but has a great tutorial!
I might just do that.
Try Fossil/Bazaar/Darcs/Arch instead!
Sorry, not gonna happen. The problem is that to try out a version control system, you have to trust a bunch of your code into it, and use the system to share that code across multiple computers. In the DVCS world, git seems to be the most popular by a long way; Mercurial has a biggish following so might be workable, perhaps as a staging post on the way to learning to love git, but I just don't have the time or energy to spend in learning half a dozen different systems.
But wait, Taylor! "git seems to be the most popular by a long way" — is that any criterion to use in choosing something? vi is more popular than Emacs; Windows is more popular than Linux; Britney Spears is more popular than Dar Williams; Big Brother is more popular than Veronica Mars. Yet you will never find me hacking with vi on a Windows box while listening to Britney with Big Brother on in the background. So why would I select a version-control system on that basis?
Simply because nine tenths of the point of version control is so that my colleagues and I can hack on the same code-base together. And that requires that we all use the same repository, which has to be under a single, jointly agreed, VCS. If I decide that Darcs is the answer for me, then I have to persuade all my friends to try the same experiment at the same time. Not gonna happen.
In fact, I think I've probably just persuaded myself not to use Mercurial, either. I might still read hginit.com, though.
Try reading Insert name of git tutorial here!
Thanks for the link. I may well do so.
You should read the Pro Git book
I probably will, thanks for the all the endorsements.
Git is not version control; it's change control
I will ponder this. It seems profound.
(Although I notice that not all commenters seem agreed on whether it's true.)
the biggest step is using git the way it's intended: lots of branching, partial commits and rebase / merge to keep your downstream changes clean, etc.
Yeah, I know. That's exactly what I'm trying to avoid.
The conclusion of the matter
One of the more thought-provoking comments on the last article was this one from teh:
I disagree with "Git's just version control. I resent the idea of investing a month of evenings and weekends just to be able to check my freakin' files in.".
Version control is not "just" version control, it's a first class tool for every programmer, up there with recursion and all that jazz. A programmers work is transforming code from one state to another. Git treats these transformations as first class objects, allowing you to rewrite or reorder them, have alternative transformation branches, send them around etc.
I still, frankly, resent the idea of spending the amount of time that I know will be necessary to become a git wizard. But I am increasingly reconciled to the idea that it will be time invested rather than time wasted.
I don't intend to be graceful about this — I plan to mutter and groan and whine incessantly — but I have a horrible feeling the the outcome of this article and its predecessor is that I'm going to end up Deeply Learning git. I don't want to — I hate the idea of ending up as one of the Git Advocates that I was complaining about earlier — but I think I'm going to have to. And if I do it, I'm going to do it properly, which means *sigh* another book, and probably another Long Overdue Serious Attempt At series.
As Xiong Chiamiov wrote in a comment:
I use it because the benefits outweigh all of the things that you mentioned.
Dammit all, he's right, isn't he?
Update 1 (a couple of hours later)
Very important point in a comment by Chris, which I should have made in the original article:
And at the risk of sounding absolutely trite, at the end of the day isn't the important thing that we actually use some form of version/change/source control at all, implementation be damned? After all, isn't that what separates us from the monkeys?
So, so, true. From 1990 to 2000, I used SCCS, a version-control system written in 1972 that was so amazingly primitive that it still thought digital watches were a pretty neat idea. It makes CVS look like the height of power and sophistication. I am here to tell you that difference between not using version control and using SCCS was like the difference between night and day; after that, everything else is trivial in comparison. Well, maybe not trivial, but the productivity gap from No Version Console to SCCS is much greater than the gap from SCCS to git.
Thanks for reminding me of that basic fact, Chris.
Update 2 (the next morning)
Many thanks to all of you who have commented (well, nearly all of you). I think I've seen more genuinely helpful insights in the comments here and on the previous article than in any of the various git tutorials I've read. In particular, I have learned the important concrete lesson than git commit -a is not my friend: an important lesson that should be taught to every git newcomer.
I don't like to single out individual comments when so much useful stuff has been said (though I've also been called an idiot rather more times than I usually like), but for those of you who don't usually read comments, please just take a look at this one from Kragen Javier Sitaker: apart from anything else, it contains by far the best justification I've ever seen for git rebase (or git lie, as I prefer to call it).


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Michael Steele Spent RNC Money on Bottle Service at a Bondage Club (Updated)
Michael Steele is just wasting RNC money on limos and private planes and, yes, private bondage-themed nightclubs with topless ladies. Update: A Republican consultant charged the trip to the RNC, and the party says Chairman Mike was not actually there.
Tucker Carlson's The Daily Carlsoning has a wonderful story about how Michael Steele considered buying a private plane, because he spends so much time flying to nightclubs and Hawaii, but he decided not to. Instead he found many other creative ways to waste money.
Once on the ground, FEC filings suggest, Steele travels in style. A February RNC trip to California, for example, included a $9,099 stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,596 dropped at the nearby Four Seasons, and $1,620.71 spent [update: the amount is actually $1,946.25] at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex.
Now, Voyeur is not really a "strip club" so much as a terrible-sounding nightclub with bottle service, long lines, Lindsay Lohan, and, yes, half-naked ladies simulating oral sex on each other. Which, to be honest, sounds way stupider than a proper, respectable strip club. Shame on you, Michael Steele, for encouraging this kind of thing.
The GOP really has to get around to firing the embarrassing and inept Michael Steele eventually. Steele spent $1.4 million on the GOP's terrible new website, he charges $15,000 for speaking appearances, and his RNC continues to spend more than it takes in as we begin the campaign season in earnest.
But it would still present a bit of an image problem to fire the one prominent black Republican in America.
Update: In a statement, the RNC says Chairman Steele was not present for the Voyeur nightclub trip. That two grand was, apparently, "a reimbursement made to a non-committee staffer."
And the disbursement appears to have covered the check of a Mr. Erik Brown of Orange, California. Brown is a longtime Republican donor and the owner of a direct marketing firm that recently did work for a Republican gubernatorial candidate in California.
We emailed Brown to ask if Steele was actually there that night, and we'll let you know if we hear back from him. (As Alex Pappas at The Daily Tucker reports, Brown has Tweeted about hanging out with Steele fairly recently. But now Erik has deleted his whole Twitter.)


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The last time I visited this topic, my sights were set on various pieces of technology. Some of those are still broken (Acronis, QuickBooks, Flash, Outlook, predictive typing). Others have finally managed to right their ship (Ubuntu Unity, Web browsers, desktop multi-touch). But as flawed technologies get their act together, they make room for more technologies to leap onto the list. That's right, I have 10 more broken pieces of the IT landscape that I want to point out. Let's just dive right into this list and have some fun!
I wanted to like GNOME 3. Seriously, I did. And I think the developers were on to something quite good when this radical desktop first appeared. But then… the GNOME developers pretty much just stopped listening to the user base. Now a large number of GNOME developers have left the project. The only good news is that GNOME 3 has already been forked. Linux Mint gives us its own GNOME Shell iteration, called Cinnamon. It's not an idea-for-idea clone, but it does seem to be a good mixture of what was GNOME 2.x and what is GNOME 3.
2: Single point of entry/failure
I've hated this concept since day one. Many larger companies deploy tools that integrate numerous tools into one place (ticketing systems, billing system, accounting packages). When that system goes down, nothing can be done. The very idea of single point of entry is flawed by nature. It is inevitable that that single point will go down and work will be lost. The only way around this is seriously costly (redundancy on many levels) and over the heads of most businesses. I may be alone in this thinking, but give me isolated tools for crucial tasks any day.
3: Windows security
No matter what Microsoft does, Windows security is fundamentally flawed. Sure if users could be better educated on how to avoid issues, this might not be such a problem. But we all know that's not going to happen. Nearly every Windows iteration is just a click away from infection. The steps Windows 7 took toward security did little more than annoy its user-base. Until Microsoft completely rethinks and retools its platform, it will be fundamentally flawed and insecure.
4: Printing
I spend a good amount of time every day working with printers. They break. Period. Either the hardware, the software, or the drivers — something will cause printing to stop functioning. And trying to do cross-platform printing is a nightmare. Why this is still such an issue I will never understand. Until someone finally develops a truly "generic" printer system that all devices can print to, printing will continue to live in the broken category.
5: Office suites
Instead of competing against one another, office suites should work together to create an all-encompassing environment. Until that happens, compatibility will always be an issue. There is a fix for this. That fix is standardization across the board. Without that, office suites will continue to struggle for compatibility. Microsoft has to understand that some businesses and organizations simply can't afford Office, and LibreOffice needs to understand there might be features that users might want (regardless of logic).
6: Exchange logging
One of the tasks I frequently have to do is set up NT Backup jobs just to clear out Exchange logs. The developers of Exchange need to look at the way UNIX and Linux handle logging and give some thought to that type of system. If not, C drives will continue to fill up and Exchange will continue to auto-unmount stores. Sure, you can set up circular logging to resolve this. But for some, circular logging just isn't the solution. Though the UNIX take on logging might not be ideal, it could serve as a good launching point for the Exchange developers to come up with a much better solution than the one they have.
7: Secure boot
Microsoft decided the best way to prevent boot-time malware was to create a system that actually made it easier for virus writers to create boot-time malware. Brilliant! During the process, let's make sure you create an environment that makes it problematic to install other operating systems on a machine. Again, I say, brilliant! Secure boot was a bad idea from the start. Scrap it.
8: Cross-platform technology
Can't we all just get along? There are times when I want to pull my hair out getting Windows and Mac, Windows and Linux, or Linux and Mac to play nicely. And every time I get it working, one of them comes along and breaks that work. Look, I get that you're competition. But in the end, people are going to use what is best for the solution — so you might as well stop throwing a fit and taking your toys home. This is only going to get worse as environments become more and more homogenized (more Linux and Mac deployments on the way). Platforms: Pick a communication technology, build in standards, and stick to it!
9: Windows 8 Modern UI
This interface is lame on the Windows phone and it's even worse on the desktop. Not only does the Windows 8 UI (formerly Metro) look like a child's toy, it's hardly an efficient use of space and movement. It's clear that Microsoft is shooting for the multi-touch moon, but on a standard desktop, Windows 8 fails. This version will go down as the new Windows Me. Back to the drawing board with you Microsoft!
10: Moving parts
Why is it that hard drives sold in modern machines still have moving parts? Moving parts break — especially ones spinning at such a fast rate. I understand the cost, but how long can that possibly be an issue? Solid state drives are not only faster, they're more reliable. With no moving parts, there's a smaller chance of something going wrong. Even DVD drives are becoming a thing of the past. With the cost of flash drives so low, it's just as easy to install operating systems from USB. Most software titles are available as downloads as well. Let's reach the point where PCs and laptops have zero moving parts and our technology will be far more reliable.
What else?
So that's my take on the latest list of broken technology. You may not agree with everything here, but perhaps we can all agree that the whole of technology is broken when constituent pieces are so flawed.
Are there other current technologies you think are broken and in need of serious (or even just moderate) repair? If so, share your thoughts.


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- The Thomas & Friends Storage Stool (B39) is a fun and beautiful product to organize your knick-knacks.
- Joey's products have seller's warranty of 6 months.
- Most items are made in China.
- There is a lead time of around 3 weeks.
- The cover is waterproof. You can use this storage stool to sit as it can take weight. We usually keep ready stock of this item.


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British Prime Minister Theresa May cast doubt on Sunday on the effectiveness of 'points-based' immigration systems that screen applicants on the basis of factors like education and skills, setting up a potential conflict with some of her own ministers.
Foreign minister Boris Johnson and trade minister Liam Fox were part of the 'Brexit' camp that argued that voting to leave the European Union would free Britain from the duty to admit all EU nationals who want to live and work here, enabling it to cut immigration by introducing an Australian-style points system.
May, who favored staying in the EU but has promised to deliver on the June 23 referendum vote by steering Britain out of the bloc and tightening border controls, said such systems were difficult to manage.
"One of the issues is whether or not points-based systems do work," she told reporters on her way to a G20 summit in China, citing her experience as Britain's longest-serving interior minister in over 50 years.
"There is no single silver bullet that is the answer in terms of dealing with immigration."
The comments offer the first glimpse into May's stance on the hardest conundrum thrown up by the referendum: how to tighten border controls with the EU without losing access to its single market.
Its 27 partners are so far adamant that it cannot enjoy full trade benefits unless it continues to let in EU nationals as before.
The prime minister risks upsetting key members of the team she assembled in July to deliver an EU exit that protects Britain's global standing and carves out a new role for the country at the vanguard of global free trade.
Speaking in June before he was appointed as foreign minister, Johnson - figurehead of the Leave campaign and May's one-time rival for the prime minister's job - said a points-based system could bring back democratic control and better meet businesses' needs.
May's words will fuel fears among voters and Eurosceptic lawmakers that having a pro-Remain prime minister in charge will result in a watered-down version of Brexit that does not represent what people voted for.
May also declined to commit, when asked, to Leave campaign promises to increase healthcare spending and reduce energy taxes.
Asked whether immigration controls precluded access to the single market, May said she was optimistic about what sort of deal Britain could negotiate.
"I want to be ambitious with what we can achieve, I don't take anything for granted, I'm going out there to get the best possible deal."


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The Twin Novelists
What in Lev and Austin Grossman's upbringing led them both to make a life in writing?
Lev and Austin Grossman aren't simply two novelists who share an (admittedly common) last name. In addition to both being successful writers, they happen to be identical twins. And their profession of choice? It's shared by both their parents—Allen Grossman, an acclaimed poet (who died last month), and Judith Grossman, a novelist. Their sister is the outlier: She sculpts.
This gathering of creative talent made me wonder: How much of our creative ability is genetically determined, and how much is just a matter of happenstance? To try to get an answer, I spoke with the twins last week—the first time the two of them have ever been interviewed together.
As we sat at a West Village café, Lev and Austin interviewed each other as much as I interviewed them, a fraternal back-and-forth that both reinforced and countered my notions of what a brotherly creative duo should be. Our discussion ranged from last week's release of Lev's The Magicians Land—the conclusion of his best-selling "Magicians" trilogy—to the influence of the twins' own magician-like father, to their family roots in a Prussian shtetl, to the effect of cell phones on the writing life. Below is a condensed and edited version of the conversation.
While I was waiting for you, I was reading your [Lev's] essay on the time you spent in Maine after college. For an identical twin, the isolation must be especially hard. I mean, you two even went to college together.
Lev Grossman: We're not the inseparable kind of twins. We've spent most of our lives since college living far apart.
Austin Grossman: Twins also have a lot of pressure to differentiate, to distinguish oneself.
So was that part of your decision to go to Maine? You wanted to isolate yourself from everyone?
LG: There's something to that. I wanted to establish a freestanding identity unconnected to anyone else, which turned out to be impossible, of course. But it was an ideal that I for some reason pursued after college.
AG: I did something similar in a sense. After college, I went to work at a video-game company, a thing no one else was doing. A whole different set of friends, a whole different set of intellectual concerns. It was a break of sorts.
LG: But you always had friends. I feel like you always had friends. There was a community around you always.
AG: I wasn't disliked. But there was less of a community, actually, when I went to get my master's at NYU. I didn't really hang with anyone there.
LG: I forgot you did that.
AG: I forget too, sometimes.
Austin, you're A.B.D. at Berkeley. And Lev, you were at Yale for graduate school. Did you study the same thing across the board?
AG: There was a characteristic difference. You studied the moderns, the 20th century. I studied the Victorian nineteenth century, the Romantics.
LG: I never could read a Victorian. Whereas you have an unlimited appetite for it.
AG: Not so much the novels. The poetry.
LG: We agree about that. I like Tennyson. And Browning. I can't think of any other 19th-century poets.
AG: There's William Morris. "[The Defence of] Guenevere." He has a super-violent poem about a medieval battle.
LG: Oh, he's terrible. The only thing I've read is "The Wood Beyond the World." But it's not really readable
Well, your tastes may not align. But you're both writers. And your entire family is creative. In your case, nature and nurture appear to be walking in lockstep. So what prompted your interest in writing?
LG: You read interviews with authors and they're always saying, "I was five, and I was already telling stories and whatever." That wasn't me. I only got serious about writing my sophomore year of college. Because our parents are both writers, it was always prominent in the pull-down menu of possible careers. But at the same time, that was difficult, as well. The thing about growing up in a house full of creative people is, it's a lot of very powerful voices in the house. And it can be really hard to hear your own voice in the middle of that.
AG: That's how I think about it. Pa's voice [Allen Grossman] is a voice to aspire to, to show you the possibilities of what a voice could be. But at the same time, in the way of fathers and sons, it was also a voice to survive against, to build something that could resist.
LG: But you list Pa as an influence, which I would never do. I haven't read that much of his poetry. I'm really not that interested in poetry. Actually, I'm sure I'd be more interested in it if I were not the son of a poet. In this case, though, it was very much like poetry was Pa's thing. I thought if I was going to figure out who I was, I had to set out and find somewhere else to be. His presence is so large for me in poetry that I still avoid it. It feels like there's not enough oxygen in there.
AG: I always think of you as a more novelistic novelist than I am. I'm not predisposed to like poetry. I'm not the kind of person who thinks of poetry as charming or who says of something, "it's like poetry," as a turn of phrase. I like poetry, but if I like a poem, it's earned its way to that liking. I write in the first person. I write novels that shape toward dramatic monologue. And my impulse to do that came out of my affinity for the dramatic monologues of Tennyson and Matthew Arnold. I would read any poem that begins with the pronoun "I." I would get fascinated with that. But it's mentally how I attack the question.
LG: It's a notable difference. I've written five novels, all in the third person. I can't do anything else. Austin's written two, both in the first person.
AG: It's a productive dissimilarity. If our books were similar, it would be kind of a drag, I have to say.
LG: But I think we influence each other.
AG: Oh, absolutely. There's an affinity.
So if not writing, then what?
LG: I was so single-minded about it. In a badly obsessive way. I really had trouble letting it go once I decided. Success came very slowly. My first book was a failure. It didn't sell any copies at all. I got $6,000 for that novel and I didn't even make my advance back. It vanished without a trace. There would have been a lot of arguments for giving up. I didn't start The Magicians until I was 35; it came out when I was 40. That was my first real bestseller. There was a bit in college when I thought I might be a scientist. I took Chem10 and did pretty well. But I realized I was getting to the edge of my math skills. But I really like the lab stuff.
I tried publishing but I couldn't stick at it. I tried for a job at The New Yorker, but I didn't get it. It was a fact-checking job. I always think there's another alternate timeline where I did get the job. Who knows what happened to that guy.
AG: I left full-time video-game design for a reason. Your world shrinks if you're in that industry a bit too much. Then I started grad school at 31, in English Lit, and I really liked that too. And then I came back to literature. I really enjoyed literary studies, I really enjoyed game design, but writing novels is all sections of the brain lit up at once. It was clear that I was using all the faculties I seem to have. I'm skirting the word vocation, but there was something about it that confirmed me to me. It took me six years to write my first novel. It could have been six years of wasted time. But I felt like I had to write.
LG: It's this feeling like, oh, this is what I've been getting ready for all this time.
I think it's interesting that you've both chosen such similar themes in your fiction: elements of magic superimposed on a realistic landscape.
LG: That's where I think about Pa's influence a lot, in two ways. One, he was such a high-culture icon: vastly learned, patriarchal demeanor; wrote challenging, arcane verse. I feel as though I fled all the way to the supermarket aisle before I could find someplace I could feel comfortable being. And I ended up in fantasy in part because it was far from where he lived. I assume it must be the same for you.
AG: Let's not forget that he read us The Hobbit aloud in its entirety, to his everlasting regret. I think that's the first long book I remember. Do you remember that?
LG: Yes, of course. And he started The Once and Future King, but he got bored. Didn't finish it. But for me, C.S. Lewis was much more of a thing. I was never a big Tolkien fan the way you were. It was much more The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe for me.
AG: Going back to Pa, I didn't start writing until I was 31 or 32. I wrote bits in my 20s, but nothing serious. When I did write, it was to piss him off. I wrote the most ridiculous thing I could to show him that, hey, your son is an idiot.
LG: Did it work?
AG: No, not in the slightest.
LG: He wouldn't even give you that. The other respect in which I think of our writing as coming out of our family is—I'm not sure how to put this exactly, but our books are fantasies of power. I mean, it's not just that there's magic in the world. It's about people who have powers. It was a way of imagining being powerful in the way our parents were. It always annoyed me that Pa was so tall and big. I mean, he was six foot. And burly. And I thought, great, when I'm all grown up I'll hit six foot. But I never became physically powerful the way he was.
AG: The name Grossman. One of our ancestors must have been physically big.
LG: Big or fat. Or here's another possibility. I always thought it was a joke. Grossman in German means great man. When the Prussians moved into the shtetls and started registering everyone, the Jews didn't have last names, so they had to be assigned last names by whoever was taking the census. And sometimes, they made jokes, which is why you get people whose name is Mauskopf—mouse head. Just something they would fill in. So I always pictured some peasant floundering in a pile of shit in a ditch, and they were like, yeah, Grossman. But Louis, Pa's dad, he was really short.
AG: But he was a wrestler. He beat up a cop once. The cop made an anti-Semitic slur, and he picked him up and threw him across the room. And they took him to jail, and he said, call the mayor. Do you know who I am? And they let him out. They called him Louis the Lock.
What about on your mom's side?
LG: Well, the writing definitely started with their generation. Our dad's dad sold cars for a living. His wife was a homemaker. On Ma's side, Victor, her dad, was a career soldier, and her mom did some secretarial work. They were both the first of their family to go to college.
AG: They were both black sheep. And no one knows where our sister came from, either. She was a math prodigy.
LG: She always said she ran further than we did. She looked for any medium that didn't have any words at all, starting with math and computer science. And then, she wound up in sculpture.
AG: I stuck with video games until I was 30—I purposefully set up to not become a writer. It would be nice to do something different. I worked at becoming a non-writer. I'm a failed non-writer. But I would never have done my first novel if Lev hadn't looked at the first few chapters.
LG: And I never would have written The Magicians if I hadn't read those early chapters. I scrapped what I was working on and started over. And what I started writing was The Magicians. So there's a lot of influence going both ways.
AG: I think of it as a Lennon-McCartney thing. We both make each other better, in some ways. Complementary strengths. That's the way it ought to be, ideally.
LG: I'm Lennon, though.
AG: What? No. I'm Lennon.
LG: Fine, it's a Lennon-Lennon thing
AG: I don't know. You might be George. We need to come back to this.
Ok, I'll settle this. Which one of them is older?
LG: Lennon is older. McCartney is the kid.
AG: How do you know this?
LG: I'm obsessed with The Beatles and their history. I find their story immensely fascinating. They keep putting out books, and now this three volume definite work is being written. The first volume is fantastic. Actually, Eliot in The Magicians books is based on the young John Lennon.
AG: In a million years I would not have guessed that you cared about Beatles in the slightest. Our mother was in Liverpool in the 50s, actually. She managed never to see The Beatles.
LG: That's the story of her life.
So did your parents meet in England?
AG: Our parents met at Brandeis. They were a professor-student couple.
LG: It was less scandalous in those days.
Would the two of you ever consider writing together?
LG: I once suggested that we do that, and Austin said no.
AG: It's still no.
LG: I didn't ask again. The offer is off the table.
AG: I learn from things you do. There's a collaborative element there. But let's draw a line somewhere. What we do do is give each other comments. When I'm at the end of what I know what to do with a project, and it's really desperate, that's when I send it on to Lev.
LG: We show each other outlines, sometimes. I saw an outline for Crooked.
AG: Yes, that's the manuscript I just turned in, for a book about Richard Nixon. It's first person point of view. It's like a history of the Cold War; that background underlay some of his decisions. Nixon was doing what he had to do.
LG: What was the great logline about the Cold War? I have to do "Harry Potter for adults" all the time. But I don't really have a problem with it. I was pretty obsessed with Harry Potter. But of course, it is incredibly different from what I write.
AG: I'm much less a Potter fan. Actually: This is my question for you. You flag yourself as a sort of genre writer, but you're not. You think about language a lot. You have a literary background. Are you just frightened of being pinned as a snob?
LG: Who's doing the interview? I self-identify as a fantasy novelist. What defines a fantasy novel? It has certain conventions. And The Magicians, you're reading it and it's letting you know what kind of novel it is. And I feel as though what it's telling you is that it's a fantasy novel. Here's a guy, he discovers he has a power that he never knew he had. He finds his way into a secret, magical world. What kind of novel is that? It's fantasy. As a fantasy novelist, I've read a lot outside of fantasy, more than your average fantasy novelists, and a lot of that gets imported across genres. But if I had to put it in a bin, I'd put it in the fantasy bin. Fortunately, it's less and less necessary to do that.
AG: I don't know if I think of myself as a genre writer. So far, my books have all been one-off experiments. I have a superhero novel, a novel about videogames, a novel about Nixon, kind of H.P. Lovecraft. There's no question that there's a certain amount of genre in my books. I'm not sure what I'm doing as I thread between them. But I love genre. When I wrote my first book, I set out by saying, I love superheroes, but I'm even more fascinated with them than the experience I get from the comics. I want a literary memory. I want that sensory experience. I want more than the comics are giving me. It lent itself to literary prose, and that's how I handled it
LG: Well, you were telling a superhero story but using the tools of realism to tell it.
AG: It's tricky. It's the easiest way to alienate two audiences, to write a comic adventure for literary readers or a literary novel for superhero readers. I get a very curious audience.
LG: How much of a formative experience of you was [Alan Moore's comic book] Watchmen? When I try to think of what I was trying to do in The Magicians, the closest model I feel like I can come up with is The Watchmen.
AG: 1985 was the year of Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns. I tend to weigh them equally as influences, despite the fact that Frank Miller made himself a caricature in later years. There was an emotion about those latter-day superheroes, in the next phase of their careers, that I hadn't felt before. And it defines an incredibly rich space. I was trying to hold that in my head as much as possible. I was trying to write another Watchmen, there's no question.
LG: I was conscious that Watchmen was critiquing the superhero genre, even attacking it. Questioning all the assumptions and conventions that underpinned the superhero genre. But by doing that, paradoxically, he didn't destroy the superhero story. Alan Moore wrote the greatest superhero story that had ever been written. It was an important lesson to me. When you attack a genre, the genre gets stronger.
MK: So basically, you're saying Watchmen is the Beckett of the superhero genre—destroy it to recreate it
LV: That's a good way of putting it.
AG: It was a critique, but what it really did was open up an emotional palette that hadn't been there before. You felt it in a new way.
LG: And it obviously came out of a great love for the genre.
AG: We were born in 1969. So in 1985, we're 16. Our minds were at the perfect level.
LV: And [William Gibson's novel] Neuromancer was '83, '84, and it was a big moment. And then in the '90s and 2000s, people started doing fantasy more.
So what is your feeling on genre distinctions more broadly?
LG: I used to go around saying that genre distinctions are ending and the barriers are coming down, and we should tear down this wall and all that. Now, I sort of walk that back a little bit. I feel as though part of the thrill of the divisions comes from the fact that you are crossing boundaries. It wouldn't be exciting to import some of these literary tropes into a fantasy novel if you didn't feel that shock of transgression. And if there weren't different genres, you wouldn't even feel it. So now I'm pro genre distinctions. Where I stop is this idea that literary fiction is hierarchically better than other genres. I think it's a mistake to try to say that one's more valuable.
AG: Some of the distinction may be with our agents. Mine always plans around bringing my books into the mainstream, and that's the transgression, bring genre tropes into literary fiction.
LG: You think of bringing genre tropes into literary fiction. I think of bringing literary tropes into genre fiction.
Let's go back to Magician's Land for a second. [Spoilers ahead.] There's a moment where Quentin's father dies, and Quentin has a beautiful and devastating reaction to it. He first wants to think his father was a magician, and only then can he come to terms with it. And ultimately, the death makes him a stronger magician himself. Obviously, there are parallels to your own life here.
LG: Pa was sick. He had been sick for almost a decade with Alzheimer's. And I knew that his death was coming. In some ways, I was rehearsing it, getting ready for it. There's a lot of fathers and parents in The Magician's Land, much more than in the earlier books. But Quentin's dad isn't like our dad. Our dad is a magician, he's like a scary powerful magician, whereas with Quentin, I wanted to play with this idea: It's a central trope of fantasy novels that the hero's parents always turn out to be secretly somebody special. They're kings and queens or they're magicians or they're amazing people. I wanted to stick that stake in its back, to find out, well, what does it feel like to find out that your parents are exactly who you thought they were? You're not chosen at all. You're just like anybody else. Quentin doesn't want that to be true. But it does turn out to be true, of course. It's autobiographical up to a point.
AG: I wrote Eisenhower as a sort of master magician, in the Nixon book. Nixon was a VP under Eisenhower, so Eisenhower was like a magician mentor to Nixon. But then in 1957, Eisenhower had a stroke, so in the novel I have parts of his memory collapse. That was my parallel to Dad. And in my first book, Baron Ether is definitely a stand-in for Pa.
What a perfect ending to your trilogy, Lev.
LG: I took an extra year to write it, to make sure I was satisfied with it.
AG: It was good. I haven't read the final draft.
LG: I did fiddle with the ending. You may have read a version where Plum becomes a goddess in the end. There's a question at the end: Who is going to become the new god of Fillory? And initially I thought, well, Plum's not doing anything and she's of the royal blood of the Chatwins. She could take over. But it didn't seem quite right. It seemed too pat. So I went the other way.
What happens to Stoppard?
LG: You're right to ask. He's a dropped thread. I think he does well. Not bad things. He was going to sort himself out. I wanted to work him back in, but it didn't seem plausible.
I love that the Cozy Horse appears for the first time at the end.
LG: I knew when I started writing that that's where it was going. I always knew it had to end there.
I have to ask, what's next for the two of you?
AG: I'm writing a YA novel next. I'm going back to superheroes. I've learned the value of building franchise from Lev, I have to say.
LG: I can't be too specific. I haven't talked to my agent about it yet. But I will say that I thought John Green's The Fault in Our Stars was really powerful, and I thought, wow, I had no idea you could do that in a YA novel. I also have a bunch of adult projects that I can't seem to choose between. I need five fucking minutes to sit down uninterrupted. I need to go back to Maine. This time, it's going to work. I need some uninterrupted time to figure it out.
That's interesting—that you've come back to that. Did you feel it was different to write in the pre-smartphone age? When you were starting out, we didn't even have cellphones.
LG: I think if our generation is remembered for anything, it's for being the last generation to remember what it feels like to be disconnected. I also think there's been a real surge of interest in fantasy in the last 10 years. Harry Potter became huge, then Lord of the Rings, then Twilight, Percy Jackson, Game of Thrones. For the first time in a long time, the reigning pop-culture franchises are fantasy. And I think that's in part a reaction how totally transformed the world has been in the last couple of decades. Lewis and Tolkien, I think they were also responding to how totally changed their worlds were. They lived through the First World War, mechanized warfare, the arrival of the car, the electrification of cities. The world they lived in was nothing like the world they grew up in. And I feel to some extent that maybe we're responding to something similar. We turn to fantasy to try to ask questions. Like, wait, what exactly is happening here? What exactly have we lost? And I feel as though people are thinking about the same questions.


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Transform Rockford draws 1,000 at meeting at Ellis school
ROCKFORD — About 1,000 people attended Saturday's second public Transform Rockford meeting, just 400 shy of the group's first meeting a month ago, when organizers called that turnout "tremendous."
The meeting, billed as a "community conversation," at Ellis Elementary School featured comparisons of top-tier cities with Rockford and comments by attendees. The first forum presented "brutal facts" about the city's social and economic troubles.
"The problem with Rockford is, you don't have a visionary leader," said Prophet Yusef, a community activist and retired teacher.
His solutions include diversifying performers booked at entertainment venues and bolstering job opportunities for those who are mechanically inclined.
Transform Rockford, formed by business and civic leaders, aims to turn the city into one of the nation's most desirable places to live and do business by 2025 with input from community members from all walks of life. A handful of business leaders have pledged $3 million to keep the process going.
Attendees heard presenters talk about attributes of other cities. They showed that Chicago Rockford International Airport is an economic gem, but crime, poverty and unemployment compare badly with other cities.
For example, Elgin has 57 percent less violent crime than Rockford, its home values are twice Rockford's and its poverty rate is half of Rockford's. Elgin also is ranked among the FBI's 100 safest communities.
Also, the Rockford area has lost 15,000 jobs since 2007, with an unemployment rate of 10 percent. Down in Charleston, S.C., unemployment hovers at 6 percent, courtesy of a diversified economic base: tourism, automotive and aerospace.
Strengths in the Rockford area include the expansion at the Chrysler plant in Belvidere and Woodward Inc.'s building of an airplane-parts factory in Loves Park, with an addition of 1,500 jobs expected in a decade as a result.
Flossie Hoarde, a teacher's aide, said transforming Rockford "at the end of the day, starts at home. But if the home is broken, you can't expect it to fix itself."
Mike Bacon, public health administrator for the Winnebago County Health Department, spoke during the question-and-answer period. He called for special attention to efforts for children up to 3 years old.
"We all have a vested interest in everyone else's children."
Georgette Braun: 815-987-1331; firstname.lastname@example.com; @georgettebraun


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Universal Engineers has built up a solid reputation in India as a metal fabricator. How did the company start out?
The entrepreneur Vinod Bomb founded Universal Engineers in 1984, initially to make products for the electrical industry. I joined the company as part of the sales team, and I enjoyed the job of forging links with new customers. Eventually Mr. Bomb asked me if I would like to become a partner. I rose from a junior partner to the level of a Managing Director. I am tremendously proud and thankful for this opportunity.
How did the company make the jump from electrical products to trains?
Believe it or not, it all started with coach toilet handholds. We were commissioned to make a batch of handholds by the Chennai-based Integral Coach Factory ICF, which is India´s largest manufacturer of trains and motor coaches. They were delighted with the results and encouraged us to focus more on that side of our business. So we started evolving and gradually added various other products such as pantry equipment to our portfolio. In addition to handholds, we started supplying seating, doors, windows and more for trains and began fabricating assemblies. Nowadays, we make not only fittings for car interiors, but also their entire shell. ICF Chennai is very supportive and encourages our development. It is a win-win-situation for both of us.
Plenty of space: The production facility covers an area of over 20,000 square meters.– Kunal Daswani
Hamsa Venugopalan, Managing Director of Universal Engineers, is responsible for more than 750 employees.– Kunal Daswani
Universal Engineers relies on TRUMPF technology for laser welding of trains.– Kunal Daswani
Universal Engineers manufactures not only the interior fittings, but also complete exterior walls for train wagons.– Kunal Daswani
What product are you particularly proud of? And why?
That's a good question, but really we are proud of all the products we make. I'm a big fan of the railway, and that's why I'm so pleased to see our company having such a big impact on the outfitting of India's rolling stock. I think we are part of the tide of change that is currently sweeping across our country. And that's something we can be genuinely proud of.
It's clear how much you love trains. Did that stem from having toy trains when you were little?
I'm afraid not (laughs). When I was younger I wanted to study medicine, but unfortunately that wasn't possible for family reasons. So I began working for a company that supplied Indian Railways. That's how I got to know the railway business, and eventually it became one of my real passions.
Universal Engineers has supplied fittings for many railcars over the past ten years. How have you coped with such large production volumes?
We always strive to use the latest technologies in our manufacturing process to achieve the highest quality standards. We use CNC machines, robots and TRUMPF laser cutting machines, all of which help us satisfy our customers' expectations. We have implemented a quality assurance process to ensure product standards are met. And TRUMPF India supports us with their machines and great service.
How about your workforce? How do your employees keep pace with the new technologies?
We started this organization with seven employees and now we have 750. We constantly evaluate their skills and ensure they receive regular training in the relevant areas. We involve every level of employee in the planning process. An important factor in our success is their dedication, their ability to think creatively and their willingness to embrace ever-changing technologies and customer requirements.
Creativity is clearly a major part of your company's ethos. Does Universal Engineers actually come up with the designs for the passenger cars, too?
Yes, we have an in-house team that works full time on refining our designs, and I really get the feeling that it works. You mentioned just now that Indian railcars look much better than they did just a few years ago. The impetus that is currently driving Indian Railways as a whole could mean our trains will eventually end up being a hugely successful export. Like the Indian Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan. (laughs)
Hamsa Venugopalan is Managing Director of the Indian metal processor Universal Engineers. It is very important for her to regularly train her 750 employees and to involve them in planning processes. This keeps them motivated and creative.


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FREE SHIPPING on all orders to continental US!
Barcode: 021078014812
Size: 60
Form: Tablet
Out of Stock
Advanced B-12 Complex combines the two active, coenzymated forms of vitamin B-12 - methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin dibencozide - with folic acid. Vitamin B-12 is required for normal growth, cell reproduction, myelin and nucleoprotein synthesis, and the formation of red blood cells. Coenzyme supplementation bypasses the body's need to synthesize the active forms of vitamin B-12 from cyanocobalamin. *
Other Ingredients sorbitol, mannitol, natural cherry flavor, stearic acid, and magnesium stearate.
Warning If you are pregnant, may become pregnant, or breastfeeding, consult your health care professional before using this product.
Suggested Use 1 tablet daily. Place tablet under the tongue and allow to dissolve slowly, altering its position to avoid prolonged contact with the same area.
Type: Vitamin B-12


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System Shock
Description official descriptions
The year is 2072. A hacker from a Saturn colony breaks into computer system of TriOptimum Corporation and gets arrested. He is taken to the Citadel Station, where Edward Diego, a TriOptimum executive, offers to drop all charges against the hacker, as well as grant him a valuable neural implant, if he agrees to hack into SHODAN (Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network) , the artificial intelligence that controls the station. The hacker removes the AI's ethical constraints and undergoes the promised implant surgery, after which he is put into a six-month healing coma.
The hacker awakens into a horrifying reality: with her ethical restrictions removed, SHODAN took control over the station, reprogrammed all robots and machines to suit her needs, and disposed of the crew members by either transforming them into mutants and cyborgs, or killing them outright. Rebecca Lansing, a TriOptimum counter-terrorism consultant, contacts the hacker and informs him of an even more terrifying possible future: SHODAN's plan involves using the station's mining lasers to annihilate all life on Earth. The hacker must explore and traverse the desolate corridors and rooms of the large space station, fighting SHODAN's minions on his way to thwart her maniacal design.
System Shock is a first-person shooter with puzzle-solving and light role-playing elements. The gameplay incorporates gradual exploration of the Citadel's ten levels, interaction with the environment, problem-solving, fulfilling objectives, and combat.
On his way the hacker encounters numerous enemies - robots, cyborgs and mutants, all of which can be fought back with a variety of weapons. Some of the weapons use ammo, while other have infinite ammo and instead draw on electric energy. Some weapons are more effective on certain foes - e.g. the dart gun only works on organic enemies, while the magpulse is best used against robots. Once killed, the enemies can be searched for ammo and other items. The player can also find items in crates, cabinets, corpses or just lying around on the ground.
Apart from weapons and ammo, the player can find patches (such as medical patches, which replenish the hero's health; berserk patches, which temporarily increase his strength but cause hallucinations; detox patches, which remove the harmful effects of radiation and biohazard; etc.), grenades of various kinds (EMP grenades are effective against robots, gas grenades are good for mutants, land mines can be used to set traps, etc.), battery packs for replenishing electricity, first aid kits for restoring health, and others.
Thanks to the hacker's implant he is able to install various pieces of hardware into his body, such as a booster which makes him go faster, or a head lantern to bright up dark areas. As the player progresses in the game, higher versions of existing hardware are found, which are more effective and useful. However, most hardware uses up electric energy while it is active.
At some places in the game, the player has to find a wall-mounted "cyberjack" to go into cyberspace in order to find helpful data, remotely open doors or unlock sealed areas, or give himself clearance to access off-limits areas. Cyberspace is represented as a 3-D wireframe place, where the protagonist floats around freely in three dimensions, shoots hostile cyber-guards with phasers, and collects files represented as colorful cubes.
The story of System Shock is mostly told through e-mail messages the protagonist received, and electronic diaries (logs) left by various characters (as well as SHODAN herself), which are scattered around the space station. The game features separate adjustable difficulty settings for combat, mission objectives and puzzles. The CD version of the game includes full speech for e-mails and logs, as well as higher-resolution, more detailed graphics.
- システムショック - Japanese spelling
- 시스텡쇼크 - Korean spelling
Groups +
Credits (DOS version)
65 People · View all
|Project Leader
|Lead Programmer
|[ full credits ]
|Unicorn Lynx (181289)
|2008-03-25 05:10:33
|Finally completed
|Unicorn Lynx (181289)
|2008-08-16 14:45:55
|Video review
|DJP Mom (11372)
|2010-10-18 04:17:20
CD version
The CD-ROM version adds SVGA modes, full speech for e-mails and logs, slightly improved intro/end sequences and a few other adjustments and additions.
Ending (Spoiler!)
If you engage the mining laser BEFORE activating the station's shields, then you'll destroy earth! And guess what? Shodan sends you an e-mail thanking you and inviting you to a celebration! The e-mail also includes a nice picture of a city being incinerated, but unfortunately the game restarts afterwards, so no robo-party.
System Shock's engine was derived from that of Ultima Underworld, from 1992. Nonetheless it was more advanced that that of Doom or Duke Nukem 3D, featuring sloped surfaces, variable gravity, realistic physics, '2.75d' environments (with limited 'sector-on-sector', but otherwise 3D), functional camera viewscreens, weapon recoil, leaning and several other clever things.
References to the game
- During the end-game sequence, you hack into another corporate computer to grab some data. The data is info on some powered battle armor, which made its way into Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri..
- In the end sequence, the hacker breaks in the corporate network of a corp. called 'Tetracorp'. In System Shock 2, the name tetracorp is printed on a generic two-state switch. Kinda rough change of business..
- It is hinted in the Wing Commander and Crusader games that they are set in the same universe as System Shock. For example, an article in a "newspaper" from the Crusader: No Remorse box mentions an artificial intelligence and the Citadel station.
- The Hacker's employee number, 2-4601, is a reference to the inmate number of Jean Valjean, the protagonist in the novel Les Misérables.
- There is a reference to the movie Soylent Green in the game (although it's spelled slightly different). In level 3, Maintenance, there is a relay panel in the northern section called "Soylant Green Filtration".
There were rumours of a possible sequel, soon after System Shock's release, but fans had to wait five years for System Shock 2.
- Computer Gaming World
- November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) - #98 on the "150 Best Games of All Time" list
- GameSpy
- 2001 – #24 Top Game of All Time
- GameStar (Germany)
- Issue 12/1999 - #15 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking
- PC Gamer
- April 2000 - #43 in the "All-Time Top 50 Games Poll"
- Power Play
- Issue 02/1995 – Best Action-Adventure in 1994
Information also contributed by Adam Baratz, Ashley Pomeroy, dasfatso, DreamWeaver, PCGamer77, Stefan Pieratzki and Zovni
Related Sites +
Other Worlds - System Shock
official page of the game at Origin System's website, archived from 1998 by the Wayback Machine
System Shock - Wikipedia
Provides information at a neutral view, free to edit by anyone.
TTLG: The System Shock 1 Fansite Hub
Through The Looking Glass' System Shock section.
Identifiers +
- MobyGames ID: 681
Know about this game? Add your expertise to help preserve this entry in video game history!
Contributors to this Entry
Game added by xroox.
Macintosh, PC-98 added by Terok Nor.
Additional contributors: Thorpe, Patrick Bregger, Rik Hideto, MrFlibble, firefang9212, somato.
Last modified March 16th, 2023.


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Software Design and Engineering
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S23-PAPA5062Regular price $89.99 Save $-89.99
Mixed print multi coloured dress. Short sleeves and rounded neck.
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CANADA: Standard $18 dollars for all shipping across Canada. $25 for coats.
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ARTHIST 454: The Image in Question : French theory after Foucault
Last offered: Spring 2015
ARTHIST 457: Abstract Expressionism
Coinciding with the opening of the Anderson Collection in the fall of 2014, this seminar considers the expanded field of Abstract Expressionism relative to both domestic and international cultural politics. Topics: Modernism and existentialism; transnational avant-gardes; interdisciplinary approaches to the visual image at mid-century; the ideologies of formalism and autonomous art; cold war aesthetics. Pollock. de Kooning, Guston, Newman, Rothko, Still, Gorky others. Close readings of Greenberg, Rosenberg and critics associated with Partisan Review and little magazines. Enrollment limited by application only; Phd students only with preference to Art History.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
ARTHIST 458: Warhol and After
This seminar focuses on the wide-ranging career of Andy Warhol as a means to consider the broader history of American art and culture since 1950. It examines little-studied aspects of Warhol¿s visual production (e.g. his career as a commercial artist in the 1950s, his everyday photographs of the 1970s and 1980s) as well as now-canonical Pop paintings of the early-to-mid 1960s. Warhol¿s critical and scholarly reception will be scrutinized in detail, as will published interviews of and writings by the artist. Finally, we will consider Warhol¿s legacy and influence on American art in the decades since his death in 1987.
Last offered: Spring 2014
ARTHIST 461: The American Civil War: An Experiential History
Can one write a history of lived experience, of ephemeral states that never were represented? Can one look at representations of paintings, photographs, and literature to see where these ephemeral states might be trapped, or might otherwise be pictured? Feeling that the real war did not get in the books (for the most part), the course examines those books and other representations and so many things that never attained so exalted a form to look at the war anew. Methodological readings as well as readings about the Civil War.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
ARTHIST 462: The Sense of Place in American Art
The course will focus on places in American art, literature, and material culture--how places are imagined; how they are conceived in opposition to the pure flow of forgettable experience; how what happens in a place somehow remains.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
ARTHIST 463: Grad Seminar: American - Ekphrasis
Description is a prime skill for an art historian. How to make a reader (or listener) see a work, whether it is illustrated or not, is arguably the most fundamental and important task and pleasure in this discipline. How to make a world--both for oneself and for one's audience--is the larger purpose of such imagistic writing. Considering historical and more recent examples of ekphrasis, the course will concentrate on works of art in the Cantor Arts Center, requiring each student to select a work that will become the basis for a quarter-long writing project.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
ARTHIST 465: Media Technology Theory (COMM 384)
This course surveys major theoretical approaches to the study of media technologies, including Frankfurt School critical theory, media archaeology, actor network theory, science and technology studies, platform studies and theories of critical making. By the end of the course, students should have a rich familiarity with the literature in this area, as well as with exemplary empirical studies conducted within each tradition. Preference to Ph.D. students in Communication and Art and Art History. Consent of instructor required for non-PhD students.
Last offered: Winter 2014
ARTHIST 470: Globalization and Contemporary Art
Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Globalization as the most important paradigm for the production, circulation, and reception of contemporary art since the 1990s. The expanding terrain of the art world; biennial culture; new economies of scale and the art market along with its critique in the discourses of empire and multitudes. Debates on the thematics of hybridity; post-Fordism; the flat world and capital flows; exteriority and site specificity; and new models of collectivism in recent art.
Terms: Spr | Units: 5
Instructors: Lee, P. (PI)
2015-2016 Spring
5 units |
UG Reqs: None |
Class #
Section 01 |
Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP) |
Session: 2015-2016 Spring 1
| Students enrolled: 8 / 8
03/28/2016 - 06/01/2016 Wed 2:30 PM - 5:20 PM at McMurtry Building rm 370 with Lee, P. (PI)
Instructors: Lee, P. (PI)
ARTHIST 472: Mellon Curating Course
This course focuses on the production, criticism, and curating of art. It encompasses both the study of curatorial work and the organization of an exhibition at the Cantor. Through a series of required readings, intensive class discussions, class trips, guest lectures, and first-hand encounters with art objects and exhibitions, we will investigate the history and contemporary practice of curating. Our work together will culminate in an exhibition at the Cantor organized by class members in close consultation with Cantor staff. The show will open in late fall 2015-16 and will be on view for approximately 12-15 weeks. Students are expected to enroll in both the Spring 2014-15 and Fall 2015-16 quarters. For graduate students only and with the approval of the faculty. Course will be co-taught by Richard Meyer and Connie Wolf.
Terms: Aut | Units: 5
Instructors: Meyer, R. (PI)
2015-2016 Autumn
5 units |
UG Reqs: None |
Class #
Section 01 |
Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP) |
Session: 2015-2016 Autumn 1
| In Person
| Students enrolled: 5
09/21/2015 - 12/04/2015 Tue 1:30 PM - 4:20 PM at Cantor Arts Center with Meyer, R. (PI)
Exam Date/Time: 2015-12-07 3:30pm - 6:30pm (Exam Schedule)
Instructors: Meyer, R. (PI)
ARTHIST 475: Media Cultures of the Cold War (COMM 386)
The intersection of politics, aesthetics, and new media technologies in the U.S. between the end of WW II and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Topics include the aesthetics of thinking the unthinkable in the wake of the atom bomb; abstract expressionism and 'modern man' discourse; game theory, cybernetics, and new models of art making; the rise of television, intermedia, and the counterculture; and the continuing influence of the early cold war on contemporary media aesthetics. Readings from primary and secondary sources in art history, communication, and critical theory.
Terms: Win | Units: 3-5
Instructors: Lee, P. (PI) ; Turner, F. (PI)
2015-2016 Winter
3-5 units |
UG Reqs: None |
Class #
Section 01 |
Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit |
Session: 2015-2016 Winter 1
| In Person
| Students enrolled: 9 / 14
01/04/2016 - 03/11/2016 Tue 3:00 PM - 5:50 PM with Lee, P. (PI); Turner, F. (PI)
Instructors: Lee, P. (PI); Turner, F. (PI)
Filter Results:


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… or, the lack of it.
A recent discussion at a customer made me having a closer look around support for encryption in the context of XaaS cloud service offerings as well as concerning Hadoop. In general, this can be broken down into over-the-wire (cf. SSL/TLS) and back-end encryption. While the former is widely used, the latter is rather seldom to find.
Different reasons might exits why one wants to encrypt her data, ranging from preserving a competitive advantage to end-user privacy issues. No matter why someone wants to encrypt the data, the question is do systems support this (transparently) or are developers forced to code this in the application logic.
IaaS-level. Especially in this category, file storage for app development, one would expect wide support for built-in encryption.
- Amazon's S3 indeed provides server-side support for encryption
- Google Storage does not encrypt files
- Same for Rackspace's Cloud Files – no encryption, ATM
- As well as for Microsoft's Azure storage – not encrypting files
- And last but not least, HP Cloud's Object Storage is in good company by not supporting encryption
On the PaaS level things look pretty much the same: for example, AWS Elastic Beanstalk provides no support for encryption of the data (unless you consider S3) and concerning Google's App Engine, good practices for data encryption only seem to emerge.
Offerings on the SaaS level provide an equally poor picture:
- Dropbox offers encryption via S3.
- Google Drive and Microsoft Skydrive seem to not offer any encryption options for storage.
- Apple's iCloud is a notable exception: not only does it provide support but also nicely explains it.
- For many if not most of the above SaaS-level offerings there are plug-ins that enable encryption, such as provided by Syncdocs or CloudFlogger
In Hadoop-land things also look rather sobering; there are few activities around making HDFS or the likes do encryption such as ecryptfs or Gazzang's offering. Last but not least: for Hadoop in the cloud, encryption is available via AWS's EMR by using S3.


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Therapeutic potential of nanofibres in the regeneration of the cochlear nerve
Search Medline for
|May 20, 2009
Objective: Loss of spiral ganglion cells in the inner ear cochlea results in irreversible hearing loss. Once damaged, the axons of the spiral ganglion cells show no spontaneous regeneration which leads to degeneration of the neurons themselves and other cell types in the auditory system. Nanofibres have been shown to have a promising therapeutic potential in the regeneration of the optic system of the CNS. Therefore they seem to be an interesting candidate to investigate for the regeneration of the cochlear nerve.
Methods: We established spiral ganglion stem cells, which could be propagated in a standard manner for in vitro screening of nanofibres. The nanofibres were synthesized with the following characteristics: amphiphile, pH neutral, in a gel state of aggregation and with different functional epitopes. For in vitro screening, we investigated various nanofibres for compatibility, axonal growth, differentiation pattern and survival rate by time dependent documentation and descriptive immunocytochemistry. Promising candidates were used for in vivo application.
A transection of the cochlear nerve in the cerebellopontine angle was performed in adult rats with a consequent electrophysiological verification of the lesion with acustic evoked potentials (AEP) (n=80). Directly after transaction, nanofibre-gels with active epitopes (treated group) and with an inactive epitope (sham treated group) were applied at the site of lesion and compared with animals that received no nanofibres (lesion-only group). Electrophysiological recordings were performed at different time points (pre and post surgery, 2, 4, 8 and 12 weeks). Eventually the animals were sacrificed after variable survival times (2, 4, 8 and 12 weeks) and for histological evaluation cryo sections were done.
Results: Several nanofibre-gels with active epitopes offered favourable in vitro conditions for survival, growth and differentiation for the investigated cells. The cells could be detected, differentiated into neurons and grow axons on the gel surface for up to 14 days of incubation. In vivo no electrophysiological evidence for regeneration was seen in the sham treated and the lesion-only groups. In some animals treated with active epitopes, reoccurrence of AEPs was observed. Further histological evidence of a possible regeneration is necessary.
Conclusions: Nanofibre-gels are suitable for the investigation of regeneration. Promising in vitro candidates have yet to prove their regenerational potential in vivo.


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