id
stringlengths 50
55
| text
stringlengths 54
694k
|
|---|---|
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7355 | My son has really been itching to fish lately. We went to Davis Corner Tuesday evening and I guess all this rain has done a wash out. LOTS of debris to ding up the boat. Submerged and partially submerged logs that get bigger the closer you get.
On the up side, the 12" ers were tearing a crankbait all to pieces. No keepers but the short fat ones were fun too.
My best friend and fishin' buddy is 10 years old! |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7361 | Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question
Migrating from HDD TO SSD?
Last response: in Storage
Hello I asked this in a previous forum but I figured that was no harm posting in here as well.
"Hello, I posted this question while looking for recommendations for parts to upgrade my current setup:
Basically I want to know if there are any problems with using a program like Ghost/Acronis to image over my current C drive to the SSD?
I've read an article that says there might be problems when doing this. Another forum has posters saying that it won't have problems but it will degrade my SSD performance. Can anyone give any advice please? Thank you.
EDIT: And I've also read one of the stickies on this forum:
What is this about? Should I be concerned about it? Sorry I'm quite the noob here as I've never used SSD before."
More about : migrating hdd ssd
In all seriousness, i would just start with a fresh install on the SSD, it is usually good to fresh install every so often. There is always the prospect of having something go wrong otherwise.
I used Acronis to copy my C: from an HDD over to an SSD on my Asus G73jh. I probably could have used the recovery disks I burned from the recovery partition, but since I had no true Windows Install disk, I chose to copy the partition over. As of yet, I have had no problems; I'm not sure if a clean install would be faster, but seeing as how it is so much faster than a regular HDD, I chose to leave it alone.
Right now I'm getting read transfers around 150MB/s on the 80GB Intel SSD. Much lower than advertised, but much faster than the old HDD which could barely muster 75MB/s.
Related resources
The only problem with imaging using Acronis or any other software is the alignment part. You need to be careful to apply it correctly.
If you are doing a fresh install of Windows 7 it will do it automatically. Nothing to worry about there. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7370 |
Lost Planet 3 hands-on: machinery, missions and multiplayer
Aoife heads into the wide blue yonder
Stranded on the surface of E.D.N. III, the first thing that strikes you is just how blue it is. It's an endless azure expanse, punctuated only by Lost Planet's ubiquitous lashings of orange, and it takes the eyes some time to adjust.
One thing that Capcom was keen to impress during our recent hands-on preview was that in this prequel, the blue of E.D.N.III represents a bold new frontier. As Capcom producer Andrew Szymanski describes it, "this is the planet in its most natural state." Taking control of Nevec new recruit Jim Peyton, you're a pioneer; trailblazing your way through previously uncharted terrain. It's man vs. wild, so think of Jim as a particularly beardy Bear Grylls who has no qualms about upsetting the natural order if it means mining as much of that sweet, sweet thermal energy as is humanly possible.
The main bulk of our preview takes us through the game's initial single player missions, in which Jim recovers a transponder from a crash site, tangles with the Akrid - the planet's indigenous creatures, and accompanies a vehicular drill to report for duty on Nevec base, Coronis. Once safely there, we dutifully check in with our superior foreman Braddock. Jim is no soldier- he's here to earn a quick buck and leave a rich man, which explains his eagerness to take on the riskier, and thus higher paid jobs.
"I think that we've made a lot of great strides," said Szymanski, "with the performances, with the characterisation, with the dialogue and the writing, to make it feel as though Jim and all the other characters are actual believable human beings instead of just these stereotypical soldier types." Wandering around Coronis, you get that impression from the people you meet and overhear. These aren't military jarheads, they're salt of the earth, blue-collar workers employed to do a job. The fact that this job requires them to tolerate and indeed destroy giant space crabs is just an inconvenient occupational hazard.
A mission later on in our playthrough introduces us to young Gale, an enthusiastic tech prodigy who cheerfully takes us through the basics of operating our very own Akrid-cracking utility rig. There's a greater emphasis on rigs throughout Lost Planet 3, and this is reinforced with a so-called 'umbilical' link between Peyton and his bucket of bolts. If he ventures too far away from the mech whilst out in the field, our HUD radar disappears.
Controlling the rig itself is one of the most enjoyable aspects of our playthrough; it's a lumbering and cumbersome beast, but because of that you feel the weight and power behind every stride. It also switches you into a first person perspective, which gives a better sense of the rig's size and scale. Nestled in that cockpit with a drill arm at your disposal, you feel nigh on untouchable - a feeling that'll surely dissipate as soon as we get up close and personal with some of the planet's larger, uglier natives.
Peyton's first official assignment is to find and rescue a wayward co-worker, Renard LaRoche, in a network of underground caves. Due to a steep incline, we're forced to exit the safety of our rig halfway to locate the missing Frenchman on foot. This leads to picking off some skittering, swarming sepias - the most basic organisms on E.D.N.III - and then a duo of heavily armoured Dongos, who require evasive manoeuvres and of course, a few shots to their glowing orange posteriors to defeat. This sequence, and all the combat we've experienced in LP3 thus far, feels familiar - and not in a good way.
1 2 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7396 | View Single Post
Old November 7 2013, 08:41 PM #42
Scout101's Avatar
Location: Rhode Island, USA
Re: Angst-Ridden Dating Rant #17
Whatever, dude. You've established the same pattern in basically every thread, sorry you don't see that. And don't pretend I did something magical you upset you, you've come out swinging, again, in the many threads on very similar issues. For all the credit you want for being self-aware, you either can't see or refuse to awknowledge some pretty obvious points. If you know what your deal is, and you totally get what's going on with these girls, how come you keep ending up here telling us you misread things or acted innapropriately?
If you can't see any of these issues after multiple people pointing them out, in multiple threads, it's your own problem. Then again, since you enjoy the drama, I'm not sure if you're really complaining, or just sharing to feed your ego...
Not interested in attacking your army of strawmen, other than to say it's an amazing link to now see that I'm bashing gender-identity now
STO: @JScout33
Scout101 is offline Reply With Quote |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7400 | Twitter Trends
I know it's not just me that's thought how awesome it would be to scale the walls Spiderman style, which is why I thought this Gecko Tape would be appreciated by others than myself.
Scientists at UC Berkeley and Lewis and Clark College created a new material capable of keeping things stuck on walls in an invention which I imagine could be likened to an advanced form of Velcro. A 2cm square can hold a pound of weight, so the possibilities are really quite spectacular. Unlike other adhesives like tape which dull with use, the Gecko Tape works better each time.
"A new material relies on millions of tiny plastic fibers that can grip solids as the fabric slides across them, then quickly release those objects when pulled away vertically," Gizmodo explains.
They haven't found a way for you to attach it to yourself (yet) but the tape has been proven to work well to keep objects like art on walls or bandaging wounded limbs.
"The gecko has a very sophisticated hierarchical structure of compliant toes, microfibers, nanofibers and nanoattachment plates that allows the foot to attach and release with very little effort," said Berkeley prof Ron Fearing of his inspiration. "The gecko makes it look simple, but the animal needs to control the directions it is moving its toes—correct movement equates to little effort." |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7425 | Our Score
Review Price free/subscription
Pure Evoke Flow - Internet & DAB Radio - Pure Evoke Flow
While the Evoke Flow's two main control dials should look largely familiar to anyone that's used one of Pure's previous models (and even if you haven't, volume and select are pretty self explanatory), the rest of the interface will be new to everyone. It uses an array of touch sensitive buttons. The three that sit under the screen are context sensitive so their function changes depending on what's on the screen at the time. The combination of these three buttons and the select knob enable you to navigate through menus at lightening fast speeds. Something which is helped no end by the fact that the menus are incredibly intuitive.
Every function you could imagine is where you would expect and is quick to access no matter what else you're doing. Even text entry, which is needed for searching the hundreds of Internet radio stations, is simple and snappy.
The screen also helps a great deal in this regard. It can display multiple lines of information at once so you're never left endlessly scrolling to find the information you want. Also, as well as having very high contrast levels, the OLEDs it uses are completely resistant to any of the usual problems with viewing angles that plague LCD panels. No matter what direction you're looking at it from it's always perfectly readable. It's also light sensitive so it auto-dims when used in the dark, which makes it both kinder on the eyes and easier to live with if you're a light sleeper.
Taking at closer look at the basic functions, the Flow can tune to both FM and DAB and can store 10 presets for the former and 30 for the latter. Tuning (FM) or station selection (DAB) is achieved using the select control and quickly flicking it will set the list of DAB stations free wheeling, saving you from continually spinning the knob. Tuning performance was not the best we've ever seen at our office where the signal is poor. We sometimes manage to coax a few stations to appear on some radios but we got nothing with the Flow. At my home however, where the signal is good, it picked up as many stations as any other radio we've tested.
Tuning into Internet radio station or hooking up to your personal music collection requires you to establish a network connection, which if your network is secure can be a bit of a pig as you have to enter the long security key. There's also no wired connection, which, even given the ubiquitous nature of wireless nowadays, seems like something of a miserly omission.
To listen to your own music collection you must either stream music from your computer (most commonly by setting up your computer as a music server using Windows Media Player 11) or the Flow can connect to any UPnP server, which most NAS appliances have. Setup can be a little tricky if you're not sure what you're doing but once you're underway, browsing and listening to your music is very easy with music filtered into artists, albums, and songs, just like you'd get on a normal MP3 player.
Previous page
Next page
comments powered by Disqus |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7433 | thank you
TalkToMe! 1.0
file size: 1.03 MB
Published by:
Cow Rating:
is a communications tool for people who can no longer speak.
TalkToMe! uses Apple's excellent Text-To-Speech capability to simulate speech, and allows you to store common words and phrases for two-click speaking (one click to select the phrase, one click to speak it).
TalkToMe! is ideal for people with neurodegenerative diseases like ALS, who have lost their ability to speak, but whose minds remain sharp as ever. You can type the text into the text field, paste it in, or use an on-screen keypad to "click" it in.
Once entered, you can "speak" the text by hitting return or by clicking the Speak button. If you would like to save the phrase, you may store it in any of your user-defined categories.
TalkToMe! comes with six categories that can be modified to suit individual tastes. They are:
• Bible Verses
• Common Words
• Jokes
• Poems
• Prayers
• Sayings
Additional categories may be added, up to a 100-category limit. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7438 | Wednesdays 9:00 PM on ABC
Modern Family Review: Kill Them With Kindness
by at .
Phil Dunphy has always been a man with a kind word and a kind gesture. However, in "Fulgencio," he finds out that sometimes killing people with kindness isn't the best way to get results.
This is especially true when dealing bratty and mercurial teenagers. Good thing he has Luke Dunphy, consigliere to his Godfather. Cue the accents and let's start hearing some offers we can't refuse!
Gloria's Mom Visits
It's so typical that the kids would look for Claire to solve their problems. But Phil is really helpful if you have the patience for him to make a few mistakes. I think it's great that he tries to solve things by being nice to others. Plus, he isn't afraid to screw up. Even if that means he thinks that being a Godparent means wearing a fedora.
My favorite part of this week's episode was easily when Luke went all mafia at the end, full suit and everything. With dumb Dylan as his driver, he took down four problems in one fell swoop, including a very famous nod to The Godfather at the end, except it was a stuffed zebra's head in the bed, not a dead horse. I loved when Claire suspiciously told Phil everything she'd heard and he sat behind his desk with Luke at the helm. Don't ask Claire, just don't ask!
There was a bit of a role reversal this week as Jay became the desperate to impress son-in-law. Suddenly, he knew what it was like to be in Phil's shoes. As Claire was busy rubbing baby Joe all over her body, she explained the irony in it all.
Son of a bitch, I'm Phil! | permalink
Speaking of Claire's odd behavior., I've seen my oldest sister get that way now that her children are grown up. It's like new babies have this calmness and scent when they are still pudgy and sweet before they're talking back to you, spitting at your and throwing toys at your head. I get it. Then again, I also kiss my bulldog like Jay does. Maybe that's why I appreciate the Modern Family crew so much! They makes the littlest quirks relatable.
Even if this wasn't a TV show, I bet Sofia Vergara would actually look that perfect so shortly after giving birth. She is a true beauty. I liked get a look at Gloria's family this week. To see how they interacted with Jay was especially funny.
Could you imagine if Jay ended up with Gloria's sister instead of her? I don't know that it would have worked. You could just see Gloria's guilt as her sister offered to do laundry and then asked where the river was. Gloria has such a specific brand of spunk that balances so well with Jay. Her mother Pilar was a pistol, no pun intended.
This episode was sweet and involved a minimal amount of Cam and Mitchell arguing. Damn, Lily, has some attitude on her! Pretty hilarious that it came from Claire in the end. What did you think of the Modern Family Christening episode?
Editor Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
• 4.0 / 5.0
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
User Rating:
Rating: 4.5 / 5.0 (114 Votes)
Tags: ,
From Around the Web
13 Comments New Comment Subscribe
The girl who plays Lily is such a terribly annoying actress; her scenes are unwatchable. I hope they replace her with someone who doesn't sound like a robot.
Why only 4 stars for this episode? It was definitely top 5 for this season! Lily was FABULOUS in this episode, and so spunky! And Luke's Godfather moment was totally hilarious! F.U. Pritchett? Today, ladies? Jay turning into Phil? It was amazing!!!!!
If only they would play Godfather's theme in the show, then it will be perfect.
5 star, top 5 episode
Great episode, loved the godfather references, Phil is awesome!
Cam and Mitchells storylines are getting a bit annoying though.
Lily: Today, ladies!!!
Gloria's sister: where is the river?
Another truly hilarious episode!
This was a pretty good episode.
Phil trying to solve the kids problems was super funny! I loved the god father references and at the end when Luke went around taking revenge on everyone! That was funny.
Lily was also funny this episode and thus in turn led to some great Cam and Mitchell moments.
The ending was brilliant!
OMG, OMG, Phil has a even greater dark side, im beginning to think that hes gonna hurt somebody really bad on purpose, nice, Go Dark Dunphy!
I dont like the idea that Haley and Dylan get back together, i prefer that Haley being the loser one, not Alex.
This episode was absolutely hilarious! The Godfather nods - just perfect! F.U. Prichet - LOL!!! By the way, I love Gloria's new hair colour.
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7439 | Tuesdays 9:00 PM on CW
31 Comments New Comment Subscribe
Im pretty sure that a TITAN alone can wipe out Crowley's demon minions. so it wouldn't be that much of an epic final battle imo.
Also i want the character of DEATH to make an appearance at least once before this season is over !!.
Is it just me or are Sam and Dean gaining a whole lot of allies for the past few episodes? This episode Artemis, last episode James and Portia, a few episodes back Aaron and his Golem, and before that they find Charlie (again), not to mention Castiel, Kevin, and Garth. That is a whole lot of making allies if you ask me. Didn't they say that Crowley wasn't going to let them close the gates the of hell without a fight. What if in one of the last episodes the Winchesters call in for some reinforcements? Imagine that. A Witch and his familiar, a Golem, an Angel, a Titan and Garth, fighting it out against Crowley and his Demon army.
I'm calling this one here. One of the last episodes this season will be called "A Little Help From My Friends", and will have this plot.
And the last one I bet will be, "Sha na na na Goodbye".
I put a lot of thought into this
I look forward to this show every week.. My friends and I talk about it for das after..Love it..ope it does not end anytime soon.
You had me agreeing to everything until you stated that "Gods Must be Crazy" was a better episode than last weeks (MBFWB) I think the concept of greek gods "could" have been done WAY more interestingly than was portrayed. I was seriously underwhelmed. Zeus is much more of a badass than was shown and I really doubt that Artemis arrow could have done him in so easily. IDK, I love Greek gods, but I really think show dropped the ball and the story was lame. Prometheus & Artemis were really hot but Baby Mama had the worst acting skills Ive seen on show in a long time. I am still loving the Bat cave and all that it entails--the whole Legacy thing" I guess Im more impressed than the Gods were...lol. Sam REALLY really needs to come clean with Dean about the blood etc cause at this point (after everything they have been through) his whole silence is coming across as stupid at this point. Also, I would LOVE for show to focus more on the Men of Letters legacy--I know this would have to be for next season, but I am finding lately that I could watch the boys tinker around in their batcave for 47 minutes with NO problems and its more interesting to me than the MOW. =) Still my FAVORITE thing on tv. but a walking dead crossover would be so ridiculously awesome that It could only happen in my brain.
I adore Brooke Langton (The Replacements). I didn't know it was she at first, I just thought What a drop dead gorgeous and talented actress. Then I saw her name, Googled it, and bingo! And the little fella was wonderful. The acting on Supernat is just so spot on. Jensen's final monologue prayer reduced me to tears. He's done that before. These two guys are just the best and why they have not been nominated for Emmys is beyond me. The episode itself: Interesting, not my favourite, but no Supernat episode can ever really disappoint.
I did not watch it this time. I was watching Law and Order SVU. I did flip to SPN to get a fill on what was going on. Although it felt strange not watching it I'm glad I did. Once they said they were going kill Zeus I had enough then. I just hate that I missed the prayer. Maybe I will watch online.
@ Sa'ad702
Remember at the Kevin Tran auction they referred to God as "capital G". So the show recognizes an "alpha" God, as it were: seemingly the God of the Abrahmic faiths is that God.
Otherwise, it's fairly normal for humans to refer to beings or elements that have more control and power than themselves as "gods". It doesn't just have to be entities, it can be concepts which have more control over our own lives than we do: Fate, Destiny, Life, Death, Time. Even with more powerful animals, those animals have been turned into near god-like beings in some cultures (wolves, lions, etc). This is one reason why the person of Jesus Christ was difficult for even the apostles to swallow ... if Jesus was a divine being, why didn't he overpower others ? It's easier to identify the one overpowering and killing everyone against their will in a room as a "god", but not so much the others.
Not the best episode ever. Not the worst either.
Artemis was a virgin goddess, it would had been nice to remember that, and the kid was so...off.
I wish Dean went back to his S1-2 self. I mean, his jokes are so dumb now, it makes me sad because he used to be a really funny, smart character. But at least he's noticed Sam is not okay, Sam hasn't needed to tell him, and they're not arguing on that (yet).
I loved the final scene. Sam praying to save his brother, about to cry...reminded me of one of the best scenes Dean has had, when Sam died in season 2. Good job there, Jensen.
The small domestic scenes where the brothers are together in the batcave are so cute.
@jrwt I hear ya cuz I'm missing the music too!
2/28/13 4:23 PMÂ Report
I loved this episode. I adore both brothers equally and wonder why they sometimes have Dean being "dumb" to the most basic things, but brilliant to some of the more difficult facts. Meh. Dean had me near tears with his sweet, desperate prayer to Castiel; all that was missing was him kneeling at the side of his bed. He knows Sam is in big trouble after only one of the trials and is appealing to his angel friend for help, but there is only silence and no Cas--which gives Dean another worry. As for the Prometheus/Zeus/Oliver story, I thought it unique and engrossing. When Oliver spoke to Sam--his first words in a long time!--I teared up. It was sad that Shane had to sacrifice himself for his son, but that's what parents do. Let's just hope that Sam doesn't have to die--again--when these trials are over. As for Sam becoming a god. . .I don't know about that. Could he still hang out with his brother if he became a god? -- Love, Robin
Delete Comment
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7464 | latin cyrillic
Hi, does sb know what's the name of this typeface?
thx a lot!
Hello everybody!
Just a quick question: Is there such a things as a guide to typical or standard character sizes? I'm in the process of creating a new typeface and I'm having trouble deciding on the width of some characters in relation to each other... for example, what's the typical length of the minus hyphen compared to the m dash? And the plus character? And so on and so on... Some very good info is in the "Character design standards" Microsoft Typography site, but no info on widths/proportions.
Also, any resource listing all the characters that "need" to be included in a font? My typeface will be Latin and Cyrillic and I'm using other fonts to look at which characters to include.
Im doing a multilangual project that needs a font that supports the chinese, latin and cyrillic alphabet.
Is there some contemporary, interesting typefaces out there that you can reccomend?
Syndicate content Syndicate content |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7474 |
User Name
Old 09-23-2012, 08:22 AM #1
Registered User
MultiM's Avatar
Join Date: Jun 2012
9th chords:
what can I play with nine chords:
for example:in E minor key can I play the e9th chord? what can I play with it?
MultiM is offline Reply With Quote
Old 09-23-2012, 09:45 AM #2
Shallow and pedantic.
Zaphod_Beeblebr's Avatar
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Behind a desk.
In any key you can play whatever you like; theory describes what you have done, it doesn't tell you what to do. That said, yes an Em9 chord is diatonic to the key of E minor.
When it comes to what you can play with it... whatever you hear in your head that sounds like it.
Originally Posted by steven seagull
Zaphod wins...flawless victory.
Originally Posted by Freepower
Another flawless victory for Zaph!
Zaphod_Beeblebr is offline Reply With Quote
Old 09-23-2012, 07:17 PM #3
Another Won
I like Dream Theater
Join Date: Aug 2012
a ninth chord is just a second raised an octave...obviously because there are not nine notes in a scale.
So in em you word raise the second of e an octave which happens to be F#
So there you go.
I still like Dream Theater
Another Won is offline Reply With Quote
Thread Tools Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:
Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump
Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.0.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2014, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7482 | Faculty Information
Otolaryngologists (ENT physicians) at the University of Rochester Medical Center are trained in non-surgical and surgical treatment of diseases of the ears, nose, throat, head, and neck. Our specialists perform hundreds of procedures and surgeries every year, so patient care is always in the hands of well-practiced experts.
In fact, as part of the University of Rochester Medical Center, our physicians are exposed to more complex conditions and unusual complications than most physicians in the area.
Many physicians are also involved in research to find new treatments for ENT-related diseases. All of our doctors are board certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology.
View a list of specialists |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7542 | Tourist information in Finnmark - Official Travel Guide to Norway - visitnorway.com
Go to content Go to navigation
Find providers and contact information Tourist information in Finnmark
Showing 1-10 of 23 results
Read more: Loppa Tourist Information Photo: Loppa Opplevelser
Loppa Tourist Information
Loppa is located in the south-west of Norwegian Lapland/Finnmark County, on the coast. Loppa is well worth a visit, both on sunny days and in winter...
Read more: Tourist Information in Lakselv and Porsanger Photo: Arctic active
Tourist Information in Lakselv and Porsanger
Porsanger municipality is in the very centre of Norwegian Lapland, stretching from the Finnmark mountain plain in the south, via fertile river valleys...
Read more: Lebesby Tourist Information Photo: Nina Smedseng
Lebesby Tourist Information
Kautokeino Tourist Information
Read more: Berlevåg Tourist Information
Berlevåg Tourist Information
Read more: NorthernNorway Tourist Board Photo: Rica Hotels Finnmark
NorthernNorway Tourist Board
Read more: Tourist Information in Stabbursnes Photo: Beate Juliussen
Indre Billefjord
Tourist Information in Stabbursnes
National Park Centre for Stabbursdalen National Park and information centre for nature and culture in Finnmark county....
Read more: Tourist Information in Gamvik Photo: Gunn Marie Fermann
Tourist Information in Gamvik
Read more: Tourist Information in Vardø Photo: Trym Ivar Bergsmo
Tourist Information in Vardø
Read more: Tourist Information in Tana Photo: Trym Ivar Bergsmo
Tourist Information in Tana
Multi-cultural Tana is a true gem, in the centre of Eastern Norwegian Lapland. Visit Tana to experience a multitude of authentic and exotic new...
View more:
1 2 3
• Ad
• Ad
• Ad
• Ad
Subscribe to newsletter |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7565 |
NUGENT: California nightmare
Bankrupt state serves as a warning to the rest of America
Story Topics
Will the last American left in California please turn out the lights? And don't let the door slam you in the behind. California isn't going broke. It's already broke and is $16 billion in the hole. With businesses leaving the state in record numbers because of punitive taxes and bizarre overregulation, the only way forward is to either raise taxes or severely cut benefits. Raising taxes is the mantra of liberals, and California is awash with liberal politicians.
In addition to business-killing taxes and regulations, California has the third-highest state income tax in the nation, the nation's highest sales tax and the highest gas taxes in America.
Get this: Roughly half of California's income taxes are paid by just 1 percent of California's residents. It's no wonder the most productive people are leaving the state each year as more bloodsuckers move in.
If that isn't bad enough, California has one of the nation's highest unemployment rates; its health care system is on the verge of collapse, with dozens of hospitals closing over the past decade; crime is rampant in California's cities; its public employees are paid staggering amounts of money compared to ordinary Californians; and massive numbers of illegal aliens continue to invade the state.
This isn't California dreamin' but rather an American nightmare.
It's a blinding statement of the obvious, but California's financial nightmare (and the nation's) is a terminal addiction to bloated and expensive government completely out of control, with zero accountability.
You don't need to be an economist to understand that less government equals more prosperity. The fundamental problem we face is that too many Americans do not understand this most basic economic truism, or worse, simply refuse to accept it.
It doesn't work that way (or can't work that way for long) and that's why California and our federal government are financial train wrecks.
The way out of this mess would be painful. Massive cuts would be required, services slashed, and agencies gutted and eliminated.
There is no dispute there will be pain. The question is: When will we deal with it, now or later?
For many Americans, the answer is painfully obvious: Let someone else deal with it further down the road. Put it on the shoulders of future generations.
That is the wrong answer. The longer we postpone the pain, the more painful and ugly it will be. Just look at Greece, Spain and France.
The responsible answer is to deal with it now.
We can't tax our way out of this mess. We can't continue to borrow our way out. We can't regulate our way out. We are not going to grow our way out. The only way out is to dramatically reduce government spending and to quit strangling the free market with burdensome regulations.
Liberalism has failed around the world, and it has failed here, too. Big government has been a big bust. Yet, for liberals, the solution is even bigger government.
Economist Milton Friedman had it right: "So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear, that there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system."
More government hasn't been, isn't and won't ever be the answer. That's California dreamin'.
Ted Nugent is an American rock 'n' roll, sporting and political activist icon. He is the author of "Ted, White, and Blue: The Nugent Manifesto" and "God, Guns & Rock 'N' Roll" (Regnery Publishing).
About the Author
Ted Nugent
Latest Stories
blog comments powered by Disqus
TWT Video Picks
You Might Also Like
PRUDEN: Where have the big-time grifters gone?
BRUCE: Bombastic arrogance or humble determination? Chris Christie’s choice
PRUDEN: The question to haunt the West
• Get Breaking Alerts |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7585 | Skip to content
My WebMD Sign In, Sign Up
Find a Vitamin or Supplement
Other Names:
Aceite de Onagra, Acide Cis-linoléique, Cis-Linoleic Acid, EPO, Evening Primrose, Evening Primrose Seed Oil, Fever Plant, Herbe-aux-ânes, Huile de Graines d’onagre, Huile D'Onagre, Huile de Primerose, Huile de Primevère Vespérale, Jambon de Jard...
See All Names
Side Effects
Overview Information
Evening primrose oil is the oil from the seed of the evening primrose plant. Evening primrose oil is used for skin disorders such as eczema, psoriasis, and acne. It is also used for rheumatoid arthritis, weak bones (osteoporosis), Raynaud’s syndrome, multiple sclerosis (MS), Sjogren’s syndrome, cancer, high cholesterol, heart disease, a movement disorder in children called dyspraxia, leg pain due to blocked blood vessels (intermittent claudication), alcoholism, Alzheimer’s disease, and schizophrenia.
Women use evening primrose oil in pregnancy for preventing high blood pressure (pre-eclampsia), shortening labor, starting labor, and preventing late deliveries. Women also use evening primrose oil for premenstrual syndrome (PMS), breast pain, endometriosis, and symptoms of menopause such as hot flashes.
In foods, evening primrose oil is used as a dietary source of essential fatty acids.
In manufacturing, evening primrose oil is used in soaps and cosmetics.
In Britain, evening primrose oil used to be approved for treating eczema and breast pain. However, the Medicines Control Agency (MCA), the British equivalent of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), withdrew the licenses for evening primrose oil products marketed as prescription drug products for these uses. The licenses were withdrawn because the agency concluded that there is not enough evidence that they are effective. The manufacturer disagrees, but it hasn’t published studies yet to prove the effectiveness of evening primrose for these uses.
How does it work?
Evening primrose oil contains “fatty acids.” Some women with breast pain might not have high enough levels of certain ”fatty acids.” Fatty acids also seem to help decrease inflammation related to conditions such as arthritis and eczema.
Uses & Effectiveness What is this?
Possibly Effective for:
• Breast pain (mastalgia). It may not be effective for long-term severe breast pain, though.
Possibly Ineffective for:
• Symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS).
• Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
• Hot flashes and night sweats due to menopause.
Insufficient Evidence for:
• Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). There is some early evidence that a specific combination of evening primrose oil and fish oils (Efamarine) might reduce the symptoms of CFS. However, study results have not been consistent.
• Rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Some studies show evening primrose oil reduces pain in RA. But some other studies show no benefit.
• Complications of pregnancy. Research to date suggests that taking evening primrose oil doesn’t seem to shorten labor, prevent high blood pressure (pre-eclampsia), or prevent late deliveries in pregnant women.
• Sjogren’s syndrome (an autoimmune disorder in which certain body cells attack and destroy the glands that produce tears and saliva). There is some evidence that taking evening primrose oil doesn’t improve symptoms.
• Cancer.
• Acne.
• Multiple sclerosis (MS).
• Rheumatoid arthritis.
• Heart disease.
• High cholesterol.
• Alzheimer’s disease.
• Other conditions.
More evidence is needed to rate evening primrose oil for these uses.
Side Effects & Safety
Evening primrose oil is LIKELY SAFE for most people. It can sometimes cause mild side effects including upset stomach, nausea, diarrhea, and headache.
Special Precautions & Warnings:
Pregnancy and breast-feeding: Taking evening primrose oil is POSSIBLY UNSAFE during pregnancy. It might increase the chance of having complications. Don’t use it if you are pregnant.
It is POSSIBLY SAFE to take evening primrose oil during breast-feeding, but it’s best to check with your healthcare provider first.
Bleeding disorders: There is a concern that evening primrose oil might increase the chance of bruising and bleeding. Don’t use it if you have a bleeding disorder.
Epilepsy or another seizure disorder: There is a concern that taking evening primrose oil might make seizures more likely in some people. If you have a history of seizure, avoid using it.
Schizophrenia: Seizures have been reported in people with schizophrenia treated with phenothiazine drugs, GLA (a chemical found in evening primrose oil), and vitamin E. Get your healthcare provider’s opinion before starting evening primrose oil.
Surgery: Evening primrose oil might increase the chance of bleeding during or after surgery. Stop using it at least 2 weeks before a scheduled surgery.
Interactions What is this?
Major Interaction Do not take this combination
• Medications that slow blood clotting (Anticoagulant / Antiplatelet drugs) interacts with EVENING PRIMROSE OIL
Evening primrose oil might slow blood clotting. Taking evening primrose oil along with medications that also slow clotting might increase the chances of bruising and bleeding.
Evening primrose oil contains GLA (gamma-linolenic acid). GLA is the part of evening primrose oil that might slow blood clotting.
Moderate Interaction Be cautious with this combination
• Medications used during surgery (Anesthesia) interacts with EVENING PRIMROSE OIL
Evening primrose oil might interact with medications used during surgery. One person who was taking evening primrose oil and other medications had a seizure during surgery. But there isn't enough information to know if evening primrose oil or the other medications caused the seizure. Be sure to tell your doctor what natural products you are taking before having surgery. To be on the safe side, you should stop taking evening primrose oil at least 2 weeks before surgery.
• Phenothiazines interacts with EVENING PRIMROSE OIL
Taking evening primrose oil with phenothiazines might increase the risk of having a seizure in some people.
The following doses have been studied in scientific research:
• For breast pain: 3-4 grams daily.
See 49 Reviews for this Treatment - OR -
Review this Treatment
Learn about User Reviews and read IMPORTANT information about user generated content
Search for a Vitamin or Supplement
Ex. Ginseng, Vitamin C, Depression
Today on WebMD
Woman taking a vitamin or supplement
Man taking a vitamin or supplement
Woman in sun
Couple in bed
Woman sleeping
Woman staring into space with coffee
Related Newsletters
Untitled Page |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7612 | Philip Brewer's picture
Senior Writer
Philip Brewer
I wanted to be a full-time writer. So, I came up with a naive plan: Live more frugally; save and invest; free myself to do the work that I choose.
Latest articles by Philip Brewer
Your Web Presence Will Soon Be More Valuable Than Your Credit Rating
Soon it won't be enough to remove those compromising tweets and selfies. To succeed and prosper, you need to build an attractive online persona.
How to Make Your Fortune: Become Your Own Hero
Your average fictional hero can teach us a lot about living in the real world, starting with understanding motivation and goals, and finding a way to reach them.
One Simple Trick to Get the Best Tax Benefit From Your Retirement Portfolio
Discover how smart investors keep their retirement accounts in check.
How to Resist Lifestyle Creep and Still Have Everything You Want
Responsible financial management doesn't mean you have to live like a monk. It does mean you have to define — and choose — your own individual lifestyle.
Counterfeiters Beware: Here's How the New $100 Will Ruin Your Day
Scheduled to enter circulation back in early 2011, the new, more secure $100 finally starts circulating today. These are the new security features to look for.
Psychology of Money: How We Secretly Want People to Make Us Buy Things
A good financial plan includes planning and budgeting for both needs and wants. Don't let short term wants steal from those wants you really desire.
Become a Producer to Put Your Consumption in Perspective
The gap between making and consuming keeps widening, but making more of what you consume can lead to a richer life.
Save Money by Trusting Yourself
People often create spending rules because they don't trust themselves. But if you can develop that trust, you can save even more.
Control Your Debt With an Annual Clean Sweep
Do you use credit to manage cash flow fluctuations or to live beyond your means? Here's a simple, practical test for keeping your debt under control.
New $100 Bill: Issue Date Set
Eating at the Intersection of Cheap and Healthy
Get Ready to Manage Your Bank (and Other Cash) Accounts
Recently, there's been no reason to pay much attention to how you store your cash — it doesn't earn enough interest to worry about. That's about to change.
Being Frugal Without Giving Up Your Social Life
Despite what some people think, you don't have to be a hermit to be frugal. Learn how you can have a fun social life AND maintain your budget.
The False Allure of Compound Interest
You've seen stories about compound interest adding up to big savings. That can happen — but often, it's not the whole truth.
Becoming Financially Secure: What to Do First
Student Loans: The Third Way to Ruin Your Finances
"Is college worth it?" has become a difficult question to answer — and answering wrong could saddle you with years of debt. Here are your options.
The Limits of Small Economies
People often recommend cutting out little expenses to help get back on financial track. What's rarely mentioned is that this alone won't solve the problem.
Capital Substitutes for Labor — and Vice Versa
Retirement planning has changed a lot since the economic downturn. But the things you need to understand and do are still very simple.
The "I Knew It!" Benefit of Expense Tracking
Philip Brewer's Favorite Books |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7625 | Doomguard Commander
100,028pages on
this wiki
Revision as of 16:14, November 8, 2010 by QATestsBot (Talk | contribs)
CombatMobElite 32Doomguard Commander
Doomguard Commander
Race Doomguard (Demon)
Level 61 Elite
Health 50,000
Mana 12,430
Wealth 76Copper
Reaction Alliance Horde
Location Blasted Lands [32.7, 67.2]
Doomguard Commanders can be found in the Blasted Lands.
Notable drops
Patch changes
External links
Advertisement | Your ad here
Around Wikia's network
Random Wiki |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7626 | 99,921pages on
this wiki
Redirected from Growl (druid)
For the hunter pet ability, see Growl (pet).
Ability physical taunt
• Growl
• 30 yd range
• 8 sec cooldown
• Instant cast
• Taunts the target to attack you, but has no effect if the target is already attacking you. Using this ability activates Bear Form.
Usable by
Cooldown8 sec
Level required8
Related debuff
Ability physical taunt
• Growl
• Taunted.
• Duration: 3 seconds
Growl is the druid tank's taunt ability, learned at level eight. If not used in [Bear Form], it activates that form.
Modified by Edit
Tips and tactics Edit
• Growl is particularly useful for saving nukers and healers from being attacked by mobs.
• Thanks to its long range, it can also be used to pull mobs if Faerie Fire (Feral) is on cooldown or otherwise unfavorable.
• Challenging Roar can function as a backup if Growl is on cooldown.
• If all else fails, immobilization of the mob - by Bash - can be a good alternative against non-boss mobs.
• Growling at a critter sometimes causes the critter to run in fear instead of coming to you, though certain ones will attack you (such as frogs).
Notes Edit
• Has no Rage cost.
• You get this ability automatically when you get Bear Form.
• As of patch 4.0.1, Growl no longer has a miss chance (even with +0% hit). Prior to 4.0.1, Growl followed the following rules: It was treated as a spell. It couldn't be cast when silenced and it had a 17% chance to miss raid bosses (in contrast to the 8% chance to miss boss mobs for melee attacks). So even if you are melee hit capped (263 hit rating at level 80), Growl's chance to miss was still 9%. This 9% gap was mostly covered with Glyph of Growl (which was removed in 4.0.1).
Patch changes Edit
• Mists-Logo-Small Patch 5.0.4 (28 August 2012): Activates bear form.
• Wrath-Logo-Small Patch 3.0.3 (04-Nov-2008): Cooldown changed to 8 sec.
External linksEdit
Advertisement | Your ad here
Around Wikia's network
Random Wiki |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7628 | Raging Agam'ar
100,028pages on
this wiki
Revision as of 17:49, October 1, 2012 by MarkvA (Talk | contribs)
CombatMobElite 32Raging Agam'ar
Raging Agam'ar
Race Boar (Beast)
Level 32 - 33 Elite
Health ?
Reaction Alliance Horde
Location Razorfen Kraul
See Icon-3D-48x48
Pet information
Family Boar
Raging Agam'ars are hostile level 32 - 33 elite boars found in Razorfen Kraul. Despite their unusual appearance, they are tamable by Hunters.
They are named after Agamaggan.
Abilities Edit
• Spell shadow unholyfrenzy [Frenzy]ω ϖ—Increases the caster's attack speed by 60% for 2 min.
Patch changes Edit
See also Edit
External links Edit
Advertisement | Your ad here
Around Wikia's network
Random Wiki |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7630 | Spirit of Ar'tor
99,993pages on
this wiki
Revision as of 11:46, November 8, 2010 by QATestsBot (Talk | contribs)
NeutralNPC 32Spirit of Ar'tor
Spirit of Ar'tor
Gender Male
Race Ghost (Undead)
Level 70
Location Shadowmoon Valley
Spirit of Ar'tor is a level 70 quest giver located in Illidari Point in the contested territory of Shadowmoon Valley.
It starts the following quests:
See List of Shadowmoon Valley NPCs.
Patch changes
External links
Advertisement | Your ad here
Around Wikia's network
Random Wiki |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7633 | Obama wins Heisman
Okay, you're right. Obama didn't win the Heisman. But if it was awarded by a group of liberal internationalists, he would be the choice. And it wouldn't sound any dumber than the actual news.
US President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee said he was awarded it for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples". There were a record 205 nominations for this year's prize. The laureate - chosen by a five-member committee - wins a gold medal, a diploma and 10m Swedish kronor ($1.4m).
The award was already devalued when it was given to Al Gore a couple of years ago, but even though Gore was pursuing a phony cause, he did actually do something in support of the cause. Interesting note: Peace prize nominations must be made by February 1, which means that Obama had changed the world after just 11 days in office.
• Myth: Candidates can be nominated until the last minute. The nomination deadline is eight months before the announcement, with a strictly enforced deadline of Feb. 1.
Will winning an award he has done nothing to earn hinder Obama? Some say yes.
"Frankly it seems premature when he hasn't been in office even a year yet and has not yet actually achieved the goals he set out although he certainly has made some very noteworthy efforts," says Mark Fitzpatrick, Senior Fellow for Non-proliferation at the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies. "I think he will be embarrassed by it and it will be unhelpful in the domestic milieu."
What was the reaction around the office?
Fitzpatrick and his colleagues at the International Institute of Strategic Studies reacted in the same way: "Is this a joke? We all thought it was a joke." |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7683 | The future of APM: more simplicity, fewer silos, and real answers | ZDNet
Summary: Application performance management is hot in 2013, but the nature of the problem is changing as enterprises scale further. We read the tea leaves with Compuware APM's John Van Siclen.
"There's an app for that."
There are few people who aren't familiar with this Apple catchphrase, which suggests that there is a solution to every problem in a self-contained application.
That is precisely the problem for businesses that are shifting more and more revenue onto applications -- whether web, mobile, streaming or cloud. When there is that much money at stake, sluggishness and crashes are not acceptable. Not if you want to keep your customers, anyway.
Enter application performance management. The practice is several years old, no doubt. But this year, it's taking off as enterprises in all industries move critical, customer-facing processes to the cloud. It's no understatement to say that I receive an e-mail about it every week.
John Van Siclen has seen the space evolve. The former chief executive of DynaTrace, he's now general manager at Compuware APM, the applications arm of the Detroit-based computing conglomerate.
To get a sense of where we are and where we're headed in APM, I gave him a call.
ZD: Let's start at the beginning. Where did APM really come from?
JVS: It was really started by Mercury [Interactive] and Wily [Technology] and Precise [Software] -- these are the pioneers of this market. You could even almost go back to Tivoli [Systems] as the grandfather, back when the network was performance. It's been around for a pretty long time.
People lost track of the companies -- they were all bought in 2005 [by companies such as] HP, IBM, Symantec. The first generation of APM got consolidated together into these big suite plays. The way the market moves, it sort of has this fragmentation when there's a disruption, and then it starts to consolidate back again. This market went through that contraction and consolidation back in the 2000s. That first generation was really built for Global 1000 companies: trading applications, credit card applications, brick and mortar e-commerce, transportation, hospitality. The focus at that time was more around an insurance policy for monitoring the applications that ran in your datacenter.
At first, the model actually mimicked the way people were running their hardware. Green, yellow, red -- they put these meters in the virtual machines to try to check the health of the componentry of these applications. It didn't tell you whether transactions were completed, it only told you whether these components were "green." On the hardware side, if there's a problem, you know which server to go to. Software's different -- it's zeros and ones. A symptom showing up in one place doesn't mean you can find the root cause. It's like the human body.
So that was the first generation, which was consolidated. What's been happening since that moment of time has been a series of things that I call "the perfect storm of complexity." On the production side, we started to virtualize our environments; on the application architecture side, we went from componentized applications to composite applications with lots of services and pieces of code. From a development standpoint, we've gone from waterfall to agile -- we're making changes faster than ever before, once a week instead of once a year. We've had this explosion, and with that, these old systems that were built for a whole different world for a different reason? Environments can't stand up.
The notion and promise of APM is more important than ever because the applications are more important than ever -- it's how we engage with customers, the supply chain, everything. Complexity is exploding. Change is exploding. And user expectations have come to the forefront -- the "Google effect," which has set the expectation that even complex queries should take less than a second. That puts a lot of pressure on everyone.
Look at mobile: it's exploding the complexity for IT. Browsers -- think about how you have to make sure your application works on all these browsers. At the center of all this disruption, which is significant, there's this opportunity for new companies. Compuware ended up buying a couple companies in Boston -- Gomez, DynaTrace -- with new approaches to APM. Compuware, although the name has been around forever, decided a few years ago to double down on APM, with its high disruption [potential].
With this change comes a whole new set of requirements, and gives rise to opportunity for new players.
ZD: One of the most interesting things about APM is how each business uses it. The applications -- and implications of them -- vary greatly by industry.
JVS: I spent a little time at a major retailer in the upper Midwest. I was wondering why they were buying our APM solution at such a large quantity and at a fast rate. I sat down with the CIO and she said, "It's because our world changed."
Now, they track every item on every palette, and some have perishable goods on them. The minute they went to perishable goods, there's a whole series of FDA requirements to meet. You can't have it sit there for more than five minutes. So all the pick and packing has to be automated. The organization of the trucks has to be perfectly timed, so the right stuff is on the right trucks to the right stores. If there's an application problem, everything stops. You can't get humans in there. The domino effect is huge.
Another one is Cars.com, for the [NFL's] Super Bowl. The ad where the little heads pop out of people and start talking? That first aired for the 2012 game, and these guys were scrambling because they knew their traffic was going to spike, but they didn't know much. In 30 days, they went through a cleanup of their application that included dozens of improvements. The traffic scaled 1,800 percent.
The new APM isn't just an insurance policy, it's actually a way of truly optimizing the performance of apps as well. The value has extended beyond monitoring for issues to extremely rapid troubleshooting as well optimization of your application.
ZD: OK, so what's driving APM forward? Any particular industries or uses?
JVS: There are several industries pushing the envelope, but it is pretty horizontal. No question, financial services. They have a lot at stake: every transaction matters to them, and there's a lot of regulation there, and they're conditioned that way -- to sit at the front edge of technology.
Interestingly, e-commerce. Not just Zappos, but Sears and Macy's and brick-and-mortar guys shifting a large part of their business to e-commerce. That's a big deal.
The other one is hospitality and travel. You might ask, isn't that e-commerce? Well, yes. But so is financial services. It's the same thing as banking: if you want to book a flight, you just go online now, you don't call. They've gone from 10 percent to 90 percent online transactions in something like 10 or 12 years. They've all done it to try to be more profitable, and engage their customers.
We're doing more and more government stuff -- there are an awful lot of online applications, and they're getting dinged if they don't work well. Plenty in manufacturing, too -- engagement with partners and supply chains. And insurance, in which a fair amount of their ability to drive volume and loyalty is ensuring their applications' [stability].
If you're not using APM, you're really working at a serious disadvantage.
ZD: One of my favorite things to ask at this point in the conversation is: then why doesn't everyone use it?
JVS: My greatest challenge running this business is dealing with the notion of the old generation [of APM] -- it's deeply ingrained in people's heads that they've spent lots of money and gotten little value. The new generation solves many of the old issues and comes at it from a totally different point of view, and it actually works.
If you were to talk to somebody that doesn't have APM, they don't say "What is it?", they say, "Oh, it's expensive and hard." And if they're a big company, they say, "Yeah, we spent millions on it, but we didn't get a lot out of it."
I pretty much mandate that we do a proof of concept with a new customer because it takes minutes and [I want to prove the benefit]. The amount of effort to set up and maintain an application is reduced by a factor of 1,000. But you need to show it to them; they don't believe it can be done, because HP and CA and IBM said it couldn't be. So it's [a matter of] time to value.
It's also perspective. The old generation [of APM] was all about monitoring in the datacenter. You can't get access to something, and they say everything's "green" here, but how could it be, it's not working? So we're not monitoring from the datacenter, but from the browser into the datacenter. Then IT gets view of what you see. That's flipped around user perspective.
E-commerce guys know every user, every click. They keep the data for up to two weeks to address complaints. The help desk ability coming from your point of view is a big deal. One of our early customers was Zappos, which was really hell-bent on performance. They loved user perspective because it cut through so many arguments. It's some pretty cool stuff.
We're actually now beginning to connect the applications to the infrastructure, so if they find a disk failure over here, they can flip it around to find out which business transactions were impacted, which customers, which location, et cetera. It's much easier for them to prioritize things.
ZD: So where are we headed?
JVS: There are three big vectors. The first one is, single systems are going to instrument more of the componentry, so that rather than 100 tools -- mainframe, .NET, browser, hardware, operating system, hypervisor, et cetera -- there are going to be fewer systems that consolidate the facts into fewer locations so that you get a bigger, correlated view. It's a lot simpler for IT to deal with.
The second thing that I see is that we're going to continue to go down the road of [the notion that] it's not just about production. Performance-thinking need to go back upstream through test and back into development. We call it lifecycle, some people call it DevOps. It's more of a continuum, fewer silos.
The third one is analytics. You take the first two concepts -- breadth and depth; lifecycle -- and you put a brain in the middle of it. These systems have to get smarter. We know what the problem patterns are. To do better, smarter, more precise anomaly detection -- and pinpointing where the fault domain is, and isolate the root cause -- and flip the whole thing on its ear from being a system that is there for you to investigate the data to one that tells you what the problem is on your smartphone? That's the big idea. Answers, not data.
Obviously, big data models will be underneath this, but apply it to IT, and it's a big deal. The question is, who has the best raw material -- facts -- to build your intelligence off of, and the broadest reach to see the broadest set of dimensions that relate to a problem? It literally can be from bare metal to operating system to hypervisor to the business transaction itself.
ZD: And how do you get there?
JVS: I have really smart R&D people. (laughs) I have more than a hundred people working on the next generation of this. This is the next three-year horizon. It's a really exciting time. I've been in this industry for 30 years, and I've been in software infrastructure since the mid-'90s. There has never been a point in history where applications needed this class of software more than now. Where we're headed is pretty interesting.
Topics: Enterprise Software, Apps, Data Management
Andrew Nusca
About Andrew Nusca
1 comment
Log in or register to join the discussion
• APM Convergence: Monitoring vs. Management
I see APM is entering into a period of intense competition of technology and strategy with a multiplicity of vendors and viewpoints. While the nomenclature used within its space has five distinct dimensions that elucidate its meaning, the very acronym of APM is in question: Application Performance ... Monitoring vs. Management.
It's strange to think that we would not normally use monitoring and management synonymously, but when used in the APM vernacular they seem to be interchangeable. This may be a visceral response, but I see the APM idiom converging on itself and becoming a matter of expectations vs. aspirations.
Application Performance Monitoring is the expectation of the tool sets themselves and how to implement them. Gartner provides five dimensions that describe these technologies which are not meant to be so "prescriptive" as much as they are "descriptive".
Application Performance Management is the aspiration of what we want the APM space to become. It is the umbrella over the other disciplines (e.g. enterprise monitoring, performance analysis, system modeling, and capacity planning).
-Larry D. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7741 | 订阅 Chinese
查找任意词语，比如 straight money
A song by a comedy music duo named Stuckey and Murray in which they express their feelings about wanting to fornicate a Unicorn. It has about 162,00 views on Youtube, and it's one of those things you can watch more than once and still laugh like hell.
**A guy sits at a computer on Youtube while his friend pays little attention. **
((From the Speakers)): I'M FUCKING A UNICOOOOOOOOORN!!!!!!
Guy #1: What the hell are you watching...?
Guy #2: Unicorn in C Major.
作者 FritzTheCat420 2012年8月24日
8 0 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7742 | Chris Garcia
From ZineWiki
Revision as of 21:27, 3 February 2007 by Johnnyeponymous (Talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search
Christopher J. Garcia (October 21st, 1974 - ) is an editor, fan writer and LetterHack from Santa Clara, CA. He edits The Drink Tank, Claims Department, L*I*S*P* and co-edits Science Fiction / San Francisco with Jean Martin.
Chris Garcia's Zines on
Personal tools |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7743 | Michelle Shute
From ZineWiki
Revision as of 11:04, 26 September 2007 by InvisibleFriend (Talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search
Michelle Shute is a zinester from Pensacola, Florida, U.S.A.
Michelle has published 19 issues of her zine Trailer Trash from 1994 till 2007. The zine is one of the longest running zines in the State of Florida. Michelle also contributes to other zines.
External Link
Personal tools |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7744 | My Favorite Add-ons
by Ali
18 Add-ons in this Collection
Adblock Plus by Wladimir Palant
Rated 5 out of 5 stars 4,135 reviews
18,986,795 users
NoScript Security Suite by Giorgio Maone
Rated 5 out of 5 stars 1,281 reviews
2,252,276 users
The best security you can get in a web browser!
Greasemonkey by Anthony Lieuallen, Aaron Boodman, others
Rated 4 out of 5 stars 848 reviews
1,850,566 users
Web of Trust - WOT by WOT Services
Rated 4 out of 5 stars 1,289 reviews
1,364,988 users
DoNotTrackMe: Online Privacy Protection by Abine, Inc., the online privacy company
Rated 4 out of 5 stars 317 reviews
486,424 users
All-in-One Sidebar by Ingo Wennemaring
Rated 5 out of 5 stars 1,216 reviews
303,125 users
Thumbnail Zoom Plus by David Adler
Rated 5 out of 5 stars 198 reviews
148,203 users
Image Zoom by Jason Adams
Rated 4 out of 5 stars 305 reviews
235,786 users
Adds zoom and rotation functionality for images...
RightToClick by IKRG
Rated 5 out of 5 stars 101 reviews
293,681 users
AutoPager by Wind Li
Rated 5 out of 5 stars 355 reviews
139,444 users
You can also try AutoPagerLite.
Autofill Forms by Sebastian Tschan, Egor Zindy
Rated 3 out of 5 stars 338 reviews
92,633 users
Autofill Forms enables you to fill out web forms with one click.
SkipScreen -- Great Multi-Host download helper! by Skipscreen
Rated 4 out of 5 stars 605 reviews
278,949 users
Skips unnecessary pages on sites like Rapidshare, 4Shared, zShare, Mediafire, and more. Try it out, or watch a demo at
Why click through ad-laden pages and wait for countdowns when your computer can do it for you
Greasefire by Steve Krulewitz, Erik Vold
Rated 4 out of 5 stars 154 reviews
26,247 users
Automatically find user scripts on (requires Greasemonkey or Scriptish)
Thumbnail Zoom by Andres Hernandez
Rated 4 out of 5 stars 132 reviews
27,722 users
Shows a full size image when you hover over thumbnails on popular websites like Facebook, Twitter or Amazon.
New Tab King by Eddie Weber, Adam Green
Download Now
Rated 5 out of 5 stars 174 reviews
64,503 users
Forget about the blank new tab! New Tab King brings the most personalized launchpad to the sites you use the most, recently closed tabs, suggested sites and more - forget about a blank tab - Get New Tab King now!
1. 1
2. 2
Results 115 of 18
What are Collections?
Explore Collections
Recently Viewed |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7752 | Wednesday Oct 26, 2011
VDEV - What is a VDEV and why should you care?
Ok, so we can finally talk VDEVs. Going back to my blog on disk calculations, I told you how the calculator works, and the way you can see how many drive spindles you would have for any particular RAID layout. Let's use an example of nine trays of 24 drives each, using 1TB drives.
Yes, I know we no longer offer 1TB drives, but this is the graphic I had, so just roll with me. Now, if we were setting this up in the ZFSSA BUI, it would look like this:
So that's all great and it all lines up, right? Well, the one thing the BUI doesn't show very well is the VDEVs. You can figure it out in your head if you know what you're doing, but the calculator can do it for you if you just add the "-v" option right after the .py command in the python string. Doing that for the above example will give you back this:
Notice the new column for VDEVs. Cool. So now I can see the breakdown of Virtual Devices that each type of RAID will create out of my physical devices (spindles). In this case, my nine trays of 24 spindles is 216 physical devices.
-If I do something silly and make that a 'Stripe', then I would get 1 big virtual device made up of 216 physical devices.
-I could also make it a 'Mirror', which will give me 106 virtual devices, each made up of 2 physical devices.
-A RAIDz1 pool will give me 53 virtual devices, each with 4 physical devices to make my 3+1 stripes.
-Finally, for the sake of this conversation, a RAIDz2 choice will give me only 15 VDEVs, each with 14 physical drives that make 12+2 stripes. You don't get 14 data drives, you get 14 drives per stripe, so you need to remember that 2 of those are parity drives in a RAIDz2 stripe when you calculate your usable space.
Now, why do you care how many VDEVs you have? It's all about throughput. Very simply stated, the more VDEVs you have, the more data can be pushed into the system by the most amount of users at once. Now, that's very simplistic, and it really depends on your workload. There are exceptions as I have found, but for the most part, more VDEVs will equal better throughput for small, random IO. This is why a Mirrored pool is almost always the best way to setup a high-throughput pool for small, random IO such as a database. look at all the VDEVs a mirrored pool gives you.
Think of it this way: Say you have a 256K block of data you want to write to the system, using a 128K record size. With a mirrored pool, ZFS will split your 256K file into 2 blocks of 128K each, and send it down to exactly 2 of the VDEVs to write out to 4 physical drives. Now, you still have a whopping 104 other VDEVs not doing anything, and they could all be handling other user's workflows all at the same time. Take the same example using a RAIDz1 pool. ZFS will have to break up your 256K block again into two 128K chunks and send it to 2 VDEVs, each with 4 physical drives, with each data drive of the 3+1 stripe getting about 43K. That's all fine, but while those 8 physical drives are working on that data, they can't do anything else, and you only have 51 other VDEVs to handle everyone else's workload.
As an extreme example, let's check out a RAIDz3 False pool. You only get 4 VDEVs, each with 53 drives, each in a 50+3 stripe. Writing that same 256K block with 128K record sizes will still split it over 2 VDEVs, and you only have 2 left for others to use at the same time. In other words, it will take the IOPs of 106 physical spindles to write that one stupid 256K block, while in the Mirrored pool, it would have only taken the IOPs of 4 physical spindles, leaving you with tons of other IOPs.
Make sense?
Like I said, Mirroring is not always the best way to go. I've seen plenty of examples where we choose other pools over Mirrored after testing. That is the key. You need to test your workload with multiple pool types before picking one. If you don't have that luxury, make your best, educated guess based on the knowledge that in general, high throughput random IO does better with more VDEVs, and large, sequential files can do very well with larger stripes found in RAIDz2.
As a side note, we recommend the RAIDz1 pool for our Exadata backups to a ZFSSA. After testing, we found that, yes, the mirrored pool did go a bit faster, but not enough to justify the drop in capacity. We also found that the RAIDz1 pool was about 20% faster for backups and restores then the RAIDz2 pool, so that speed difference didn't justify the extra capacity of RAIDz2. Now, some people may disagree and say they don't care about capacity, they want the fastest no matter what, and go with Mirrored even in this scenario. That's fine, and that's the beauty of the ZFSSA, where you are allowed to experiment with many choices and options and choose the right balance for your company and your workload.
Have fun. Steve
« March 2014 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7757 | Supporting HIV care through education and innovation
Part B Manual
Part B Manual
May 2013
Manual for Part B grantees and planning bodies outlines legislation and policies along with technical guidance on carrying out specific requirements of grantees.
Sections include the following (see also links on related topics to access TA, training, and HRSA/HAB guidance materials):
1. Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Overview (HRSA/HAB website, including policies).
2. HIV Service Delivery System (TARGET topic pages).
3. ADAP (see ADAP topic page for more details).
4. National HIV/AIDS Strategy and Ryan White Legislation (AIDS.GOV and Ryan White Legislation).
5. Data and Reporting Requirements (Reporting Requirements and Data topic page).
6. Grantee and Sub-Grantee Monitoring (Grantee Basics and Monitoring Standards).
7. Clinical Quality Management (Quality Management topic page).
8. Grants Administration (policies and Grantee Basics).
9. Insurance Programs (Health Care Reform topic page).
10. Planning and Planning Bodies (Planning topic page).
11. Consortia.
12. Coordination Between Parts and Programs (Planning topic page).
13. Technical Assistance (TARGET Center TA providers).
Add a Comment
Log in or register to post comments |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7760 | Make WordPress Core
Opened 3 years ago
Closed 3 years ago
#16760 closed defect (bug) (duplicate)
Unused globals in wpdb::db_connect()
Reported by: hakre Owned by:
Milestone: Priority: normal
Severity: normal Version: 3.1
Component: General Keywords: has-patch
Focuses: Cc:
in wp-includes/wp-db.php, forgotten while function was re-written?
Attachments (1)
clipboard.patch (477 bytes) - added by hakre 3 years ago.
Download all attachments as: .zip
Change History (2)
hakre3 years ago
comment:1 nacin3 years ago
• Milestone Unassigned deleted
• Resolution set to duplicate
• Status changed from new to closed
Note: See TracTickets for help on using tickets. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7761 | Villain Tokens
Villains also gain doubloons for use against the party. They also gain Villain Points, which are used similarly to the doubloons, but which have a special selection of uses. Uses only available to villains. Only sergeants, pack leaders, “named” NPCs and other cut-above enemies are allowed to use Villain Points or doubloons.
Doubloons: As a group, the villains draw three doubloon tokens from the bag every session. These doubloons are in all ways like the PC’s doubloons, with two exceptions. When a villain uses a Red doubloon as a Red Token, the party does not benefit. If the DM ever draws a Legend token from the bag, he immediately returns it to the bag, and the villains get one less doubloon for that session. The only way the villains may gain more doubloons per session is for the party to use a Red doubloon as a red token. When your characters spend a Red doubloon as a red token, the DM will immediately draw a token from the bag for the villains. The doubloon is placed into a villain’s stack, and may be used for any unique villain the party encounters. The number of doubloons the villains have in their stack will always be disclosed when asked about.
These tokens, like those for the PC’s are lost at the end of a session if unused, and the DM will draw 3 new coins from the bag at the beginning of the next session.
Villain Points: In addition to the doubloons, each elite villain gets a non-replacable allotment of special villain points. Each villain receives personal points, usually equal to one villain point per level, or hit dice, of the character or elite monster. Most common villains have no villain points. The villain’s personal points are unknown to anyone save the DM.
Furthermore, the DM may spend a villain’s personal points for non-elite villains. This can be done in one of two ways. First, at the beginning of a session, the DM may reduce any number of elite villain’s point total permanently. These points are placed into a ‘Villain Pool’, and may be used any enemy at any time. These points are spent on a one to one ratio. This pool carries over from session to session. The number of points in the villain pool are never disclosed to the players. This villain pool only empties at the conclusion of a story arc.
Secondly, during the adventure, if the DM wishes to have his elite villain aid her henchmen, he may reduce the number of the elite villain’s point total permanently, spending them immediately on behalf of her henchman. The villain must be present and able to see the henchman she is helping. These points are spent on a two for one ratio. Note that the DM may spend villain pool tokens on behalf of enemies who have no personal villain points of their own.
In addition to the normal Doubloon usage, the following are abilities usable by villains:
Dastardly Escape [1-2 Villain Points, or a red or blue doubloon – if used for non-elite enemies, these points must come from the villain pool unless an elite villain is present]
This ability allows an enemy (one) to escape to fight another day. The way it works is as follows – at the start of a round, the GM announces this ability’s use, names the NPC to benefit from it and spends 1-2 points or a red or blue doubloon. At the end of a number of rounds equal to 3 minus points spent, that NPC receives a story escape, unless the PCs somehow thwart it first. A red doubloon acts as one villain point, and a blue doubloon acts as two villain points, for determining the number of rounds until escape. Villains “rescued” in this way are usually not unharmed, and almost certainly deeply unhappy, but still, they escape.
Enraged [2 Villain Points – if used for non-elite enemies, these points must come from the villain pool]
Spend tokens to increase all damage die types by one level for one type of enemy currently engaged in combat. (Any monsters that enter later do not receive this benefit unless it is activated again.) 1d4 becomes 1d6, 1d6 becomes 1d8, etc. This includes any spells or spell-like abilities used by enemies. Against a large group of enemies of the same basic type, a subtype may be specified. For instance, if the PCs are fighting 35+ drow, for the sake of balance the Enrage may have to specify drow soldiers, drow priests, drow arcanists, etc. This effect lasts until the end of combat.
Hulking/Armored/Bloodthirsty/Wicked [1 or 2 Villain Points – if used for non-elite enemies, these points must come from the villain pool]
This ability adds one of three things to a single powerful enemy or group of weaker enemies:
• Hulking: 1 Villain Point = +10 temporary hit points; 2 Villain Points = +15 temporary hit points
• Armored: 1 Villain Points = +2 dodge bonus AC ; 2 Villain Points = +4 dodge bonus AC [this bonus lasts for 1 round per villain’s level or hit dice]
• Bloodthirsty: 1 Villain Point = +3 to base attack bonus; 2 Villain Points = +5 to base attack bonus [this bonus lasts for 1 round per villain’s level or hit dice]
• Wicked: 1 Villain Point = +1 to effective caster level for save DCs/caster level checks; 2 Villain Point = +3 to effective caster level for save DCs/caster level checks [this bonus lasts for 1 round per two of the villain’s level or hit dice, minimum one round]
No more than two Villain Points can be spent on each variety of this power per encounter. The temporary hit points will not stack.
Malign Intervention [4 Villain Points or a blue doubloon]
This ability must be announced before taking the first hostile NPC action in a round. For that round, the first player character to spend a token, has the token’s effects negated. They may use tokens normally in later rounds, and once that token ability is negated, all other heroes may use tokens normally without further penalty during the round. The DM may still spend tokens or Villain Points normally during this round.
This Isn’t Over! [2 Villain Points – may not be used for non-elite villains]
Spend Villain Points when a monster hits the ground, bleeding out or dead. It immediately rises back up (provoking AoOs), with half of its starting hit points. However, it cannot use any special abilities, only basic attacks. If it’s a spellcaster, it may cast any spells it still has memorized, but previously used spells are still expended. A given NPC may only benefit from this ability once per encounter.
Reinforcements [1-4 Villain Points, a red doubloon spent reduces the amount by one Villain Point, a blue by two – may only be used by elite villains]
Spend a variable amount of Villain Points to add one or more “reinforcements” to the villains during the encounter already in progress. How powerful, well-positioned and numerous these NPCs are depends on the tokens spent. As a rule of thumb: 1 Villain Point brings cannon fodder or “weenie” monsters; 2 Villain Points calls up slightly stronger “goon” monsters; 3 Villain Points brings PC-equivalent or “challenging” monsters; and 4 Villain Points calls up “deadly” monsters that are more powerful than the PCs. These costs may be adjusted by circumstance – “goons” that appear in a particularly difficult spot to handle may cost more, for example, while “deadly” creatures that won’t arrive for a considerable time may cost less.
Despite the name of this ability, this does not always represent the enemies calling for aid – it could also represent monsters that wander into the encounter without any direction from (or loyalty to) the bad guys. However, it should be noted that these monsters are never friendly to the PCs, and only a legendary hero token can be spent to make them so. Red (giving the villains a draw from the bag), or blue hero tokens could be spent to make them unfriendly to everyone instead of simply the PCs. The PCs will always be their first and primary target unless other factors intervene, however.
The DM may not spend more than 6 tokens on Reinforcements in a single battle, and cannot use this ability again for a number of rounds equal to 1 + tokens spent after it has been activated. This ability does not include summoned monsters.
Vicious [1 Villain Point or 1 Golden Doubloon]
This ability takes off the proverbial kid gloves. All manner of dirty tricks are now permitted, such as giving a coup de grace to held PCs, using insta-kill poisons, etc. Note that this doesn’t mean PCs must die or the NPCs can’t fight dirty without this benefit; this just alerts the players that the NPCs are about to fight dirtier than coked up $2 hookers in a Tijuana mud pit full of angry weasels. This ability lasts until the end of combat.
Act as a Golden Doubloon [2 Villain Points]
Use one Golden Doubloon ability, normally only available by spending the appropriate token, subject to the same rules and restrictions. Only the abilities of Golden Doubloons may be used this way. A particular NPC can only use a specific ability once per battle when used by spending Villain Points.
Hero Tokens
House Rules
Villain Tokens
Crimson Skies PhoenixMark |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7766 | Just need a place to post an illustration of the FAPI workflow to let some of the FAPI experts see if it's right.
new14.06 KB
The Open Office file for the illustration.
new20.91 KB
OK, new version attached. Note that I've done it under Windows OOo2.2, so fonts might be slightly different under Linux (things might be a tighter fit, is the most notable change).
1. I've stuck elements in blocks of pale grey, to sort of establish a more intuitive, higher-level framework. I'm not sure on the Prepare/Build boundary, but the rest of the blocks seemed pretty obvious.
2. I've gone for strong colour-coding as I think it's visually more useful e.g. in the Prepare block, you can now see the hooks really clearly
3. I've minimized a lot of repeated text ( (c) Edward Tufte, probably) to emphasize the function names while still permitting the whole function name to be extracted. Given that hooks are yellow, you don't need to be distracted by lots of "hook_" all over the place.
Hope this is all OK.
The file won't open, something is wrong with it.
Sorry about that. I've just downloaded it and renamed it as an odg file again; it opened fine. Do you get any useful information in the OpenOffice error? What version of OO?
I'm going away for the weekend tonight; I'll try and sort this out when I get back. If need be I can just create a replacement PNG if our OO versions are incompatible.
I'm using 2.0.2. It just brings up a dialog box saying it wants to send an error report to Sun, and a bunch of stuff about how the program crashed and it will send an error report if I agree, then it keeps trying to open over and over, crashing each time.
How weird. Sorry about the hassle.
Not sure what OOo2.x flavour I was on in the other office, but I'm on my Linux machine now (with OO2.2.0) so hopefully things will be a bit smoother. I've also now uploaded a couple of files to my own site, to avoid any possible encoding problems that might be going on during upload to here:
I've not done anything particularly clever with OO so I'm at a loss to explain the crashes, but see what you can do with the above. (Note: the fonts are a bit off now: OO under Linux puts the font sizes at maybe 5% larger than Win OO. That's why all the () at the end of functions have had to go. I can always stick them back in.)
@jp.stacey : your schema is neat and cool, but it seems to be mixing FAPI workflow and 'node form submission' workflow, which is likely to add confusion. If you're aiming at generic FAPI handling (for _any_ form), there should not be such things as 'save' and hook_nodeapi in the process.
@yched, this is his rework of what I did at http://drupal.org/node/165104 (we needed an issue to attach the OO file to since you can't attach it to book pages, so that's where this issue came from). I included nodeapi() in the chart because the purpose was to see all the points where the form values could be altered, which includes some of the nodeapi hooks. I've been using that as I work on converting the widgets to use FAPI in the 6.x port.
@jp.stacey, this time it worked for me, hooray! I like your changes very much. I'll replace my image with yours on the book page.
I can see that including nodeapi() might be confusing, but it really helps me to see where it fits into things.
@jp.stacey, for some reason I'm having trouble getting this into a jpeg file to put on the book page, can you provide one for me?
One more thought, if we change the title to say 'Form Handling' instead of 'FAPI Handling', would that make it less confusing to include nodeapi?
@KarenS: no problem. I've moved it round to fit better on the book page, as OpenOffice doesn't seem to let you export to different sized images without changing page dimensions.
I've exported to GIF and JPEG - best to use the GIF if possible as it's smaller and suited to crisp line drawings (fewer artifacts, although colour export from OO is crap even then: look at that dithering....)
Issue summary:View changes
Status:Closed (fixed)» Needs review
I've added a new generic FAPI workflow illustration for Drupal 7.x on the wiki page https://drupal.org/node/165104. I've used the yEd graph editor. If needed I can post here the source file (yEd is freeware). Please have a look to the illustration.
Thanks for the nice work on documentation, however I'm not very sure why this is filed against date module. I'm happy to move this to 'documentation' if it is in date by mistake.
Project:Date» Documentation
Component:Documentation» Correction/Clarification
Just had a chat with @yched on IRC and confirmed that it is a candidate for documentation project. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7776 | Phoenix (spacecraft)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Phoenix mission)
Jump to: navigation, search
Phoenix Mars mission
Phoenix landing.jpg
Artist's impression of the Phoenix spacecraft as it lands on Mars
Operator NASA
Major contractors Lockheed Martin Space Systems
Mission type Lander
Launch date August 4, 2007[1] 09:26 UTC
Launch vehicle Delta II 7925
Launch site Launch Complex 17
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, United States
Mission duration May 25, 2008[1] – November 2, 2008 (lost communication); November 10, 2008[1]
90 Martian sols (planned)
157 Martian sols (actual)
May 25, 2008[1] 23:53 UTC
MSD 47777 01:02 AMT
Landing site Green Valley (Mars), 68°13′N 125°42′W / 68.22°N 125.7°W / 68.22; -125.7 (Phoenix)
COSPAR ID 2007-034A
Mass 350 kg (770 lb)
Power (Solar array / NiH2 battery)
Program overview[edit]
A labeled look at NASA's Phoenix Mars lander.
The primary mission was anticipated to last 90 sols (Martian days) – just over 92 Earth days. However, the craft exceeded its expected operational lifetime[6] by a little over two months before succumbing to the increasing cold and dark of an advancing Martian winter.[4] Researchers had hoped that the lander would survive into the Martian winter so that it could witness polar ice developing around it – perhaps up to 1 metre of solid carbon dioxide ice could have appeared. Even had it survived some of the winter, the intense cold would have prevented it from lasting all the way through.[7] The mission was chosen to be a fixed lander rather than a rover because:[8]
• costs were reduced through reuse of earlier equipment;
The 2003–2004 observations of methane gas on Mars were made remotely by three teams working with separate data. If the methane is truly present in the atmosphere of Mars, then something must be producing it on the planet now, because the gas is broken down by radiation on Mars within 300 years,[9][10][11][12][13] therefore the importance to search for biological potential or habitability of the Martian arctic's soils.[14] Methane could also be the product of a geochemical process or the result of volcanic or hydrothermal activity.[15] Other future missions may enable us to discover whether life does indeed exist on Mars today.
History of the program[edit]
Phoenix during testing in September 2006
Phoenix Mars Lander mission logo
On June 2, 2005, following a critical review of the project's planning progress and preliminary design, NASA approved the mission to proceed as planned.[21] The purpose of the review was to confirm NASA's confidence in the mission.
350 kg (770 lb)
About 5.5 m (18 ft) long with the solar panels deployed. The science deck by itself is about 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in diameter. From the ground to the top of the MET mast, the lander measures about 2.2 m (7.2 ft) tall.
Power is generated using two gallium arsenide solar array panels (total area 3.1 m2 (33 sq ft)) mounted to the cruise stage during cruise, and via two gallium arsenide solar array panels (total area 2.9 m2 (31 sq ft)) deployed from the lander after touchdown on the Martian surface. NiH2 battery with a capacity of 16 A·h.[23]
Lander systems include a RAD6000 based computer system for commanding the spacecraft and handling data.[24] Other parts of the lander are an electrical system containing solar arrays and batteries, a guidance system to land the spacecraft, eight 1.0 lbf (4.4 N) and 5.0 lbf (22 N) monopropellant hydrazine engines built by Aerojet-Redmond Operations for the cruise phase, twelve 68.0 lbf (302 N) Aerojet monopropellant hydrazine thrusters to land the Phoenix, mechanical and structural elements, and a heater system to ensure the spacecraft does not get too cold.
Phoenix is launched atop a Delta II 7925 rocket
Noctilucent cloud created from the launch vehicle's exhaust gas.
A noctilucent cloud was created by the exhaust gas from the Delta II 7925 rocket used to launch Phoenix.[26] The colors in the cloud formed from the prism-like effect of the ice particles present in the exhaust trail.
Descent of Phoenix with a crater in the background taken by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.jpg Phoenix Lander seen from MRO during EDL2.jpg
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) imaged Phoenix (lower left corner) in the line of sight to the 10-km-wide Heimdall Crater (the craft is actually 20 km in front of it). MRO imaged Phoenix suspended from its parachute during descent through the Martian atmosphere.
Mars Phoenix lander close 125.74922W 68.21883N.png PheonixOnMars.jpg
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory made adjustments to the orbits of its two active satellites around Mars, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey, and the European Space Agency similarly adjusted the orbit of its Mars Express spacecraft to be in the right place on May 25, 2008 to observe Phoenix as it entered the atmosphere and then landed on the surface. This information helps designers to improve future landers.[27] The projected landing area was an ellipse 100 km by 20 km covering terrain which has been informally named "Green Valley"[28] and contains the largest concentration of water ice outside of the poles.
Phoenix entered the Martian atmosphere at nearly 21,000 km (13,000 mi) per hour, and within 7 minutes had decreased its speed to 8 kilometers per hour (5.0 mph) before touching down on the surface. Confirmation of atmospheric entry was received at 4:46 p.m. PDT (23:46 UTC). Radio signals received at 4:53:44 p.m. PDT[29] confirmed that Phoenix had survived its difficult descent and landed 15 minutes earlier, thus completing a 680 million km (422 million miles) flight from Earth.[30]
For unknown reasons, the parachute was deployed about 7 seconds later than expected, leading to a landing position some 25–28 km long (east), near the edge of the predicted 99% landing ellipse. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera photographed Phoenix suspended from its parachute during its descent through the Martian atmosphere. This marks the first time ever one spacecraft has photographed another in the act of landing on a planet[31][32] (the Moon not being a planet, but a satellite). The same camera also imaged Phoenix on the surface with enough resolution to distinguish the lander and its two solar cell arrays. Ground controllers used Doppler tracking data from Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to determine the lander's precise location as 68°13′08″N 234°15′03″E / 68.218830°N 234.250778°E / 68.218830; 234.250778Coordinates: 68°13′08″N 234°15′03″E / 68.218830°N 234.250778°E / 68.218830; 234.250778.[33][34]
Phoenix landed in the Green Valley of Vastitas Borealis on May 25, 2008,[35] in the late Martian northern hemisphere spring (Ls=76.73), where the Sun shone on its solar panels the whole Martian day.[36] By the Martian northern Summer solstice (June 25, 2008), the Sun appeared at its maximum elevation of 47.0 degrees. Phoenix experienced its first sunset at the start of September 2008.[36]
Like the 1970s era Viking spacecraft, Phoenix used rocket motors for its final descent.[38] Experiments conducted by Nilton Renno, mission co-investigator from the University of Michigan, and his students have investigated how much surface dust would be kicked up on landing.[39] Researchers at Tufts University, led by co-investigator Sam Kounaves, conducted additional in-depth experiments to identify the extent of the ammonia contamination from the hydrazine propellant and its possible effects on the chemistry experiments. In 2007, a report to the American Astronomical Society by Washington State University professor Dirk Schulze-Makuch, suggested that Mars might harbor peroxide-based life forms which the Viking landers failed to detect because of the unexpected chemistry.[40] The hypothesis was proposed long after any modifications to Phoenix could be made. One of the Phoenix mission investigators, NASA astrobiologist Chris McKay, stated that the report "piqued his interest" and that ways to test the hypothesis with Phoenix's instruments would be sought.
Surface mission[edit]
Communications from the surface[edit]
The Lander's Robotic Arm touched soil on the red planet for the first time on May 31, 2008 (sol 6). It scooped dirt and started sampling the Martian soil for ice after days of testing.[43] Phoenix's Robotic Arm Camera took an image underneath the lander on sol 5 that shows patches of a smooth bright surface uncovered when thruster exhaust blew off overlying loose soil. It was later shown to be ice.[44] Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis said: "We could very well be seeing rock, or we could be seeing exposed ice in the retrorocket blast zone."[45]
Presence of shallow subsurface water ice[edit]
On June 19, 2008 (sol 24), NASA announced that dice-sized clumps of bright material in the "Dodo-Goldilocks" trench dug by the robotic arm had vaporized over the course of four days, strongly implying that they were composed of water ice which sublimated following exposure. While dry ice also sublimates, under the conditions present it would do so at a rate much faster than observed.[46][47][48]
On July 31, 2008 (sol 65), NASA announced that Phoenix confirmed the presence of water ice on Mars, as predicted in 2002 by the Mars Odyssey orbiter. During the initial heating cycle of a new sample, TEGA's mass spectrometer detected water vapor when the sample temperature reached 0 °C.[49] Liquid water cannot exist on the surface of Mars with its present low atmospheric pressure, except at the lowest elevations for short periods.[50][51]
With Phoenix in good working order, NASA announced operational funding through September 30, 2008 (sol 125). The science team worked to determine whether the water ice ever thaws enough to be available for life processes and if carbon-containing chemicals and other raw materials for life are present.
Additionally during 2008 and early 2009 a debate emerged within NASA over the presence of 'blobs' which appeared on photos of the vehicle's landing struts, which have been variously described as being either water droplets or 'clumps of frost'.[52] Due to the lack of consensus within the Phoenix science project, the issue had not been raised in any NASA news conferences.[52]
One scientist believed that the lander's thrusters splashed a pocket of brine from just below the Martian surface onto the landing strut during the vehicle's landing. The salts would then have absorbed water vapor from the air, which would have explained how they appeared to grow in size during the first 44 Martian days before slowly evaporating as Mars temperature dropped.[52]
Wet chemistry[edit]
On June 24, 2008 (sol 29), NASA's scientists launched a major series of tests. The robotic arm scooped up more soil and delivered it to 3 different on-board analyzers: an oven that baked it and tested the emitted gases, a microscopic imager, and a wet chemistry lab.[53] The lander's Robotic Arm scoop was positioned over the Wet Chemistry Lab delivery funnel on Sol 29 (the 29th Martian day after landing, i.e. June 24, 2008). The soil was transferred to the instrument on sol 30 (June 25, 2008), and Phoenix performed the first wet chemistry tests. On Sol 31 (June 26, 2008) Phoenix returned the wet chemistry test results with information on the salts in the soil, and its acidity. The wet chemistry lab was part of the suite of tools called the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA).[54]
On August 1, 2008, Aviation Week reported that "The White House has been alerted by NASA about plans to make an announcement soon on major new Phoenix lander discoveries concerning the "potential for life" on Mars, scientists tell Aviation Week & Space Technology."[56] This led to a subdued media speculation on whether some evidence of past or present life had been discovered.[57][58][59] To quell the speculation, NASA released preliminary and unconfirmed findings which suggest that Mars soil contains perchlorate and thus may not be as Earth-like and life-friendly as thought earlier.[60][61]
Panorama of rocks near the Phoenix Lander (May 25, 2008).
Panorama of rocks near the Phoenix Lander (August 19, 2008).
End of the mission[edit]
The solar-powered lander operated two months longer than its three-month prime mission. The lander was designed to last 90 days, and had been running on bonus time since the successful end of its primary mission in August 2008.[6] On October 28, 2008 (sol 152), the spacecraft went into safe mode due to power constraints based on the insufficient amount of sunlight reaching the lander,[62] as expected at this time of year. It was decided then to shut down the four heaters that keep the equipment warm, and upon bringing the spacecraft back from safe mode, commands were sent to turn off two of the heaters rather than only one as was originally planned for the first step. The heaters involved provide heat to the robotic arm, TEGA instrument and a pyrotechnic unit on the lander that were unused since landing, so these three instruments were also shut down.
On November 10, Phoenix Mission Control reported the loss of contact with the Phoenix lander; the last signal was received on November 2.[63] Immediately prior, Phoenix sent its final message: "Triumph" in binary code.[64][65] The demise of the craft occurred as a result of a dust storm that reduced power generation even further.[66] While the spacecraft's work ended, the analysis of data from the instruments was in its earliest stages.
Communication attempts 2010[edit]
Though it was not designed to survive the frigid Martian winter, the spacecraft's safe mode kept the option open to reestablish communications if the lander could have recharged its batteries during the next Martian spring.[67] However, its landing location is in an area that is usually part of the north polar ice cap during the Martian winter, and the lander was seen from orbit encased in dry ice.[68] It is estimated that, at its peak, the layer of CO2 ice in the lander's vicinity would total about 30 grams/cm2, which is enough to make a dense slab of dry ice at least 7 12 inches (19 cm) thick.[69] It was considered unlikely that the spacecraft could endure this condition, as its fragile solar-cell arrays would have cracked and fallen off since they were not designed to support much weight.[69][70]
Scientists attempted to make contact with Phoenix starting January 18, 2010 (sol -835), but were unsuccessful. Further attempts in February and April also failed to pick up any signal from the lander.[67][68][71][72] Project manager Barry Goldstein announced on May 24, 2010 that the project was being formally ended. Images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showed that its solar panels were apparently irretrievably damaged by freezing during the Martian winter.[73][74]
Results of the mission[edit]
Climate cycles[edit]
Surface chemistry[edit]
Scientific payload[edit]
Robotic arm and camera[edit]
Surface stereo imager[edit]
Thermal and evolved gas analyzer[edit]
Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA).
On May 29, 2008 (sol 1370), electrical tests indicated an intermittent short circuit in TEGA,[93] resulting from a glitch in one of the two filaments responsible for ionizing volatiles.[94] NASA worked around the problem by configuring the backup filament as the primary and vice-versa.[95]
Mars Descent Imager[edit]
Mars Descent Imager built by Malin Space Science Systems.
Microscopy, electrochemistry, and conductivity analyzer[edit]
The Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA) is an instrument package originally designed for the canceled Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander mission. It consists of a wet chemistry lab (WCL), optical and atomic force microscope, and a thermal and electrical conductivity probe.[99] The Jet Propulsion Laboratory built MECA. A Swiss consortium led by the University of Neuchatel contributed the atomic force microscope.[100]
Using MECA, researchers examined soil particles as small as 16 μm across; additionally, they attempted to determine the chemical composition of water soluble ions in the soil. They also measured electrical and thermal conductivity of soil particles using a probe on the robotic arm scoop.[101]
Sample wheel and translation stage[edit]
This instrument presents 6 of 69 sample holders to an opening in the MECA instrument to which the robotic arm delivers the samples and then brings the samples to the optical microscope and the atomic force microscope.[102] Imperial College London provided the microscope sample substrates.[103]
Optical microscope[edit]
Atomic force microscope[edit]
Wet chemistry lab[edit]
The wet chemistry lab (WCL) sensor assembly and leaching solution were designed and built by Thermo Fisher Scientific.[104] The WCL actuator assembly was designed and built by Starsys Research in Boulder, Colorado. Tufts University developed the reagent pellets, barium ISE, ASV electrodes, and performed the preflight characterization of the sensor array.[105]
The first measurement indicated that the surface layer contained water soluble salts and had a pH between 8 and 9. Additional tests on soil composition revealed the presence of perchlorate.
Later publication of results in the journals Science and JGR reported that chloride, bicarbonate, magnesium, sodium potassium, calcium, and possibly sulfate were detected in the samples. The pH was narrowed down to 7.7 + or – 0.5.[107][108] Further data analysis has indicated that the soil contains soluble sulfate at a minimum of 1.1% wt % SO3 and provided a refined formulation of the soil.[109]
Thermal and Electrical Conductivity Probe (TECP)[edit]
The MECA contains a Thermal and Electrical Conductivity Probe (TECP).[101] The TECP, designed by Decagon Devices,[101] has four short fat probes and one port on the side of the housing that made the following measurements:
Meteorological station[edit]
Meteorological Station (MET) built by the Canadian Space Agency.
Plot of the minimum daily temperature measured by Phoenix
Lidar operating (thin vertical beam at center right).
The laser device discovered snow falling from clouds; this was not known before the mission.[116] It was also determined that cirrus clouds formed in the area.[117]
Phoenix DVD[edit]
The "Phoenix DVD" on Mars.
Attached to the deck of the lander (next to the US flag) is the "Phoenix DVD",[118] compiled by the Planetary Society. The disc contains Visions of Mars,[119] a multimedia collection of literature and art about the Red Planet. Works include the text of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds (and the radio broadcast by Orson Welles), Percival Lowell's Mars as the Abode of Life with a map of his proposed canals, Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, and Kim Stanley Robinson's Green Mars. There are also messages directly addressed to future Martian visitors or settlers from, among others, Carl Sagan and Arthur C. Clarke. In 2006, The Planetary Society collected a quarter million names submitted through the Internet and placed them on the disc, which claims, on the front, to be "the first library on Mars." This Phoenix DVD is similar to the Voyager Golden Record that was sent on the Voyager 1 & 2 missions.
The Phoenix DVD is made of a special silica glass[118] designed to withstand the Martian environment, lasting for hundreds (if not thousands) of years on the surface while it awaits discoverers.
The text just below the center of the disk reads:
See also[edit]
1. ^ a b c d e Nelson, Jon. "Phoenix". NASA. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
2. ^ "NASA's Phoenix Spacecraft Reports Good Health After Mars Landing". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 2008-05-25. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
3. ^ Forbes[dead link]
4. ^ a b Amos, Jonathan (November 10, 2008). "NASA Mars Mission declared dead". BBC. Retrieved 2008-11-10.
5. ^ "Dear Phoenix lander, will you raise from the dead?". Discovery.
6. ^ a b "Phoenix Surpasses 90-Day Mileston". 2008-09-05. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
7. ^ Phoenix Lander Readied For Mars Exploration,, Leonard David, February 1, 2007
8. ^ "The Phoenix Mars Mission with Dr. Deborah Bass". Futures in Biotech podcast. Episode 24. 2007-09-19.
11. ^ V. Formisano, S. Atreya T. Encrenaz, N. Ignatiev, M. Giuranna (2004). "Detection of Methane in the Atmosphere of Mars". Science 306 (5702): 1758–1761. Bibcode:2004Sci...306.1758F. doi:10.1126/science.1101732. PMID 15514118.
12. ^ V. A. Krasnopolskya, J. P. Maillard, T. C. Owen (2004). "Detection of methane in the martian atmosphere: evidence for life?". Icarus 172 (2): 537–547. Bibcode:2004Icar..172..537K. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2004.07.004.
16. ^ "''Phoenix'' diary: Mission to Mars". BBC News. 2008-08-19. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
18. ^ "Phoenix Mars Lander- Spacecraft". Phoenix Mars Lander. Retrieved 2006-06-09.
19. ^ "Certificate of Recognition" Passat Ltd.. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
20. ^ "Phoenix probe due to touch down on Martian surface". STFC. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
22. ^ "Phoenix Mars Mission FAQ". Retrieved 2008-05-25.
23. ^ "Phoenix Mars Lander spreads its solar power wings.". Go Green Solar. May 25, 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-01.
24. ^ "Power Architecture onboard Phoenix Mars Lander". Technology News Daily. Retrieved 2008-04-13.
25. ^ "Phoenix Mars Mission – Launch". University of Arizona. Retrieved 2007-08-06.
26. ^ "Phoenix Noctilucent Cloud". University of Arizona. Retrieved 2007-08-04.
27. ^ "Spacecraft at Mars Prepare to Welcome New Kid on the Block". Retrieved 2008-05-25.
28. ^ "NASA Spacecraft Fine Tunes Course for Mars Landing". NASA. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
29. ^ "Phoenix: Redemption at Mars". 2008-05-25. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
30. ^ "Phoenix Lands on Mars!". NASA. 2008-05-25.
31. ^ "Phoenix Makes a Grand Entrance". NASA. 2008-05-26.
32. ^ "Phoenix Makes a Grand Entrance". NASA. Retrieved 2008-05-27.
34. ^ The landing site is here [1] on the NASA World Wind planetary viewer (free installation required)
35. ^ "Phoenix Mars Mission".
37. ^ "Phoenix Mars Mission – Gallery". Arizona University. 2008-05-26.
38. ^ "Phoenix Mars lander set to lift off". New Scientist. 2007-08-03. Retrieved 2007-08-04.
41. ^ Phoenix Mars Mission, NASA's Phoenix Spacecraft Commanded to Unstow Arm, University of Arizona, May 28, 2008
43. ^ James Wray and Ulf Stabe. ", Surface ice found as ''Phoenix'' prepares to dig". Retrieved 2012-07-13.
44. ^ Rayl, A. J. S. (2008-06-01). "Holy Cow, Snow Queen! Phoenix Landed on Ice Team Thinks". The Planetary Society web site. Planetary Society. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
46. ^ a b Bright Chunks at Phoenix Lander's Mars Site Must Have Been Ice – Official NASA press release (19.06.2008)
48. ^ "Confirmation of Water on Mars". 2008-06-20. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
49. ^ Johnson, John (2008-08-01). "There's water on Mars, NASA confirms". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-08-01.
50. ^ Heldmann, Jennifer L. et al. (May 7, 2005). "Formation of Martian gullies by the action of liquid water flowing under current Martian environmental conditions" (PDF). Journal of Geophysical Research 110: Eo5004. Bibcode:2005JGRE..11005004H. doi:10.1029/2004JE002261. Retrieved 2008-09-14 'conditions such as now occur on Mars, outside of the temperature-pressure stability regime of liquid water' ... 'Liquid water is typically stable at the lowest elevations and at low latitudes on the planet because the atmospheric pressure is greater than the vapor pressure of water and surface temperatures in equatorial regions can reach 273 K for parts of the day [Haberle et al., 2001]'
51. ^ Kostama, V.-P.; Kreslavsky, M. A.; Head, J. W. (June 3, 2006). "Recent high-latitude icy mantle in the northern plains of Mars: Characteristics and ages of emplacement". Geophysical Research Letters 33 (11): L11201. Bibcode:2006GeoRL..3311201K. doi:10.1029/2006GL025946. Retrieved 2007-08-12 'Martian high-latitude zones are covered with a smooth, layered ice-rich mantle'
53. ^ ", NASA: With Martian ice discovered, major tests beginning". 2008-06-24. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
58. ^ "The MECA story, A place for speculation". 2008-07-21.
62. ^ Jpl.Nasa.Gov (2008-10-29). "''NASA-JPL'' ''Phoenix'' mission status report – heater shutdowns". Retrieved 2012-07-13.
63. ^ "''Twitter Announcement'' From Phoenix Mission Ops". Retrieved 2012-07-13.
66. ^ Rayl, A.J.S. (2008-11-11). "Sun Sets on Phoenix, NASA Declares End of Mission". Planetary Society web site. Planetary Society. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
67. ^ a b "NASA to Check for Unlikely Winter Survival of Mars Lander". NASA (Jet Propulsion Laboratory). January 11, 2010. Retrieved 2010-01-12.
68. ^ a b Orbiter camera sees ice-covered Phoenix lander (November 4, 2009)
69. ^ a b Beatty, Kelly (November 9, 2009). "Phoenix Amid the Winter Snow". Sky & Telescope Magazine. Retrieved 2009-11-14.
71. ^ "No Peep from Phoenix in Third Odyssey Listening Stint". NASA (Jet Propulsion Laboratory). April 13, 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-06.
72. ^ Frost-Covered Phoenix Lander Seen in Winter Images (November 4, 2009)
73. ^ "Phoenix Mars Lander won't rise again" Retrieved 10 August 2011.
74. ^ Goss, Heather (5/25/2010 9:01 PM CDT). "Hello Spacecraft? Are You Listening?". AW&ST.
75. ^ Smith, P. et al. H2O at the Phoenix Landing Site. 2009. Science:325. p58-61
77. ^ Witeway, J. et al. 2009. Mars Water-Ice Clouds and Precipation. Science: 325. p68-70
78. ^ a b
79. ^
80. ^ Boynton et al. (2009). "Evidence for Calcium Carbonate at the Mars Phoenix Landing Site". Science 325 (5936): 61–64. Bibcode:2009Sci...325...61B. doi:10.1126/science.1172768. PMID 19574384.
81. ^ "Audio Recording of Phoenix Media Telecon for August 5, 2008". Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA). August 5, 2008. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
84. ^ Chang, Kenneth (October 1, 2013). "Hitting Pay Dirt on Mars". New York Times. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
85. ^ Shotwell R. (2005). "Phoenix — the first Mars Scout mission". Acta Astronautica 57 (2–8): 121–134. Bibcode:2005AcAau..57..121S. doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2005.03.038. PMID 16010756.
86. ^ "Mars ’01 Robotic Arm". Alliance Spacesystems. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
87. ^ "RAC Robotic Arm Camera". Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research.
88. ^ Keller, H. U. et al. (2001). "The MVACS Robotic Arm Camera". J. Geophys. Res. 106 ((E8)): 17609–17621. Bibcode:2001JGR...10617609K. doi:10.1029/1999JE001123.
89. ^ "Phoenix Mars Lander- SSI". Phoenix Mars Lander. Retrieved 2008-05-25. [dead link]
90. ^ P. H. Smith, R. Reynolds, J. Weinberg, T. Friedman, M. T. Lemmon, R. Tanner, R. J. Reid, R. L. Marcialis, B. J. Bos, C. Oquest, H. U. Keller, W. J. Markiewicz, R. Kramm,F. Gliem and P. Rueffer (2001). "The MVACS Surface Stereo Imager on Mars Polar Lander" (PDF). Journal of Geophysical Research 106 (E8): 17,589–17,607. Bibcode:2001JGR...10617589S. doi:10.1029/1999JE001116. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
91. ^ Reynolds R.O.,Smith P.H., Bell L.S., Keller, H.U. (2001). "The design of Mars lander cameras for Mars Pathfinder, MarsSurveyor '98 and Mars Surveyor '01". IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement 50 (1): 63–71. doi:10.1109/19.903879.
92. ^ Boynton, W. V., Hamara, David K. et al. (2005). "Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer: Part of the Mars Volatile and Climate Surveyor integrated payload". Journal of Geophysical Research 106 (E8): 17683–17698. Bibcode:2001JGR...10617683B. doi:10.1029/1999JE001153.
93. ^ "NASA'S Phoenix Lander Robotic Arm Camera Sees Possible Ice". Retrieved 2008-05-30.
94. ^ "Mars lander hunts ice and hits a snag". Retrieved 2008-05-31.
95. ^ NASA press conference, 2008-06-02.
96. ^ "Mars Descent Imager (MARDI)". University of Arizona. May 27, 2008.
98. ^ Malin, M. C.; Caplinger, M. A.; Carr, M. H.; Squyres, S.; Thomas, P.; Veverka, J. (2005). "Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) on the Mars Polar Lander" (PDF). Journal of Geophysical Research 106 (E8): 17635–17650. Bibcode:2001JGR...10617635M. doi:10.1029/1999JE001144.
99. ^ "Spacecraft and Science Instruments". Phoenix Mars Lander. Retrieved 2007-03-10.
100. ^ "Atomic Force Microscope on Mars". Retrieved 2008-05-25.
101. ^ a b c "Decagon designs part of the Phoenix Mars Lander". Decagon Devices, Inc. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
102. ^ "Transfer Engineering Devices Aboard Historic Phoenix Mars Mission". Nano Science and Technology Institute.
103. ^ "Imperial technology scanning for life on Mars". Science Business. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
105. ^ "Tufts Journal: A decade of lab work hurtles toward Mars". Retrieved 2008-05-29.
106. ^ Kounaves, S. P., S. R. Lukow, B. P. Comeau, M. H. Hecht, S. M. Grannan-Feldman, K. Manatt, S. J. West, X. Wen, M. Frant, and T. Gillette (2003). "Mars Surveyor Program '01 Mars Environmental Compatibility Assessment wet chemistry lab: A sensor array for chemical analysis of the Martian soil". J. Geophys. Res. 108 (E7): 5077. Bibcode:2003JGRE..108.5077K. doi:10.1029/2002JE001978.
109. ^ Kounaves, S. P. et al., Soluble Sulfate in the Martian Soil at the Phoenix Landing Site, Geophys. Res. Lett., 2010, 37, doi:10.1029/2010GL042613,
110. ^ "The Telltale project". marslab, Aarhus university, Denmark. Retrieved 2008-05-27.
111. ^ "Mission: Mars". Retrieved 2007-12-28.
112. ^ ""Phoenix probe takes FMI's pressure sensor to Mars" (In finnish)". Retrieved 2007-08-06.
113. ^ "Mars robot with Canadian component set for Saturday launch". Phoenix Mars Lander. 2007-08-03. Retrieved 2007-08-03.
114. ^ Carswell, Allan Ian et al. (2004). "LIDAR for Mars Atmospheric Studies on 2007 Scout Mission "Phoenix"". 22nd International Laser Radar Conference (ILRC 2004) 561. p. 973. Bibcode:2004ilrc.conf..973C.
115. ^ Whiteway, J.; Cook, C.; Komguem, L.; Ilnicki, M.; Greene, M.; Dickinson, C.; Heymsfield, A. "Phoenix LIDAR Characterization" (PDF). Retrieved 2006.
116. ^ NASA Phoenix Results Point to Martian Climate Cycles. July 02, 2009
117. ^ Whiteway, J. et al. 2009. Mars Water-Ice Clouds and Precipitation. Science: 325. 68–70
118. ^ a b "The Phoenix DVD". Projects: Messages from Earth. Retrieved 2007-08-06.
119. ^ "Visions of Mars".
120. ^ Worldwide Me-the-Media Mars Scoop|Me the Media[dead link]
External links[edit]
LPL, LMSS, JPL and NASA links
Other links
Image map of Mars[edit]
The following imagemap of the planet Mars has embedded links to geographical features in addition to the noted Rover and Lander locations. Click on the features and you will be taken to the corresponding article pages. North is at the top; Elevations: red (higher), yellow (zero), blue (lower).
About this image
Spirit (2004) > Spirit
Opportunity (2004) > Opportunity
Pathfinder < Pathfinder/Sojourner (1997)
Viking 1 (1976) > Viking 1
Viking 2 (1976) > Viking 2
Phoenix < Phoenix (2008)
Mars 3 < Mars 3 (1971)
Curiosity (2012) > Curiosity |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7783 | From FedoraProject
< Features
Revision as of 05:25, 19 July 2012 by Petersen (Talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search
GNOME IBus Integration
Gnome 3.6 will provide support for input methods using IBus, in addition keyboard layout configuration.
The integration includes a gnome-shell input indicator combining keyboard layouts and input methods selection.
For this to be a smooth transition for Fedora users, various changes and testing are needed, and this is covered by this feature.
Current status
• Targeted release: Fedora 18
• Last updated: 2012-07-17
• Percentage of completion: 40%
Detailed Description
This work partly extends and replaces the experimental gnome-shell extension called ibus-gnome3 that has been in Fedora since F16.
Benefit to Fedora
gnome-shell provides the ibus menu by default. ibus does not run ibus panel on gnome-shell. gnome-control-center provides ibus configuration. gnome-settings-daemon launches ibus-daemon and switches engines.
• hotkey handling (locale based?)
• default IMEs
How To Test
Install IBus and some engines, eg ibus-anthy.
Test that switching between keyboard layouts such as en_Us and input methods such as anthy works using both the shell menu and keyboard shortcuts.
User Experience
gnome-shell shows ibus indicator is available by default. gnome-control-center shows ibus configurations by default.
See https://live.gnome.org/ThreePointFive/Features/IBus
• gnome-shell depends on ibus libraries
• gnome-control-center depends on ibus libraries
A: g-c-c.
• if imsettings disables to run ibus-daemon
• im-chooser can be run by users
• if any UIs provide the option to disable ibus-daemon
• if ibus-daemon runs on any locales
• if ibus-daemon runs without ibus engines
• if imsettings needs to be run to export QT_IM_MODULE and XMODIFIERS
Contingency Plan
ibus panel is back and enables ibus-daemon does not connect to gnome-settings-daemon.
Release Notes
Comments and Discussion |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7790 | Version 19 (modified by kirsten, 7 years ago) (diff)
The solution is to distinguish call demands from product demands. Consider again:
let f = \ x. \ y. ... in
...(f 1 2)...(f 3 4)...
The demands placed on f by the first and second call get bothed together to yield SM(SM(T)). But this is incorrect. Consider:
let f = \ x. \ y. ...
frob = f 1 in
...(f 1 2)...(frob 2)...(frob 3)...
Here, the demands placed on f by the body of frob and by the call to f in the let-body get bothed together: S1(T) & S1(S1(T)) = SM(SM(T)). Note that this is the same as the demand placed on f above, yet we want to distinguish between the two situations, because in the first example, the inner lambda in f's rhs is only called once.
The solution is to treat call demands and product demands differently, and to define the both function for call demands to have the same behavior as lub. Then in the first example, f has demand SM(S1(T)) placed on it, and in the second, SM(T). This is what we want; now, if f has demand D(D(T) placed on it, that implies f is always called with two arguments.
Why does this make sense? Consider what it means if we see an example like:
let baz = lazyF p in
case p of
(a,b) -> strictF a b
(where lazyF is lazy in p, and strictF is strict in a and b). p is used both with demand L (in the call to lazyF and with demand S(SS) (in the call to strictF). This means it's perfectly same to strictly evaluate p, so when we both together the two demands, we should get S(SS). On the other hand, if a function is called once with one argument and once with two, we don't want to treat it as a function that's always called with two arguments; we're only interested in functions that are always called with n arguments for a given n. Hence, both should behave the same way as lub for call demands.
The following code inserts extra fields into closures when ticky is enabled (and so had to be commented out):
staticTickyHdr :: [CmmLit]
-- The ticky header words in a static closure
staticTickyHdr =
| not opt_DoTickyProfiling = []
| otherwise = [zeroCLit]
in compiler/codeGen/CgTicky.hs.
Other relevant functions: emitTickyCounter in compiler/codeGen/CgTicky.hs (called by closureCodeBody in compiler/codeGen/CgClosure.lhs).
Argh! I spent days tracking down this bug: idInfoLabelType in compiler/cmm/CLabel.hs needs to return DataLabel for labels of type RednCount (i.e., labels for ticky counters.) By default, it was returning CodeLabel, which caused the ticky counter labels to get declared with the wrong type in the generated C, which caused C compiler errors.
Declarations for ticky counters
emitTickyCounter spits out C declarations that look like this:
static char c16O_str[] = "main:Main.$wrepeated{v r4}";
static char c16Q_str[] = "i";
StgWord Main_zdwrepeated_ct[] = {
0x0, 0x1U, 0x1U, 0x0, (W_)&c16O_str, (W_)&c16Q_str, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0
Here, Main_zdwrepeated_ct is actually an StgEntCounter (this type is declared in includes/StgTicky.h). The counters get used by printRegisteredCounterInfo in rts/Ticky.c, which prints out the ticky reports. The counter fields are accessed using offsets defined in includes/GHCConstants.h (oFFSET_StgEntCounter_*), which in turn get generated from includes/mkDerivedConstants.c (change it and then run make in includes/.
<s>Note that the first 3 fields of the counters are 16-bit ints and so the generated ticky-counter registration code has to reflect that (I fixed a bug where the first field was getting treated as a 32-bit int.)</s> I modified the StgEntCounter type so that all fields are StgWords, because it seems that the code generator can't cope with anything else anyway (i.e., in the declaration above, Main_zdwrepeated_ct[] is an array of StgWords, even though the C type declaration implies that some fields are halfwords.)
In emitBlackHoleCode in compiler/codeGen/CgClosure.lhs, "eager blackholing" was getting employed in the case where ticky was turned on; this was causing programs to <<loop>> when they wouldn't with ticky disabled, so I turned that off.
Strictness and let-floating
We run into the following problem in the transform nofib benchmark: suppose we have:
f x =
let foo = stuff in
foo + x
where stuff doesn't depend on x. Demand analysis says that foo has a strict demand placed on it. Later, foo gets floated to the top level because it doesn't depend on x (in reality it's more complicated because in this case foo probably would have gotten floated out before demand analysis, but bear with me). foo still has a strict demand signature, which a top-level binding isn't allowed to have. Currently this manifests itself as an assertion failure in compiler/simplCore/SimplEnv.lhs.
There are two possible easy solutions: don't float out bindings for strict things, or "both" the demand for a binder with Lazy when its binding gets floated out. The question is, is it better to do the let-floating and lose the strictness into or to evaluate something strictly but lose sharing?
When we run into an expression like (Cast e co) that we're placing demand d on, we analyze e to get dmd_ty, then check whether the depth of e is equal to the depth of dmd_ty or not. This is necessary because we might be casting a function to a non-function type. So, if d and dmd_ty have equal depth, we return dmd_ty as is; if d's arity is less, we drop the appropriate number of args from dmd_ty; if dmd_ty's arity is less, we add the appropriate number of dummy argument demands to it.
WARN: arity /= dmdTypeDepth rhs_dmd_ty && not (exprIsTrivial rhs)
This warning can happen for (at least) two reasons:
• lambdas with a strict non-call demand placed on them were being handled wrong (see the first two examples in [Commentary/Compiler/StrictnessAnalysis/Examples])
• coercions were being handled wrong, resulting in a demand type with depth 0 being assigned to an rhs consisting of a cast from/to a function type |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7791 | Skip to content
This repository
Subversion checkout URL
You can clone with HTTPS or Subversion.
Download ZIP
tree: 1ada3bfc31
Fetching contributors…
Cannot retrieve contributors at this time
executable file 12 lines (10 sloc) 0.546 kb
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
#!/usr/bin/env python
from import execute_manager
import settings # Assumed to be in the same directory.
except ImportError:
import sys
sys.stderr.write("Error: Can't find the file '' in the directory containing %r. It appears you've customized things.\nYou'll have to run, passing it your settings module.\n(If the file does indeed exist, it's causing an ImportError somehow.)\n" % __file__)
if __name__ == "__main__":
Something went wrong with that request. Please try again. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7794 | Skip to content
This repository
Subversion checkout URL
You can clone with HTTPS or Subversion.
Download ZIP
Infinispan is an open source data grid platform and highly scalable NoSQL cloud data store.
tag: 5.2.5.Final
The Infinispan project
Infinispan is an open source (LGPL licensed) data grid platform. For more information on Infinispan, including HOWTOs, getting started guides, build instructions and downloading binaries, visit the project's website on
The Infinispan project team
Something went wrong with that request. Please try again. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7795 | Skip to content
This repository
Subversion checkout URL
You can clone with HTTPS or Subversion.
Download ZIP
Puppet module for munin monitoring
branch: master
Fetching latest commit…
Cannot retrieve the latest commit at this time
Octocat-spinner-32 files
Octocat-spinner-32 lib
Octocat-spinner-32 manifests
Octocat-spinner-32 templates
Octocat-spinner-32 README
== Munin ==
Munin is a performance monitoring system which creates nice RRD graphs and has
a very easy plugin interface. The munin homepage is
To use this module, follow these directions:
1. Install the "common" module -- the munin module depends on functions that are
defined and installed via the common module, see README.common for how to do this
2. You will need storedconfigs enabled in your puppet setup, to do that you need to
add a line to your puppet.conf in your [puppetmasterd] section which says:
You may wish to immediately setup a mysql/pgsql database for your storedconfigs, as
the default method uses sqlite, and is not very efficient, to do that you need lines
such as the following below the storeconfigs=true line (adjust as needed):
3. Install the "munin" module:
a. Your modules directory will need all the files included in this repository placed
under a directory called "munin"
b. add the following line to your modules.pp:
import "munin"
(NOTE: if you have followed the directions in README.common then you will have import
"modules.pp" in your site.pp, if you do not have that, then you will need to add the
import line to your site.pp)
c. you will also need to create the following empty directories:
mkdir /etc/puppet/modules/munin/files/empty
mkdir /etc/puppet/modules/munin/files/modules_dir
mkdir -p /etc/puppet/modules/munin/files/nodes/modules_dir
mkdir -p /etc/puppet/modules/munin/files/plugins/modules_dir
d. Add to the top of your site.pp a variable which indicates what IP should be allowed to
connect to your individual munin-nodes (this is typically your main munin host's IP):
$munin_allow = ''
If you want to define more than one host, you can seperate them by colon:
$munin_allow = ''
e. In the node definition in your site.pp for your main munin host, add the following:
include munin::host
f. On each node that will gather munin statistics, add this line to that node's entry
in site.pp (you may want to also add this to your main munin host):
include munin::client
g. If there are particular munin plugins you want to enable or configure, you define them
in the node definition, like follows:
# Enable monitoring of disk stats in bytes
munin::plugin { df_abs: }
# Use a non-standard plugin path to use custom plugins
munin::plugin { "spamassassin":
ensure => "spamassassin",
script_path => "/usr/local/share/munin-plugins",
# Use a special config to pass parameters to the plugin
munin::plugin {
[ "apache_accesses", "apache_processes", "apache_volume" ]:
ensure => present,
config => "env.url"
h. If you have Linux-Vservers configured, you will likely have multiple munin-node processes
competing for the default port 4949, for those nodes, set an alternate port for munin-node
to run on by putting something similar to the following in the node definition:
$munin_port = 4948
i. If you'd like to do cgi graphing, please note the following page:
For CentOS this is enabled in the default header config
j. Per default (on CentOS) munin will send warnings and critical messages to root
Something went wrong with that request. Please try again. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7796 | Skip to content
This repository
Fetching contributors…
Cannot retrieve contributors at this time
file 1073 lines (693 sloc) 33.328 kb
Haml Changelog
• Table of contents {:toc}
Tagged on GitHub.
• Fix the permissions errors for good.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Fix some permissions errors.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Fix the :encoding option under Ruby 1.9.2.
• Fix interpolated if statement when HTML escaping is enabled.
• Allow the --unix-newlines flag to work on Unix, where it's a no-op.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Don't require rake in the gemspec, for bundler compatibility under JRuby. Thanks to Gordon McCreight.
• Get rid of the annoying RDoc errors on install.
• Disambiguate references to the Rails module when haml-rails is installed.
• Fix a bug in haml_tag that would allow duplicate attributes to be added and make data- attributes not work.
• Compatibility with Rails 3 final.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Understand that mingw counts as Windows.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Fix an html2haml ERB-parsing bug where ERB blocks were occasionally left without indentation in Haml.
• Fix parsing of if and case statements whose values were assigned to variables. This is still bad style, though.
• Fix form_for and form_tag when they're passed a block that returns a string in a helper.
Tagged on GitHub.
There were no changes made to Haml between versions 3.0.14 and 3.0.15.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Allow CSS-style classes and ids to contain colons.
• Fix an obscure bug with if statements.
Rails 3 Support
• Don't use the #returning method, which Rails 3 no longer provides.
Tagged on GitHub.
Rails 3 Support
Support for Rails 3 versions prior to beta 4 has been removed. Upgrade to Rails 3.0.0.beta4 if you haven't already.
Minor Improvements
• Properly process frozen strings with encoding declarations.
Tagged on GitHub.
Rails 3 Support
Apparently the last version broke in new and exciting ways under Rails 3, due to the inconsistent load order caused by certain combinations of gems. 3.0.12 hacks around that inconsistency, and should be fully Rails 3-compatible.
Deprecated: Rails 3 Beta 3
Haml's support for Rails 3.0.0.beta.3 has been deprecated. Haml 3.0.13 will only support 3.0.0.beta.4.
Tagged on GitHub.
Tagged on GitHub.
Appengine-JRuby Support
The way we determine the location of the Haml installation no longer breaks the version of JRuby used by appengine-jruby.
Bug Fixes
• Single-line comments are now handled properly by html2haml.
Tagged on GitHub.
There were no changes made to Haml between versions 3.0.8 and 3.0.9. A bug in Gemcutter caused the gem to be uploaded improperly.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Fix a bug with Rails versions prior to Rails 3.
Tagged on GitHub.
Encoding Support
Haml 3.0.7 adds support for Ruby-style -# coding: comments for declaring the encoding of a template. For details see { the reference}.
This also slightly changes the behavior of Haml when the { :encoding option} is not set. Rather than defaulting to "utf-8", it defaults to the encoding of the source document, and only falls back to "utf-8" if this encoding is "us-ascii".
The haml executable also now takes an -E option for specifying encoding, which works the same way as Ruby's -E option.
Other Changes
• Default to the { :html5 format} when running under Rails 3, since it defaults to HTML5 as well.
Bug Fixes
• When generating Haml for something like <span>foo</span>,, use = succeed rather than - succeed (which doesn't work).
Tagged on GitHub.
Rails 2.3.7 Support
This release fully supports Rails 2.3.7.
Rails 2.3.6 Support Removed
Rails 2.3.6 was released with various bugs related to XSS-protection and interfacing with Haml. Rails 2.3.7 was released shortly after with fixes for these bugs. Thus, Haml no longer supports Rails 2.3.6, and anyone using it should upgrade to 2.3.7.
Attempting to use Haml with Rails 2.3.6 will cause an error.
Tagged on GitHub.
Rails 2.3.6 Support
This release hacks around various bugs in Rails 2.3.6, bringing Haml up to full compatibility.
Rails 3 Support
Make sure the #capture helper in Rails 3 doesn't print its value directly to the template.
Tagged on GitHub.
There were no changes made to Haml between versions 3.0.3 and 3.0.4.
Tagged on GitHub.
Rails 3 Support
In order to make some Rails loading errors easier to debug, Sass will now raise an error if Rails.root is nil when Sass is loading. Previously, this would just cause the paths to be mis-set.
Tagged on GitHub.
There were no changes made to Haml between versions 3.0.1 and 3.0.2.
Tagged on GitHub.
Installation in Rails
haml --rails is no longer necessary for installing Haml in Rails. Now all you need to do is add gem "haml" to the Gemfile for Rails 3, or add config.gem "haml" to config/environment.rb for previous versions.
haml --rails will still work, but it has been deprecated and will print an error message. It will not work in the next version of Haml.
Rails Test Speed
The { :ugly option} is now on by default in the testing environment in Rails to help tests run faster.
Tagged on GitHub.
Backwards Incompatibilities: Must Read!
• The puts helper has been removed. Use {Haml::Helpers#haml_concat} instead.
More Useful Multiline
Ruby code can now be wrapped across multiple lines as long as each line but the last ends in a comma. For example:
= link_to_remote "Add to cart",
haml_tag and haml_concat Improvements
haml_tag with CSS Selectors
The {Haml::Helpers#haml_tag haml_tag} helper can now take a string using the same class/id shorthand as in standard Haml code. Manually-specified class and id attributes are merged, again as in standard Haml code. For example:
haml_tag('#foo') #=> <div id='foo' />
haml_tag('.bar') #=> <div class='bar' />
haml_tag('') #=> <span class='bar' id='foo' />
haml_tag('', :class => 'abc') #=> <span class='abc bar' id='foo' />
haml_tag('', :id => 'abc') #=> <span class='bar' id='abc_foo' />
Cheers, S. Burkhard.
haml_tag with Multiple Lines of Content
The {Haml::Helpers#haml_tag haml_tag} helper also does a better job of formatting tags with multiple lines of content. If a tag has multiple levels of content, that content is indented beneath the tag. For example:
haml_tag(:p, "foo\nbar") #=>
# <p>
# foo
# bar
# </p>
haml_tag with Multiple Lines of Content
Similarly, the {Haml::Helpers#haml_concat haml_concat} helper will properly indent multiple lines of content. For example:
haml_tag(:p) {haml_concat "foo\nbar"} #=>
# <p>
# foo
# bar
# </p>
haml_tag and haml_concat with :ugly
When the { :ugly option} is enabled, {Haml::Helpers#haml_tag haml_tag} and {Haml::Helpers#haml_concat haml_concat} won't do any indentation of their arguments.
Basic Tag Improvements
• It's now possible to customize the name used for { object reference} for a given object by implementing the haml_object_ref method on that object. This method should return a string that will be used in place of the class name of the object in the generated class and id. Thanks to Tim Carey-Smith.
• All attribute values may be non-String types. Their #to_s method will be called to convert them to strings. Previously, this only worked for attributes other than class.
:class and :id Attributes Accept Ruby Arrays
In an attribute hash, the :class attribute now accepts an Array whose elements will be converted to strings and joined with " ". Likewise, the :id attribute now accepts an Array whose elements will be converted to strings and joined with "_". The array will first be flattened and any elements that do not test as true will be stripped out. For example:
.column{:class => [@item.type, @item == @sortcol && [:sort, @sortdir]] }
could render as any of:
class="column numeric sort ascending"
class="column numeric"
class="column sort descending"
depending on whether @item.type is "numeric" or nil, whether @item == @sortcol, and whether @sortdir is "ascending" or "descending".
A single value can still be specified. If that value evaluates to false it is ignored; otherwise it gets converted to a string. For example:
.item{:class => @item.is_empty? && "empty"}
could render as either of:
class="item empty"
Thanks to Ronen Barzel.
HTML5 Custom Data Attributes
Creating an attribute named :data with a Hash value will generate HTML5 custom data attributes. For example:
%div{:data => {:author_id => 123, :post_id => 234}}
Will compile to:
<div data-author_id='123' data-post_id='234'></div>
Thanks to John Reilly.
More Powerful :autoclose Option
The { :attributes} option can now take regular expressions that specify which tags to make self-closing.
--double-quote-attributes Option
The Haml executable now has a --double-quote-attributes option (short form: -q) that causes attributes to use a double-quote mark rather than single-quote. Thanks to Charles Roper.
:css Filter
Haml now supports a { :css filter} that surrounds the filtered text with <style> and CDATA tags.
haml-spec Integration
We've added the cross-implementation tests from the haml-spec project to the standard Haml test suite, to be sure we remain compatible with the base functionality of the many and varied Haml implementations.
Ruby 1.9 Support
• Haml and html2haml now produce more descriptive errors when given a template with invalid byte sequences for that template's encoding, including the line number and the offending character.
• Haml and html2haml now accept Unicode documents with a byte-order-mark.
Rails Support
• When form_for is used with =, or form_tag is used with = and a block, they will now raise errors explaining that they should be used with -. This is similar to how {Haml::Helpers#haml_concat} behaves, and will hopefully clear up some difficult bugs for some users.
Rip Support
Haml is now compatible with the Rip package management system. Thanks to Josh Peek.
html2haml Improvements
• Ruby blocks within ERB are now supported. The Haml code is properly indented and the ends are removed. This includes methods with blocks and all language constructs such as if, begin, and case. For example:
<% content_for :footer do %>
<p>Hi there!</p>
<% end %>
is now transformed into:
- content_for :footer do
%p Hi there!
Thanks to Jack Chen and Dr. Nic Williams for inspiring this and creating the first draft of the code.
• Inline HTML text nodes are now transformed into inline Haml text. For example, <p>foo</p> now becomes %p foo, whereas before it became:
The same is true for inline comments, and inline ERB when running in ERB mode: <p><%= foo %></p> will now become %p= foo.
• ERB included within text is now transformed into Ruby interpolation. For example:
Foo <%= bar %> baz!
Flip <%= bang %>.
is now transformed into:
Foo #{bar} baz!
Flip #{bang}.
• <script> tags are now transformed into :javascript filters, and <style> tags into :css filters. and indentation is preserved. For example:
<script type="text/javascript">
function foo() {
return 12;
is now transformed into:
function foo() {
return 12;
• <pre> and <textarea> tags are now transformed into the :preserve filter. For example:
is now transformed into:
• Self-closing tags (such as <br />) are now transformed into self-closing Haml tags (like %br/).
• IE conditional comments are now properly parsed.
• Attributes are now output in a more-standard format, without spaces within the curly braces (e.g. %p{:foo => "bar"} as opposed to %p{ :foo => "bar" }).
• IDs and classes containing # and . are now output as string attributes (e.g. %p{:class => ""}).
• Attributes are now sorted, to maintain a deterministic order.
• > or {Haml::Helpers#succeed #succeed} are inserted where necessary when inline formatting is used.
• Multi-line ERB statements are now properly indented, and those without any content are removed.
Minor Improvements
• {Haml::Helpers#capture_haml capture_haml} is now faster when using :ugly. Thanks to Alf Mikula.
• Add an RDFa doctype shortcut.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Don't prevent ActiveModel form elements from having error formatting applied.
• Make sure form_for blocks are properly indented under Rails 3.0.0.beta.3.
• Don't activate a bug in the dynamic_form plugin under Rails 3.0.0.beta.3 that would cause its methods not to be loaded.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Don't crash when rake gems is run in Rails with Haml installed. Thanks to Florian Frank.
• Don't remove \n in filters with interpolation.
• Silence those annoying "regexp match /.../n against to UTF-8 string" warnings.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Add a railtie so Haml and Sass will be automatically loaded in Rails 3. Thanks to Daniel Neighman.
• Add a deprecation message for using - with methods like form_for that return strings in Rails 3. This is the same deprecation that exists in Rails 3.
• Make sure line numbers are reported correctly when filters are being used.
• Make loading the gemspec not crash on read-only filesystems like Heroku's.
• Don't crash when methods like form_for return nil in, for example, Rails 3 beta.
• Compatibility with Rails 3 beta's RJS facilities.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Fix a few bugs in the git-revision-reporting in {Haml::Version#version}. In particular, it will still work if git gc has been called recently, or if various files are missing.
• Always use __FILE__ when reading files within the Haml repo in the Rakefile. According to this bug report, this should make Haml work better with Bundler.
• Make the error message for - end a little more intuitive based on user feedback.
• Compatibility with methods like form_for that return strings rather than concatenate to the template in Rails 3.
• Add a {Haml::Helpers#with_tabs with_tabs} helper, which sets the indentation level for the duration of a block.
Tagged on GitHub.
• The form_tag Rails helper is now properly marked as HTML-safe when using Rails' XSS protection with Rails 2.3.5.
• Calls to defined? shouldn't interfere with Rails' autoloading in very old versions (1.2.x).
• Fix a bug where calls to ActionView's render method with blocks and layouts wouldn't work under the Rails 3.0 beta.
• Fix a bug where the closing tags of nested calls to {Haml::Helpers#haml_concat} were improperly escaped under the Rails 3.0 beta.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Fix a bug with the integration with Rails' XSS support. In particular, correctly override safe_concat.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Support the new XSS-protection API used in Rails 3.
• Use Rails.env rather than RAILS_ENV when running under Rails 3.0. Thanks to Duncan Grazier.
• Add a --unix-newlines flag to all executables for outputting Unix-style newlines on Windows.
• Fix a couple bugs with the :erb filter: make sure error reporting uses the correct line numbers, and allow multi-line expressions.
• Fix a parsing bug for HTML-style attributes including #.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Fix compilation of HTML5 doctypes when using html2haml.
• nil values for Sass options are now ignored, rather than raising errors.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Abstract out references to ActionView::TemplateError, ActionView::TemplateHandler, etc. These have all been renamed to ActionView::Template::* in Rails 3.0.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Allow if statements with no content followed by else clauses. For example:
• if foo
• else bar
Tagged on GitHub.
• Don't print warnings when escaping attributes containing non-ASCII characters in Ruby 1.9.
• Don't crash when parsing an XHTML Strict doctype in html2haml.
• Support the HTML5 doctype in an XHTML document by using !!! 5 as the doctype declaration.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Allow users to specify { :encoding => "ascii-8bit"} even for templates that include non-ASCII byte sequences. This makes Haml templates not crash when given non-ASCII input that's marked as having an ASCII encoding.
• Fixed an incompatibility with Hpricot 0.8.2, which is used for html2haml.
Tagged on GitHub.
There were no changes made to Haml between versions 2.2.11 and 2.2.12.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Fixed a bug with XSS protection where HTML escaping would raise an error if passed a non-string value. Note that this doesn't affect any HTML escaping when XSS protection is disabled.
• Fixed a bug in outer-whitespace nuking where whitespace-only Ruby strings blocked whitespace nuking beyond them.
• Use ensure to protect the resetting of the Haml output buffer against exceptions that are raised within the compiled Haml code.
• Fix an error line-numbering bug that appeared if an error was thrown within loud script (=). This is not the best solution, as it disables a few optimizations, but it shouldn't have too much effect and the optimizations will hopefully be re-enabled in version 2.4.
• Don't crash if the plugin skeleton is installed and rake gems:install is run.
• Don't use RAILS_ROOT directly. This no longer exists in Rails 3.0. Instead abstract this out as Haml::Util.rails_root. This changes makes Haml fully compatible with edge Rails as of this writing.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Fixed a bug where elements with dynamic attributes and no content would have too much whitespace between the opening and closing tag.
• Changed rails/init.rb away from loading init.rb and instead have it basically copy the content. This allows us to transfer the proper binding to Haml.init_rails.
• Make sure Haml only tries to enable XSS protection integration once all other plugins are loaded. This allows it to work properly when Haml is a gem and the rails_xss plugin is being used.
• Mark the return value of Haml templates as HTML safe. This makes Haml partials work with Rails' XSS protection.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Fixed a bug where Haml's text was concatenated to the wrong buffer under certain circumstances. This was mostly an issue under Rails when using methods like capture.
• Fixed a bug where template text was escaped when there was interpolation in a line and the :escape_html option was enabled. For example:
Foo < Bar #{"<"} Baz
with :escape_html used to render as
Foo &lt; Bar < Baz
but now renders as
Foo < Bar < Baz
Rails XSS Protection
Haml 2.2.9 supports the XSS protection in Rails versions 2.3.5+. There are several components to this:
• If XSS protection is enabled, Haml's { :escape_html} option is set to true by default.
• Strings declared as HTML safe won't be escaped by Haml, including the {file:Haml/Helpers.html#html_escape-instance_method #html_escape} helper and &= if :escape_html has been disabled.
• Haml helpers that generate HTML are marked as HTML safe, and will escape their input if it's not HTML safe.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Fixed a potential XSS issue with HTML escaping and wacky Unicode nonsense. This is the same as the issue fixed in Rails a bit ago.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Fixed an html2haml issue where ERB attribute values weren't HTML-unescaped before being transformed into Haml.
• Fixed an html2haml issue where #{} wasn't escaped before being transformed into Haml.
• Add <code> to the list of tags that's { automatically whitespace-preserved}.
• Fixed a bug with end being followed by code in silent scripts - it no longer throws an error when it's nested beneath tags.
• Fixed a bug with inner whitespace-nuking and conditionals. The else et al. clauses of conditionals are now properly whitespace-nuked.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Made the error message when unable to load a dependency for html2haml respect the --trace option.
• Don't crash when the __FILE__ constant of a Ruby file is a relative path, as apparently happens sometimes in TextMate (thanks to Karl Varga).
• Add "Sass" to the --version string for the executables.
• Raise an exception when commas are omitted in static attributes (e.g. %p{:foo => "bar" :baz => "bang"}).
Tagged on GitHub.
• Got rid of trailing whitespace produced when opening a conditional comment (thanks to Norman Clarke).
• Fixed CSS id concatenation when a numeric id is given as an attribute. (thanks to Norman Clarke).
• Fixed a couple bugs with using "-end" in strings.
Tagged on GitHub.
• Allow end to be used for silent script when it's followed by code. For example:
- form_for do
- end if @show_form
This isn't very good style, but we're supporting it for consistency's sake.
• Don't add require 'rubygems' to the top of init.rb when installed via haml --rails. This isn't necessary, and actually gets clobbered as soon as haml/template is loaded.
Tagged on GitHub.
Haml 2.2.3 adds support for the JRuby bundling tools for Google AppEngine, thanks to Jan Ulbrich.
Tagged on GitHub.
Haml 2.2.2 is a minor bugfix release, with several notable changes. First, {file:Haml/Helpers.html#haml_concat-instance_method haml_concat} will now raise an error when used with =. This has always been incorrect behavior, and in fact has never actually worked. The only difference is that now it will fail loudly. Second, Ruby 1.9 is now more fully supported, especially with the { new attribute syntax}. Third, filters are no longer escaped when the { :escape_html option} is enabled and #{} interpolation is used.
Tagged on GitHub.
Haml 2.2.1 is a minor bug-fix release.
Tagged on GitHub.
Haml 2.2 adds several new features to the language, fixes several bugs, and dramatically improves performance (particularly when running with { :ugly} enabled).
Syntax Changes
HTML-Style Attribute Syntax
Haml 2.2 introduces a new syntax for attributes based on the HTML syntax. For example:
%a(href="" title="Haml's so cool!")
%img(src="/images/haml.png" alt="Haml")
There are two main reasons for this. First, the hash-style syntax is very Ruby-specific. There are now Haml implementations in many languages, each of which has its own syntax for hashes (or dicts or associative arrays or whatever they're called). The HTML syntax will be adopted by all of them, so you can feel comfortable using Haml in whichever language you need.
Second, the hash-style syntax is quite verbose. %img{:src => "/images/haml.png", :alt => "Haml"} is eight characters longer than %img(src="/images/haml.png" alt="Haml"). Haml's supposed to be about writing templates quickly and easily; HTML-style attributes should help out a lot with that.
Ruby variables can be used as attribute values by omitting quotes. Local variables or instance variables can be used. For example:
%a(title=@title href=href) Stuff
This is the same as:
%a{:title => @title, :href => href} Stuff
Because there are no commas separating attributes, more complicated expressions aren't allowed. You can use #{} interpolation to insert complicated expressions in a HTML-style attribute, though:
Multiline Attributes
In general, Haml tries to keep individual elements on a single line. There is a multiline syntax for overflowing onto further lines, but it's intentionally awkward to use to encourage shorter lines.
However, there is one case where overflow is reasonable: attributes. Often a tag will simply have a lot of attributes, and in this case it makes sense to allow overflow. You can now stretch an attribute hash across multiple lines:
%script{:type => "text/javascript",
:src => "javascripts/script_#{2 + 7}"}
This also works for HTML-style attributes:
src="javascripts/script_#{2 + 7}")
Note that for hash-style attributes, the newlines must come after commas.
Universal interpolation
In Haml 2.0, you could use == to interpolate Ruby code within a line of text using #{}. In Haml 2.2, the == is unnecessary; #{} can be used in any text. For example:
%p This is a really cool #{h what_is_this}!
But is it a #{h what_isnt_this}?
In addition, to { escape} or { unescape} the interpolated code, you can just add & or !, respectively, to the beginning of the line:
%p& This is a really cool #{what_is_this}!
& But is it a #{what_isnt_this}?
Flexible indentation
Haml has traditionally required its users to use two spaces of indentation. This is the universal Ruby style, and still highly recommended. However, Haml now allows any number of spaces or even tabs for indentation, provided:
• Tabs and spaces are not mixed
• The indentation is consistent within a given document
New Options
The :ugly option is not technically new; it was introduced in Haml 2.0 to make rendering deeply nested templates less painful. However, it's been greatly empowered in Haml 2.2. It now does all sorts of performance optimizations that couldn't be done before, and its use increases Haml's performance dramatically. It's enabled by default in production in Rails, and it's highly recommended for production environments in other frameworks.
:encoding {#encoding-option}
This option specifies the encoding of the Haml template when running under Ruby 1.9. It defaults to Encoding.default_internal or "utf-8". This is useful for making sure that you don't get weird encoding errors when dealing with non-ASCII input data.
This helper is being deprecated for the obvious reason that it conflicts with the Kernel#puts method. I'm ashamed I ever chose this name. Use haml_concat instead and spare me the embarrassment.
= haml_tag
A lot of people accidentally use "= haml_tag". This has always been wrong; haml_tag outputs directly to the template, and so should be used as "- haml_tag". Now it raises an error when you use =.
Haml 2.2 is fully compatible with Rails, from 2.0.6 to the latest revision of edge, 783db25.
Ruby 1.9
Haml 2.2 is also fully compatible with Ruby 1.9. It supports Ruby 1.9-style attribute hashes, and handles encoding-related issues (see the :encoding option).
There are numerous improvements to the Markdown filter. No longer will Haml attempt to use RedCloth's inferior Markdown implementation. Instead, it will look for all major Markdown implementations: RDiscount, RPeg-Markdown, Maruku, and BlueCloth.
There is now a :cdata filter for wrapping text in CDATA tags.
The :sass filter now uses options set in {Sass::Plugin}, if they're available.
The haml executable now takes -r and -I flags that act just like the same flags for the ruby executable. This allows users to load helper files when using Haml from the command line.
It also takes a --debug flag that causes it to spit out the Ruby code that Haml generates from the template. This is more for my benefit than anything, but you may find it interesting.
The html2haml executable has undergone significant improvements. Many of these are bugfixes, but there are also a few features. For one, it now understands CDATA tags and autodetects ERB files. In addition, a line containing just "- end" is now a Haml error; since it's not possible for html2haml to properly parse all Ruby blocks, this acts as a signal for the author that there are blocks to be dealt with.
Haml 2.2 supports a DTD for XHTML Mobile: !!! Mobile.
All the documentation for Haml 2.2, including this changelog, has been moved to YARD. YARD is an excellent documentation system, and allows us to write our documentation in Maruku, which is also excellent.
Something went wrong with that request. Please try again. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7797 | Skip to content
This repository
Subversion checkout URL
You can clone with HTTPS or Subversion.
Download ZIP
branch: tags/R-2-3-0
The here was originally produced by gettextize, but has
since been modified extensively.
If you convert a C file for use with gettext, add it to and
then run
make update-po
to recreate R.pot and update the automated `translations'.
make update-pkg-po
updates the message catalogs for the C and R code in the standard packages,
uses msgmerge --update to update the translations and then re-makes the
compiled (.mo) files.
To do this for an individual standard package use
make pkgname.pkg-update
e.g. make grid.pkg-update.
To add a new translation, add the lang.po file to this directory and
add the language to LINGUAS. Hopefully 'make all R' (in the builddir,
if separate) will do the rest (create and install it as
required). For fuller manual control, use
msgfmt -c --statistics -o ll.po
to check and compile the translation, and
mkdir R_BUILD_DIR/share/locale/ll/LC_MESSAGES
cp R_BUILD_DIR/share/locale/ll/LC_MESSAGES/
to install it manually for testing.
Windows RGui translations
These are contained in RGui.pot, created by running 'make RGui.pot-update'.
It needs manual adjustment in 3 instances of 50%, 75% and 100% which are
not c-format.
Translations should be called RGui-ll.po for language 'll': such a file is
compiled by
msgfmt -c --statistics -o RGui-ll.po
To add a translation, add both the .po and .gmo files to the
RGUI-CATALOGS macro in it will then be automatically
To test a translation on Windows, use
cp ../share/locale/ll/LC_MESSAGES/
and then startup RGui.exe in an appropriate locale, or set LANGUAGE=ll
on the command line. (All RGui-*.gmo files will installed to the
right places when 'make -f' is run in this directory,
which is part of the main 'make' process.)
To re-make all the translations use 'make update-RGui', after updating
RGui.pot (see above).
Something went wrong with that request. Please try again. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7842 |
Re: GNOME 1 discussion continues in d-g-g
ti, 2005-09-27 kello 05:14 -0700, Thomas Bushnell BSG kirjoitti:
> And I'm saying that this is not sufficient, it needs to be here, on
> debian-devel, since it concerns more than just packages maintained by
> the debian-gtk-gnome team.
>From http://lists.debian.org/debian-gtk-gnome/:
Packages using GTK+ and/or GNOME
Discussion and coordination among maintainers of Debian's GTK+,
GNOME and dependent or related packages.
It seems to me that the debian-gtk-gnome list is *exactly* the right one
for discussion about removal of GNOME 1. Burdening the general list with
discussions that are on-topic for the more specific list and irrelevant
to most readers seems to me to be suboptimal.
(Ideally, of course, if any decisions are made on the debian-gtk-gnome
list, they will be announced on debian-devel-announce so that everyone
is aware of them.)
Reply to: |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7848 | different 'sum' on three different FC3 installs
Deron Meranda deron.meranda at gmail.com
Sun Jan 9 04:00:55 UTC 2005
On Sat, 8 Jan 2005 21:40:53 -0600 (CST), Mark Hittinger <bugs at pu.net> wrote:
> I ran into something curious. I installed FC3 on three computers with the
> same set of CD's and updated them with yum roughly at the same time.
> Afterwards I noticed that certain system binaries (for example /bin/csh and
> /bin/login) all have different 'sum' checksums on the three systems.
> The file sizes are the same.
This is a side effect of prelink (do a "man prelink"), which modifies binaries
to make them faster.
To verify that your files are okay, try
rpm -V -v tcsh
Or you could also do something like,
host1$ prelink -y /bin/tcsh >/bin/tcsh.orig
host1$ md5sum /bin/tcsh.orig
host2$ prelink -y /bin/tcsh >/bin/tcsh.orig
host2$ md5sum /bin/tcsh.orig
Deron Meranda
More information about the users mailing list |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7853 | [Idle-dev] [ idlefork-Bugs-837085 ] Print colored
SourceForge.net noreply at sourceforge.net
Sat Nov 8 18:20:21 EST 2003
Bugs item #837085, was opened at 2003-11-06 01:47
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by nobody
You can respond by visiting:
Category: None
Group: None
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Submitted By: Heiko Selber (drhok)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: Print colored
Initial Comment:
It would be nice if the syntax highlighting could be
Currently, the print function is in black and white only,
even on color printers.
Comment By: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Date: 2003-11-08 15:20
Logged In: NO
I wanted to print in color too. As far as I can tell, IDLE sends the contents of your editor window to
notepad.exe (on windows) for printing; I don't know what it does on other platforms. Notepad doesn't do
color but I found another way.
I was reading the "Python Cookbook" and there's a recipe in there for formatting python source in colorized
Jürgen Hermann has made a "colorizer" for the MoinMoin project
(MoinMoin urls:
You can find the colorizer here:
If you want to get it to give you output the same as IDLE a few small modifications are needed:
In python, all name tokens are treated the same, 'if' is a name just like any identifier, so all "names" are
colored the same. To get output like IDLE's, you want only identifiers occuring after "class" and "def" to be
1. We need a new token type, so add the line
_DEForCLASS = token.NT_OFFSET + 3
_KEYWORD = token.NT_OFFSET + 1
_TEXT = token.NT_OFFSET + 2
(you can use any identifier you want, it doesn't have to be
2. Next, edit the '_colors' dictionary to get more IDLE-like colors and add an entry for _DEForCLASS
_colors = {
token.NUMBER: '#000000', #black
token.OP: '#000000', #black
token.STRING: '#008000', #green
tokenize.COMMENT: '#ff0000', #red
token.NAME: '#000000', #black
token.ERRORTOKEN: '#FF8080',
_KEYWORD: '#ff8c00', #dark orange
_TEXT: '#000000', #black
_DEForCLASS: '#0000ff', #blue
3. We need something to keep track of the previously scanned token for each current token so we can
know to color a token blue if it follows a 'def' or 'class' token, so add the following to the __init__ function
of the Parser class
self.prev_tok = ''
4. Then in the if...elif statement with the comment "# map token type to a color group" in the __call__
function, add a branch to check if the previous token was "def" or "class"
# map token type to a color group
if token.LPAR <= toktype and toktype <= token.OP:
toktype = token.OP
elif toktype == token.NAME and keyword.iskeyword(toktext):
toktype = _KEYWORD
#add this branch...
elif toktype == token.NAME and self.prev_tok in ['def', 'class']:
toktype = _NEWDEForCLASS
#in Python 2.3 you could just say self.prev_tok in 'def class'
#it might be slightly faster, but in practice it probably won't matter
5. Last but not least, somewhere before the end of the __call__ function put the following line, to remember
the previous token for the elif from step 4.
self.prev_tok = toktext
There ya go! This works great and is pretty simple to use. It's not as good as just clicking a menu option
from within IDLE, but it will let you print your python source in color. Yay!
Many thanks to Jürgen Hermann for writing and making known this useful script. I hope this helps you out.
~Simon Forman
calroc at mindspring.com
BTW, if you want the background to be white (in the browser, I don't think it affects printing) make the
following changes in the format function
<! sys.stdout.write('<body bgColor="#ffffff"><pre><font face="Lucida,Courier New">')
!> sys.stdout.write('<pre><font face="Lucida,Courier New">')
<! sys.stdout.write('</font></pre></body>')
!> sys.stdout.write('</font></pre>')
You can respond by visiting:
More information about the IDLE-dev mailing list |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7854 | [IronPython] IronPython / DLR Direction
Eyvind Axelsen eyvind.axelsen at profdoc.no
Thu Aug 12 12:02:55 CEST 2010
So, no response from the IPY team on this issue?
Fra: users-bounces at lists.ironpython.com [mailto:users-bounces at lists.ironpython.com] På vegne av yngipy hernan
Sendt: 10. august 2010 05:46
Til: Discussion of IronPython
Emne: Re: [IronPython] IronPython / DLR Direction
I completely agree with IPy being Microsoft-supported lowers the barrier of entry to enterprise use. I have this problem long time back using Python as the company is a Microsoft shop (mostly). But IronPython being Microsoft pretty much is approved already, no question ask.
I am hoping to hear that IronPython will be supported by MS in the next 2 to 5 years or longer ( forever :-) ) if possible.
On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 4:34 PM, Hank Fay <hank at prosysplus.com> wrote:
Hi Tony,
I have to agree about the barrier being lower if IPy is Microsoft-supported (as all the Iron* languages were announced to be). I had a discussion in January with a market-leader in another country, and their project manager could accept IronPython, barely. His take was: I want to be able to easily hire programmers for customization and/or sourcecode escrow clause necessity. Customization wasn't really an issue (the program uses hooks for customization), as he could hire his bevy of C# developers to do that, but if he had to maintain sourcecode that would be a different story.
Having come from a very productive dynamic language (Visual FoxPro) that MS first said could not be ported to .Net, and then when it obviously was possible (in 2005) made no attempt to do so, I'm having a deja vu experience all over again. I'll try not to be as cynical and sarcastic as last time, but I'm having to hold my arm down (shades of Dr. Strangelove) and hold my tongue to prevent shouting out "Middle Management Uber Alles!" (referencing Jimmy's blog post).
And so it goes...
On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 12:43 AM, Tony Meyer <tony.meyer at gmail.com> wrote:
On Sun, Aug 8, 2010 at 6:19 AM, Jeff Hardy <jdhardy at gmail.com> wrote:
> if [Iron*] die, doesn't that mean MS made the right choice after all?
I don't think that's true. .NET isn't just another platform - it's
Microsoft's own platform. Some thoughts:
Like it or not, and whether it *should* be the case or not, in many
organisations (or even teams) if a technology is from Microsoft then
it's automatically approved, or at least much easier to approve. The
barrier to using Iron* is much lower because they are Microsoft
products - this is even more the case with Visual Studio integration.
Although Iron* are open-source (which is great, obviously), they
aren't typical open-source communities, because of the (somewhat
understandable) restriction about accepting code, and the leadership
all (AFAIK) being within Microsoft. Microsoft have created this
environment (which has worked fairly well so far), and it's not clear
how easily that can transition to something that's lead by someone (or
ones) outside of Microsoft.
Leadership (or at least involvement) within Microsoft opens
opportunities for Iron* development to influence .NET. I'm not overly
familiar with the details, but I gather than the DLR approach is
significantly superior to the IPy 1 CLR approach, and that some of the
new dynamic features of C# have benefited from this. It's hard to see
how a community IronPython could have developed the DLR, and it seems
unlikely that Microsoft would make changes to the CLR to assist it.
(Does the latest Microsoft Javascript engine use the DLR (Managed
JScript?) - if so, then there's hope, I guess).
Projects often need 'angels', especially in the early stages (and I
would argue that Iron* are still in early stages). Working on a
project of this size takes a lot of resources, and having corporate
sponsors makes that a lot easier. Would Python have succeeded if CWI,
CNRI, and BeOpen hadn't supported Guido (and others)'s work in the
early days? These days the PSF takes this role, but projects need
time to build to that sort of size.
[Iron]Python (I don't really know much about [Iron]Ruby) is a great
language for beginners (students, kids, hobbyists, etc). The Iron
variants provide a very smooth path into other .NET development (e.g.
C# - which I would say is not at all a great beginner's language).
You could argue that Visual Basic provides this functionality as well
- I personally find Python much superior to Visual Basic, and since
nearly all other BASIC variants are dead now, it doesn't provide an
easy road into the .NET world (you have to start there with an
unfamiliar language).
This last point is the most relevant to me. Over the last few years,
NorthTec have switched to using CPython as the first-course
programming language, and IronPython as the second-course language.
The students *need* to end up with some .NET and Visual Studio
experience, because realistically that's what they are most likely to
come across in the real world. Many of the students are not capable
of starting with C#. If IronPython wasn't a Microsoft project, it
would have been considerably more difficult to adopt it - that would
likely have meant using Visual Basic (possibly in both courses,
because these students struggle learning two languages in their first
year). Although this is my unique case, I suspect that there are
similar ones, where being a Microsoft product is a deciding factor in
whether Iron* can be used (which then impacts the adoption of the
language, and therefore whether the language survives).
> I think Microsoft is throwing their weight behind JavaScript as their
> dynamic language of choice, and I can't really blame them.
My hope is that Microsoft realises they have enough weight to throw it
in more than once place.
(My longer hope, which I know is quite unlikely, is that Windows 8 or
9 includes some version of Iron* out of the box, like OS X includes
Python/Perl/PHP/Ruby/etc. Being able to distribute .py[co] files
rather than .exes would significantly help Iron* adoption IMO (and
this is something completely impossible for a non-Microsoft Iron*). I
know some people must like PowerShell and similar things could be done
with it, but it's not the same as having a language with the power and
cross-platform nature of Python).
Users mailing list
Users at lists.ironpython.com
Users mailing list
Users at lists.ironpython.com
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/ironpython-users/attachments/20100812/a9337223/attachment.html>
More information about the Ironpython-users mailing list |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7856 | Aspect oriented Everything?
Sascha Dördelmann wsdng at
Wed Aug 27 22:00:25 CEST 2003
letterbox1001 at (New_aspect) wrote:
> What I want to know is,if anybody on a
> commercial scale is using AOSD to develop commercial products?
I know about AOP for quite a while now but I've actually never used it
in a commercial product.
One reason I can offer you is, that it was always easy to get around
using it. You know most of the "vertical" and "horizontal" needs from
the beginning of the project and are free to include them in your UML
One strategy to get around AOP at design time ist multiple inheritance
(MI). Even if the language doesn't support MI directly there are many
ways to implement an UML model which includes MI. Other strategies
include the visitor pattern or some other form of delegation to
specialized objects.
There are some things which could make AOP more attractive:
- discussions like this one
- integration in some language would of course make some people use it
(but who would use this brand new language?)
- find a "killer app" (e. g. show that it's better to use AOP to
than to use the standard profiling tools)
- make it either as simple as possible or very difficult but with
enormous power
- build a refactoring browser which refactors aspects to where they
Generic programming is gaining more and more attention in the world of
statically typed languages. AOP could be part of that. On the other
hand it's a lot easier to implement AOP in a dynamic language like
Ruby. And as people like the nature of their favorite language, they
might like the dynamic aspect of AOP, too.
More information about the Python-list mailing list |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7858 | Reading binary files
Dan Stromberg drsalists at
Mon Aug 31 05:27:55 CEST 2009
David Robinow wrote:
>>> This works for a simple binary file, but the actual file I'm trying to
>>> read is give throwing an error that the file cannot be found. Here is the
>>> name of the my file:
>>> 2009.08.02_06.52.00_WA-1_0001_00_0662_0.jstars
>>> Should python have trouble reading this file name or extension?
>> I'm having trouble with the filename:
>> 2009.08.02_06.52.00_WA-1_0001_00_0662_0.jstars
>> It throws an error with that file name, When I change it to something like
>> sample.txt it runs, but the data is still garbled. Is there any reason why I
>> can't use the above file name? If I'm using 'rb' to read the binary file why
>> is it still garbled?
> I don't think it's garbled. It's a binary file. What do you expect?
> It's been over ten years since I've worked with any JSTARS stuff so I
> can't give you any details but you almost certainly have some sort of
> imagery. The military has a lot of bizarre formats and whoever sent
> you the data should have included a data sheet describing the format
> (or a pointer to such). Ideally, you'll also get a pointer to code to
> read the thing, but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and
> write a program to process the file.
> (If all else fails, look at a dump of the first 512 bytes or so;
> often the image size is included at the beginning; maybe in ASCII, 16
> bit ints, 32 bit ints, floating point -- who knows)
> There've been times when I had to just display the thing at 512 or
> 1024 bytes (or ints) per row and try to surmise the info from that.
> So, look for the file description.
> ...
> Googling a bit: I see there's a package at
> which purports to handle some JSTARS stuff. I've no idea if that will help you.
If you don't find anything preexisting for reading JSTARS format, this
might help:
More information about the Python-list mailing list |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7861 | Skip to Content
Bill S.735 188th (Current)
An Act relative to dangerousness hearings.
By Ms. Flanagan, a petition (accompanied by bill, Senate, No. 735) of Jennifer L. Flanagan, Jennifer E. Benson, Kimberly N. Ferguson and Bruce E. Tarr for legislation relative to dangerousness hearings. The Judiciary.
Jennifer L. Flanagan
Status: Referred to Joint Committee on the Judiciary
Petitioners: Jennifer L. Flanagan, Jennifer E. Benson, Kimberly N. Ferguson, Bruce E. Tarr
Login To MyLegislature |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7891 |
David’s Song of Praise
1David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. 2He said:
3my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior—
from violent people you save me.
4“I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
and have been saved from my enemies.
5The waves of death swirled about me;
the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
6The cords of the grave coiled around me;
the snares of death confronted me.
7“In my distress I called to the Lord;
I called out to my God.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came to his ears.
8The earth trembled and quaked,
the foundations of the heavens#22:8Hebrew; Vulgate and Syriac (see also Psalm 18:7) mountains shook;
they trembled because he was angry.
9Smoke rose from his nostrils;
consuming fire came from his mouth,
burning coals blazed out of it.
10He parted the heavens and came down;
dark clouds were under his feet.
11He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared#22:11Many Hebrew manuscripts (see also Psalm 18:10); most Hebrew manuscripts appeared on the wings of the wind.
12He made darkness his canopy around him—
the dark#22:12Septuagint (see also Psalm 18:11); Hebrew massed rain clouds of the sky.
13Out of the brightness of his presence
bolts of lightning blazed forth.
14The Lord thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High resounded.
15He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy,
with great bolts of lightning he routed them.
16The valleys of the sea were exposed
and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at the rebuke of the Lord,
at the blast of breath from his nostrils.
he drew me out of deep waters.
18He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
19They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the Lord was my support.
20He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.
according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.
22For I have kept the ways of the Lord;
I am not guilty of turning from my God.
23All his laws are before me;
I have not turned away from his decrees.
24I have been blameless before him
and have kept myself from sin.
25The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to my cleanness#22:25Hebrew; Septuagint and Vulgate (see also Psalm 18:24) to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
26“To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
27to the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.
28You save the humble,
but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low.
29You, Lord, are my lamp;
the Lord turns my darkness into light.
30With your help I can advance against a troop#22:30Or can run through a barricade ;
with my God I can scale a wall.
31“As for God, his way is perfect:
The Lord’s word is flawless;
he shields all who take refuge in him.
32For who is God besides the Lord?
And who is the Rock except our God?
33It is God who arms me with strength#22:33Dead Sea Scrolls, some Septuagint manuscripts, Vulgate and Syriac (see also Psalm 18:32); Masoretic Text who is my strong refuge
and keeps my way secure.
34He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;
he causes me to stand on the heights.
35He trains my hands for battle;
my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
36You make your saving help my shield;
your help has made#22:36Dead Sea Scrolls; Masoretic Text shield; / you stoop down to make me great.
37You provide a broad path for my feet,
so that my ankles do not give way.
38“I pursued my enemies and crushed them;
I did not turn back till they were destroyed.
39I crushed them completely, and they could not rise;
they fell beneath my feet.
40You armed me with strength for battle;
you humbled my adversaries before me.
41You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,
and I destroyed my foes.
42They cried for help, but there was no one to save them—
to the Lord, but he did not answer.
43I beat them as fine as the dust of the earth;
I pounded and trampled them like mud in the streets.
you have preserved me as the head of nations.
People I did not know now serve me,
45foreigners cower before me;
as soon as they hear of me, they obey me.
46They all lose heart;
they come trembling#22:46Some Septuagint manuscripts and Vulgate (see also Psalm 18:45); Masoretic Text they arm themselves from their strongholds.
47“The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock!
Exalted be my God, the Rock, my Savior!
48He is the God who avenges me,
who puts the nations under me,
49who sets me free from my enemies.
You exalted me above my foes;
from a violent man you rescued me.
50Therefore I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
I will sing the praises of your name.
51“He gives his king great victories;
he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed,
to David and his descendants forever.”
Loading reference in secondary version...
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7893 | 1 AFTER JESUS had finished all that He had to say in the hearing of the people [on the mountain], He entered Capernaum.
2 Now a centurion had a bond servant who was held in honor and highly valued by him, who was sick and at the point of death.
3 And when the centurion heard of Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to Him, requesting Him to come and make his bond servant well.
4 And when they reached Jesus, they begged Him earnestly, saying, He is worthy that You should do this for him,
5 For he loves our nation and he built us our synagogue [at his own expense].
6 And Jesus went with them. But when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent [some] friends to Him, saying, Lord, do not trouble [Yourself], for I am not sufficiently worthy to have You come under my roof;
7 Neither did I consider myself worthy to come to You. But [just] speak a word, and my servant boy will be healed.
8 For I also am a man [daily] subject to authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my bond servant, Do this, and he does it.
9 Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled at him, and He turned and said to the crowd that followed Him, I tell you, not even in [all] Israel have I found such great faith [as this].
10 And when the messengers who had been sent returned to the house, they found the bond servant who had been ill quite well again.
11 Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and His disciples and a great throng accompanied Him.
12 [Just] as He drew near the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out–the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a large gathering from the town was accompanying her.
13 And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, Do not weep.
14 And He went forward and touched the funeral bier, and the pallbearers stood still. And He said, Young man, I say to you, arise [from death]!
15 And the man [who was] dead sat up and began to speak. And [Jesus] gave him [back] to his mother.
16 Profound and reverent fear seized them all, and they began to recognize God and praise and give thanks, saying, A great Prophet has appeared among us! And God has visited His people [in order to help and care for and provide for them]!
17 And this report concerning [Jesus] spread through the whole of Judea and all the country round about. [I Kings 17:17-24; II Kings 4:32-37.]
18 And John's disciples brought him [who was now in prison] word of all these things.
19 And John summoned to him a certain two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord, saying, Are You He Who is to come, or shall we [continue to] look for another?
20 So the men came to Jesus and said, John the Baptist sent us to You to ask, Are You the One Who is to come, or shall we [continue to] look for another?
21 In that very hour Jesus was healing many [people] of sicknesses and distressing bodily plagues and evil spirits, and to many who were blind He gave [a free, gracious, joy-giving gift of] sight.
22 So He replied to them, Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news (the Gospel) preached to them. [Isa. 29:18, 19; 35:5, 6; 61:1.]
23 And blessed (happy–with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, apart from outward conditions–and to be envied) is he who takes no offense in Me and who is not hurt or resentful or annoyed or repelled or made to stumble [whatever may occur].
24 And the messengers of John having departed, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: What did you go out into the desert to gaze on? A reed shaken and swayed by the wind?
25 Then what did you go out to see? A man dressed up in soft garments? Behold, those who wear fine apparel and live in luxury are in the courts or palaces of kings.
26 What then did you go out to see? A prophet (a forthteller)? Yes, I tell you, and far more than a prophet.
27 This is the one of whom it is written, Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who shall make ready Your way before You. [Mal. 3:1.]
28 I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; but he that is inferior [to the other citizens] in the kingdom of God is greater [in incomparable privilege] than he.
29 And all the people who heard Him, even the tax collectors, acknowledged the justice of God [in calling them to repentance and in pronouncing future wrath on the impenitent], being baptized with the baptism of John.
30 But the Pharisees and the lawyers [of the Mosaic Law] annulled and rejected and brought to nothing God's purpose concerning themselves, by [refusing and] not being baptized by him [John].
31 So to what shall I compare the men of this generation? And what are they like?
32 They are like little children sitting in the marketplace, calling to one another and saying, We piped to you [playing wedding], and you did not dance; we sang dirges and wailed [playing funeral], and you did not weep.
33 For John the Baptist has come neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, He has a demon.
34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, Behold, a Man Who is a glutton and a wine drinker, a friend of tax collectors and notorious sinners.
35 Yet wisdom is vindicated (shown to be true and divine) by all her children [by their life, character, and deeds].
36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to dine with him, and He went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table.
37 And behold, a woman of the town who was an especially wicked sinner, when she learned that He was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment (perfume).
38 And standing behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with [her] tears; and she wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed His feet [affectionately] and anointed them with the ointment (perfume).
39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw it, he said to himself, If this Man were a prophet, He would surely know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching Him–for she is a notorious sinner (a social outcast, devoted to sin).
43 Simon answered, The one, I take it, for whom he forgave and cancelled more. And Jesus said to him, You have decided correctly.
45 You gave Me no kiss, but she from the moment I came in has not ceased [intermittently] to kiss My feet tenderly and caressingly.
46 You did not anoint My head with [cheap, ordinary] oil, but she has anointed My feet with [costly, rare] perfume.
47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, many [as they are], are forgiven her–because she has loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little.
48 And He said to her, Your sins are forgiven!
49 Then those who were at table with Him began to say among themselves, Who is this Who even forgives sins?
50 But Jesus said to the woman, Your faith has saved you; go (enter) into peace [in freedom from all the distresses that are experienced as the result of sin].
Loading reference in secondary version... |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7895 |
Descendants of Japheth
3The descendants of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.
4The descendants of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim.# As in some Hebrew manuscripts and Greek version (see also 1 Chr 1:7); most Hebrew manuscripts read Dodanim. 5Their descendants became the seafaring peoples that spread out to various lands, each identified by its own language, clan, and national identity.
Descendants of Ham
6The descendants of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.
8Cush was also the ancestor of Nimrod, who was the first heroic warrior on earth. 9Since he was the greatest hunter in the world,# Hebrew a great hunter before the Lord; also in 10:9b. his name became proverbial. People would say, “This man is like Nimrod, the greatest hunter in the world.” 10He built his kingdom in the land of Babylonia,# Hebrew Shinar. with the cities of Babylon, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh. 11From there he expanded his territory to Assyria,# Or From that land Assyria went out. building the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, 12and Resen (the great city located between Nineveh and Calah).
13Mizraim was the ancestor of the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites, Naphtuhites, 14Pathrusites, Casluhites, and the Caphtorites, from whom the Philistines came.# Hebrew Casluhites, from whom the Philistines came, and Caphtorites. Compare Jer 47:4; Amos 9:7.
15Canaan’s oldest son was Sidon, the ancestor of the Sidonians. Canaan was also the ancestor of the Hittites,# Hebrew ancestor of Heth. 16Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, 17Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, 18Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites. The Canaanite clans eventually spread out, 19and the territory of Canaan extended from Sidon in the north to Gerar and Gaza in the south, and east as far as Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, near Lasha.
Descendants of Shem
21Sons were also born to Shem, the older brother of Japheth.# Or Shem, whose older brother was Japheth. Shem was the ancestor of all the descendants of Eber.
22The descendants of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.
23The descendants of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.
24Arphaxad was the father of Shelah,# Greek version reads Arphaxad was the father of Cainan, Cainan was the father of Shelah. Compare Luke 3:36. and Shelah was the father of Eber.
26Joktan was the ancestor of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 27Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 28Obal, Abimael, Sheba, 29Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were descendants of Joktan. 30The territory they occupied extended from Mesha all the way to Sephar in the eastern mountains.
Verwijzingen in tweede vertaling aan het laden…
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7910 | A blog by the magazine's editors and contributors
Silence Speaks
It is well-known that Thomas Aquinas ceased writing his Summa Theologiae before completing it. When asked why, a long tradition recounts that he told his secretary, Reginald of Piperno: "After what I have seen today I can write no more: for all that I have written is but straw."
When some of my own students have used that quote as an excuse for not engaging in the demanding labor of theology, I've retorted: you can only say it when you've completed 7/8ths of the Summa.
In his fine new book on Aquinas, Thomas Aquinas: a Portrait, Denys Turner writes at greater length and with greater insight:
Theology matters only because – and when – there is more to life than theology, and when that "more" shows its presence within the theology that is done. So Thomas fails to finish, thereby exhibiting the presence of this "more" in the most dramatic way possible – by leaving space for it. His final sentence is not an empty and disappointing failure to finish. It is an apotheosis. By his silence Thomas does not stop teaching theology. He does not stop doing theology. On the contrary, by his silence he teaches something about doing theology that he could not have taught by any other means.
Commenting Guidelines
"Finally, may I remind you that what I have called the 'notion of creation' is not intelligible to us. We do not understand what creation means. We merely point towards it in the process of qualifying to death the notion of God-making-the-world. For the world to be created is for it to exist instead of nothing. And we can have no concept of nothing. We can have no concept of creation (any more than of God), but this will not, I trust, prevent us from talking about them." --Herbert McCabe, OP, “God and Creation,” New Blackfriars (2012).
I spent about forty-five minutes last night watching a video of this recent presentation on "Thomism after Vatican II" by Fr. Thomas Joseph White. I found it useful for me and you might like to watch it.
An architectural addendum. When we moved here to the Diocese of Charleston, the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist had an uncompleted bell tower. They simply ran out of money. I loved it. Though no one intended it, the visual lacuna was a potent reminder of how each Christian life is an unfinished work in progress. They completed the bell tower and spire in 2009. I like bells, but the apophatic architecture somehow was more articulate.
See also: Josef Pieper, The Silence of St. Thomas (South Bend: St. Augustine's Press, 1999).
Finally, Father--Lighten up a little! I think a better challenge would ask students not for 7/8 of the Summa, but for the final 1/8. Write less, impress me even more.
It is said that before Thomas said this Christ had spoken to him with these words: "Thomas, you have written well of me. What shall be your reward?" Thomas answered, "Lord, nothing but yourself." It is only in comparison to the reward of Christ himself that Thomas later concluded that all he had written was "straw." It was precisely the demanding labor of theology (and philosophy) that brought him to that point. Sancte Thoma, ora pro nobis!
In the early 50' when I was in graduate school at Catholic U., the then Dean of the School of Philosophy, Ignatius Smith, O. P. (affectionately known as "Iggy") was scornful of the story about Reginald and the straw. Iggy thought that Reginal had made it up, or maybe someone else had:-)
Could be. The medievals were know to tell pious tales.
Oh, how I miss Fr. John Kavanaugh, S.J. Here's one of his reflections on Aquinas:
Thomas didn't live long after the day he stopped writing. He died about three months later and had been seriously ill for the last half of that time. One modern speculation is that he may have had a stroke that prevented him from continuing to work on the Summa.
In May, I was at Fossanova, where the Carthusians took him in for the last weeks of his life, when he was too sick to continue on his journey.
John Hayes,
Thank you for the link to Thomas Joseph White's presentation. Well worth watching!
Steven Millies,
I'll go with the 1/8th. I'd lighten up even more if you tell me that 1/8=a pint.
While on the subject of St. Thomas, I note that one of the most important developments in studies of his thought is a renewed focus on his biblical commentaries, which had been relatively neglected in favor of his great Summas and his commentaries on Aristotle. I remember David Knowles referring to him as "a great medieval philosopher," when he was first and foremost a theologian who knew he had to think his way through a whole lot of questions that people now tend to think of as distinctly (and almost proprietarily) philosophical. Bernard Lonergan thought that it was in the biblical commentaries that Aquinas was most spontaneously a theologian, and I've found that to be true. He has wonderful throw-away lines prompted by a biblical phrase or verse.
As for that famous experience and his last three months of life, Jean-Pierre Torrell, his latest biographer, runs through various hypotheses of what happened and inclines himself toward Weisheipl's view of "a physical and psychological breakdown as a consequence of the overwork that Thomas had imposed on himself for a long time." Torrell's own conclusion: "if we have to choose among them, Weisheipl's thesis, which suggests an extreme physical and nervous fatigue, coupled with mystical experiences that marked his last year, may be the most plausible."
I agree on the importance of Thomas' biblical commentaries. As complement to that is the renewed recognition of the importance of his Dominican context for appreciating his thought and pedagogy.
Turner entitles the first chapter of his study: "A Dominican." He says, among other things, "Thomas's conception of the theological task is inseparable from his vocation to follow the poor Christ as a friar preacher." "Theology is for Thomas a discipline, a rule-governed intellectual practice with a purpose: contemplata aliis tradere, which is a Dominican conception of theology through and through."
I think the link given by John Hayes to the lecture by Thomas Jospeh White, OP, is instructive for its linking of speculative theology, spirituality and evangelization: an endeavor in the spirit of Thomas.
I've been re-reading Alisdair MacIntyre's Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry this summer. It is a dense, but masterful reminder of what St. Thomas accomplished in his syntehsis of the Augustinian and Aristotlian traditions.
Releveant to this post, MacIntryre emphasizes the way that Aquinas viewed himself as engaged in a craft (techne in Aristotle's vocabulary), one in which conclusions were always provisional. St. Thomas saw himself as advancing conclusions that weren't final formulations of theological doctrines, but were the most adequate possible given his present place in the tradition of enquiry. MacIntyre faults a number of neo-Thomists following Leo XIII's Aeterni Patris who focused too much on Aquinas' particular conclusions and not enough on his method and his understanding of theology as craft.
Interstingly MacIntyre also notes the significance of St. Thomas' biblical commentaries:
"When Aquinas wrote the Summa he prepared himself for the task of writing the parts concerned with detailed moral enquiry in the IIa-IIae by writing a commentary on the Nichomachean Ethics at the same time he was also continuing his exposition of St. Paul's epistles. It was the systematic character of Aquinas' insistence upon giving, within the same extended structures of argument, their due both to Pauline doctrine and to Aristotelian theory which resulted in his producing a work whose genre separated it both from the conventional orthodoxies of the thirteenth-century curriculum and from the Averroist program."
I know that there are probably simple ways to find out the following for myself, but I'm lazily turning to all of you regular readers of Aquinas: How much his work is available on line, especially the biblical commentaries?
I had both MacIntyre's Three Rival Versions and Turner's Aquinas with me to read on the train from Washington last night. But after a busy day of contending with sociological data (see the Paul Moses post above) and also enjoying good company, I fell asleep instead.
Peter --
I googled Aquinas' works in English and came up with this Duquesne bibliography. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much online of Thomas' theology. There's lots of his philosophical stuff in English.
Here's the Etheereal Classics library's holdings in English. They include Thomas' commentaries on Matthew and mark in English..
Here's the Corpus Thomisticum, Leonine editioin (Latin).
I'm really surprised at how relatively little of the theology has been translated.
Nearly all of Thomas' works are available in English online through the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC. Here's the link:
Thanks to LPM for the link!
LPM ==
Thanks, that's a treasure trove!!
I agree with David Tenney "MacIntyre faults a number of neo-Thomists....who focused too much on Aquinas's particular conclusions and not enough of his method".
Indeed, there is a profound disagreement among theologians, who study and understand Thomas, about Aquinas's holistic ethical method and whether the proximate end of the act or the agent's actual intention-to-end is the major over-riding moral factor specifiying voluntary human action. Consider the following:
How does the proximate end of the act of choice, the exterior act, its material aspect, become the decisive over-riding factor that morally specifies the one unified act of the will, and not the formal aspect of the will, the agent’s ulterior end? Apparently, for traditionalists the answer seems to be that the intention-to-proximate end is the agent’s immediate end-goal that the reason has presented to the will as good. The agent then choses an exterior act as the best means to achieve this immediate intention-to-end (the object forming intention-to-proximate end) based on council-deliberation, an act of reason.
This raises a fundamental question that traditionalists have not answered.
If the agent is motivated to formulate an end-goal and commits to this end-goal by an act of the will called intention first (e.g., before this so-called object forming proximate end of the exterior act that has not been chosen yet) and we believe Aquinas when he says that the agent’s intention-to-end is the reason the agent chooses a means-act to realize his intention-to- end/goal, then: What specific criteria defines this object-forming intention-to-proximate end of the exterior act, when it is not the natural end of the act and not the agent’s ulterior intention-to-end?
Either something is wrong with the interpretation of Aquinas by traditionalists or they don't have an adequate answer to what John Paul II asserted but did not substantiate in Veritatis Spendor 78.
Michael B. --
You had me until this question. What do you mean by "specific criteria defines . . ."? Could you give us an example, please.
Fr. imbelli's post was picked up by Andrew Sullivan today.
I was interested by Sullivan's quote from Joseph Pieper
The last word of St. Thomas is not communication but silence. And it is not death which takes the pen out of his hand. His tongue is stilled by the super-abundance of life in the mystery of God. He is silent, not because he has nothing further to say; he is silent because he has been allowed a glimpse into the expressible depths of that mystery which is not reached by any human thought or speech…
The mind of the dying man found its voice once more, in an explanation of the Canticle of Canticles for the monks of Fossanova. The last teaching of St. Thomas concerns, therefore, that mystical book of nuptial love for God, of which the Fathers of the Church say: the meaning of its figurative speech is that God exceeds all our capabilities of possessing Him, that all our knowledge can only be the cause of new questions, and every finding only the start of a new search.
I wasn't able to find that commentary on the Canticle of Canticles, but eventually found this footnote in Maritain's book, saying it was lost.
The divine touch had been too profound to permit him to give himself thenceforth to his ordinary works. Nevertheless, he forced himself to compose, on his way to the Council of Lyons, his brief Responsio ad Bernardum abbatem; and on his deathbed he did for the monks of Fossanova his second commentary (now lost) on the Canticle of Canticles. (I say his second commentary, not his third, for of the two commentaries attributed to Saint Thomas only one is authentic.)
Ann --
This is a complex issue and I will not do justice to a proper explanation in a short commentary. However, I will attempt to make this clearer.
When it comes to interpreting Aquinas, the theological arguments of traditionalists fall into largely two groups (at least). One group says that the moral object is specified by the choice of an act where the proximate end is its natural end (e.g., to take the anovulant pill is to infer that the intention and end of the agent is contraception because the pill suspends ovulation and sexual intercourse is non-procreative). However, Aquinas taught that the proximate good and end intended by the agent indicates the essence of the human act whereas the relation to the natural end, which corresponds to what is physicaly caused is "accidental". Here, accidental does not mean irrelevant, although it does indicate that Thomas's understanding of natural law is not centered in the non-frustration or normativity of natural ends.
The other argument of traditionalists is that the moral object is the proximate end of an act of choice, where the proximate end is not the natural end of the chosen exterior act (e.g., this is not what Aquinas taught), and not the agent's ulterior intention-to-end. If so, I posit the question: What is this proximate end of the chosen exterior act? What criteria does one use to define it? How is this proximate end the absolute defining moral factor specifying a voluntary human act?
This question is at the root of the problem because John Paul II in Veritatis Spendor 78 asserted, without substantiation, that the morality of the voluntary human act is the proximate end of the act of choice (of the exterior act that is being choosen to acheive the agent's intention-to-end).
Many theologians believe that neither the proximate end of the act of choice or the ulterior intention-to-end of the agent is the sole and overriding moral factor giving specification to voluntary human action. Rather, both the morality of the exterior act and interior act of the will, as the agent’s intention-to-end, are necessary for specifying the total human activity. They are part of an integrated moral method that includes the proper roles of: reason (emphasis-added) and goodness, due matter and circumstances, due proportion, and the formal and material aspects of the will. This, I believe, is a better understanding of the moral realism of Aquinas’s ethical decision-making process.
> The Church asserts that it is moral and licit for a woman to take the anovuant pill for the pain of endometriosis because her intention and end is to relieve pain. In his case, the proximate end of the act of choice, as the natural end of taking the pill, namely suspending ovulation, is "accidental" to the morality of her choice act. More importantly, she can have sexual intercourse during the pill taking period which could be a lifetime and which will render the marital act to be non-procreative.
However, if she takes the pill to regulate her fertility to achieve her good intention-to-end of "no more children for good reasons" (Pius XII's Address to the Midwives exempted couples from their procreative obligations in marriage for good reasons), the Church says her intention and proximate end is contraception and immoral. In this case, her "ulterior intention-to-end", e.g., no more children for good reasons, does not specify her act of choice, but its "so-called" proximate end which is to suspend ovulation, making sexual intercourse non-procreative.
> If a seropositive husband uses a condom to protect his spouse from AIDS, the Church says the agent's proximate end and intention is contraception, and not to safe-guard her spouse's life?
Perplexed? Just think how average Catholics view such an explanation. There are other theories that are proported to be in accordance with Aquinas, such as virtue ethics. However, I will not go into this because it leads to other serious fundamental questions that are in profound tension with human experience, reason and a holistic reading of Aquinas.
Does this help?
Here's Fr. Lombardi's attempt at clarifying (not very well) what Benedict said in his interviews for the Seewald book (i didn't find an English version)
Allo stesso tempo il Papa considera una situazione eccezionale in cui l’esercizio della sessualità rappresenti un vero rischio per la vita dell’altro. In tal caso, il Papa non giustifica moralmente l’esercizio disordinato della sessualità, ma ritiene che l’uso del profilattico per diminuire il pericolo di contagio sia "un primo atto di responsabilità", "un primo passo sulla strada verso una sessualità più umana", piuttosto che il non farne uso esponendo l’altro al rischio della vita.
In ciò, il ragionamento del Papa non può essere certo definito una svolta rivoluzionaria.
Numerosi teologi morali e autorevoli personalità ecclesiastiche hanno sostenuto e sostengono posizioni analoghe; è vero tuttavia che non le avevamo ancora ascoltate con tanta chiarezza dalla bocca di un Papa, anche se in una forma colloquiale e non magisteriale.
Michael --
Thanks, that does help. But I think we'd need a huge blackboard to even sketch the structure of these arguments. From what you say, I'm not sure the official folks really understand Thomas. They don't seem to distinguish clearly between the/an end of a whole moral process and the end of the means, nor between 1) the end of an act of choice and 2) the end of the whole process, a good which might or might not be identical with 1).
As to "virtue" ethics, there are many kinds and I'm not sure you can have a sound virtue ethics without Aristotle's metaphysics to ground it. But ethics isn't my main interest and I don't really know.
I'm also pretty doubtful about the George-Finnis brand of natural law, even given that I know little about it. Sounds like just another brand of emotivism with some virtues tacked on as appendages.
Thanks for this posting. Too bad it is not in English.
B16 was not saying that sex outside of marriage was morally right but if a prostitute used a condom to protect her so-called client from AIDS that such an act was one step toward a better morality under these specific circumstances.The statement by Benedict XVI was interpreted by many that the Church might be considering a change in its teaching regarding the use of a condoms under certain circumstances. However, this was quickly denounced by the Vatican.
It is interesting to note that Martin Rhonheimer, one of the most prominent philosophers in the Church today, and advisor to popes John Paul II and B16, argued that the use of condoms by seropositve husbands to protect their spouses from AIDS was permissible. Nevertheless, the Church continues to teach that condom use as a means to birth control or as a protection from AIDS is immoral regardless of the circumstances.
Michael --
I didn't know that Rhonheimer came out for condom use in those circumstances. Haven't read much of him, but even the little bit I read convinced me that he's a heavy-weight -- even if he is Opus Dei and works for an Opus Dei school :-) I wonder how he got away with saying that. Guess it just shows that who you know is what counts in Rome.
Ann -- thank you for responding. You said it well. The Vatican folks, as well as many theologians, do not understand these differences. Nor do they know how to respond to the many concrete cases that demonstrate the Church has no adequate and intelligible answers to these inconsistencies and contradictions.
When we deal with ethics, as in Aquinas, we are also dealing with Aristotle but with a different starting point, namely, God and our eternal destiny with him. When we discuss virtue we also have to discuss the role and nature of grace, and that is another subject that continues to perplex me and many of us. If grace is a gift from God as a means to our ultimate end in Him, how is it given? Is it freely given or must we ask for grace? Do each of us receive the grace we need for our salvation, or does it depend on our spiritual condition? If grace is given to all Christians, how does it bring us to the truth when there are differences in the fundamental tenents of faith and morals? What is the role of grace in virtue?
The best we can do is to be open to the Spirit and our practical reason grounded in our faith, to help us discern the truth, the right and the good. This often takes a lifetime. In the meantime, I leave my sinfulness, ignorance and moral dilemmas on the alter of Christ and ask him to guide me because I cannot do it alone.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, I have read most of Martin Rhonheimer's books and have struggeled to understand him. His philosophy is most in line with the Magisterium. However, he has issued many controversial (e.g., according to traditionalists) arguments about the moral permissiblity of condom use by seropositive couples and self-stimulation for semen fertility analysis. In these cases I agree with him, while on many other issues I do not. For example, he supports Humanae Vitae and almost every other sexual ethical teaching. I find most of his theories and opinions lack cogency and in many ways are incosistent without adequate explanation (to put is politely).
So, if you consider the community of traditionlsits, there is no concensus of argument around the morality of volunatary human action.
My iPad battery was about to give out. I'm home now, so here's a quick translation (all improvements are welcome)
At the same time, the Pope considered an exceptional situation in which sexual activity represented a real risk to another person. In such case, the Pope didn't approve the disordered sexual activity, but considered that the use of a condom to diminish the danger of infection would be " a first act of responsibility", "a first step on the road to a more humane sexuality", rather than not using it and exposing the other to losing his life.
In this, the reasoning of the Pope certainly can not be considered revolutionary.
Many moral theologians and many authoritative church figures have supported and now do support similar positions. However, it's certainly true that we haven't yet heard this so clearly from the mouth of a Pope, even in a colloquial and not magisterial form
It's unclear who, exactly, Benedict was talking about. In he German and Englih versions of the book, it was male prostitutes. In the Italian version, female prostitutes.
Fr.Lombardi was quoted by the NYTimes as saying "“Whether it’s a man or woman or a transsexual,”
I've never seen anything that clarified whether Benedict meant that married couples could use condoms if one was HIV positive or had AIDS - or only if the sex was outside of marriage and thus already sinful.
I do not claim any particular competence in philosophical ethics, but the following from Denys Turner on Aquinas makes sense to me. Turner writes:
"for Thomas, if the normatively human is to become once again visible to us, it is not by means of some image of 'natural man' recovered by a theoretical reconstruction of what the good person looks like from within the debris of our fallen condition. As Aristotle thought, the only option is by looking to how the 'good person' actually lives, if you can find one – which, of course, Aristotle cannot. But Thomas can. And this is why that massive second part of the Summa theologiae, containing perhaps the most comprehensive account ever written of the virtues that constiute the good life, and so of the habits and practices of the happy person, makes sense in terms of theological and pedagogical structure only insofar as it is read in relation to Christology, but more particularly the sketch of the life of Christ, of the Summa's third part. For in Christ alone is the visibility of the normatively human restored" (p. 187).
Alongside the renewed appreciation of the importance of Thomas's scripture commentaries, and of his Dominican context, there is the realization that the telos of the Summa is the Tertia Pars on Christ. Yet, unfortunately, many never quite make it there.
i'm a little less than half-way through Turner's book, so i'm just reading his comment that early twentieth-century theologians, like Barth, had trouble coming to terms with Thomas's decison to discuss God and then the Trinity before discussing Christ
Turner goes back to his usual explanation that you have to see the Summa as the structure for a course to be taught in a fixed amount of time and that the sequence is a pedagogical decision rather than a judgement about the relative importance of the subjects.
When a person chooses a voluntary human action (e.g., to achieve a good end/goal and intention in circumstances), how does one discern if the act is virtuous? Is virtue subjective or objective? If the act is good, is it virtuous?
Virtue is abstract and this fact led many Catholics, especially in the 1950s, to devotions and ascetics with the belief that these so-called virtuous spiritualities were caused by grace. When virtue enters in a Church teaching, it can lead to perplexing questions. For example, is sexual intercourse in marriage the virtue of chasity/temperance as the Church teaches? Many theologians believe that not every voluntary human action points ot "one" virtue. There are many virtues working at the same time with the objective of shaping the good character of the person that will lead them to making a right and good choices in circumstances.
With respect to virtue, how do we discern the mean of virtue as Aristotle taught? Interestingly, Aquinas taught that there is no normative mean of virtue becase what is considered temperate for one person can be considered extreme for another. The mean of virtue could be closer to one extreme or another, or in the middle or mean, but this depends of circumstances.
The normativity of what is human and good might be found in Jesus Christ, but his Gospel is not a moral manual for complex everyday moral dilemmas where the good is to be done and evil avoided. As Aquinas taught, "Good is presneted to the will as its object by the reason; and in so far as it is in accord with reason, it enters the moral order, and causes moral goodnes in the act of the will; because the reason is the principle of human and moral acts, as stated in Q.18, A. 3)."
In Yiu Sing Lucas Chan's book "The Ten Commandments and the Beatiudes: Biblical Studies and Ethics for Real Life", he demonstrates that the 10 Commandaments and the Beatitudes reflect a wide host of virtues. One gets the feeling that it is almost impossible to practice all of the virtues as they relate to the Commandments and Beatitudes, even though most Catholics strive to live holy and upright lifes. For me, we need a practical application of virtue, not more abstraction.
About the Author
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7932 | July 1, 2005
The Sorting:
The students followed the professor, Deputy Headmistress McGonagall, as she led them from the docks and up into the castle proper. Most were still giggling over Blondie's performance. McGonagall seemed pretty angry over the blonde boy's behavior. Harry was thinking while he walked, but his new girls were talking quietly amongst themselves.
"Do any of you find it odd?" asked Hermione. "How quickly he got us to agree to be his girlfriends?"
"Actually, I had worried about that a bit," admitted Susan. "I mean, I don't want to get a reputation or anything like that. Plus, I never wanted to kiss a boy before. Then here comes Harry, and we're kissing, and it is like…"
"So good!" giggled the other three girls.
"Yeah, he's a great kisser," agreed Susan.
"There's more to him than that, though," said Blaise. "I've grown up among pureblood nobles. Most of them are smooth, debonair operators. Pureblood males are trained to know their way around women. I've seen them work… felt their charm in action. Harry puts all of them to shame. He's good. He's very good."
"Tell me about it," agreed Padma. "I always thought father had a way with the ladies. After all, he has a wife and two concubines." At their looks, she added, "Hey! It's our custom. So, the idea of sharing a man isn't that unusual for me. Still, I believe that even Daddy would find Harry to be a gifted ladies man."
"The question is, can we trust Harry's motives?" asked Hermione. "Is he for real? I mean, he is rather famous… Is he with all of us just to build on that reputation, or does he really care about us?" They all stopped to think about that. "He seems sincere, but I just wonder if he is. I hope he is."
"Well, I think…" Blaise was cut off when a bunch of the other kids began to scream. The girls all turned to see a bunch of ghosts. Hermione was the only one not familiar with such quirks of the wizarding world, but after a moment to gawk at their translucent silver images; she turned back to her new friends. "As I was saying, I think he is sincere. Something just tells me that he can be trusted."
"And, he's cute," commented Susan.
"Yes, he's really cute," agreed Padma. "That messy hair, those emerald eyes…"
"Hey, do you think he's worried about us, too?" Blaise suddenly wondered.
"What do you mean?" queried Hermione.
"Well, he IS the Boy-Who-Lived you know. "It is quite possible that he could come to see us as… what's that muggle word for people who follow those… rock star people?"
"Groupies?" supplied Hermione.
"Yeah, groupies!" agreed Blaise. "What if Harry thinks we're just a bunch Potter groupies?"
"I never though about that before," admitted Susan. "I bet that there are people who would flock to him just because he is famous. People like that blonde kid who claims he's not gay."
"That was Malfoy," supplied Blaise. "My parents are friends with his. He's a pompous little git… just like his old man." McGonagall had returned, and the first years were beginning to file into the Great Hall. "It looks like it is sorting time." They began to move forward.
The girls moved up to walk behind Harry as they entered the hall. Even for the magic-born children, the sight was one to inspire awe. Hundreds of candles floated above the five great tables. Four tables ran the length of the room, and were filled with the returning students. At the far end of the enormous room, the fifth table lay perpendicular to the others on a raised platform. The teachers and staff sat at this one.
Harry noticed the magical wonders, but having spent some time in the magical world, he was less than amazed. Rather than gazing at the wonders, he was looking at all the girls around him. For some reason, his reactions puzzled Dumbledore. He noticed the headmaster's reactions almost immediately, mainly due to the rather intense gaze he had focused on the young man. Plus, there was a certain… vibe… coming off the old man. Dumbledore was very interested in Harry, and the boy in question was discomforted by said interest. He almost… felt… like Uncle Vernon would when he was looking at the new model sports cars. Creepy!
"Wow!" said Susan, drawing his attention away from the head table. "Look at the ceiling!"
"It's enchanted to look at the night sky," supplied Hermione. "I read about it in…"
"Hogwarts, a History," chorused everyone in the budding group.
"Hermione, you really need to quit with the know-it-all routine," scolded Harry. He tried to be gentle, but he had dealt with girls like her before. This would be for her own good. "We know you are a fountain of knowledge, but you shouldn't shove it in everyone's face. I'm not saying that you shouldn't answer questions or help those who ask. All I'm saying is that you shouldn't volunteer quite so much information. It can be a little bit…"
"Snobbish." They turned to look at Padma. "Well, it is. Brain snob," she teased the brunette.
"Alright, I get your point," sighed the muggleborn. Deep down, Hermione knew that her lack of people skills drove others away. She would either try too hard to impress them, or remain too far in the background to be noticed. "I'll try to restrain myself. Oh, look! I think we're starting!"
"Attention please!" called McGonagall. She stood before the teacher's table, holding a scroll of the names of the first year students, and standing besides a stool with an old hat on it. "First years! When I call your name, you will come up to me, place the sorting hat on your head, and be placed into your house. After you have been sorted, place the hat back on the stool and join your housemates at your new house table."
They were quiet as McGonagall began to read from her list. "Abbot, Hannah," was the first name on the list. She put the hat on her head, and after a moment a tear formed in the brim. It opened like a mouth, and the hat yelled out "Hufflepuff!" The next name called was "Bones, Susan."
"Here I go…" said Susan. She went up and put on the hat. This time, there was a significant pause before the 'mouth' opened and called out "Hufflepuff!" As with Hannah, the farthest right table began to cheer as Susan walked over to join her new house.
There were more sortings, most of which the four remaining companions ignored. Well, that wasn't exactly true. They noted names and houses, but since these were students they didn't yet know, there was not reason to focus on them.
Then the professor called, "Granger, Hermione!" The brainy girl went into Gryffindor after a long pause, much like what had happened with Susan. Shortly afterwards, Harry's pal blondie went up after "Malfoy, Draco!" was called. The hat didn't even touch his head before it called out "Slytherin!" Somehow, no one was surprised by that decision. A few more people were called, and then she read out "Patil, Padma!"
The first Patil twin went into Ravenclaw after a lengthy pause. The second twin, Pavarti, went into Gryffindor almost immediately. And then she called out "Potter, Harry!"
Suddenly, all the students were muttering. As he walked up to the stool, he could hear students muttering "Potter?" "THE Harry Potter?" "Harry Potter's come to Hogwarts?" Dumbledore was once again giving Harry that creepy, intense look. What was with that man? Most of the observers grew silent as the hat descended upon his head.
'Ah, another difficult one!' he heard in his head. 'So you are the one influencing all those girls, with their remarkable minds. I think you will stir things up a bit. You are not quite what He has expected. You will disrupt a great many of His plans. Quite a past you have there, Potter.'
'Thanks, I think,' he thought back. 'Whose plans will I be disrupting? Voldemort's?'
'Oh, his plans will be disrupted, too,' chuckled the hat. 'You will be rather difficult to place, Mr. Potter, especially now that you know about your rather unique heritage. He had planned to keep you ignorant of that, until you were much older. Now, any of the houses would do well for you, but which would be the best I wonder?' thought the hat. 'You can be incredibly loyal to your chosen friends, but you also have an outstanding drive to learn. There's bravery here… Oh my, yes, but also cunning, and a thirst to prove yourself. But, where to put you?'
'Where does the old man want me?' thought Harry, picturing Dumbledore as the placer. 'I've noticed the looks he's been giving me ever since I entered the hall. He's a meddler, I can tell. The headmaster is the other 'He' you mentioned. Am I correct?'
'The Headmaster?' asked the hat, the capital letter clearly heard in his mind voice. 'He cannot influence my decisions! But I do know how he would like to influence my sorting. He hopes to have you in Gryffindor at best, and out of Slytherin at worst.'
'I'm almost tempted to say put me in Slytherin just to piss him off.' The hat chuckled. 'Creepy old man is starting to annoy me… particularly if he will meddle as much as you say. However, he will better underestimate me if I am placed according to his plan. I won't be his pawn, but he doesn't need to know that right now. So, I suppose you should just put me in where he wants me to be.'
'If you're sure?' asked the hat. 'Well then it better be…', "GRYFFINDOR!"
The Gryffindor table erupted into a chorus of cheers. The Weasley twins started doing a silly little dance, chanting, "We got Potter! We got Potter!" Dumbledore looked like Dudley on his birthday. The other tables looked a bit disappointed, and the Slytherins seemed a bit angry. Funniest of all, Blondie appeared to have swallowed a bug.
A little while later, she called up "Weasley, Ronald!" who joined his brothers with the lions. Finally, the sorting ended with the last of Harry's new girls, "Zabini, Blaise!" who went to Slytherin. Harry had a girl in each house. Was fate messing with him, or did his unique heritage just draw him to the qualities of each house? He would have to think about that further.
With the last student sorted, the Headmaster rose to speak. "Welcome to all our new students, and welcome back to all our returning students. I know that you are all hungry, so I will hold all announcements until after the feast. Let me just
say a few words for now. And they are, nitwit, blubber, oddment, and tweak! Now, tuck in."
The meal was excellent, from the moment the food first appeared at the tables, until the moment when the remains all vanished. Harry sat next to Hermione (his Gryffindor girl), and they wound up holding hands for most of the feast. Some of the other children made ventures to talk with him, but the ones who were seeking the Boy-Who-Lived legend were pushed aside. Most were content to stare and whisper amongst themselves.
He was able to meet his fellow first years (other than Hermione) in the house of red. There were two other girls that he met that night: Lavender Brown and Pavarti Patil – Padma's twin sister. Then there were the boys. There were four other boys in his year: Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, and Ronald Weasley. Pavarti and Lavender were the typical popular clique type (i.e., pretty, bubbly, and a bit shallow. Your basic pre-teen girls). Neville was somewhat shy and clumsy, but Seamus and Dean were more normal. Then there was Ronald.
Harry had an interest in his younger sister, Ginny, whom he had met at the train station. He had three older brothers still at school… fifth year that was the male prefect, and a set of twins who were the resident pranksters. Ronald, however, had a boat load of issues to deal with. Almost immediately, he had ogled Harry like he was a two headed goat. With eyes as round as a kid at a freak show, he had asked to see the famous scar. When Harry refused, he got all prissy and started pouting. Soon after, he began making snide remarks about wizards riding on their fame.
Harry was guessing that ickle Ronnie had a plethora of jealousies, most involving his elder siblings. When he asked the twins, he found out that they had two brothers out of school – one had been head boy, the other quidditch captain. As the youngest male child, Ronald received all the hand-me-downs at the end of the hand-me-down line. Since the family wasn't financially solvent, everything he owned was a hand-me-down. So, like he thought before, young Ronald had many issues.
Afterwards, the Headmaster made some announcements, which included a list of prohibited items (mostly pranks), several general restrictions, and a warning about a certain third floor corridor that contained a horrible, painful death for all trespassers. A few students laughed, but most took his words very seriously. Harry was beginning to wonder about the sanity of witches and wizards. This was a school for heaven's sake!
Why was there a hallway that could dish out a painful death to trespassers? In a school with eleven year old children no less! What, exactly, was wrong with these people? You cannot just tell children not to go somewhere! At least a few of them would push the envelope. He had practically guaranteed that someone would sneak in, just to break the rule! The Headmaster was starting to worry him. Hell, the wizarding world was starting to worry him!
Just before the children were dismissed, he heard a voice whispering, "Pssst! Harry!" He turned to find Blaise waving him over.
"Let's go see what she wants," said Hermione. They moved over towards the Slytherin table, to find that Padma and Susan had come over to join them. "So, what's up?"
"Can we all come down early for breakfast?" asked Blaise. "It will give us time to talk and stuff before the others come down. We can have a little alone time with our boyfriend."
"That's an excellent idea!" Susan grinned. "And during the day, we should all keep an eye out for places where we can hang out."
"Oh! I hear that the library is rather extensive," said Hermione. "We could meet there!"
"There are also the grounds," countered Padma. "They might be pleasant during the fall and spring months."
"First years!" came the call. "Follow your prefects to the dormitories!" ordered the Headmaster.
"Hurry up and give me a kiss!" squealed Blaise.
"Me too!" said Susan.
"And me!" agreed Padma.
"I can wait until we get to the dormitories," said Hermione, looking smug. "Ha! I get extra Harry time!"
"We know," growled Blaise. "Don't rub it in. Now, kiss me!" She grabbed Harry by the shirt and pulled him into a hot kiss. Well, hot for an eleven year old girl. Some of the older students began to giggle at the display, and it only got worse after Susan and Padma snogged him before dashing off to join follow their prefects and housemates.
"Come on, Harry! Time to go!" she said, grabbing his hand and racing off after the Gryffindor prefect… who just happened to be another Weasley. Hopefully, this one was less like Ron and more like the twins. Harry liked the twins. They were funny, laid-back, and believed that the school rules were more of a set of general guidelines than absolute truths.
The Weasley prefect, Percy, led them through the school, up stairways, and past the moving portraits. Looking around as they walked, Harry marveled at the somewhat frivolous uses magic was put to by the magical community. Moving, talking portraits were all well and good, but why in the world did the staircases move? Not escalator moving, but more of a random swinging from one place to another. If it was upon command, he could see it – but random movements? Why? Then there were the trick stairs, doors requiring passwords (or touches in the right places), and even patches of wall that just pretended to be doorways.
Just because a person could do something, it wasn't a reason to do it. Magic folk seemed to worry more about whether or not it can be done, and less about why anyone would bother in the first place. Hogwarts was so weird!
Eventually, they reached a portrait of a somewhat overweight woman in a pink dress. Percy stopped in front of her, and she calmly asked, "Password, please?" Well, apparently there were practical uses for talking portraits.
"Caput Draconis," replied Percy, to which the woman bowed. The painting then swung out from the wall like a door, revealing a hole in the wall. Apparently, this was the entrance to Gryffindor tower, and the painting was their gatekeeper. The students filed in, and encountered a veritable ocean of crimson and gold.
"Hey, Ne," chuckled Harry, "you ever see that Nicholson move, the Shining?"
Students near them jumped back when she snorted out in laughter. "Well, the color scheme's here, and we have a set of twins who can talk in unison…"
"Did someone mention us?" chorused the Weasley twins.
"See what I mean?" she said. Both she and Harry laughed some more.
"What did we do?" asked the twins.
"Hermione here was just making an observation, comparing the common room to a muggle movie," explained Harry. "In the movie, there was a scene were doors opened to release a surge of blood, and there were these twins who appeared and talked in unison."
"Muggles watch these… movies… for fun, right?" asked one of them.
"What kind of people would watch one about blood?" asked the other.
"It was a horror movie," stated Hermione. "Something we watch to scare us. It's a thrill sort of thing."
"Muggles are" "so weird," said the twins.
"Oh, and walls that pretend to be doors and moving staircases make perfect sense," retorted Harry.
"Well, no," "but they are fun," they replied.
"Harry," said Hermione, "I'm going to go check out my dorm, maybe find a book to read. Meet you back down here in about half an hour?" she asked.
"Sure thing, Ne."
Harry went up the stairs to the boys dormitories, and found the room for first years at the very top of the tower. Inside were five beds, four of which already had trunks in front of them. Taking a wild guess, he claimed the fifth bed for himself. Standing by the foot of the four poster bed, he retrieved his trunk from his pocket and enlarged it. Once he placed his hand on the scanning plate, the trunk's security features verified his access rights and he began to unpack the 'public' items.
He filled the wardrobe with his school clothes and robes. Shoes were placed under the bed; along with a set of dumbbells he used exercise. As a final touch to his decorating scheme, he placed pictures of each of the squib girls up around his bed. As soon as possible, he had to get pictures of the four new girls to add to the collection. Just as he was finishing up, some of the other boys came up to the room.
"Hi Harry," greeted one of them… an Irish lad named Seamus. "Those pictures of your family?"
"Not really. They're my girls," he replied proudly. "We're not related, but were kind of a family."
"So, they're all your girlfriends?" asked another roommate… Dean, if memory served. "How do you manage to juggle that many girls?" he asked.
"Oh, they all know about each other. It's so much easier to have them share."
"Bloody hell," uttered his third roommate, Neville.
"Well, what would you expect from the great Harry Potter?" snorted the final roommate, Ronald Weasley. This particular Weasley brother had been giving Harry dirty looks all throughout the welcoming feast. Well, not from the start. First, he had asked to see the famous scar, but after Harry refused – he didn't want to become the local freak show – Ronald had gotten all teed off about it. Now, to Harry's utter joy, the bit dumb prat was in what appeared to be a jealous rage. More accurately, another jealous rage in what was sure to be a long history of jealous rages.
"What's your damage, Weasley?" demanded Harry.
"Oh, pardon me. Far be it for me to question the great Harry Potter." With that, Ronald stormed off to the bathroom.
"Man, what a prat!" exclaimed Seamus.
"That boy has problems," agreed Dean.
"H-he's just… just jealous," stuttered Neville. "Wanker."
"Yes, but jealous of what?" wondered Harry. "He hasn't even know me for five hours yet. How can he be jealous already?"
"Oh, there you are," greeted Hermione, when Harry came back down from his room. She was sitting on one of the 'Shining' couches, dressed in a nightgown and her robe. Sitting in her lap was a rather large book on charms. "Sit with me?"
"Of course," he replied, sitting besides her. He had also changed into his pajamas and donned a robe. "What are you reading?" He looked at her book. "Mmm… that's a good one. As luck would have it, the volume I brought down for you is also on charms. Here." What he handed her was the slim volume on Charms, which he had compiled through his work with the squib girls. Hermione eagerly began to read it.
"This is a very good book, Harry!" she enthused. "It really explains how everything works. I'm surprised the school doesn't use it to teach us. Where did you find it?"
"Read the cover," he replied softly.
Hermione flipped the book closed, taking note of the title, 'A Guide to Charms, by Harry Potter and the Squib Squad'. "Wow, you actually wrote this? I'm impressed."
"Well, it was a collaboration of effort, really. I couldn't have done it without my girls. Over the summer, we went over thousands of books, on a variety of subjects. This volume is our interpretation of the magical theory behind basic and intermediate Charms casting."
"If your other interpretations are as good as this one, then I think I'll have a real advantage over the other students! We have to get copies of your works to the others as soon as possible!"
"I'll drop a note to the squib girls tonight, and ask them to copy our compiled works for each of you."
"Thanks, Harry! You're the best boyfriend ever," she giggled. He finally got his goodnight kiss from Hermione.
To my readers:
Sorry about the delay in posting. I've been working on some of my other story ideas, trying to get them to the point where I can start posting. I've also been struggling with a few points in this story, which I just couldn't get to come out right in the first 100 revisions.
Several people have asked if I have stories posted elsewhere. The answer is no. is my first experience in posting stories. Other than here, these stories only exist in my notebooks and in my mind. I hope to have the start of some additional stories ready to post in the near future. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7933 | Drunk Realities
Part 1
Summary: When Atton and Sienna, the exile, have a bit too much to drink, words are exchanged... perhaps with more truth to them than expected...
Disclaimer: I don't own Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars, or any of this stuff except for the name Sienna Vaas, my exile. x) Don't sue me. I'm innocent!
Atton slammed another cup of the strong ale down on the table and turned his glance over to Sienna, sitting next to him, still drinking her fifth drink. He observed her, as closely as he could, his vision started to get a bit bleary from his six drinks.
Her blonde hair caressed her face lightly, and she showed no notion of being drunk, except for the fact that Atton knew she was. Back on Telos she had had four cups of a less strong substance and was wobbly. This stuff was much stronger. And this was her fifth drink. Her blue eyes were staring straight ahead, as if she was thinking.
How can she be thinking? Atton thought to himself. If I think any harder than this I'll die of a splitting headache. And I'm no lightweight.
Her porcelain skin looked so smooth, Atton just wanted to reach out the couple inches between their stools and touch it. He hadn't ever felt her skin, just observed it since Peragus, seeing her half-naked and for the first time.
Without even noticing it, Atton's hand did indeed reach over and touch Sienna's pale face. Breaking out of her train of thought she looked over at Atton and smiled groggily.
"What's this hand doin' flyboy?" she asked him, hr blue eyes twinkling despite the fact that she was drunk.
"It's listenin' to my mind," Atton replied, slurring and grinning stupidly as his hand found its way under her chin. "I always wanted to see what yer skin felt like. It's really beautiful…"
Regular Sienna would've kicked his ass for even thinking of touching her. But Drunk Sienna was instead just smiling and touched his hand with her own.
"I always thought you were hot," Atton told her, not knowing what the hell he was saying. "Since Peragus, you in your little get-up." He laughed stupidly. "I almost really hoped that the uniforms were what you were wearin'. Most of the guys there woulda certainly liked it."
Sienna reached out her other hand and touched Atton's face. "Ya know I thought the same about you Atton," she muttered.
Atton's stupid grin widened. "I always wanted a woman who could kick my ass." He laughed and Sienna joined in. Being drunk, their laughter lasted a good five minutes longer than it should've.
Finally, they stopped laughing. The cantina they were in was crowded. Most bars on Nar Shadaa usually were. The Ebon Hawk's crew was mostly asleep except for Atton and Sienna, the exile, who decided to go out and get a drink. Atton had coaxed her into it, saying that they needed a night out. Especially before she met with the jedi council now that they had rounded up all the masters. Reluctantly, she had followed him to the nearest cantina.
But one drink had led to another and now it was almost three in the morning and they were completely drunk, sitting on some stools by the counter. But the bartender barely noticed them. There were more interesting things in the cantina, like a brawl in the corner that had just broken out.
"You d know I don't care about that past of yers you told me about righ' Atton?" Sienna spurted out, falling forwards onto him, the liquor finally getting to her. "You told me you were an assassin. Well, I guess you could call me one too. I killed my share of peoples."
Atton absentmindedly petted Sienna's head as she leaned onto his chest, her eyes looking up into his brown ones, both glazed over with the excess amount of liquor.
"I hoped by tellin' ya I'd win ya over, especially… especially with that Disciple drooling all over you," Atton murmured. "He's just a pretty boy, and I don' like him. But I do like you."
Sienna giggled. "I like you too Atton," she said as she closed her eyes and nuzzled herself further into his chest, his arms with a mind of their own wrapping themselves around her delicate body. Atton smirked to himself and his small portion of brain that wasn't consumed by his drunkenness was still enjoying this as much as his drunken side was.
"I always admired ya," Atton confessed. "Thought you were something unmatched in this universe. The… the last of the jedi they called you. Yer an individual alright, and that's the individual I really like. Yep. S… Sienna… you're one hell of a girl." He remembered seeing her in the dancer's outfit the other day. "And you're damn sexy too."
"I'm not the only one," Sienna muttered as she moved her head slightly, rustling her blonde hair up against Atton's jacket. It was an interesting splay of the yellow on the brown and white. "Yer ribbed jacket shows off a very sexy you."
Atton laughed goofily. "We're drunk," he pointed out.
Sienna nodded and giggled again. "Damn drunk," she agreed. "But I ain't lyin'. I don't like Disciple the way I like you Atton. Ya don't gotta compete with him."
Atton smirked at that thought. "We should be getting back to the Ebon Hawk."
"Yup. Gotta go see those jedi with the lightsabers up their asses," Sienna yawned. But she didn't move. "Atton?"
"I can't get up," she mumbled.
"I'll carry ya then," he told her.
"But you're drunk too," she reminded him.
"How about you start by helpin' me up eh?" Atton stood up, dragging Sienna at his side. They ambled their way back to the Ebon Hawk, Sienna stopping once to throw up and both of them collapsing at a few points, but they made it back in one piece more or less.
"My head hurts," Sienna muttered as they walked up the loading ramp. She fell back onto Atton again.
"You drank way too much sexy," Atton told her. She giggled.
"'Sexy'," she mimicked. "Mmm… I like it." She nuzzled Atton when she couldn't stand up again from her place in his arms.
"I am not going to be able to manage getting you back to your room," Atton murmured.
"I'll just sleep on one of the couches," Sienna told him as she tried to stand up and fell back again onto Atton. She chuckled lightly again. "This is like a crazy ride through space, falling up and down again." Atton shook his head lightly, but still had his goofy smile on.
"I'll lie you down on one of the couches then," Atton complied. Suddenly he got a splitting headache and fell down next to Sienna on the couch.
"You make a good pillow," Sienna laughed. "Don't go."
"I won't then," Atton whispered as he and Sienna settled onto the couch. It ended up with Atton against the back of the couch with Sienna in front of him with his arms around her waist and her hands grasping his. They both had smiles on their faces.
Mira walked into the room hours later in the mid morning. She hadn't been with the crew for too long, but then again, not much of the crew had anticipated a scene like this.
The redhead raised an eyebrow as she walked into the common room to see Atton and the exile curled up on a couch together. Well he is kinda cute, Mira thought to herself. She coughed to try and wake at least Atton up.
His deep brown eyes opened and took in the scene. He was where he was when he fell asleep, Sienna in his arms in the common room on the Ebon Hawk. But now Mira, the bounty hunter, was standing in front of the two. Groggily, his head hurting like hell, he stood up, trying not to disturb Sienna too much.
"What?" he asked Mira as he tried to adjust to the light. This was one of his worse hangovers.
"Well, is it just me or do we wanna get off this planet and go to Dantooine? And is it just me or are you the pilot?" Mira asked Atton. He grumped and walked towards the cockpit.
Mira followed him to the cockpit and watched him as he sat down at the controls. "Need something for that hangover?"
Atton growled. "Is it so obvious that I've got a hangover?" Mira nodded.
"That and the fact that I saw you two in the cantina last night," the redhead told him. Atton snapped his neck around.
"What were you doing there?" he questioned.
"What do you think I was doing?" Mira rolled her eyes. "I was having a drink and playing some Pazaak against drunk idiots. It's a way to earn some easy credits." No, she was spying on you Rand. You're a dumbass.
"What you think I was tailing you?" Mira laughed. "Don't be so full of yourself."
"I've got a hangover, excuse my logic," Atton grumbled.
"So… wanna tell me about last night?" Mira hounded him as he lifted the ship off the Nar Shadaa dock. Atton didn't even turn towards her. "Oh come on… the way you guys were interacting, its not something just alcohol induced. There's gotta be some ulterior motive."
"I doubt it," Atton mumbled as he navigated the Ebon Hawk out of Nar Shadaa's atmosphere. "Last night was all the drinks. Nothing more. And if I'm lucky, she was so drunk she won't even remember flirting with me."
"Oh come on, stop with the angst already," Mira rolled her eyes again. "I know you like her. And unless I'm highly mistaken I think she may have a thing for you."
"Then you're highly mistaken," Atton growled.
Mira finally took the hint. "Fine. But don't come crying to me when you realize that you've made a mistake not telling her how you feel. I've seen your kind before. Thinking you're all macho men, too high and mighty to express emotions for women. All you end up doing is hurting yourself, because you're an idiot." With that she left.
And Atton was left with his own musings.
Those of you who've read Destiny know I overuse the couch thing way too much (I'm always so tempted to make Carth and Alaanis fall asleep on a couch again, but I've already done it. –sigh- I used it too early on). Anyways, I just was randomly tempted to write up an Atton/Exile fic. XD I love Atton and Female Exile.
Anyways, I am indeed planning on writing a second part to this. But only if I get some feedback. So come on folks, send me some sugar! Review:) … I love you? What will get you people to review? –offers doggy biscuits- -offers money- -offers undying gratitude- Just review! (:
PS: I give all the credit to the line "I always wanted a woman who could kick my ass" to a friend of mine, Evan. On the last day of school, he was looking at a poster for steroids (no, don't worry, we do health projects on a certain drug and why people 'shouldn't' do them, we're not promoting drugs. Lol, it's a private school!) and so was another friend of mine Will. And Evan says "she's hot!"about this one girl on the poster who was 'ripped' because of steroids. And Will says "You can't be serious!" And so Evan says "No man, I always wanted a girl who could kick my ass!" It was hilarious. I just had to add the line in here. x)
Okay, I'm gone. Part Two coming soon! |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7934 | Good day to you all, (man I feel so nervous).
Sorry, first Sonic story jitters, hehe.
At any rate, just a few things I wanted to say here in the authors note to avoid any confusion. First of, this is predominantly a Satam based fic (though a few characters from the comics and the games will make appearances). There are a few changes that I have made, though. First off, the Freedom Fighters operate like you would expect a group of guerilla soldiers to, they have weapons, they have armor, they have light assault craft for hit and run convoy raids. Also, there will be major AU things present later that stem heavily from Star Wars and Halo, (mainly dealing with how certain characters are present, the Great War, and Sonic's origins).
As a further heads up, there will be some graphic material later (think Saving Private Ryan and you'll have a good idea).
I also want to extend my thanks to Farr2rich, The Outcasts, and to bringonthethunder of DA. Also, thank you MaRaMa-TSG of DA for allowing me to use your Robotnik design, which can be found here (you'll need to remove the spaces because of the weird formatting won't allow for linking)
http/www. deviantart. com/ deviation/ 27885030/
Finally, I have a minor request. Satam was the cartoon that I grew up with, and I am well aware that Satam fans are part of a very small minority here, and I am also aware of the treamtent that the Satam cast receives from some… indivduals. Thus, I must ask something of you: no character bashing in your reviews, no 'OMG Sally sucks' and things like that, please, I am begging you.
Many thanks for those of you who leave polite and constructive reviews.
To any and all lawyers reading this: I hereby swear upon my immortal soul that I have no delusion as to who owns what about this fic, to don't try and sue me.
That said, I hope those of you reading it enjoy it. (bows)
Ghosts of the Past
Usual Day on the Job
The young ground squirrel knelt in the shadows of a ruined building, leaning back against the wall, the rhythmic stomping of a Swat Bot patrol growing louder as it drew nearer to her position. She blinked a bit of sweat out of her eyes, and licked her suddenly dry lips, hoping that she was concealed enough that they wouldn't notice her, though the blackish blue color of her Zeo Matrix produced Nagai combat armor would certainly help, while the gray colored ferrosteel plates on her chest and her shoulders would probably look like debris if they decided to take a closer look at her.
She sent out a silent thank you to whoever had thought the suit up, wherever that person might be. Zeo Matrix had been one of several mega corps involved in heavy arms manufacturing prior to the Great War, before said war wiped those corporations off of the map, and suits like the one she wore had traditionally been produced for elite covert ops units, where stealth and agility were the primary concerns. Since the coup, though, Nagai combat suits had been rather hard to come by, as the local overlord had little need of armor for his mechanized soldiers. This suit and a few others had turned up when one of their recon missions had resulted in them finding an old supply cache that the Overlander bombing raids had apparently missed.
The clankers drew closer, yanking her back to reality, and she squeezed back a little further. She didn't fear the mechanical troopers, as they weren't exactly the brightest things on Mobius, and even if they did spot her, the customized DC-19 plasma rifle that she held in her hands would take care of them. However, shooting them would very likely result in raising the alarm around the city, and this mission would require stealth right now, as opposed to charging in, blasters firing at anything mechanized.
The noise reached a crescendo and the girl made doubly certain that she was out of sight.
Much to her relief, there was no pause in their marching, and shortly enough, the sounds grew fainter. She sighed, and then tapped the boom mike that she was wearing, which was connected to a red, semitransparent visor that came down from her helmet.
"Everyone report in, what's your status?" she said, her voice just above a whisper.
"We're here, Sally-girl," came the voice of her best friend, Bunnie, "Twain and I are doing fine, or would be, if he wasn't as nervous as a junebug in a hen house."
"What are you to be expecting?" came the French accented voice of Antoine D'Coolette, laced with its usual amount of uneasiness. "We are soon to be up to our ears in Swat Bots, and I do not fancy getting shot, especially with all of these explodables on my back."
"Mate, do us a favor, and can it!" Geoffrey St. John growled, and Sally held little doubt that the skunk was rubbing his forehead in irritation, annoyed that he had once again been paired up with 'rank amateurs' as he put it.
"All of you, quiet!" she said into the mike, her voice carrying the quiet authority of one who knew exactly what she was doing. She then looked into the lower right corner of the visor that she was wearing, watching the clock tick down on the Heads Up Display. "Everyone prepare to move out on my mark."
Five seconds passed, and the countdown timer hit zero, the signal for everyone to carry out their important roles. After all, on a mission like this, everything had to go off without a hitch, or they were all going to get hurt.
"Mark!" she said, and she dashed out of the alley, the armored vest she wore over her combat suit flying out behind her like a short cloak.
A hundred yards ahead of her, she saw an ever familiar blue and black blur that approached the checkpoint guards. Sonic was once again playing the role of bait, as the Swatbots, and almost every other mechanical entity in the city, were programmed to drop what they were doing and go after him in the event that he was spotted. Not exactly the best thing to have your guards do, especially if they were watching over something vital, but Sally wasn't complaining.
"Yo, chrome domes!" she heard him call out in a cocky 'I'm the best and I know it' manner, while flicking an imaginary piece of lint off of his own Nagai armor, exactly identical to her own, save that he didn't wear a helmet. "You guys looking for me?"
"Hedgehog alert! Priority one!" the droids said, leveling their wrist mounted blasters and letting fly at the rodent.
"I'll take that as a yes," Sonic responded, before tearing off in the other direction.
As they always did, the large guard bots tore off after him, despite the fact that they had no hope of keeping up with him on foot. However, central command would doubtlessly be alerted to his presence as well, and Robotnik, with his single minded obsession towards capturing him, would send his most deadly instrument after the hedgehog. This would keep said instrument occupied and unable to cause trouble with the rest of the strike force.
Her plasma rifle held in her hands, Princess Sally Acorn raced through the check point and kept heading towards her destination: a large building approximately half a kilometer south west of her position. It was one of Robotnik's Swat Bot production factories, and she hoped that by taking it off line, that it would open up a hole in his defenses that would leave him vulnerable to more attacks.
It took her less than a minute to go the distance, but to her dismay, she noticed that there will still some bots that were guarding the factory. Either Sonic hadn't swung by this area yet, or the resident despot had manually overrode their priority commands, which meant that he might finally be starting to wise up about their game plan.
She let out a quiet curse as they turned their red tinted photoceptors on her, and raised their integrated blasters to try and cut her down. A quick head count of them gave her four opponents, and her cunning mind quickly formed a battle plan as crimson energy bolts zinged above her head.
The ground squirrel threw herself forward with a slight leftward angle, pitching herself into a roll that threw their aim off. As she came up, she placed her right foot forward, putting herself into a kneeling position as two more shots crackled over her head. She squeezed the plasma rifle's trigger, and a trio of blue colored energy bolts was spat out of the barrel. A sharp, staccato crack accompanied them, followed swiftly by the satisfying sound of a Swat Bot falling backwards and impacting upon the ground.
Its partner redirected its aim, its crosshairs set right upon the heart of the princess. However, before it could fire, Sally sent another three shot burst its way, and the plasma bolts nailed it right in its visual systems, all but ripping the head apart.
More shots came as the other pair tried to gun her down, but she quickly rolled to one side and ducked into an alleyway, smirking slightly as she heard the stamping noise that the three hundred pound machines always made when they ran. So predictable, and so stupid as well. She wondered why Robotnik had never bothered to upgrade their AI to something better, as he certainly had the means to do so. Still, his loss was their gain, and in the risky business of guerilla warfare, Sally would take any advantage that she could get her hands on.
She quickly reached down and thumbed a switch that was right above her Deecee's trigger area, switching the firing mode from burst to fully automatic, and then moved it over to she held it only with her left hand. With her right, she reached over her back, and drew her family's ancestral longsword.
The Sword of Acorns, as it was termed, was a very unique blade. The weapon itself was made of a strange mineral known as cortosis. It was a rare substance, but when found in large enough amounts to make something, it was truly miraculous. It was lightweight, and when forged into a blade, was sharp enough to tear through almost anything that could be brought to bear against it. It even possessed the strange ability to deflect plasma and energy fire back at the one who was doing the shooting. When crafted into armor, it encased its wearer in something that was nearly indestructible, able to resist everything from energy bolts to flamethrowers and even corrosive acids.
Thus, her two foes were about to find themselves at a very severe disadvantage.
Just as the two mechanized guards were about the turn the corner, she leapt out, unloading her Deecee into the torso of the first one. At full auto, the rifle was capable of unleashing an impressive fifteen rounds a second, and the Swatbot quickly found itself turned into swiss cheese, its vision going dark even as its primitive computer brain attempted to figure out what had just happened to it.
Its partner didn't fare much better, as, caught off guard by the sudden aggressiveness of the target, it stood stock still as Sally lashed out with her blade. There was a metallic shrieking sound that split the air, and the bot fell over backwards, its legs severed at the kneecaps. Not wasting a single second, the princess got up and slammed the sword into the battery of the robotic guard. It gave a quiet, electronic moan, and the light in its photocheptor went out.
She glanced down at the mission clock on her HUD, and discovered that they were two minutes into the mission.
"Sally here, where are you guys?" she hissed into her comm. link, looking around while sparing a glance at the charge counter for her plasma rifle's power pack, before opting to reload.
"Coming, mai' princess." Antoine replied, his tone rather apologetic.
A moment later, two soldiers emerged from an alleyway. The first was a rabbit, heavily built and wearing what at first glance would have passed for full body covering, heavy ferrosteel battle armor. However, closer inspection of the Mobian revealed that the armor in fact only covered her torso and right arm. The remaining limbs were composed of metal and circuitry, as opposed to flesh and blood, the result of Julian's dreaded roboticizer.
Right behind her was a coyote, who was clad in a lighter version of Bunnie's armor. He stared around nervously, clutching at a submachine gun, while a saber dangled from his waist.
"Glad you two made it alright. Geoff, where are you?" she inquired, hoping that the man hadn't gotten himself into trouble.
"Right here, luv," The resistance fighter said, emerging form the shadows of another building, waving his right arm, upon which was a wrist mounted bowcaster.
Sally rolled her eyes behind her visor. By the Goddess, she hated it when he called her that.
"Sonic?" she spoke into the mike, not at all surprised when she got an immediate response.
"Still cruising through the streets, trying to find something other than the regular clankers." He said, sounding very bored with his assignment at the current moment. "So far no sign of…" he paused for a second, and Sally could have sworn she heard the grin come over his face. "Scratch that, Sal, here comes my evil twin now."
"Be careful." She warned him, well aware of just how dangerous his nemesis could be.
"Don't worry bout a thing, I got it all under control," He replied, confidence brimming in his voice. "With that little surprise you and Rote cooked up for me, I'll dust Mecha in one minute, two tops."
A few seconds later, he gave out a taunt to his mechanical double, and Sally knew that he chase was on. She felt a moment of concern come over her, a pang of fear that something bad might befall the hedgehog, but she quickly brushed it off, knowing that there was nothing that she could do except play out her part in this raid. She calmly put her sword back in its scabbard, and slung her plasma rifle over her shoulder, before reaching down and pulling out her personal computer, Nicole, from the strap on her thigh.
Nicole represented the absolute pinnacle of Mobian computer technology. While lacking in the personality department, and having a tendency to ramble on in long, extremely complicated sentences, she was an AI construct of the highest caliber, capable of doing everything from hacking to decoding to giving you what you needed to know about a certain native life form. Needless to say, she was quite a handy little thing, and had saved their lives more than once.
Taking out a link up cord, Sally quickly hooked the computer up to the security panel of the factory door. Nicole knew what to do, and cracking the encryption protocols took her all of four seconds. As the doors slowly slid open, the group quickly readied their weapons, just in case an ambush force lay inside of the facility.
However, no ambush party was to be found, and they quickly stepped inside and began to head for the primary control room and other such vital areas.
Sonic heard Mecha before he saw him, as the mechanized copy of himself was the only other thing besides himself in this Goddess forsaken wasteland that could make that strange sonic boom when he moved at full speed. He let Sally know about his progress and then waited for the inevitable arrival of his foe.
Having long ago left the other units in the dust, the blue furred hedgehog merely leaned against one of the buildings, whistling a small tune to himself and idly gazing at his gloves.
About two seconds later, his nemesis became visible. Though he would never mention it, there was something about seeing the android that always creeped him out. It was just how he looked, so much like himself, but devoid of anything resembling true life and the emotions that he so highly valued.
It was how he'd imagined he would look if he ever got tossed into the roboticizer… like a darker side of himself, the potential evil that lurked within his soul if the big round guy ever managed to capture him.
He quickly shook such thoughts from his head, knowing that he would need everything in his arsenal to be able to best his 'dark side,' and that concentration would be among one of those things.
"Jeez, took you long enough, Mecha." he quipped, pretending to look at his watch. "I swear you get slower every time Buttnik sends you out here to try to haul me in."
The red eyes of the android glowed a shade brighter upon hearing the insult, and he clenched his clawed hands into fists.
"Keep talking, meat bag," Mecha snarled, his voice also disturbingly like Sonic's, save for the electronic distortion that was in it, "it'll make it all the sweeter when I do grab you!"
"You say that every single time the two of us square off against each other, and I have yet to see it happen," The organic hedgehog replied, a smirk upon his face. "So why don't we just quit talking and cut to the chase, mmh?"
Without waiting for an answer, the resistance soldier bolted, kicking up a plume of dust and debris behind him. For a few milliseconds, this sudden departure caught Mecha off guard, but he quickly revved up his afterburners and shot off after Sonic, his eyes blazing as he flexed his talons, remembering that Robotnik had requested that the miserable hedgehog was to be captured by any means necessary. While that did not allow for Mecha to use his onboard weaponry, it would certainly allow for some degree of physical pain and suffering, and his processor enjoyed the idea of taking his pound of flesh before handing his foe over to his master.
Shooting out of the alley way and onto one of the main streets, the android caught sight of his fleeing nemesis, and he kicked his thrusters up as high as they could go, determined to catch up to Sonic and make him pay for the insults that he had suffered at his hands.
However, wanting something such as that to happen, and actually managing to catch an anomaly like Sonic, were two entirely different matters, and try as he might, the android found that he could only gain distance slowly, his organic counterpart gradually getting closer as they raced around the city.
Sonic merely smirked once again, and had to resist the urge to laugh, lest Mecha get the notion that he was indeed up to something. This was all going so smoothly, and if his luck held out, he'd be back up with Sal and the others inside of five minutes.
Out of the corner of his eye, the hedgehog noticed that there was a spy eye surveillance camera following him as best it could, watching the action, and he knew that Robotnik must have been watching.
"Hey, Buttnik!" he called out, knowing how much the taunting nickname enraged the overlord. "Enjoying the race? Hope you haven't placed your bets on tinny back there." He remarked, and gestured in Mecha's direction.
With his enhanced auditory receptors, the android heard the insult, and felt his rage double. With a mechanical scream that would have made most quiver in fear, he willed himself to move faster, never once pausing to think that he might be walking right into a trap.
From the central control room of Robotroplis, two figures were busy watching the action. One hovered back in the shadows, clad in somber gray, a thin, small and frail looking man who probably had less than twelve hairs upon his head, and a nose that looked like it would have been more appropriate on a person twice his size.
The other, was virtually the polar opposite of the first. He sat in a massive command chair, around which several keyboards and control panels were stationed. The man himself was no less imposing, being every bit of six and a half feet tall, and looking as if he weighed the better part of two hundred kilos. However, beneath that bulk lurked quite a bit of muscle, as anyone unfortunate enough to have drawn his ire while standing too close could inform you.
Complimenting this already sinister appearance was the man's attire, which was mostly a jumpsuit the color of fresh blood, with two armored shoulder pauldrons, each having a pair of triangular parts stacked on top of each other and connected by a rising metal brace that ran from his chest to the bottom of his shoulder blades, made him seem larger than he already was. There was also a long cape attached to the back, which came down to about his calves when he stood.
Julian Ivo Kintobor, or Robotnik, as he called himself, watched with crimson eyes as Mecha tailed his organic nemesis, all the while rubbing his left arm. This limb was mechanical, a painful reminder of one of his encounters with a certain blue furred Mobian. An evil grin was upon his face as he watched what he was certain was to be the miserable rodent's final run.
Sonic might not have been calling the shots for the Freedom Fighters, but Robotnik knew enough of their organization to realize that if he were to go down, it would be not only a tremendous tactical victory for himself, but a psychological one as well. The miserable rodent was a hero to his comrades, and it was often times from him that they drew the strength to keep on going in a seemingly hopeless war. That was also to say nothing of the times that Sonic had personally humiliated him and he had thus whished to see him turned into a mindless robot if for no other reason than to avenge those insults.
The other person present was the overlord's nephew and right hand man, Jonathan Kintobor, or Snivley, as Robotnik, and just about everyone else derisively referred to him as. Despite the apparent glamour that one would expect from such a position, the little man's lot in life was not something one would readily envy, as he was overworked, underappreciated, and had this tendency to become his uncle's punching bag when things went wrong.
Which is exactly what Snively was expecting to happen here today. Despite more than seven years of battling the blue speed demon, Robotnik had never learned to face facts that were blatantly obvious to his second in command. For starters, Julian had always insisted upon taking Sonic alive, whereas his nephew would have just as soon blasted him and be done with it. Secondly he observed, as Sonic led Mecha on a wild goose chase, his uncle never got it through his bullet shaped head that the rodent always played the role of decoy.
Something was rotten in Topeka.
Still, he kept his mouth shut, as he took what grim pleasure he could from his miserable existence watching his obese uncle trip over himself, and each time the Freedom Fighters bested Julian, it brought his own dream closer to being realized: the time when Robotnik would eventually be cast down and he could ascend to the throne. Then, those miserable little furballs would learn who the real genius was.
A feral scream from Mecha caused him to return his attention to the monitor, and he noticed what had happened. Sonic had stopped abruptly, and the android had shot past him, nearly crashing into a wall. The droid turned around, and Snively knew that had it been possible, the mechanized version of the hedgehog would have been foaming at the mouth. He never could understand why that thing would let Sonic get to him like that.
Anger clouded the mind more times than not, his own beatings at his uncle's hands could attest to that.
Sonic, ever one to rub it in, took the opportunity to give Mecha a mocking salute, and it was all he could do not to laugh out loud as the machine once again screamed in rage, before racing off after his organic counterpart.
The little man didn't know exactly what was about to happen, but he knew that the android was about to run headlong into a trap.
He sighed quietly, lest he attract Julian's attention. Why did it seem that there were days that he was the only one who used his head around this place?
"Come on, Mecha, is that the best you can do?" Sonic called out as he looked over his shoulder at the rampaging android. "You're slipping up, old buddy, might wanna drop by the repair shop sometime, ya know what I mean?"
He was laughing on the inside, getting his robotic double all worked up with these little taunts. Inwardly he mused over a sudden bit of curiosity that he had, wondering why in the world Buttnik, with all of his professed genius, could create a nigh perfect replication of himself, but couldn't bother to make it immune to such immature taunting that was causing the droid to become careless and sloppy. Even as impatient and reckless as he could be at times, Sonic was well aware of the fact that if he had ever gotten as hotheaded as Mecha was getting right now, that Sal would have broken one of Bunnie's jujitsu quarterstaffs over his head.
Oh well, yet another reason why that over glorified pack of silicon chips was absolutely no match for the original.
He hung a left turn when he reached an intersection, placing him on a route that would take him back towards the factory that Sally was trying to turn into a crater. The android that was on his tail was slowly gaining on him, and Sonic knew that the chase had gone on long enough. It was time to put an end to this little game of cat and mouse and rejoin the others.
He pivoted about suddenly, racing straight at a rather tall building, before leaping up at the last possible second. He hit the wall, and kept running up it, the extreme speeds that he was capable of reaching enabling him to overpower gravity. His foe was right behind him, just as he had hoped. Upon reaching the top, Sonic quickly bolted towards the edge, and then turned to face his nemesis, who had just cleared the edge as well, and was now dashing at him, talons extended and gleaming in what little moonlight was able to filter down through the smog.
"Got you!" Mecha screamed in triumph, a wicked grin upon his metallic visage. However, that smirk quickly turned to a frown of confusion as his organic counterpart smiled a crooked smile, reaching back into his backpack and drawing something from within it.
At first, the android believed that it was a power ring, and braced himself, his processor brain trying to figure out the best course of attack should Sonic decide to play his trump card. However, that was not to be the case, as the resistance soldier instead yanked out a small, gray disc like object. Without any further warning, he chucked it at the charging bot.
Mecha realized on an instinctive level that to come into contact with that thing, whatever it was, would not be in his best interests, and so he tried to evade. However, he was moving too fast, and had too little warning to be able to successfully dodge it. The disc hit him dead center in his chest, and stuck fast. He knew a moment of confusion, before something that he could only later recall as a blinding agony began to shoot through him.
He didn't know that what Sonic had hit him with was a short range EMP mine, a nasty little device that Rotor and Sally had constructed back in Knothole for just such a purpose. Upon activation, the mine would send out high powered electromagnetic pulses within a five to six foot radius. These pulses were harmless to a living organism, but did nearly irreparable damage to most any form of circuitry caught in the blast.
And Mecha was one big walking pile of circuits.
Blinded by his agony, the machine slowed down, but not enough to avoid what was coming. Perhaps it was for the best that he wasn't truly aware of what was going on, as he would have been humiliated beyond words at the sight of Sonic, who was imitating a bull fighter, swishing a make believe cape back and forth as he charged past, and clean off the roof of the facility that they were on.
Laughing like a school boy, Sonic waved as Mecha found himself in gravity's tyrannical hold, and the hedgehog couldn't hold back a mocking wince as he saw his nemesis hit the ground a few seconds later, broken and still sparking as wires and circuits shorted out. He then looked back over his shoulder, a cocky grin still upon his face as he noticed that the spy eye watched the whole thing. He suddenly had the hilarious mental image of old bullet head turning purple with impotent rage, and he decided to try to add further insult to injury.
"Well," he remarked, glancing down into the alley, some ten stories below, "I sure hope the warranty on him is still good."
He took just enough time to buzz saw his way through the observation probe, before he once again was dashing through the ruined city, this time heading for the factory.
In the distance, the resistance soldier thought that he could hear a scream of anger and denial, and once more chuckled to himself as he shook his head.
Goddess, how he loved his job.
Things had been quiet thus far, but Sally knew that there had to be security bots around here somewhere. Much as she hated to admit it, Robotnik wasn't stupid enough to leave a factory without guards on the inside as well as the outside.
Sure enough, her gut instinct proved to be right once again, as a group of about six Swat Bots came out and attempted to ambush them in a narrow hallway. Fortunately for herself and the others, there were a couple of small alcoves that they were able to duck into.
However, not before Sally took a round in the stomach, between the solid plates of the armor. Fortunately, despite the underweave's simple, cloth like appearance, the Nagai armor that she wore was up to the task, and the only thing that she felt was a slight tingling sensation as the suit absorbed and dispersed the energy behind the bolt.
Geoffrey also took a couple of hits before he could get himself out of the way, though his ferrosteel combat suit was also up to the task of keeping him protected.
Bunnie, her reflexes honed by years of arduous martial arts training, faired a little better, throwing Antoine into one of the alcoves, and promptly diving on top of him. This was not merely because of the feelings the two of them shared, but also due to the fact that her boyfriend had about fifteen kilos of high yield charges strapped to his back, and if those took fire…well, at least they wouldn't have to worry about whether they whished to be buried or cremated.
Sally looked across the narrow hallway to where Geoffrey was, and gave him a quick nod as they silently agreed on what they should do.
The two of them leaned out at about the same time, and fired their weapons. Sally's Deecee dropped one bot, a trio of large holes appearing in it. There was another cracking sound an instant later, and Geoff once again proved how adept he was with his bowcaster.
The weapon itself was a rather strange and exotic one, but it got the job done. Styled after the crossbow of the ancient days of warfare, the bowcaster used a coil of polarizing magnets to throw out a small particle charge at extremely high velocity, and was fired by holding the wrist at a certain angle and then applying pressure to a trigger held in the palm of the hand.
Between that and her plasma rifle, they quickly brought down the half dozen Swatbots that were trying to hold them off.
More came after that though, and Sally muttered a quiet oath. Dumb as these clankers were, they possessed a single minded determination to carry out their tasks, and were also not programmed to know fear or have any thoughts of self preservation should things get rough. This made them tenacious foes when engaging large numbers of them, which was a scenario that the princess and her forces tried to avoid at all costs.
However, they were about to receive some backup.
She heard the noise, a faint rumbling with a high pitched shriek thrown in as well, and she smiled in a grim fashion, knowing that the bots that had shown up to replace the ones they'd destroyed were about to be heading straight for the recycling bin. A blue and black blur shot past a moment later, and she stuck her head out just in time to see Sonic curl up and leap up to the head level of the first Swat Bot. The mechanized guard realized what was about to happen, but had no chance to react as Sonic's spines, razor edged when he stiffened them, bisected its metal cranium. It collapsed to the ground, twitching as it went offline for good.
The blue furred hedgehog wasted not time in taking its closest comrade out while he was at it, bouncing off of the metal floor of the hallway and nailing it right through its torso. It emitted an electronic death wail as Sonic emerged from the other side, where he uncurled and landed on his feet.
He stayed there just long enough to change his angle of attack, before leaping up once again and curling up, this time at a more horizontal angle. This resulted in lucky bot number three being cleanly decapitated even as it tried to sight him up.
Sally just smirked and rolled her eyes as he managed to demolish the remaining five in less than as many seconds.
The hedgehog stood up as he finished, looking around to admire his handiwork, before shaking his quills out and looking back to the others.
"You guys planning on leaving me out of a perfectly good scrap?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow at Sally.
"Show off," Geoffrey muttered, frowning at the other resistance soldier.
"Hey, when you're as good as I am, you don't need to show off," Sonic replied with a cocky grin, which faded quickly as he saw the slight bit of discoloration on Sally's armor from where she had been shot.
"You okay, Sal?" he asked, the usual tone gone from his voice, replaced by a large amount of concern.
"I'm fine. What about Mecha?" the princess asked, hoping that their little plan had worked.
Relieved that she was okay, his usual demeanor quickly returned.
"You might say he's not all together these days," Sonic remarked in an offhand manner, shrugging while he was at it.
"So the EMP mine worked?" she said, eager to know if all the time that had been put into constructing that thing had been worth it.
"Like a charm, Sal." Was the response that she got.
"Let us just be moving along please?" Came Antoine's voice, slightly muffled due to the fact that his girlfriend was still covering him up. "I would be liking it very much to get these demonstration charges off my back!"
"That's 'demolitions' charges, Ant." The hedgehog said with a mirth filled laugh.
"That is what I was to be saying, no?" the coyote responded as Bunnie got up and helped him to his feet.
"Sonic, take the point," Sally said, wanting to get back on track, accentuating the order with a rapid hand gesture. "Bunnie, keep Antoine covered and Geoff, you help her out."
There was a round of nodding as they headed off towards their goal.
Reaching into the pack that was on the coyote's back, Sally withdrew another demo pack charge and placed it on the central control panel of the command room.
They had brought a grand total of about thirty of the charges, and were in the process of placing them at strategic points within the factory. Sonic was getting some of the more outlying ones, and as she looked out through the observation window, she could see him running around down below, ducking between the assembly lines and ensuring that the factory's destruction would be complete and total.
They had to work fast, though, as it wouldn't take long for Robotnik to catch on to what they were up to. For this purpose, she had Nicole plugged into one of the central computer mainframes of the factory, which was interconnected with all of the others in the city, from which the AI was monitoring the enemy battle net for anything pertaining to their little activity.
It was a very good thing that she did something like that, as about thirty seconds after she'd placed the charge on the control panel, Nicole began to warble, and all eyes were on her in an instant.
"Nicole, what's wrong?" the princess inquired, fishing out another demo pack from the pack Antoine had.
"I have detected battle net traffic pertaining to this Swatbot factory," the small computer replied, her primary screen flashing and showing a holographic display of all the chatter upon it. "I believe that the enemy has both discerned our location and have realized our purpose for being in this place."
"So the jig's up then?" St. John asked, looking up from his work.
"Seems like it," Sally told him, before looking back out where Sonic was running along a wall, heading for a computer module on the second tier that was a failsafe backup station in the event of the primary control being knocked out.
"Sonic!" she said, her voice loud in hopes of grabbing his attention over the noise he made while he raced around. "We've got to go; I think Robotnik's figured out what we're up to!"
"Read you loud and clear, Sal, He remarked, not at all worried. "Just let me get this last charge placed and I'll be back over there with you guys.
A half second later, he reached the control module, and quickly placed his final demo pack.
He never really understood much about high tech machinery, too many working parts for his liking, but there was something that he simply found amazing about these little charges that Rotor kept churning out. They were pretty small rectangular objects, weighing little more than a pound, and weren't much bigger than the palm of his hand. However, inside such a tiny package was enough explosive material to reduce a small building to a smoldering ruin (as the poor walrus had found out the hard way when his first attempts at making them had gone slightly awry).
He pressed the red arming sequencer button and stepped back. The charge was set for remote detonation now, so that they wouldn't have any timers to worry about or things of that nature.
"Charge set," He remarked, smiling at the thought of the destruction that he was about to unleash.
"Then let's get out of here," Sally responded over the comm. link.
"Taxi's on its way, Sal," the hedgehog told her, revving up and shooting back towards the central control chamber.
Once he had arrived, it took only a moment for everyone to form a chain and grab a hold of him. He quickly broke out into a run and then they were gone, a faint rumble, some trashed Swatbots, and thirty nasty little surprises being the only things that they left in their wake.
As soon as they were clear, Sally reached into her utility belt, and drew out the remote control for the demo charges. She used her thumb to depress the two buttons on the top of the device, and then pulled the trigger on it.
For a brief instant, night became day as the massive factory became something that could only be compared to a small nova, and gave off a shockwave so great that it nearly blew Sonic off of his feet.
As it was, it was felt even back at the central command chamber.
Robotnik cocked an eyebrow and screamed a curse as the building rumbled and nearly knocked him from his command chair. Snively, however, merely groaned, as he had a good notion that he knew what had happened. That miserable hedgehog and his comrades had just blown something up, something big or close by the feel of it. Knowing that something was up, he'd quietly ordered the Swatbots to head to certain key locations, lest his uncle, furious over what had happened to Mecha, use it as a reason to hurt him. But it looked as if he hadn't done it fast enough.
"Snively, get a spy eye to look around, find out what the hell that blast was!" his uncle shouted, spittle flying from his mouth and his eyes having a dangerous, even more psychotic than normal look to them.
"Y-yes sir." The little man muttered, quietly praying that he would be able to walk out of this one with no injuries this time… or at least with all of his ribs intact.
His hands racing over the keyboard of a control panel, he searched around until he was able to find a probe that still worked properly, as it seemed as though the shockwave had knocked a good number of them out. Once he finally did have one, he quickly had the thing pivot around.
Four seconds later, it discovered the source of the blast, and Snively felt himself go a few shades paler than he normally was.
Swatbot factory number three had officially been reduced to rubble, and his uncle, already infuriated by the fact that he would have to put Mecha back together for the umpteenth time, went ballistic.
Or at least, he was about to, as Snively could hear his labored breathing, and turning around, saw his eyes glowing like coals while his robotic left arm closed around the arm rest of his chair with such force that he could actually see the metal start to buckle under the pressure.
"Snively…" Julian growled, his tone lace with an explosive rage that threatened to boil over at any second.
"Sir?" he said, and he felt sweat begin to run down his head, and he couldn't hold back a gulp.
"If you value your ability to breath, you will leave this room now!" the overlord of Mobius roared, slamming both of his fists down onto the arm rests of his chair.
Snively took off like a bullet from a gun, but he still wasn't fast enough. As he tore past his uncle, Robotnik lashed out, backhanding him and sending him careening towards the door. The door, while motion activated when not under emergency conditions, did not open fast enough, and the poor overlander smashed into it with a loud thud. Adding to the pain that he was feeling was the fact that his 'beloved' uncle had popped him with his cybernetic limb, and judging by the pain in his chest, had bruised a rib or two while he was at it.
As the door finally opened, Snively crawled out as fast as he could manage. Blood starting to leak into his left eye and he realized that his impact against the door had given him a large gash upon his forehead.
"I hate my life," he muttered, coughing painfully as he continued to try to flee the vicinity of Julian's wrath.
Silently, though, he swore that when the time came, that he would achieve the power that should have rightfully have been his.
From behind, even through the six inch thick ferrosteel that the command room door had been constructed from, he could hear a roared phrase that he had heard all too often of late.
"I hate that hedgehog!"
Well, there's chapter one down, about fourteen or so more to go. I sincerely hope that this has proven itself worthy your time, and that it isn't as horrible as I think it is. With any luck, I've portrayed the cast as they should have been, and not the bastardized versions from the newer comics that some of you might be familiar with.
That said, any advice, comments, constructive criticism (please, I really need to improve!), or ideas on weapons and the like that you would like to see are more than welcome. But, as stated above, please, no bashing the characters. Feel free to flame me and my inability to write (and any OCs that may show up) but please leave the canon cast out of it.
Thanks once again for your time, and I hope you have a great day. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7935 | I do not own Twilight, New Moon, or Eclipse. They and their respective characters are the property of Stephenie Meyer and her creative mind.
I, however, am borrowing the characters and the events transpired to write this fictional tale.
Beginning of Eternity
Edward's POV of the change
Why? Why did I do this to her? How could I really have done this to her?! I was in such erotic spirits that evening, she...she had poisoned me. I couldn't say no to her request, no...demand. She demanded me to bite her, and I was so overcome, so intoxicated...I gave in.
Oh God... please, if you are there, take her with you. Take her away from me and let me die a damned being in a damned eternity of Hell. Anywhere I cannot have her is a cursed pit for me. I deserve thus and more than Hell for doing such to her!
Her screams, oh, the screams...they haunt me. I cannot block them out; I deserve hearing them. I absorb every change of pitch that escapes her throat. I cringe and bear it. She thrashes wildly, sometimes contorting her body so horribly, she cries out louder. She shudders and begs me to put an end to this torture. I cannot. I cannot end what I began.
I can't do anything to help her! I am here, worthlessly sitting around, moping because I cannot bear her cries; while, all this time, she is selflessly sacrificing herself to spend an eternity with me. How can I be so selfish when she is so humble? How do you act when given such a gift as a life-partner? I am such a selfish yet blessed monster…
I didn't want to pretend. I didn't want to pity myself for what I felt hearing her in such pain. I couldn't sit there and feel so bad when she needed me to be strong. My family tried to get me to leave, they wanted me to hunt. It would be wise to have done, but I can't. I can't leave her, ever.
Bella, I will make this up to you for all eternity.
When I heard her thoughts, everything left me. I heard her thoughts about everyone she knew. She had many memories of Jacob Black. These memories were confusing. They were so close, like siblings, or twins. He had helped her out of her cloudy depression when I hadn't. Her memories when she first came to Forks and when she first met me were most amusing. I saw how badly I had hurt her when I left. I had caused so much pain and realized that she had decided that this was the only way she could ensure we would be together, forever.
Eternity, what does it mean? |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7936 | Author's note: Ok so this was supposed to be a one shot but I decided that I couldn't leave it with Dean still unconscious. So this second chapter has been sitting half finished on my hard drive for a couple of years and, since my muse seems to be cooperating, I decided to finish it and put it out there- Hope you like it- please let me know:- J
Chapter 2: Re-establishing Connections
Sam knew that it would happen, knew that without a doubt if he spent 23 hours and 55 minutes in the room with Dean, he would wake up during the five minutes he was out, and true to form Dean didn't disappoint. He was sitting up on the bed staring at the door when Sam pushed it open.
Logic had told Dean that Sam was around, that Sam had got him here, tended his wounds, helped him break the fever. Sam's laptop was still open on the desk, his pack on the bed. He had just popped out to get something and would be back any minute. He knew that, but he still couldn't quell the panic that was churning his insides, because Sam wasn't actually there and that could mean. . . "Sam," he schooled his expression back to neutral as quickly as he could manage but he knew that Sam had seen the fear. Damn this was going to get old fast if he didn't get over it soon. He couldn't panic every time Sam left his side.
"Hey," Sam said, if he had noticed anything he was judiciously ignoring it "I just went out for some food, don't think I've eaten in three days, didn't think you had either so I. . .er. . . I got some of everything."
He dumped his bags on the table and shifted it over to Dean's bed so that his brother wouldn't have to get up.
Dean eyed the food, but didn't move to take any of it. Sam was right, he couldn't remember the last time he had eaten but that didn't make him hungry. In fact looking at the food was making him feel a little queasy. He looked up, Sam had taken a step back and was watching him, waiting. "Thanks," he said, not wanting to seem ungrateful for his brother's efforts. "Maybe later." He carefully manoeuvred himself backwards on the bed until he was resting against the headboard.
"Nausea huh?" Sam asked not unsympathetically.
Dean's automatic reaction was to deny it. He wasn't a. . . "The smell," he confirmed.
Sam shifted the table away again. "You don't mind if I. . ?"
"Knock yourself out." Dean stated.
"No I think it's nice having us both conscious for a change."
"Bite me!"
"Again you have too many injuries for me to take you up. . . ."
"Sam," Dean growled dangerously.
Sam grinned, that was a sound that he hadn't realised he'd been waiting for, but his brother using his name, with any tone, in fun, in anger, in humour, in frustration, any damn way that he wanted to was something he'd sat in silent vigil for the last two days and waited for, in fact any sound other than slightly uneven breathing and unconscious moans of pain when he shifted was preferable because it meant that Dean was finally back with him, and it was amazing how much you could miss someone even when they were in the room with you. Sam hadn't had nearly enough interaction with his brother since he'd been kidnapped to quell the tearing sense of separation, and as for watching Dean sweat out a fever, succumb to the punishment of torture and beating and not even be awake to deal. . .
"Because if I did bite you, you know that it would be nasty right?" Sam continued, because they both needed the banter.
"OK literal boy," Dean countered, "If you're going to take it literally then why don't you just go and. . ."
Sam held up his hands in surrender before Dean had chance to finish what he was sure would have been a very colourful instruction."OK, ok I give in." Sam picked up a handful of fries pushing them into his mouth, because he hadn't been lying, he was starving and seeing Dean awake had kick started his appetite, besides the movement gave him a moment to study his brother. Dean for his part was busy trying to shift himself into a more comfortable position and it was a testament to the number that his injuries and the subsequent fever had done on him that even the slight movements needed to shift his body against the pillows that he'd managed to get behind his back was clearly an effort. Sam was half tempted to get up and help, but what an unconscious Dean would allow in terms of assistance and care were out of the question when Dean was in any way conscious. Sam knew from experience that any attempts to help would simply push his brother to try to show that he was Ok, however much of a lie they both knew that to be.
Dean looked up and Sam made a good pretence of concentrating on the various containers of food in front of him. He picked up the carton of Cajun chicken salad, and shouldn't have been surprised that it provoked a reaction.
"Seriously?" Dean asked, "You have burgers, Pizza, Fried chicken and what's in the take out boxes?"
"Mu shu Pork" Sam supplied helpfully.
Damn that was one of Dean's favourites, if only this damn nausea. . ."You have all that and you're seriously going for leaves." He held up his hand, although it was clearly an effort to do so "And don't start all that healthy body crap with me. "You were kidnapped and that means you get to ignore all that and eat whatever you damn well please, the unhealthier the better, for at least a few days because dammit you need to bulk up and build back up. . . " and suddenly this wasn't Dean's usual rant about Sam's post-school eating habits, "because they had you in a damn cage, Sam! A damn cage, like some animal and they were going to hunt you like. . So you get to damn well eat crap. You need to eat crap, human crap, pizza and burgers and Chinese and the sort of crap that separates us from animals because. . ."
Dean's gaze finally met his brother's and if Sam noticed the tears that were welling he didn't comment. He simply put down the salad, carefully closing the lid and picked up a slice of pizza in its place, because if that's what it took to reassure Dean that all was right with the world then that's what he would do, that and a whole helluva lot more.
Dean swallowed and let his head rest back against the pillows, his arm curling protectively against his chest to reign back some of the pain from his shoulder, trying hard to let the uncontrolled emotion that had just spilled out settle, the sight of Sam, whole and well and taking a bite of pizza just to calm his irrational rantings had the desired effect and the adrenaline spike, the near panic that had driven the outburst bled away leaving only exhaustion in its wake, Exhaustion which he could now give in to, because Sam was there and he was fine and he was damn well eating pepperoni pizza, simply because Dean needed him to. . .
Sam placed the pizza slice on the table. He'd had a couple of days to get used to being back with his brother, to heal up a little emotionally. Dean was going to need some time to get to the same point, and even that was still a long way from OK, but that was all right because they could be not OK together.
"Crap!" Dean said expressively. "I'm sorry I shouldn't. . ."
"It's ok Dean," Sam said. "I get it."
Dean looked up and there was a moment of appreciation, a moment of communication that said more than most people could in long conversations, but that was all either brother could let it be, there were damn good reasons why both of them normally buried this sort of emotion. Dean was still a little raw at the moment so Sam knew it was up to him to cover things before that fine line between what they could deal with and what they couldn't deal with was crossed. He grinned again. "Human's eat crap monsters eat salad. Does this mean we just take a head of lettuce out next time we're hunting and jump on anything that takes an interest?"
"Sam!"Dean growled again but even that was music to his little brother's ears. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7937 | Today's theme says POOR SOME SUGAR ON ME, although I wonder if the 'poor' is a typo?
Katara stepped out of the door, feeling as if she had done this a hundred times already.
Millions of thoughts were jammed into her head when he had announced his engagement, and she truly did need a breath of fresh air. Taking a sip out of her wine glass, she found a a railing to lean on nearby and dragged herself to it.
I mean, she did know that this was going to happen eventually. He and Mai had been dating for a considerable amount of time, and they did seem to get pretty serious, but she really didn't expect them to announce their engagement so quickly.
She didn't know why, but once he announced the word 'wedding', Katara felt her heart almost stop. Heck, she almost reached out for her water skins just in case she needed to heal herself. She didn't need it in the end, to her relief, but she still felt a sort of twinge that stayed on her heart. You know, the sort of feeling that you get when you're jealous.
She cringed. Jealous. Jealousy. Katara hated those words. She didn't see herself as jealous, but overly emotional for her friend. She was actually happy for Zuko. Yes, that's it.
Katara shook her head as an imaginary voice of Suki popped up in her mind. "There's a word for that too: denial." She took another sip of her wine, bringing the glass away from her face. "Ty Lee forgot most of us are underage." She laughed, leaning the glass forward and spilling its contents into the ground. No need for a drunk girl.
"The grass will die now, thank you." His voice filled the air, and she froze in place, not wanting to look around. "You know that, don't you?" He held a glass of red wine in his hands. Walking over to where she was, he too spilled his wine on the grass.
"Not much people know this," He admitted with a laugh, "but in contrast to popular beliefs, I'm not a very avid drinker."
Katara made a snort. "I don't think I've heard any of these so called popular beliefs." She said crossly, one eyebrow raised. "Last time you and Sokka drank cactus juice, you seemed even crazier than him." She laughed, bringing her head back.
Zuko frowned at her gesture, although he did feel a little lighter inside. "..."
Well, yes, he was getting married to Mai, but it wasn't like it was his full decision. It had been suggested to him by the other officials, seeing that the people might want him to have a Fire Lady by his side. And that was Mai, by default.
There was Katara, though. Katara, Katara, Katara. She... she was... how could he explain? She was the first one who didn't really judge him with his scar. Heck, she even tried to heal him. Zuko mentally slammed his head on the wall repeatedly, thinking that it was one of the most stupidest things he could have ever done by turning his back and going with Azula.
Then, when he tried to redeem himself and eventually joined Aang, even though they had a rocky start, he and Katara became great allies, him with fire and her with ice. It was a perfect battle pair.
He did-- he admitted-- he did have feelings for her, one time. And it had been that time when Katara came up to him and suggested, "Why not Mai?" That sort of stung. Since then, any feelings he ever had that were above the borderline for friendship was now sitting in back of his brain.
Look where they were now. Just the two of them, both almost adults, on the balcony, and nothing going on. Nothing, nothing at all. Zuko started hitting his head onto the railings. Katara looked at him worriedly.
She tapped his on the shoulder repeatedly. "Zuko, Zuko? Are you drunk already?" She asked, now shaking both his shoulders.
Zuko stopped, his head still down and facing the rails. "Katara..." He said, as softly as he could. "... are you really okay with this?" It doesn't hurt to ask, right?
Well, it did hurt for Katara. At least a little. But, her jealous-and-in-denial attitude kept her from falling to the ground, in tears, begging him to love her and not Mai, as how soap operas would go.
"I..." Katara started, staring at the back of his head. She took a step back. "I think it's great, you getting married and all." A fake smile was plastered on her face. "I'm really, incredibly, very glad for you. Really."
"Don't forget to send that invite to your wedding!" She always rambled when she lied.
"And... And... I've got to go and find the best wedding present for you both." She still had that fake grin on her face, as if it was glued. "What does Mai like? Dagger? Because I once saw her- oh!" Zuko got up from his position and quickly wrapped her arms around her this waist.
"... Z- Zuko?" Katara stammered, using her arms to push him back just enough to see his face. "What are you-" His lips captured her into a soft, sweet kiss. Katara was shocked beyond anything, but closed her eyes tightly.
He was the one to break it, letting his arms around her drop, and moving to her ear. Between breaths, he whispered. "If you tell me to stop the engagement, I will."
When Katara opened her eyes again, he was gone already.
- - -
Katara returned to the dinner hall, to find that everything was normal, as if no one noticed she had left. Everyone was now mingling and walking around, talking to each other. She smiled to herself, walking up to Suki, who noticed her immediately. "Katara, you're back?" She asked. "That was only ten minutes!"
Sokka, who was indulging in his glass of wine, burped. "You... you left?" He almost sounded drunk. Katara hit him on the head, then turning to his girlfriend. "Suki, is he drunk?"
She laughed. "Drunk?" She repeated, swatting her hand in front of her, "Oh, no, of course not. I told Ty Lee to exchange his wine for some juice. He's just cranky. Aren't you, Sokka?" Sokka just grunted.
"I'm not cranky." He muttered to himself, taking a small sip. "Staying here just makes me annoyed."
Suki laughed lamely, grabbing Katara's shoulders and bringing her away from her brother. "So, I saw Zuko leave too when you left." She said once she brought Katara to the corner of the room, in a low whisper so that no one would overhear. "Did you have a talk?"
Katara nodded.
She continued. "What did he talk about?" Suki asked curiously.
"Well," Katara started. "He asked me if I was okay with it." Suki looked at her, still holding her friends shoulders. "Okay?" Suki repeated. "As in... okay with the wedding?" Katara nodded, taking Suki's arms from her.
"Yeah, I guess, and then he kissed me." Katara added, as if it didn't really matter. "Then he told me that if I said 'don't', he won't, then left. That's pretty much it." She shrugged, noticing Suki's eyes widening. She frowned. "What? Why are you staring at me like that?"
A voice behind her spoke. "It's 'cause I bet Sparky likes you, duh." Toph appeared and stood next to Suki. "Did you tell him to stop the engagement yet?"
Katara shook her head. "No... but it's not like I don't want him to-"
Toph sighed, crossing her arms and nudging Suki. "She's in denial, isn't she?" She made a 'tsk tsk' noise. Suki laughed. "Yeah," She pretended to whisper, but Katara heard very clearly. "If she doesn't get off her jealous-and-in-denial butt, she's going to regret it."
Toph looked at Katara. "Do you get our point?"
Katara stared blankly.
- - -
Meanwhile, Zuko sat quietly on one of the seats of the table. Mai came, sitting down and leaning her head on his shoulder once more. He shook his head, whispered a 'sorry', and shrugged her off. He sighed, staring at the wooden top.
"Is something wrong?" Mai asked. Zuko didn't move.
Mai tried again. "Is something wrong, Zuko?" Still, all he did was sit on the chair quietly, hands clamped together. She frowned. "You know, Zuko, we're getting married soon. You should learn how to say what you feel."
"Should I?" He finally said something, looking at her softly. She smiled, giving a nod.
"Then..." He said. "I think we should call of this marriage."
Soon after, the container of sugar that was sitting in front of him was now poured on top of his head.
Sokka snickered. "He really doesn't have any luck with girls, huh?"
Jealous-but-denying-it!Katara and angst!Zuko? Oh, shat. This is getting emo already. Oh well. I think the angst is due to me listening to this 'You Ruined Me' song and I kept thinking, "Rain. Rain. Angst. Cry. Angst." Oops, I'll listen to poppier songs. Sorry for typos. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7938 | AN: Written for a prompt on the FW meme. I don't own Professor Layton. Thanks, all! Much love!
Now or Never
This was the stupidest thing Luke had ever done.
Since coming back and see things as they had been and seeing her again…he had known it would be difficult. And he had been determined to keep himself under control and be a gentleman and not do anything to upset things. Her happiness mattered to him, and the fact was that she was happy with someone else. It wasn't as though she had told him she didn't need him or anything. They were still close friends, and visited frequently.
His mentor had taught him better than this.
He wasn't entirely sure what had prompted his self control to snap like this. Well, that wasn't entirely true. He did know. She had asked him what became of her future self. It was the one question he didn't want to answer for various reasons. And he was supposed to leave the next day, to return to his own time and his own world.
Her future self didn't. The woman she would grow to become would fall in love with another.
It was now or never.
Feeling sheepish and almost apologetic, he eased off a bit, softening the kiss without letting her go completely. He didn't dare to let her go just yet, not wanting the moment to end.
…and then suddenly he felt her move.
No, not move.
She had always been such a shy girl.
And dear lord, this was not the place for this they were standing by the window in the Professor's firelit study where anyone could walk in on them they were going to get caught and this wasn't proper but…
Oh, who bloody cared?
…he was horrible.
He was potentially destroying her future happiness, and he didn't care a whit for it.
Slow, measured footsteps crossed the room, and he saw Layton's silhouette cast on the wall by the light from the fireplace, tall and imposing. "Luke. What in the world were you doing?" the Professor asked in that same harsh, clipped voice.
To his amazement, Luke felt a laugh bubble out of his throat. He pressed one hand to his eyes to keep himself from having to see Layton's face, and to keep Layton from seeing that he was a hair away from weeping. "I am…selfish." Another high laugh. "I am the most selfish being…"
Luke couldn't even finish the thought.
The future.
His own time.
It felt so distant, so foreign now.
In a way, Luke felt a bit guilty for leaving without saying goodbye, but he had been fairly certain that he couldn't bear to face his mentor's past self. And he certainly wouldn't be able to look Flora in the eye.
He wondered if she hated him. Probably. In that respect, he probably hadn't disturbed her future too much. Hopefully his hopeless indiscretion wouldn't affect things for his younger self. He was already very fond of her at that age.
…strange, though. He felt as though something had changed. His mind was reaching for memories that seemed to be floating just out of reach. Memories that were his, and yet didn't entirely belong to him…
Had he changed something?
Shaking the feeling off, he made his way towards home. After Layton had disappeared, Luke had remained in residence at the brownstone where the two had lived for so long. Flora had left for school a couple of years before, and after her marriage she'd had a new home. But Luke remained.
And then she appeared in the doorway, wearing an apron and a smile. "You're home!" she said.
"Y-yes…" he said, startled. What was Flora doing here?
She crossed the room, put one hand to his cheek…and pressed a kiss to the other side of his face. "Welcome back," she said. "You must be exhausted. Go sit, I'll make some tea, and you can tell me everything that happened!" She gathered the cat from his arms and hurried back to the kitchen, leaving a bewildered Luke to stare at her back.
A moment later, she appeared with the promised tea and the cat making a determined attempt to trip her. She handed him a cup before taking one for herself and taking a seat. "So tell me what happened. Please, tell me everything!"
Luke stared at her for a moment, then chuckled dryly. "Flora…do you remember that kiss?" Her blush was answer enough, and he said, " probably won't believe this, but…" |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7939 | Disclaimer: I own nothing
A/N: There will be numerous references to Jinchuuriki (Naruto), and Avatars (Yu Yu Hakusho) throughout this story
'That colour really should be illegal.' Kagome vaguely thought, resting her head upon her raised hand, watching the woman clad in bright pink make some sort of speech directed towards the students of Hogwarts. The miko squinted her mismatched eyes; the pink was almost burning her eyes. 'Just how long is she going to go on for?' She almost rolled her eyes, shifting impatiently in her seat.
Kagome gave a subtle glance to her left, observing all her fellow professors. Out of them all, she had only met three of them, as brief as each meeting was.
Dumbledore-sensei was the one who had contacted her in person, he was the one who had requested her presence at his school because demon sightings in Europe was starting to explode, she was the only one who could really help.
She had briefly met McGonagall-sensei and Snape-sensei at 12 Grimmauld Place, where she stayed for a small time before coming to Hogwarts. They weren't exactly the friendly-type, but they were civil towards her, no matter how small it was on Snape's part.
Her differently coloured eyes landed on the Gryffindor table, zeroing in on the black-haired boy. 'He's Harry Potter,' Kagome thought, eyes narrowing. 'He's the one I have to focus my attention on, then. I'm supposed to protect him above all other students.' She sighed internally; it was Dumbledore's highest request of her. Harry Potter's life was the most important, above all the other students.
"Thank you, Professor Umbridge for that enlightening speech. Now, as I was saying—" Dumbledore stood up when Umbridge finished her speech, ending it with a girlish little giggle that just seemed to grate on everyone's nerves.
Kagome tried to hide her slight annoyance as Umbridge sat back in her chair, the one to her right. The miko could immediately tell that they were not going to get along at all. She immediately snapped her eyes off her food when the new DADA professor began to make some casual small talk with her.
"So, you are teaching the new subject, Demonology?" Umbridge asked with a fake sweetness, not bothering to touch her food in front of her. A fake smile was stretched along her toad-like face.
Kagome blinked, not expecting for Umbridge to make any kind of conversation with her. "…That's right." She hesitated to answer, wary of that fake smile.
"And you are a priestess?" Umbridge prodded, she and the Ministry were actually unaware of the new subject until very recently. It was her duty to get everything out of the new Professor and report it to Fudge.
"Shinto," Kagome added, nodding her head the very slightest. There were many types of priestesses throughout the world. She practised a very specific religion. "I'm a Shinto priestess, a miko."
"Lovely." Umbridge smiled with even more fake sweetness, not bothering to make any more conversation with the teenager after she got what she wanted.
Kagome frowned, furrowing her brows. Her hands clenched, the fabric of her fingerless gloves making a small noise.
Why did she just feel that she had made a big mistake by telling the woman what she was?
"Isn't this so exciting?" Hermione almost squealed, practically running towards the classroom. "I can't wait to begin the new class!" She glanced back towards Harry and Ron, urging them to pick up their pace. They were far too slow, even if the class didn't start for another twenty minutes. She wanted to get there early to get front-row seats.
"Tch," Ron snorted. "How good can this class really be? I mean, the professor can't be that much older then us." The red-head mentioned, throwing his arms behind his head, slowing his pace a bit. He didn't want to get there too early.
"She has to be something, doesn't she? Dumbledore did hire her himself." Harry said, almost sulkily. He wasn't sure why he was defending Dumbledore after being ignored by the Headmaster for the whole summer. It was just a natural response, or so it seemed.
"Yeah, well…" Ron had nothing to say to that, falling silent. He stared at Harry for a moment, a bit wary because of his attitude. Was he still not over the incident of the Daily Prophet? He knew Harry's temper, and had no desire to trigger such temper.
"Age doesn't matter," Hermione immediately waved off such a thing. "I'm sure she's more than qualified." She smiled, her brown eyes flashing in excitement as they finally arrived at the classroom. It was only the second class of the day, but she couldn't wait to get started. The only thing that would ruin it was that they had to share the class with the Slytherin's and more particular, Malfoy.
Hermione did not slow, even as the trio spotted the new professor sitting at the head desk, head down low as she was writing something on parchment. Blue-green immediately snapped upwards at the three, a small smile grew on her face.
"You are fifteen minutes early, you know." Kagome said with amusement, having been forewarned of Miss Granger's enthusiasm for knowledge. She was glad to have a distraction, already tired of the paperwork she seemed to be loaded with. She was already dreading the coming days, especially the marking. As if teaching four classes in a row a day wasn't enough.
"I wanted to get my preferred seat, Professor Higurashi." Hermione said, sitting down at the front desk. She watched as Harry and Ron sat at the desk placed beside hers, the desks only held two people each.
Kagome twitched, wincing internally at the name. She desperately wanted to correct Miss Granger; she didn't want to be called Professor. However, that would be inappropriate; she was an authority figure to the three, even if they were around the same age.
Kagome simply smiled, happy to have a student who wanted to learn so badly. Demonology was a rather complicated subject, one had to be intent on learning it if they wanted to know anything about demons.
Harry stared at the female professor, memorised by her mismatched eyes. She was interesting to him, especially how she didn't react to his name and his fame.
Ron merely sat back, not really excited about taking the new class. It only meant more homework for them. He smirked as he lazily opened one blue eye, the teacher being a hot girl was only a plus for him. He would something to occupy his time with during the class.
The fifteen minutes passed quickly, the majority of the students filed in at the last minute. They sat in their seats, and Kagome sighed inwardly. This was the part where she did not enjoy, the introduction of herself. She knew that she was bound to be asked about her age, a question that she was unwilling to answer.
The miko stood from her desk, blue-green eyes looking towards the class with confidence. She needed to confidence to gain and maintain the class' attention.
Her name was already written in English on the blackboard, though she stated it for the people who couldn't pronounce it by reading it. "My name is Kagome Higurashi, and I'm here to teach you Demonology by request of Dumbledore-sensei," She said, getting straight down to business. The first day she would be easy on the students, it would be more of an introduction day.
"And for those who don't know what Demonology is, it is the systematic study of demons and the beliefs about demons. I will teach you everything I know about demons." Kagome stated, seeing a few hands raised already.
"Yes? Please state your name before I answer your questions." Kagome pointed out a student, already knowing it was Hermione Granger.
"Hermione Granger," The witch said quickly, eager to get on with the class and to get to know the professor. "Are demons really siding with the dark side and You-Know-Who?" She asked, having heard a rumour at the Order Headquarters about Voldemort collecting demons for his dark army.
Kagome blinked, Dumbledore having warned her about treading carefully with the subject of Voldemort. The British Magical Ministry apparently didn't believe in Voldemort's return, and made that opinion very clear in numerous magical newspapers.
"It is true that demons are joining the Death Eaters. They are being convinced in small numbers right now, but that soon will increase." Kagome stated grimly, most demons wanted nothing to do with humans, though some would be tempted by Voldemort and his promises of humans to slaughter.
Hermione nodded, satisfied with the answer. She glanced over to Harry, whose emerald eyes had darkened considerably. She sighed quietly, knowing it would that much harder to fight against Voldemort now with demons on his side.
"Yes?" Kagome pointed out another student, noting it was the blond boy she had met on the train. It was the one Kirara disliked immensely. It was the permanent sneer on his pale face which made Kagome wary of him. She did not enjoy the superior air that he seemed to hold around him.
"Draco Malfoy," Malfoy drawled slowly, as if he thought she couldn't understand English completely. His cold grey eyes flashed as he smirked. "Are you really sure you're qualified for this job?" He sneered. He, like all others, had noticed that she seemed too young to be a professor.
Kagome sighed, already irritated with the arrogant blond. She rubbed her temples in an attempt to get rid of her coming headache. "My age is of no concern to you. And yes, I am more than qualified for this job. I am employed as a demon exterminator for the Japanese Ministry of Magic. I am also a miko." She explained, blinking as Hermione gasped audibly.
"Are you really?" Hermione asked in complete surprise, having read that all mikos were dead and extinct; it was a shock to her to find out that one was still alive and well. The information that she had read on Kagome Higurashi was that she could manipulate time to a certain extent. There was nothing in the article about Kagome being a miko.
"Yes, I am." Kagome blinked; surprised that someone even knew what a miko was. She suddenly smiled, remembering the warnings from her fellow professors that Hermione was knowledge-hungry. It really shouldn't be a shock to her that Miss Granger knew what a miko was.
"What's a miko?" Ron asked, forgetting to raise his hand and state his name. Harry also sat up, intent on listening. This was a class that he wanted to do well in, especially after hearing that Voldemort was collecting demons on his side.
Kagome flicked her eyes lazily over to the red-head, sighing. She planned to have a whole class on spiritual humans, though she could always briefly explain to them what a miko was.
"A miko is a Shinto priestess who has the ability to purify demons due to spiritual powers." Kagome briefly explained, knowing there was much more to say on the subject. However, that was for a different day. "Yes?" She pointed to another student with their hand up.
"Can you really manipulate time?" A Slytherin girl asked, interested in their new professor. "I read in an article that you can."
"Yes, I can manipulate time, but only to a certain extent." Kagome explained, hoping that she wouldn't have to get into a complex subject of time manipulation and time travel.
"What do you mean?" Harry spoke up, wondering if her abilities were anything like a Time-Turner.
Kagome flicked her green-blue eyes over to the Boy-Who-Lived, focusing on his face. She smiled suddenly, knowing that she would get to know this boy very well in the next year. His back story was very interesting to her, though she didn't react outwardly to his name. She thought that he may be tired of that by now.
"Alright," She sighed, thinking up of a simple way to explain her abilities. Her eyes flashed as she thought of one. "I can think of one simple way to explain it, but you will have to listen closely if you want to understand this." She warned, standing in front of her desk. She leaned back against it casually as the students listened intently, not causing any trouble for the new professor's first day. Even Malfoy was quiet, thinking he could use any information to give to his father.
"Alright, think of time as a narrow hallway, one with an uncountable number of doors on each side," Kagome said thoughtfully. "You are always walking in a straight direct line in this hallway, and you cannot turn back or go backwards. Time is always going in one direction, forwards."
"What do the doors represent?" Hermione asked as Kagome paused, completely fascinated with the subject. Hermione was well aware of the dangers of time manipulation.
"The doors represent choices and decisions that you make in your lifetime. Once you make a decision, you will unconsciously go through a door, which leads to another hallway," Kagome said, smiling a bit. She knew that she would get along with Hermione very well. The girl was smart. "You are always walking down a hallway, the hallway is never-ending." Kagome blinked. "Well, the hallway ends when you die as your time is no longer."
"And what does this have anything to do with time manipulation?" Malfoy rudely interrupted, sneering at the young professor.
"Five points from Slytherin," Kagome stated lazily, not concerned with the Malfoy heir. From what she could see, he was nothing but a spoiled brat. She would put him in his place rather easily.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione all smirked as a light pink tinge appeared on Malfoy's pale face. Harry immediately decided that he liked this Professor Higurashi.
"For everyone, the hallway is the same; you can only go in one direction, forwards at a set pace." Kagome smiled, this is where it differs for her. "However, it is very different for me. I am able to travel in different directions, but most of all, backwards." Kagome smiled as Hermione sat forwards, eager to hear more.
"It's only to certain extent, but I am able to walk backwards, at any pace that I wish. However, I can only go so far backwards with my own magic." The miko stated, manipulating time was very hard for her to actually do. There was no way she could ever go back as far as five hundred years without the magical help of the well, the Goshinboku, and the Shikon.
"I am able to do this because I can physically see time particles," Kagome smiled, glancing at the almost non-visible blue lights floating in the air. "Normal humans cannot see time particles, and cannot move them around. However, I am able to do this, allowing me to manipulate time to a certain extent."
Harry raised his hand, green eyes intent. "What do you mean by a certain extent?" He asked, noticing that she kept on saying that.
Kagome smiled. "Well, in order to manipulate time, you need to manipulate the time particles. However, I can only see very few of them. For every one time particle I do see, there are probably about one billion more that I can't see. Also, manipulating the time particles is very exhausting and over-taxes and puts a lot of stress on my body." Kagome suddenly smirked. "I suppose I can say that time manipulating abilities is more like… super-speed to other humans."
"What do you mean?" Hermione immediately demanded, needing the answers. This was all very fascinating to her.
"I guess I can show you," Kagome said, her smirk wider. The entire class immediately went on edge when the professor suddenly disappeared in a blur, vanishing before their very eyes.
"I moved the time particles more quickly then what they would flow naturally," Kagome's voice echoed from behind them, the class quickly turned around to see that Professor Higurashi was standing at the entrance to the class to their surprise, none of them even seen her move!
"I moved the time particles faster, too fast for human eyes to catch. It means I can move with the particles, speeding up the time that naturally flows around me for a few moments, allowing me to move freely within the time stream." Kagome explained, watching the student's awed faces. She smiled, happy to impress the students.
"Well, class is over." Kagome smiled even wider, happy to see that some of the student's had disappointed expressions. That simply meant they liked her class, and didn't want to be over yet. "Tomorrow, we get to work. I will start on Demonology. We will learn what a demon is, what a demonic half-breed is, what a human host is, and what a human avatar is."
Professor Higurashi dismissed her students, allowing them to leave at their own pace. She walked back up to her desk, mentally preparing for her next class. It would be the sixth years for Gryffindor and Slytherin, she had just finished with the fifth years.
The students filed out the room, the Golden Trio being the last, Harry taking one look back at Kagome before leaving the classroom. Kagome merely smiled at that, whistling low under her breath.
A few moments later, her two-tailed familiar came bounding into the room, hearing her new master's call. Kirara chirped a mew, her large ruby eyes glancing upwards towards Kagome.
"Kirara, I want you to tail Harry Potter for me, follow him at any time you can. I need you to protect him for me, and make sure that nothing happens to him," Kagome giggled as Kirara butted her head against her cheek. "Can you do that for me?" She asked, stroking Kirara's head as she mewed, giving her answer.
"Thank you." The miko let the nekomata run off, following Harry Potter out the door.
"Well," Kagome sighed, running her hand through her long, black hair. "I guess I should mail Souta a letter and see how he is doing with his demon exterminator training…"
Red-crimson eyes narrowed, a smirk appearing on the lipless mouth. "How… perfect." He stated, looking towards the kneeling figure on the ground.
Aquamarine eyes glanced towards Voldemort, red lips smirking arrogantly. "I know." The female said with arrogance, flicking silvery hair back. "Stand up." She ordered the figure kneeling on the ground, the figure obeyed immediately.
Red eyes drank in the sight hungrily, knowing this would be a perfect opportunity for his cause. The figure stood up, she was completely naked, though neither in the room noticed. The figure's long, black hair hid most private areas from view anyhow.
"Hai, Tsubaki-sama?" The figure asked, opening her eyes to reveal a crimson-red with cat-like slit pupils, clawed fingers curled.
Tsubaki smirked, seeing many opportunities rise now that she has joined Voldemort's dark army. It took his Death Eaters a lot just to convince her to travel out of Japan and to Europe, but now she saw it was worth it.
Her shikigami was a masertpiece, one of a kind. Of course, it couldn't have the same pure spiritual powers as she did, but demonic power would do nicely for this shikigami.
"Your name is 'Kagome' for now," Tsubaki said smirking, looking towards the Kagome-look-a-like. The best thing about shikigami was that she could make them look like anyone she wanted. "And this is your first target." The kuro-miko held up a magical photo, the person inside moved freely.
'Kagome's' red eyes glanced towards the target's photo, and she smirked ferally. "Hai, Tsubaki-sama, I will do as you wish."
Tsubaki narrowed her eyes at Voldemort when he spoke. "Careful now, your target is a werewolf after all." He taunted the shikigami, though he gained no response from her as he had hoped. She didn't even look at him…
"My shikigami are more than capable of handling something as simple as this." Tsubaki snorted, almost laughing at the thought that a mere werewolf could beat her shikigmai. "Go now." She dismissed the shikigmai, who nodded and disappeared in a flash.
Tsubaki ignored Voldemort, not all frightened to be in his presence. He was nothing to her but her to ticket to that wench.
'And I will have my revenge.' Tsubaki thought darkly, her face growing with hatred.
A very large scar suddenly appeared on Tsubaki's flawless face, centered around her eyes.
'The Shikon no Miko will pay for doing this to me!'
A review will be greatly appreciated :) |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7940 | Once upon a wedding night
A groom went missing
Ms. Bella Swan, the blushing bride
Searched for him, hissing.
That groom
An Edward Cullen
Usually could be found in her bedroom,
She finally found him
In the local pub
But oh! his face
It looked like he was hit with a club
Nevermind, Bella said
You come home with me
he slurred drunkenly.
He smelled like beer, dirty armpit and oh-so wrong
But she still took him to her bed
He made her play a song
Then they had sex, it was quite bad.
Then when he held her in his arms
She realized he was unusually warm
She saw with dread
That wasn't Edward Cullen, that was RPattz. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7941 | Naruto x Aqua
When Naruto is found with Master Xenoheart's body he his branded a traitor. Though despite this Betrayal his student can't help but love him.
Story Start
Aqua couldn't nor would she believe that her Master was guilty. It just wasn't possible, the man who saved her as a little girl and trained her to be the person she was today. He just couldn't be guilty, Terra had to have made a mistake. She had been worried ever since she heard he had been imprisoned for the murder of master Xenoheart.
Aqua was on her way to deliver dinner to Naruto. A bowl of Ramen, one she learned how to make from an old recipe she found in the library. She knew her Master like Ramen, maybe this would brighten his move slightly.
Aqua took a deep breath and entered the room, holding the bowl close to her and trying to keep the depression or sadness from her face. In the room sat Naruto, his hands in chains with only the sun light radiating from a window lighting the room.
''Hey there Aqua...'' he greeted, his voice devoid of it's useless cheerfulness. It nearly broke her heart to see him this way.
''I...Master...I brought you some food,'' she mumbled softly as silence soon followed.
''You still think of me as your Master? Even after what I done?'' he asked as she walked over to him. She sat the bowl down and sat opposite of him indian style.
''Of course Master. I...there had to be some mistake right! Maybe...maybe Terra made a mistake! Maybe he thought it was you and...''
Naruto shook his head and interrupted her. ''I did it Aqua!'' he admitted as Aqua froze, her facial features freezing slightly.
He looked up, meeting her eyes.'' I did it! I killed Master Xenoheart!''
''Why? H-How could you...''
''Because the man was evil! Eraquas didn't want to see it, hell I didn't want to see it; there's no denying there is something odd about Ventus. Ever since Xenoheart brought him here something wasn't quite right with him. That's when I found out. Xenoheart was trying to recreate the X-blade using Ventus.''
''T-Then...if you tell Master Eraquas surely...''
''It doesn't matter,'' Naruto murmured. ''I took the life of another Key Blade Wielder. I broke one of the golden rules. Killing another wielder should only partake when there is no other choice.'' A smile then formed on his face. ''The ramen smells delicious,'' Naruto said as Aqua went red. Holding up the bowl she scooped up a spoon full and gently blew on it as she held it to Naruto's mouth.
After a few minutes an empty bowl sat next to the side. ''Thank you...''
'' you feel...okay?''
''Now that you're here...yeah.''
''W-What's going to happen?''
''Eraquas will probably have me executed,'' he answered as Aqua gasped.
''N-No...he can't. I'll try talking to him and maybe...''
''It won't work,'' he interrupted shifting his legs. ''Come with me Aqua...'' he suddenly said. ''I won't go anywhere without? You whose heart keeps me in the light.''
''Master...'' she replied with a blush. ''I'm just...''
''Someone worthy of being a Master. Come with me...because I know you feel the same that I do.''
''And what's that?''
''That I can live my life without you. I didn't kill Xenoheart simply because he tried to recreate the X-blade. I killed him because I knew your life would possibly be in danger as a result. I would not let that mad man endanger your life. Even if that meant giving up my own in exchange.''
Aqua felt a sensation build up in her chest. All this time, she couldn't believe that her master...that he...cared about her? Did she feel the same? Was that what those strange sensations she caught whenever she looked at him meant?
'I love you Aqua.'' she heard him whisper as she felt a tear slid down her cheek. She placed her hand against her cheek.
''I...I love you too...Master Naruto.''
''Just Naruto, Aqua-chan,'' he whispered.
Aqua placed her hands on his shoulders as she leaned forward. She paused as their eyes met. Naruto moved over and pressed his lips against hers. The kiss deepened as Aqua wrapped her arms around Naruto. When they separated, they had a string of saliva attached to their tongues and a slight smile on both of their lips.
She then let out a sigh as she summoned her Keyblade and shatter the cuffs.
''Aqua?'' Naruto voiced in surprise.
''I...I won't let you die. Master Eraqus is going to hate hate me. Terra and Ventus probably won't understand, but I can't let you go. Even if it means I'm branded as a traitor.''
''Thank you...and for it's worth. I'm sorry...''
''It's long as I'm with you. That's all I need.'' she said as Naruto stood up and wrapped his arms around her. He pulled her into another sweet kiss. After they broke the kiss Naruto grabbed Aqua's hand.
''Let's go Aqua before one of them decides to check up on me.''
''Okay Naruto,'' she responded as he led her out of the place that had been her home for over a decade and a half. Saying a silent good bye Aqua embraced her new life with her Master.
Chapter End
I forgot where I read it, but someone mentioned how Xenoheart was obviously evil and the whole Genre Blindness on the part of Eraquas and the apprentices, but since Naruto in my series is well versed in being Genre Savvy and uses the Evil Overlord list as a bible courtesy of Kuiinshi this idea came to mind.
Now the Naruto x Aqua / Master x Student relationship has suddenly spawn a whole lot of ideas I could toy with. Though their is also the Naruto x Xion which will be fun to write. If there are any fandoms you guys want to suggest feel free too like always. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7942 | Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or any of its characters. I make no money from this, though with all the time I put into it, I wish I did.
Blaine wrapped his hand tightly around the long-stemmed rose in his hand, pressing the pad of his thumb roughly against the sharp thorn. The almost unbearable pain of the thorn just this side of not breaking his skin along with frigid air that sliced Blaine's lungs with each breath were the only things he could feel.
Even then it was only a shadow of pain, a shadow of what they truly felt like. Blaine stared at the ground. Small piles of snow were smattered across the cemetery and gray clouds hung low in the early spring sky.
It should have been me.
It had all happened so quickly. They were so busy singing a joyous song; deafeningly loud in the choir room that none of them heard the announcement. Blaine couldn't remember what they had been singing; all he remembered was that when they finished, Kurt's soft fingers had slipped into his, a simple touch that felt like nothing they had shared before.
Blaine knew in that moment that he was going to kiss Kurt. After too long spent dancing around their feelings, Blaine knew that this was it. Now or never. He twirled Kurt into his arms and Kurt gave him the most beautiful smile. He was so happy, for the first time in such a long time, Blaine saw that smile that could have lit up the entire state of Ohio with its brightness.
Blaine pulled Kurt closer and tilted his face up, almost closing the distance between their lips when he felt it moments before the sound hit his ears. Kurt jerked forward in his arms as though shoved and then Kurt's smile fell along with his body.
Blaine collapsed on the ground with Kurt, his hand on the other boy's back. Screams rang out through the room as three more shots were fired before a fourth took the shooter down.
Blood poured out of the wound in Kurt's back over Blaine's hand and he frantically searched Kurt's face for any sign of life.
"Kurt!" Blaine screamed. "Kurt! Kurt! Kurt!" He shook the boy, trying to wake him up and pulled the boy's lifeless body to his chest, tears streaming down his cheeks. Blaine's whole world narrowed to a tiny point and the only thing in it was the body of the boy who loved him, the boy he loved, and who would never know it.
Puck was hit in the arm, Rachel had taken a bullet to her leg, and Tina's shoulder was shattered, but they were all alive.
Ten other students had been shot; Kurt was the only one that hadn't survived.
It should have been me.
Blaine couldn't look up. He couldn't face these people. People that loved and adored Kurt. People who barely knew Blaine, most of them, he was sure had no idea why the curly-headed boy was there.
Each member of the glee club had made a speech, though Blaine had blocked most of them out, and then there was a hand pulling on his arm. He tilted his head up to see Mercedes standing in front of him, teary-eyed and not at all her usual self.
"You're up," She managed to say before falling in line with the rest of New Directions.
Blaine took a few steadying breaths and stepped towards the casket. It was beautiful and simple, a lighter wood that shone slightly, even under the overcast sky—it would have gone beautifully with Kurt's skin tone. Kurt would have appreciated that. He also would have liked the silver fastenings, Kurt always thought that gold looked gaudy and had a tendency to look cheap.
Blaine's fingers slid along the wood as he moved to the head of the group, still clutching the rose in his hand.
He took a deep breath and gazed out over the gatherers before his eyes settled on the casket in front of him.
"Kurt was," Blaine started, tears already sliding down his frozen cheeks, he didn't wipe them away. "Kurt was the most beautiful person I've ever met. The two of us met under less than ideal circumstances, but we became fast friends."
Blaine smiled sadly a little as he remembered the first coffee they shared.
"Best friends. We became best friends and Kurt was like fresh air. Being around him breathed new life into me. Though we met when he most needed help, it was he who ultimately helped me the most. He pushed me and challenged me and he wasn't afraid to be honest with me. I always admired that about him, just how open he was. Beautiful. It was beautiful. He was beautiful."
Blaine choked up a little as the image of that last smile flashed through his mind.
"I never got to tell him this, so this, this is for Kurt." Blaine paused, his eyes sliding closed. "Kurt…I love you. I should have told you that from the moment that we met because if ever there were proof of love at first sight, it was with you. I was so scared though. I didn't have the courage you had, but I should have told you." Blaine wiped away the tears, rubbing his rough wool coat against his face.
"You were so amazing and understanding and I will never know what I did to deserve having you in my life. I hate that our times was cut so short. I hate that we never got to be together. I hate that I never got to tell you that I love you. I never got to hold you. I never got to kiss you…" Blaine trailed off.
"I was going to, you know. That day, in the choir room. I was going to kiss you and tell you that I loved you, but now…." Blaine let his tears wash over him for a few moments. "I love you Kurt, I always will."
He stepped down from the small podium set up and stumbled over to the casket. He set his rose, red for love, on top of the pile of flowers already adorning the top. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to the cold wood.
"I love you," he whispered. When Blaine stood up, a strong hand pulled him back by the shoulder. Burt pulled Blaine into his arms and let Blaine sob into his chest. Burt rubbed Blaine's back consolingly.
"He loved you too, Blaine. He loved you too," Burt whispered, barely loud enough for Blaine to hear. Blaine buried his head further into Burt's chest, letting his sobs take over him.
It should have been me. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7943 | Interests Before Death
AN: There's a theory on the Zelda wiki that I find extremely intriguing and interesting. In Ocarina of Time, after traveling to the devastated future of Hyrule, the market is destroyed and only undead apparitions remain. But someone else remains: the ghost shop owner. Who is he and where did he come from? Why is he so loyal to Ganondorf? And why did he make his shop in a place where only Link dared to walk to?
There's actually two theories to his origins, but I only believe in one. My best friend fully agreed with my reasoning and told me to turn it into a oneshot, so I did. Enjoy and feel free to agree or disagree. I'm not really a debater, though, so let's not try and start arguments, mkay?
He couldn't believe his eyes. The market grew devastated and stank with littered corpses left by the second attack not too long ago. It was only yesterday that Ganondorf and his minions had attacked Hyrule Castle and the king was forced to surrender, but the Gerudo leader had not been merciful. The castle treasures had all been taken and the servants now all had to bow to a new king. The one silver lining was that Princess Zelda had been taken by her nanny and they had escaped far away from this hellish scene.
His colleagues were either dead or dying. It was a disgrace and he couldn't bear to keep his eyes on the devastated sight for too long. They were soldiers of Hyrule, sworn to protect the peace and their king, but they had failed. A few soldiers had managed to escort some survivors to Kakariko Village, but the monsters Ganondorf commanded ensured they could not return to fight against him.
It was all over for Hyrule. Ganondorf had already announced he had the power to conquer the world after he was finished with Hyrule and there was no power on this earth left to stop him. He had no idea how he came into such power, but the facts were clear: anyone who opposed Ganondorf would be killed without an afterthought. It seemed the only way to stay alive was to serve him.
His soul rebelled at the very idea. He was a Hylian soldier, for Din's sake! It would be the greatest act of treason, ever! Yet he was the only one left alive and it would only be a matter of time before he was killed as well. One entire army of soldiers could not stop such evil, so what hope did one single soldier have? Besides, the king was dead and the princess was missing. There was no one left to serve and there was no honor to be found.
Two Stalfos nudged him in the direction of the throne room. By the Goddesses, Hyrule Castle looked terrible! The decor that was once beautiful and elegant was becoming ugly and brown. Monsters wandered the hallways and he shivered, feeling very cold...and very frightened.
The throne room was worse. A few corpses still lingered, many whom he recognized, much to his horror. The king's body was nowhere to be found, but Ganondorf sat on the throne with a satisfied look on his face. It was as if the bastard was already home.
"So," the evil king started. "You are the last of the Hylian soldiers."
He didn't reply, just started at Ganondorf with hatred in his eyes.
"All the other soldiers have chosen to oppose me and you can clearly see the result," Ganondorf continued, waving his hand towards the corpses. "I have kept you alive because I can see you have not put up much resistance. This makes you smarter than the other fools."
The soldier shrugged with indifference. He wasn't grateful for being the lone survivor, especially since he was alive with the knowledge there was nothing he could do to save his friends or the people. He wondered how long this verbal torment would last before he would be beheaded.
To his surprise, Ganondorf rose from the throne and started for him. The smirk on the evil king's face suggested to the soldier that he had other ideas besides death.
"I sense some fury in you, but I can tell you're not someone who wants to die so willingly. Tell me something...what is it that kept you from putting up a fight against me and my monsters?"
The soldier hesitated. Ganondorf frowned. "You don't appear to have anyone to live for. I see no wedding band on your hand, so it could not be some lover."
"My research," the soldier blurted. Ganondorf raised an eyebrow.
"Your research? You don't appear to be a scientist," the evil king said.
"I'm not. It's a hobby of mine. My studies are considered controversial by a lot of people, but it's all I had that interested me...and enough to keep a woman from wanting me," the soldier confessed. "It is the only other thing important to me, aside from my honor...which has been lost with your triumph!" he added angrily.
Ganondorf waved the anger away like smoke. "Pray tell, what subject did you research?"
That simple word brought the smirk back to Ganondorf's face. "I see. A very dark subject indeed, at least in accordance to Hylians. But that was all in times that will soon pass. Perhaps your knowledge on the subject will become useful to Hyrule's future."
The soldier looked up in alarm. "What do you mean?"
"Soon, ghosts will be wandering all over Hyrule. They will be tormented and angry at the world, but their ethereal existence makes them difficult to control, even for me," Ganondorf stated, showing the soldier his left hand. For the first time, the soldier could see what the source of power was: the mark of the Triforce was clear on the back of his hand. "I need someone with knowledge of ghosts to act as their guiding beacon so they do not betray me in my reign."
"You're asking me to serve you?" the soldier asked.
"It will not be so bad," Ganondorf shrugged. "You get to use your knowledge to your advantage as well as my own. You will live out your life doing something you enjoy, something that your fellow citizens turned their backs on you for. But that can change. You will be given a certain degree of power and the freedom to do as you please. In return, all I ask is for you to show me your loyalty and round up all the ghosts to your heart's desire. You will be given the ability to communicate with ghosts and hold power over them."
The soldier hesitated. The idea was absurd but also somewhat appealing. "And what if I refuse?"
"You will die," Ganondorf simply said. "Surely you know that."
He was right. The soldier had walked into this room preparing to join his comrades in death, but instead he got an offer to serve practically the devil himself. And for all intents and purposes he used to live for, the offer seemed like the most logical thing to accept.
He remembered what he had said to a young kid wearing green clothes one night. "Hey, I'm really interested in ghosts! Studying them is a hobby of mine, but you never know...the day may come when that kind of knowledge will be useful!"
Ironically, he was right and that day had come at last.
"Very well," the soldier said. "I accept your offer."
Seven years had passed and the soldier had changed shape so drastically that no one would recognize him, or even believe he was human. He wore robes over his body and head, but his face was ripped away and a single red eye stared at anyone in front of him. This inner eye allowed him to read the minds of people, dead or alive.
His business was a fine one. He bought ghosts and, true to Ganondorf's word, he had been given power to control them. His loyalty to Ganondorf was strong and he was happy with the changes in his life, even after the market was utterly deserted and ReDeads roamed the streets. Unfortunately, the haunted market was enough to keep customers away and business was at a standstill, until the day a young man wearing green garb entered his shop.
"Hey young man, what is happening today? If you have a Poe, I will buy it."
The theory is that the soldier you meet in that small room outside the market at night later becomes the Ghost Shop man. The soldier mentions how he wishes a ghost would come out and he displays his interest in studying them. As that small room becomes the Ghost Shop seven years later, it seems to make perfect sense that he becomes the manager.
The other theory on the Zelda wiki is that the little boy in the graveyard who buys the Spooky Mask from you becomes the Ghost Shop spirit. But there isn't too much evidence in the game to support this, only that he hangs around the graveyard all day and pretends to be Dampe, the gravedigger. I don't see him turning his loyalty to Ganondorf and starting a shop near a bunch of dead guys.
I think I may have delivered this a bit weakly, but I'm trying to get back in the groove of writing after a two week vacation. Hope this was good and entertaining. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7944 | It's been a while since I last write an English fanfic!lol
So this is a DOG DAYS fanfic with Shinku and Millhi coupling, plz R&R~
Disclaimer: I do not own DOG DAYS.
I Must Have Been In Love
Somewhere in a flower nursery in Flonyard, Millhiore was sitting under a tree in her 'Secret Garden', gazing at the starry sky and the silver moon. Grass and flowers waved as
breeze blew across the land gently, building up a tranquil atmosphere.
'...' Millhi was deep in thought, unable to notice that somebody else was coming into her own secret place, until...
'Princess!' A boy with golden hair and sapphire eyes called-Biscotti's summoned hero, Shinku, walked near to Millhi, who was a bit surprised and immediately blushed a bit
when she found that the one who she has been thinking about all night actually turned up right in front of her.
'H-Hello Shinku, how do you do?' Millhi greeted Shinku while trying to suppress her quickened heartbeat.
'Well you know...everyone is searching for you after your concert, and I thought that you might have gone here, so...' Shinku answered with a smile, '...could I sit next to
you?' He asked.
'Yes, please.' Millhi replied with a peaceful voice, but unable to hide her happiness as her fluffy tail started to wag quickly. But then she remembered Shinku's words about
everyone searching for her, so she asked Shinku worriedly,' should I go back to Firianno Palace now? Rico and Eclair must be worrying about me...'
'Hmm...although I was not sure that you're here, I actually told them "I know where the Princess is", so it's not really a problem...I think.' Shinku smirked, and this made
Millhi giggle a bit too.
The two stared at each other for sometime, then suddenly felt a bit embarrassed. Millhi focused her sight onto the sky again and asked, sounding a little rushed, 'it's beautiful,
isn't it?'
Shinku too looked into the deep-blue sky. 'Yes, it sure is,' he answered.
They went into silence again, but then Shinku came up with an idea. 'Do you want to fly to the sky? I mean...would you like to have a flight with me, Princess?' He suggested,
unsure that whether Millhi would like this idea or not; but his worry soon vanished as Millhi nodded happily immediately, with her tail wagging excitedly.
'Yes, I'd love to!' She answered quickly.
Shinku nodded with a smile(which made Millhi blushed again), then ordered, 'Palladion, tornator form!' The divine sword Palladion, now taking a form of ruby ring, shone and
summoned tornator.
They soon took off to the sky, with Millhi sitting at the front and Shinku standing behind Millhi. Numerous stars flying pass the two, and the silver moon watching over them.
After a few minutes of silence, Millhi broke the silence and asked, 'do you remember the first time we ride tornator together?'
'Of course. At that time we needed to rush to the hall for your concert, and I was totally exhausted after that...but it's good to get there in time,' Shinku recalled his memory
and replied, '...and you sang the same song in the welcome back-concert tonight too, didn't you?' He asked. Millhi could no longer hide her blush as she answered,' yes I
did...the song called "I must be in love".'
'...It's a really good song, and you sang really well...'
'Thank you...'
Millhi's tail wagged nervously as she began to wonder whether Shinku knows the meaning behind the song.
But Shinku did not say anything again. They flew with silence again. Millhi felt a bit disappointed, but did not say anything too.
'Princess,' finally after a few minutes, Shinku started, 'could you please turn around?'
'Shinku?' Millhi was a bit puzzled, but still stood up and turned.
At the moment she turned back, she could not see Shinku's face. In the next second, she was surrounded with warmth and familiar scent. Her heart nearly popped out as she
found that she was being embraced tightly and the fact that she actually could feel Shinku's quick heartbeat too.
Then she heard Shinku's whisper.
'Thank you...thank you for watching over me all the time...' Shinku's voice trembled with emotion, 'thank you for choosing me as your hero...'
Tears started to fell as Millhi felt both happy and sad. She remembered the happiness she felt when Shinku came into her world, the great time they had when they had their
morning walk, the pain that pierce through her heart when Shinku had to go back to his home world and the sadness she experienced when she missed Shinku every night
before the 2nd summon. She wrapped her arms around Shinku's back and too hugged him tightly.
'Shinku...I missed you a lot...I always wanted to meet you...' Millhi sobbed as all of her emotions started to flow out through her tears.
'Me too...and I'm right here now...' Shinku replied, and he could feel himself shivering as he realize how deeply he was thinking about the Princess, even she is from another
'And I'm here to give you my reply once reply which should have been given on the day we parted...'
Millhi raised her head and looked into Shinku's sapphire eyes. More tears rolled out as Shinku's reply rang in her ears.
'I love you, Millhi.'
Millhi broke into tears. Ever since she met the hero, she always wanted Shinku to call her name; and just a moment before her wish did came true. She sobbed so hardly that
she could hardly speak, but she managed to say the sentence.
'I love you too Shinku...I really, really love you a lot...'
Shinku wiped Millhi's tears with his finger, but the warmth Millhi felt just made her cry even harder. Shinku gently stroke her head, then cupped her cheek and stared into her
violet eyes.
'Her's never been this beautiful...' Shinku thought as he felt that he was being pulled by Millhi's eyes.
'Shinku...' Millhi whispered the hero's name and slowly closed her eyes as she knew what will happen next.
'It's just like the fantasy stories I've...' her thought was interrupted as she felt her lips melt with Shinku's. Shinku too closed his eyes as their kiss slowly went more passionate
but with tenderness. The two was in bliss, and knew that even they had to part again someday, their heart would never ever part again.
'...I must have been in love since the day I met you through stargazing...'
'Thank you…Millhi.'
So this is it! I can say that I nearly died because of right all those fluffs...or maybe not. lol Anyway R&R plz! :) |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7945 | You know, I keep meaning to write more for 'Awkward', but I keep getting all these other ideas and writing different things instead. I now have about twenty different River/Doctor stories started in my documents lol.
So this one is a two-parter, the other half is also finished so I will post that up either tommorow if I get time or the day after. It's set in River's professor days, obviously, so quite a late River here and a late-ish Doctor too. I hope you enjoy it because I had lots of fun with this and please please leave me a little review at the end!
By the way is anyone else's alerts from this site not coming through to their email any more?
She knew he was here. She could…sense him. Maybe that was silly but that's what it felt like. Or perhaps it was the Tardis she could sense, after all, she was a part of her. She'd felt her when she materialised ten minutes or so ago as sure as she would feel a strong gust of wind hit her on a stormy day.
So it comes as no surprise to River Song, when, in the middle of a lecture she's giving a group of first-year students on the crash of one of the most famous starships to date, the door at the back of the lecture hall opens and in walks the Doctor.
Ready for him as she'd been, she is able to keep her composure in front of her class. "Can I help you sir?" She asks him shortly and formally.
"Oh, yes - hello!" The Doctor grins at her as her class turns to see who had interrupted. "I'm looking for Professor Song's class, I was told it was in this room…" He says, playing along.
"You were told right - what can I help you with?" She asks him with a perfect poker face.
The Doctor shrugs. "Thinking of switching to archaeology, they suggested I sit in on your lecture."
"I see. Switching from what?"
"Quantum Physics."
"Quite a leap."
Another shrug and a grin. "I like a challenge."
She resists the urge to roll her eyes and instead continues. "Well take a seat then sir, and please be quiet about it." Although still keeping up her charade in front of her class, her words hold a warning to him, as does the look she fixes him with before turning her attention back to her class.
"So, as I was saying. The ship had three-hundred and thirty floors, each of which had been specially designed to provide the…" She falters as she watches the Doctor making his way to a seat; he is sidling through the middle row of students, making them all shift about and mutter, some having to move bags and stand up to allow him to squeeze past. Finally he settles himself in an empty seat right in the middle, apologising to the people beside him. River loudly clears her throat and he looks over at her.
"Sorry - carry on!"
She gives him another glare before continuing.
Unluckily, the subject matter River is lecturing on today is something she is not particularly enthusiastic about but a necessary part of the course, it is therefore, somewhat difficult for her to concentrate on what she's talking about rather than being distracted by the presence of the Doctor.
Damn that man, she thinks furiously, when another involuntary glance at him causes her to forget what she's saying mid-sentence and stutter for a few seconds before continuing. It isn't even like he's doing anything, but he's sitting there, right in the middle of her lecture hall, in amongst all her students and watching her with that damned smirk on his face that tells her that this is definitely her Doctor. And now she's thinking of him instead of what she's teaching and how much she wants this lecture to be over so she can see him properly and it's all going down hill.
"So," She forces her eyes away from his again as she finishes on one particular topic. "Before we move on, are there any questions?"
River just knew the Doctor's hand would raise and she closes her eyes for a second, knowing she can't ignore him when he's sat himself right in the middle of her students so she asks with a sigh, "Yes?"
"Well it's not so much as a question, just that I'd like to tell you that you're wrong." He says with a smirk she wants to slap off his face. There is a soft hum of voices as the students turn in their seats to get a look at who it was who dared to be so outspoken.
"Is that so?" She asks irritably.
"About what?"
"Everything you just said," he tells her brightly. "But go on, you wanted to move on to Latissimon."
"Right," she snaps, trying shoot him her best you-better-be-quiet-now-and-you're-in-big-trouble-later look before turning her attention back to her class. "So -"
"Erm, professor?" She is cut off by a student's voice as he raises his hand.
"Yes, Mr Jeffries?"
"Don't you want to know why he thinks you're wrong?"
She hears the hum of a few other students agreeing. She snaps her attention back to the Doctor.
"Do you have a degree in archaeology sir?" She asks him shortly.
He smirks. "Hell no."
She turns back to Mr Jeffries. "Then no, Matthew, I do not. So, moving on -"
She gives a heavy sigh. "Yes, Miss Long?"
"Do you mind if I ask him why he thinks you're wrong? I mean - this class is supposed to be about debate right? Isn't a lot of archaeological work about controversy?"
River grinds her teeth. "Fine, ask away." She huffs, shooting the Doctor another glare, this one clearly an I-hate-you glare.
The girl, along with all the other students turn to the Doctor expectantly.
He looks triumphant. "Well," he begins grandly. "I won't go in to too much detail that would take all day, but the lovely professor here is basing most of what she just said on her opinion that the Ploton Five was brought down by accident -"
"Fact." River argues.
"Not my opinion, it's a proven fact. As I explained, if you'd been listening, sir, parts of the engine were found in which severe technical faults were discovered. They clearly malfunctioned mid-flight which brought the whole star-ship down."
"Ah yes, that might be how it seemed," the Doctor continued, "but actually those faults weren't built in. They were created mid-flight. There was a mutiny on board."
"There has been no evidence of anything of the like," she snaps back, getting extremely irritated with the way he was attempting to undermine her in front of her own class. "There were no survivors, and no journals, note-pods, nothing, so I don't know where you could have got that idea from other than your ridiculous imagination."
River didn't think she'd ever known her students so quiet, all their attention completely transfixed by this man who had the balls to argue with their professor. They watched the conversation flick back and forth between the two with ardour.
The Doctor continues, "There were no journals or anything, no -"
"Then what are you basing your opinion on?" River demands hotly.
"Not opinion. Fact. And as I would have said if you hadn't interrupted me, actually there was one survivor." He points to himself with a grin.
This statement is followed by a little laughter, and a few whispers shooting round the room.
"You were a survivor of Ploton Five?" River demands with a raised eyebrow that makes it seem as if she thinks the man is clearly insane - when in actual fact she knows he's most probably telling the truth and could kill him for doing so.
"It happened over two thousand years ago." She tells him, as if speaking to a stupid child. A few laughs twitter round the hall.
"I know. I was there." He quips.
She doesn't miss a beat. "Time travel is illegal sir." She holds his gaze daring him to accuse her in front of her class.
He stares at her for a few moments, a smirk on his lips before he gives a small laugh. "Who said I used time travel? Maybe I'm just really old."
"Over two thousand?"
"Wouldn't you like to know."
Their eyes lock for a suspended moment, and she silently warns him that she's going to kill him later for coming in here, and arguing and flirting with her in front of her class.
"Well!" She breaks the silence, addressing the class again. "If the idiot in the third row has quite finished wasting my time and disrupting my lesson, shall we move on?"
"Um -" The Doctor raises his hand again, "I haven't quite finished actually."
Students nudge each other and whisper some more. Who was this man?
She shoots him her deadliest glare yet. "You have if you know what's good for you."
He glares back for a few seconds before grinning. "Okay." He says brightly with a shrug. "Maybe I should see you after class to finish this debate then?"
She raises an eyebrow at him. "I think you should definitely do that, sir."
Her words hold a warning and a few murmurs of "he's in for it!" and the like can be heard flittering around the lecture hall.
Another grin and he stretches his hands out in front of him before putting them behind his head. "I look forward to it."
She holds his gaze another moment. "I wouldn't if I were you. So, class. Shall we continue? Who knows anything about the city of Latissimon?"
Students raise their hands and the class continues, the Doctor, much to River's relief, remaining silent through the rest of it, watching her quietly with a small smile on his lips as he admires the way she conducts herself in front of her students.
She clearly knows what she's talking about and does so in a way that even he manages to find what she's saying vaguely interesting - although he'll deny forever that he was ever even mildly interested in an archaeology class. When hands go up, she always pauses to take the time to hear what the particular student has to say, listening to the silly questions the in the same way she listens to the more intelligent ones. And he loves that she knows every answer.
A few glances around make it clear to him that almost if not all sat in the lecture hall are hanging on to River's every word - himself included - and he has to admit that he finds the whole situation; River Song in front of the class, being a professor…more than a slight turn on.
When the lecture comes to an end, River dismisses the class and they all file out, chatting amongst themselves until only one student remains, hovering by her desk.
"Professor?" It's Matthew Jeffries.
"Yes Mr Jeffries?"
He glances at the Doctor, still seated in the third row and then looks back at River. "Do you mind if I listen in on this? I'm interested to hear his theories on Ploton Five."
She sighs heavily. "His theories are a load of rubbish, Matthew, it would be nothing but a waste of your time to hear what he has to say, and I suggest you spend that time more usefully - like working on your paper. From what I saw of it yesterday you need to get a move on if you're planning to get it finished on time."
Matthew ducks his head. "Yes professor," he mutters, and makes his way towards the door.
"Don't take any prisoners do you?" The Doctor comments cheekily from his seat.
"You be quiet, you're in enough trouble as it is." River snaps at him.
The Doctor smirks and mock-salutes her. "Yes professor."
Matthew has paused at the door, looking at the both of them with slightly narrowed eyes. "Do you two know each other?" He asks suspiciously.
"No," River answers, a little too quickly, and keeping a straight face, tells Matthew, "Never met him before in my life."
The young student looks from River, who is keeping a poker face, to the Doctor who shrugs, before he shrugs himself. "See you tomorrow professor," he goes to leave the room.
"Today, Mr Jeffries!" River calls before he can close the door behind him.
He pops his head back in. "Huh?"
"You have Ancient Artefacts with me after lunch," she tells him in exasperation.
"Oh." He screws his forehead up in thought. "Man is it Thursday? I thought it was Friday."
"Wishful thinking I'm sure," River rolls her eyes. "Now go on, off you go."
Another shrug and he grins at her. "Ah well, could be worse, at least I actually enjoy your classes. See you later!" He calls out as he leaves.
"He fancies you." The Doctor comments the second the door shuts.
She rolls her eyes, turning away from him to gather the papers on her desk into a pile. "My entire class fancies me."
He raises his eyebrows, laughing a little. "Aren't you the modest one?"
She shrugs. "Why deny it?" Turning to face him, she continues, "and who can blame them, I fancied myself when I first regenerated."
He laughs again. "Oh River Song. There is no-one like you."
She is not in the mood for jesting. "What do you want, Doctor, why did you come here?"
"To see you."
"To screw up my lecture more like." Her words are hot and he can tell she's still cross.
Attempting to break the ice he grins as he walks down the steps towards her. "Just keeping you on your toes."
Her eyebrows shoot up. "Keeping me -! I could just…kill you sometimes you know that Doctor?"
He grins at her again although he can tell she is genuinely fuming so tries a pout instead as he comes to a stop before her.
"You're teaching all these young students facts that aren't true - I was only trying to help with their education."
"I'm teaching them facts that are known as archaeological facts - you can't just come waltzing in here and contradict that!" She tells him crossly.
"But you know I'm right."
"I don't care! You can't always be right Doctor!"
"But I can't help it!" He claims.
"You can keep your bloody mouth shut when you're sitting in on one of my lectures!"
"But River," his voice has taken on that whiny tone she just hates now. "My mouth doesn't like staying shut!"
"For God's sake Doctor," she mutters crossly. "Why do you have to be so…you all the time!" She sighs and sits down on her desk.
The Doctor is silent for a few moments before, "River?"
He steps forward and places his hands on her knees, dropping his voice with a smirk. "You're sexy when you're being all…professorish."
She normally would have smiled, or quipped back with something just as flirty but she is genuinely cross with him right now and turns her head away. "Don't try it Doctor, I'm not in the mood."
"Thought you were always in the mood?" He teases cheekily, his hands gripping her knees and trying to push them apart so he can step between them, but she refuses to move her legs and instead pushes him away from her.
"Get off, you've pissed me off and I'm stopping myself from slapping you right now so don't push it!"
The Doctor steps away, a surprised and slightly hurt expression on his face when he realises how genuinely angry she seems to be.
"I was only having a bit of fun. I thought you liked our banter?"
"Not when it's in front of my students I don't!"
"River. They're not going to believe what I say, you're their professor, who it's obvious they admire and look up to, I'm just some mad-man in the third row."
"That's not the point!" She snaps.
He holds his hands up in surrender. "Okay - okay!" He sighs heavily. "I'm sorry I upset you."
She looks at him expectantly, an eyebrow raised. "And?"
"And…I'm sorry I contradicted you in front of your class."
"And…I promise never to do it again?"
She huffs. "That'll do for now."
He stares at her until she flicks her eyes up to meet his. He is looking at her intently, a small smile on his lips. "Want me to make it up to you?"
She raises an eyebrow. "How?"
He grins and steps forward to kiss her on the mouth, moving his lips tenderly against hers. He feels her sigh and relax against him as he winds his hands in her hair and when he pulls back to rest his forehead against hers they are both breathing deeply.
"How long before your next lecture?" He whispers.
"An hour."
"Well." He drops another kiss to her lips. "That gives me just enough time then."
"To what?"
"To make it up to you."
She can't prevent herself from smiling and she presses her body a little closer to his. "Does it now?"
"Mmm hmm. I'll even let you get the handcuffs out."
She laughs at that, and all the anger she'd felt towards him is gone. She can never stay mad at the insufferable man for long.
He kisses her again and she opens her mouth beneath his to let her tongue slide against his, drawing a soft moan from him. After a few moments of the deep kiss she lets him lie her back on the desk, their tongues dancing as he leans over her, standing between her legs. She lifts a high-heeled foot, and wraps her leg around his waist, grinding her lower body against his. They both moan deep in their throats, and are panting when they part for air.
"River," he mutters hoarsely as he moves down to press open-mouthed kisses to her neck.
"No handcuffs sweetie," she pants, running her hands underneath his tweed jacket. "Just you." She lets out a sigh as she tilts her head back to allow him to suck gently at her pulse point. "I missed you," she breathes.
"Missed you too," he just about manages to mumble against her neck.
"Where's the Tardis?" She asks breathlessly, her hearts hammering and heat pooling fast between her legs.
"Down the hallway by the cafeteria," he answers shortly between kisses as he undoes a shirt button.
"Oh…" she mentally swears, that's three buildings away and at least a ten minute walk. "Fuck it," she proclaims, and shoves his jacket off, yanking his bowtie undone and starting on the buttons of his shirt.
The Doctor quickly follows her lead, popping her shirt buttons open one by one, tugging it open once it's undone, his hand finding its way quickly inside the lacy material of her bra to squeeze and fondle a breast. She moans and wriggles against him, pulling his stupid braces off and going straight for the button on his trousers. It's his turn to moan when she gets her hand inside and her lips curl up into a smirk as she teases him.
River briefly slides her legs from his waist to wriggle out of her underwear and the Doctor manages to gather his thoughts enough to have the sense to pull away from her mouth.
"River," he mutters against her neck, "are you sure about this? Couldn't someone come in…?"
"Yes," she pants out, "and if I get fired for having sex in my lecture hall it's your fault."
"Me?" He protests, offended. "How is it my fault?"
"Because you started it," she tells him as she grinds her hips against his, making them both gasp. "And you parked the Tardis too far away."
"Actually," he argues as he runs eager hands up her sides inside her shirt, "you started it, being all sexy and in-charge and clever…I'm actually quite proud of the fact I didn't jump on you in the middle of your lecture."
She laughs throatily. "Well I'm certainly glad you managed to restrain yourself. Not sure that would have gone…down…" she gasps as he bites lightly at her pulse point, "too well…"
"Or," he mumbles, "it would have done, which would have been equally not as good…"
"Oh God can you stop talking," she groans, panting heavily, "and start doing!"
He grins against her lips. "You don't have to ask me twice…"
Like I said, other half of this fic is already written so I'll post it up soon if you let me know if you liked this! :D Although I think it's probably obvious what's going to happen anyway lol :P x
*Edit* To the idiot who left me the rather rude anonymous review...River Song does become a professor, do you even watch Doctor who? She introduced herself as professor in 'Silence in the Library', there's also a reference to it in 'The Time of Angels' Please get your facts straight if you're going to complain about things! |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7948 | Will and Sonny were in a great spot right now. They had been together for approximately two to three weeks and everything was going smoothly. However, they haven't been on a REAL date before. Their supposed "first date" wasn't really what Sonny and Will had in mind. Sonny had to work and it all seemed rushed into. Will has been trying to make plans for the past week, but Sonny was very busy, what with running his own business and attending school.
One night, Sonny was working late. As he was finishing things up at the coffee house, he received a call from home. It was his dad.
"Hello?" answered Sonny.
"Hey Sonny. It's your dad. You have to come home now. There's been an emergency..." said Justin, sounding urgent.
"Euhm okay, I'm on my way."
Sonny, so distraught, left the coffee house, forgetting to lock the door. This recent news really bothered him.
Sonny opened the door to the mansion, in panic. He was hoping nothing happened to his parents Adrienne or Justin, his Aunt Maggie or Uncle Victor. He even thought something might have happened to Will, which made him even more nervous.
"Hey, I'm home. What's the emergency? Your call really freaked me out." Sonny said to his father in a worried voice.
"Oh Sonny, thank god you're home. I really need your help."
"Okay, what's wrong?"
"I can't decide what to wear for my date with your mom tonight." Said Justin, with a smirk.
"A-a-a-are-are-are you freaking kidding me dad? You made it seem like someone got hurt or worse. Wha-wha-wha-why dad?"
"Okay, I'm sorry. I guess it wasn't really an emergency." laughed Justin.
"You think, dad?" Sonny was kind of pissed off.
"Look, again, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have called you for that."
"It's fine. I have to go. I was so worried I completely forgot to lock up the coffee house and I'm scared someone might break in."
Justin agreed.
"By the way, that shirt doesn't match those pants so do something about that." Sonny smiled.
"Hilarious." Said Justin, sarcastically.
As Sonny left the Kiriakis mansion, Justin's phone rang.
"Hey. Yeah, he bought it. He's on his way. Okay, bye."
Sonny ran to the coffee house. He was worried that someone would break in. As he opened the door, he was shocked to see what was in front of him.
"Oh. My. God." Sonny said, in awe, jaw to the floor.
Will was standing there, all smiles. He had set up an incredible table with delicious food and some candles. Will looked amazing. He was wearing the jacket his mom had gotten him with a great looking buttoned down white shirt and he had a great pair of really nice looking jeans on. Casual, yet sexy.
Sonny couldn't believe his eyes. He was definitely speechless.
Will decided to break the silence. "Hey, Sonny." He said so with a big smile.
"Euhm hey, Will. Wha-wha-what's going on here?"
"I couldn't stand not being with you for another day, so I organized this little thing. I called your dad to tell him my plans and he was incredibly supportive of it. He actually came up with the divers –"
Sonny interrupted Will, surprised "Wait, my dad was in on this?"
Will laughed "Yeah. He even said that he was happy for us and that he really just wants you to, you know, be happy and that I make you that." A smile broke out on Will's face.
"Well, yeah, of course you do." Sonny approaches Will and grabs his hand. "I can't believe you did this, Will. You really didn't have to. I've been so busy lately, I'm so sorry I couldn't make any of the plans you had sought out for us."
"Hey, don't worry about it. I know how busy you've been. It's one of the best things I love about you. You're so determined and driven, and I admire that so much about you. I mean, I wish I had those qualities." Will looked down.
"Hey, hey, hey look at me. What did I say about not thinking you're good enough?" Will looked at Sonny. "You are an amazing guy. You're funny, smart, incredibly sweet, generous, caring and loving." Will's gorgeous smile appeared. "Plus, you are really, really adorably hot." Sonny and Will laugh. "I mean, look at you. You look great. I, on the other hand, look like crap."
"What? You're handsome. Always have been. Besides, I don't care what you're wearing right now. As long as you are here, right by my side, I couldn't care any less." Will stared deeply into Sonny's eyes.
"Thank you, Will. I'm so happy to be with you. I've never been happier." Sonny pulled Will into a passionate kiss. Much like their first real kiss, it was really sweet, but sensual at the same time. Will had never kissed Gabi with such passion.
Pulling away from the kiss, Will looked at Sonny with a face that just simply reflected every word Sonny had just uttered to him.
"So, should we carry on with the date?" said Will.
"Yes, let's."
Will and Sonny shared a big smile. They were incredibly happy. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7949 | Reviews for Royal Pain
ForeverRock17 chapter 5 . 7/15/2010
LOVE IT update soon
Maxegirl1313 chapter 3 . 7/3/2010
Um, wow, that's really weird. My name is Abby Johnson. Your character and I share some traits(VCR ftw!), but I'd like to say i'm less violent.
Anyway. It was just... weird that we're named the same thing. A crazy random happenstance, if you will.
Spunkalovely chapter 4 . 4/9/2009
I love Abby's character. ] I have a feeling that Ashlee and Jane are going to find out about her princess-ness and cause drama. Am I right? Eh, maybe. Maybe not. d Amazing chapter, I can't wait for the next one.
elvira chapter 4 . 1/30/2009
plz update soon :D
jquackers chapter 4 . 1/24/2009
I love Jane already. She's awesome. It'd just suck if she found out Abby was a princess. O:
jquackers chapter 3 . 1/24/2009
LOL. Abby rocks. That guy totally got pwned. :D
Starting to like this. Getting interesting.
ROFL. Chanel another name for Axe? You're a genius. XD
jquackers chapter 2 . 1/24/2009
-twitch- Red hair.. Total turn-off for me. XD
Eww, Laurence? That name is like.. so.. -shivers-
jquackers chapter 1 . 1/24/2009
O.o Weird start, but.. Eh.
I just wanted to point something out. I noticed that sometimes, you don't say a character is doing something and then another character says something about that action. For example, in the beginning where the mom tells her to stop hitting the VCR, I'm pretty sure there was no sentence saying she was.
It's just sorta -annoying- when I see that. But that's just me. O:
Kyrina chapter 4 . 1/24/2009
this is pretty goos please update soon!
rainbowpuddle chapter 4 . 1/24/2009
Interesting. I'd like to see more from you :) |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7957 | Where is KPFA
How to Get to KPFA
KPFA is located at 1929 Martin Luther King Jr Way, a half block north of University Ave in Berkeley.
Syndicate content
Listen Live:
Listen Live
(64K stereo mp3)
KPFA 94.1 FM (24k mp3)
KPFB 89.3 FM (16k mp3)
iPhone: Public Radio App
Android: TuneIn Radio App
WebOS: Public Radio App
Click Here For Help Listening
KPFA Video Channel |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7961 | Luke 3: John Baptizes the Son of God
New Testament: Student Study guide, (2003), 55–56
John the Baptist and Jesus were cousins (see Luke 1:36), and John was just six months older than Jesus. He was sent to prepare the way for the mission of Jesus Christ. As you study Luke 3, look for what John taught the people and the ways it would help them be ready to hear the Savior. Be sure to read the Joseph Smith Translation additions to this chapter, which tell us more about the mission of Jesus Christ.
Understanding the Scriptures
Luke 3
Tetrarch (v. 1)Ruler or governor
Remission (v. 3)Forgiveness
The wrath to come (v. 7)The coming judgments of God
Fruits worthy of repentance (v. 8)Actions that demonstrate true repentance
Ax is laid unto the root of the trees (v. 9)See “Understanding the Scriptures” for Matthew 3:10 (p. 12)
Hewn (v. 9)Cut
Publicans (v. 12)Tax collectors
Exact (v. 13)Take, collect
Content (v. 14)Satisfied
Mused (v. 15)Thought about
Latchet (v. 16)Laces or straps
Fan (v. 17)A tool or instrument used to separate wheat kernels from their lighter outer shell (chaff) that is not eaten
Purge his floor (v. 17)Clean his place of harvesting
Exhortation (v. 18)A speech to encourage and strengthen
Reproved (v. 19)Scolded, rebuked
separating wheat from chaff
Separating wheat from chaff
Luke 3:8–9—“We Have Abraham to Our Father”
The Lord made great promises to Abraham because of his faithfulness (see Genesis 13:14–17; Abraham 2:8–11). Many Jews believed that they would be saved simply because they were the descendants of Abraham (see JST,Luke 3:13). John the Baptist told them that if they did not repent, they would be cut down like useless trees. This teaching emphasized that we will be judged by our works, and that only the righteous receive eternal life.
Luke 3:19–20—What Had Herod Done Wrong?
Luke 3:19–20 refers to Herod Antipas, the tetrarch. He was the son of Herod the Great, whom you read about in Matthew 2. Herod Antipas left his first wife to marry his niece Herodias, who had been married to his brother Philip. Such a marriage was against the law of Moses (see Leviticus 20:21). When John the Baptist called him to repent, Herod had John thrown into prison.
Studying the Scriptures
Do the three following activities (A–C) as you study Luke 3.
Activity A iconJohn Prepares the Way
1. 1.
Review Luke 3:7–14 and list the “fruits worthy of repentance” that John told the people to “bring forth” (v. 8).
2. 2.
Write about how each of these fruits would help us prepare to meet the Savior.
Activity B iconWhat Should We Do?
After John the Baptist taught the people that every tree that would not grow good fruit would be cut down and “cast into the fire” (Luke 3:9), the people asked, “What shall we do then?” (v. 10). John then gave some examples of what it meant to bring forth good fruit.
1. 1.
List what John suggested for:
1. a.
People with food and clothing
2. b.
3. c.
2. 2.
Based on what John taught, write what you think he would suggest today for:
1. a.
Teenagers at school
2. b.
Children living with their parents
3. c.
John the Baptist
Activity C iconChoose a Symbol
1. 1.
Explain what each of the following words found in Luke 3:7–18 could symbolize in the message or mission of John the Baptist: vipers, stones, fruit, roots, shoes, wheat.
2. 2.
Choose one of the above symbols that people you know would be least likely to relate to. Think of a different symbol that people in your area might better understand. Describe how you would use it to teach a principle John taught. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7962 | Chapter 7
Ammon finds the land of Lehi-Nephi, where Limhi is king—Limhi’s people are in bondage to the Lamanites—Limhi recounts their history—A prophet (Abinadi) had testified that Christ is the God and Father of all things—Those who sow filthiness reap the whirlwind, and those who put their trust in the Lord will be delivered. About 121 B.C.
And now, it came to pass that after king Mosiah had had continual peace for the space of three years, he was desirous to know concerning the people who awent up to dwell in the land of bLehi-Nephi, or in the city of Lehi-Nephi; for his people had heard nothing from them from the time they left the land of cZarahemla; therefore, they wearied him with their teasings.
And it came to pass that king Mosiah granted that sixteen of their strong men might go up to the land of Lehi-Nephi, to inquire concerning their brethren.
And it came to pass that on the morrow they started to go up, having with them one aAmmon, he being a strong and mighty man, and a bdescendant of Zarahemla; and he was also their leader.
And now, they knew not the course they should travel in the wilderness to go up to the land of Lehi-Nephi; therefore they wandered many days in the wilderness, even aforty days did they wander.
And when they had wandered forty days they came to a ahill, which is north of the land of bShilom, and there they pitched their tents.
And aAmmon took three of his brethren, and their names were Amaleki, Helem, and Hem, and they went down into the land of bNephi.
And behold, they met the king of the people who were in the land of Nephi, and in the land of aShilom; and they were surrounded by the king’s guard, and were btaken, and were cbound, and were committed to dprison.
And it came to pass when they had been in prison two days they were again brought before the king, and their bands were loosed; and they stood before the king, and were permitted, or rather acommanded, that they should answer the questions which he should ask them.
And he said unto them: Behold, I am aLimhi, the son of Noah, who was the son of Zeniff, who came up out of the bland of Zarahemla to inherit this land, which was the land of their fathers, who was made a cking by the dvoice of the people.
10 And now, aI desire to know the cause whereby ye were so bold as to come near the walls of the city, when I, myself, was with my guards without the bgate?
12 And now, when Ammon saw that he was permitted to speak, he went forth and abowed himself before the king; and rising again he said: O king, I am very thankful before God this day that I am yet alive, and am permitted to speak; and I will endeavor to speak with boldness;
13 For I am assured that if ye had known me ye would not have suffered that I should have worn these bands. For I am Ammon, and am a adescendant of Zarahemla, and have come up out of the bland of Zarahemla to inquire concerning our brethren, whom cZeniff brought up out of that land.
14 And now, it came to pass that after Limhi had heard the words of Ammon, he was exceedingly aglad, and said: Now, I know of a surety that my brethren who were in the land of Zarahemla are byet alive. And now, I will rejoice; and on the morrow I will cause that my people shall rejoice also.
15 For behold, we are in bondage to the Lamanites, and are ataxed with a tax which is grievous to be borne. And now, behold, our brethren will deliver us out of our bbondage, or out of the hands of the Lamanites, and we will be their cslaves; for it is better that we be slaves to the Nephites than to pay tribute to the king of the Lamanites.
17 And now, it came to pass on the morrow that king Limhi sent a proclamation among all his people, that thereby they might gather themselves together to the atemple, to hear the words which he should speak unto them.
18 And it came to pass that when they had gathered themselves together that he aspake unto them in this wise, saying: O ye, my people, lift up your heads and be comforted; for behold, the time is at hand, or is not far distant, when we shall no longer be in subjection to our enemies, notwithstanding our many strugglings, which have been in vain; yet I trust there bremaineth an effectual struggle to be made.
19 Therefore, lift up your heads, and rejoice, and put your atrust in bGod, in that God who was the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; and also, that God who cbrought the children of dIsrael out of the land of Egypt, and caused that they should walk through the eRed Sea on dry ground, and fed them with fmanna that they might not perish in the wilderness; and many more things did he do for them.
20 And again, that same God has brought our fathers aout of the land of Jerusalem, and has kept and preserved his people even until now; and behold, it is bbecause of our iniquities and abominations that he has brought us into bondage.
22 And all this he did, for the sole purpose of abringing this people into subjection or into bondage. And behold, we at this time do pay btribute to the king of the Lamanites, to the amount of one half of our corn, and our barley, and even all our grain of every kind, and one half of the increase of our flocks and our herds; and even one half of all we have or possess the king of the Lamanites doth exact of us, or our lives.
23 And now, is not this grievous to be borne? And is not this, our affliction, great? Now behold, how great reason we have to amourn.
24 Yea, I say unto you, great are the reasons which we have to amourn; for behold how many of our brethren have been slain, and their blood has been spilt in vain, and all because of iniquity.
26 And a aprophet of the Lord have they bslain; yea, a chosen man of God, who told them of their wickedness and abominations, and prophesied of many things which are to come, yea, even the coming of Christ.
27 And because he said unto them that Christ was the aGod, the Father of all things, and said that he should take upon him the bimage of man, and it should be the cimage after which man was created in the beginning; or in other words, he said that man was created after the image of dGod, and that God should come down among the children of men, and take upon him flesh and blood, and go forth upon the face of the earth—
28 And now, because he said this, they did aput him to death; and many more things did they do which brought down the wrath of God upon them. Therefore, who wondereth that they are in bondage, and that they are smitten with sore afflictions?
29 For behold, the Lord hath said: I will not asuccor my people in the day of their transgression; but I will hedge up their ways that they prosper not; and their doings shall be as a bstumbling block before them.
30 And again, he saith: If my people shall sow afilthiness they shall breap the cchaff thereof in the whirlwind; and the effect thereof is poison.
31 And again he saith: If my people shall sow filthiness they shall reap the aeast wind, which bringeth immediate destruction.
33 But if ye will aturn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all bdiligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7977 | Data Retention
From Noisebridge
Revision as of 07:31, 12 August 2011 by Stop Mandated ISP Spying (Talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search
The USA is on the verge of passing a new law which would require ISPs to spy on the customers and retain logs of their internet activities:
Aside from contacting elected representatives as described in the EFF campaign above, what can we do to stop it?
We need to bring awareness of this issue to a wider range of people. We need op-eds in major papers. We need discussion on national TV and radio programs. We need to make and distribute posters, handbills, etc.
We must present the issues in ways that are relevant. The problem of data retention impacts small businesses, it would place an undue burden on people who wish to provide services, it would create an unfair advantage for larger businesses while also impacting the risk carried by larger businesses who are forced to comply. And, worst of all, it would have a terrible chilling effect on free speech.
Please add ideas and content to this page! Time is running short.
Personal tools |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/7983 | Logo transformation, Image to vector
Job Description
For our company, we need to digitalise our logo. You can find the scanned hardcopy attached. We need exactly this logo,
-Must be all plain black, not traces like in the picture. In picture there are traces because it is scanned from a business card
-Formatted as a vector file so we can resize it as we like.
-We need it on 22th of November
Thank you for your interest
Open Attachment |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8003 |
Re: [Pulp-list] Adding notes to v2.0 repositories
On 01/23/2012 02:07 AM, Nick Coghlan wrote:
After a month or so dealing with purely internal PulpDist updates
(almost all packaging related), I'm finally back to tasks that involve
accessing a few more pieces of the v2.0 repository APIs.
Firstly, is there a more recent reference than the initial blog post
[1]? If there's something more recent, that may answer a few of my
questions on its own. (e.g. just from looking at my own create_repo()
and save_repo() code, I know that blog post doesn't accurately describe
the API for the those two operations, since the former is a POST on the
collection, while the latter is a PUT on the resource itself)
Since no one was using them yet, I've been holding off on writing these so I didn't have to update them as I changed the code. Now that you (and some guys on my team as well) are going to be using them, I need to suck it up and write them. I'll start on them today.
Secondly, the specific question I have right now is how to set the
"notes" field on a repository. The blog post that sketched out the API
shows it in the displayed fields for the list of repositories, but
doesn't indicate whether or not it can be populated in the POST
(creation) or PUT (update) calls.
Yes on both.
(I'll start experimenting with this tomorrow my time, but figured the
time zones involved made it worth asking the question before I went home
this evening)
Not sure I'll be done before you get in for your morning, but I'll keep you posted.
Jay Dobies
Freenode: jdob @ #pulp
http://pulpproject.org | http://blog.pulpproject.org
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8026 | airlied airlied - Fri, 10 Jan 2014 01:24:40 GMT LiveJournal / airlied 5891031 personal airlied 80 68 Fri, 10 Jan 2014 01:24:40 GMT talk from LCA2014 - Virtio GPU Talked yesterday about virgil project, virtio based GPU and where its going.<br /><br />watch it here,<br /><a href='' rel='nofollow'></a> public 0 Tue, 17 Dec 2013 07:06:32 GMT adventures in EGL image buffer passing So I've been looking into how I can do some buffer passing with EGL and OpenGL with a view to solving my split renderer/viewer problem for qemu.<br /><br /><a href='' rel='nofollow'></a><br />contains the hacks I've been playing with so far.<br /><br />The idea is to have a rendernode + gbm using server side renderer, that creates textures and FBOs attached to them, renders into them, then sends them to a client side, which renders the contents to the screen using GL rendering.<br /><br />This code reuses keithp's fd passing demo code and some of dvdhrm's simple dma-buf code.<br /><br />Firstly the server uses GBM and rendernodes to create a texture, that it binds to a FBO. It generates an EGLImage from the texture using EGL_GL_TEXTURE_2D_KHR, then uses EGL_MESA_drm_image to get a handle for it, then uses libdrm drmPrimeHandleToFD to create an fd to pass to the server. It passes the fd using the fdpassing code. It then clears the texture, sends the texture info to the client, along with a dirty rect, clears it again, and sends another dirty rect.<br /><br />The client side, uses EGL + GLES2 with EXT_image_dma_buf_import to create an EGLImage from the dma-buf, then uses GL_OES_EGL_image to create a 2D texture from the EGLImage then just renders the texture to a window.<br /><br />Shortcomings I've noticed in the whole stack so far:<br />a) asymmetric interfaces abound:<br /> <br />1) we have an EGLImage importer for dma-buf EXT_image_dma_buf_import, but we have no EGLImage dma-buf exporter yet - hence the MESA_drm_image + libdrm hack.<br /><br />2) we have an EGLImage exported for Desktop OpenGL, EGL_KHR_gl_image works fine. But we only have EGLImage importers for GLES, GL_OES_EGL_image - hence why the client is using GLES2 to render not GL like I'd like.<br /><br />b) gallium is missing dma-buf importing via EXT_image_dma_buf_import, I have a quick patch, since we have the ability to import from fds just not from dma-bufs, I should send out my first hack on this.<br /><br />The demo also has color reversing issues I need to sort out, due to gallium code needing a few more changes I think, but I've gotten this to at least run on my machine with nouveau and the hacked up dma-buf importer patch. public 0 Tue, 10 Dec 2013 04:26:09 GMT disconnected VM operation and 3D So one of the stumbling blocks on my road to getting 3D emulation in a VM is how most people use qemu in deployed situations either via libvirt or GNOME boxes frontends.<br /><br />If you use are using libvirt and have VMs running they have no connection to the running user session or user X server, they run as the qemu user and are locked down on what they can access. You can restart your user session and the VM will keep trucking. All viewing off the VM is done using SPICE or VNC. GNOME Boxes is similar except it runs things as the user, but still not tied to the user session AFAIK (though I haven't confirmed).<br /><br />So why does 3D make this difficult?<br /><br />Well in order to have 3D we need to do two things.<br /><br />a) talk to the graphics card to render stuff<br />b) for local users, show the user the rendered stuff without reading it back into system RAM, and sticking it in a pipe like spice or vnc, remote users get readback and all the slowness it entails.<br /><br />No in order to do a), we face a couple of would like to have scenarios:<br /><br />1. user using open source GPU drivers via mesa stack<br />2. user using closed source binary drivers like NVIDIA or worse fglrx.<br /><br />How to access the graphics card normally is via OpenGL and its window APIs like GLX. However this requires a connection to your X server, if your X server dies your VM dies, if your session restarts your VM dies. <br /><br />For scenario 1, where we have open source kms based drivers, the upcoming render nodes support in the kernel will allow process outside the X server control to use the capabilities of the graphics card via the EGL API. This means we can render in a process offscreen. This mostly solves problem (a) how to talk to the graphics card at all.<br /><br />Now for scenario 2, so far NVIDIA has mostly got no EGL support for its desktop GPUs, so in this case we are kinda out in the cold, until they have at least EGL support, in terms of completely disconnecting the rendering process from the running user X server lifecycle.<br /><br />This leaves problem (b), how do we get the stuff rendered using EGL back to the user session to display it. My first initial hand-wave in this area involved EGL images and dma-buf, but I get the feeling on subsequent reads that this might not be sufficient enough for my requirements. It looks like something like the EGLStream extension might be more suitable, however EGLstream suffers from only being implemented in the nvidia tegra closed source drivers from what I can see. Another option floated was to somehow use an embedded wayland client/server somewhere in the mix, I really haven't figured out the architecture for this yet (i.e. which end has the compositor and which end is the client, perhaps we have both a wayland client and compositor in the qemu process, and then a remote client to display the compositor output, otherwise I wonder about lifetime and disconnect issues). So to properly solve the problem for open source drivers I need to either get EGLstream implemented in mesa, or figure out what the wayland hack looks like.<br /><br />Now I suppose I can assume at some stage nvidia will ship EGL support with the necessary bits for wayland on desktop x86 and I might not have to do anything special and it will all work, however I'm not really sure how to release anything in the stopgap zone.<br /><br />So I suspect initially I'll have to live with typing the VM lifecycle to the logged in user lifecycle, maybe putting the VM into suspend if the GPU goes away, but again figuring out to integrate that with the libvirt/boxes style interfaces is quite tricky. I've done most of my development using qemu SDL and GTK+ support for direct running VMs without virt-manager etc. This just looks ugly, though I suppose you could have an SDL window outside the virt-manager screen and virt-manager could still use spice to show you the VM contents slower, but again it seems sucky. Another crazy idea I had was to have the remote viewer open a socket to the X server and pass it through another socket to the qemu process, which would build an X connection on top of the pre opened socket,<br />therefore avoiding it having to have direct access to the local X server. Again this seems like it could be a largely ugly hack, though it might also work on the nvidia binary drivers as well.<br /><br />Also as a side-note I discovered SDL2 has OpenGL support and EGL support, however it won't use EGL to give you OpenGL only GLES2, it expects you to use GLX for OPENGL, this is kinda fail since EGL with desktop OpenGL should work fine, so that might be another thing to fix! public 9 Thu, 03 Oct 2013 05:17:46 GMT virgil3d: an update Okay its been a while, so where is virgil3d up to now I hear you ask?<br /><br />Initially I wrote a qemu device and a set of guest kernel drivers in order to construct a research platform on which to investigate and develop the virgil protocol, renderer and guest mesa drivers based on Gallium3D and TGSI. Once I got the 3D renderer and guest driver talking I mostly left the pile of hacks in qemu and kernel alone. So with this in mind I've split development into two streams moving forward:<br /><br />1) the virgil3d renderer and 3D development:<br />This is about keeping development of the renderer and guest driver continuing, getting piglit tests passing and apps running. I've been mostly focused on this so far, and there has been some big issues to solve that have taken a lot of the time, but as of today I got xonotic to play inside the VM, and I've gotten the weston compositor to render the right way up. Along with passing ~5100/5400 piglit gpu.tests.<br /><br />The biggest issues in the renderer development have been<br />a) viewport setup - gallium and OpenGL have different viewport directions, and you can see lots of info on Y=0=TOP and Y=0=BOTTOM in the mesa state tracker, essentially this was more than my feeble brain could process so I spent 2 days with a whiteboard, and I think I solved it. This also has interactions with GL extensions like GL_ARB_fragment_coord_conventions, and FBOs vs standard GL backbuffer rendering.<br /><br />b) Conditional rendering - due to the way the GL interface for this extension works I had to revisit my assumption that the renderer could be done with a single GL context, I had to rewrite things to use a GL context per guest context in order to give conditional rendering any chance of working. The main problem was using multiple GL queries for one guest query didn't work at all with the cond rendering interface provided by GL.<br /><br />c) point sprites - these involved doing shader rewrites to stick gl_PointCoord in the right places, messy, but the renderer now has shader variants, however it needs some better reference counting and probably leaks like a sieve for long running contexts.<br /><br />2) a new virtio-gpu device<br /><br />The plan is to create a simple virtio based GPU, that can layer onto a PCI device like the other virtio devices, along with another layer for a virtio-vga device. This virtio based gpu would provide a simple indirect multi-headed modesetting interface for use by any qemu guests, and allow the guest to upload/download data from the host side scanouts. The idea would be then to give this device capabilities that the host can enable when it detects the 3d renderer is available and qemu is started correctly. So then the guest can use the virtio gpu as a simple GPU with no 3D, then when things are ready the capability is signalled and it can enable 3D. This seems like the best upstreaming plan for this work, and I've written the guts of it.<br /><br />In order to test the virtio-gpu stuff I've had to start looking at porting qemu to SDL 2.0 as SDL 1.2 can't do multi-window and can't do argb cursors, but SDL 2.0 can. So I'm hoping with SDL 2.0 and virtio-gpu you can have multiple outputs per the vgpu show up in multiple SDL windows.<br /><br />I'll be speaking about virgil3d at the KVM Forum in Edinburgh in a couple of weeks and also be attending Kernel Summit. public 3 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 07:13:02 GMT glamor Xv support (gsoc in a day) So had a GSOC project to implement Xv support in glamor, but the candidate got a better offer to do something more interesting, so I was bit sleep deprived (sick kid) and didn't want to face my current virgl task and I'm interested in using glamor potentially for virgil so I took a learning day :-)<br /><br />So I spent the day writing Xv support for glamor for no good reason,<br /><br /><a href='' rel='nofollow'></a><br />git:// xv-support<br /><br />git:// glamor-xv-support<br /><br />contains the result of my day, the glamor repo may not be public yet, its waiting on fd.o cgit crawler.<br /><br />Xv works for YV12 planar videos, I suspect to do packed video support I'd need a GL extension to expose the hw formats for doing packed video, this probably wouldn't be a major extension and maybe someone might do it sometime.<br /><br />The code supports, brightness, contrast, hue and saturation controls using the code ported from the radeon driver.<br /><br />I've tested it with mplayer on evergreen card of some variant, and it seems to work fine with the one video I used :-) public 2 Fri, 26 Jul 2013 04:06:50 GMT virgil3d: design document and sorta build instructions I've published on Google docs a bit more of a technical document on how virgil3d is designed.<br /><br /><a href='' rel='nofollow'></a><br /><br />I'm hoping to flesh it out a bit more, and of course I'll probably never keep it up to date, but it should be close enough :-)<br /><br />I've also put up some build instructions here:<br /><a href='' rel='nofollow'></a><br /><br />They are messy and incomplete, any don't go packaging anything. public 0 Thu, 18 Jul 2013 03:51:13 GMT Introducing Virgil - 3D virtual GPU for qemu Virgil is a research project I've been working on at Red Hat for a few months now and I think is ready for at least announcing upstream and seeing if there is any developer interest in the community in trying to help out.<br /><br />The project is to create a 3D capable virtual GPU for qemu that can be used by Linux and eventually Windows guests to provide OpenGL/Direct3D support inside the guest. It uses an interface based on Gallium/TGSI along with virtio to communicate between guest and host, and it goal is to provided an OpenGL renderer along with a complete Linux driver stack for the guest.<br /><br />The website is here with links to some videos:<br /><a href='' rel='nofollow'></a><br /><br />some badly formatted Questions/Answers (I fail at github):<br /><a href='' rel='nofollow'></a><br /><br />Just a note and I can't stress this strongly enough, this isn't end user ready, not even close, it isn't even bleeding edge user ready, or advanced tester usage ready, its not ready for distro packaging, there is no roadmap or commitment to finishing it. I don't need you to install it and run it on your machine and report bugs.<br /><br />I'm announcing it because there maybe other developers interested or other companies interested and I'd like to allow them to get on board at the design/investigation stage, before I have to solidify the APIs etc. I also don't like single company projects and if I can announcing early can help avoid that then so be it!<br /><br />If you are a developer interested in working on an open source virtual 3D GPU, or you work for a company who is interested in developing something in this area, then get in touch with me, but if you just want to kick the tyres, I don't have time for this yet. public 11 Sat, 30 Mar 2013 08:08:58 GMT on open source development and disagreements So I've been involved in a recent dispute on the wayland project, with a person I'd classify as a poisonous person. Basically a contributor who was doing more damage than good, and was causing unneeded disturbances. I won't comment any further on that here, but just setting the scene for writing this.<br /><br />So everytime something like this happens in a project, there emerges from the woodwork, people who claim that having public discussions about these sort of things is bad for open source, or makes us look like a crowd of juvenile developers, also how you never see this thing on closed sourced projects, or with open-source projects developer in-house and thrown over the wall. I've also recently seen this crop up when Linus flamed people, and everyone wondered why he didn't do it on some sort of private list or something.<br /><br />Now I can only think these people are one of:<br /><br />a) never worked in a company on a major closed source project.<br /><br />b) if they have, its been top down development, where managers are telling them what to do, and maybe some architect dude has drawn a load of pretty pictures and docs. Of course the architect is never wrong, but its above your pay grade to talk to someone of such authority, so when you find problems with the architecture you hack around them instead of growing a pair and standing your ground, or else you aren't good enough to notice anything wrong. <br /><br />I've seen plenty of companies where developers leave due to in-fighting or transfer to a different department, this stuff never comes out and you all are none the wiser.<br /><br />So open source doesn't have top-down development, its all bottom up, most contributors to major projects do so with some ideas of what they want, but they aren't been driven by a management chain. However it means that there is generally nobody to force someone into their views, and when two people collide (or in this case, one person and everyone else), something has to give, and its best to give in public, so nobody can say it was some sort of cabal or closed decision.<br /><br />Now open-source is about seeing the sausage making process, you get to see all the bits of stuff you don't want to think go into the sausages, you have to face a lot more truth, and you have to be willing to stand up against things without mummy manager to back you up. You can't have all the nice benefits of open-source development without having the bad side, the public blowups and discussion, it just can't work like that. If we take all those discussions to private lists or emails, where do you draw the line, are the people on that private list some sort of shadowy cabal overlords? Do you want an open-source development model that isn't public?<br /><br />I'm sure people will say why can't we all just get along? and why can't everyone act mature? well a) we are human, b) there is no HR department frontend blocking the people at the gate, there's no interview process to weed out undesirable traits before they join the project. So when someone submits patches that work you generally accept them as a contributor, and it can take a while before you realise they are doing more harm than good, at which point its going to be public. public 10 Tue, 05 Mar 2013 08:32:30 GMT its a bird, is it a space station? no its a display server [update: Mir page removed most of the reasons Wayland wasn't suitable, so why did they not use wayland again?]<br />[update: still my opinion, really, nobody is making me say shit, lwn commenters really like to believe I've got a hand up my ass]<br /><br />Okay I'm going to write a short piece on why I believe Mir isn't a good idea. If you don't know what mir is then don't bother reading the rest of this until you do.<br /><br />So lets take a look at Mir from a cynical pov (I'm good at that): Say this is nothing more than a shallow power play by Canonical to try and control parts of the graphics infrastructure on Linux. It must be really frustrating to have poured so much money into a company and not have 100% control over all the code the company produces and have the upstream community continually ignore your "leadership". This would leave you wanting to exert control where you can and making decisions on what spaces you can do that in internally.<br /><br />So in order to justify the requirement that Mir is required by the community at large above the current project in the space, Wayland, it is necessary to bash wayland in order that your community can learn the lines so they can repeat them right or wrong across the Internet. So you post a page like this<br /><a href='' rel='nofollow'></a><br />and a section called "Why Not Wayland / Weston?".<br /><br />Now I've been reliably informed by people who know, that nothing in that section makes any sense for anyone who studied wayland for longer than 5 mins a year or two ago, especially the main points about the input handling. Nobody from Canonical has ever posted any questions to wayland mailing lists or contacted Wayland developers asking to support a different direction.<br /><br />So maybe I'm being too cynical and Hanlon's razor applies, "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity".<br /><br />Now the question becomes do you want the display server that you are going to base the future of the Linux desktop and possible mobile spaces on a server written by people too stupid to understand the current open source project in the space?<br /><br />The thing is putting stuff on the screen really isn't the hard part of display servers, getting input to where it needs to go is, and making it secure. Input methods are hard, input is hard, guess what they haven't even contemplated implementing yet?<br /><br />Valve? NVIDIA? AMD? I'd be treading carefully :-)<br /><br />(all my own opinion, not speaking for my employer or anyone really). Probably should comment on the g+ threads or lwn or somewhere cool. public 2 Mon, 07 Jan 2013 06:02:07 GMT reverse optimus implementation So I took some time today to try and code up a thing I call reverse optimus.<br /><br />Optimus laptops come in a lot of flavours, but one annoying one is where the LVDS/eDP panel is only connected to the Intel and the outputs are only connected to the nvidia GPU.<br /><br />Under Windows, either the intel is rendering the compositor and the nvidia GPU is only used for offloads (when no monitors are plugged in), but when a monitor is plugged in, generally the nvidia takes over the compositor rendering, and just gives the Intel GPU a pixmap to put on the LVDS/eDP screen.<br /><br />Now under Linux the first case mostly works OOTB on F18 with intel/nouveau, but switching compositors on the fly is going to take a lot more work, particularly with compositor writers, and I haven't see much jumping up on down on the client side to lead the way.<br /><br />So I hacked up a thing I called reverse optimus, it kinda sucks, but it might be a decent stop gap.<br /><br />The intel still renders the compositor, however it can use the nvidia to output slaved pixmaps. This is totally the opposite of how the technology was meant to be used, and it introduces another copy. So the intel driver now copies from its tiled rendering to a shared linear rendering (just like with USB GPUs), however since we don't want nouveau scanning out of system RAM, the nouveau driver then copies the rendering from the shared pixmap into the nvidia VRAM object. So we get a double copy, and we chew lots of power, but hey you can see stuff. Also the slave output stuff sucks for synchronisation so far, so you will also get tearing and other crappyness.<br /><br />There is also a secondary problem with the output configuration. Some laptops (Lenovo I have at least), connect DDC lines to the Intel GPU for outputs which are only connected to the nvidia GPU, so when I enable the nvidia as a slave, I get some cases of double monitor reporting. This probably requires parsing ACPI tables properly like Windows does, in order to make it not do that. However I suppose having two outputs is better than none :-)<br /><br />So I've gotten this working today with two intel/nvidia laptops, and I'm contemplating how to upstream it, so far I've just done some hackery to nouveau, that along with some fixes in intel driver master, and patch to the X server (or Fedora koji 1.13.1-2 server) makes it just work,<br /><br /><a href='' rel='nofollow'></a><br /><br />I really dislike this solution, but it seems that it might be the best stopgap until I can sort out the compositor side issues, (GL being the main problem).<br /><br />update: I've pushed reverse-prime branches to my X server and -ati repo. public 6 Wed, 24 Oct 2012 20:51:21 GMT raspberry pi drivers are NOT useful So I awake to find an announcement that the userspace drivers for the rPI have been released, lots of people cheering, but really what they've released is totally useless to anyone who uses or develops this stuff.<br /><br />(libv commented on their thread: <a href='' rel='nofollow'></a><br />maybe he'll follow up with a blog post at some point).<br /><br />So to start the GLES implementation is on the GPU via a firmware. It provides a high level GLES RPC interface. The newly opened source code just does some marshalling and shoves it over the RPC.<br /><br />Why is this bad?<br />You cannot make any improvements to their GLES implementation, you cannot add any new extensions, you can't fix any bugs, you can't do anything with it. You can't write a Mesa/Gallium driver for it. In other words you just can't.<br /><br />Why is this not like other firmware (AMD/NVIDIA etc)?<br />The firmware we ship on AMD and nvidia via nouveau isn't directly controlling the GPU shader cores. It mostly does ancillary tasks like power management and CPU offloading. There are some firmwares for video decoding that would start to fall into the same category as this stuff. So if you want to add a new 3D feature to the AMD gpu driver you can just write code to do it, not so with the rPI driver stack.<br /><br />Will this mean the broadcom kernel driver will get merged?<br />No.<br /><br />This is like Ethernet cards with TCP offload, where the full TCP/IP stack is run on the Ethernet card firmware. These cards seem like a good plan until you find bugs in their firmware stack or find out their TCP/IP implementation isn't actually any good. The same problem will occur with this. I would take bets the GLES implementation sucks, because they all do, but the whole point of open sourcing something is to allow other to improve it something that can't be done in this case.<br /><br />So really Rasberry Pi and Broadcom - get a big FAIL for even bothering to make a press release for this, if they'd just stuck the code out there and gone on with things it would have been fine, nobody would have been any happier, but some idiot thought this crappy shim layer deserved a press release, pointless. (and really phoronix, you suck even more than usual at journalism). public 23 Tue, 19 Jun 2012 13:36:42 GMT randr 1.5 demo videos Two videoes on youtube:<br /><br />Randr 1.5 GPU offload:<br /><a href='' rel='nofollow'></a><br /><br />Randr 1.5 USB hotplug<br /><a href='' rel='nofollow'></a> public 0 Mon, 14 May 2012 17:05:58 GMT ripping the X server a new driver API So I've been slowly writing the hotplug support v3 in between all the real jobs I have to do.<br /><br />[side note: When I started out on hotplug. one of my goals was to avoid changing the server API/ABI too much so I could continue side by side testing.]<br /><br />how did I get to v3?<br />v0.1: was called dynerama it failed miserably and proved that using Xinerama as the plugging layer was a bad plan.<br />v1: was the first time I decided to use an impedance layer between some server objects and driver objects.<br />v2: was the a major rebase of v1.<br /><br />v2 was trucking along nicely and I managed to get the design to the stage where PRIME offloading intel/nouveau worked, USB device hotplug with udl worked, and GPU switch worked between two drivers. However v2 duplicated a lot of code and invented a whole new set of API objects called DrvXRec, so DrvScreenRec, DrvPixmapRec, DrvGCRec etc, this lead me to looking at the pain of merging this into the drivers and the server, and my goals of avoiding changing the API/ABI was getting in my way.<br /><br />So before starting v3 I decided to rework some of the server "APIs".<br /><br />The X server has two main bodies of code, one called DIX, and one called DDX. The DIX (device independent X) code and the DDX (Device dependent X code). In the tree the dix lives up in the top level dirs, and for server the DDX lives in hw/xfree86. The main object with info about protocol screens and GPUs is called ScreenRec in the DDX and ScrnInfoRec in the DIX. These are stored in two arrays, screenInfo.screens in the DIX and xf86Screens in the DDX, when code wants to convert between these it can do one of a few things.<br /><br />a) lookup by index, both structs have an index value, so to go from ScrnInfo to Screen you look at screenInfo.screens[scrninfo->scrnIndex] and other way is xf86Screens[screen->myNum]. This is like the I didn't try and make an API, I just exposed everything.<br /><br />b) ScrnInfo has a ScreenPtr in it, so some code can do ScrnInfo->pScreen to get the pointer to the dix struct. But this pointer is initialised after a bunch of code is called, so you really can't guarantee this pointer is going to be useful for you.<br /><br />c) XF86SCRNINFO uses the DIX private subsystem to lookup the Scrn in the Screen's privates. This is the least used and probably slowest method.<br /><br />So also screenInfo.screens contains the protocol screens we exposed to the clients, so this array cannot really change or move around. So I'd like to add screeninfo.gpuscreens and xf86GPUScreens and not have drivers know which set of info they are working on, however (a) totally screws this idea, since the indices are always looked up directly in the global arrays.<br /><br />Now lots of the Screen/ScrnInfo APIs exposed to the drivers pass an int index as the first parameter, the function in the driver then goes and looks up the global arrays.<br /><br />So my first API changes introduce some standard conversion functions xf86ScreenToScrn and xf86ScrnToScreen, and converts a lot of the server to use those. Yay an API. The second set of changes then changes all of the index passing APIs to pass ScrnInfoPtr or ScreenPtr, so the drivers don't go poking into global arrays. Now this is a major API change, it will involve slightly messy code in drivers that want to work with both servers, but I can't see a nicer way to do it. I've done a compat header file that will hopefully allows to cover a lot of this stuff where we don't see it.<br /><br />I've ono other API introduction on the list, Glyph Pictures are another global array indexed by screen index, I've gone and added an accessor function so that drivers don't use the index anymore to get at the array contents directly.<br /><br />Once this stuff lands in the server, a team of people will go forward and port the drivers to the new APIs (who am I kidding). public 2 Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:28:41 GMT update on hotplug server No new videos yet, need to fix some more rendering bugs so it looks nicer :)<br /><br />So I've been working towards 3 setups:<br /><br />a) intel rendering + nouveau offload<br />b) nouveau rendering + DVI output + intel LVDS output<br />c) hotplug USB with either intel or nvidia rendering.<br /><br />Categorisation of devices roles:<br />I've identified 4 devices roles so far:<br />preferred master: the device is happy to be master<br />reluctant master: the device can be a master but would rather not be<br />offload slave: device can be used as an additional DRI2 renderer for a master<br />output slave: device can be used an additional output for a master<br /><br />For the 3 setups above:<br />a) intel would be preferred master, nvidia would be offload slave<br />b) nvidia would be preferred master, intel would be output slave<br />c) usb devices would be output slaves, however if no master exists, usb device would be reluctant master.<br /><br />I've rebased the prime work[1] on top of the dma-buf upstream work, and worked through most of the lifetime problems. Some locking issues still exist, and I'll have to get back to them. But the code works and doesn't oops randomly which is good.<br /><br />prime is the kernel magic needed for this work, as it allows sharing of a buffer between two drm drivers, so for (a) it shares the dri2 front pixmap between devices, for (b/c) it shares a pixmap that the rendering gpu copies dirty updates to and the output slaves use as their scanout pixmap.<br /><br />So I've done nearly all the work to share between intel and nouveau and I've done the kernel driver work for udl, but I haven't done the last piece in userspace for (c), which is to use the shared pixmap as usb scanout via the modesetting driver.<br /><br />Today I hacked in a switch on the first randr command, so I can start the X server with intel as master and nouveau in offload mode. I can run gears on intel or nouveau, then after the randr command and another randr command to set a mode, the X server migrates everything to the nouveau driver, puts it in master mode, and places the intel driver into output slave mode. It seems to render my xterm + metacity content fine.<br /><br />So the current short-term TODO is:<br />fix some issues with my nouveau/exa port rendering<br />fix some issues with xcompmgr<br />add usb output slave support.<br /><br />Medium-term TODO:<br />worked out how to control this stuff, via randr protocol. How much information do we need to expose to clients about GPUs, and how do we control them. Open issues with atomicity of updates to avoid major uglys. Switching from intel master to nvidia master + intel outputs, means we have to reconfigure the Intel output to point at the new pixmap, but the more steps we put in there for clients to do, the more ugly and flashing we'll see on screen, however we probably want a lot of this to be client driven (i.e. gnome-settings-daemon).<br /><br />Longer term TODO:<br />Get GLX_ARB_robustness done, now that Ian has done the context creation stuff, this should be a lot more trivial. (so trivial someone else could do it :)<br /><br />[1] <a href='' rel='nofollow'></a> public 5 Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:15:25 GMT hotplug demo video (teaching new tricks). So today I managed to see something on screen doing hotplug work. So I present to you live plugging.<br /><br /><a href='' rel='nofollow'></a><br /><br />Pretty much is a laptop running xf86-video-modesetting driver, with my server, an xterm + metacity. Plug in a USB displaylink device, with a kernel drm driver I wrote for it. (Sneaky xrefresh in the background). and the USB device displays the xterm and metacity.<br /><br />So what actually happens?<br /><br />The X server at the start had loaded drivers using udev, and the a new driver ABI. It exports one X protocol screen and plugs an internal DrvScreen into it.<br /><br />When the hotplug happens, the server inits another DrvScreen for the new device, and plugs it into the single protocol screen. It also copies all the driver level pixmaps/pictures/GCs into the new driver. The single protocol screen at the bottom layer multiplexes across the plugged in drvscreens.<br /><br />This is like Xinerama pushed down a lot further in the stack, so instead of doing iterations at the protocol level, we do it down at the acceleration level. Also I have randr code hooked up so all the outputs appear no matter what GPU they are from.<br /><br />This isn't exactly what I want for USB hotplug, ideally we'd use the main GPU to render stuff and only scanout using the USB device, but this is step one. I also need the ability to add/remove drvscreens and all the associated data in order to support dynamic GPU switching.<br /><br />The real solution is a still a long ways off, but this is just a small light in a long tunnel, I've been hacking on this on/off for over a year now, so its nice to see something visible for the first time. public 9 Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:00:08 GMT first impression of google plus If you've seen the social network, you know when he launches "The Facebook" the first time he needs his friend with the non-nerd contacts email list, I get the feeling that google plus never got this step.<br /><br />When I joined facebook it was because my mother sent me an invite.<br /><br />The thing is finding out what my nerd friends are doing is easy, they are always on irc or mailing lists or twittering. I'm not sure what google+ adds to this. public 0 Wed, 11 May 2011 07:56:32 GMT glibc - inconsistent interfaces due to arrogance To start off, I don't actually mind arrogant people as long as they back their attitude up with some semblance of sanity, however arrogance without ability pisses me off, and it seems that its the number 1 trait to be a maintainer of glibc.<br /><br />Today someone pointed out F_SETOWN_EX to me which I can use to fix a problem in the X server, however trying to use gettid made me realise why these guys are considered such fuckwits.<br /><br /><a href='' rel='nofollow'></a><br /><br />WTF? glibc exposes 3 interfaces that need the result of gettid passed to them and internally relies on gettid to implement raise properly and it won't expose the interface. Notice in the bug he never addresses the problems, just closes it with "CLOSED ARROGANCE".<br /><br />Other recent glibc fuckwittery includes the whole overlapping memcpy issues in F14 breaking flash for everyone, and trying to remove the rpc implementation a week before the F15 final release freeze, so that if the package had gotten in and packages that needed a rebuild for say a security fix would mean linking the fixed package against a different RPC library than the original which could cause untold pains.<br /><br />So really if glibc could DIACF already thanks. public 19 Tue, 29 Mar 2011 00:11:55 GMT upgraded + planet software to venus This is a test post hidden in an informational post.<br /><br />I've upgraded the planet generator software for and to the latest venus codebase.<br /><br />This was mainly due to the older planet software running p.fd.o taking down the webserver once or twice this week.<br /><br />Hopefully it doesn't do any damage. public 0 Sun, 23 Jan 2011 23:25:19 GMT LCA 2011 First day of LCA 2011 at Kelvin Grove QUT Brisbane.<br /><br />I'll be organising the Southern Plumbers mini conference today, and will be speaking on Thursday at 11:30 AM about graphics drivers (who'd have guessed). public 0 Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:42:55 GMT working t410s intel/nvidia basic switching git repo:<br /><a href='' rel='nofollow'></a><br />branch: drm-nvidia-switch<br /><br />So I have a T410s with an LVDS panel and switchable graphics between intel and nvidia. I've gotten the basic switching support just like we have on the intel/amd combination.<br /><br />The code is a start towards generic nvidia/nvidia and intel/nvidia switching but its missing some bits. The MUX switch on some GPUs relies on passing a parameter to the WMI function that we aren't passing, luckily the lenovo doesn't need this parameter at the moment so it works fine. Other laptops in this range may require the parameter.<br /><br />I'll try and get some more info on the magic value we need to pass on other systems to make it work better, other systems like the Sony Vaios have a number of muxable outputs listed in a table, that the intel acpi code prints out at drm.debug=0x4. Again the lenovo doesn't have this table.<br /><br />Other issues:<br />once switched and powered off the Intel, we get log spam from the IPS driver about the MCP limits.<br />nouveau gets a 1024x768 console since we can't detect the LVDS panel at startup.<br /><br />also, this only works with open source drivers, i915 and nouveau. public 24 Tue, 09 Nov 2010 01:09:27 GMT some info on intel/nvidia switchable Okay I sat down for a few hours last week with a switchable Intel/NVidia GPU laptop, and at least worked out some more info. I'm going to braindump it here.<br /><br />Firstly in intel_acpi.c jbarnes has worked out some of the values for outputs in the ACPI tables esp around what is and isn't MUXed.<br /><br />Now we had suspected that one of the nvidia GPU DSM methods (method 5) might actually do something, but a deeper investigation along with mjg59 made us realise it isn't the mux control, so we started looking elsewhere.<br /><br />So we tracked down the MXDS method which is attached to the ACPI outputs per GPU, there is one on the LVDS for the internal GPU and one on the LVDS for the external GPU. So it appears that this is the mux switching object. Looking further up it appears that this is called via a WMI interface, so to do this all properly it looks like we need to write a WMI driver to call the mux switching, instead of just banging on ACPI methods.<br /><br />So going forward a WMI driver needs to be written to which you pass the ACPI output IDs to the WMI MXDS method, and it should switch the mux.<br /><br />Now despite this we didn't actually get the switching to happen, nouveau never got an auxch connection to the panel on the laptop, so I'd really like to see if anyone is useful enough to take this knowledge and make it do something on an LVDS laptop, all I have locally are a big pile of hacks.<br /><br />Thanks to Jesse Barnes for the laptop, and Matthew Garrett for the ACPI decoding.<br /><br />[update: one commentor asked about Macs, they have a non-WMI, non-ACPI method of handling things, sidolin on #nouveau at one stage mostly reverse engineering the mux, which was just reading/writing some memory mapped I/O ports to do the switch, not sure how far he is from pushing some patches out]. public 8 Sat, 25 Sep 2010 03:29:40 GMT Southern Plumbers Miniconf CFP (LCA 2011 - Brisbane) As part of LCA 2011, we are organising a mini-conference to provide a place for low-level system developers to gather and discuss interesting aspects of the kernel and lowlevel userspace. This miniconf is aimed at a similar audience to the Linux Plumbers Conference.<br /><br />We'd really like to have talks that are entry points to open floor discussions and interactive sessions, though if a talk is interesting enough it will be considered depending on the quality of other submissions.<br /><br />Areas of interest:<br /> - Linux kernel<br /> - / Mesa<br /> - toolchain/gdb (not deep compiler stuff, more system interactions)<br /> - udev/u*/*Kit/hal replacements<br /> - systemd/upstart/sysvinit<br /> - virtualisation<br /><br />The Southern Plumbers mini-conference is planned for Monday 24th Jan 2011.<br /><br />Please send all submissions to Submissions will close on Friday, October 29th (when I leave for the real Linux Plumbers Conference), though I may accept submission over the week of LPC as well if I can drum up interest.<br /><br />CFP available at <a href='' rel='nofollow'></a><br /><br />--<br />Dave Airlie and Matthew Wilcox. public 0 Sat, 03 Jul 2010 01:28:52 GMT embedded GPU : what are they hiding? So to follow on from my posting stating my position wrt kernel drivers for closed source userspace drivers, lets take a look at the embedded GPU industry and Linux kernel relationship.<br /><br />What does the embedded industry get from Linux?<br /><br />They get a kernel which is royalty free, with 1000s of man-years of development experience and resources. Before Linux these vendors either sourced an OS on a royalty basis from some closed-shop, or rolled their own in-house one.<br /><br />Now people might say "but the embedded GPU industry has to support Windows as well", but take one look at NVIDIA Tegra One and you can see the embedded windows marketplace is less than important, NVIDIA Tegra Two is all about the Linux, whereas they were pretty much only talking to MS on Tegra one.<br /><br />So Linux is a great boon for this industry, and means they can produce higher quality products for a lower cost (or lower quality products at a lower cost in some cases). So really there are probably two games in town for these embedded vendors, selling into Apple or selling into Linux centric developments, like Android, Meego, Linaro.<br /><br />So what are they actually hiding in userspace?<br /><br />The main thing they seem to be hiding is shader compilers and their GPU assembler code, things that convert from GLES into the assembler code for their GPUs. This stuff isn't rocket science but it probably is where most of their speed up and tricks are hidden. <br /><br />So why do they think it valuable?<br /><br />I think all 3D IP vendors dream of becoming Imagination Technologies, they need to learn there is already one Imagination Technologies and the only way to easily disrupt their revenue stream and sell into other SOCs is to be disruptive, not just follow the herd. They also probably had to spend a lot of money writing a decent GPU compiler from scratch, whereas most embedded firmware is a lot more trivial, so they probably think they need to directly recoup the costs from this development instead of giving it away. The thing is they are hw vendors, the sw is a sunk cost, opening it would actually make future maintenance easier. HW companies never do well at SW and they would be best to just open it and try and involve some community development around it.<br /><br />Is the value of this IP more valuable than what the receive from Linux?<br /><br />This is the crux of my issue with these vendors, they are receiving the Linux kernel for free, but don't want to contribute anything back. They know they can't sell into any where else except Linux driven products, but they insist on keeping their development methodologies from the days of Windows and their own in-house OSes. Those days are gone, but they cling to the idea that for some reason they can produce a better GPU stack on their own than they could in collaboration with other, despite the fact that the kernel that forms the basis for their sales was developed in this fashion. They also all use gcc as the compiler for their CPUs again proving the insanity.<br /><br />Isn't it up to them what they do?<br /><br />Totally, but its also up to the Linux community to push back against them. The thing is they'd never have opened any code if it wasn't for the GPL making them at least open the kernel portions, they don't care about freedom or GPL, they care about their bottom line, and doing the least amount of work to remain legal and make money. Now they are getting all this wonderful software for free, Linux phone sales are driving their bottom line, but they still don't want to play the game by the rules of the kernel. They want to have their cake and eat it too. (the cake is a lie). Hence they spend their time creating their own solutions in private, releasing what they have to comply with legalese but never actually allowing people the freedom to use their devices.<br /><br />So shouldn't we give a little?<br /><br />The thing is two major vendors have been pushing Imagination Technologies for years to open something, these guys are aiming to sell thousands->millions of devices, we have gotten the ugliest kernel shim in the world in 4 years of trying. All the other vendors are only willing to give that little. I don't personally think any of them want to open this stuff and will hide behind IP excuses for ever.<br /><br />What will make them change their minds?<br /><br />a) money and lots of it. If google or olpc can demand open driver commitments (in contracts, not handwaving agreements) then I suspect these vendors will quickly realise the value of their IP is dwarved by the value of sales. This probably means a major chance for one of the vendors to control a lot of the space in the Linux world.<br /><br />b) disruptive vendor, one vendor realises before the others that opening their IP will lead to more sales than keeping it closed and also lead to the chance of more people optimising their technology and leveraging other work in the industry.<br /><br />So are you saying they should drop all their in-house developed solutions?<br /><br />No I'm saying that the driver for their hardware is a single entity, and if the whole entity isn't open, then none of it is truly open. So if they don't want to release an open userspace, then they don't get to merge their open kernel bits to support the closed userspace. We have to keep the maintenance burden on them, so it keeps costing them money to track newer kernels, and they don't get community support from other vendors who have committed to doing things right.<br /><br />So why should they re-write drivers?<br /><br />This happens in Linux the whole time, with nearly every new technology. Wireless, RAID, SATA for example, all have had vendors trying to push complete stacks of their own writing, you'll notice over time the drivers that are actually written to the current stacks work best, an the crazy vendors drivers are often horror shows. <br /><br />What would be nice to happen?<br /><br />It would be great if there was a hero with time/funding and involvement in the ARM GPU community to take over being maintainer of these solutions, from kernel all the way to userspace. Vendor driver writers could ask this person for advice, and they could have some sort of working group where they develop a stack based around current Linux technologies, like GEM/TTM/DRI2/Mesa/Gallium3D. If you take a look at the mesa stack lately, there has been a lot of work on making it work as an EGL/GLES stack as well as a classic GL stack. Then vendors would supply open drivers compliant with this stack, and just sell lots of chips.<br /><br />What would be most likely negative solution?<br /><br />We get what we have now, they maintain the 5-6 GPU stacks in their own world, and never talk to each other, and it costs them more and more money going forward to maintain. Some hero reverse engineers one or two of the GPU architecture, maybe some hero writes a open driver stack from docs under NDA or with open docs.<br /><br />I may update this post as I have more thoughts ;-) public 15 Thu, 01 Jul 2010 23:42:14 GMT open source kernel bits with closed source userspaces [I posted this to lkml earlier - discussion should happen there not in comments here, but its nice to have somewhere easy to point people at].<br /><br />Now this is just my opinion as maintainer of the drm, and doesn't<br />reflect anyone or any official policy, I've also no idea if Linus<br />agrees or not.<br /><br />We are going to start to see a number of companies in the embedded<br />space submitting 3D drivers for mobile devices to the kernel. I'd like<br />to clarify my position once so they don't all come asking the same<br />questions.<br /><br />If you aren't going to create an open userspace driver (either MIT or<br />LGPL) then don't waste time submitting a kernel driver to me.<br /><br />My reasons are as follows, the thing is you can probably excuse some<br />of these on a point by point basis, but you need to justify why closed<br />userspace on all points.<br /><br />a) licensing, Alan Cox pointed this out before, if you wrote a GPL<br />kernel driver, then wrote a closed userspace on top, you open up a<br />while world of derived work issues. Can the userspace operate on a<br />non-GPL kernel without major modifications etc. This is a can of worms<br />I'd rather not enter into, and there are a few workarounds.<br /><br />b) verifying the sanity of the userspace API.<br />1. Security: GPUs can do a lot of damage if left at home alone, since<br />mostly you are submitting command streams unverified into the GPU and<br />won't tell us what they mean, there is little way we can work out if<br />the GPU is going to over-write my passwd file to get 5 fps more in<br />quake. Now newer GPUs have at least started having MMUs, but again<br />we've no idea if that is the only way they work without docs or a lot<br />of trust.<br /><br />2. General API suitability and versioning. How do we check that API is<br />sane wrt to userspace, if we can't verify the userspace. What happens<br />if the API has lots of 32/64 compat issues or things like that, and<br />when we fix them the binary userspace breaks? How do we know, how do<br />we test etc. What happens if a security issue forces us to break the<br />userspace API? how do we fix the userspace driver and test to confirm?<br /><br />c) supplying docs in lieu of an open userspace<br />If you were to fully document the GPU so we could verify the<br />security/api aspects it leaves us in the position of writing our own<br />driver. Now writing that driver on top of the current kernel driver<br />would probably limit any innovation, and most people would want to<br />write a new kernel driver from scratch. Now we end up with two drivers<br />fighting, how do we pick which one to load at boot? can we ever do a<br />generic distro kernel for that device (assuming ARM ever solves that<br />issue).<br /><br />I've also noticed a trend to just reinvent the whole wheel instead of<br />writing a drm/kms driver and having that as the API, again maintainer<br />nightmares are made of this.<br /><br />d) you are placing the maintenance burden in the wrong place<br /><br />So you've upstreamed the kernel bits, kept the good userspace bits to<br />yourselfs, are stroking them on your lap like some sort of Dr Evil,<br />now why should the upstream kernel maintainers take the burden when<br />you won't actually give them the stuff to really make their hardware<br />work? This goes for nvidia type situations as well, the whole point is<br />to place the maintainer burden at the feet of the people causing the<br />problems in an effort to make them change. Allowing even an hour of<br />that burden to be transferred upstream, means more profit for them,<br />but nothing in return for us. public 3 Tue, 04 May 2010 23:30:46 GMT lolbuntu Ted with the smackdown:<br /><br /><a href='' rel='nofollow'></a><br /><br />Update:<br />when you can't fix bugs in your "enterprise distro" file them against someone elses community distro:<br /><a href='' rel='nofollow'></a> public 0 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8031 | You are viewing americanwizard
About this Journal
Hi, I'm Marshall Burns and this is my blog. I compose music, design roleplaying games, occasionally paint, and occasionally write stories and poems. Mostly, I'll be talking about roleplaying games that I'm designing. Sometimes I talk about occult philosophy. Don't mind me.
If you came here looking for information about the Rustbelt, allow me to direct you to my new forum on the Forge.
Current Month
Jun. 23rd, 2010 @ 02:32 pm Moving
Hi everyone. I'm moving my blog to Wordpress. I tried to figure out how to make it automatically crosspost to here, but I couldn't, so you'll just have to update your bookmarks. Sorry. At least now there'll be an RSS feed, so that's good.
The Wizard Exploded Cookbook's new home is:
See you there!
About this Entry
hand, piano
Jun. 23rd, 2010 @ 02:06 pm CHRONO TRIGGER VS. CHRONO CROSS
I like Chrono Trigger. I don’t like Chrono Cross.
For one, Chrono Trigger has a battle system that is just tactical enough to be interesting. See, Square games have a problem where the battle system is just a matter of portioning out your attacks in an efficient pattern, ‘cause nearly every monster will take 2 hits from your strong guys to kill, and 2 of your weak guys are more-or-less equivalent to one of your strong guys, so you just have them all target the enemies in such a way that you’ll finish in the minimum amount of time. You save the magic for the enemies that are annoying. Once you’ve got this pattern figured out, battles are just a chore.
Chrono Trigger starts there, but adds some stuff onto the framework. There’s lots of exception-based abilities for monsters, which will force you to use other things – like specific magic, specific party configurations for a specific location, and occasionally specific equipment – if you want to win the battles as efficiently as possible. Also, the enemies move around on the field, which has an impact on the usage of your area-effect attacks. I only wish that your own characters could also move on the field. Combo attacks, unlocked as characters learn new techniques and you try new party configurations, also make time management important: the game uses Square’s famous Active Time Battle system, and all the characters involved in the combo have to be ready in order to perform the combo. The end result of all this is that the most efficient battle plan changes over and over through the course of the game – making it a continual exercise, not a constant chore from the first.
(Also, boss battles don’t last three hours. I hate it when Square pulls that shit. In this game, if you do it right, boss fights take like five minutes, tops.)
At first glance, Chrono Cross also has an interesting combat system. However, the stamina thing, effectively a set of action points whereby you can divide a character’s attacks between a set of weak but accurate, strong but inaccurate, and moderate attacks for varying point costs, didn’t really have that much impact on anything – in fact, it boiled down to that whole strong-guy, weak-guy thing I mentioned earlier, except each “attack” consisted of multiple strike commands. The elemental field system was neat for a while, but it was either way too easy to take command of the elemental field, or way too hard – and usually it was too easy in weenie monster fights (when I mostly use standard attacks) and too hard in boss fights (where tactics ought to be encouraged, not smacked down). The elements were just FF7’s materia all over again, which I hated in FF7 and hated in Chrono Cross because it made it feel like there weren’t any real differences in the character’s abilities, which makes effective team management a lot less engaging. Also, there weren’t any enemies that I thought were cool.
I also kinda like the stories and characters in Chrono Trigger (except Ayla. I hate cavemen in these games for some reason). Sure, it’s another save-the-world quest, but you only find out that the world needs saving because you time-traveled in order to run away from the cops. And you only figured out how to time travel on accident. Plus, you get to mess with history and see how your actions have affected later eras, which is pretty cool. Particularly because you get to make things better.
I also hated most of the characters in Chrono Cross (with the exception of Harle, because I have a thing for harlequins). They were too bizarre, and there were also way too many of them to keep track of. No, actually, the number of them wasn’t to blame, because Suikoden (which I’ll talk about at some point) must’ve boasted somewhere around 30 times as many characters as CC, and it never bothered me. Maybe it’s because in CC I have no reason to care about all these weirdos (I’m looking at you, Mexican wrestler who tends the graves*, bizarre plant/bulb thing, and cute squishy alien!).
But here’s the real reason that I don’t like Chrono Cross. As I said, in Chrono Trigger, your actions make the world a better place. In Chrono Cross, it seems like no matter how hard you try to fix things, the world only gets more and more fucked up, and it’s all your fault. I mean, in CC, you wind up having to destroy an ecosystem. I tried to get around it, but there didn’t seem to be any other way. In CT, you get to save an ecosystem. You don’t have to, it’s not required, you get to do it just because you want to help. CT felt exciting and rewarding; CC just left me feeling cold and sorta ashamed.
I never finished Chrono Cross, so, I dunno, maybe it got better. I lost interest somewhere in the third act or so, which is a problem I have with a lot of Square games. Chrono Trigger is, in fact, one of the few Square games that I’ve ever finished, so that’s pretty good.
* Which, on paper, is AWESOME. How they went wrong on that I’ll never know.
About this Entry
hand, piano
Jun. 16th, 2010 @ 01:00 pm CRPG Musings: The Elder Scrolls
This is the first in what I hope is a weekly series of musings on CRPGs. They're part critique, part analysis, part gushing, part bitching, and all musing. First up is the Elder Scrolls series. Future topics include Chrono Trigger, Baroque, and the Breath of Fire series. So I don't run out of topics, I'd like readers to suggest other games for me to cover; I'll do my best to get a hold of them and play them, then write about them.
I acquired The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind for the XBox a few years ago. I found it very painful, and only played it for a few days. The enormous list of skills broken down very minutely, the variable weapon stats for different strokes (slash, thrust, etc.), piecemeal armor system, a character system that pretends to be class-based but really is skill-based and nothing else, and other such things were very familiar to me -- after all, they were prominent features in earlier versions of the game that eventually mutated into The Rustbelt. That doesn't make them any less painful, though. Other detrimental factors included the voice acting, which, while somewhat rare, was bad, and the fact that all the appearance options for characters looked UGLY. Also, I'm so tired of "generate a character by answering questions," because the questions are always stupid.
All the little details about the setting, with the implication that learning about the setting was rewarding, left me cold. Yeah, yeah, the Dark Elves call themselves "Dunmer" and the Wood Elves "Bosmer" and so on, and I'm supposed to care why? I would have much preferred that "Dark Elf" be totally and unilaterally replaced with "Dunmer." As you know by now if you keep up with my blog, I am SO TIRED of elfy-dwarfy settings, and "adjective elves" in particular; if you can give them a different name and at least pretend that they're not something you think you stole from Tolkien but actually stole from D&D, I can at least swallow it. At least there's no dwarves in this game -- OH WAIT there's dwarven armor. Geez. How about some reflection and critical perspective on the genre, huh?
And MAN do you start out as a weenie! I got my ass handed to me by a mudcrab the first time I played. Yes, being ineffectual is FUN! Except, wait, no it's not.
And the dungeons? Dead boring. Navigation is simple. The vocabulary is limited: doors (with locks and or traps), containers, tunnels, rooms, water, darkness.
One shining light was the advancement system. You mean I don't get EXP from killing monsters, but from increasing my major skills? That's pretty darn cool. (But read on...)
What I saw in general was a design built by detailed-simulation-minded (small "s" on simulation) people without concerns for its actual impact on gameplay. I can empathize with the mistake, but that doesn't stop it from being a mistake. I don't know how anyone managed to slog through the low levels in this game, during which you can only do things like boring-assed courier-type quests without getting smacked down (you can't even explore without getting killed all the time), in order to get to the point where you get to do fun stuff. This hunk of junk got Game of the Year? Wha'?
Then I got to try the fourth game of the series, Oblivion, on the XBox 360. Character generation turned out to be far more fun -- I can make my guy actually look kinda cool! Whoa, and it assigns a default class based on the approach I used up to this point! That's far more interesting and far more fun than answering questions -- for one thing, you're actually doing something. I was pleased to see that the skill list was pared down significantly; it made me happy that admire, coerce, etc. were a single skill, for instance.
As for starting effectiveness? I got out of the tutorial, entered a dungeon, and killed a bandit with one shot from my bow. Finally! I can DO stuff!
The majority of dungeons suffered the same limitations as in part III. (I should mention, however, that traps now became actual things, with actual physical presence; tripwires, pressure plates, holy crap that is way cooler than just some spell effect hitting you when you try to open something). I do rather enjoy the Ayleid ruins, however. Their system of hidden doors, deadlier traps, switch-activated stairways, and other such things made them far more fun. I felt like I was solving problems and learning things that increased my effectiveness, which is what dungeoneering needs. A stand-out feature: in one ruined fort, I discovered two locked portcullises right at the get go, with no switches in sight. There were, however, two statues, with two silver arrows laid on an altar before them. After a more thorough investigation, I noticed that the statues had little jewels in their foreheads, which was different from other statues that I had seen. I tried hitting them with magic, shooting them with my steel arrows; no effect. Finally I tried shooting them with the silver arrows, and it opened the gates. THAT IS TOTALLY FUCKING COOL. The game needs more stuff like that.
There were, however, some things that I missed from part III. The setting in part IV is so white-bread fantasy -- castles, forts, caves, blah. I miss the giant mushroom forests, and bizarre creatures like the nix hound and vetch. I'd like to see Morrowind revamped with Oblivion's mechanics and graphics.
I was greatly disappointed to discover that, by the time I could acquire high-class gear like glass armor, everyone and their dog also had glass armor. I would have much preferred that advanced gear remain rare throughout the game, such that by the time you're high level you've found some, and only high level enemies will have it. Not bandits. You can increase the bandits' level relative to mine, fine, but can we keep them in bandit-appropriate fur, leather, and iron please?
The enchantment system also disappointed me when I discovered that I'd only be able to put one effect and use only one soul gem on each item. I put in a lot of work to get these black soul gems! I want to make cool gear that has multiple effects, like some of the items I've found! Instead I have to make and schlep an assortment of rings, shoes, etc. in order to have at hand all the effects I want available.
Extended play revealed something horrible: the advancement system is badly broken. As I started to pick up on the math of the game, I realized that if you choose your major skills based on what you want your character to be good at, you end up borked at the higher levels. Your attribute gains per level are based on how much you advanced skills in general -- and if your major skills are the ones you like to use, you level up too fast and receive pathetic attribute gains, leaving you weak in comparison to the power curve of the enemies. So if you want to be effective 50 hours into the game, you need to pick major skills that you don't use often. Which means that, in the areas you want to be good at, you have to start out as a weenie and work your way up. Grrr. Figuring that I could enjoy a bit of challenge at the higher levels, I went halfway with it and picked a few of my preferred skills as major. I'm advancing half as quickly as my first character, but I've already accomplished five times as much stuff by level 10.
Oblivion features a great number of design decisions aimed at improving gameplay. But right at the heart of it is another simulation-minded decision that detracts at worst, contributes nothing at the best. On the whole, I rather enjoy Oblivion and am still currently playing it, but I'm getting bored with a lot of its features.
But you know what my biggest gripe is, with both of these games? I WANT A FUCKING HAT. Pretty please?
About this Entry
hand, piano
May. 24th, 2010 @ 12:26 pm MADCorp Employee Handbooks: the Sawbones & Snake Eater
Sometimes you need more than a little adhesive bandage and a kiss from your mama to make your boo-boos better. Actually, pretty damn often, in this line of work. This guy may not have a fancy med school degree (and he probably doesn’t), but he does handles a bone saw better than your mama (probably). He can keep you alive when you oughtta be dead – whether you like it or not.
Class Group: Specialists
Sawboneses are either wiry, scrawny, or fat. Roll a d10 to determine which: 1-2 wiry, 3-6 scrawny, 7-10 fat.
Field medicine.
If you have appropriate materials, make a THINK check to do one of the following on yourself or someone else:
* Treat Crippling or Grievous damage.
* Amputate a limb: patient doesn’t have to ENDURE against bleeding to death unless you bust your THINK check.
* Stabilize someone who has gone critical.
You can instruct a partner how to do one of these if you’re in no shape to, but you both have to make a THINK check. If either one of you busts, it doesn’t work.
Except for stabilizing, these take an extended time, but you can do them hastily (in moderate time) at -1, or double hastily (in quick time) at -2. Stabilizing takes a quick time.
Using up 1 point of materials from your doctor’s kit and making a THINK check, you can practice more advanced medicine to treat Mangling, Amputating, or Severe damage on yourself or someone else. Using up 5 materials and making a THINK check, you can reattach severed limbs. You can also perform any other operations that may become necessary in the course of dungeoneering; the Ref judges the material cost.
Surgery normally takes an extended time, but you can do it hastily (in moderate time) at -1, or carefully (in double-extended time) at +1.
Administer anesthetic.
You can administer anesthetic to your patients without a check (assuming you have anesthetic left). Performing surgery or amputation on non-anaesthetized patients is a Harrowing experience for them.
You can also deliver an involuntary spinal tap to unsuspecting enemies (i.e. enemies that you snuck up on, or hid and lay in wait for, or surprised) with a HIT check. If successful, they go down.
Administer antibiotics.
With a THINK check, you can administer antibiotics to cure infection. If you bust, it’s merely ineffective, but if you totally fuck up then the patient has an allergic reaction that works like poison. This normally takes a moderate time, but you can do it carefully (in extended time) at +1.
With your transfusion kit (or appropriate improvised materials), you can save someone who has gone critical from physical injuries. You need someone to donate the blood; the donor takes a Minor wound and suffers exhaustion. If this is the first time this donor’s blood is used on this patient, you must make a THINK check; if you bust, it’s the wrong blood type and the patient dies. Otherwise, the patient is stabilized and will recover from the incapacitation (rather than having to wait for his Severe wounds to recover like usual).
Performing a transfusion takes an extended time.
Adrenaline shot.
You can administer a shot of adrenaline to a critical patient to make him immediately recover from his critical state and incapacitation.
Immediately after someone fails to ENDURE critical condition, you can try to revive them with your portable defibrillator or another suitably large source of electric current using a THINK check. If you succeed, they are still alive for the moment, but also still in critical condition. If you bust, you can’t try again; he’s dead, Jim.
Connection for medical supplies.
You have a connection to score medical supplies on your own time. Between jobs, your surgical materials, anesthesia, antibiotics, and adrenaline refill to the starting values below for free.
Appraise medical gadgets.
With a THINK check, you can appraise the worth (in cash) of medical gadgets and apparati. If it’s oldTech, you get -2. If you succeed on a 1-4, the Ref skews the real value by up to 100%. If you succeed on a 5-10, the Ref skews the real value by up to 50%. If you succeed on an 11 or higher, the Ref tells you the exact value of the item.
Desensitized to blood ‘n guts.
You never suffer mental trauma from blood, gore, or mutilation. Unless a monster does it.
Hard drinker.
You can recover from mental trauma using booze without getting shitfaced.
Weapons: scalpels, bone saws, surgical drills, defibrillators, and other medical implements.
Armor: none.
Holsters: 1
Combat medic: +1 to perform field medicine
Grizzled: +1 when checking to see if you hesitate, panic, or suffer an ASD from mental trauma.
Rocket surgeon: +1 to perform medicine with complicated, high-tech gadgets.
When You Crack
Let’s face it, this guy’s only a few notches short of a mad scientist as it is. When he cracks it, he sneaks off, collects all the corpses he can find, and stitches them together into a horrible Frankenstein-esque abomination that’s bound to make an appearance when you least desire it. If there aren’t any corpses (or enough of them) for his purposes, he’ll do his damnedest to make some.
Starting CRAP
* Casual clothes
* doctor’s bag (heavy), including:
o surgical materials, such as sutures, staples, iodine, saline drips, etc., x10
o anesthesia x10
o antibiotics x5
o field medicine materials, such as bandages, alcohol swabs, medical tape, etc. x25
o scalpel (edged shortest pocket)
o electric bone saw (edged short nasty battery:20)
o surgical shears
o transfusion kit
o plenty of sharps
o portable defibrillator (electric shortest battery:20)
o an adrenaline shot
o an indefinite amount of disposable surgical masks and gloves
o stethescope
Buddy Score Mods
To anyone who practices medicine and isn’t a Sawbones or Croaker, add -1. To other Sawboneses and Croakers, add +1.
Class Group: Specialists
Snake Eaters are either beefy or wiry. It’s a 50-50 shot, so roll even/odd to determine which.
With a THINK check and 1 point of materials from your camouflage kit, you can camouflage yourself or others. Being camouflaged makes you +1 to be sneaky or hidden, and allows you to hide in plain sight.
With a SEE check, you can find signs of people and animals having been nearby, and can follow their trail. You can even get some idea of what they were doing by asking the Ref questions: one question if you succeed on a 1-4, two on a 5-10, and three on an 11 or better.
Foraging and food safety.
Outdoors, you can make a SEE check to forage for food. This takes an extended time.
You can also clean and gut animals, and cook their meat for food. This takes an extended time.
When you find food in a dungeon, you can make a THINK check to find out if it’s safe to eat. This normally takes a moderate time, but you can do it carefully (in extended time) at +1 or hastily (in quick time) at -1.
Build a fire.
With something suitable for firewood and kindling, you can make a fire without matches or a lighter. This takes an extended time.
Make a torch.
With a stick, a rag, and some oil, you can make a torch. This takes a moderate time.
Maintain your guns.
Using your gun maintenance kit, you can keep guns in shape and remove all Wear from them. Spend 1 material from your kit per Wear box unchecked. This takes an extended time.
Get your bearings.
While outdoors, make a THINK check to get your bearings. On a success, you can peek at the Ref’s map for a number of seconds equal to your margin.
Silent movement.
You normally make no noise when you move. If you’re armored, burdened, or running like hell, you can still be silent if you make a MOVE check. If more than one of those applies, you get -1 for each one after the first (so, if you’re armored and burdened and running like hell, you’ll be checking MOVE -2).
Make a THINK check to predict upcoming weather. On a success, ask the Ref questions about the weather and receive accurate answers: one question if you succeed on a 1-4, two on a 5-10, and three on an 11 or better.
Hardened by the elements.
You are immune to any detrimental effects of rain, fog, cold, and heat.
Field medicine.
* Treat Crippling or Grievous damage.
* Stabilize someone who has gone critical.
Draw poison.
With a THINK check, you can draw poison from a wound. If you’re the one who’s poisoned, you’ll need to instruct someone else how to do it: both of you have to make a THINK check, and if either busts, it doesn’t work.
Set a snare.
With appropriate materials and a THINK check, you can set a snare trap that might immobilize the first thing that walks into it. Its RELIABLE is equal to your margin. I suggest making it that kind that hangs people up-side down. Those are fun.
Hard drinker.
You can cope with mental trauma using booze without getting shitfaced.
High threshold of pain.
You automatically ignore one source of pain; it takes two sources for you to suffer the pain penalty. Sources of pain include grievous, crippling, or worse wounds, as well as poison and headaches.
Weapons: rifles, shotguns, handguns, crossbows, knives, axes, machetes.
Armor: none.
Holsters: 3.
Resourceful: +1 when looking for a hiding place or finding something to use as a weapon
Alert: +1 to notice hidden or sneaking people, or traps.
Double top of the food chain: +2 to all rolls against animals.
Sneaky bastard: +1 to hide or sneak up on someone.
Hunter: +1 to shoot guns and crossbows.
When You Crack
Starting CRAP
* Rugged clothes
* Two of the following:
o a shotgun (gun medium big nasty ammo:1) and a box of shells (reload x10)
o a deer rifle (gun long big ammo:3) and three extra clips
o an automatic clip pistol (gun short ammo:3) and an extra clip
o a hunting crossbow (piercing medium ammo:1) and 10 extra bolts
* One of the following:
o a wood ax (edged medium)
o a machete (edged medium)
o a hatchet (edged short)
* a jackknife (edged shortest pocket)
* camouflage kit (materials:10 refill:5cash)
* gun maintenance kit (materials:10 refill:5cash)
* flask of booze (booze:5)
Buddy Score Mods
+1 with others in rugged clothes. +1 with whoever you think is best suited to survival in the wilderness.
About this Entry
hand, piano
Feb. 24th, 2010 @ 12:05 pm PRECEPTS & RULES FOR CREATING FANTASY
15. Every time a protagonist fails, it should have you biting your nails or gaping in disbelief. When he suffers, he should suffer horribly.
About this Entry
hand, piano
Jan. 12th, 2010 @ 05:03 pm announcing the Hustler, Stringman, and Arko
Here's the latest three classes from MADCorp: the Hustler, Stringman, and Arko.
Don't mind the formatting quirks; I blame LiveJournal.
Read more...Collapse )
Hustlers are either wiry, scrawny, or fat. Roll a d10 to determine which: 1-3 wiry, 4-7 scrawny, 8-10 fat.
Appraise stuff.
With a THINK check, you can appraise the worth (in cash) of anything saleable on the streets or in retail. If it’s oldTech, you get -1. If you succeed on a 1-4, the Ref skews the real value by up to 100%. If you succeed on a 5-10, the Ref skews the real value by up to 50%. If you succeed on an 11 or higher, the Ref tells you the exact value of the item.
Just hear me out.
When you give a spiel, people will stop and listen to you until you finish. You’re just so damn charismatic that they can’t help themselves. This is great for creating a diversion. Now, if they have a reason to suspect that you’re up to something (for instance, if they just noticed that one of your partners has a gun and has moved to an advantageous shooting position), they get to make a THINK check to break free of your hold. Otherwise, they’re yours until you stop talking, or until some violence or danger starts happening.
If you intend to deceive or manipulate someone through this, both of you must make a THINK check. Your mark's check counts as blocking. If you still succeed, he falls for it. If you use this skill more than once against the same person, he gets a bonus to his THINK rolls for each repeat attempt.
Growing up in a bad neighborhood also means that you’re an adept player of the Dozens. You know lots of good insults, as well as plenty of lousy ones that, for some reason, really get people’s balls in a twist. When you taunt someone, they must make a THINK check or else they come after you (with intent to do you violence) to the point of ignoring everything else. As long as they’re under the influence of your taunt, they get to keep making THINK checks each turn to break free of it.
When selling loot after a job, you can jack up the selling prices of some of it. Make a THINK check; if you succeed on a 1-4, pick one item; on a 5-10, three items; on an 11 or better, five items. The items that you picked sell for 150% of their actual worth.
Blame shift.
When you piss of management and are about to get written up, you can shift the blame onto one of your partners with a THINK check.
Concealed weapons.
You have the ability to conceal pocket-sized weapons about your person such that people don’t know you’re packed. When you produce a concealed weapon, it’s very surprising: the person you use it on must THINK or else hesitate.
* Knives
* Blackjacks
* Handguns
Armor: Light street.
Holsters: 1.
Hustlin’: +1 to deceive management
When You Crack
Starting Gear
* Casual, sharp, or hip clothes
* One of the following:
o a switchblade (edged shortest pocket)
o a blackjack (blunt shortest pocket)
o a derringer (gun-1 shortest pocket ammo:1) & a handful of shells (reload x3)
o brass knuckles (brawl+1 shortest pocket worn)
Buddy Score Mods
+2 with everybody, except Yeggs, Hardcases, and other Hustlers: they’re wise to you.
A quirk in this guy’s hearing gives him a unique experience of sound. So, naturally, he took up music. His wild improvisations exist in the spaces between notes, through convoluted microtonal passages that unlock mystic secrets. That’s right, he does magic by making a racket. They call him a Stringman because his preference runs to stringed instruments – it’s easy to tune them in strange ways, and microtones are easily achievable through bends and slides, or “incorrect” fingerings on fretless instruments.
Stringmen are either beefy, wiry, scrawny, or fat. Roll a d10 to determine which: 1 beefy, 2-4 wiry, 5-8 scrawny, 9-10 fat.
Sideways hearing.
You have a special way of experiencing sound, which enables you to hear the strange interactions of sounds that allow you to use your Stringman powers. There’s a few side effects, however. One is that it’s difficult for you to tell what direction noises are coming from – you have to make a SEE check to properly identify the source of sound. Another is that loud, sudden noises Spook you. Finally, you are incapable of filtering out noises, making it very difficult for you to understand speech when things are noisy – you have to make a THINK check to reconstruct what was said from context and the snatches you did understand. That last one has a bright side, however, in that you hear noises that other people would ignore. Sometimes they’re just noises that people ignore for a reason (like the barely audible buzzing sound of operating electronics), but sometimes it pays off (like when it’s the barely audible buzzing sound of an operating gadget weapon about to be used on you from the shadows).
Wall of sound.
Make an ENDURE check to create a wall of sound across or around any point. You can span the whole room with it. It’s literally like a solid wall; nothing can pass through it. It can, however, be broken; if an attack for +2 damage or better hits it, you must ENDURE or else the wall falls immediately afterward. Damage over +2 gives you a penalty on this (so, if it’s damage +3, you’d be rolling ENDURE -1). Otherwise, the wall lasts until you stop playing it.
Red note.
Make a HIT check to play a short passage culminating in a sharp or piercing dissonant note at a single target. It’s literally sharp or piercing, doing +0 damage on the Edged or Piercing table, your choice. Alternatively, you can start playing early to charge it up; each round you spend charging up for the red note increases its damage by +1.
Haunting melody.
Use this skill to play a creepy, haunting melody. It’s so creepy that it will Spook your enemies. If they can’t tell where it’s coming from, it Harrows them. You can’t use it against the same people more than once in the same action sequence.
Soothing melody.
Make a THINK check to play a melody that, while it doesn’t sound soothing, has a physically soothing effect on the target. This enables the target to ignore any pain penalties they are currently suffering from. This effect lasts as long as you continue playing the melody.
Make a THINK check to play a lullaby against a target. If successful, he falls sound asleep. And I mean sound asleep – no noise will wake him up. Being hurt will, though. If you stop playing the lullaby, the victim can make ENDURE checks each turn to wake up.
Make a THINK check to play an adagio against a group of enemies. Any enemy in the room who can hear you is affected. The adagio slows them down, causing them to lose precedence against all of your allies. The only exceptions are people who had higher precedence than you did; they keep their precedence this round, but they lose it next round if you keep playing. This slowing effect lasts as long as you continue to play the adagio.
When you bend notes, you can bend matter. You can make an object move or distort its shape by making a MOVE check. If it’s heavy, you get -1. If it’s double-heavy, you get -2. You can’t damage your target object in this way. The effect is very brief, lasting only a quick time.
Maintain instruments.
By taking an extended time and spending materials from your maintenance kit, you can remove all Wear from your instruments. This takes 1 point of materials per Wear box cleared.
Appraise instruments.
With a THINK check, you can appraise the worth (in cash) of musical instruments. If you succeed on a 1-4, the Ref skews the real value by up to 100%. If you succeed on a 5-10, the Ref skews the real value by up to 50%. If you succeed on an 11 or higher, the Ref tells you the exact value of the item.
Weapons: none.
Armor: none.
Holsters: 2.
When You Crack
When a Stringman cracks it, his hearing quirk gets even worse. Noises may randomly send him into a fit of rage or a nervous breakdown. While he’s not freaking out from noises, he’s freaking out on his instrument, playing notes that Man Was Not Meant to Play. The result is anyone else who hears them being hit for -1 damage on the Weird Magic table.
Starting Gear
* Casual, hip, weird, or spooky clothes
* One of the following:
o an acoustic stringed instrument
o an electric stringed instrument with a battery-powered amplifier on a belt clip for +1 effect (loud battery:10)
* a maintenance kit for your instrument (materials:20 refill:5cash)
Buddy Score Mods
+1 with other Stringmen. +1 with Trippers, ‘cause they really groove out on your tunes.
“Arko” is dungeoneer slang for “archaeologist,” because most dungeoneers can’t spell “archaeologist.” Although some mean-spirited types call them antiquers. Basically, an Arko is up on the old shit. Hell, he’s obsessed with it. He probably doesn’t even have a degree, but that’s okay, ‘cause he really does know his old shit.
Identify oldTech.
With a THINK check, you can identify the functions of oldTech machines and gadgets, allowing you to operate them and instruct others in their operation.
This normally takes an extended time, but you can do it carefully (in double-extended time) at +1.
Operate oldTech.
You can operate any oldTech that you know the functions of. If it’s something really complex, the Ref may call for a THINK check to see if you operate it properly.
Instruct others in the use of oldTech.
To instruct a partner in the use of a piece of oldTech that you know how to operate, you must make a THINK check. If successful, that partner can now attempt to use it, although, for complicated stuff, the Ref may require the partner to make a THINK check when using it.
This normally takes a moderate time, but you can do it hastily (in quick time) at -1, or carefully (in extended time) at +1.
Appraise old shit.
With a THINK check, you can appraise the worth (in cash) of oldTech and other artifacts. If you succeed on a 1-4, the Ref skews the real value by up to 100%. If you succeed on a 5-10, the Ref skews the real value by up to 50%. If you succeed on an 11 or higher, the Ref tells you the exact value of the item.
Taking an extended time, you can double-check maps of indoor locations. Make a THINK check; if successful, you can ask the Ref if any particular thing on your map is accurate and receive a true answer. If you succeeded on a 1-4, you can ask one question, two questions on a 5-10, and three questions on an 11 or better.
Knowledge of old architecture.
You've studied enough blueprints and floorplans of old buildings that you've got a sense for how they work. Once per job, on a successful THINK check, you can peek at the Ref’s map for a number of seconds equal to the margin of your THINK roll.
Maintain oldTech.
You can spend an extended time to take care of oldTech items and remove all Wear from them. This uses 1 material from your maintenance kit per Wear box unchecked.
Weapons: any oldTech weapons.
Armor: none.
Holsters: 1.
Dungeon expert: +1 when examining structural features of dungeons for irregularities, damage, or other special features.
When You Crack
When an Arko cracks it, he finally gets to go where he’s always wanted to: the past. Except, he doesn’t, of course. He only thinks he does. Everything around him will appear the way it did years ago, complete with people, and he’ll act accordingly. Of course, in the past, there weren’t rival dungeoneers or, y’know, monsters, so he won’t see those.
Starting Gear
* Casual or rugged clothes
* An oldTech version of any weapon available to other classes
* A maintenance kit for old shit (materials:20 refill:20cash)
Buddy Score Mods
+1 with other Arkos. -3 with Crashers, Junk Knights, and Helter-Skelters (the morons are too destructive).
Read more...Collapse )
About this Entry
hand, piano
Jan. 12th, 2010 @ 04:48 pm GRIEF system
I’m working on a thing that grabbed me by my throat and demanded that I work on it (I get that a lot. It’s becoming a problem). It’s a System design, independent of Setting, which is something I thought I’d never ever do, but I’m doing it, and I’ve already got two Settings in mind to apply it to (in case you’re wondering, one is the Dread Age of Sail that I blogged about, and the other is the Neverwood setting that I posted on Story Games about once). The working title is “the GRIEF System,” which is a backronym for “Gothic-Romantic Intense Emotional Fantasy” (but don’t hold me to that name). It’s the kind of fantasy where the emotions that motivate the characters are more powerful than their abilities, and are the gateway to the fantastic elements. The kind of fantasy where a character’s rage fans extant flames into explosive blazes, where a gun passed from father to son for generations is more deadly because of the heritage it represents, where a man’s sin against something he loves can spawn an unspeakable horror in an otherwise beautiful landscape.
I’ve got the basic mechanics in mind already, and there’s nothing in them that I haven’t seen in other games, so I’ll go ahead and credit them: The Burning Wheel by Luke Crane, The Shadow of Yesterday by Clinton R. Nixon, and Poison’d by Vincent Baker already contain all the pieces I’m using at the moment. Special mention should go to John Harper’s Lady Blackbird, which uses most of the same pieces in almost the same way (ok, so I’m given to understand that his Conditions are cribbed from Mouse Guard, which I haven’t had the pleasure to look at, but they’re really the same thing as the Cruel Fortunes and other Positioning+Resource mechanics found in Poison’d, which I have). I wanted a slightly different accent, though.
Here’s what I know so far:
1. Characters have a set of 4 “standard attributes” that are common to all. Presently their names are Vigor, Attention, Craft, and Persona. That’s strength/endurance/agility, awareness/perception, cunning/applied knowledge, and charisma/will, respectively. All ordinary, mundane actions are handled by 1 of these attributes. I’m not sure how these will be derived; it will probably be some sort of point-buy method.
2. Characters have one or more “special attributes,” and this is where the emotional and fantastical elements come in. These are chosen from a fixed list, and include such things as Rage, Heritage, Faith, Guilt, and Despair. All magical, supernatural, and fantastical actions must involve a special attribute. The starting values of these will probably be set arbitrarily by the player, based on his view of the attribute’s intensity in his PC. This is okay because these are both a source of power and a liability – they’ve got a bit of a life of their own. In play, I see the values as subject to change, but mostly in an upward direction, with the threat of peaking out in a manner that takes the PC out of play (similarly to Emotional Attributes in BW, or Transcendence in TSOY). Lowering the values will be difficult, and removing an attribute entirely even moreso.
Note that a PC without, say, the Grief attribute can still grieve; it just won’t have the special effects contingent on the Grief attribute.
3. Characters have one or more specific personal goals and motivations. These should of course be tied to their special attributes somehow, and, to start with, can be thought of as fleshing out the character’s special attributes – how did they get that way, and why. Think BW Belief-style writeups. I keep coming back to the terms Concerns, Convictions, and Commitments to describe these, but I don’t know if those’ll stick.
I don’t think these have any actual mechanical impact. They’re really just flags and roleplaying reminders. They’re subject to change at any time, and their changes should be tracked so you can see the change in your characters. But the changes should be in line with the character’s special attributes and traits (below).
4. The basic resolution mechanic is like this. When you endeavor to do something and something bad might happen as a result of the attempt and/or someone takes action against you, that’s when you roll dice. The dicing mechanic is basically BW. You roll the dice of one of your standard attributes, plus the dice of any special attributes that apply, looking to roll “hits” (4s or higher on d6s). You “spend” hits to address obstacles and dangers on a 1:1 basis. Obstacles are things that must be overcome in order to succeed, and dangers are unpleasant outcomes that might occur regardless of success or failure. You must address all obstacles in order to succeed in your endeavor (thus the number of obstacles is actually the same thing as the Obstacle in BW), and you must address any dangers that you do not wish to come to pass. It may sometimes be necessary to fail in order to address dangers, or to allow dangers to come true in order to succeed. (Ok, so there’s some Otherkind in there too, I forgot). Dice over the obstacle that aren’t spent to address dangers can be spent on special effects related to the action (for instance, damage if you’re trying to hurt someone, or quality if you’re making something), or else become a metagame resource called Edge that you can call on for help later.
Dice that come from special attributes will have special “fallout” effects when certain values are rolled; probably 1s or 6s, or maybe both. This is where the special attributes take on a life of their own, leak into the environment, and cause things to happen unbidden. This fallout works apart from dangers, and can’t be blocked by spending hits like dangers can.
Minor NPCs don’t roll dice; they only impose obstacles and dangers. When acting against someone, you can likewise spend hits in excess of your own obstacles to impose dangers and obstacles. The added bite there is that you can double up on them; if you commit 3 hits to imposing a single danger, then it’s going to take 3 hits to address.
5. There will be special subsystems for: highlighting conflicts (at a level of intricacy somewhere between BW’s combat systems and TSOY’s Bringing Down the Pain), sorcery (i.e. deliberate magic), binding oaths and vows, bearing personal animus, and perhaps a few other things. I’m still vague on these.
6. Characters have a number of “trait slots,” into which they put traits. These traits come primarily from fixed lists, and it’s these lists of traits that will primarily define and differentiate Settings using this System. These traits are basically BW’s skills & traits and TSOY’s Secrets & Keys consolidated into one mechanic.
Each trait functions in one or more of the following ways:
* Allowing you to use your attributes in special ways. For instance, someone with some sort of “Thief” trait would be able to roll Craft to pick locks – something which an ordinary person can’t do.
* Opening up constraints on declared actions. For instance, if your guy had a trait that said he was able to fly, then you can now include flying in your descriptions of your character’s actions.
* Rewarding you with “Growth” points for focusing on stipulated character qualities & motivations in your roleplaying & decisions, especially to the detriment of your character and others. Growth is spent to fill empty trait slots, and to get additional slots.
* Applying bonuses in stipulated circumstances.
All, or nearly all, traits can be “bought off” similarly to TSOY Keys. Unlike Keys, however, you don’t earn points for this. The only reward is making room for new traits.
Your traits should, of course, have some connection to your special attributes and motivations. Perhaps some traits will require that you take on certain special attributes. You can think of traits as the way to give your motivations mechanical effect, if you wish.
7. Characters can suffer conditions, which are the evil twins of traits. A number of conditions that are likely to come up frequently, such as injury, illness, madness, and exhaustion, will be prescribed by the rules. Others may need to be ruled on the spot by the GM. Any compromising position is a candidate for a “condition,” and can be applied as a condition if a.) it was a danger and you allowed it to come to pass, b.) it was stipulated as being contingent to failure in an endeavor, and/or c.) you acquiesced to it. For an example of that last one, that’s where someone says, “I sneak up behind you and knock you out,” and you decline to say, “Like hell you do!”
Each condition functions in one or more of the following ways:
* Constraining declared actions. For instance, if your guy is suffering from the condition “mute,” you can’t describe your guy speaking.
* Allowing the GM to dictate that unpleasant things are true. For instance, if your guy has been trapped by the royal guard and it’s applied as a condition, the GM can say, “Ok, so they clap you in irons and take you to the Tower.”
* Imposing obstacles and/or dangers (i.e. penalties) in certain circumstances.
Conditions aren’t exactly “bought off” so much as they are “overcome.” Unlike traits, this does earn you points (i.e. Growth). In case you were wondering why anyone would ever acquiesce to a condition.
About this Entry
hand, piano
Jan. 11th, 2010 @ 01:26 pm Rustbelt self parody: "The Cookie Crumbles: a tale of pain"
Tags: ,
Pseudo proposed an art trade: ask him to draw something, then he'd ask you to draw something. I asked him to draw "a badass dude being badass with a machinegun machete." He did. Then he asked me to draw a badass eating cookies. Naturally, I read "badass" and thought of Matchley "Match" Daws, one of my PCs from the Rustbelt (you might recognize him from the cover of the ashcan).
About this Entry
hand, piano
Jan. 4th, 2010 @ 02:51 pm Announcing the Tripper
You think you experimented in college? This guy opened the doors of perception, and then the windows of perception, and finally tore up the floorboards of perception and went abseiling through. He came back, sorta, with the knowledge of how to achieve superhuman and supernatural states through the use of hard drugs. Yes, kids, drugs are the answer.
Trippers are either wiry or scrawny. It’s a 50-50 shot, so roll even/odd to determine which.
Drug tolerance.
You can self-administer one dose of hard drugs without overdosing. However, if you have more than one active dose at a time without successful supervision or instruction from a Croaker, you overdose.
Phase trip.
When normal people take a hit of phase, they feel insubstantial, like they’re made of air. When you take a hit of phase, you actually become insubstantial. You can’t be harmed physically while phase-tripping, but you can’t affect anything physically either. You can, however, pass through walls and other solid barriers. Just make sure you’re not in the midst of a solid object when it wears off.
Phase trips last for 1 turn or a single action sequence. When you come down, you feel really heavy, and are treated as if burdened until you take a break.
Rainbo trip.
Ordinary people take rainbo and just get a pretty lightshow for half an hour. When you take it, you see pretty colors too, but what you’re actually seeing is magic. You gain the ability to see any and all magic energies in the area – ambient ones, those contingent on spells, energies emanating from artifacts, and so on. Big, potent ones you can actually see through walls. With a THINK check, you can identify the function of the magic.
Rainbo trips last for 10 turns. When you come down, you’re dazed.
Z-ray trip.
When normal people drop z-ray, their vision just gets all weird for a second, then they get a body high. When you take a hit of z-ray, you can, with a SEE check, see through solid objects: through walls, into crates, and, yes, through clothing.
Z-ray trips last for 10 turns. When you come down, you’re dazed.
Rush trip.
Rush makes normal people talk fast and move in quick, jittery motions. It gives you the ability to run really fast, as fast as a motor vehicle (fast+1).
Rush trips last for an extended time or a single action sequence. When you come down, you’re exhausted.
Smash trip.
They call it smash because it makes people want to, well, smash things. When you take it, you not only want to smash things, but are extremely capable at it: with a successful HIT check, you can demolish any non-living thing beyond repair.
Atlas trip.
Atlas is normally used by body builders to maximize their pump. It is abnormally used by you to gain the ability to lift and carry anything on your shoulders, without it slowing you down. Just make sure you’re not carrying, like, a bus when it wears off.
Also, for all uses of the Comparative Physique table, treat yourself as if massive, then add 1 to the modifier. (So, if you were shoving someone scrawny, you’d get +3; if you were arm-wrestling someone massive, you’d get +1.)
Atlas trips last for 10 turns. When you come down, you’re exhausted.
Chill trip.
Most people take a chill pill to calm down and cool off. You take them to gain the ability to drop the temperature in localized areas, even to the extent of freezing water and the moisture in the air into ice at will. Make a HIT check to attack someone with it, with damage on the Blunt table for chunks of ice or the Piercing table for wicked icicles. Reach doesn’t apply. You can also make the floor slippery, requiring MOVE checks for people to get across it without falling. Finally, you’re immune to the detrimental effects of cold while chill tripping.
Chill trips last for 10 turns. When you come down, you’re treated as if suffering from extreme heat until you take a break.
I’ll show you performance enhancers.
When you take any of the performance enhancing drugs (krush, perk, slide, flash, or hero), their effect is doubled for you.
Connection for Tripper drugs.
You have a connection to score your special drugs on your own time. Your supply of 20 hits refills between jobs. They don’t carry over between jobs because you used them all to get high in the downtime.
Weapons: none.
Armor: none.
Holsters: 1.
Fried: -1 to THINK and SEE outside the scope of your tripping powers.
When You Crack
When a Tripper cracks it, all the drug remnants that have piled up in his brain break loose and send him on the worst flashback ever. Everyone appears to him as horrible monsters, and they all think he sucks. At this point, he’s apt to be very unpredictable and violent. He’ll also have unlimited access to the powers granted by the most recent drug he took.
Starting Gear
* Weird clothes
* Twenty hits of hard drugs in any combination of the following:
o Phase
o Rainbo
o Z-ray
o Rush
o Smash
o Atlas
o Chill
Buddy Score Mods
+1 with anyone who has drugs, extra +1 with Croakers. -1 with anyone not in weird clothes.
About this Entry
hand, piano
Dec. 23rd, 2009 @ 02:16 pm musings on KILLER7
Just helpless Pieces of the Game He plays
Upon this chequer-board of Nights and Days;
Hither and thither He moves, and checks, and slays,
And one by one back in the closet lays.
– Omar Khayyam, The Rubaiyat
I’ve read various analyses of the political content of KILLER7, and, while I don’t disagree much with the points made, I don’t find it a satisfying take on the story. The topical content is heavy-handed, dated, and lacking in resonance. This is some rambling analysis on parts of it that resonated with me.
I initially rented the game and played up through Sunset Part 2 before returning it. I bought it a couple years later, because, while the gameplay itself had its flaws, the game presented a one-of-a-kind experience that I wanted to see through to the end. I mean, if Guy Ritchie and William S. Burroughs got together to make a movie, it might be something like this, if they were lucky. I love the way it forces you to take things in stride – or, as William S. Burroughs would say, “take a broad, general view of things” – just to be able to even play. Its form, with its fucked up structure, rampant symbolism, and dream logic, is what draws me to it.
The novelist William S. Burroughs is famed for his use of the Cut-Up Method, which, in its most basic form, consists of taking a block of text, cutting it into pieces, and rearranging the pieces such that new words and phrases would be formed. You end up with run-on sentences and fragments, and little punctuation where it is needed, but you also end up with a lot of evocative, amusing, and occasionally astounding results. Burroughs applied this principle in other ways as well, including shotgun paintings and tape recordings over which he would record new material at random intervals, rewinding and fast-forwarding to dub new recordings at whim.
The operating principle here is the same one that fuels most divination, from I Ching to Tarot to tasseomancy. This is the ability of the human mind to make sense from chaos. By the same token, we see pictures in the clouds or even in random assortments of dots. Cut-up takes this further than divination, however, because divination techniques come with commentary and advice for interpreting. Cut-up does not pretend to offer a new kind of sense. What it does is face you with something incomprehensible, occupying the rational mind to give you a moment of silence in which the intuitive mind and the dreaming mind are free to create sense. Through this dynamic, the reader of cut-up fiction takes on just as much of a creative role as the author does.
Through a slightly different method, KILLER7 also does this. While it doesn’t cut-up and rearrange things (beyond a bit of chronological mixing that isn’t anything weirder than you’d see in a Tarantino flick), it confronts you with situations and juxtapositions that you can’t make sense of rationally. It requires a different view, one that is closely tied with symbol and dream-logic: a magical view.
I don’t mean that the explanation for everything in the game is, “Oh, it’s magic.” I’m also not talking about what modern psychology dubs “magical thinking” (which is merely a misguided branch of rational thought). I’m talking about a worldview by which the universe is abstract and incomprehensible, causality is synchronous, and the symbol IS the thing. This is the same thought-model necessary to make sense of Buddhism (especially the Apocalyptic Vehicle), most paganism, and any occult philosophy worth the paper it is written on.
A good starting point for analyzing dramatic narratives is to identify who the protagonist is, and what he wants. Going from there, you look at what he does to try to get what he wants, and what happens as a result.
Another side note. I don’t know what it’s like in other countries, but schools in the U.S. are notoriously bad at teaching this (as well as all other literary theory). The protagonist is not necessarily “the good guy,” and he’s not necessarily “the main character.” A protagonist is a character who wants something, and who drives the plot by proactively trying to accomplish his goals, facing adversity and antagonism along the way. Some stories have multiple protagonists, and some don’t have any at all, merely having characters that we like.
So, who is the protagonist of KILLER7? At first glance, it seems to be Garcian. After all, he’s the guy you play as. But a bit of thought reveals that he’s not it. Through the majority of the plot, Garcian is an instrument, following orders with no will of his own. It is not until the final scene that he is even presented a choice in what he does. Garcian is Harman’s instrument, which is what has led me to conclude that Harman Smith is the protagonist.
Who is Harman Smith? One thing that seems unavoidably clear is that he is a being of power. After all, in the stuff we’re shown, he lives for well over 150 years. Whether he’s a god, a sorcerer, an anthropomorphic representation of a concept, or whatever is unclear, but also not necessary to understand. But who is he, as a character? Well, the way he’s depicted, he’s pretty inscrutable, but there’s a trick here, in that protagonists can be defined by their antagonists. So, what do we know about Kun Lan, his antagonist?
Kun Lan is also a being of power. His appearance is bizarre and flamboyant, his speech and bearing theatrically exaggerated, and his laughter maniacal. His methods are terror and disorder, revolving around the en masse creation and proliferation of walking, laughing bombs. Contrasting this with Harman, certain aspects of his character come to light. His appearance is neat and stately, his speech and bearing grave, and his laughter usually restrained. His methods are tactical – surgical, even – revolving around the manipulation of established systems and infrastructures, and the careful, focused use of a single assassin.
It’s tempting to try to assign roles of good and evil to protagonists and antagonists, but it’s pretty clear that neither of these are particularly good or evil. Their ethics are far more ambiguous. But one thing that does work in this case is roles of Order and Chaos. Harman represents Order, and Kun represents Chaos. This actually ties into the political content a bit, since Order offers security at the cost of freedom, while Chaos offers freedom at the cost of security. Which is right? Well, that’s the question, innit.
What does Harman Smith Want? Harman Smith wants to prove Kun Lan wrong. This is what their chess games are all about, and the contest between the Killer7 and the Heaven Smile is itself just another chess game. It seems pretty clear that Harman and Kun have been arguing about this for a long time, and will probably be arguing about it for a long time to come (they’re still going at it 100 years later, after all).
One thing I’d like to point out is that not only are Garcian and the Smiles pawns in this chess game, but Japan and the U.S. themselves are pawns. The topical content is present only in an over-arcing conflict about the difficulty (and perhaps futility) of finding a compromise between security and freedom. It isn’t The Point, but merely a cultural hook to point us toward the perennial issue at the heart of it all.
Notice that it is in the presence of SECURITY cameras that Garcian is able to unleash the power of the Killer7. Also note that the Killer7’s movements are confined to predetermined paths, while the Heaven Smile are FREE to run all over the map.
It seems to me that Emir was a pawn of Kun’s in a previous chess match. He was used to kill Harman’s original band of assassins, and then Harman’s incarnation (thoughtform, sending, fetch, tulpa, whatever you wanna call it). Note that it is just before Harman’s incarnation is shot to death that Kun declares checkmate. (Sure, Kun gets shot up too, but he doesn’t care; he’s Chaos.)
What Kun didn’t anticipate was that Harman would infiltrate the people who trained Emir, mentor Emir himself, and then claim Emir as his own at the end of the game. Harman not only thinks several moves ahead, but he also thinks games ahead. He is Order, and Order requires forethought.
What is the deal with Emir’s third eye? Is it literally there? I don’t think so. It is only apparent on the symbolic, dream-like plane that Harman and Kun operate on. That third eye is a quality of Emir that enables him to intersect with and act on this plane. Specifically, I think that Emir is a schizophrenic [according to Merriam-Webster: “a psychotic disorder characterized by loss of contact with the environment, by noticeable deterioration in the level of functioning in everyday life, and by disintegration of personality expressed as disorder of feeling, thought (as delusions), perception (as hallucinations), and behavior”]. His training enables him to use what would ordinarily be a debilitating psychosis as a window (or eye) into Kun and Harman’s scale of operations.
Another fun little detail: the Third Eye is a chakra (one of many nodes of energy according to yogic philosophy), specifically the one through which insight, intuition, and premonition enter. Chakra literally means wheel. Wheels and rings aren’t much different. Suppose that Garcian’s Vision Ring that enables him to see the Heaven Smile is Emir’s third eye? Consider that the Vision Ring is necessary to gain access to Emir’s computer.
What is the deal with Harman’s original band of assassins who are killed by Emir? It’s clear that upon the completion of that mission, Harman incorporated the six of them with Emir to form Garcian Smith. Why were they so much weaker then they are as part of Garcian?
About this Entry
hand, piano |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8032 | Take the 2-minute tour ×
I am learning tasker and reading up tutorial on http://tasker.dinglisch.net/tour.html.
If you look at the picture,
you can see the two same tasks "Set Widget Icon".
Is that a typo, or something I do not understand?
enter image description here
Also, what is the benefit of toggle? Why is the property ternary, not just off and on? Can you please help with a practical example?
Thanks much.
share|improve this question
add comment
1 Answer
up vote 2 down vote accepted
Yes, that seems to be a typo: the conditions should be If %WIFI ~ on and If %WIFI !~ on (or If %WIFI ~ off).
The %WIFI variable can only be on or off, not toggle. But the Wifi action can be used to enable, disable or toggle Wifi, i.e. if Wifi is enabled, it will be disabled, and if Wifi is disabled, it will be enabled.
The example (minus the typo) talks about creating a "Toggle Wifi" widget: if Wifi is on and you click the icon, Wifi will be disabled and the icon will be changed to a "Wifi is off" icon. And if Wifi is off and you click the icon, Wifi will be enabled and the icon will be changed to a "Wifi is on" icon.
share|improve this answer
add comment
Your Answer
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8033 | Thread: General default memory
View Single Post
Old February 14th, 2011, 06:45 PM #4 (permalink)
New Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 13
Carrier: Not Provided
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
yup i was also wondering since i installed Astro to manage the downloaded applications, however if i use the search function or look for the games it doesnt come up with results.
passtherock is offline
Reply With Quote |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8040 | Universal Access To All Knowledge
Search: Advanced Search
Anonymous User (login or join us)
Search Results
Results: 1 through 1 of 1 (0.003 secs)
You searched for: mediatype:audio AND collection:the-peach-tree AND subject:"Unbelievable"
[audio]The Ghost Of Muses Past - The Peach Tree
Ghosts are real. They are the residue of people, places and experiences as they exist in the present. There is only the moment, the Now. The future is not yet seen, and the past only exists in memories. Ghosts are our memories. They haunt us and yet show us the Path at the same time. So what are ghosts of Muses? They are the residual taint left in the memory and soul of a person, of something that was once very important, very inspiring...
Keywords: The Peach Tree; electronic indie rock; electronic; indie; rock; alternative; progressive; progressive electronica; progressive rock; prog; prog rock; music; beautiful; poetic; amazing; unbelievable; free; creative commons
Downloads: 127
Advanced search
Group results by:
> Relevance
Related collections
Related creators
The Peach Tree
Related mediatypes |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8041 | Universal Access To All Knowledge
Search: Advanced Search
Anonymous User (login or join us)
Search Results
Results: 1 through 1 of 1 (0.003 secs)
You searched for: mediatype:movies AND collection:PeriscopeFilm AND subject:"Admiral Dewey"
[movies]Admiral Dewey Newsreel - U.S. Government
Transfer of a rare paper print of Admiral Dewey great White Fleet featuring the USS Olympia as it cruised through the Suez Canal and Gibraltar. Also featured are the USS New York, USS Chicago.
Keywords: Admiral Dewey
Downloads: 836
Advanced search
Group results by:
> Relevance
Refine your search:
File formats
MP3 files
Any audio file
Movie files
Related collections
Related creators
U.S. Government
Related mediatypes |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8057 |
February 10, 2013 5:50 PM Subscribe
posted by deadmessenger to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (23 answers total)
What does your hair look like now? Can you post a picture?
posted by amaire at 5:53 PM on February 10, 2013
If your wife thought it was a good idea to tell you that she doesn't like your hair, she ought to finish the job and actually suggest a hairstyle that would suit you better.
posted by Nomyte at 5:56 PM on February 10, 2013 [23 favorites]
No! That's exactly what you should be doing. The fewer the boundaries the better. Go to someone competent, of course, but making people look good through haircuts is the actual job of a stylist -- let them do it.
posted by brainmouse at 5:56 PM on February 10, 2013 [3 favorites]
Richie did it for me when I had to make a drastic change.
posted by Exchequer at 5:58 PM on February 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
Can you post a picture, and what is your hair's texture (thick, fine, curly, straight) and your current hair care regimen (shampoo, conditioner, hair spray, brylcreem)?
posted by sweetkid at 5:59 PM on February 10, 2013 [2 favorites]
Where do you currently get your hair cut? If at Supercuts or you do it at home, or maybe if you see an elderly barber who is behind the times, simply switching to a real salon will probably fix this without any real thought on your part.
$100 for a men's haircut in Atlanta will do beyond nicely. You could probably find a good place for $50.
I don't know Atlanta well, but if it works like other major cities, the hipper the neighborhood is, the hipper the salons will be. Think of what neighborhood you wish people thought you lived in, or make some associations with neighborhoods and different looks. For a "good for a 41 year old dude" look, I'd probably pick somewhere nominally cooler than where you actually hang out, but not, like, hipster central. Also, assuming you're hetero, not a gayborhood.
posted by Sara C. at 6:01 PM on February 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
I'm a few years younger than you but shaved, so I can't recommend my hair style.
I agree that if you wife said she doesn't like your current hair (and a picture would help - feel free to mosaic your face), it is up to her to drop the other shoe and suggest what would be a becoming hair style. This is a nicer way of saying the management maxim, "don't come to me with your problem until you have a solution."
Regarding your first question, most every salon has books full of pictures of various hairstyles. Go to the salon, find a picture you like, and say, "make my hair look like that". I am sure there are websites that also have pictures of hairstyles. I do not recommend giving a hairstylist wide boundaries.
posted by Tanizaki at 6:21 PM on February 10, 2013
a couple of ideas. ask your wife for suggestions/pics or have her go with you to the salon. also, take pictures of haircuts with you that you like. it's also good to take a pic of what you don't want if you are concerned you might not be communicating clearly. visuals are a good way to communicate with stylists as descriptions are tough to translate.
Short in the back, but long in the front.
personally, i always like this on men. but rather than charlemagne's rockabilly look i'm thinking of david bowie circa 1980s.
posted by wildflower at 6:26 PM on February 10, 2013
I'd prefer not to post a picture publicly, but I guess I should clarify that I'm not looking for advice on the hairstyle itself - just on where to go to get decent advice. If you really really need to see my hair to give advice, memail me and I'll find a link somewhere that I can send you.
That having been said, it's fine textured, somewhat wavy if left to dry on its own, and long. Not thinning as far as I can tell. My wife has done every haircut I've had for the last 20 years, but they've been VERY simple, just basic end trimming. She did make one reasonably decent recommendation (face shape and coloring are pretty close, actually), but I'm really not sure I can pull it off.
posted by deadmessenger at 6:30 PM on February 10, 2013
The key to getting a good haircut, apart from bringing in pictures of people who look somewhat like you with hair you like, is being absolutely honest with the hair stylist what your everyday hairstyling regime is.
Getting a cut that only looks good if it's blown dry with pomade is a disaster if what you do every morning is run a comb through it and let it air dry with no product.
posted by Sidhedevil at 6:36 PM on February 10, 2013 [7 favorites]
If you'd like, you could post a photo to Imgur or Flickr temporarily, linking it here and then deleting it after you had gotten useful advice from this thread.
posted by estlin at 7:40 PM on February 10, 2013
Search for a man’s hair on tumblr that you wish to emulate. Take pictures to the barber shop. Go to a barber shop that makes you make appointments.
I’m really into this Morrissey one.
posted by oceanjesse at 7:51 PM on February 10, 2013
pssst - Joe Manganiello's hairstyle? High maintenance. High. HIGH. It looks like casual long oily hair. That looks good. That requires a lot of work.
Most celebrity hairstyles are super high maintenance. Even buzz- and shorter cuts.
Be honest with yourself with regards to how much effort you're willing to put into grooming your hairstyle (and how often you're willing to go in for 'maintenance' cuts). Almost all styles will require pomade/product and at least a little blow-drying work every day. (Unless you're seriously genetically gifted, and then, a "good" cut is going to help a ton.)
OTOH, let your wife give you a similar longer cut and stop using shampoo (but wash your hair thoroughly every day with plenty of hot water) for a week. There are a few tricks - maybe look up blower brush curl on youtube to figure out how to curl your hair in the right direction/shape.
posted by porpoise at 8:23 PM on February 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
Going to a barber or hairdresser for advice on what haircut you should get is going to be very frustrating for them and for you. Their job is to try to make your hair look the way you want to look. They don't know what you want if you don't know what you want. No really, they have no idea what is "best" if you can't give them a place to start. They're going to take you to the book of hairstyles and tell you to point to what you want, so you may as well do that part in advance.
Now, once you're showing them pictures of what you might want, THEN you're in their world of expertise. They can tell you where your desired look is or is not compatible with your hair's thickness, coarseness, waves, curls, cowlicks, limpness, hairline, whatever. They might advise you to go a little shorter or a little longer than perhaps you expected in order for the haircut to work. They can take into consideration your willingness to use certain hairstyling products or not, and how often you can come in for a haircut.
posted by desuetude at 8:33 PM on February 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
Just go to a well reviewed or recommended salon and give the stylist your requirements. Maybe bring some photos if you want to narrow it down. It's a stylists job to figure this stuff out, and they will.
posted by Kololo at 11:39 PM on February 10, 2013
Nthing that you really need some strong words about how much maintenance you're going to do. Every stylist I've met has been absolutely convinced that I would switch to using the blow dryer and product once I saw how awesome my hair looked with their fancy pants hair cut. (It does look awesome. But not an hour a day and having breathing problems from all the fragrance awesome.)
posted by anaelith at 3:39 AM on February 11, 2013
My husband has a similar cut to that photo. It is not high maintenance if your hair naturally falls that way. He does sometimes use gel if he feels like his hair is too poufy/curly on any given day.
But yeah, shorter is always going to be less daily effort, depending on how much your hair curls/poufs in humidity.
posted by Ollie at 4:21 AM on February 11, 2013
Husbunny and I get our hair cut at the Aveda Institute on Peachtree. It's $15 per cut, and while students cut our hair, they are looked over by the instructors and my hair has never looked better.
We're older, but our hair always looks current without being silly for our age or position in life (no pink feathers).
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 8:58 AM on February 11, 2013
posted by Sara C. at 9:01 PM on February 10 [marked as best answer | unmark] [1 favorite +] [!]
So, before I posted this question, I had a short list of well-reviewed salons I was considering. Every single one of them are in one of Atlanta's "gayborhoods." I just always figured that most of the gay men I know look exceptionally well put-together, and they're probably getting their hair cut somewhere local. Now I've added a few more beans to my plate and am rethinking that.
Thanks to everyone who responded!
posted by deadmessenger at 9:18 AM on February 11, 2013
Make sure to ask the stylist to show you how to achieve the style, and to allow you to practice in in front of them before you leave. If they won't do that for you, then find another stylist.
posted by telophase at 10:19 AM on February 11, 2013
The best haircut and shave I ever received was at Gino's Classic Barbershop in Atlanta. You should check it out!
posted by brand-gnu at 11:33 AM on February 11, 2013
I wouldn't worry about the gayborhood thing. If it's a good place, the stylist will take a look at you and give you a cut that matches your style/persona. (I dress in a sort of classic-with-a-twist way, and get my hair cut in a place where most of the clients and staff have a bajillion piercings and architectural haircuts and everyone has, like, green highlights or whatever. But my stylist is good, so gives me a slightly edgy cut that suits me, because she wants to make me happy, because she's a good stylist who assesses each client individually.)
A good stylist will give you a good cut, go to the well reviewed places you identified!
And don't sweat this too too much - it's just hair, and if you don't fall in love with your cut you can either cut it again, or you can wait a month or two and it'll grow out anyway. Haircuts are seriously low-risk!
posted by Kololo at 11:51 AM on February 11, 2013 [1 favorite]
Just a follow up: Tim from Helmet did a fantastic job. Basically, I made an appointment, told him the stuff in my post above, admitted that I was clueless about anything beyond that, and let him run with it. My hair looks better than it has in years, and my wife (who went along for moral support) isn't cringing any more.
posted by deadmessenger at 5:00 PM on February 19, 2013 [1 favorite]
« Older My boyfriend and I have just f... | I'm starting to get back into ... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8061 | Take the 2-minute tour ×
I'm using Ubuntu 9.10 with an Ati Radeon X1300 pro, resolution 1600x1050. The problem is about slow speed when I use java apps. For instance, NetBeans is unusable cause of lack of speed.
With others app (non java) the problem doesn't appear.
So my question is if this can be a Java problem or a video card (+ driver) problem?
share|improve this question
Which Java Virtual Machine are you using? Sun or OpenJDK? – Nick Pascucci Nov 11 '10 at 1:59
add comment
closed as too localized by Stefano Palazzo Jan 4 '12 at 12:16
1 Answer
up vote 0 down vote accepted
I can't say exactly what is wrong but I can point you in some direction. I (as well as some otrher people) have had problems because of bad Xorg configuration. Look at this example to give you some clue.
share|improve this answer
add comment
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8062 | Take the 2-minute tour ×
Using a tiling window manager, I called gnome-power-manager in earlier Ubuntu versions to get the battery tray icon.
In 12.04, the gnome-power-manager package is still there, but the binary is gone.
What is the 12.04 equivalent that starts the applet?
share|improve this question
add comment
1 Answer
In the standard installation with Unity you have the same facilities but gnome-power-manager is not running. I believe the facilities are provided by indicator-power. The indicator-x things are threaded into gnome much deeper than gnome-power-manager was. In case you need something with the same functionality you can try xfce4-power-manager It is a little bit slow to "dock" in the tray, but works well and reminds me of the old power-manager. It is light and will not bring all xfce4 with it, but juts a couple of libraries.
I hope it helps Herna
share|improve this answer
add comment
Your Answer
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8063 | Take the 2-minute tour ×
I have enabled the setting that allows people who connect to my computer to control it. Now, I was wondering if there was a way to connect to it through my iPod and control it from there?
If so, do you guy's reccomend any apps? Also, where do I find the info on how to connect to my computer?
share|improve this question
I don't use any Apple products, so I can't recommend a good app, but you are looking for is a VNC client. Hopefully this will at least point you in the right direction, if no one answers. – reverendj1 Sep 5 '12 at 16:09
What was that setting? Because to my knowledge in order to remotely connect to a computer you user SSH. Check to see if there are some SSH clients for your iOS based device. – NlightNFotis Sep 5 '12 at 16:10
add comment
2 Answers
up vote 1 down vote accepted
You can search the app store for the keyword "VNC client" as mentioned in the comments.
Or you can install teamviewer on your ipod and computer.
This would have the advantage that you don't need to change any port forwarding, firewall or other security settings on your computer.
share|improve this answer
add comment
You can use splashtop. it is really fast and you can be 10 miles away and still control it.
share|improve this answer
add comment
Your Answer
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8064 | Take the 2-minute tour ×
I have broadband connection,in windows it is working properly.In ubuntu 9.10 it is not working,So suggest me possible solution..
share|improve this question
Ubuntu 9.10 is no longer supported. You should consider upgrading to a new release. – Thomas Boxley Aug 22 '11 at 2:46
add comment
1 Answer
If you are talking about 3g/4g mobile broadband like an aircard install the "usb_mode_switch"..so you would need to be connected to the internet to be able to install it.what type of card are you using?
share|improve this answer
I will not flag this to become a comment, but in future, ask questions in comments, and leave answers as answers ;). – RolandiXor Aug 22 '11 at 3:43
add comment
Your Answer
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8065 | Take the 2-minute tour ×
I've tried to edit the configuration file in ~/.config/openbox/lxde-rc.xml however the changes don't take effect, i still can't use the keys.
The LXDE wiki shows that after finding that my keyboard sends the correct standardized keyboard events i should go and edit the file to my liking, the keyboard does send the correct events and the keys are properly identified yet nothing happens.
Since LXDE doesn't come with a sound preferences option i have installed xfce4-mixer. I too have a netbook running Lubuntu and its media keys are working fine, i don't know if what i installed has had something to do here?.
I also installed xfce4-volumed volume keys daemon from synaptic but to no avail, still nothing.
How can i make the multimedia keys of my keyboard ( Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 1000) work in LXDE with xfce4-mixer
Edit: Here is my lxde-rc.xml file
I've commented the line OnlyShowIn=XFCE: in /etc/xdg/autostart/xfce4-volumed.desktop and now i get a notification when pressing the Volume keys however it doesn't have any effect on the audio output. The Play/Pause, Stop, etc. Keys still don't work.
I also tried to use the commands my XML file has, i.e. amixer sset Master 3%+ and i get this:
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined penum
Playback channels: Mono
Limits: Playback 0 - 64
Mono: Playback 5 [8%] [-59.00dB] [on]
Using the command again raises this value Mono: Playback 5 [8%] [-59.00dB] [on] to Mono: Playback 7 [11%] [-57.00dB] [on] but no audible effect is noticed.
share|improve this question
On a different note I believe xfce4-volumed is XFCE only startup job. Make sure its running in lxde as well. – sagarchalise Dec 1 '11 at 7:21
basically comment the the line showonlyin: XFCE in /etc/xdg/autstart/xfce4-volumed.desktop. I think ps aux | grep xfce4-volumed would say if process is running or not. – sagarchalise Dec 1 '11 at 7:34
@fossfreedom Done editing the question, i do have pulseaudio installed, killing it causes the volume to drop in dB even when the volume control slider is at the max. – Uri Herrera Dec 1 '11 at 23:21
Uri - just confirming what I think you said - killing pulseaudio and then running the amixer commands manually changes the volume correctly. Having pulseaudio and running the amixer commands manually does not change the volume - hence it is pulseaudio that is clashing with LXDE ALSA Audio. What happens if you just uninstall pulseaudio and reboot. – fossfreedom Dec 2 '11 at 10:45
Killing pulseaudio makes the volume sort of drop in dB, and then if i use the amixer commands to raise the volume they don't do anything. But i will uninstall it and see what happens. – Uri Herrera Dec 2 '11 at 15:11
show 5 more comments
closed as too localized by Marco Ceppi Dec 7 '11 at 1:24
1 Answer
up vote 0 down vote accepted
I have reinstalled the whole OS due another inconvenience, now i'm using XFCE instead of LXDE
share|improve this answer
add comment
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8076 | Take the 2-minute tour ×
Our eyes are spherical, our retina is circular, but still our eyes can see more in the horizontal direction than in vertical direction. Why is it so, why is the preferred aspect ratio not square?
share|improve this question
This is just a hypothesis: but there is probably not one "preferred" aspect ratio, even for one individual. It probably has to do with the following points: 1. the eyes are positioned on a horizontal line; 2. the width between the irises; 3. how far you are looking. And let's not call it a "preferred" aspect ratio. It's more like an "effective" aspect ratio. My hypothesis is that the closer you look, the wider the effective aspect ratio is, and the further you look, the more circular it is. And if you cover one of your eyes, you'll probably get a circular FoV regardless of distance. – Kal Nov 5 '12 at 9:28
I have to agree with Kal, but mainly about #1. Essentially, the eyes are next to each other, and this allows for stereoscopic vision. If you cover one eye, your field of view is more or less circular (due to the retina and macula), but you'll lose depth perception. Plus, your eyelids slightly limit the amount you can see in the up-down directions. – jello Nov 5 '12 at 11:19
@jello Surely the eyelids can't be having an effect as you describe because they don't normally cover any part of the pupils. – Alan Boyd Nov 5 '12 at 19:08
@AlanBoyd I think you're right. For some reason, I was probably thinking about ptosis, when a drooping eyelid does limit your visual field. – jello Nov 7 '12 at 8:35
I will add that in other animals, having a wide horizontal angle helps in hunting and also in defending against hunters. The vertical angle is also important, for example for hunting birds, but not so much for terrestrial animals. – 149781-32509185 Nov 9 '12 at 13:45
add comment
2 Answers
up vote 7 down vote accepted
I found the explanation given below here (my emphasis). It may not be authoritative, but it makes sense to me.
You can determine the approximate shape of your visual field by looking straight ahead, and holding a hand out to each side and noticing where you can no longer see them. Do the same for above and below, and you'll see that your peripheral vision probably extends to about 180 degrees (or a little less) left and right, and about 100 degrees up and down. Your brow, nose, and cheeks narrow the vertical angle.
So your visual field has a ratio of about 1 to 1.8.
Interestingly, and not entirely coincidentally, ordinary films and wide-screen TVs have a ratio of 1.78 (16:9).
Another way to see this effect is to look at someone's head in profile and from directly above. In the former case you have a clear view of their eyes, in the latter you don't. (Tested on a small sample - one 3 year old male, playing with an iPad).
share|improve this answer
add comment
The reasons your field of view is not circular are:
• Even when looking directly forward your nose, brows, and cheeks obstruct your view.
• You have two eyes which are aligned horizontally.
The field of view is measured by a method called perimetry, and looks approximately as depicted in this graphic. The guide here provides further comments on the graphic.
As you can see in the image I linked to, the field of view (were it to be approximated with a rectangle) spans 180° horizontally and 130° vertically. Yielding a width-to-height ratio of 0.72. Which is better approximated by the traditional 4:3 screen size and NOT by modern 16:9 displays. Having said that, 16:9 may not necessarily be a worse format, as researchers found that horizontal saccades are faster than vertical ones.
share|improve this answer
add comment
Your Answer
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8098 | Sialic acid
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - View original article
Jump to: navigation, search
Sialic acid is a generic term for the N- or O-substituted derivatives of neuraminic acid, a monosaccharide with a nine-carbon backbone.[1] It is also the name for the most common member of this group, N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac or NANA). Sialic acids are found widely distributed in animal tissues and to a lesser extent in other organisms, ranging from plants and fungi to yeasts and bacteria, mostly in glycoproteins and gangliosides (they occur at the end of sugar chains connected to the surfaces of cells and soluble proteins).[2] That is because it seems to have appeared late in evolution. However, it has been observed in Drosophila embryos and other insects and in the capsular polysaccharides of certain strains of bacteria.[3] In humans the brain has the highest sialic acid concentration where they have an important role in neural transmission and ganglioside structure in synaptogenesis.[2] In general, the amino group bears either an acetyl or a glycolyl group, but other modifications have been described. These modifications along with linkages have shown to be tissue specific and developentally regulated expressions, so some of them are only found on certain types of glycoconjugates in specific cells.[3] The hydroxyl substituents may vary considerably; acetyl, lactyl, methyl, sulfate, and phosphate groups have been found.[4] The term "sialic acid" (from the Greek for saliva, σίαλον/sialon) was first introduced by Swedish biochemist Gunnar Blix in 1952.
Sialic acids' family includes 43 derivatives of the nine-carbon sugar neuraminic acid, but these acids unusually appear free in nature. Normally they can be found as components of oligosaccharide chains of mucins, glycoproteins and glycolipids occupying terminal, nonreducing positions of complex carbohydrates on both external and internal membrane areas where they are very exposed and develop important functions.[2]
N-acetylneuraminic acid and Kdn, two sialic acids
The numbering of the sialic acid structure begins at the carboxylate carbon and continues around the chain. The configuration that places the carboxylate in the axial position is the alpha-anomer.
Neuraminic acid anomeric configuration
The alpha-anomer is the form that is found when sialic acid is bound to glycans. However, in solution, it is mainly (over 90%) in the beta-anomeric form. A bacterial enzyme with sialic acid mutarotase activity, NanM, that is able to rapidly equilibrate solutions of sialic acid to the resting equilibrium position of around 90% beta/10% alpha has been discovered.[5]
Sialic acid is synthesized by glucosamine 6 phosphate and acetyl CoA through a transferase, resulting in N-acetylglucosamine-6-P. This becomes N-acetylmannosamine-6-P through epimerization, which reacts with phosphoenolpyruvate producing N-acetylneuraminic-9-P (sialic acid). For it to become active to enter in the oligosaccharide biosynthesis process of the cell, a monophosphate nucleoside is added, which comes from a cytidine triphosphate, turning sialic acid into cytidine monophosphate-sialic acid (CMP-sialic acid). This compound is synthesized in the nucleus of the animal cell.[6][7]
In bacterial systems, sialic acids are biosynthesized by an aldolase enzyme. The enzyme uses a mannose derivative as a substrate, inserting three carbons from pyruvate into the resulting sialic acid structure. These enzymes can be used for chemoenzymatic synthesis of sialic acid derivatives.[8]
Biosynthesis of sialic acid by a bacterial aldolase enzyme.
Sialic acid-rich glycoproteins (sialoglycoproteins) bind selectin in humans and other organisms. Metastatic cancer cells often express a high density of sialic acid-rich glycoproteins. This overexpression of sialic acid on surfaces creates a negative charge on cell membranes. This creates repulsion between cells (cell opposition)[9] and helps these late-stage cancer cells enter the blood stream.
Sialic acid also plays an important role in human influenza infections. The influenza viruses (Orthomyxoviridae) have hemagglutinin activity (HA) glycoproteins on their surfaces that bind to sialic acids found on the surface of human erythrocytes and on the cell membranes of the upper respiratory tract. This is the basis of hemagglutination when viruses are mixed with blood cells, and entry of the virus into cells of the upper respiratory tract. Widely-used anti-influenza drugs (oseltamivir and zanamivir) are sialic acid analogs that interfere with release of newly generated viruses from infected cells by inhibiting the viral enzyme neuraminidase.
Many bacteria also use sialic acid in their biology, although this is usually limited to bacteria that live in association with higher animals (deuterostomes). Many of these incorporate sialic acid into cell surface features like their lipopolysaccharide and capsule, which helps them evade the innate immune response of the host.[10] Other bacteria simply use sialic acid as a good nutrient source, as it contains both carbon and nitrogen and can be converted to fructose-6-phosphate, which can then enter central metabolism.
Sialic acid-rich oligosaccharides on the glycoconjugates (glycolipids, glycoproteins, proteoglycans) found on surface membranes help keep water at the surface of cells[citation needed]. The sialic acid-rich regions contribute to creating a negative charge on the cells' surfaces. Since water is a polar molecule with partial positive charges on both hydrogen atoms, it is attracted to cell surfaces and membranes. This also contributes to cellular fluid uptake.
Sialic acid can "hide" mannose antigens on the surface of host cells or bacteria from mannose-binding lectin.[citation needed] This prevents activation of complement.
Sialic acid in the form of polysialic acid is an unusual posttranslational modification that occurs on the neural cell adhesion molecules (NCAMs). In the synapse, the strong negative charge of the polysialic acid prevents NCAM cross-linking of cells.
The synthesis and degradation of sialic acid are distributed in different compartments of the cell. The synthesis starts in the cytosol, where N-acetylmannosamine 6 phosphate and phosphoenolpyruvate give rise to sialic acid. Later on, Neu5Ac 9 phosphate is activated in the nucleus by a cytidine monophosphate (CMP) residue through CMP-Neu5Ac synthase. Although the linkage between sialic acid and other compounds tends to be a α binding, this specific one is the only one that is a β linkage. CMP-Neu5Ac is then transported to the endoplasmic reticulum or the Golgi apparatus where it can be transferred to an oligosaccharide chain, becoming a new glycoconjugate. This bound can be modified by O-acetylation or O-methylation. When the glycoconjugated is mature it is transported to the cell surface.
The sialidase is one of the most important enzymes of the sialic acid catabolism. It can cause the removal of sialic acid residues from the cell surface or serum sialoglycoconjugates. Usually, in higher animals, the glycoconjugates that are prone to be degraded are captured by endocytosis. After the fusion of the late endosome with the lysosome, lysosomal sialidases remove sialic acid residues. The activity of these sialidases is based on the removal of O-acetyl groups. Free sialic acid molecules are transported to the cytosol through the membrane of the lysosome. There, they can be recycled and activated again to form another nascent glycoconjugate molecule in the Golgi apparatus. Sialic acids can also be degraded to acylmannosamine and pyruvate with the cytosolic enzyme acylneuraminate lyase.
Some severe diseases can depend on the presence or absence of some enzymes related to the sialic acid metabolism. Sialidosis would be an example of this type of disorder.[11]
Sialic acid and immunity[edit]
Sialic acids are found at all cell surfaces of vertebrates and some invertebrates, and also at certain bacteria that interact with vertebrates.
Lots of viruses and some bacteria use host-sialylated structures as targets for binding and recognition. It also happens with some bacterial toxins. In the case of viruses that bind Sia via a hemagglutinin, usually express a sialidase (neuraminidase) that adds to the same receptor. After several researches, the term sialidase is becoming an alternative instead of using the traditional term neuraminidase.[12]
Other immunological functions for bacterial sialidases are now becoming evident. For example, evidence indicates that free Sia can behave as a signal to some specific bacteria, like Pneumococcus. Free sialic acid possibly can help the bacterium to recognize that it has reached a vertebrate environment suitable for its colonization. Modifications of Sias, such as the N-glycolyl group at the 5 position or O-acetyl groups on the side chain, may reduce the action of bacterial sialidases. [12]
Brain development[edit]
Scientists investigate about the functions of sialic acid, and nowadays they are trying to demonstrate if sialic acid has a relationship with fast brain growth and if it produces some advantages on the brain development. An important food of our nutrition when we were younger has an important roll on these studies: human milk. It has been demonstrated that human milk contains high levels of acid sialic- glycoconjugates. In fact a study shows that, premature and full-term breast-fed at five months of age had more salivary sialic acid than formula –fed infants. However all human milk does not have the same amount of sialic acid: it depends of genetic inheritance, lactation, etc. So the investigations are focused on the effects of child who has been breast-fed, and the child who has not. Brain development is an important process for human. It is complex but it is fast too: by two years of age, the child brain reaches about the 80% of its adult weight. When children are born, they actually have all of the neurons formed; however the synaptic connections between them will be elaborated after birth. Nutrition is important in this process because it supports neural growth until the brain has reached its maximum development potential, so nutrition is important to have a well-formed brain. Acid sialic is an essential nutrient for well brain development and cognition. And it is important the moment of the administration of the input of sialic acid because if we give it when the animal is older there aren't important changes. It has been demonstrated that the human brain has more acid sialic than the brain of the other mammal (2 – 4 times more), in fact the neuron membrane has 20 times more sialic acid than other cellular membranes. So it is believed that sialic acid is decisive on the connection with these types of cells (neurons), because it makes easier the neurotransmission. . It also has been studied the effect of sialic acid supplementation on learning and memory behaviour in rodents, and then with piglets (because brain structure and function is more similar with brain human). They gave a diet rich in sialic acid to newborn piglets for five weeks. They used a visual cue in a maze to evaluate the capacity of learning and memory. Then, they saw that there exist a relationship between dietary acid sialic supplementation and cognitive function: the piglets who had been fed with high doses of sialic acid made a fastest learning and less mistakes. So it is so possible that sialic acid has an association with brain development and learning.[13]
How to the influenza virus get into the cell by endocytosis
Sialic acids are related to some diseases observed in humans.
Salla disease
Salla disease is an extremely rare illness which is considered the mildest form of the free sialic acid acumuluation disorders [14] though its childish form is considered an aggressive variant and people who suffer from it have mental retardation.[15] It is an autosomic recessive disorder caused by a mutation of the chromosome 6.[16] It affects, mainly, the nervous system [14] and it is caused by a lisosomal storage irregularity which comes from a deficit of an specific sialic acid carrier located on the lisosomal membrane [17] Currently, there is no cure for this disease and the treatment is supportive and based on control symptoms.[14]
Sialic acid and influenza virus
All influenza A virus strains need sialic acid to connect with cells. There are different forms of sialic acids which have different affinity with influenza A virus variety. This diversity is an important fact that determines which species can be infected.[18] When a certain influenza A virus is recognized by a sialic acid receptor the cell tends to endocyte the virus so the cell become infected.
See also[edit]
1. ^ Varki, Ajit; Roland Schauer (2008). in Essentials of Glycobiology. Cold Spring Harbor Press. pp. Ch. 14.
2. ^ a b c [1]
3. ^ a b [2]
4. ^ Schauer R. (2000). "Achievements and challenges of sialic acid research". Glycoconj. J. 17 (7–9): 485–499. doi:10.1023/A:1011062223612. PMID 11421344.
5. ^ Severi E, Müller A, Potts JR, Leech A, Williamson D, Wilson KS, Thomas GH (2008). "Sialic acid mutarotation is catalyzed by the Escherichia coli beta-propeller protein YjhT". J Biol Chem 283 (8): 4841–91. doi:10.1074/jbc.M707822200. PMID 18063573.
6. ^ Fulcher CA, "MetaCyc Chimeric Pathway: superpathway of sialic acid and CMP-sialic acid biosynthesis", "MetaCyc, March 2009"
7. ^ Leonard Warren, Herbert Felsenfeld, "The Biosynthesis of Sialic Acids", "The Journal of Biological Chemistry, May 1962, Vol. 237, No. 5"
8. ^ Hai Yu, Harshal Chokhawala, Shengshu Huang, and Xi Chen (2006). "One-pot three-enzyme chemoenzymatic approach to the synthesis of sialosides containing natural and non-natural functionalities". Nature Protocols 1 (5): 2485–2492. doi:10.1038/nprot.2006.401. PMC 2586341. PMID 17406495.
9. ^ Fuster, Mark M.; Esko, Jeffrey D. (2005). "The sweet and sour of cancer: Glycans as novel therapeutic targets". Nature Reviews Cancer 5 (7): 526–42. doi:10.1038/nrc1649. PMID 16069816.
10. ^ Severi E., Hood D.W., Thomas G.H. (2007). "Sialic acid utilization by bacterial pathogens". Microbiology 153 (9): 2817–2822. doi:10.1099/mic.0.2007/009480-0. PMID 17768226.
11. ^ C. Traving, R. Schauer, "Structure, function and metabolism of sialic acids", "Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences CMLS, December 1998, Volume 54, Issue 12, pp 1330-1349"
12. ^ a b Varki A., Gagneux P. (2012). "Multifarious roles of sialic acids in immunity". Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1253 (1): 16–36. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2012.06517.x. PMID 22524423.
13. ^ Wang B. (2012). "Molecular Mechanism Underlying Sialic Acid as an Essential Nutrient for Brain Development and Cognition". Adv Nutr. 3 (3): 465S–472S. doi:10.3945/an.112.001875. PMID 22585926.
14. ^ a b c [3]
15. ^ [4]
16. ^ [5]
17. ^ [6]
18. ^ [7]
External links[edit] |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8125 | The past few days I moved the development of TestApi to the Codeplex TFS servers. Previously, we used to develop TestApi in the internal WPF branch at Microsoft, which had become a bit of a drag due to the need to support contributors from various teams across the company.
As part of the move, I needed to set up a code review process. Turns out that it’s a bit of a struggle to figure out how to set up a simple CR process using standard tools – mostly due to poor documentation – so I thought I’d share what I did in this post. Hopefully, that will save someone out there some time.
Code Review Process
The general CR process goes as follows:
1. The developer creates a new shelveset (see the TFS documentation for a definition of “shelveset”) with his/her changes and sends the shelveset for CR.
2. The code reviewer performs the CR, sending back feedback.
3. The developer revises his/her code based on the CR feedback and generates a new shelveset.
4. Steps 1-3 get repeated until the code reviewer approves the code change for checkin.
5. The developer checks in the code.
The tools we use for CR are VS 2010 itself and WINDIFF. The latter is a diffing tool used for step 2 of the CR process.
Initial Setup
To set up WINDIFF as your diff-ing tool, in VS 2010 go to Tools > Options…, scroll down to the Source Control item and configure your compare tool to be WINDIFF as shown below:
Shelving is the act of storing pending changes on the TFS server (see this link for more). To create a shelveset, in Source Control Explorer, right-click on the folder, containing all pending changes, and choose Shelve Pending Changes… in the displayed context menu. This will bring up a dialog that you can use to shelve your changes.
Once you shelve your proposed changes, send an email to the code reviewer, with your username and the name of your shelveset.
Unshelving, Diffing and Code Review
When you get a CR request, go to File > Source Control > Unshelve Pending Changes… and in the displayed Unshelve dialog, discover the shelveset that you need to review and click Details…
In the displayed Shelveset Details dialog, right click the file you want to review and compare it to its unmodified version. This will trigger WINDIFF as a comparison tool. Record your comments in an email and send them back to the developer (or approve the checkin if you agree to it).
That’s pretty much it. Obviously, this is a poor man’s solution, but it’s certainly better than nothing. There are a bunch of more advanced solutions out there providing code annotation, review workflows, etc. that you may find valuable too. This post by JB Brown may be a good starting point for those who want to go further. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8141 | SceneStyle: Paris Kids and Red Wing in Tokyo
Steve West for The Wall Street Journal
Roppongi, TOKYO
Peli, stylist/DJ/Vogue Japan blogger. Paris Kids jewelry, Red Wing boots.
More SceneStyle (Get it in your RSS reader)
Add a Comment
About Scene Asia |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8147 | The Motley Fool Discussion Boards
Previous Page
Investing/Strategies / Retirement Investing
Subject: Re: Great opportunity...need advice Date: 10/27/2000 11:45 AM
Author: Hillie75 Number: 25778 of 74536
As a 10-year non-professional investor, IMHO your plan looks pretty good overall. You might want to be a little more cautious with your stock investment plan....given you're just starting, you've only lived through the bull market, and your wife's concerns. Maybe a 50/50 or higher split between indexes and your self-directed account, assuming these are funds you won't be touching too much until retirement. When the balance reaches a certain level, find a private investment manager (charging no more than 1% of assets with low turnover) to take over decisions on say $100k, so that you are allocated in part to index funds, self-directed and managed. Put all the money in stocks, although manager should have some latitude to use bonds and convertibles. Good luck! |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8148 | The Motley Fool Discussion Boards
Previous Page
Retirement Discussions / Retired Fools
Subject: Re: A scary fact Date: 10/24/2012 6:52 PM
Author: pauleckler Number: 18023 of 19005
That is a scary fact, billjam. But how is it that these people did not see the possibility that one spouse my predecease from day one of their retirement planning?
Were they properly advised when they retired? Did they plan appropriately and then let expenses get out of control?
Or did they fail to anticipate changes in investment performance?
Are people being well served by the advice they receive?
Do we have to call on govt to do everything for us? Can't we teach people to be a bit more responsible?
The "I'll get by somehow" approach has its limitations. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8149 | The Motley Fool Discussion Boards
Previous Page
Retirement Discussions / Retire Early Liberal Edition
Subject: Bear walkers Date: 5/2/2013 12:07 PM
Author: alstroemeria Number: 49291 of 55771
Like Art sez, truth is stranger than fiction! |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8164 | Cheap Motel Key
Exchanging cheap motel keys and coffee table glances.
{Icons} :: Jamie Campbell Bower BASES
01 Jul
I promised I'd make them for a friend, so ta-da! Here they are. Um, this is only what is locatable of any of Jamie's model shoots (if anyone wants to direct me to more photos, I'd love you forEVER), and these include...none of Sweeney Todd. I could end up making those forever, and they'd deserve a separate post.
ANYWAY. Here, have some Jamie, and probably more in the future as I get less lazy. He's a slash-tastic PB, kids, I couldn't help myself.
20 Jamie Campbell Bower icons
→ Comment if you're using, please.
→ Credit either cheapmotelkey or mythologiced.
→ Feel free to edit; just credit the base.
{HP} Feels Like Somebody's Watching Me
01 Jul (UTC)
(Deleted comment)
01 Jul (UTC)
01 Jul (UTC)
10 May (UTC)
OK, I realise I'm really, really behind with this but just came accross it in a google search. Quick (hopefully easy) question, do you still have/know where I can find the base pic for the second icon (him leaning on his hand)? I've never come accross it before.
Also - snagging a few, thankyou very much!
11 May (UTC)
I should. Give me a few to locate it on my other harddrive, and I'll see what I can do. ♥
11 May (UTC)
Aha. Hope this is the one you meant!
11 May (UTC)
YES! That's it, thankyou so much for doing that. (also, ooh sexual tension much?)
12 May (UTC)
You're welcome! ♥
This page was loaded Mar 16th 2014, 4:07 am GMT. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8176 | Asus FonePad puts a phone in your tablet Video
Asus FonePad puts a phone in your tablet
Created: 02/26/2013
Video description: The 7-inch FonePad lets you take calls -- if you don't mind a phone the size of your head.
Asus FonePad puts a phone in your tablet Video Transcript
Hello. Yes, I know it's enormous. It's huge. It's a 7-inch tablet, but you can talk on it like a phone. Hello, I'm Richard Trenholm of CNET and I'm holding the Asus phone pad. Now, if you thought the Samsung Galaxy Note was an oversized phone then you ain't seen nothing yet. This is a 7-inch tablet that allows you to make and receive phone calls. So, the phone pad has a 7-inch 1280 x 800 high definition screen. It runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which is pretty much the latest version; allows you to download all the usual apps and games and buy your videos and movies and music stuff from the Google Play store. It comes with 16 or 32 GB of storage for your music and movies and your apps and snaps. It has all the usual Android features like the multitasking app launcher here. You also get a camera on this phone, but it's only a low resolution camera for video chats. It's not a full resolution camera. As it's an Android device, you go all the usual apps and widgets, which you can install on your home screens, give you all the latest updates without opening up an app and you can sort it down from the top to see all your notifications and have access to this handy little shortcut toggles here so things like turning on and off your Bluetooth or your Wi-Fi. So, that's the Asus phone pad. And one of the best things about this is the price. It's gonna start at a very reasonable $250 in the U.S. or 180 pounds in the U.K., which makes this-- for an oversized phone, it's quite an undersized price tag. I'm Richard Trenholm of CNET. Hello? Hello? Yeah. Brilliant. No, it's massive, honestly.
Related Videos
The Asus FonePad 7: An Android phone with a huge 7-inch screen.
At 7 inches, the Asus FonePad 7 is very much in tablet territory, but it packs a 3G radio, functioning as a standard Android phone.
It won't be released in the U.S., but the Asus FonePad is available to U.K. customers now. It's a good 7-inch tablet, but you may want to use it as a phone only in private.
Asus PadFone: Where no phone has gone before
It's a phone! It's a tablet! It's a notebook! Actually, the Asus PadFone is all three. Watch as our friends from CNET Asia take a closer look.
Asus PadFone 2 combines tablet, smartphone
Announced at a press event in Taiwan last month, the Asus PadFone 2 follows in the footsteps of the original smartphone/tablet combo. CNET Asia editor Aloysius Low takes a closer look.
Unboxing the Asus PadFone Infinity
Asus Padfone
Asus PadFone Infinity turns phone to tablet
Unboxing the Asus PadFone Infinity, Episode 44
This week on Always On, we unbox the Asus PadFone Infinity, and the BlackBerry Q10 gets a day at the spa in our latest torture test. Plus, Molly Wood looks at the future of e-bikes and rides one up a really, really, steep San Francisco hill.
Canon Elura 90
Kyocera Loft S2300 (Virgin Mobile)
If you don't mind the keyboard and the occasional static during calls, the Kyocera Loft is an accessible and functional messaging phone for Virgin Mobile.
Asus FonePad Review
Asus FonePad Specs
Manufacturer: Asus
Part number: CNETAsus Fonepad
Product Basic Spec
• Product Basic Spec
Read full specs
Asus FonePad Prices
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8187 | From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
Jump to: navigation, search
Redirect arrow without text.svg
This category is located at Category:Thamnistes anabatinus
Reason: For IOC classification 2.11, Thamnistes is monotypic and contains only Thamnistes anabatinus
There are no pages or files in this category.
This list may not reflect recent changes (learn more). |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8188 | From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
Jump to: navigation, search
Flag of Pereslavl-Zalessky (Yaroslavl oblast).png These images were provided to Wikimedia Commons by Russian newspaper «Pereslavl Week» as part of a cooperation project.
English | русский | +/−
w:en:Creative Commons
attribution share alike
Attribution: Газета «Переславская неделя» / CC-BY-SA 3.0
You are free:
• to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
• to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
OTRS Wikimedia
The permission to use this work has been archived in the Wikimedia OTRS system. It is available as ticket #2012090710009547 for users with an OTRS account. If you wish to reuse this work elsewhere, please read the instructions at COM:REUSE. If you are a Commons user and wish to confirm the permission, please leave a note at the OTRS noticeboard.
This template will categorize into Category:Images from the Pereslavl Week by filename.
This documentation is transcluded from Template:PN-license/doc.
No description yet available.
The template automatically sets the following categories: Category:Images from the Pereslavl Week by filename
The template takes no parameters.
Additional information
Relies on:
English | Русский |
This template is localized through {{Autotranslate}}. The layout of the template can be found under Template:PN-license/layout.
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8204 |
Discussion in 'New Members Zone' started by BenGone, Nov 9, 2011.
1. BenGone
BenGone New Member
2 Messages
0 Likes Received
Hey guys. I've been reading here a lot for years now. Finally dropped my first post today. Non-holding calls on Ratliff inspired me.
I'm pretty active on the dallascowboys.com forums. ;)
2. The Emperor
The Emperor Marcus Aurelius Maximus
3,877 Messages
0 Likes Received
3. kristie
kristie Well-Known Member
7,386 Messages
63 Likes Received
nice to meet you. :D
4. Passepartout
Passepartout Member
283 Messages
9 Likes Received
Welcomed to the forums, feel free to post! Don't be shy at all!
5. BraveHeartFan
BraveHeartFan We got a hat. I want a ring.
22,078 Messages
347 Likes Received
Welcome to the forums. Enjoy your time here. It's a great place for sure.
6. Sarge
Sarge Red, White and Brew... Staff Member
20,310 Messages
1,177 Likes Received
ENJOY it here!
Share This Page |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8218 | i own a nokia e72. is it possible to fake / simulate the proccess of turning off the phone? so for the phone to shutdown the screen (or at least make it pitch black) and the backlight of the keyboard when selecting "turn off" from the menu. and then, lets say, bring it back with a combination of keys.
when a phone is stolen usually the first thing the thief does is to shut it down. which of course disables all the gps apps and network location based services that can you check online to see where your phone is. it is a window of time before he removes the battery - but this can also be solved if you have those apps to automatically run at start up.
is this possible? is there such an app?
P.S. i am not a developer - i just came here to ask this question. thank you. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8232 | Word Origin & History
name of the cat in "Reynard the Fox" (1481), hence used as a proper name for any cat, from Flem. and Du. Tybert, O.Fr. Tibert. Identified by Shakespeare with Tibalt, which is from O.Fr. Thibauld, from Gmc. *Theobald (see Theobald).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Explore Dictionary.com
Next Definition: tibesti
Words Near: Tibert
More from Thesaurus.com
Synonyms and Antonyms for Tibert
More from Reference.com
Search for articles containing Tibert
More from Dictionary.com Translator
Dictionary.com Word FAQs
Copyright © 2014 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
• Please Login or Sign Up to use the Recent Searches feature |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8233 | J. pascin
Jules [zhyl] , (Julius Pincas) 1885–1930, French painter, born in Bulgaria.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Cite This Source Link To j. pascin
Explore Dictionary.com
Previous Definition: j. parker
Next Definition: j. pass
Words Near: j. pascin
More from Thesaurus.com
Synonyms and Antonyms for j. pascin
More from Reference.com
Search for articles containing j. pascin
More from Dictionary.com Translator
Dictionary.com Word FAQs
Copyright © 2014 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
• Please Login or Sign Up to use the Recent Searches feature |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/8234 | tides over
1 [tahyd]
a stream or current.
Ecclesiastical. a period of time that includes and follows an anniversary, festival, etc.
Archaic. a suitable time or occasion.
Obsolete. an extent of time.
verb (used without object), tided, tiding.
to flow as the tide; flow to and fro.
to float or drift with the tide.
verb (used with object), tided, tiding.
to carry, as the tide does.
Verb phrases
tide over,
to assist in getting over a period of difficulty or distress.
turn the tide, to reverse the course of events, especially from one extreme to another: The Battle of Saratoga turned the tide of the american revolution.
before 900; Middle English (noun); Old English tīd time, hour; cognate with Dutch tijd, German Zeit, Old Norse tīth; akin to time
tideful, adjective
tideless, adjective
tidelessness, noun
tidelike, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Cite This Source Link To tides over
World English Dictionary
tide1 (taɪd)
1. tide-generating force neap tide See also spring tide the cyclic rise and fall of sea level caused by the gravitational pull of the sun and moon. There are usually two high tides and two low tides in each lunar day
2. the current, ebb, or flow of water at a specified place resulting from these changes in level: the tide is coming in
3. ebb See flood
4. a widespread tendency or movement: the tide of resentment against the government
5. a critical point in time; turning point: the tide of his fortunes
6. dialect (Northern English) a fair or holiday
7. (in combination) a season or time: Christmastide
8. rare any body of mobile water, such as a stream
9. archaic a favourable opportunity
10. to carry or be carried with or as if with the tide
11. (intr) to ebb and flow like the tide
[Old English tīd time; related to Old High German zīt, Old Norse tīthr time]
tide2 (taɪd)
archaic (intr) to happen
[Old English tīdan; related to Old Frisian tīdia to proceed to, Middle Low German tīden to hurry, Old Norse tītha to desire]
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
Cite This Source
Word Origin & History
O.E. tid "point or portion of time, due time," from P.Gmc. *tidiz "division of time" (cf. O.S. tid, Du. tijd, O.H.G. zit, Ger. Zeit "time"), from PIE *di-ti- "division, division of time," suffixed form of base *da- "to divide, cut up" (cf. Skt. dati "cuts, divides;" Gk. demos "people, land," perhaps
lit. "division of society;" daiesthai "to divide;" O.Ir. dam "troop, company"). Meaning "rise and fall of the sea" (1340) is probably via notion of "fixed time," specifically "time of high water;" either a native evolution or from M.L.G. getide (cf. also Du. tij, Ger. Gezeiten "flood tide"). O.E. had no specific word for this, using flod and ebba to refer to the rise and fall. The verb meaning "to carry (as the tide does)" is recorded from 1626, usually with over.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Medical Dictionary
tide (tīd)
An alternate increase and decrease, as of levels of a substance in the blood or digestive tract.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Science Dictionary
tide [%PREMIUM_LINK%] (tīd) Pronunciation Key
The regular rise and fall in the surface level of the Earth's oceans, seas, and bays caused by the gravitational attraction of the Moon and to a lesser extent of the Sun. The maximum high tides (or spring tides) occur when the Moon and Sun are directly aligned with Earth, so that their gravitational pull on Earth's waters is along the same line and is reinforced. The lowest high tides (or neap tides) occur when the Moon and Sun are at right angles to each other, so that their gravitational pull on Earth's waters originates from two different directions and is mitigated. Tides vary greatly by region and are influenced by sea-floor topography, storms, and water currents. See also ebb tide, flood tide, neap tide, spring tide.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2014 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
• Please Login or Sign Up to use the Recent Searches feature |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.