Backup Service Catalog

Backup Service Catalog My previous post Is a Copy a Backup? was written after I got to thinking about a backup services catalog. What is a backup services catalog? Basically it is two things. First, it is an admission that we have a... My previous post Is a Copy a Backup? was written after I got to thinking about a backup services catalog. What is a backup services catalog? Basically it is two things. First, it is an admission that we have a lot more choices in terms of what technologies to use to provision backup services than ever before. 10 years ago, the backup technologies was really backup technology: tape. It was pretty easy to design a such a catalog, because you really only had one choice: tape. And it didn't really matter how rich, thin, or beautiful you were, you still only had one choice: tape. Second, it is a recognition than different applications have different levels of importance to the business, and that given we have an array of technology choices with which to backup them up and recover them, we should probably choose different technologies for the different applications. Let me put that a different way: your SAP/Oracle application which runs AP, AR, and inventory is probably way more important than a miscellaneous SQL server some user threw up for ad hoc reporting, or an edge web server that is one of a few dozen others just like it. So if you have different tiers of applications, shouldn't you have different tiers of backup and recovery? You bet you should. The first table below attempts to describe what the various technology choices are today in the world of backup and recovery. They are listed on the top row. The columns detail what I think are the most important characteristics of these technologies: what Recovery Point Objective (RPO) can they provide? What Recovery Time Objective (RTO) can they meet? How long is data normally retained on them? What level of performance and reliability do they provide? If we glance at the table, we can see that, very roughly speaking, the technologies are ranked in terms of capability left to right: most technical capabilities decline as we move to the right. Incidentally, costs per TB tend to decline in the same order (meaning that CDP technologies carry a higher cost per TB than Archive technologies for example). I have not however provided firm costs per TB of each of these. I didn't give specific pricing because clearly that would depend on what vendor implementation you decide to go with, and how effective your negotiations are with them. I also didn't give specific prices because this is actually a lot harder question to answer than it might first appear. Cost of acquisition may be easy to figure out, but cost is really only interesting in this contect if it is Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). So I don't really care that virtual tape costs me $5/TB to buy (and for arguments sake, lets stipulate that includes 3 years of maintenance). What I really care about is that $5 plus my costs to managed, cool, provision bandwidth, save me in other areas, reduce my risk, and so on. Everything that goes into a comprehensive TCO study. So I am going to stipulate the technologies are roughly positioned in terms of cost (although I do think the last 3 are very close in cost per TB, and that tape really only appears to be cheaper when you are talking about using it for monthly archival images that you intend to retain for years... any more demanding requirement in terms of performance or capacity, and it is likely as expensive or more so than deduplicated disk.) I am also going to stipulate that the average business probably can identify 3 tiers of applications. I know that some businesses have more (five, or six) and some have less. However, to avoid a bunch of complexity, lets just assume we have 3. Tier one applications would likely include SAP/Oracle production applications and email. Tier 2 might be large file servers. Tier 3 might be edge systems, small database servers, and so on. My contention is that it is probably pretty obvious to most people what applications should go in what tiers. It may be really hard to justify those intuitions and suspicions, especially if the application owners are cranky and insist that they "need" a higher tier of service. But most of the time if you just have 3 tiers, what goes where is pretty obvious. Given all that, the next chart attempts to describe what I think are probably a cost justifiable set of backup and recovery services for the average enterprise and the three tiers of applications. Again, your mileage may vary as you assign specific TCOs to each of the technical offerings. But I think that many businesses would likely land on a model pretty similar to this. What does the chart mean? The top row is the three tiers of application service. The left column contains the different technical choices. And the intersections are how long data would be retained within each technology before being disposed of (or, in some cases migrated to the next offering). That is to say that a Tier 1 application would get 7 days of CDP, have backups retained on VTL for 7 days, on deduplicated disk for 6 months, and long term archives retained on either disk or tape for 7 years. This would constitute a service catalog for backup and recovery. Assuming that you did the TCO exercise and assigned a specific $/TB to each technical offering, you could then offer the business 3 tiers of backup and recovery service to match the three tiers of application service. And you would be able to say to a given business unit or application owner: "Here are your costs for each of the tiers of service. Pick the one that meets your business requirements, and that you are prepared to pay for." Another useful outcome of this exercise, incidentally, is that you can force business and technical users to think about how much services cost. In my experience, businesses universally want the very best service you can provide them, unless they are forced to pay for it. Everybody wants gold service with lots of snaps/clones, lots of backup copies, kept forever, on fast disk, and replicated everywhere. Until they figure out the price tag. Then... OK, maybe just regular backup to deduplicated disk and remotely replicated is good enough. (An amusing anecdote: right after 9/11 an infrastructure company asked us to determine how much it would be to provide a complete disaster recovery capability for their data center. After a couple of months of study, we concluded that it would be $12m to $15m in infrastructure only. Not including software, services, skills, or time. The board of directors took one look at the figure and told them to make do with what they had. The same board that asked for full DR months earlier. Everybody wants a Ferrari. Not everybody wants to pay for a Ferrari.) All this is a pretty grotesque simplification of the actual process. In particular, determining the TCO of the different technical offerings is a non-trivial task. And getting business owners to admit that their applications may not actually be tier 1 is often no easy task either. But by offering them a rational set of choices, with reasonable costs associated with each, you can deliver the quality of service that makes sense for any given application. And hopefully you can deliver a better service overall: at roughly the same cost point as it would be to deliver a single, generic backup and recovery service to every application, it should be possible to offer a higher quality service to those applications which require it, and a lower quality of service to those that do not. Update your feed preferences

Weather headlines: Winds increase fire threat in West

Low pressure in the High Plains will be the main weather maker today, bringing a threat for severe thunderstorms today from West Texas to the Dakotas and eastward into Iowa and Missouri tonight.Fire weather On the backside of the storm in the Plains, strong winds will develop across parts of the central and southern Rockies. Red flag fire warnings are in effect today for parts of western Colorado, northeastern Arizona, the far western Oklahoma Panhandle, and the northwestern portion of the North Texas Panhandle.In Southern California, strong west winds are expected to set up today, with a turn toward a northerly round of "sundowner" winds tonight. Sustained winds of 15 to 25 mph can be expected, with gusts to 45 through the mountains and canyons. The same scenario sets up for Wednesday, with slightly stronger sundowner winds expected by Wednesday night. Critical fire weather conditions will persist until at least Thursday for Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles Counties.Severe thunderstorm threat The developing low in the High Plains will draw Gulf air northward, setting the stage for severe thunderstorms this afternoon and this evening. There is a slight risk for severe thunderstorms for parts of West Texas, as well a separate area that includes much of Iowa, Missouri, South Dakota, eastern Kansas, eastern and northern Nebraska, southeastern Montana, northeastern Wyoming and southern North Dakota. Primary threats from these storms will be damaging winds and large hail.As the storm system intensifies and moves eastward tonight and Wednesday, the severe thunderstorm threat will stretch from the southern Plains to the Great Lakes states. There will be a moderate risk of severe thunderstorms for eastern Missouri (including St. Louis) and central Illinois. An outbreak of tornadoes will be possible Wednesday afternoon and evening in the middle and upper Mississippi Valley.Showers for Sunshine State While not enough to break the ongoing drought, showers and thunderstorms will be possible across much of Florida today. Another round of afternoon showers and storms will be possible on Wednesday before generally dry weather settles in for the end of the week.Bookend highs Scattered rain and mountain snow will linger over the Northwest today. Winter weather advisories are in effect for the mountains of northern Idaho and western Montana. Likewise, a few showers and thunderstorms will be possible in southern New England. However, high pressure will build into the Northwest and Northeast on Wednesday.

Calling Out Bad Behaviour on Twitter (or On Un-Following)

Manners are of more importance than laws. .. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation like that of the air we breathe in." - Edmund BurkeOne of the things I find interesting about jumping into social networks and services when they're relatively new is watching the social norms develop. Even with terms of service and complaint mechanisms, it's largely the users who determine what's OK and what's not using the only currency this environment has: attention. Watched, the user has a voice, ideas can propagate, but ignored they're speaking to an empty room, memes wither and die. But is ignoring someone enough? I've been reading a bunch of pieces on Twitter etiquette recently, but none have discussed calling out bad behaviour online, so consider this piece an attempt to start that discussion. Some background first. I've been using Twitter (in plain English) since BarCamp Canberra in April. I'd heard about it before then, but I didn't really have a use for it until then. Turned out it did a bunch of stuff: it was the inaudible PA for the day, broadcasting schedule updates, as well as a back-channel (1,2,3) for attendees to meet & greet and discuss what was going on. Interactivity FTW.There's good stuff happening, so I've hung around. I've microblogged/liveblogged, kept in touch with folk in the Canberra IA community, solved technical problems and participated in a 'net broadcast (narrowcast?) project. With hashtags, Twitter is good at adding an interactive dimension to live events, particularly broadcast, from relatively small scale to large scale. It's a bit addictive. (I'm going to have to ignore the Amazing Race messages though; can't have spoilers)It's not all happy happy joy joy though. As with any social space, people disagree. I've seen spirited but respectful, concise debates (points would have to be concise with only 140 characters per message), and while I've not seen them, I'm sure there've been petty, snarky arguments too. Only a handful of posts I've seen have really disappointed me; one included a photo taken by the poster in a client's house and posted, ostensibly without permission, while another was a quixotic statement of indifference about an event a bunch of people were commenting on. The first was creepy; I'd be pretty angry if a tech support/tradie/whoever that I was paying for goods/services came into my place and started snapping away and putting the pictures online. The second was just a bit obnoxious, a personality quirk not entirely unexpected, in retrospect, amongst all of the extroverts revealing the minutiae of their lives online.I can't control what others do, I can only control how I react to what they do, so what did I do when I came across these two examples? With the first I tried subtlety; I asked what the client thought about having their stuff photographed and shared, and when I didn't like the answer, I un-followed. I let the other go like water under the bridge, but their reputation took a small hit with me. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing" - not Edmund BurkeShould I have done something else, something more? Should I have put an objection on the record before un-following? I've seen plenty of "Why should I follow you in return?" hand-shaking posts, but I've not come across any "I don't think that's cool, so I'm going to stop following you" posts. They're either happening in private direct messages, or not happening. I guess breaking up connections online is easy when you don't have to explain, but I can't help but think that the world might progressively become a little bit better if we each took the time to politely explain why we're un-following. If only a few have an introspective pause and stop being a dick online, then we're all better off.

Busy weekend...

I can't believe that I have lived in our house for almost 6 years and never painted my bedroom. In fact, with the exception of our foyer, it is the only room in the entire house (basement included) that I had not painted. I just always thought of a reason I couldn't paint it yet... I didn't like my bedspread, I wanted the ceiling scraped (I have a popcorn ceiling in there), I want to wait till I get new carpet so I wouldn't care if I spilled paint on the existing carpet, I needed window treatments... there was just always something.Last week I wandered into Restoration Hardware one day at lunch and fell in love with some drapes that were 60% off - which is about the only way I can afford something in that store. Unfortunately they didn't have them in stock, so I walked out empty handed, but at least now with the knowledge of exactly what color I needed; they were a kind of a light Tuscany gold - the drapes were a heavy velvety texture and the shade would be perfect with my existing bedroom set. So I headed across the street to Pottery Barn, and they had some light sheer linen drapes that were PERFECT! Exactly the right color and much lighter in texture and feel. Though they were not on sale, the regular price was still cheaper than the 60% sale price drapes at Restoration Hardware.Next step was to get the paint matched at Home Depot and I set up shop in my bedroom Saturday morning and got it done in about 4 hours. There are two windows and three doors and crown molding, so all the trim work took awhile, but by lunchtime I was cleaning up. It looks SO good. I was thinking a few weeks ago that I wanted to replace my comforter, but now with the new walls and drapes it looks made for the room.If only the whole weekend had gone that well... I was hanging the curtain rods and standing on a metal step stool, on the second step up when one of the legs gave way. The stool went one way and I went the other, landing on my back and hitting my head (hard) against the side of my bedside table. My back is fine, but two days later and my head is still ringing and my neck feels like I have whiplash. Come to think of it, I probably suffered a minor concussion but there's not much to do about it now other than to keep taking the Excedrin. After all my Saturday activities, I thought I would sleep great that night, but after only two hours I woke up with some pretty severe heartburn. At about 1am I was debating whether to call 911 or my parents. It ended up being neither, Daisy and I just roamed the house moaning for the next couple of hours, and by about 3am I was able to get back to sleep. Other than 5 loads of laundry and making chocolate chip cookies with M, Sunday existed of nothing more than trying to get rid of a headache and the remaining aches from heartburn. The girls were bored out of their minds with no friends in town but some weekends, they just need to figure out how to entertain themselves (or at least that's what my mom always said to me when I was their age and bored too).But - hey, at least I got the bedroom done! Speaking of whiplash - on a completely unrelated note - I was just catching up on Ree and have GOT TO TRY THESE! Man, I am so sick of rice around here - and these look equal parts of yummy and easy. Gotta love that combo!

But

First Aide Oils

Thanks to all the lovely ladies who came to my class tonight. I had a great time. As per our conversation on oils, the Be Young website is not done just yet so I have pasted some of the common oils below for now. I will send emails to those who wanted more info. These are the basic "first aide" oils. Here are some of the uses and how to apply them. These are my favorites along with the Breathe blend and Oregano oil. Lemon Oil $15• Inhale as needed to stimulate concentration and memorization.• Diffuse to help protect from air-borne germs. Add 1- 2 drops to purified water in aspray bottle to help cleanse high traffic areas.• Kills surface bacteria. Use spray (above) do disinfect personal areas while traveling,to keep kitchen sanitized.• Apply 1-2 drops neat to skin irritations, such as insect bites, for itch relief.• Agitate 4-5 drops in water for an invigorating shower or bath.• When out for meals, use 1 – 2 drops rubbed on hands to cleanse and disinfect.• Calms nausea• Stops bleeding. Gums, shaving nicks, bloody noses, etc.• Citrus oils are Photosensitive – do not expose skin where citrus oils have been applied, to direct sunlight for 48 hoursEucalyptus Oil $12• The oil of choice for viral and respiratory infections. Anti-bacterial. Congestion ofany kind – sinuses, skin, female organs, etc.• Swimmers ear – apply from behind the ears down the neck to clavicle.• Sinus infections – apply straight or 50/50 across bridge of nose & sinus area of face• Cold or flu – 1 drop to wrist & forearm back and forth every hour…maybe a trace ontongue and in a capsule 2 to 3X day• To boost immune system, apply everyday after shower on chest and feet• To ease viral infections apply to chest, clavicle and on back• Foot bath – use in foot bath to soothe and cool and prevent illness from setting inPeppermint Oil $16• Pain - minimizes bruises. Gently tap a few drops• Headaches – apply to back of neck, forehead, temples, nose - smell, make a hot tea• Gastrointestinal problems – Put a drop on tongue• Heartburn (lemon & peppermint liver cleanse)2• Migraines – apply to forehead & temples right away• Hot flashes – back of neck or put into water to drink• Pain – use for bone pain – smashed finger, shin, etc. Use instead of Vicodyn; Dropright on gauze after surgery along with Fysical Thera P• Burns – very cooling• Headaches – forehead, temples• Bee stings – instantly works; Drop on stings, tap and blow on it• Use a drop of peppermint stirred into a teaspoon of honey for a stuffed nose.• Inhale a drop of peppermint from a tissue for travel fatigue, indigestion, nausea,motion sickness, and gastrointestinal cramps.• Mix in a warm tea to dissipate congestion.• Acid reflux – Marjoram and Peppermint in palm of hand and stir with fingerLick finger and spread the rest over gastro areaLavender Oil $19• It is the Universal Oil• Burns, cuts, cysts on face, scrapes, sleeping, and shock straight• Bathtub with Epsom salts to relax and soothe sore muscles• Spray for sunburns; mix several drops with water and drop of peppermint, shake andspray.• Antiseptic, calming, relaxing and balancing.• Relaxes and soothes the nerves when faced with anxiety, vertigo, depression,headache and migraine, hypertension, and earache.• Provides allergy relief.• Antispasmodic and stomachic properties calm asthma, colic, whooping cough,flatulence, dysmenorrheal, labor pains, sprains, strains and stress.• Regenerates cells and thread veins, bruises, cuts, sores, scars, and stretch marks.• Useful for areas of inflammation such as athlete’s foot, burns, insect bites, itching,rheumatism, scabies, chicken pox, cystitis.• Beneficial for oily skin, acne, and dermatitis; excellent antiseptic properties ward offskin parasites, such as scabies.• An effective insect repellent.Tea Tree Oil $22• Anti-Bacterial. Use with infections.• Use like Eucalyptus• Dip toothpick & suck on it• Apply behind & under ear, down jaw & down to jugular vein, pulse points.• Scrapes/cuts getting infected use straight• Pink eye – 1 drop oil, ¼ tsp salt with warm water & put on compress over eyes• Abscess in mouth – 3X daily• Sore gums by molars 3 X day• Wisdom tooth removal instead of antibiotics• At first sign of prickling sensation at back of the throat, take a drop of Tea Tree onthe tongue, also apply under jaw line, along the path of the jugular vein, from theears down to the clavicle.Spice of Life Blend $29• Apply single drop to back of fist. Lick. (We call it the ‘lick trick’. Very spicy!)• Put a drop or two on the bottom of the feet. Rub in.• Put a drop or two on a slice of apple – delicious! Helps children to ingest the oil.• Use to season Pineapple Upside Down Cake – immune enhancing cake!• Use instead of Altoids or similar breath freshener.• Blend 3 – 4 drops of oil with 1 Tablespoon of raw honey, pour hot water over andmake an immune boosting tea.• Place 1-2 drops in the palms of your hands or on a carrying cloth and inhale any timeof the day. Breathe through each nostril 2-3 times. Repeat after 15 minutes ifnecessary.• To use as a traditional remedy for protection when the body is most challenged,diffuse 15-• 20 drops in 10-15 minute intervals throughout the day, making sure to give 30 minutebreaks between intervals.Fysical Thera P Blend $29• To relieve weariness, aches and pains. Apply neat to the affected area.4• For relief with fast action, apply 3-5 drops directly on the targeted area and alternatebetween cold and warm compresses for 60 minutes.• Apply topically on palms of hands and bottoms of feet.• Mix 3-5 drops to 1 Tablespoon Message oil and massage on irritated, inflamed areasand weary bones.• This invigorating and healing blend will perk up the senses and ease congestion.Rub 2 – 3 drops on the palms of the hand, inhale.• To ease achy, overused muscles, massage a mixture of 3-5 drops diluted in 1Tablespoon of Message oil into the targeted area.

Family Favorite recipe: Dijon Chicken with Panko Crust

Notes: Panko is available in well-stocked supermarkets and Asian grocery stores. If you can't find it, whirl two slices of firm-textured white bread (crusts trimmed) into coarse crumbs in a blender. Spread crumbs in a pie pan and bake in a 325° oven, stirring often, until crisp but not brown, 8 to 10 minutes.YieldMakes 4 to 8 servingsIngredients1/4 cup (1/8 lb.) butter, melted1/4 cup Dijon mustard2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced or pressed1/2 cup panko (Japanese-style bread crumbs; see notes)2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese1 1/2 tablespoons minced parsley8 boned, skinned chicken breast halves (6 to 7 oz. each)Dijon sauce (recipe follows)Preparation1. In a large bowl, whisk together butter, mustard, and garlic. In another bowl, mix panko, parmesan, and parsley.2. One at a time, turn chicken breast halves in butter mixture to coat completely. Dip rounded side of each breast in panko mixture. Place breasts crumb side up in a 10- by 15-inch baking pan.3. Bake chicken in a 500° oven until crumbs are golden and breasts are no longer pink in center of thickest part (cut to test), about 15 minutes. Place 1 or 2 breast halves on each dinner plate. Accompany with Dijon sauce.Dijon sauce. In a bowl, mix 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1/4 cup Dijon mustard, 1/2 to 1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil, and 1 teaspoon soy sauce. Makes 3/4 cup.Nutritional InformationCalories:355 (53% from fat)Protein:33gFat:21g (sat 6.3)Carbohydrate:3.2gFiber:0.2gSodium:666mgCholesterol:105mgSunset, JANUARY 2004

Do you think it is gross to eat loudly?

I used to have a workmate, he eats very loudly and rudely because heis just a rude person and when he had lunch box in the office, it was quiet so it was especially loud. I thought it was so gross... even I didn't look at him, it sounded disgusting... What do you think?

Skinny Democrat

Inspired by Barack Obama's inauguration (for which we got up at 2:30 am to watch on TV), I present a photo of me "coming out" as a Democrat, circa 1982.I didn't even remember that this picture existed until several old college friends recently discovered Facebook. They have formed a FB group devoted to our dorm, the Westlawn Foreign Language House, at the University of Iowa. This was a small, co-ed dorm devoted to students studying foreign languages (I was in the German House) that was established in the early '80s. We were quite a distance away from the other dorms on campus, and this remoteness contributed to our becoming a close-knit group of students from a wide variety of ages and backgrounds. I have had minimal contact with members of this group over the last few decades, so it has been fantastic to reconnect with the 20 or so people who have found the Facebook group.Anyway, when I went off to college in the fall of 1981, I was a die-hard Reagan Republican. I wasn't old enough to vote for Reagan in 1980, but I was sure a vocal proponent of his policies when I moved to Westlawn. Why I had these strong beliefs I can't really remember. Being fond of debating, I quickly got myself involved with all sorts of lounge-room squabbles with my (mostly) Democratic rivals. Somewhere along the way, however, this photo shows that I must have lost a bet, and I was forced to wear a sign announcing that I had at last seen the light. By 1983, when George McGovern came to Iowa City in anticipation of running for the presidential primary, I was a complete Democrat. I sort of woke up one day and realized that I actually agreed with what the Democrats were saying more than I did with the Republicans. To this day, I have yet to cast a vote for a Republican, but I like to think that I would if I ever found one with whom I agreed.So, yes, besides the 60 pounds I have added since this photo was taken, I also gained a different political outlook. And that's why I had such an excellent time at 3:00 am Brisbane time this past Wednesday.

Northern Michigan: Newsmakers Apr. 30, 2009

WTCM's Jack O'Malley set to celebrate 25 years on the air In the pre-dawn hours of May 3, 1984, a young man sat in a radio studio on Front Street in Traverse City. He nervously switched on the microphone, introduced himself, and began building a legacy. On May 3, 2009, Jack O'Malley will mark 25 years as morning host of WTCM radio, thereby writing a new chapter as the longest running and highest rated morning show in Northwest Michigan history. Jack's bright and cheerful voice, rich sense of humor, and absolute devotion to his family, his country, and his beloved Detroit Tigers, has won the hearts of thousands of WTCM listeners across two generations. With the love and support of his wife Joann, Jack shared with us the birth of his two daughters Beth and Grace, the agony of sending them off to kindergarten, the trials of teenage years, and the pride in their remarkable achievements as they grew into young women. He has taken us along on expeditions to Hawaii, New York City, Nashville, and the Caribbean. He's flown in stunt planes, delivered letters, care packages, and cigars to soldiers in the war zone, danced for snowflakes, and comforted us on 9/11. He let us witness the earliest sparks of skyrocketing superstars like Randy Travis, Garth Brooks, Leanne Rimes, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood, and Taylor Swift. On April Fools Days past, he has sold the Detroit Tigers to Toyota, convinced listeners to cover their telephone handsets with plastic bags while the fiber optic lines were blown out, and introduced us to the fabled Michigan Dogman. Traveling thousands of miles through all kinds of weather, Jack crisscrossed the state for seven years to broadcast play-by-play of Traverse City High School football and basketball. Along the way, he sent home many memorable milestones, including two thrilling State Championships in Class A football for the Traverse City Trojans. Jack's influence has extended far beyond the microphone. His tireless efforts have transformed Traverse City's Memorial Day ceremony into a fitting patriotic tribute to our fallen soldiers. His long-running television feature, "Jack's Journal" introduced us to scores of interesting stories, products, and people. He has also merged his lifelong love of baseball into coaching, instilling character and teamwork to a new generation of young women on Traverse City West High School's girls softball team. To his legion of loyal fans, he is the familiar voice of the morning - every bit as vital as their first cup of coffee. To his colleagues and co-workers, he is universally trusted, respected, and admired. To his players, he is Coach O'Malley. To his family, he is a dedicated dad and loving husband. To everyone he touches, he is above all else, our friend Jack. Jack will share memories and stories from the past 25 years, Friday, May 1, 2009 from 5:30 - 10:00 a.m. on WTCM-FM 103.5 and 93.5FM.

Sweet apples

Certified Program Cars; Good Alternative to New Cars

I have always believe in saving money when it comes to buying a car and what better way than to buy a Certified Program Car.Many think Program cars are demos from the dealership, but a Program car is one that has been leased by a company or Rental Car Agency. They drive them a set number of miles, turn them in and dealers buy these cars at auction. A Program Car sounds much better than a Rental Car, but they are essentially one in the same.3 REASONS PROGRAM CARS ARE GREAT BUYS:1. Rental Cars/Progam Cars are good buys because they are usually current model years with under 30,000 miles. 2. Rental Car or Companies that lease cars are under contract to service the car at X number of miles unlike if an individual owned the car. Many jump for joy when it is a One Owner, but why not buy a car that you know has been serviced correctly.3. The biggest reason to buy a Program Car is because of the SAVINGS!!! How would you like to save $10,000 off the New Car you have been looking at?The next car you buy, ask your dealer if there are any Program Cars available in the model you are shopping.

Terry Richardson's make

"Loud as Hell" is How Dave Grohl Describes His New Daughter!

Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters and his wife, Jordyn Blum, welcomed their second daughter on April 17. Harper Willow Grohl is named after Dave's great uncle Harper Bonebrake and he said that she is "...7 lbs. 8 oz., 20-inches long and loud as hell." The post on PEOPLE.com also talks a little about his other daughter, 3-year-old Violet Maye. "Violet loves the Amy Winehouse record," he told PEOPLE last fall. "It's all about the 'Rehab' song. If she hears 'Try to make me go to rehab,' Violet will go, 'No no no.' I know, it's a little weird, but it's really cute!" Congratulations to Dave and Jordyn!

wedding joke

Chinese wedding joke

Officer in running for HHL’08 award

I am delighted to see that Anna Rossvoll from Aberdeenshire Council has been selected as one of the three finalists for the Primary Practitioner award at this years Handheld Learning Conference in London. This is truly an accolade and excellent recognition of the work that Anna does. Anna has been a particulalry strong supporter of the work of the Consolarium does and in relation to the development of Glow in her authority. Her nomination entry included this description of her: We need leaders in education who are prepared to take informed risks, leaders who can see the relevance of new ideas and technologies but who can embed them in sound principles for teaching and learning, leaders who can build relationships with teachers in order to take new ideas and practice forward. Anna Rossvoll is an example of this. She has proved to be a particular creative and dynamic colleague of the Learning and Teaching Scotland’s Consolarium initiative. An initiative that aims to take games based learning forward. She has been very influential in supporting and promoting this work but also has her own ideas. She approached the Consolarium to ask if we would support an idea she had to put Nintendogs in a P.2 class. We teased this out and agreed to fund this initiative. Anna put the equipment in two schools and worked with the teachers to help plan what they might do. It must be said, and Anna will say this too, that both teachers who were involved in the project did all the work but without her initial idea, her passion for teaching, the relationships that she has built with teachers in Aberdeenshire this initiative would never have started.  If you need reminded of the Nintendogs project that Anna has been nominated for then have a look at this link. If you wish to vote for her then text ANNAROSSVOLL to : +447786203140 Good luck Anna. The voting for this is by text message and if

Piraiba

The Brisconnections Extraordinary Meeting - in more ways than one

The extraordinary meeting held by Brisconnections on Easter Tuesday at the demand of major shareholder Nick Bolton proved to be more extraordinary than expected.The motions he had put forward were defeated on a ratio of about two to one.But that was not the twist.The twist was that his shares were voted against his own motions.You see, over the weekend, Mr Bolton had sold his voting rights for the meeting to one of the Subsidiaries of Leighton, the company building the freeway funded by BrisCon, for $4.5 million.Which makes him a rather unpopular chap with various of the people who are at odds with BrisCon. This includes not only the poor old mum and dad shareholders, but also various other share market buccaneer types out to make a quick megabuck.One of the articles about the whole debacle said something like the 'white knight turned out to be a dark knight'.Maybe so, but what did you expect? Mr Bolton is from a well to do background, and has been well taught in how to remain well to do by the clever use of family trusts, shelf companies and the like, such that he can easily and happily take the sort of actions which other, less well off, people would find extremely risky. And more so than that, Mr Bolton IS A CYCLIST!That in itself says it all. Did you expect him to be a saint? Given what I always write about regarding the evils of cyclists, that would be unlikely.Hopefully all this stuff not only reflects badly on Bolton and the even more appalling characters hanging around the top of BrisCon, but also damages the image of cyclists further.

Dead Hiding to Nothing

I had to struggle not to hoot with derisive laughter upon seeing Mandy Antoinette reunited with his long-lost doppelgänger - the green slime (actually green custard) which Plane Stupid campaigner Leila Deen threw over him. There's a particularly choice slo-mo at about 30s in. My heroine!*****Red Riding, which began a three-part run on Channel 4 last night, was like a cross between Heartbeat and George Gently meets Our Friends In The North directed by Blue Velvet-era David Lynch. That, by the way, is not really a good thing.Briefly, it concerns itself with life in Yorkshire during the 1970s - specifically (in this episode), life on the political and policing front line in 1974. There were dollops of grisly murders, police brutality and brown envelope corruption. Eddie Dunford (well played by Andrew Garfield) plays a young (startlingly young, actually) crime reporter on the Yorkshire Post, who has ballsed-up his career in London (so soon? He must have gone straight from sixth form) and has returned, with his tail slightly between his legs, to make his way in the provinces.I've scanned the reviews this morning and most papers seem to regard it as a success. It was almost a success - like Paula Radcliffe in the Olympic Marathon in Athens - in that it was tantalising, incredibly well cast and acted and authentically smoky. The trouble was that after about twenty minutes I didn't believe a word of it.There may be any number of reasons for this. Maybe it was all too long ago for me to remember what that period was like. Maybe you had to live in Yorkshire to get the full flavour of such casual police brutality. The cutting and direction, as suggested above, was wacky, to put it mildly. I think the director was trying to stop it all being boringly linear, and in that he succeeded, but only at the cost of sense and verisimilitude. The story - the co-mingling of one thread concerning a crooked property developer using the Yorkshire Police to drive out a gypsy encampment with another thread surrounding the abduction of a series of young schoolgirls was standard TV fare, as was the subsequent sexual involvement of the investigative reporter with the mother of one of the disparu. But we were asked to accept far too many elisions as givens - Eddie Dunford's investigative colleague Barry Gannon's dossier on various shady characters was produced out of a hat like one of Mrs McGuffin's pies. The Mr Big at the heart of it - Sean Bean as a fleshy and very unlikeable Johnny Dawson - was able to call on the services of the Constabulary at will, but since he was shot and killed in the final act, it seems unlikely that the extent of his tentacles will be later exhumed and examined. The ending, as well, was horribly rushed.Given that I'm prepared to waste my time watching Trial And Retribution (see Rot passim) I'm almost certain that I'll give the next two episodes of Red Riding a chance. The problem, for me, is that it clashes with Skins, and Skins is picking up a bit after a slow start.The format of the programme is that each week we focus on one of the characters; this week it was the turn of JJ. JJ has so far shown himself to be little more than a cypher on the show - a foil for the on-going spat between Freddie and Cook, who are vying for the affections of Effy. I've met Effy (well, not the real Effy, obviously, but her type) and I can tell you that she's not going off with either of them. She'll allow Cook to enjoy sexual congress because she knows (or she thinks she knows) that he's not interested in anything that smacks of commitment, but she can see Freddie's need a mile away, like the Goodwin Sands lighthouse on a moonless summer night. Effy, poor dear, is terrified of love, particularly of falling in it, and will deny herself any chance of it happening no matter who suffers (including herself).Enter JJ (also hopelessly smitten by Effy) whose unfolding backstory gives us a possibly autistic boy, certainly one with ... ahem ... "mental health issues", whose medication regimen would floor an elephant. In the end, he gives some of his new pills to Cook, under the influence of which certain secrets come out (that Effy really loves Freddie, but can't admit it; that Cook's been "popping Panda" ("Panda" being Effy's crackers mate Pandora) - all of which is spilt with exactly the wrong audience) and so things are then set up nicely for next week. In the end JJ finally loses his cherry to Emily, the show's now (thanks to JJ's big mouth) openly-gay twin She stresses that this is a one-time favour to a friend.The final scene was extremely touching: JJ comes down to breakfast with Emily and sits down opposite his mother, whose face tells us in a most affecting way that she at last sees the beginning of her son's transition from semi-outsider to normal young man. However fragile or illusory this phase is, you can see from her expression (and from the foregoing hour) that this is what she has for so long so devoutly wanted.It all sounds confusing, and messy, and it is. Even I can remember my teenage years (which were not spent in the hotbed of an inner-city sixth form college) resembling this inchoate circling for position, trying to work out who the hell you were and what you wanted, though I'm pretty sure that there weren't quite as many accommodating lesbians in my day. For the most part, as a middle-aged man, I feel that Skins makes a pretty good fist of capturing the essence of what it is to be an adultchild.

May specials for Preparing Wisely

Here are the May specials for Preparing Wisely in Mesa( check link on right for store info). I am particularly excited to see the maple syrup still on sale and the Dried eggs. What a deal. You can get a bulk discount if you buy 6 or more cans which brings the price to $15 a can! Regularly $23.99 per can. We all need eggs in our food storage. Saturday May 16th we are celebrating our One Year Anniversary. We will be offering samples of various products and demonstrating The Volcano Stove, The Global Sun Oven and the Katadyn Water Filter. May Organic Specials Organic Maple Syrup Grade B, 32 oz Reg. $32.50 SALE $22.50 Raw Organic Almonds 5 lb bag reg $45.00 SALE $35.00 We also have some of our most popular items on sale. Offers good through May 31 or while supplies last. Country Cream Real Instant Milk Makes 20 Quarts (5 Gallons) Bulk Sale Price: $15.00 Per Can when you buy 6 Cans Reg. Price Price: $20.00 Per Can Whole Powdered Eggs Makes 80 Large Eggs New Low Price! $19.99 per Can (Was $23.99) Bulk Sale Price : $15.00 When you buy 6 Cans 1 Gallon Xagave Organic Agave Nectar The Complete Sugar Replacement Sale Price: $35.00 Regular Price: $42.00 Come check out our clearence items: Various books including popular titles from Dave Ramsey and Erleen Tilton, select back packs and hydration packs.

How hedge-fund-friendly is the White House?Felix Salmon

Ryan Chittum makes a good point about the hedge funds kvetching about the Obama administration on page C1 of the WSJ: their “pique” (to use the word in the WSJ headline) might well be a function of the fact that their income taxes are about to rise dramatically: Obama’s plan would force hedge funds and private equity and the like to pay income tax like the rest of us instead of much-lower capital-gains rates they pay now on their earnings. Sure, some hedge funds have honorably acknowledged they ought to pay the same rates as everyone else, but nobody likes to effectively have their tax rate doubled overnight—especially when their earnings are already down. It's also worth noting that the piece says that 70% of hedge-fund campaign donations went to Democrats in the last election cycle — and then goes on to quote at length Paul Singer, of Elliott Associates. What it doesn't mention is that Singer was the single biggest supporter and fundraiser that George W Bush had in New York; that he gave even more money to Rudy Giuliani, partly by lending him his private jet; and that in general he is about as loyal and committed a Republican as they come. Personally, I think it's a positively good thing that hedge funds are feeling piqued by the White House. Maybe they were hoping that Larry Summers's presence (not to mention that of Rahm Emanuel) would make the White House a bit more hedge-fund friendly. On the other hand, maybe this is being a bit more hedge-fund friendly. After all, if the worst that the White House does is make good on its promise to keep the Detroit car industry from imploding completely, you can make a pretty good case that hedge funds have gotten off pretty lightly.

Hello Danjo

Whilst Im still sure that theres quite a few folks who dont quite understand why we go out of our way here at RR to plug the accessibility angle in games (dont worry people, well have you all converted by the time were finished), Id like to offer this little clip for your edification as to our reasoning. With thanks to Barrie (and Mrs Bob who watched the news report and made a point of asking was that one of your lots? but due to me not really paying attention didnt have the foggiest what she was on about) for forwarding this onto us, a BBC news report on Christopher Myers, winner of the Rotary Young Citizens award for his work in coaching other children in the paralympic sport of Boccia. What does this have to do with RR? Well, as youll find out when you watch the clip theres a moment of Chris sitting at his computer and they discuss how hes helping other folks find more suitable games to play. The game used? Retro Remaker and Acoders own Danjos One Switch Mini Golf. The clip is here folks. Give it a whirl (and Danjo! Any chance of a course editor? Go awwn!).