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In the last 30 years, there have been two more or less hardline socialist governments within the eurozone. Both the Mitterrand and Papandreu (father of the unfortunate Greek PM that had to preside over Greece's euro disaster) came to power in 1981 in France and Greece, respectively. Each of them created a bit of a mess. An economic mess.

We'll leave Greece for what it is, but the Mitterrand experiment is worth recalling, as it now seems that the present French president is embarking on something similar. For those of you with rusty memories or being too young, we recall Mitterrand's election to the French presidency in 1981 (after numerous failed attempts).

Difficult to imagine now, but his socialist party formed a coalition with the communist party to form a government, something which hadn't happened in France since the Leon Blum government of 1936. And it showed. In the first two years, the government embarked on a spending spree, increasing the minimum wage, boosting social programs, and nationalizing banks and companies left, right, and center.

The result was rather predictable, although it's worth to remember that the circumstances were particularly unfortunate. Just as France embarked on an epic reflation program, much of the rest of Europe (bar Papandreu's Greece) embarked on the exact opposite, austerity. Also worthwhile to remember that the early 1980s was a time of recession after the Fed hiked interest rates to unprecedented levels to sniff out inflation.

Europe had the European Monetary System (EMS), a system with fixed but adjustable exchange rates. With France embarking on reflation and the rest of the member countries embarking on deflationary policies, France suffered from a capital outflow that morphed into a currency crisis. This led to an unavoidable devaluation of the Franc, and Mitterrand had to make a rather embarrassing U-turn in 1983.

The latter was implemented by new PM Jacques Delors, yes, the author of the Delors report that led to Europe adopting a single currency. One can have some sympathy for the French predicament. Within the EMS, the Bundesbank ruled and it was near impossible for other countries to swim against the tide.

This whole experience turned out to be an important element that led up to the creation of the euro. The thinking in France (and Italy) was that it would be better to have one central bank for Europe, where France and Italy would at least have a vote, rather than having monetary policy be dictated by the Bundesbank with the option to follow, or face the consequences and devalue.

Well, now we have a new socialist government in France, albeit not quite as radical as the one three decades ago. Two things have happened as a consequence:

  1. The change in government in France has been crucial in wrestling control in the eurozone away from the Bundesbank, starting with the 'Growth Pact' and culminating in ECB president Mario Draghi's plan for unlimited bond buying (under conditions) which left the Bundesbank utterly isolated.
  2. France is again embarking on socialist policies of redistribution, albeit this time around not accompanied by anywhere near the same reflationary policies or nationalizations as under Mitterrand.

Both of these developments can have profound consequences for the eurozone as a whole, so it's worthwhile discussing them.

Bundesbank isolated
The 'hard money' view from the likes of the Bundesbank has been subtly undermined by events and politics alike. The arrival on the scene of the two Marios (the Italian PM Mario Monti and the ECB president Mario Draghi), together with the departure of staunch German alley Sarkozy, has made a crucial difference in wrestling control away from the Bundesbank.

Mario Monti has made a crucial difference. He's both embarking on significant reforms and austerity measures in Italy, which gained him the trust of the Germans and the markets alike. He is also tirelessly intervening on the international scene to put the pressure on Germany to do more. And, as a former academic economist, he has some strong arguments. For instance, he subtly pointed out that the large spread in bond yields between Germany and Italy is bad for both countries:

This results in a potential inflation risk in Germany, which I don't thing corresponds to the desires of the European Central bank nor to the desires of Germany. [Guardian]

And indeed, he does have a point. After all, something quite similar happened in the eurozone periphery in the last decade. The creation of the euro eliminated the devaluation risk. The resulting capital inflows producing bond yields that were too low, which resulted in the periphery accumulating inflation differentials with Germany and gradually losing competitiveness.

But the crucial shift in the balance of power within the eurozone came with the departure of Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president. His replacement by François Hollande has shifted power away from the hard money surplus countries in the core (Germany, Finland, The Netherlands, Austria) and formed a Club Med coalition of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Here is Evans-Pritchard from The Telegraph:

Italy's premier Mario Monti - a fellow `Jesuit' - more or less confessed that this minor revolution could not have happened without the defeat of French leader Nicolas Sarkozy in May. The election upset broke the Franco-German axis and reordered the strategic landscape of Europe.

The 'minor revolution' is the ECB plan for unlimited bond buying (under conditions). This would have been unthinkable only a few months ago. We have to add though that another element has produced this outcome. The Bundesbank strategy, pushing the whole burden of adjustment on the deficit countries in the eurozone periphery, by means of savage austerity hasn't been successful and it's running against the limits of internal politics in many of these countries.

The 'time was ripe' so to say, to try something else. However, France might become more like a peripheral eurozone country through more than just political realignment. The danger is that France will experience the same kind of economic problems as well. What are these problems?

Peripheral problems
The eurozone periphery is liable to the following rather unfortunate economic dynamics and self-reinforcing feedback loops:

  1. An initial capital flow dynamic. After the euro eliminated the devaluation risk, capital flows moved to the eurozone periphery (countries that had been liable to devalue rather often), creating a boom but also a loss of competitiveness. This is how the problem originated.
  2. A subsequent capital flow dynamic. After the financial crisis the capital inflows stopped, and then reversed, leading to high bond yields and deposit flight from banks, undermining confidence leading to more capital flight.
  3. A vicious public finance-growth cycle. Bad public finances and high bond yields trigger austerity which worsens growth and the tax base, worsening confidence and triggering further bond yield increases, which undermine the sustainability of public finances further.
  4. A banking-public sector finance vicious cycle where banks, already plagued by deposit flight, are the main buyers of the nation's sovereign debt. Losses on this debt worsen their balance sheet, necessitating bail-outs, which worsen public finances, raising bond yields further, leading to more bank losses on their bond portfolios, etc.
  5. An asset price-bank balance vicious cycle, where falling house prices cause bank balance sheets to worsen, leading to forced asset (house) sales and more asset price falls.
  6. A Catch-22 dynamic where policy makers have to chose between two equally unpalatable options. Either they reflate in order to boost growth, but that worsens the competitiveness problem, or they deflate to deal with that but this worsens the real debt burden (a classical Fisherian debt-deflationary spiral).
  7. The eurozone periphery 'super' vicious cycle, where the deterioration in most (or all) of the above lead markets to question a country's continued membership of the euro, which accelerates capital and deposit flight, asset sales, worsening bank balance sheets and economic growth further, etc.
  8. Eurozone rescue dynamic. The more countries sign up for official bailouts, the less creditworthy remain to fund the bailout funds. Having Spain or Italy (let alone both) sign up for bailouts would not only require the kind of funds that are not there, it would remove guarantees from the funds as these clearly can't count on the Spanish and/or Italian contributions.

Austerity the French way
France is expected to have a budget deficit of 5.2% of GDP this year. Not quite peripheral heights (apart from Italy), but well above the 3% limit of the Stability Pact.

(click to enlarge)
What's more, public debt/GDP is already high and rising at a rather uncomfortable rate.

As a percentage of GDP, public dent was 89.3 percent in the first quarter, up from 86 percent in the previous three months. In the first quarter of 2011, it was 84.5 percent. One of the reasons behind the increase in debt was the EUR 9.1 billion that France contributed to the euro area rescue fund EFSF, INSEE noted. [rttnews]

And there are further uncomfortable truths. Public spending, at 55% of GDP is the second highest in Europe after Denmark (at 56%). But instead of cutting expenditures, the new budget puts most emphasis on new taxes. Expenditure cuts are supposed to reduce the deficit by 10 billion euros while tax hikes (mostly on the rich and big companies) will take in another 20 billion euros.

One of the new taxes is a 75% temporary tax on income above 1 million euros. This tax has France's richest person, Bernard Arnault, head of the luxury goods conglomerate Louis Vuitton, Moët and Hennessy (LVMH) applying for Belgian citizenship, although he denies that was the reason. Episodes like this surely bring back memories of the first two years of Mitterrand in the early 1980s described above.

It remains to be seen whether this approach is able to stabilize French public finances. Tax hikes in the context of very slow economic growth could very well tip the economy into recession, but then again, the same holds for spending cuts. Even if a recession is avoided, this hardly is the growth platform on which Hollande was elected.

(click to enlarge)

Not every French boss reacted this way. Stephane Richard, CEO of France Telecom argued that the 75% tax is acceptable as long as the Government makes the French economy more competitive. Which brings us to economic reforms and the need to restore competitiveness.

The French trade balance has been steadily sliding, as a sign of worsening French competitiveness.

(click to enlarge)
One of the reasons is the following:

Well, not quite in Greek territory, but hardly comfortable. One has to take into consideration that the near zero growth artificially lowers imports (as the French spend little), deflating the trade deficit. The fact that there is a substantial trade deficit even during these economically depressed times show the seriousness of the French competitiveness problem.

Structural reform should be embarked upon as soon as possible to alleviate these problems. Even some French unions (!) actually seem to plea for this:

France's French Democratic Labour Confederation (CFDT) is pressing the Socialist Party (PS) government of President François Hollande to accelerate its social cuts. It is demanding that Hollande rapidly carry out labour market reforms-easing restriction on hiring and firing and cutting labour costs-to restore the competitiveness of French companies and formally adopt the European Union (EU) fiscal pact to impose sweeping austerity measures. [wsws]

Before you fall of your chair, this is only one union. Not nearly all unions think like this:

CGT's Thibault said France should not follow Spain and Italy in undertaking painful reforms because worsening joblessness had proved them to be failures... Viewing labour relations as a zero-sum game, hardline French unions including SUD, CGT and FO have a long history of confronting reform-minded governments and winning. [Reuters]

The debate on labor market reforms will be accelerated, but the outcome is by no means guaranteed. France has a history of reforms being overturned by "the street."

So, we have France having serious growth problems, but not quite those of much of the periphery (where growth is negative). France has a serious public finance sustainability problem, but not yet of the magnitude of much of the periphery. The competitiveness problem isn't quite of Greek or Portuguese proportions, but it has been steadily worsening and with most other countries addressing their competitiveness problems, France's could deteriorate considerably if it keeps on doing nothing.

And then there is this:

(click to enlarge)

French house prices have now risen more than both American and Spanish house prices, the latter two have been big bubbles that popped.

Predictions range for a slide in prices from 12% to 15% by the end of next year, to 40% over five to 10 years. If the French housing index matched U.S. growth since 2001, it would have to fall by more than 70%. Demographics won't save France either -- as reported by The Telegraph, the consultancy PrimeView states: "Those younger than 58 are net buyers of property, those older are net sellers. The buyers stay constant at 33m, while the sellers rise by 1.2m every five years for a quarter century." Just in case the bubble wouldn't pop itself, politicians also put a new 15% tax on foreign owners of second homes, which will also help cool demand... And unlike Americans, who hold 27% of household wealth in real estate, the French have a whopping 57% tied up in housing. [Motley Fool]

These are uncomfortable figures, to say the least. There are some saving graces, one of which is that the mortgage market in France is much better regulated. Little in the way of sub-prime nonsense here:

French regulators recommend that banks shouldn't issue mortgages if payments will be greater than 33% of a borrower's income, and as The Economist reports, "banks are under a legal obligation not to push borrowers into more debt than they can manage, and cases are regularly brought to court." [Motley Fool]

Still, that graph above doesn't instill a whole lot of confidence. Should house prices start to fall, this will have serious ramifications for the whole of the French economy and will tip it deep into 'peripheral' status. There can be little doubt that should France develop into another Spain, the whole euro experiment will become untenable. Swift action in France is of the utmost importance.

For investors, those French bond yields..
All considered, we think it is likely that with France slowly starting to resemble a peripheral eurozone economy, its bond yields will slowly start to reflect that reality as well. That is, we expect French bond yields, and the spread over German bond yields, to creep upwards. At present, French yields are that of a core eurozone country, even the downgrade of its debt didn't alter that.

In the figure below, you see that French 10-year bond yields behaved more like German yields, getting progressively lower as capital flows moved from the periphery to the center. But for how long? We think that a short position in French bonds offer profit opportunities for some turbulence which will undoubtedly come.

(click to enlarge)
Unfortunately, there is only one French bond ETF, the iShares Barclays France Treasury Bond (IFRB:LN), and this is listed in London, not in the US. If you have trading access to London, this is worth a try. French 10-year yields are near a record low and we can't imagine they will stay there forever.

French stocks?
The implications of France slowly taking on more 'peripheral' characteristics are far more important for French bonds. Yields are almost as low as German yields while France simply isn't Germany. More importantly, it isn't going to turn into a 'Germany' any time soon.

You might wonder how French stocks will fare. There is an ETF, the iShares MSCI France Index (NYSEARCA:EWQ). Unfortunately, the case is far less clear cut for French shares than it is for French bonds.

Why? Well, the index is dominated by big corporations with a global presence, and these will move more or less in line with world 'sentiment.' That 'sentiment' is pretty good right now. Of course it can (and will) turn, but there are many more issues at play here than domestic French economic conditions.

The latter will only have an impact if there is some sort of acute crisis. Since we set out above that the French slide is gradual, and without any rapid increase in reform effort, we expect that to remain. So we can't really see much impact on French stocks at the moment, especially compared with French bonds, which are the more obvious short play.

So we think the case for shorting French stocks at this juncture, even after the strong run-up on the ECB bond buying and the 'euro positive' decision from the German Constitutional Court on the viability of the ESM isn't clear cut.

We expect bond yields to drift higher, but stocks will keep performing in line with world stock markets, until there is some kind of acute crisis in France (or elsewhere).

The Euro
There has been a rally in the euro on the back of the ECB conditional bond buying plan, and continued Fed monetary easing. We don't think the euro rally will last. The slow slide of France itself will undermine the euro longer term. In fact, if the euro rally would continue, they would eat into export earnings of big French companies, which would obviously be a negative for stocks.

There are quite a few euro ETFs trading in the US:

  • CurrencyShares Euro Trust ETF (NYSEARCA:FXE)
  • EUR/USD Exchange Rate ETN (NYSEARCA:ERO)
  • Market Vectors Double Long Euro ETN (NYSEARCA:URR)
  • Market Vectors Double Short Euro ETN (NYSEARCA:DRR)
  • ProShares Ultra Euro ETF (NYSEARCA:ULE)
  • ProShares UltraShort Euro ETF (NYSEARCA:EUO)
  • WisdomTree Dreyfus Euro Fund

Our advice here would be to let the rally run its course. We think it almost has and the euro will soon run into trouble. Greece might very well need a third bailout, France itself is not doing anywhere near enough to reform its economy, Spain has to be arm-twisted to ask for assistance, etc.. There are just too many banana peels left for this euro optimism to last much longer.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Source: France's Slow Transition To The Eurozone Periphery


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Discussion: New Mike Macenko Senior Gear 13 inchers are in.

Posted Discussion
Sept. 10, 2008
Gorilla Boy
Men's 50
200 posts
New Mike Macenko Senior Gear 13 inchers are in.
Just wanted to give everyone an update. The 13 inch Senior Gear MM's are in and being shipped as I post. Give ma a call @ 330-419-0205 to order you bat today or if you have any questions concerning Anaconda Sports products. Thank You.
Mike Macenko
(Gorilla Boy)
Sept. 10, 2008
Men's 55
30 posts
Mike, I have had the 10" red combat for about a year now and the ball really jumps off of it. Can you or anyone else with the 10" Macenko Gear compare the two? David
Sept. 10, 2008
Men's 55
21 posts
Hello Guys just a quick question is the macjenko better than the ultra 2 and the miken super freak i'm in the market to buy a bat
Sept. 10, 2008
Men's 50
3114 posts
I've seen a lot of guys swinging the Macenko
Steve Imlay and George Robinson are teammates of mine
who swung it the last two weekends.
They love it.
It feels end loaded and has pop.
It has no warranty is what I understand.

The Ultra 2 is hard to beat for pop and size of sweetspot
though a broken in Combat will give it a run for it's money for pop.
It is the most fragile of the 3 and has no warranty.

The SuperFreak is a Freak that's endloaded just like a Freak plus
but the head is wrapped as an original Freak and that means it will start stiff
but get hotter to infinity.
I had a freak that hit as well or better than my Ultra 2
for the last 100 swings.
It has a warranty.

I guess it depends on which one is best suited to your musculature
and batting style.
Sept. 10, 2008
Men's 40
105 posts
I've always been a Miken guy, but I'm in hopes that I can give this new Macenko model a try this weekend when I see George and Steve and pick on that wimp Lecak.....oh...did I just say that???heeheehee
Oct. 22, 2008
Men's 55
32 posts
Mike have your new combat and love. Was looking for a new grey bat 28 oz balanced. The senior store is out of stock. Do you have any of the 28oz balanced?
Oct. 23, 2008
354 posts

I love this bat, use it in St. George and had a lot of positive success with it. Line drives were solid and the distance was good. It felt a little heavy when i first starting swing the bat, but you get use to it. The more I swing the better it feels and performs.
Oct. 23, 2008
58 posts
First, when you called me about a month ago about buying your autographed Combat Gear, I had to sort of sidestep the issue. The reason being that my wife answered the phone, and I did not want to let her know I was buying a new bat. ( something about being unemployed for the last 10 months) . The fact was, I had called you and Kevin and by the time you called, I had already ordered the bat from him. Sorry about that. Anyway, I got the bat about three days later, started hitting it right away, and all I can say is "WOW" . I have has outstanding results with this bat. I like this bat so much that I have stopped using it during my bi-weekly hitting sessions with the Hollis brothers. I mention them because they already broke the one that Audie bought. They estimated they got about 120 swings on it before it broke, but I really think it was more than that. The truth is there isn't a senior bat made that those two mashers wouldn't break. And we were hitting ZN's. Sure was fun watching them fly.
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Cutting Edge > Courses > Sedimentary Geology > Teaching Activities > Digital Sandstone Tutorial

Digital Sandstone Tutorial

Kitty Milliken
University of Texas at Austin
Author Profile

This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Collection

Resources in this top level collection a) must have scored Exemplary or Very Good in all five review categories, and must also rate as “Exemplary” in at least three of the five categories. The five categories included in the peer review process are

  • Scientific Accuracy
  • Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
  • Pedagogic Effectiveness
  • Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
  • Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page

For more information about the peer review process itself, please see

This page first made public: Jul 12, 2006

The Tutorial Petrographic Image Atlas is designed to give students more exposure to petrographic features than they can get during organized laboratory periods.

Used this activity? Share your experiences and modifications

The tutorial has content that is potentially of interest to a wide range of students, from introductory-level through graduate. The tutorial is also used in industry labs.

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Ideally, students should have previous exposure to some of the main concepts in mineralogy and crystallography. Optical mineralogy is not necessary, but preferred.

How the activity is situated in the course

Used as a supplement to laboratory exercises.

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Goal is to enhance skills with petrographic identification of detrital and authigenic features in sandstones. For each of the major sandstone clans there are separate tutorials on both provenance and diagenesis.

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

The focus is on learning to interpret data from visual observations of components that display large heterogeneity. The student must learn to systematize rather subjective information into "either or" hypotheses from which a specific determination can then be chosen.

Other skills goals for this activity

Description of the activity/assignment

An understanding of the microscale structure and composition of sedimentary rocks is of undiminished importance in diverse fields (e.g., microscale chemical analysis cannot proceed without petrography), yet the curriculum is no longer offering undergraduates the opportunity to develop sufficient expertise. In an effort to bolster the exposure of undergraduates to sedimentary petrology, the Tutorial Petrographic Image Atlas was created. The basic components of the tutorial are petrographic images that are viewed in a static mode (no rotation, no animation, no timed observation). Text boxes relating to identification of components within the image are attached to specific mapped regions of the image. Both the mapped regions and the text are invisible until the student points and clicks on an active region of the image. In essence, the student must 'ask', "What is that?" Information ranges from simple one word identifications to lengthy paragraphs explaining the finer points of why something is what it is.

This is a highly interactive digital product that attempts to recreate certain elements of the laboratory petrographic experience including: a sense of exploration; high-quality petrographic images; a visual field dominated by the image; multiple examples of features viewed in diverse contexts; rich content relating to the identification and significance of features; active, inquiry-based learning.

Unlike real-time laboratory experiences with the petrographic microscope, the digital tutorial can be used at any time and place that a computer is available, does not require the presence of a microscope or samples or an expert, can be viewed repeatedly, has the technical content integrated with the image, gives the student undivided "attention" (unlike the TA, it doesn't wander to the other side of the lab), and rarely gives answers unless "asked."

Determining whether students have met the goals

Evaluation is determined by student performance on laboratory tests of identification skills.

More information about assessment tools and techniques.

Download teaching materials and tips

Other Materials

Supporting references/URLs

Peer-reviewed materials
Choh, S.-J. and Milliken, K. L., 2004, Virtual carbonate thin section using PDF: new method for interactive visualization and archiving: Carbonates and Evaporites, v. 19, p. 87-92.

Choh, S.-J., Milliken, K. L. and McBride, E. F., 2003, Architecture and development of an interactive program for teaching highly visual material: a tutorial for sandstone petrology: Computers and Geosciences, v. 29, p. 1127-1135.

Milliken, K. L., Barufaldi, J. P., McBride, E. F. and Choh, S.-J., 2003, Assessment of an interactive digital tutorial for undergraduate-level sandstone petrology: Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 51, p. 381-386.

Milliken, K. L., Choh, S.-J. and McBride, E. F., 2002, Sandstone Petrology, v. 1.0, A Tutorial Petrographic Image Atlas, Multimedia CD-ROM: American Association of Petroleum Geolo-gists/DataPages, Discovery Series No. 6, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Choh, S-J., Milliken, K. L. and McBride, E. F., 2002, Interactive sandstone petrology: a digital tutorial for future reservoir geologists: Search and Discovery, invited submittal,

Milliken, K. L. and Choh, S.-J., 2006, Using petrographic data from electron microbeam instrumentation in the curriculum: Digital resources can help: Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programs, v. 38, invited submission, Session T53, "Teaching Instrumentation to Geoscience Students: Course Design, Objectives, and Presentations"

Milliken, K. L. and Choh, S.-J., 2005, An interactive digital carbonate petrology tutorial for next generation geoscientists: Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programs, v. 37, no. 7, p. 254.
Choh, S-J. and Milliken, K. L., 2004, Constructing an interactive sandstone petrology CD for undergraduates: bringing a classical subject into the digital age: Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programs, v. 36, no. 5, p. 236.

Choh, S-J., Milliken, K. L. and McBride, E. F., 2001, Interactive sandstone petrology: A digital tutorial for future reservoir geologists: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Annual Meeting (Abstracts), p. A35.

Choh, S-J. Milliken, K. L. and McBride, E. F., 2001, Multimedia "sandstone petrology tutorial" for under-graduate sedimentary rocks laboratory: will enhanced learning lead to improved enrollment?: Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programs, v. 33, no. 6.

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We have had a Win 2003 server at a co-lo for a while. It is used as a web server and has a very cheap hardware firewall between it and the internet. Ports 3389 and 80 are the only ones forwarded to the server. I am doing some upgrading and wondering if I really need the firewall. Are there any drawbacks to just using the Win 2003 built in firewall to make sure only traffic on 3389 and 80 get through?

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migrated from stackoverflow.com Dec 6 '10 at 9:48

This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers.

4 Answers 4

up vote 3 down vote accepted

Hardware based firewalls are meant to be industrial strength safeguards that can do more than just block ports. They are highly configurable, fast, and meant to shield the actual server(s) from attack or excessive/needless load while being separate from the OS they are protecting.

take a peek at http://networking.anandsoft.com/network-security-firewalls.html for a good side-by-side comparison.

In short, no.

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No you do not need a hardware firewall for a single node. The software based packet filter firewall built into windows can do what you need.

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No you don't have to have one, but you really should have one if this server is doing anything thing of value to you. A separate firewall will help to mitigate a number of risks including but not limited to:

  • OS bugs
  • Human error while configuring the OS
  • Undetected compromise

If all you have is the OS firewall then an OS level 0-day or DDoS bug can take you down. A separate firewall adds an extra layer protection in the event you accidentally open something up that shouldn't be. If your server does get compromised then a separate firewall can help you detect the compromise. A separate firewall does add cost and complexity. In my opinion in most cases the pros outweigh the cons.

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you should also consider changing your default RDP port http://www.petri.co.il/change_terminal_server_listening_port.htm

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Server Fault is a question and answer site for system and network administrators. It's 100% free, no registration required.

Does it mean the number of virtual processors in a physical processor?

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4 Answers 4

If the number of siblings is equal to the number of cores then you have CPUs which are not hyperthreading or hyperthreading is switched off, If the number of siblings is 2x the number of cores then you have a hyperthreading CPU with hyperthreading switched on. There is a good article here.

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The number of siblings on a processor is the total number of execution units within that processor. This will include both additional cores and hyperthreading.

For example,

  1. A Core 2 Duo will list siblings : 2. Dual core, no hyperthreading.
  2. A Xeon E5420 will list siblings : 4. Dual core, with hyperthreading.
  3. A Pentium 4 with hyperthreading will list siblings : 2. Single core, with hyperthreading.
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Yes, please refer this post: "There is no distinction between "virtual" or "real" in hyperthreading. but using this information you can associate which processors are from the same core.".

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The kernel uses the number of siblings to loadbalance for example;

Four tasks are running on a system having two physical packages, each having two cores (sharing last level cache) and each core having two logical threads. Load balance kicks in at the multicore domain for the first package, resulting in equal load distribution among all cores.

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package is the wrong terminology here. –  Wim Kerkhoff Oct 30 '11 at 0:33

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I'm learning git, and the test case I'm using it for is keeping a repo of my linux profile settings (.bashrc .profile .tmux.conf etc)

on my main machine, the repo is created at the home folder: base=/home/bvector/ files=/home/bvector/.profile, etc

but when I go to clone the repo on machine2, it goes to /home/bvector/home (as the repo is called home) base=/home/bvector/home/ files=/home/bvector/home/.profile, etc

Is there a way to have the cloned repo be based in my home folder with all the files in the correct place by default? Everything I've read says you cant clone a repo to a nonempty directory, which would make it a lot more cumbersome to have the repo on multiple machines and be able to seamlessly commit changes.

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3 Answers 3

up vote 3 down vote accepted

Github has just launched a set of new pages describing how to use Github for this scenario.

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this is an amazing resource, and it is so useful I'm going to select it as the answer, even though my answer solved my problem, this is probably the best way to do it –  bVector Apr 25 '12 at 1:02

An easy (inelegant?) thing to do would be:

git clone --bare whatever ~/.git

The --bare option tells it to basically checkout the contents of a normal .git directory (so it won't check out a working copy), and put into the directory ~/.git. You can use git checkout <file> to get individual files, or git reset --hard to replace all your existing files with their equivalent in your git repository, if they exist.

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cd ~
git init
git remote add origin ssh://host/repo.git
git pull origin master

this works for this situation. from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9443927/git-clone-into-home-directory

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As the title suggests are there any software and/ or hardware clients available now that support Microsoft RDP version 8.0 with RemoteFX? The only one I've read about is MS RDP client in Windows 8.

UPDATE: I contacted Dell Wyse and at the moment the only support for RDP 8 and enhanced RemoteFX is in Windows 8 and Server 2012. Apparently, MS have not decided when to release an updated RDP client for Windows 7 and that delays third-party support for RDP 8.

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3 Answers 3

MS has released an update for RDP8 and remoteFX8. See KB2592687 for installation instructions.

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HP released a RDP 8 add-on for their WES7 based thin clients.

HP WES7 Add-On (Microsoft RDP 8)

  • HP t510 Flexible Thin Client
  • HP t5570e Thin Client
  • HP t5740e Thin Client
  • HP t610 Flexible Thin Client
  • HP t610 PLUS Flexible Thin Client

  • Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard 7E 32-Bit
  • Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard 7P 32-Bit

PREREQUISITES: - For Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard 7E, image version 6.1.7601.252 (or later) is required.

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Not sure if they support RDP 8.0, yet, but your best bet might be iTap Mobile as they currently support RemoteFX on iPad/iPhone as well as Mac and Linux.

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Thanks I'll have a look. –  joshu Sep 19 '12 at 12:17

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Mountain Bike
Product#: 72645
Price:  36.0000
Released:  1994
Discontinued:  2001
Ages:  2-5 years
Product Description
Mountain Bike is a two-stage, grow-with-me ride-on which takes a child from the tricycle stage to the first step of riding a bicycle. This bike is stylized just like an older  ..More

Instruction Sheets

Click on a link below to view the Adobe PDF Format Instruction Sheet." To ensure proper operation, please download ALL instruction sheets for your product.


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Wheelchairs/ECV Reservations

There’s so much to see and do at Sesame Place—don’t let mobility issues limit your adventure with us. Scooters allow effortless personal transportation, perfect for guests with limited mobility or restricted activity levels. With an ECV, you can cruise the entire park with ease, and leave your scooter at home! ECV's are reserved for guests with disabilities affecting their mobility. The measurements are 57" x 23.6" and weight capacity is 400lbs.

Don’t let concerns about getting around the park keep you from coming to enjoy the adventures of Sesame Place. Simply reserve one of our manual, lightweight wheelchairs which are designed for easy maneuverability. We promise you’ll be comfortable just as we promise you a fantastic day when you visit Sesame Place.

Wheelchairs, both manual and electric, may be rented online or at the Stroller Building, located just inside the main entrance adjacent to Finders Keepers. A limited number of electric wheelchairs are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.


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February 11, 2010

Valentine's Day giving typically consists of cards, chocolate, roses, & jewelry. While nice, those items can have a pretty serious environmental impact when done en masse. Here are some environmentally friendly and socially conscious alternate suggestions to make your Vday non- corporate and meaningful.

"The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year, behind Christmas." [source ] That's an enormous amount of paper used, and subsequent trash created. So instead of sending a card, plant a tree. Tree Greetings has an ecard that plants a tree per sale [link has sound]. Arbor Day also plants a tree for cards, even though it does offer a paper card.

Or go to your local nursery and pick up a tree to plant.
On my parent’s first anniversary, my dad gave my mom a baby tree to plant in the yard; when they moved, 25 years later, it was the tallest tree in the neighbourhood. That tree represented their relationship and growing love. How's that for a love metaphor? Advice on how to plant a tree can be found at Tree People.

100% post-consumer waste paper is also an option if you want to send a card, but a lot of that paper is bleached using chlorine. So look for cards labeled PCW [post-consumer waste] and PCF [processed chlorine free].

Unfortunately for chocolate lovers, according to Tree Hugger, "most chocolate sold in the U.S. comes from cocoa farms where farmers work in unsafe conditions, receive below poverty wages, many of them children under 14 years old who are forced to work and denied education". Typically, any factory that does not respect workers, does not respect the environment. Make sure any chocolate you buy is certified fair trade. Global Exchange has several fair trade boxes here and I have heard wonderful things about Equal Exchanges chocolate, but I am not a huge chocolate lover so I don't have any personal recommendations, so please leave yours in the comments.

Flowers are tough- I love cut flowers and I love a good flower arrangement. Unfortunately flowers have 50-1,000 [In California!] times the pesticide use allowed in food. The Environmental Working Group reports "There are no regulations in the U.S. governing the use of pesticides on cut flowers, and therefore, importers are not required to monitor pesticide levels." Since flowers are not food [to humans], they are completely unregulated; flowers are expected to be "pretty" and bug-free making the use of pesticides rampant. Not a very rosy situation. What makes it worse is that "Studies show that women -- who represent 70 percent of all rose workers - - have more health problems since many sort the flowers without wearing masks or latex gloves. Children under 18, who make up more than a fifth of the workforce, display signs of neurological damage at 22 percent above average." From Organic Consumers. And that pesticide flows right into groundwater and air- spreading through ecological systems before it gets passed on to the consumer.

Solution? Buy organic flowers. I found a few venders here, here and here. You can also go to your local nursery and pick up seeds to plant your own organic flowers that can be enjoyed all year.
Or you can you join a CSA and enjoy edible plants all year long. That is a delicious & healthy gift that keeps on giving.

Diamonds are extremely controversial. From Amnesty International: "Some diamonds have helped fund devastating civil wars in Africa, destroying the lives of millions. Conflict diamonds are those sold in order to fund armed conflict and civil war. ...Wars that have cost an estimated 3.7 million lives." Right now there is no safe way to guarantee that a new diamond is not a conflict diamond. Here are some alternative suggestions:
Vintage jewelry- Vintage pieces are gorgeous and have a history [hopefully unlike the conflict diamond]. If you can keep it in the family even better. Not only green & sentimental- but the vintage styles are classic and gorgeous. Try your local thrift or antique store to find the perfect piece.

Etsy has tons of handmade jewelry- and a lot that use recycled materials. I started searching and got lost in a web of awesomeness. Again, leave any specific recommendations in the comments. To do:

Now that gifts are covered, here are some suggestions for you and you loved one [inlcudes pets & children] to do:

Donate your bras. Instead of buying new lingerie clean out your bra drawer and send them off to be donated and repurpurposed with The Bosom Buddy Program. I have always been wary of donated bras to thrift stores since I feel that they will get tossed and not sold. With this program you are sure that your ill-fitting, or nursing bras will go to someone in need.

Give Blood. You can save a life by donating blood. Make this an annual v-day tradition, and replenish with some fair-trade chocolate afterwards.

Find a local V-Day theater performance. The proceeds from your ticket supports local anti-domestic violence organization. "V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. Through V-Day campaigns, local volunteers and college students produce annual benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues, A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer, and screenings of V-Day's documentary Until The Violence Stops, to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence groups within their own communities." Visit the website for performances in your area, or start your own.

And finally, volunteer or donate money that would have been spent on flowers or gifts. Domestic violence is the opposite of love and this is a perfect time to volunteer at a local shelter or donate. From the American Bar Association, "Approximately 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States." The National Domestic Violence Hotline offers a Valentine's Card for a donation; you can always donate and skip the card. Find a local shelter in your area and see if they need volunteers. You can also volunteer for a local V-Day performance [see above].

So that was an exhaustive list but I hope you are inspired to make this Valentine's day more green & sustainable.

*Images of hearts cut from my daughter's drawings.

Julia said...

great list! i love the blood donation idea too, it's been too long since i've donated.

Shannon said...

I loved this post. Not only did it touch on the environmental issues with the traditional gifts, which is something many of us seem to forget on V-day, but your suggestions for alternative gifts were perfect. I love the idea of turning Valentine's day into a day to combat domestic violence and save lives.

Hayley said...

Thanks Julia & Shannon! It's challenging to look at the actual environmental impact of a "fun" tradition without coming off as a big bummer. I hope that changing tradition to something equally fun & rewarding combats the buzz kill and makes a difference.

Julie said...

Excellent list!!

Naturally Sewn said...

I really apprecaited the list you put together here! I especially like your idea to use the day to volunteer. Love, which is suppossed to be the essence of Valentine's Day is in great demand around the world, and can be expressed in so many little ways - thank you for reminding us of that!

lisa s said...

ah... the repercussions for a generated holiday. thanks for all the great info and ideas here!


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Pattern Reviews> Colette Patterns> 0003 (Sorbetto)

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Reviews: 23 (patterns: 21)
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Favored by: 16 people
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Best Patterns of 2011
Posted on:10/3/11 10:08 PM
Last Updated:10/3/11 10:12 PM

Review Rating: Helpful by 2 people    Very Helpful by 11 people
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19 Comments      Login to Add a Comment
jlg said... (3/21/12 7:38 PM) Reply
This is gorgeous, and I like the print also. I hope that you got lots of wear out of it.
KarlaB said... (2/19/12 11:25 PM) Reply
Beautiful top! I like this longer version. Very nice sewing job, too!
Sue Parrott said... (10/6/11 7:44 PM) Reply
I love the print! It looks great on its own and under a sweater or jacket will be equally cute!
Sharonspils said... (10/5/11 6:12 AM) Reply
Love your top and the print, it looks great on you.
grey ann said... (10/4/11 6:35 PM) Reply
looks so nice. I think the print worked up well. very summery and fresh.
Sew4Fun said... (10/4/11 5:52 PM) Reply
Great summer top!
Kathy7661 said... (10/4/11 5:08 PM) Reply
Very nice top-well done! The binding looks great!
FamilyTraveler07 said... (10/4/11 9:48 AM) Reply
Thanks for your great review. Your bias tape finish is so neat and perfect. I made four of these sorbetto tops this summer. Now that I've seen how the added length looks, I will do the same next time. I am tall, and the added length will be a good adjustment for me.
GoodbyeValntino said... (10/4/11 7:20 AM) Reply
Cute top - great fabric - good fit - nice job!
rivergum said... (10/4/11 6:40 AM) Reply
Great top! I must put that one on my list for summer.
Imaan said... (10/4/11 6:31 AM) Reply
Lovely...I know there are some people who made this with sleeves, I'll have to search and save this pattern to my (long) list:-)
jenleeC said... (10/4/11 5:27 AM) Reply
Lovely top and perfect binding! Thanks for info on the clover tape maker...another gadget to add to my list now that I know it works well.
JenniferBee said... (10/4/11 2:51 AM) Reply
What a great pattern, very nice and I love the print. Super binding.
Vonnevo said... (10/4/11 0:08 AM) Reply
Fabulous !!!!! Love the print too :)
mm said... (10/3/11 11:52 PM) Reply
The jury can come in on the print. It looks great and suits you. Nice top.
Schnauzer said... (10/3/11 11:37 PM) Reply
Lovely top, Marg!
Patti B said... (10/3/11 10:36 PM) Reply
I love the print and I'm sure the jury agrees. ;-)
QuiltSewSewSue said... (10/3/11 10:31 PM) Reply
Great looking top Marg - thanks for the review - it is on my to-make list.
treefrog said... (10/3/11 10:24 PM) Reply
Great summer top Marg! I like the print
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Spark Space

Three perspective renderings of the SFS team's design.

Sam Fox School team takes third in NOMA competition

Posted by Katherine Koss October 19, 2009

A team of Sam Fox School architecture students took third place in the National Association of Minority Architects (NOMA) Student Design Competition, for the project "The Spark that Weaves: Intertwining family and neighborhood in Benton Park."

The student team featured six graduate architecture students – Eduardo Ponce, Jonathan Stitelman, Brad Cooke, Roberto Jaime Deseda, Ekta Desai, and Jeffrey Sullivan – and freshman architecture student Ryan A. Wilson. Their accomplishment was recognized at NOMA's annual meeting, hosted and organized by the St. Louis Chapter of NOMA.

Deseda, vice president of the School's NOMA chapter, credits Charles Brown, an architecture alum (LA96/GA98) who's working at Bond-Wolfe Architects, with encouraging the students to reopen the School's NOMA chapter and participate in the competition.

The competition challenged students to design holistic urban infill housing. The Sam Fox School team designed a single-family residence for a multi-generational Columbian family moving into the Benton Park neighborhood.

The program called for a "spark" space, or a multipurpose space that would gather all of family's activities into one room. Rather than forcing the family to occupy one room for their diverse activities, the student team interpreted the "spark" to be the energy that ties separate rooms in a house into a home. The communal rooms in their design pulled together in the center of the house around a large, open-air courtyard. The transparency of the courtyard activated views from separated rooms and opposite ends of the house, enticing family members to move out of their comfort space and into someone else's through this ocular "spark."

The team from Georgia Institute of Technology took first place out of 14 entrants in the competition, and the University of Florida came in second.

This was the first year the Sam Fox School entered the competition. Making the team's third-place finish all the more impressive was the fact the students decided to enter the competition just three weeks before the deadline, whereas other schools' teams had started on the project last spring.

"Working together as a team was quite a memorable experience," Deseda said. "We somehow had to funnel all of our different strengths, ideas, and experiences into one cohesive design and then manifest our concepts through drawings and models – all in three weeks!"

Despite the short turnaround, Deseda said he and his teammates worked together seamlessly and "never felt rushed to make design decisions."

Approximately 400 design professionals and students from throughout the country gathered for the NOMA conference. Karl Grice (LA74, SW76, GA76) is the current president of the St. Louis Chapter of NOMA; Brown and Richey Madison of Christner were co-chairs for the conference.

Quite an accomplishment This speaks well of each of you, your multicultural teamwork, your product, and wustl. Keep up the spark!

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Posts Tagged ‘nikon’

Death of the Dust Trombone: Canon Replaces Legendary 100-400mm Telephoto Lens – Good-Bye Push-Pull Zoom

Tuesday, November 11th, 2014

Canon’s aging beast, the Clinton-era EF 100–400mm f/4.5–5.6L IS USM lens is no more – after 16 years of production, it’s being replaced by the EF 100–400mm f/4.5–5.6L IS USM II, a more conventional design.

Here are some “dust trombones*” right here, back about a decade ago, all extended to the 400mm telephoto setting, the better to see the Blue Angels over Fort Mason, my dear:

Click to expand

The thing about the old lens is that it offered IMAGE STABILIZATION (IS) plus an “ULTRASONIC” MOTOR (USM) (for fast auto-focus) in the same package. At the time, Nikon couldn’t keep up, so it would make you choose betwixt one feature or the other, if you were lucky. Nikon lost a lot of customers during the Aughts for just this reason.

Read all about it.

I’m sure the updated lens will be better (and of course, lots pricier) in most respects.

Adieu, push-pull lens.

*Pull it in fast enough and you can feel the breeze on your face, since all that air inside needs to go somewhere…

Wow: Check Out This Morning’s Perseid Meteor Shower Photo from Eureka Valley: Meteor, Sutro Tower, Fog

Monday, August 13th, 2012

From trophygeek, a shot of the icy ether and a chilly Twin Peaks:

Perseid meteor over Sutro Tower, San Francisco Aug 13, 2012: Set up the camera to take 8 second exposures all night and caught this large meteor as it streaked over San Francisco. The lights near the tower are cars up on Twin Peaks shining their headlights into the fog. I happened to be checking on the camera when it happened so I saw it too!”

Wow, I’m speechless:

Click to expand

Me with nothing to say
You in your Autumn sweater

OMG, Come Up to Twin Peaks to See the Perseid Meteor Show Tonight! Here’s What It Will Look Like

Saturday, August 11th, 2012

Alls I know is that tonight, Saturday, August 11, 2012 will be your best chance all year to see a meteor shower.

What I don’t know is what the cloud / fog situation will be like, but you could see a lot of blue sky this AM so that bodes well.

Get the deets from Sarah Medina and UpOut.

Here’s what it will look like:

Perseid meteor shower, artist’s conception

Click to expand

Oh wait, here’s the real deal, from Christmas Tree Road, a half-decade back, August 12th, 11:41 PM:

Canon 5D, 15mm 2.8 Fisheye, f/5.6, 5 seconds, ISO 1600

But people, you need to dress warm – gloves, beanies, etc and maybe a sleeping bag if you’re serious.

All right, see you there!

Shooting stars never stop/ even when they reach the top.

Justin Ryan Beck is Back! OccupySF = Hippie, Cop, Nervous Pup, Hipster, Black Power Salute, MUNI 1057 (Cincinnati, 1948)

Monday, October 31st, 2011

Famous San Francisco street photographer Justin Beck has bounced back from losing his camera on the mean Streets of San Francisco, looks like.  He’s got another Nikon to work with so that’s nice.

Check it, a canary yellow streetcar.

Is this an album cover?

Via JRB – click to expand

Poor pooch. Daijoobu, daijobu. Gambate!

Impressive: Photographer Recovers $9000 Worth of Stolen Nikon Through EXIF-Data Search on Flickr

Thursday, August 25th, 2011

Well, I guess I’m late to this one, but anyway, in case you didn’t see it:

Click to expand

Plus five points for GadgetTrak House.

Sweet Photo From Outer Space: Shooting Stars Never Stop, Even When They Reach the Top

Monday, August 15th, 2011

Here it is:

“What a “Shooting Star” looks like #FromSpace Taken yesterday during Perseids Meteor Shower Thanks @JakeGaran 4 cam

Click to expand

And this is what the same meteor shower looks like at night from Twin Peaks – not as bright I’m afraid. The reverse angle, so to speak:

But a meteor’s a meteor, right?

Look to the sky. Look to the sky. See the Wonders

“The world is my oyster…….. Ha ha ha ha ha.  Shooting stars never stopEven when they reach the top.”

Famous San Francisco Street Photographer Justin Ryan Beck Gets Camera Stolen From His Hands at Arguello and Balboa

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

Do you know how much bad art we pay for? I mean, there’s lots and lots of (government-funded and government-mandated) bad art around town, let me tell you.

OTOH, popular photographer Justin Ryan Beck does his good art, his street photography, for free for one and all – isn’t that nice?

Or least it was nice, until yesterday, when the digital camera he was using got stolen out of his hands in the Richmond District at four-something PM in the afternoon:

I’m OK but was just robbed at the corner of Arguello and Balboa. Talked to cops. Time for a new camera I guess. :/”

Here’s his last photo. It appears he’ll be on a break for a while.

Oh well.

How can we get a DSLR, preferably a new Nikon along with a wide anglish lens or two, back into the hands of JRB, you know, where it rightfully belongs?

Kuwait Bans DSLR-Camera Photo-Taking in Public – Shoot a Stranger, Go To Jail? – But Accredited Journalists Excepted

Wednesday, November 24th, 2010

Just try to use your biggish digital single-lens-reflex camera on the streets of Kuwait these days. It ain’t easy, brother.

Now, I don’t think that you could ban DSLR use in San Francisco. There’d be a rebellion or something.

Cause if something happens, it didn’t happen unless it was recorded somehow – that’s how we look at it.

Our Folsom Street Fair 2009 was a great day for walkies with the slave, past the guy with the Nikon, past the guy with the Canon, past the Leather Etc…(!) store…:

4015761274_507c70fc9e_b copy

via mikey baratta PHOTOGRAPHIC

Just be on the look-out for this guy. I think he’s up to something:

This 90-Second “San Francisco Bay Bridge Time Lapse” Video by David Yu is Awesome

Saturday, July 3rd, 2010

David Yu wants you to check out his latest: a time lapse video taken from Yerba Buena Island.

Try it at 1080p and full screen.

You can see the eddies caused by the outgoing tide passing the Bay Bridge’s towers and anchorage in the main channel, so that’s pretty cool.

Good job David Yu.

Ah, Memories – Parading Your Slave All Over SoMA at the 2009 Folsom Street Fair

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

San Francisco’s Folsom Street Fair 2009 went down last month, but when you shoot film(!), as photographer Mikey Baratta does when he uses his Hasselblad(!) camera, well, it takes a while to get prints back from the FotoMat and scanned for uploading.

As here. It was a great day for walkies with the slave, past the guy with the Nikon, past the guy with the Canon, past the Leather Etc…(!) store. Click to expand:

4015761274_507c70fc9e_b copy

via mikey baratta PHOTOGRAPHIC

Ah, memories.


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Posts Tagged ‘snickerdoodle’

KRON-TV’s Big Stanley Roberts vs. the Little Lebowski of the Southern Wiggle: “I Don’t Want To Release This Footage”

Friday, April 24th, 2015

Welcome to ‘Merica, Dude:

Oh No, Shaming! – “Referee the Wiggle” Event Coming April 23rd to “Red Card” Cyclists at Infamous Waller and Steiner

Wednesday, April 15th, 2015

I’ll tell you, I’m not a big fan of the vaunted The Wiggle bike route and here’s why:

That’s why. This was my stab at promoting the Northern Wiggle,* aka the McAllister Pass,** aka the Hastings Cutoff. *** Some people listened, but most did not, oh well.

Anyway, aside from this route being a third of a mile shorter and faster and safer and relatively ped-free, it NEVER gets any SFPD Bicycle Enforcement Actions, the way, say, the intersection of Waller and Steiner gets.

Speaking of which, now more people are joining the SFPD, to “referee the Wiggle,” if only for a short time.

Here it is:

Capturegdgggg copy

“Referee the Wiggle
Thursday, April 23, 2015, 3:00pm – 3:30 pm
Waller and Steiner st – The Wiggle

While 95% of cyclists using the Wiggle are really incredibly respectful of other road users, there is that small minority who give us all a bad name. I’ve always wanted to dress as a referee and hand out yellow and red cards to bad cyclists (and maybe some cars and peds too) and I’m using NOW! as my excuse!

Come join me in shaming the few bad cyclists out there and making the Wiggle just a little bit safer and more courteous!”

*I, myself, wiggle from street to street north of the Panhandle on my way inbound to Fulton and Scott – it depends on traffic.

**The pass over Alamo Heights, which the Southern Wiggle route mostly avoids by generally following the route of the former creek what used to drain the kind of valley where the Golden Gate Park Panhandle sits now.

***Named for Landsford Hastings, a distant cousin, surely, of UC Hastings’ Justice Serranus Clinton Hastings.

NIMBY’s vs. the SFMTA: Local Objections to New Traffic Signals on McAllister at Broderick and Scott for the 5 Fulton

Thursday, January 29th, 2015

This effort appears to be similar to the SFMTA’s attempt to add traffic signals on Haight at Scott and Pierce.

This isn’t the worst example of NIMBYism, but I’d say it’s fairly alarmist, fairly absurd.

20150126_165532 copy

I’ll just say that, generally speaking, it’s generally harder to get around town these days by car, by bike and by MUNI, compared with ten or twenty years ago. Part of this has to do with our newer, absurdly-wide sidewalks, designed for pedestrian “comfort.”

And yet, most ped and cyclist deaths in San Francisco involve fault from the peds and cyclists. Here’s 2014:

The Police Department found that in the 17 pedestrian deaths, drivers were responsible for eight and pedestrians were responsible for nine. Bicyclists were responsible in all three instances when they died.”

(I should do a video on how to be a pedestrian in SF. It might involve some jaywalking but it would also involve extreme alertness on behalf of peds. You see, the way to prevent a lot of ped deaths in SF would be to get inside their heads to see what’s going wrong.)

IMO, the SFMTA should leave McAllister alone and then start taking out as many bus stops as politically possible.

I’ll tell you, not that many cyclists pass by Broderick and McAllister compared with Scott and McAllister, it seems, owing to geography. So looking at McAllister and Scott, it seems that the lights will be timed against cyclists using FULTON DIVISADERO MCALLISTER eastbound as an alternative to the already-overcrowded Wiggle route to get from the Golden Gate Park Panhandle to the Financh.

So for my own selfish reasons, I’d prefer that MUNI not make these changes, but who am I to stand in their way? What the MUNI people are saying is that we’ll all be better off overall, and 40 seconds each way each day will add up to millions of seconds, eventually.

In conclusion, meh. If MUNI wants to put in lights, we should let them do it.

Quintin Mecke, Second Place Finisher in Mayoral Race and Now Director at Barbary Coast Consulting, Yells at Traffic, Good-Naturedly

Tuesday, August 6th, 2013

And then he got out of the saddle to pump up the steepest block of McAllister what’s on the Snickerdoodle route.*

Click to expand

*It’s the UnWiggle, it’s the better choice to get west of Divisadero from Market

Cyclists Have the Choice of Going North or South over Alamo Heights – Which is Better, McAllister Street or the Wiggle?

Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

If you want to get there and back again from the Panhandle bike path and Mid Market (and beyond), your best choice is McAllister Street.

It’s waaaaaaay better than The Wiggle route.

Well, why not? McAllister Street (aka the Hastings Cutoff) is shorter and swifter and straighter and safer

Actually, The Wiggle is The Rookie’s Choice, full of part-timers like CW Nevius (oh he just quit cycling in The City, hardly surprising) and fast fixie riders who don’t know any better.

And The Movement prefers the Wiggle, for some unknown reason. But if you just want to get from A to B, then its Market McAllister Divis and eventually Fell for you.

Like this – that’s UC Hastings, your Hastings Cutoff lodestar, there in the background on the left:

Click to expand

So you climb a bit more using McAl, like 20 more vertical feet if you add up all the ups and downs, but big whoop.

All right, see you out there on the HC!

How Cyclists Can Get Downtown Faster by Avoiding the Wiggle: McAllister’s Route 20 Vanquishes Octavia “Boulevard”

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

[UPDATE: And, you know, I guess I hadn’t considered the one-way streets. Particularly inbound, they can get you there fast if you’re up for lights timed at 20-something MPH. I’ve seen people on Oak and Golden Gate inbound, but, due to geography most likely, I haven’t seen that many using the outbound analogs Fell and Turk. See footnote.]

Well here we go. This shot from United 931 shows, in high relief, why you’re better off talking McAllister Street, Bike Route 20, to downtown from the Panhandle and vice versa.

You see Alamo Square inside the red box on the lower left? It’s the summit of Alamo Heights, sitting there in the sunlight jutting in from the left.

The vaunted Wiggle bike path takes you from the Panhandle through Lower Haight and then behind the Church Street Safeway to Market Street and beyond. Your preferred alternative has you leaving the end of the Golden Gate Park Panhandle by taking Baker north to Fulton to Divisadero up to McAllister. That’s the pass over Alamo Heights – it’s the intersection of McAllister and Divis. Then it’s all the way downhill to Market.

You’re going between the camel humps, between Alamo Square and Kaiser Heights (seen in the sunlight on the left side).

Via jpp123

Now it’t true that Route 20, aka the Snickerdoodle, does have you climbing up, outbound, 20 more feet vertically, net, than the Wiggle (and also inbound – there’s one block of Divis that’s uphill a bit) and it’s also true that Route 20 has a couple steeper blocks betwixt Fillmore and Pierce in the Western Addition.

But, Route 20:

Is a third of a mile shorter

Is faster*

Has better pavement

Has you waiting less time staring at red lights (which is nice when compared to the Wiggle’s concomitant Market Street section with the Octavia Boulevard obstacle, which has traffic signals biased for car drivers heading north-south using Octavia)

Avoids hated Octavia Street / Boulevard entirely (cause Octavia simply doesn’t exist as a road in the McAllister area – it’s like you have a permanent green light)

Has less traffic

Has fewer peds to deal with

Has fewer cyclists to deal with (cause, you know, especially in the Lower Haight area, you just don’t know what those cyclists are going to do)

Is, due to the factors cited above, safer

Avoids the ridonculas behind-the-Safeway-to-inbound-Market puzzle that makes no sense (that I can see – I don’t know how to get across Market at Duboce legally without getting off and walking in the crosswalk)

Has zero cops sitting around handing out tickets (because you’re avoiding Fell and Scott, and Duboce and Steiner, and Haight and Pierce, and all the other places the SFPD hangs out during those periodic stop sign and red light enforcement actions)

Has Gallery 1269 to look at (optionally)

So, I don’t care, go whichever way you want. I’m just saying the Wiggle is the wrong way to get the Panhandle (and Beyond) from Downtown.

And vice versa.

*I suppose that jinking over to Oak and taking it all the way (almost) to Market might be faster still, although you’d have to decide which side of the street to go on. (The left side has more room, but there’s no longer a dashed line to keep left lane traffic out of your way. The wait at Octavia Boulevard might slow you a bit, however.

Oh, and there’s Golden Gate Avenue as well, inbound…

The Spitting of Veterans Cab #474: Conflict on Bike Route 20

Friday, June 18th, 2010

This fellow on the Snickerdoodle Bike Path (Route 20, westbound McAllister in the Western Addition) had some sort of beef with the driver of the hybrid taxicab you can see on the right.

So much so that he chased down the taxi and spit on one of its windows.

Let us conclude that the taxi driver was somewhat negligent and the bike driver was/is somewhat _________.” (I’ll let you armchair psychologists make the call on that one.)

On it goes, mostly conflict-free. Mostly.

Overrated Wiggle Bike Path Dissed by Google Maps, Pwned by Route 20

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

As seen on SFist and SFWeekly’s The Snitch, Google Map’s new bicycle trip planning service has alternatives to the famous Wiggle bike path.

Peter Jamison checked it out:

“We keyed in a request for directions from the downtown area to Golden Gate Park to the easternmost edge of Golden Gate Park, at Stanyan and Fell. Rather than sending us up Market Street, behind the Castro Safeway, and then north along the flat, zigzag route through the Haight that is known to any serious bicyclist in the city, Google advised us to bike straight up McAllister for a mile to the west — an uphill and decidedly less convenient trek.”

The problem with Google’s route is that it favors Fulton. The correct route from downtown is slightly different – Market, McAllister, Divisidero and then Fulton and Central or however you want to get to Fell Street and or the Panhandle Bike Path. Route 20 (or if you prefer a cute name for it, the Snickerdoodle) is faster and easier overall. You might have to wait for lights at McAlllister  and Van Ness / Franklin / Gough but you completely avoid horrible horrible  Octavia Boulevard.

This is the pass over Alamo Heights that the Wiggle Route avoids. If you can handle a couple not-all-that-steep blocks then you’ll prefer this route over the vaunted Wiggle.

Not that I care what you do. But this counterintuitive route is superior for anyone going to the Panhandle and points west from Union Square / Mid-Market / The Financh / The Tenderloin and most of the SoMA. Of course, if you’re already behind the Church Street Safeway and you want to get to Ocean Beach, then by all means, take your precious Wiggle route.

More deets here at the StreetsBlog SF.

When is the Steam Pipe Underneath McAllister and Larkin NOT Steaming?

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Via ActionNewsSF, you might search to find a KGO-TV bit covering the traffic-disrupting venting steam pipe at McAllister and Larkin today – it’s more steam than usual, that’s for sure.

But this area of Civic Center right in front of our Asian Art Museum (this year, it’s Shanghai) is basically steaming all the time, right?

Click to expand.

This intersection is usually steaming, unless it’s flooding. Like this:

via Lulu Vision

Oh well.

As per usual, it all happens on (or near) McAllister Street, Gateway to the Golden Gate Park Panhandle and home of the Snickerdoodle bike path (Route 20), your best way of getting over Alamo Heights while avoiding the abysmal, Hayes Valley NIMBY-designed Octavia Boulevard 24-7 traffic scrum.

McAllister Repaving Ensures Snickerdoodle Bike Route is Smoother Than Ever

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

See? That’s smooth, baby.

San Francisco Bike Route 20 (if you’re going west, anyway) on McAllister near Pierce. Click to expand:

IMG_7449 copy

(If you’re heading east, in towards downtown, the Route 20 switches over to hillier Fulton, which is not recommended.)

And those “lead pipe” attacks (well, not actually lead, probably, but whatever) on cyclists ended more than four years ago. From 2005:

“We’ve received reports of cyclists being assaulted near the corner of Fillmore and McAllister by youths carrying lead pipes during the past few weeks. Use caution when biking through this area after dark, and immediately report any violence to the SFPD by calling 911 (for emergencies) or 553-0123 for non-emergencies.”

So now there’s no excuse not to take The Snick to get to the Golden Gate Park Panhandle bike path.

If you want…


text:
About SFZCCity CenterGreen GulchTassajara

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Zachary Smith (Anshi Daigi)

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Establishing the Path of Practice 2014
09/27/2014 - 07/18/2015
Zachary Smith, Anshi Daigi, has been practicing since 1993. He took jukai in 1995 and was shuso in 2007 under Abbot Paul Haller, who ordained him as a priest in 2014. He currently directs North Mountain Zendo, a zazenkai group in North Beach. In addition to his involvement with Zen, Zachary is a husband and father (of 4), an engineer, a musician, a bike fanatic, and an avid but mediocre poet. He may be the only person in the history of Zen in the West to have interrupted a residential practice period to tour with a rock band.

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SharePoint Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for SharePoint enthusiasts. It's 100% free, no registration required.

I am working on a design document for one of my projects in MOSS 2007. There is a requirement to create a custom interface to upload document along with metadata to a document library. I am not sure which one will be the best approach for this:

  • creating a webpart and deploying on the webpart page or
  • creating a custom aspx page and deploying it or
  • creating a user control and using it on the page.
  • or if there is any better way to do this, please suggest.

I would appreciate if I could have the pros and cons of the above mentioned approaches.

Thanks, Somya

share|improve this question

1 Answer 1

1) The web part will require to be registered as a safe control, a user control is an automatically registered version since no options can be set at run time. If you are using visual studio or the equivalent -local on deployment this is never a concern.

2) Not required, you may want to do this to remove the web part security concerns however for this project creating a web part / user control would save time as you will find yourself writing much more code.

3) Probably the easiest solution as a user control is registered as safe automatically (Only server controls require registration into the web.config) you don't really want a user to add a new instance or modify it at all so this is perhaps the best route, easiest deployment, easiest to code and shortest all round implementation.

share|improve this answer
Hey Hugh, Thanks for the valuable input. In case I opt for user control, this user control will have code behind which again needs to be complied as DLL and there will be a safe control entry required for it. Also will this page be unghosted if I use user control in it? Thanks, Somya –  somya Sep 7 '12 at 7:19

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text:
Condemned – Chapter One: Pandora’s Box

(Excerpt from the Bayview Journals written by Kassandra Fotheringham from 1933-1935, discovered in June of 2009 and appended by Pastor Hugh MacGregor of Heron Bay First Church of Christ through May of 2012)

Nothing, of course, ever begins the way you think it did.

I believe Lillian Hellman, the famous playwright, said that. And thinking back on things, I believe she was right. I had thought I’d known where it all began: when Jonathan Fotheringham butchered his wife, his children, their nanny, and his sister in 1935.

I have never been so wrong. But I’m not the only one; everyone had it wrong. But no one knew it until I went to the house.

The house… Can a structure be evil? I don’t think so, even remembering back to what happened. But a structure can house evil, and since a structure can’t fight back, can’t seek exorcism, perhaps the distinction is not so important.

The Manor gave sanctuary to evil for decades; it might even to this day, in spite of everything I tried to do to expunge the forces within. I may never know—no, I will never know, because I will never set foot in the house again, nor should anyone whose ears hear this tale or whose eyes read it.

But when I am gone?

Ah, best not to dwell on that. You can only do what is within your power during your lifetime. After that, the gauntlet is taken up by God’s chosen…or not at all. Will the evil walk in that house again? Will it claim more innocent lives? Perhaps.

All I can do is weave the tale and hope it isn’t looked upon as some deranged fairy tale, a trivial work of fiction.

It begins with Rachael Payne—well, the beginning I know, I should say. Such a sweet, giving young woman, and so talented too. The last I saw of Rachael, she was staggering away from Bayview Manor, reeking of gasoline, her hand blistered from the flame of the match she used to set fire to the mansion.

But Bayview Manor is still standing. I wonder sometimes…is Rachael?

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