testing, check, check, check, my check. I didn't think that we would have this many people. Thank you for coming. I think you guys are here to check your email, that's fine. I understand. I do that too. So welcome everyone. Thanks, thanks for, thanks all for coming. I'd like to welcome two more Red Haters, Rashid Khan and Hanes Sowa, who are going to answer the, what's the big deal about networking questions for us. Rashid, go ahead. Thank you, sir. So welcome everybody. Thanks for coming, really appreciate it. I know there's a lot of talks, a lot of good talks happening right now. So I'm glad that you guys are here. Thank you. So these are not made up numbers. There's a site called Internet Live Stats. So whenever we give numbers to engineers, they try to find out that how bogus they are. So most probably they are bogus and they're a little bit right or correct. I don't know how they do it. But you can, you're welcome to check them out and figure, see if they are real or not. But I found it interesting and that's why I put them up there while we were waiting. Anywho, so what's the big deal about networking? Before I even begin on purpose, I did not put my name on these slides. All the work that I'm going to show is done by a very stellar team of engineers, part of the networking services team and part of the performance team. So I honestly do not deserve any credit for any of this. I just drew some rectangles on some slides. All the good work, seriously. I'm not joking. I'm just here for my dashing good looks, so that's why I'm here. Okay, so networking, as we know, cloud computing, we had a lot, but cloud needs to be tethered to the ground or to be tied to the ground because it needs the packets to go. So I tell people that cloud is great by itself, but cloud also needs a wire somehow. And that wire, that's what we put on. That's the transport that we have. So that's again the life stats. When I took a snapshot, it was 1.6 billion gigabytes. So notice the last two alphabets is gigabytes. So that's how many gigabytes had transferred over the worldwide web that day, and it was in the middle of the day, US time. That's a very large number, that's a very large number. This is not, so let's just have it sink in a little bit. So if you dislike the spinning wheel of loading and you go to a website or something and you have that spinning wheel that says loading, if you don't like that, or if you're waiting for anything more than a second, like you swipe a finger on a Facebook picture or Twitter and takes more than a second, or if you like Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Uber, WhatsApp, et cetera, then you're welcome. Again, it's not me taking all the credit. It's all the silent players in the background working on networking, which is quite complicated, making all of that happen. We have started to take it for granted that we swipe a finger left or right and the picture appears, which is many, many megabytes, but there is billions and billions of packets that flow in the background. So there's a silent army of engineers taking care of it for you, of all kinds. So networking is getting more and more complex. It started with kernel networking, then we put some stuff in the user space and let the user space guy play with it, but we controlled it all. But since then, like then we knew TCP, UDP, new protocols, MACSEC, service function chaining, bonding, bridges. Jerry Perkos is asking where is team? Yeah, there you go, team driver, see? So all kinds of different stuff, open V-switch, mega flows, DNS, you name it. It's all kinds of stuff happening. In the other talk, we talked about some of them. Dan Winship brought it up, Geneve. If I name it all, the slide would be full and you would be bored. The idea is that it is behind in the user space networking and in the kernel space networking, there's just noodles and noodles of stuff. It's my job really, literally full-time job to keep track of it and I cannot anymore. Seriously, I cannot. It just so much happens every few months. It's just unbelievable amount of change. In one of the talks before I go on, in one of the other talks I hear that the networking has changed more in the last couple of years than it had changed in the last 26 years. And I absolutely believe it. So, yeah, please welcome. So, again, to illustrate the point about complexity, this is an open stack instance within one host. So you're saying, Rajid, I can't read this. This is like an eye doctor's chart. Yes, absolutely, it's by design. So what I wanted to show was that this is the zoom in view of that. There is bonds, VLANs, bridges, OBS tunnels, etc. So much stuff that is just in one node. So this all thing is actual customer deployment from open stack within one node. And it's just, it needs a PhD just to be able to set this stuff up. We are trying, so I'm encouraging people to go for their PhDs and definitely networking, but at the same time, we are trying to simplify it for you as well. So another thing that is happening is, so complexity is one aspect, and then I'll talk more about that. But how many people remember the dial-up modem? Wow, I thought it would be like few people like me, old geezers would hold their hand, you guys are millennial. Yeah, there's the sound, we all hated it, right?  So why did I put this up? Why am I unearthing ancient history? The reason quite simply is the cable modem changed the telephony industry. The telephone system infrastructure before the cable modem or the telephone modem or the dial-up modem. Before the dial-up modem, it was the telephony system was designed for a two and a half minute call. That's it, but when the dial-up modems came up, people were going online for hours and staying online and the systems were crashing and they couldn't keep up. The telephone system was not designed for that, it was choking. So they came up with this thing called Internet Offload at that time. I was one of the lucky engineers who came out of the college when this was happening, so I was part of that revolution. We were part of a startup, made some good money and we all remember those good days. And then voice over IP happened, etc., etc. So the old model was commodity hardware and commodity software. I was part of a big giant German company, not Volkswagen. But and we really built a 320 euro gateway. 320 million euro gateway. And that was completely proprietary to take care of voice over IP, internet offload, etc. So that's the amount of money it was going to take to do the internet offloading. Nobody can afford to spend 320 million euros on telephony anymore. It's getting cheaper and cheaper, all the services are getting cheaper, etc. So what is the new trend? What is happening is this is a new revolution that's happening. That's open source hardware like commodity hardware, Dell servers, HP servers, whatever kind of servers, and open source software. Because there's no way we can compete on a new, there's no features that can help the network equipment providers make money. They want to reduce money, everything is about reducing money. So all the cloud stuff, all the things we talked about, etc., everything needs three things. One is CPU, one is networking, and one is storage. So Tom is sitting here, he'll say that the storage should be the middle piece, or if Linda was here she would say that CPU should be the middle piece. But of course I made this slide, so the networking is the middle piece of the leg, or the middle leg. So, but on top of this stable system, this is like the stable system that is needed on top of that. There is software layer upon software layer upon software layer. There's just layers and layers of software, and the complexity is increasing. So what is happening is the poor CPU, which is this tiny truck, has all that stuff happening on top of it. And it's an overloaded, and the axle is breaking, and it's breaking apart, etc. So we have to have a solution for this. What are the solutions? We'll talk about it a little bit later. But I just want to make you realize that having commodity, I mean open source software is one thing, but the layers of software that is needed to go all the way to the cloud is just mushrooming. So sports car, so changing track a little bit. I know I'm jumping, time is running short. So sports car, if somebody was to design a sports car, what do we need? Oh, we need it to be buzz, we need it to be sexy, we need it fast, we need it to be fun to drive, and we need it cool. Boom, there's your sports car. It's a Porsche, wow, excellent. But then somebody like me gets it is two children and skiing and golf and children's backpacks, etc., and has to work. So by the way, why did I put this came out of order anyhow? The sports car is the DPDK. It's fast, it's buzz, it's does a lot of stuff. It gets the package to the user space super fast, but it does not do a whole bunch of stuff. So now coming back to your car analogy. Now if my wife say, it should carry the luggage, okay? It should have four doors, okay fine? It should be easy in and out, it should work on all seasons, like dirt roads, snow, sand, whatever. And it should have low emissions and fuel efficiency, okay fine. So what happens? There you go, you end up with the sedan. It does a whole bunch of stuff, might not be as cool, might have other problems. But that's our old, sorry to say old, but that's our kernel networking, or net dev that we knew about. So new stuff is coming, but still, guess what? The sedan is still there, the net dev kernel is still very relevant, and we'll talk about that. So the kernel networking is listed on the left-hand side. From the IP cloud, it goes to the NIC driver, goes to kernel networking, crosses the user space boundary, goes to OpenVSwitch, and goes to the VhostNet QEMU, and goes to different virtual machines, or goes to the different containers. The picture pretty much remains the same. These pictures are simplified for a reason, just to illustrate the point. I know there's so much more complexity to this, but I simplified it just to show you a cheap example. Then the middle column is the DPDK plus Vhost user. So that is another model in which DPDK takes the packet directly from the cloud, shunts it to the user space, and guess what? Everything else is in the user space, boom. No more kernel, nothing, no packets, or yeah, no packets going through the kernel networking. No problem, okay, happens, it's okay. Then the third one is device assignment, SRIOV, Dan mentioned it in his talk, I think there are other talks, been there, done that, direct assignment, packets again going directly to the virtual machines. So why should a user or anybody pick one or the other? So there are pros and cons, as usual. So on the left-hand side with the kernel networking, you have all the pros feature rich, 26 years of development, open source, all everything you can imagine is there. On the DPDK side, packets fly directly to user space, the user space guys take all the control, they do everything, but there are still some cons. It has limited off-loading support, the TCP stack is not there, there is work in progress for migration, et cetera, and device assignment also has pros and cons. You can read this offline, I'm not gonna bore you with by line by line items, but there are pros and cons of everything, as in life. The good thing about Red Hat or the Red Hat solution is that the way I view it is that we offer a buffet. You go to a restaurant and there's a buffet, you can pick and choose what you want. So all these three options are available for our customers and partners to use, and we will support them till the cows come home, as they say, we'll support them day in day out. So DPDK is fully integrated, DPDK plus OVS fully integrated, OVS without DPDK is integrated, OVS with kernel networking, all of this is available. Now, coming back to the pros and cons, so ultimately Rajat, what is the packet rate? What is the throughput rate? Okay, fine, our stellar performance team has been doing a phenomenal job getting us the results that we need. So as you see from the left hand side, I'm just gonna compare the two because it was getting too complicated to have SRIV in there, but we have those data, we have that data as well. So on the left hand side, by the way, this is before I start, this is a 64-byte frame, and the theoretical limit on this, on a 10-gig link is 14.88, so just to give you a reference. I put that in the bottom of every slide. So the theoretical limit is there. So for ultra low 64-byte packets on the kernel networking side with layer three routing with the recent work that went in for 7.2 and upstream, Alex Dike did a tremendous job at it, we are at the almost the theoretical limit, you know, 14.88 versus 14.12, no problem. Layer three routing, solved. Then again, we move up to OVS, we are at 9.05, and then crossing that boundary into VhostNet, we are really dismal, the performance goes down tremendously. No problems, we are working on it, it's not the end of the world, we can solve that problem. We talked about it yesterday, it's there, we have plans to solve that, hopefully. This mic is really good, man. I have to note myself, honestly, be careful. So on the DPDK side, all the way to OVS, it's reached the theoretical limit, no problem. When you go to the virtual machines, again, performance goes down 4.21, it's a tremendous loss in performance, but hold that thought, I will cover that again. Now, some people might argue that 64 byte frames was not realistic, 256 might be okay, okay, fine, no problem, we have that data as well. Now, the things start to look better. Why do they look better? Because even a tiny frame, you're doing a overhead, Allah, there's a lot of overhead of pushing the packets. There's no batching, there's no nothing, et cetera, many different reasons. So now, with 256 bytes, the data looks okay, but that 0.77 number is still pretty bad, but the theoretical limit on this size of packet is 4.53, both on the OVSI, with or without DPDK, we are okay all the way to open V-switch, but the V-host boundary when you go to virtual machines, the 256 is better, okay? We are working on it, no problem. Then we go to 512, the numbers again become better, the gap is closing, with or without DPDK, no problem, things look good, and then I'll rush forward and go to a typical size, MTU size, which is more typical in a realistic environment, and now the numbers are very, very similar. So just a point to note again, these are the, I wrote down the theoretical limit at the bottom, and as you can see on the MTU size, which is 1500 bytes, it all makes sense. All the numbers are at theoretical limit, so job well done, let's go home. No, no, no, it's not done, we still have a lot of work to do. What are we doing? So why is that this one? So going back to this one for a second, see that 4.21 number, why is that performance so bad? Why is it that when we cross the V-host user boundary, there's a tremendous loss? Yep, we can explain that. So that's because the V-host user, all those packets are going through a single queue, and there might be many different CPUs which are idle, but one CPU is pegged all the way to the sky, and it's crunching all the numbers, and that is the max it can do on a X86 server. So how do we solve this? You will say, Rashid, very easy, you have multiple queues. Yeah, voila, there you go. We have multiple queues, it is V-host user with multiple queues so that you can open up many different CPUs to do the number crunching or the packet pushing or the packet transfer. So no big deal, we can do that easily, and now we are again close to the theoretical limit, it's no problem, and we are working with our partners in Nigeria, VMware, Intel to make this number go higher as well. So we are constantly trying to improve the performance of the system. It's part of our mantra, part of our charter, we lose sleep at night trying to push the packets forward to virtual machines, open stack, you name it, all the way to the containers. That's why we are earning our bread and butter these days. Okay, so coming back to this for a second, so you say, Rashid, that's not really good because now if you are a big bank and you bought a gigantic system and you're going to write the next killer app, you're going to write the next Facebook or the next Google or next whatever app, and all of a sudden you are taking four of my cores just for pushing packets to virtual machines. That's not fair, what am I going to do with the rest? If I have a eight core system, you are taking four of them. Yeah, that's a problem. So and it's, I can, it's an understandable problem that you are using so much CPU power just for packet pushing, where am I going to do the app? Where am I going to run my Java, JavaScripts, all of that stuff? So they always need all the CPU. Anyhow, so there, that's our solution. That is what we are working on. One of our friends, Judy Perko, he came up with this concept called Switch Dev. He has been working on it for a while. What it's going to do is it's going to enable hardware offloading. So instead of all the work being done on the main CPU, we're going to offload it to the different NICs, which will help a lot. And we are working with our partners. There are some partners who already have solutions. We are going to start working with them to make this happen. Like they have it working. Now we are going to red hat. We are going to work with them to make it part of our red hat distribution. So this is already in the works. Hopefully when I go back to Westford, patches will be available. We can run with it. And Judy Perko is sitting there smiling, saying no way, man. So, nothing but net. It is a basketball reference for people who might not understand it. Nothing but net means like you hit the basketball, you threw the basketball, it went swish in, and it didn't hit the rim. It just went directly two points. So nothing but net. We are NFV ready. So NFV is the big push. There's trillions and trillions of dollars, gazillions of dollars to be made in that place. And that is the big push for OpenStack. Even some people are saying every phone call is going to be a container. Some people are saying every app, everything is going to be on a virtual machine. There's all kinds of grandiose ideas. Fine, no problem. We are NFV ready. We have the building blocks ready. Their packets are being pushed at theoretical limits. I already told you about it in the previous slides. And now some people are skeptical that, okay, OpenStack, yeah, it's big, it's bulky, what am I gonna do about it, et cetera. But there are actual operators, networking operators who are coming to us and saying we are going to use OpenStack, we are going to use REL, we are going to use DPDK, and these are the things that we need from you. So it's not that we are trying to push it. The network equipment manufacturers, NEPs, network equipment providers are coming to us and saying this is what we need. And they are really making a big deal out of it. I have a quote from South Korea Telecom. It's called SK Telecom. I used to work a lot with our Korean customers and partners in my previous life. They are the most conservative people. They will never tell you what they have in plans unless they have it done. So this is their part. So they, there's a guy, I forget, he was VP of NFV development, et cetera. He's on YouTube, you can watch it yourself. He was saying that as part of their 5G deployment or their 5G plans beyond, they will have software-defined networking, they will have NFV, OpenStack, it's centerpiece. It is what is being used for all their next-gen stuff. And if we consider that we are already in 2016 and they are planned to deploy it in 2020, that means that the field trials are going to start now or are starting. And yes, that is true. We have actual field trials starting with all of this stuff now, all the way with OpenStack, OpenShift containers in a virtual machine, you name it. So you'll say, hey Rashid, what about, why you mentioned so much about virtual machine? You didn't say anything about containers. Well, no problem. So here's a slide for containers. There's a whole track of talks about containers, containers networking. Dan Winship already did one. If you missed it, it was a very, very good talk. It gives an overview. I highly recommend that you watch it. There's going to be another one by Rajat sitting in the corner later on in this room. But I wanted to give you a simple view about the container side. The good thing about all of this is before I even begin is that the containers, we don't see the performance problems. Containers are designed with a very simple network. You pop one open and it comes with an IP address 192.16 here, very simple. No problem. You have a container, voila. The problem comes when that container has to talk with other stuff. So on a laptop, popping open a container, no problem. You don't need anything. It has a tap device outside. It can talk to the World Wide Web. No issues. Thanks, Anas. I thought I ran out of time so it was a warning or something. Yeah. So in containers, that picture is much simpler. But the simple networking of the containers, as you see the 192.168 address, that still has to connect with that big giant ball of networking or big giant Godzilla of networking that has been created for the last 26 years. And we have a solution. It does connect. It does connect. It does work, host to host, node to node, pod to pod, namespaces, you name it. Throw all the layers of isolation, migration, you name it, on it, multi-tendency. It all works. We have it working. We have it deployed. OpenShift is shipping with Live, OpenShift Live right now. And we have tested it with thousands and thousands of nodes already. And it does scale, doesn't seem to be any problems. So that's pretty good. But if you are interested in more in containers networking talks, please stay in this room. And we'll tell you more about it. So with that said, I'll shift it over to my esteemed colleague, Hannes, he's gonna tell you about what is, you have another one. Oh, okay, that's fine. I can also just use this. So he's gonna tell you more about what we have in the pipeline, what you're working on, and how maybe you can help us. Hello, my name is Hannes. I'm part of Rashid's team. And a short introduction, what we are looking for in the next few, in this year, next few months, and also maybe next few years, what will come up. So our daily butter and bread job is like, we have to care about the networking stack, which basically means everything what pushes packets in and out. We need to fix stuff, not only in rail, but also very often upstream. So we need to look ahead and also care about what rail eight will look like. So even so, we can't push everything into rail, into Reddit Linux, we need to make sure that at the point when we try to work on rail eight, we have a networking stack, which we can use on. So we try to work with the upstream community to fix bugs early and as fast as possible. A little bit on our agenda is like, we want to look into security in the cloud more. So Sabrina and our team developed a MACSEC implementation, which we now try to push upstream. We will have to work further on it to also like specify how crypto keys can get negotiated even if you use it in the cloud, like not only on the Ethernet layer, which will be solved quite easily, but if you also do that in tunnels, then there are some kind of proposals for Wixlang crypto. So you can actually encrypt the Wixlang tunnel themselves. And people also look into IPSEC, IPSEC offloading. So you actually can do the crypto processes on the networking card. So the networking card basically gives you an encrypted packet and verify packet already. The problem here in Linux is like, we have like all those offloads, but sometimes it's very hard to actually make use of them because the offloading extension sometimes makes use of the floating point unit. And it's sometimes hard to get that in the receive pass because it's only used, actually designed to use in user space. So we are looking also in performance enhancements there. Big thing always is performance. So performance is like, I would divide it into two categories. You always have like the software performance, which is like we need to improve or we look into how to improve the software code. And then there's always the possibility if the software cannot keep up with what networking wants to do, the idea to push stuff into the hardware and just let the hardware do it and the software tries to come up or tries some kind of same configuration, tries to provide some same configuration interface down to the hardware. So we have, for example, switch dev, which tries to have a common interface, a generic interface, how to configure switches in the Linux corner. So it doesn't really matter which switch you use. You can transparently use all kinds of switches. And this then can get integrated further more into the whole stack. Like for example, it should be possible that OpenVswitch can then, for example, offload complete flows to the hardware or the bridge can pre-establish flows which directly go through the hardware and won't ever touch the software stack. Problems in there is like, in a lot of cases, we need to have some kind of fallback path to software through software. And they are just important that we actually synchronize all those hardware and software's low pass in a way that they don't actually break stuff. So the hardware and the software needs to work very, very, they need to have the same properties and they need to work, yeah, the same. They would, it doesn't, it should not matter where the packet gets processed, basically. So on the software side, what we, what was seen last year, and we try now to also get back into Rated is like, we have seen lots of TCP and socket enhancements. So one of the bigger projects is that the TCP listener lock was removed upstream which now provides kernels which make heavy use of TCP servers with a much better capability to scale up to concurrently receiving lots of more, lots more connections that was done mostly by Eric Dumasier at Google.  So for example, there's no way for like the Thundering Heart problem in E-Poll to finally make sure that for example, if you get a SIM packet into a socket and you are E-Polling or Polling on the socket that only one thread gets woken up and not all threads which are using this listening socket. So that is actually helping a lot in a lot of scenarios. It was contributed by Akamai. There's more of small enhancements which we try to, or API enhancements we also try to put into the kernel or then later on backport to make more scalable software possible in user space. The more enhancements which were like pushed last year need now to make, then it's now a way that we actually make more use of them, expect more survey that we actually bundle packets. So we don't just process one packet when we receive it from the networking couple. We bundle packets and try to steer packets through the networking stack at the same time that helps CPUs so they can make more better use of the instruction caches and also provides us with caching probabilities so that we for example can do one routing lookup and if we select the second packet that has the same destination that appears to have the same incoming interface we can just use that same routing lookup for the second packet and so on. So we try to do more caching memorization tricks there and Jesper is also working on better memory allocation strategies there basically also in the direction we try to steer more packets on the CPUs. I have a per CPU allocator batch than the memory allocations and try to process as much as packets as possible on the same CPU so we can have better CPU cache utilization and usage. On the hardware side like I'm actually not sure how where this is going so what we see right now is that SwitchDev and OVS might become friends and we finally see some way that hardware can offload more and more and more from what the user space currently configures to the kernel. Yeah basically we will see if this will be realized I don't know yet. EBPF and Perf enhancements are probably happening this year so Facebook is currently pushing a lot of money in developing introspection or observability features especially for TCP right now and the first tools are actually no available upstream in the recent Linux kernel so you can now use EBPF code actually and add them to specific Perf points to collect data like you can build aggregations inside the kernel before that it was only possible to export on a hit of a probe every data to user space and then do the aggregation there and that was difficult because you could easily export gigabytes of Perf performance data and now you can do that in the kernel and the kernel just pumps up an integer. And then discussions about protocol generic offloading so everyone of you can design their own tunneling protocols which is pretty cool. Then a big point probably this year will be that there's a lot of complexity nowadays in the kernel how to correctly configure that and so for example Fedora already provides like Tune which is a user space scripting solution which helps people to actually tune the kernel correctly and we will need to push more and more options and to tune so the kernel after installation actually behaves like in a performant way for specific installations like what you want to have. That's especially important for those layer products like OpenStack and OpenShift where currently like default configurations are often very used and those don't provide the best performance actually. Yeah, so hopefully stuff should work better out of the box and doesn't need that much hand configuration in future. So from the specification side what might come up I don't think it will be ready this year is like there will be much more flexibility also in the data path like how to describe flows and how what actions actually to take so we will see like maybe programming languages like P4 where you can specify how to actually match packets being integrated in OVS at some point with the help of this EBPF language that could happen and also like more and more possibilities of what you do, what you can do in actions. So one thing for example is like in service function chaining you are now able to actually put metadata on packets which then another OVS instance can read again and can act up on that. So you can actually, switches can communicate over metadata in packets via to each other and people can build things out of that as building blocks. Other things which will definitely come up this year is like Internet of Things. So Linux currently supports like two protocols mostly the one is six low palm which is like IPv6 based protocol which is built for networks which transmit on a very low bandwidth, so they do have specific features like for example, don't provide like the same kind of neighbor discovery but a very complex reduced ones. They have IPv6 address compression and things like that and Linux already supports it over the IEEE 800-215-4 standard which is also used as SIGP and on the other side we have like Bluetooth low energy which also might be used in the Internet of Things world quite a lot they are preparing for with a lot of profiles where we have basic kernel support already but lots of profiles will need to be added like for specific applications. So you will find profiles for like those health devices which specifically like monitor your heart rate and stuff like that. Another thing we actually decided to look into again is like Wi-Fi performance. So with the reason of bonds of 811 AC like gigabit speeds now on Wi-Fi and that even going up we would also need to check that the Linux kernel can in future handle those speeds. Some of the wireless drivers are already very, very complex but actually don't implement all those features have implemented in the high end data center NICs which are used in the data center so we might look after some of the Wi-Fi drivers and also check if we now can actually use those features for example in Wi-Fi. I think that's enough for this year hopefully. You're on time. So if you have any questions for Rashid or myself I'd be happy to answer them. I have one slide left. That's okay, you have the mic. So please join us. If you are in this room that means that you are at least made the first step of trying to figure out what the heck is networking and what we are doing. We, I guarantee you it's the fastest path to become a celebrity rock star upstream and in real.  Yeah, absolutely. This is a place where not many souls have endeavored and if you think that packet movement is something that excites you, join us. We would love to have you help. We have openings in our team. It's a shameless plug for. But you also had trolls. Yes. Yeah, anybody. And I guarantee you one thing. Like when I do an interview or phone screen or someone they say, oh what will I be working on? Say I can tell you what you'll be working on in the next three to six months but beyond that if I told you anything I would be lying. Because the reason is honestly every three to six months it changes tremendously, seriously. In the last week even, even before after we came back from the holidays, my world shifted 90 degrees and we all had to focus on different things. Things come out of the woodwork. We have to adjust. It's really interesting stuff that we are working on. So please join us. There are other networking talks. Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Please listen to those and give us feedback. Give feedback for the other talks as well. Another thing which I just want to mention is like we also, Flugan does amazing work in the NFT world. So replacing the old IP table stuff where, I don't know if people remember like the Diploma Thesis about HypecNG where they try to algorithmically advance IP tables to be really, really fast. And that is kind of happening now with NFT. So if people want to now actually reduce like 16,000 rules of IP tables in 24 they should definitely look at in NFT. And Flugan, please make that happen. Absolutely. Questions, comments? There's a nice scarf here for you, for questions. Bribe, no? It cannot be that I explained everything so well that you don't have questions. That means that you were checking your email. Which is fine. Yeah. Okay, so please feel free to ask us questions on the side, et cetera. There are other networking talks, as I said. And thank you very much for coming.


So this clinic is going to include quite a few things. It's going to, town planning, everything you build requires a plan. So the town is not an exception in that respect. And we're going to get into that modification of DPM structures. It's my policy given these presentations to cut down on the scratch building and use all buildings that you can easily buy and modify. We're going to get to forced perspective. Perspective in simplest terms, the things that are close to you seem larger than they are a mile away. In model work, we have to force that to make it look more appropriate. Full BI techniques, I'll get into that when we get to the point. Roads and grade crossings. Every time we have a town, you're going to be crossing a track somewhere. We've got to address that. Signs, lighting, trees, foliage, and a few more things. Can you hear me now? Yes, I can. Terrific. This is where Mystic is going to go. The end of Mystic Yard is right here. And I've included a passing siding because I'm going to do some switching here. I have a stub end siding here and I've got to switch back here. This is the narrow gauge going up to the mines. And we'll have to talk about more of that later. This is it in a drawing. So I've got about 30 inches to the backdrop. The red line is the Mystic line. It doesn't cross here. It goes down behind here. That's not even a mistake in the thing. So I have about eight inches to recreate or create forced perspective. Every town or everything you do should have a focal point. And I chose this Fallberg station. It's a kit. When it came out, it had a big long overhang on each end and big beams across to support that overhang. And it looked more European or Switzerland or something like that. So I shortened the roof and just put roof supports in to make it look more American. But I like the look of all the roofs. And you can see all the circuits I have going into that building. Here's the first two structures. Both the DPM structures. Right now I'm just putting them behind the building and finding what's going to happen. I have nothing cast in concrete at this point. It's just put there to see how it fits. There's another DPM structure and a magnificent structure. And those are glued at a bleak angle for the next road that goes behind the station, or will go behind the station. All roads in deep river are dirt roads and all sidewalks or wooden planks. It's a little bit behind the times. Roads and grade crossings. All right. This cardboard strip, I just tacked up to see what it would look like to have the narrow gauge go through a grade crossing on my layout. Since the equipment is smaller than the standard gauge, it lends itself to my forced perspective. And we'll see how successful that was as we get on. So I plastered the end of it and brought it across the tracks down in the foreground. I started putting screening in. So I'll see that little spot there, hopefully, with the train going by. This is kind of a creative grade crossing. I get strip wood that's just a little bit thinner in height than the rail height, so it doesn't hang up the trains. And color them with floco grime or gray or light gray or something like that. And I cut them to fit around. This is a dual gauge turnout going through this crossing. But that's where the road had to go. And then we put a board on either side to meet the dirt road as it comes up. Here's the plaster going in as my first house in forced perspective. I think it's probably easier to start in the back and pick a size and then come forward and increase the size a little bit by a little bit as you get toward the front. We'll see how small the next side. Forced perspective, all right. This is a 101 lesson in forced perspective. The gray part is two sides of an HO structure. And those three mock-ups in the back are slightly smaller than the one in the front of it. My question to you, what is the distance between the front of the here and back there? Wants to make a guess. No, not quite. Eight inches or eight and a half is about right. But you can see it makes that far building back farther because of the buildings in front at a larger next. Things to remember. I had a guy come in and look at the layout and he was looking at the mystic part and he looked at the buildings way in the back and said, what's the scale of those, n scale? And I said, no scale. Think in proportion. Don't get tied down to scale. Otherwise, you get all confused. Background structures have little detail. Just the embarrassed essentials because you don't want any detail to destroy the forced perspective. And the backdrop building must not lean. If they lean even an eighth of an inch, it's going to look like it's going to fall over. If you're lighting structures, power your bulb that are very low voltage. So you have a dim light. You don't want to look like K mark or something like that. You want it to look like it's home. Paint the inside the structure black if you're going to light the structure because it's going to look like a Christmas tree bulb if you don't. Avoid dark colors for roasted sightings because things in the distance don't carry the color as they do as they close up. And the surrounding foliage is in size and color proportion as well. Next. This is that house that we saw a couple of times ago. It's made out of styrene. Notice that the windows just have a cross piece in the window. That's about the only thing you can see from a distance. It could be 8 over 8 for all you know. But the only thing you can really see is that major division in the window. The roof started out black, but I followed my own suggestion, and then I started to lighten it with chalk and streaking it. I had to put a foundation because it's going to sit on the side of a hill, so I just painted it on. So you can see how big it is. It's not very big. And that's what I started with. So I painted inside the building so that it wouldn't show the light through next. And since this is going to be a farm, I made a gambrel roof or a barn. And I remember my lesson. I made this one more gray. I streaked this to make it look like boards are going up and down. The side was a 1 eighth inch towel with ink lines on to show the bands and probably put a little more effort in. I need to in that next picture. This is the other side of the barn. I didn't paint it black because it's not going to be lit. And I don't model what you can't see. So that's if it looks good from the other side, that's all I had to know. Next. And this is a good representation of making sure they don't lean. This level was put up against the silo, which is the straightest thing you could have. And it looks like it's going to be perpendicular. Next. Here's a couple more structures that are going to be coming toward the front. This one here is still back far enough so you only see the window. But I did add a shed on it to give it a little more variety. This one has two over one. It's got winter sills, fancier roof, and it's got corner pole. So that building could be just beyond the foreground buildings. Next. Here's that one with the shed. I had to extend the shed because when I started putting scenery around it, there was always a gap under that shed. So I extended the shed so that all the foliage that I did covered that area. It's on a pedestal that moves around because it's going to be placed on the side of a cliff, actually. Next one. Here it is now. And anywhere I could keep it in place and visualize it, is to put it on that pedestal that will be hidden by scenery after a while. Here's the other one. It's hanging on a shelf behind one of the DPM structures. You won't see the shelf, but show the next slide, please. So this is the building it's hanging on now. This looks like it's standing on its own, particularly when the store next to it gets next to it.  Next, please. I decided to make a styrene house myself and then put it in the foreground. And I made it two over two with the windows. I even made a porch with it. I made my own railings because I thought Grant Ryan railings are much too large. And I was curious after I did it, I matched the grant line windows. And they were exactly the same size as mine. I could save myself from work. But anyway, this structure is going to be just beyond the very foreground buildings. So only a two-sided structure, so I had to put a piece of cardboard across to hang them across. I put a piece of cardboard up here to keep the light from shining through the attic window because I figured when the structure is lit, they wouldn't necessarily be in the attic. Next one. That's a finished structure. It won't win any contests. But it's good enough for a background structure. I put a fancier chimney on the roof. And I would have. Next one, please. I have the finished kit of a structure. And it looked nice. And so I figured I'd just make this one out of cardboard. I made sure that all the window openings fit Grant line windows because I didn't want to go through all that aggravation. Here it is, with one window in place. I scribed to make it look like lap siding. I made a two-course foundation around it, shingles on both sections. I painted it green because I didn't want it to stand out. And the trouble is, when I got it in place, it not only didn't stand out, it didn't even look like it existed. So I decided early on to change the color. You can see all the circuits I have going into this thing. I got the Grant line windows. I glazed them. And then I put curtains on the inside of the windows. And when I put the windows in, I had an instant interior detail. Here I'm putting little roof supports up here. Still green. Next one. Now it's yellow. Now I'm sitting on a piece of particle board with several courses of stone round supporting it. The plane will go right in front of here. I put a picket fence to keep people from falling off the wall and put a foliage around. And I put some ironwork on top of the two rows, which is typical of the style, and put a fancy chimney. Next one, please. This is the kit. And the windows are much smaller in mine than in the kit. And I have no windows in the turret, nor do I have a front porch. So it's about 10% smaller than the kit, which is what I was looking for, because this fits right in with my setting. Next one, please. Now what's wrong with this picture? With the exception that scenery isn't done here. Who can point out what went wrong? Well, that's another thing, yeah. I think so, and it's crowding it. So that was my thought, too. And that's why you got to be prepared to take it out, don't save it, and we don't throw it away, but you can put it somewhere else. But if you make a mistake like this, correct it. Next one, please. So I made a smaller structure. This is out of capsizing, simple structure all the way around. Next one, please. And now this one has been able to put foliage in between. And boy, foliage is our friend. It makes separation between buildings and hides things and everything else. Next one, please. This is a bulb. And what I want to stress about this bulb is it's a 28-fold bulb. And it gives me a lot of flexibility in lighting it. I would light this probably at eight volts, or maybe 10, or maybe 12, but not 28. And when it's just dim like this, it gives you the dim like you're looking for. Next one, please. This structure is going to sit on top of it. The only thing you have to worry about is you don't see the light through the windows. Next one. This is the night view. And notice how subdued the light is. It's not bright. It's not standing out, not drawing attention to itself. And that's the kind of light you want for background structures and even some foreground structures.


Good morning. The first item of business today is general questions, and we start with question number 1 from Michelle Ballantyne. To ask the Scottish Government under what circumstances an NHS board would limit the amount of necessary operations that a patient requires due to budgetary concerns. No clinically necessary operations should be curtailed because of budgetary concerns funding for NHS borders will increase to £207.7 million, a 44.8 per cent increase in real terms since 2006-07, and in addition, NHS borders will receive £987,000 to target specialities such as ophthalmology and radiology as part of the first tranche of funding to reduce waiting times. I was contacted by a constituent who had been referred and been through the whole process and put on the waiting list for a double-hip operation. He was contacted and asked if he would be willing to go to the Golden Jubilee hospital to have his treatment, which he agreed to. I have to say that it was very good, very successful and he is very happy, except that they could only do one hip at a time, which we know clinically is the approach. When he went to his 12-week assessment and asked when will it be, I admit it, for the next hip, he was told, there is no plans to do your other hip, but you have to go back to the beginning and start again. The question is not about him, but he is concerned. When he tried to find out why NHS Lothian, as it was, had not approved having both hips done, which is the treatment that he was referred for, why that was done, the only whisper that he could get back was the only budget that was allocated for one hip. That raises some concerns. I wonder if the cabinet secretary could give some assurance for people who are facing that that that is not what they are going to experience. I am grateful to Ms Ballantyne. If I could ask her to email me with some of that detail, then I can look specifically at that issue. I am pleased that your constituent did have his first operation and that went well. It does not make sense to me what you have told me. It does not make sense and does not sound correct either, but if you would care to send me the detail, then I will happily look at that and, as soon as I have an answer, make sure that you have that answer too. Christine Grahame Thank you, Presiding Officer. To return to the first question that Michelle Ballantyne asked about budgetary considerations, does the cabinet secretary not agree with me that it is a bit rich for the Tories to top budgets? When their proposal to keep tax for the richest cut would have taken £500 million of our budget, that pays for an awful lot of medical staff. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport has said that the health budget has been reduced by that amount. Unfortunately, the Parliament took a different view, but if that had been the case, that is a significant number of additional nurses, doctors, allied health professionals and so on, all of whom are absolutely critical to delivering the quality of healthcare that we are committed to as a Government and the reduction in waiting times that I have made very clear. I intend to see you over the next period. Colin Beattie To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on non-merically qualified practitioners, providing botox and other similar treatments. Joe FitzPatrick For the record, Presiding Officer, I should say that I have a family member who is a qualified beautician. We are considering a range of options for phase 2 of the regulation of independent clinics, which focuses on cosmetic procedures, including botox and derma fillers, which are provided by non-healthcare professionals within non-regulated sites principally, although not exclusively, and ministers by beauty therapists and hairdressers. Colin Beattie Given that sometimes desperate circumstances force people to undergo such risky treatment, can he outline what steps the Scottish Government is taking to improve access to such services on the NHS and to better regulate the industry? Joe FitzPatrick Botox and injections and other similar procedures are not provided by the NHS for cosmetic rather than medical reasons. In April 2015, the Scottish cosmetic intervention expert group published a report on regulation of independent healthcare, and its recommendations were accepted by ministers. Phase 1 of the regulations on 1 April 2016 focused on independent clinics run by a doctor, dentist, nurse, midwife and dental technician who administered cosmetic procedures such as derma fillers and lip enhancements, drugs such as botox, which is a prescribed drug and are required to be registered with Healthcare Improvement Scotland. Dean Lockhart To ask the Scottish Government when the feasibility study on junction improvements on the A84 near Blair Drum in Safari Park will be completed. Paul Wheelhouse Transport Scotland commissions its operating company to undertake a feasibility study and outline design for potential improvements at this location. That has taken longer than anticipated as new information in relation to historical accidents came to light during the final evaluation stage. This information is currently being reviewed to consider how that relates to the completion of the study. The Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity, Michael Matheson, has asked Transport Scotland officials to ensure that they conclude this report at the earliest opportunity. Dean Lockhart I thank the minister for that response and update. Community representatives first met in December 2017 to discuss options to improve safety in the junction. The feasibility study was meant to appear in summer 2018 but has since faced the delays mentioned by the minister. Does the minister share my frustration about the delays to this report and the concerns that local communities have in relation to safety at that junction? Michael Matheson The first thing that I should say is that I absolutely recognise the strong community interest in this issue. I know this issue. Mr Lockhart has raised and Mr Crawford has also raised in the course of his work. I understand the frustration with any delay when such a key study for local community. As I said, the cabinet secretary is keen for the final report to be presented to him as early as the opportunity. I am sure that he will be keen to communicate that to Mr Lockhart. Bruce Crawford I am well and grateful for the information that the minister has provided to Dean Lockhart. I hope that the minister will understand that I am disappointed that it has taken a parliamentary question for this delay to emerge from Transport Scotland. I was informed in October last year that the study would be available in a number of weeks. I informed the community of that response. I hope that the minister will also understand that there will be considerable frustration within the Blair Drummond community about this delay because it has been gallantly campaigning on this issue of important road safety matter for a number of years. I absolutely accept the concern that Mr Crawford has raised. For what it is worth, I apologise to Mr Crawford for the delay in the production of the report. It is for the reasons that I have explained my answer to Mr Lockhart and the initial answer that additional accident data has been presented. I would hope that Mr Crawford would understand the need to make sure that we take that on board and make sure that the final report reflects that, if necessary. I am sorry that that was not communicated to Mr Crawford and that he has had to wait for this news today. I am sure that Mr Matheson is keen to make sure that all members who have an interest in this are communicated as soon as possible that the final report is produced. Mark Griffin To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the progress of the neonatal expenses fund. Cabinet Secretary, Jeane Freeman. A mid-year evaluation report will be published by the end of this month, with the evaluation of the full year following the end of March being published in autumn 2019. To date, for the first four months of the scheme, £60,000 has been spent helping 435 families during that first four months. Mark Griffin I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. The cabinet secretary will know of my interest in the operation of the fund because of my experience and the time that I daughter spent in a neonatal ward. I wonder if the cabinet secretary is able to say how the applications to the fund compare with the number of admissions to neonatal or special care wards and whether there is any variation across health boards and that perhaps there are some health boards that need an extra push to make sure that parents know of this fund. Cabinet secretary? Jeane Freeman I cannot give Mr Griffin that information at the moment. That will be part of that first full year evaluation, which will happen at the end of March. Although the publication of that is autumn 2019, I will look specifically at some of that data in advance of publication in order to be able to address those questions. I think that there are other areas where we are conscious that improvement is needed. We are looking in particular at the availability and the appropriateness of accommodation for parents in those circumstances and at the quality and the reach of the information that is being given to parents who should qualify for that kind of support across our health boards and may not be aware of it. We will look at some of that information in advance of the full year evaluation and I will make sure that Mr Griffin understands what we are looking at, the basis of it and takes, obviously, given his keen interest and indeed his pivotal role in that in the first place, to see if there is more that he thinks that we might do. Bob Doris To ask the Scottish Government how much pupil equity funding has been given to schools in the Glasgow, Maryhill and Springburn constituency. John Swinney Scoles in the Maryhill and Springburn constituency have been given almost £2.9 million of pupil equity funding in both 2017-18 and 2018-19. In the forthcoming financial year, schools in the constituency will receive over £2.9 million as part of more than £22.3 million allocated to schools across Glasgow. That funding is to be spent at the discretion of head teachers, and we will continue to the end of this Parliament as part of our commitment to invest £750 million to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap. Bob Doris I commend the imaginative use of PEF funds by Churnside primary school in Milton, in my constituency, where social enterprise, high, bogs, low work with students to improve physical literacy and build student confidence in a fun way. More important than that, cabinet secretary, teachers see improvements in children's readiness to learn. Can I ask how the Scottish Government seeks to disseminate examples of such good practice right across Scotland? I very much hope that the Scottish Government will consider continuing to extend PEF funds not just through the lifetime of this Parliament but by giving the success of my constituency and the benefit to my constituency into the next Parliament also. John Swinney Obviously, I would love to be in the position to continue the PEF funding into the next Parliament under the leadership of an SNP Government, but the public will, of course, make their choices on that question in 2021. I commend Churnside primary school in Mr Doris's constituency in the Milton area. We have seen a tremendous imagination deployed in the utilisation of pupil equity funding. The example that Mr Doris cites is a very good one about the way in which schools acknowledge that there are barriers to learning that some young people will face and those barriers have to be overcome before they can participate in effective learning. We look for solid and sound and evidenced examples of good practice and then share them widely through, for example, the regional improvement collaborative events that are happening this spring. I was at the first one on Tuesday in Murrayfield for the south-east collaborative event, and we will ensure that, on networks such as Glow and the national improvement hub, there is a wider understanding of the effective ways in which young people's performance can be enhanced as a consequence of the utilisation of pupil equity funding. Elaine Smith To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recent comments by the chief medical officer for Scotland, what action is it taking to tackle gender inequality in the practice of medicine? Jeane Freeman The First Minister's National Advisory Council on Women and Girls will this month spotlight on women and girls' health, inviting individuals and communities to provide feedback on women and girls' health-related questions. A summary of that feedback is, I am sure that the member knows, will be published on their website and responses inform future reports to the First Minister. In addition, with the chief medical officer, I will look at how we can strategically, but at pace, focus on necessary improvements in tackling women's health across the NHS. Elaine Smith It is a very welcome answer from the cabinet secretary. I would certainly want to highlight this month's activities. Is she aware that women's inequality in medicine also includes thyroid patients whose diagnosis and treatment is deeply concerning? In recognition of that, her colleague the minister wrote to health boards advising them that the Government expects T3 to be prescribed where anendocrinologist has initiated it. What can the cabinet secretary do about NHS Tayside, who has blatantly ignored the Government's letter and only yesterday refused T3 to a patient, have said that T3 is non-formulary, which is wrong, as it is on the formulary, as I am sure the cabinet secretary knows, and have allowed a panel to overview a specialist clinician who has recognised that this woman needs this life-saving medicine? Elaine Smith I am grateful to the member for raising this with me. From what she has said, that sounds like a completely unacceptable response from NHS Tayside. I will ask the minister to pursue this with them with some urgency in order to resolve the matter so that they follow the guidelines and the clear views that we have expressed to them as other health boards are doing. Donald Cameron Question 7 has been withdrawn. Question 8, Donald Cameron. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve ferry capacity in the Highlands and Islands region. Minister Paul Wheelhouse The Scottish Government remains committed to improving ferry capacity in both the Clyde and Hebrides ferry services network and on the Northern Isles ferry services network to support economic, social and cultural development of our island and remote mainland communities. The Government works closely with ferry operators to try and ensure demands on a ferry services network are met and, in line with the vessel replacement and deployment plan, a number of initiatives are being taken forward to ensure that future capacity challenges are met and that ferry services are further developed. Donald Cameron The minister may be aware of recent reports that distilleries on either have recently raised concerns about ferries that serve that island regarding the available space on vessels, not just for commercial reasons but also because of the vital tourism that the whisky industry brings. What action is the Scottish Government taking to improve the situation on island and elsewhere? Donald Cameron The introduction of road equivalent tariff has brought significant and continuing benefits to island. The member has indicated that there is increasing demand on the capacity that serves island. We are very much aware of that and forecast growth in 35 per cent growth in demand from the distilling sector alone will put additional pressure on the capacity that we have serving island. We have discussed with island ferry committee and Mr Russell as a local member. I am happy to discuss with Mr Cameron similar issues on how we try to respond to that demand long-term. Island is, of course, the next location that we are looking to provide a new vessel to serve. We have had discussions also with other ferry operas, including Western ferries, who have raised interest in that area, too. We are trying to do everything that we can to get all options to improve ferry capacity to serve the very important community in island and make sure that their economic aspirations can be met. Alasdair Allan The minister will be aware of the importance of upgrading Calmax booking system to allow better management of capacity, not least during times of disruption. Is the minister able to provide an update on progress in this area? I can. First, I want to recognise that this was a very important issue that was raised by a summit that was chaired by Dr Allan in the US. I am grateful to him for hosting that event last November. I can confirm that this is an area that I have requested that Transport Scotland officials prioritise in their discussions with Calmax. Indeed, proposals for the introduction of smart ticketing, as outlined by Calmax in its tender bid for the Clyde and Hebrides service, are currently under discussion with Transport Scotland. I recognise that an updated system could provide significant benefits in terms of communication with customers and also to help with different packaging of tickets to try and incentivise use of the services. Bill Kidd To ask the Scottish Government whether the Fair Food Transformation Fund will continue to provide funding to community-based organisations beyond the 2019 tranche. We are currently undergoing a review of the way in which organisations apply for funding through the Fair Food Transformation Fund and several other communities-related funds. As set out in the draft budget statement, we aim to launch a new single, a harmonised communities fund this year that will replace several current funding mechanisms, including the Fair Food Transformation Fund. The streamlined application process seeks to make things easier for third sector and community organisations. Something we know that sector would value and has requested. My officials have been keeping in contact with organisations throughout the review and with those who are interested in applying to the fund and will update them as soon as plans are finalised. Bill Kidd I thank the minister for that reply. Can the cabinet secretary outline what support might be given from the Scottish Government to food banks applying for funding who are looking to develop a wraparound food justice system, such as from Chapel Food Bank in my constituency, who also provide referrals to the health and social care services, including mental health and suicide prevention, local money advice services and interaction with local education services where appropriate? Bill Kidd I thank Mr Kidd for raising awareness of the incredible work that is going on in his constituency. Those are the sort of activities that the current Fair Food Fund seeks to support, because those are activities that allow access to foods in a dignified manner and provide that holistic person-centred support that is clearly the hallmark of Drum Chapel's approach. I can confirm that the new unified fund will also endeavour to support that innovative work, but what an absolute pity to have to deal with increasing levels of food insecurity that only now the UK Government has finally conceded down into its appalling roll-out of universal credit. The First Minister Thank you very much, and that concludes general questions. Before we move on to First Minister's questions, I invite members to join me in welcoming to our gallery Dr Hasam Zomlott, Palestinian head of mission to the UK.


Alright guys, in this video, I'm going to be showcasing five good things that I really like about my Range Rover Velo after four years of using it, five things that I don't like so much after four years, and a little bit about what's next for me. If you haven't seen my one-year review of the Velo, I'll leave a link in the description, make sure you check those out. Some of those things will still be the same after a year compared to now, which is four years later. I bought this in 2017 on day one when it was released, and today is the first of September. It's exactly four years after I bought it from the first of September in 2017, so I'm really excited to showcase if you're maybe trying to consider buying this car, if it's actually worth it. So let's get straight into it. Okay so in no particular order, the first like is the design. So after having this car for four years now, I still think it's one of the best designs on the road. I still get a lot of looks, people admire it, and it's not just looking good from the outside, but it looks beautiful from the inside as well. So for me, I really can't fault the design of the Velo. Number two, the performance is really good on this car. I'm talking about how smooth it is to drive, you know, sometimes it feels like you're driving on clouds. There's a lot of bumps on the roads, there's a lot of potholes. Either way, it still goes over them very well, and if I switch over to dynamic sport mode, then the acceleration is so quick. And not that I use that mode quite a lot, but I think if you do want to have something that's really fast, you want to get a very good pickup, this is the one to have. Number three are the five-star safety features that this car comes with. Now, all Range Rover vehicles, especially the Velo models, come with the following safety measures that I've listed here. Emergency braking assistance, adaptive cruise control, autonomous emergency, high-speed emergency braking, and in some of the newer models, blind spot assist. I don't have the blind spot assist on these mirrors at the moment, but in a lot of the newer Velo models that are on sale, they will all come with that as standard. So for me, I can't fault the safety features. So you can pretty much be confident when you're driving, especially at high speeds, that you will be safe in case of an accident. The fourth thing I really like about this car is about the long range drive. Now, I've taken a lot of road trips that have lasted maximum around six to seven hours of continuous driving. And for me personally, having a long journey like that, you want the ride to be really smooth. The last thing you want from a car is that you feel uncomfortable by sitting down for so long in the same place and not stopping too often. With this one, I don't feel that. And I've taken six to seven-hour journeys. I've stopped a couple of times during that, but the entire journey was smooth. I wouldn't be able to take that type of long road trip on maybe some of the older cars that I've had, but the range of a Velo is especially a great thing to have for long-range road trips. Last but not least, number five is the spacious boot. Now, we all know that the Velo has a very large boot in there, but I just wanted to highlight how large of a space you have. I was moving house recently and I didn't hire a van or a truck to move a lot of my furniture from my rooms or anything like that. I'm talking about seven-foot shelves. I'm talking about all of my gym equipment, like the portable squat racks, so many things, boxes and boxes of stuff that obviously with multiple trips, I was able to move house that I've lived in for 30 years, only using the range of a Velo. So I managed to fit everything that I owned in over 10 trips in just this car because of the amount of stuff I was able to fit in this boot. And if you do have a lot of things that you want to transport, or you have large families and you want to go on road trips, it's great for packing in suitcases, this is a great thing to have. And that's not specific to just the Velo, of course. There's a lot of cars out there with large boots, but this is something I really wanted to highlight for you guys that has really helped me by having this car. So now moving on to the five things that I still don't like about the car, even after four years of use. Number one is the in-control touch display and the infotainment system. I've mentioned this in my previous one-year review as well. This is a very slow system. It's not as responsive as I like it to be. Sometimes when you press a button or select an option, it takes at least three seconds for it to register and show you that screen. And I think that's just way too slow, especially if you're maybe in a hurry or you want to use your navigation, you want to quickly search for something because you're running late, then it will take some time to do that. And I've sat in BMWs before and they've been so responsive and it is a lot to do with the software that is installed on this. The Land Rover software I think is generally slower than a lot of the vehicles I've tried in the past. They now have a brand new software system called PV Pro, which is only available on the brand new Range Rover models. So that is across their entire Land Rover range. So the Defender, the Velar, the Range Rover Sport, many of them. But one thing I wish that they would do is allow the people that have the older software to be able to upgrade to the PV Pro system. If you don't know what PV Pro is, then I'll leave a link in the description below. Check it out, it looks so much nicer and I've heard a lot of good things about responsiveness on that. So for me, that's a shame. I can't upgrade, so I'll have to continue living with this problem as long as I have this car. Number two, again on the topic of the screen, there's been some occasions throughout the past four years where I've turned the car on, but the actual main screen has not opened up. There's also been occasions where the screen has just remained black and I was hoping it would turn on whilst I quickly drove off, but it didn't come on. So I had to pull over, stop the car, turn it on again, just to give it a bit of a reset for the screen to come back on. And that's not just it opening up, but that's also it opening up and the screen remaining blank. So there's obviously been a lot of errors in the software. Over the time, I have gone and got software updates from the service centers at Land Rover. That has fixed some of the problems, but for the price of this car, I shouldn't be experiencing problems like this. And that is a real shame. Number three, I wanted to talk about the roof trim here. Now for some reason, one day it was raining quite heavily, it was very windy, and as I was driving, the roof trim of this car just flew off by itself. So I heard a big noise, something like hit my roof, looked in my rear view mirror, saw this black thing flying at the back onto the road. I pulled over, I went to check and it was my roof trim. Not sure why the poor quality or the manufacturing style of this roof trim actually did that in that type of weather condition. But I went to Land Rover to ask them to put it back on because I was not at fault. They were asking me to pay for it because it costs them a lot of money to order a replacement, which is not great. So I'm not sure on the quality of some of the parts that they use, do they get it quite cheap and why is it flying off when it's raining? It shouldn't do that. So I'm quite disappointed, but I've left it off for now because I'm still waiting to see if I should be able to pay that much money or if they can provide me some sort of discount, but I'm still waiting to hear back on that. So that's point number three. Number four, some of you have guys asked me about this before as well. It's about the stains that are appearing on the leather seats after many years of usage.  And I didn't know that was a real thing until I've had these cream leather seats. So it might be not too noticeable if you have maybe black leather seats, but if you have a lighter interior, I have realized that they do stain easily. And I've tried to use stain removal kits as well to get rid of those stains, but a lot of them have remained in place. So as you can see here, here's an example of some of the stains. You might have to look at it a little bit closely, but I did remove some of them, but there's still some stains that you can probably see in this clip. However, it's not too noticeable from far away, but if there was any type of kit that they can provide that allows us to remove this as part of a package when you buy the car, then I think that will just be an ideal thing to have. And again, that might not be specifically to the Velar, but that's one of my experience that I've seen on all of the Velar seats. Last but not least, number five, if you do own a Land Rover, especially a Range Rover Velar, the servicing, the MOT, the running costs, the maintenance is so expensive. Now you'll realize this, that not just the car costs a lot of money. I've realized on a year to year basis, if you don't buy a service plan with them, the amount of costs that you have to do, especially if you need to do any repairs, they will just come out of nowhere. You'll be paying thousands of thousands of pounds potentially each year to be able to make sure this runs exactly how you like it to be. Now, in some cases, they do sometimes offer free upgrades or discounts, but any type of additional work that you want done on it, especially like I mentioned with the roof trim, they were charging around 460 pounds to replace that, which I think is quite expensive for a bit of plastic that they need to clip on, but apparently they need to order it from somewhere and it doesn't come black, so they need to charge to repaint it to black and then get the clips and then put it onto the roof, which is a bit of a shame, but the running costs on this, especially if you live in London, they have something called a congestion charge for any of those that are watching this from outside the UK. You have to pay 15 pounds a day to drive your car into the city. So if like myself, you do go to London quite often, just driving it without any Land Rover involvement is also a very expensive thing, not just a Velar specific thing, obviously, but it's something to be noted if you don't want to go full electric. So what's next for me? Now, this car is quite an expensive car. I've spent a lot of money on it. I still want to keep this for another couple of years at least and for me, I have no problems with it. If I can overlook all of those negative points, I think you guys can as well. What I want to do, especially in at least two, three years time is to potentially find a car that I can go full electric. That's the way the industry is shifting and I've been holding off for now just because I've been waiting for electric cars to increase their range. Now, I do a lot of road trips as well. So if I'm gonna drive, let's say 300 miles, I'd want my car to be able to go at least 400 miles quite easily on a single charge. Now, there's not a lot of cars that currently do that without having to spend a ridiculous amount of money, but I've had people that have bought electric cars that do 270 miles maximum range and they've gone for a 300 mile journey. In normal hours, that would have taken me in my car around four hours, four and a half hours, but it took that family nine hours and there's been news articles about it as well because of the amount of times they had to stop, wait for it to recharge and then calculate the times accordingly to when the next charging point is where they have to stop again. So there's a lot of additional planning in addition to a lot of charging times. So that just increases your time of journeys. So until that's ironed out a little bit more with new electric cars coming on the market, I will continue to use my Range Rover Vola. I still think it's one of the most beautiful cars on the road and for me, I have ultimately no regrets paying the cost that I've been using this car for because I've had some great times with it.  If there's anything else you guys want to know specifically about the Vola, as usual, drop a comment down below. I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can. If you like this video, make sure to subscribe. I'll do plenty of Vola videos. I'll have a link to my Vola video playlist that I've covered a lot of topics on this car. So you guys should definitely check that out and I will see you guys next time. Take care.


Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of Brigadier General Heritage, the commanding general of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Western Recruiting Region, I'd like to virtually welcome you to sunny San Diego and today's Family Day message for a hotel company. My name is Colonel Matt Palma and I am the commanding officer of the Recruit Training Regiment. I am assisted in my duties by my senior enlisted leader, Sergeant Major Paul Egan. Together we've had the distinct pleasure of observing your new Marines throughout their training and we couldn't be more proud of what they've accomplished in a relatively short period of time. Now we know that our job would have been much more difficult had it not been for the solid foundation that you laid for them back at home. Moreover, the love and support that you provided throughout their training was absolutely critical to their success and we want to thank you for that. As they continue on in their training and leave the depot tomorrow following graduation on their way north to the School of Infantry West, we'd encourage you to continue the same level of love and support that you have provided over the past three months. They will surely need it, but don't worry, they look fit, happy and healthy as we just completed the motivational run. Now, there's a couple other groups I'd like to thank out there today. First, if you've served in any branch of the armed forces, whether they're under the watchful eye of peace or during the time of war, we want to recognize you for that service and thank you for your many many sacrifices. For the veterans have served as an example to all of us Marines and especially the new Marines of Hotel Company. Thank you, veterans. The next group I'd like to recognize are the officers and drill instructors that proudly wear these yellow t-shirts or they are the officers and drill instructors of Hotel Company. Had it not been for their hard work and determination, the transformation from civilian to recruit and recruit to Marine wouldn't even be possible. Do you know that there's been a drill instructor with your new Marine every moment of every day and night since they stepped on our famous yellow footprints? That sort of dedication comes at great sacrifice. Their young families have endured long periods of time away from their Marine for the benefit of your Marine, which has only been exasperated by the global pandemic. So I'd like to publicly thank the officers, drill instructors and dedicated families of Hotel Company for a job well done. Thank you, Hotel and thank you to your families. Now speaking of families, we know great Marines come from great families and your Marines are no different. Our Marines and all Marines pride themselves on being the most ready when the nation is least ready and it is absolutely essential that they continue on in their training so that they can join their Fleet Marine Force units as soon as possible. We know how difficult it must be for you not to be here today to celebrate in the traditional family day events or tomorrow's graduation, which is a milestone event in the life of every Marine. We recognize the sacrifice that you are making as their family and we appreciate your patience, patriotism and continued love and support. But don't worry when your young Marine does get some well deserved time off. I'm sure they will have plenty of sea stories to share with you about their time here on the depot and their legendary drill instructors. In closing, we want to wish you the best of health. Good luck during our global pandemic and the crisis that our nation is currently facing. Your Marines like all Marines are ready for the challenges that lie ahead them. They are proud and they are proud to serve. We look forward to their accomplishments as I'm sure you do too. We wish them good luck and you as well. God speed and may you find comfort in the fact that your Marine Corps and its Marines remain Semper Fidelis. Morning, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Staff Sergeant Rivera and I am the senior drill instructor for between 2,169. Here are your new Marines. Morning, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Staff Sergeant Ho and the senior drill instructor for platoon 2,170 and these are your new Marines. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Sgt. Thomas and I'm the senior drill instructor for platoon 2171 and these are your new Marines. Good morning, my name is Staff Sergeant, Lu Чер, and I'm the Senior Drone Instructor from platoon 2,173 and these are your newest warfighters. Good morning ladies, good morning gentlemen. My name is Sergeant Roddageiro, the Senior drill instructor for platoon 2,174. These are your nation's newest Marines. Good morning ladies and gentlemen. My name is such a Martin. I am the senior drill instructor for platoon 2175, and these are your nation's newest Marines.


When you have a strong intimidating personality, people can pass you off as being rude and lacking respect But what it truly means is that you know who you are and you will never allow yourself to be worked over by anyone Others may think you love to dominate, but too often this isn't so People will not understand you until they get closer to you and they get to know you better People with such strong and intimidating personality have the self-confidence that helps them hide the best of themselves Until they are sure they can absolutely trust those close to them Some others can be afraid of you, but it is because they do not understand how you can be so comfortable with yourself Never letting your guard down and never allowing yourself to be pushed around.  If others know better than to give you excuses when you request something from them Then your personality may be strong and intimidating. When your personality is strong and intimidating You are much more interested in what you can do and the hurdles you can overcome to get those things done It doesn't matter how big those hurdles are.  You would rather be alone than have worms in your life You don't need people to tell who you are and what you are capable of Others may need this kind of compliments to feel alive and whole But you don't depend on others opinions about you to keep your self-confidence alive since you know who you are Even if you are still in the process of discovering everything about yourself You don't wait for others to tell you what you can do and can't do You know you are capable and you go for it Three, you hate small talk. If there's anything you hate, it is people wasting your time with small talks You love people to go straight to the point when they are talking with you because what's the point of beating about the bush?   Listening is an art. It must be learned If you have a strong personality, you know how to listen. Others might mistake this for something else However, since you know you are in charge of yourself You do not let what others believe about you to deter you from being who you are Moreover, your listening ability is focused on hearing people's thoughts so you can know how to help them Six, you do not need attention. If you have a strong personality You don't crave attention as others do. You are not clingy or needy and when the door of a relationship closes You don't go back banging on that door because you can't stand alone because of this You naturally attract people to yourself People love to hang out with you not because you spend so much time socializing But because they love to be around you. No matter the attention people shower on you However, you don't stop to take breaks to be alone with yourself When you learn to take care of yourself, you will find it easy to take care of others Seven, you are fearless. Being fearless does not mean you're afraid of nothing It just means you go after what you fear without letting the fear hold you back from doing what you have to do You identify what you are afraid of and instead of backing down You choose to go after that thing you are afraid of you never let fear dictate for you what you should do Eight, you take insecurity as an opportunity Others may be afraid to be insecure, but not you you choose insecurity as an opportunity to get better You do not focus so much on what you can't do but rather on what you can do Insecurity about a thing you want to do does not hold you back.  Do you find you are always focusing on words to be achieved rather than wasting your time away if you have a strong personality? You love to have firm control over your future and so you set goals for yourself that drive you towards that future of success You have envisioned for yourself. You don't lose sight of your vision no matter what comes your way You may bend but you get right back on your path to succeed in you set smart realistic goals to achieve a great future for yourself 11 you don't dwell on the past We all have pasts all that matters is if we let the past control us or if we control the past You never let the past control you the best isn't the past the past isn't the past It's gone and nothing you do will ever change it You know this so you don't bother your head worrying about the past You are instead interested in the present what is happening now and how that will affect your future You allow your goals to drive you and not your past 12 you learn from your mistakes Everyone makes mistakes, but because you don't act like you do people may mistake you for a perfect human You are not a perfect human being you make mistakes just like everyone, but you learn from your mistakes You don't dwell on them You know it's already happened and it's needless trying to worry over spilled milk You always focus on lessons you can grasp from your mistakes and how you can quickly move on from there 13 you stick to your word your word is your bond when you have a strong personality Why because you would not promise what you can't do and also you never get Intimidated into promising things you cannot do people can count on you because you do what you promise to do It isn't like you've never changed your mind about what you've said But because you are thoughtful you always love to back up your words with actions and you readily admit your mistakes in words When you make it 14 you don't need anybody's approval It's great to have people's approval, but with a strong intimidating personality like us You don't wait around for approval while others may expect people to wipe them on the rare You don't do that to get things done You are quick in making your decisions and you are determined to follow through your decisions No matter the stands of others about it.  We love you


Water rocks, right? How do we resist? How do we resist? Pull out of their financial systems, build alternative systems. For me, I'm in education, right? So I'm deciding to help people to learn math, right? I decided to help people learn math. So I'm giving an avenue for those that want to learn math to not necessarily have to send their children to centralized indoctrination centers. I talk to people.   If I hear people saying put in bed, I go, what are you, rat rat? Rearrange those letters, right? How low arch you are? You to parrot CNN propaganda, neocon propaganda, pedophile propaganda, right? So there's multiple ways of resisting. Building alternative systems is one way. Pull your money out of like people it's crazy. People are against war, but they have money in the stock market in Raytheon, in Boeing, in Coca-Cola, in Israeli companies. Pull your money out of Israeli companies, right? There's a shipping company called ZIM, right? Family was shorting it when it was around $90 like two years ago, right? Hit a low of $6.50. Right now it's bounced off to $11.50 because, because why? Because the UK and the United States are bombing Israel, are bombing Yemen, because Yemen is, as a country goes, has this stated as a country, the only country on the planet, right? That is actively trying to prevent genocide, outwardly trying to prevent genocide happening in Gaza, right? Iran is resisting it, Lebanon is resisting it, Iraq is resisting it, but not officially, right? The government of Yemen has said we're going to war to prevent genocide, and we don't care who we're going to war with, we will not, as a nation, as an Islamic nation, it is forbidden for us not to try to prevent this genocide. We have to prevent this genocide. Huge, huge, right? Huge, huge, huge.