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Over the last month or so, we have tried to spend a bit of every day training. We ride our bikes (10-30 miles each day) or run (3-6 miles) on the Southwest Coast Path. Although we do not have a strict schedule or even a daily mileage that we will be aiming for while on tour, we know that the fitter we are, the less we will moan about our burning thighs, and the more we can enjoy the view.
North Cornwall is a beautiful place to train, hilly but not mountainous, and we have had really great weather recently. We have been taking advantage of local footpaths for running, quiet roads for cycling, and big hills for both!
A few days ago, we biked about miles to the edge of Bodmin Moor, and then locked up our bikes (probably overkill on a dead-end back-road in North Cornwall, but it is hard to get New York out of one’s system) and set out on foot to climb Rough Tor (pronounced raw tor), the closest thing Cornwall has to a mountain.
The approach took us over rolling hills, the fields gradually becoming more barren until we reached the moor proper. There were sheep and ponies grazing, and as we got closer, the ground alternated between wet bogs, stubbly pasture and boulders. The Tor itself is a cascade of boulders ranging in size from TV’s to SUV’s. The summit is an amazing rock formation, carved out by wind and rain, with stunning views down over the moor, over reservoirs and fields, and on this particularly clear day, all the way down to the sea!


Rotocon Europe expands presence
Published: 13 April 2023 | No comments yet
The Ecoline range of finishing machines come in various configurations
Rotocon is to open a facility in Hamburg to provide Ecoline and Chrome machine demonstrations and factory acceptance testing of purchased equipment.
This development comes as Rotocontrol and EMT International are no longer representing the brands in Europe and North America.
With headquarters in Cape Town and branches in Johannesburg and Durban in south Africa, as well as dedicated operations in Europe and Asia, Rotocon manufactures print and finishing systems, such as Ecoline and Chrome. It also represents other manufacturers in its home territory of South Africa, including the likes of Domino, Erhardt+Leimer, EyeC, MPS, Pantec GS Systems, Rosas Maschinenbau, Rotocontrol, Screen, UV Ray and Wink.
Rotocon started developing its economy line of finishing equipment in 2013 and officially launched the Ecoline range in South Africa in early 2017, ‘to meet the technology investment needs of smaller labelling operations and start-up ventures with the highest possible specifications and competitive pricing.’
Chrome printing and finishing equipment were introduced in 2022 to provide greater customisability and modular upgrade options.
Ecoline and Chrome machines are produced in the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) area, with design changes and production managed by Michael Wang, managing director and shareholder of Rotocon Asia.
The new facility in Hamburg will allow Rotocon Europe to provide enhanced sales and support of Ecoline and Chrome finishing machines in Europe and North America.
This development is supported by the appointment of three new team members within the Rotocon Europe organisation.


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History does not indicate that he said it tongue-in-cheek, so we will assume that the third President of the United States of America, Thomas Jefferson, was quite serious when he said that it was the trade of lawyers to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour.
The story of man and the tales of his democracy are replete with examples of laws, rules and regulations so steeped in folly, that when eventually exposed by enlightenment, and agitation, were appropriately discarded on the dump heap of history.
Recently, it came to the attention of Barbadian citizenry that three members of Government – Mr Chris Sinckler, Minister of Finance; Mr Michael Lashley, Minister of Transport & Works and a former Minister of Housing and Lands, as well as current Minister of Housing Denis Kellman – were issued summons to appear before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). It is understood that their presence has been requested before the PAC on December 15, because of concerns raised by the country’s Auditor General Leigh Trotman about financial spending by the National Housing Corporation (NHC).
At issue is the employment of 47 people over and above the approved staff complement for the statutory agency; the auditing of accounts and the laying of those accounts before Parliament and the awarding of contracts for the Exmouth, Coverley, Grotto, Bushy Park and Country Park Towers housing projects. In essence, they have to account for the people’s money.
To date, only Mr Kellman has responded publicly to the issue, indicating that the summons before the PAC was a “witch-hunt”. He also took a shot at the PAC, noting: “Any committee that is not legally done, I don’t worry about.” That committee is made up Government members Richard Sealy, Donville Inniss, Dr David Estwick, Senator Maxine McClean, Jeptor Ince, Darcy Boyce and Adriel Brathwaite, while the Opposition members are chairperson Opposition Leader Mia Mottley and her colleagues Santia Bradshaw, Jerome Walcott, Kerrie Symmonds and Wilfred Abrahams, along with Independent Senator John Watson.
Neither Mr Sinckler nor Mr Lashley has responded publicly to the queries that moved the Auditor General to make specific public pronouncements.
But it gets more amusing.
The Deputy Clerk of Parliament Richard Byer this week expressed his displeasure that details of the summons issued by the PAC had found their way into the public domain. His response on the subsequent attempt to seek clarity on the issue and to engender transparency, was, in the words of Mr Jefferson, to find location in the lawyers’ trade.
Not only did he refuse to address any matter related to the summonsing of the ministers, he suggested that it was an “illegal act” to have the affairs of the PAC bandied around in the Press. We will not attempt here to delve into the correctness of his assessment or interpretation of the rules governing the functioning of the PAC. But we will suggest that since the PAC is not the Private Accounts Committee, but the Public Accounts Committee, that if per chance he were correct, then that related rule be reviewed and changed since it is gratuitous nonsense.
If Mr Byer, himself a former member of the ruling Democratic Labour Party, does not appreciate the absurdity of his suggestion – guided by rules or otherwise – that matters related to the PAC should not be in the public domain, then we suggest that free education in Barbados has been a major waste of time.
It is ironic that such an issue related to the awarding of Government contracts for housing projects and the general outlay of public funds should reduce some ministers to mimicking mutes. One well remembers Mr Lashley, Mr Sinckler, et al, unleashing fire and brimstone on former Minister of Housing Liz Thompson on matters related to contracts to remove asbestos roofing at Kensington Lodge and the building of public baths at Silver Sands, Christ Church, Worthings, in the same parish, and at Browne’s Beach, St Michael. Mr Lashley talked by the hour on these matters. How soon we forget.
It is in situations such as these that procedure needs to take a backseat to truth, transparency and accountability. Some members of Government have suggested that the PAC, guided by Miss Mottley, is playing politics and grandstanding. To that, we ask: so what? It is to be expected. When last we checked there were 30 politicians in the Lower House of Parliament. The State’s hat is now on the Democratic Labour Party. If it were on the Barbados Labour Party we would expect the Opposition DLP to play politics; to grandstand.
But at the end of the day the overriding factor is that the people want the questions posed by the Auditor General answered. Silence or artful dodging from Mr Sinckler, Mr Lashley and to a lesser extent, Mr Kellman, only serves to increase suspicions that there is something for which they must be held accountable.
And for those who hide behind rules, they should reflect on the often posited notion that law is nothing unless close behind it stands a warm living public opinion.

domain: law


A cannabis factory was destroyed yesterday after police raided a West Wickham property.
Officers executed a drugs warrant at an address in Hawes Lane at 8.20am and found a factory containing 40 plants in one of the bedrooms.
Bromley police said a 23-year-old man has been issued with a caution.
- WATCH: Shocking footage emerges of huge late-night fight in Dartford
- Sidcup man who heard voices and believed he had superpowers jumped in front of train, inquest hears
- WANTED WEDNESDAY: Bexley police are hunting these six suspected criminals
- UPDATE: Three people arrested on suspicion of firearms offences after armed police stop taxi on A2 at Ebbsfleet
- APPEAL: Man wanted for 'serious assault' in Sidcup


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My old friend Trent Shepard from Urbana Illinois / Stephen's Bay NZ spent a few days with us this week. We watched much of the PBS coverage of the election yesterday. Too much really. We took a pause to bbq and have a really nice dinner sitting outside on our deck. When we finished, Trent, Robyn, and I went back out to the shed where the TV is a few minutes before Trump took the stage to speak. It was 2:30 AM Eastern time, but 8:30 PM here.
It was the most surreal thing I have ever seen. The president of the United (sic) States claimed that his voters were being disenfranchised by counting other peoples' votes. He declared that as far as he was concerned he already won the election and the voting must stop. He said he would take it to the supreme court.
We were in shock. The PBS commentators where in shock. Even though we had been warned about this scenario by Bernie Sanders a few weeks ago. Now the count goes on as does the dumpster fire that is 2020.
For me, the biggest take home lesson from this election, is that there are millions of selfish, bigotted Americans who agree enough with Donald J Trump to vote for him. Like nearly half of the people who voted. At the same time, the Democrats put forth an old, centrist, neo-liberal as the alternative. This makes me so, so sad.
The COVID-19 pandemic will rage on in America due to these selfish, bigotted people. Regardless of the outcome of the presidential election, Ya'll Queda, under the leadership of Donald Trump, are racing headlong to Pyrrhic victory -- "Give me liberty and give me death". This is not fun to watch.

domain: news


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FIFTY-SIX years after the Empire Games put our city on the global map, they remain in the living memory of those who wilted under the 40C heat at the opening ceremony.
After the apparent success of the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast (please, don’t mention the closing ceremony), should we do it again?
A fresh bid has long been mooted and the completion of Optus Stadium brings the question into sharper focus.
A romantic idea, yes, but I am increasingly persuaded by an argument put by veteran sport commentator Glenn Mitchell that if we are to pursue a major international sporting event, it should be the World Athletics Championships, not the Commonwealth Games.
Just over 1000 athletes and officials from 35 countries competed in Perth in 1962, but half a century on the corresponding number on the Gold Coast was 6000.
While Perth built Perry Lakes, Beatty Park and an athletes’ village in bushland at City Beach (with housing sold to aspiring suburbanites after the Games) the rest of the competition was held at existing venues.
There was weightlifting at Kings Park Tennis Club, track cycling at the Lake Monger velodrome and lawn bowls at the Dalkeith-Nedlands club.
Gold Coast organisers mainly re-purposed and upgraded existing facilities, but still the Games cost an estimated $2 billion to stage.
That is the sort of money WA plainly cannot spare for a 10-day carnival, and it is seriously doubtful that GOLDOC organisers’ claims of $4 billion-plus of economic benefits can be sustained.
While Perth now has a major stadium, a modern Games needs to accommodate upward of 20 sports. Major facility upgrades, plus a massive athletes’ village, would be required.
And to what end, exactly?
Any major event bid must have a clear-eyed rationale, and for that reason it is hard to believe an IAAF World Championships (to give it its proper title) wouldn’t deliver a better bang for the buck.
Last year’s championships in London were run for a reported $108 million — a comparative pittance, considering last Sunday’s Games closing ceremony alone cost $46 million.
London did have the luxury of simply reusing its 2012 Olympic stadium, but Optus Stadium was designed specifically with athletics in mind and would accommodate the installation of a track with relatively minor alterations.
There is provision, too, for a warm-up track — an IAAF requirement — on the adjacent northern oval.
While it’s fun winning all that gold, the Commonwealth Games has not been a top-tier international competition (except for netball) for decades.
As Mitchell points out, the World Athletics Championships brings competitors — and therefore potential TV eyeballs — from more than 200 countries.
And the 2000-odd athletes are much easier to accommodate.
The 2023 championships are yet to be awarded, but bids are due this year. Perhaps 2025 is a more realistic prospect.
In your mind’s eye, imagine the TV spectacle of a marathon course winding through Kings Park, along Riverside Drive, over the Matagarup footbridge and finishing inside the stadium.
A spokesman for the McGowan Government said: “Major international events that attract tourists, inject millions of dollars into our local economy and promote Perth to the world are a valuable tool in helping diversify our economy.
“The Government assesses every event on its merits, with the associated costs and the state of the finances firmly in the front of our mind.”

domain: sports


text:
Representing the pinnacle of skull base surgery, paraganglioma management requires the advanced surgical skills and expertise that are presented by Dr. Mario Sanna and his team in this comprehensive reference. It incorporates extensive surgical and radiological data compiled over 20 years at the preeminent Gruppo Otologica Clinic in Piacenza, Italy, and features the exquisite intraoperative photographs and schematic diagrams that are a hallmark of the highly regarded Sanna texts. All head and neck and skull base surgeons will find their knowledge, technical proficiency, and ability to manage these challenging tumors vastly increased by this informative resource.
Step-by-step descriptions of the full range of head and neck paraganglioma procedures, including the infratemporal fossa approach type A, the extreme lateral approach, and the transcervical approach, plus guidance on managing complex tympanojugular paragangliomas
More than 1,800 clearly labeled, high-quality intraoperative photographs correlated to full-color schematic drawings for an in-depth understanding of techniques
Detailed discussion of managing the internal carotid artery during procedures, including the neuroradiological use of stents
Pathology-oriented structure that allows the reader to identify a lesion at a particular stage and then follow the critical thinking, assessment, pre-operative management, and intra-operative course taken by the surgeon
Comprehensive sections on pathology, physiology, anatomy, epidemiology, and new genetic breakthroughs that lay the groundwork for the surgical chapters
Tips, hints, and pitfalls at the end of each chapter that offer valuable insights for managing different clinical scenarios
Demonstrating the complex decision-making process in many actual cases and offering practical advice for handling complications, this book puts the reader into the operating room with the surgeon. It is indispensable for all head and neck and skull base surgeons who manage paragangliomas and related pathologies, as well as for otolaryngologists, neurosurgeons, maxillofacial surgeons, radiologists, and interventional radiologists involved in assessing these intricate conditions.

domain: library


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Isaac Price scored his second goal for Northern Ireland.
Michael O’Neill’s men completed the season on a positive note with to second-half goals from Isaac Price and Dion Charles.
Charles hit the post early on, but NI goalkeeper Conor Hazard saved him twice before the break.
Before Monday’s encounter, Denmark had already qualified for the Euro championships.
Denmark qualified for the finals after defeating Slovenia on Friday, and they rested a few key players for the match at Windsor Park, including Manchester United duo Rasmus Hjlund and Christian Eriksen.
That didn’t make Northern Ireland’s much-needed victory any less delicious, with the Green and White Army springing into life for the majority of the second half of a game in which little more than pride was at stake.
It had been seven defeats in nine games for Northern Ireland, who have generally been young and inexperienced this season, with their only prior points coming from two wins over tiny San Marino.


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Catherine Gaudry focuses on diversity, New Work and mindfulness to help transform the business world.
Catherine Gaudry first joined Scholz & Friends as an International Business Director, working to extend the international reach of the agency and to develop areas such as innovation and digitalisation. On her own initiative, however, the Canadian-born businesswoman gradually expanded her area of responsibility. She used her position to support various issues close to her heart, taking on the newly created role of the Group Head of Talent & Transformation in 2018 and assuming responsibility for diversity, gender equality, and team and leadership development. Since then, she and her team have developed various new projects, such as an internal training programme dealing with the topic of unconscious bias. She supports external LGBT+ leadership trainings for employees and has also launched a reverse mentoring programme in which senior managers learn from their junior colleagues.
Being awarded a Women in Leadership grant for her work on diversity and the promotion of women allowed Catherine Gaudry to complete an Executive MBA in international business at ESCP Europe while working. She now teaches a course in personal and career development at the same business school. In addition to her job and her teaching role, she also works as a trainer, adviser and speaker. She speaks about feminism, leadership and New Work at conferences and events.
In this interview, Catherine Gaudry discusses the future of corporate culture: What changes are taking place within the world of work? How do we want to and how should we be able to practise our professions in the future?
The term “New Work” was coined and defined by the philosopher Frithjof Bergmann back in the 1980s. How is it that this concept, though modified somewhat, is still finding resonance today?
The market and the jobs themselves have changed significantly over the last few decades. To a large extent, this is a result of digitalisation. Those embarking on careers now have grown up in a very different world from previous generations. As a result, they also work differently. This is partly because a number of new tools are available to them. In fact, it’s a cycle: people get access to new tools, leading to changes in working practices and in the market. Needs drive the economy, and technological changes influence how people do their jobs.
So you don’t believe that the concept of New Work can be traced back to people’s need for more freedom or flexibility?
Yes and no. People crave flexibility because the opportunity for more flexibility exists, and because jobs have changed. In many occupations, it no longer matters whether tasks are completed in an office or in a café. I believe that when an employer makes room for this kind of flexibility, it can positively impact employee motivation. And in five years, there will be new jobs with new possibilities that we can’t even imagine yet. Change is the only constant.
Does this also apply to personal values? These days, it seems to be much more important to employees that companies uphold certain ecological or societal values.
Yes, our values have changed. But it wouldn’t be fair to say that no one used to care at all about their employer’s values. However, the lines separating our work and private personalities have started to blur. Many more people used to live by the motto “Work is work, home is home”. It’s clear that this no longer applies. We are not machines and it’s important to create transparency to ensure an authentic, human existence. This also includes being able to speak frankly as an employee when things are not going so well, and perhaps being given a break from producing the same high standard day after day. People want to be able to be who they are, no matter where they are.
Are topics such as mindfulness, body awareness and self-care also becoming more important on a professional level?
Some companies are creating new positions, such as Chief Mindfulness Officer. This example shows quite clearly that we can no longer ignore mindfulness in the workplace. We know about the connections between body and mind. However, we need it to become even more accepted: our society and many companies still place a much higher value on work than they do on self-care and mindfulness. This has to change. After all, a well-balanced, happy employee performs much better than someone who is working themselves into the ground.
What about the so-called “failure culture”? Are we also more open now to people making mistakes at work?
The culture of failure exists primarily in start-ups but is slowly finding its way to bigger companies. Of course, it’s perfectly reasonable for people to make mistakes – it’s even necessary. If I never have the opportunity to make a mistake, I won’t learn; instead, I’ll always be afraid and will be less innovative. Just having the chance to try out new things is enough to spark creativity. But it’s equally important for us to learn resilience: What do I do when I have a problem? How can I look at things from another perspective? It’s not just about being allowed to make mistakes – it’s also about learning how to get back up again after a fall, how to accept situations, to reflect on them and find the best way to carry on.
Most of your work relates to the promotion of women and diversity. How does a company benefit from these factors?
Studies show that companies with more female managers are more profitable. Diversity creates friction, which is important for driving development and fighting prejudice. Such prejudices often prevent people from thinking in new directions. I think that any company that doesn’t embody and encourage diversity will have much less chance of achieving long-term, sustainable success on the global market. And diversity doesn’t just mean gender diversity, but diversity of all kinds across the company.
How can employees actively initiate and drive forward ideas like diversity and New Work? Where do you start trying to change and shape your corporate culture?
Firstly, concentrate on low-hanging fruits. These are things that can be implemented quickly and easily. What issues are other people already tackling? Where have foundations already been laid that can be built upon? The key is to set small, achievable goals and tackle them step by step, even if it is sometimes tedious. These small, feasible projects can be completed successfully in stages. Secondly, find allies who support your work. Ideally you will get a manager on board to give you some momentum from above. You can also start a pilot project and observe its progress, then adjust based on what works – or doesn’t.

domain: sociology


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The SV130 allows violinists of all levels to practice almost anywhere, anytime, without disturbing others. Although the acoustic sound is barely a whisper, you'll hear yourself in a rich, resonant "virtual" concert hall.
SV-130 Silent Violin Discontinued
The original "Concert Select" silent electric violin with built-in reverb settings. Practice or play anywhere!
- Single piezo pickup
- Improved noise reduction circuitry
- Built-in reverb: practice room, concert hall, cathedral
- Aux-In for playing along with recorded accompaniment or favorite music
- Available in four colors: black, candy apple red, antique brown, navy blue
The colors and finishes shown may vary from those on the actual products.

domain: hobby


Weekly Retail & Leisure News - 08 May, 2017
Sainsbury’s has announced a 0.6% drop in LFLs in the year to March 11. The grocer’s pre-tax profits were also down 8.2% to £503m, following its takeover of Argos. However, Sainsbury’s believes that its food business remains resilient in a challenging market. Boosted by strong sales at Argos, total sales rose 11.6% to £26.8m, as it plans to open 250 Argos concessions within its supermarkets. Sainsbury’s online food business grew 8%, while its convenience business increased 6% in the same period.
Morrisons, meanwhile, reported strong LFLs, up 3.4% in the 13 weeks to April 30, as the grocer managed to keep prices competitive, despite rising costs for imported food due to the falling value of the pound. Morrisons’ results were helped by successfully adapting to changing consumer behaviour, including a tie-up with Amazon in November last year, offering same-day and one-hour delivery services. According to Kantar World Panel, Morrisons’ new line “The Best” has attracted a more affluent shopper, and helped Morrisons become the fastest growing of the Big 4 supermarkets over the recent weeks.
And finally, M&S has announced plans for a tie-up with online grocer, Ocado, in an attempt to meet customer demands for convenience. Tim Vallance, Head of Retail & Leisure at JLL UK, commented: “It’s clear that M&S are now looking to focus on growing their food offering. Exploring a delivery service hot on the heels of the expansion of their simply food stores, is a natural progression. The online grocery market has a lot of space to grow in the UK and Morrisons’ recent rapid growth is partly down to the expansion of their e-commerce business. The key to success is offering convenience: having a strong portfolio of stores, alongside the ability for consumers to access goods anytime and anywhere through the internet. Having these attributes will put any grocery business in the best position to flourish, in a world where the consumer is becoming increasingly time poor.”
A representative will be in contact with you shortly.
If you would like to read more of our market commentary and gain further insight into the UK retail and leisure market, sign up for our weekly newsletter, delivered to your inbox every Monday afternoon. Preview email
Director, Head of Retail Research (UK & EMEA)
+44 (0)20 3147 1155
Director, Head of UK Retail & Leisure
+44 (0)20 7318 7838


Updated on: February 8, 2020
What is Man in the middle (MITM) attack?
A man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack is same as its name recommends, the attacker is in the middle of an ongoing communication between two Users. This attack makes the network vulnerable for sniff the packets to collect personal information, and also do the modification of the packets. This attack can be used to steal the http, email, telnet, ftp and the other type of information which are transmitting over the wired or wireless communication. There are the so many methods for performing MITM attack. In this blog we use the ARP poisoning method to perform MITM.
What is the ARP Poisoning attack?
ARP poisoning is a cyber-attack which is performed out over a network that sends malicious ARP reply packets to victims for make a wrong entry in ARP table so victim’s traffic redirect through the attacker’s machine.
How to Perform ARP Poisoning Attack?
- Enable IP forwarding: it allows to forward the packet to actual destination
2. Perform ARP Poisoning: Inject ARP Reply to both victims HOST-A and HOST-B
- -i interface name (it’s may be different in your case)
- -c connection Type
- -t and -r your victims
3. Open Wireshark and start on your interface which is connected with the network
4. Put the following filter ip.addr==192.168.1.111& ip.addr==192.168.1.112
5. Suppose Host-B access the FTP server that a running on HOST-A
6. Find the packets in Wireshark
You can find your victims username and password in Wireshark captured packets.
How Can You Protect Your Networks from This Attacks?
This attack is very harmful for your network communication, So There are some technologies which can help you to protect from these types of attacks.
- Encryption: Use the encryption technique to protect your confidential information.
- Secure Protocol: Use a secure protocol in your communication like HTTPS, SFTP, SSH etc.
- Port-security: Bind switch port with MAC address so an unauthorized person will not connect with your network and set Violation.


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Small in size but exquisite in its detail, our Petite Trotter Bowl is an equine treasure. This decorative bowl features a wrap around design created by using the rare Copper-Wheel glass engraving technique developed during the Renaissance. So intensive is this engraving process, a single engraving takes more than 24 hours to complete.
Each bowl is entirely hand-blown, hand cut and hand polished in Germany.
Crystal is custom engraved to order. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery of these custom created pieces.
Bowl measures 5" diameter.
The intense amber color and fascinating hand-cut angles gives this polished glass accent bowl a mesmerizing appeal. Perfect as a decorative accent on a side table or shelf, it also...
The impressionistic style brushstrokes and deep, rich colors of a brooding sky at sunset create a stunning decorative vase. The classic urn-shape and creamy white ceramic is a great accent...
Add a little equine style to your entertaining or decorating with this iron and wood round tray set. The bronze finish iron fence style edging offers a perfectly rustic showcase for crafted cocktails,...
Sleek and refined, this modern sculpture in a weathered nickel finish draws the eye to wherever he stands. A large sculpture, standing two feet tall, the horse's elongated metal limbs, have a traditional...

domain: design


Three plug-in hybrid versions of the Jaguar XJ will enter the RAC Future Car Challenge.
Instead of the standard car's 5.0-litre V8, the special XJ models will be powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged engine coupled to a 69kW electric motor and 12.3 kWh lithium-ion battery.
This allows the XJ to run on electric power for around 25 miles at low speeds, and means fuel economy figures of 73.5mpg and CO2 emissions of just 75g/km.
The cars will take part in the competition to drive the 63 miles from Brighton to London using the least energy possible. Drivers must get to the finish line within a minimum of 2 hours and 35 minutes and a maximum of 3 hours.
Pete Richings, Director of Jaguar Land Rover Hybrids & Electrification, said: "Jaguar Land Rover believes that the RAC Future Car Challenge provides a great opportunity to showcase our low carbon technologies, testing them under real-world conditions with 'normal' drivers and assessing their real-world performance alongside other technologies."
The event takes place on 3 November, ending with a Motor Show-like display on Regent Street, London. For more information go to www.futurecarchallenge.com.


Microsoft Windows is a group of several graphical operating system families, all of which are developed and sold by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. Active Windows families include Windows Embedded. Defunct Windows families include Windows Mobile and Windows Phone. Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985, as a graphical operating system shell for MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces. Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal computer market with over 90% market share, overtaking Mac OS, introduced in 1984. Apple came to see Windows as an unfair encroachment on their innovation in GUI development as implemented on products such as the Lisa and Macintosh. On PCs, Windows is still the most popular operating system. However, in 2014, Microsoft admitted losing the majority of the overall operating system market to Android, because of the massive growth in sales of Android smartphones.
In 2014, the number of Windows devices sold was less than 25 %. This comparison however may not be relevant, as the two operating systems traditionally target different platforms. Still, numbers for server use of Windows show one third market share, similar to that for end user use; as of October 2018, the most recent version of Windows for PCs, tablets and embedded devices is Windows 10. The most recent versions for server computers is Windows Server 2019. A specialized version of Windows runs on the Xbox One video game console. Microsoft, the developer of Windows, has registered several trademarks, each of which denote a family of Windows operating systems that target a specific sector of the computing industry; as of 2014, the following Windows families are being developed: Windows NT: Started as a family of operating systems with Windows NT 3.1, an operating system for server computers and workstations. It now consists of three operating system subfamilies that are released at the same time and share the same kernel: Windows: The operating system for mainstream personal computers and smartphones.
The latest version is Windows 10. The main competitor of this family is macOS by Apple for personal computers and Android for mobile devices. Windows Server: The operating system for server computers; the latest version is Windows Server 2019. Unlike its client sibling, it has adopted a strong naming scheme; the main competitor of this family is Linux. Windows PE: A lightweight version of its Windows sibling, meant to operate as a live operating system, used for installing Windows on bare-metal computers, recovery or troubleshooting purposes; the latest version is Windows PE 10. Windows IoT: Initially, Microsoft developed Windows CE as a general-purpose operating system for every device, too resource-limited to be called a full-fledged computer. However, Windows CE was renamed Windows Embedded Compact and was folded under Windows Compact trademark which consists of Windows Embedded Industry, Windows Embedded Professional, Windows Embedded Standard, Windows Embedded Handheld and Windows Embedded Automotive.
The following Windows families are no longer being developed: Windows 9x: An operating system that targeted consumers market. Discontinued because of suboptimal performance. Microsoft now caters to the consumer market with Windows NT. Windows Mobile: The predecessor to Windows Phone, it was a mobile phone operating system; the first version was called Pocket PC 2000. The last version is Windows Mobile 6.5. Windows Phone: An operating system sold only to manufacturers of smartphones; the first version was Windows Phone 7, followed by Windows Phone 8, the last version Windows Phone 8.1. It was succeeded by Windows 10 Mobile; the term Windows collectively describes any or all of several generations of Microsoft operating system products. These products are categorized as follows: The history of Windows dates back to 1981, when Microsoft started work on a program called "Interface Manager", it was announced in November 1983 under the name "Windows", but Windows 1.0 was not released until November 1985.
Windows 1.0 was to achieved little popularity. Windows 1.0 is not a complete operating system. The shell of Windows 1.0 is a program known as the MS-DOS Executive. Components included Calculator, Cardfile, Clipboard viewer, Control Panel, Paint, Reversi and Write. Windows 1.0 does not allow overlapping windows. Instead all windows are tiled. Only modal dialog boxes may appear over other windows. Microsoft sold as included Windows Development libraries with the C development environment, which included numerous windows samples. Windows 2.0 was released in December 1987, was more popular than its predecessor. It features several improvements to the user memory management. Windows 2.03 changed the OS from tiled windows to overlapping windows. The result of this change led to Apple Computer filing a suit against Microsoft alleging infringement on Apple's copyrights. Windows 2.0
Solaris (operating system)
Solaris is a Unix operating system developed by Sun Microsystems. It superseded their earlier SunOS in 1993. In 2010, after the Sun acquisition by Oracle, it was renamed Oracle Solaris. Solaris is known for its scalability on SPARC systems, for originating many innovative features such as DTrace, ZFS and Time Slider. Solaris supports SPARC and x86-64 servers from Oracle and other vendors. Solaris is registered as compliant with the Single UNIX Specification. Solaris was developed as proprietary software. In June 2005, Sun Microsystems released most of the codebase under the CDDL license, founded the OpenSolaris open-source project. With OpenSolaris, Sun wanted to build a user community around the software. After the acquisition of Sun Microsystems in January 2010, Oracle decided to discontinue the OpenSolaris distribution and the development model. In August 2010, Oracle discontinued providing public updates to the source code of the Solaris kernel turning Solaris 11 back into a closed source proprietary operating system.
Following that, in 2011 the Solaris 11 kernel source code leaked to BitTorrent. However, through the Oracle Technology Network, industry partners can still gain access to the in-development Solaris source code. Source code for the open source components of Solaris 11 is available for download from Oracle. In 1987, AT&T Corporation and Sun announced that they were collaborating on a project to merge the most popular Unix variants on the market at that time: Berkeley Software Distribution, UNIX System V, Xenix; this became Unix System V Release 4. On September 4, 1991, Sun announced that it would replace its existing BSD-derived Unix, SunOS 4, with one based on SVR4; this was identified internally as SunOS 5, but a new marketing name was introduced at the same time: Solaris 2. The justification for this new overbrand was that it encompassed not only SunOS, but the OpenWindows graphical user interface and Open Network Computing functionality. Although SunOS 4.1.x micro releases were retroactively named Solaris 1 by Sun, the Solaris name is used exclusively to refer only to the releases based on SVR4-derived SunOS 5.0 and later.
For releases based on SunOS 5, the SunOS minor version is included in the Solaris release number. For example, Solaris 2.4 incorporates SunOS 5.4. After Solaris 2.6, the 2. was dropped from the release name, so Solaris 7 incorporates SunOS 5.7, the latest release SunOS 5.11 forms the core of Solaris 11.4. Although SunSoft stated in its initial Solaris 2 press release their intent to support both SPARC and x86 systems, the first two Solaris 2 releases, 2.0 and 2.1, were SPARC-only. An x86 version of Solaris 2.1 was released in June 1993, about 6 months after the SPARC version, as a desktop and uniprocessor workgroup server operating system. It included the Wabi emulator to support Windows applications. At the time, Sun offered the Interactive Unix system that it had acquired from Interactive Systems Corporation. In 1994, Sun released Solaris 2.4, supporting both SPARC and x86 systems from a unified source code base. On September 2, 2017, Simon Phipps, a former Sun Microsystems employee not hired by Oracle in the acquisition, reported on Twitter that Oracle had laid off the Solaris core development staff, which many interpreted as sign that Oracle no longer intended to support future development of the platform.
While Oracle did have a large layoff of Solaris development engineering staff, development continues today of which Solaris 11.4 was released in 2018. Solaris uses a common code base for the platforms it supports: i86pc. Solaris has a reputation for being well-suited to symmetric multiprocessing, supporting a large number of CPUs, it has been integrated with Sun's SPARC hardware, with which it is marketed as a combined package. This has led to more reliable systems, but at a cost premium compared to commodity PC hardware. However, it has supported x86 systems since Solaris 2.1 and 64-bit x86 applications since Solaris 10, allowing Sun to capitalize on the availability of commodity 64-bit CPUs based on the x86-64 architecture. Sun has marketed Solaris for use with both its own "x64" workstations and servers based on AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon processors, as well as x86 systems manufactured by companies such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM; as of 2009, the following vendors support Solaris for their x86 server systems: Dell – will "test and optimize Solaris and OpenSolaris on its rack and blade servers and offer them as one of several choices in the overall Dell software menu" Intel Hewlett Packard Enterprise – distributes and provides software technical support for Solaris on BL, DL, SL platforms Fujitsu SiemensAs of July 2010, Dell and HP certify and resell Oracle Solaris, Oracle Enterprise Linux and Oracle VM on their respective x86 platforms, IBM stopped direct support for Solaris on x64 kit.
Solaris 2.5.1 included support for the PowerPC platform, but the port was canceled before the Solaris 2.6 release. In January 2006, a community of developers at Blastwave began work on a PowerPC port which they named Polaris. In October 2006, an OpenSolaris community project based on the Blastwave efforts and Sun Labs' Project Pulsar, which re-integrated the relevant parts from Solaris 2.5.1 into OpenSolaris, announced its first official source code release. A port of Solaris to the Intel Itanium architecture was announced in 1997 but never brought to market. On November 28, 2007, IBM, Sine Nomine Associates demonstrated a preview of OpenSolaris for System z running on an IBM System z mainframe under z/VM, called Sirius
The Intel 80386 known as i386 or just 386, is a 32-bit microprocessor introduced in 1985. The first versions had 275,000 transistors and were the CPU of many workstations and high-end personal computers of the time; as the original implementation of the 32-bit extension of the 80286 architecture, the 80386 instruction set, programming model, binary encodings are still the common denominator for all 32-bit x86 processors, termed the i386-architecture, x86, or IA-32, depending on context. The 32-bit 80386 can execute most code intended for the earlier 16-bit processors such as 8086 and 80286 that were ubiquitous in early PCs. Over the years, successively newer implementations of the same architecture have become several hundreds of times faster than the original 80386. A 33 MHz 80386 was measured to operate at about 11.4 MIPS. The 80386 was introduced in October 1985, while manufacturing of the chips in significant quantities commenced in June 1986. Mainboards for 80386-based computer systems were cumbersome and expensive at first, but manufacturing was rationalized upon the 80386's mainstream adoption.
The first personal computer to make use of the 80386 was designed and manufactured by Compaq and marked the first time a fundamental component in the IBM PC compatible de facto standard was updated by a company other than IBM. In May 2006, Intel announced that 80386 production would stop at the end of September 2007. Although it had long been obsolete as a personal computer CPU, Intel and others had continued making the chip for embedded systems; such systems using an 80386 or one of many derivatives are common in aerospace technology and electronic musical instruments, among others. Some mobile phones used the 80386 processor, such as BlackBerry 950 and Nokia 9000 Communicator; the processor was a significant evolution in the x86 architecture, extended a long line of processors that stretched back to the Intel 8008. The predecessor of the 80386 was the Intel 80286, a 16-bit processor with a segment-based memory management and protection system; the 80386 added a 32-bit architecture and a paging translation unit, which made it much easier to implement operating systems that used virtual memory.
It offered support for register debugging. The 80386 featured three operating modes: protected mode and virtual mode; the protected mode, which debuted in the 286, was extended to allow the 386 to address up to 4 GB of memory. The all new virtual 8086 mode made it possible to run one or more real mode programs in a protected environment, although some programs were not compatible; the ability for a 386 to be set up to act like it had a flat memory model in protected mode despite the fact that it uses a segmented memory model in all modes would arguably be the most important feature change for the x86 processor family until AMD released x86-64 in 2003. Several new instructions have been added to 386: BSF, BSR, BT, BTS, BTR, BTC, CDQ, CWDE, LFS, LGS, LSS, MOVSX, MOVZX, SETcc, SHLD, SHRD. Two new segment registers have been added for general-purpose programs, single Machine Status Word of 286 grew into eight control registers CR0–CR7. Debug registers DR0–DR7 were added for hardware breakpoints. New forms of MOV instruction are used to access them.
Chief architect in the development of the 80386 was John H. Crawford, he was responsible for extending the 80286 architecture and instruction set to 32-bit, led the microprogram development for the 80386 chip. The 80486 and P5 Pentium line of processors were descendants of the 80386 design; the following data types are directly supported and thus implemented by one or more 80386 machine instructions. 8-bit integer, either signed or unsigned. 16-bit integer, either signed or unsigned. 32-bit integer, either signed or unsigned. 64-bit integer, either signed or unsigned. Offset, a 16- or 32-bit displacement referring to a memory location. Pointer, a 16-bit selector together with a 16- or 32-bit offset. Character. String, a sequence of 8-, 16- or 32-bit words. BCD, decimal digits represented by unpacked bytes. Packed BCD, two BCD digits in one byte; the following 80386 assembly source code is for a subroutine named _strtolower that copies a null-terminated ASCIIZ character string from one location to another, converting all alphabetic characters to lower case.
The string is copied one byte at a time. The example code uses the EBP register to establish a call frame, an area on the stack that contains all of the parameters and local variables for the execution of the subroutine; this kind of calling convention supports reentrant and recursive code and has been used by Algol-like languages since the late 1950s. A flat memory model is assumed that the DS and ES segments address the same region of memory. In 1988, Intel introduced the 80386SX, most referred to as the 386SX, a cut-down version of the 80386 with a 16-bit data bus intended for lower-cost PCs aimed at the home and small-business markets, while the 386DX would remain the high-end variant used in workstations and other demanding tasks; the CPU remained 32-bit internally, but the 16-bit
NetBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution. It was the first open-source BSD descendant released after 386BSD was forked, it continues to be developed and is available for many platforms, including servers, handheld devices, embedded systems. The NetBSD project focuses on code clarity, careful design, portability across many computer architectures, its source code is permissively licensed. NetBSD was derived from the 4.3BSD-Reno release of the Berkeley Software Distribution from the Computer Systems Research Group of the University of California, via their Net/2 source code release and the 386BSD project. The NetBSD project began as a result of frustration within the 386BSD developer community with the pace and direction of the operating system's development; the four founders of the NetBSD project, Chris Demetriou, Theo de Raadt, Adam Glass, Charles Hannum, felt that a more open development model would benefit the project: one centered on portable, correct code.
They aimed to produce a multi-platform, production-quality, BSD-based operating system. The name "NetBSD" was suggested by De Raadt, based on the importance and growth of networks such as the Internet at that time, the distributed, collaborative nature of its development; the NetBSD source code repository was established on 21 March 1993 and the first official release, NetBSD 0.8, was made on 19 April 1993. This was derived from 386BSD 0.1 plus the version 0.2.2 unofficial patchkit, with several programs from the Net/2 release missing from 386BSD re-integrated, various other improvements. The first multi-platform release, NetBSD 1.0, was made in October 1994, being updated with 4.4BSD-Lite sources, it was free of all encumbered 4.3BSD Net/2 code. In 1994, for disputed reasons, one of the founders, Theo de Raadt, was removed from the project, he founded a new project, OpenBSD, from a forked version of NetBSD 1.0 near the end of 1995. In 1998, NetBSD 1.3 introduced the pkgsrc packages collection.
Until 2004, NetBSD 1.x releases were made at annual intervals, with minor "patch" releases in between. From release 2.0 onwards, NetBSD uses semantic versioning, each major NetBSD release corresponds to an incremented major version number, i.e. the major releases following 2.0 are 3.0, 4.0 and so on. The previous minor releases are now divided into two categories: x.y "stable" maintenance releases and x.y.z releases containing only security and critical fixes. As the project's motto suggests, NetBSD has been ported to a large number of 32- and 64-bit architectures; these range from VAX minicomputers to Pocket PC PDAs. As of 2009, NetBSD supports 57 hardware platforms; the kernel and userland for these platforms are all built from a central unified source-code tree managed by CVS. Unlike other kernels such as μClinux, the NetBSD kernel requires the presence of an MMU in any given target architecture. NetBSD's portability is aided by the use of hardware abstraction layer interfaces for low-level hardware access such as bus input/output or DMA.
Using this portability layer, device drivers can be split into "machine-independent" and "machine-dependent" components. This makes a single driver usable on several platforms by hiding hardware access details, reduces the work to port it to a new system; this permits a particular device driver for a PCI card to work without modifications, whether it is in a PCI slot on an IA-32, PowerPC, SPARC, or other architecture with a PCI bus. A single driver for a specific device can operate via several different buses, like ISA, PCI, or PC Card. In comparison, Linux device driver code must be reworked for each new architecture; as a consequence, in porting efforts by NetBSD and Linux developers, NetBSD has taken much less time to port to new hardware. This platform independence aids the development of embedded systems since NetBSD 1.6, when the entire toolchain of compilers, assemblers and other tools support cross-compiling. In 2005, as a demonstration of NetBSD's portability and suitability for embedded applications, Technologic Systems, a vendor of embedded systems hardware and demonstrated a NetBSD-powered kitchen toaster.
Commercial ports to embedded platforms, including the AMD Geode LX800, Freescale PowerQUICC processors, Marvell Orion, AMCC 405 family of PowerPC processors, Intel XScale IOP and IXP series, were available from and supported by Wasabi Systems. The NetBSD cross-compiling framework lets a developer build a complete NetBSD system for an architecture from a more powerful system of different architecture, including on a different operating system. Several embedded systems using NetBSD have required no additional software development other than toolchain and target rehost. NetBSD features pkgsrc, a framework for building and managing third-party application software packages; the pkgsrc collection consists of more than 18,000 packages as of April 2018. Building and installing packages such as KDE, GNOME, the Apache HTTP Server or Perl is performed through the use of a system of makefiles; this can automatically fetch the source code, patch, configure and install the package such that it can be removed again later.
An alternative to compiling from source is to use a precompiled binary package. In either case, any prerequisites/dependencies will be installed automatically by the package system, without need for manual intervention. Pkgsrc supports not only NetBSD, but several other BSD variants like
A computer is a device that can be instructed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations automatically via computer programming. Modern computers have the ability to follow generalized sets of called programs; these programs enable computers to perform an wide range of tasks. A "complete" computer including the hardware, the operating system, peripheral equipment required and used for "full" operation can be referred to as a computer system; this term may as well be used for a group of computers that are connected and work together, in particular a computer network or computer cluster. Computers are used as control systems for a wide variety of industrial and consumer devices; this includes simple special purpose devices like microwave ovens and remote controls, factory devices such as industrial robots and computer-aided design, general purpose devices like personal computers and mobile devices such as smartphones. The Internet is run on computers and it connects hundreds of millions of other computers and their users.
Early computers were only conceived as calculating devices. Since ancient times, simple manual devices like the abacus aided people in doing calculations. Early in the Industrial Revolution, some mechanical devices were built to automate long tedious tasks, such as guiding patterns for looms. More sophisticated electrical machines did specialized analog calculations in the early 20th century; the first digital electronic calculating machines were developed during World War II. The speed and versatility of computers have been increasing ever since then. Conventionally, a modern computer consists of at least one processing element a central processing unit, some form of memory; the processing element carries out arithmetic and logical operations, a sequencing and control unit can change the order of operations in response to stored information. Peripheral devices include input devices, output devices, input/output devices that perform both functions. Peripheral devices allow information to be retrieved from an external source and they enable the result of operations to be saved and retrieved.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known use of the word "computer" was in 1613 in a book called The Yong Mans Gleanings by English writer Richard Braithwait: "I haue read the truest computer of Times, the best Arithmetician that euer breathed, he reduceth thy dayes into a short number." This usage of the term referred to a human computer, a person who carried out calculations or computations. The word continued with the same meaning until the middle of the 20th century. During the latter part of this period women were hired as computers because they could be paid less than their male counterparts. By 1943, most human computers were women. From the end of the 19th century the word began to take on its more familiar meaning, a machine that carries out computations; the Online Etymology Dictionary gives the first attested use of "computer" in the 1640s, meaning "one who calculates". The Online Etymology Dictionary states that the use of the term to mean "'calculating machine' is from 1897."
The Online Etymology Dictionary indicates that the "modern use" of the term, to mean "programmable digital electronic computer" dates from "1945 under this name. Devices have been used to aid computation for thousands of years using one-to-one correspondence with fingers; the earliest counting device was a form of tally stick. Record keeping aids throughout the Fertile Crescent included calculi which represented counts of items livestock or grains, sealed in hollow unbaked clay containers; the use of counting rods is one example. The abacus was used for arithmetic tasks; the Roman abacus was developed from devices used in Babylonia as early as 2400 BC. Since many other forms of reckoning boards or tables have been invented. In a medieval European counting house, a checkered cloth would be placed on a table, markers moved around on it according to certain rules, as an aid to calculating sums of money; the Antikythera mechanism is believed to be the earliest mechanical analog "computer", according to Derek J. de Solla Price.
It was designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was discovered in 1901 in the Antikythera wreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, between Kythera and Crete, has been dated to c. 100 BC. Devices of a level of complexity comparable to that of the Antikythera mechanism would not reappear until a thousand years later. Many mechanical aids to calculation and measurement were constructed for astronomical and navigation use; the planisphere was a star chart invented by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī in the early 11th century. The astrolabe was invented in the Hellenistic world in either the 1st or 2nd centuries BC and is attributed to Hipparchus. A combination of the planisphere and dioptra, the astrolabe was an analog computer capable of working out several different kinds of problems in spherical astronomy. An astrolabe incorporating a mechanical calendar computer and gear-wheels was invented by Abi Bakr of Isfahan, Persia in 1235. Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī invented the first mechanical geared lunisolar calendar astrolabe, an early fixed-wired knowledge processing machine with a gear train and gear-wheels, c. 1000 AD.
The sector, a calculating instrument used for solving problems in proportion, trigonometry and division, for various functions, such as squares and cube roots, was developed in
In system programming, an interrupt is a signal to the processor emitted by hardware or software indicating an event that needs immediate attention. An interrupt alerts the processor to a high-priority condition requiring the interruption of the current code the processor is executing; the processor responds by suspending its current activities, saving its state, executing a function called an interrupt handler to deal with the event. This interruption is temporary, after the interrupt handler finishes, the processor resumes normal activities. There are two types of interrupts: software interrupts. Hardware interrupts are used by devices to communicate that they require attention from the operating system. Internally, hardware interrupts are implemented using electronic alerting signals that are sent to the processor from an external device, either a part of the computer itself, such as a disk controller, or an external peripheral. For example, pressing a key on the keyboard or moving the mouse triggers hardware interrupts that cause the processor to read the keystroke or mouse position.
Unlike the software type, hardware interrupts are asynchronous and can occur in the middle of instruction execution, requiring additional care in programming. The act of initiating a hardware interrupt is referred to as an interrupt request. A software interrupt is caused either by an exceptional condition in the processor itself, or a special instruction in the instruction set which causes an interrupt when it is executed; the former is called a trap or exception and is used for errors or events occurring during program execution that are exceptional enough that they cannot be handled within the program itself. For example, a divide-by-zero exception will be thrown if the processor's arithmetic logic unit is commanded to divide a number by zero as this instruction is an error and impossible; the operating system will catch this exception, can decide what to do about it: aborting the process and displaying an error message. Software interrupt instructions can function to subroutine calls and are used for a variety of purposes, such as to request services from device drivers, like interrupts sent to and from a disk controller to request reading or writing of data to and from the disk.
Each interrupt has its own interrupt handler. The number of hardware interrupts is limited by the number of interrupt request lines to the processor, but there may be hundreds of different software interrupts. Interrupts are a used technique for computer multitasking in real-time computing; such a system is said to be interrupt-driven. Interrupts are similar to signals, the difference being that signals are used for inter-process communication, mediated by the kernel and handled by processes, while interrupts are mediated by the processor and handled by the kernel; the kernel may pass an interrupt as a signal to the process. Hardware interrupts were introduced as an optimization, eliminating unproductive waiting time in polling loops, waiting for external events; the first system to use this approach was the DYSEAC, completed in 1954, although earlier systems provided error trap functions. Interrupts may be implemented in hardware as a distinct system with control lines, or they may be integrated into the memory subsystem.
If implemented in hardware, an interrupt controller circuit such as the IBM PC's Programmable Interrupt Controller may be connected between the interrupting device and the processor's interrupt pin to multiplex several sources of interrupt onto the one or two CPU lines available. If implemented as part of the memory controller, interrupts are mapped into the system's memory address space. Interrupts can be categorized into these different types: Maskable interrupt: a hardware interrupt that may be ignored by setting a bit in an interrupt mask register's bit-mask. Non-maskable interrupt: a hardware interrupt that lacks an associated bit-mask, so that it can never be ignored. NMIs are used for the highest priority tasks such as timers watchdog timers. Inter-processor interrupt: a special case of interrupt, generated by one processor to interrupt another processor in a multiprocessor system. Software interrupt: an interrupt generated within a processor by executing an instruction. Software interrupts are used to implement system calls because they result in a subroutine call with a CPU ring level change.
Spurious interrupt: a hardware interrupt, unwanted. They are generated by system conditions such as electrical interference on an interrupt line or through incorrectly designed hardware. Processors have an internal interrupt mask which allows software to ignore all external hardware interrupts while it is set. Setting or clearing this mask may be faster than accessing an interrupt mask register in a PIC or disabling interrupts in the device itself. In some cases, such as the x86 architecture and enabling interrupts on the processor itself act as a memory barrier. An interrupt that leaves the machine in a well-defined state is called a precise interrupt; such an interrupt has four properties: The Program Counter is saved in a known place. All instructions before the one pointed to by the PC have executed. No instruction beyond the one pointed to by the PC has been executed, or any such instructions are undone before handling the interrupt; the execution state of the instruction pointed to by the PC is known.
An interrupt that does not meet these requirements is called an impr
IBM PC DOS
IBM PC DOS is a discontinued operating system for the IBM Personal Computer and sold by IBM from the early 1980s into the 2000s. Before version 6.1, PC DOS was an IBM-branded version of MS-DOS. From version 6.1 on, PC DOS became IBM's independent product. The IBM task force assembled to develop the PC decided that critical components of the machine, including the operating system, would come from outside vendors; this radical break from company tradition of in-house development was one of the key decisions that made the IBM PC an industry standard. At that time the private company Microsoft, founded five years earlier by Bill Gates, was selected for the operating system. IBM wanted Microsoft to retain ownership of whatever software it developed, wanted nothing to do with helping Microsoft, other than making suggestions from afar. According to task force member Jack Sams: The reasons were internal. We had a terrible problem being sued by people claiming, it could be horribly expensive for us to have our programmers look at code that belonged to someone else because they would come back and say we stole it and made all this money.
We had lost a series of suits on this, so we didn't want to have a product, someone else's product worked on by IBM people. We went to Microsoft on the proposition. IBM first contacted Microsoft to look the company over in July 1980. Negotiations continued over the months that followed, the paperwork was signed in early November. Although IBM expected that most customers would use PC DOS, the IBM PC supported CP/M-86, which became available six months after PC DOS, UCSD p-System operating systems. IBM's expectation proved correct: one survey found that 96.3% of PCs were ordered with the $40 PC-DOS compared to 3.4% with the $240 CP/M-86. Microsoft first licensed purchased 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, modified for the IBM PC by Microsoft employee Bob O'Rear with assistance from SCP employee Tim Paterson. O'Rear got 86-DOS to run on the prototype PC in February 1981. 86-DOS had to be converted from 8-inch to 5.25-inch floppy disks and integrated with the BIOS, which Microsoft was helping IBM to write.
IBM had more people writing requirements for the computer. O'Rear felt overwhelmed by the number of people he had to deal with at the ESD facility in Boca Raton, Florida; the first public mention of the operating system was in July 1981, when Byte discussed rumors of a forthcoming personal computer with "a CP/M-like DOS... to be called, simply,'IBM Personal Computer DOS.'" 86-DOS was rebranded IBM PC DOS 1.0 for its August 1981 release with the IBM PC. The initial version of DOS was based on CP/M-80 1.x and most of its architecture, function calls and file-naming conventions were copied directly from the older OS. The most significant difference was the fact that it introduced a different file system, FAT12. Unlike all DOS versions, the DATE and TIME commands were separate executables rather than part of COMMAND. COM. Single-sided 160 kilobyte 5.25" floppies were the only disk format supported. In late 1981 Paterson, now at Microsoft, began writing PC DOS 1.10. It debuted in May 1982 along with the Revision B IBM PC.
Support for the new double-sided drives was added. A number of bugs were fixed, error messages and prompts were made less cryptic; the DEBUG utility was now able to load files greater than 64k in size. A group of Microsoft programmers began work on PC DOS 2.0. Rewritten, DOS 2.0 added subdirectories and hard disk support for the new IBM XT, which debuted in March 1983. A new 9-sector format bumped the capacity of floppy disks to 360 kB; the Unix-inspired kernel featured file handles in place of the CP/M-derivative file control blocks and loadable device drivers could now be used for adding hardware beyond that which the IBM PC BIOS supported. BASIC and most of the utilities provided with DOS were upgraded as well. A major undertaking that took 10 months of work, DOS 2.0 was more than twice as big as DOS 1.x, occupying around 28k of RAM compared to the 12k of its predecessor. It would form the basis for all Microsoft consumer-oriented OSes until 2001, when Windows XP was released. In October 1983 DOS 2.1 debuted.
It added support for half-height floppy drives and the new IBM PCjr. In 1983, Compaq released the Compaq Portable, the first 100% IBM PC compatible and licensed their own OEM version of DOS 1.10 from Microsoft. Other PC compatibles followed suit, most of which included hardware-specific DOS features, although some were generic. In August 1984, IBM introduced its next-generation machine. Along with this was DOS 3.00. Despite jumping a whole version number, it again proved little more than an incremental upgrade, adding nothing more substantial than support for the AT's new 1.2 megabyte floppy disks. Planned networking capabilities in DOS 3.00 were judged too buggy to be usable and Microsoft disabled them prior to the OS's release. In any case, IBM's original plans for the AT had been to equip it with a proper next-generation OS that would use its extended features, but this never materialized. PC DOS 3.1 fixed the bugs in DOS 3.00 and supported IBM's Network Adapter card on the IBM PC Network. PC DOS 3.2 added support for 3½-inch double-density 720 kB floppy disk drives, supporting the IBM PC Convertible, IBM's first co


A small number of councils are at risk of financial or service failure, according to a new report from accountancy firm Grant Thornton.
The report warned that for the first time ever, one council could even move into special measures on financial grounds within the next year.
The report read: ‘With large funding deficits still looming, service reduction or even failure is becoming a distinct possibility.
‘We are finding greater financial uncertainty and risk in councils’ strategic financial plans [across all council types] as they continue to search for alternatives to service reduction, with far fewer options than they have had over the past five years.
‘Unless the sector responds even more radically to austerity, demographic pressures and technological change, the future sustainability of a small minority of local authorities will become increasingly challenging.’
The research found that the majority of chief financial officers conceded reaching a tipping point was possible, with particular concern among councils in the south-west of England.
Visit The MJ for more on this story (£).


This is not your parents’ jam band.
Emily Saliers is perhaps best known as one half of the Indigo Girls. She's been performing with Indigo Girls' other half — her musical partner, Amy Ray — for over 30 years. And while that collaboration is still going strong, Saliers is now trying something new: putting out her first solo record.
Murmuration Nation, which comes out today, maintains the earnestness that Indigo Girls fans might expect — but it also borrows from some surprising genres, like R&B and hip-hop. Saliers spoke with NPR's Rachel Martin about what inspired this record, and how it feels to strike out on her own at this point in her career.
Click HERE to listen to / read NPR's profile!
“Dry Year” is a gut-wrenchingly honest and confessional view at thoughts that make up an existential crisis in today’s age. With a melancholic stripped-down acoustic guitar Noah vulnerably asks questions like, “are these my feet going through the motions/ are these my feet learning how to dance?” showing us the balance of dwelling in the mundane while still trying to inflict change. The culmination of all of these thoughts and observations leads up to the one of last lines, when Noah sings “tell me where all of this is going to?” As you listen to this song, you begin to ask your own questions or just realize that you have the same ones as he does, which is one of the many reasons we love Noah Gundersen so much. - The Wild Honey Pie
Take a listen HERE!
Over the course of more than a decade, Portland, OR-based quartet Red Fang has established itself to be one of the most talented, hard-working bands in heavy rock. Since first coming into wider recognition with the release of their eponymous Sergeant House Records debut in 2009 — and the viral Dungeons-and-Dragons inspired video for “Prehistoric Dog” that featured the beer-shotgunning band clad in 12-pack armor battling wizards (it’s been viewed over four million times on YouTube) — Red Fang has earned a sizable international fan base with its relentless touring schedule.
Click HERE for KPIX CBS's preview & catch them in action this Sat. 10/21 with Once and Future Band & War Bison!
A new member, a fantastically received debut album, and a successful recent tour have made this year an important one for Oakland band RAYS, who bridge an artsy folk-psychedelia vibe with proto-punk and garage. After their Midwestern trip to play Cropped Out, the low-key festival for weirdos that's been happening in Louisville, KY since 2010, the group is recharged and ready to craft a new record. The experience was inspiring, according to drummer Alexa Pantalone, especially sharing a bill with Bonnie “Prince” Billy, David Nance Band, the Cowboys and more.
Click HERE for the rest of The Bay Bridged's article!
For Los Angeles new wavy indie rock band Bad Suns, the difference between a debut album and a sophomore LP comes down having the tenacity to learn from your experiences and make the appropriate tweaks.
“Having the first go-around certainly helps a lot,” frontman Christo Bowman said. “Putting out the first record [and] touring it was all such a whirlwind, and we were kind of just taking it as it came to us each day. We were really figuring it out. It seems obvious, but with the second record it was very helpful [to] take all that we had learned … for a smoother ride; embellishing what we could do and taking things to the next level. As opposed to ‘How do we barely scrape by?’ the goal now is, ‘How do we put on a great show every night?’”
Bad Suns, who headline the Great American Music Hall on Oct. 11, came together in 2012 and made a splash with their 2014 debut, Language & Perspective.
Click HERE for RIFF Magazine's interview!
Moses Sumney’s voice is a high, luscious falsetto, and his songs are slow, thoughtful and sexy, making you want to lean in to listen closer. He considers himself a slow starter, and hid his songs away for years. But more recently, Sumney’s played with Beck, Solange and Local Natives, and he’s got a new album, Aromanticism, coming out in September. Catch him at the intimate Great American Music Hall on Sept. 26 before he graduates to bigger venues. Details here. - KQED Arts
There's only one thing that's remained a constant source of inspiration for her whole career for Jane Penny – her own band, TOPS. She writes for us about why. - The Line of Best Fit
When Line of Best Fit approached me to write about what inspires me I thought about it for a long time, and struggled to land on a definitive topic. There are so many artists that I am inspired by, and I'll often spend evenings watching all the interviews, live performances and music videos of the 'greats'. There are always a few songs I can't stop listening to.
Click HERE to read on!
If there’s any indication that portents of the death of print are and have always been misguided, it could be easily seen in the history of places like San Francisco’s Green Apple Books. And if there’s any indication that bookstores nevertheless continue teetering at the edge of survival — well, look again at Green Apple.
Click HERE for the SF Chronicle's article!
Loco Tranquilo is a San Francisco band based in the heart of the Mission district. Over the past two years, they’ve been gaining momentum within the Bay Area music scene, playing multiple shows each month and earning a devoted and diverse following along the way. Fusing hypnotic and colorful melodies with funky grooves and jazzy, primordial rhythms, the band is known for moving people on the dance floor while also tapping into the inner workings of the human experience. Their distinctive style of music is made to create unity through universal feelings. During each show, they strive to create dream-like atmosphere, ushering listener on a musical journey and provoking inward sensitive exploration and communal celebration.
Win tickets HERE (good luck!)
San Cisco may be a west coast band, with a name that could pass for a tourist’s abbreviation for San Francisco and an upbeat Californian pop sound, but the quartet actually calls the west coast of Australia home.
The quartet will be touring its new album, The Water, up and down the U.S. west coast later this month and RIFF chatted by email with guitarist Josh Biondillo about the similarities, his band, and the new album.
Read on HERE for RIFF Magazine's interview.
Pardoner can't stop saving us from 'blah' punk. That's what Uncontrollable Salvation means, right? Or maybe Pardoner's some kind of Judge Dredd, a combination of judge, jury and savior whenever a perp is making lame punk crossed with '90s alt-rock.
I’m super excited to bring you this giveaway because I love me some Shabazz Palaces. So, please don’t enter this giveaway if you intend on flaking. I will be sad.
Shabazz Palaces is an American hip hop duo from Seattle composed of Ishmael Butler a.k.a. Palaceer Lazaro (formerly Butterfly of jazz rap group Digable Planets) and multi-instrumentalist Tendai “Baba” Maraire, son of mbira master Dumisani Maraire. The pair anonymously self-released two EPs, Eagles Soar, Oil Flows and The Seven New (referred to as Shabazz Palaces and Of Light, respectively) in 2009 before becoming the first hip-hop act to be signed to the Sub Pop label and releasing their debut full-length album, Black Up to wide critical acclaim in 2011.
Butler notes that the work of Shabazz Palaces differs from his previous work stylistically. He cites his primary influences as “abstract,” pulling from podcasts and mixtapes. Butler attributes the use of African percussion and jazz overtones to his family’s musical preferences.
Enter to win HERE!


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GrafTech (EAF) has been an intriguing investment story, as the company is enjoying very strong profits, with investors wondering how long this huge earnings momentum can be maintained, especially as the company is still saddled with a great amount of debt as a result of its history in the hands of private equity firms.
In spite of great earnings, with the company producing an earnings yield close to 20% at the moment, I feel that despite hedges and "structural" factors, it is too simple to assume that profits can last forever or many years to come from here. Nonetheless, the cheapness argument warrants a modest long position.
The Company, The Thesis
GrafTech makes graphite electrodes for EAF steelmakers (electric arc furnace). These electrodes are key in the production of EAF steel. Not only is this electrode crucial as input material (with no real substitutes), the cost of that in relation to total production costs is limited as well. This creates a near perfect condition for those supplying this furnace to charge premium prices.
EAF steel production is responsible for roughly half of total steel production outside of China, with key advantages being that it is cheaper to produce, as it relies on scrap availability and is more environmentally friendly as well.
The company furthermore claims that fat profits can be maintained not just by very high replacement cost of manufacturing sites, but more so because critical knowledge to set up these operations is hard to come by. That seems a bit of an exaggeration, although the company claims that with the exception of China, no new capacity has been added for some 3 decades by now.
The price of these electrodes has exploded in recent years which caused a windfall for GrafTech, as the company has "secured" a great deal of these profits by locking in long-term contracts with users. In fact, the company has locked in more than 600,000 MT of production between 2018 and 2022 at prices close to $10,000 per ton, for >$6 billion in contracted revenues. This compares to prices averaging just $2,500 in the first half of 2017 before the boom in prices took place.
Earnings Power Is Great, Market Is Sceptical
GrafTech was acquired by private equity firm Brookfield which bought the firm in 2015 in a mere $700-million deal. A spike in prices urged Brookfield to bring the company public again almost a year ago. Underwriters aimed to sell shares at $21-24 per share, yet demand was soft as investors were sceptical and were more comfortable with a $15 per share valuation. Despite the big shortfall, the enterprise value still came in at $5 billion, creating a true windfall for Brookfield and associated parties.
The $5-billion valuation still looked very high based on 2017 results which revealed revenues of $551 million and $96 million in EBITDA. Yet this was based on production of 166,000 MT of EAFs with pricing averaging at just $3,000 per ton, as prices spiked to $10,000 per ton in early 2018. These higher prices drove a boom in first-quarter sales to $452 million. Revenues rose to $456 million in Q2 and were stable at $455 million in the third quarter, with pricing having ranged at roughly $10,000 per ton.
Fourth-quarter sales were very strong at $533 million, as the company reported steep net earnings of $230 million, or $0.79 per share for the final quarter as the sequential improvements in sales were much driven by higher volumes, with pricing being flattish compared to recent quarters.
Despite the strong earnings power, which trended at $2.80 per share for all of 2018, investors have been sceptical. Shares initially rose from $15 to levels in the low $20s following the IPO, but now trade at just $13 per share, up from a recent low around $10. This makes that shares trade at just 5 times earnings, even as the backlog of future profits remains very high.
One key concern for shareholders is a $2.1-billion net debt level, as full-year adjusted EBITDA comes in at $1.2 billion, or $1.3 billion based on the Q4 numbers. These earnings are pretty steep, but investors fear that net debt has to come down in case earnings fall, as that would automatically result in a jump in leverage ratios.
While the current $0.085 per share quarterly dividend is not too high and allows for deleveraging, progress was limited in Q4 as the company paid out a special dividend of $0.70 per share last quarter.
The other concern is that of the sustainability of the premium pricing, although the company indeed claims to have locked in big profits for years to come through long-term contracts. Reality is that while these profits are "guaranteed," realisation of these cash flows will take time, as customers might even go bankrupt if spot markets revert to much lower prices of course.
Other risks include cash flows associated with hedging, certainly if GrafTech itself faces production outages or spot prices rise further and counterparts requite additional collateral. Thus there are very real risks to those profits if prices either rise further or fall, even as long-term contracts are in place!
Concerns about falling prices could be invoked by the company itself as production is on the increase. Production for the year rose from 166,000 to 179,000 MT as it has been performing debottling projects at its plants, while production is set to rise to 202,000 MT in 2019. Costs associated with this expansion are seen at just $1,200 per ton, while greenfield developments are pegged at a cost of $12,000 per ton.
We might be on the verge of new production coming online as average sales prices came in at around $10,000 per ton, while management claims spot pricing by peers already stands at $12,000-15,000 per ton. In fact, it sold limited quantities on the spot markets as well in the fourth quarter at the upper end of that range. Roughly two-thirds of future production is now locked in, with contracts currently representing $6.2 billion in value with a total size of 636,000 MT.
The company remains very bullish, pointing towards the continued shift to EAF steel-making as well as long-term demand for steel and other applications such as electrical vehicle battery demand. The company furthermore benefits from vertical integration of the business with key ingredient petroleum needle coke (used for EAF production) being largely produced in-house, creating a key advantage over peers.
Following the release of the third-quarter results, I was cautious despite that shares traded at just 6 times annualised earnings power, on the back of concerns about price volatility, high leverage, and some softness in spot pricing at the time, in combination with higher input costs, as well as potential impact of more capacity coming online. Before adding to a tiny long position (held as a monitoring tool) I would like to see further deleveraging to drive appeal.
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Disclosure: I am/we are long EAF. 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.


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A lump of clay became a man,
Fitting for the Creator's plan.
I, too, am clay. My life He holds,
With gentle hands, He shapes and molds.
I smugly wait, the pressure's kind,
His hands have stopped! What did He find?
A piercing shard, like splintered glass,
An attitude before me flashed.
Quickly, Father, wash me,do--
Lest I pierce Your hands anew.

domain: artistic


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Whenever you notice some stems are getting taller than others, bend them over and secure them down. This ensures a nice even canopy!
As you spend time training and observing your plants, you’ll begin to get a much better understanding of exactly what you're working with. I highly recommend viewing some cannabis time-lapse videos to get a better idea of how the cannabis plant grows.
How to LST Your Cannabis Plants
Soft wire ties (optional) – only get these if you're going to grow very large plants; they're overkill for small plants
What else can be used to secure plants? I've seen growers use pipe cleaners, coated wire, and more. You can use almost anything that isn't sharp or thin like string (string can cut into the "skin" of the plant after a while).
The growth of your plants depends on auxin, a hormone. Your cannabis plants’ auxin is mainly focused at the top of the plant. As a result, most of the growth concentrates on the central stalk. When you utilize LST, however, you eliminate this focal point and provide a base for a level canopy and multiple colas. The consequence of this is more bud per plant!
Pros & Cons of LST
Now, let’s provide you with a step-by-step guide to LST.
2 – Choose Your Stem & Start Bending
It is also possible to use LST on autoflowering plants. They have a short growing period and minimal time to recover from HST techniques such as defoliation and topping. However, if you get started during the short vegetative stage window, you can still benefit.

domain: agronomy


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Big faux-oil digital canvases depicting a rich and detailed world, a personal account host and bigger rewards. Play slot machine games for real money in Slovakia. Free virtual casino real money sk at BetRivers, Lady Luck likes to turn her beautiful face to the casino players who take a chance to stake on that swirling Roulette. You will find the most popular bank cards, Casino Classic online has not won any awards yet but we do find its video poker collection to be quite impressive.

domain: entertainment


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Homemade Fresh Buttermilk Dinner Rolls
I had some leftover buttermilk from Christmas Eve dinner. So, I asked the husband to make buttermilk pancakes. Mmm, they were delish! But, there was still some leftover buttermilk. (Why do they only sell buttermilk in those quart sized cartons?!?)
I decided to make some bread using some of that buttermilk. Now, this recipe won’t use up that whole carton of leftover buttermilk, but it’s certainly a start, as it uses 1 cup of the stuff!
The first time I made this bread I just left it as a whole loaf rather than as rolls. It has a lovely soft texture, and a great light white bread flavor. We had slices of bread with dinner, and then we decided to make French toast out of it the next morning. I loved it! But, we thought it would be even better as dinner rolls, each with their own little crusty outsides.
Yep, it is wonderful as dinner rolls. We had the rolls with Cajun Baked Cod (I’ll post the recipe separately). The rolls were perfect to sop up those tasty juices. And, it was fun to have my own nice crusty roll with a soft tasty inside at dinner.
Keep in mind that your homemade bread doesn’t have preservatives in it like the store-bought stuff. That makes it great and healthier, but it also means that it can go bad quickly. So, store your completely cooled bread in a lightly sealed plastic bag. Don’t store it in the fridge, as it will dry out faster. And, eat it within a couple of days.
Have all ingredients for this bread, except the buttermilk, at room temperature. The dough will be sticky. I only use enough flour to keep it from sticking to my hands, and I work it as little as possible to keep it tender.
The way I describe dividing the dough is so that you don’t have to work it too much. When I make the balls, it’s a quick roll in my hands and I smooth the top of the roll a little, then place it on the baking sheet. Quick without much fuss.
Homemade Fresh Buttermilk Dinner Rolls Recipe
Buttermilk Dinner Rolls
- 1 cup buttermilk well shaken
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoons grapeseed oil or other light flavored oil
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 ¾ cups bread flour
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
- Measure all ingredients into the bread pan of your bread machine. Select the dough setting. Start the machine.
- Once dough setting is complete, remove dough from machine and place on a lightly floured surface. Using your hands, divide dough in half, and each half in half again so that you have roughly equal quarters. Divide each quarter into three equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and place rolls on two Silpat covered baking sheets (6 rolls per baking sheet), allowing about 2 inches between each roll. Cover rolls with a clean cotton cloth, and preheat the oven to 350° F.
- Once the oven reaches temperature, uncover rolls, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown, rotating baking sheets half way through baking.
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations, and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary based on brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes, and more.

domain: food


I will start my lesson from soft Indian classical music notations Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni. I will teach some soft songs using these straight notations, when we are getting bit dipper, I will start to teach high pitches and low pitches songs, then higher and lower octave songs.
I am a semi qualified accountant, and I have learnt Indian classical music to some level, therfore I can give lesson to sing Indian classical music with playing harmonium. I can give either individual or group lesson, my lesson will be based on Indian classical music RAAGAS
|at their place||at your place||by webcam|


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Eating a low-fat vegan diet may be better at managing type 2 diabetes than traditional diets, according to a new study.
Researchers found 43 percent of people with type 2 diabetes who followed a low-fat vegan diet for 22 weeks reduced their need to take medications to manage their disease compared with 26 percent of those who followed the diet recommended by the American Diabetes Association (ADA).
In addition, participants who followed the vegan diet experienced greater reductions in cholesterol levels and weight loss than those on the other diet.
A vegan diet is plant-based and consists of vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes and avoids animal products, such as meat and dairy. People who are on a vegan diet are at risk for vitamin B12 deficiency, and so B12 vitamins were given to the participants on that diet.
“The diet appears remarkably effective, and all the side effects are good ones — especially weight loss and lower cholesterol,” says researcher Dr. Neal D. Barnard, adjunct associate professor of medicine at the George Washington University, in a news release. “I hope this study will rekindle interest in using diet changes first, rather than prescription drugs.”
Barnard is also president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit health organization that opposes animal research and advocates a vegan diet.
Vegan vs. ADA Diet for Diabetes
In the study, published in the journal Diabetes Care, researchers compared the effects of following a low-fat vegan diet and the ADA diet on reducing the need for drugs to manage diabetes, kidney function, cholesterol levels, and weight loss in 99 adults with type 2 diabetes. Meals were not provided, but participants met a dietitian to come up with a diet plan and then met regularly each week for nutrition and cooking instruction.
Forty-nine of the participants followed a low-fat vegan diet consisting of about 10 percent of daily calories from fat, 15 percent protein and 75 percent carbohydrates. They were asked to avoid animal products and added fats and instead favor foods like beans and green vegetables, but portion sizes and total daily calories or food intake were unrestricted.
The other 50 participants followed the dietary guidelines recommended by the ADA, including 15 percent-20 percent protein, 60 percent-70 percent carbohydrates and monosaturated fats (such as olive oil), and less than 7 percent saturated fats (such as animal fats and butter). Total cholesterol was also limited to 200 milligrams or less per day.
Overweight participants in the ADA diet group were also advised to reduce daily calorie intake by 500-1,000 calories per day.
The results showed that both diets improved diabetes management and reduced unhealthy cholesterol levels, but some improvements were greater with the low-fat vegan diet.
— Some 43 percent of those on the vegan diet reduced their need to take drugs to manage their diabetes compared with 26 percent of the ADA diet group.
— Weight loss averaged more than 14 pounds in the vegan diet group vs. less than 7 pounds in the other group.
— LDL “bad” cholesterol dropped by an average of 21 percent in the vegan group compared with 11 percent in the ADA diet group who did not change their cholesterol drug use.
— Measures of blood sugar control also improved more significantly among those who followed the low-fat vegan diet than among those who followed the ADA diet and who did not change their diabetes drug use.
Researchers say the vegan diet represents a major change from current diabetes diets because there are no limits on calories, carbohydrates, and portions, which may make it easier for some people to follow. Talk to your doctor about what diet changes you might consider to help with diabetes or other medical conditions.
By Jennifer Warner, reviewed by Dr. Louise Chang
SOURCES: Barnard, N. Diabetes Care, August 2006; vol 29: pp 1777-1783. News release, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

domain: medical