| Contents | Previous | Next | Java Management Extensions (JMX) Technology Overview |
The JMX technology included in the Java 2 Platform Standard Edition (J2SE) was developed through the Java Community Process (JCP) as two closely related Java Specification Requests (JSRs). The versions of the JSRs implemented in the J2SE platform, version 5.0, are detailed in the following sections. The specification documents and files defined in this appendix can be downloaded at:
http://java.sun.com/products/JavaManagement/download.html
The J2SE platform, version 5.0, implements version 1.2 of the JMX Specification (Maintenance Release, December 2002). It incorporates the modifications listed in the errata provided with the download.
The J2SE platform, version 5.0, implements version 1.0 of the JMX Remote API Specification (Final Release, October 2003).
In addition to standard RMI and RMI/IIOP connectors, JSR 160 also defines optional JMX Messaging Protocol (JMXMP) connectors based on TCP sockets. The J2SE platform does not include these optional connectors. However, you might want to use JMXMP connectors if, for example, you require a more advanced level of security.
If you want to use a JMXMP connector, download the JSR 160 Reference Implementation from the download page specified at the beginning of this section, and add the jmxremote_optional.jar
file to your classpath. You will find examples of use of JMXMP connectors in the JMX Remote API Tutorial included with the JSR 160 Reference Implementation.
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Java Management Extensions (JMX) Technology Overview Java Management Extensions (JMX), Java 2 Platform Standard Edition 5.0 |
Copyright © 2004 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.


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- deserialize(ServiceRequest) - Method in class com.pkrete.xrd4j.server.deserializer.AbstractCustomRequestDeserializer
-
Deserializes SOAP body's request element to application specific
object.
- deserialize(ServiceRequest, String) - Method in class com.pkrete.xrd4j.server.deserializer.AbstractCustomRequestDeserializer
-
Deserializes SOAP body's request element to application specific
object.
- deserialize(ServiceRequest) - Method in interface com.pkrete.xrd4j.server.deserializer.CustomRequestDeserializer
-
Deserializes SOAP body's request element to application specific
object.
- deserialize(ServiceRequest, String) - Method in interface com.pkrete.xrd4j.server.deserializer.CustomRequestDeserializer
-
Deserializes SOAP body's request element to application specific
object.
- deserialize(SOAPMessage) - Method in interface com.pkrete.xrd4j.server.deserializer.ServiceRequestDeserializer
-
Deserializes the given SOAPMessage object to ServiceRequest object.
- deserialize(SOAPMessage) - Method in class com.pkrete.xrd4j.server.deserializer.ServiceRequestDeserializerImpl
-
Deserializes the given SOAPMessage object to ServiceRequest object.
- deserializeRequest(Node, SOAPMessage) - Method in class com.pkrete.xrd4j.server.deserializer.AbstractCustomRequestDeserializer
-
Deserializes SOAP body's request element to application specific
object.
- doGet(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse) - Method in class com.pkrete.xrd4j.server.AbstractAdapterServlet
-
Handles the HTTP GET
method.
- doPost(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse) - Method in class com.pkrete.xrd4j.server.AbstractAdapterServlet
-
Handles the HTTP POST
method.


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Abhay Negi blasts fastest 50 in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy history
Abhay Negi's blitzkrieg helped Meghalaya defeat Mizoram in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in Mumbai on Sunday.
by Sports DeskMeghalaya all-rounder Abhay Negi scored a 14-ball 50 to register the fastest half-century in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in Mumbai on Sunday.
In his blitzkrieg knock the right-hander hit two fours and six sixes to record a strike rate of 333.3 and surpass the record held by Robin Uthappa.
With this feat, Negi also equalled Kl Rahul’s record fastest fifty in T20 cricket in India.
His attacking innings helped Meghalaya get the better of Mizoram by 25 runs.
Coming into bat at number six, Negi powered his team to a total of 207/4 in 20 overs. In reply, Mizoram gave a spirited fightback but failed to chase down the score.
Teams:
Mizoram (Playing XI): Taruwar Kohli, Lalhmangaiha, KB Pawan(w/c), Lalfakzuala Renthlei, Saidingliana Sailo, Reuben Lalhruaizela, G Lalbiakvela, Lalhruai Ralte, Lalnunkima Varte, Sumit Lamba, Henry Lalsangzuala
Meghalaya (Playing XI): Raj Biswa(c), Puneet Bisht(w), Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Sanjay Yadav, Abhay Negi, Amiangshu Sen, Aditya Singhania, Kilco Marak, Swarajeet Das, Bijon Dey, Chengkam Sangma
Meanhile, in the first game at Bandra-Kurla Complex, Pondicherry defeated Bengal by four wickets to grab their four points.
In the other game at BKC, Haryana chased the 160-run target against Madhya Pradesh with four wickets in hand and Sumit Kumar top-scoring with an unbaten 44.
The Shaw Show:
Shaw slams fifty on return from doping ban as Mumbai win
Prithvi Shaw made a splendid return to competitive cricket after serving a doping ban, hitting a 39-ball 63 to guide Mumbai to a 83-run win over Assam in Mumbai.
All eyes were on Shaw, who played his first game after serving a back-dated eight-month suspension by the BCCI for failing a dope test and the pint-sized opener did not disappoint the small crowd at the Wankhede Stadium.
Shaw, who came in for in-form Jay Bista, struck a blazing half-century and then celebrated in a ‘bat does the talk’ manner.
(With PTI inputs)


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Create a function convert_to_feels
that consumes a number (representing a temperature) and returns "hot"
if it is above 70, "cold"
if is below 50, and "comfortable"
otherwise.
Then, create a function map_feels
that consumes a list of numbers (representing temperatures) and returns the list with each temperature converted to strings "hot"
, "cold"
, and "comfortable"
(by using convert_to_feels
).
Test convert_to_feels
by calling it with a number and printing the result. Test map_feels
by calling it with a list of numbers and printing the result.
This question may seem like a lot to take in, but if we break it down into its parts we see it’s not too bad.
First it asks us to write the function convert_to_feels
. All this function has to do is take in a number that represents a temperature and return a string describing the temperature (either hot, cold, or comfortable). This function can be done using an if statement on the number given. Then we have to test this function by calling it and printing the result.
Then it asks us to write the function map_feels
that takes a list of numbers and returns a new list of the strings that represent the numbers in the given list. This is made easier with convert_to_feels
because we can just call convert_to_feels
on each number to get the string representation. Since we need to perform an operation on a list of values, we should use a for loop. We have to test this function by calling it with a list of numbers and printing the result.
Based on our practice from previous examples, we can create the header for the function convert_to_feels
that takes a single number:
And the function map_feels
that takes a list of numbers:
convert_to_feels
:convert_to_feels
):Our function convert_to_feels
is meant to capture the following logic:
We can implement this logic in our function by simply using an if-elif structure:
{% filter highlight_python_code %}if temp > 70: return "hot" elif temp < 50: return "cold" else: return "comfortable"{% endfilter %}Now that we have an if statement that does what our convert_to_feels
function is meant to do, we can put it into our function.
map_feels
:Since we need to build a list of strings that correspond to each number in temp_list
, we need to create a new, empty list to hold the values as we generate them:
We need to go through each entry in the list we are given and convert the temperature number to a feels string. We can do this with a simple for-each loop, like this:
{% filter highlight_python_code %}for temp in temp_list: # Do something{% endfilter %}The meaning of this for-each loop is relatively straightforward, it means “for each temp in temp_list, do something”, now we just have to figure out what “something” is.
For every number in temp_list
, we need to get the feels like string and add it to our feels_likes
list. To get the feels like string, we can use our convert_to_feels
function, passing it the number we are currently working with. In a for-each loop, the thing before the in
keyword is called the item variable. In our case the item variable is temp
. This variable is created just for the loop and is given each of the values in our list one at a time. Each time the item variable gets a new value, the “Do something” part of the loop, called the is called. So if there is something we want to do to every value in the list, we can put it inside the loop and assume the variable temp
holds some value in our list.
For this problem, we need to use the convert_feels
function to get the feels like string of temp, then add the string to feels_likes
. To add to the end of the feels_like
list, we simply use the append()
function on the list:
But instead of some_value, we need to add the result of calling convert_to_feels
on temp:
Now that we have the parts of our loop, we can put it together:
{% filter highlight_python_code %}for temp in temp_list: feels_likes.append(convert_to_feels(temp)){%endfilter%}Now we can put everything we built in previous steps into our function:
{% filter highlight_python_code %}def map_feels(temp_list): feels_likes = [] for temp in temp_list: feels_likes.append(convert_to_feels(temp)){%endfilter%}All that we have left to do is return the feels_likes list once the loop is finished. Make sure to put the return statement on the outside of the loop. Once a function reaches a return statement it is finished, so if we put the return statement on the inside of the loop our loop would run once, hit the return statement, then return and be finished.
{% filter highlight_python_code %}def map_feels(temp_list): feels_likes = [] for temp in temp_list: feels_likes.append(convert_to_feels(temp)) return feels_likes{%endfilter%}Now that both functions are written, we need to make sure they work properly.
First we should test the convert_to_feels
function since map_feels
uses it, so if convert_to_feels
doesn’t work, neither will map_feels
.
Now that we know convert_to_feels
works, we can test map_feels


nips nips2001 nips2001-13 nips2001-13-reference knowledge-graph by maker-knowledge-mining
Source: pdf
Author: Sham M. Kakade
Abstract: We provide a natural gradient method that represents the steepest descent direction based on the underlying structure of the parameter space. Although gradient methods cannot make large changes in the values of the parameters, we show that the natural gradient is moving toward choosing a greedy optimal action rather than just a better action. These greedy optimal actions are those that would be chosen under one improvement step of policy iteration with approximate, compatible value functions, as defined by Sutton et al. [9]. We then show drastic performance improvements in simple MDPs and in the more challenging MDP of Tetris. 1
[I] S. Amari. Natural gradient works efficiently in learning. 10(2):251- 276, 1998. Neural Computation,
[2] J. Baxter and P. Bartlett. Direct gradient-based reinforcement learning. Technical report, Australian National University, Research School of Information Sciences and Engineering, July 1999.
[3] D. P. Bertsekas and J. N. Tsitsiklis. Neuro-Dynamic Programming. Athena Scientific, 1996.
[4] P. Dayan and G. Hinton. Using em for reinforcement learning. Neural Computation, 9:271- 278 , 1997.
[5] S. Kakade. Optimizing average reward using discounted reward. COLT. in press., 200l.
[6] V. Konda and J. Tsitsiklis. Actor-critic algorithms. Advances in N eural Information Processing Systems, 12, 2000.
[7] D . MacKay. Maximum likelihood and covariant algorithms for independent component analysis. Technical report , University of Cambridge, 1996.
[8] P. Marbach and J . Tsitsiklis. Simulation-based optimization of markov reward processes. Technical report, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1998.
[9] R. Sutton, D. McAllester, S. Singh, and Y. Mansour. Policy gradient methods for reinforcement learning with function approximation. Neural Information Processing Systems, 13, 2000.
[10] L. Xu and M. 1. Jordan. On convergence properties of the EM algorithm for gaussian mixtures. Neural Computation, 8(1):129- 151, 1996.


Notebook for
richest man in babylon
Unknown
richest man in babylon
Highlight (yellow) - Location 257
"As for time, all men have it in abundance.
Highlight (yellow) - Location 293
'A part of all you earn is yours to keep. It should be not less than a tenth no matter how littleyou earn. It can be as much more as you can afford. Pay yourself first. Do not buy from the clothes-maker and the sandal-maker more than you can pay out of the rest and still have enough for food andcharity and penance to the gods. " 'Wealth, like a tree, grows from a tiny seed. The first copper you save is the seed from whichyour tree of wealth shall grow. The sooner you plant that seed the sooner shall the tree grow.
Highlight (yellow) - Location 308
And next time if you would have advice about jewels,go to the jewel merchant. If you would know the truth about sheep, go to the herdsman. Advice is onething that is freely given away, but watch that you take only what is worth having. He who takes adviceabout his savings from one who is inexperienced in such matters, shall pay with his savings for provingthe falsity of their opinions.'
Highlight (yellow) - Location 332
"Fortunate only in that I had the desire to prosper before I first met him. For four years did I notprove my definiteness of purpose by keeping one-tenth of all earned? Would you call a fisherman luckywho for years so studied the habits of the fish that with each changing wind he could cast his nets aboutthem? Opportunity is a haughty goddess who wastes no time with those who are unprepared."
Highlight (yellow) - Location 354
"Impress yourself with the idea. Fill yourself with the thought. Then take whatever portionseems wise. Let it be not less than one-tenth and lay it by. Arrange your other expenditures to do this ifnecessary. But lay by that portion first. Soon you will realize what a rich feeling it is to own a treasureupon which you alone have claim. As it grows it will stimulate you. A new joy of life will thrill you.Greater efforts will come to you to earn more. For of your increased earnings, will not the samepercentage be also yours to keep? "Then learn to make your treasure work for you. Make it your slave. Make its children and itschildren's children work for you.
Highlight (yellow) - Location 439
"Now I shall tell thee the first remedy I learned to cure a lean purse.Do exactly as I have suggested to the egg merchant. For every ten coins thou placest within thy pursetake out for use but nine. Thy purse will start to fatten at once and its increasing weight will feel goodin thy hand and bring satisfaction to thy soul.
Highlight (yellow) - Location 442
This was my beginning. I, too, carried a lean purse and cursed it because therewas naught within to satisfy my desires. But when I began to take out from my purse but nine parts often I put in, it began to fatten. So will thine. "Now I will tell a strange truth, the reason for which I know not. When I ceased to pay outmore than nine-tenths of my earnings, I managed to get along just as well. I was not shorter thanbefore. Also, ere long, did coins come to me more easily than before.
Highlight (yellow) - Location 450
"This, my students, was the first cure I did discover for my lean purse: 'For each ten coins I putin, to spend but nine.' Debate this amongst yourselves.
Highlight (yellow) - Location 478
"This, then, is the second cure for a lean purse. Budget thy 43expenses that thou mayest havecoins to pay for thy necessities, to pay for thy enjoyments and to gratify thy worthwhile desires withoutspending more than nine-tenths of thy earnings."
Highlight (yellow) - Location 490
a man's wealth is not in the coins he carries in his purse; it is theincome he buildeth, the golden stream that continually floweth into his purse and keepeth it alwaysbulging. That is what every man desireth. That is what thou, each one of thee desireth; an income thatcontinueth to come whether thou work or travel.
Highlight (yellow) - Location 501
The money lender explained that because this sum had been increased bycompound interest, the original ten pieces of silver had now grown to thirty and one-half pieces.
Highlight (yellow) - Location 505
"Thus in fifty years had the investment multiplied itself at rental almost seventeen times. "This, then, is the third cure for a lean purse: to put each coin to laboring that it may reproduceits kind even as the flocks of the field and help bring to thee income, a stream of wealth that shall flowconstantly into thy purse."
Highlight (yellow) - Location 523
"This, then, is the fourth cure for a lean purse, and of great importance if it prevent thy pursefrom being emptied once it has become well filled. Guard thy treasure from loss by investing onlywhere thy principal is safe, where it may be reclaimed if desirable, and where thou will not fail tocollect a fair rental. Consult with wise men. Secure the advice of those experienced in the profitablehandling of gold. Let their wisdom protect thy treasure from unsafe 47 investments."
Highlight (yellow) - Location 542
"Then will thy heart be glad because thou wilt own in thy own right a valuable property and thyonly cost will be the king's taxes. "Also wilt thy good wife go more often to the river to wash thy robes, that each time returningshe may bring a goatskin of water to pour upon the growing things. "Thus come many blessings to the man who owneth his own house. And greatly will it reducehis cost of living, making available more of his earnings for pleasures and the gratification of hisdesires. This, then, is the fifth cure for a lean purse: 0 wn thy own home"
Highlight (yellow) - Location 572
I recommend to allmen, that they, by wise and well thought out methods, do provide against a lean purse in their matureyears. For a lean purse to a man no longer able to earn or to a family without its head is a sore tragedy."This, then, is the sixth cure for a lean purse. Provide in advance for the needs of thy growing age andthe protection of thy family."
Highlight (yellow) - Location 584
"Preceding accomplishment must be desire. Thy desires must be strong and definite. Generaldesires are but weak longings. For a man to wish to be rich is of little purpose. For a man to desire fivepieces of gold is a tangible desire which he can press to fulfillment. After he has backed his desire forfive pieces of gold with strength of purpose to secure it, next he can find similar ways to obtain tenpieces and then twenty pieces and later a thousand pieces and, behold, he has become wealthy. Inlearning to secure his one definite small desire, he hath trained himself to secure a larger one. This isthe process by which wealth is accumulated: first in small sums, then in larger ones as a man learns andbecomes more capable.
Highlight (blue) - Location 589
"Desires must be simple and definite. They defeat their own purpose should they be too many,too confusing, or beyond a man's training to accomplish. "
Highlight (blue) - Location 605
"Thus the seventh and last remedy for a lean purse is to cultivate thy own powers, to study andbecome wiser, to become more skillful, to so act as to respect thyself. Thereby shalt thou acquire confidence in thy self to achieve thy carefully considered desires.
Highlight (blue) - Location 760
"Good luck fled from procrastination inboth these tales. Yet, this is not unusual. The spirit of procrastination is within all men. We desireriches; yet, how often when opportunity doth appear before us, that spirit of procrastination from withindoth urge various delays in our acceptance.
Highlight (yellow) - Location 779
"I do see good luck in a different light. I had thought of it as something most desirable thatmight happen to a man without effort upon his part. Now, I do realize such happenings are not the sortof thing one may attract to himself. From our discussion have I learned that to attract good luck tooneself, it is necessary to take advantage of opportunities. Therefore, in the future, I shall endeavor tomake the best of such opportunities as do come to me."
Highlight (yellow) - Location 787
The truth is this: Good luck 32 can be enticed by accepting opportunity. "Those eager to grasp opportunities for their betterment, do attract the interest of the goodgoddess. She is ever anxious to aid those who please her. Men of action please her best. "Action will lead thee forward to the successes thou dost desire." MEN OF ACTION ARE FAVORED BY THE GODDESS OF GOOD LUCK
Highlight (yellow) - Location 860
THE FIVE LAWS OF GOLD I. Gold cometh gladly and in increasing quantity to any man who will put by not less thanone-tenth of his earngs to create an estate for his future and that of his family. II. Gold laboreth diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitableemployment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field. III. Gold clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the advice ofmen wise in its handling. IV. Gold slippeth away from the man who invests it in businesses or purposes with whichhe is not familiar or which are not approved by those skilled in its keep. V. Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who followeth thealluring advice of tricksters and schemers or who trusts it to his own inexperience and romanticdesires in investment.
Highlight (yellow) - Location 1002
If you desire to help thyfriend, do so in a way that will not bring thy friend's burdens upon thyself."
Highlight (yellow) - Location 1010
"From each person to whom I lend, I do exact a token for my token chest, to remain there untilthe loan is repaid. When they repay I give back, but if they never repay it will always remind me of onewho was not faithful to my confidence. "The safest loans, my token box tells me, are to those whose possessions are of more value thanthe one they desire. They own lands, or jewels, or camels, or other things which could be sold to repaythe loan. Some of the tokens given to me are jewels of more value than the loan. Others are promisesthat if the loan be not repaid as agreed they will deliver to me certain property settlement. On loans likethose I am assured that my gold will be returned with the rental thereon, for the loan is based onproperty.
Highlight (yellow) - Location 1054
"Youth is ambitious. Youth would take shortcuts to wealth and the desirable things for which it stands. To secure wealth quickly youth oftenborrows unwisely. Youth, never having had experience, cannot realize that hopeless debt is like a deep pit intowhich one may descend quickly and where one may struggle vainly for many days. It is a pit of sorrowand regrets where the brightness of the sun is overcast and night is made unhappy by restless sleeping.Yet, I do not discourage borrowing gold. I encourage it. I recommend it if it be for a wise purpose.
Highlight (yellow) - Location 1119
BETTER A LITTLE CAUTIONTHAN A GREAT REGRET
Highlight (yellow) - Location 1167
In this day, behind the impregnable walls of insurance, savings accounts and dependableinvestments, we can guard ourselves against the unexpected tragedies that may enter any door and seatthemselves before any fireside. WE CANNOT AFFORD TO BEWITHOUT ADEQUATE PROTECTION
Highlight (yellow) - Location 1307
He found his own soul when herealized a great truth, a truth that had been known and used by wise men long before his time. It has led men of all ages out of difficulties and into success and it will continue to do so forthose who have the wisdom to understand its magic power. It is for any man to use who reads theselines. WHERE THE DETERMINATION IS,THE WAY CAN BE FOUND


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The Robot Operating System
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Introduction
This project goal is to discuss how boat distance, dolphins' reactions and juvenile dolphins'appearance will affect researchers' observations about common dolphins' feeding behaviors. It is challenging to observe dolphins’ feeding behaviors in great Aegean Sea area since their feeding behaviors are mostly under the sea surface. In order to better observe a long time dolphins’ feeding behavior without interfere their normal feeding process, we want to build a model to predict possible dolphins’ feeding behaviors during boat survey. Due to the randomness of boat survey(like the weather condition and researcher’s health condition on the sea) , we would like to increase the efficiency to observe dolphins’ feeding behavior by building machine learning models, in a handful and practical way.
Key findings
Based on our current facilities, we did not include the environmental factors into models, rather I used our boat distance, dolphin’s reactions and juvenile dolphin’s appearance factors, which are more practical data to collect in boat survey. However, for future study, I suggest we include the environmental factors data that we collected during boat survey into the model(eg,.salinity, PH value), which can be more accurate than data on Copernicus website and also can increase the model accuracy dramatically.
Methodology
Dataset Introduction
All data is from Archipelagos, Institute of Marine Conservation, collected from 2016 March to 2017 May, and the sample size is 230.
Possible Variables
1. J_A: Juvenile appearance. Factor Data.
< 0: dolphins accompany with juvenile; 1: adult dolphins only >
2. Our.boat.dis : Our Boat Distance to the dolphins. Numerical Data
3. Boat: Numbers of Boat appears around the dolphins. Factor Data(1—5)
4. Reaction: Dolphins reactions to the boats. Factor Data. NEG: negative, NEU: neutral, POS: positive reactions
5. Movement: Factor Data (AL, EC, FR, LI, SP)
Dataset Validation
The response in our model is the probability of feeding behaviors. We categorized all observed dolphin behaviors into feeding and non-feeding behaviors. We have 86 feeding behavior and 144 non-feeding behaviors( traveling, socializing, swimming and etc).Their ratio is within 1:2,which is an acceptable proportion even though the positive and negative data is not perfectly 1:1. In the reaction variable distributions, we can see NEU has 55% amount, POS has 37.4% amount, while NEG only has 7%. This data reveals the truth that common dolphin’s are friendly and hardly show negative reaction to researchers, and thus we don’t plan to adjust the proportion of this.
Model Selection
Because we have a binary classifier which is feeding or not feeding, I then selected GLM, Naive Byes, SVM and random forest as candidate models.
- Logistic Regression
Logistic model is an elementary model for binary classifiers. Similar to linear regression model, logistic model trying to conclude relationship between the mean of dependent variables with independent variables. The difference if that the generalized linear model requires a link function which enables researchers to convert categorical (2-dimensional here) variables into a continuous/ numerical data and then use the same principles of linear regression to fit the model, as indicated below.
The link function, g, describes how the mean response, EY = μ, is linked to the covariates through the linear predictor. So here, our response is the probability of feeding behavior appearance. And the model is listed below. We selected J_A, Our.boat.dist and Reaction as independent variables and drop the boat number because is not significant. I used quasi binomial function because it deals more properly for data with high variance, compared to binomial method.
- Naive Byes
Naive Byes is a common machine learning model to calculate the posterior probability based on the class densities Pk(x) and the prior probabilities. In our case, we wanted to discover how other predictors contributed to the the probability of dolphins feeding behaviors. I included boat, J_a, reaction and movement.formation into the model to explore how all those features can lead to best prediction of feeding behavior probability.
- SVM Model
SVM model is popular in machine learning because it’s very accurate and highly applicable. One advantage of SVM model is that, in classification process, it creates a hyperplane that can separate different classes with maximum margin with each class for separable variables. In linear regression models, where we separate classes using one line to separate them, we can use a hyperplane in SVM to do that.
However the most powerful skill set of SVM is that it use a slack variables to tolerate for points that are are not exactly corrected classified. This slack variable is called kernel and it act as a transform function that can map problem into higher dimensions and then separate those points properly. In other words, if all data we all have is locked in a black box, and all of the types are mixed together. In this case, we mix the feeding and non-feeding behaviors. Then if we shake the box and then a virtual hyperplane can can be created to separate those points. The power to uplift those points in order to separate them is kernel. In order to let SVM model performs best, we need to choose appropriate kernel type and the optimal cost that minimizes the mean of cross-validation errors.
- Random Forest
Compare to decision trees, random forest can improve models’ accuracy by fitting many trees and each split with fit each one to a bootstrap sample of our data. In addition, with advantage of using cross validation, random forest itself can be resistant to over-fitting scenario.
Instead of using common random forest model, I use caret package because it is faster and provide opportunity for us to tune the model by adding tune length, tune grid and separated cross validation method. We used tune length equal to 10 because is more accurate than smaller tune length, and I used 10 fold cross validation method. After defining the tune grid and customizing tune grid, I found when mtry equal to 2, the model reaches best performance. Mtry is important in Random forest because it is the number of randomly select parameters at each split.
Conclusions
Key Factors Analysis
Among all 5 variables we have, we found Reaction and J_A are most significant factors influencing dolphin’s feeding behavior. Thus we dropped other variables to achieve best model performance.
Model Evaluation
To evaluate the models’ performance, we used Kappa, sensitivity and specificity as evaluation standards.
As a statistic outcome in confusion matrix, Kappa give us a way to think beyond only accuracy. The rate of accuracy is equal to sum of true positive and false positive divided by all the test data. While Kappa trying to consider how accuracy different from probability that is created by chance alone would lead the predicted and actual values to match.
From the table listed above, we chose SVM model with dependent variables J_A, Reaction and Boat as parameters. We then tested optimal cost from 1e-1 to 1e+3, and gamma value from 0.5-100. We finally choose cost=1, gamma=100 on a 10 fold cross validation basis based on it’s final classification error. Then from all the kernels, ranging from rbfdot, polydot, tanhdot, vanilladot, laplacedot, besseldot, anovadot, we chose basseldot kernel because we can get highest kappa value from it.
Discussions
In this chapter, I will discuss why I chose certain variables into our models and discuss their drawbacks. Further more, I will listed other variables to be collected in the future in order to improve model accuracy.
J_A and reactions are two significant factors in our models based on all 13 variables Archipelagos have been collected so far. Researchers supposed that dolphins will be more readily seeking food if they have children accompany and if they were in neutral mood status. More specifically, dolphins may seek social activities if they shown positive attitudes.
Our boat distance and boat number help some models to achieve minor performance but not as significant as former two did. Those two factors are substitute of “noise” measurement to dolphins. Since dolphins will be less likely to have feeding behaviors if there are noises around, so this is a very valuable factor to consider. However those two factors doesn’t work on well together. The boat distance only measures our boat distance to the dolphins without considering other boats distance. And the boat number is a categorical variable, which obscures the significant differences of real “noises”. An alternative to measure “noise” could be counting each boat’s average decibels and add all of them together. Other than just boat numbers, adding industry standard decibels for each boats may help models predict feeding behaviors more accurately.
Other variables to consider will be environmental data(like salinity and PH value) and sea surface biomass values. It reasonable to assume that those factors will influence prays of dolphins’ distribution and thus are reasonable to be included. However, it will be unreasonable if we have a very small sample size(230), and the validated GPSs of dolphins’ appearance are only 23 points. In other words, we observed multiple behaviors in one spot. Thus, it will be statistically insignificant if we would extract those environmental variables by their latitude and longitude. Hopefully in future research, we can include salinity,PH value and see surface biomass values into the models until we have a large dataset.


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Games Task Scheduler (GTS)
A multi-processor scheduling framework for games engines
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An ID for owned objects. It indicates the owner's ID, an ID local to the owner, and an overall unique ID. More...
#include <Utils.h>
Public Member Functions | |
| GTS_INLINE | OwnedId (SubIdType ownerId, SubIdType localId) |
| GTS_INLINE SubIdType | localId () const |
| GTS_INLINE SubIdType | ownerId () const |
| GTS_INLINE IdType | uid () const |
| GTS_INLINE bool | operator== (OwnedId const &rhs) const |
| GTS_INLINE bool | operator!= (OwnedId const &rhs) const |
An ID for owned objects. It indicates the owner's ID, an ID local to the owner, and an overall unique ID.
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{% extends "base.html" %} {% block content %}
Welcome to the Board Game Recommender App. It is based on the data of https://boardgamegeek.com


ΑΓΣ
Santa Monica College
A G S Meeting Locations and Times
Science 140, 11:15 AM - 12:35 PM
SCI 140 11:15 AM - 12:35 PM
HSS 165, 5:45 PM - 6:35 PM
HSS 165 5:45 PM - 6:35 PM


jqValidator
Text
Email address
Password
Textfield
Remember me
Option one is this and that—be sure to include why it's great
Option two can be something else and selecting it will deselect option one
Submit


CSE 135
Summer 2020
Solo Personal Page
Just my page no team here ;-;
Yue Jiao
Homework 1
PHP
Analytics
Homework 2
Perl
Hello, Perl!
Hello, Perl! (JSON)
Environment Variables
GET Echo
POST Echo
General Echo
Sessioning
C
Hello, C!
Hello, C! (JSON)
Environment Variables
GET Echo
POST Echo
General Echo
PHP
Hello, PHP!
Hello, PHP! (JSON)
Environment Variables
GET Echo
POST Echo
General Echo
Sessioning
Python
Hello, Python!
Hello, Python! (JSON)
Environment Variables
GET Echo
POST Echo
General Echo
Sessioning
Homework 3
Hello Data Viz
Database Grid
Analytics App
TBD


{# _q_section_customize_category.html #} {# this is a "section" template #} {# it is inserted as needed by ng via AJAX using the load-on-demand paradigm #} {# see the "q_load_section" django view #} {# and see the "section" ng directive" #}


Processing
Processing is done inside the computer in an area called the central processing unit (CPU).
Processing is the conversion of input to output.
Click here to go to home :
Home


Spanish newspaper slams Bale
by Agency ReportSpanish newspaper Marca have slammed Gareth Bale after appearing to mock Real Madrid during Euro 2020 qualification celebrations with Wales.
Bale celebrated with a Welsh flag that read, ‘Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order.’
Now Marca have hit back with their front cover reading: ‘Disrespectful. Wrong. Ungrateful. In that order.’
Zinedine Zidane is not planning to punish Bale over his actions while on Wales duty, according to reports.
There has been suggestions that Zidane might want to respond to Bale’s actions after he returns to Madrid on Thursday.
But, according to Spanish outlet Marca, there are no plans to treat the 30-year-old differently to any other player.
Zidane has long had an issue with Bale yet has decided not to respond to his latest antics.
The French manager is planning to greet him, shake his hand and congratulate him for earning qualification before he trains as normal.
Bale admitted he was aware of the chant and clearly saw the funny side of it.


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Confirmed mappings
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AudioDisplayViewPresenterDelegate
public protocol AudioDisplayViewPresenterDelegate : AnyObject
A delegate that application can extend to observe DisplayWebViewPresenter
changes.
-
Delegate method called when control center content should be updated.
Declaration
Swift
func displayControllerShouldUpdateTemplate(template: AudioPlayerDisplayTemplate)
-
Delegate method called when control center state should be updated.
Declaration
Swift
func displayControllerShouldUpdateState(state: AudioPlayerState)
-
Delegate method called when control center duration should be updated.
Declaration
Swift
func displayControllerShouldUpdateDuration(duration: Int)
-
Delegate method called when control center should be removed.
Declaration
Swift
func displayControllerShouldRemove()
-
Delegate method called when NuguButton in AudioDisplayView has been clicked.
Declaration
Swift
func onAudioDisplayViewNuguButtonClick()
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Delegate method called when chips button in AudioDisplayView has been clicked.
Declaration
Swift
func onAudioDisplayViewChipsSelect(selectedChips: NuguChipsButton.NuguChipsButtonType?)


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Azure C++ Utils 1.2.9+3
Azure REST API Helpers for Modern C++
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Go to the source code of this file.


React 16.5 adds support for a new DevTools profiler plugin. This plugin uses React's experimental Profiler API to collect timing information about each component that's rendered in order to identify performance bottlenecks in React applications. It will be fully compatible with our upcoming time slicing and suspense features.
This blog post covers the following topics: * Profiling an application * Reading performance data * Browsing commits * Filtering commits * Flame chart * Ranked chart * Component chart * Interactions * Troubleshooting * No profiling data has been recorded for the selected root * No timing data to display for the selected commit * Deep dive video
DevTools will show a "Profiler" tab for applications that support the new profiling API:
Note:
react-dom
16.5+ supports profiling in DEV mode. A production profiling bundle is also available asreact-dom/profiling
. Read more about how to use this bundle at fb.me/react-profiling
The "Profiler" panel will be empty initially. Click the record button to start profiling:
Once you've started recording, DevTools will automatically collect performance information each time your application renders. Use your app as you normally would. When you are finished profiling, click the "Stop" button.
Assuming your application rendered at least once while profiling, DevTools will show several ways to view the performance data. We'll take a look at each of these below.
Conceptually, React does work in two phases:
render
and then compares the result to the previous render.componentDidMount
and componentDidUpdate
during this phase.The DevTools profiler groups performance info by commit. Commits are displayed in a bar chart near the top of the profiler:
Each bar in the chart represents a single commit with the currently selected commit colored black. You can click on a bar (or the left/right arrow buttons) to select a different commit.
The color and height of each bar corresponds to how long that commit took to render. (Taller, yellow bars took longer than shorter, blue bars.)
The longer you profile, the more times your application will render. In some cases you may end up with too many commits to easily process. The profiler offers a filtering mechanism to help with this. Use it to specify a threshold and the profiler will hide all commits that were faster than that value.
The flame chart view represents the state of your application for a particular commit. Each bar in the chart represents a React component (e.g. App
, Nav
). The size and color of the bar represents how long it took to render the component and its children. (The width of a bar represents how much time was spent when the component last rendered and the color represents how much time was spent as part of the current commit.)
Note:
The width of a bar indicates how long it took to render the component (and its children) when they last rendered. If the component did not re-render as part of this commit, the time represents a previous render. The wider a component is, the longer it took to render.
The color of a bar indicates how long the component (and its children) took to render in the selected commit. Yellow components took more time, blue components took less time, and gray components did not render at all during this commit.
For example, the commit shown above took a total of 18.4ms to render. The Router
component was the "most
expensive" to render (taking 18.4ms). Most of this time was due to two of its children, Nav
(8.4ms) and
Route
(7.9ms). The rest of the time was divided between its remaining children or spent in the
component's own render method.
You can zoom in or out on a flame chart by clicking on components:
Clicking on a component will also select it and show information in the right side panel which includes its props
and state
at the time of this commit. You can drill into these to learn more about what the component actually rendered during the commit:
In some cases, selecting a component and stepping between commits may also provide a hint as to why the component rendered:
The above image shows that state.scrollOffset
changed between commits. This is likely what caused the List
component to re-render.
The ranked chart view represents a single commit. Each bar in the chart represents a React component (e.g. App
, Nav
). The chart is ordered so that the components which took the longest to render are at the top.
Note:
A component's render time includes the time spent rendering its children, so the components which took the longest to render are generally near the top of the tree.
As with the flame chart, you can zoom in or out on a ranked chart by clicking on components.
 The component chart provides this information in the form of a bar chart. Each bar in the chart represents a time when the component rendered. The color and height of each bar corresponds to how long the component took to render relative to other components in a particular commit.
The chart above shows that the List
component rendered 11 times. It also shows that each time it rendered, it was the most "expensive" component in the commit (meaning that it took the longest).
To view this chart, either double-click on a component or select a component and click on the blue bar chart icon in the right detail pane. You can return to the previous chart by clicking the "x" button in the right detail pane. You can also double click on a particular bar to view more information about that commit.
If the selected component did not render at all during the profiling session, the following message will be shown:
React recently added another experimental API for tracing the cause of an update. "Interactions" traced with this API will also be shown in the profiler:
The image above shows a profiling session that traced four interactions. Each row represents an interaction that was traced. The colored dots along the row represent commits that were related to that interaction.
You can also see which interactions were traced for a particular commit from the flame chart and ranked chart views as well:
You can navigate between interactions and commits by clicking on them:
The tracing API is still new and we will cover it in more detail in a future blog post.
If your application has multiple "roots", you may see the following message after profiling:
This message indicates that no performance data was recorded for the root that's selected in the "Elements" panel. In this case, try selecting a different root in that panel to view profiling information for that root:
Sometimes a commit may be so fast that performance.now()
doesn't give DevTools any meaningful timing
information. In this case, the following message will be shown:
The following video demonstrates how the React profiler can be used to detect and improve performance bottlenecks in an actual React application.


Module test
A simple utility for testing values and running unit tests.
Functions
| equals (expected, actual, message) | Test if the given value matches the given expected value. |
| run (name, test_method) | Runs the given method and prints a formatted information including the name. |
| start (name) | Prints the given name as header. |
Functions
- equals (expected, actual, message)
-
Test if the given value matches the given expected value.
If the values do not match, an error with the given message (if any) and
an additional message containing both values will be shown.
The values will be compared with ==.
Parameters:
- expected The expected value.
- actual The actual value.
- message Optional. The additional message to be printed.
- run (name, test_method)
-
Runs the given method and prints a formatted information including the name.
Parameters:
- name The name of the method that is being run.
- test_method The method to run.
- start (name)
-
Prints the given name as header.
Parameters:
- name The name of the header.


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金属部门
钢铁产品本部
金属资源贸易本部
金属资源第一本部
金属资源第二本部
钢铁产品本部
Isuzu Corporation 钢材加工及销售业务 日本
五十铃以前瞻性企业*为目标。具体地说就是展开“可以心情愉快地工作，工作业绩优秀，可以自我成长的企业”，并作为地球公民，立志以独特的组织形式为世界作出贡献。
战后，以日本的高度经济成长为背景，五十铃从钢铁薄板批发开始突飞猛进。现在以钢板服务中心为核心，实践扩大物流、解决方案、生活服务机能的集团经营。
五十铃最大的优势就是“人与组织”，及其观点与思想。因此“组织”的价值与“人才”的价值自律性得以提高，坚持不懈地持续实践两者创发性地融和而产生企业价值的经营。
现在，五十铃以坚强的创业者领导能力从“报时”时代开始，焕然一新地发展到全体员工参画的“时钟制造”设计者的集团。实践重视创业者精神的理念经营，同时持续不断地向前进化，向从服务中心到以世界为舞台的“价值中心”的挑战已经拉开序幕。
我们的原动力，就是“我们的理想”的宏伟大志。
此次，制定了十年后的长期经营目标，应该努力的方向已经明确。在国际化的21世纪，我们认为应该以对股东、客户、公司员工、世界上所有利益相关者的成长与发展做出贡献为使命，持续成为创业者精神之一的“社会上不可或缺的一分子”。
以前瞻性企业为目标的五十铃，每个人都在积极主动地体现其精神背景的理念。让我们揭开做为理念的“社训”的深远含意，以及在继承社训的同时培育企业文化的历史长卷。
1947创业 以寿产业开始铁的营业1949在千代田区神田锻冶町设立千代田钢铁株式会社1950开设蒲田营业所1952关闭千代田区钢材 1月21日设立五十铃钢材株式会社1953成为不二商事（现三菱商事）的特约店 以销售薄板为主业1960开始加工、销售业务1961为了满足高度成长时代之需，推进扩大销售渠道及营业所的开设 总公司迁至东京都千代田区1964与三菱商事共同出资设立五十铃钢铁中心，过度至正式加工销售体制1966设立五十铃建材（现五十铃建设）、五十铃运输
总公司迁移至东京都大田区 开设滨松出张所、高崎营业所、小山营业所 1970开设安城营业所1971被日产汽车公司起用为委托公司1972接受新日本制铁的出资1973五十铃大厦竣工（现地址）五十铃钢材总公司迁移1977开设滨松、小山、太田、大和、青梅支店1978设立五十铃汽车修配厂、餐厅ISUZU（现株式会社Cinquante Bell）开设高崎、富士支店1988钢材加工中心部门改为分公司（大和、青梅、高崎、太田、小山、富士、滨松、安城）
设立i-communications1990设立岐阜五十铃1991设立五十铃仓库
1992总经理交接
导入CI（将公司名从五十铃钢材（株）变更为五十铃（株）） 1996设立五十铃技术中心（现∶ITC）1998三菱商事出资比率扩大而强化了资产
企业间系统（BRIDGE）正式运行 1999设立Bell Info-Tech
2001更改使命与声明，发表“21世纪、经营调整模式”
变动集团组织（SS、LG、SL、LS部门）
成功开发出自动组刀 2003设立五十铃商务支援、五十铃经营管理服务2009NS九州铁板服务营业开始运行
人才战略推进机能从i-communications分离并设立为i-willing
2010发表长期经营目标――Will-Navi
五十铃集团自1988年起实行分社制，进一步强化与市场 紧密相连的服务体制。自2001年起，采用现在的四个部门体制，使对钢板流通应发挥的功能、服务更加明确，努力创造价值。
同时，谋求资本与经营的分离，引入执行董事制度，以期强化公司治理。
五十铃的董事会进行有关集团经营的决议。执行董事会决定执行责任人，进行经营的执行，还设置各委员会，追求执行事业活动的健全性与高效性。
五十铃集团
Keiyo Blanking Kogyo Co., Ltd. 钢材（厚板）加工及销售业务 日本
MC Metal Service Asia (Thailand) Co., Ltd. 钢材加工及销售业务 泰国
Metal One Corporation 钢铁产品业务 日本
Metal One responds to diverse customer needs and environmental changes with enhanced market-oriented strategies and trading-company capabilities through four business divisions that are organized by category based on demand. The company provides steel products in an optimal, streamlined, and stable manner and offers production, processing, distribution, and other functions and services.
As an integrated steel trading company and a leader in steel distribution, Metal One guarantees that it will be the customer’s strongest partner thanks to its ties to steel manufacturers and the distribution industry as well as its two shareholding firms and approximately 160 domestic and overseas Group companies.
Metal One Holdings America, Inc. 统管钢材加工及销售业务 美国
Metal One Pipe & Tubular Products Inc. 钢管、配管机械材料的综合商社 日本
Metal One Ryowa Corporation 钢材加工及销售业务 日本
Metal One Specialty Steel Corporation 特种钢加工及销售业务 日本
Metal One SSS West Japan, Ltd. 钢材（建材）加工及销售业务 日本
Metal One Steel Service Corporation 钢材加工及销售业务 日本
Metal One Structural Steel & Resource Corporation 钢材（建材）加工及销售业务 日本
M.O.TEC CORPORATION 建设材料的租赁与销售 日本
Siam Hi-Tech Steel Center Co., Ltd 钢材加工销售业务 泰国
Solutions Usiminas 钢材加工销售业务 巴西
Sus-Tech Corporation 钢材（不锈钢）加工及销售业务 日本
株式会社玉造 钢材（厚板）加工及销售业务 日本
株式会社九州钢材中心 钢材（厚板）加工 日本
九州制钢株式会社 钢材（建材）制造业务 日本
金属资源贸易本部
Mitsubishi Corporation RtM International Pte. Ltd. 金属资源贸易事业的统括子公司 新加坡
Mitsubishi Corporation RtM Japan Ltd. 面向本国的金属资源贸易事业公司 日本
NIKKEI MC ALUMINIUM Co., Ltd. 再生铝合金锭的生产与销售 日本
Triland Metals Ltd. 伦敦金属交易所（LME）经纪人业务 英国
Triland Metals is a London-based broker and market maker, specialising in the futures trading of non-ferrous metals. As a long established Ring Dealing Member of the London Metal Exchange and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mitsubishi Corporation, Triland is perfectly positioned to understand and respond to the needs of its customers around the world.
In addition to our broking, market making and risk management solutions, Triland provides customers with options, averaging and warrant services as well as up-to-date market information and research.
One company, with forty years of experience, working with customers in forty two countries across five continents. Dealing in three time zones, fluent in eight languages and with one over-riding purpose: helping customers to manage the risks of metals trading. Welcome to the facts and figures of Triland.
Triland Metals is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation (MC). MC is Japan's largest general trading company with over 200 bases of operations in approximately 80 countries worldwide. With over 500 group companies, MC employs a multinational workforce of approximately 54,000 people. MC has long been engaged in business with customers around the world in virtually every industry, including energy, metals, machinery, chemicals, food and general merchandise.
In 1971 MC saw the need to set up a specialist metals trading company to hedge against price movements in the metals markets. A triple alliance took place between companies in London, New York and Tokyo, and Triland Metals was born. The main office is in London and our subsidiaries are Triland Metals Americas Inc and Triland Metals Tokyo, giving us presence on the ground in key markets and in the three key time zones around the world.
Triland Metals customers are spread all over the world from Belgium to Brazil; from Chile to China and from Switzerland to South Korea. Our dealing team is multi-lingual, with eight languages spoken fluently including Japanese, Mandarin and most European languages, and we are available to trade whenever our customers need us.
Furuya Metal Co., Ltd. 贵金属加工业 日本
As our society becomes more information-driven, our lifestyles and industries are undergoing deep change. At the same time, environmental and energy conservation problems demand a global response. Furuya Metal monitors social and industrial change closely. Since our founding, contributing to the advance of science and technology and the prosperity of society through our industrial precious-metal products, especially platinum, has been part of our corporate philosophy.
Furuya Metal’s core products consist of precious metals. Among them are the platinum group metals (PGM, including platinum, iridium and ruthenium), gold, and silver. These outstanding metals tolerate very hot temperatures, are chemically stable, offer high electrical conductivity, and more. They support the development of leading-edge technologies like smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, and memory media like hard disks. These amazing materials make medical testing equipment, touch panel displays, LEDs, OLEDs, and chemical catalysts possible.
Output, however, is unevenly distributed, with the Republic of South Africa by far the largest producing country. And since overall production is also limited, precious metals are a very expensive mineral resource. Furuya Metal works with South African mining companies to form stable, direct supply routes for precious mineral resources. The technical know-how we have nurtured since our founding helps us make high-quality products. And we work constantly to provide a stable, optimally timed flow of products to our customers.
The applications of precious metals are expanding all the time. They are at work in the fields of electronic devices, semiconductors, the environment, clean energy, medicine, and more. Going forward, we are actively improving precious metal recycling technology to meet the demands of society and industry. Our research and development is exploring the potential of platinum, iridium, ruthenium, and other PGMs. Our new materials and technologies are key to developing state-of-the-art technology for future generations.
I look forward to your ongoing support so that we may prosper together.
金属资源第一本部
Compania Minera del Pacifico S.A. 铁矿石生产销售业务 智利
Iron Ore Company of Canada 铁矿石生产销售业务 加拿大
The Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) is Canada's largest iron ore producer and a leading global supplier of iron ore pellets and concentrate.
M.C. Inversiones Limitada 中南美的金属资源事业的运营公司 智利
Mitsubishi Development Pty Ltd 对以煤炭为主的金属资源进行投资、生产以及销售 澳大利亚
金属资源第二本部
JECO Corporation 对Minera Escondida Ltda. 铜矿（智利）进行投资的公司 日本
JECO 2 Ltd. 面向Escondida 铜矿（智利）投资的投资公司 英国
MC Copper Holdings B.V. 对Los Pelambres（智利）铜矿进行投资的公司 荷兰
MC Resource Development Ltd. 对Anglo American Sur, S.A.（智利）进行投资的公司 英国
Mozal SA 铝材的制造、销售 莫桑比克
Ryowa Development Pty., Ltd. 对Boyne 炼铝厂进行投资并销售铝材 澳大利亚
Ryowa Development II Pty., Ltd. 对Boyne 炼铝厂进行投资并销售铝材 澳大利亚
Hernic Ferrochrome (Pty) Ltd. 铭矿石的开采、铬铁（Ferrochrome）的制造和销售 南非共和国
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And his paths shall be many, and who shall know his name, for he shall be born among us many times, in many guises, as he has been and ever will be, time without end. His coming shall be like the sharp edge of the plow, turning our lives in furrows from out of the places where we live in silence. The breaker of bonds; the forger of chains. The maker of futures; the unshaper of destiny.
—from Commentaries on the Prophecies of the Dragon,
by Jurith Dorine,
Right Hand to the Queen of Almoren,
742 AB, the Third Age
Pedron Niall’s aged gaze wandered about his private audience chamber, but dark eyes hazed with thought saw nothing. Tattered wall hangings, once battle banners of the enemies of his youth, faded into dark wood paneling laid over stone walls, thick even here in the heart of the Fortress of the Light. The single chair in the room—heavy, high-backed, and almost a throne—was as invisible to him as the few scattered tables that completed the furnishings. Even the white-cloaked man kneeling with barely restrained eagerness on the great sunburst set in the wide planks of the floor had vanished from Niall’s mind for the moment, though few would have dismissed him so lightly.
Jaret Byar had been given time to wash before being brought to Niall, but both his helmet and his breastplate were dulled from travel and battered from use. Dark, deep-set eyes shone with a feverish, urgent light in a face that seemed to have had every spare scrap of flesh boiled away. He wore no sword—none was allowed in Niall’s presence—but he seemed poised on the edge of violence, like a hound awaiting the loosing of the leash.
Twin fires on long hearths at either end of the room held off the late winter cold. It was a plain, soldier’s room, really, everything well made but nothing extravagant—except for the sunburst. Furnishings came to the audience chamber of the Lord Captain Commander of the Children of the Light with the man who rose to the office; the flaring sun of coin gold had been worn smooth by generations of petitioners, replaced and worn smooth again. Gold enough to buy any estate in Amadicia, and the patent of nobility to go with it. For ten years Niall had walked across that gold and never thought of it twice, any more than he thought of the sunburst embroidered across the chest of his white tunic. Gold held little interest for Pedron Niall.
Eventually his eyes went back to the table next to him, covered with maps and scattered letters and reports. Three loosely rolled drawings lay among the jumble. He took one up reluctantly. It did not matter which; all depicted the same scene, though by different hands.
Niall’s skin was as thin as scraped parchment, drawn tight by age over a body that seemed all bone and sinew, but there was nothing of frailty about him. No man held Niall’s office before his hair was white, nor did any man softer than the stones of the Dome of Truth. Still, he was suddenly aware of the tendon-ridged back of the hand holding the drawing, aware of the need for haste. Time was growing short. His time was growing short. It had to be enough. He had to make it enough.
He made himself unroll the thick parchment halfway, just enough to see the face that interested him. The chalks were a little smudged from travel in saddlebags, but the face was clear. A gray-eyed youth with reddish hair. He looked tall, but it was hard to say for certain. Aside from the hair and the eyes, he could have been set down in any town without exciting comment.
“This . . . this boy has proclaimed himself the Dragon Reborn?” Niall muttered.
The Dragon. The name made him feel the chills of winter and age. The name borne by Lews Therin Telamon when he doomed every man who could channel the One Power, then or ever after, to insanity and death, himself among them. It was more than three thousand years since Aes Sedai pride and the War of the Shadow had brought an end to the Age of Legends. Three thousand years, but prophecy and legend helped men remember—the heart of it, at least, if the details were gone. Lews Therin Kinslayer. The man who had begun the Breaking of the World, when madmen who could tap the power that drove the universe leveled mountains and sank ancient lands beneath the seas, when the whole face of the earth had been changed and all who survived fled like beasts before a wildfire. It had not ended until the last male Aes Sedai lay dead, and a scattered human race could begin trying to rebuild from the rubble—where even rubble remained. It was burned into memory by the stories mothers told children. And prophecy said the Dragon would be born again.
Niall had not really meant it for a question, but Byar took it for one. “Yes, my Lord Captain Commander, he has. It is a worse madness than any false Dragon I’ve ever heard of. Thousands have declared for him already. Tarabon and Arad Doman are in civil war, as well as at war with each other. There is fighting all across Almoth Plain and Toman Head, Taraboner against Domani against Darkfriends crying for the Dragon—or there was fighting until winter chilled most of it. I’ve never seen it spread so quickly, my Lord Captain Commander. Like throwing a lantern into a hay barn. The snow may have damped it down, but come spring, the flames will burst out hotter than before.”
Niall cut him off with a raised finger. Twice already Niall had let him tell his story through, his voice burning with anger and hate. Parts of it Niall knew from other sources, and in some areas he knew more than Byar, but each time he heard it, it goaded him anew. “Geofram Bornhald and a thousand of the Children dead. And Aes Sedai did it. You have no doubts, Child Byar?”
“None, my Lord Captain Commander. After a skirmish on the way to Falme, I saw two of the Tar Valon witches.  Byar’s voice was firm and full of belief.  “Lightnings struck our ranks out of a clear sky. My Lord Captain Commander, what else could they have been?”
Niall nodded grimly. There had been no male Aes Sedai since the Breaking of the World, but the women who still claimed that title were bad enough. They prated of their Three Oaths: to speak no word that was not true, to make no weapon for one man to kill another, to use the One Power as a weapon only against Darkfriends or Shadowspawn. But now they had showed those oaths for the lies they were. He had always known no one could want the power they wielded except to challenge the Creator, and that meant to serve the Dark One.
“And you know nothing of those who took Falme and killed half of one of my legions?”
“Lord Captain Bornhald said they called themselves Seanchan, my Lord Captain Commander,” Byar said stolidly. “He said they were Darkfriends. And his charge broke them, even if they killed him.” His voice gained intensity. “There were many refugees from the city. Everyone I spoke to agreed the strangers had broken and fled. Lord Captain Bornhald did that.”
Niall sighed softly. They were almost the same words Byar had used the first two times about the army that had seemingly come out of nowhere to take Falme. A good soldier, Niall thought, so Geofram Bornhald always said, but not a man to think for himself.
“My Lord Captain Commander,” Byar said suddenly, “Lord Captain Bornhald did command me to stand aside from the battle. I was to watch, and report to you. And tell his son, Lord Dain, how he died.”
“Yes, yes,” Niall said impatiently. For a moment he studied Byar’s hollow-cheeked face, then added, “No one doubts your honesty or courage. It is exactly the sort of thing Geofram Bornhald would do, facing a battle in which he feared his entire command might die.” And not the sort of thing you have imagination enough to think up.
There was nothing more to learn from the man. “You have done well, Child Byar. You have my leave to carry word of Geofram Bornhald’s death to his son. Dain Bornhald is with Eamon Valda—near Tar Valon at last report. You may join them.”
“Thank you, my Lord Captain Commander. Thank you.” Byar rose to his feet and bowed deeply. Yet as he straightened, he hesitated. “My Lord Captain Commander, we were betrayed.” Hatred gave his voice a saw-toothed edge.
“By this one Darkfriend you spoke of, Child Byar?” He could not keep an edge out of his own voice. A year’s planning lay in ruins amid the corpses of a thousand of the Children, and Byar wanted to talk only of this one man. “This young blacksmith you’ve only seen twice, this Perrin from the Two Rivers?”
“Yes, my Lord Captain Commander. I do not know how, but I know he is to blame. I know it.”
“I will see what can be done about him, Child Byar.” Byar opened his mouth again, but Niall raised a thin hand to forestall him. “You may leave me now.” The gaunt-faced man had no choice but to bow again and leave.
As the door closed behind him, Niall lowered himself into his high-backed chair. What had brought on Byar’s hatred of this Perrin? There were far too many Darkfriends to waste energy on hating any particular one. Too many Darkfriends, high and low, hiding behind glib tongues and open smiles, serving the Dark One. Still, one more name added to the lists would do no harm.
He shifted on the hard chair, trying to find comfort for his old bones. Not for the first time he thought vaguely that perhaps a cushion would not be too much luxury. And not for the first time, he pushed the thought away. The world tumbled toward chaos, and he had no time to give in to age.
He let all the signs that foretold disaster swirl through his mind. War gripped Tarabon and Arad Doman, civil war ripped at Cairhien, and war fever was rising in Tear and Illian, old enemies as they were. Perhaps these wars meant nothing in themselves—men fought wars—but they usually came one at a time. And aside from the false Dragon somewhere on Almoth Plain, another tore at Saldaea, and a third plagued Tear. Three at once. They must all be false Dragons. They must be!
A dozen small things besides, some perhaps only baseless rumors, but taken together with the rest . . . Sightings of Aiel reported as far west as Murandy, and Kandor. Only two or three in one place, but one or a thousand, Aiel had come out of the Waste just once in all the years since the Breaking. Only in the Aiel War had they ever left that desolate wilderness. The Atha’an Miere, the Sea Folk, were said to be ignoring trade to seek signs and portents—of what, exactly, they did not say—sailing with ships half full or even empty. Illian had called the Great Hunt of the Horn for the first time in almost four hundred years, had sent out the Hunters to seek the fabled Horn of Valere, which prophecy said would summon dead heroes from the grave to fight in Tarmon Gai’don, the Last Battle against the Shadow. Rumor said the Ogier, always so reclusive that most common people thought them only legend, had called meetings between their far-flung stedding.
Most telling of all, to Niall, the Aes Sedai had apparently come into the open. It was said they had sent some of their sisters to Saldaea to confront the false Dragon Mazrim Taim. Rare as it was in men, Taim could channel the One Power. That was a thing to fear and despise in itself, and few thought a man like that could be defeated except with the aid of Aes Sedai. Better to allow Aes Sedai help than to face the inevitable horrors when he went mad, as such men inevitably did. But Tar Valon had apparently sent other Aes Sedai to support the other false Dragon at Falme. Nothing else fit the facts.
The pattern chilled the marrow in his bones. Chaos multiplied; what was unheard of, happening again and again. The whole world seemed to be milling, stirring near the boil. It was clear to him. The Last Battle really was coming.
All his plans were destroyed, the plans that would have secured his name among the Children of the Light for a hundred generations. But turmoil meant opportunity, and he had new plans, with new objectives. If he could keep the strength and will to carry them out. Light, let me hold on to life long enough.
A deferential tap on the door brought him out of his dark thoughts. “Come!” he snapped.
A servant in coat and breeches of white-and-gold bowed his way in. Eyes to the floor, he announced that Jaichim Carridin, Anointed of the Light, Inquisitor of the Hand of the Light, came at the command of the Lord Captain Commander. Carridin appeared on the man’s heels, not waiting for Niall to speak. Niall gestured the servant to leave.
 Behind the sunburst on the cloak’s breast lay the scarlet shepherd’s crook of the Hand of the Light, called the Questioners by many, though seldom to their faces. “As you have commanded my presence, my Lord Captain Commander,” he said in a strong voice, “so have I returned from Tarabon.”
Niall examined him for a moment. Carridin was tall, well into his middle years, with a touch of gray in his hair, yet fit and hard. His dark, deep-set eyes had a knowing look about them, as always. And he did not blink under the silent study of the Lord Captain Commander. Few men had consciences so clear or nerves so steady. Carridin knelt there, waiting as calmly as if it were an everyday matter to be ordered curtly to leave his command and return to Amador without delay, no reasons given. But then, it was said Jaichim Carridin could outwait a stone.
“Rise, Child Carridin.” As the other man straightened, Niall added, “I have had disturbing news from Falme.”
Carridin straightened the folds of his cloak as he answered. His voice rode the edge of suitable respect, almost as if he spoke to an equal rather than to the man he had sworn to obey to the death. “My Lord Captain Commander refers to the news brought by Child Jaret Byar, late second to Lord Captain Bornhald.”
The corner of Niall’s left eye fluttered, an old presage of anger. Supposedly only three men knew Byar was in Amador, and none besides Niall knew from where he came. “Do not be too clever, Carridin. Your desire to know everything may one day lead you into the hands of your own Questioners.”
Carridin showed no reaction beyond a slight tightening of his mouth at the name. “My Lord Captain Commander, the Hand seeks out truth everywhere, to serve the Light.”
To serve the Light. Not to serve the Children of the Light. All the Children served the Light, but Pedron Niall often wondered if the Questioners really considered themselves part of the Children at all. “And what truth do you have for me about what occurred in Falme?”
“Darkfriends, my Lord Captain Commander.”
“Darkfriends?” Niall’s chuckle held no amusement. “A few weeks gone I was receiving reports from you that Geofram Bornhald was a servant of the Dark One because he moved soldiers onto Toman Head against your orders.” His voice became dangerously soft. “Do you now mean me to believe that Bornhald, as a Darkfriend, led a thousand of the Children to their deaths fighting other Darkfriends?”
“Whether or not he was a Darkfriend will never be known,” Carridin said blandly, “since he died before he could be put to the question. The Shadow’s plots are murky, and often seem mad to those who walk in the Light. But that those who seized Falme were Darkfriends, I have no doubt. Darkfriends and Aes Sedai, in support of a false Dragon. It was the One Power that destroyed Bornhald and his men, of that I am sure, my Lord Captain Commander, just as it destroyed the armies that Tarabon and Arad Doman sent against the Darkfriends in Falme.”
“And what of the stories that those who took Falme came from across the Aryth Ocean?”
Carridin shook his head.  Some claim they were the armies Artur Hawkwing sent across the ocean a thousand years ago, come back to claim the land. Why, some even claim to have seen Hawkwing himself in Falme. And half the heroes of legend besides. The west is boiling from Tarabon to Saldaea, and a hundred new rumors bubble to the surface every day, each more outrageous than the last. These so-called Seanchan were no more than another rabble of Darkfriends gathered to support a false Dragon, only this time with open Aes Sedai support.”
“What proof have you?” Niall made his voice sound as if he doubted the point. “You have prisoners?”
“No, my Lord Captain Commander.  And certainly no one we’ve questioned would admit to supporting a false Dragon. As for proof . . . it lies in two parts. If my Lord Captain Commander will permit me?”
Niall gestured impatiently.
“The first part is negative. Few ships have tried to cross the Aryth Ocean, and most never returned. Those that did, turned back before they ran out of food and water. Even the Sea Folk will not cross the Aryth, and they sail wherever there is trade, even to the lands beyond the Aiel Waste. My Lord Captain Commander, if there are any lands across the ocean, they are too far to reach, the ocean too wide. To carry an army across it would be as impossible as flying.”
“Perhaps,” Niall said slowly. “It is certainly indicative. What is your second part?”
“My Lord Captain Commander, many of those we questioned spoke of monsters fighting for the Darkfriends, and held to their claims even under the last degree of the question. What could they be but Trollocs and other Shadowspawn, in some way brought down from the Blight?” Carridin spread his hands as if that were conclusive. “Most people think Trollocs are only travelers’ tales and lies, and most of the rest think they were all killed in the Trolloc Wars. What other name would they put to a Trolloc but monster?”
“Yes. Yes, you may be right, Child Carridin. May be, I say.” He would not give Carridin the satisfaction of knowing he agreed. Let him work awhile. “But what of him?” He indicated the rolled drawings. If he knew Carridin, the Inquisitor had copies in his own chambers. “How dangerous is he? Can he channel the One Power?”
The Inquisitor merely shrugged. “Perhaps he can channel, perhaps not. Aes Sedai could no doubt make people believe a cat could channel, if they wanted to. As to how dangerous he is . . . Any false Dragon is dangerous until he is put down, and one with Tar Valon openly behind him is ten times dangerous. But he is less dangerous now than he will be in half a year, unchecked. The captives I questioned had never seen him, had no idea where he is now. His forces are fragmented. I doubt there are more than two hundred gathered in any one place. The Taraboners or the Domani, either one, could sweep them away if they weren’t so busy fighting each other.”
“Even a false Dragon,” Niall said dryly, “is not enough to make them forget four hundred years of squabbling over possession of Almoth Plain. As if either of them ever had the strength to hold it.” Carridin’s face did not change, and Niall wondered how he could keep so calm. You will not be calm much longer, Questioner.
“It is of no import, my Lord Captain Commander. Winter keeps them all in their camps, except for scattered skirmishes and raids. When the weather warms enough for troops to move . . . Bornhald took only half his legion to their deaths on Toman Head. With the other half, I will hunt this false Dragon to his death. A corpse is not dangerous to anyone.”
“And if you face what it seems Bornhald faced? Aes Sedai channeling the Power to kill?”
“Their witchery doesn’t protect them from arrows, or a knife in the dark. They die as quickly as anyone else.” Carridin smiled. “I promise you, I will be successful before summer.”
Niall nodded. The man was confident, now. Sure the dangerous questions would already have come, if they were coming. You should have remembered, Carridin, I was accounted a fine tactician. “Why,” he said quietly, “did you not take your own forces to Falme? With Darkfriends on Toman Head, an army of them holding Falme, why did you try to stop Bornhald?”
Carridin blinked, but his voice remained steady. “At first they were only rumors, my Lord Captain Commander. Rumors so wild, no one could believe. By the time I learned the truth, Bornhald had joined battle. He was dead, and the Darkfriends scattered. Besides, my task was to bring the Light to Almoth Plain. I could not disobey my orders to chase after rumors.”
“Your task?” Niall said, his voice rising as he stood. Carridin topped him by a head, but the Inquisitor stepped back. “Your task? Your task was to seize Almoth Plain! An empty bucket that no one holds except by words and claims, and all you had to do was fill it. The nation of Almoth would have lived again, ruled by the Children of the Light, with no need to pay lip service to a fool of a king. Amadicia and Almoth, a vise gripping Tarabon. In five years we would have held sway there as much as here in Amadicia. And you made a dog’s dinner of it!”
The smile went at last. “My Lord Captain Commander,” Carridin protested. “How could I foresee what happened? Yet another false Dragon. Tarabon and Arad Doman finally going to war after so long merely growling at each other. And Aes Sedai revealing their true selves after three thousand years of dissembling! Even with that, though, all is not lost. I can find and destroy this false Dragon before his followers unite. And once the Taraboners and Domani have weakened themselves, they can be cleared from the plain without—”
“No!” Niall snapped. “Your plans are done with, Carridin. Perhaps I should hand you over to your own Questioners right now. The High Inquisitor would not object. He is gnashing his teeth to find someone to blame for what happened. He would never put forward one of his own, but I doubt he’d quibble if I named you. A few days under the question, and you would confess to anything. Name yourself Darkfriend, even. You would go under the headsman’s axe inside a week.”
There was sweat beading on Carridin’s forehead. “My Lord Captain Commander . . . ” He stopped to swallow. “My Lord Captain Commander seems to be saying there is another way. If he will but speak it, I am sworn to obey.”
Now, Niall thought. Now to toss the dice. Prickles ran across his skin, as if he were in battle and had suddenly realized that every man for a hundred paces around him was an enemy. Lord Captain Commanders did not go to the headsman, but more than one had been known to die suddenly and unexpectedly, swiftly mourned and swiftly replaced by men with less dangerous ideas.
“Child Carridin,” he said firmly, “you will make certain that this false Dragon does not die. And if any Aes Sedai come to oppose rather than support him, you will make use of your ‘knives in the dark.’ ”
The Inquisitor’s jaw dropped. Yet he recovered quickly, eyeing Niall in a speculative fashion.  To allow a false Dragon to roam free? That . . . that would be . . . treason. And blasphemy.”
Niall drew a deep breath. He could sense the unseen knives waiting in the shadows. But he was committed, now. “It is no treason to do what must be done. And even blasphemy can be tolerated for a cause.” Those two sentences alone were enough to kill him. “Do you know how to unite people behind you, Child Carridin? The quickest way? No? Loose a lion—a rabid lion—in the streets. And when panic grips the people, once it has turned their bowels to water, calmly tell them you will deal with it. Then you kill it, and order them to hang the carcass up where everyone can see. Before they have time to think, you give another order, and it will be obeyed. And if you continue to give orders, they will continue to obey, for you will be the one who saved them, and who better to lead?”
Carridin moved his head uncertainly. “Do you mean to . . . take it all, my Lord Captain Commander? Not just Almoth Plain, but Tarabon and Arad Doman as well?”
“What I mean is for me to know. It is for you to obey as you are sworn to do. I expect to hear of messengers on fast horses leaving for the plain by tonight. I am certain you know how to word the orders so no one suspects what they should not. If you must harry someone, let it be the Taraboners and Domani. It would not do to have them kill my lion. No, under the Light, we shall force peace between them.”
“As my Lord Captain Commander commands,” Carridin said smoothly. “I hear and obey.” Too smoothly.
Niall smiled a cold smile. “In case your oath is not strong enough, know this. If this false Dragon dies before I command his death, or if he is taken by the Tar Valon witches, you will be found one morning with a dagger in your heart.  “See that you remember it. Now, go!”
“As my Lord Captain Commander commands.” This time Carridin’s voice was not so steady.
The door closed behind the Inquisitor. Niall rubbed his hands together. He felt cold. The dice were spinning, with no way of telling what pips would show when they stopped. The Last Battle truly was coming. Not the Tarmon Gai’don of legend, with the Dark One breaking free to be faced by the Dragon Reborn. Not that, he was sure. The Aes Sedai of the Age of Legends might have made a hole in the Dark One’s prison at Shayol Ghul, but Lews Therin Kinslayer and his Hundred Companions had sealed it up again. The counterstroke had tainted the male half of the True Source forever and driven them mad, and so begun the Breaking, but one of those ancient Aes Sedai could do what ten of the Tar Valon witches of today could not. The seals they had made would hold.
Pedron Niall was a man of cold logic, and he had reasoned out how Tarmon Gai’don would be. Bestial Trolloc hordes rolling south out of the Great Blight as they had in the Trolloc Wars, two thousand years before, with the Myrddraal—the Halfmen—leading, and perhaps even new human Dreadlords from among the Darkfriends. Humankind, split into nations squabbling among themselves, could not stand against that. But he, Pedron Niall, would unite humankind behind the banners of the Children of the Light. There would be new legends, to tell how Pedron Niall had fought Tarmon Gai’don, and won.
“First,” he murmured, “loose a rabid lion in the streets.”
“A rabid lion?”
Niall spun on his heel as a bony little man with a huge beak of a nose slipped from behind one of the hanging banners.
“I showed you that passage, Ordeith,” Niall snapped, “so you could come when I summoned you without half the fortress knowing, not so you could listen to my private conversation.”
Ordeith made a smooth bow as he crossed the room. “Listen, Great Lord? I would never do such a thing. I only just arrived and could not avoid hearing your final words. No more than that.” He wore a half-mocking smile, but it never left his face that Niall had ever seen, even when the fellow had no reason to know anyone was watching.
A month before, in the dead of winter, the gangly little man had arrived in Amadicia, ragged and half-frozen, and somehow managed to talk his way through all the layers of guards to Pedron Niall himself. He seemed to know things about events on Toman Head that were not in Carridin’s voluminous if obscure reports, or in Byar’s tale, or in any other report or rumor that had come to Niall. His name was a lie, of course. In the Old Tongue, Ordeith meant “wormwood.” When Niall challenged him on it, though, all he said was, “Who we were is lost to all men, and life is bitter.” But he was clever. It had been he who helped Niall see the pattern emerging in events.
Ordeith moved to the table and took up one of the drawings. As he unrolled it enough to reveal the young man’s face, his smile deepened to nearly a grimace.
Niall was still irritated that the man had come unsummoned. “You find a false Dragon funny, Ordeith. Or does he frighten you?”
“A false Dragon?” Ordeith said softly. “Yes. Yes, of course, it must be. Who else could it be.”  Sometimes Niall thought Ordeith was at least half-mad.
But he is clever, mad or not. “What do you mean, Ordeith? You sound as if you know him.”
Ordeith gave a start, as though he had forgotten the Lord Captain Commander was there. “Know him? Oh, yes, I know him. His name is Rand al’Thor. He comes from the Two Rivers, in the backcountry of Andor, and he is a Darkfriend so deep in the Shadow it would make your soul cringe to know the half.”
“The Two Rivers,” Niall mused. “Someone else mentioned another Darkfriend from there, another youth. Strange to think of Darkfriends coming from a place like that. But truly they are everywhere.”
“Another, Great Lord?” Ordeith said. “From the Two Rivers? Would that be Matrim Cauthon or Perrin Aybara? They are of an age with him, and close behind in evil.”
“His name was given as Perrin,” Niall said, frowning. “Three of them, you say? Nothing comes out of the Two Rivers but wool and tabac. I doubt if there is another place men live that is more isolated from the rest of the world.”
“In a city, Darkfriends must hide their nature to one extent or another. They must associate with others, with strangers come from other places and leaving to take word of what they have seen. But in quiet villages, cut off from the world, where few outsiders ever go . . . What better places for all to be Darkfriends?”
“How is it you know the names of three Darkfriends, Ordeith? Three Darkfriends from the far end of forever. You keep too many secrets, Wormwood, and pull more surprises from your sleeve than a gleeman.”
“How can any man tell all that he knows, Great Lord,” the little man said smoothly. “It would be only prattle, until it becomes useful. I will tell you this, Great Lord. This Rand al’Thor, this Dragon, has deep roots in the Two Rivers.”
“False Dragon!” Niall said sharply, and the other man bowed.
“Of course, Great Lord. I misspoke myself.”
Suddenly Niall became aware of the drawing crumpled and torn in Ordeith’s hands. Even while the man’s face remained smooth except for that sardonic smile, his hands twitched convulsively around the parchment.
“Stop that!” Niall commanded. He snatched the drawing away from Ordeith and smoothed it as best he could. “I do not have so many likenesses of this man that I can allow them to be destroyed.” Much of the drawing was only a smudge, and a rip ran across the young man’s breast, but miraculously the face was untouched.
“Forgive me, Great Lord.” Ordeith made a deep bow, his smile never slipping. “I hate Darkfriends.”
Niall studied the face in chalks. Rand al’Thor, of the Two Rivers. “Perhaps I must make plans for the Two Rivers. When the snows clear. Perhaps.”
“As the Great Lord wishes,” Ordeith said blandly.
The grimace on Carridin’s face as he strode through the halls of the Fortress made other men avoid him, though in truth few sought the company of Questioners. Servants, hurrying about their tasks, tried to fade into the stone walls, and even men with golden knots of rank on their white cloaks took side corridors when they saw his face.
He flung open the door to his rooms and slammed it behind him, feeling none of the usual satisfaction at the fine carpets from Tarabon and Tear in lush reds and golds and blues, the beveled mirrors from Illian, the gold-leaf work on the long, intricately carved table in the middle of the floor. A master craftsman from Lugard had worked nearly a year on that. This time he barely saw it.
“Sharbon!” For once his body servant did not appear. The man was supposed to be readying the rooms.  Where are you?”
 The curses themselves shriveled as a Myrddraal took another step toward him with the sinuous grace of a serpent.
It was a man in form, no larger than most, but there the resemblance ended. Dead black clothes and cloak, hardly seeming to stir as it moved, made its maggot-white skin appear ever paler. And it had no eyes. That eyeless gaze filled Carridin with fear, as it had filled thousands before.
“Wha . . . ” Carridin stopped to work moisture back into his mouth, to try bringing his voice back down to its normal register. “What are you doing here?” It still sounded shrill.
The Halfman’s bloodless lips quirked in a smile. “Where there is shadow, there may I go.”  “I like to keep a watch on all those who serve me.”
“I ser . . . ”
It was no use.  A shiver ran down his spine, having his back to a Myrddraal. Everything was sharp in the mirror on the wall in front of him. Everything but the Halfman. The Myrddraal was an indistinct blur. Hardly soothing to look at, but better than meeting that stare. A little strength returned to Carridin’s voice.
“I serve the . . . ” He cut off, suddenly aware of where he was. In the heart of the Fortress of the Light. The rumor of a whisper of the words he was about to say would have him given to the Hand of the Light. The lowest of the Children would strike him down on the spot if he heard. He was alone except for the Myrddraal, and perhaps Sharbon—Where is that cursed man? It would be good to have someone to share the Halfman’s stare, even if the other would have to be disposed of afterwards—but still he lowered his voice. “I serve the Great Lord of the Dark, as you do. We both serve.”
“If you wish to see it so.” The Myrddraal laughed, a sound that made Carridin’s bones shiver. “Still, I will know why you are here instead of on Almoth Plain.”
“I was commanded here by word of the Lord Captain Commander.”
The Myrddraal grated, “Your Lord Captain Commander’s words are dung! You were commanded to find the human called Rand al’Thor and kill him. That before all else. Above all else! Why are you not obeying?”
Carridin took a deep breath. That gaze on his back felt like a knife blade grating along his spine. “Things . . . have changed. Some matters are not as much in my control as they were.”
The Myrddraal was drawing a hand across the tabletop, and thin tendrils of wood curled away from its fingernails. “Nothing has changed, human. You foreswore your oaths to the Light and swore new oaths, and those oaths you will obey.”
Carridin started at the gouges marring the polished wood and swallowed hard. “I don’t understand. Why is it suddenly so important to kill him? I thought the Great Lord of the Dark meant to use him.”
“You question me? I should take your tongue. It is not your part to question. Or to understand. It is your part to obey! You will give dogs lessons in obedience. Do you understand that? Heel, dog, and obey your master.”
Anger wormed its way through the fear, and Carridin’s hand groped at his side, but his sword was not there. It lay in the next room now, where he had left it on going to attend Pedron Niall.
The Myrddraal moved faster than a striking viper.  The scream never left his mouth, though, for the Halfman’s other hand gripped his chin and forced his jaws shut. His heels rose up, and then his toes left the floor. Grunting and gurgling, he dangled in the Myrddraal’s grasp.
“Hear me, human. You will find this youth and kill him as quickly as possible. Do not think you can dissemble. There are others of your children who will tell me if you turn aside in your purpose. But I will give you this to encourage you. If this Rand al’Thor is not dead in a month, I will take one of your blood. A son, a daughter, a sister, an uncle. You will not know who until the chosen has died screaming. If he lives another month, I will take another. And then another, and another. And when there is no one of your blood living except yourself, if he still lives, I will take you to Shayol Ghul itself.” It smiled. “You will be years in the dying, human. Do you understand me, now?”
Carridin made a sound, half groan, half whimper. He thought his neck was going to break.
With a snarl, the Myrddraal hurled him across the room. Carridin slammed against the far wall and slid to the rug, stunned. Facedown, he lay fighting for breath.
“Do you understand me, human?”
“I . . . I hear and obey,” Carridin managed into the carpet. There was no answer.
He turned his head, wincing at the pain in his neck. The room was empty except for him. Halfmen rode shadows like horses, so the legends said, and when they turned sideways, they disappeared. No wall could keep them out. Carridin wanted to weep. He levered himself up, cursing the jolt of pain from his wrist.
The door opened, and Sharbon hurried in, a plump man with a basket in his arms. He stopped to stare at Carridin. “Master, are you all right? Forgive me for not being here, master, but I went to buy fruits for your—”
With his good hand Carridin struck the basket from Sharbon’s hands, sending withered winter apples rolling across the carpets, and backhanded the man across the face.
“Forgive me, master,” Sharbon whispered.
“Fetch me paper and pen and ink,” Carridin snarled. “Hurry, fool! I must send orders.” But which? Which? As Sharbon scurried to obey, Carridin stared at the gouges in the tabletop and shivered.


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HornetEngine
Open Alpha
Open source framework for creating Tangible Interfaces
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Class representing a Vertex Shader More...
Public Member Functions | |
| VertexShader (string folder_id, string file) | |
| Public Member Functions inherited from HornetEngine.Graphics.Shader | |
| Shader (ShaderType type, string folder_id, string file) | |
| Constructs a new instance of Shader with specified parameters More... | |
| void | Dispose () |
| Deletes this Shader from the GPU unmanaged resources More... | |
Additional Inherited Members | |
| Properties inherited from HornetEngine.Graphics.Shader | |
| uint | Handle [get, protected set] |
| The shader internal program handle More... | |
| ShaderType | Type [get, protected set] |
| The type of shader [VERTEX, GEOMETRY, FRAGMENT...] More... | |
| String | Error [get, protected set] |
| The error string containing errors and warnings of the Shader during compile time More... | |
| ShaderStatus | Status [get, protected set] |
| Indication of the current shader program status More... | |
Class representing a Vertex Shader
| HornetEngine.Graphics.VertexShader.VertexShader | ( | string | folder_id, |
| string | file | ||
| ) |


Watch: Girl’s Pet Cat Licks Her Face To Reduce Acne Problem & Smoothen Skin
by Thermesh VelusamyTap to listen to this article instead: 🔊 Listen to Post
Skincare is expensive. Lemme just say that. Acne cream, moisturisers, toner, serum, Vitamin-B complex, exfoliating cream and the list goes on and on. And to cope with that, some of us find alternative treatment which works, and if it does, GOOD FOR YOU! This girl found a treatment method that’s… purrfect, I’d say?
Dinda from Indonesia has found a way to reduce her acne, which is getting her cat, Nia, to lick her face – and it worked!
According to her, the cat not only gets rid of acne but also softens her skin. Maybe it’s cute? Maybe?
This technique has been confirmed by none other than Dinda’s own sister, Debi, who said that Dinda has been letting her cat lick her face for the past three months and has seen that Dinda’s acne has apparently cleared up significantly.
Well, no judgement, so if it works for Dinda, good for her. The question is, how do I get my pet cat to willingly lick my face because I can’t afford any more skincare?
Also read: Guy Illustrates How His Adopted Cat Helped Him Deal With Depression and Anxiety


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This weekend I watched a thought provoking keynote from Chad Fowler: Legacy. In the talk, Chad compares the legacy of other craftsman professions (architect, painter, engineer) to that of software craftsman.
For each of those craftsman, the result of their work lives on for many years and in some cases surpasses their lifetime. How many software systems do you know of that have lasted that long?
What is "legacy?"
In software, we often look at systems that have been around for a few years as being "legacy," and that usually comes with a sense of distain and a desire to write anew. Is this the perspective we should have towards the software we write?
When a software system survives decades, or even a couple of years, why don't we celebrate it? It would not have survived that long if it didn't serve a purpose.
Software that leaves a legacy
Now, it's true that systems are often euthanized and replaced with new solutions for a good reason. But when that happens we throw away all of the time and energy that went into the original project. How can we avoid the "big rewrite" and leverage the previous work of a project?
As Chad points out, there are lessons to be learned from systems that successfully survive.
Simplicity
In most cases, these systems stick around because of their simple maintenenace and interface. If a something works, why change it? Generally, to keep something simple it needs to be small and contained. I think this is a reason we've seen more talk about Microservices recently.
Adaptability
These sustained systems can also change and adapt over time. Change is inevitable in technology; the change of hardware, for example, is something that we can't always plan for. So the easier a system's pieces are to change the more likely it won't need to be replace completely as part of a rewrite.
Career legacy
As I've been mulling over this topic the last few days it's brought to mind another interesting question. Is the software I write the only legacy of my career?
I sure hope not. While I definitely desire to improve my skills as a craftsman and produce even better work, the people I work with are more important.
So far in my relatively short career I've had the opportunity work with over a dozen apprentices and junior developers. Being able to impact and be impacted by them is much more fulfilling than any system I'll ever build.
In addition, I've had the opportunity to see the opposite side of the equation from my mentors. Each has had a significant influence in my thinking and growth, and not just in writing software but also in business, working with people, and leading by example.
Looking back
When I look back at the end of my career I hope to see both of these legacies:
- Lasting software systems designed to be simple and adaptable
- People whose careers I've helped elevate
Would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. See my contact info in the footer.