Comme le président, c'est un Fang, l'ethnie majoritaire du pays dont la population réside majoritairement sur la partie continentale du pays.

Le précédent gouvernement avait été limogé par le chef de l'Etat qui avait mis en cause sa probité et estimé qu'il avait un des "un des pires (gouvernement) jamais formés".

Le président Obiang a rappelé que parmi les membres du gouvernement certains ont été mêlés à des affaires de corruption, d'autres à des tentatives de déstabilisation du pays, évoquant ainsi l'implication d'un ministre dans la tentative de coup d'Etat du mercenaire britannique Simon Mann en mars 2004, et condamné lundi à 34 ans de prison.

En poste depuis août 2006, M. Mangué Obama était le premier Premier ministre fang depuis l'indépendance en 1968. Le Premier ministre était précédemment traditionnellement Bubi, l'ethnie de l'île de Bioko où se trouve la capitale Malabo.

M. Milam Tang, qui est actuellement à Madrid, doit rentrer à Malabo où il formera le nouveau gouvernement dans les prochains jours.

Les prochaines élections présidentielles sont prévues en 2009. Le PDGE et ses alliés avaient remporté, début mai, la quasi totalité des sièges aux élections législatives et municipales, ne laissant qu'un député à l'opposition.

Le président Obiang Nguema dirige le pays d'une main de fer depuis qu'il a renversé en 1979 son oncle Francisco Macias Nguema. Souvent critiquée pour des violations des droits de l'Homme, la Guinée équatoriale, pays très fermé et pauvre, est devenue le troisième producteur de pétrole d'Afrique subsaharienne.

Alkisah, Nabi Musa sedang memberikan pembekalan-pembekalan pada para muridnya. Tiba-tiba salah satu muridnya bertanya, siapakah MANUSIA paling DALAM ILMUNYA. Tentu saja dengan serta merta Nabi Musa menjawab “AKU”.

Jawaban beliau ternyata tidak berkenan di hadirat Alloh SWT. Nabi Musa pun ditegur atas jawaban tersebut karena menandakan kesombongan dan ketidaksadaran kerendahan dirinya dihadapan-Nya.

Oleh Alloh SWT kemudian beliau diperintahkan untuk bertemu dengan orang yang menurut-Nya memiliki kedalaman ilmu yang lebih dibandingkan Nabi Musa, yaitu Nabi Khidr. Maka atas perintah tersebut Nabi Musa berangkat menemuinya.

Setelah bertemu, Nabi Khidr setuju untuk menerima Nabi Musa belajar padanya. Tapi sebagai ujian sebelum secara resmi akan mengajari beliau, Nabi Khidr memberikan syarat selama masa perjalanan ujian tersebut Nabi Musa dilarang bertanya sampai tiga kali atas apa yang kemungkinan akan dilakukan oleh Nabi Khidr.

Nabi Musa pun setuju atas syarat dan kondisi tersebut. Maka mulailah perjalanan mereka untuk menguji layak atau tidakkah Nabi Khidr mengangkat Nabi Musa sebagai murid.

Seperti kita ketahui, ternyata Nabi Musa gagal menjadi murid Nabi Khidr karena tidak dapat menjalani syarat tersebut.

Banyak hikmah yang dapat kita renungkan dari kisah yang fenomenal ini. Fenomenal karena hanya ini satu-satunya kisah seorang nabi masih harus disuruh belajar lagi kepada nabi yang lain oleh Alloh SWT.

Banyak hikmah yang bisa kita renungkan dari kisah ini, diantaranya adalah:

1. Kesabaran

Pada saat Nabi Khidr memberikan syarat kepada Nabi Musa untuk tidak bertanya lebih dari tiga kali atas apa yang beliau lakukan hingga nanti diberi penjelasan adalah pelajaran penting tentang nilai kesabaran dalam belajar.

Proses belajar yang baik berawal dari kesadaran bahwa sang murid menyadari ada sesuatu yang tidak dia ketahui dan harus dipelajari. Berangkat dari kesadaran tersebut sang murid harus mulai melakukan pengkajian terhadap apa yang ingin dia pelajari.

Kegiatan ini dapat diibaratkan seperti menyiramkan air pada tanaman yang sedang kita tanam dan tumbuh-kembangkan. Jika tergesa-gesa dan terlalu banyak menyiram, air akan menggenang hingga akan membusukkan akarnya. Tentunya hal tersebut akan menyebabkan tanaman tersebut menjadi mati.

2. Kerendahatian

Alloh SWT pada saat memerintahkan Nabi Musa untuk belajar lebih mendalam memiliki tujuan untuk mengajarkan sikap rendah hati (tawadhu) kepada beliau.

Sikap rendah hati akan memberikan dampak kesadaran pada kita untuk terus-menerus mengembangkan ilmu, wawasan dan kearifan kita. Kita akan terus-menerus belajar dan mengembangkan etos pembelajar yang efektif.

Etos pembelajar yang efektif ini akan memberikan dukungan pada diri kita untuk mempelajari apa yang harus dipelajari. Memaknai apa yang dipahami dan memperdalam kebijaksanaan diri secara arif atas apa yang ada di sekitar kita.

3. Kepercayaan dan Ketaatan

Pada saat Nabi Khidr memberikan syarat untuk tidak bertanya lebih dari tiga kali kepada Nabi Musa, beliau berusaha menanamkan rasa percaya dan ketaatan kepadanya sebagai sang guru.

Disini dapat dilihat bahwa untuk mencapai proses belajar dan mengajar yang seimbang, sang guru dan sang murid harus mengembangkan rasa percaya dan taat yang seimbang.

Hal ini dapat memberikan hikmah kepada kita bahwa pada saat mengajarkan sesuatu maka harus dapat dipercaya kualitas keilmuannya. Kita sering tidak menyadari betapa besar dampak yang bisa kita timbulkan dari apa yang diajarkan kepada orang lain, baik itu positif maupun negatif.

Sang murid yang sedang belajar pun harus memiliki kepercayaan kepada apa yang disampaikan oleh sang guru. Kepercayaan itu tentunya harus dibarengi dengan ketaatan atas aturan-aturan yang ditetapkannya.

Tentunya sang guru dengan kedalaman ilmu, wawasan dan kearifannya memiliki pandangan-pandangan yang belum terlihat oleh keterbatasan pemahaman yang kita miliki sehingga menetapkan aturan-aturan yang secara mendasar sebenarnya memberikan tuntunan kepada sang murid.

4. Kearifan

Pada saat Alloh SWT memerintahkan Nabi Musa untuk berguru kepada Nabi Khidr, Dia memberikan beberapa petunjuk tentang tempat dan waktu untuk bertemu serta ciri-ciri calon gurunya tersebut.

Disini kita dapat mengambil hikmah bahwa dalam memilih guru dan mempelajari sesuatu harus dilakukan dengan kearifan. Kearifan ini akan menolong kita dari kemungkinan salah memilih guru atau mempelajari sesuatu yang sia-sia.

Karena itu dalam proses memilih sang guru dan ilmu yang ingin dipelajari harus melakukan telaahan yang mendalam atas kualitas dan nama baiknya.

5. Kejujuran dan Tanggung Jawab

Nabi Musa secara jujur mengakui kedangkalan ilmunya dibandingkan dengan Nabi Khidr pada saat diberi penjelasan atas tiga hal kontroversial (menurut Nabi Musa) yang dilakukan oleh calon gurunya itu.

Di sisi lain beliau pun bertanggung jawab atas akibat dari dilanggarnya syarat untuk menjadi murid Nabi Khidr yang berakibat ditolaknya beliau menjadi murid.

Dari sisi ini kita dapat mengambil pelajaran atas kejujuran dan tanggung jawab dalam proses belajar.

Secara jujur kita mengakui telah melakukan kesalahan hingga kemudian melakukan penerimaan serta perbaikan atasnya.

“Sesungguhnya setiap manusia adalah dalam keadaan yang merugi, kecuali orang-orang yang beriman dan melakukan amal saleh dan saling mengingatkan dalam kebenaran serta kesabaran”

First Impression is Key
A potential buyer will make important judgments and decisions about your home before having set foot inside.  The exterior of your home should be clean, inviting, and well-maintained.  Not only does a pretty home exterior look great, but it gives potential buyers an idea of the quality of the rest of the home.  If the exterior is well cared for and properly maintained, it is likely the interior will be as well.

Landscaping
Keep your lawn well manicured. Cut your grass regularly and use your ‘weed whacker’ to cut grass in tight corners and along fences, trees, and flower beds.  Rake up any leaves and sweep your sidewalk.  Remove any weeds that have popped up in between cracks in the sidewalk and your driveway.  Plant some flowers and weed your flower beds regularly.  If you have any features such as a bird feeder or bird bath be sure they are well maintained and look charming to potential home owners.

Your Front Entrance
The front entrance of your home should be clean and inviting.  Consider placing a charming welcome mat at the door.  Update outdated or worn hardware, lights and the doorbell with new, modern fixtures.  If you have a mailbox make sure it is clean and well maintained.

The Ultimate Face Lift
The most dramatic face lift you can give to the exterior of your property is a professional paint job.  A neutral color pallet is most appealing to the widest range of potential buyers so choose the color scheme very carefully.  Giving your siding, trim, shutters, garage door and front door a professional coat of paint will boost your home’s curb appeal to new levels.  This is not an area to cut corners to save a few dollars.  A home that has been poorly painted will be detrimental to the sale of your home. Hiring a professional, experienced painter is advised.

Get Top Dollar for your Home
These tips will make your home stand out from others on the market in your neighborhood.  A number of potential buyers usually create a ‘bidding war’ situation and therefore your home will sell for top dollar – putting more profit in your pocket and making your investment to update your home exterior pay off.

All the best,

Alfio La Spina
Alfio’s Quality Painting
Winnipeg, Manitoba
“Where Quality and Affordability Meet”

P.S Contact us today to set up your free estimate appointment to have your home exterior painted.

The Nordie who ironed a new shirt for a customer who needed it for a meeting that afternoon

The Nordie who cheerfully gift wrapped products a customer bought at Macy’s

The Nordie who warmed customers’ cars in winter while they finished shopping

The Nordie who made last-minute delivery of party clothes to a frantic hostess

The Nordie who refunded money for a set of tire chains -- although Nordstrom doesn't sell tire chains

You might convince yourself online shopping is all about convenience but are you doing enough to make your site sticky in customers’ minds?

You are probably more likely to see women playing with other women in the spanking community than you are seeing men doing the same. Come to think of it, I've never seen a man spank another man at any gathering I've been to. For a group of people that revel in their sexual freedom it seems kind of odd that you wouldn't see this more often.

The fear of rumors and snickering comments are probably the reasons you don't see men play publicly at parties. I have no doubt that they are playing because it stands to reason that if you have enough people gathered in one place for a particular purpose, you'll find pretty much any combination of play partners. They must be doing it in private to avoid any stigma that might be attached to them. People are more accepting of gay people but you still hear the gay themed comments used as jokes or put-downs on a pretty regular basis - especially when men are gathered together. In this regard, women can get away with a lot more because it's always been more acceptable and because women don't define their femininity the way men seem to define their masculinity - by connecting it with the opposite sex.

To answer my own question: Would I spank another man? It wouldn't bother me but it would depend on the person. If it was some cute guy and we were role playing Teacher/student or Dad/son then I could definitely get into that. I could probably go pretty hard with a guy, too - that might be interesting as well.

In the end, I'm too comfortable with my masculinity to care what other people might think about something that is pretty much my own business.

Kita menggunakan article a dengan kata-kata yang diawali huruf konsan

Contoh :

book ---> a book

toy    ---> a toy

Article an

Kita menggunakan article an dengan kata-kata yang dimulai dengan huruf vokal (a, e, i, o, u)

We use  the article an with words  that  begin with a vowel,

(a, e, l, 0  ,  u), for example  apple and orange  (an apple,

an  orange) .

Contoh :

apple    ---> an apple

orange  ---> an orange

]]> http://radspace.wordpress.com/?p=67 Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:50:52 +0000 radagast http://radspace.wordpress.com/?p=67 I had to give Sandy a quick OTK spanking this morning. If you want to know why, go to her blog: http://thiscatiscrazy.blogspot.com/

So, fellows out there, whatever happened that the once mighty US economy—once contributing to 40% of Gross World Product (GWP)—is now drifting downwards, producing now just 22% of GWP?  That the EU would itself catch up with the USA and equally produces 22% of GWP, though EU’s money is bloodily mightier than Uncle Sam’s once mythical Dollar?

As a matter of realistic forecasting, if trends today would continue across the globe, Asia would overshadow both the US and EU, as follows: China will overtake each one of them by 2015; India, by 2022; ASEAN, by 2030.

While the US ‘real economy’ keeps on contracting (and the EU’s stagnates), the Asian economies are still expanding. 100 years ago the Western thinkers Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee already forecast so sharply the ‘decline of the West’, while Daniel Bell foresaw in the 1950s-60s the rise of Asia-Pacific and its overtaking of the US 60 years hence (2005-2015 period). No one listened to them.

If we all recall, in the 1930s the great statesman Franklin Delano Roosevelt launched the ambitious New Deal. This program initiated gigantic growths in the ‘real economy’, solved unemployment, and led to high-growth and high-wage trends for sustained periods. By ‘real’ is meant the most productive sectors, namely: manufacturing/industry, agriculture, infrastructures, S&T, and transportation & communications.

By 1971, with enormous pressures from the financial cartels, the famed ‘gold standard’ was junked, the fixed exchange rate system was likewise junked in favor of ‘floating rate’, and after which serial liberalization of economic sectors and the bureaucracy went on in very radical fashion. This led eventually to the rise of the ‘virtual economy’ led by predatory finance, featuring hedge fund operations and ‘vulture funds’ to salve crisis-ridden financial enclaves more so overseas.

The ‘gambling economy’ based on speculation, conceit, lies, rather than based on the real value of consumable articles of trade, became the dominant modality in the USA. Debts and more debts piled up, since having no debt was moralized as bad behavior. Debs quadrupled in just a few decades, resulting to $5 Trillion worth of debts today.

How can an economy that churns out merely $12+ Trillion a year pay up for debts worth 4 times the GDP? It’s madness, blatant madness! The US economy is largely now a bubble, so gigantic that when it bursts, it can reveal the real flaws behind the ailments, and the weakness of the ‘real economy’ altogether.

The message to the next President & VP of the USA is to take down that ‘gambling economy’ or ‘virtual economy’ and quickly bring back the powerful ‘real economy’ in place. Failing to do that, Uncle Sam will be faced with many mass out-migrations beyond 2010, as true-blue Americans leave for more stable and promising jobs and businesses offshore. They’ve already began doing that in fact.

[Writ 05 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]

Jakarta - Sebanyak 43 perusahaan asuransi dinobatkan sebagai yang terbaik dengan predikat sangat bagus. Ke-43 perusahaan asuransi terbaik itu merupakan unggulan dari riset 126 perusahaan asuransi.

Pemeringkat perusahaan itu dilakukan oleh Infobank. Dalam rating ini dinilai 10 kriteria di antaranya yaitu RBC, rasio likuiditas, rasio cadangan teknis dengan aktiva lancar, rasio cadangan premi dengan retensi sendiri, perubahan pendapatan premi bruto, rasio premi retensi dendiri dengan modal sendiri, rasio investasi dengan cadangan teknis ditambah utang klaim, rasio beban klaim neto dengan premi neto, rasio beban pendapatan dengan pendapatan dan rasio laba dengan modal sendiri.

Demikian dikatakan oleh Direktur Biro Riset Infobank Eko B. Supriyanto dalam acara konferensi pers rating 126 asuransi versi InfoBank 2008, di Hotel Sahid Jaya, Jakarta, Selasa (24/6/2008).

Perusahaan asuransi terbaik itu di antaranya adalah :

Asuransi Jiwa Predikat Bagus

Premi bruto Rp 1 triliun ke atas

1. PT Prudential Life Assurance
2. AXA Mandiri Financial Service
3. Asuransi Jiwa Manulife Indonesia
4. Asuransi Jiwa Sinarmas
5. AIG Life

Premi bruto Rp 200 miliar sampai Rp 1 Triliun

1. Asuransi Cigna
2. Commonwealth Life
3. Asuransi Jiwa Bakrie
4. Asuransi Takaful Keluarga
5. AXA Life Indonesia
6. AXA Financial Indonesia
7. Asuransi Central Asia Raya
8. Asuransi Jiwa Adisarana Wanaartha
9. Asuransi Jiwa Bumi Asih Jaya
10. Equity Life Indonesia

Premi bruto di bawah Rp 200 miliar

1. UOB Life Sun Assurance
2. Asuransi Jiwa Bumiartha Reksatama
3. Asuransi Jiwa Nusantara

Asuransi umum predikat sangat bagus

Premi bruto di atas Rp 200 miliar

1. Asuransi Tugu Kresna Pratama
2. Asuransi Adira Dinamika
3. Asuransi Jasaraharja Putera
4. Asuransi MSIG Indonesia
5. Asuransi Jaya Proteksi
6. Asuransi Tokio Marine Indonesia
7. Asuransi Tri Pakarta
8. Asuransi Astra Buana
9. Asuransi Central Asia

Premi Bruto Rp 50 miliar sampai Rp 200 miliar

1. Asuransi Sompo Japan Insurance Indonesia
2. Citra International Underwriter
3. Panin Insurance
4. Asuransi Mitra Maparya
5. Asuransi Maipark Indonesia
6. Asuransi Permata Nipponkoa Indonesia
7. Asuransi Umum Mega
8. Asuransi Purnaartha Nugraha
9. Asuransi Samsung Tugu
10. Asuransi Bringin Sejahtera Arthamakmur

Premi bruto di bawah Rp 50 miliar

1. Asuransi Bhakti Bhayangkara
2. Asuransi Reliance Indonesia
3. Asuransi Dharma Bangsa
4. Arthagraha General Insurance
5. Asuransi Indo Trisaka
6. Asuransi Raya

Dari total 126 perusahaan asuransi yang disurvei terdapat 1 perusahaan asuransi jiwa yang berpredikat tidak bagus, dan ada 5 perusahaan yang tidak dilakukan rating. Sedangkan untuk asuransi umum terdapat 2 perusahaan yang berpredikat tidak bagus dan 9 perusahaan yang tidak mengeluarkan laporan keuangannya karena dalam proses likuidasi.

"Biasanya perusahaan asuransi yang tidak menyampaikan laporan keuangannya adalah mereka yang raport-nya merah atau sedang dalam proses likuidasi," ujar Eko.

Ia menambahkan dari sisi portofolio perusahaan asuransi sekarang relatif lebih baik karena menempatkan dana-dananya lebih variatif bukan hanya di deposito.

"Investasi di deposito hanya 14,45% sedangkan obligasi dan saham mencapai 28,61%, surat berharga pemerintah 18,82%, reksa dana 20,24% dan penyertaan langsung 8,09%," paparnya.

( hen / ir )

Whilst searching  through some old back up CDs I found this article I wrote back in 2000 whilst still working at Lotus for a investor website called EO News.  Like lots of other things to do the web at the time it got caught in the blast radius of the exploding dot com bubble as you'll discover if you click the link.  I think it's still as relevant today as it was then, who knows maybe more.

Power to the people
Tony Cocks  14/12/00 12:09:00
It is the human community that maketh the company. Those that put people first will reap the benefits of loyal staff and consistent shareholder value, says Tony Cocks, senior UK technology advocate at Lotus Development Corporation.

Some things are meant to last forever (diamonds, Reader's Digest subscriptions, our national suspicion of anything French) but it seems the companies we work for isn't one of them. A quick look at the list of corporate big hitters, the Fortune 500, shows a number of companies that, whether they like it or not, will have disappeared by the time the current crop of spotty youths start looking for employment.

But why?

According to Arie de Geus in his book The Living Company the average life expectancy of a business is 12½ years. Surely our highly paid company leaders can do better than that?

In the best traditions of formal statistics gathering I took a straw poll of the office - well actually the people sitting within shouting distance – to find out why companies seemed to have such a short life expectancy. Answers ranged from “the net”, “the global economy” and “those bloody start-ups stealing all the best staff”.

It might be any one of these reasons but they're a little simplistic. De Geus goes on to give what seems to be an uncomfortable but more insightful answer. The focus on profits and the bottom line, rather than on the human community that makes up a company, means the company can’t see beyond the next quarter or end of year target. Fix this says Richard Barrett, author of Liberating the Corporate Soul, and you might have the organisational version of the fountain of youth.

I know what you're thinking; it's just a bunch of new-age hippy rubbish, a sort of Feng Shui for business, and why should we care as long as the company turns a profit in a reasonable amount of time? The irony is that those companies who see the employee and not the shareholder as the centre of their business are those that return consistent shareholder value.

Now the assumption is that the way to make the people happy, and show you care, is to pay them lots of money, but that theory only holds water until someone else offers them more. A recent survey tried to find why people changed jobs and money came down in at about eighth place, number one was the relationship they had with their manager, so when people leave usually no amount of money will get them to stay.

For large companies the lessons to be learnt from this are tough ones that cannot be remedied quickly or easily, but the new smaller organisation can avoid these traps if it wants to. The first thing we must accept is that companies are living entities not Taylorist machines or, as some people believe, just machines with brains. Neither are they numbers on a bean counter’s spreadsheet or a share price to be milked for all it's worth.

Start-ups and their investors have a real opportunity to create a new way of working, where command and control management, corporate hierarchies and reserved car parking are a thing of past. OK, some people might think that having an organisation that's more like a co-operative and less like Cromwell's New Model Army is a load of nonsense, but these are the companies that have unsustainable staff turnover, inconsistent returns to shareholders and organisation charts the Polit Bureau would have been proud of.

Horner is well known as one of the top American professional cyclists in the world and is currently ranked #1 by USA Cycling. In 2003, Horner dominated the Men's National Racing Calendar with wins in several prestigious events including the Solano Bicycle Classic, Redland's Bicycle Classic, Tour de Georgia, and the T-Mobile International. For 2004, Horner will be riding for the Webcor Professional Cycling Team assuming the role of team leader. Originally from San Diego, California, Chris now makes his home in Bend, Oregon.

"We are extremely excited to have a rider of Chris' caliber and professionalism representing DMT and Upland Sports Group for the upcoming season," said Rob Carbone, VP Marketing for Upland Sports Group.

"I am excited to be wearing DMT shoes in 2004. The Ultimax RSX has a great reputation and they have lived up to it. Their stiffness and comfort is the best I've experienced. I can't wait until the first big race of the season," said Horner.

Upland Sports Group is a US based distributor established in March of 2002. In addition to DMT, Upland Sports Group currently represents other manufacturers of high-end cycling products. More information about Upland Sports Group and DMT can be found at www.uplandsg.com or by contacting them at (510) 903-0130.

Business Wire, Jan 20, 2004

source:http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2004_Jan_20/ai_112362669

Layer 1: Compiler warnings

Compiler warnings can help to spot many potential bugs. Crank your compiler warnings up to maximum sensitivity to get the most benefit.

Layer 2: Static analysis

Static analysis takes over where compiler warnings leave off, examining code in great detail looking for potential errors. An example static analyser is Gimpel PC-Lint for C and C++. PC-Lint performs hundreds of checks for known issues in C/C++ code. The flip side of it's thoroughness is that it can be difficult to spot real issues amongst the vast numbers of warnings and it can take some time to fine-tune the checking to a useful level.

Layer 3: Code review

A fresh set of eyes looking at your code will often spot problems that you didn't see. There are various ways to go about this, including formal Fagan inspections, Extreme Programming style pair programming and informal reviews. There is quite a lot of documented evidence to suggest that this is one of the most effective ways to find bugs. It is also an excellent way to mentor less experienced programmers. But it is time consuming and can be hard on the ego of the person being reviewed. Also it isn't really an option for solo developers

Layer 4: Self-checking

Of the vast space of states that a program can occupy, usually only a minority will be valid. E.g. it might makes no sense to set a zero or negative radius for a circle. We can check for invalid states in C/C++ with an assert() macro:

class Circle
{
    public:
        void setRadius( double radius );
    private:
        double m_radius;
}

void Circle::setRadius( double radius )
{
    assert( radius > 0.0 );
    m_radius = radius;
}

The program will now halt with a warning message if the radius is set inappropriately. This can be very helpful for finding bugs during testing. Assertions can also be useful for setting pre-conditions and post-conditions:

    void List::remove( Item* i )
    {
        assert( contains( i ) );
        ...
        assert( !contains( i ) );
    }

Or detecting when an unexpected branch is executed:

    switch ( shape )
    {
        case Shape::Square:
            ...
        break;

        case Shape::Rectangle:
            ...
        break;

        case Shape::Circle:
            ...
        break;

        case Shape::Ellipse:
            ...
        break;

        default:
            assert( false ); // shouldn't get here
        break;
    }

Assertions are not compiled into release versions of the software, which means they don't incur any overhead in production code. But this also means:

• Assertions are not a substitute for proper error handling. They should only be used to check for states that should never occur, regardless of the program input.
• Calls to an assert() must not change the program state, or the debug and release versions will behave differently.

Different languages have different approaches, for example pre and post conditions are built into the Eiffel language.

Layer 5: Dynamic analysis

Dynamic checking usually involves automatically instrumenting the code in some way so that it's runtime behaviour can be checked for potential problems such as: array bound violations, reading memory that hasn't be written to and memory leaks. An example dynamic analyser is the excellent and free Valgrind for Linux. There are a few dynamic analysers for Windows, but they tend to be expensive. The only one I have tried in the last few years was Purify and it was flaky (do IBM/Rational actually use their own tools?).

Layer 6: Unit testing

Unit testing requires the creation of a test harness to execute various tests on a small unit of code (typically a class or function) and flag any errors. Ideally the unit tests should then be executed every time you make a change to the code. You can write your own test harnesses from scratch, but it probably makes more sense to use one of the existing frameworks, such as: NUnit (.NET), JUnit (Java), QUnit (Qt) etc.

According to the Test Driven Development approach you should write your unit tests before you write the code. This makes a lot of sense, but requires discipline.

Layer 7: Integration testing

Integration testing involves testing that different modules of the system work correctly together, particularly the interfaces between your code and hardware or third party libraries.

Layer 8: System testing

System testing is testing the system in it's entirety, as delivered to the end-user. System testing can be done manually or automatically, using a test scripting tool.

Unit, integration and system testing should ideally be done using a coverage tool such as Coverage Validator to check that the testing is sufficiently thorough.

Layer 9: Regression testing

Regression testing involves running a series of tests and comparing the results to the same input data run on the previous release of the system. Any differences may be the result of bugs introduced since the last release. Regression testing works particularly well on systems that take a single input file and produce a single output file - the output file can just be diff'ed against the previous output.

Layer 10: Third party testing

Different users have different patterns of usage. You might prefer drag and drop, someone else might use right-click a lot and yet another person might prefer keyboard accelerators. So it would be unwise to release a system that has only ever been tested by the developer. Furthermore, the developer inevitably makes all sorts of assumptions about how the software will be used. Some of those assumptions will almost certainly be wrong.

There are a number of companies that can be paid by the day to do third party testing. I have used softwareexaminer.com in the past with some success.

Layer 11: Beta testing

End-user systems can vary in processor speed, memory, screen resolution, video card, font size, language choice, operating system version/update level and installed software. So it is necessary to test your software on a representative range of supported hardware + operating system + installed software. Typically this is done by recruiting users who are keen to try out new features, for example through a newsletter. Unfortunately it isn't always easy to get good feedback from beta testers.

Layer 12: Crash reporting

If each of the above 11 layers of defence catches 50% of the bugs missed by the previous layer, we would expect only 1 bug in 2,048 to make it into production code undetected. Assuming your coding isn't spectacularly sloppy in the first place, you should end up with very few bugs in your production code. But, inevitably, some will still slip through. You can catch the ones that crash your software with built-in crash reporting. This is less than ideal for the person whose software crashed. But it allows you to get detailed feedback on crashes and consequently get fixes out much faster.

I rolled my own crash reporting for Windows and MacOSX. On Windows the magic function call is SetUnhandledExceptionFilter. You can also sign up to the Windows Winqual program to receive crash reports via Windows' own crash reporting. But, after my deeply demoralising encounter with Winqual as part of getting the "works with Vista" logo, I would rather take dance lessons from Steve Ballmer.

Test what you ship, ship what you test

A change of a single byte in your binaries could be the difference between a solid release and a release with a showstopper bug. Consequently you should only ship the binaries you have tested. Don't ship the release version after only having tested the debug version and don't ship your software after a bug fix without re-doing the QA, no matter how 'trivial' the fix. Sometimes it is better to ship with minor (but known) bugs than to try to fix these bugs and risk introducing new (and potentially much worse) bugs.

Cross-platform development

I find that shipping my software on Windows and MacOSX from a single code base has advantages for QA.

• different tools with different strengths are available on each platform
• the Gnu C++ compiler may warn about issues that the Visual Studio C++ compiler doesn't (and vice versa)
• a memory error that is intermittent and hard to track down on Windows might be much easier to find on MacOSX (and vice versa)

Conclusion

For the best results you need your layers of checks to be part of your day-to-day development, not something you do just before a release. This is best done by automating them as much as possible, e.g.:

• setting the compiler to treat warnings as errors
• performing static analysis and unit tests on code check-in
• running regression tests on the latest version of the code every night

Also you should design your software in such a way that it is easy to test. E.g. building in log file output can make it much easier to perform regression tests.

Defence in depth can find a high percentage of bugs. But obviously the more bugs you start with the more bugs that will end up in your code. So it doesn't remove the need for good coding practices. Quality can't be 'tested in' to code afterwards.

I have used all 12 layers of defence above at some point in my career. Currently I am not using static analysis (I must update that PC-Lint licence), code review (I am a solo developer) and dynamic analysis (I don't currently have a dynamic analyser for Windows or MacOSX). I could also do better on unit testing. But according to my crash reporting, the latest version of PerfectTablePlan has crashed just three times in the last 5000+ downloads (the same bug each time, somewhere deep down in the Qt print engine). Not all customer click the 'Submit' button to send the crash reports and crashes aren't the only type of bug, but I think this is indicative of a good level of quality. It is probably a lot better than most of the other consumer software my customers use[1]. Assuming the crash reporting isn't buggy, of course...

[1]Windows Explorer and Microsoft Office crash on a daily basis on my current machine.

Alhamdulillah, thank you Allah for giving me time and strength to continue writing this blog. Today was an exciting and tiring day. I had training for Jabatan Agama Wilayah Persekutuan (JAWI)'s staffs at Masjid Wilayah. Today was the first time I enter the prayer hall. Subhanallah, it was so huge. Alhamdulillah, sempat menunaikan solat Tahiyyatul Masjid dan Dhuha. I was so impress with the design and facilities. Here are some pictures of Masjid Wilayah :

But then, sadly... when the Zohor prayer time came, only 2 saff sahaja? Where are those people nearby. If not mistaken Masjid Wilayah was surrounded by few government offices. That's the reality of Malaysia... The bigger the Mosque, the smaller the jamaah... Ngape la buat besar-besar. Apa yang ada pada kemegahan, pada kehebatan, Peringatan untuk diriku dan sahabat-sahabat lain... Sama-samalah kita memakmurkan rumah Allah...

Ada artikel yang menarik utnuk dikongsi bersama :

" SEORANG profesor fizik di Amerika Syarikat (AS) membuat satu kajian kelebihan solat berjemaah yang disyariatkan dalam Islam. Berdasarkan kajiannya, tubuh badan kita mengandungi dua cas elektrik, iaitu cas positif dan cas negatif. Dalam aktiviti harian kita, sama ada bekerja, beriadah atau berehat, sudah tentu banyak tenaga digunakan.

Dalam proses pembakaran tenaga, banyak berlaku pertukaran cas positif dan cas negatif, yang menyebabkan ketidakseimbangan dalam tubuh kita. Ketidakseimbangan cas dalam badan, menyebabkan kita berasa letih dan lesu selepas melakukan kegiatan seharian.

Oleh itu, cas ini perlu diseimbangkan semula untuk mengembalikan kesegaran tubuh ke tahap normal. Berkaitan dengan solat berjemaah, timbul persoalan dalam minda beliau, mengapa Islam mensyariatkan solat berjemaah dan mengapa solat lima waktu yang didirikan orang Islam mempunyai bilangan rakaat yang tidak sama.

Hasil kajiannya mendapati, bilangan rakaat berbeza dalam solat bertindak menyeimbangkan cas dalam badan kita. Ketika solat berjemaah, kita disuruh meluruskan saf, bahu bertemu bahu dan bersentuhan tapak kaki. Tindakan yang dianjurkan ketika solat berjemaah itu mempunyai pelbagai kelebihan.

Kajian sains mendapati sentuhan yang berlaku antara tubuh kita dengan tubuh ahli jemaah lain yang berada di kiri dan di kanan kita, akan menstabilkan kembali cas yang diperlukan oleh tubuh.

Ia berlaku apabila cas yang berlebihan – sama ada negatif atau positif akan dikeluarkan, manakala yang berkurangan akan ditarik ke dalam tubuh kita. Semakin lama pergeseran ini berlaku, semakin seimbang cas dalam tubuh kita.

Beliau berkata, setiap kali kita bangun dari tidur, badan kita akan berasa segar dan sihat selepas berehat beberapa jam. Ketika ini tubuh kita mengandungi cas positif dan negatif yang hampir seimbang. Oleh itu, kita hanya memerlukan sedikit lagi proses pertukaran cas supaya keseimbangan tubuh badan yang penuh dapat dicapai. Sebab itu, solat Subuh didirikan dua rakaat.

Seterusnya, selepas sehari kita bekerja kuat dan memerah otak, semua cas ini kembali tidak stabil akibat kehilangan cas lebih banyak daripada tubuh badan yang sudah digunakan. Oleh itu, kita memerlukan lebih banyak pertukaran cas. Solat jemaah yang disyariatkan Islam berperanan memulihkan keseimbangan cas berkenaan. Sebab itu, solat Zuhur didirikan empat rakaat untuk memberi ruang lebih kepada proses pertukaran cas di dalam tubuh.

Keadaan sama turut berlaku pada sebelah petang. Banyak tenaga dikeluarkan ketika menyambung kembali tugas. Ia menyebabkan sekali lagi kita kehilangan cas yang banyak. Seperti solat Zuhur, empat rakaat solat Asar yang dikerjakan akan memberikan ruang kepada proses pertukaran cas dengan lebih lama.

Lazimnya, selepas waktu Asar, kita tidak lagi melakukan aktiviti yang banyak menggunakan tenaga. Masa yang diperuntukkan pula tidak begitu lama. Maka, solat Maghrib hanya dikerjakan sebanyak tiga rakaat adalah lebih sesuai dengan penggunaan tenaga yang kurang berbanding dua waktu sebelumnya.

Timbul persoalan dalam fikiran profesor itu mengenai solat Isyak yang dikerjakan sebanyak empat rakaat. Secara logiknya, pada waktu malam kita tidak banyak melakukan kegiatan dan sudah tentu tidak memerlukan proses pertukaran cas yang banyak.

Selepas kajian lanjut dilakukan , didapati ada keistimewaan mengapa Allah mensyariatkan empat rakaat di dalam solat Isyak. Kita sedia maklum, umat Islam digalakkan tidur awal supaya mampu bangun untuk menunaikan tahajud (sembahyang malam) pada sepertiga malam.

Ringkasnya, solat Isyak sebanyak empat rakaat itu akan menstabilkan cas dalam badan serta memberikan tenaga untuk kita bangun pada waktu malam untuk beribadat (qiamullail).

Dalam kajiannya, beliau mendapati bahawa Islam adalah agama yang lengkap dan istimewa. Segala amalan dan suruhan Allah itu mempunyai hikmah yang tersirat untuk kebaikan umat Islam itu sendiri. Beliau berasakan betapa kerdilnya diri dan betapa hebatnya Pencipta alam semesta ini. Akhirnya, dengan hidayah Allah beliau memeluk agama Islam. "

You will also find accent rugs in modern and vintage style designs. There are also accent rugs that can be used for various parts of your house. For instance you will be able to place an accent rug in your entry way or foyer. Here the accent rugs will add some color to this section of the house and protect the floor or carpet underneath from this very high traffic area.

In addition to providing color and protection for your entry way there are different styles of accent rugs that you can use here. Since accent rugs are made from a number of different materials you can choose the one that will most suit the area. You should take into account the type of flooring or base that your accent rug will be placed on. For wood floors you will need to provide a rug pad underneath the accent rug so that you will not find your self slipping across the room when you step on it.

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Satu-satunya cara untuk meraih sukses sejati adalah dengan melakukannya setiap hari.
Yang perlu Anda ketahui untuk menjadi sukses yaitu Anda adalah apa yang Anda lakukan sehari-hari, mula-mula Anda membentuk kebiasaan kemudian kebiasaan itu membentuk Anda, membentuk kebiasaan sukses adalah semudah membangun kebiasaan gagal. Setiap hari Anda hidup, Anda sedang dalam proses menjadi sesuatu. Menjadi sesuatu yang yang lebih baik atau lebih buruk semuanya bergantung kepada apa yang Anda berikan untuk diri Anda sendiri.

Banyak orang sebelum Anda mencari kesuksesan dan tidak pernah menemukannya. Mereka membayangkannya seperti mencari kitab kuno atau mata air awet muda, sesuatu yang perlu diperoleh pada akhir petualangan yang panjang. Ada yang percaya bahwa sukses adalah seperti hubungan yang perlu dimenangkan. Sementara yang lainnya menganggapnya sebagai jabatan untuk diraih atau benda untuk dimiliki. Tetapi sukses bukanlah itu semua.

Sukses bukan tujuan untuk dicapai. Sukses adalah proses perjalanan untuk dilalui. Dan Anda sedang melaluinya setiap hari.
Perlu waktu yang lama bagi kebanyakan orang untuk mengetahui apa maksud Tuhan menciptakan mereka. Jika Anda mau, Anda dapat menjelajahi hal-hal di dalam dunia dan belajar lebih banyak mengenai tujuan hidup Anda setiap hari. Anda dapat terlibat di dalam kegiatan-kegiatan yang menolong pikiran, tubuh, dan batin Anda lebih bertumbuh. Dan Anda dapat menunjukkan dalam tindakan besar atau kecil yang menolong orang lain.

Sukses adalah mengetahui tujuan hidup Anda, menabur benih yang menolong orang lain, dan bertumbuh menuju potensi maksimum Anda. Pintu menuju pembebasan potensi Anda sedang menuju Anda. Kuncinya ada di perjalanan Anda. Temukan segera kunci itu. Jika Anda melakukannya, maka Anda sedang sukses hari ini. Andapun akan sukses esok hari.
Bagaimana mengeja SUKSES ?

S = Seleksi tujuan anda
U = Urutkan prioritas dan potensi Anda
K = Komitmen pada rencana anda
S = Siapkan perjalanan Anda
E = Ekspresikan visi dalam tindakan
S = Serahkan hasilnya pada Tuhan

Berikut ini adalah tujuh langkah sukses yang dapat Anda lakukan untuk mencapai kesuksesan Anda :
1. Buatlah komitmen utk bertumbuh / berkembang setiap hari.
Satu dari kekeliruan terbesar yang orang buat adalah memiliki fokus yang salah. Sukses bukan datang dari membeli, meraih, atau memperoleh sesuatu. Sukses datang sebagai hasil dari pertumbuhan. Jika Anda membuat sasaran untuk bertumbuh sedikit setiap hari, maka tak lama kemudian Anda akan mulai melihat hasil positif di dalam kehidupan Anda. Seperti ungkapan penulis puisi Robert Browning, "Untuk apa hidup di dunia kalau bukan untuk bertumbuh ?"

2. Hargai proses lebih dari peristiwa yang terjadi.
Peristiwa dalam suatu kurun waktu tertentu memang baik untuk diambil sebagai sumber pengambilan keputusan, tetapi proses perubahan dan pertumbuhan memiliki nilai yang kekal. Jika Anda ingin naik ke tingkat kehidupan selanjutnya, bertekadlah untuk terus menerus memperbaiki diri Anda.

3. Jangan menunggu inspirasi.
Pemain bola basket yang terkenal, Jerry West berkata, "Anda tidak melakukan banyak hal di hidup Nada, jika Anda hanya bekerja di hari-hari yang Anda rasakan baik". Orang-orang menjadi besar karena mereka memotivasi diri dan memberikan yang terbaik dari hidup mereka, tanpa menghiraukan apa yang mereka rasakan. Untuk menjadi sukses, berjuanglah.

4. Bersedia mengorbankan kesenangan demi kesempatan.
Satu dari pelajaran-pelajaran terbesar adalah prinsip : bayar sekarang, bersenang-senang kemudian. Dalam hidup ini, Anda harus membayar untuk segala hal. Bedanya hanyalah Anda membayar di muka atau di belakang. Jika Anda membayar sekarang, Anda akan mendapatkan imbalan yang lebih besar di kemudian hari dan imbalan itu juga terasa lebih manis.

5. Memiliki impian besar.
Memang tidak perlu membayar apa-apa untuk memimpikan hal-hal yang kecil. Robert J. Kriegel dan Louis Patler, penulis buku If It Ain't Broke, Break It, mengungkapkan, "Kita tidak memiliki acuan pasti mengenai sejauh mana keterbatasan manusia itu. Semua tes, stopwatch, dan garis finish tidak dapat mengukur potensi manusia. Ketika seseorang mengejar impiannya, mereka jauh melampaui apa yang kelihatannya menjadi keterbatasan mereka. Potensi yang ada di dalam kita tidak terbatas dan masih banyak yang belum dijelajahi. Saat mana Anda memikirkan keterbatasan, Anda sedang menciptakannya" .

6. Urutkan prioritas.
Satu kesamaan yang dimiliki semua orang sukses adalah mereka menguasai kemampuan mengorganisasi manajemen waktu. Yang pertama dan paling utama, mereka telah mengorganisasi diri mereka. Henry Kaiser, pendiri Kaiser Aluminium dan Kaiser Permanente Health Care, berkata, "Setiap menit yang diinvestasikan ke dalam perencanaan akan menghemat dua menit waktu pelaksanaan" . Anda tidak akan pernah memperoleh kembali waktu yang hilang, jadi optimalkan setiap waktu yang ada.

7. Berkorban untuk memperoleh peningkatan.
Tidak ada sesuatu yang berharga diperoleh tanpa pengorbanan. Hidup dipenuhi dengan kejadian-kejadian kritis ketika Anda akan mendapat kesempatan untuk menukarkan milik Anda yang berharga dengan yang lainnya. Tetap buka mata untuk kejadian-kejadian seperti itu dan selalu pastikan Anda sedang naik bukan turun.

Jika Anda mendedikasikan diri Anda kepada tujuh langkah diatas, Anda akan tetap meningkatkan diri Anda dan Anda akan sukses. Pertumbuhan mungkin tidak sepesat seperti yang lainnya, tetapi Anda akan melihat kemajuan Anda sendiri hampir dalam seketika. Dan meskipun pengakuan dari orang lain berlangsung dengan lambat, jangan putus asa. Tetap lakukan. Pada akhirnya, Anda akan sukses. [John C. Maxwell]

Sukses selalu,
Surya
www.suksesinternetm arketing. com

For daily inspirations, please visit:
http://www.wordofwisdoms.blogspot.com/

To enrich your potential, please visit:
http://www.wisdom-inspirations.blogspot.com/

"Bell claims its throttling of peer-to-peer applications is a reasonable form of network management. Google respectfully disagrees. Network management does not include Canadian carriers’ blocking or degrading lawful applications that consumers wish to use," the company wrote in a 15-page submission to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which was made public over the weekend.

"From consumer, competition and innovation perspectives, throttling applications that consumers choose is inconsistent with a content and application-neutral internet, and a violation of Canadian telecommunications law, which forbids unfair discrimination and undue or unreasonable preferences and requires that regulation be technologically and competitively neutral."

Net neutrality at stake

The Mountain View, Calif.-based search engine giant made the comments as part of an investigation by the CRTC into Bell's limiting of download speeds of peer-to-peer applications such as BitTorrent. Bell first started limiting the speeds — known as throttling — of its own Sympatico internet subscribers in November, then extended the practice to its wholesale customers in March. The company said growing usage by a small number of peer-to-peer users was threatening to cause slowdowns for its overall customer base.

That move prompted a complaint with the CRTC from the Canadian Association of Internet Providers, a group of 55 small ISPs who rent portions of Bell's network, and sparked the "net neutrality" battle over who controls the internet in Canada. Aside from Google, CAIP has attracted the support of thousands of users, consumer groups and other technology firms including internet calling provider Skype. Bell, on the other hand, saw fellow large ISPs Telus Corp. and Rogers Communications Inc. come to its defence last week.

Google said that in order to keep consumer choice and innovation alive on the internet, the CRTC must force Bell — and eventually other large ISPs — to end its throttling practices.

"The internet is simply too important to allow them to act as such a gatekeeper," the company said. "Protecting end user choice is the central issue in this proceeding, but also a much larger issue. It goes to the heart of the internet and how it acts as an extraordinary platform for innovation and fair competition."

A spokesman for Bell said the company plans to respond in its next submission to the CRTC, which is due on Thursday.

Telus, which says it does not limit the speeds of its internet subscribers, in its submission argued that Bell is within its rights to change how it delivers services to its wholesale customers. The notification of network changes required by the Telecommunications Act apply only to other network carriers, a status many of CAIP's members do not have.

"Customer relations matters that involve no network interface changes do not engage the network change notification requirements, and it would be inefficient and unwieldy to create new requirements in this regard," wrote Craig McTaggart, director of broadband policy for Telus.

The company argued there is no discrimination because Bell is treating its own Sympatico and wholesale customers the same. Telus also discounted arguments made by other parties who have made submissions to the CRTC, including Skype, that the traffic-inspection technology used by Bell violates users' privacy.

McTaggart noted that the current dispute should be limited specifically to the question of whether Bell is violating its wholesale agreement terms and should not be extended to other network owners, such as Telus.

"To the extent that this dispute may raise any policy issues relating to retail internet access services, Telus would expect the commission to initiate a proceeding by way of public notice/notice of consultation before establishing new rules of general application," he wrote. "However, in Telus' view, no such proceeding is necessary."

Other internet uses not affected: Rogers

Rogers, which also slows peer-to-peer applications, disputed claims by CAIP that such throttling affects services such as voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and virtual private networks (VPN).

"This equipment, therefore, does not impact any other traffic such as VoIP, VPN and other online streaming applications because their signatures are different," wrote Ken Engelhart, senior vice-president of regulatory affairs for Rogers. "There is therefore no reason why VPN or other encrypted traffic would be affected."

Engelhart also reiterated that Rogers does not throttle the downloading of files over peer-to-peer applications — it only slows uploading. However, because the download speeds of many applications are tied to the upload speed, the downloads are effectively slowed as well, which is the fault of the application's provider.

"Of course, because some P2P applications (BitTorrent for example) restrict download speed to the maximum upload speed provided by the user, a customer’s P2P download speed can be limited by the upstream cap, but that is a result of the business decision taken by the P2P applications provider," he wrote.

Bell has also been supported by network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc., which said the CRTC should refrain from imposing network management regulations.

Aside from Google and Skype, parties who have made CRTC submissions supporting CAIP include: the University of Western Ontario; the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic; the Union des consommateurs; Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc.; the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association; and the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance, which counts network equipment maker Alcatel Lucent among its members.

The CRTC expects to rule on the CAIP-Bell dispute in September and has said a larger investigation into net neutrality principles is likely.

For more on this read this article:http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/07/07/tech-crtc.html