OpenReports is a flexible open source web reporting solution that allows users to generate dynamic reports in a browser. OpenReports uses JasperReports, an excellent full featured open source reporting engine, and was developed using leading open source components including WebWork, Velocity, Quartz, and Hibernate.

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It is providing a vet, a dog behaviourist and a nurse at next week’s inaugural session — in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. They will teach techniques to doting owners, hoping that this will result in superior communication with their dogs and fewer complaints about barking. The different noises made by dogs have been identified as grunts, whines, yelps, screams, howls, growls, coughs, barks, tooth snapping and panting.

While this cacophony might sound overwhelming to the untrained ear, dog owners will learn whether the sounds mean that their pet wants a walk, a wee or a fresh can of food.

Apparent meanings can include a friendly greeting, an invitation to play, a signal of distress or defence. Other noises indicate that the animal is under threat, submissive, wanting contact, attention seeking or contact seeking.

Dr. Pavlov Chompers will be UNDERSTOOD!

Barking, but your dog will understand - Britain - Times Online

Stratfor: Geopolitical Intelligence Report - May 16, 2006

Civil Liberties and National Security

By George Friedman

USA Today published a story last week stating that U.S. telephone
companies (Qwest excepted) had been handing over to the National
Security Agency (NSA) logs of phone calls made by American
citizens. This has, as one might expect, generated a fair bit of
controversy -- with opinions ranging from "It's not only legal but
a great idea" to "This proves that Bush arranged 9/11 so he could
create a police state." A fine time is being had by all. Therefore,
it would seem appropriate to pause and consider the matter.

Let's begin with an obvious question: How in God's name did USA
Today find out about a program that had to have been among the most
closely held secrets in the intelligence community -- not only
because it would be embarrassing if discovered, but also because
the entire program could work only if no one knew it was under way?
No criticism of USA Today, but we would assume that the newspaper
wasn't running covert operations against the NSA. Therefore,
someone gave them the story, and whoever gave them the story had to
be cleared to know about it. That means that someone with a high
security clearance leaked an NSA secret.

Americans have become so numbed to leaks at this point that no one
really has discussed the implications of what we are seeing: The
intelligence community is hemorrhaging classified information. It's
possible that this leak came from one of the few congressmen or
senators or staffers on oversight committees who had been briefed
on this material -- but either way, we are seeing an extraordinary
breakdown among those with access to classified material.

The reason for this latest disclosure is obviously the nomination
of Gen. Michael Hayden to be the head of the CIA. Before his
appointment as deputy director of national intelligence, Hayden had
been the head of the NSA, where he oversaw the collection and
data-mining project involving private phone calls. Hayden's
nomination to the CIA has come under heavy criticism from Democrats
and Republicans, who argue that he is an inappropriate choice for
director. The release of the data-mining story to USA Today
obviously was intended as a means of shooting down his nomination
-- which it might. But what is important here is not the fate of
Hayden, but the fact that the Bush administration clearly has lost
all control of the intelligence community -- extended to include
congressional oversight processes. That is not a trivial point.

At the heart of the argument is not the current breakdown in
Washington, but the more significant question of why the NSA was
running such a collection program and whether the program
represented a serious threat to l... [ Read More (2.0k in body) ]

Civil Liberties and National Security

Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is a Java software development framework that makes writing AJAX applications like Google Maps and Gmail easy for developers who don't speak browser quirks as a second language. Writing dynamic web applications today is a tedious and error-prone process; you spend 90% of your time working around subtle incompatabilities between web browsers and platforms, and JavaScript's lack of modularity makes sharing, testing, and reusing AJAX components difficult and fragile.

GWT lets you avoid many of these headaches while offering your users the same dynamic, standards-compliant experience. You write your front end in the Java programming language, and the GWT compiler converts your Java classes to browser-compliant JavaScript and HTML.

Google Web Toolkit - Build AJAX apps in the Java language

Pretty AJAX sequence diagram.

Modelworks Software Solutions: AJAX Tutorial

On Sunday, December 30, 1973 in an affluent suburb of London, a young man opened the front door of the mansion, where he was employed as a butler, only to be confronted by a young, dark-complexioned man with a gun. The man pointed the gun at the butler and demanded in heavily accented English, to be taken to Joseph Sieff, the owner of the house. Sieff at sixty-eight, was one of the most successful and influential Jewish businessmen in London. Not only was he the president of Marks and Spencer, one of the largest department stores in England but, more importantly to his uninvited guest, was also an honorary vice-president of the British Zionist Federation, an organization that had been instrumental in raising millions of pounds for Israeli charities.

A long summary of the career of Carlos the Jackal.

Carlos The Jackal: Trail of Terror

It's a mild, sunny winter afternoon in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Rocinha is hopping. People swarm through the narrow streets, vendors hawk their wares, music trickles out of apartment windows in buildings packed closely together.

At first glance, Rocinha is just another crowded neighborhood. Look again. It's actually a slum --one of the 500 to 600 "favelas" that dot the hills in and around Rio. Many of the buildings are badly in need of paint, there's little running water or basic plumbing, and drug lords are said to rule.

Still, many of Rio's poor clamor to live here. Rocinha isn't just another favela, but the "first world of favelas" -- South America's largest and most developed slum. Varying counts put the population anywhere between 150,000 to over 250,000 people.

The Brazilianist Magazine : Rocinha

Shows Rocinha in relation to the rest of Rio.

Rocinha Map | MyTravelGuide.com

Favela da Rocinha
This shows the biggest favela (shantytown) in Rio, which is in stark contrast to the much nicer houses along the beaches

Satellite map of Rocinha.

Favela da Rocinha -- Sightseeing with Google Satellite Maps

Another way to make CSV from SQL Server.

Microsoft SQL Server - Using COALESCE to Build Comma-Delimited String - SQLTeam.com