Clearly, strategic planning is no panacea. Strategic planning is simply a set of concepts, procedures, and tools designed to help leaders, managers, and planners think and act strategically. Used in wise and skillful ways by a “coalition of the willing,” strategic planning can help organizations focus on producing effective decisions and actions that further the organization’s mission, meet in mandates, and satisfy key stakeholders. But strategic planning is not a substitute for strategic thinking and acting. Only caring and committed people can do that. And when used thoughtlessly, strategic planning can actually drive out precisely the kind of strategic thought and action it is supposed to promote.

Furthermore, strategic planning is not a substitute for leadership. There is simply no substitute for leadership when it comes to using strategic planning to enhance organizational performance. At least some key decision makers and process champions must be committed to the strategic planning process, or any attempts to use it are bound to fail.

In addition, strategic planning is not synonymous with creating an organizational strategy. Organizational strategies have numerous sources, both planned and unplanned. Strategic planning is likely to result in statement of organizational intentions, but what is realized in practice will be some combination of what is intended and what emerges along the way. Strategic planning can help organizations develop and implement effective strategies, but they should also remain open to unforeseen opportunities. Too much attention to strategic planning and excessive reverence for strategic plans can build organizations to other unplanned and unexpected—yet incredibly useful—sources of information, insight, and action.

The discipline necessary for strategic planning can be of two sorts. The first harkens back to Latin root of the word “discipline,” emphasizing instruction, training, education, and learning. The second embodies later interpretations of the word, emphasizing order, control, and punishment. Emphasis should be placed on education and learning, although there clearly are occasions when imposing order, taking control, and enforcing appropriate sanctions are appropriate. Certainly, key leaders, managers, and planners can best use strategic planning as an educational and learning tool, to help them figure out what is really important and what should be done about it. Sometimes this means following a particular sequence of steps and preparing formal strategic plans, but not necessarily. The ultimate goal of strategic planning should not be a rigid adherence to a particular process or an instance on the production of plans. Instead, strategic planning should promote wise strategic thought and action on behalf of an organization and its key stakeholders. What steps to follow, in what sequence, and whether or not to prepare formal plans are subsidiary concerns.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Last night’s ROOT cocktail making contest was a “spiritful” night out downtown. The local bartenders (from Bossa Nova, SOBA, Firehouse Lounge, Embery, Yo Rita and more) shook, stirred and poured the night away at Bossa Nova making some fanciful cocktail creations. The drinks included glassware from tall to small, and varied ingredients from ginger root to nutmeg to chocolate syrup. The judges, which included Rick Sebak of WQED TV, Liz Fetchin of Pittsburgh Magazine and Craig Mrusek of Dr. Bamboo, really seemed to enjoy all the drinks throughout the evening.

We sampled the different ROOT cocktails that were on the bar’s drink menu for the evening. All in all, ROOT makes a great mixer with a wide range of ingredients. While the Hard Candy cocktail (mixed with buttershots and soda) was too sweet for our tastes, The Root Squared (mixed with root beer) was delightfully refreshing. I can’t remember the name of my other drink unfortunately, but it was mixed with Myers rum and lemonade…Awesome! Depending on your mixers, the liqueur is great for summertime sipping or warming up a winter’s night. We can’t wait to get a bottle and experiment at home. And of course, what’s not to like about all the free food last night too. From quesadillas to sushi to some sort of crab ball things…excellent. Thanks to Bossa Nova for hosting this cool event, and thanks to ROOT for sponsoring it.

And click on the link to find out more about ROOT  liqueur. 

-jp

Hey Gang,

For Turkey Day 2009 I figured what better way to celebrate here at The Trash Cinema Collective than with the 1972 Anti-Drug, Pro-Christian, Mutant Killer Turkey film…Blood Freak!

That’s right, hold onto Plymouth Rock and prepare yourself for horrendous audio, unintelligible mumbling, bio-hazardous turkey meat, real life turkey decapitation, bible thumpers in red hot pants, sibling rivalry, turkey poking, mutant sex, cock blockage, a God live ever present narrator, the complimentary use of the term “husky”, real life amputees, lots of screaming, copious blood squirting, and poultry rage!

This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the indispensable help of Team Trash Cinema: Erica Andrus, Justin Falco and Terrius Greene whose performances bring this Thanksgiving Holiday Special to life. Thanks again, gang!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and Stay Trashy!

-The Primal Root

Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website.
Follow Gary on Twitter for songwriting tips, news and more.
__________________

An inverted chord means that you’ve moved the root of a chord to some upper position, leaving a note other than the root as the lowest sounding note. It’s a really great device that will add colour to your musical palette. But chord inversions have to be treated with a bit of care; randomly opting for an inversion can lead to a chord progression that sounds a bit disorganized.

A triad is a three-note chord that includes a root, a third and a fifth. For example, in C major, a C triad is comprised of a C, E and G played simultaneously. With the root on the bottom, you get this triad in its most stable position.

By moving the root upward and away from its bottom position, you now have the 3rd of the chord as the lowest-sounding note (C/E). This triad, called a first inversion triad, is slightly less stable, in the sense that we usually don’t end musical phrases with this type of chord. Ends of phrases need the solidity that comes from having the root at the bottom.

One other possibility for triads is to place the 5th at the bottom, and this gives us an even-less stable triad (C/G). This chord begs for a resolution to G (i.e., C/G  - G – C).

But to say that a triad is unstable is by no means a criticism. In fact, you will find that musical progressions sound fresh and interesting when they are comprised of a balance of root position and inverted chords. The question is… how do we know when to use them?

Here are some quick tips to guide you:

1. Use an inversion to animate a static bass line. If your progression requires your bass to do a lot of jumping by 4ths and 5ths, you can smooth this out and get the line moving by using an inversion. Here’s an example: C  F  C  G  C, with each chord played for 4 beats. Try modifying it with inversions (each chord played for 2 beats:) C  C/E  F  F/A  C  C  G  G/B  C
2. Use an inversion to make a boring progression more interesting. Related to point 1 above, if your progression has you dwelling on one chord for a long period of time, get the bass line involved by creating inversions.
3. If your melody line moves from the 3rd of a chord to an upper root of the chord, you can mirror that motion by moving the bass from the root of the chord up to the 3rd. It creates interesting interplay between melody and bass.

There are times when you need to be careful about using inversions:

1. If the melody and bass line are on the same note, don’t invert the next chord if it means both melody and bass move to the same note (i.e., avoid parallel octaves).
2. Be careful about leaping to inversions if there seems to be no good need or reason. For example, this might be hard to make work: C  F/A  Dm  G/B… etc. These inversions will often result in the ear being confused.
3. Avoid inversions if it means that the bass note following the inversion is an augmented 4th or diminished 5th away. In other words, this will be a bit hard on the ear: C  G/B  F, because the bass moving from the note B to F will be somewhat unpleasant.

Inversions can be a great way to make an otherwise boring progression a bit more interesting, and can get some motion in your bass line, but as with most elements at your disposal, be careful how you use it.
________________

Gary Ewer’s Songwriting E-books can clear up the mystery of chord progressions, melodies, lyrics and other vital elements of your songs. If you’re ready to unleash your songwriting potential, click here to read more.

If you’re into specialty spirits and cocktails, there’s a pretty cool event happening tonight. ROOT is hosting a Pittsburgh cocktail making competition at Bossa Nova downtown featuring of course, ROOT. I got a chance to try ROOT last weekend for the first time at Round Corner Cantina in Lawrenceville and I absolutely loved it. It’s organic, based in Pennsylvania history and from a Philadelphia company.  What’s not to love? And instead of going into lengthy detail about it, you can head over to the ROOT website for a cool video all about it, as well as get some great drink recipies: http://www.artintheage.com/spirits-aita/  This is one bottle of spirits that may need a permanent spot cleared for it in my liquor cabinet.

As for tonight’s details:

You’ll need to RSVP Laura Price @ laura@artintheage.com as they have limited space.

8-11pm on Tuesday, November 24rd @ Bossa Nova
$5 Root Cocktails. Complimentary appetizers. Raffle.

Judges Include:

Rick Sebak of WQED TV
Liz Fetchin of Pittsburgh Magazine
Craig Mrusek of Dr. Bamboo

Bossa Nova
123 7th St
Pittsburgh, PA 15222-3403
(412) 232-3030
www.bossanovapgh.com (their website is down)

-jp

I put this quote by Colleen-Joy Page with my photograph of a strong fever tree in Timbavati, to remind me that we need to be deeply rooted in who we are, know what our values are, what we want from our lives.  Only then can we become all we want to be.

Here are the list of useful commands frequently used during package management.

pkgadd

Adds software packages to the system

pkgrm

Removes software packages from the system

pkginfo

Displays software package information

pkgchk

Checks the accuracy of a software package installation

So, we’ll take an example to use above commands. I’ve a package called SUNWant.Z, which I want to install.

So I use the following syntax to add a package.

pkgadd -d SUNWant.Z

To check whether your package has been installed, you can use pkginfo and grep the output to find a specific package.

pkginfo | grep SUNWant

To check the accuracy of the package, you can use pkgchk command as:

pkgchk SUNWant

To remove above package, we have the pkgrm command to use:

pkgrm SUNWant

Refer the Sun documentation for further details.

Perhaps the most stunning song ever. And that’s saying something. Beautiful, emotional, catchy, drama-filled… has it all. Especially love her vocals at the end when she does that lovely scream type thing.

Björk - Jóga (Strings & Vocals)

Took Jaisal around the block for trik-or-treating.  His first Haloween.  Next year – he'll have to walk on his own.  The joy

Posted via email from Mayank Misra

Desde hace años, cada vez que se pone de moda un nuevo lenguaje de programación, junto a frameworks orientados al desarrollo web ágil y rápido, se suele decir que Java va a morir, en cambio, sigue ahí, y con más energía que nunca.

Ya pasó con Python y el framework Django, junto con Ruby y el famoso Rails, que además hacen jocosas parodias sobre el lenguaje Java, cuando en realidad Java es un lenguaje, una máquina virtual y una plataforma. Pero claro, si quieres hacer lo mismo que esos frameworks luego tendrías que añadir cualquiera de los cientos de frameworks que existen en el mundo Java: Hibernate, JPA, Spring, Struts, JSF, EJB,…

Pues bien, se acabó el rollo, con Spring Roo se puede realizar un desarrollo ágil igual que Django o Rails, pero llegando aún más allá. Incluye una consola donde, haciendo uso de autocompletado mediante TABs, puedes ir creando, paso a paso, todo lo necesario para implementar una aplicación web Maven2, haciendo uso de los frameworks tipo del mundo Java: Hibernate, Spring, MVC,… y con poco más que ir siguiendo los pasos que te indica la propia ayuda en línea de la consola.

El vídeo siguiente es muy autoexplicativo de la potencia y rapidez de Roo:

CC macro hopefully slightly improved since last I used it to very good effect on Heroic Faction Chumps.

#showtooltip
/use [mod:alt] Entangling Roots; [mod:shift] Cyclone; [target=focus, exists] Cyclone; Cyclone

If you have a focus target, it will try to Cyclone your focus target unless you have Shift pressed, in which case it will try to Cyclone your current target. If you don’t, it will try to Cyclone your current target, unless you have Alt pressed down to Root your current target. Pick a good dangerous focus target that causes people trouble but doesn’t have a boomkin already CC’ing it. Hit once after each 5-cp finisher on your main target if you’re assigned to kill stuff – for an instant good CC. Shift back, 5 more CP, finisher, instant Cyclone again.

Cool Hunter UI idea from wow.com:

Been laughing and digging this remix for a day or two now:

MP3:

http://mrvoletron.wordpress.com/files/2009/11/you-face-jaraxxus-voletron-remix.mp3

Looks like the vacant lot on the 'sea' side of the train station will be where Starwood will move its HQ.  The move is scheduled for 2012.  There is nothing there – guess they'll start work soon.  Maybe this move was the reason to further beautify the Mill river by removing the damn next door. 
All in all – it cam only mean good things for Stamford. 

–Mayank

Posted via email from Mayank Misra

Samsung Behold II

Da Unlockr ci arriva una semplice procedura per ottenere root su questo terminale.

I passaggi non presentano grosse difficoltà e trovate sia i file necessari che la procedura punto per punto qui.

Il problema più grosso? Quanti di voi hanno già questo terminale in Italia?

Grass has stopped growing,

As though time has cease.

Fall is the season of staying put

Except for the leaves that fell into pieces.

Snow is heavy as a deep depression.

Darkness grows thicker, and

Deeper as the freezing rain douse the night.

Yet, it is the beauty of this time at year end.

Somehow, I discover a simple pleasure.

Wondering how it all feels to the maple.

Twigs stark naked with a few swollen buds,

Poised for a season  I can’t quite measure.

Deep underground, rooted in the earth,

The strength of the maple has firm up.

Some say a good wind is the reason;

And that’s how I will think of this season.

This is T.A.G Mod version of 1.6 with a few Eclair 2.0 goodies and F.H.L’s simple installation guide.

Before we reveal the good stuff…

Disclaimer:

- T.A.G and F.H.L will not be held accountable for bricked devices, dead SD cards or any issues even remotely related to your Android from flashing this ROM so please do your research if you have any concerns about features included in this ROM.

- Please remember before flashing it! YOU are choosing to make these modifications so don’t blame anyone but yourself if you mess up your device.

F.H.L Installation Instructions:

What you will need:
- Cyanogen 1.4 Recovery (or higher) OR Amon_RA Recovery 1.2.3 (or higher).
- SDCard.
- A Android Device.
- Root – Find out more by clicking Here
- Astro File Manager – Download Here
- Knowledge!!!

Steps:
1 – Perform a Backup e.g – Nandroid etc
2 – Download T.A.G’s ROM (Posted Below)
3.1 – If downloading directly using your Android Rename the ROM (using Astro or any other file manager) to “TAG” and copy or move to SDCard (NOT inside a folder on the SD or this will make it invisible upon recovery), once you’ve done that power off your device.
3.2 – If downloading from a PC Rename the ROM to “TAG”, Mount your phone and copy or move the ROM to phone SDCard from PC (Again NOT inside a folder on the SD or this will make it invisible upon recovery).
4 – Reboot into recovery mode (Press both Home+Power at the same time and release upon a screen appearing) ensuring you have either Cyanogen 1.4 (or higher) recovery or Amon_RA 1.2.3 (or higher) recovery installed
5 – WIPE EVERYTHING!!!! (unless your coming from previous T.A.G build then ignore this unless we say otherwise).
6 – Select “Apply sdcard:choose zip” and pick “TAG” from the list
7 – Reboot

NOTE: The first reboot takes a little longer then normal, this is normal and will only happen once after each flash.

CHANGELOG

v1.6.2 – updated 19/11/2009:

- Removed stock 1.6 sms/mms Notifications

- Added 2.0 sms/mms Notifications (mms will show a “P” in the right hand corner of the notification icon).

- Added Modded 5 home screen launcher with Flip oreintation.

- Fixed Force close on setup, (Setup wizard FC).

- Fixed Google talk.

- Update more Icons to 2.0.

- Optimized ROM Over 50%, Should be pretty fast and responsive.

This Update was basically a fix, With a few extras.
In order to proceed with more effecient updates i will need to get feedback, what people want to see implemented, removed, changed or modded.
Leave a comment below and let me know.

Download: http://www.4shared.com/file/154968538/31f70bb9/TheANDROIDGuy-AOSP-ADP1162Signed.html

v1.6.1 – updated 18/11/2009:

Includes but is not limited to:

- Stock 2.6.29 Mod Kernel

- Bluetooth, Obexd/Obexd/Obex-Client/Obex_Test@System/Bin enables Bluetooth file sharing/Recieving.

- Tweaked Build props/Framework For performance.

- 2.0 Maps with Google Navigation included.

- Youtube from 2.0.

- Updated Most Icons for modern 2.0 look.

- I’m also aware it displays forceclose message upon start-up I’m working on it and hope to have it fixed next release for now though just click “Wait”.

Download: http://www.4shared.com/file/154460518/7aeb520a/TAG-16-AOSP-ADP1_Signed.html

Please note: I’m limited to what i can organize at the moment, Will update and organize when resourses become available.

If you have any issues/suggestions/feedback regarding this ROM please leave a comment below.

Like what I do? – Click Here To Donate Via PayPal/Credit Card

Follow us on twitter (click our name)
TheANDR0IDGuy
F.H.L

ScreenShots

I’ve been asked by a few people how do you obtain root, more so after posting the ROM.

I will put the method I used on my HTC Magic (32B) here for you all and those game can test it on other devices.

AGAIN I’VE ONLY DONE THIS ON MY HTC MAGIC 32B THEREFORE I AIN’T SURE IF OTHER DEVICES ARE THE SAME SET-UP SO TRY AT OWN RISK.

Also HTC Magics are split into groups there is those who will have 32B and those who will have 32A so find out what yours is before doing this as some ROMs ain’t compatible with the two different groups.

If you test the method below on a device that ain’t a HTC Magic 32B and it works leave a comment and tell me so I can tell others here, DON’T leave a comment if you messed up your phone cause of this.

Your doing this at YOUR OWN RISK I ain’t forcing you I can’t stress that enough (but I will).

Now I must tell you, you risk bricking your device which normally means its useless and unusable and if you root you void your warranty instantly in most countries.

I’m not responsible for any issues that may arise from this you do this at your own risk.

If you understand everything above move on to what’s below…one more time – at your own risk.

1. Download Astro File Manager by Clicking Here
2. Download Flash Recovery by Clicking Here
3. Download A ROM I recommend Cyanogen for beginners just Google “Cyanogen ROM”.
4. Back up your data, I recommend backing up everything including all your content on your SD.
5. Install Flash Recovery using Astro File Manager (should be located under downloads folder on your SD Card)
6. Open Flash Recovery
7. Click Flash Cyanogen 1.4 then wait till it says complete.
8. Ensure the ROM you choose in step 3 is on your SD card and not in a folder on your SD it has to be on the SD card to be visible on recovery.
9. Rename the ROM (using Astro file manager on the market) to “FHL09″
10. Switch off your phone…breath deeply 3times (at least I did, who knows it might bring luck)
11. Your phone should now be off and nothing on-screen
12. Now hold down Home (the button that looks like a house) and hold down power both at the same time and don’t release until your phone displays a picture on-screen (normally your service provider)
13. After that a menu with the android robot type logo in the background will display (if you get an image with a “!” In the middle of a triangle your phone AIN’T bricked however you will have to pull the battery out, put it back in, power on your device and restart from step 6 and follow the instructions CAREFULLY)
14. If you’re looking at this you must be passed step 13, from now on is the easy part (shocking huh).
15. Select Nandroid Backup and press home button then wait till it completes (this here is to get back stock super easy if you don’t like root)
16. Select “Apply sdcard:choose zip” and pick “FHL09″ from the list then wait till it installs it should say complete
17. Now click reboot or restart (its at the very top of the list)

DONE!!! WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF ROOT

The first start-up does take time and will after every flash of a ROM, further restarts will be faster.

If you try root and it’s not for you and you want stock back its easy if you followed step 15 above.

1. Switch off your device
2. Hold down Home and Power at the same time release upon screen appearing.
3. Select restore Nandroid backup and wait till its complete.
4. Now click reboot or restart (its at the very top of the list)

DONE!!! you will now have stock and would have lost root fully and need to start from step 1 in the first lot of steps above to gain it again should you want it.

This is T.A.G Mod version of 1.6 with a few Eclair 2.0 goodies and F.H.L’s simple installation guide.

Before we reveal the good stuff…

Disclaimer:

- T.A.G and F.H.L will not be held accountable for bricked devices, dead SD cards or any issues even remotely related to your Android from flashing this ROM so please do your research if you have any concerns about features included in this ROM.

- Please remember before flashing it! YOU are choosing to make these modifications so don’t blame anyone but yourself if you mess up your device.

F.H.L Installation Instructions:

What you will need:
- Cyanogen 1.4 Recovery (or higher) OR Amon_RA Recovery 1.2.3 (or higher).
- SDCard.
- A Android Device.
- Root – Find out more by clicking Here
- Astro File Manager – Download Here
- Knowledge!!!

Steps:
1 – Perform a Backup e.g – Nandroid etc
2 – Download T.A.G’s ROM (Posted Below)
3.1 – If downloading directly using your Android Rename the ROM (using Astro or any other file manager) to “TAG” and copy or move to SDCard (NOT inside a folder on the SD or this will make it invisible upon recovery), once you’ve done that power off your device.
3.2 – If downloading from a PC Rename the ROM to “TAG”, Mount your phone and copy or move the ROM to phone SDCard from PC (Again NOT inside a folder on the SD or this will make it invisible upon recovery).
4 – Reboot into recovery mode (Press both Home+Power at the same time and release upon a screen appearing) ensuring you have either Cyanogen 1.4 (or higher) recovery or Amon_RA 1.2.3 (or higher) recovery installed
5 – WIPE EVERYTHING!!!! (unless your coming from previous T.A.G build then ignore this unless we say otherwise).
6 – Select “Apply sdcard:choose zip” and pick “TAG” from the list
7 – Reboot

NOTE: The first reboot takes a little longer then normal, this is normal and will only happen once after each flash.

CHANGELOG

v1.6.1 – updated 18/11/2009:

Includes but is not limited to:

- Stock 2.6.29 Mod Kernel

- Bluetooth, Obexd/Obexd/Obex-Client/Obex_Test@System/Bin enables Bluetooth file sharing/Recieving.

- Tweaked Build props/Framework For performance.

- 2.0 Maps with Google Navigation included.

- Youtube from 2.0.

- Updated Most Icons for modern 2.0 look.

- I’m also aware it displays forceclose message upon start-up I’m working on it and hope to have it fixed next release for now though just click “Wait”.

Download: http://www.4shared.com/file/154460518/7aeb520a/TAG-16-AOSP-ADP1_Signed.html

Please note: I’m limited to what i can organize at the moment, Will update and organize when resourses become available.

If you have any issues/suggestions/feedback regarding this ROM please leave a comment below.

Like what I do? – Click Here To Donate Via PayPal/Credit Card

Follow us on twitter (click our name)
TheANDR0IDGuy
F.H.L

ScreenShots

http://wakabamac.blog95.fc2.com/?tag=root

危険なのであまりやってはいけません

F1 champ Jensen looking for a job?
Jensen is reportedly touring Maclaren. Maclaren is talking to Nick
as well for the one free seat alongside Hamilton.
Jensen’s retail mode for a racing seat means that his driving skills
were assessed to be less a part in him winning this years F1
championship than the ability of the superb car that Brawn put
together. I doubt that we’ll see a repeat for him or Hamilton next
year.
My bet is on Alanso.
With Barecello committed to Williams, both seats at Brawn seem to be
free. Kubica is with Renault which may or may not race next year.
BMW, Toyota and Bridgestone are out. Daimler to buy Brawn GP – wonder
what will happen to Maclaren’s R and D budget?
Can’t wait for March 2010.

Posted via email from Mayank Misra