Technology innovation and growing business opportunities had led the upsurge in the demand for web conferencing market. The growing need for face-to-face meeting with clients during work time had led the innovation of new tools that will help the customers to share idea had led to the adoption of the web conferencing process, which are viewed as the key factor impacting the growth the web conferencing market positively. According to Trends Market Research, the web conferencing market will register healthy pace during the forecast period, 2021-2028.
Factor fuelling growth of web conferencing market
For more info, Get PDF at: https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/sample/13477
The study is analyzing a range of micro-economic and macro-economic factor which will be influencing the growth of the global market for web conferencing for the approaching years. The constant technology innovation and need to strengthen productive content from the employees is the key factor responsible for the growth of the global web conferencing market. Business communication has become a new trend among the corporate company for productive software suits which is another driving factor for the growth of the global web conferencing market. Key benefits associated with the web conferencing will significantly drive more demand across the multiple industrial verticals. Growing international business collaboration will develop the chance for the platforms for the key applications such as training events, lectures, presentation and meeting that will continue to rev-up the demand for the web conferencing globally.
In foreseeable future, the increasing number of new players and rising stiff competition among the players can hamper the growth of the global web conferencing market. But, increase in adoption of the web conferencing in different fields of education and commercial sector had spread more know-how about the web conferencing and its usage in different industry.
You can Buy This Report from Here @ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/checkout/13477/Single
Regional analysis
The study further analyzing the global web conferencing market on the basis of applications, their usage in the region, on the basis of product type and the channel of distribution. The major Industries which are associated with the global web conferencing market includes, manufacturing, healthcare, pharmaceutical, education, financial services, and banking. An ongoing regional analysis being developed in the report reveals North America region as the leading market for web conferencing applications. A majority of manufactures in the global web conferencing market are based in countries such as Asia Pacific, Europe and Japan is expected to witness massive growth. Keeping in mind about the usage of technologies in educational institutions, IT companies and many other business firms to deliver productive work during face to face communication through computer.
Get Discount on This Report: https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/discount/13477
Market Players
Companies such as Voxeet,VenueGen, TimeBridge VenueGen, Teamviewer, Starlight Networks Starlive, OmNovia Technologies, RHUB Communications Inc.,Netviewer, Skype, Mikogo, Oracle Beehive, Intercall, BigBlueButton and others are expected to remain active in the expansion of global market for web conferencing.The ongoing study recognize eXo Platform with Weemo, VeriShow, IBM Sametime, ACT Conferencing, Genesys Meeting Center,GoToWebinar, Epiphan Sytive stems, Cisco WebEx,Elluminate, Calliflower, PowWow365 and Adobe Connect will remain the key market players in the global market for web conferencing. Owing to stiff competition companies such as Micrsoft Office Live Meeting, Acrobat Connect Profeshional, IBM, WEbEX MEetMe Now and Citrix GO To Meeting will offer outstanding service in the global market for web conferencing.

For better viewing experience, access this Weekly Recap through Promise Publications’ Website

Our Write-Up for this week - Who Is Your fromis_9 Travel Buddy?

9 Way Ticket

Performances

Fancam Playlist from last week’s Inkigayo (All Individual Fancams)
210531 - Simply K-pop - 'WE GO' Comeback Stage
210531 - Simply K-pop - 'WE GO' Fancam Playlist (Jiwon, Jisun, Chayoung and Group Fancams)
210601 - THE SHOW - 'WE GO' Comeback Stage
210602 - Show Champion - 'WE GO' Comeback Stage
210602 - Show Champion - 'WE GO' Fancam Playlist (Saerom, Jiwon and Nagyung Fancams)
210603 - M Countdown - 'WE GO' Comeback Stage
210603 - M Countdown - 'WE GO' Fancam Playlist (Hayoung, Chaeyoung, Jiheon and Group Fancams)
210604 - Music Bank - 'WE GO' Comeback Stage
210604 - Music Bank - 'WE GO' Group Fancam
210605 - Show! Music Core - 'WE GO' Comeback Stage
210606 - Inkigayo - 'WE GO' Comeback Stage

Official Music Show Photos

210527 - M Countdown Photos
210530 - Inkigayo Photos

News

210531 - fromis_9 to Hold a 6th Regular Fansign Event
Off The Record Entertainment announced this Monday, May 31, that a sixth regular fansign event will be held by fromis_9 during 9 Way Ticket promotions.
In the same format as the previously announced fansigns, fans will have to order the group’s latest album on a specific Korean store to apply. 60 lucky winners will be picked through a random draw.
Following all the COVID-19 guidelines, each event will be divided into two parts, with no more than 30 fans allowed into the venue at the same time. Attendees will have their temperature checked, and will only be allowed entry if they have no fever, are wearing masks, and used hand sanitizer beforehand. Direct contact with the artists is forbidden and a transparent screen will be installed between artists and fans for maximum protection.
Sales for the event are running on WithDrama online store until June 2 and winners will be announced on June 3. The event will be held on June 6 at Dongja Art Hall.
 

YouTube

Official Video

210605 - 'Airplane Mode' Special Video

Jisun ASMR

210531 - It’s the first time with this mic, right? Listen well : ) / blue yeti / bubble sound

FM_1.24

210604 - '9 WAY TICKET' (Jacket Shooting Behind Part 2)

Instagram

Official Instagram

210601 - Yeoreumi (Translation)
210601 - Nagyung Birthday Posts

• Hayoung (Translation)
  
• Jiwon (Translation)
  
• Jisun (Translation)
  
• Seoyeon (Translation)
  
• Jiheon (Translation)
  

210602 - fromis_9
210603 - Hayoung and Jiwon (with DinDin) (Translation)
210603 - Jiwon (with Miyeon) (Translation)
210604 - fromis_9
210604 - Chaeyoung and Nagyung (with Moonbyul) (Translation)
210605 - fromis_9 (Translation)

Individual Instagram

210531 - Saerom - One Two Three (Translation)
210531 - Hayoung (Translation)
210531 - Jisun

• 1st Post - One Two Three
  
• 2nd Post - One Two Three (Translation)
  

210531 - Jisun Story Update
210601 - Chaeyoung
210601 - Nagyung (Translation)
210602 - Saerom (Nagyung Birthday Posts) - One Two Three (Translation)
210602 - Saerom Story Update
210602 - Hayoung Story Update
210602 - Jisun Story Update
210602 - Jiheon Story Updates - One Two
210602 - Jiheon
210603 - Hayoung - One (Translation) Two (Translation)
210603 - Gyuri
210603 - Jiwon (Translation)

• Miyeon’s Comment (Translation)

210603 - Jiheon (Translation)
210604 - Saerom Story Update
210604 - Gyuri
210605 - Jisun

• 1st Post - One Two Three
  
• 2nd Post - One Two Three (Translation)
  

210605 - Chaeyoung
210605 - Jiheon (Translation)
210606 - Jiheon (Translation)

Twitter

210531 - Jiwon May Wallpaper (Translation)
210601 - Hayoung, Jiwon, Jisun and Jiheon (Translation)
210601 - Nagyung Birthday Posts

• Nagyung Official Birthday Post
  
• Chaeyoung - One Two Three (Translation)
  

210601 - fromis_9

• Awesome Haeun Group Photo (Translation)
  
• The K-POP THE SHOW Group Photo
  

210602 - fromis_9 (Translation)
210603 - Hayoung and Jiwon (Translation)
210603 - Seoyeon (Translation)
210603 - fromis_9 (Translation)
210603 - Simply K-Pop Unrevealed Mission Cam - Hayoung Jisun Jiheon
210604 - fromis_9

• Dingdong! See you at 9PM KST (Translation)
  
• KBS Music Bank Group Photo (Translation)
  

210605 - fromis_9

• Group Photo (Translation)
  
• Group Photo (with Tae Jin-ah) (Translation)
  
• MBC Show! Music Core Group Photo (Translation)
  
• 'Airplane Mode' Special Video (Translation)
  

210605 - Saerom and Seoyeon (Translation)
210606 - fromis_9 (Translation)

V LIVE

210601 - Naguyng Birthday V LIVE with ENG SUB
210601 - Naguyng V LIVE POST (Translation)
210606 - fromis_9

Fancafe

210602 - Jisun

Weibo and Douyin

210602 - Jiheon

MISC

210531 - fromis_9 via M2MPD
210531 - fromis_9 - Arirang Simply K-pop CON-TOUR in Vietnam via ARIRANG K-POP
210531 - fromis_9 - Show Champion Teaser via ALL THE K-POP
210601 - Nagyung Photo Collection via fromis_9 Facebook Page
210601 - SBS PowerFM Choi Hwajeong's Power Time

• Full Cut
  
• Hayoung, Jiwon, Jisun and Jiheon Pics - One Two
  

210601 - The Show

• Group Photo (Translation)
  
• Individual Selfies - One Two Three
  

210601 - fromis_9 - Na Haeun 'WE GO' Dance Cover via [Awesome Haeun]어썸하은
210602 - fromis_9 Emoticon Set 2 via fromis_9 Facebook Page
210602 - Gyuri, Jiwon, Seoyeon and Jiheon - Show Champion Pick Up Time! via ALL THE K-POP
210602 - Hayoung and Jiwon - SBS PowerFM DinDin's Music High
210603 - Hayoung and Jiwon (Translation) via dindin_musichigh
210603 - fromis_9 via _Simplykpop
210603 - fromis_9 - fromis_9 X Dance Kang via 땡깡DanceKang
210603 - fromis_9 - The Show Behind (shot on 210525)
210604 - fromis_9 via pactrosbims
210604 - Naver NOW Studio MoonNight

• Full Cut
  
• Group Photo via kr_now
  

210605 - SBS Radio Park Sohyun’s Love Game

• Full Cut
  
• lovegame1077 Instagram Posts
  

210606 - fromis_9 - The Show Behind (shot on 210525)
210606 - Hayoung and Gyuri - Rocket Punch ‘Ring Ring’ Challenge via official_rocketpunch
210606 - Jiwon and Chaeyoung - Bling Bling ‘Oh MAMA’ Challenge via blingbling.official
Japanese Radio Appearances

• 210531 - fromis_9 - FM COCOLO COCOLO EARTH COLORS (Translation)
  
• 210603 - fromis_9 - Radio Osaka Happy Plus
  
• 210605 – CROSS FM「これ韓」
  
• 210605 – FM NORTHWAVE「Colours of Korea」
  

English Subtitles now available

210528 - fromis_9 V LIVE

fromis_9 Media Links

Era Mega Threads
Live Performances
Discography
Variety/Video Media

Last Week’s Discussion & Recap

210531 - Weekly flover Discussion Thread
210530 - Weekly Recap

This Week’s Upcoming Schedule

210607 - Weekly Idol Suprise Live - PM KST (Exact time undisclosed)
 
 
Prepared by Promise Publications
Contributors: u/JJ_432, u/Kvera19, u/michyeo31 and u/PKBrad
Editor: u/michyeo31
Special thanks to from_usSUBS, Fiq and Aaron for the translations.
Follow us on Twitter and visit our website for more flover-made content!

I have not written in a very long time and a silly writing prompt this morning inspired me to write what ended up being almost 1500 words before work. I actually liked what I wrote, which had me more concerned than if I had not. So was hoping for a little feedback. Be as cruel as you like!
....
[WP] You're the one in charge of finding new ways to squeeze more horses into all these car engines.
I glance down at my phone praying to see a notification light, but the stupid thing stares back at me blankly, mocking me and my hopes. I swear I am going to get a new one this one most certainly has a gremlin in it or something that hates me.
Mr. Ford’s disapproving tone quiet’s the room. “Mike. Was there something interesting on your lap?”
“No, Sir. Sorry, sir.”
His eyes linger on me for another second before turning and nodding to my nemesis. I can feel the cold sweat running down my back, making what I must say are extremely comfortable chairs less than comfortable. I should ask Sheila to order me one for my office.
“Carry on Mr. Sandanski.”
“Anyway, as I was saying before Mike interrupted us. My division has spent our time well. We have managed to improve on the tried and true inline 3. We have changed the arrangement of the horses in the engine and placed them in a dual inline 3 formation.”
Mr. Ford clearly perks up at this. “You have managed to get six horses in the engine?”
I can not bring myself to focus on this tripe anymore and glance down at my phone again. Everyone tells me to retire or to change my career. Saying all this stress is bad for you. I always thought fitting horses into tiny boxes to power cars would be stressful but that’s not the cause of all the ulcers or the receding hairline.
No, it’s the mortgage I can barely afford, it is Allice’s lifestyle she must keep up, the ballet for Melissa the private schools the… a vibration breaks me out of my train of thought. A simple message flicks across the screen.
Tylor: The court ruled in our favor (Smiley Emoticon)
I can not help the smile that springs to life on my face. Sam flinches as he makes eye contact with me throwing off his presentation. Pushing back the chair I clear my throat.
Everything stops and all eyes are on me, It is these perfect moments that make this job worthwhile.
Mr. Ford’s disapproving look is now a full-fledged glare, It is perfect. “Well Mike, is there something wrong?”
I slowly stand from behind the conference table adjusting my tie. “Well yes. There actually is. Mr. Sandasnki’s team seems to have done a fine job with an evolutionary step on a tried and true engine design. It has been a staple of the industry since your great grandfather brought it to the market and truly brought affordable horsepower to the people. More horses in a single column facing forward inside an engine are by far the safest bet.”
I pause and nod to all the faces in the room. Eye contact is key. Executives always feel the need to believe they are the smartest people in the room.
“Though you will have to increase the size of the engine to fit more horses which will necessitate a heavier car by design. How this will help you win LeMans I am not sure. I mean Ferrari has won so many times now they even have a horse as an emblem. But I am sure Mr. Sandasnki’s safe bet will somehow pull through for you.”
I waited patiently for the question that was inevitable. Sam was the first to break.
I laughed to myself, if looks could kill I would have suffered a slow death from him.
“I suppose you have some better solution. You can only get so many horses into an engine!”
I could not help myself as I snapped at Sam. “Of course, you can only get so many horses into an engine! It is not like we have infinite space!”
That is not a bad idea. I should see if we can develop infinite space or a pocket dimension to store horses. A horse pocket maybe?
Getting myself back under control I smile again. “Sorry Sam that was uncalled for it has been a rough couple of weeks. You know wife and kids and all.”
A few of the faces smile back or nod in agreement. I let out a little breath I did not even realize I was holding.
“Anyway, there is a better solution.”
Walking over to Sam I casually take the remote out of his hand and load up my presentation. Pointing the remote over my shoulder I load the first slide. It is all about presentation after all.
“I give to you the V-12. 12 horses in a vertical configuration taking up about thirty percent more engine room but delivering four and a half times the horsepower.”
Sam stood there, mouth hanging open for a moment before he began laughing. “How would that even work? The horses are not even pointed in the correct direction. Your math must be off there are only 4 times the horses of the inline 3! Where would the extra power even come from? Can horses even survive standing on an incline like that?”
I nodded along in understanding at all his objections, the suits did so as well. Though I was surprised at the simplicity of his questions, no wonder he was such a poor horse engineer.
Mr. Ford looks at me. That look of disdain completely gone, replaced with curiosity as his mind went to work. “Yes Mike, I would like to hear how you intend to solve those problems?”
“Oh well, those were probably the easiest hurdles to overcome. The answers are simpler than most would expect. Pixie dust, treadmills, yoga, and a 5-year horse breeding program.”
One of the nameless suits in the room chose to speak up with probably the only relevant piece of information that was floating around in his head. “How can we use pixie dust IBM owns that patent?”
Huh, that question was way more helpful than I thought it would be. “Well as you stated IBM does own the patent on Pixie dust it just so happens though it is not actually pixie dust. So, my team spent some time hunting down an actual Pixie and hired them onto our team. We filed a patent dispute using our Pixie as the hurt party. The court has just ruled in our favor and we now have access to real pixie dust.”
I took a moment to let the buzz settle down. “we have also taken our development time to breed a stronger yet more compact horse that falls completely in line with the exact wording of the Lemans rules. The Yoga program for the horses lets us easily bend them into place during the installation on the treadmills. We then use a common shaft down the center of the engine to connect the treadmills.”
The room had gone completely silent. Sam’s face had gone pale. Maybe I would treat myself to a good single malt and a cigar when I got home or get away from the wife and kids on the boat. The question I had been waiting for finally arrives breaking me out of my thought. It was Mr. Ford of course.
“So how soon can you have a working prototype?”
I smile and bask in the moment. “Well, we have a working prototype, and sir if I can say so I am very proud of it. If you come over here to the window.”
I walk over knowing they will follow. Curiosity always wins out. I look down at the black car sitting by itself in the parking lot. The culmination of five years worth of work and god only knows how many hours of lawyers. Well, Tylor might know, poor kid signed on as a horse engineer and ended up as legal liaison.
There was quiet as they look down the lot below. “Sir, may I present to you your answer to Ferrari and a guaranteed win, The Mustang.”
I spent the obligated amount of time basking in my praises until it was clear they were just repeating themselves. Yes, it was a very good day. I let them be and closed the conference room door.
…
Mr. Ford looked around the room. “So did he say pixies are real and he hired one?”
Sam spoke up. “yeah, I think he did. Also, how do you teach yoga to horses?”
“Well, he is an asshole, but he is also a genius.”
Sam built up the nerve to ask. “Does his smile creep anyone else out? It's like a Viper smiling at you.”

Technology innovation and growing business opportunities had led the upsurge in the demand for web conferencing market. The growing need for face-to-face meeting with clients during work time had led the innovation of new tools that will help the customers to share idea had led to the adoption of the web conferencing process, which are viewed as the key factor impacting the growth the web conferencing market positively. According to Trends Market Research, the web conferencing market will register healthy pace during the forecast period, 2021-2028.
Factor fuelling growth of web conferencing market
The study is analyzing a range of micro-economic and macro-economic factor which will be influencing the growth of the global market for web conferencing for the approaching years. The constant technology innovation and need to strengthen productive content from the employees is the key factor responsible for the growth of the global web conferencing market. Business communication has become a new trend among the corporate company for productive software suits which is another driving factor for the growth of the global web conferencing market. Key benefits associated with the web conferencing will significantly drive more demand across the multiple industrial verticals. Growing international business collaboration will develop the chance for the platforms for the key applications such as training events, lectures, presentation and meeting that will continue to rev-up the demand for the web conferencing globally.
Click Here to Get Sample Premium Report @https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/sample/13477
In foreseeable future, the increasing number of new players and rising stiff competition among the players can hamper the growth of the global web conferencing market. But, increase in adoption of the web conferencing in different fields of education and commercial sector had spread more know-how about the web conferencing and its usage in different industry.
Regional analysis
The study further analyzing the global web conferencing market on the basis of applications, their usage in the region, on the basis of product type and the channel of distribution. The major Industries which are associated with the global web conferencing market includes, manufacturing, healthcare, pharmaceutical, education, financial services, and banking. An ongoing regional analysis being developed in the report reveals North America region as the leading market for web conferencing applications. A majority of manufactures in the global web conferencing market are based in countries such as Asia Pacific, Europe and Japan is expected to witness massive growth. Keeping in mind about the usage of technologies in educational institutions, IT companies and many other business firms to deliver productive work during face to face communication through computer.
You can Buy This Report from Here @https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/checkout/13477/Single
Market Players
Companies such as Voxeet,VenueGen, TimeBridge VenueGen, Teamviewer, Starlight Networks Starlive, OmNovia Technologies, RHUB Communications Inc.,Netviewer, Skype, Mikogo, Oracle Beehive, Intercall, BigBlueButton and others are expected to remain active in the expansion of global market for web conferencing.The ongoing study recognize eXo Platform with Weemo, VeriShow, IBM Sametime, ACT Conferencing, Genesys Meeting Center,GoToWebinar, Epiphan Sytive stems, Cisco WebEx,Elluminate, Calliflower, PowWow365 and Adobe Connect will remain the key market players in the global market for web conferencing. Owing to stiff competition companies such as Micrsoft Office Live Meeting, Acrobat Connect Profeshional, IBM, WEbEX MEetMe Now and Citrix GO To Meeting will offer outstanding service in the global market for web conferencing.
Request For Report Discounts @https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/discount/13477
About Us
Trends Market Research has the distinguished objective of providing the optimal quality market research reports to clients. Our market research studies by products, services, applications, technologies, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to know more, see more, and do more, which further help answer the important questions you have about the industry. Our Research Analysts are eager to share their knowledge and assist you in making strategic decisions and to lead you company toward a greater endeavour. We bridge the gap between our clients and their clients by identifying and decoding just the target group, while generating leads with the highest accuracy.
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I wrote a suggestion on how to create a Space Marine OC (the whole thread is a good reading for aspiring fan authors so I'll link it), and it got me thinking about writing within the 40K setting. Back in the day when Black Library still had their own forum, I saved Matt Farrer's annotation of the Turkey City Lexicon (the original, pre-internet version of TV Tropes). I searched the subreddit for it earlier with no results, so I'll share it again here.
—
Please note: The Turkey City Lexicon is specifically, explicitly non-copyright and is encouraged to be shared/reposted/expanded. Posting it here in its entirety violates no copyright legislation in any country - in fact, Matt Farrer himself asked us to share it with our fellow writers. Hat off to you, Mr Farrer, for your contributions to the 40K lore from a longtime fan.
—
[Originally posted to Black Library Online, November 2004, by user Matt Farrer]
The Turkey City Lexicon (Annotated with some Games Workshop observations)
The Turkey City Lexicon is a terminology guide that’s been floating around in one form or another since the late eighties (Google will turn up plenty of hits if you want to see one of the original copies; I got this one from the SFWA website). The Lexicon is deliberately not copyrighted and is intended to be copied at will and passed on to other writers (note that you shouldn’t try this with anything else on the SFWA site, if you go there – there are some great articles but most of them are copyrighted).
There’s a tendency for people to look at the Lexicon as a list of “common mistakes” or “things not to do”, which is not entirely correct as I understand its purpose. Certainly seeing a common problem set down pithily can help crystallise that particular example of bad technique, but a couple of the terms in here are complimentary and many others aren’t necessarily fatal problems. As in “you might want to watch out for funny-hat characterisation on page four, although with the narrative voice you use it works well”. What it is meant to be is a useful resource for critiquers, giving you a quick and easy shorthand for a known quantity you’ve observed in writing. In the above example, you don’t need to spend half a paragraph describing a shaky spot in the characterisation, you have a quick term to cover it and save space and time for both of you.
The early, simple version of the lexicon by Lewis Shiner was expanded and added to by Bruce Sterling, not, in my opinion, always for the better. There are no real differences in actual content between the two, so for this version I’ve picked whichever version of an entry I thought was better phrased. The GW-specific notes are my own – I’ll add more as I think of them, if I have the time. Discussion of any or all of the entries is of course welcome - it's what I'm posting this for.
Anyway, let’s get on with it.
The meta-rule:
Cherryh's Law
No rule should be followed over a cliff. (C.J. Cherryh)
MF - There are times when the literary or dramatic effect of breaking any supposed "rule" about writing is going to be worth it, and that includes any and all of the points about writing offered in the Lexicon. Such principles are based on experience that shows that certain approaches work better than others, but getting carried away with imposing a set of rules as though they were holy writ simply turns into an attempt to stamp out creativity and have every writer write exactly alike. Know the principles, understand why they work as they do, but don't wear them like shackles.
Part One: Words and Sentences
Brenda Starr dialogue
Long sections of talk with no physical background or description of the characters. Such dialogue, detached from the story's setting, tends to echo hollowly, as if suspended in mid-air. Named for the American comic-strip in which dialogue balloons were often seen emerging from the Manhattan skyline.
"Burly Detective" Syndrome
This useful term is taken from SF's cousin-genre, the detective-pulp. The hack writers of the Mike Shayne series showed an odd reluctance to use Shayne's proper name, preferring euphemisms like "the burly detective" or "the red-headed sleuth." This comes from a wrong-headed conviction that the same word should not be used twice in close succession. This is only true of particularly strong and visible words, such as "vertiginous." Better to re-use a simple tag or phrase than to contrive cumbersome methods of avoiding it.
Brand Name Fever
Use of brand name alone, without accompanying visual detail, to create false verisimilitude. You can stock a future with Hondas and Sonys and IBM's and still have no idea with it looks like.
"Call a Rabbit a Smeerp"
A cheap technique for false exoticism, in which common elements of the real world are re-named for a fantastic milieu without any real alteration in their basic nature or behavior. "Smeerps" are especially common in fantasy worlds, where people often ride exotic steeds that look and act just like horses. (Attributed to James Blish.)
Gingerbread
Useless ornament in prose, such as fancy sesquipedalian Latinate words where short clear English ones will do. Novice authors sometimes use "gingerbread" in the hope of disguising faults and conveying an air of refinement. (Attr. Damon Knight)
Not Simultaneous
The mis-use of the present participle is a common structural sentence-fault for beginning writers. "Putting his key in the door, he leapt up the stairs and got his revolver out of the bureau." Alas, our hero couldn't do this even if his arms were forty feet long. This fault shades into "Ing Disease," the tendency to pepper sentences with words ending in "-ing," a grammatical construction which tends to confuse the proper sequence of events. (Attr. Damon Knight)
Pushbutton Words
Bogus lyricism like "star," "dance," "dream," "song," "tears" and "poet". Used to evoke a cheap emotional response without engaging the intellect or critical faculties, getting us misty-eyed and tender-hearted without us quite knowing why. Most often found in titles.
Roget's Disease
The ludicrous overuse of far-fetched adjectives, piled into a festering, fungal, tenebrous, troglodytic, ichorous, leprous, synonymic heap. (Attr. John W. Campbell)
"Said" Bookism
An artificial verb used to avoid the word "said." "Said" is one of the few invisible words in the English language and is almost impossible to overuse. It is much less distracting than "he retorted," "she inquired," "he ejaculated," and other oddities. The term "said-book" comes from certain pamphlets, containing hundreds of purple-prose synonyms for the word "said," which were sold to aspiring authors from tiny ads in American magazines of the pre-WWII era.
Tom Swifty
An unseemly compulsion to follow the word "said" with a colourful adverb: "'We'd better hurry,' Tom said swiftly." This was a standard mannerism of the old Tom Swift adventure dime-novels. Good dialogue can stand on its own without a clutter of adverbial props.
Part Two: Paragraphs and Prose Structure
Bathos
A sudden, alarming change in the level of diction. "There will be bloody riots and savage insurrections leading to a violent popular uprising unless the regime starts being lots nicer about stuff."
Countersinking
Expositional redundancy. "'Let's get out of here,' he said, urging her to leave."
Dischism
The unwitting intrusion of the author's physical surroundings or mental state into the text of the story. Authors who smoke or drink while writing often drown or choke their characters with an endless supply of booze and cigs. In subtler forms of the Dischism, the characters complain of their confusion and indecision -- when this is actually the author's condition at the moment of writing, not theirs within the story. "Dischism" is named after the critic who diagnosed this syndrome. (Attr. Thomas M. Disch)
False Humanity
An ailment endemic to genre writing, in which soap-opera elements of purported human interest are stuffed into the story willy-nilly, whether or not they advance the plot or contribute to the point of the story. The actions of such characters convey an itchy sense of irrelevance, for the author has invented their problems out of whole cloth, so as to have something to emote about.
False Interiorisation
A cheap labour-saving technique in which the author, too lazy to describe the surroundings, afflicts the viewpoint-character with a blindfold, an attack of space-sickness, the urge to play marathon whist-games in the smoking-room, etc.
Fuzz
An element of motivation the author was too lazy to supply. The word "somehow" is a useful tip-off to fuzzy areas of a story. "Somehow she had forgotten to bring her gun."
Hand Waving
An attempt to distract the reader with dazzling prose or other verbal fireworks, so as to divert attention from a severe logical flaw. (Attr. Stewart Brand)
Laughtrack
Characters grandstand and tug the reader's sleeve in an effort to force a specific emotional reaction. They laugh wildly at their own jokes, cry loudly at their own pain, and rob the reader of any real chance of attaining genuine emotion.
Show, Don’t Tell
A cardinal principle of effective writing. The reader should be allowed to react naturally to the evidence presented in the story, not instructed in how to react by the author. Specific incidents and carefully observed details will render auctorial lectures unnecessary. For instance, instead of telling the reader "She had a bad childhood, an unhappy childhood," a specific incident -- involving, say, a locked closet and two jars of honey -- should be shown.
Rigid adherence to show-don't-tell can become absurd. Minor matters are sometimes best gotten out of the way in a swift, straightforward fashion.
Signal from Fred
A comic form of the "Dischism" in which the author's subconscious, alarmed by the poor quality of the work, makes unwitting critical comments: "This doesn't make sense." "This is really boring." "This sounds like a bad movie." (Attr. Damon Knight)
Squid in the Mouth
The failure of an author to realize that his/her own weird assumptions and personal in-jokes are simply not shared by the world-at-large. Instead of applauding the wit or insight of the author's remarks, the world-at-large will stare in vague shock and alarm at such a writer, as if he or she had a live squid in the mouth.
Since SF writers as a breed are generally quite loony, and in fact make this a stock in trade, "squid in the mouth" doubles as a term of grudging praise, describing the essential, irreducible, divinely unpredictable lunacy of the true SF writer. (Attr. James P Blaylock)
Squid on the Mantelpiece
Chekhov said that if there are dueling pistols over the mantelpiece in the first act, they should be fired in the third. In other words, a plot element should be deployed in a timely fashion and with proper dramatic emphasis. However, in SF plotting the MacGuffins are often so overwhelming that they cause conventional plot structures to collapse. It's hard to properly dramatize, say, the domestic effects of Dad's bank overdraft when a giant writhing kraken is levelling the city. This mismatch between the conventional dramatic proprieties and SF's extreme, grotesque, or visionary thematics is known as the "squid on the mantelpiece."
MF – I’ve heard several versions of the supposed “Chekhov’s Gun” principle, no two of them meaning exactly the same thing. For example, the version I first heard is “If a character produces a gun, then it should be used to shoot someone, or threaten someone, or go off by accident, or fail to fire when it’s needed, and so on. If it does none of these things, then it is superfluous and should be taken out altogether.” That’s a point about narrative tidiness rather than timely deployment of plot elements.
White Room Syndrome
A clear and common sign of the failure of the author's imagination, most often seen at the beginning of a story, before the setting, background, or characters have gelled. "She awoke in a white room." The 'white room' is a featureless set for which details have yet to be invented -- a failure of invention by the author. The character 'wakes' in order to begin a fresh train of thought -- again, just like the author. This 'white room' opening is generally followed by much earnest pondering of circumstances and useless exposition; all of which can be cut, painlessly.
It remains to be seen whether the "white room" cliche' will fade from use now that most authors confront glowing screens rather than blank white paper.
Wiring Diagram Fiction
A genre ailment related to "False Humanity," "Wiring Diagram Fiction" involves "characters" who show no convincing emotional reactions at all, since they are overwhelmed by the author's fascination with gadgetry or didactic lectures.
MF – A trap hard SF often falls into, in my experience. I suppose the related ailment in GW fiction would be “fluff-diagram fiction” (sorry Gav), in which the story is sidelined by the author’s desire to lay out in detail some aspect of his take on the game-universe.
You Can't Fire Me, I Quit
An attempt to diffuse the reader's incredulity with a pre-emptive strike -- as if by anticipating the reader's objections, the author had somehow answered them. "I would never have believed it, if I hadn't seen it myself!" "It was one of those amazing coincidences that can only take place in real life!" "It's a one-in-a-million chance, but it's so crazy it just might work!" Surprisingly common, especially in SF. (Attr. John Kessel)
Part Three: Common Workshop Story Types
Adam and Eve Story
Nauseatingly common subset of the "Shaggy God Story" in which a terrible apocalypse, spaceship crash, etc., leaves two survivors, man and woman, who turn out to be Adam and Eve, parents of the human race!
MF – Not an issue for GW writing for obvious reasons. See Alfred Bester’s “Adam With No Eve” in the brilliant anthology Starburst for a rather good twist on the idea.
The Cosy Catastrophe
Story in which horrific events are overwhelming the entirety of human civilization, but the action concentrates on a small group of tidy, middle-class, white Anglo-Saxon protagonists. The essence of the cosy catastrophe is despite the supposed devastation the hero actually has a pretty good time (a girl, free suites at the Savoy, fancy cars for the taking) while everyone is dying off. (Attr. Brian Aldiss)
Dennis Hopper Syndrome
A story based on some arcane bit of science or folklore, which noodles around producing random weirdness. Then a loony character-actor (usually best played by Dennis Hopper) barges into the story and baldly tells the protagonist what's going on by explaining the underlying mystery in a long bug-eyed rant. (Attr. Howard Waldrop)
MF - Not unrelated to Roger Ebert's remarks about the Talking Killer device, aka "Before I kill you, Mister Bond..." The killer gets the protagonist at his mercy and then decides to put off killing him so that he can fill the hero in on exactly what's been going on, and bring the reader up to speed at the same time. You know, like I did at the end of Crossfire. Although this is a plot device rather than an actual story type.
Deus ex Machina or "God in the Box"
Story featuring a miraculous solution to the story's conflict, which comes out of nowhere and renders the struggles of the characters irrelevant. Oh look, the Martians all caught cold and died.
The Grubby Apartment Story
Writing a little too much about what you know. The penniless writer living in a grubby apartment writes a story about a penniless writer living in a grubby apartment. Stars all his friends.
The Jar of Tang
"For you see, we are all living in a jar of Tang!" "For you see, I am a dog!" Mainstay of the old Twilight Zone TV show. An entire pointless story contrived so the author can jump out at the end and cry "Fooled you!" For instance, the story takes place in a desert of coarse orange sand surrounded by an impenetrable vitrine barrier; surprise! our heroes are microbes in a jar of Tang powdered orange drink.
This is a classic case of the difference between a conceit and an idea. "What if we all lived in a jar of Tang?" is an example of the former; "What if the revolutionaries from the sixties had been allowed to set up their own society?" is an example of the latter. Good SF requires ideas, not conceits. (Attr. Stephen P. Brown)
When done with serious intent rather than as a passing conceit, this type of story can be dignified by the term "Concealed Environment." (Attr. Christopher Priest)
Just-Like Fallacy
SF story which thinly adapts the trappings of a standard pulp adventure setting. The spaceship is "just like" an Atlantic steamer, down to the Scottish engineer in the hold. A colony planet is "just like" Arizona except for two moons in the sky. "Space Westerns" and futuristic hard-boiled detective stories have been especially common versions.
MF – Then again, one of the fun things about the GW settings – the 40Kverse more than the Warhammer world, it seems to me – is the way you can rip all kinds of stuff off and stuff it in there to do a 41st-millennium tribute to it. Not necessarily a bad thing, providing you don’t end up in Bat Durston territory (more about him another time).
[From another post:] In case you are not familiar with the term, a Bat Durston refers derogatorily to a science fiction story which is little more than a traditional western using sf settings and icons. Taking the comparison to alternate history, the better stories in this genre should create the story’s world for some reason other than merely creating a nice setting for an adventure.
The Kitchen-Sink Story
A story overwhelmed by the inclusion of any and every new idea that occurs to the author in the process of writing it. (Attr. Damon Knight)
The Motherhood Statement
SF story which posits some profoundly unsettling threat to the human condition, explores the implications briefly, then hastily retreats to affirm the conventional social and humanistic pieties, ie apple pie and motherhood. Greg Egan once stated that the secret of truly effective SF was to deliberately "burn the motherhood statement." (Attr. Greg Egan)
MF - He wasn’t kidding, either. Greg Egan writes some of the most powerful and disturbing hard SF I’ve read, precisely because he’s not afraid to back away from the full implications of the science and technology he writes about.
I think that 40K writing is vulnerable to this to a certain degree: I’ve seen quite a few stories that dip a toe into the grim, violent, insane world of the 41st Millennium, stay there for a moment but quickly falls back into “but the Imperium is actually an OK place and lots of people there are nice and happy just like us”.
Discussion on this welcome.
The "Poor Me" Story
Autobiographical piece in which the male viewpoint character complains that he is ugly and can't get laid. (Attr. Kate Wilhelm)
Re-Inventing the Wheel
A novice author goes to enormous lengths to create a situation already tiresomely familiar to the experienced reader. Reinventing the Wheel was traditionally typical of mainstream writers venturing into SF without actually reading any of the existing stuff first (because it's all obviously crap anyway). Thus you get endless explanations of, say, how an atomic war might get started by accident, and so on. It is now often seen in writers who lack experience in genre history because they were attracted to written SF via movies, television, role-playing games, comics or computer gaming.
MF – Not that coming into the genre that way is a bad thing per se, but when a writer hasn’t had much exposure to written specfic in this way it usually shows, and not in a good way. To quote Terry Pratchett, you should be importing, not recycling.
The Rembrandt Comic Book
A story in which incredible craftsmanship has been lavished on a theme or idea which is basically trivial or subliterary, and which simply cannot bear the weight.
The Shaggy God Story
A piece which mechanically adopts a Biblical or other mythological tale and provides flat science-fictional "explanations" for the theological events. (Attr. Michael Moorcock)
MF – Although he wrote them himself: arguably his finest and most powerful story, called “Behold The Man”, does this for the life of Jesus. I remember it disturbed me when I read it, and I’m not even religious.
The Slipstream Story
Non-SF story which is so ontologically distorted or related in such a bizarrely non-realist fashion that it cannot pass muster as commercial mainstream fiction and therefore seeks shelter in the SF or fantasy genre. Postmodern critique and technique are particularly fruitful in creating slipstream stories.
The Steam-Grommet Factory
Didactic SF story which consists entirely of a guided tour of a large and elaborate gimmick. A common technique of SF utopias and dystopias. (Attr. Gardner Dozois)
MF – See the opening of Huxley’s Brave New World for an example of this done effectively.
The Tabloid Weird
Story produced by a confusion of SF and Fantasy tropes -- or rather, by a confusion of basic world-views. Tabloid Weird is usually produced by the author's own inability to distinguish between a rational, Newtonian-Einsteinian, cause-and- effect universe and an irrational, supernatural, fantastic universe. Either the FBI is hunting the escaped mutant from the genetics lab, or the drill-bit has bored straight into Hell -- but not both at once in the very same piece of fiction. Even fantasy worlds need an internal consistency of sorts, so that a Sasquatch Deal-with-the-Devil story is also "Tabloid Weird." Sasquatch crypto-zoology and Christian folk superstition simply don't mix well, even for comic effect. (Attr. Howard Waldrop)
MF – I’m not as convinced as the Lexicon that these two genres are utterly incompatible. Well, obviously not, since I work in a setting which combines them without hesitation. Which isn’t to say that the combination doesn’t need to be handled delicately, since those aforementioned different mindsets lead to different storytelling conventions as well as different world views.
The Whistling Dog
A story related in such an elaborate, arcane, or convoluted manner that it impresses by its sheer narrative ingenuity, but which, as a story, is basically not worth the candle. Like the whistling dog, it's astonishing that the thing can whistle -- but it doesn't actually whistle very well. (Attr. Harlan Ellison)
Part Four: Plots
Abbess Phone Home
Takes its name from a mainstream story about a medieval cloister which was sold as SF because of the serendipitous arrival of a UFO at the end. By extension, any mainstream story with a gratuitous SF or fantasy element tacked on so it could be sold.
And plot
Picaresque plot in which this happens, and then that happens, and then something else happens, and it all adds up to nothing in particular.
Bogus Alternatives
List of actions a character could have taken, but didn't. Frequently includes all the reasons why, as the author stops the action dead to work out complicated plot problems at the reader's expense. "If I'd gone along with the cops they would have found the gun in my purse. And anyway, I didn't want to spend the night in jail. I suppose I could have just run instead of stealing their car, but then..." etc. Best dispensed with entirely.
Card Tricks in the Dark
Elaborately contrived plot which arrives at (a) the punchline of a private joke nobody else will get, or (b) the display of some bit of learned trivia only the author is interested in. This stunt may be intensely ingenious, and very gratifying to the author, but it serves no visible fictional purpose. (Attr. Tim Powers)
Idiot Plot
A plot which functions only because all the characters involved are idiots. They behave in a way that suits the author's convenience, rather than through any rational motivation of their own. (Attr. James Blish)
Kudzu plot
Plot which weaves and curls and writhes in weedy organic profusion, smothering everything in its path.
Plot Coupons
The basic building blocks of the quest-type fantasy plot. The "hero" collects sufficient plot coupons (magic sword, magic book, magic cat) to send off to the author for the ending. Note that "the author" can be substituted for "the Gods" in such a work: "The Gods decreed he would pursue this quest." Right, mate. The author decreed he would pursue this quest until sufficient pages were filled to procure an advance. (Dave Langford)
MF - Nick Lowe expands on the idea in an excellent article at www.ansible.co.uk/Ansible/plotdev.html . Cheers to Bill King for the link.
Second-order Idiot Plot
A plot involving an entire invented SF society which functions only because every single person in it is necessarily an idiot. (Attr. Damon Knight)
MF – The assertion that this applies to the 40K Imperium is not a new one. Floor’s open…
Part Five: Background
"As You Know Bob"
A pernicious form of info-dump through dialogue, in which characters tell each other things they already know, for the sake of getting the reader up-to-speed. This very common technique is also known as "Rod and Don dialogue" (attr. Damon Knight) or "maid and butler dialogue" (attr Algis Budrys).
The Edges of Ideas
The solution to the "Info-Dump" problem (how to fill in the background). The theory is that, for example, the mechanics of an interstellar drive (the centre of the idea) are not important. What matters is the impact on your characters: they can get to other planets in a few months, and, oh yeah, it gives them hallucinations about past lives. Or, more radically: the physics of TV transmission is the center of an idea; on the edges of it we find people turning into couch potatoes because they no longer have to leave home for entertainment. Or, more bluntly: we don't need info dump at all. We just need a clear picture of how people's lives have been affected by their background.
Eyeball Kick
That perfect, telling detail that creates an instant visual image. The ideal of certain postmodern schools of SF is to achieve a "crammed prose" full of "eyeball kicks." (Rudy Rucker)
MF - See the other thread.
Frontloading
Piling too much exposition into the beginning of the story, so that it becomes so dense and dry that it is almost impossible to read. (Attr. Connie Willis)
Infodump
Large chunk of indigestible expository matter intended to explain the background situation. Info-dumps can be covert, as in fake newspaper or "Encyclopedia Galactica" articles, or overt, in which all action stops as the author assumes center stage and lectures. Info-dumps are also known as "expository lumps." The use of brief, deft, inoffensive info-dumps is known as "kuttnering," after Henry Kuttner. When information is worked unobtrusively into the story's basic structure, this is known as "heinleining."
"I've suffered for my Art" (and now it's your turn)
A form of info-dump in which the author inflicts upon the reader hard-won, but irrelevant bits of data acquired while researching the story. As Algis Budrys once pointed out, homework exists to make the difficult look easy.
Nowhere Nowhen Story
Putting too little exposition into the story's beginning, so that the story, while physically readable, seems to take place in a vacuum and fails to engage any readerly interest. (Attr. L. Sprague de Camp)
Ontological riff
Passage in an SF story which suggests that our deepest and most basic convictions about the nature of reality, space-time, or consciousness have been violated, technologically transformed, or at least rendered thoroughly dubious. The works of H. P. Lovecraft, Barrington Bayley, and Philip K Dick abound in "ontological riffs."
Space Western
The most pernicious suite of "Used Furniture". The grizzled space captain swaggering into the spacer bar and slugging down a Jovian brandy.
Stapledon
Name assigned to the voice which takes centre stage to lecture. Actually a common noun, as: "You have a Stapledon come on to answer this problem instead of showing the characters resolve it."
Used Furniture
Use of a background out of Central Casting. Rather than invent a background and have to explain it, or risk re-inventing the wheel, let's just steal one. We'll set it in the Star Trek Universe, only we'll call it the Empire instead of the Federation.
Part Six: Character and Viewpoint
Funny-hat characterization
A character distinguished by a single identifying tag, such as odd headgear, a limp, a lisp, a parrot on his shoulder, etc.
MF – This can work if done deftly and with minor characters. Stephen King excels at it, and Ed McBain is pretty good too.
Mary Sue
A ridiculously perfect and idealised character, moving through a story which serves no other purpose than demonstrating how ridiculously perfect and idealised Mary Sue is. None of the other characters have anything to do other than rave about Mary Sue's wonderfulness; challenges and obstacles exist only for Mary Sue to solve effortlessly to admiring gasps from everyone else.
Also known as "avatars" or "self-insertion", since the most common Mary Sues are thinly-disguised versions of the author and are more about wish-fulfiment fantasies than conventional storytelling. Endemic to fanfic; the term apparently originates from an early and infamous example in an old Star Trek fanzine.
MF - There are lots of definitions and examples of Mary Sue, although the term as it's used here isn't really attributable to one author any more. The definition supplied here owes much to Teresa Nielsen Hayden's rather good one at http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004188.html .
GW fanfics and homebrew backgrounds aren't immune either - you can find them pretty easily once you know the signs. The twist is that the Mary Sue is often a Guard regiment, Space Marine Chapter, Eldar Craftworld or an entire galactic state.
Common warning signs: "The Mary Sue Regiment fought so ferociously in the Battle of Sueville that even the [famous Space Marine Chapter] were awe-struck that unaugmented humans could fight so hard, and their Chapter Master officially declared the Mary Sue regiment the equals of Space Marines". "Inquisitor Mary Sue has demonstrated such amazing ability that the High Lords have personally ordered that nobody is allowed to stand in her way or question her actions". "Now that it has declared independence from the Imperium the Mary Sue Republic has become a haven of enlightenment and progress, where technology is being developed at an exponential rate with no aura of superstitious mysticism, painless and fully-effective techniques to protect psykers from daemonic attack have been developed, alien races of all kinds are putting aside their differences and living contentedly side by side, and where every Imperial who sees what's going on immediately defects once they see how wonderful and free life among the Mary Sues is".
I've since found out that even the original "Ensign Mary Sue" in that old seventies fanfic was a satire on the trope, so clearly it was already a fiction cliche by then.
Mrs. Brown
The small, downtrodden, eminently common, everyday little person who nevertheless encapsulates something vital and important about the human condition. "Mrs. Brown" is a rare personage in the SF genre, being generally overshadowed by swaggering submyth types made of the finest gold-plated cardboard. In a famous essay, "Science Fiction and Mrs. Brown," Ursula K. Le Guin decried Mrs. Brown's absence from the SF field. (Attr: Virginia Woolf)
...stamped on their forehead
The story lets a character get away with something illogical or impossible because they have "hero" (or "villain", "sidekick", disposable underling", or whatever) stamped on their foreheads. There's nothing wrong with heroes triumphing against the odds or villains being brought low through their own flaws, but those consequences need to come about because of the characters and their actions rather than despite them.
Adapted from Aaron Allston's roleplayers' glossary from a few years ago, which included "He's got 'PC' [player character] stamped on his forehead" as an all-purpose excuse for why characters unquestioningly accepted or trusted one anothers' actions while treating non-player characters differently. (Aaron Allston.)
MF - This was partly prompted by the "script immunity" and "Hollywood Shield" ideas in the discussion thread, although the scene I had in mind for it was actually in Walking Tall, where the main character is manifestly guilty of all manner of assaults and property destruction but is acquitted in court when he makes a sentimental speech about down-home values. It doesn't even resemble making a legal case for his innocence, but he gets let off because he's got "hero" stamped on his forehead.
Submyth
Classic character-types in SF which aspire to the condition of archetype but don't quite make it, such as the mad scientist, the crazed supercomputer, the emotionless super-rational alien, the vindictive mutant child, etc. (Attr. Ursula K. Le Guin)
MF – You can pick the GWverse submyths for yourselves, I’m sure.
Viewpoint glitch
The author loses track of point-of-view, switches point-of-view for no good reason, or relates something that the viewpoint character could not possibly know.
Part Seven: Miscellaneous
AM/FM
Engineer's term distinguishing the inevitable clunky real-world faultiness of "Actual Machines" from the power-fantasy techno-dreams of "Fething Magic."
MF – Except the original Lexicon didn’t say “fething”. :grinning_emoticon: Well worth remembering for 40K and Necromunda fiction, which deliberately shies away from the sleek, clean, super-reliable dream-tech of settings like Star Trek.
Consensus Reality
Useful term for the purported world in which the majority of modern sane people generally agree that they live -- as opposed to the worlds of, say, Forteans, semioticians or quantum physicists.
Intellectual sexiness
The intoxicating glamor of a novel scientific idea, as distinguished from any actual intellectual merit that it may someday prove to possess.
The Ol' Baloney Factory
"Science Fiction" as a publishing and promotional entity in the world of commerce.
—
Additional suggestions from other forum members:
User Chiron: Script Immunity
The tendency of lynchpin characters to be blatantly immune to harm, despite the fact that they consistently place themselves in situations that they cannot reasonably be expected to survive.
User Vortemir: Hollywood Shield / Imperial Stormtrooper Syndrome
Bad Guys will never be able to hit essential characters no matter what they're armed with or how hard they try.
—
[Originally posted to Black Library Online, October 2004, by user Matt Farrer]
A term from the Turkey City Lexicon that might be useful here is the "eyeball kick", Rudy Rucker's term for that perfectly-turned descriptive phrase that creates an instant, telling visual image for the reader. An example that springs to mind from the opening of Necropolis:

After a minute or so, raid-sirens in the central district also began keening. The pattern was picked up by manufactory hooters and mill whistles all through the lower hive, and in the mill whistles and outer habs across the river too. Even the great ceremonial horns on the top of the Ecclesiarchy Basilica started to sound.Vervunhive was screaming with every one of its voices.

That last line provides the eyeball kick.
Some other examples that spring to mind: "[he] screamed out two mouthfuls of silent spun glass" (Stephen King); "the sky above Chiba City was the colour of a television tuned to a blank band" (William Gibson); "a great moist loaf of a body... features as bunched as kissed fingertips" (E. Annie Proulx); "[after walking through snow] my feet, in wet socks, slowly turned to marble and fell off" (Donald Westlake).
I don't know if there's a way you can break down an eyeball kick to pick apart the technique, since its whole impact comes from lateral thinking and the effect of an incongruous image that nevertheless fits exactly with what you're describing. It's an imagination thing rather than a technique thing. However, the paragraph from Necropolis that I used above is also a very good example of how to maximise the effect of a good piece of description, and worth having a closer look at.
Firstly, the rest of the paragraph has been describing the machinery that makes the sound, and doing so in fairly neutral, inorganic terms: "keening", at the start of the para, is about as close as we get to an emotive word. The rest is a pretty calm description about how a series of klaxons and horns are going off. That increases the wrench when we suddenly switch gears into words that you'd use to describe a living being in agony: "screaming with every one of its voices", which gives weight to the sense of foreboding that dominates the early pages. This is reinforced further by the way that the previous sentences tend to be longer, with more connecting commas and lots of adjectives to slow their rhythm and give a more discursive feel, while the last sentence is a simple, flat declarative. Using the rhythm of words and sentences for a setup and payoff like that is a very good way of driving home a piece of exposition or description, and it's something that Dan uses quite a bit.
Secondly, look at the way that the passage, which at first blush is about the sounds of the sirens, actually helps build a visual image as well. We've been going through all the various parts and districts of Vervunhive, watching as different kinds of buildings in different areas go off. Look at how the mental "camera" moves down the lower hive, then down the river, then up to the top of the Basilica. Then in the last sentence we get an eyeball kick that describes the whole of Vervunhive as a single entity: the effect is like pulling back sharply from an individual scene or building and seeing the whole Hive at once. And that concludes the main piece of visual scene-setting at the opening: notice that in the next line Dan can start in on conversations between individual characters around the Hive because the major scene has been laid out.
The broad point to take away from this is that each piece of text should work on as many levels as possible, and even a short passage like that one can be far more than the sum of its parts. I suspect that the reason a lot of bad fiction (including, I am sorry to say, a lot of fanfic I've seen) seems so flat and plodding is that each sentence is put down to do one thing: make a statement, provide a description or what have you. But there's no depth to the prose, no interaction between them to create any rhythm, or momentum, or startling switch in imagery. It's like a song from your favourite band, with each element (vocals, percussion, each instrument) separated and played end to end. It sounds so much better when they're all working together.
—
That's it. Got any suggestions for new 40K-specific tropes to add?

Hello again after nearly a year. I'm Kenn（研）, a Chinese player who used to play WC3 and SC2 and studied their editors.
I shared my concerns about WC3R before (11 months ago) (https://www.reddit.com/WC3/comments/a7d6op/im_very_concerned_about_warcraft_3_reforged_i/), and because of the stability problem of my old VPN, I was not able to come back and I stopped trying.
However, now I have to come back to Reddit, as I was really shocked to heard about that Tim Morten, the last person who is able to represent “RTS games” in Blizzard, has resigned...
This very sad news forced me to find a new VPN to come back, because I am very worry that the Blizzard is finishing the process to turn into a company that Steve Jobs warned to the world long time ago: a (technology) company will fall when it is occupied by the “marketing people” who don’t know the technology but only care about revenue and profit. This might be the last chance that I can share more about my concerns here by this year end.
I want to quote and highlight what I said 11 months ago:
​

…I think Pete Stilwell is doing wrong and will not make WC3R success, so I don't believe Blizzard can give us a good enough WC3R by the end of 2019.
To be honest, I don't trust Pete Stilwell. I can see Netease behind him.
... SC2 engine is super powerful (although it's very unfriendly to users), also know the WC3 engine is too old, too weak, lack too many things to (compare with the engine of) SC2, but it's not as "simple" as SC1's engine (SC1 was a game in 1990s). I think Pete Stillwell is not a programmer and never touched either WC3's World Editor or SC2's Galaxy Editor before, but on one side, he tells the world "SC2 engine can't make a perfect WC3R because the path system are too smart, etc", on the other side, I'm very sure that he wants to add many "new" features WC3 engine never exist but are already mature at SC2 engine, such as OB and replays UI system, different models for the same unit(aka skin system), etc… I believe the SC2's engine can make the path system as silly as WC3's path system within a few hours source code changing, but can WC3's engine from zero to develop many features are already good and mature SC2/HOTS, then pass all tests by the end of 2019? (A simple analogy: JavaScript can easily do what CSS can do when it was created, but CSS took CONTINUOUS years of TEAM development, then can now partially do what JavaScript already done well. Did Blizzard spend its time on WC3 in the past 10 years, and does it still have developers who can fully understand the source code inside WC3?)
...a Chinese map maker (Renee) already makes a SC2 mod called "War3 mod" ... "it's an individual work spent me(the author) nearly 3 years to finish the mechanism "...If you ignore the "too smart path system" and other small bug and unstable fps issues, you will feel you are playing WC3. (The author, Renee said)"…(a few) issues need Blizzard's help, but I believe it's not very difficult"
…"2.x years + SC2 engine + Renee's individual work = an amazing war3 mod we can play in SC2"
vs
"2.x years (note: number written in 2018) + WC3 engine + Stilwell's team work = a WC3R with a lot of unknown problems await".
After I saw demos at Blizzcon 2018, I don't believe a good enough WC3R can be finished with WC3's engine by the end of 2019. At most, at that time, it will become something only makes Netease happy, but makes you, makes me, makes players feel disappointed.
I'm also concerned about Blizzard staff's morale right now... In conclusion, WC3R will not be finished good (meet the “good BLIZZARD quality”) on time.
I wish we won't only get a refund on 31 Dec 2019,...

​
So… Now, after 11 months, only less than 40 days left to the next year (including Christmas, how many vacations do American have in Dec? I heard that amount the game companies in the US, Blizzard pay the lowest salary to its employees? Will they able to get enough rest this year end?) The concern in my mind is becoming the fact. I don’t quite know what do Reddit think about the “Belpha” (I will not call it Beta), but in China, lots of players who made the pre purchase are very angry about the graphic, stability, bugs, the “lies”, and the keyword "退款", aka REFUND has been washed the official forums again and again (40+ pages already!): http://bbs.war3.blizzard.cn/forum.php?mod=forumdisplay&fid=66
Here I just want to talk a few more about Netease:

it claimed that the map makers who made (good, bad, even impinged copyrights) maps on its exclusive WC3 platform earned up to 100 million CNY (about 150 thousand USD) in 2018. I believe that was the reason why Pete Stilwell did not want to use SC2 engine, as I think he is exactly a “marketing person” but not a real developer to neither understand SC2 engine was a much better choice nor identify whether Netease is lying to him (fyi, 1. China‘s PC game platforms can run WC3 without paying money to Blizzard because of a lawsuit Blizzard that lost in 2006; 2. Netease as the No.2 in China, always wants to own another “Riots” to against the No.1, Tencent). However, ironically, seems the WC3R’s engine has added many new features from Lua script, which only make limited improvement that still far, far, far away from SC2’s engine, and lots of Chinese map makers don’t know how to use Lua (to most of them, the tool called YDWE is too convenient to abandon, but it will not support Lua); At the same time, Kevin Dong from SC2 develop team, implied in this Blizzcon that the difficulty to use SC2 editor will be greatly reduced very soon. 

Speaking of “marketing person”, I now have one more name on my list: Rob Bridenbecker, the supervisor of Pete Stilwell, also the leader of the "Classic Game Team" (not sure if correct in English, it is called “经典游戏组” in Chinese) , as well as one of the VPs in Blizzard. He has done something worse, because after the “amazing” demo which “fooled” us to pre purchase in 2018’s Blizzcon, after then, I hardly hear about news of WC3R except two: “Beta will begins in this summer”, and on 2 August, in China Joy, the biggest game exhibition, only a few pieces of artworks of WC3 unit with the WC3R logo hanging, which once became one of the most popular trends in Weibo (Chinese “Twitter”). Then no new until the “Belpha” suddendly began on Oct, a semi finished game lacks basic function but has tons of bugs came out and shocked the Chinese WC3 community.
What’s more, in this Blizzcon, only two months before the year-end deadline, Bridenbecker told the world that “due to the feedback from the community, we have reverted the old plan, it is JUST A NATURAL PART OF THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS”. So, the current game we got is also a “natural reverted” of your demo in 2018, right? Hell, how dare a VP of a large multi-national game company can keep silence about such important information until only 60 days before the deadline? Chinese players who can just play WC3 “for free” make the pre purchase (either in 168 or 258 CNY, which can buy one to two “newer” 3A games on SteamCN) a year advance, because of the WC3R demo showed in 2018 and their trust on Blizzard, however they received no further demo, no gameplays, not even a “battle report” like what SC2 team did several times during Beta status. Basically, we heard nothing about the development process until we were shocked. I really don’t know where on earth did the “community feedback” come from (his brain?). It was too ridiculous to believe, so I did searches and found out that Rob Bridenbecker was never a core developer in any game develop team, he was always a QA menber, until he become a Battle.net VP? (Btw, Battle.net Desktop Client is a stupid, heavy “collection of game icons” to me, IBM Sametime is much more useful). That means he was just like a “food taster” or a “virgin”, only “tasted” or “watched” a lot, but never actually “cook food” or “have sex”, doesn’t truly understand “what is it” behind. And the unexpected success of SC1R in Korea gave him and his team a fault illusion.
But speaking of SC1R, we’ve already known the models are created by Lemon Sky Studios, a Malaysia company, and when I checked Tim Morten’s resume on LinkedIn, I found that Tim helped SC1R after AlphaStar, so I guess that the reason why we have SC1R Ladder and the Carbot “official SC1R mod”, is Tim Morten’s credit, Bridenbecker’s team might did less than I thought. Moreover, just like I said 11 month ago, WC3R is a project that “exceeds their burden”, as we’ve also already known the best part of WC3R, the models, are created by Lemon Sky Studios, too. In other words, only making the models moves properly on the map is a task already over Bridenbecker’s team’s capability and cost them more than two years (actually I prefer to say they are doing nothing but making bugs for more than two years).
I believe the new CEO, J. Allen Brack, already known how bad the situation of WC3R is and gathering developers in the whole company to save Bridenbecker’s ass, even though this will surely cause Diablo 4 and OW2 delay. Otherwise only two consequences to him: be involved in lawsuits in EU countries such as German; Or lose the confidence from investors and pre-ordered players forever. Therefore, I have no doubt that the game will become better and better. So, to whom really loves WC3, please do not lose your faith, and wait for the miracle until 28 Dec (in case customer service out of work and cannot deal with you request to refund). But please keep in mind that it almost was killed by some fake “developers” in Blizzard.
The last things I want to say is, I don’t know if Rob Bridenbecker still thinks presenting a sh--disappointed game to us and what is happing in the community “a natural part of the development process”, but I sure this excuse is for a company which is about to bankrupt, not for Blizzard. And the consequence of what he has done is a “serious dereliction of duty” as a VP in any company. He is the person who should have resigned from Blizzard, not Tim Morten. It is the responsibility to the CEO to conduct a serious investigation, so that to recover our confidence and trust on Blizzard. Lesson must be learnt, otherwise the next victim will be Diablo 2, and finally, the whole Blizzard.
I wish I could make my post shorter, sorry I was not good enough to do that... Thank you very much for your reading, and hope all the best at the end.

My short bio: I am Dr James Wootton, a researcher at the University of Basel. I work on the development of quantum computers.
Though useful applications of quantum computers are still a few years away, there are already devices that are publicly available for anyone to play with. So I try to help people get started with quantum programming by writing tutorial articles, coming up with simple examples of quantum programs (like simple games or a superposition of emoticons) and open sourcing the code behind my research papers.
Most recently, Ive been collaborating with IBM Research on a project called Hello Quantum. At the heart of this is a simple and casual puzzle game based on quantum programming.
My Proof: Me on Twitter
Edit: I'll have to call it a day now. Thanks for all your questions.
If you didn't get a question answered, perhaps it might have been answered in one of my previous AMAs.

• /science AMA
• /IAmA AMA with other quantum researchers
• /gamedev AMA

You can also try asking question on the quantum computing Stack Exchange

Received my Thinkpad P50 at noon. Had few questions on bloatware
System Info shows Manufacturer as IBM with IBM Logo
System has all this softwares loaded from IBM
IBM Domino Designer
IBM Notes 9
IBM Sametime
AT & T Global Network ...
and few other softwares.
Just want to check, do all Thinkpad P50 has IBM as OEM Manufacturer.

Hey Cougars and Cubs alike,
I need an opinion.
I work at a sports complex and while I was out working a booth during a sports event our company sponsored, I met this woman, older than I am, who sells sports supplements. She came up introduced herself to my co-worker and I (not respectively she was chatting with me at first) and told us about the product. We tried the stuff, she told us about the product, and we went on our way.
During the event she was picking my brain while I was at my booth (she was at the neighbouring booth). She asked about where I went to school, how I got my job, how old I was, where I'm from, and general kinda stuff. After talking for a while she told me about possible career's with the supplement company and how I could train directly under her if I joined and blah blah blah. I'll be honest, I was pretty seduced/infatuated by her and said I was interested in it all. It was a half truth I liked the model of the company a little bit. All aside, she gave me her business card and information and she told me to keep in touch about the side career opportunity. Fast forward a couple weeks and I haven't texted or called her, but she shows up at our sports complex (didn't stalk we did tell her where to find us in the city) and she was talking about possible partnerships with our company and such. I was working that day and she recognized me right off the bat. Asked about what I thought of the side career opportunity so far, how I was doing and such. Friendly stuff, I would say. Before she left she invited me out with her as her guest to a company get togethecelebration. I had to decline since I wasn't available, but I did tell her I was interested. Anyway, after that second time I saw her, I started texting her and we went back and forth texting about the career.
For the emoji/emoticon analyst she sent ;) faces a couple of times does that mean something?! /s
She asked if I was interested in meeting with her and talking along the beach or grabbing some coffee together and going over the whole details of the company. I was very interested, but had to decline since I wasn't available at the time she was. However, she was adamant about talking with me so she called and chatted a little about the career, but mainly again about my life, how I got into sports, and how I got my job. She asked me my age again and told me hers (she's 52). She tied in her asking my age by saying I was old enough to join the company and how people who joined at my age are so successful now. Idk how her age tied into everything though. We talked a bit more about the career and a little about her life and her career with the company. Before we disconnected she said how badly she wants me to be apart of the team since she takes me for a hard worker (she's not wrong). So a month goes by after the call. I don't know what to say since the next step is joing the company and investing money in the product. (This post is already too long but joining the company is a whole big thing, but sounds like a pyramid scheme if you asked me). Anyway, I reopened communication with her and texted her asking if she still wanted to go to the beach or grab a drink. I wasn't expecting a response, but she wrote back saying Friday or Sunday for lunch together (paraphrasing) or we could go to a company related event and I could go with her as a guest on Friday. I brushed aside the guest opportunity since I couldn't make that anyway and I wasn't much interested in going to an event with a bunch of people. So we settled on coffee this Sunday. Here's the thing... I texted her on a stupid whim, so I have NO idea what we're meeting up for. I didn't even talk about the career my text goes as quote/ish (privacy edits and grammar edits have been applied)
Hi OW, were you still interested in meeting at the beach or grabbing a drink sometime? Friday and Sunday are looking like my most available days.
It can't be business related since all I have to do at this point is pull the trigger and invest some money, she's given me basically all the information on the company that I need to make a decision. I'm not really interested in the career there are other ways I'd rather make money, and I don't have enough funds to even invest in the company in the first place :insert starving college student here: I'm really just digging her, and that's the catch. I feel kind of bad texting her because I just wanted to go out with her alone. I'm thinking about telling her how I feel about everything, but I'm not sure if that's a smart idea... Mainly because I'm not sure if I've taken our entire interaction as she's-into-me-ness rather than friendliness or just doing her job (which is recruiting people). I'm erring towards the former, but it seems rather obvious that I would.
Another catch is that I don't KNOW if she's married. She hasn't mentioned a husband (ex or not), but she has talked about her kids and she does have a huge diamond ring on her hand (yes I shamelessly checked...). I have no idea if saying anything is a bad idea/disrespectful. In the end, the plans aren't concrete I could fudge my way out of things, but at the sametime I do want to see her again.
SO, while I've only gave you the brief highlights of the past months what do you think? From a cub's perspective am I just reading too deep into things? Or from a woman's perspective is she actually interested in me or simply just doing her job?
Any input is greatly appreciated!

I heard from a colleague that if an employee pays for their CMP device (didn't choose one of the company sponsored phones) that they are allowed to keep their phone after leaving the company. I can't find any information on this though. Does anyone have experience with this or know if this is true?
Thanks in advance!
Edit: I don't have Sametime or email or any IBM apps on my phone if that makes a difference.

Verified? (This bot cannot verify AMAs just yet)
Date: 2015-08-27
Link to submission (Has self-text)

Questions	Answers
What language do you guys use the most? and feel is the most useful?	In the Mobile space this is a constantly evolving answer as new technologies and frameworks come out. However, at the moment I would say JavaScript is the most popular. From a native coding perspective you always have Java and Obj-C (Swift) but Ionic, JQuery, Sencha, etc. are all JavaScript based and developers have serverside runtimes like Node.js for API's. So developers have been flocking to JavaScript due to its portability and numerous open source frameworks. -- Steve.
	Java is my most used language in my IBM career, but I try to not have one "go to" language. Different tools for different jobs. I tend to write my UI apps in PHP, API's in Node.js and Java EE for backend or end to end applications. --Ram.
	Honestly it seems like every new team I talk to is using another language... the great thing is that more and more languages are appearing to solve specific problems in response to the way business problems are changing. I ran across an article the other day that talks about top languages on Github Link to thehackernews.com I also ran across a book I liked called "7 languages in 7 weeks" (there's actually an update to that book). I like how it helps you think about the characteristics irrespective of what's popular or what's a staple in the industry. I'd suggest that the more you know about the problem you want to solve, and the more you investigate the characteristics different languages are meant to solve, the easier it'll become for you to start making choices about what tools you'll find will best solve the problems you're targeting. - Richard.
What is the worst piece of software you've worked on and why is it Lotus Notes?	I dont think any of the IBM devs here have worked on Lotus Notes. Sometimes we'll work on a project and it'll get canned, that's probably were you'll get the actual response to the question.
	'It was so bad we canned it'
	I personally dont get all the hate for Notes. The client, while sometimes slow, has never gotten in the way of me doing what I want to do with it. Which is sending and receiving emails and Sametime 99% of the time. I have verse which i can access from in browser, but I still have notes for other tasks. All of which it does without issue.
	That's not to say that people dont have problems with it. I may be in the minority. I sometimes feel like hating on notes is a bit like hating on coldplay (which was a big thing in the UK for a while).
	I'm not a seller, and I dont know what tactics are being used for companies to purchase notes. Though if you're unhappy with it, you should probably be encouraging alternatives that fill all of your companies needs, though Your 1st port of call should be to raise a support ticket.
	I know that exchange is without its faults (having worked for a tech support company that looked after small-medium sized companies) and other alternitives have their problems too.
	If the grass isnt greener, then it's time to make yourself a billionaire ;)
	~Joshua.
I personally dont get all the hate for Notes. The client, while sometimes slow, has never gotten in the way of me doing what I want to do with it.	I can only talk about my experience, which is a boring non-eventful application doing what I want it to do. Part of me wishes I could empathize better with the situations, seemingly, masses of user have been in. I dont work on Notes or Sametime, but I'm going to talk to people who do. I'm not high up or anything, but at least I'd get a clearer picture as to whats going on when (and it seems like it will be a when) I meet someone face to face and they mention how they're frustrated with the software. Not much else I can do right now. :-/ ~Joshua.
As someone who used to be forced to use the bloated crapware that is Lotus Notes, this is like saying the Trabant was a good car because, while sometimes slow, it never got in the way of them driving from place A to place B (provided you were an expert mechanic).
What has been the most frustrating moment of your career so far?	I can't say there's been any one frustrating moment... (frankly there have been a few). For me "frustrating moments" are really the wake-up call that reminds me I have to really focus on the problem. That feeling of frustration is also a bookmark that keeps me from forgetting what I learned. I find that if I'm not periodically frustrated, I'm not learning and growing... - Richard.
	This is probably a bit of a BS interview answer, so i apologize in advance..! It's fresh in my mind because I've literally just got out of a meeting with my manager about this very subject.
	In the role that I have I get the opportunity to work on fun and interesting projects. But in return I have lots of colleagues who want me to help and chip in with their projects too. I'm the author of my own demise because I DESPISE saying no to projects - espc. when they seem fun and valuable to both me and IBM. It's lead to far too many evenings working at 3am and days wondering why I'm so tired.
	I've only been with the company 4 years, undoubtedly there will be frustrating times ahead.
	~Joshua
Project management methodologies: some work with specific deliverables, some don't. Does IBM embrace specific ones, such as Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, others as corporate mandated, de facto methodologies? Or based on how the engineering team/group is managed?	Having spoken to different development teams for different products, there doesn't appear to be any mandated methodology though things like agile and devops have been adopted virally and are used heavily. Interestingly, it can be different when we work with large customer organizations. I find that with customer who have hundreds (if not thousands) of projects located in different parts of global organizations, they often have different processes like waterfall, agile, and some variations of both working across different parts of the organization. Our tools often consider different methods customers have and help them to communicate project status even though they're working with different methodologies. - Richard.
I dont know a single one of your apps, do you think you have a PR-problem?	IBM has many products across a number of areas... you can find them here: Link to www.ibm.com You may be familiar with some of them depending on what type of software you typically interact with. If you're an enterprise developer you may have heard of things like IBM Websphere Application Server, or our DB2 Database. There are certainly many other products as IBM continues to explore and evolve new types of technology in response to the IT challenges of our customers - Richard.
	I suppose, the 1st thing is that we dont typically make consumer applications. But It may also depend on what part of the tech sector you work in.
	The quick and dirty way of describing IBM is that we make 'stuff' that lets others make 'stuff'.
	In the same way that you probably dont know how made the pipes that connect from your boiler to your taps. It doesnt mean that the pipes are not important.
	And sometimes it's often technology that we've open sourced that you're using. have a quick google of MQTT and Facebook messenger as an easy example.
	~Joshua.
What programming languages do you guys dabble in? I'm a network admin student and starting to program as a hobby and possibly to expand my skillset.	(this is a copy paste from a previous comment, but I wanted you to see it too)
	I would suggest not finding a language, but finding a project that you want to create. Then pick the most suitable language for that project. Want to do an IoT home automation project with bluetooth sensors and a pi. Well then, Javascript (node.js) is probably the best lang for that.
	You see, to truly learn a language (not just programming) you need a reason to keep using it. No point learning C++ because you "should". Learn a lang because it makes your life better.
	Once you have the concept down, picking up other languages is much easier. Then what I would suggest you do is find another project in a different language on a place like GitHub, fork it and make it your own. That way you'll get to understand how other people code, appreciate the nuances in their programming, as well as pick up some (hopefully) good habits, like commenting and spacing.
	~Joshua.
I'm a computer science major in my freshmen year right now and need to know, what should I do to get into hardware development? What languages should I learn?	I would suggest not finding a language, but finding a project that you want to create. Then pick the most suitable language for that project. Want to do an IoT home automation project with bluetooth sensors and a pi. Well then, Javascript (node.js) is probably the best lang for that.
	You see, to truly learn a language (not just programming) you need a reason to keep using it. No point learning C++ because you "should". Learn a lang because it makes your life better.
	Once you have the concept down, picking up other languages is much easier. Then what I would suggest you do is find another project in a different language on a place like GitHub, fork it and make it your own. That way you'll get to understand how other people code, appreciate the nuances in their programming, as well as pick up some (hopefully) good habits, like commenting and spacing.
	~Joshua.
For someone wanting to enter the tech world such as myself, what do you recommend to a college freshman? I'm thinking web development, but I'm not too sure. What's your advice?	I'd recommend you learn as much as you can about good engineering principals and development overall. Consider that a part of web development is building a user interface. Often a "website" has lots of other capabilities even if we don't consider that there may be applications running in the background. Get comfortable with languages, databases, application design and operating systems. Keep an eye on development trends to see what types of problems are being solved, with what technology (and why). But work hard at learning the basics... they'll always be valuable! -- Richard.
	I think you should start a good pet project. Ideally an application which has both a mobile and web front end and talks to a backend server with a database. --Ram.
Do you guys use model m's?	The sound those things made! Massive nostalgia right there!
	I think most of the company is either on Lenovo's W series or Macbooks. The latter having their own distinct sounding keyboard, always know when someone is on a macbook when im on a train or a plane without having to turn around.
	Though I'm sure if I went looking I could dig up a whole safe's worth of model M's somewhere.
	Actually where I work has an IBM museum with a whole bunch of old hardware. though my fave has to be the butterfly keyboard.
	~Joshua.
When is Watson going to be my doctor?	Watson will never be your doctor!
	It will be a trusted adviser, though.

Last updated: 2015-08-31 17:26 UTC
This post was generated by a robot! Send all complaints to epsy.

Hi all,
I'm hoping you can maybe help me in a quest. We're looking for a company IM solution that integrates with Confluence and JIRA, in the veins of Slack and Flowdock. Our grievance with these two products is that we absolutely want/need to host & administrate the thing ourselves.
HipChat did not ring with us, and we don't want to throw money at giants by using MS Lync or IBM Sametime. What other options do we have ?
Thank you in advance for your kind feedback.

I have been tasked with Splunking the IBM Domino suite of software. Has anyone ever done it before?
I've got quite a range of products to look at. Domino, IBM Sametime, IBM Quickr, Lotus Mobile Connect, etc.
I don't anticipate it being difficult, I'd just rather avoid having to write the config for the Splunk Forwarders and the transforms if someone has already done it.

I am currently looking to integrate a video-conferencing software package at my small company. We use Skype and WebEx here and there, but are looking for something a little more robust. WebEx isn't that bad, it doesn't have the chat services (I am looking for something like AIM used to be) I think we will need in the future.
What I want to do with this project: (1) Choose the most intuitive platform (2) Have web-based meetings featuring video, voice, and easy screen and file sharing. (3) Be able to communicate and share files/information via text chat (4) Connect to meetings via mobile devices (5) Have software that will work well on Mac and PC (6) I would probably want a package which you can have client side software (like Skype) but also connect via a web browser (7) We run Office365 so I suppose easy integration with Microsoft products would be a plus, but I don't want to confine myself to Lync if the other platforms are better!
I am currently looking at the following software packages:
Omnijoin WebEx FaceMe IBM SameTime Microsoft Lync
I know Microsoft Lync can connect to users on Skype. Can any of these other platforms cross connect to other video conferencing services? This is not a requirement but would be nice so that we can have folks from outside of our company connect to meetings.
FaceMe looks good, but I can't find many reviews for it. IBM SameTime also seems like a good software package. Hell, they all look pretty good from what I can tell, but we have no experience with most of them.
Do you all have any information or personal reviews to share? Thanks.

Check the screenshot:
http://i.imgur.com/18LYJTy.png
Whenever I use a right-click menu (in explorer, i suppose, not sure), there is a small chance that whatever I highlight stays and becomes frozen on my screen. It's on top of all programs then, and I can't remove it in any way.
In the screenshot, I did "open with -> adobe photoshop CC" somewhere in explorer. It executed the action perfectly, but the hover state froze.
Specs:

• Windows 7 SP1 64-bit
  
• Dell Precision workstation T1600
  
• Xeon CPU E31245 @3.30Ghz
  
• 16GB RAM
  
• Nvidia Quadro 2000
  

Tray apps running:

• Google Chrome
  
• SyncBackFree
  
• Greenshot
  
• WizMouse
  
• Everything
  
• Keepass password safe
  
• Dropbox
  
• Teamviewer
  
• IBM sametime connect
  

And this is what is normally in the context menu when I click on something: http://i.imgur.com/Hkt1gEH.png

Supervisor has been out getting some crazy eye surgery, he is due back in today and will be rocking an eye-patch like a half-assed Pirate. I'd love to have a few of these gifs to add to our SameTime intranet chat as emoticons.
EDIT: I cannot youtube here at work (blocked). I will try to find a link and post it.

I'm hoping somebody might be able to help me out. My company uses Sametime messenger (along with other IBM products, like Lotus Notes) for instant messaging. I have been trying for ages to find an iPhone app that supports Sametime, or even just a web app. I can access my Sametime through the internet using a desktop program such as Pidgin, JBuddy, KoolIM, etc (I have a server name and port number) so I know it can be done, it just needs to be "ported" to iPhone. I know that Sametime 8.5 has this technology already, but to use that, something has to be installed on the corporate Sametime server (not gonna happen). I can already access it from 3rd party messenger clients, so I just need an iPhone version or web app of a similar program. Can anyone help me out? BTW, I have Googled my face off trying to find an existing app, with no luck. Thanks, reddit!