This Single Mom Conquered The Figure Stage!

How does a working single mother with a high-stress career transform into a competitive figure athlete? Just ask Carisa Wherry. She did it all!
Being a physique competitor is often a solitary pursuit. Sure, many can boast a supportive team of friends, family, and trained handlers who provide encouragement and advice along the way. But when it comes down to the workouts, it's just you putting in the reps. It's your sweat, angst, and energy that go into building a standout body.

CARISA WHERRY'S CONTEST HISTORY
NPC Denver Open, Mar. 2015: first place women's physique
NPC Rocky Mountain Championships, November 2015: first place masters figure, overall figure champion, first place first-time figure competitor, second place open figure class B height
Well, not for Carisa Wherry. In preparation for her first-ever physique competition, the NPC Rocky Mountain this November, her training ritual quickly grew into a family affair. Each day, she was joined at the gym—at 4 a.m., no less—by her sister, a friend, and her 62-year-old mother. As she lifted and did cardio with her vision of a perfect figure shape in mind, her family worked on their own fitness goals: her 62-year-old mom to improve her health, and her sis to lose a bit of weight.

"It was encouraging to see their transformation during my contest prep," Wherry says. "They would help me get up and do my cardio with me."

The team effort didn't stop there. Often, Wherry's 12-year-old daughter was waiting for the four at the gym, and when she wasn't, Wherry's father would wake up early to be with her. Wherry's good friend Anthony Harvey also stepped up, arranging her travel, cooking her meals, managing her schedule, and, as she says with a grin, "putting up with a lot of attitude."

You'd think with all that help, Wherry must be a seasoned fitness veteran. The truth? She just started this a year ago, at age 40.

See more>

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/this-single-mom-conquered-the-figure-stage#.VnOdRzsGfSE.google_plusone_share

The cornerstone of Systems Nicaragua

Electrical, HVAC, Alarm, tampers, heating and cooling, communications, PDS, fiber optics and all the rest don't mean very much without the NOC.

'Mission control' for energy management

EnerNOC's Network Operations Center (NOC) connects energy supply and demand and makes demand response and technology-enabled energy efficiency seamless and reliable. Terabytes of data flow into the NOC every year, giving EnerNOC the ability to dispatch demand response capacity where and when it is needed. 

Similar to a utility control center, the NOC is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and provides unparalleled visibility into each asset in EnerNOC’s network. It also connects energy users to their real-time energy data, leveraging advanced demand management software and secure metering and controls hardware and communications infrastructure.

Inside the NOC

Check out this behind-the-scenes slideshow of our Network Operations Center.

View Photos

During a demand response dispatch, the NOC monitors program performance at each site via real-time data feeds and makes event performance data available to client-approved staff through a secure, cloud-based software application.

Key NOC features include:

• Robust backbone: supports a global network of tens of thousands of customer sites
• Redundant data centers in multiple locations: ensures business continuity and ability for local support teams to serve customers throughout the world
• Real-time visibility into dispatches: provides clients and their customers a real-time view of performance on a site-by-site basis 
• Dispatch management and energy profiling tools with patented business processes: ensures EnerNOC consistently delivers the demand response capacity contracted to our utility partners
• Local customer support teams: provides support for our enterprise customers, utility clients, and their customers worldwide
• 24/7/365 customer service desk: manages tens of thousands of calls every year with average response time of three seconds 

EnerNOC is firmly committed to rigorous security standards, and we utilize the latest technologies and protocols and operational best practices.

Schedule and manage your demand response dispatches

As a utility working with EnerNOC, you can easily schedule and manage demand response dispatches with our software, leveraging our NOC as an extension of your control room. During a dispatch, our NOC personnel monitor participating customer sites for the duration of the dispatch and restore customer operations to normal when the dispatch ends. 

For clients that partner with EnerNOC for a guaranteed capacity solution, our platform dynamically sorts individual customer sites by their performance—enabling our NOC operators to quickly identify and contact any underperforming sites in the demand response portfolio to ensure reliable resource delivery. For clients preferring to manage their programs in-house, our software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based solution provides tools to initiate, monitor, and conclude dispatches and to determine resource availability.  

Website > http://www.enernoc.com/our-network/the-noc

The NoC integration allows to interconnect (multiple) CPU, GPU, DSP, on chip memories, off chip DRAM through the DDRn memory controller, and the various functions from video accelerator to audio processor and from SuperSpeed USB to MIPI DSI or HDMI. If NoC functionality would only be to interconnect all these pieces, it would already be useful, when you consider that, in 2012, an Application Processor SoC integrates about one hundred IP, like for example with OMAP5 from TI! The NoC real power is to create an autonomous communication Network within the chip, has we have explained here.

New NOC Tech.

Written By Malik Zakaria

Every organization aims at capturing and gaining access to new markets, products and customers. However, a greater challenge than capturing new markets is that of sustaining value over the long-term. One of the key aspects that helps organizations remain at the forefront is its vision and capability of adopting new technologies.

Keeping up with these changes often means carrying out complex integration of new technology that can consume valuable time and resources. Another major challenge that comes with integration is the management of the existing network. It involves high volume of activities and is typically handled by the IT Manager.

The IT Manager has to simultaneously manage the network and the integration of new technology, which may be extremely complex for sizeable transactions. See how Managed NOC can support this transition…

  

5 Technology Integrations you cannot ignore

Whenever a business thinks of expansion into new markets, innovation or to keep up with the technology changes, it has to adopt to new technology. Can your network and its operations remain isolated during such an integration? Of course, not. Your network will experience the highest volume of activity during such an integration and the complexity is increased by the fact that your organization’s key functions depend on your network availability and stability.

As an IT Manager, you are well aware of the complex tasks of managing the network challenges, resources and time. In this blog, we will discuss how many organizations today have adopted the modern day NOC and how critical it is to solve the network challenges proactively while adopting new technologies so that you are guaranteed a100% service uptime with cost efficiency.

Managed NOC: Managed NOC is offered as a service by Managed Service Providers (MSPs). A Managed NOC service is designed to provide a seamless experience of managing your network operations during integration of new technology. All server and service monitoring is carried out through an MSP’s Network Operations Center (NOC) and their remote monitoring and management tools ensure that your services are not interrupted during the transition to the new technology.

Let’s look at how Managed NOC can help you keep up with the challenges that a network faces during integration of new technology in your organization.

Full article > http://blog.externetworks.com/blog/adopting-new-technologies-keep-an-eye-on-your-network-with-managed-noc

And that's a wrap.

Happy Holidays

The Future of Transportation

Four revolutions in transportation are taking place this decade.

This post is a look at how they will shape your life, your business and our world.

In 2011, Peter Thiel famously said, "We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters…"

Guess what? The flying car is coming, and so is a heck of a lot more.

In this post, I want to explore the latest developments in:

1. Autonomous Vehicles
2. Telepresence Robots and Virtual Worlds
3. Hyperloop
4. Point-to-Point Aerial Transport

Each of these will change where we live, work and interact.

Autonomous Vehicles

Autonomous cars are coming and coming fast. Every major car company has autonomous cars under development. By 2035, it's expected there will be more than 54 million autonomous cars on the road, and this will change everything.

Saved Lives: There are 1.2 million people killed every year in car accidents. Autonomous cars don't drive drunk, don't text, don't have Alzheimer's, and don't fall asleep at the wheel.

Reclaiming Land: You can fit eight times more autonomous cars on our roads, making their land use more efficient. In Los Angeles, it's estimated that more than half of the land in the city belongs to the cars in the form of garages, driveways, roads, and parking lots.

Saved Energy: Today, we give close to 25 percent of all of our energy to personal transportation, and 25 percent of our greenhouse gases are going to the car.

Saved Money: Get rid of needing to own a car, paying for insurance and parking, trade out 4,000-lb. cars for lighter electric cars that don’t crash, and you can expect to save 90% on your local automotive transportation bill.

Best of all, you can call any kind of car you need, when you need it. Need a nap? Order a car with a bed. Want to party? Order one with a fully-stocked bar. Need a business meeting? Up drives a conference room on wheels.

Telepresence Robotics and Virtual Worlds

In the US alone, business travel spending will top $310 billion in 2015 (Global Business Travel Association), or about 490.4 million business trips.

The idea of having to schlep your "meat body" from one location to another for a meeting will soon be old-school.

Instead you'll plug into a virtual world, or use a Beam robot to connect virtually. Already, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Sony, HTC, and Suitable Technologies are spending billions of dollars to develop the hardware and perfect the experience.

Beyond the advantage of saving serious cash and time flying from LA to NY, meeting someone "in person" will ultimately be a disadvantage. When I'm speaking to you over a virtual link or telepresence robot, I can watch your pupillary dilation, have my system pull up and recall facts about our last conversation, and enrich my interaction with you in countless ways.

In the next decade, you will attend conferences, meetings, interviews, keynotes and maybe even dates by telepresence and virtual worlds. Just the advantage of avoiding a full cavity search courtesy of airport TSA makes it worth it.

For me, I have 15 Beam robots between my offices at XPRIZE (Los Angeles), Singularity University (Mountain View), Human Longevity Inc. (San Diego), and Planetary Resources (Seattle). In a single day, I'll routinely hop between four cities with a click of a button.

Full article > http://tinyurl.com/p9xvaus: BEAM ROBOT E-VOLO  HYPERLOOP HYPERLOOP TECHNOLOGIES INC.TELEPRESENCE ROBOTS TRANSPORTER XPRIZE VIRTUAL WORLDS XPRIZE FOUNDATION ZEE AERO

50 Safekeeping Self-Defense Gadgets

From Hi-Tech Tasers to Pepper Spray Phones

The main function of self-defense gadgets is to guard one's safety, but these creations also focus on form. While equipping one with safety measures, these products also pay attention to design and style. 

A lot of tasers and pepper sprays are becoming multi-functional. With the prevalence of smartphones, some brands are even producing taser-incorporated phone cases. This type of design makes weaponry conveniently portable and discrete. 

A more stationary self-defense item is the Burglar Blaster set. It detects thieves from within 2,000 square feet of its range and releases pepper spray when alarmed. The Burglar Blaster's sleek design mounts onto your wall, resembling a security system. 

While many self-defense creations are blatantly obvious, other are disguised. For instance, Austrian artist Toni Spyra makes weapons out of everyday objects like wooden clothes hangers or perfume bottles.

Nothing beats simplicity.

These self defense pens by Schrade aren't your average writing accessories. These self defense pens are widely used by law enforcement officers, fire fighters, outdoor enthusiasts and regular people like you and I. The Schrade brand has been in the defense business for many years, if you are planning to get an item to protect yourself, the self defense pens are a great choice for their effectiveness and quality.

A little outdated yet very effective > http://www.trendhunter.com/slideshow/selfdefense-gadgets

*Always wear sunglasses or reflective glasses, "Just for Us".

Best Smart Home Gadgets of 2015

Looking to make your home just a little smarter? While still in its infancy, the number of smart home products—devices that let you control your lighting, thermostat, or even your crock pot from your smartphone—is rapidly growing. From GE to Belkin to Home Depot, tons of products and whole ecosystems want to help you control your home via a single iOS or Android app. You can pick and choose your favorite gadgets to assemble an affordable intelligent abode on your own terms, or opt for an entire smart home system that does all the work for you. Here are some of our favorite smart home systems and individual gadgets.

The third generation of the excellent Dropcam, this $199 camera now shoots video in 1080p (up from 720p), and has a magnetic, swiveling base that lets you set it up almost anywhere. It features two-way audio, sharp night vision and a powerful digital zoom, and integrates with other smart home products, such as the Nest Learning Thermostat. But to really make use of Nest Cam's features, you'll have to shell out $10 or more per month for the Nest Aware program, which gives you access to cloud storage and much more.

A mere touch of your finger unlocks or locks this otherwise normal-looking front door bolt lock. You can assign virtual keys permanently or temporarily, monitor ins and outs remotely and receive activity alerts via the Kevo app. Kevo's quotidian aesthetics are actually part of its security function – unlike other, perhaps admittedly smarter, locks, nefarious folks will have no clue to Kevo's intelligence. And in case of a technical snafu, Kevo can be opened with a reliable regular key. Kevo also is due to be incorporated into both the Home Depot/Wink and Staples Connect ecosystems.

Complete report > http://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-smart-home-gadgets,review-2008.html

Doing business in Nicaragua.

                                                                     

Nicaragua is the 107th largest export economy in the world and the 95th most complex economy according to the Economic Complexity Index (ECI). In 2013, Nicaragua exported $6.39B and imported $6.02B, resulting in a positive trade balance of $371M. In 2013 the GDP of Nicaragua was $11.3B and its GDP per capita was $1.85k.

The top exports of Nicaragua are Insulated Wire ($1.09B), Knit Sweaters ($474M), Gold ($439M), Coffee ($380M) and Knit T-shirts($366M), using the 1992 revision of the HS (Harmonized System) classification. Its top imports are Crude Petroleum ($460M), Refined Petroleum ($442M), Packaged Medicaments ($266M), Light Rubberized Knitted Fabric ($176M) and Delivery Trucks ($149M).

The top export destinations of Nicaragua are the United States($3.41B), Mexico ($623M), Venezuela ($492M), Canada ($392M) and El Salvador ($245M). The top import origins are the United States($945M), Curaçao ($750M), China ($681M), Mexico ($579M) and Costa Rica ($494M).

Nicaragua borders Costa Rica and Honduras by land and El Salvador and Colombia by sea.

Full review at > http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/nic/

The Top 10, Top 10 Predictions for 2016

The time of year when crystal balls get a viewing and many pundits put out their annual predictions for the coming year. Rather than thinking up my own, I figured I’d regurgitate what many others are expecting to happen.

7 Future Predictions for the Internet of Things – IoT is one of the hottest terms and trends. From connected cars, homes, businesses and more, connected devices are becoming more prevalent in our lives. Stable Kernel looks at the future economic growth, development of smart cities, wearables, privacy challenges and how voice commands will become the norm.

Top 10 Humanoid Robots Designed To Match Human Capabilities And Emotions – While once a dream of The Jetsons, companion robots in the home will become as common as pets, even if the pet is a robot. WT VOX explores whether robots could fully replace humans by 2045 as some predict and takes a look at the top 10 that are starting to match human capability.

The top security threats of 2016 – ZDNet digs into McAfee's 2016 cybersecurity threat report covering areas like hardware, ransomware, cloud services, connected cars and the warehouses of stolen data. From the Ashley Madison hack, to Jeeps taken off-road and the TalkTalk breach, digital infiltration is now a daily occurrence and no one is immune.

Forrester’s top 10 predictions for business in 2016 — and what they mean for tech – Computerworld summarizes Forrester’s top 10 predictions and how 2016 will be the year that the companies that thrive will be those advancing down the customer obsession path. They look at critical business issues like loyalty, analytics, personalization and how privacy will become a value to which customers will respond. You need to live a customer-obsessed operating model to survive.

IBM predicts tech world of 2016 – At number 5, IBM has published its 6th annual Five in Five - where it predicts five innovations that will change all of our lives in the next five years, with mind-reading machines apparently set to be interpreting our thoughts by 2016. From generating our own energy to no more passwords to almost everyone having some sort of mobile technology, IBM Labs is exploring these emerging technologies.

DDoS Predictions for 2016, IBM Insights – Also from Big Blue, they are sharing insight into new types of DDoS attacks that are to be expected during the coming year. DDoS is no longer a nagging problem but a bona fide technique to disable a company’s resources. BitTorrent, malicious JavaScript and Temporal Lensing DDoS (pdf) attacks are all explained. As I’ve mentioned before, there have always been protesters and activists - some write letters, some picket on the sidewalk, some throw rocks and with the advent of the internet, now you can protest (and more) by creating digital havoc.

5 IT industry predictions for 2016 from Forrester and IDC – CIO.com hits on the 2016 predictions of IDC and Forrester, two of the largest analyst firms. In their distillation, there could be a bleak future for legacy vendors since according to IDC, ‘by 2020, more than 30 percent of the IT vendors will not exist as we know them today.’ There will also be some cloud consolidation, big data gets even bigger and traditional enterprises will turn into software companies. Software developers will become a scarce commodity.

IDC Software Licensing and Pricing Predictions 2016: Top 10 Predictions – And speaking of software, Amy Konary of IDC writes about focus areas like the growth of subscription and outcomes-based pricing, the real cost of licensing complexity, usage models in IoT, the business model impacts of the convergence of cloud, mobile, social, and big data technologies.

10+1 Commandments For Companies Developing Wearable Health Trackers – Many of us will be getting a wearable or two this holiday season so ScienceRoll rolled up it’s 10+1 commandments every company developing wearable health trackers should follow. Practical value, online communities, long live batteries and gamification are what user’s desire. We know you want to make money but focus on helping people live a healthier life.

In-depth: Top 10 Internet of Things companies to watch – We started with IoT and figured I’d caboose this with another. RCRWireless digs in to the top players in both Industrial IoT and Consumer IoT. Many of the names are familiar: Cisco, IBM, ATT, Google, GE, Samsung and a few others are already hedging their future on all these connected nouns. See what these organizations are doing both internally and externally to embrace IoT and take advantage of this proposed multi-trillion dollar market opportunity.

And if you want to see if any of the previous year’s predictions came true, here ya go:

• The Top 10, Top 10 Predictions for 2015
• The Top 10, Top 10 Predictions for 2014
• The Top 10, Top 10 2013 Predictions
• The Top 10, Top Predictions for 2012