Doesn't necessarily mean he's going to lose his job. Especially with a government job, where the protections tend to be a little stronger than in the private sector.
Unless he's required to maintain a security clearance for his job, in which case things could have gotten squirrely.
Having been through all of the various editions from basic (yes the red and blue books)to Advanced up to 3.5, I've come to believe that 3 was written to convince card gamers that role-playing is cool, 3.5 was to fix the f-ups in 3. Both were almost worthless.
2nd was ugly and the black books were worse, but you could as a DM make house rules that didn't completely blow the whole system to shreds. In 3 and 3.5 the entire thing is so finely tuned that any mods (like taking out AoA's {what a piece of shit}) unbalanced the entire thing. And don't get me started on feats. "Oh, it's a way to better customize my character." Bullshit, customizing your character is playing him/her in a way that makes a unique individual other than a piece of paper or working with the DM to come up with a good backstory that can be expanded upon as the character progesses and grows. Feats are just another way for the f-ing powergamers to munchkin a game.
The only good thing that came out of 3 and 3.5 are the Prestige classes, but thats what High Level Campaigns in 2nd was for.
So, whats next, going to use 4th to try to capture the WoW gamers? Thats all we need, a bunch of immature, homophobic racists who couldn't put together a coherent sentence if they tried.
Kill the product now and go find something else to fuck up.
I've always been a fan of the "Engineer's Mini-Notebook" series from Forrest Mims. You can get them at Radio Shack, most HAM radio shops or online here. (were originally like 10 books, they've now condensed them down to 4)
Entry-level electronics projects with detailed explanations and parts lists. You'll have to get the parts yourself, but with companies liker Mouser, Graybar and Fry's, that shouldn't be a problem.
You are mistaking standard equity options with Employee Compensation Stock Plan Options.
Compensation Plan Options are not normally transferrable and are nothing more than a contact between the optionee and the company in which the company is willing to sell the optionee shares at a fixed price for 'X' number of years. The stock to back this option comes directly from the companys treasury, not the functional open market. Thus a Compensation Stock option is barely worth the paper it's printed on (assuming there's even paper) until the Option is 'Exercised' and the stock purchased.
This is going to be an administrative nightmare for Google, not to mention the Tax issues that an optionee will have to go through on a year when they 'sell' the option grant to another person. As far as I know, there really isn't anything in the IRS code that deals with transfer of Compensation Options between persons expect in cases of Death, even then the standard procedure is to exercise the option, sell the shares and transfer the resulting cash to the estate of the deceased, taxing it as if it were an inheritance (sort of).
Those who designed the Internet were also overly optimistic about the true nature of people and didn't really consider security issues either.
Those who designed the internet (DARPA and the US DoD) were completely aware of nature of people, after all, they had just kicked the s$%t out of the Japanese and the Germans and were trying to create a redundant communications network in case of a nuclear war.
They didn't create it for public consumption, they created it as a closed system.
If you follow the links and read the State Law, the police in this case acted according to the letter of the law. However it does seem that the state law also means that every video taping system in the state (think banks, hospitals, security systems, etc) is illegal and that the users thereof are all looking at 7-10 in the state prison system per offense.
"The reason is that this industry, through the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board), its developers' lobbyist, the ESA (Entertainment Software Association), and the retailers' lobbyist, IEMA (Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association) are involved in ongoing fraudulent conduct in marketing video games that contain adult material to children."
1:) Prove it 2:) If you can't do you as an attorney know what Libel is? 3:) IIRC Libel can be grounds for revocation of your BAR registration.
I was at home, getting ready for school. I had stopped for a moment to watch the launch with my parents.
When the shuttle came apart the first words that my father said were "It was too cold, the rings didn't seal right." It was a haunting utterance, sort of under his breath as if he were talking to himself.
Dad's an Aero Engineer with a company that makes some of the analysis software that NASA and the manufacturers of the shuttle parts use to determine what happens to various objects under various stresses. He said rubber couldn't be properly analyzed as there are too many different variables going on with it at any given time. And as it chills all of it's properties change from fluid to solid or somewhere in between.
For my generation (I'm 34), I won't say this was our 9/11, but that this was our Kennedy. 9/11 belongs to my childrens generation.
More importantly, who gives a crap, other than stock holders
The Stockholders are the ones who the company cares about. Not you or me (unless were stockholders.) This lackluster performance could in some investors eyes signal a preview of what is yet to come, causing them to reduce or liquidate their holdings in take-two. As the stock hits the market, the price drops and that in turn indicates that the company is doing something wrong.
Most of the employees probably have a decent portion of the compensation given to them in the form of employee stock options. As the price of the stock drops, the value of the stock options decrease, lowering the employees compensation and normally their morale as well. Which can lead to defections to other companies and a general sliding of take-two's stock price progressively lower, which leads to lower compensation, lower morale, higher defections, etc.
We don't matter, the stockholders do, period. If it makes the stock holders happy, the company will try to do it, regardless of what we think.
Re:Video games, MMO's and RPG's supplanting table
on
Dungeons and Shadows
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Of the group I game with (mid thirties / early forties in age) 1 is divorced, 5 are married, 2 never married. The 2 children (1 year and 4-5 years) are either put in a bedroom in their crib (the 1 year old) or put in front of a Movie of their choice for the evening. When they get old enough to understand the concepts, they will be invited to participate.
The trick is to insure that the game does not interfere with real life. We have a set schedule of Saturday afternoons and evenings for one DM and Monday night after work for the other. If something critical comes up, the person with the issue just lets the DM know and the game goes on. It helps that we all live within 10 minutes of each other.
If I get drunk in a pub it is me who is responsible, not the bartender that has vast stock of C2H5OH
In the US, if you get drunk at the pub and the staff allow you to leave while intoxicated, they can be held liable for any damages or fatalities that your drunken stupor may cause. By the victim, not the drunken sot (you).
Court Rules to Impose Injunction on bcgi and other Defendants in Patent Litigation
bcgi Reiterates Plans to File Appeal and Seek to Stay Injunction
Bedford, MA - October 17, 2005 - Boston Communications Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: BCGI) reiterated today that it will file an appeal in its ongoing patent infringement litigation with Freedom Wireless, after a federal judge granted Freedom Wireless' request for injunctive relief. The U.S. District Court (the "Court") denied Freedom Wireless' motion to award attorneys fees and enhanced damages awarded by the jury, including treble damages. However, the Court granted Freedom Wireless' request to add prejudgment interest and other costs totaling $20.1 million, bringing the total joint and several liability to $148.1 million.
"Our fight is far from over," said E.Y. Snowden, President and CEO of bcgi. "We will bring our appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which has nationwide jurisdiction over patent issues and is especially skilled at reviewing complex patent cases, where we hope to prevail."
bcgi continues to assert that it does not infringe the Freedom Wireless patents, and believes the patents are invalid in light of prior art and other reasons. In addition, the Company believes that the size of the award bears no relationship to a reasonable royalty that bcgi or any company would have paid for a license of the patents.
Injunctive Relief
The Court enjoined bcgi from offering three implementations of its U.S. service bureau, multi-frequency (MF), common channel signaling system seven (SS7), and pre-intelligent network (pre-IN), to any wireless carrier other than a licensee of Freedom Wireless, subject to a 90-day grace period. During the 90-day grace period, the defendants would be required to pay Freedom Wireless a license fee equivalent to 2.5 cents per minute of use. On average, bcgi currently charges its customers approximately 1 cent per minute of use, which includes a full suite of real-time billing, rating and support services using bcgi's state-of-the-art proprietary software and network.
In order to mitigate the severe impact of this injunction that was granted by the Court, bcgi will file an emergency motion to request a stay of the injunction pending appeal with the U.S. District Court. If the stay is denied by the District Court, bcgi will immediately appeal that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and seek a stay of the injunction while the appeal of the judgment is pending. The request for a stay of the injunction would ask that bcgi be allowed to continue to serve carriers during the appeals process.
If left standing, and applied broadly to all of bcgi's customers, the injunction would prohibit bcgi from providing its prepaid services to carriers which service millions of individuals - many of whom due to income or age would otherwise not have access to wireless service. The injunction as granted would cause irreparable harm to bcgi's business as it applies to approximately 400,000 Cingular Wireless prepaid subscribers currently served by bcgi's prepaid wireless platform, as well as approximately 2.7 million additional prepaid subscribers of other carriers serviced by bcgi, representing approximately 70% of bcgi's total revenue as of June 30, 2005.
Appeal Process and Appeal Bonds
The defendants will appeal the Court's overall judgment in the lawsuit to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. The appeal process could last twelve to eighteen months, or longer. In order to stay execution of the judgment pending appeal, the defendants have posted appeal bonds totaling $141 million in security to cover the original judgment plus 10%.
As of June 30, 2005, based on managements' assessment of the potential outcomes of the case at that time and in accordance with FAS 5 and FIN 14, the Com
About Freedom Wireless Freedom Wireless, Inc. owns and licenses core intellectual property directed toward prepaid wireless systems and services. The Freedom Wireless patent portfolio consists of six United States Patents. Two of these patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 5,722,067 and 6,157,823) were recently found by a jury in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts to be valid and infringed by Boston Communications Group, Inc. (BCGI) and certain of its wireless carrier customers. Other aspects of Freedom Wireless' suit against BCGI are presently being heard by the Honorable Judge Edward F. Harrington, Senior U.S. District Judge. Freedom Wireless is located in Phoenix, AZ. Licensing inquiries should be directed to Larry Day, President of Freedom Wireless.
If you take the machines with no modifications or customizations, then yes, the Windows and the no-OS box are the just about the same price, but lets look further...
First, we've got to bump the XP version from Media Center to Pro (to make it the equivalent of the OS that will most likely be installed on the no-OS box {linux -- any flavor}) add $100 to XP.
The base E510 starts with 256 mb ram, lets bump that to 512 to match the no-OS standard box. add $40 to XP
Bump the no-OS combo's monitor to a 17in flat to match the windows box. add $160 to no-OS
The XP box comes with the intergrated Intel video, bump it to the ATI X600 w/256 mb ram, add $100 to each machine (the no-OS box does not have the integrated as an option, leaves us to quesiton Intel.)
Sound upgrade. no-OS does not come with integrated sound, so we must upgrade both boxes. Audigy 2ZS, add $70 to each machine
ok, here's the kicker, anybody with half a brain {which I assume includes those of us that will be buying a no-OS machine} can d/l and install Open Office and some flavor of SQL (MySQL, PostgresSQL, etc), so we have to add Office Pro to the Windows box.... Add $399 to the XP.
Final verdict: No-OS $1049.00 XP $1527.00
For the above package, I'll take the no-OS machine and install Suse or Slack on it.
As written it does not stop a parent or guardian from exposing their own children to these games, what it does is stop them from exposing other children. Exactly what you are asking for.
The problem comes in when a teenager whose parents allow him/her to play these games invites a friend over for a multi on his/her new xbox 360. As the friends parent did not give explicit consent for him/her to play that exact game, the parents can and no doubt will bring the original childs parents up on charges under this law.
So is Lexmark going to pay for my shipping costs to get my used cartrigdes back to them? I assume that they are going to be recycling all of the used Lexmark cartridges in the world. Oh wait, that's not profitable?
Tough. You asked for it, you'll get it.
Perhaps the EPA needs to contact Lexmark about the enviromental damage that their used cartridges are doing...
If there is no way to legally recycle, then lexmark is creating waste. More than likely toxic waste if you want to get down and dirty with your definitions.
The group I game with (Dm and Player) consists of 2 that will play anything put in front from, 1 who is just learning (but he's got a bent mind to begin with), 1 who knows nothing but 2nd ADnD Cleric (no speciality), 1 who thinks he knows everything and then quite often proves it (with regard to ADnD) and 1 who just is.
I adamantly refuse to play or dm the new WoTC DnD (I also refuse to associate TSR with WoTC) I tried it once, never again.
Perhaps I'm also a hold-out, but I must agree that there is very little to get excited about.
Slashdot Mirror
His employer got notices from the company.
Doesn't necessarily mean he's going to lose his job. Especially with a government job, where the protections tend to be a little stronger than in the private sector.
Unless he's required to maintain a security clearance for his job, in which case things could have gotten squirrely.
I have to agree with Lord Apathy.
Having been through all of the various editions from basic (yes the red and blue books)to Advanced up to 3.5,
I've come to believe that 3 was written to convince card gamers that role-playing is cool, 3.5 was to fix the f-ups in 3. Both were almost worthless.
2nd was ugly and the black books were worse, but you could as a DM make house rules that didn't completely blow the whole system to shreds. In 3 and 3.5 the entire thing is so finely tuned that any mods (like taking out AoA's {what a piece of shit}) unbalanced the entire thing. And don't get me started on feats. "Oh, it's a way to better customize my character." Bullshit, customizing your character is playing him/her in a way that makes a unique individual other than a piece of paper or working with the DM to come up with a good backstory that can be expanded upon as the character progesses and grows. Feats are just another way for the f-ing powergamers to munchkin a game.
The only good thing that came out of 3 and 3.5 are the Prestige classes, but thats what High Level Campaigns in 2nd was for.
So, whats next, going to use 4th to try to capture the WoW gamers? Thats all we need, a bunch of immature, homophobic racists who couldn't put together a coherent sentence if they tried.
Kill the product now and go find something else to fuck up.
I've always been a fan of the "Engineer's Mini-Notebook" series from Forrest Mims. You can get them at Radio Shack, most HAM radio shops or online here. (were originally like 10 books, they've now condensed them down to 4)
Entry-level electronics projects with detailed explanations and parts lists. You'll have to get the parts yourself, but with companies liker Mouser, Graybar and Fry's, that shouldn't be a problem.
You are mistaking standard equity options with Employee Compensation Stock Plan Options.
Compensation Plan Options are not normally transferrable and are nothing more than a contact between the optionee and the company in which the company is willing to sell the optionee shares at a fixed price for 'X' number of years. The stock to back this option comes directly from the companys treasury, not the functional open market. Thus a Compensation Stock option is barely worth the paper it's printed on (assuming there's even paper) until the Option is 'Exercised' and the stock purchased.
This is going to be an administrative nightmare for Google, not to mention the Tax issues that an optionee will have to go through on a year when they 'sell' the option grant to another person.
As far as I know, there really isn't anything in the IRS code that deals with transfer of Compensation Options between persons expect in cases of Death, even then the standard procedure is to exercise the option, sell the shares and transfer the resulting cash to the estate of the deceased, taxing it as if it were an inheritance (sort of).
Those who designed the Internet were also overly optimistic about the true nature of people and didn't really consider security issues either.
Those who designed the internet (DARPA and the US DoD) were completely aware of nature of people, after all, they had just kicked the s$%t out of the Japanese and the Germans and were trying to create a redundant communications network in case of a nuclear war.
They didn't create it for public consumption, they created it as a closed system.
Fdisk, Format and reinstall. Next time try the SQL desktop engine or Oracle.
If you follow the links and read the State Law, the police in this case acted according to the letter of the law. However it does seem that the state law also means that every video taping system in the state (think banks, hospitals, security systems, etc) is illegal and that the users thereof are all looking at 7-10 in the state prison system per offense.
I also think the ACLU will be all over this.
I think I want to drive to Louisiana and kick this guy in the nuts.
Get in line.
"The reason is that this industry, through the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board), its developers' lobbyist, the ESA (Entertainment Software Association), and the retailers' lobbyist, IEMA (Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association) are involved in ongoing fraudulent conduct in marketing video games that contain adult material to children."
1:) Prove it
2:) If you can't do you as an attorney know what Libel is?
3:) IIRC Libel can be grounds for revocation of your BAR registration.
I was at home, getting ready for school. I had stopped for a moment to watch the launch with my parents.
When the shuttle came apart the first words that my father said were "It was too cold, the rings didn't seal right."
It was a haunting utterance, sort of under his breath as if he were talking to himself.
Dad's an Aero Engineer with a company that makes some of the analysis software that NASA and the manufacturers of the shuttle parts use to determine what happens to various objects under various stresses. He said rubber couldn't be properly analyzed as there are too many different variables going on with it at any given time. And as it chills all of it's properties change from fluid to solid or somewhere in between.
For my generation (I'm 34), I won't say this was our 9/11, but that this was our Kennedy.
9/11 belongs to my childrens generation.
More importantly, who gives a crap, other than stock holders
The Stockholders are the ones who the company cares about. Not you or me (unless were stockholders.)
This lackluster performance could in some investors eyes signal a preview of what is yet to come, causing them to reduce or liquidate their holdings in take-two. As the stock hits the market, the price drops and that in turn indicates that the company is doing something wrong.
Most of the employees probably have a decent portion of the compensation given to them in the form of employee stock options. As the price of the stock drops, the value of the stock options decrease, lowering the employees compensation and normally their morale as well. Which can lead to defections to other companies and a general sliding of take-two's stock price progressively lower, which leads to lower compensation, lower morale, higher defections, etc.
We don't matter, the stockholders do, period. If it makes the stock holders happy, the company will try to do it, regardless of what we think.
Of the group I game with (mid thirties / early forties in age) 1 is divorced, 5 are married, 2 never married.
The 2 children (1 year and 4-5 years) are either put in a bedroom in their crib (the 1 year old) or put in front of a Movie of their choice for the evening. When they get old enough to understand the concepts, they will be invited to participate.
The trick is to insure that the game does not interfere with real life. We have a set schedule of Saturday afternoons and evenings for one DM and Monday night after work for the other. If something critical comes up, the person with the issue just lets the DM know and the game goes on. It helps that we all live within 10 minutes of each other.
If I get drunk in a pub it is me who is responsible, not the bartender that has vast stock of C2H5OH
In the US, if you get drunk at the pub and the staff allow you to leave while intoxicated, they can be held liable for any damages or fatalities that your drunken stupor may cause. By the victim, not the drunken sot (you).
Firefox shows a blank page. I am able to get the photo with IE. odd. Perhaps some screwy IE only shit.
Excellent.
I see now that they have removed the offensive photo and have replaced the page with a blank place-holder.
See my post below.
The whois contact number is the LATW office, so I contacted KPCC who are going to contact LATW via their channels.
Contacted KPCC, got the Control Manger, he's calling the Program Director and a Tech who are going to contact the LATW staff.
I tried to call the Tech & Admin contact in the whois record, but it's the office which is currently closed.
He's probably got better qualifications than the actual nominee.
{then again, so does a soapdish}
BCGI's Press Release
Investor Alert
Court Rules to Impose Injunction on bcgi and other Defendants in Patent Litigation
bcgi Reiterates Plans to File Appeal and Seek to Stay Injunction
Bedford, MA - October 17, 2005 - Boston Communications Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: BCGI) reiterated today that it will file an appeal in its ongoing patent infringement litigation with Freedom Wireless, after a federal judge granted Freedom Wireless' request for injunctive relief. The U.S. District Court (the "Court") denied Freedom Wireless' motion to award attorneys fees and enhanced damages awarded by the jury, including treble damages. However, the Court granted Freedom Wireless' request to add prejudgment interest and other costs totaling $20.1 million, bringing the total joint and several liability to $148.1 million.
"Our fight is far from over," said E.Y. Snowden, President and CEO of bcgi. "We will bring our appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which has nationwide jurisdiction over patent issues and is especially skilled at reviewing complex patent cases, where we hope to prevail."
bcgi continues to assert that it does not infringe the Freedom Wireless patents, and believes the patents are invalid in light of prior art and other reasons. In addition, the Company believes that the size of the award bears no relationship to a reasonable royalty that bcgi or any company would have paid for a license of the patents.
Injunctive Relief
The Court enjoined bcgi from offering three implementations of its U.S. service bureau, multi-frequency (MF), common channel signaling system seven (SS7), and pre-intelligent network (pre-IN), to any wireless carrier other than a licensee of Freedom Wireless, subject to a 90-day grace period. During the 90-day grace period, the defendants would be required to pay Freedom Wireless a license fee equivalent to 2.5 cents per minute of use. On average, bcgi currently charges its customers approximately 1 cent per minute of use, which includes a full suite of real-time billing, rating and support services using bcgi's state-of-the-art proprietary software and network.
In order to mitigate the severe impact of this injunction that was granted by the Court, bcgi will file an emergency motion to request a stay of the injunction pending appeal with the U.S. District Court. If the stay is denied by the District Court, bcgi will immediately appeal that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and seek a stay of the injunction while the appeal of the judgment is pending. The request for a stay of the injunction would ask that bcgi be allowed to continue to serve carriers during the appeals process.
If left standing, and applied broadly to all of bcgi's customers, the injunction would prohibit bcgi from providing its prepaid services to carriers which service millions of individuals - many of whom due to income or age would otherwise not have access to wireless service. The injunction as granted would cause irreparable harm to bcgi's business as it applies to approximately 400,000 Cingular Wireless prepaid subscribers currently served by bcgi's prepaid wireless platform, as well as approximately 2.7 million additional prepaid subscribers of other carriers serviced by bcgi, representing approximately 70% of bcgi's total revenue as of June 30, 2005.
Appeal Process and Appeal Bonds
The defendants will appeal the Court's overall judgment in the lawsuit to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. The appeal process could last twelve to eighteen months, or longer. In order to stay execution of the judgment pending appeal, the defendants have posted appeal bonds totaling $141 million in security to cover the original judgment plus 10%.
As of June 30, 2005, based on managements' assessment of the potential outcomes of the case at that time and in accordance with FAS 5 and FIN 14, the Com
From Telecordia's website
About Freedom Wireless
Freedom Wireless, Inc. owns and licenses core intellectual property directed toward prepaid wireless systems and services. The Freedom Wireless patent portfolio consists of six United States Patents. Two of these patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 5,722,067 and 6,157,823) were recently found by a jury in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts to be valid and infringed by Boston Communications Group, Inc. (BCGI) and certain of its wireless carrier customers. Other aspects of Freedom Wireless' suit against BCGI are presently being heard by the Honorable Judge Edward F. Harrington, Senior U.S. District Judge. Freedom Wireless is located in Phoenix, AZ. Licensing inquiries should be directed to Larry Day, President of Freedom Wireless.
(Emphasis added by me)
If you take the machines with no modifications or customizations, then yes, the Windows and the no-OS box are the just about the same price, but lets look further...
First, we've got to bump the XP version from Media Center to Pro (to make it the equivalent of the OS that will most likely be installed on the no-OS box {linux -- any flavor}) add $100 to XP.
The base E510 starts with 256 mb ram, lets bump that to 512 to match the no-OS standard box. add $40 to XP
Bump the no-OS combo's monitor to a 17in flat to match the windows box. add $160 to no-OS
The XP box comes with the intergrated Intel video, bump it to the ATI X600 w/256 mb ram, add $100 to each machine (the no-OS box does not have the integrated as an option, leaves us to quesiton Intel.)
Sound upgrade. no-OS does not come with integrated sound, so we must upgrade both boxes. Audigy 2ZS, add $70 to each machine
ok, here's the kicker, anybody with half a brain {which I assume includes those of us that will be buying a no-OS machine} can d/l and install Open Office and some flavor of SQL (MySQL, PostgresSQL, etc), so we have to add Office Pro to the Windows box.... Add $399 to the XP.
Final verdict: No-OS $1049.00 XP $1527.00
For the above package, I'll take the no-OS machine and install Suse or Slack on it.
Did you read the law?
As written it does not stop a parent or guardian from exposing their own children to these games, what it does is stop them from exposing other children. Exactly what you are asking for.
The problem comes in when a teenager whose parents allow him/her to play these games invites a friend over for a multi on his/her new xbox 360. As the friends parent did not give explicit consent for him/her to play that exact game, the parents can and no doubt will bring the original childs parents up on charges under this law.
So is Lexmark going to pay for my shipping costs to get my used cartrigdes back to them? I assume that they are going to be recycling all of the used Lexmark cartridges in the world. Oh wait, that's not profitable?
Tough. You asked for it, you'll get it.
Perhaps the EPA needs to contact Lexmark about the enviromental damage that their used cartridges are doing...
If there is no way to legally recycle, then lexmark is creating waste. More than likely toxic waste if you want to get down and dirty with your definitions.
I adamantly refuse to play or dm the new WoTC DnD (I also refuse to associate TSR with WoTC) I tried it once, never again.
Perhaps I'm also a hold-out, but I must agree that there is very little to get excited about.