August
31
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by admin on 31-08-2008

A suitcase is a somewhat flat rectangular-shaped bag with rounded corners, either hard plastic or soft or made of cloth, vinyl or leather that more or less keeps its shape. It has a carrying handle on one side and is used mainly for transporting clothes and other possessions during trips. It opens on hinges like a door.
Suitcases lock with keys or a combination. Originally, suitcases were made of wool or linen.

Most modern suitcases have built-in small wheels enabling them to be pulled along on hard flat surfaces by a fixed or extendable handle or by a retractable or stowable leash. Suitcases are a type of luggage.

A smaller, firmer suitcase, used mainly for transporting papers and office supplies is known as a briefcase.

Airlines attach tags to luggage which is transported as checked luggage. (Such checked luggage is occasionally lost or delayed, a significant worry for travellers.) Due to current security concerns, checked luggage may be inspected and the security staff may confiscate belongings that are prohibited on-board aircraft.

Parts

Some suitcases include a telescopic handle and wheels.

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August
31
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by admin on 31-08-2008

Locks-and-keys is a solution to dangling pointers in computer programming languages.

The locks-and-keys approach represents pointers as ordered pairs (key, address) where the key is an integer value. Heap-dynamic variables are represented as the storage for the variable plus a cell for an integer. When a variable is allocated, a lock value is created and placed both into the variable’s cell and into the variable’s ordered pair. Every access to the pointer compares these two values, and access is allowed only if the values match.

When a variable is deallocated, the key of its ordered pair is modified to hold a value different from the variable’s cell. From then on, any attempt to dereference the pointer can be flagged as an error. Since copying a pointer also copies its cell value, changing the key of the ordered pair safely disables all copies of the pointer.

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August
30
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by admin on 30-08-2008

The Luggage is a fictional object that appears in several of the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett. It is a large chest made of sapient pearwood (a magical, intelligent plant which is nearly extinct, impervious to magic, and only grows in a few places outside the Agatean Empire, generally on sites of very old magic). It can produce hundreds of little legs protruding from its underside and can move very fast if the need arises. It has been described as “half suitcase, half homicidal maniac”.

Its function is to act as both a luggage carrier and bodyguard for its owner, against whom no threatening motion should be made. The Luggage is fiercely defensive of its owner, and is generally homicidal in nature, killing or eating several people and monsters and destroying various ships, walls, doors, and other obstacles throughout the books. Its mouth, the feature often remarked upon by those it is about to consume, contains “lots of big square teeth, white as sycamore, and a pulsating tongue, red as mahogany.” The inside area of The Luggage does not appear to be constrained by its external dimensions, and contains many conveniences: even when it has just devoured a monster, the next time it opens the owner will find his underwear, neatly pressed and smelling slightly of lavender.

One of the greatest features of The Luggage is its ability to follow its current owner anywhere including such places as inside its owner’s mind, off the edge of the Disc, Death’s Domain, the Dungeon Dimensions, and even (literally) to Hell and back. Like all luggage, it’s constantly getting lost and having to track its owner down. It has only one way of overcoming obstacles, and that is by simply ignoring them and smashing a hole through them - including a wall to a magick shop that had since relocated.

The Luggage first appears as the property of Twoflower the tourist in The Colour of Magic. When Twoflower returns home in The Light Fantastic he gives the luggage to Rincewind, and it follows him through several sequels. Twoflower says he got it by asking for “travelling luggage” at the store (one of about a dozen magical shops which are not limited by the constraints of time and space, to their owners’ dismay. According to “The Light Fantastic”, this chain of stores was born when an impatient sourcerer was served rather poorly.) - which is exactly what he got. When Rincewind eventually visits the Counterweight Continent, Twoflower’s home, he finds many items similar to Luggage travelling with their masters.

Pratchett says (at the beginning of Sourcery) that he got the idea for the Luggage when he saw a tartan suitcase with dozens of little wheels moving as though it had a mind of its own while an American tourist pulled it along. However, he has also stated (in The Art of Discworld) that it was loosely based on an idea from a roleplaying game he had designed – that being of a similar item that would do only and exactly as it was told.

The Luggage later finds a female Luggage and has children with it in Interesting Times.

The Luggage savages passers-by in:

  • The Colour of Magic
  • The Light Fantastic
  • Sourcery
  • Eric
  • Interesting Times
  • The Last Continent
  • The Last Hero

The Luggage also ‘ate’ the most powerful magical spell book on the Disc at the climax of The Light Fantastic. However, as it is made of sapient pearwood and is impervious to magic, the book is probably under tighter control than it was in the university where it had to be chained to a plinth.

The Luggage has consumed many remarkable things, including quite a few people. Regardless of what it consumes, only the owner’s neatly pressed packing is found inside, with any clothes laundered, ironed and folded, and smelling faintly of lavender.

Computer games

In The Colour of Magic computer game, it is mentioned as in the novel. Also, in Discworld and Discworld 2, it acts as an inventory and can fit an infinite amount of items in his trunk.

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August
30
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by admin on 30-08-2008

The Hatherton Canal is a derelict branch of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal in south Staffordshire, England.

When it was built it ran 4 miles (6 km) through eight locks from Hatherton Junction on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal to Churchbridge Junction on the Churchbridge Branch (a short branch with thirteen locks) of the Cannock Extension Canal (a branch of the Wyrley and Essington Canal). It was completed in 1860. Subsidence due to mining caused its closure in 1955.

The canal is now part of an active restoration project. However, due to building on the cut, the current plans call for the canal to deviate from the original route in places. This includes new tunnels under the A5 road and a cluvert, already in place, over the M6 Toll motorway.

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August
30
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by admin on 30-08-2008

In computer science, non-strict two-phase locking, also 2PL, is a locking method used in concurrent systems.

The rules for 2PL are similar to those of Strict 2PL:

  1. If a transaction T wants to read/write an object, it must request a shared/exclusive lock on the object.
  2. A transaction cannot request additional locks on any object once it releases any lock, and it can release locks at any time (not only at commit time, as in Strict 2PL).

So, every transaction has a growing phase (it acquires locks) and a shrinking phase (it releases locks). 2PL allows only conflict serializable schedules, but doesn’t guarantee that deadlocks will be avoided.

2PL is one scheduling algorithm, sometimes used instead of:

  • simultaneous locking, simultaneous release (Disadvantage: redundant locking, no interactive transactions)
  • incremental locking, simultaneous release (Disadvantage: Deadlock)
  • simultaneous locking, incremental release (Disadvantage: rollback, redundant locking)
  • incremental locking, incremental release (Disadvantage: deadlock, rollback)
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August
30
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by admin on 30-08-2008

A party bus (also known as a Party Ride, limo bus, limousine bus or luxury bus) is a large motor vehicle designed to carry 20 or more passengers. Party buses are often driven by chauffeurs.

Party buses offer seating capacities from 20 to 50 passengers and include more amenities and standard equipment than most other forms of ground transportation. These amenities may include upgraded electrical systems, fast idle controller, AM/FM stereo with CD player, power/heated remote control mirrors, power door locks and windows, upgraded seats and fabric, strip-poles, air actuated passenger entry door, video and audio systems, luggage partitions, back-up cameras, seat and fabric upgrades, smoke machines, laser lights, disco lights, strobe lights, on-board restroom, ADA equipment and a large array of floor plans to suit demanding transportation needs.

Party buses are primarily used for, although not limited to, weddings, proms and bachelor and bachelorette parties as well as round trips to casinos, nights on the town, personalized drop offs and pick ups at various bars and nightclubs, birthdays and city tours.

While some party buses are used for week long tours and events, most are used for day trips and events. Most party buses, however, operate as livery vehicles, providing upmarket competition to limousines and taxicabs.

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August
30
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by admin on 30-08-2008

ChanServ, on many IRC networks, is an IRC service which maintains channel registration and access information. If a channel is registered with ChanServ, its owners (and those they have designated) can use ChanServ to obtain control over the channel, gaining channel operator privileges. Most channel service bots also allow other sorts of channel management options, such as topic locks (in addition to +t), mode locks, and providing users automatically with operator status, half-operator status, voice, or other access, as designated by the channel owners. They may also provide some form of automated ban-list management.

There are several implementations of IRC services which have a ChanServ bot; some other services use other names, such as CS. The exact commands and features available depend on the service implementation and the network in question.

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August
30
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by admin on 30-08-2008

The Chubb Locks subsidiary of the Assa Abloy Group is a British manufacturer of high security locking systems for residential and commercial applications.

Chubb was started as a ship’s ironmonger by Charles Chubb in Winchester, England and then moved to Portsmouth, England in 1804.

Chubb moved the company into the locksmith business in 1818 in Wolverhampton. The company worked out of a number of premises in Wolverhampton including the purpose built factory on Railway Street now still known as the Chubb Building. His brother Jeremiah Chubb then joined the company and they sold Jeremiah’s patented detector lock

In 1823 the company was awarded a special license by George IV and later became the sole supplier of locks to the General Post Office and a supplier to His Majesty’s Prison Service.

In 1835 they received a patent for a burglar-resisting safe and opened a safe factory in London in 1837.

In 1851 they designed a special secure display case for the Koh-i-Noor diamond for its appearance at the Great Exhibition.

In 1984 the company was purchased by Racal, who sold it in 1997 to Williams Plc. In August 2000, they were sold to Assa Abloy.

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August
30
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by admin on 30-08-2008

A lock bypass is a technique in lockpicking, of defeating a lock through unlatching the underlying locking mechanism without operating the lock at all. It is commonly used on devices such as combination locks, where there is no natural access (such as a keyhole) for a tool to reach the locking mechanism. Because the mechanism itself is not being manipulated, this could technically not be considered lockpicking at all. However, it does fall under the repertoire of techniques used to open locks.

Lock bypass is one of the most important parts of locksmithing, especially with respect to public buildings which must be able to be opened from inside in case of fire, thus allowing the use of “letter box tools” among other techniques. Locks may be bypassed by a variety of other techniques including the “credit card” technique against self closing “latch systems.”

Padlocks may be bypassed by shimming, where one inserts a sprung steel device to retract the spring loaded catch that restrains the shackle.
Locked cars may be bypassed by introducing a stiff wire between the door and the cars structure to operate internal unlocking catches. The previous method may be assisted by gently prying the door from the frame with an air wedge or lever. To avoid bypass, a door should be secured using a “deadbolt” a system, in which the locking mechanism and bolt are operated by the key. This prevents the device from being opened without the locking mechanism itself being properly operated.

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August
30
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by admin on 30-08-2008

Marsh Lock is a lock and weir situated on the River Thames near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, close to Mill Meadows. It is owned and managed by the Environment Agency.

The lock, original weir and footbridge were designed by Humphrey Gainsborough, a local non-conformist minister, inventor and the brother of the artist Thomas Gainsborough.

The weir was reconstructed in 2004 by Mowlem PLC to a design by Halcrow Group.

Access to the lock

Because the lock is unusually situated on the opposite side of the river to the towpath, a long wooden bridge carries the path out to the lock island below the weir, and then back again to the riverbank above the weir. This feature is unique on the River Thames.

Reach above the lock

Soon after the lock is the entrance to the Hannerton Backwater. The river passes between Wargrave and Shiplake and is joined by the River Loddon just below Shiplake Lock. The Wargrave & Shiplake Regatta takes place on the reach. The Thames Path follows the river on the western bank and then takes a diversion through Shiplake.

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