RTFM

Certainly, but I would put far much more stock in whom they chose as business partners than their s/o. There is a far broader emotional component to an s//o than a business partner and a business partner impacts your reputation and dealings in a more direct manner. In short, people do crazy things for love which does not by any means make them crazy. In this specific case, his s/o was making a point about politician's promises in a very unorthodox manner; and not intending to be taken literally. Or, in politico speak, I know what you thought you heard me say but what I said was not what I meant.

I believe it's called satire in her case.

Except we are not talking about a plant that uses renewable energy but individual homeowners. Sure, a plant has a dispatch order and baring unforeseen circumstances the load dispatcher knows exactly what they will have when and then use leakers or other means to match generation with demand. If things get boring on a mid shift you can always drop 50 MW in the blink of an eye and watch your phone light up with an angry LD. Individuals, however, are not as reliable. They can decide to crank up a/c or charge a car or simply go out and turn off the a/c and lights. As more and more supplier alike that come on the grid yo need to plan for a spinning reserve to make up for unexpected shortfalls and will need to ramp others down when production is unexpectedly high. Power plants don't generally like to maneuver; and even expensively fueled diesels like to run at full load. So in the end, as individual solar installations become a greater percentage of the supply there need sot be a way to predictably control their output and demand.

While I understand your POV I think a s/o is different from a business partner. I know a lot of people with a s/o whom I consider crazy or unstable, but whom I still think are decent and trustworthy. I wouldn't chose their s/o as a business partner but that is a separate issue form working with them. Again, if the org is making their financials available and audited by an independent party than the s/o antics are a non-issue to me. YMMV.

In this specific case it appears the s/o's offer was made in satire and part of an effort to draw attention to Parliament rather than a serious offer; as evidenced by the nature of the campaign and how it came to closure.

I'm do think it's fair to judge someone by the s/o. As long as he is transparent with the organization's financials what they do elsewhere is generally irrelevant. Who know, maybe Tania's ability to "get out the vote" is what he found attractive.

That's a key problem to address and not just in Hawaii; it's just that Hawaii's geography puts it further along in solar adoption while at the same time having a grid that is small and isolated. Load dispatchers are trying to balance supply and demand over the grid and having supplies cut in and out unpredictably makes that very difficult. It's not so much an issue when a small fraction of the generation is solar but as its total generation increases it becomes a problem. It also effects other users as well; some customers have uninterruptible loads, such as hospitals, or pay extra for it such as some industrial plants where losing power risks severe damage to the plant. Grid operators want to ensure they can continue to ensure grid reliability and it's not unreasonable to take sets to do so. That doesn't mean there aren't other "save our company" issues at play but that doesn't negate the concerns over the grid. I could see a solution where solar installations need to have some way of allowing utilities to dial down their output remotely either with some sort of shade that reduces the amount of sunlight the cells see or requiring batteries to divert production when it is not needed. In the ned, if you are sending power to the grid you need to do so in a way that doesn't threaten the grid's reliability.

I think part of the challenge in Hawaii would be finding an affordable suitable location with 80 or so square miles alongside a mountain and ensuring enough storage capacity to account for the projected increase in solar installation capacity. Otehrwise, in a few years your back to where you started.

Each user is coming in with a set of experiences that has conditioned them to prefer one way over the other. Someone who has used a CLI a lot may simply prefer it because they are familiar with it and can do things quickly vs. learning a new way to do things with a GUI. They are predisposed to think their way is better; just as a GUI user is towards their preferred interface. to that end:

1. Don't assume that the CLI is always better, even if you can do something faster or easier. If the GUI gets the job done without frustrating the student or taking a long time, let them use the GUI.

2. For instances where the CLI is clearly a better choice; have them use both and let them draw their own conclusions.

In the end, unless one way causes a lot of extra work or cannot accomplish the task neither is inherently better; just different ways to do the same thing.

True, paying at the top of market pay scales will keep employees but then you've also increased your expenses so their productivity must match the extra costs. That's what Netflix is trying to do; and so far seems to succeed.

True, they certainly have the right to compensate as they see fit. Time will tell if their model is sustainable or superior to others.

Certainly - for the same period the employee is bound; with the caveat either side is released form the contract in the event the other grossly misrepresented themselves of did something illegal.

While I am all in favor of competition I think it is reasonable to have some legally binding period where people can't jump ship simply to avoid situations where X does all the paperwork and pays the fees only to have the person immediately jump to Y when the visa comes through. In the end, I would change the economics of the visa so employers take on more risk and are forced to decide if it is really worth it to hire H1B's or find other sources of the talent they need. If they really are paying prevailing wages then this change should be a no brainer.

That's the problem with identifying an A player - defining what is really valuable to the company. Some things are easy to see , such as sales figures, system reliability etc; even if they really don't necessarily measure what you think they measure. Other things, such as the ability to navigate the company's organizational and power structure are equally valuable but much harder to notice; often they are noticed after the fact when it is to late. So in the end, it becomes a bunch of senior executives crowing about how the have the A-Team while they systematically destroy the things that make the organization function well. I pity the fools...

Of course, if they only truly hire A players then their talent pool will be a worthwhile one for other companies to poach. So unless they find a way to lock in their talent so it can't leave; such as hiring foreign talent under H1B and other visa programs that restrict job mobility. Oh wait...

You want more H1B's? Fine, but change the rules so after say 6 months they can freely quit if they have another offer? After all, if you pay market wages and offer the type of job that is worth keeping then no one will steal your A players whom you paid a lot of money for their visas, right?

Rev#3

DIMOC Digitization and Storage

The Defense Media Activity (DMA) is the headquarters responsible for several operations within the Department of Defense that creates, broadcasts, manages archives, and stores media. The Defense Imagery Management Operations Center (DIMOC) is the operational arm of the Defense Visual Information Directorate (DVI), a component of DMA. The mission of DVI is to operate as the DoDs central visual information (VI) management and proponency office. The DIMOC integrates and synchronizes DoD imagery capabilities and centrally manages and archives current and historical visual information media in support of the Department and the National Archives and Records Administration. DIMOC serves as the official DoD VI Records Center for the storage and preservation of original and irreplaceable motion picture, video, still, audio, and mixed VI records depicting the DoDs heritage and current activities.

In FY 2012, DIMOC was presented with a model used by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) that provides digitization of select records (e.g. documents, photographs, etc.) at no-cost to the Government. This no-cost model permitted a contractor to digitize the selected records and receive a return on their investment during a period of exclusivity in exchange for providing the National Archives digitized copies. This period of exclusive rights allowed the contractor to generate revenue via sales of the digitized records. After this period of time, the digital copies would become public domain via the National Archives. This process assists NARA in accomplishing their mission to increase the public accessibility of Federal Records far quicker than their capability to digitize there and resources would allow.

With DIMOCs similar mission to the National Archives to collect, preserve and increase accessibility, DIMOC is attempting to adopt a variant of the NARA no-cost model. DIMOC used this model to solicit requests for proposals, and even held an industry day to gauge the feasibility to complete this mass digitization and storage for free for the Government. The industry day consensus was for the Government to share some of the up-front costs as a sign of good faith and viability for the contracts success. A clear message, that this project was not going to be feasible for industry without Government funding, was sent when only three RFPs were submitted post- industry day. Subsequently DIMOC is proposing a cost-share variant to the NARA no-cost model.

II. OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this contract is to provide for the digitization, storage and retrieval of still imagery, motion and audio recordings for the Defense Imagery Management Operations Center. DIMOC recognizes there is value to this content being made readily available accessible, and as such, we are soliciting industry proposals for providing the Government digitization, storage and retrieval in exchange for the opportunity to monetize immediate access to Department of Defense visual information material (during an exclusive period for up to 10 years).

The Government intends to solicit a one-year base period with four full option years of performance. The total five-year period will permit a contractor time to digitize DIMOCs vast holdings and help realize a return on investment. The option years will allow for assessment each year on the success of the contract as determined by the contractor and the Government.

The Government realizes the cost burden of digitizing and storing this content is on the vendor despite the contract award off-setting some of the costs. Accordingly the Government is allowing a period of exclusivity for 10 years for marketing and commercial sales of Government content digitized during the previous 5-year cost share term of the contract. Note that the additional five- year period of exclusivity is beyond the cost-share based contract. However, it is expected that the period of exclusivity for years 6 - 10 will be performed at no cost to the Government. To further clarify, this means the Government gives exclusive rights to the contractor to charge a convenience fee for access to this content to the public. The contractor shall provide Government customers access to the content free of charge as digits are produced from Government content available during the 5-year period of contract performance and during the entire 10-year period of exclusivity. Provide incrementally increasing storage for 20% of media volume per year for five years. Control of access to Government customers may be through the Defense Imagery Management Operations Center website, www.defenseimagery.mil or as technically agreed upon between the Government and the contractor. All said, the no-cost exclusivity period will end 10-years after the award date of the base contract.

The contractor will be enabled to immediately sell the digitized content with digital copies of this content immediately available for use by Department of Defense in maximum resolution as agreed between the Government and the contractor. As the contractor will retain all revenue generated by the sale of digitized imagery to the public, the entire contract is unique in that the contractor shall assume a majority of the risk for providing initial service to the Government with the likelihood of a future return on investment. This is a cost avoidance initiative of significant value to the Government in mission accomplishment while allowing for potential subsequent profit for a contractor. Physical VI material will not be shipped outside the Continental United States for this effort.

Reiterating the period of exclusivity, all DoD customers will have free access to these digital copies. At the end of the contract period of exclusivity, the Government will acquire all digital copies in the contractors possession not already copied to the Government storage, and will carry on its business of distributing imagery to the Military Services, Department, Federal Government, and general public.

III. SCOPEOFEFFORT

1. The Government is looking to acquire these capabilities: digitization, storage and retrieval of achieving this objective is also dependent on the governments ability to provide assets for said

The objective is to

get as many assets digitized, stored and made accessible as possible. The priority order for the

government is 1) video, 2) film, 3) still and 4) audio. While the government understands that

work, the offorers should be able to demonstrate their capability to process, digitize and make

accessible the maximum volume of assets on a monthly basis.

the visual information media (still imagery, motion and audio recordings) from the DIMOC Visual Information Records Center holdings. The contractor shall digitize, ingest, store, transcode, manage, and distribute media to the public for a convenience fee and provide to the Government at no-cost said digitized media with interim storage (minimum during the 5-year

period of contract performance) with subsequent transfer to the Government according to a mutually agreed schedule.

2. This cost-share solution is defined as the contractor providing a service of digitization, storage and retrieval of digitized records for a pre-determined period, five years, in exchange for charging the public a fee for access to those records for an exclusivity period of 10 years, at no- cost to the Government.

III. TASKS

1. Assurance & Accountability: The Government desires assurance of safeguarding the content regardless of the location of performance. The contractor shall return all original content (physical media) to the Government after digitization. The contractor shall also provide quality assurance/quality control plans for their workflow, handling and return of Government media. This assurance will include workflow processes that abide by, at the minimum, the National Archives and Records Administration visual information handling guidelines. The contractor shall provide accountability and the Government will have oversight and knowledge of the content, whether in physical or digital form, throughout the workflow process.

National Archives and Records Administration Technical Guidelines:

http://www.archives.gov/preservation/technical/guidelines.html

National Archives and Records Administration Duplication Specifications

http://www.archives.gov/preservation/formats/bw-copying-specs.pdf

National Archives and Records Administration Guidelines for Vendors Handling Records and Historical Materials?http://www.archives.gov/preservation/technical/vendor-training.html

2. Information Assurance:

a. The contractor should present within their proposal how they would meet the requirements and intent of DoD Instruction 8582.01, dated June 6, 2012, Security of Unclassified DoD Information on Non-DoD Systems. Specifically, the contractor should address each element of DoD Instruction 8582.01, dated June 6, 2012, enclosure 3, paragraph 2, subparagraphs a through m regarding the handling requirements for unclassified but unreleased imagery within their facility and IT infrastructure.

b. The contractor shall acknowledge and provide access to the government to verify and validate that the contractor is meeting the requirements of DoD Instruction 8582.01 on a continuing basis throughout the period of performance of the contract.

3. Estimated volume of media holdings from a 2010 inventory study:

Over 300,000 physical video assets 277,967.733 hours (average duration of 56.58 min)

Over 37,000 physical (motion) film assets 11,136.65 hours (average duration of 17.64 min)

Over 40,000 physical audio assets?1,408,935 min (average duration 65 min)?Over 700,000 physical still image and graphic assets

Additionally, the Government will provide approximately 1.2 million digital released images from more recent operations as reasonably available and as per applicable DoD policy.

The documentary period of the media holdings is from approximately the 1940s to the present.

3. The contractor shall have an initial period of 60 days for an inventory, if desired, prior to any digitization. The Government anticipates that the holdings can be prioritized per categories, such as high-priority, general collection, non-circulating, and non-archival. The Government will consider options of an on-demand digitization workflow for content in the lessor categories,?while the media in a high-demand maybe digitized for immediate delivery. The Government is willing to entertain an on-demand digitization per customer requests; in addition to a prioritized workload schedule. The Government will maintain the right to re-prioritize content on a case- by- case basis.

4. Digitization Workflow: The Government and contractor will mutually agree on prioritization for digitization. The Government will provide limited metadata to complement the contractors ingestion of content, after which Government editors will assist in completing metadata using the contractors system.

5. File Formats (minimum requirements):

H.264/MPEG4 (resolution-specs) JPEG (Q)12 (resolution)

If the contractor determines a higher quality resolution for both access and storage, the Government will request those file formats.

File formats decided upon will be compatible for migration to the evolving digital file- format standards over the course of this contract.

As media formats evolve, the Government will request the most up-to-date formats of digitized media.

DoD Instruction 5040.02 Visual Information, policy governing handling and manipulation of DoD imagery.

6. Access & Retrieval: The contractor shall handle all orders for customers external to the DoD/GOV and will be able to charge a reasonable price based upon comparable commercial cost to acquire a return on investment and profit. The contractor shall be expected to make the digital assets accessible for Government using a federated search (transparent/seamless access and retrieval) via DIMOCs website: DefenseImagery.mil as well as their own. All non-DoD/GOV customers (public) will be directed to the contractors website for order fulfillment/commercial sales. DIMOC will maintain customer service responsibility for all DoD/GOV customers via our current workflow. In addition, Government Customer Service personnel will be available to answer any inquiries to the use and background information pertaining to Government Imagery through a link via the contractors site. The Government will perform order fulfillment of physical copies for Government customers only. The contractor is expected to provide options for high- definition resolution download, along with low and medium resolution download streaming options. Governments desired approach is to have customers access media through two portals via DefenseImagery.mil. The first portal is for DoD/GOV access only and the second is a pass through to the contractor's website for public customers.

7. Government Storage: DIMOC will establish a schedule with the contractor to receive digital copies of the content from the contractor. The Government is considering its own scalable storage system with an overall minimum requirement of a redundant/back-up storage and server configuration. It is expected that a potential contractor will do the same.