Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Orlando villas

Sitting here in early August gazing at the grey English skies makes me long to
return to sunnier climates. My thoughts turn firmly to Florida and I find myself
browsing for Orlando villas to rent on orlando villas.

I remember my last trip as if it was only yesterday, especially my close encounter whilst absorbing one of Central Florida’s natural attractions, the swamps.


Although we were staying in an Orlando vacation rental home which are mainly
filled with out-of-state tourists, I bumped into a local called Carl who was
working for www.wireitright.com who suggested that our families meet up one
Sunday afternoon at a country park about 30 miles North West of Orlando. Eager
to see more of Florida’s natural beauty, sure enough one week later we
found ourselves heading up to Wekiva. We met with our new friends and decided
to rent some canoes and head north upriver.


The shallow river was fairly dense with fallen trees and navigating them was
difficult. Whilst rowing with one ore and two you kids was hard-work heading
up-stream, the current made it fairly easy to control the canoe and navigate
the tight corners. As we passed one particularly hairy tight spot, a 7ft alligator
was clearly visible. The kids, aged 4 and 5, were already on the lookout for
alligators and they fell very silent as we passed.


Eventually we found a sand island in the middle of the river and stopped for
refreshment. My 4 year old picked up a stick that was floating down-stream.
When he asked me why the stick was moving I shouted to him to drop it, fortunately
it looked like it was just a water snake.


I need some excitement in my life again, time to fins another Florida vacation
villa for rent on www.fabvillas.com. If I can, I’ll try to stay at Emerald
Retreat again as it was a wonderful villa with everything that I could have
dreamed of, details can be found at emeraldislandflorida.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

MANs

Metropolitan Area Networks or MANs are large computer networks usually spanning a campus or a city. They typically use wireless infrastructure or optical fiber connections to link their sites.
For instance a university or college may have a MAN that joins together many of their local area networks (LANs) situated around site of a fraction of a square kilometer. Then from their MAN they could have several wide area network (WAN) links to other universities or the Internet.
Some technologies used for this purpose are ATM, FDDI and SMDS. These older technologies are in the process of being displaced by Ethernet-based MANs (e.g. Metro Ethernet) in most areas. MAN links between LANs have been built without cables using either microwave, radio, or infra-red free-space optical communication links.
DQDB, Distributed Queue Dual Bus, is the Metropolitan Area Network standard for data communication. It specified in the IEEE 802.6 standard. Using DQDB, networks can be up to 30 miles long and operate at speeds of 34 to 155 Mbit/s.
Several notable networks started as MANs, such as the Internet peering points MAE-West and MAE-East and the Sohonet media network.

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Economy

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the state's 2003 total gross state product was $314 billion. Its 2003 Per Capita Personal Income was $28,071, 38th in the nation. North Carolina's agricultural outputs are poultry and eggs, tobacco, hogs, milk, nursery stock, cattle, and soybeans. Its industrial outputs are tobacco products, textile goods, chemical products, electric equipment, machinery, and tourism. Charlotte, the largest city in the state, is also the nation's largest banking presence outside of New York City. North Carolina is also the largest film making state outside of California. Movie Studios are located in Shelby, Raleigh-Durham, Charlotte, and the most popular, EUE Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington. Some of the film/telelvision credits filmed there include: Dawson's Creek, One Tree Hill, Cape Fear, Maximum Overdrive, and The Crow.

Geography

The State of North Carolina is included between the parallels 34° and 36°30' north latitude, and between the meridians 75°30' and 84°30' west longitude.
Its western boundary is the crest of the Smoky Mountains, which, with the Blue Ridge, forms a part of the great Appalachian system, extending almost from the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River to the Gulf of Mexico; its eastern is the Atlantic Ocean. Its mean breadth from north to south is about one hundred miles (160 km); its extreme breadth is one hundred and eighty-eight miles (303 km). The extreme length of the State from east to west is five hundred miles (800 km). The area embraced within its boundaries is fifty-two thousand two hundred and eighty-six square miles (135,000 km²).
Major geographic features include the Blue Ridge Mountains in the west, the Piedmont region of the central portion of the state, the Coastal Plain, and Cape Fear, Cape Hatteras, and the Outer Banks off the eastern coast. These regions are roughly divided by their elevation, with the Coastal Plain extending to areas below 400 feet above sea level; the Piedmont encompassing those areas between 400 and 1,500 feet; and the Mountain region referring to areas from 1,500 feet to the highest Appalachian peaks at more than 6,600 feet.

Judicial branch

The Supreme Court of North Carolina is the state's highest appellate court; it numbers seven justices. the North Carolina Court of Appeals is the only intermediate appellate court in the state; it consists of fifteen judges who rule in rotating panels of three. Together, the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals constitute the Appellate division of the court system.
The Trial division includes the Superior Court and the District Court. All felony criminal cases, civil cases involving more than $10,000 and misdemeanor and infraction appeals from District Court are tried in Superior Court. A jury of 12 hears the criminal cases. In the civil cases, juries are often waived.
Civil cases such as divorce, custody, child support and cases involving less than $10,000 are heard in District Court, along with criminal cases involving misdemeanors and infractions. The trial of a criminal case in District Court is always without a jury. The District Court also hears juvenile cases involving children under the age of 16 who are delinquent and children under the age of 18 who are undisciplined, dependent, neglected or abused. Magistrates accept guilty pleas for minor misdemeanors, accept guilty pleas for traffic violations and accept waivers of trial for worthless-check cases among other things. In civil cases, the magistrate is authorized to try small claims involving up to $4,000 including landlord eviction cases.

Judicial branch

The Supreme Court of North Carolina is the state's highest appellate court; it numbers seven justices. the North Carolina Court of Appeals is the only intermediate appellate court in the state; it consists of fifteen judges who rule in rotating panels of three. Together, the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals constitute the Appellate division of the court system.
The Trial division includes the Superior Court and the District Court. All felony criminal cases, civil cases involving more than $10,000 and misdemeanor and infraction appeals from District Court are tried in Superior Court. A jury of 12 hears the criminal cases. In the civil cases, juries are often waived.
Civil cases such as divorce, custody, child support and cases involving less than $10,000 are heard in District Court, along with criminal cases involving misdemeanors and infractions. The trial of a criminal case in District Court is always without a jury. The District Court also hears juvenile cases involving children under the age of 16 who are delinquent and children under the age of 18 who are undisciplined, dependent, neglected or abused. Magistrates accept guilty pleas for minor misdemeanors, accept guilty pleas for traffic violations and accept waivers of trial for worthless-check cases among other things. In civil cases, the magistrate is authorized to try small claims involving up to $4,000 including landlord eviction cases.