Andrea Pirlo is an Italian former professional footballer. Pirlo was deployed as a deep-lying playmaker in midfield for both his club and national teams and he is regarded as one of the greatest exponents of this position due to his vision, ball control, technique and passing ability, as well as for being a free-kick specialist. Pirlo began his club career as an attacking midfielder with his hometown club Brescia, whom he helped win a Serie B title and subsequent promotion to Serie A in 1997, his promising performances led to a move to Inter Milan in 1998, but he struggled to gain playing time at his new club, was sent on loan in 1999. Despite successful spells with Reggina and a return to Brescia, Pirlo was still unable to break into Inter's starting line-up and was sold to cross-city rivals A. C. Milan in 2001. At Milan, manager Carlo Ancelotti decided to transition Pirlo into a deep-lying playmaker to orchestrate the team's attacks. Pirlo excelled in his new role and soon developed into a world-class midfielder, won a plethora of trophies, including two UEFA Champions Leagues, two UEFA Super Cups, two Serie A titles, a FIFA Club World Cup, a Supercoppa Italiana, a Coppa Italia.

After joining Juventus on a free transfer in 2011, who had gone trophyless since 2003, he added four more Serie A titles, which he won consecutively, as well as two Supercoppa Italiana titles, a Coppa Italia. After playing in Italy for over 20 seasons, Pirlo joined Major League Soccer franchise New York City in 2015, helping the team to reach the playoffs in his second and third seasons before retiring in 2017. At international level, Pirlo is the fifth-most capped player in the history of the Italian national team with 116 caps between 2002 and 2015, he played for the Italian youth teams at U15, U18 and U21 level and leading the latter to victory in the 2000 UEFA European Under-21 Championship as the Golden Player and Top Scorer of the tournament. He joined the Italian senior team in September 2002 and captained the Olympic team to a bronze medal in the 2004 Olympics, he was instrumental in the senior team's victory in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He was named Man of the Match three times, including the final, more than any other player in the tournament, won the Bronze Ball being elected to the Team of the Tournament.

He was elected as part of the UEFA Euro 2012 Team of the Tournament after leading Italy to the final, winning three Man of the Match awards in the process, the most of any player along with Andrés Iniesta. He has represented the Italian senior team at the 2004 and 2008 UEFA European Championships, the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups and the 2009 and 2013 FIFA Confederations Cups, finishing third in the latter edition in Brazil, where he was elected to the Team of the Tournament. Pirlo came in third, second and third twice more in the International Federation of Football History & Statistics World Playmaker of the Year awards in 2006, 2007, 2012, 2013 and 2015, respectively, he seventh in the 2015 edition. He placed 7th in the 2007 FIFA World Player, 5th in the 2007 Ballon d'Or and 7th in the 2012 FIFA Ballon d'Or award, he was named as part of the 2006 FIFPro World XI and the 2012 UEFA Team of the Year. In 2012, 2013 and 2014, Pirlo was elected as Serie A Footballer of the Year and was named as part of the Serie A team of the Year.

After helping Juventus to the 2015 UEFA Champions League Final, he was named to the squad of the season. In 2012, Pirlo was named the eighth best footballer in the World by The Guardian. In 2013, Bloomberg ranked him the fifth best player in Europe. In 2015, France Football rated him as one of the 10 best footballers in the world who are over the age of 36. Pirlo was born in Italy, in the province of Brescia, he began his career with the Flero youth team moving to Voluntas, subsequently joined the youth sector of local club Brescia in 1994, where he played predominantly as a supporting forward. In 1995, at the age of 16, Pirlo made his Serie A debut for Brescia against Reggiana, on 21 May, becoming Brescia's youngest player to make an appearance in Serie A, he was promoted by his coach Mircea Lucescu. The following season, he did not appear with the senior team, although he was able to capture the Torneo di Viareggio with the youth team. After breaking into the Brescia first team during the 1996–97 Serie B season, he helped the club to gain Serie A promotion the following season by winning the Serie B title.

He scored his first goal in Serie A during the 1997–98 season, in a 4–0 home win over Vicenza on 19 October 1997. Due to his performances with Brescia, Pirlo was spotted by Inter Milan coach Lucescu, who signed the playmaker. Pirlo was unable to break into the first squad permanently and Inter finished eighth in the 1998–99 Serie A campaign. Inter loaned Pirlo to Reggina for the 1999–2000 season, alongside young Inter teammates Roberto Baronio and Mohamed Kallon. After an impressive season, he returned to Inter but was once again unable to break into the first team, making just four league appearances, he spent the second half of the 2000–01 season on loan at his former club, where he played alongside his childhood idol, offensive playmaker Roberto Baggio. As Baggio occupied the attacking midfield role for Brescia, manager Carlo Mazzone made a ground-breaking decision, becoming the first coach to deploy Pirlo as a deep-lying playmaker, rather than as an offensive midfielder, a deeper creative role in which he excelled, due to his long passing ability.

Despite struggling against relegation that season, Bresc

The 1969 Pickens 200 was a NASCAR Grand National Series event, held on June 21, 1969, at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in Greenville, South Carolina. The transition to purpose-built racecars began in the early 1960s and occurred over that decade. Changes made to the sport by the late 1960s brought an end to the "strictly stock" vehicles of the 1950s. 25 drivers competed in this 200-lap racing event that took more than one hour and thirty minutes to complete. Paul Dean Holt was credited with the last-place finish due to an engine problem on the first regulation lap of racing. Bobby Isaac would defeat David Pearson by nine seconds. Isaac and Richard Petty would be the only drivers on the lead lap by the end of the event after dominating the entire race. James Hylton would compete directly against Nord Krauskopf as a NASCAR team owner for supremacy; the model year of the vehicles varied from 1967 to 1969 in compliance with NASCAR's regulations of that era. Cecil Gordon quit the race on lap 123 due to personal issues.

Other notable drivers to appear at this race included: Neil Castles, J. D. McDuffie, Elmo Langley, Wendell Scott, Bill Champion. Buster Sexton was black flagged during this race and was disqualified on the ninth lap of the race. Individual winnings for this race varied from a meager $200 to an incredible $1,000; the total prize purse for this racing event was $6,795. Notable crew chiefs that witnessed the race were John Hill, Dick Hutcherson, Dale Inman and Harry Hyde; these individuals helped provide pit road services for John Sears, David Pearson, Richard Petty and Bobby Isaac. Section reference: Start of race: Bobby Isaac had the pole position to begin the event with. Lap 1: Paul Dean Holt managed to blow his engine after competing in the race. Lap 9: Buster Sexton was black-flagged for something that he shouldn't have done and was disqualified. Lap 42: Dick Johnson managed to overheat his vehicle. Lap 45: A messed-up axle on Dick Poling's vehicle forced him to end his day early. Lap 46: Oil line issues made Wayne Gillette forget about winning the race.

Lap 49: Problems with the car's steering caused Bill Seifert to end his race day early. Lap 62: John Sears' vehicle suffered from a terminal crash. Lap 67: David Pearson took over the lead from Bobby Isaac. Lap 68: Bobby Isaac took over the lead from David Pearson. Lap 107: David Pearson took over the lead from Bobby Isaac. Lap 109: Bobby Isaac took over the lead from David Pearson. Lap 123: Cecil Gordon quit the race for no apparent reason. Lap 133: Transmission problems knocked Pete Hazelwood out of the race. Lap 145: A faulty axle caused Bill Champion to leave the race early. Lap 150: Jabe Thomas managed to lose the rear end of his vehicle, forcing him to accept 15th-place finish. Finish: Bobby Isaac was declared the winner of the event

Wanova, headquartered in San Jose, provides software to help IT organizations manage and protect data on desktop and laptop computers. Wanova's primary product, Wanova Mirage, was designed as an alternative to server-hosted desktop virtualization technologies, combining the centralization and management capabilities of virtual desktop infrastructure with features that allow the system to work for laptops and other WAN-connected desktops. Mirage enables IT organizations to store the complete contents of each personal computer in the data center for centralized management and data protection. End users execute a locally cached copy of their centrally-stored PC, which makes it possible for users to use their PC whether or not they are connected to the network; the software includes additional features. Wanova Mirage software was designed for information technology organizations supporting distributed enterprises and has three primary components: the Mirage Client, Mirage Server and capabilities that optimize network and storage efficiency.

Wanova was founded in January 2008 by Ilan Kessler and Issy Ben-Shaul co-founders of Actona Technologies, acquired by Cisco in 2004 and became the foundation for Cisco Wide Area Application Services. The company received its first round of funding from Greylock Partners, Carmel Ventures and Opus Capital in the sum of $13 million; as of May 22, 2012 Issy Ben-Shaul announced on Wanova Blog. As of February 2011, there is one primary product, Wanova Mirage hybrid desktop virtualization software, which has three components: Wanova Mirage Client, Wanova Mirage Server, Wanova Network Optimization; the Mirage Client is a small MSI that installs on the PC of an end user, allows the endpoint to become managed by the Mirage Server. The Mirage Server provides tools for creating and deploying a Base Image, which consists of an Operating System and core applications that an administrator wants to manage centrally, such as Microsoft Office or Antivirus. Mirage Server manages the backup and restore synchronization process.

Distributed Desktop Optimization incorporates capabilities such as deduplication and compression that make the product effective over a low bandwidth, high-latency WAN. Once Mirage is installed, IT administrators maintain a complete, bootable desktop instance in the data center; this instance is hardware agnostic, can be instantiated on both physical hardware or in a virtual machine. No hypervisor is required. Mirage logically splits the PC into individual layers that can be independently managed: a Base Image. In this manner, IT can create a single read-only Base Image including an operating system and the core applications they will manage centrally, such as Microsoft Office and an antivirus solution; this Base Image can be deployed to the locally stored copy of each PC, synchronized as a whole with the endpoint. Because of the layering, the Image can be patched, re-synchronized as needed, without overwriting the user-installed applications or data; these features, combined with the network optimizations, create a number of use cases: Single Image Management – IT can manage one primary image and synchronize it with thousands of endpoints Hardware Migration – By replacing the Base Image associated with an end user's PC, the user's desktop, including applications and personalization settings, can be migrated to new hardware, including hardware from a different manufacturer.

This process can be used as part of a regular hardware migration process, or to replace a lost, stolen or broken PC. Remote repair of a damaged application – By ‘Enforcing’ a Base Image, IT can ensure a remote device matches the primary copy in the data center, repairing OS or core application problems. In place migration from Windows XP to Windows 7 - By replacing the Base Image associated with an end user's PC, the user's desktop, including data and personalization settings, can be migrated from Windows XP to Windows 7, over the network and without added infrastructure. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, or VDI, was branded by VMware; the term VDI has enjoyed broader usage and has come to be known as a synonym for server-hosted desktop virtualization, or Hosted Virtual Desktops. A typical VDI architecture replaces end users desktops by deploying each desktop on a virtual machine, running on a server in the data center. Users access a view of their desktop via a thin client or other access device, using a vendor-specific protocol.

VMware Mirage differs fundamentally from this type of architecture in the following ways: No hypervisor required: While Mirage can operate within a Type-1 or Type-2 hypervisor, it is not required. The VMware Mirage client operates as a service within the Windows Operating System. Scalability: Because VDI uses centralized servers to handle all processing functions for each desktop, a typical server can support 10-12 users, depending on load. Mirage uses the endpoints for processing, can scale to a 1500:1 desktop to server ratio. Deployment: In most environments, Mirage deployment leverages components an organization has in place: endpoint PCs, a server, back-end storage. End users do not change their workflow, Network optimizations: Mirage leverages a global single index that enables significant deduplication across all users, reducing network traffic and storage requirements. Storage: Because VDI user