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The FCC wants
you to help it kill bogus ISPs, and its primary weapon is its Consumer Broadband Test, released to the
world last week. 150,000 people have already done their part, giving a glimpse at some early
statistics describing just what the state of American downloadin' looks like. Average download from
the Ookla test is a respectable 11.5Mbps and upload is 2.09Mbps, but if you look at the spread of
those results a full half of test takers have a rather more pedestrian 4Mbps maximum download. An
early map is included below showing results by state but, as Ars Technica points out, many
of the "surprise" dark green entries (like Georgia) have only had a few-thousand respondents
thus-far, and you can figure most are in-the-know enthusiasts paying extra to get their digital
goods more quickly. It still remains to be seen exactly what the FCC will do with all
these stats, because it doesn't seem to be releasing data tying speeds to ISP just yet. Hopefully
that's coming.
For nearly 10,000 years--since the dawn of civilization and the Holocene era--our world seemed
unimaginably large. Vast frontiers of land and ocean offered infinite resources. Humans could
pollute freely, and they could avoid any local repercussions simply by moving elsewhere. People
built entire empires and economic systems on their ability to exploit what seemed to be
inexhaustible riches, never realizing that the privilege would come to an end.
But thanks to advances in public health, the industrial revolution and later the green
revolution, population has surged from about one billion in 1800 to nearly seven billion today.
In the past 50 years alone, our numbers have more than doubled. Fueled by affluence, our use of
resources has also reached staggering levels; in 50 years the global consumption of food and
freshwater has more than tripled, and fossil-fuel use has risen fourfold. We now co-opt between
one third and one half of all the photosynthesis on the planet.
Enel SpA plans to seek banks this month to advise on the initial public offering of its renewable
energy unit, likely to be Europe’s largest since 2007.
Reputable
Spanish publication Clipset has the first concrete report on pricing and internal specs
for HP's Slate. Seemingly obtained
from HP itself, the €400 ($546) price tag positions the Slate a notch above netbooks and bodes
well for
the expectation that it'll undercut the
iPad's entry level pricing. Straight currency conversations are inadvisable in such situations,
so we'll just have to wait until official stickers for the iPad in Europe are known or HP announces
US prices for the Slate. Further info includes an Atom CPU,
Flash support, USB connectivity, a memory card reader, and a back-mounted webcam (see it after
the break). The launch of this Windows 7 device is slated for June, while retail availability in
Europe is said to be expected at some point "before September." It's not clear what all that means
for the US, but we doubt HP will be making its home turf wait longer than the rest of the world.
Rest assured, we'll be reaching out to HP HQ before they've had their first cup of green tea to
find out.
The turritopsis nutricula species of jellyfish may be the only animal in the world to have truly
discovered the fountain of youth. Since it is capable of cycling from a mature adult stage to an
immature polyp stage and back again, there may be no natural limit to its life span.
Plotting
their latest spread of watches this spring, Casio
executives decided it was time to "go green." Some poor schmuck in R&D took them at their word.
Thankfully for mother nature, the Casio Pathfinder PRG110C-3 is more than meets the eye; the watch
-- suited for argonauts needing an altimeter, barometer, thermometer and digital compass -- also
has a miniature solar cell built into its
face to automatically
recharge the battery. Though Casio's claim that this last will cut down on the three billion
batteries Americans trash each year seems a little reaching -- watch batteries last a lot
longer than a AA -- the timepiece does help the planet some merely by being packaged in
recyclables. The $250 device will be available exclusively from Amazon, and yeah, the color you see
here is the color you'll get.
Dungeon crawler games have fallen way
out of fashion in the last 10-15 years, so the genuine excitement shown by the developers of new
title Hunted: The Demon's Forge
at the recent press launch was understandable. Clearly the standard marketing and focus group
considerations would have been taking into consideration when green lighting the game but you
definitely got the feeling that Hunted is a labour of love for the team. Not surprising, perhaps,
when you consider that the project lead is Bard's Tale veteran
Brian Fargo.
Hunted is a third-person, co-op based, action RPG with a standard fantasy setting that felt very
familiar. The decent enough visuals won't win any awards either but this doesn't look like a game
where you'll be gawping at the scenery. The demo showed a lot of hack and slash action and even
more of the female protagonist – yes, this isn't a good example to use in any
"games have grown up, honest!" style argument - but it does look like it could be fun to play,
especially in co-op. The dynamic between the male melee character and the female archer was an
obvious co-op design decision and the demo showed what could be a common sight
– the archer picking off enemies from range while the melee character hacks
away up close. This all sounds very MMO-like but while customisation is available you will not be
able to create your own character from scratch. I spoke to game director Maxx Kaufman about
design, influences and how co-op will work.
What is the background to the game?
Being huge fans of fantasy and Dungeon & Dragons, we were inspired to create a game that
would allow us to get lost in a dungeon, fight AND explore a really cool fantasy world. As a kid
I always dreamed of fighting monsters with a sword and a bow as well as exploring for magic and
treasure. Now in Hunted I can do that. It is an exhilarating experience to see this world come to
life.
Why is now the time to relaunch the dungeon crawler genre?
In the past these games have always been very successful but I think that they've gotten lost
with the MMO craze. We really felt that it was time to bring the dungeon crawl back
– but in a way that made sense to today's gamer.
Hunted is a cover action game at its core but it also allows the player the opportunity to
explore the game's vast environments. At certain times in the game the player will be fighting
waves of enemies while at other times they'll be searching through dark, eerie dungeons.
Do you think the linear dungeon crawl experience will appeal to gamers used to the wide
open worlds of Fallout and World of Warcraft?
The world in which Hunted takes place is really rich and exciting. We like to think of it as
getting on a roller coaster whether you are alone or with a friend – it's just
a really engaging experience either way. Players will be on an adventure that takes them through
numerous locales – they'll go deep into underground dungeons, make their way
through really awe-inspiring outdoor environments and wind their way through these old towns. Our
goal is to create a compelling experience that gives players the sensation of being in a Lord of
the Rings-esque movie.
How important is the co-op to the game?
Co-op is vital to our game. It was planned from the very beginning that this would be a co-op
game and our design and story is based around that. In the past co-op games have had a tendency
to tether players together. We have implemented the opposite philosophy that we call co-op at a
distance. We encourage the players to separate and support one another from a distance.
All of our spells and skills are based around the idea of players being apart but able to help
each other. For example you can heal a downed player by throwing a re-gen vial at a distance.
This avoids the tedious task of running to your partner and slapping them back to life. Ice
arrows will allow Elara, our ranged character, to shoot and freeze enemies from a distance.
Caddoc will then simply smash them into pieces. Caddoc has a levitation skill that will allow him
to create a radius of levitation around his sword that will cause enemies in the area to float
harmlessly around him. Elara is then able to shoot them from a distance.
Co-op at a distance is threaded through every aspect of Hunted's design, from enemies to spells,
and in the level design. It even carries over to the single-player mode. A player can play the
game with an AI partner and still get a similar experience.
How important is the story to the game?
For us, the story sets the mood and it gives us an important frame work from which to create the
game.
For players, as with most games, the story unfolds as they make their way through the game. Those
who want to delve deeper in the story can find clues and information to the game's 500 year plus
lore. Alternatively, if you are the type of player who is only interested in action, you can play
through the game and still have a rich experience.
How does online play work - do you get XP etc in someone else's game?
Players that play online will gain crystals, which are the currency used to gain spells and
skills. For example, if you play online and you are further ahead in the game than I am, I can
play with you, and the crystals I gain can be transferred back to my single player campaign.
What customization options are available?
There are various weapons and items the player can pick up that will boost certain abilities, but
the real customization comes in with our skills and spells system. The players trade in crystals
they find throughout the world for various skills. Because the characters have unique abilities
there is a lot of variation in the types of customization that can be achieved.
E'lara will gain spells and skills that are related to her bow while Caddoc's skills are based
around his melee combat. Some of these skills are common to both characters, but there are many
skills that are unique to each character based on their strengths, such as Levitation for Caddoc
and Ice Arrow for E'lara. Ultimately playing Hunted will be a very different experience based on
the customizations you choose.
Do you think co-op is more important than competitive play in online gaming
generally?
It's not a case of one being more important than the other. In the case of Hunted, it was about
what made the most sense and what people would want, and that's to experience this alongside a
friend or someone else, not fighting head-to-head.
Can you explain how the levelling up and RPG elements work?
The leveling occurs when you meet up with an ethereal spirit named Seraphine. She tasks the
player with collecting crystals and in return she will grant you spells and skills. By finding
better weapons that are throughout the world, players can also upgrade their weapons. If you are
the type of player that enjoys exploration we have tons of secrets. The more challenging secrets
will yield better items and loot.
What sort of audience do you think Hunted will attract?
Because fantasy games have such a large fan base I think Hunted has broad appeal. We are melding
two popular game genres – fantasy and action - into one game which makes its
appeal even wider.
While the MMO fans will enjoy the ability to just pick up and play, they will also be taken on a
cinematic adventure in the genre they love.
The metal soundtrack and scantily clad ladies suggest a traditional gamer but do you
think a wider audience may be interested?
We're going for a soundtrack similar to the movie "300". And who doesn't like scantily clad
ladies? Both of these elements will appeal to a large audience and fit within the context on the
game.
Is Hunted a reaction to more complex RPGs that have sprung up over the last 10
years?
Hunted is a reimagining of the forgotten dungeon crawl category using today's technology and
gameplay styles, for today's gamer.
Hunted: Demon's Forge is released on PC, 360 and PS3 later this year
Outre l'Xperia X10 haut de gamme (sous Android), la branche française de Sony Ericsson
propose des smartphones plus design (gamme Vivaz sous Symbian) et des modèles business et
green IT (Elm, Hazel et Aspen sous Windows Mobile).
The world's
second Internet of Things Conference is scheduled to take
place at the end of November in Tokyo. The deadline for papers was just extended to June 1 -
which gave us an idea. Conference planners have put together a list of suggested topics for papers. We took that list and then rounded
up our ongoing reporting and analysis for each of the eight topics as a way to help you
understand how vast and far reaching IoT will end up being.
Sponsor
'Green by Internet of Things / Green of Internet of Things Technology'
Our recent list of
6 Ways to Better Living: Inside an Internet of Things Home, looked at the IoT from a domestic
standpoint. From handling toxic waste, to watershed management, to building design, to
transportation, to the smart energy grid, a whole new green way of thinking is going to be made
possible by IoT.
'Future sustainable technologies linking the physical and virtual world'
Different industries have have
already been able to increase the efficiency of freight shipping by using sensors to tell
them the location and condition of their product in real-time. This includes FedEx's
SenseAware, which is designed to constantly keep track of the vital signs of all its
packages. In future posts we'll be covering IoT-driven growth in the fields of virtual factories,
digital cities, agriculture and forest management.
'Novel services and applications to facilitate environmental responsibility'
Did you hear about the guy who wired
his house up to a Twitter account so that it alerted him whenever an appliance was used?
Following that experiment, Matt
Morey figured out a way to use iobridge to turn that one-way Twitter alert system into a
two-way system that makes it possible to turn appliances on and off via Twitter. These ideas,
which may seem novel at first, signal the direction towards the development of whole new
industries.
'Emerging Internet of Things business models and process changes'
Companies as large as
IBM have invested heavily in IoT. It has a website called Smarter Planet, which is dedicated to "smarter solutions," of
which they say they've already developed 12,00 hundred. We've also written about ThingD,
which is creating a registry of things, as well as REZZ.IT, which is building a business based on
the idea that "things have a network and their own audience."
'Communication systems and network architectures for the IoT'
Pachube is the IotT business that has earned the most coverage and analysis
from us. Pachube is a service that stores and shares real-time sensor
data from objects, devices, buildings and environments. MQTT, which stands for
Message Queuing Telemetry Transport, is also noteworthy. It is "a platform-agnostic system which
can connect almost any networked object to the wider world." More recently, Google launched an API for
PowerMeter, which allows device manufacturers to create PowerMeter-compatible devices. Also
worth mention is our
article on Arrayent that aims to be the "Cisco of small things" - which is basically
middleware for companies wanting to connect their products to the Internet. In particular it's
targeting smartphones.
'Experience reports from the introduction and operation of networked things in areas such as
healthcare, logistics & transport'
IoT is still so new that we have only just begun to see the results of research. But with RFID,
for example (which is one of the more mature IoT technologies), we've reported on how there
have been enough challenges to limit predicted growth. There also a range of user experiences related
to IofT location-based services.
'Emerging applications and interaction paradigms for everyday citizens'
From preventing
lost luggage, to the latest IoT
gadgets, telling the story of what a person's everyday daily life is an integral part of IoT.
Most notable is the presentation by Carnegie Mellon professor and ex-imagineer Jesse Schell, who
describes
how sensors in everything may one day mean the sensor in your toothbrush gives you online gaming
points if you brush for the full three minutes. He also envisions sensors that track if you are
watching TV commercials and again rewards you with online gaming points. Core to Schell's ideas
is the belief that these incentives may seem a bit creepy, but they have potential to help us
create a less corrupted, more accountable and ethical world.
'Social impacts and consequences: security, privacy, opportunities and risks'
In our What The Internet of Things Means For You series we covered privacy issues related to the
use of RFID and barcode readers. The latest reports show
how advertisement, RFID and geolocation have combined to raise serious privacy concerns.
Additionally, location-based data can be a threat to personal privacy in the context of how the
U.S. congress has started to
draft location-based privacy protection laws.
Are you going to the Tokyo for Internet of Things Conference? What do you hope to learn there?
Let us know in the comments, or by emailing tips@readwriteweb.com, what we should be discussing in the
months leading up to the event.
For those of you who have
yet to decide to boycottSonic the Hedgehog 4, Sega has
released some new media of the downloadable rodent-racing platformer. Including ... the second
known character to appear in the game. Okay, before more of you start boycotting, it's
just Eggman (or Dr. Robotnik, or whatever). And he's shown in one of his spheroid flying vehicles,
implying that he's in the game in boss capacity only.
The site also features a few screens, music and a description of Splash Hill Zone, which can be
summed up as "Green Hill Zone in HD." And that's a good thing, right?
For those of you who have
yet to decide to boycottSonic the Hedgehog 4, Sega has
released some new media of the downloadable rodent-racing platformer. Including ... the second
known character to appear in the game. Okay, before more of you start boycotting, it's
just Eggman (or Dr. Robotnik, or whatever). And he's shown in one of his spheroid flying vehicles,
implying that he's in the game in boss capacity only.
The site also features a few screens, music and a description of Splash Hill Zone, which can be
summed up as "Green Hill Zone in HD." And that's a good thing, right?
BenQ has introduced three new LED-backlit LCD monitors this week, including the
widescreen V2410T and V2410B, which succeed the V2400 Eco LED Monitor and the E2420HDB. All sport
24-inch screens, and the sole difference between the former pair is their aesthetics. The two
otherwise share the same height-adjustable stands, native 1080p resolution and a 5ms response
time....
BenQ has introduced three new LED-backlit LCD monitors this week, including the
widescreen V2410T and V2410B, which succeed the V2400 Eco LED Monitor and the E2420HDB. All sport
24-inch screens, and the sole difference between the former pair is their aesthetics. The two
otherwise share the same height-adjustable stands, native 1080p resolution and a 5ms response
time....
If you thought that wearing fur was outdated - what with all those green movements and animal
rights activists who put this cruel sense of fashion in its right place with the likes of
Cruella de Vil - fashionista's say,
think again.
Last month the fashion world went literally “wild” in
New York, Paris and Milan during the unveiling of their fall collection. They had models
strutting the catwalk in so much fur, it was scary enough to make animal rights activists and
environmentalists jump out of their skins.
In this era of global warming and dwindling animal species, one would think that we humans would
come to our senses and rethink our actions. Not so, it seems, as there is a whole other world out
there - the fashion industry of the west - whose endorsement and use of fur and exotic animal
products simply encourages the mass slaughter of many endangered species.
A dealer's bounty at the Quartzite annual show for art and crafts. Image by Flickr user
cobalt123. Used under a Creative Commons License
To name a few, the Chiru or Tibetan
antelope, whose underbelly fur is used to make “Shatoosh” the world's most expensive shawls, also known
as “shawls of death”. It takes 3 dead antelopes, to make one shawl, so fine it can
fit through a finger ring, and each one can cost between $5000 to $20,000 in the
international market. Even babies, and mother's who have just delivered, are not spared.
According to WWF,
the population of this species has declined by over 50 percent in the last 20 years and the
Tibetan Plateau Project says
that it was the fashion-driven demand for Shatoosh in the U.S that resulted in as many as 20,000
antelopes being slaughtered. It is alarming to know that the animal could become extinct in the
next three years at this rate.
In a blog run by Uma and
Hurree called Animal Rights India, they argue how farming of Chiru's - like Eider ducks
in Iceland for eider (as an alternative), will not make a difference to the dwindling numbers.
But hello: Eider ducks are now a protected species, and farmers in iceland use a technique of
collecting the down without harming the bird. And no, it is not possible to obtain the shahtoosh
wool without killing the chiru.
They go on to say:
It's impossible to justify killing three beautiful wild animals every time you want to push a
length of shawl through a ring, blah blah. And to farm them just to kill them for shawls?
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
– which controls the trade in endangered species products –
has completely banned international trade in Tibetan antelope products (including Shahtoosh). It
is illegal to import Shahtoosh into many countries, including the USA (ironically, Shahtoosh
products are so popular in the US fashion industry). Unfortunately, despite such laws being in
place, the Shahtoosh trade is going on in full swing. This is because it is not enough to have
laws. There must also be a strong public protest across the board against every person who is by
any means related to the Shahtoosh trade. There should be a widespread public sensitization
campaign to educate the common people.
Bloggers in the west, however, were giving this some thought and debated:
1. People eat rabbits at restaurants. These rabbits have been killed to provide ‘dinner'
for people like us (I would like to point out that I have never eaten rabbit and by ‘us' I
mean people who eat in restaurants). Why is it right that rabbits can feature on a menu in a
restaurant but wrong to wear a fur coat? These rabbits inevitably are skinned in preparation to
be cooked - what else should we do with the fur?
2. Is it more acceptable if the coat is Vintage? Why?
3. Is rabbit fur better/worse than Mink? Some argue that rabbit fur is not as bad because rabbits
are not in danger of becoming extinct, unlike mink which is. Then again, people keep rabbits as
pets so is it more cruel to wear rabbit than mink?
4. If a fur coat is hanging on a rail at a store and one customer refuses to buy it, somebody
else will…
5. Should role models such as Kate Moss be seen wearing fur? Kate's style is copied by millions
of girls (and women) - is she giving a bad impression?
To which Denise replied:
1. I would personally be more likely to wear rather than eat rabbit. The eating of it seems less
acceptable somehow.
2.Vintage coats have been around for a while and should be recycled - which I'm definitely
into.
3. Mink are feral creatures and even though their fur is more desirable, mink are not aiming for
extinction, so why not wear it?
4. Agreed.
5. I don't mind fur being worn by anyone, and Kate Moss is just showing that this is acceptable.
Too many people are on the “fur is bad” bandwagon. I bet most of these people eat
meat and wear leather, so what's the difference?
But there is a difference as Barry Williams responded to a thread: Wearing Fur is not
immoral on www.helium.com
If we go around killing cattle for leather, alligators for shoes, deer for chamois and see
nothing morally wrong in that , why it is immoral to wear fur. What I see as immoral is the
killing of animals simply for the fur alone. It really is such a waste, isn't it? Apart from the
leather we obtain from cattle not much of the animal is wasted. Beef cattle supply our meat.
There are a multitude of arguments out there, but in the meantime the
Humane Society for the United States, says that Canada will slaughter 388, 200 harp, grey and
hooded seals this year, an increase of 50,000 from 2009. This, because of the overall demand for
fur. The site of the Fur Council of Canada shows styles and celebrities modelling various furs in
what it describes as a fashion trend of 2010.
And unfortunately in the U.S, and much of the west, where Global Fashion trends are set, laws
don't seem to be enough to curb their greed. According to the International Fur Trade Federation Blog:
..the shift in the attitude towards fur can be attributed to “changes within the fur trade,
such as the introduction of the new Origin Assured initiative, which guarantees that fur bearing
the label comes from a country with animal welfare regulations”. This shows that the fur
trade efforts and initiatives to challenge the outdated ideas of our industry have been noticed.
We are a transparent and well-regulated industry that supports high animal welfare standards and
we welcome the confidence and support shown by the fashion designers as well as the European
Commission, who recently recognised the importance of the Origin Assured label.
Fashion designers who have been courted by Furriers say they are “confident using fur after
examining the chain of production and finding it humane. But could this confidence be based on a
lack of investigation or knowledge? According to an endangered species
handbook :
The New York luxury department store, Bergdorf Goodman, advertised shahtoosh in 1995 as a
“royal and rare” fabric, making incorrect statements about the wool having been
obtained from the Mountain Ibex goat of Tibet which “sheds its down undercoat by scratching
itself against low trees and bushes” from where it is gathered by local shepherds (Schaller
1998)
And if the clubbing of baby seals and mass
slaughtering of Chiras,
mothers and babies, is “humane” then its sad to think of what
“humane” means anymore, and what we are willing to condone in the name of
“Fashion”.
Once they're inside the female reproductive organs, sperm pull out all the stops to outrace their
rivals to the egg--especially if the opponent comes from another male. The process that
determines which sperm wins, called "postcopulatory sexual selection," has been difficult to
tease out, until now.
[More]
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that American companies like Applied Materials are moving
their research facilities and engineers to China as the country develops a high-tech economy that
increasingly competes directly with the United States. Applied Materials set up its latest solar
research labs in China after estimating that China would be producing two-thirds of the world's
solar panels by the end of this year and their chief technology officer, Mark R. Pinto, is the
first CTO of a major American tech company to move to China. 'We're obviously not giving up on the
US,' says Pinto. 'China needs more electricity. It's as simple as that.' Western companies are also
attracted to China's huge reservoirs of cheap, highly skilled engineers and the subsidies offered
by many Chinese cities and regions, particularly for green energy companies. Applied Materials
decided to build their new $250 million research facility in Xi'an after the city government sold
them a 75-year land lease at a deep discount and is reimbursing the company for roughly a quarter
of the lab complex's operating costs for five years."
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that American companies like Applied Materials are moving
their research facilities and engineers to China as the country develops a high-tech economy that
increasingly competes directly with the United States. Applied Materials set up its latest solar
research labs in China after estimating that China would be producing two-thirds of the world's
solar panels by the end of this year and their chief technology officer, Mark R. Pinto, is the
first CTO of a major American tech company to move to China. 'We're obviously not giving up on the
US,' says Pinto. 'China needs more electricity. It's as simple as that.' Western companies are also
attracted to China's huge reservoirs of cheap, highly skilled engineers and the subsidies offered
by many Chinese cities and regions, particularly for green energy companies. Applied Materials
decided to build their new $250 million research facility in Xi'an after the city government sold
them a 75-year land lease at a deep discount and is reimbursing the company for roughly a quarter
of the lab complex's operating costs for five years."
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that American companies like Applied Materials are moving
their research facilities and engineers to China as the country develops a high-tech economy that
increasingly competes directly with the United States. Applied Materials set up its latest solar
research labs in China after estimating that China would be producing two-thirds of the world's
solar panels by the end of this year and their chief technology officer, Mark R. Pinto, is the
first CTO of a major American tech company to move to China. 'We're obviously not giving up on the
US,' says Pinto. 'China needs more electricity. It's as simple as that.' Western companies are also
attracted to China's huge reservoirs of cheap, highly skilled engineers and the subsidies offered
by many Chinese cities and regions, particularly for green energy companies. Applied Materials
decided to build their new $250 million research facility in Xi'an after the city government sold
them a 75-year land lease at a deep discount and is reimbursing the company for roughly a quarter
of the lab complex's operating costs for five years."
I am a Central European girl, never married, no kids, seroius, 32 y/o, educated.
Tall, with long brown hair, green eyes, attractive shape, pretty and lovely face - practice sports:
gym, thai chi, dance.
I love to travel to abroad, see other cultures and languages, go to theatre, classical music
concerts, museums.
I am romantic, with lots of soul, like kids, the nice furnitures, architecture, the classical
things.
Seek a single or divorced gentleman, that is live in secture, over the adventures, tall, well
educated, handsome, love the sports and would like a long term relationship with a meaningful and
beautiful single female.
Important: the male is the man, and the female is the woman. I prefer the classical roles.
If you seek seriously, send me your letter and pic. Photo for photo!
Serious only, pls!
So one of the first applications I like to install on a fresh build of ubuntu is called gSTM or “Gnome SSH Tunnel Manager”. This
allows me to setup and enable multiple ssh tunnels to/from different places with the click of a
button. It provides a nice notification area icon which I can click and see at a glance all the
tunnels I have preconfigured. In this same dialog box it shows the connection status of each
tunnel indicated by a red(off) green(on) or yellow(?) icon to the left on the tunnel name.
Since Ubuntu 9.10, these status indicator icons are broken by default and need to be turned on by
enabling “show menu icons” in the interfaces tab in the appearance preferences. Now
with Ubuntu 10.04, this option has been removed from the preferences completely breaking the
icons with little to no recourse(yes we can use gconf, I shouldn’t have to!).
Upon discussing (read: complaining) this problem with some of the Gnome community, I have been
told that the use of these menu icons in this manner is incorrect and show be done by other
means.
I plan to figure out the correct way to show these icons and resume functionality to this
application and try to document my journey on here.
Step #1 Try to contact original developer: – fail. The contact the developer link on
sourceforge gave me a bounceback email.
Step #3 Download the source code. – I originally downloaded the tarball from
sourceforge. The problem with this is, there’s no debian directory and other magic bits to
allow for easy packaging for debian/ubuntu which I would like to do in the end. I then downloaded
the source in ubuntu using “sudo apt-get source gstm” which downloads all the source
files to /usr/src/gstm1.2 including the packaging bits. And then I remembered about this whole
Opportunistic
developers thing and more specifically Ground
Control by Martin Owens. I already had this installed so I
just searched for “gstm” and downloaded the project and what I THINK is the correct
branch to work from (gstm 1.2).
I’ve briefly looked at the icons it uses (green.xpm red.xpm yellow.xpm) and grepped for
mentions of them in the code. So far i’ve come up with main.c and fniface.c.
Tonight I might try my hand at using one of the other applications mentioned in Jono’s
Opportunistic Developer post called Quickly to see
if I can import this project and see how it interacts with this developer environment.
As we’ve seen in the past, a
music video can launch a band into the indie
stratosphere when shared in the online space — YouTube even got hip to the trend with its
Musician’s Wanted
program. This state of affairs got us wondering: How do some of today’s up-and-coming indie
acts use online music videos in their quest for stardom?
To answer said query, Mashable reached out to an array of SXSW’s finest — bands both
on the the brink and over. Some gave us serious answers about how music videos fit into their
artistic scheme, others — not so much (ahem, Das Racist).
Check out their answers below. We hope to add more as the musicians we contacted find their way
to computers. Note: Some of these vids are slightly NSFW.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
What’s your favorite music video?:[Kip Berman, lead singer] I
like the “Everything With You” video because it feels really natural and good.
[Keyboard player and Buzzfeed editor]
Peggy and her BFF Carlen are hanging out and doing fun stuff together. It fits nicely with the
song, which is about hanging out with your BFF and doing fun stuff together. It doesn’t
seem phony, yet it’s not careless or entirely haphazard, either.
How important are online music videos when it comes to publicizing a band? How have they
functioned for you?: It’s easy to say videos don’t matter as much as the
song itself or the live performance, and I’ll say that, too. A lot of bands I really like
have sort of not-so-awesome music videos or videos that seem at odds with their actual aesthetic.
Still, when a band has a really embarrassing video, it’s hard to shake that image from the
song itself — so we try not to have overtly terrible videos.
But I don’t like when a really cool video becomes more important than the song —
though some over-the-top stuff is great when paired with the right kind of band. I really love
the new Yeasayer video for “O.N.E.,” MGMT’s “Time to Pretend” and
Lady Gaga gets more and more fantastically epic with each release.
I guess from a “press” point of view it’s good to have the most sensational
video possible (Buckcherry, “Crazy B*tch” — but again, that makes sense [for]
Buckcherry). But we’ve never wanted to just gain views for views’ sake —
we’d rather (a lot) less people see it, but actually appreciate it as a visual complement
to the song, not in a pure spectacle way. We’re not all that “spectacular.”
We recently shot a video with a lot of “furries” (or more politely, “fur
suiters”) in it… it’s pretty funny, I think. Maybe not as exciting as female
prisons or post-apocalyptic lord of the green screen fantasies, but for us — it’s a
start.
French Horn Rebellion
What’s your favorite music video?:[Robert Perlick-Molinari, lead
singer] Definitely the “Broken Heart” video. That was our first collaboration
with Dax and Barry from the Sniper Twins. It’s so simple — we’re
dancing and Barry’s in the corner being weird. That doesn’t sound a lot different
than most of the dance parties we throw, actually. But the entire video is one shot. And our
dancing is actually choreographed. Felt like we were a boy band a little bit. Thankfully Barry
was there with his ketchup and mustard bottles so no one would confuse us with The Backstreet
Boys.
How important are online music videos when it comes to publicizing a band? How have they
functioned for you?: Our music videos have been great for us. We have more views on
YouTube of our songs than anywhere else our music is posted. They came from a really fun and
creative place, so we’re really proud about the videos, and feel they are a good
representation of how we wanted to start out a group.
The Happy Hollows
What’s your favorite music video?:[Chris Hernandez, drummer] Our
newest video is just amazing and our friend Ben Hoste put so much work into it (he had to animate
it by hand!); it’s called “Death to Vivek Kemp.”
How important are online music videos when it comes to publicizing a band? How have they
functioned for you?: With YouTube and Vimeo and all these other online video outlets,
it’s definitely been amazing to have such access to not only our fans, but to people
who’ve never even heard of us before! So it’s been a really amazing experience for us
to know and be involved with so many creative and supportive people who have helped us out with
videos in the past. It’s really become a great collaborative effort to help each other
stand out and make a name for ourselves!
Das Racist
What’s your favorite music video?:
[Victor]: Can’t pick a favorite, but our most recent one is Jordan Fish’s
“Rainbow in the Dark” video. [Video above.]
[Himanshu]: Bob Weisz’s “Shorty Said” video.
How important are online music videos when it comes to publicizing a band? How have they
functioned for you?:
[Victor]: The act of making online music videos provides handfuls of people with
something to do with their leisure time (afforded to them by a system of global economic
domination by the wealthy few) that feels slightly more productive than other more passive forms
of entertainment like watching TV, going to the movies, purchasing a roller coaster ride, etc.
Somewhat ironically, the end product is a form of passive entertainment.
[Dap]: Music videos allow men and women to feel sexy and fancy-free. Transcend.
[Himanshu]: Tweens love YouTube.
Bear in Heaven
What’s your favorite music video?:[Jon Philpot, frontman]
We’ve made a few music videos and we like them, but it’s nice when a fan makes
something… especially if it’s strange. Here’s a favorite. [Video
above.]
How important are online music videos when it comes to publicizing a band? How have they
functioned for you?: They’re important us. We make them on the road to entertain
ourselves and our listeners. I guess we could just make songs… but videos are fun!
EA Sports' latest attempt to breathe new life into the Tiger Woods PGA Tour franchise's
eleventh installment is an online multiplayer mode, previewed in the "Ryder Cup" trailer posted above. Players
will be able to align themselves into teams, and go head-to-head (to-head-to-head, and so on) in an
attempt to dominate the lush, rolling greens.
The only question that remains is what team you'll choose to enlist in. Will it be team Tiger
Woods, who's repeatedly proven his prowess for hitting golf balls into faraway holes? Or will it be
team Rory McIlroy, who is exactly one vowel away from being totally awesome?
EA Sports' latest attempt to breathe new life into the Tiger Woods PGA Tour franchise's
eleventh installment is an online multiplayer mode, previewed in the "Ryder Cup" trailer posted above. Players
will be able to align themselves into teams, and go head-to-head (to-head-to-head, and so on) in an
attempt to dominate the lush, rolling greens.
The only question that remains is what team you'll choose to enlist in. Will it be team Tiger
Woods, who's repeatedly proven his prowess for hitting golf balls into faraway holes? Or will it be
team Rory McIlroy, who is exactly one vowel away from being totally awesome?
1sockchuck writes "Are data center operators ready to abandon hot and cold aisles and submerge
their servers? An Austin startup says its liquid cooling enclosure can cool high-density server
installations for a fraction of the cost of air cooling in traditional data centers. Submersion
cooling using mineral oil isn't new, dating back to the use of Fluorinert in the Cray 2. The new
startup, Green Revolution Cooling, says its first installation will be at the Texas Advanced
Computing Center (also home to the Ranger supercomputer). The company launched at SC09 along with a
competing liquid cooling play, the Iceotope cooling bags."
1sockchuck writes "Are data center operators ready to abandon hot and cold aisles and submerge
their servers? An Austin startup says its liquid cooling enclosure can cool high-density server
installations for a fraction of the cost of air cooling in traditional data centers. Submersion
cooling using mineral oil isn't new, dating back to the use of Fluorinert in the Cray 2. The new
startup, Green Revolution Cooling, says its first installation will be at the Texas Advanced
Computing Center (also home to the Ranger supercomputer). The company launched at SC09 along with a
competing liquid cooling play, the Iceotope cooling bags."
1sockchuck writes "Are data center operators ready to abandon hot and cold aisles and submerge
their servers? An Austin startup says its liquid cooling enclosure can cool high-density server
installations for a fraction of the cost of air cooling in traditional data centers. Submersion
cooling using mineral oil isn't new, dating back to the use of Fluorinert in the Cray 2. The new
startup, Green Revolution Cooling, says its first installation will be at the Texas Advanced
Computing Center (also home to the Ranger supercomputer). The company launched at SC09 along with a
competing liquid cooling play, the Iceotope cooling bags."
It was St. Patricks Day last night, and I have a funny feeling that some green beer and Guiness
lead to Brian LeRoux and Rob Ellis creating Crockford Facts. It isn’t Friday yet…. well it is
in Australia right?
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