Friday, December 31, 2010

The 12 best apps for your new Android device

Best Android apps for your new device
So, you found a brand-new Android device under the tree a few days ago. Congratulations! Now what? In this post I'm going to recommend the very best apps to get off on the right foot with Android. If you've been using Android for a while, chances are you know most of these. Still, you might find a hidden gem or two. These are all based on my own use, so while the list is subjective in nature, these are not just shiny apps we've noticed in the market -- they have all been tested in real life for quite some time. Here goes:


Continue reading The 12 best apps for your new Android device

The 12 best apps for your new Android device originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 30 Dec 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/30/the-12-best-apps-for-your-new-android-device/

Qlogic Progress Software Planar Systems Perot Systems

Buildor Pro Web-authoring tool invites 300 Download Squad readers to early beta

buildorpro

Buildor Pro is a fantastic authoring tool for Web developers. It lets you inspect and tweak each element on an existing page -- much like Firebug, in a way, but not exactly. You can also use it to create entirely new designs and very quick mock-ups. What's interesting about it is that it manages to be browser-based and visual at the same time. Of course, coders don't always like to do everything visually, so Buildor Pro also lets you enter your markup directly and see it in real-time on the page.

Rather than wax poetic about the application, I've decided to show you an 8-minute video by James Law, Buildor Pro's creator. In the video you can watch James use Download Squad's new look as a template and add on new content. But that's not all: Buildor Pro extended an invitation to the closed beta for the first 300 Download Squad readers who use this link to sign up!

If you do any sort of Web development work, Buildor Pro is definitely worth a look.

Continue reading Buildor Pro Web-authoring tool invites 300 Download Squad readers to early beta

Buildor Pro Web-authoring tool invites 300 Download Squad readers to early beta originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/09/buildor-pro-web-authoring-tool-invites-300-download-squad-reader/

Scientific Games Sandisk Salesforce Com Saic

Clear iSpot discontinued already

Well, that certainly didn't last very long, did it? Looks like Clear is already sending its unusual iSpot product to the great WiMAX network in the sky less than five months after its introduction. As a refresher, the iSpot's claim to fame is that it was designed to work only with iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads -- and in exchange for the crazy restriction, Clear would charge you less than $100 for the hotspot itself and just $25 a month for unlimited 4G access capped at 6Mbps down. Of course, it's easy to understand why Clear would want to forget the iSpot ever existed: its MAC address filtering was easily defeated and plagued with reports that even approved devices were being denied access, suggesting that the concept probably wasn't a solid one in the first place. For what it's worth, Clear retail stores are still selling through remaining stock if you're interested -- and the company will maintain a supply of units for warranty replacements -- but otherwise, you're out of luck.

[Thanks, rand]

Clear iSpot discontinued already originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Dec 2010 17:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceClear Forums  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/30/clear-ispot-discontinued-already/

Itron Iron Mountain Inorated Iomega Intuit

Blog Post: Bis 2011

Ich w�nsche Euch allen einen guten Rutsch in ein f�r Euch wundervolles Jahr 2011!

Bis dann, Dariusz

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dparys/archive/2010/12/31/bis-2011.aspx

Ems Technologies Emc Electronics For Imaging Electronic Data Systems

Thursday, December 30, 2010

5 ways to recycle or revitalize your old computer

Macintosh SEChristmas is coming, and you're about to have a ton of time off. Some of that time will be spent energetically tearing apart beautifully-wrapped gifts, and eating food is certainly next on the list of priorities. Obviously you have to play with your new gifts (or put on your new socks), but after that... after the postprandial sofa-surfing grunts and burps and farts... well, there isn't a whole lot you can do.

The other big thing about Christmas is the amount of waste it produces. Wrapping paper, cards, ribbons, the plastic packaging of the presents themselves... there's an awful lot of trash on Christmas Day. Then, of course, you need to throw out all of the things that have been replaced by new gifts: old kitchen appliances, clothes, televisions, printers and, most importantly, computers. A new laptop or desktop is incredibly cheap nowadays, which makes them very popular gifts.

But shouldn't we do something with the old stuff, rather than just throwing it out? Of course, you could Freecycle or wade into the Craigslist cesspit, or give your clothes to charity -- but hold onto those old computers! You'd be surprised with how many cool things you can do with an old desktop or laptop computer. You could finally learn how to use Linux, or set up a media center PC so that you can watch downloaded movies on your TV. You could create a locked-down box for your kids to surf the Web on, or a network-attached storage server for your backups. There's almost no end to the list of neat things you can do with an old PC!

Continue reading 5 ways to recycle or revitalize your old computer

5 ways to recycle or revitalize your old computer originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 24 Dec 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/24/5-ways-to-recycle-or-revitalize-your-old-computer/

Hcl Technologies Hewlettpackard High Tech Computer Hon Hai Precision Ind

Silverlight TV 51: Debugging and Deploying WCF RIA Services

Silverlight TV 51: In this week?s episode of SLTV, John sits down with Saurabh Pant of the WCF RIA Services team and responds to some of the most common issues customersSL-TV-EP-51 encounter when deploying WCF RIA Services. Saurabh runs through various scenarios and provides great guidance on how to identify and solve these issues. Here are some of the topics he covers:

  • Deploying to IIS
  • The important role of the web.config file
  • Debugging various deployment scenarios
  • Browsing to the svc file to check various issues


Source: http://team.silverlight.net/tips-and-training/silverlight-tv-51-debugging-and-deploying-wcf-ria-services/

Microsoft Microsemi Micros Systems Micron Technology

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Powershell - Powertip: Using OpenFile Dialog

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/QnDb/~3/gmA8j9pl5-Y/powershell-powertip-using-openfile.html

Koninklijke Kpn Lam Research Liberty Global Lm Ericsson

Get Returnil System Safe Pro for free

Windows Steady State is a great app -- but it's not going to be sticking around much longer and it doesn't work with 64-bit Windows. Returnil System Safe is a nice alternative which does support Windows x64, and while it's normally $40, you can score a one-year license free of charge right now.

Returnil offers virtualization-based protection of your system, as well as built-in malware protection. It's also got a handy system rollback feature that lets you recover individual files that were changed, or set the entire system back to the way it was at your chosen point in the past.

With virtual mode enabled, a quick reboot is all it takes to completely undo intrusions from pesky malicious software. It's a great way to keep your less-savvy friends from getting themselves in trouble online. Even if they do install Super Antivirus Pro 2011 Gold Plus and have bogus alerts popping up all over their screen, all they've got to do is shut down and start again to make it all go away.

Registration is required, so use a disposable email address if you've got qualms about giving out your primary one.

Download Returnil System Safe Pro

Get Returnil System Safe Pro for free originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/20/get-returnil-system-safe-pro-for-free/

Applied Materials Arian Semiconductor Equipment Arrow Electronics Asml Holding

DIY pinhole camera goes automatic with Lego Mindstorms (video)

As you may be aware, you can build a pinhole camera out of just about anything and, as we've seen, you can build just about anything with Lego Mindstorms -- so it makes sense the two should finally meet, right? Thanks to DIY-er Basil Shikin, they now have. He didn't just settle for a simple pinhole camera, though -- he created a fully automatic camera that's able to wind the film and control the shutter (and look good while doing so). Head on past the break to check it out in action, and hit up the link below for the complete details to build your own.

Continue reading DIY pinhole camera goes automatic with Lego Mindstorms (video)

DIY pinhole camera goes automatic with Lego Mindstorms (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Dec 2010 20:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourcelegocamera  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/28/diy-pinhole-camera-goes-automatic-with-lego-mindstorms/

Lexmark International Level 3 Communications Lawson Software Land Software

Pirates Love Daisies is an HTML5 homage to Plants vs Zombies, made by a Flash zealot

Pirates Love Daisies
If you took a specific subsection of plants -- daisies -- and headed down to the Popular Archetypes store to exchange your zombies for pirates, you'd be about 90% of the way to making a tower defense game called Pirates Love Daisies. It's that last 10%, however -- a little flash of brilliance with a soupcon of quirkiness -- that makes the game. In this case, it's HTML5; Plants Love Daisies is one of the most accomplished HTML-CSS-and-JavaScript games to date. With a truly excellent interface, it plays like a mature, latter-generation Flash game, but it retains the svelte efficiency of HTML, with barely a blip on the CPU graph.

If you've never played a tower defense game, now's your chance. Pirates Love Daisies is easy to play, family-friendly, and features a tutorial that walks you through the mechanics of the game. The visual style is nothing short of beautiful (but cute), and the soundscape is excellent. The point, though, is that Pirates Love Daisies is written in HTML5 -- and when you realize those scudding clouds, buzzing flies and droplets of rain are all being rendered by the browser, your mind blows.

That's not to say the game is without issues, though; despite looking the best in Internet Explorer 9 beta 2, it crashed multiple times (see screenshot after the break), and Firefox 4 beta 7 didn't even get past the loading screen. Firefox 4 also had significantly degraded audio, for some reason. Chrome 9 worked just fine, but seemed to use more resources than IE9.

Continue reading Pirates Love Daisies is an HTML5 homage to Plants vs Zombies, made by a Flash zealot

Pirates Love Daisies is an HTML5 homage to Plants vs Zombies, made by a Flash zealot originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/17/pirates-love-daises-is-an-html5-homage-to-plants-vs-zombies-mad/

Sybase Sun Microsystems Standard Microsystems Sra International

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Four Key Concepts of Computer Programming

Last week Rob Miles who is taller than I am, has more hair than I do and has an English accent all of which indicate he is probably a lot smarter than I am left a comment on one of my posts that lists his idea of the four key concepts in programming. He left to comment on Do We Need A New Teaching Programming Language BTW. The post and his full comment are worth the read. Rob’s list was:

  • Process data (assignment)
  • Make decisions (if)
  • Loop (do - while, for)
  • Use indexed storage (arrays)

Among other things he said:

If you can do these four things you can write every program that has ever existed. Sure, the code won't be pretty, but it will solve the problem. In my course we focus on algorithms at the start because this is where we actually create behaviours  [note classy British spelling which adds credibility] that solve problems.

In all seriousness, Rob is a great teacher who also writes some really good textbooks. He really knows his stuff. All of that not withstanding I kept trying to think of a fifth thing to add to his list.

I thought about input/output for a long time. But I/O is such a platform dependent sort of thing. It depends not only on the language but the operating system and even available hardware. Input via a key board is different from punch cards (remember those) and still more different from input via a Kinect sensor (let’s keep in mind that there is a future). As I recall the PASCAL standard did not specify requirements for input/output and left it to the developers for individual platforms. So that probably doesn’t fit.

I thought about variables but that is sort of covered by process data and indexed storage. Even internal data representation which I see as a key computer science concept is probably not as key for programming. I have successfully used programming languages that only stored integers and strings. Well maybe there was a Boolean but I forget. I managed to write some useful applications anyway. Some even dealing with money.

Recursion? How often do you really need recursion? And a lot of things that recursion is used for loops will do just fine for. So while one should learn recursion and a really good programmer should know how, and more importantly when, to use it I don’t think it fits the top four or five list.

Would you add something? Remove something? Overall what do you think of Rob’s list?

Note:  To subscribe to this blog please use http://feeds.feedburner.com/ComputerScienceTeacher as the RSS feed source. Thanks.


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ComputerScienceTeacher/~3/1QNu4wmgJv4/four-key-concepts-of-computer-programming.aspx

America Movil Amkor Technology Amphenol Anixter International

Blog Post: Debugging a CSS Issue with IE9: M�tley Cr�e Edition

If you want to master app compat debugging, then I really only know of one approach: practice. Find things that are broken, and then find out why. If you have to look too far for something broken, then you must be significantly luckier than I am!

Now, I prefer to listen to M�tley Cr�e when I debug (or drive somewhere, or sit somewhere, or walk somewhere, or?), so it seemed only fitting that I would debug something for a member of Cr�e while listening to Cr�e.

Now, a while back, Nikki Sixx updated his http://www.nikkisixx.net/ website. And, of course, the first thing I noticed is that it doesn?t render correctly on IE9 when in IE9 Standards mode. It renders fine, however, in IE8 or IE7 standards mode, and it also renders fine in Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari. So, I figured it must be something with the new rendering engine, and went about with the assumption that our code was broken.

I first took a look with the developer tools, and spotted straight away the following error message in the Console tab:

SEC7113: CSS was ignored due to mime type mismatch

Interesting ? so, perhaps it?s not a bug in IE9? I?m still a bit leery, because the fact that it works with every other engine seems to indicate something wrong with the one failing engine. So, I had a look with the new Network tab to see what I could find out about the MIME type. Here is what I found:

Content-Type    text/css, charset: UTF-8

OK, so it is a CSS file, and it?s specifying a content type. So, I?m now perplexed as to what I am seeing. Of course, I?m not as conversant with the new developer tools, so I took a look with my old friend Fiddler just to make sure the headers are completely raw, and found this:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Apache/2.2.11 (Fedora)
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.2
Last-Modified: Tue, 07 Dec 2010 19:19:31 GMT
ETag: 7d2160439e3d0b054b09b638c9516e70-gzip
Pragma:
Content-Length: 92090
Content-Type: text/css, charset: UTF-8
Cache-Control: max-age=600
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2010 18:04:33 GMT
Connection: keep-alive
Vary: Accept-Encoding

Now, this all looks fine to my uneducated eye ? it looks as if we are specifying a content-type, and it appears to me that it is the correct one. But that?s the key ? I?m not completely conversant in the specifications! So, let?s learn the specifications?

If you take a look here, you can see precisely what you should have for the content type, and it?s in the format:

Content-Type := type "/" subtype *[";" parameter]

Wait a minute ? the specification has a semicolon and the content had a comma ? it looks like this web page is actually at fault, and every other rendering engine (including ours) was just being forgiving! Wow, IE9 appears to not be shouldering the blame here! (Though admittedly we are being a little picky, given that in the past we were letting that slide.)

Of course, just to make sure, let?s test things out. First I found the request and response in Fiddler. Then, on www.nikkisixx.net/20621/global.css, I chose to right-click, Save, Response, Entire response? and placed a copy of the response on my desktop. Then, I went in to the file, and replaced that comma with a semicolon. Finally, using the auto-responder from Fiddler, I fed this modified response to test out the fix.

Voila ? when the header is modified to comply with specifications, it works! IE9 is vindicated, and I have a fix for the web page which involves a single character to make it compliant with standards. Now that the heavy lifting of debugging is finished, the only remaining challenge is to find the person who owns this page and point them to the fix, and then we can go on with the show.

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/cjacks/archive/2010/12/28/debugging-a-css-issue-with-ie9-m-246-tley-cr-252-e-edition.aspx

Syntaxbrillian Synopsys Synnex Symantec

Forum Post: blog request

does anyone can help me?

i want to have a blog in this website but i dont know how to get it.

i have been wondering on the setting and profile. but still i cant find a link that help me to create a blog in here

Source: http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/forums/f/28/p/22152/62140.aspx#62140

Communications Holdings Compal Electronics Cosmote Mobile Telecom Dlink

Artificial Intelligence and Game Programming

Recently the Advanced Placement Computer Science mailing list had an exchange looking for ideas/suggestions for games that students could program artificial intelligence routines for. A number of suggestions came out - Connect Four, Abalone, Kalah and  3D Tic Tac Toe for example. There was some discussion that regular tic tac toe was too easy. Another popular suggestion was Reversi, also known as Othello. These are all interesting suggestions but I have a fond place in my heart for Reversi. Reversi was the first serious game that I tried to write an AI for. That game taught me a lot. It taught me some about AI but what it really taught me about was the need to understand the problem.

This project was a long time ago and I no longer have the code. I remember a lot of the algorithms though. How do I remember the algorithms after so long? Basically because I tired to program the computer to play the way I play. The good news is that I pretty much succeeded in getting the computer to play as well as I do. The bad news is that  I don’t actually play he game that well.  And here is the root of the difficulty of programming artificial intelligence – you have have really understand the game and how who win at it. You have to know what perfect play is (or close to it) and then you have to be able to tell the computer how to replicate that sort of play.

With Reversi the simplest and easiest strategy is to search the board for the move that turns over the most of you opponents pieces. Like most simple and obvious solutions for complex problems this one is horribly flawed. A good player will almost always beat someone using that strategy. The next step then is to learn about moves that are valuable for other reasons such as edges which can give you more control of the board and corners which are still more powerful. It turns out that those are not absolute values though. They depend on circumstances on the board. This means that the rules for play that one creates have to have exceptions and times when “it depends” before making that move. This is common in games.

Less widely known, or imagined by students, is that this sort of thing happens in business applications as well. I once had to write some code to determine cutting instructions for orders of fabric. It turns out the the rules for this are extremely complex. If one can’t cut all the fabric from one roll the next length has to come from the same lot. And the determination of how much fabric to cut from each roll depends on some rules about length of scrap on the piece used and on the piece left behind. And more. It took me several weeks of discussions with people who made these decisions manually (and expertly) in order to understand the process well enough to have the computer duplicate their thinking. Understanding the problem was the single most important piece of the process. The best programming in the world can’t solve a problem they don’t understand.

Returning to the use of AI in games as projects. One of the fun things to do is to have individuals or teams work on their own AIs for a game and then have the various programs “play” against each other to see who has the best algorithms. Students usually love the competition and it gives them some incentive to work hard on it. The big caveat of course is that there are algorithms and code samples out of the Internet from many of these games. When evaluating these projects an instructor has to look closely to make sure the code is original. Personally I have less of an issue with students implementing an algorithm they find as opposed to just plugging in the code. In most cases though these are larger more important projects that, in high schools at least, they are probably worth big enough grades that the instructor should think about interviewing the teams to make sure they can explain exactly what is going on.



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ComputerScienceTeacher/~3/K0g10dmVdYc/artificial-intelligence-and-game-programming.aspx

Syntaxbrillian Synopsys Synnex Symantec

Monday, December 27, 2010

Cyberduck brings FTP, WebDAV, S3, and Google Docs transfers to Windows

Cyberduck has long been a favorite app of Mac owners, and with good reason. The free, open source app is a powerful way to transfer files between your desktop and the cloud, supporting FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3, Google Docs, Windows Azure, and more. Now, Cyberduck has finally arrived on Windows.

The release of version 4.0 beta packs the same great features as the Mac version, including SCP, multiple encryption types and full-featured SSH support. Cyberduck can also remotely expand files that have been compressed using TAR or ZIP. If that's not enough, how about bookmark support, synchronization, transfer previews, a built-in file previewer, and Growl support? Want to edit a file in your Google Docs using Word on your laptop? Right click it in Cyberduck, open it with Word, save, close, and Cyberduck automatically uploads your changes.

Be prepared for a bit of a lengthy install, however. Cyberduck requires the .NET 4.0 Framework, and it also loads Bonjour during setup. Still, if you do a lot of work with files on a wide variety of remote servers, Cyberduck is an excellent application for managing your upload and download chores.

Even if you don't do a lot of cloud files transfers, it's almost worth installing Cyberduck so that you can pin the jolly little duck to your taskbar. Rubber ducky, you're the one... You make cloud uploads so much fun...

Download Cyberduck 4.0 beta for Windows

Cyberduck brings FTP, WebDAV, S3, and Google Docs transfers to Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/14/cyberduck-brings-ftp-webdav-s3-and-google-docs-transfers-to-windows/

Taketwo Interactive Software Syntel Syntaxbrillian Synopsys

Friendster, Facebook and the Well: Rejecting anonymity

Remember Friendster? No, me neither - it never made an impact in Europe. But this was the social network that promised to be the next big thing on the web, before first MySpace and then Facebook ran off with that title. In fact, it grew so fast that it fell over, its technology unable to cope with the surge in demand.

In my journey through the history of social networking I have met Friendster's founder, another man who can claim to have reinvented the way we communicate.

Jonathan Abrams

Jonathan Abrams, founder of Friendster

In 2002 Jonathan Abrams, a Canadian software engineer who'd already worked for major technology firms and started a couple of businesses of his own, found himself with time on his hands. It was the depths of the dotcom crash and he wondered whether his career had already peaked.

He told me that gave him the space to pursue his idea of a website that would enable his friends to run their social lives better. More and more of them were using online dating sites but he saw a major flaw - who knew who the people in the other end really were?

He decided that a place where you used your own name and managed your offline social life with an online presence would be attractive. "Before Friendster," he explained, "most of the way people used technology was anonymous and they were interacting in a virtual world completely disconnected from the real world. The difference with Friendster was you used your real name, real picture, and interacted with people you met in the real world."

He was right about the appeal of this merging of the real and virtual worlds. He started with his own friends on a password-protected site, but Friendster rapidly went viral. "People found the site fun and useful, they wanted their friends to be on it so they would bug their friends to join and then it grew exponentially."

Within a year it had attracted millions of users, lots of excited media coverage, and had won big-name venture-capital backing.

So what went wrong? Just about everything. Abrams fell out with his backers, the firm rapidly went through four chief executives, and there were huge technical problems. "The site barely worked for two years," is how the founder puts it.

Eventually he left, and has since been involved in a number of other start-ups. We met at his latest venture in San Francisco's SoMa district, an empty office suite with furniture in boxes, about to become the Founders' Den, a shared social space for entrepreneurs.

Friendster is still around, advertising itself as a social gaming platform, and apparently enjoying a measure of popularity in Asia, where the majority of its users are now based. But whatever happens to it from now on it has played one vital role - helping Facebook grow without major technical hiccups. David Kirkpatrick's fascinating book The Facebook Effect, he recounts how Mark Zuckerberg fretted about what had happened to Friendster and determined that his business would not allow technology failure to drive users away.

Stewart Brand

Online pioneer Stewart Brand who started the Whole Earth Catalogue

Earlier I had met a very different and much older online community pioneer. Stewart Brand is something of a legend in the Californian counterculture movement, the man who started the Whole Earth Catalogue, a kind of analogue Facebook group for eco-types, and then took it online with The Well, the Whole Earth 'lectronic Link.

But what struck me was that the very principles that were later to prove successful at Friendster and Facebook - demanding that members used their real names, mixing offline and online networks - had been tried out in the 1980s at The Well.

Because Stewart Brand decided that the new online community was going to reject the anonymity that was then the norm on bulletin boards and other early computer forums. "This was politically against the grain," he told me. "The whole idea was that anonymity freed people to say important stuff and all I could see was that anonymity freed people to insult each other without retribution and they did so with abandon. Very responsible corporate people and scientists, when they had the opportunity to speak anonymously they did so with such viciousness and ferocity, it took my breath away."

Soon the new online community was thriving, its members debating everything from the meaning of life to the nature of sexuality to the merits of different computer operating systems - and then meeting up in the real world to continue the conversations.

This community wasn't the Garden of Eden - Stewart Brand and other leaders had to try to control the behaviour of "trolls" who began to infest some of the conversations - but it proved sustainable, and is still around 25 years after its birth.

You might think that someone of Stewart Brand's generation and political background would look askance at the development of Facebook, with its mostly trivial content and its increasingly commercial nature. Not a bit of it

"Facebook is fantastic," he told me, explaining that he saw some of the same principles in action under Mark Zuckerberg that had governed The Well: "I'm really impressed at a lot of the instincts that Zuckerberg has had. Taking non-anonymity as an absolutely fundamental value of his company and thereby beating off the competition. A Facebook identity is one of the most valuable things his company offers. The lack of anonymity is what gives it value."

On the internet nobody knows you're a dog, according to the famous cartoon in the New Yorker. But, if you were to believe the social networking pioneers, Fido would be better off coming clean about his idenitity on his Facebook profile.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2010/12/friendster_facebook_and_the_we.html

Tibco Software Thq Texas Instruments Teradata

Christmas is coming / Tesco Finder update

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NickLansleysTechnologyForTescocomBlog/~3/dsTmtXa27_g/christmas-is-coming-tesco-finder-update.html

Informatica Infocus Zoran Zions Ban

Maxthon browser for Android now available -- and it's good

Android users already have a number of capable mobile browsers to choose from: Dolphin HD and Mini, Opera Mobile, Firefox, Skyfire, and even the stock browser are all quite good. Now there's a new challenger: Maxthon. The Chinese makers of the popular-even-though-most-of-the-west-has-never-heard-of-it desktop browser has released a version for Android, and it's a very nice app.

Out of the box, be prepared for Maxthon's geographical lean. The default speed dial pages and start page are in Chinese, and the default search engine is set to Baidu (Google and Bing are available -- and familiar to Western users). You'll also want to jump in to the browser options and go through the default settings: Maxthon's default browser box is checked by default, and you'll likely want to untick that until you've had some time to play with it.

Maxthon packs an array of handy features, including a tabbed interface, cloud sync, orientation lock, speed dial, gesture support, and a download manager. Tapping the overlapping windows icon will display a thumbnail strip which allows you to flick through your open tabs -- just tap one to switch to it. Maxthon also detects RSS feeds, which you can add to the app's built-in reader. While the feed reader displays titles and snippets, tapping an entry will load their URL in a new browser tab (rather than displaying in the reader itself). Tapping the back button on your phone eventually causes the reader window to disappear altogether -- forcing you to tap your Maxthon icon again to re-open the browser. The reader is also pre-populated with feeds: tap and hold to display the context menu to remove them.

Apart from the back button annoyance with Maxthon's reader, I did experience some other glitches while browsing. Some elements -- like Flash embeds -- had a tendency to bleed over the browser toolbar at the bottom of the screen. Locking screen orientation to landscape sometimes caused the page to rotate 180° before actually locking. At times, scrolling could be a bit choppy. The biggest miss with Maxthon is its lack of pinch-to-zoom support. Tapping works, but it's not nearly as flexible as multitouch control.

Overall, however, Maxthon performed quite nicely on my HTC Incredible and the browser itself is very solid -- the RSS reader just isn't for me. Check out the gallery after the break for a closer look, and scan the QR Code to try Maxthon out on your Android device.

Continue reading Maxthon browser for Android now available -- and it's good

Maxthon browser for Android now available -- and it's good originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/16/maxthon-browser-for-android-now-available-and-its-good/

Fairchild Semiconductor International Fair Isaac Factset Research Systems F5 Networks

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Sony Ericsson mystery handset leaks out, provides juicy rumor material

Do you recognize this handset? Neither do we, and that's kind of the point. We're looking at a never-before seen Sony Ericsson smartphone running Android -- neither the Anzu / X12 nor the PlayStation Phone -- and if we're not terribly mistaken, that's the company's translucent Timescape UI on top. Oh, and it seems to be attached to Vodafone Germany, for whatever that's worth. What's more, the picture itself only tells half the story, as the other half is where it came from -- a Picasa account filled to the brim with 8 megapixel test shots from a pair of camera phones. It's hard to say whether either the Sony Ericsson "LT15i" or the "MT15i" are the device we're actually looking at here, but the brethren have now fired off over 150 images testing out these camera modules. Rumor has it that both are running Gingerbread and that this one's internal codename is "Hallon," but honestly we're more interested in that huge camera module on the front. HD video chat, perhaps? Find a full-frontal picture after the break, and plenty more at our source links.

[Thanks, Brenton]

Continue reading Sony Ericsson mystery handset leaks out, provides juicy rumor material

Sony Ericsson mystery handset leaks out, provides juicy rumor material originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 00:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Pocketnow  |  sourcePicasa (1), Picasa (2)  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/27/sony-ericsson-mystery-handset-leaks-out-provides-juicy-rumor-ma/

Synopsys Synnex Symantec Sykes Enterprises Inorated

Trend Micro Browser Guard protects against zero-day critical flaws in Internet Explorer

With so many types of Internet threats to watch out for nowadays, it's important to have a multi-layered defense in place. A good antimalware program is a start, but it won't protect you against everything -- like some zero-day exploits such as the new one reported by Microsoft which affects Internet Explorer.

Trend Micro's Browser Guard offers additional protection for users of Microsoft's Web browser, and best of all it's totally free. Install Browser Guard and it resides in your system tray and integrates into Internet Explorer, where it scans for malicious Web code. Browser Guard taps into Trend's Smart Protection Network, which uses the power of their antimalware cloud to defend against emerging threats. The plug-in won't slow down your browser, but it will add a toolbar (which really isn't necessary). Still, giving up a few pixels of space in exchange for some added protection is a decent trade off if you're a devoted Internet Explorer user.

Download Trend Micro Browser Guard

Trend Micro Browser Guard protects against zero-day critical flaws in Internet Explorer originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 23 Dec 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/23/trend-micro-browser-guard-protects-against-zero-day-critical-fla/

Atandt Autodesk Automatic Data Processing Avnet

Cmd Script - Get All Machines in Domain

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/QnDb/~3/d1BYQJSigdU/cmd-script-get-all-machines-in-domain.html

Hon Hai Precision Ind Hynix Semiconductor Infosys Technologies International Business Machines

Microsoft's Hotmail Active Views -- a vetted interactive email solution

activeviews
Email as we know it is a fairly static beast; you get text, and maybe some links and images, but that's about it. After all, allowing email to run code within your email client or browser could be mighty risky.

On the other hand, there's lots to be gained by "interactive email." Imagine receiving a form, which you can fill-in right from within an email message; or getting a search widget that you can use right from within the message to get the exact content you're interested in.

That's what Microsoft's new Active Views for Hotmail tries to do. Microsoft has taken a bunch of enterprise partners, starting with Orbitz and Monster.com, and allowed them to run code right from within your email. Since the partners (and email content) are carefully vetted by Microsoft, potential security concerns are kept to a minimum allowing users to enjoy the power of interactive forms and search widgets without the danger of hidden malicious code.

As the platform grows, more and more enterprises will be able to send interactive email. However, being a Hotmail-only prospect (at least for now), and since it's mainly useful for large advertisers, it is uncertain whether Interactive Views will gain much traction. Still, it's an interesting experiment. Just in case you're still at a loss as to what Active Views actually is, Microsoft's kindly made a video explaining the whole thing, which we've included after the break.

Continue reading Microsoft's Hotmail Active Views -- a vetted interactive email solution

Microsoft's Hotmail Active Views -- a vetted interactive email solution originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/17/microsofts-hotmail-active-views-a-vetted-interactive-email-s/

Emc Fidelity National Information Svcs Fiserv Google

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Blog Post: COM+ Queued component : Error 80080005 Server execution failed. Error Code = 0xc00e0003

On a windows server 2003, we are not able to start a Queued COM+ application. It fails with the error: 80080005 Server execution failed.
In the event logs we see the following entries :

Event Type: Error
Event Source: COM+
Event Category: (115)
Event ID: 4811
Date: 12/24/2010
Time: 4:27:39 PM
User: N/A
Computer:
Description:
An unexpected error was returned by Message Queuing API indicated. Unable to retrieve the associated error message text. Message Queuing API return values are defined in Platform SDK file MQ.H.MQPathNameToFormatName

Server Application ID: {45445320-4154-4C41-4E54-455320382E30}
Server Application Instance ID:
{8AAA34A0-076F-4D41-9751-F7D973F5C81A}
Server Application Name: ACM80
Error Code = 0xc00e0003 :
COM+ Services Internals Information:
File: d:\nt\com\complus\src\comsvcs\qc\msmqrt\msmqrt.cpp, Line: 749
Comsvcs.dll file version: ENU 2001.12.4720.4045 shp

Event Type: Error
Event Source: COM+
Event Category: (104)
Event ID: 4811
Date: 12/24/2010
Time: 2:45:16 PM
User: N/A
Computer:
Description:
An unexpected error was returned by Message Queuing API indicated. Unable to retrieve the associated error message text. Message Queuing API return values are defined in Platform SDK file MQ.H.MQOpenQueue

Server Application ID: {45445320-4154-4C41-4E54-455320382E30}
Server Application Instance ID:
{21B51AB1-552F-4FDE-AEC4-9CD7ED000EF0}
Server Application Name: ACM80
The serious nature of this error has caused the process to terminate.
Error Code = 0xc00e0003 :
COM+ Services Internals Information:
File: d:\nt\com\complus\src\comsvcs\qc\listener\listener2.cpp, Line: 532
Comsvcs.dll file version: ENU 2001.12.4720.4045 shp

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

 

Error code 0xc00e0003 indicates MQ_ERROR_QUEUE_NOT_FOUND.

We opened Computer management and checked the private queues. The private queues for the COM+ application were missing. Ideally, when we configure queuing on the COM+ application it creates the private queues for the COM+ application.
We unchecked the "Queued - This application can be reached by MSMQ queues" option on the COM+ application to disable queueing. Selected the option again to re-enable queueing. Checked the private queues and now we can see the private queues created for the COM+ application.
Started the COM+ application and boom.. it's started.

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ajit/archive/2010/12/24/com-queued-component-error-80080005-server-execution-failed-error-code-0xc00e0003.aspx

Atandt Autodesk Automatic Data Processing Avnet

Powershell - Get IP of All Machines in Domain

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/QnDb/~3/h2EC0r_Y9go/powershell-get-ip-of-all-machines-in.html

Comcast Commscope Communications Holdings Compal Electronics

New discussion forum for SQL MCM and a new hash tag

Quick post today - I just wanted to point out two new resources for overall MCM: SQL Server 2008 discussions:

  • We have a new forum for SQL MCM discussion that you can find here: Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008 Discussion Forum. I think having the forum will be a great way to ask questions about the program, give feedback or even connect with various participants in the community (for example - asking questions about the SQL MCM readiness videos).  
  • Also - Thomas LaRock recently kicked off a new Twitter hash tag that you can use to connect with others regarding the SQL MCM exams.  The hash tag is #mcmprep and it is a great way to stay connected with other folks looking to prepare for the certification.

By the way - a big thanks to Brent Ozar for prompting the creation of this forum. The idea of a forum hadn't occurred to me yet - and once he suggested it I realized this would be a great way to persist information that has so far been spread out over several blogs, tweets and emails. 

Source: http://blogs.technet.com/b/themasterblog/archive/2010/12/20/new-discussion-forum-for-sql-mcm-and-a-new-hash-tag.aspx

Nvidia Nuance Communications Novellus Systems Novell

Ask Engadget: best high-capacity (250GB or more) portable media player?

We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget question is coming to us from Dhruv, who needs to live about 20 years in the future, where all PMPs start at 160GB. If you're looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.
"So I'm a music lover of sorts and my (already compressed) iTunes library is nearing 150GB. I used to have an iPod Classic 160GB, but that doesn't allow for much growing room. Seeing as Apple has pretty much given up on the Classic's future, I was hoping there was another player out there that would have higher capacity drives in it. I know Toshiba makes a 240GB and 320GB 1.8" drive, but I see nothing using it.

Also, I would love for it to have physical buttons. And like the Classic, it should be portable. I saw the Archos 5 online and it's a mammoth. Basically, my ideal player is an iPod Classic with at least a 250GB HDD inside. Thanks!"
It's a shame that Cowon's gorgeous X7 tops out at 160GB, else that'd be a solid solution. Outside of the Archos 5, does anyone have any solid, high-capacity solutions? Looks like your best bet may be to snag a lower-end PMP that'll hold a 1.8-inch drive, and then hack a larger one in yourself.

Ask Engadget: best high-capacity (250GB or more) portable media player? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Dec 2010 22:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/23/ask-engadget-best-high-capacity-250gb-or-more-portable-media/

Autodesk Automatic Data Processing Avnet Bharti Airtel

Friday, December 24, 2010

Dutch scientists develop half million euro, 'affordable' super laser

The folks at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) have lovingly referred to their latest contribution to the world of science as the "poor man's X-FEL." An X-FEL, or X-ray Free-electron Laser, is like a super strong video microscope that converts electrons to X-rays to observe high-speed molecular movement. TU/e's super laser alternative depends solely on a very specific bunching of electrons to do the same thing, allowing for a much smaller (it fits on a tabletop), much cheaper setup. With an estimated cost of half a million euro, the laser is hardly cheap, but it's far more affordable than the competition: Stanford's X-FEL runs hundreds of millions of dollars, and measures a whole kilometer. TU/e researchers admit that their laser can't do everything that an X-FEL can, but, hey, you get what you pay for. Up next for TU/e? In vitro pork products. Yummy.

Dutch scientists develop half million euro, 'affordable' super laser originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Dec 2010 13:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourcePhysOrg  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/24/dutch-scientists-develop-half-million-euro-affordable-super-l/

Bharti Airtel Bt Group Canon Memc Electronic Materials

Freemake Video Converter adds Blu-Ray support, Web video downloading

Freemake's free Video Converter was already a very solid app, handling more than 200 import formats and able to output converted videos for playback on a wide array of devices. In the recently-released version 2.0, however, one major piece of missing functionality has been added.

Freemake 2 now supports Blu-Ray burning, allowing you to output dozens of hours of downloaded video to a single disc. If you don't have a Blu-Ray burner, no worries -- Freemake claims their media conversion kung-fu lets them cram 20 hours onto a single-layer DVD.

The upgrade doesn't stop there, however. Freemake 2 also adds the ability to download and convert videos directly from popular sharing sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Metacafe. Beyond sharing sites, Freemake can also grab video from Hulu, South Park Studios, The Daily Show, Megavideo, and several others -- including a good number of sites in the red light district. There's also a more full-featured preset editor, giving you advanced control over your default conversion settings.

The .Net 4.0 framework is required, but Freemake will install it for you if it's not already on your system.

Download Freemake Video Convertor 2.0

Freemake Video Converter adds Blu-Ray support, Web video downloading originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 22 Dec 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/22/freemake-video-converter-adds-blu-ray-support-web-video-download/

Ncr National Semiconductor National Instruments Motorola

WMIC - __namespace

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/QnDb/~3/WbfQWtGxG4A/wmic-namespace.html

Apple Computer Applied Materials Arian Semiconductor Equipment Arrow Electronics

Powershell - Powertip: Get Notification When a Background Job is Done

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/QnDb/~3/2vfhDz7RkJQ/powershell-powertip-get-notification.html

Vishay Intertechnology Virgin Media Viewsonic Verisign

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Metrodome is a metronome for Google Chrome

metrodome

So the Chrome Web Store is upon us, and I decided to cover my first Web Store application for Download Squad. Rather than aiming for something high-profile like the Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online app, I decided to go with Metrodome!

Yes, it's just a humble metronome, but it's graceful. It comes with three different sound options (a "tick", a "beep" and a "tock"), all quite pleasant-sounding. But what I like best about it is that it shows a huge dot right in the middle of the window, that goes on and off to the beat. This makes it possible to play by eyesight rather than by listening to the metronome, so you can jam with your headphones connected to your amp and just watch the metronome on-screen.

You can set the BPM, of course, but only by clicking the up/down arrows. This means you're in for a lot of clicking if you want something drastically different than the default (120bpm). This is actually the only extra feature I wish this metronome had. Other than that, it's a beaut!

Metrodome is a metronome for Google Chrome originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/09/metrodome-is-a-metronome-for-chrome/

Rackable Systems Quest Software Quantum Qlogic

Gawker Media hacked, 1.5 million usernames stolen, CMS breached

gawker

Gawker Media, the company behind Lifehacker, Gizmodo, and several other major blogs, has been hacked. This has been an ongoing story for a couple of days now. At first it seemed only the user database had been compromised, but as further details emerged, it became evident Gawker's content management system had also been breached. A group going by the name 'Gnosis' appears to be taking credit for the hack, which itself appears to be in retaliation to references made by Gawker Media relating to 4chan and other groups. Screenshots mocking 4chan from Gawker's internal Campfire group chat have been exposed to the public.

Around 270,000 user accounts and passwords have been released so far. So, if you happen to have a user account on Gizmodo, Lifehacker or any other Gawker website, now would be a very good time to change your password.

Gawker Media hacked, 1.5 million usernames stolen, CMS breached originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 13 Dec 2010 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/13/gawker-media-hacked-1-5-million-usernames-stolen-cms-breached/

Asustek Computer Atandt Autodesk Automatic Data Processing

Google teams up with Coca-Cola for a festive Android treat

Coke Santa commercial, Android wallpaper
Adding to the magical wonder of Coke's 'Snow Globe Santa' Christmas commercial, Google's AdMob team has collaborated with the One True Soda Master to create a truly festive Android experience: a snow globe live wallpaper (QR code after the break).

The live wallpaper -- which basically turns your Android phone into a very cute snow globe -- will be promoted via the AdMob network, which many free apps use to create revenue. When users see the ad, they'll be able to click straight through to the Android Market and install the live wallpaper. Google's even produced a video showing you how to install the wallpaper, which feels a bit like overkill, but it's included after the break anyway.

It's at this juncture that I like to remind people that Santa Claus's red-and-white garb was not created by Coca-Cola. It may be true that Coke popularized the color scheme, however. Before Coke's legendary commercialization of Santa, he usually wore whatever the local custom dictated. The original Santa, however, Saint Nicolas, was a monk; and monks at that time wore red and white.

Continue reading Google teams up with Coca-Cola for a festive Android treat

Google teams up with Coca-Cola for a festive Android treat originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/21/google-teams-up-with-coca-cola-for-a-festive-android-treat/

Symantec Sykes Enterprises Inorated Sybase Sun Microsystems

Forum Post: R2 Knowledge?

Does MCM SQL 2008 require knowledge of R2.

Thanks,

Geoff

Source: http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/forums/ac/f/308/p/22135/62083.aspx#62083

Diebold Dell Cypress Semiconductor Accenture

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Microsoft's Hotmail Active Views -- a vetted interactive email solution

activeviews
Email as we know it is a fairly static beast; you get text, and maybe some links and images, but that's about it. After all, allowing email to run code within your email client or browser could be mighty risky.

On the other hand, there's lots to be gained by "interactive email." Imagine receiving a form, which you can fill-in right from within an email message; or getting a search widget that you can use right from within the message to get the exact content you're interested in.

That's what Microsoft's new Active Views for Hotmail tries to do. Microsoft has taken a bunch of enterprise partners, starting with Orbitz and Monster.com, and allowed them to run code right from within your email. Since the partners (and email content) are carefully vetted by Microsoft, potential security concerns are kept to a minimum allowing users to enjoy the power of interactive forms and search widgets without the danger of hidden malicious code.

As the platform grows, more and more enterprises will be able to send interactive email. However, being a Hotmail-only prospect (at least for now), and since it's mainly useful for large advertisers, it is uncertain whether Interactive Views will gain much traction. Still, it's an interesting experiment. Just in case you're still at a loss as to what Active Views actually is, Microsoft's kindly made a video explaining the whole thing, which we've included after the break.

Continue reading Microsoft's Hotmail Active Views -- a vetted interactive email solution

Microsoft's Hotmail Active Views -- a vetted interactive email solution originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/17/microsofts-hotmail-active-views-a-vetted-interactive-email-s/

Sonic Automotive Skyworks Solutions Silicon Laboratories Si International