The Only Raspberry Pi XBMC Tutorial You Will Ever Need

http://mymediaexperience.com/raspberry-pi-xbmc-with-raspbmc/


Regards,

Rob. Sent from my iPhone

Tom's Guide: 10 Mobile Ad and Spam Blockers

Tom's Guide: 10 Mobile Ad and Spam Blockers
http://n360.to/17V2fau

Shared via News360

NOAA Goes Live With New Forecasting Supercomputers - Slashdot

http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/07/26/005230/noaa-goes-live-with-new-forecasting-supercomputers

NOAA Goes Live With New Forecasting Supercomputers

"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Thursday switched on two new supercomputers that are expected to improve weather forecasting. The supercomputers are each 213 teraflop systems, running a Linux operating system on Intel processors. The U.S. is paying about $20 million a year to operate the leased systems. The NWS has a new hurricane model, Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF), which is 15% more accurate in day five of a forecast both for forecast track and intensity. That model is now operational and running on the new systems. In nine month, NWS expects to improve the resolution of the system from 27 kilometers to 13 kilometers. The European system, credited with doing a better job at predicting Sandy's path, is at 16 kilometers resolution. In June, the European forecasting agency said it had a deal to buy Cray systems capable of petascale performance."

8 Gmail Hacks That Will Change The Way You Use Email

Digg 8 Gmail Hacks That Will Change The Way You Use Email

No need to fear your own inbox. Gmail's got a few hidden email features that you need to know about.


http://on.digg.com/12eq1J8

Sent with Reeder

Regards,

Rob. Sent from my iPhone

Check out 'Netflix's Next Big Premiere Comes Next Week, At Movie Theaters' on Learnist

Netflix's Next Big Premiere Comes Next Week, At Movie Theaters
Netflix is big with kids (and their parents). But so far all of the big original shows Netflix has produced/bought for itself have been grownup-only affairs: Not a lot of family-friendly stuff happens in "House of Cards" or "Orange is the New Black". But that changes at the end of the year.

Download the Learnist iPad and iPhone apps from the App Store, or visit Learni.st to learn more!

FCC listing exposes new Roku Streaming Stick remote with audio out

Engadget FCC listing exposes new Roku Streaming Stick remote with audio out

Roku introduced a new remote with audio out for its third-generation player, and an FCC filing reveals its Streaming Stick will get the same treatment soon. The new remote adds a headphone out and... that's it, since the Streaming Stick already used WiFi Direct for communication and control. Users shouldn't notice much difference however, in our review the batteries lasted for hours even with headphones plugged in. How does this revised unit align with Roku's plans to become the front end for your TV? We're not sure yet, but it appears the dongle is still a part of its plans.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

Comments

Via: Zatz Not Funny

Source: Federal Communications Commission

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Rn2WKnCiJAQ/

Sent with Reeder

Regards,

Rob. Sent from my iPhone

Tesla wins in North Carolina, paves the way for direct-to-consumer sales

Engadget Tesla wins in North Carolina, paves the way for direct-to-consumer sales

Tesla Motors continues to buck the odds, celebrating a major victory in the North Carolina Senate this week. The North Carolina Automobile Dealers -- concerned about competition -- set its sights on the green car company last month when it endorsed a bill that would've significantly curtailed Tesla's ability to sell vehicles in the state. The legislation, supported by the Senate's Commerce Committee, targeted direct-to-consumer sales which eliminate the need for dealerships. But Elon Musk and friends proved that it wouldn't be quite so easy to squeeze them out of NCAD's territory -- Tesla took both North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory and House Speaker Thom Tillis on test drives to show off the car's capabilities. Musk's strategy seems to have paid off, as the North Carolina House of Representatives struck down the bill on Tuesday. With another victory under its belt, Tesla's upward momentum shows few signs of slowing down anytime soon.

Filed under: Transportation

Comments

Via: Autoblog Green

Source: News & Observer

http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/27/tesla-victory-north-carolina/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

Sent with Reeder

Regards,

Rob. Sent from my iPhone

Google Trekker Gets You Off-Limits Access To Exotic Locations Like The Island From Bond's Skyfall

TechCrunch Google Trekker Gets You Off-Limits Access To Exotic Locations Like The Island From Bond's Skyfall

Google Trekker just announced the expansion of its street view hiking map project to outside organizations, and today it's revealing another aspect of the program's broadening: Getting virtual tourists behind velvet ropes at completely unique, remote destinations. On the Google Maps blog today, the team showed off a virtual tour of the island of Hashima, in Japan's Nagasaki Prefecture, which providing the setting for Bond villain Raoul Silva's hideout in Skyfall.

Hashima, otherwise known as "Battleship" island in Japanese, is a former coal mining facility and living area for its workers. It was abandoned completely in the 1970s, and then finally opened its doors to tourists again in 2009. But tourists aren't allowed everywhere in Hashima, since it's basically a toppling wreck of concrete and steel – pieces of buildings regularly fall off and might not mix well with the soft skulls of gaggle-eyed visitors.

The Trekker team managed to gain special access to off-limits areas, however, and even got in-building imagery to provide a near-complete virtual view of the strange, industrial-era island. You can see how they did it in the video above.

This expansion of the Trekker program will likely encourage tourism to the area, but it's also a great example of how Google's ambitious digital archiving project can preserve a digital record of sites unlike any other. Especially in a case like Hashima, where in 10 years time what remains there won't resemble what's there today in the least, thanks to the continued effect of ocean winds on the crumbling city infrastructure, that's a valuable and previously unavailable resource, for researchers, students and the just plain curious alike.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/c4Si5oab1qQ/

Sent with Reeder

Regards,

Rob. Sent from my iPhone

Launching A Startup? Make A Clean Legal Break From Your Employer First

TechCrunch Launching A Startup? Make A Clean Legal Break From Your Employer First

Editor's note: Stephanie Singer practices law at WilmerHale where she advises emerging companies in the technology and life sciences industries on formation, financings and ongoing corporate matters.

Before quitting your job to launch a startup, read the documents you signed with your current employer carefully. They could contain provisions that put your new venture at risk.

Thousands of entrepreneurs quit their jobs each year to start their own companies. It happens all the time, and it's no problem, right? Not quite. Many employment contracts contain provisions that can make it difficult for entrepreneurs to pursue their startups unfettered. It's important to address those issues now before you quit your job.

The areas most likely to cause problems pertain to intellectual property, competition and solicitation (typically of customers and employees). Contracts in these areas protect companies from losing a competitive advantage when you leave to work for someone else or start a business of your own.

The areas most likely to cause problems pertain to intellectual property, competition and solicitation.

What is the best way to handle these restrictions? Ideally, you would avoid signing any employment contract that places limits on your professional pursuits. But that's not always a realistic option since many employers require them, and many would-be entrepreneurs have already signed such contracts by the time they decide to start a company.

So the next best thing is to read your contract carefully to determine if it could limit your startup plans. From there, you can figure out how to navigate any potential conflicts. Look for language in three key areas: intellectual property, non-competition and non-solicitation.

Assignment Of Intellectual Property

Assignment of intellectual property, also called "assignment of invention," ensures that the ideas, discoveries and techniques that you developed for your employer remain the property of the company. For example, if you developed a clever data-mining tool as part of your job, you can't use that same technology in your startup. It's the property of your employer. This typically includes any work you did during working hours or using company technology or property (such as a company-issued laptop).

That may seem straightforward enough, but here's the rub — this clause could also include work you did for your startup during non-working hours using your own property. Some particularly restrictive contracts assert that any work you did while you were employed at the company is their property, even if you did the work on Christmas Day using your personal laptop or mobile device.

The key is to make sure the idea behind your startup is not part of an idea, or based on any technology or other intellectual property, that you assigned to your current employer. If it is, you either need to come up with another idea or ask your employer for permission to pursue it.

Non-Competition

Of the three areas, non-competition is probably the most common issue for entrepreneurs. These clauses restrict an employee from starting a business that competes with the employer. Non-compete agreements often extend for one year after employment ends and cover the geographic area in which the company operates. In today's online world, however, it is often difficult to determine the actual limits of that geographic restriction.

The challenging aspect of non-compete clauses is determining what constitutes competition. Usually the agreement will contain a description of your employer's business or industry. But it can be tough to know for sure if your proposed business falls into the category of competitor. To get a better sense, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is my startup in a similar business or industry as my employer's business?
• Will I target the same customers?
• Does my startup use similar knowledge or technology?

It's also helpful to think about this from the employer's perspective. Could they make a credible case that your venture would compete with the company?

Non-Solicitation

This clause is typically the easier of the three to analyze. It prohibits you from soliciting employees or customers of your employer. Some agreements go a step further and prohibit the hiring of any employees. This means that if an employee decides to apply to a job at your company, even without any overtures from you, you could be found in violation of that agreement if you hire that employee. More stringent agreements may also cover former employees. Non-solicitation clauses are often limited to a period of time.

What If My Startup Plans Appear To Violate My Contract?

Determine if the language is overly broad or vague. Some contracts will contain such broad language that it's likely not enforceable. For example, if you work for a web consulting firm as a programmer, and your contract states that you cannot work as a web developer anyplace else, there's a very good chance the provision is not enforceable or at least the scope of the restriction might be limited by a court.

Examine your state's laws. State laws can influence the enforceability of many of these provisions. For example, California does not uphold non-compete agreements under most circumstances. And while noncompetition agreements are enforceable in most states, they generally must be reasonable in scope. It's a good idea to check your state's laws to learn what they allow.

Ask your employer for a waiver. You might consider this option if you are on good terms with your employer. There's a good chance your request will be granted if your venture isn't a competitive threat, even if it technically falls within the scope of the IP assignment or non-competition agreement. This approach is not without risk, however, as there's always a possibility your request could be denied, making it harder for you to assert at a later date that there was no violation.

If you still have doubts after going through this process, seek advice from someone who is knowledgeable on these issues. Most importantly, don't wait until your startup is successful — and the envy of others — before addressing these legal issues.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/P3tCaTucZNM/

Sent with Reeder

Regards,

Rob. Sent from my iPhone

Tomorrow's Surveillance: Everyone, Everywhere, All The Time

TechCrunch Tomorrow's Surveillance: Everyone, Everywhere, All The Time

Everyone is worried about the wrong things. Since Edward Snowden exposed the incipient NSA panopticon, the civil libertarians are worried that their Internet conversations and phone metadata are being tracked; the national-security conservatives claim to be worried that terrorists will start hiding their tracks; but both sides should really be worried about different things entirely.

Online surveillance is the one kind that can actually be stopped. One interesting thing we learned from Snowden: "Encryption works." Right now almost all Internet traffic is completely unencrypted, or badly encrypted, or only encrypted until it reaches the first set of servers, or your host encrypts all data with the same key. But these are all, in theory, solvable problems.

If we don't want governments (or anyone else) spying on our Internet traffic and our phone conversations, then we can stop them from doing so. Tools that seem to successfully ward off the full might of the NSA already exist: PGP for email, OTR for instant messaging, RedPhone for voice calls.

Now, these tools are all, to varying degrees, a huge pain to use. This is partly because security is hard and partly because the world could really use an anti-surveillance Jony Ive. But as time goes on, they and their ilk will become more user-friendly, and it's only a matter of time before tools which can withstand (most of) the full might of the NSA become simple enough that their use is fairly widespread.

CyanogenMod is Adding Secure End-to-End Encryption to Messaging Apps ow.ly/mrXTq #CyanogenMod #Android—
  (@TechNorms) June 27, 2013

As long as a critical mass of techies and civil libertarians make a point of using end-to-end encryption, its mere presence won't be enough to trigger extreme suspicion. One day quantum decryption will crack today's codes, but the smart money is still on quantum encryption beating it into widespread use.

As for metadata — well, you can already hide your Internet metadata by using Tor. I expect similar "metadata muddying" networks to spring up for voice calls; maybe they'll onion-route calls a la Tor, maybe they'll just be apps that cause your phone to make encrypted calls with no actual content to other phones in the network at sporadic intervals, so that large quantities of fake metadata gets mixed in with the real stuff. Either way, the data gathered by governments can be corrupted.

To an extent, this may help explain the disproportionate and vindictive persecution of hackers like Andrew Auernheimer, Aaron Swartz, and Jacob Appelbaum. (Disclosure/disclaimer: I haven't seen Jake for years, but I count him as a friend.) These are exactly the kind of people who are capable of throwing monkey wrenches into the gears of the online surveillance machine.

What civil libertarians should be worried about isn't online snooping and wiretapping. It's the surveillance that's already becoming pervasive, if not ubiquitous, throughout the real, physical world.

Wired reports: "A Silicon Valley startup is launching a fleet of imaging satellites that are cheap, small, and ultra-efficient," giving us "up-to-the-minute snapshots of the planet." DARPA already boasts "a 1.8-gigapixel camera that will be attached to unmanned drones to spot targets as small as six inches at an altitude of 20,000 feet." The Supreme Court just made it easier for the police to collect DNA samples without a warrant. The FBI is building a biometric database which includes facial and voice recognition, and using drones for surveillance on U.S. soil; the Border Guard, which effectively claims jurisdiction over two-thirds of the US population, is rapidly scaling up its own drone fleet; and cameras on police cars are already busily vacuuming up data en masse for local law enforcement.

Meanwhile, even if you're wearing an anti-facial-recognition visor to protect yourself against software that can identify you in real time, that won't help; gait recognition is amazingly effective these days. Oh, and by the way, you're carrying a uniquely identifiable, always-on, remotely controllable tracking device with a microphone and a camera wherever you go; it's called your phone. I realize that phrasing sounds a bit tinfoil-hat…but at the same time, it is an inarguable technical fact. That's why Snowden had his Hong Kong visitors leave their phones in his fridge.

So. Connect the dots. Put all the above together, add in the gargantuan data centers the government is building to analyze and cross-reference all that Big Data, and then imagine the next generation of all these technologies — and what do you get? Something a whole lot like a panopticon.

Sure, the NSA isn't allowed to spy on Americans (well, mostly, sort of, kind of, maybe, some of the time) but other government agencies can. Since most Americans actually want more surveillance, and phone metadata (from which your location can often be deduced) isn't considered private … we can conclude that in relatively short order the U.S. government will be maintaining near-real-time tabs on the location–and to some extent the activity–of almost every single person in the country. Other countries will soon follow. And there's no way to encrypt our way around that.

That's what the civil libertarians should be worried about: A government that knows where you are at all times, and has an indelible record of everywhere you've ever been, and everything you've ever done in any public space. It's claimed that most Americans commit "three felonies a day" thanks to overbroad statutes. Even if that's not true, there's little doubt that with so much on record, there will always be a way to persecute if not prosecute anyone who isn't a saint. Everyone will be guilty of something, so the powers that be can simply selectively enforce the laws against the people they don't like.

The national-security conservatives who claim to be worried about terrorism should really be worried that their attempts to protect their nation are in fact damaging it; that their quest for security, and their war on leaks, have begun to slowly corrupt their democracies into police states.

I know, I know, tinfoil hat. And yet: "unfortunately in the past decade the United States has moved toward police-stateness in small but key ways." It's crucially important to realize that today's technologies make it much easier to build the infrastructure of a police state, and tomorrow's will make it easier yet — and once those tools are in place, whatever their original intent may have been, someone will seize them and abuse them.

(Of course, many people who claim they're worried about crime and terrorism are being disingenuous and actually do want much less in the way of freedoms and liberties, and much more in the way of authoritarian control and draconian laws. Not surprisingly the police often fail to see what the problem with a police state is exactly. What, don't we trust them?)

The problem isn't that our governments have surveillance programs. The problem is that they lie about them and keep them so secret that it's all but impossible to determine whether they have gone beyond any reasonable remit, or, indeed, whether they are in fact illegal.

"They filed suit, and the government quickly said that they wanted out. They didn't need this information after all." newyorker.com/online/blogs/e…—
Jon Evans (@rezendi) June 28, 2013

Their defense of this secrecy consists entirely of: "There are some benefits somewhere! Of course, we cannot tell you exactly what they are." There appears to be no consideration whatsoever of whether these alleged benefits exceed the costs.

It's essentially an engineering problem: government initiatives need feedback mechanisms to check their excesses and keep them on course, but the NSA's current so-called feedback mechanism, the FISA Court, is so ridiculously inadequate that it would be laughable if the ramifications weren't so serious. Only one side gets to bring cases, show evidence, argue before the court, and then interpret its decisions, which are zealously protected from any public scrutiny. And what's more:

All 11 FISA judges were appointed by Chief Justice Roberts. 10 nominated to be Fed judges by Republican presidents. 6 are ex-prosecutors.—
Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) June 24, 2013

Sneaky. DOJ writes secret interpretation of surveillance law. When asked how Americans' data is protected, we are told to read the statute.—
Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) June 26, 2013

The national-security conservatives claim that this secrecy is required to track down terrorists, but first of all, that doesn't even pass the laugh test:

Terrorists are so smart, we must upend the Constitution to stop them. But they're so dumb, they just learned we read their emails last week.—
Trevor Timm (@trevortimm) June 26, 2013

And second, even if it were true, it still wouldn't be worth it, because this kind of secrecy damages the feedback mechanism that ultimately makes it possible for democracies to work. Tomorrow's vastly more powerful surveillance technologies, combined with today's level of secrecy, may well put the very existence of that feedback mechanism at risk. That's something we all need to be worried about.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/NuPVsHnHRak/

Sent with Reeder

Regards,

Rob. Sent from my iPhone

Was That A Tsunami?

Slashdot Was That A Tsunami?

Rebecka Schumann writes "The East Coast was hit by a tsunami earlier this month, but apparently, no one was the wiser. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration a rare six-foot wave collided with the region in early June, a phenomenon currently under review. The wave is being considered 'complex' and is believed to have been caused 'the slumping at the continental shelf east of New Jersey' or a strong storm according to the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center. While speculation regarding the mystery tsunami is rampant, another individual is claiming the surge could possibly be a 'meteotsunami,' meaning it was not caused by seismic activity but merely a change in meteorological conditions. Paul Whitmore, an NOAA tsunami center director, said a weather system's ability to change air pressure is enough to 'generate waves that act just like tsunamis.' The alleged tsunami caused three divers to be swept off rocks, two reportedly requiring medical attention after suffering from non life-threatening injuries due the storm. The tsunami, which also caused damage to boats and docks, reportedly lasted a total of five minutes." For less obtrusive advertising, see similar stories at The Verge, and at NPR.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/b3PuN_8a-Wc/story01.htm

Sent with Reeder

Regards,

Rob. Sent from my iPhone

Canonical To Ship Mir Display Server In Ubuntu 13.10

Slashdot Canonical To Ship Mir Display Server In Ubuntu 13.10

An anonymous reader writes "Canonical has announced today that they intend to ship the Mir Display Server by default in Ubuntu 13.10, rather than Ubuntu 14.04 as originally planned. They moved ahead their Mir adoption since the code is materializing and they want Mir/XMir widely tested prior to the Ubuntu 14.04 Long-Term Support release. Mir in Ubuntu 13.10 will be using the XMir X11 compatibility layer to run the Unity 7 desktop and there will be fallback support for running an X.Org Server if the graphics drivers don't support Mir."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/fpjE1caWZnY/story01.htm

Sent with Reeder

Regards,

Rob. Sent from my iPhone

Knoppix 7.2 Released

Slashdot Knoppix 7.2 Released

hypnosec writes "Knoppix 7.2 has been released for public testing — unlike its predecessor, Knoppix 7.1, which was only made available through the annual Linux Magazine CeBIT edition. Based on Debian "Wheezy", Knoppix 7.2 packs quite a few new features, including newer desktop packages from Debian/testing and Debian/unstable Jessie. The latest version uses the Linux 3.9 kernel and xorg 7.7, and comes loaded with LibreOffice 4.0, GIMP 2.8, Chromium 27 (and Firefox/Iceweasel 21), Wine 1.5, and Virtualbox version 4.2.10. It uses LXDE by default. For users who still want to go for KDE or GNOME, version 4.8.4 and 3.4.2 of the respective desktops are available from the Knoppix DVD."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/00zdujt-pzg/story01.htm

Sent with Reeder

Regards,

Rob. Sent from my iPhone