Friday, July 27, 2012

London 2012 Summer Olympics | Videos, Dates, Photos, News

  1. London 2012 Olympics - Schedule, Results, Medals, Tickets, Venues

    www.london2012.com/
    Official Website & Mobile Apps for the London 2012 Summer Olympics. Live results, competition schedule, news, photos, videos, medal count, athlete bios.
  2. Olympics 2012: London welcomes Michelle Obama who shows ...


    Daily Mail - 3 hours ago
    America's First Lady of fashion just touched down in London town and immediately got to work motivating team America and showing off her ...
    Olympics 2012: Michelle Obama arrives in London, meets US athletesABC7Chicago.com
    London 2012 Olympics: Michelle Obama tells Team USA to 'have ...Telegraph.co.uk
    London 2012 Olympics: Michelle Obama travels to London to ...

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

The Backstreet Boys Are Reuniting…

It’s official, Good Morning America will be the lucky host of The Backstreet Boys’ reunion with Kevin Richardson. The show will take place on August 31st in Central Park but our question is why? . Now don’t get us wrong, we have no problem with acts like 98 Degrees and The Backstreet Boys getting back together — and in the case of Backstreet they added that they’re hard at work on a new album that will be released to coincide with their 20th anniversary — but our question is why would they want to do this in the midst of today’s boy band resurgence.

Watch: No Doubt Play Truckers In ‘Settle Down’ Video

No Doubt has wasted no time between debuting the premiere single from their upcoming new album and releasing its video. The clip for the track, “Settle Down,” is brightly colored and multicultural, featuring lots of dancing and one of Gwen Stefani’s signature hair-dos. Basically it’s on par with No Doubt’s formative music videos. . 
Whether you like the new single or not (it’s growing on us, although it feels a little watered down for a first single), you can’t argue with the fact that this video is compelling. In the clip, the members of No Doubt each drive a semi truck decorated with various cultural elements (there is a Harajuku girl in the back of Stefani’s truck) and talk to each other on the CB radios. The video’s director Sophie Muller explained this to Rolling Stone, noting, “I think (bassist Tony Kanal) came up with the idea that we should do something with trucks. The idea is they are all driving to meet after having had their separate lives over the last 10 years. It’s such a mix of cultures, their band, and what their music is like. We tried to do something that resembled different parts of the world rather than a specific place.”

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Extreme weather caused by global warming

Global warming is the major cause of the recent extreme weather in the Northern Hemisphere, according to Sun Chenghu, a researcher with the National Climate Center (NCC).
Extreme weather has plagued America and European countries during late June and early July. In the US, a rare persistent heat wave has killed at least 30 people with temperature hitting 40 C in some places. Since July, the UK, Russia, and Germany have been struggling against severe flooding which has claimed at least 140 lives.
The NCC found temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere have been generally higher than normal since July, especially in North America. There has been a 2 degree higher-than-normal temperature observed on America's Eastern Seaboard. And in parts of the south, temperatures 6 degrees above normal temperature have been witnessed.
Rainfall has also been unevenly distributed. North America saw less than normal rain while it increased by 30 percent in Europe. The rainfall in Russia has doubled normal levels since July 7, according to the NCC.
Sun said the hot weather and rainstorms, a reflection of abnormally atmospheric circulation, should be understood against the backdrop of global warming.
Global warming rates differ in high and mid-and-low latitudes, leading to different depths of atmosphere. This slows the west wind and weather system in North America and mid-and-low latitudes, providing conditions for extreme weather.
For the case in America, when a high pressure ridge dominates weather system, it will be hot and this will usually last one week. However, this time, it is rare to see the high pressure ridge controlling the weather system for such a long time and across large regions, said Sun.
At the same time, the low pressure system has controlled the weather system over Europe, leading to severe rainstorms. This comes as a result of abnormal distribution of surface temperatures in the North Atlantic Ocean.

 Source: By Zhang Yong and Sun Nan of China Meteorological News

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Monday, July 9, 2012

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Sunday, July 1, 2012

Chinese tech giant calls for cyber cooperation

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — The founder of Chinese telecom equipment giant Huawei, which has faced security concerns in the U.S. and Australia, is calling for global cooperation to improve data protection.

Ren Zhengfei, in a rare public appearance at an economic forum on Friday, did not mention the controversy surrounding Huawei. But he warned data would be "vulnerable to attack again and again" because technology will develop faster than security. He gave no details of possible joint measures.

"Cyber security is a common issue that the whole industry has to face," Ren said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. "We must join hands to proactively address this issue."

Huawei Technologies Ltd., which Ren founded in 1987, has faced suspicions it is controlled by China's ruling Communist Party or is a front for the military. The company has denied it is a security threat and says it is owned by its employees.

Huawei was barred from bidding to work on a planned Australian high-speed Internet network due to concerns about cyber attacks traced to China. The company had to unwind its purchase of a U.S. computer company, 3Leaf Systems, last year after it failed to win approval from a government security panel.

The Australian ban highlighted concern about Beijing's cyber warfare efforts, a spate of hacking attempts aimed at Western companies and the role of Chinese equipment providers, which are expanding abroad. A U.S. congressional panel has said it will investigate whether allowing Huawei and other Chinese makers of telecoms gear to expand in the United States might aid spying by Beijing.

Huawei works with 45 of the 50 biggest global phone companies and says it has won the industry's trust. It publicly invited the U.S. government last year to investigate it in order to allay security concerns.

Ren, a former military engineer, said the industry must rapidly develop reliable cyberspace technology to support development of education and social skills.

"It is unfeasible to establish an absolutely impenetrable security assurance system that can keep data flowing securely within the networks (pipes) at all times," Ren said, comparing the flood of data to the global inundation in the Hollywood disaster movie "2012."

"Data floods will never go away," he said. "No matter how well we design and reinforce security assurance systems, they will be vulnerable to attacks again and again."

Ren is one of China's most enigmatic business figures, rarely appearing in public and never talking to reporters. Forbes magazine has estimated his net worth at more than $1 billion.

Huawei reported profit of 11.6 billion yuan ($1.8 billion) last year on sales of 209.9 billion yuan ($32.4 billion). Profit fell 53 percent from 2010, which Huawei blamed on weak global demand and the strength of China's yuan against foreign currencies.

After building its business on making switching equipment that forms the backbone of phone and computer networks, Huawei is trying to become a business and consumer brand. It launched a campaign this year to sell smartphones under its own brand in the United States.

Ren said Huawei plans to expand investment in Russia to take advantage of the country's background in technology. Huawei already has a development lab in Moscow, one of 23 around the world, including in Silicon Valley.

"Russia has a very solid foundation in the military industry, rich assets of wisdom and plenty of talent," Ren said. "This foundation endows Russia with unique advantages in developing the information industry."


View the original article here

Hands On: Can an Ultrabook Be the Center of Your Digital Life?

In case you haven't heard, laptops are getting thinner. And lighter. And sexier. The shrinking phenomenon is often attributed to the MacBook Air, and Apple deserves a great deal of credit for pushing the industry toward the compact-yet-versatile laptop.

[More from Mashable: Acer Reveals Budget-Minded Ultrabook]

After working with Apple to help craft some of the technology in the initial MacBook Air design, Intel took the ball and ran with it, launching the Ultrabook concept. Ultrabooks are the Air's ethos adapted to Windows PCs -- thin and light laptops that sacrifice a few rarely used features (like optical drives) to create a nimble machine that can actually perform.

The performance aspect is key, since substandard tech was the main criticism of netbooks, which tried to give people the sexy form factor without the guts to back it up. The combo proved initally popular until owners realized they couldn't do much with a netbook. Sure, you could send email -- but speed was lacking, screens were small and you could forget about any "power user" functions like video editing.

[More from Mashable: Retina MacBook Pro: The Laptop From the Future [REVIEW]]

Ultrabooks remedy that by packing better processing power. Instead of using the "just getting by" Atom processors that Intel puts in netbooks, Ultrabooks command their own subcategory among the company's top-tier Core processors. They use the same chip architecture as high-end laptops and desktops, just tailored to lower voltages so they don't suck Ultrabooks' smaller batteries dry.

There are a bunch of specifications that a laptop must meet to qualify as an Ultrabook, but suffice it to say the laptop must be thin and light, it has to both boot up and wake from sleep mode quickly, and it needs to be packing Intel Core chips (the term "Ultrabook" is an Intel trademark, after all). Apple's MacBook Air technically doesn't count, since it doesn't run some of the Intel-based tech involved, even though it has the chips.

I've been using an Ultrabook, the Dell XPS 13, off and on for the past few months, using it for both personal tasks and many demanding work situations, like this week's Apple event liveblog for Mashable. It's also filled in as a substitute laptop for a few colleagues in emergencies.

Now that ultrabooks have recently gotten a boost from the introduction of Intel's latest processing tech, Ivy Bridge, it bears looking at how effective the concept is as a whole. Can you really get lots of work done? What are the downsides? And ultimately: Is the Ultrabook ready to be your primary computer?

The Dell XPS 13 is a gorgeous machine. With its slim silver casing, it's easy to mistake for a MacBook Air. The chiclet-style keyboard feels great to the touch, and it even sports a backlight. The 13.3-inch screen has 1,366 x 768-pixel resolution, which is pretty standard for a machine this size, and it's protected by Corning Gorilla Glass.

Dell launched the XPS 13 in March, so it packs a second-generation Intel Core processor (Sandy Bridge, not the latest Ivy Bridge). But since its launch, Dell has released a couple of updates, the most impactful being the introduction of multi-finger gestures, like using two fingers to scroll through a document. It's a welcome addition, though it's not as smooth out of the gate as on, say, a MacBook.

That might be in part due to the rubbery material Dell uses for the pad itself. I found the texture to be a little too "sticky," making some movements (such as selecting text) a little unwieldy, and it was prone to clumping up dust.

Overall, though, the XPS 13 is physically a dream -- a textbook Ultrabook. I was very comfortable just tossing it in a carry-on or using it in a cramped airplane seat. Short falls (under 3 feet) had no effect on it. The durability is partly due to the XPS 13 packing a solid-state drive (SSD), with fewer moving parts, instead of a hard disk.

However, that SSD is just a mere 128GB for the entry-level version, which starts at $999. That was a decent amount of storage a few years back, but today it's probably not enough for all your needs. That means you'll need to choose between configuring your Ultrabook with more storage or buying external drives, but either way you're spending money.

That's just one example of how one of the promises of Ultrabooks is counterfeit: that it would bestow sleek, well-performing machines at a fair price (i.e. in the $1,000 range). While technically true, accessories almost become a necessity with an Ultrabook.

SEE ALSO: Retina MacBook Pro: The Laptop From the Future [REVIEW]

On more than one occasion, I found the XPS 13's lack of an Ethernet port a serious problem. Ethernet-to-USB adapters are available, of course -- for a small fee. And the one or two times I needed to fire up a CD or DVD would lead me to buying an external optical drive.

That said, it's much more preferable to have the thin-and-light form factor in a machine that satisfies 95% of my laptop needs on its own, than a more expensive, bulkier full-featured laptop. Just know before you click "Complete My Purchase" that buying an Ultrabook is really buying an Ultrabook + friends.

While Ultrabooks pack Intel Core chips, they're actually lower-voltage designs than what you get in bigger laptops. They're also strictly dual-core, whereas the higher-voltage processors can be either dual- or quad-core.

However, if there was any sacrifice in performance, I didn't see it. The XPS 13 is nimble creature -- apps install and launch fast, files copy quickly, and web browsing was only limited by connectivity. And that's on a machine with a Sandy Bridge processor and USB 2.0 -- last year's tech. I can't wait to taste the boost in speed in the new Ivy Bridge Ultrabooks (and MacBook Airs) that feature USB 3.0.

The XPS 13 also boots up fully in just 28 seconds -- faster than even the Samsung Galaxy S III, and that's a phone! It wakes up from sleep in far less time (a few seconds), ready to resume all your apps right where you left off. That's the power of solid-state drives combined with proprietary Intel Rapid Start tech.

Battery life was outstanding. After a five-hour flight of near-continuous use (with wireless turned off and brightness turned down), the XPS 13 still had more than 50% of a charge left.

Coming back to the key question: Can an Ultrabook now serve as the center of your digital life -- the gateway through which all your "serious" computing flows? The answer is yes ... as long as you're willing to pay. Putting that kind of weight on an ultra-thin design guarantees the need for accessories to fill in those gaps (like burning a DVD), unless you really are just using your PC for web browsing and email.

But in today's world -- where even "average" users are being pulled toward former power-user-only fare like cloud services, external backups and even secondary displays -- that's not asking too much. The XPS 13 convinced me that Ultrabooks aren't some fad or special-case computer. They're ready for duty as a go-to machine for the majority of users.

Maybe if enough of those users actually get one, we can just start calling them what they should be called: laptops.

The Dell XPS 13 is your typical Ultrabook -- light and thin, with the power of full-size laptop.

Click here to view this gallery.

This story originally published on Mashable here.


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Sony and Panasonic to announce an OLED partnership next week

In a solar system 1,200 light-years away from ours, there's a couple of planets that come so close to each other every 97 days they can see each other rise in the night sky. This odd duo, found thanks to data … Continue …


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