Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/JFWtIexGgvA/
Friday, September 30, 2011
2012 Boss 302 Laguna Seca: the best Mustang ever produced [video]
While we were at the Ford booth waiting for the unveiling of the 2012 SVT Raptor truck, I spied a 2012 Boss 302 Laguna Seca sitting in the back of the display. These cars have been around for a while but there are still so few of them on the street that most of us [...]
IBM, Intel, Samsung Invest $4.4 Billion on Chip Development in N.Y.
Five companies, including Intel, IBM and three others, will invest $4.4 billion over five years in New York state. - Some of the worlds largest semiconductor manufacturing companies,
including IBM, Intel, Samsung, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.
(TSMC) and Globalfoundries are set to invest $4.4 billion over the next
five years to create the next generation of computer chip technology in
New York. The ...
including IBM, Intel, Samsung, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.
(TSMC) and Globalfoundries are set to invest $4.4 billion over the next
five years to create the next generation of computer chip technology in
New York. The ...
Source: http://feeds.ziffdavisenterprise.com/~r/RSS/tech/~3/3hQRLTmSpmU/
Want to Start a Business? Get NASE?s Startup Kit
Any business owner knows there’s a lot involved in starting a business. There’s choosing what kind of business entity you should be; renting commercial property; paying payroll taxes; setting up a business bank account; marketing…The list goes on, and it seems like every time you master one thing, something else pops up. And while you certainly could spend years online researching everything a small business owner needs to know, you want the information now.
The�National Association forRead More
From Small Business Trends
Want to Start a Business? Get NASE’s Startup Kit
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SmallBusinessTrends/~3/nVPFHKtAFcg/nase-startup-kit.html
Samsung unveils dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 Exynos processor
Samsung announced is Exynos 4212 processor on Thursday, a new dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 chip. Samsung said the 4212 offers a 25% increase in processing power, 50% higher 3D performance and “double the logic density and a 30% lower power-level over the previous process generation” chip, which currently powers most of its Galaxy S II smartphones. The Eynos 4212 will be used in both tablets and smartphones; currently, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Tab 8.9 run dual-core Tegra 2 chips from NVIDIA. The Exynos 4212 processor also supports 1080p HD video recording and playback. Samsung expects to begin sampling the Exynos 4212 during the fourth quarter of this year. The company also announced a new 16-megapixel CMOS image sensor for
Source: http://www.bgr.com/2011/09/30/samsung-unveils-dual-core-arm-cortex-a9-exynos-processor/
Swatch Touch watch reacts to your, well, you know
Admit it, you've either owned or lusted after some sort of quirky Swatch in your lifetime. If not, its new Touch watch may be the one to finally give you a case of GAS. According to T3, the timepiece sports a convex LCD touchscreen, used for swiping or tapping through settings. Aside from displaying the time and date in an eye-caching (nearly unreadable) manner, it features an alarm, a timer, chronograph functionality and keeps track of two timezones. The Swatch Touch is said to hit the UK scene on October 1st, in a choice of six colors for £100 (roughly $157). Looks like Tokyoflash just got itself a worthy foe.
Swatch Touch watch reacts to your, well, you know originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink
Oh Gizmo!, Ubergizmo | 
T3 | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/30/swatch-touch-watch-reacts-to-your-well-you-know/
Nice Work If You Can Get It: Apotheker Leaves HP With $10 Million Severance
Massive severance packages are nothing new, but sometimes you just feel the need to call attention to them. Ousted HP CEO Leo Apotheker is leaving the company with a $7.2 million severance payment, plus a $2.4 million bonus and $3.7m in stock (more if you count the other 440,000 vested shares). I understand that this high pay is part of our business culture, but really, now. Is it possible that HP was in a death spiral and only Apotheker's sound judgment caused them to get away with a mere 45% drop in value? It seems unlikely that they'd kick him to the curb after less than a year if that were the case.Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/29/nice-work-if-you-can-get-it-apotheker-leaves-hp-with-10m-severance/
The Engadget Podcast, live at 5:00PM ET!
Continue reading The Engadget Podcast, live at 5:00PM ET!
The Engadget Podcast, live at 5:00PM ET! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/29/the-engadget-podcast-live-at-5-00pm-et/
About.com Identifies the Three Mindsets of Search
Why do people search online? According to a survey commissioned by About.com, they do it for one of three reasons. They want answers, they want to be educated or they want to be inspired. Answer Me, is all about finding a quick solution to a problem or that little detail that’s niggling at your brain. [...]
Source: http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2011/09/about-com-identifies-the-three-mindsets-of-search.html
Xbox 360 won't Auto Login to Live - Fixed due to RSTP and Spanning Tree setting in a NetGear Managed GS724TP Switch
You change something months ago, then noticed an unrelated problem weeks later, then it takes a year to figure out that they were related.
"A butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil and my Xbox stops getting a DHCP lease reliably."
A few months back, as my wife recalls, the Xbox in the living room stopped automatically logging into Xbox live. It was irritating in that "First World Problem" kind of way. We use the Xbox for Netflix and Hulu and she uses Zumba and some other Kinect Fitness stuff so it was a daily reminder to me that "Daddy is a lousy IT guy."
I don't remember when it stopped working other than it did. I set static leases in the main router. Then I set static IP addresses in the router. The ONLY thing that would fix it was to get the Xbox to Refresh/Renew the IP Address (even when it was static!) by going into the System menu of My Xbox, then Network Settings, Configure Network, then Additional Settings, then Restore to Factory Defaults. <sarcasm>Let me say that the wife LOVED this.</sarcasm>
Unrelated to this issue, a few weeks back I lost some save games on my now dead PS3 so tonight I decided to go and backup all my Xbox save games onto a new USB stick. I started with the Xbox in my office, but it wouldn't log in. This set off a spark in my head. I've got literally 34 happy devices with IP Addresses in my house (don't ask) from various vendors but the two Xboxen won't login? OK, that can't be me.
At this point, of course, I'm unable to login to Xbox live easily so I get irritated and decide that I will shift gears and finally get this thing fixed.
Even though there's no realistic way that I will bust out the IP Networking textbook from college, hook up WireShark and start sniffing traffic, I like to fool myself into believing that I am that good of a technologist (or that I care THAT much) but the thought brings me comfort.
I start following the wires around from the Xbox to the router, as they are all numbered and labeled in the wiring closet.
Aside: Here's a Bit.ly Bundled Link of the complete "Wiring your house for Gigabit Ethernet 5 PART SERIES" when I wired my house a few years back.
However, I get lost as there's just so darn many wires in the wiring closet. It's getting crowded.
I realize, however, that the wires aren't going directly into main Router that gives out IP addresses. They are actually plugged into a lovely Netgear 24-port Gigabit GS724TP Managed Switch. Because I wired the whole house for Gigabit and wanted basically hard drive speeds on the wire, I needed a switch with the chutzpah to push a lot of bandwidth, and this switch was the one. All the wires in the house go into it - including the Xboxen. But which ones?
I needed to figure out which cables were the two Xbox cables and plug them directly into the router. I know the MAC addresses of both Xboxes so I logged into the switch's admin console. After failing to remember the password (I set this up 4 years ago, you know) and starting to panic, I tried "password" out of frustration. It worked.
It shouldn't have.
Why was my password a default password?
Something had changed. Oh! I flashed the firmware on this GS724TP switch last year with version 5.0.0.15. It must have reset everything to the defaults.
Now that I was logged in, I checked out the list of all the MAC Addresses and their associated ports.
OK, so the two consoles are plugged into Ports 14 and 22, so I found them and moved the cables to plug directly into my router, rather than the managed switch.
They worked. Suddenly a year of obnoxious just stopped. Why?
What would cause one device (or class of device) to not get an IP address consistently via DHCP?
There's an article on Windows 2000 called DHCP Renewal Failures on Switched Networks that sounds familiar.
A client connected to an Ethernet switch may not receive a renewed DHCP IP address during startup. Releasing and renewing the IP address manually works.
There's apparently a magical thing called STP (Spanning Tree Protocol) that is very useful but also totally confusing to me. I have read this Wikipedia twice and I have no idea what it does. I'm sure it's lovely, really.
The Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is a network protocol that ensures a loop-free topology for anybridged Ethernet local area network.
Of COURSE it is.
O_O
That is my blank stare, right there, FYI.
Interestingly, if you Google with Bing or DuckDuckGo for "spanning tree DHCP" you'll get results with words like "failure," "blamed," "fixed, "slowed down," and "acting strange." Ya, spanning tree rocks.
There's also a version of Spanning Tree called RSTP or Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol. All of these protocols are meant to make things work better and recover faster after a network failure and prevent routing loops. However, they appear to cause some trouble in certain clients, like my Xbox and possibly my iPhone and IPad as well.
Here's another explanation:
The problem might be related to what type of network device the DHCP client is connected to. If the client is connected to a switch that performs a spanning tree calculation during port initialization, then the port the client is connected to may not be available for 10-15 seconds. This is long enough to prevent the DHCP client from renewing or obtaining IP addressing information, and thus preventing the TCP/IP stack from initializing.
This is not a problem on all switches that perform spanning tree calculations. Some devices will perform the calculations in the background, and thus the port becomes available immediately. Also, this type of functionality is only required on ports that are connected to other switching devices. Therefore you don't really need it enabled on ports that have clients directly connected to them
A buddy of mine says:
[Spanning Tree is] not bad, but it is there to prevent routing loops. If you are sure you won't ever connect that port to another switch and make a routing loop, an alternative to disabling spanning tree is to enable portfast and I bet that would fix it too. The problem is the normal startup procedure for a port running spanning tree is about 20-25 seconds of watching traffic on the port before enabling. Thus, when you turn your Xbox on, it only waits x seconds for a DHCP reply where x is definitely shorter than the time spanning tree takes to enable the port.
Also, deep in this Australian forum was a comment:
Just to clarify that RSTP has a faster up time than STP. I don't think this is going to directly cause the "limited or no connectivity" issue.
However for some devices you need to have the port active right away. On a cisco switch this is called portfast and it skips the process of checking for loops(RSTP, STP). On some devices (xbox 360) this can cause DHCP issues when they're first turned on.
PCs are generally immune to this as they'll poll for a DHCP service several times while your media device might only try once.
And thus, this is how I fixed the issue with my Xboxes not logging into Live on the first try. I'd flashed a network switch without even thinking and it turned Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol on, which Xboxes (and some other network devices) don't like.
My solution, check the router or switch and turn RSTP or "Spanning Tree" off.
As an aside, it turns out that I could have even turned off RSTP at the port level on this Netgear GS725TP switch. Amazing hardware, this switch. Love it. Except for when it reset settings to defaults and irritated me for a year.
Related Links
- Wiring the new house for a Home Network
- Wiring the new house for a Home Network - Part 2 - Design Q&A
- Wiring the new house for a Home Network - Part 3 - ISP Hookup
- Wiring the house for a Home Network - Part 4 - Thank You Cat 6 Gigabit Ethernet
- Wiring the house for a Home Network - Part 5 - Gigabit Throughput and Vista
� 2011 Scott Hanselman. All rights reserved.
Microsoft to drop Zune Music Pass to $10 per month on October 3rd
Microsoft will lower its Zune Music Pass from $14.99 per month to $9.99 per month beginning on October 3rd alongside the service’s launch in Canada. The service will now be priced in line with Spotify and similar services. Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace is home to 14 million songs and a Zune Music Pass subscription provides unlimited streaming access to the music. Unlike other services, Zune Music Pass allows subscribers to keep 10 songs per month. Microsoft’s move is no doubt an effort to attract customers who might otherwise but attempted to join a number of competing music subscription options including Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody and even Apple’s upcoming iCloud service. Zune Music Pass subscribers can access their playlists and library from any
Source: http://www.bgr.com/2011/09/30/microsoft-to-drop-zune-music-pass-to-10-per-month-on-october-3rd/
DELL STREAK PRO 101DL (An Android PHONE) With Super AMOLED Display To Hit Japan 2012
And here's the third phone from Japanese carrier SoftBank's fall/winter line-up that deserves a dedicated article: it's the so-called DELL STREAK PRO 101DL [JP], which the company will start offering to its subscribers in January 2012 (price tbd). And this isn't an Android tablet but a phone. And judging by the specs, it's going to be quite a nice one.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
A basic non-cloud-based personal backup strategy
In 2007 I posted about my Family's Backup Strategy and encouraged you to develop your own, or confirm the one you already have. At the time, my strategy was primary using Mozy.com as an online backup along with a Windows Home Server for local backup. After Windows Home Server recently removed Drive Extender technology (their version of RAID support in case a disk fails) I switched over to a Synology 1511+ and did a podcast on it.
Here's the summary if you feel the rest of this post is TL;DR and a ramble, which is likely because it is.
- Use an imaging tool like Acronis True Image to create images of the machines you REALLY care about.
- You can also use the System Image tool built into Windows, but I prefer the additional options from Acronis.
- Encrypt your external drives.
- Backup files (and disk images) to two external drives
- Keep one external drive off-site
- Test your backups by practicing a restore. The rule of thumb is that backups ALWAYS succeed. It's restores that fail!
I've been experimenting with cloud-based backup trying nearly everything out there from KeepVault to CrashPlan. I'm currently "between online backup strategies" right now, although I'm leaning towards CrashPlan. Most of these online backup companies are pretty confusing when you factor in someone with a server. For example, I have a main computer in my house but I also have a server. I have a KitchenPC and my wife's laptop but both of those don't matter as all the data is on server. However, I really want disk images for my main machine.
I need two things:
- Continuous reliable image backup
- My server's files backed up
The whole point here being if a natural disaster happens no family videos or photos will be lost. For folks that keep all their files on their local PCs and not a server, any of these online services is great. However, as soon as I centralized my files, things got more complex. KeepVault is the best for Windows Home Server users as it has a custom Home Server client that integrates to the WHS control panel directly.
Now that I've moved over to a Linux-solution like Synology, other than using straight rsync or rsync to S3, the best solution appears to be CrashPlan Headless. While it's not directly supported on the Synology, there are LOTS of people who want to make this work so I wouldn't be totally alone, although the instructions are daunting and insane to say the least.
At this point, today, I've got a 4TB SAN with about 1.5TB on it and no cloud storage. And honestly, I wasn't looking forward to waiting two weeks (or longer) to upload 1.5TB to a new service, and I'm not sure what my ISP would say about it. I think that initial seed of large datasets is the Achilles Heel of online backup.
I really don't feel comfortable with my backups unless they are offsite. So I went and bought two Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1 TB USB 3.0 Drives and labeled them Backup A and Backup B.
I recommend that you encrypt the whole disk. The last thing you want when you're copying your entire life onto one drive is to do it in the great wide open. There's two good ways to do it, BitLocker To Go or TrueCrypt.
- BitLocker To Go is in Windows 7 Enterprise or Ultimate. It's trivially easy to use and you CAN read BitLocker To Go'ed disks on any Windows7 Edition, or even on Windows XP or Windows Vista with BitLocker To Go Reader. It supports TPMs if your laptop has that feature and it's super secure.
- TrueCrypt is open source and super hardcore. There's dozens of really amazing options for things like plausible deniability, honey pot secret partitions, and many choices of encryption. It's also crazy secure.
You really can't go wrong with either of these choices. For testing, I'm trying each of them, one on each drive. I like TrueCrypt, though because it's open source, but I like that BitLocker is built-in to Windows. We'll see. Point is, don't put your life on a disk unencrypted.
NOTE: Both of these encryption tools take forever (hours) to encrypt the whole disk. Be patient. It'll be a while.
I'm using Acronis Image Home 2011 PC Backup and Recovery for my imaging solution. There are a lot of negative reviews of the 2011 version on Amazon but I haven't had any issues. Be aware. I'm always open to try new products if you have any recommendations, Dear Reader.
I use SyncBack to copy files on a schedule through my main machine from my server to the external drive. I could connect the drives directly to the Synology but I want to use my Windows machine for encryption.
My wife takes Drive A to the bank's safety deposit box in her monthly visit, then we just swap drives one a month with new backups. I'm not sure if I'll eventually get around to installing CrashPlan on the Synology (I hope it gets easier) but my current offsite "no cloud" backup strategy is working very nicely and it doesn't cost any bandwidth. In fact, I can transfer 1.5TB in just 10 minutes (of driving)!
* Cloud icon from The Noun Project, CC BY 3.0
� 2011 Scott Hanselman. All rights reserved.
Android Phone + Lumix Camera = Panasonic?s LUMIX Phone 101P For Japan
Sharp's AQUOS PHONE 102SH wasn't the only cool Android phone to hit the Japanese market today. Local carrier SoftBank will also start distributing the so-called LUMIX Phone 101P [JP] as part of its fall/winter line-up of new cell phones in November. Made by Panasonic, the Android device is designed to be a mix between a phone and a digital camera (and it sure looks like it).Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/29/android-phone-lumix-camera-panasonics-lumix-phone-101p-for-japan/
Swatch Announces Touchscreen Watches
Ugly though they may be, these Swatch watches have a trick up their sleeves. Using the same technology found in the Tissot T-Touch line, these Swatch Touch watches are touch-sensitive and allow you to swipe through different functions and control most of the watch features with a simple finger tap. The Touch 2011 models support two timezones, a date display, chronograph, alarm, and timer. There are no buttons and it has a curved glass display and weirdly proportioned numerals. It has an integrated strap. Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/5wbRQ473Oaw/
Mastering a Moment of Purposeful Peace
Untitiled by OtherThink on flickr
Our minds are always preoccupied with inconsequential thoughts and pending tasks. We create a facade of constant motion to fool ourselves and others that we have a purpose in life.
Instead, it is actually a purgatory of limitless wanting, made up of over shopping, eating, traveling and working. All of it used to alleviate the guilt of being aimless.
There is no time to think, just forward momentum and a false hope that things will improve on their own. Ultimately, it results in a jarring collision with reality, and questions like, ?Am I happy?? and ?Am I satisfied with my life?? arise in our mind.
We realize that we are living an unfulfilling existence. Forcing us to find meaning, relief from medication, alcohol or from someone who appears to have the answers.
However, there are alternatives that allow you to create your own destiny and answer your own questions. Give yourself a moment of purposeful peace, where you can appraise your life and �true feelings without distraction or outside influences.
Finding satisfaction
Without meaningful goals to focus our attention and define our actions, we only experience small glimpses of happiness and satisfaction.
Actual satisfaction is achieved when we are aligned with our true purpose. It is not a fleeting sense, but something that energizes our motives. It goes beyond the contentment of a full stomach, warm clothes and a comfortable home.
Without self-reflection, we have no way to measure our true needs. Instead, we measure fulfillment through intimacy and the accumulation of material goods. It is a faulty process that leads to dissatisfaction and forces us to replace our current relationships and goods with new people and objects.
Easing into a moment of purposeful peace
You need to walk before you can run.
Remove your expectations and embrace the idea of silence, peace and contemplation.
It is about conditioning your mind to clear out the inefficient thoughts that race through your consciousness. And, over time you will focus on meaningful and useful thoughts.
Allow your mind to wander and your unconscious thoughts to bubble up to the surface. Be aware of your true feelings and take an honest inventory of your life to see what you want to change and how you are going to find meaning in your actions.
Isolation
The key to self reflection, is finding a place and time that is free from distraction. A place of mental and physical isolation, that allows you to think and consider without outside forces influencing or contaminating the process.
The Power of the Pre-dawn Hours
The early hours of the morning (between 2 to 5 a.m.) has a certain power when it comes to contemplation. If we are concerned about something or have a hard time reconciling a situation, we spend a sleepless night thinking about it.
We cannot analyze these problems properly during the day because so many distractions block our ability to think clearly.
Also, the lack of sleep intoxicates the mind, making it more open to exploration.
What is next?
Close your eyes and allow the unconscious mind to express itself, and thoughts will emerge.
Usually, the most confusing and doubt ridden thoughts are the thoughts you will want to embrace and dissect.
Take notes of these thoughts. This is not a journal, so write them down in point form and sum them up into single ideas, items or actions.
Techniques to focus your attention
Write down categories like home, family and work or use goals like renovations and vacations to guide your thought process and focus your attention.
If nothing else, writing down some key goals on paper is a victory. Even simple goals are enough to guide your mind and focus your conscious and unconscious attention during your day and serves as a record of your intentions for subsequent sessions.
Even after just a few sessions you will notice a change in your perception of time and your actions. You will give more consideration how you divide your time and effort throughout the day. Slowly aligning your actions and thoughts towards your goals.
What to do with the information you write down
Depending on your state of mind, and the urgency of the situation, you can do two things. Leave the information and access it at some future time or prime your mind with a few basic questions.
Such as:
? How important is this to me?
? Does it conflict with other goals?
? What resources do I need?
? When does it need to be achieved?
In the future when you return to the list, you will find that you have already taken mental notes on the resources and tactics needed to develop a plan of action.
These sessions and plans you develop should remain private until you are comfortable in sharing them. Otherwise, your commitment to change and motivation can be diminished by other people’s input.
No matter what you do with the information you access, giving yourself the few hours of silence, isolation and contemplation will go a long way towards reducing anxiety and helping you focus on what is important to you.
Philip Viana works as a Financial Adviser for a bank in Canada. He is hard at work developing the formula to a meaningful, mindful and happy life. He writes about productivity, financial advice, technology, and lifestyle at Burnthenegative.com or at his about.me page.
Source: http://feeds.lifehack.org/~r/LifeHack/~3/3BqGkCnvjBc/mastering-a-moment-of-purposeful-peace.html
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