Category: News

If you smoke, you might have noticed how hard it is to stop, or how much of your cash goes into it, and so this app can help. The app created by an XDA member c0rnholio, who thought of a new way to help you stop smoking, and show you the cost of your addiction.

The app is a freeware, and as you can see on the image to the left, it is not the most prettiest app out there, but you can see that it could be very useful. With the simple design, easy to read wording, and time to next smoke countdown, you can easily try to hold back and stay on track.

I made a small program that helps me to keep an eye on how much cigarettes I smoke. It is made for people (like me) who want’s to reduce their tabaco consumption or stop smoking by reducing consumption over a period of time.
It’s simple to use, so you wont be bugged by heavy usability. Just run it and click "Got one…" whenever you smoke a cigarette. The overall daily rate is stored in a xml file for each day. By using the calendar navigator you can track how much you smoked on which day.
By setting up thresholds you can define audible alerts (2 .wav are included) and the colour of the counter gets red when the threshold exceeds.
Threshold 1 plays "cough.wav", and Threshold 2 plays "smoke-that.wav".
To Enable the "Smoke Advisor" (available since version 0.3) got to the settings page and enable it and set the average hours you smoke per day, so for example if you stand up at 08:00 in the morning and go to bed at 22:00 in the evening set the SA-Hours to 14. The "Smoke Advisor" works by calculating the time between each cigarette in corosponding to your daily target setting and the smoking hours. Now, if the timespan between you smoked the last cig and the moment you press "got one" is shorter than the calculated value you will get a warning which you can follow or ignore.
To get the monay tracker to work, just go to menu->settings and write down the price per cig. If the .(dot) does not work when you try to enter a price, try a , (comma) instead and does so vice versa.
Planned features for future version:

– Add option to give reason why you smoked per cig (example: Bored, Angry, Stress, Daily routine, party, etc…)
– Add option to support you smoking less by defining a timeframe for reduction
If you have any comments or suggestions for more features, feel free to post here.
If this program helps you reducing your cigarette consumption, feel free to donate some of the money you saved that way
Enjoy it, as usual, it’s freeware!

Download it

La venta de datos personales de usuarios por parte de Facebook a anunciantes destapada por el WSJ viene a sumarse al lamentable historial del servicio de redes sociales. Ya han hecho todo lo que se podia hacer para desmerecer cualquier tipo de confianza que pudiese haber en ellos: empujar a menor privacidad porque les convenía como producto, errores técnicos que dejaron a la vista datos personales y ahora esto, pura venta de información de sus usuarios al mejor postor.

¿Será correcta la visión de los dirigentes de Facebook de los fin de la privacidad o veremos como toma cuerpo la corriente crítica y las alternativas menos centralizadas? No soy demasiado optimista, pero tomaría en cuenta lecturas como las Iván, Cosmonauta y El Blog Salmón.

By now you’ve read a million stories on China’s aggressive acquisition of natural resources all over the world, but here’s a story with a little bit of a twist.

In Australia and New Zealand, Beijing is spending millions to fund upstart miners in the hopes of undermining the world’s big two: Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.

The New Zealand Herald reports that Chinese state-owned enterprises have funded at least 20 firms, in order to bust the big duopoly.

Whereas in the past, only the big ones could compete for large-scale resource deals, Chinese money is changing the playing field:

In Fortescue’s 2009 annual report to shareholders, [CEO Andrew] Forrest wrote that his company was battling against BHP and Rio Tinto on their home mining turf of the Pilbara, a northern region possessing the nation’s richest iron ore deposits.

“Your company has shattered the iron ore duopoly which existed in the Pilbara for many decades and firmly established itself as a vital alternative supplier of iron ore,” wrote Forrest.

Not only is China trying to bust the duopoly through cash, some suspect it’s using non-market means, like its pursuit of Rio Tinto execs on spying charges (a charge that originally came after Rio Tinto and BHP tried to merge, a scuttled deal that originally prompted howls of outrage in Beijing).

Bottom line, there’s probably tons of money to be made selling commodities to China over the coming years. Who actually wins big, however, remains an interesting question.

For more on Chinese commodity demand, see this presentation from the miner Vale >

Join the conversation about this story »

Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption came in the mail on Tuesday, and my first course of action was to call the Ron and Fez Show on Sirius XM. “Hey, guys, I see your names in the credits. You rock!” Calling the show and talking to East Side Dave (by the way, SAVE DAVE) and Ron was the highlight of my week. Well, it was the highlight of my week until I was able to pop the disc into my 360 (it’s also available for the PS3). As I told Ron on the air, Rockstar knows how to make a good video game. A really good video game, in fact.

What’s pretty funny about Red Dead Redemption is that I’ve seen it derisively referred to as nothing more than Grand Theft Auto IV in the Wild West. You know, as if GTA IV is a bad game! Was the hype surrounding that game warranted? I don’t know. What I do know is that it was a fine, fine game in a world filled with (polluted with?) generic modern warfare shooter after generic space marine shooter. There’s more to GTA than running over pedestrians and robbing hot dog vendors. Play the missions, let the story develop, and you’ll say to yourself, “There’s actually a pretty great script and some solid voice acting here.” Rockstar (along with BioWare) is the best in the business in that regard.

It’s 1911, and the old ways of the West are dying; its days of being “wild” are drawing to a close. That’s not good news for the game’s main character, a well-dressed ex-crook named John Marston who’s forced to track down one of his old running buddies for the increasingly powerful federal government. (I feel like I’m channeling Rush Limbaugh or that other bozo with “increasingly powerful federal government.”) You approach your destination, from parts unknown, on a train straight out of “There Will Be Blood,” eavesdropping on the conversations of an old woman who speaks of bringing “civilization” to the area and a young woman who asks her father to reconcile Christianity’s many contradictions.

This will not be a light day at the office.

Your train pulls up to a small town in the middle of nowhere, and off you go.

This sandbox-style game takes place in a literal sandbox: dirt and broken down rocks comprise the majority of the scenery, and cacti and other rubbish-looking plant life remind you that you’re not “back east” anymore. It’s a big sandbox, too, and as believable as Liberty City, with cross-map trips taking upwards of 10 minutes on horseback. Small towns—nothing more than a couple of shacks and a saloon—rise out of the nothingness and offer you a place to have a drink, buy guns and ammunition from a vendor voiced by noted gun nut Anthony of Sirius XM’s Opie and Anthony, gamble with local miscreants, and rest/save your game. Nowhere near a town? With a few button presses you’ve made a campfire, where you can save your game and fast-travel to a waypoint. Don’t fast-travel too often lest you diminish the game’s sense of scope. Exploration is vital, as it’s the only way to find and kill local fauna, whose hides you can collect and later sell.

You already know how to use the map; it’s identical to GTA IV’s. Letters hover over it, located on the lower left-hand side of the screen, and point to mission-giving characters. You visit these characters, obtain a mission, complete the mission, then go on another mission until you move onto the next mission-giving character. This moves the story along, in short, well-acted cinematics—again, like in GTA. You’ll have noticed a pattern by now.

Mid-mission checkpoints are more frequent, thank heavens.

When I played the game at PAX East a few weeks (months? I’ve lost all track of time) back, one of the things the friendly Rockstar rep highlighted was the horse mechanics. I’m almost certain that’s the first time I’ve written the phrase “horse mechanics.” There’s nothing to it: you tap A to get the horse going, then hold A to keep steady the pace, steering all the while with the Left Stick. When in town you hitch your horse to a handy hitching pole—the horse will wait for you. Or, if out in the middle of nowhere, hitting Up on the D-Pad causes you to whistle out for the horse, which shows up a few moments later. It’s all very Zelda-like, an observation that rather pleased the Rockstar rep. There’s no harm in being compared to Zelda.

Aiming is less frustrating than it’s been in past Rockstar games. You whip out your gun with the Left Trigger. The default mode lets you free-aim with the Right Stick, but if you pull the Left Trigger while near, say, a bad guy’s head, the aiming reticule automatically locks on. Then you pull the Right Trigger. Then the bad guy dies. It’s all very poetic. In my view this is Rockstar saying, “Look, there’s no way in hell you’re going to have any sort of precision while aiming with the 360 controller, so let’s just automate the process for you as much as possible.” (There is, of course, a fully manual mode if you’re a crazy person.) Rockstar should be given credit for trying (and trying… since the days of GTA III for the PS2) to figure out how to make aiming with a controller as painless as possible, but let’s face facts: no control scheme will ever better a mouse and keyboard. This is not up for debate. Perhaps a PC version is warranted? The game looks good on the aging 360 hardware, but I wouldn’t mind seeing the visual bump with a modern day video card and processor.

The multi-player? I know that it exists, but I haven’t put in the time to write about it. My guess is that if you got a kick out of GTA IV’s multi-player mode then you’ll probably feel right at home here.

A few more things come to mind. One is that Rockstar seems to have perfected this particular type of gameplay experience. That is, going from person to person, doing mission after mission, developing a story along the way that’s better than much of what’s coming out of Hollywood these days—Rockstar has that on lockdown. For how much longer will that appeal, I wonder? The second is that Rockstar’s virtual worlds are the most convincing in gaming today. Red Dead Redemption’s lands aren’t as densely populated as Liberty City, but every single inhabitant has something on his or her mind, and will, if given the opportunity, talk your ear off. Voice actors not currently affiliated with BioWare (because they already know this) take note: this is how lines are supposed to be delivered. I’ve recently been playing through Halo 3 and I can, at times, feel my kidneys cringe in embarrassment at some of the dialogue. So bad.

How do I end this? I guess by saying the game could be Rockstar’s best effort yet. So if that appeals to you…

The heart that beats inside Charles Okeke’s chest is completely artificial. It keeps him alive, but at a price: he’s tethered to a 400-lb. machine in a hospital. Thanks to a revolutionary backpack-sized breakthrough, he can finally go home again. More »

So you like gaming classic Karate Champ, just like we do? Have an iPhone? Great, because we have a little giveaway for you this afternoon, and the rules couldn’t be simpler: More »

The continued rise of downloadable content is there for a reason it potentially prolongs game lifespan, it adds more flavor to the retail copy, and in many ways, encourages gamers to hold on to their copies

Filed under: Coupe, Auctions, Nissan

There are many, many words you could use to describe this car, but the one we’ll use comes straight from the seller: “unreal.” Indeed. This 1979 Datsun is also called “The wildest Z on the planet period,” which we would never contest based on looks alone. When you add the custom headers into side pipes, four-barrel Holley carbs, full roll cage and the Subaru rear end we might even throw “embarrassment of riches” into the mix. And we thought we knew what a rear wing was, but oh, we had so much to learn.

It’s in Nevada if you’re interested, and the sound is said to be so glorious that the seller will play it over the phone for you if you wish. At the time of writing, the bids were up to $13,105, but you don’t have long on this one, so check it out in the gallery below before heading over to eBay to make your move. And please keep it above the belt when commenting on the photographic embellishment…

[Source: eBay via Hooniverse]

eBay Find of the Day: World’s most absurd custom Datsun Z originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 23 May 2010 14:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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by Lisa Hymas

Photo: streunna4 via FlickrI’ve been happy to see my recent posts on childfree living and population
growth spark discussion on topics too often avoided.  We’ve had spirited conversations in the
comment threads on Grist and Grist’s Facebook
page, and that’s percolated out to Andrew Sullivan’s blog and the Guardian website,
among other spots.  The latest
outlet to join the conversation is AOL
News, where reporter Dave Thier does a better job than most of putting the
issues into context.  (Compare to MSNBC’s
Dylan Ratigan Show, which erroneously boiled down my message to
“Kids are killing the planet.” Never look to cable TV for
nuance.) 

And the conversation has spread beyond the English-speaking
world via articles published in Italy and Brazil.  My Italian and Portuguese language
skills are rusty, but from what Google
Translate tells me, these authors seem to understand “the advantages of a life led
without putting the light of little children.” (Or something like that. I welcome
further insight from our cosmopolitan readership.)

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Italians are receptive
to the GINK
message.  Italy has one of the
lowest fertility rates in the world—1.32
births per woman.  There’s lots
of hand-wringing over the graying populace in Italy and some other European
countries (see, for example, this article in today’s New York Times), and that’s an issue I’ll delve into in a later post. 

For now, I want to point out one interesting factor that
contributes to low Italian birthrates, as described by Fred Pearce in his new
book The
Coming Population Crash—And Our Planet’s Surprising Future; Italy’s baby bust can be blamed in part on “the dysfunctional roles of the
state and church,” he writes.  The
Vatican has tried hard to keep birth control out of women’s hands (Frances
Kissling reports on its efforts in a recent Mother
Jones article)—but even in Italy, the cradle of Catholicism,
that campaign is backfiring. 
Pearce explains:

[The Catholic church and the
Italian government] both promote an old patriarchal ideal of large families in
which the wife stays at home.  The
state denies any responsibility for child care or helping mothers into
work.  The church, despite losing
its influence in the bedroom, retains power over the political climate and
public services.  This, the demographers said, turns out to be a lethal
combination for baby making.  Where
women are grabbing their new rights but men are not taking their new
responsibilities, the result is ultralow fertility.  [Emphasis mine.]

Pearce compares this to the situation in more egalitarian Sweden, where the
fertility rate is 1.67
children per woman—“not at replacement levels, but not set to
demographic meltdown either.” He describes the situation of a woman named
Astrid who lives in Stockholm:

She got a year’s maternity leave
when each of her [two] children was born. She works a flexible thirty-hour week
and can put her children in a nursery at the office when she needs to. Her
partner, Sven, is adept at changing diapers and takes turns with the four a.m.
feeding.  …

The Swedish lesson is that [in
European countries] where employers, the state, and men are more flexible,
national fertility rates are higher. …

A lot of this comes down to power,
says Scandinavia’s top demographer, Gosta Epsing-Andersen. These days, most
couples have a “bargaining process in order to reconcile employment and
child care.” Women who work, especially those with good jobs, can drive a
better bargain. They also have the pick of available men—choosing those who
will change a diaper as well as be good in bed. In Scandinavia, 85 percent of
the best-educated women have children, compared with only 60 percent in more
conservative and patriarchal Germany.

In short: You want more kids in your country? End entrenched
chauvinism and start supporting working moms. 

This is, of course, just one piece of a complicated puzzle.  In the developing world, it’s been demonstrated time and again that more rights and opportunities for women lead to lower fertility rates.  More to come in future posts about how all of these pieces fit together.

Related Links:

How green are the ‘childless by choice’?

Birth-control opponents greenwash their message

50 years after the Pill and this is the best we can do?

With Microsoft and Sony both set to reveal Natal and Move software lineups at E3, it’s kind of crazy to think their invested millions may have just been usurped by a pair of $1 Lycra gloves and a webcam. More »










User interface – Gloves – Clothing – Accessories – Microsoft

Once the leaks start, they just don’t stop. After the first (and massive) leaks regarding the fouth-gen iPhone made their way out, more and more shots have been unearthed. As of late, however, a new variation has been poking its head up: a white-faced model.

While a few different shots have made their way out over the past few days, these ones are easily the clearest and most complete we’ve seen so far. Note that the face on the white model doesn’t seem to be pushed on completely. Apple’s been offering black/white options since the iPhone 3G, though the face is black in both models.

What do you think? Real? Not real? All I know: if this is real, I’m going to carry the white model. I’ll carry it hard. (Though I’m not even sure what that would entail.)

[Source: Apple.pro]

OK, it’s possible that the line in the Brewers’ bullpen still forms behind Trevor Hoffman(notes), not Carlos Villanueva(notes). But the all-time saves leader currently has an ERA of 13.15, and he’s been temporarily banned from pitching until he corrects mechanical flaws that he won’t acknowledge.

With Hoffman exiled, Villanueva has served as the interim closer. He converted a save on Thursday, though he went 3-0 to the first batter he faced, then drilled the second. On Saturday, Villanueva blew a save chance against the Twins after his team had rallied for five runs in the ninth. His final stat wasn’t as messy as it could have been — 2.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K — but he certainly hasn’t put a stranglehold on the Milwaukee closing gig.

If Hoffman can’t correct whatever it is that’s wrong, the door could be open for John Axford(notes), a hard-throwing right-hander who’s handled the eighth inning in recent days. Axford has allowed just one hit in five innings so far for the Brewers, and he’s struck out seven.

Here’s some recent propaganda via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

After watching too many games get away in the late going, the Brewers called up Axford from Class AAA Nashville last weekend. Unlike most of Milwaukee’s pitchers, the lanky right-hander can throw hard, getting his fastball into the mid-90s with regularity.

[…]

"I was driving home last night and I said, ‘We’ve got to get Axford in a game,’" said [Ken] Macha, who lives in the area. "He’s got a little reputation for not throwing a whole lot of strikes, but with the few innings he’s had here, it was time to get him in there.

"He pitched two great innings for us. He had an overpowering fastball and pretty good command of his breaking stuff."

The 27-year-old Axford had a 2.02 ERA and 19 Ks in 13.0 innings at Triple-A before the call-up. He’s less than one percent-owned in Yahoo! leagues at the moment, but he should clearly be on the radar for those chasing saves.

Lefty Zach Braddock(notes) was also promoted from Nashville prior to Sunday’s game at Minnesota. He has 28 Ks and a 1.19 WHIP in 16.0 innings at Triple-A this year. In 40.1 innings across two levels in 2009, Braddock delivered 62 strikeouts and only seven walks while posting remarkable ratios (1.79 ERA, 0.87 WHIP). Keep an eye on his debut, too. 

—

Photo via AP Images

Jose Lima, former major league pitcher, died at the age of 37 in his home at Los Angeles. Dorca Astacio, wife of Jose Lima, said that Jose died of heart attack. She stated, “Jose was complaining while sleeping and I just thought he was having a nightmare. I called the paramedics, but they couldn’t help him.” He played for the Tigers, Royals, Mets and Dodgers.

Frank McCourt, owner of Dodgers, issued the following statement after Lima’s death, “We are shocked and saddened to learn of the tragic loss of Jose Lima. Though he was taken from us way too soon, he truly lived his life to the fullest and his personality was simply unforgettable. He had the ability to light up a room and that’s exactly what he did every time I saw him. His memorable contributions to the Dodgers in 2004 and throughout baseball will always be remembered. Our deepest condolences and prayers go out to his family during this extremely difficult time.”

Lima played for the Dodgers for one season. However, he made the club as a non-roster invitee following Spring Training of 2004 and then went 13-5 during the regular season that lead the Dodgers to their first National League West Division Championship since 1995.

Related posts:

1. Jose Lima: former MLB All-Star died at 37
2. Major League Baseball: Red Sox Opening Day 2010
3. Broadcaster Ernie Harwell Dies at 92

When Jan Perry is good, she is very, very good like when she took on the corruption and incompetence at the DWP and stood up for transparency and the public interest.

But when she is bad, she is very, very bad like when she proposed last week that the City Council officially oppose a bill by Sen. Gil Cedillo that could lead to exposing and prosecuting the crooked back room deals that have become so commonplace at City Hall.

The measure is SB 1168 would give the City Attorney’s office the power to subpoena witnesses and documents as part of its investigations “into misdemeanor offenses involving environmental, consumer protection, workplace safety, labor, fraud, or corruption violations and unfair business practices.”

Strangely, the City Charter gives subpoena power effectively to just about everyone in City Hall except the chief law enforcement officer, the City Attorney.

“Upon the request of the Mayor,  Controller, Treasurer, President of the Council, or the presiding officer of any board, the City Clerk shall issue subpoenas  in the name of the City, attested with the corporate seal, requiring the attendance and testimony of the witness or production of documents at a specified time and place before the Mayor, Controller, Treasurer, Council, or board requesting the  subpoena,” according to Aritcle II, Section 217 of the Charter.

SB 1168 would go even further and give the City Attorney the authority until Jan. 1, 2014 to ask the presiding judge of the Superior Court to impanel a grand jury to aid in the investigation of possible crimes involving “environmental, consumer protection, workplace safety, labor, fraud, or
corruption violations and unfair business practices.”

Given the aggressiveness and independence of City Attorney Carmen “Nuch” Trutanich you can see how this kind of authority could lead to revelations of some pretty interesting things and even begin to unravel the system of political corruption.

Without the power to subpoena documents and call witnesses to testify under oath before a grand jury, it’s almost impossible to unravel all the dirty deals that have cost taxpayers so dearly for so long.

So you can understand why the mayor and City Council members would be uneasy if Trutanich were to have the power and to conduct thorough investigations. Some of them might turn up incriminating evidence of their various nefarious activities that have benefited them and their “friends” at the expense of the public interest and the health of the city’s neighborhoods and the business community.

That’s where Jan Perry enters to protect the political games at City Hall.

Last Tuesday, she introduced a resolution backed by Bernard Parks and Greig Smith, the self-styled fiscal conservatives” to include in the city’s 2009-2010 State Legislative Program OPPOSITION to SB 1168 which would allow the Los Angeles County Superior Court to impanel an additional grand jury, managed by the City Attorney, to investigate misdemeanors.”

The reason is the city’s terrible financial shape thanks to the mismanagement and corruption of the mayor and Council so Perry is terribly concerned that impaneling a grand jury might have some costs associated with it. .

“There has been no fiscal analysis of this proposal, no determination of the potential costs to manage a Grand Jury, and no evaluation of the benefits associated with this program…in these difficult fiscal times when the City of Los Angeles is making severe cuts in all areas of our services, has eliminated entire City departments, and has laid off employees, it is unwise to take on additional services without a full fiscal analysis,” Perry’s resolution states.

What a lot of b.s. that is.

Cedillo’s bill specifically states that the bills for the grand jury “shall be submitted to the
prosecuting city attorney for reimbursement of the costs to the county out of the prosecuting city attorney’s own budget.”

Get it? Trutanich has to find the money in his own budget which it should be noted has been savagely cut by the mayor and Council because they fear him as the lone outsider in a corrupt political machine, the only figure in the city who could potentially harm them.

Then there are the “no fiscal analysis, ” “no determination of potential costs” and “no evaluation of the benefits” arguments — issues the council never worries about when it’s giving away millions to unions, contractors, developers and consultants who contribute to their campaigns or treat them to expensive dinners.

The benefits of giving the power to take certain suspected crimes to a grand jury should be as clear to ordinary citizens as it is to Perry and her pals: An end to the worst corruption at City Hall that LA has seen since the Great Depression.

This is as clear-cut as any issue could be. The Council should vote to support the Cedillo bill and anyone who is on the other side is as good as admitting they are nothing but crooks.

Jose Lima, a former MLB All-Star who have won 21 games in a season, is now gone. No more Jose Lima; ESPN has relayed this sad news. The web site reports that Jose Lima has a heart attack, an illness that ended his life. Jose Lima died at 37.

Jose Lima spent 13 seasons in the big leagues for five different teams, counting multiple stints with the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals. After winning 21 games with the Houston Astros in 1999, Jose Lima nearly set a Major League record by allowing 48 home runs the following season. In 2005, he have marked the history for the worst ERA of all time for a pitcher with at least 30 starts.

Since 2008, Jose Lima has pitched for professional baseball teams in South Korea, California and Canada.

Related posts:

1. Jose Lima – Died of Heart Attack at 37
2. Major League Baseball: Red Sox Opening Day 2010
3. Jimmy Rollins Has A Strained Right Calf