Category: News

Gmail is one of the most popular web mail clients in the world at this point, despite coming relatively late to the game, and for good reason, its developers always stride to make it easier to handle the increasing amount of emails we go through every day. Apart from the sheer volume, managing all the contacts is also becoming a daunting task when the number reaches in the hundreds or even thousands. Luckily, Gmail comes to the rescue again with a tool to merge all of your duplicate contacts with just a few clicks.

“Managing a big address book can be a challenge, so it’s no surprise that the top request for Google contacts is a fast, easy way to merge duplicate contacts. You’ve been able to merge contacts one-by-one for a while, but now we’ve added a single button that merges all your duplicate contacts at once,” Dominik Marcinski, software engineer at Google wrote.

“To clean up your contact list in one fell swoop, just click the “Find duplicates” button in the contact manager, review the merge suggestions (and uncheck any suggestions you don’t want merged), and hit the “Merge” button,” he explained.

If you’ve been planning to spend a few hours cleaning up your contacts, but you just didn’t have the time or the courage to dive in, you’ll be glad you waited. It was poss… (read more)

Ah, salt! This is what perks up our dishes and makes us go back for seconds. But don’t take our word for it – Alton Brown and the makers of Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt have teamed up to give us a fun, interactive tutorial on the wonders of our favorite seasoning. Got five minutes? Give it a peek!

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Social networking may be growing at a huge pace, just look at Facebook’s rise for 2009; yet, incredibly, social gaming is growing even faster. Facebook has 350 million users by now and is on track to make at least $500 million this year in revenue. But it’s been at it for five years now. In the mean time, Zynga, the largest social gaming company around, is just two years old, has well over 100 million users, many on Facebook, and is reported to make $250 million this year.

Perhaps it’s no surprise then that the same investors interested in Facebook are also pouring their coffers into Zynga. What may be a little surprising, though, is the fact that the said investor is Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian investment firm, and that it’s buying a $180 million stake in Zynga at an unknown valuation.

Zynga is now the biggest social gaming company, an industry growing at an incredible pace, and is the rising star of the bunch though, now without its fair share of controversy in the recent “ScamVille” scandal. The company has been acquiring new users at a rapid pace and has been profitable for quite a while now. It hasn’t released any revenue numbers, but it is said to be on track for a hefty turnover this year. Playfish, a smaller competitor, was recently acquired by faming giant EA for $300 mill… (read more)

There’s just something about the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act — the “anti-hacking” law in the US — that seems to leave it open for abuse in lawsuits. This is the law that was used to convict Lori Drew. Even though the judge eventually tossed the ruling, it showed how the broadly-worded law could be applied in dangerous ways. Still, at least some attempts at twisting the law aren’t getting very far. For example, a woman in Minnesota tried to use the law against a company that sent her spam text messages she never requested, and discovered that in order to bring a case under a law, you have to actually show that the law was broken:

Plaintiff brings three possible claims: (1) a claim for obtaining information from her phone; (2) a claim for transmitting information or code through her phone; and (3) a claim for “accessing” her phone.

Information Claim: The court rejects the information-based claim because there’s no information that WSOD allegedly obtained through accessing the plaintiff’s phone. Plaintiff analogizes to websites and argues that any time someone sends a message to a mobile phone, information is “obtained” in the same way that information is obtained any time someone accesses a website. The court rejects this analogy, finding that “there is a fundamental difference between viewing websites and communicating with wireless devices such as cell phones by sending text messages.” Even if the transmission of an unwanted text message somehow resulted in the “obtaining of information,” the court concludes that there’s no loss as a result of defendant having obtained the information.

Transmission Claim: The transmission claim requires plaintiff to allege that WSOD caused the transmission of code or information and as a result “intentionally caused damage without authorization” to plaintiff’s device. The complaint fails on both counts. There wasn’t a credible allegation of damage (there was no allegation of impairment to the machine) or of WSOD’s intent to cause the damage.

Access Claim: The court rejects the access claim since plaintiff does not adequately allege that the unauthorized access was intentional.

So, nice try, but no dice. Someone sending unsolicited text messages to your mobile phone may be annoying (and potentially illegal under other laws), but it’s not hacking under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

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We are considering to start a regular guest post series focused on reviewing information visualization tools and software. After all, there are plenty of reviews available online, from testing software, electronic gadgets and books, to the literal unpacking of newly acquired goods, but almost none that deal with the development of data visualizations.

First of all, we would like to know whether there is interest in such a regular review feature, and whether there are more people around the community that want to help us with this initiative.

Other questions include: Should a popular blog like infosthetics deal with reviewing? What would you like to see reviewed? Are there specific tools or software you are already interested in to be tested? How should a typical data visualization review look like? What are the criteria? How can we compare tools with each other? What should be the benchmarks? What comparable or example datasets should we use?

Please let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment below!

Kim Rees is a partner at Periscopic, an interactive design firm specializing in data visualization and information presentation.

Image courtesy of Many Eyes and Panopticon.

Snoring stresses. It can be the source of your embarrassment while you sleep in somebody else’s house, even if it is your own friend or family. It may both create a disturbance to your companion in sleeping, and it can make you the center of their amusement – too shameful.

Although snoring is not an ailment, it is only a disproportion on the human body system. So, it is not impossible for you to cure snoring. If snoring can be completely eliminated, then societal peace can be achieved, especially inside the bedroom.

Nowadays, there are already medicines and devices available in the market to cure snoring. However, this requires a bit of amount of money, and creating further stress.

Nevertheless, if these kind of cure is not included in your budget, there is still another option that will not be heavy in your purse—home remedies.

First, try to change your position in sleeping. Elevate the head of your bed by a few inches, or try to add some more pillows. This will lessen the jamming of the air passage in your throat muscle. Avoid sleeping on your back too; the tendency if you do this is to give more chances on the occurrence of snoring, the reason for this is the draw back of soft palate and tongue, thus, constricting the air passage.

Next, you can try to modify your lifestyle. Your present lifestyle may contribute in aggravating your snoring, for instance, excessive eating, excessive drinking of alcohol, and too much intake of cigarette.

Modifying lifestyle is what the doctors’ called “conservative therapy.” Truth is the doctors stated that this is the advisable primary step in curing snoring before attempting to use other harsh treatments.

Try to motivate yourself to conduct a regular physical exercise to lessen your weight. Avoid excessive intake of alcohol and cigarettes, the effect of not preventing both of these will add to the obstruction to the airway. Likewise, avoid excessive intake of sleeping pills and tranquilizers, these medicines also worsen snoring.

If you will also notice, some of the medicines that are being offered in the drugstore can be classified as home remedies. Examples of these are the nasal strips, nose sprays, and anti-snoring pills. The ingredients contained by these medicines are basically herbs, and plant enzymes, these can manage the swelling of nose and throat tissues. Additionally, these offset snoring by evening the airflow.

Generally, a home remedy is almost alike to the drug free medication. The procedures of such prescriptions are founded in the inventions’ experience.

There is the drug free snoring “mandibular advancement splint” for instance; the function of this is to maintain your jaw in a pressed onward position. This helps to widen the air passage, and according to the report this helps in more than 80 percent in impeding snoring cases.

If you are really determined and will exert further efforts to the suggested home remedies above, it is not impossible to cure your snoring all by yourself.

The process for these is simple. Distinguish first the problem, ponder. Then, work on it everyday. Following this will award you a good outcome. And the days of disgraceful nights will come to an end. This may possibly happen earlier than you anticipated.

So good luck on your self-medication!

As the year comes to an end, there’s two than more weeks left but who’s really counting, it’s time to sit back and marvel at just how much we achieved in 2009. And if you’re Twitter, you may even have a reason to be proud of yourself, the microblogging service exploded onto the scene and secured its foothold in the mainstream. Over the year, several topics got the most attention from the Twitterati and the site has now released the Top Twitter Trends of 2009 complete with Michael Jackson and #iranelection.

Twitter divided the trending topics into several categories, News Events, People, Hashtags and so on, and came up with a top 10 for each of them. In the News Events category, and likely on Twitter overall, topics about the Iran elections dominated coming in at number one, #iranelection, number four, “Iran” and again at number five with “Tehran.” Swine flu was also a popular topic, if popular is the right word for it, making it to number two and coming in again at number six.

“Among all the keywords, hashtags, and phrases that proliferated throughout the year, one topic surfaced repeatedly. Twitter users found the Iranian elections the most engaging topic of the year. The terms #iranelection, Iran and Tehran were all in the top-21 of Trending Topics, and #iranelection finished in… (read more)

Many people are reluctant to learn or perform CPR because they think it’s too difficult or they are apprehensive about doing mouth-to-mouth. Forty-four percent of adults say they would not perform CPR because they’re not confident in their ability, according to a national American Heart Association survey conducted in 2008.

However, there’s a two-step technique called Hands-Only CPR that we should all learn. The technique involves calling 9-1-1 and pushing hard and fast in the center of the chest until professional help arrives.

Image: Hands-Only CPR

“For years the survival rate from sudden cardiac arrest has been abysmal,” said Clyde Yancy, M.D., American Heart Association president. “Bystanders hold the key to increasing survival. We hope this campaign will break through the barriers people have when they see someone in cardiac arrest – so that anyone who hears this message can help save a life.”

To learn more about the technique, visit handsonlyCPR.org. This site, which was launched by the Ad Council and American Heart Association, offers valuable information and resources on the technique including an instructional video. The website also has a fun online tool called Hands Symphony where users can choose from a host of sounds created by differnt filmed hands to create their own track. You can send your track to friends and encourage them to create their own too.

Today, we are giving you an opportunity to win a prize pack that includes:

• 16GB iPod nano
• $50 iTunes gift card
• AHA coffee travel mug
• AHA journal
• AHA first aid kit

To enter the giveaway, try out the Hands Symphony tool and then leave a comment with the link to the song that you create.

The contest runs through Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 11:59pm. We will select one random winner from all the comments to receive the prize pack.

This giveaway is sponsored by the Ad Council and American Heart Association’s Hands-Only CPR. We (b5media or myself) are receiving no compensation (monetary or otherwise) for posting this giveaway opportunity.

Post from: Blisstree

Giveaway: Hands-Only CPR

I recently made the switch from my private email server to Google for Applications. This made Gmail my primary mail client and I have dedicated some time to mastering all of it’s features – and there sure are a bunch. Today’s tip will show you how to simply and easily auto-label your incoming messages to your account. Before I get into how let me tell you why I want to do this…

I send emails from my HTC Tilt2 to my Gmail account from NewsBreak. This is a RSS reader and these stories are story ideas. So I created a label in Gmail called StoryIdeas.

Next all I have to do is send an email to [email protected] and the email will automatically be labeled for you without any other intervention! Awesome!

Do you have a Gmail tip – send it in to tips at AskTheAdmin dot com! Or hit us up in the comments

By Karl Gechlik of AskTheAdmin

The Spectra-Physics® Inspire™ ultrafast OPO family delivers unprecedented tuning range from 345 nm to 2.5 µm gap-free and with no change of intracavity optics or crystals. Pumped with the Mai Tai® ultrafast Ti:Sapphire lasers, they also deliver exceptionally high power across the UV and visible range and provide adjustable pulse width from 80 to 350 fs. The Inspire OPO features user-friendly, computer-controlled tuning across the range with no changes in optics or crystals. The system’s robust design ensures high stability and insensitivity to ambient temperature change.

The Inspire OPO family offers:

– User-friendly gap-free tuning from 345 nm to 2.5 µm—no change of optics or crystals required.
– Five output ports available: signal output (490-750 nm with >400 mW), idler output (930-2500 nm with >200 mW), fundamental output (690-1040 nm with >1 W), doubled fundamental output (345-520 nm with >1 W), and alignment output.
– Simultaneous output from either two or three output ports—ideal for applications requiring more than one wavelength such as CARS.
– HF version with fully-automated hands-free wavelength tuning complete with automated cavity alignment to maintain optimal power and pulse durations.
– Auto version with semi-automated tuning and nearly transform-limited pulse duration flexibility (80-350 fs) for tailoring pulse widths to match experimental conditions.

With its unprecedented gap-free wavelength coverage with no change in optics required, the Inspire OPO family is the next-generation OPO for developing cutting-edge imaging and spectroscopy applications.

Applications
– Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy (CARS)
– Multiphoton excitation (MPE) microscopy
– Time-resolved spectroscopy
– Vibrational overtone spectroscopy
– Semiconductor research and spectroscopy
– Multiple wavelength pump-probe experiments
– Fiber optics and optical communications

Resolve Optics Ltd has developed an international reputation for the design and supply of OEM quantities of custom rugged lenses for demanding military and civilian applications.

Driven by financial considerations some organisations, whose systems operate in demanding environments, may seek to incorporate non-ruggedised lenses and lens systems in the design of their products. However adopting such a strategy notably increases the possibility of failure of the product during its deployment.

Drawing upon over 20 years experience – Resolve Optics Ltd. works closely with each customer to ensure that the optical and mechanical design exactly meets the application requirements. Working with a wide range of optical materials – Resolve Optics Ltd has produced ruggedised lenses designed and tested to meet and exceed specified environmental tests such as Def Stan 00-35 which includes vibration, shock and bump testing over a temperature range of -40° to +70° C. Lens optical coatings can be applied to meet a range of MIL Spec standards (including MIL-C-14806, MIL-C-675, MIL-M-13508) to ensure the coatings do not craze, peel or even succumb to fungal attack. To minimise the risk of condensation our lenses are assembled in a dry nitrogen atmosphere to ensure that each lens is supplied dry and free of moisture.

Benefiting from an experienced team of optical designers – Resolve Optics Ltd. is able to quickly gain an understanding of the basic physics of the technology associated with each customer’s product enabling a novel, optimised and affordable solution to be proposed. The company goal is to provide a fast and flexible optical and mechanical design assessment on all projects. A project engineer is assigned to closely liase with customers at all points of a development to ensure complete satisfaction with the final ruggedised lens or optical system. Resolve Optics Ltd. employs the latest in Computer Aided 3D modelling along with many years experience in the design and manufacture of specialist lenses and optical products. It is here that quality and reliability are designed into all ruggedised lens and optical systems. Advanced optical manufacturing and CNC machining technology is used to produce high quality components. In assembly, experienced workers build complete assemblies with care and attention to detail. All ruggedised lens products are exhaustively tested before leaving our factory to ensure your complete satisfaction.

Fine grinding, also known as flat honing, is a new technology using fixed abrasive in lieu of loose abrasive for precision finishing.

Depending upon the application, fine grinding technology utilizes fixed abrasive diamond or CBN suspended in resin, metal, and vitrified bonds to grind a wide range of materials to very tight specifications. Fine grinding technology uses similar planetary machine designs and kinematics to traditional lapping technology, with several significant advantages.

Fine grinding represents the next-generation precision finishing technology, offering several advantages over the traditional lapping process yet still yielding similar flatness, parallelism, surface finish, and size tolerances.
The fine grinding process is much cleaner than lapping, virtually eliminating swarf disposal and work piece cleaning issues. This process is also typically 3-20 times faster than lapping, blurring the lines between traditional lapping and grinding technologies.

Lapmaster’s development of fine grinding equipment and processes are bridging the gap between traditional flat lapping and grinding machines, utilizing the best technologies of both. Significant growth is expected in this technology throughout the metal, ceramics, and composites finishing industries where fine grinding offers increased productivity, reduced manufacturing costs, and a positive impact on the work environment.

Effective component processing using fine grinding technology requires heavy-duty equipment with sophisticated control systems capable of high plate rotation speeds and down-pressure generation. Lapmaster offers several new fine grinding machine models, available in both single sided and dual faced configurations.
This line of equipment has been designed using the latest machine construction and control system technology, capable of executing complex grinding routines while producing precise and repeatable results. Full specifications and advantages of Lapmaster fine grinding equipment are available in individual data sheets.

With any drug, patients and doctors must weight the benefits against the risks. It may be time for postmenopausal women on antidepressants to talk with their doctors about potential risks in light of a recent study.

A new six-year study with 136,293 study participants (aged 50 to 79) has revealed that antidepressants carry a small, but statistically significant increased risk of stroke and death for postmenopausal women.

Despite these study results, the benefits of antidepressants may outweigh the risks for some postmenopausal women. Concerned women should speak with their doctors. Stopping antidepressants without a doctor’s approval could be dangerous.

Researchers found that postmenopausal antidepressant users were 45% more likely to have strokes than women who weren’t taking antidepressants.

Women on antidepressants also had a 32% higher risk of death from all causes compared with women not taking the drugs.

Researchers caution that the association between antidepressant use and increased stroke risk could partially be due to underlying depression, rather than the medication. Numerous studies have confirmed that depression is a risk factor for cardiovascular issues.

While the study found no difference in stroke risk among the two major classes of antidepressants, users of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) had a higher risk of hemorrhagic stroke caused by a bleed in the brain.

Lead author Dr. Jordan Smoller of Massachusetts General Hospital commented:

“While this study did find an association between antidepressants and cardiovascular events, additional research needs to be done to determine exactly what it signifies. Older women taking antidepressants, like everyone else, should also work on modifying their other risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as maintaining a healthy weight and controlling cholesterol levels and blood pressure.”

The findings are from the multi-institution Women’s Health Initiative Study, which is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. Study results were published online in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

(Image via stock.xchng)

Post from: Blisstree

Antidepressants and Stroke Risk for Women

Eco Factor: Ecofriendly phones made from recycled plastic.

As a part of company’s GreenHeart effort, Sony Ericsson has launched two new cellphones that boast ecofriendly credentials. The two cellphones, dubbed the Elm and the Hazel, are made from recycled plastic and eliminate the use of toxic materials.

(more…)

towel designed by yoshimoto nara, as a part of artist towel series 2010 for art production fund’s wow (works on whatever). towels is 100% cotton, 60” x 70” and it costs $95 (~3,200 baht). art work “well” of yoshimoto nara looks pretty great on the towel. who wouldn’t love it?

Daily Random Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup dried fava beans with skins
• 1 small bell pepper {about 1 cup when cut}
• 1/2 cup finely choped fresh parsley

  
  The Dressing
  

• 5 T olive oil
• 4 T lemon juice
• 3/4 t salt
• 1/8 t ground black pepper
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and mashed to pulp

METHOD:
Combine beans and 5 cups water in pot, bring to boil. Cover, lower heat and
simmer for 2 minutes. Turn off heat let sit for 1 hour.

Bring to a boil again. Cover
and let simmer for 30-50 minutes. Cook until tender. Drain under cool water.

Peel
beans and discard skins. Combine all ingredients. Stir gently, pour dressing
over contents. Enjoy!!

NOTES:
Middle East origin.

FAVA BEANS: Available in several forms. Fresh, hidden inside large green pods. Open the
pods and extract the beans. The beans thenselves are also clothed in their
own “seed coats” or skins, which are hard and tasteless. Unless the beans
are very young and tender, these skins need to be removed.

Here is the best way to cook them: Boil the beans for about 10 minutes in
lightly salted water. They should be quite tender inside their coats.
Now they are ready to be peeled. Drain and let them cool under running water
first. Two pounds of pods yield about 2 to 2 and half cups of beans.
Discard the peel. They taste a bit like fresh lima beans.

Then there are the dried fava beans which are available year round at
Chinese, Greek and Middle Eastern stores. They come without their pods, of course but you can get them with or without their skins. They taste somewhat like chestnuts after they have been cooked. I boil them for 2 minutes and then let them sitin hot water for 1 hour. Then
boil them for for another 30 45 minutes or until they are just tender. The
beans can be put in salads or or pureed and put into scrambled eggs.

I missed this last month, but a friend sent over a NY Times article looking at the growing practice of teachers making additional money by selling lesson plans. Marketplaces are emerging, and teachers who have crafted smart and useful lesson plans are able to earn extra cash, while other teachers who are looking for help in crafting smart lesson plans, or understanding what kinds of lesson plans work gain the ability to learn from others, rather than starting from scratch. However, there’s a problem (isn’t there always?). Some school districts are upset that the teachers are selling lesson plans, believing they deserve some of the “cut.” Thanks to our “ownership society,” we’ve built up this belief that every idea must be “owned” and if anyone makes money, others come grabbing as well.

Of course, while the article doesn’t go there, I would bet that a growing number of teachers are seeing value not just in “selling” lesson plans, but posting them publicly for free. In doing that, you can get better feedback and open a nice discussion among other teachers to share what they all have learned, and create a better overall lesson plan that helps everyone out (especially the students). In fact, the more you think about it, the more you realize that expecting teachers to keep coming up with their own lesson plans entirely separate from what thousands of other teachers are doing, seems positively backwards.

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Eco Factor: Energy saving plug emits pesky noises to save energy.

The need to save every milliwatt of electricity has made industrial designers think of products that make sure that no gadgets or appliances are kept connected to the socket if they’re not being used. Designers Lai You Cheng, Liu Kai Ping and Liu Chen Guang believe that their annoying Ace Plug can help do just that.

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Eco Factor: Concept electric vehicle designed to run on solar energy.

The Arbo Moving Capsule concept by designer Jeongche Yoon is an all-electric car for clean streets of the future. The concept vehicle, with a stunning exterior is as extraordinary on the inside too. The all-electric zero-emission car can be powered by an onboard photovoltaic array and via a conventional 220V wall socket as well.

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