Mick Darling's posterousAll my blogging in one spot. (mostly)TorChat Is an Easy to Use Anonymous and Encrypted Chat Client [Downloads]
Windows/Mac: TorChat is an instant messenger client that makes encrypted, anonymous chat and file sharing with your friends incredibly easy. Built on Tor's location hiding services nobody will be able to see what you're doing or who you're contacting. More »
MBTA Gets Bailed Out By Beacon Hill Just in Time, Fare Increases Start July 1
The state Senate voted in favor of a $49 million bailout bill to cover the remainder of the transit agency’s fiscal 2013 budget gap. State officials made the vote on Tuesday night, following a long and somewhat tense debate on Beacon Hill. The Senate voted 26-9 in favor of the proposal, which was submitted by Governor Deval Patrick and approved by the House of Representatives last week. The money to bailout the T is a one-time fix, and will come from the state’s vehicle inspection fees. The move allowed transportation officials to stave off additional service cuts and fare increases in order to fund the looming budget gap. “I thank the Legislature for its continued partnership as we work to close the MBTA’s budget gap for fiscal year 13,” said Massachusetts Department of Transportation Secretary Rich Davey in a statement following the vote. “Quality public transportation is essential to getting people to and from work, expanding economic opportunity and fostering job growth across the Commonwealth. “ Davey said MassDOT and the MBTA are “committed to continuing to work with our legislative partners “ to find a long-term solution to the T’s ailing system and the state’s roads, bridges and highways. “These measures will get us through the end of the fiscal year, but they are only a temporary solution,” said Senate President Therese Murray. “At the beginning of next year, we need omnibus legislation that looks closely at our road, bridge and transit systems.” The bailout didn’t come without some backlash, however. “This $51 million we came up with, to get them out of this year, could have gone back to our cities and towns in the form of local aid,” said Senator James Timility. Michael Knapik, R-Westfield, referred to the move as a “hard pill to swallow.” Prior to the vote, Senators swatted down a proposal to change the way the T handles its finances and operations. The bipartisan proposal, if passed, would have allowed for “fresh voices” and “different talents,” to oversee the T’s daily operations, according to Senator Gale Candaras. “There is widespread agreement that something needs to change,” said Candaras of the proposal. As part of the package passed yesterday, the legislation also increases fare evasion penalties to $75 for the first offense, $200 for the second offense, and $350 for each subsequent offense. The legislation also requires MassDOT board members to come up with a long-term transportation financing solution and deliver it to the state by December 31, 2012. from BostInno http://bostinno.com/2012/06/20/mbta-gets-bailed-out-by-beacon-hill-just-in-ti...Infinitec updates Pocket TV to 1GB RAM, settles on final design and reaffirms October shipmentsIt's another wondrous success story from within the walls of Kickstarter, but honestly, meeting its funding goal was just the start for Infinitec. The outfit's second product, the Pocket TV, is well on its way to becoming a commercialized reality, but backers will be pleased to know that a few changes are being made in order to address some of the most frequently voiced concerns. For starters, the company's doubling the included RAM from 512MB to 1GB. We asked its founders why it'd make such a change, and were told that the boost in memory would enable "snappier performance" throughout, and ensure that it'll handle "the next versions of Android" when updates become available. Wise move. Contrary to the belief of many, such a decision requires more than a simple tweak on a purchase order; Infinitec will be redesigning the final product to look like the item pictured above, and it's bringing on staff in order to adhere to its original shipment month of October. Hungry for even more? There's a minty fresh hands-on video just after the break. Infinitec updates Pocket TV to 1GB RAM, settles on final design and reaffirms October shipments originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jun 2012 15:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Kickstarter | Email this | Comments
from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/18/infinitec-updates-pocket-tv-1gb-ram-final-...
Benchmarks for New 13-Inch MacBook Pro Beat MacBook Air, Previous MacBook Pro by 10-15%
Last week, Primate Labs summarized its Geekbench 2 database results for Apple's new MacBook Air and 15-inch MacBook Pro models, but did not address the 13-inch MacBook Pro as not enough data had been collected at that time.
But over the past week more data has come in, and the firm now shares its results which show the new 13-inch models are yielding approximately 10-15% higher Geekbench 2 scores than both the corresponding previous-generation 13-inch MacBook Pro models as well as the current 13-inch MacBook Air models against which they are directly competing.
![]() The latest MacBook Pros offer a nice increase in performance over the previous MacBook Pros. Both the Core i5 and the Core i7 Mid 2012 13-inch MacBook Pros are over 10% faster than the equivalent Late 2011 13-inch MacBook Pros. Some of the increase is from higher processor speeds, while some of the increase is from the improved Ivy Bridge processor architecture. The latest MacBook Pros also offer a nice increase in performance over the latest MacBook Airs. The Core i5 13-inch MacBook Pro is 10% faster than the Core i5 13-inch MacBook Air, while the Core i7 13-inch MacBook Pro is 15% faster (and $100 cheaper) than the Core i7 13-inch MacBook Air.The popular Geekbench tool also provides a glimpse into the relative popularity of various models, and with the 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air coming in at the same base price points at both low and high ends, the frequency with which those machines appear provides an interesting perspective on how customers are deciding between the two lines. At the low end, Primate Labs notes that the MacBook Air is showing up in the database twice as frequently as the MacBook Pro, suggesting that budget-conscious consumers are opting for the slimmer form factor of the MacBook Air as a primary factor in their decision-making. But the ratio is reversed at the high end, with the MacBook Pro appearing twice as frequently as the MacBook Air, as may be expected as the market shifts more toward professional users looking for high performance as their primary criterion. Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories • Apple to Charge $199 for Battery Replacement on MacBook Pro with Retina Display • Aaron Sorkin's Full Interview at D10: How to Write the Story of Steve Jobs' Life • Though Discontinued, Apple Offering a Plethora of Discounted 17" MacBook Pros • Developers Begin to Update Apps With Retina Support • New Apple Store Coming to Chicago's South Loop? Benchmarks for Mid-2012 MacBook Pro and MacBook Air
With the first Mid-2012 MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models reaching the public, Primate Labs has collated some data from its Geekbench 2 benchmarking database to assess the raw performance of these systems compared to their predecessors.
For the MacBook Pro, Primate Labs has data on four different models: the new Retina model with 2.3 GHz and 2.6 GHz processors and the non-Retina model with 2.3 GHz and 2.7 GHz processors. The top-of-the-line 2.7 GHz system registers with a Geekbench average score of 12,303, roughly 16% higher than the top-of-the-line 2.5 GHz Sandy Bridge system from the previous generation.
![]() Notably, the leaked MacBook Pro benchmark from mid-May does appear to have been legitimate, with details corresponding to the new non-Retina 15-inch MacBook Pro. That machine is designated MacBookPro9,1, while the 13-inch model is designated MacBookPro9,2. The Retina MacBook Pro appears as MacBookPro10,1. On the MacBook Air side, top-of-the-line systems are seeing boosts of over 20% in Geekbench scores over their corresponding predecessors. As with the MacBook Pro, even the low-end systems of the new generation outperform the high end of the previous generation. ![]() Geekbench testing focuses on processor and memory performance, providing comparisons of raw power between machines but only telling part of the story. But with these machines seeing significant boosts in graphics performance with the addition of Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics and/or the NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M, and systems with solid-state drives using faster drives than in the previous generation, real-world performance should see marked improvement. Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories • Apple Admits 'New' Mac Pro Isn't All That New • Apple Issues Trackpad Update for Just-Released MacBook Pro (Retina) • iMovie 9.0.6 Released to Support Retina MacBook Pro • Amazon Launches Cloud Player App for iPhone • TomTom Confirms Mapping Deal with Apple How to Use Google Calendar as a Project Management Tool [Project Management]
Google Calendar is great for managing appointments, but that's not all it can do. The sharing, searchability, timeline view, and other features make Google Calendar a simple but powerful project management tool. Andrea Vascellari, digital marketing consultant and CEO of itive.net, shares how you can use Google Calendar for your team and with your clients. More »
iPhone-Controlled Camera Light Does Entirely New Lighting Tricks [VIDEO]What makes a great image? While some shutterbugs believe it's particularly the camera body or the lens, a new Kickstarter project called The Kick is betting on light. The Kick is a pocket-sized lighting studio for photos or video. It's a handheld, wireless device that emits bright light on demand. The Kick enables photographers to modify light for clearer images. Built-in effects such as rainbow lights, strobes or lighting effects can give photos or video a special touch. The Kick-connected iPhone app is like a remote -- the effects and lights are adjusted on the iPhone. The phone's camera is ready to use after the brightness and temperature of… More About: camera, kickstarter, Mobile, photography, Tech, Video TSA PreCheck is Both Amazing and Useless at the Same TimeAs the TSA rolls out PreCheck to more and more airports I’m enjoying the opportunity to use it — shoes don’t have to come off, freedom baggie doesn’t have to come out (though liquid rules apply, and this isn’t a huge benefit since I’ve only been given a hard time about my liquids bag in my carryon on average about once a year for the past three years). Mostly, though, there’s no nude-o-scope (and thus no opting out) and there aren’t that many people in the program yet. Usually there’s no line at all, just a bunch of TSA employees standing around by an unused checkpoint waiting for me to come through. It’s a far more civilized checkpoint experience than what we’ve grown accustomed to over the past decade. It’s almost like… security used to be before 9/11 led to a federal takeover of airport checkpoint operations and science fiction plots began piling on silliness. It’s the first step in reversing the truest al Qaeda victory of all, that we both scare and inconvenience ourselves (not to mention the waste of resources and concomitant drag on the economy) every time we walk into an airport. Sounds wonderful, and it is, except that PreCheck doesn’t actually save you time. Sure, when you get to use it you wait in line at the checkpoint less, and wind up cooling your heels in the lounge longer. But you don’t actually get to show up later at the airport, because you never know in advance whether or not PreCheck will be available to you.
Since you can’t count on using it, you can’t count on saving time as a result of it, most folks will turn up at the airport assuming a long security wait rather than risk missing a flight (or the stress from almost missing a flight, begging for help to skip the lines to make a flight that’s about to depart). The problem with “pre-clearing” passengers is that those who are pre-cleared become the perfect terrorist mules. So you don’t want trusted travelers to have no security checks at all, or so the theory goes. And you want to “keep the terrorists guessing.” Except that PreCheck doesn’t mean no security checks. They still x-ray your bags. You still walk through the metal detector. They still check your ID, as though that has any relation to security whatsoever. All you get is a shorter line (sure a boon to terrorists who are impatient), not to have to take out off your shoes or take out your laptop (just have the TSA folks scan peoples’ feet for exposed wires and call it good), and not to have to take liquids out in their baggie for separate screening (something they almost never enforce at the regular checkpoint anyway). You give little advantage to a trusted traveler to bring contraband through the checkpoint with the PreCheck program. And allowing those who are approved the more civilized process (that we all ought to have…) would make it possible to save time, far less deadweight loss to the economy not to mention the restoration of the dignity of the passengers headed through the checkpoint. For now, PreCheck is merely much more pleasant that the ‘regular’ screening process. But it could be actually useful if it were more reliable. Be Careful How You Phone Home During Your Addis Ababa StopoverEver since Ethiopian Airlines joined the Star Alliance in December, there’s been great business class award availability to members of United and US Airways frequent flyer programs on Ethiopian’s direct service from Washington Dulles (via Rome) to Addis Ababa, with easy connections from there to the rest of Africa (it serves more destinations in Africa than any other carrier). The government-owned airline ferries plenty more Americans to Ethiopia for stopovers at a minimum than they did before joining the alliance. But Americans may not be aware that they’d better be careful how they call home– since the government there has banned Skype and other voice over internet services, according to al Jazeera. The penalty is up to 15 years of jail time for users. Prime Minister Meles Zenaw says the move is meant to ensure national security, though I haven’t seen any more detail explaining this rationale. It’s generally considered flimsy at best, with the move being the latest in a string of crackdowns against services competing with the government telecomm monopoly. 5 Lessons From Obama’s Twitter Town HallTwitter town halls have become a popular campaign tool during this presidential election season. That's why campaign strategist David Axelrod followed President Barack Obama’s economic speech in Ohio yesterday with a power-packed Q&A, sending 28 tweets and re-tweets through the @BarackObama account in as many minutes. Certainly, an endless stream of presidential and congressional candidates have tried their own variations of this medium, but Axelrod’s was the most effective execution to date. Here's why. 1. Created a Controlled Venue More About: barack obama, contributor, features, Social Media, Twitter |
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