adamdodery

lunedì 2 settembre 2013

How We Go Looking For Life on Other Planets

There are, as best we can estimate, hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe. (There may be more.) Average galaxies carry the weight of hundreds of billions of stars. If a habitable planet whirls around just one star in every million, the number of worlds which could harbor life would number in the quadrillions. (Roughly 10 to the 16, i.e. unfathomably many.)

Adblock Plus developer pokes holes in Mozilla's new add-on performance tests

Wladimir Palant, developer of the most popular add-on in the world, Adblock Plus, is also an active contributor to the Planet Mozilla blog community. Over the last few days, in response to Mozilla's new name and shame list of slow add-ons, Palant has been investigating whether Mozilla's testing methods are actually accurate.

Rather surprisingly, it turns out that Mozilla's numbers could be significantly wrong -- and if they're not wrong, the factors that Mozilla uses to tabulate an add-ons final score should definitely be made more transparent.

In the first set of tests, Palant shows that FlashGot's position in the top 10 is probably due to a fault in Mozilla's testing setup, and that add-ons can perform very differently depending on which operating system they're being tested on. In the second analysis, Palant uncovers an irregularity that doesn't seem to have an obvious cause -- but it could be due to an I/O bottleneck on Mozilla's test machines. Basically, even though performance testing of Read It Later is disabled because of a bug, it still (somehow!) manages to record a 14% slow-down on Windows 7.

Palant concludes both analyses by scolding Mozilla for going public with the performance data before its testing methods had been confirmed accurate. It definitely looks like Mozilla has been more than a little reckless, considering the importance of Firefox's add-on ecosystem.

Adblock Plus developer pokes holes in Mozilla's new add-on performance tests originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 05:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/08/adblock-plus-developer-pokes-holes-in-mozillas-new-add-on-perfo/

APPLIED MATERIALS ARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT ARROW ELECTRONICS ASML HOLDING ASUSTEK COMPUTER

Mozilla publishes name and shame list of slow Firefox add-ons, cracks down on tardy devs

Mozilla, continuing its year-long crusade to speed up Firefox startup and shutdown times, has published a name and shame list of the Firefox's slowest add-ons.

The list is just one part of Mozilla's new efforts to highlight slow add-ons, and to help developers make their add-ons more efficient. Over the next two weeks, 'slow performance warnings' will be introduced in the add-on gallery so that users can see, before installation, which add-ons will slow down their browser. If that isn't enough to spur developers into cleaning up their add-ons, Mozilla has also begun reaching out to developers of slow add-ons with tips on how to improve add-on performance. Finally, add-on developers will soon have the ability to perform 'on-demand performance testing,' so that they can test their add-on before it's deployed publicly.

Mozilla reports that the average Firefox add-on slows down Firefox's start-up time by 10% -- which means, if you install 10 add-ons, you will double your start-up time. On fast desktop PCs that kind of slowdown might be negligible, but on older computers, laptops and smartphones, it could be the difference between a 5 and 10 second startup. Mozilla has obviously realized that while massive performance gains might've been made with Firefox 4, the addition of third-party add-ons can destroy any user-perceived improvements.

In other news, Mozilla says that a future build of Firefox will block the installation of add-ons (such as toolbars) by third-party software. Add-ons and toolbars that are bundled in this way will require explicit approval when you next open up Firefox. Hooray!

Mozilla publishes name and shame list of slow Firefox add-ons, cracks down on tardy devs originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 05:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/04/mozilla-publishes-name-and-shame-list-of-slow-firefox-add-ons/

UNISYS TRIQUINT SEMICONDUCTOR TRIMBLE NAVIGATION LIMITED TRIDENT MICROSYSTEMS TRANSACTION SYSTEMS ARCHITECTS

Google working on smartwatch with talent acquired from WIMM Labs

Pebble watch

New employees brought in to work directly with the Android team

The idea that Google will soon enter the connected smartwatch arena is getting more weight today as details emerge that it purchased smartwatch maker WIMM Labs last year. As a report from The Wall Street Journal earlier this year suggested, Google is actively working on a smartwatch competitor to the yet-to-be-released Samsung Galaxy Gear and the ever-rumored Apple iWatch. Talent and technology from WIMM Labs is expected to be a big part of the effort.

WIMM Labs, if you aren't familiar, was a small company working to make watch hardware and software centered around Android with its first product release, the WIMM One, in late 2011. Beyond just hardware and software, WIMM worked to build up a development program for third-party developers to make what it called "micro apps" that were more tailored to running on a small screen independently of a connected phone.

What WIMM did with watches is far beyond what we see with Pebble, which is a frankly basic notification system, and could give us a look at what Google intends to do in the space. It is reported that the employees from WIMM that stayed on with Google post-acquisition have been moved directly into the Android team rather than their own division.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/BGe_oXbzpK4/story01.htm

BT GROUP CANON MEMC ELECTRONIC MATERIALS MICROSOFT MILLICOM INTL CELLULAR

Firefox 4 Friday: 25 million downloads, anti-aliasing, and how to make it look like Firefox 3

Firefox 4 racks up 25 million downloads in 3 days

If you've had your head under a rock for the last few days, here's this week's Firefox news in brief: Firefox 4 was finally released.

Yes, 13 months after the initial release of Firefox 3.7 alpha 1 and four more alpha builds, a renumbering to 4.0 and 12 beta releases, and finally a release candidate (or two), Firefox 4 has been released into the wild.

Just like every other Firefox release, initial reception for the new browser has been nothing short of insane. 7.1 million downloads were registered in the first 24 hours and the download rate continued to accelerate, clocking in more than 15 million downloads after two days. At the time of writing, three days in, Firefox 4 has been downloaded over 25 million times. In case you're wondering, the United States accounts for 7 million of those downloads, just beating out Germany's Firefox-downloads-per-capita.

But now that you've installed Firefox 4 (you have, right?), what do you do now? Well, obviously, in true Download Squad fashion, it's time to tweak Firefox 4 using add-ons and about:config hacks!

First up is an add-on called Stratiform that lets you change every aspect of the Firefox 4 browser chrome -- including the color of that orange button!

Continue reading Firefox 4 Friday: 25 million downloads, anti-aliasing, and how to make it look like Firefox 3

Firefox 4 Friday: 25 million downloads, anti-aliasing, and how to make it look like Firefox 3 originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/25/firefox-4-friday-25-million-downloads-anti-aliasing-and-how-t/

VARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT ASSOCIATES UNITED ONLINE UNISYS TRIQUINT SEMICONDUCTOR TRIMBLE NAVIGATION LIMITED

PSX games now available in the Android Market, if you own an Xperia Play

PlayStation One games on the Android Market

If you're lucky enough to own an Xperia Play -- Sony Ericsson's new Gingerbread-powered smartphone-cum-gamepad -- you can now buy PlayStation (PSX) titles from the Android Market.

There are five titles currently available, all priced at £3.99: Syphon Filter, MediEvil, Cool Boarders 2, Destruction Derby, and Jumping Flash. They don't have an American price yet, but that will surely change once the Xperia Play launches in the States.

Two important questions remain unanswered: How big are these games? The Market descriptions say the games are only 5MB, but that sounds incredibly unlikely -- and more importantly, will it be possible to 'spoof' the Xperia Play and download PSX games onto other Gingerbread-powered phones, like the Nexus S?

In other news, the PlayStation emulator PSX4droid was recently removed from the Android Market. This obviously has nothing to do with today's release of first-party PlayStation games.

PSX games now available in the Android Market, if you own an Xperia Play originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 04:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/01/psx-games-now-available-in-the-android-market/

NOKIA NVIDIA ORACLE POWERCHIP SEMICONDUCTOR PRICELINECOM

domenica 1 settembre 2013

Tips And Tricks For Your iPad

Apple have designed the iPad to be easy to use, in fact even a two year old can use this device without any problems whatsoever. This makes it a very attractive option for people who are used to using an iPhone or for those who are not. However, there are still a few things about the device that do need a little bit of explaining. Soft Reset Explained: Although the iPad is pretty robust in so far as there are [...]

Source: http://tabletbuzzblog.com/tips-and-tricks-for-your-ipad/

JDS UNIPHASE JDA SOFTWARE GROUP JACK HENRY and ASSOCIATES IXYS ITRON

Cramming Into A Tiny House May Not Be So Bad

Between crippling recessions and human environmental impact things have gotten complicated, and frankly kind of negative. That may be why the small house movement is so appealing. Downsizing everything means less stuff to buy and maintain. Minimize harm and maximize good vibes.

Evernote Web gets a new interface, Facebook sharing, and more

Evernote, the popular multi-platform 'digital memory' app, has done some serious re-tooling of its Web interface. In addition to a more polished UI that more closely mirrors the look of Evernote on the desktop, the update brings features like notebook stacks and snippet view to the Web.

Auto-saving is now enabled as well, and you can select multiple items by holding down the Cmd or Ctrl key on your Mac or Windows keyboard. If you've got items stored in your notebooks that you want to share with friends or co-workers, Evernote has improved that process, too. You can quickly post an item to Facebook, share it via email, or generate a Web sharing link to paste into an IM conversation or status update.

Head over to the Evernote Web login page to try out the new interface.

Evernote Web gets a new interface, Facebook sharing, and more originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 10:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/29/evernote-web-gets-a-new-interface-facebook-sharing-and-more/

MICROS SYSTEMS MICRON TECHNOLOGY MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY METHODE ELECTRONICS MENTOR GRAPHICS

My Wish Is Your Command: Scientists Make Imperius Curse Real

It sounds like something out of science fiction: One person thinks about pressing the spacebar on a keyboard to fire a cannon in a video game, and another person across campus is compelled to press the spacebar for real, even though he doesn't see the game on-screen. It's essentially that very scenario, however, that scientists at the University of Washington recently achieved.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/78830.html

TNS TIBCO SOFTWARE TIBCO SOFTWARE THQ TEXAS INSTRUMENTS

Takes Two to Text: Message Senders Could Be Liable for Distracting Drivers

A three-judge panel from the Superior Court of New Jersey's appellate division has pushed the envelope a little further in defining who is liable for accidents caused by texting. Namely, the panel has established a new standard of responsibility and ruled that texters whose communications distract a driver and lead to an accident may be held responsible in civil court.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/78849.html

ELECTRONIC DATA SYSTEMS ELECTRONIC ARTS ECLIPSYS EASTMAN KODAK CO EARTHLINK

Mac OS X Lion Preview 2 released, introduces mega exciting leather bound iCal skin

This is one of those posts that could probably be condensed into a tweet: Apple has released the second Preview of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. If you're running Preview 1, it looks like you'll first receive a small update via Software Update, and then you can download Preview 2 from the Mac App Store.

There has been some speculation that Apple is getting close to a release or Golden Master build, but judging by 9to5 Mac's initial findings there's definitely some way to go. The Golden Master will probably appear at, or just before, the Apple WWDC in June.

So far, it's looking like the only changes in Preview 2 are the leather bound iCal skin that you can see above, and the main iChat window now combines your AIM, Bonjour and Jabber contacts, like Adium. We're sure that more details will emerge throughout the day, though, and there's bound to be lots of invisible changes, too. We'll update this post when we find out more.

Mac OS X Lion Preview 2 released, introduces mega exciting leather bound iCal skin originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 05:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/31/mac-os-x-lion-preview-2-released-introduces-mega-exciting-leath/

AMERICA MOVIL AMKOR TECHNOLOGY AMPHENOL ANIXTER INTERNATIONAL APPLE COMPUTER

Cymbals Eat Guitars: Rifle Eyesight (Proper Name)

So I've blabbed at you guys about Cymbals Eat Guitars a couple of times before. But this time I'm extra serious. "Rifle Eyesight (Proper Name)" is my favorite jam of theirs, and dare I say the best? I dare. It is.

Adblock Plus developer pokes holes in Mozilla's new add-on performance tests

Adblock Plus developer pokes holes in Mozilla's new add-on performance tests originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 05:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/08/adblock-plus-developer-pokes-holes-in-mozillas-new-add-on-perfo/

MICROSEMI MICROS SYSTEMS MICRON TECHNOLOGY MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY METHODE ELECTRONICS