Saran999

In a scathing statement on the state of the Web, leading organizations on Internet policy, governance, and architecture blasted the U.S. for its spying on Internet users. Without calling out the United States by name, leaders from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), ICANN, the Internet Architecture Board, and other organizations nevertheless made it clear that the U.S.’s policies and practices are harmful to an open web. From the official statement: They called for accelerating the globalization of ICANN and IANA functions, towards an environment in which all stakeholders, including all governments, participate on an equal footing. Currently, the U.S. Department of Commerce wields a substantial amount of control and unilateral oversight where ICANN is concerned. Also, the next Internet Governance Summit will be held in Brazil, where President Dilma Rousseff has been vocally critical of U.S. Internet surveillance. Rousseff cancelled a diplomatic visit to the U.S. in the wake of the Snowden revelations (including the fact that the U.S. was spying on Brazil, an ally). Rousseff told reporters as the summit location was announced.

Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch launched a couple of weeks ago as a fat, ugly, and expensive smartphone accessory that our own Devindra Hardawar called “relentlessly inessential.” That’s not where Apple is going with iWatch. Rather, Apple is looking to create a device that will allow you to control your music, your temperature, your security, your lighting, your energy use, your entertainment, and potentially much more, says Cantor Fitzgerald’s Brian White, who talked to Taiwanese and mainland China suppliers. iwatch“As an Apple supplier, our contact offered insight into the “iWatch” and described this potential new device as much more than an extension of your iPhone but as a multi-purpose gateway in allowing consumers to control their home (i.e., heating/cooling, lights, audio, video, etc.),” White said today in a research note. Now that is interesting. The raison d’etre behind smartwatches has been a little suspect; they’ve mostly looked like little more than an adjunct to your smartphone. Which begs the question: Why do you need one? And the real-life use of smartwatches as sort of a wrist-based Google Glass, with constant social updates streaming in, can be problematic. One startup founder I talked to said when he checked updates on his Pebble, people thought he was being rude because he was “always checking his watch” and clearly was bored with them. Building a watch-like device that is truly smart and useful for something other than seeing a constant stream of tweets would be a very Apple-like way to go. Personal fitness tracking and monitoring is a no-brainer, and adding home automation control makes it even more interesting. Clearly, Apple TV could be part of the mix, as well as support for a number of the home automation standards. As interesting as this could be, however, it’s unclear how big of a market Apple would be attacking here. Because the home automation market, while growing fast and offering tremendous opportunities, is still relatively nascent.

Everyone's favorite Red Hot Nickel Ball has been on an absurd amount of adventures between boiling a jar of honey and completely demolishing the world's largest gummy bear. Naturally, the next stop on its quest to be submerged in everything known to man is peanut butter. Why not, right? ...and I love peanut butter! Let's see it... https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1QJO6nEq2Kg the only thing that you'll miss it's the wonderful smell...

After seeing the beautiful massive destruction that a hot ball of nickel can cause to honey, http://www.cyberphoenix.org/forum/topic/211282-what-happens-when-you-drop-a-hot-ball-of-nickel-into-honey/?do=findComment&comment=291746 it's obvious to want to drop that burning ball of seemingly eternal fire into more things. But most things just burn boringly. But what about the world's largest gummy bear? It's like seeing T-1000 destroyed. I gotta admit though, the world's largest gummy bear held up admirably to the hot ball of nickel (though its indestructibility may be a cause for concern since we... eat gummy bears?). Yeah there is black sludge oozing out of the gummy bear but it takes multiple re-heats to penetrate it all the way through. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LKzxnY1oXLQ

Because dropping super freaking hot balls of nickel is always fun to do, seeing it get dropped in various substances never gets old. This time, honey gets the hot nickel treatment. It starts pulsating like a geyser while getting all bubbly and foamy until it squashes the plastic container holding down the steam. At the very end, the honey turns into some kaleidoscopic goop. The video takes a while to get started but you can spend that time wondering what other things you can drop the ball in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=awuaBAH8wXo

It is a truth universally acknowledged that black snakes are among the lamest of fireworks, second only to snappers. But when you get everyone's favorite red hot nickel ball involved, things get a lot more fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QX7MReiJRto

That's really cool... What must I do/perform/kill/destroy/build/grow (pun not/intended).... to have something for me... at your choice? or perhaps you must know me better...

Yeah, I've noted it too, but I was thinking to some sort of poetic license... so it's 'art'!

Do you believe in giants? I was watching a thread posted by one of our best uploaders here in CyberPhoenix @RobertoWarez about giants... a new movie that I'm still downloading http://www.cyberphoenix.org/forum/topic/211231-cp-upload-axe-giant-the-wrath-of-paul-bunyan-2013-dvdrip-x264-taste/ and, as one of my best friends here in CP is used to say 'Dang!' I've found a video about a guy that has done a nifty research on the Giants throughout human history. So, do you believe it? Let's see what the poll will tell us after the break https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5jXVStAYPU&feature=player_embedded

That's exactly what happened! Very funny and... sadly real...

Very inspirational and moving! But, perhaps the phrase ""a designer is the one who can create life in the dead also" may be written not 'in dead' but 'in death'? Just a thought... and perhaps it's simply that I don't get it right... Anyway, really a good job that move me to become a designer. Cheers

...sad times lol!

Abaft toward or at the stern of a ship; further aft

Nice! I like them really very very much! Bravo! Cheers

Hi to you and welcome on board! Hope you enjoy your stay and, in the meanwhile, read our rulez pls Cheers

...sad reality...

Cyber security pundits and contractors can't seem to make it through a presentation without invoking the specter of hackers shutting down the US electric grid. That's certainly something to be concerned about, especially if we end up at war with a country like China, but at the moment actual incidents are hard to come by. Indeed, serious electric grid vandalism remains comfortably old school—like climbing a 100-foot high-voltage transmission tower and chopping through the cables with a saw, then removing a few bolts from the bottom of the metal tower, then attaching a half-inch thick cable to the tower with a 15 inch eyebolt, and then pulling the cable across the adjacent Union Pacific railroad track "in an apparent attempt to utilize a moving train to bring down the tower." You know, old school. According to the FBI, this actually happened in Cabot, Arkansas in the early morning on August 21. The vandalism closed state highway 321 for the entire day, and the FBI has offered a $20,000 reward for the arrest of a suspect. We should have expected a fire in some random electrical substation? That kind of heat might deter most suspects, though probably not the kind of person who would climb an electric transmission tower and cut a high voltage power line with a saw. And indeed, a similar act of vandalism was reported September 29 at an Energy Arkansas substation down the road in Keo. An intentionally-set fire consumed the substation control house but caused no power outages in the surrounding community. To make an already strange story that much odder, the arsonist left a message scrawled on the metal plate outside the substation: "You should have expected us." The "expect us" tagline belongs to the hacker collective Anonymous, though "membership" in the group is so fluid and the phrase so well known at this point that it's impossible to say if the attack actually had anything to do with the group. Then this week in Jacksonville, Arkansas, someone climbed over a utility company fence to access a parked "Skytrim" tractor complete with circular saw blade on the end of its massive extendable arm. The stolen tractor, used for chopping down tree limbs, was driven through a large cattle gate, down two roads, and then off-road along the clear-cut right-of-way for high voltage transmission lines. The driver continued until he came to a pair of key utility poles, which he promptly cut down. 10,000 First Electric Cooperative customers lost power.

OMG! LMAO

Microsoft will be releasing a new version of its Remote Desktop software to Android and iOS in the future, as part of a raft of enterprise cloud computing launches. The app, which allows users to control a PC or virtual desktop remotely, will appear on the mobile operating systems at the same time as updated versions of the software ship for Windows, Windows RT, and OS X. Remote Desktop Android The iOS Remote Desktop app will have an "app bar" to remotely launch and switch between apps, writes Microsoft MVP Michel Roth, with the app said to work with both iOS 6 and iOS 7. The updated OS X app will apparently have more functionality, including "seamless windows." Remote Desktop iOS The Android version, usable on devices running Gingerbread and later, with support for the Remote Desktop Gateway also touted. All touch-enabled versions will apparently have various virtual mouse modes, and will be able to bring on screen a virtual keyboard for text entry. The new Remote Desktop apps will be made available later this month on the appropriate app stores, though pricing was not revealed. Remote Desktop Mac OS Microsoft also outlined its plans to release Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2 on October 18th, .NET 4.5.1 for Visual Studio 2013 on the same day, access discounted Windows Azure prices for Enterprise Agreement customers on November 1st, and the introduction of the Windows Azure US Government Cloud.

“Gold phone” is something of a misnomer these days, the term appended to champagne- and rose-colored variants of devices like the iPhone 5s and Galaxy S 4, though no actual gold is used in their construction. Until recently, the only true “gold” smartphones to be found were a few ultra-high end Vertu handsets destined for the pockets of the super-rich. HTC’s newest variant of the One, plated in 18-karat gold protected by a non-scratch clear-coat, isn’t a groundbreaking reinvention of the “gold” phone paradigm; valued at $4000 and limited to a production run of just five units, it’s much more an appeal to publicity than a mainstream consumer product. But anytime a guy walks into a room with a Pelican case protected by two locks and a beefy security dude, you just can’t help but want to peek inside. Fortunately, our hands-on video is here to help you do just that. Granted, it’s more of an eyes-on, and the reflective gold plating in the dim demo room played havoc with our auto-focus, but even given those conditions, we think you’ll enjoy a look at the most authentic “golden phone” we’ve seen to date. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1vhPTUnFYY8

Firefox OS is unquestionably a work in progress, but with a point upgrade a few weeks after launch (and the release of the ZTE Open), at least we can confirm that Mozilla is, in fact, putting the work in. The 1.1 version of the software is available now for users of the mobile operating system, featuring a number of enhancements. At the top of the list is the arrival of MMS support, letting you send and receive images, audio and video files and the like via messages. Performance has also been enhanced, with smoother scrolling and faster load times. There's music search built in now, too, plus an API for push notifications for app developers. All that, plus improvements to email, contact management, calendar and keyboard.

LaCie and Porsche Designs are at it again, but this time their storage collaboration has a slightly smaller footprint. The companies' latest effort is a brushed steel USB 3.0 thumb drive that's available in 16GB and 32GB varieties, starting at $30. For the security minded, files onboard are password-locked and protected with AES 256-bit encryption -- there's a free year of Wuala cloud-storage included too. You won't have to worry about a speeding ticket with this Porsche's transfers either -- the're rated at so-so 95MBs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UUlQQWgHmzMjNdgh1SH2aJEw&feature=player_embedded&v=TBlF154vt8c

The eighth generation of console gaming is closing in (sorry, Wii U), and both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will land next month. Sony’s new console will drop on November 15 of this year, and Microsoft’s Xbox One will release one week later on November 22. With every new console generation, the launch consoles are either must-haves or must-waits. Will the launch PS4 follow the route of the PS3 and end up a must-have in hindsight? Will the Xbox One follow the Xbox 360 and launch with various console-killing bugs? We’re here to help you figure it all out. Console revisionist history We’ve been around long enough to know that only one or two years after a console launch, it’s likely a revision will be on the way. Sony likes to slim down its gaming boxes, with the original PlayStation, PS2, and PS3 all getting a Slim version; the PS3 receiving a second, even slimmer revision toward the end of its lifecycle. The PSP experienced four different iterations — the original model, the subsequent 2000 and 3000 models, and the ill-fated PSP Go. The PS Vita has only been around for a year-and-a-half, and it’s already getting a 2000 model, as well as being turned into the PS Vita TV set-top box. Though every single Sony console has been revised into a slimmer form, the PS4 may be the first one that isn’t. The console is using x86 — or, standard PC — architecture, which means there isn’t much room to get smaller without getting more expensive. The same — more or less — applies to the Xbox One. The original Xbox didn’t undergo a slim revision, though it received many different color variations and specially branded editions. This might be because the original Xbox employs x86 architecture. However, the original Xbox released late into its console generation, so it’s possible Microsoft simply didn’t get far enough into the hardware’s lifecycle to slim it down. Microsoft did revise the original Xbox gamepad, though. Meanwhile, the non-x86 Xbox 360 received a number of revisions and redesigns. Though both the Xbox One and PS4 are using x86 architecture, there is already room to slim down. A not insignificant portion of the Xbox One is composed of empty space for airflow. If Microsoft can figure out how Sony was able to remove all that empty space, the Xbox One could shrink in size. Meanwhile, both consoles use an HDD, so in a few years when SSD prices drop a bit, each console could employ the much slimmer, faster storage device and shed some weight while gaining some speed. Furthermore, Sony could remove the PS4′s internal power brick, freeing up quite a bit room within the console to rearrange its guttyworks for optimum space-saving solutions. The company likely wouldn’t do that for a while, as the internal power supply is a source of engineering pride. Should you wait for a revised model? Now that we can look back on history, the biggest reason why the launch PS3 was worth an early adoption was because of the backwards compatibility with PS2 and PS1 games. Not long after launch, the feature was dropped, rendering your Sony back catalog useless unless you hung onto your PS1 and PS2. This time around, the PS4 and the Xbox One both won’t be inherently backwards compatible, so neither console will be launching with a must-have feature that could be dropped in the future. Both companies appear to be angling toward offering backwards compatibility through cloud services, which will always be available as long as the consoles are internet-capable. The only console revisions we can feasibly look forward to in a short amount of time would be the addition of an SSD, or slimmer units. If waiting a couple years for a somewhat smaller (but still giant) set-top box with a faster storage device is worth missing out on those couple years of games, go right ahead and sit this one out. If not, the eighth generation of consoles could easily be the least risky target for early adoption in video game history, thanks to the x86 architecture. This time around, it should all come down to how long you can do without the launch window games. You likely won’t be missing out on some kind of special launch-day hardware feature that gets dropped somewhere down the line. Unfortunately, console pre-orders are sold out almost everywhere, so you’ll have to put in a bunch of effort to find one.

Ford Motor Company has developed two new test cars that offer a glimpse of the driverless car of the future. The first vehicle, a tricked out Ford Focus, uses sensors to detect obstacles in its path and will automatically brake or steer around them if the driver fails to react in time. The second is a prototype of a vehicle with self-parking technology, which works whether or not you’re actually in the driver’s seat. The autonomous parking technology is particularly interesting because it shows that a vehicle is capable of driving itself without the intervention of the driver – even if it’s only within the confines of a parking lot. The driver can step out of the vehicle and activate a button on a keychain, and the car’s sensors, transmission and engine do the rest. Ford produced a video that shows how it works: While there are plenty of assisted parking systems in vehicles today, they’re all still driver guided – the car does the steering, but the driver mans the brake and the gear shift. Ford’s prototype is not only smart enough to act autonomously, it’s capable of finding the optimal parking space in a lot and picking the trajectory at which it enters that space. Ford is still putting safeguards in place. If a driver takes his finger off the keychain button, the car stops in its tracks. Ford’s obstacle avoidance technology is an extension of the automated driver assistance systems (ADAS) already appearing in many vehicles, but it takes the technology to a further extreme, taking over steering and brakes even when the car is moving at full speed. It may seem like a subtle distinction but it’s a meaningful one. Today’s ADAS systems can hit the brakes while you’re reversing if a pedestrian suddenly crosses your path, they can adjust your cruise control if you encounter traffic, and they can even give you a little nudge back into your lane if you find yourself drifting. But Ford new obstacle avoidance tech takes complete control of the vehicle at highway speeds – even if it’s only for the split second – in order to avoid potentially fatal accidents. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dQjntXvMVTE Ultimately that’s going to the distinction between the autonomous car and today’s driver-assistance technologies: Instead of us relying on our smart vehicles to inform and guide our driving, we’ll have to trust they can make better driving decisions than we can.

Vendor tests and very early 802.11ac customers provide a reality check on 'gigabit Wi-Fi' but also confirm much of its promise. Vendors have been testing their 11ac products for months, yielding data that show how 11ac performs and what variables can affect performance. Some of the tests are under ideal laboratory-style conditions; others involve actual or simulated production networks. Among the results: consistent 400M to 800Mbps throughput for 11ac clients in best-case situations, higher throughput as range increases compared to 11n, more clients serviced by each access point, and a boost in performance for existing 11n clients."