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Was There A Google Update A Few Days Ago?
Posted: 10 Dec 2012 07:11 AM PST
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How to Revive Expired Content
Posted: 10 Dec 2012 03:45 AM PST
| How to Revive Expired Content Posted: 09 Dec 2012 05:56 AM PST 
Most bloggers don’t like the idea of their content expiring, especially if they publish a lot of it on a consistent basis. The thing is that the more you publish, the less time you have to review your past articles. And sorry to be the one to break this to you, but your content won’t stay evergreen till the end of time. Well okay, if you publish articles on learning the Latin language then you’re safe, but for any other niche, things change quite fast. And if you’re in web technology, blogging, or making money then your content is like a bottle of freshly squeezed carrot juice in the fridge … so to speak. I guess what I’m trying to say is that good, quality content has a short lifespan. Essentially, content is like food. The better it is, the sooner you have to eat it. If you’re starting to think that some of your content is getting near to its expiration date, yet you still see it as a valuable asset for your blog, you have no other choice than to bring it back to life. First of all, why would you even want to do this? Well, it’s a lot easier to revive a piece of old content than to create a completely new one and build up its position to reach the same level of popularity and search engine recognition. Check the information The core information itself is a great starting point. With time, it’s the core of your content that’s most likely to expire first. For instance, if you have a post on how to build a WordPress theme then you should update it every time a new version of WordPress comes out. If you haven’t gotten back to the post for over a year then it’s surely expired by now. If you’re in a completely different niche then the story is very similar. You should still keep your finger on the pulse and take notice of every significant change that’s going on around you. The point here is to make sure that your content is still true and describes the factual state of things. If it’s not the case, you’ll lose your search engine spot very quickly. Which brings me to… Check the keywords Besides the core information, the keywords grow old too. And it’s not like your content stops being optimized for your selected keywords. This is about the keywords themselves being no longer attractive from an SEO point of view. For instance, (the most graphic example I can come up with) if you’ve targeted a keyword like “business ideas 2012″ then you can be sure that it’s almost expired by now. Changing it to “business ideas 2013″ (and updating the content, obviously) is therefore a great idea. Now, tuning the keywords a bit requires some modifications to be made in the body of your content itself. You need to use the new keywords a couple of times inside the content, so Google can notice the change. Of course, coming up with new keywords from thin air isn’t the best approach for this. You should always do proper keyword research and select the keywords that are both valuable and not that difficult to rank for. Review your personal opinions I don’t know if you’ve ever experience such a situation, but sometimes I find my old posts not in-tune with my current point of view. Having popular content on your blog that you don’t agree with isn’t the most optimal scenario. Especially if people are still commenting on it. If it’s possible, change the content to reflect your current opinions. If it’s not possible (due to the nature of the article; in case any change would ruin the article) then either swallow your pride or write a short disclaimer at the end explaining the current situation (preferably also write a new post about it and link to it). Add something new This isn’t only about making your content relevant again, but about making it even better than it was before. Try to look for places for improvement and for new elements you can include to make the content better. Maybe there’s a new product that helps people with a given issue, or a new method that’s worth mentioning. Whatever your niche is, I’m sure you can find some information that can be added to benefit your readers even more. Update your SEO campaign Since now you have some new keywords, it would also be a good idea to re-launch your SEO campaign. SEO doesn’t have a good PR these days. With updates like the Penguin, Panda, and other creatures introduced by Google, the game of SEO is getting tougher by the day. However, if we just remain calm then we can still improve our rankings and get more visitors. Due to the recent changes, I won’t give you any exact advice on what to do here. Instead, I send you over to an SEO blog of your choosing as they are probably the most up-do-date guys around. Give it new life on social media This sounds like a big deal, but what I actually mean is to simply tweet about your revived content, mention it on Facebook, Pinterest, and on whatever other platforms you’re using. Depending on the size of your fallowing this may just be enough. Also, I encourage you to use a plugin like Tweet Old Post, which takes care of sending out promotional tweets about your past content on autopilot, no supervision required. Interlink with other content Internal links are probably just as important as backlinks pointing to your content, yet they are a lot easier to acquire, for obvious reasons. Simply go through your new content and search for places where you can include a link to your revived content. This will guide Google’s attention back towards the post and force it to re-crawl it. Also, this way you’re guiding your visitors’ attention towards the post. If you’ve managed to make it up-to-date again, they will probably write some new comments and spread the word through their social media profiles. Write new guest posts Apart from writing you should also link to your revived content from within these guest posts. If you do a good job at this, you can see many new visitors to your site. The best approach here is to carefully choose the blogs where you’re going to guest post. The more relevant the topic of the blog is to the topic of your (revived) content, the better. Besides, guest posts are a great strategy for a lot more reasons than just reviving your old content. Guest blogging is probably the most effective promotional method for blogs of today. Do you have any experience reviving your content? Is there anything else worth doing? Feel free to share your opinion. About The Author Karol K. is a freelance blogger and writer. Currently, he’s all about providing blogging advice to real estate business owners, and getting the word out about Fort Worth real estate. | You are subscribed to email updates from The Blog Herald
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Open thread for night owls: Fossil fuel bonanza from public lands doesn't quite cover the damage
Posted: 10 Dec 2012 03:36 AM PST
| Open thread for night owls: Fossil fuel bonanza from public lands doesn't quite cover the damage Posted: 09 Dec 2012 08:30 PM PST At Grist, Philip Bump writes Fossil-fuel extraction on public land yields massive economic boom, kind of: Good news from the L.A. Times:
Energy development on public lands and waters pumped more than $12 billion into federal coffers in 2012, $1 billion more than the previous year, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior. "These revenues reflect significant domestic energy production under President Obama's all-of-the-above energy strategy and provide a vital revenue stream for federal and state governments and American Indian communities," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement. Yes! Win win win win win. Winners all around. Lots of cash money/moolah just pouring out of the ground like so much crude oil, thanks to the president's staunch commitment to fossil fuels. Everyone line up for your cut! [PDF] Just such good news. But we need to do a smidgen of accounting work here. So: $12 billion in profits from fossil-fuel extraction, great. Of course, $4 billion of that goes back to oil companies in subsidies, so it's really more like $8 billion. Oh, plus another billion or so to the coal industry. So $7 billion. Still good! We should also probably consider that the use of those fossil fuels results in $120 billion in healthcare costs each year. In 2009, 35 percent of U.S. healthcare spending was from Medicare and Medicaid [PDF]. Thirty-five percent of $120 billion is $42 billion. Hm. And then there's that $50 billion that Obama is seeking to repair damage from Hurricane Sandy. But let's take only the $5 billion the New York area Metropolitan Transportation Authority needs due to the flooding that was certainly made worse by climate change. Don't want to be unrealistic, after all! So, let me get out the adding machine here … Boom. Done. That brilliant all-of-the-above energy approach has indirectly resulted in a rock-solid economic benefit of negative $40 billion to the U.S. economy. [...] |
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2011—Joe Walsh reportedly offered $3.5 million in election help to switch districts: | Wow. I've been mystified as to why Joe Walsh, the most visible trainwreck of the Republican freshman class, changed his mind and decided to seek reelection in the heavily-Democratic 8th CD rather than in the very red 14th where he'd long been planning to run. Walsh got deliciously screwed in redistricting and wasn't left with a lot of good options: The 14th is also home to fellow GOPer Randy Hultgren, so that would have meant a major primary battle. But the redrawn 8th isn't really a district that Republicans have much of a shot in, especially baggage-laden out-and-proud tea partiers. But it looks like we might finally have our explanation: Walsh — lured by the thought of an easier primary and the promise, according to top Illinois GOP officials who requested anonymity and influential Barrington Republican Jack Roeser, of $3.5 million in general election fundraising help from House Speaker John Boehner — will now make a bid in the recently drawn 8th District, roughly centered in Schaumburg and including Addison, Elk Grove, Hanover and Wheeling townships. Again, wow. Does Joe Walsh really think this money will be there for him? It's not like he'd even have much of a chance at victory even with such a huge infusion of coin, but I guess he's stupid enough to believe he might get it. However, I can't believe Boehner would be stupid enough to spend this kind of cash—or any cash—on a guy like Walsh in a district like this. And forget about the general election—Walsh might need the dough for the primary. |
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 | | Republicans mugged by reality on Election Day Posted: 09 Dec 2012 06:00 PM PST 
For Democrats, the 2012 presidential campaign has produced some delicious ironies. For starters, Mitt Romney's share of the final vote will come in at a memorable 47 percent, the same figure he used to disparage half the electorate as self-described "victims" bought off by "free stuff" and "gifts" from President Obama. But for pure schadenfreude, nothing approaches the cosmic payback of the Republicans' self-delusion on Election Day. That is, while most polling analysts predicted a comfortable Electoral College triumph for Barack Obama on Nov. 6, by all indications Team Romney and the GOP brain trust truly believed their own cooked-up numbers. That's what makes their subsequent shock and awe at Romney's crushing defeat all the more fitting. Because after years of slandering President Obama and misleading voters with myths about taxes, debt, health care, Iraq and so much else, on Election Day Republicans duped only themselves. To be sure, that karma starts—but certainly does not end with—Mitt Romney himself. The man so fond of proclaiming "I love data" was no friend of the truth. His gymnastic flip-flops and mind-bending mendacity aren't merely the stuff of legend, but produced a burgeoning cottage industry. (Just ask MSNBC's Steve Benen, whose chronicles of Romney's lies topped 970 entries and 40 volumes.) Virtually every major talking point Romney regurgitated—that Obama "made the economy worse," that Obama "doubled the national debt," that "you built that," that Obama "guts welfare reform," that a rescued Chrysler was moving Jeep manufacturing jobs to China—was demonstrably untrue. It's no wonder Romney's pollster Neil Newhouse described his campaign's guiding principle this way in August:
"We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers." That policy made Mitt Romney the perfect front man for the Republican Party. After all, when the number two Senate Republican Jon Kyl admitted in April 2011 that his demagoguery of Planned Parenthood was " not intended to be a factual statement," he could have been describing most GOP sound bites uttered before or since. That includes the gamut of what might be called the GOP's tactical lies, untruths designed to smear the president, his party, and their policies. Amplified by Fox News and the right-wing echo chamber, these frauds are transformed into conservative certainties. For example, this week Public Policy Polling found that "49% of GOP voters nationally say they think that ACORN stole the election for President Obama," an impressive figure given the organization no longer exists. Seventeen percent of registered voters and 30 percent of Republicans still believe Barack Obama is a Muslim. As Election Day approached, roughly half of GOP voters believed Obama was not born in the United States, with another quarter unsure. As it turns out, Mitt Romney eagerly courted the Birther vote, not just by accepting Donald Trump's cash and his endorsement, but with statements like this August joke in Michigan:
"Now I love being home in this place where Ann and I were raised, where both of us were born. Ann was born in Henry Ford Hospital. I was born in Harper Hospital. No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised." Other articles of tea party faith are just as bogus. (Continue reading below the fold.)  | | Republicans can't cover up policy failure with diversity outreach Posted: 09 Dec 2012 04:00 PM PST  California right-wing radio shock jocks John and Ken. Diversity! Immediately after the November election, I wrote about the overwhelming victory Democrats enjoyed in California, where Governor Brown's tax measure was passed, the union-busting Proposition 32 was soundly defeated, and Democrats claimed a supermajority in both chambers that will allow them, if they so choose, to pass budgets and submit initiatives for voter approval without a single Republican vote. Since the time of that writing, things have gotten even worse for Republicans in the legislature, as Democrats picked up two additional seats in vote canvassing in races which their candidates were trailing on election day: Assemblymember Cathleen Galgiani came back to beat her colleague Tom Berryhill for a hotly contested State Senate race to pad Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's margin. And lastly, in perhaps the shocker of elections in California, Democratic candidate Steve Fox completed a comeback on the very last day of canvassing when the Los Angeles County Registrar counted the last 1,601 votes in Assembly District 36. Fox gained 463 votes from that final update, giving him a 145-vote win in a traditionally Republican area and padding Speaker John Perez' majority to a 55-25 count in the 80-seat chamber. Republicans have held minority status in Sacramento ever since the turn of the millennium, but it's only now that panic is really starting to set in. Because of Proposition 13 in 1978, which began California's so-called "tax revolt," it takes a two-thirds vote of the legislature to pass tax increases or put referendums on the ballot; while still a minority, Republicans had always held at least one-third of one of the two chambers, which allowed them to effectively control the terms of the debate for budgetary issues and continue to extract major cuts and concessions every single election cycle. But as the extremist Republican agenda of decimating the public sector and social services continued to cripple the state, cracks started to show. During the red wave of 2010, California Democrats not only held all their seats; they actually expanded their legislative majorities. Meanwhile, team blue also swept every single statewide office that year, despite the millions of dollars that failed CEO's Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina spent trying to buy a governorship and Senate seat, respectively. In 2012, the dam burst. A variety of factors combined to create a Democratic wave in California: nonpartisan redistricting created a series of competitive districts; the creation of online voter registration led to a surge of turnout by young and minority voters; and voters who had had enough of budget cuts began to believe in a different vision for the state. It all adds up to one reality: when the rounds of special elections are over and all the vacancies are filled, Democrats will be able to do what they want in Sacramento without a single Republican vote, provided that they can keep their caucus unified. The shocking results are leading California Republicans to engage in the same refrain being used by their Washington counterparts. It's not the policies, they claim, but rather the message:
California Republicans in the Assembly looking to revive their party have a new team on their side. Assembly Republican leader Connie Conway on Thursday announced a new "Diversity Outreach Team" made up of government staff members. A news release says the group will focus on "helping strengthen Republican ties with women, ethnic communities and young people." "We know that most Californians share our common-sense ideas, but we need to do a better job communicating that message," Conway said in a statement. "To become the majority party again, we must not only talk to diverse communities but also listen and that's what our Diversity Outreach Team is all about." It takes a special brand of chutzpah to claim that most of a state's voters agree with you when you hold no statewide offices and less than a third of the seats in both houses of that state's legislature. But it also takes a special brand of either arrogance or blindness to believe that having your party be rendered entirely irrelevant in the most populous state in the nation is simply a messaging problem that can be fixed by token figures to head up a "diversity outreach" program aimed at all the various groups of voters who simply cannot stand what you represent. It was the unified opposition of the Republican Party, after all, that thwarted Speaker Perez' best efforts to eliminate a corporate tax break for multi-state businesses and use the money to cut the cost of higher education. Republican legislators and governors have consistently opposed efforts to make life easier for immigrants and their children. Republicans are the ones who have consistently worked to hold California's budget hostage to painful budget cuts to social services and health care programs for the poor. And no amount of "outreach" to women will help undo the damage done at the national level by Rush Limbaugh and the constant efforts to strip away reproductive rights. It's not that California Republicans haven't done a good enough job explaining their values. Quite the opposite: They've done too good a job. As a matter of fact, they even have their own equivalent of Rush Limbaugh in the form of John and Ken, archconservative radio shock jocks who enforce discipline against any Republican even contemplating lenience on tax issues or undocumented immigrants and who make a habit of crude insults against the very groups Republicans are now appointing a diversity team to reach. If Republicans want to know what future they have to look forward to, all they have to do is see what has happened to them in California. The only thing saving Republicans nationwide is simply that the country as a whole doesn't quite resemble the demographics of California. Yet.  | | Hey, House GOP—How many Native women will be raped today? Posted: 09 Dec 2012 02:00 PM PST Congressional Republicans headed by Eric Cantor are stalling on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The Senate has already passed a bill that increases protection for Native, LGBT and undocumented immigrant women. It seems the latest sticking point is our Native sisters.
VAWA, which has been reauthorized consistently for 18 years with little fanfare, was, for the first time, left to expire in Sept. 2011. The sticking point has been new protections for three particularly vulnerable groups: undocumented immigrants, members of the LGBT community and Native Americans. The additions are supported by Democrats and opposed by House Republicans, who are calling them politically driven. The Senate passed a bipartisan bill in April with the additional protections, and House Republicans passed their own bill in May that omitted those three provisions. Since then, the issue has gone nowhere... But two sources familiar with negotiations on VAWA, both of whom requested anonymity given the sensitive nature of talks, have told HuffPost that Cantor is refusing to accept any added protections for Native American women that would give expanded jurisdiction to tribes, and is pressuring Democrats to concede on that front. We cannot let this happen. We are the force who must protect ALL of our sisters. We have already seen and heard during the last election season what many Republicans think about rape. The unconscionable knuckle dragging on VAWA is yet another example. But too many of us are still not aware of and fighting for the group of women who are the most likely to be raped, assaulted or murdered. This is ugly. It is time we as a nation stop ignoring ugly. Don't look away. Please read on. How in the hell can we make what is invisible visible? The most invisible group in our country are Native Americans. Even more invisible is what is happening to Native American and Alaska Native women.
We are not powerless to act. We can raise our voices to demand justice and protection for our sisters. The Indian Law Resource Center, has been fighting for a stronger VAWA which will increase protections for Native women. They have an online petition. You can contact your representative in Congress. (Continue reading below the fold.)  | | Midday open thread Posted: 09 Dec 2012 12:00 PM PST  Once mighty lions' prides are thinning very substantially. - This week's journal Biodiversity and Conservation published a study showing African lion populations "dropped to as low as 32,000, down from hundreds of thousands estimated just 50 years ago." This is due mostly to habitat infringement by man, of course. At least beloved Andean bear Billie Jean at the National Zoo is pregnant with twins.
- Electric cars, so 2012: New York Daily News reports Honda, Toyota and Hyundai may have hydrogen-powered FCEV (fuel cell electric vehicle) vehicles on the market by 2015.
- Push Play: Federal Communications Commission tells the Federal Aviation Administration it's time to allow passengers to play with portable electronic devices during take-off and landing.
- Newark, NJ mayor Cory Booker is participating in Mario Batali's Food Stamp Challenge and for a week, he will eat only what he can buy with $29.78. This is slightly more than the $28 individuals receiving food stamps tend to spend on average. Booker shares his day to day experiences on a LinkedIn blog. He says, "anyone in Washington who proposes cutting [SNAP] should do it."
- Major Wes Rishe of the Oregon Air National Guard was honored to be invited to be a White House holiday "treemaster." Even better, he got to bring his boyfriend, Chris Schwarz. "It was the first time I felt comfortable doing this...because of Don't Ask, Don't Tell," Risher tells US News and World Report.
- The Nation runs a series of essays from L.R. Runner, Keith Ellison, Dorian T. Warren, Benjamin Todd Jealous on "How to Save the Democratic Party." I'm glad someone's on it, I've thought of nothing else since Nov. 7.
- Palace intrigue: A nurse privy to England's Prince William and wife Kate's pregnancy information was punked by Australian radio station djs on Tuesday and was found dead in an apparent suicide on Friday. So not worth it.
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- Better than expected jobs numbers didn't improve the mood of Wall Street's confidence fairy says Reuters.
- FAIL, Trenta: National Organization for Marriage's homophobic Dump Starbucks boycott campaign has been so devastating to the bottom line, the company has been forced to open another 1,500 new stores.
- Big Brother 4.0: Google TV, Microsoft, Comcast, and Verizon filing patent application for DVRs that spy on you while you watch TV. What could go wrong with that?
- XX in the NH: Local station WMUR hosts the all-female New Hampshire delegation to talk politics. It's like Sunday am talk in bizzarro world.
- American Airlines finally reached an agreement with their pilot's union on Friday. Seventy-four percent of union ballots cast approved of the new contract.
- Nice work if you can get it: Dick Morris raises money for his SuperPac, then uses his SuperPac to rent his own email list at least 46 occasions. Hey, if the GOP wants to waste their money on Dick Morris' email list, who are we to complain? We can only hope Morris will open a polling firm and an ad shop too.
  | | Public debt of the United States shall not be questioned: the 14th Amendment and the debt ceiling Posted: 09 Dec 2012 10:00 AM PST  Will these men destory the credit of the United States? The Obama administration does not believe that the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution allows the president to ignore the debt ceiling, White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Thursday. [...] Carney's comments dismissed the possibility that President Barack Obama could have a constitutional option to get around Congress if lawmakers failed to do so. - Reuters This statement by Carney requires some unpacking, both with regard to legal analysis and political bargaining tactics. First, the legal question. What are the relevant constitutional and legal provisions? Let's start with the Constitution. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution provides:
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow money on the credit of the United States; [...] To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures; [...] [Emphasis supplied.] Article 1 makes clear that it is the Congress that is empowered to "borrow money" and "pay the debts" of the United States. But of course, it is the Executive Branch, through the Treasury Department, that actually executes these functions. Nonetheless, Article 1 makes clear it is the Congress who is empowered to authorize such actions. But this does not end the Constitutional analysis. In 1868, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. While the most famous parts of the amendment are well known (the equal protection and due process clauses of Section 1 of the 14th Amendment), Section 4 of the amendment also provided for a constitutional guarantee of the payment of the debt of the United States: The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. [...] Thus, while Congress has the power to borrow and pay the debt of the United States, Section 4 of the 14th Amendment imposes on the entire government of the United States the obligation to pay debt authorized by law. In the 1935 case Perry v. United States (in dicta to be sure), the Supreme Court stated: The Fourteenth Amendment, in its fourth section, explicitly declares: "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, . . . shall not be questioned." While this provision was undoubtedly inspired by the desire to put beyond question the obligations of the Government issued during the Civil War, its language indicates a broader connotation. We regard it as confirmatory of a fundamental principle, which applies as well to the government bonds in question, and to others duly authorized by the Congress, as to those issued before the Amendment was adopted. Nor can we perceive any reason for not considering the expression "the validity of the public debt" as embracing whatever concerns the integrity of the public obligations. This raises two questions in the current situation regarding the debt ceiling, which was first enacted by the United States Congress during World War I. The first is this: (1) can the statutory debt ceiling trump the constitutional requirement that US debt be paid? The answer is obvious, no. The constitution is supreme to all legislative enactments. The second question is is the debt ceiling, on its face, unconstitutional? I would argue no because the existence of a debt ceiling does not, in and of itself, put into question the validity of US debt. However, as applied in the current circumstances, the debt ceiling does appear to be unconstitutional (a quasi "as applied" analysis you might say). So what if anything can the President do about this? First, let's consider what he is obligated to do under the Constitution. Article II defines the powers and responsibilities of the President. Beyond vesting the executive power in the President, Article II expressly provides that the President "shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed." The President's duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed applies both to the Constitution and duly enacted legislation of the Congress. The Congress has enacted legislation that will likely be in conflict shortly—the debt ceiling and appropriations that will cause the United States to exceed the debt ceiling. The spending authorizations postdate the debt ceiling enactment. What leeway if any, does the President have with regard to choosing what laws to "faithfully execute" here? In the normal course, the President would have a great deal of flexibility when faced with conflicting legislative directives. However, whether the President wishes to respect the debt ceiling is not the deciding question on this discrete point: the President does not have, in normal circumstances the power to borrow on behalf of the United States. The Constitution provides that power to the Congress. Thus, looking solely at this discrete issue, the President does not have the practical power to ignore the debt ceiling because he does not have the power to borrow on behalf of the United States. (But see the platinum coin option, and whether this constitutes a Congressional delegation of the borrowing power (and whether such delegation is constitutional) to the President). But what of Section 4 of the 14th Amendment? Doesn't the President have a duty to "faithfully execute" its provisions? Indeed he does. And, should the debt ceiling violate the 14th Amendment, it is my view that the President would have the duty to abide by Section 4 of the 14th Amendment, even if that requires violating the debt ceiling. And if that requires borrowing on behalf of the United States, it is my view that Section4 of the 14th Amendment would so empower the President. (Would the President be able to do this in a practical sense? To be discussed below the fold.) However, such duty would only arise when the validity of US debt is imperiled, to wit, when it is time to make debt service payments. And before the President could invoke this 14th Amendment power, he would have to, at least in my opinion, exhaust other remedies, including NOT "faithfully executing" the spending appropriations enacted by Congress, and instead insuring that US debt is timely serviced. That raises interesting legal questions, but more importantly, it raises interesting political bargaining questions. I'll explore these and other related issues on the flip.  | | What Obamacare means for businesses: Facts vs. fiction Posted: 09 Dec 2012 08:00 AM PST  It's the law. A number of high profile conservative business owners have made a lot of news lately over their threats to cut back workers hours and even lay people off as a result of Mitt Romney's election loss, and the certainty that the Affordable Care Act is going to be implemented. For some, those pronouncements provided a strong enough backlash among customers that they've had to backtrack, attempting to end the bad publicity by not being terrible employers. Those are the really high profile cases; the business owners who are obnoxious enough to publicly threaten their employees and to tell the world what rotten employers they are. Because of them, because of Fox News, because of a lack of good public education about the Affordable Care Act from the administration and supportive members of Congress, other business owners, especially small business owners, are left with the idea that maybe this Obamacare is just going to be too expensive and too burdensome. That's a big problem, especially for employees of small businesses. Because for those businesses there are some pretty good deals. Follow me over the jump to see how businesses, small and big, will be affected by Obamacare, and why some of the loudest complainers are the most full of it.
 | | Pining for Jeb Bush is the new saddest thing ever Posted: 09 Dec 2012 06:00 AM PST  Just stop. I'm sorry, but I think there's a special place in punditry purgatory for anyone still pining for Jeb!™ Bush, of all people, to step up and take the reins of his floundering, increasingly silly party: The only person capable of herding the party not only in a unified direction but also a direction that can solve (or at least address) the GOP's issues — demographic and otherwise — is the former governor of Florida. That doesn't mean that Bush, who is widely speculated as a potential 2016 presidential candidate, needs to decide whether or not he wants to run for president today — or even in the next year. What it does mean is that Bush could take a few concrete steps in the next few months to help rally a dispirited party regardless of whether he ultimately wants to lead it. What, precisely, suits Jeb freaking Bush for this job? Supposed moderation, in a party that reenacts the Salem witch trials whenever they perceive an unclean moderate might be stalking the halls of power? The powerful, cleansing force of the Bush family name—a name which Republicans, to this day, go out of their way to not mention? I realize the leadership situation in the GOP has at this point gone entirely Lord of the Flies on us, and each other, but invoking the name of not-George as a way to fix any of it almost seems like something one would do on a dare. Let us count the pumpkins on this Halloween-decorated porch: (Continue reading below the fold.)  | | Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: The ghost of 2016 Posted: 09 Dec 2012 04:45 AM PST 
Maintained by David Wasserman @redistrict  NY: That probably means @BarackObama national margin over @MittRomney will fall slightly short of 5M votes, but he'll hit ~51.1% — @Redistrict via web Carl Hiaasen: [Paul] Ryan, who's trying to extricate himself from the wreckage of the Romney campaign, is also running for the White House in 2016. In the absence of a Gaga-style makeover and mass voter amnesia, he can't win. This year he couldn't even deliver his home state of Wisconsin. [Marco] Rubio, on the other hand, will be worth watching once voters recover from the hangover of 2012. His appeal is potentially broader than that of anybody on the GOP horizon, which isn't saying much, but he's still their best hope. If the guys running the party were smart, here's what they'd do: They would put Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, in charge of writing an immigration-reform bill that included a pathway to citizenship for the millions of undocumented aliens already living and working in the United States. No single act would do more to convince Hispanic voters that the GOP wasn't innately hostile toward them. That's crucial because the White House cannot be won by a candidate who scares off Hispanics the way Romney and John McCain did. NY Times: Even if Republicans were to agree to Mr. Obama's core demand — that the top marginal income rates return to the Clinton-era levels of 36 percent and 39.6 percent after Dec. 31, rather than stay at the Bush-era rates of 33 percent and 35 percent — the additional revenue would be only about a quarter of the $1.6 trillion that Mr. Obama wants to collect over 10 years. That would be about half of the $800 billion that Republicans have said they would be willing to raise. That calculation alone suggests the scope of the other major tax issues to be negotiated beyond tax rates. And that is why many people in both parties remain unsure that a deal will come together before Jan. 1. Without agreement, more than $500 billion in automatic tax increases on all Americans and cuts in domestic and military programs will take hold, which could cause a recession if left in place for months, economists say. Leonard Pitts, Jr. on the 'read my lips - no new taxes' conundrum for republicans: A few words to ponder as we sail toward the fiscal cliff. Those words would be: "That was then, this is now." Strip away the false piety and legalistic hair splitting offered by Republican lawmakers rationalizing their decision to abandon a pledge that they will never ever, ever, ever vote to raise taxes, and that's pretty much what the explanation boils down to. Rep. Peter King says he understood the pledge, propounded by the almighty Grover Norquist and his group Americans for Tax Reform, to obligate him for only one term. Apparently, he thought it had to be renewed, like a driver's license. Sen. Lindsey Graham says that if Democrats agree to entitlement reform, "I will violate the pledge for the good of the country" — a stirring statement of patriotism and sacrifice that warms your heart like a midnight snack of jalapeño chili fries. In other words: bull twinkies. If you want the truth of why a trickle of GOP lawmakers is suddenly willing to blaspheme the holy scripture of their faith, it's simple. The pledge used to be politically expedient. Now it is not. Anne-Marie Slaughter on one aspect of Hillary's legacy and problems: Women of my generation remember well how big a step it was for Madeleine Albright to break the secretary of state glass ceiling in 1997. Just a decade later, by 2008, Carol Jenkins, then president of the Women's Media Center, was noting that "secretary of state has become the women's spot — a safe expected place for women to be." I'm not so sure about that. A recent news report quoted a "longtime foreign-policy expert who has worked for Democratic administrations" as saying that Rice's voice "is always right on the edge of a screech," reminding us that sexist caricatures of strong women as witches — or a word that rhymes with that — still abound. Another angle from the NY Times: Mrs. Clinton may find that her freedom comes with one huge constraint. The more serious she is about 2016, the less she can do — no frank, seen-it-all memoir; no clients, commissions or controversial positions that could prove problematic. She will be under heavy scrutiny even by Clinton standards, discovering what it means to be a supposedly private citizen in the age of Twitter. With the election four years away — a political eon — she will have to tend and protect her popularity, and she may find herself in a cushy kind of limbo, unable to make many decisions about her life until she makes the big one about another White House try. An interesting Michael Gerson article on Dorothy Day: The recent vote by America's Catholic bishops to move Dorothy Daytoward canonization was controversial, but mainly among those who manufacture controversy for a living. The media have enjoyed pointing out that Day's main advocate, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, is a traditionalist, while Day was a socialist who once had an abortion. It must be something like a conservative president nominating a raging liberal to the Supreme Court, except with eternal tenure at stake. The application of political categories to theological matters is usually a mistake. In this case, it exceeds the media's usual quota of religious ignorance. See Mark Sumner's Alternative Pundit Round-up here.  | You are subscribed to email updates from Daily Kos
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Parrot plots world domination from atop his motorized mech
Posted: 10 Dec 2012 03:20 AM PST
| Parrot plots world domination from atop his motorized mech Posted: 10 Dec 2012 03:09 AM PST Few things would be as horrific as a flock of parrots invading your hometown astride mechanized vehicles of death and cuteness. The good news is, they can’t kill us all, someone has to be around to hand out crackers and change the newspaper. If you’ve ever been to home where someone owns a bird or if you’ve ever owned a bird yourself, you know they can be noisy creatures constantly shrieking. A man named Andrew Gray has an African Grey Parrot that was a noisy creature. 
Apparently, Andrew tried all sorts of things to quiet the bird including an automated squirt gun that would spray the bird each time he squawked. However, as it turned out the parrot like to get wet. Plan foiled. So Andrew did what any bird owner would do, just prior to reaching for a BB gun, he built the parrot its own little parrot car. Andrew’s idea was to build a little car that his parrot could sit on that would allow the bird to follow his owner around the house. The wheeled vehicle has what appear to be a pair of remote-controlled monster truck tires in the front and freewheeling casters in the back. It has a perch for the bird to sit on and a joystick that the bird can grab with his beak to steer the vehicle around. The entire works reminds me quite a bit of one of those robotic vacuum cleaners. The BirdBuggy, as the creator calls it, even has a robotic mode to allow the little vehicle to automatically seek out its charging station using a camera integrated into the design. The buggy also has bump sensors and an infrared collision avoidance system. [via Jalopnik]
Parrot plots world domination from atop his motorized mech is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved. | | Motorola Mobility to leave South Korea next year Posted: 10 Dec 2012 02:51 AM PST Motorola Mobility will exit South Korea next year as part of its reorganization that has been ongoing since Google purchased the company. The only employees that Motorola Mobility will retain from the operations in South Korea include roughly 10% of its local research and development staff. Those people will be offered relocation packages. 
The restructuring will claim over 500 jobs in South Korea. Only the mobile devices segment of Motorola is leaving South Korea, two other business divisions including the Home Business and iDEN go-to-market will remain. So far, the restructuring after Google purchased the mobility portion of Motorola has resulted in 4000 employees losing their jobs and the discontinuation of most of Motorola mobility’s international websites. Motorola Mobility notes that it began notifying staff in Korea today that it plans to cease most operations within Korea. Motorola Mobility also declined to give any additional details on exactly how many employees are losing their jobs. The company did say that the 10% number refers to R&D staff only. However, the company confirms that R&D staff is the majority of the staff at the locations in South Korea. Motorola Mobility says that closing operations in South Korea is part of its plan to consolidate its research and development operations. The move is also hoped to help Motorola Mobility focus its attention on markets where it can compete most effectively. [via TheNextWeb]
Motorola Mobility to leave South Korea next year is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved. | | Johnson Controls withdraws from A123 auction Posted: 10 Dec 2012 02:31 AM PST In October, we reported that battery maker A123 Systems was filing bankruptcy. The battery maker produces the battery packs for the Fisker Karma among other things. In October, it looked like A123 Systems assets would be purchased by a company called Johnson Controls. 
A123 and Johnson had announced that they had entered an asset purchase agreement that was valued at $125 million. The deal would see Johnson Controls getting cathode powder manufacturing facilities in China and equity interests that A123 held in Shanghai Advanced Traction Battery Systems. Johnson Controls announced over the weekend that it has now withdrawn from the bankruptcy auction and will not be acquiring portions of A123. The reason Johnson Controls has withdrawn from the auction because it has declined to match a higher bid offered by a company called Wanxiang. A123 Systems has announced that they have selected Wanxiang’s bid of $257 million as the best offer for the total company. The bid offered by Johnson Controls was for the automotive and government assets along with NEC for the grid and commercial assets. The deal isn’t complete yet with the final sale pending approval from bankruptcy courts. A hearing on the deal is scheduled for December 11, 2012. Approval for the deal is also subject to review by the Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States and will require approval by the US government. There is no indication of when that approval might be given.
Johnson Controls withdraws from A123 auction is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved. | | IBM silicon nanophotonics speeds servers with 25Gbps light Posted: 10 Dec 2012 01:41 AM PST IBM has developed a light-based data transfer system delivering more than 25Gbps per channel, opening the door to chip-dense slabs of processing power that could speed up server performance, the internet, and more. The company’s research into silicon integrated nanophotonics addresses concerns that interconnects between increasingly powerful computers, such as mainframe servers, are unable to keep up with the speeds of the computers themselves. Instead of copper or even optical cables, IBM envisages on-chip optical routing, where light blasts data between dense, multi-layer computing hubs. 
“This future 3D-integated chip consists of several layers connected with each other with very dense and small pitch interlayer vias. The lower layer is a processor itself with many hundreds of individual cores. Memory layer (or layers) are bonded on top to provide fast access to local caches. On top of the stack is the Photonic layer with many thousands of individual optical devices (modulators, detectors, switches) as well as analogue electrical circuits (amplifiers, drivers, latches, etc.). The key role of a photonic layer is not only to provide point-to-point broad bandwidth optical link between different cores and/or the off-chip traffic, but also to route this traffic with an array of nanophotonic switches. Hence it is named Intra-chip optical network (ICON)” IBM
Optical interconnects are increasingly being used to link different server nodes, but by bringing the individual nodes into a single stack the delays involved in communication could be pared back even further. Off-chip optical communications would also be supported, to link the data-rich hubs together. Although the photonics system would be considerably faster than existing links – it supports multiplexing, joining multiple 25Gbps+ connections into one cable thanks to light wavelength splitting – IBM says it would also be cheaper thanks to straightforward manufacturing integration: “By adding a few processing modules into a high-performance 90nm CMOS fabrication line, a variety of silicon nanophotonics components such as wavelength division multiplexers (WDM), modulators, and detectors are integrated side-by-side with a CMOS electrical circuitry. As a result, single-chip optical communications transceivers can be manufactured in a conventional semiconductor foundry, providing significant cost reduction over traditional approaches” IBM
Technologies like the co-developed Thunderbolt from Intel and Apple have promised affordable light-based computing connections, but so far rely on more traditional copper-based links with optical versions further down the line. IBM says its system is “primed for commercial development” though warns it may take a few years before products could actually go on sale.
IBM silicon nanophotonics speeds servers with 25Gbps light is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved. | | Police slam Apple Maps after dodgy directions strand motorists Posted: 10 Dec 2012 01:01 AM PST Australian police have recommended motorists avoid using Apple Maps, after incorrect navigation data led to six people needing rescue after getting mistakenly directed to a National Park. The official iOS Maps app, which replaced Google Maps in iOS 6, locates Mildura, Victoria, over forty miles away, in the midst of the Murray Sunset National Park. “It’s quite a dangerous situation,” Victoria police inspector Simon Clemence told ABC Australia, pointing out that “if it was a 45-degree day, someone could actually die.” 
Although launched with great fanfare by Apple, user-feedback to Apple Maps was critical from the start. While US data was relatively complete, mapping information outside of the US was particularly underwhelming, with out-of-date businesses still listed, locations not aligned to their actual position, and occasionally misaligned mapping tiles. Apple has promised rapid updates, and indeed CEO Tim Cook said last week that server-side modifications had already been made to correct many of the issues. However, that hasn’t stopped several people in Australia from getting lost after over-reliance on the directions of the app. One couple, for instance, spent five hours in the National Park after their car blew a tire. “We had the shelter of the car,” driver Victoria Wake said, “but obviously you don’t want to keep running the car and putting the air conditioner because you don’t know how long you’re going to be there.” According to Clemence, it’s another indication that drivers are being too trusting of their technology, at the cost of common sense. “I’m sure they were getting a bit suspicious and wary by the time they realised that perhaps something was wrong, but a lot of people put too much faith in sat navs” he pointed out. ”We would be calling for people not to use the new Apple iPhone mapping system if they’re traveling from South Australia to Mildura.” Meanwhile, Google is believed to be readying its version of Google Maps for iOS for imminent release, with leaked whispers that the software is seeing the “finishing touches” applied. However, there’s some skepticism around whether Apple will approve the rival app for inclusion in the App Store.
Police slam Apple Maps after dodgy directions strand motorists is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved. | | NOOK Video store goes live in UK: First to support UltraViolet Posted: 10 Dec 2012 12:36 AM PST Barnes & Noble’s NOOK Video store has launched in the UK, offering TV and movie purchases and rental on the NOOK HD and HD+ tablets, in addition to UltraViolet digital copies of existing DVD and Blu-ray purchases. The freshly-opened store also features new content, after B&N inked new deals with BBC Worldwide, HBO, Sony Pictures, and others, in both standard- and high-definition. 
NBCUniversal, STARZ, and Warner Bros. Entertainment have also got content in the new store, and B&N will offer both streaming and direct-to-device downloads as playback options, depending on your connectivity and preference. Other studio deals are in the pipeline, B&N claims. NOOK Video is also the first digital provider to support UltraViolet in the UK. Intended to deliver the best of both physical and digital media, UltraViolet makes digital copies of movies available to buyers of select DVD and Blu-ray content. The NOOK HD and HD+ went on sale in the UK in late November, priced from £159 for the 7-inch HD and from £229 for the 9-inch HD+. NOOK Video is already available for NOOK HD/HD+ users in the US.
NOOK Video store goes live in UK: First to support UltraViolet is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved. | | EPA reviewing two Ford hybrids on questionable fuel economy claims Posted: 09 Dec 2012 02:22 PM PST Fuel economy is a big deal in today’s car industry. With gas prices as high as they are and a looming energy crisis, it seems that manufacturers and consumers would both like to start weening off gas. Of course, since fuel economy is big, we hear car commercials talking up estimated miles-per-gallon figures all the time, something that has Ford becoming the subject of an EPA review. 
According to The Los Angeles Times, the Environmental Protection Agency will be reviewing two Ford hybrids – the Fusion and the C-Max – which have been receiving some consumer complaints of late. Here’s the issue: Ford says that both cars achieve 47 miles-per-gallon, whether that’s city, highway, or combined. When Consumer Reports tested both vehicles, its results didn’t mesh with Ford’s claims. Consumer Reports said that the Fusion managed 35 mpg in the city, 41 MPG on the highway, and 39 MPG overall. On the other hand, the C-Max ended up with 35 MPG in a city setting, 38 for highways, and 39 overall. Those are good results for both cars, Consumer Reports said, but obviously not what Ford was touting. For its part, Ford maintains that reports from consumers vary, with some even exceeding the quoted 47 miles-per-gallon setting. That much seems true – depending on how you drive, your mileage will indeed vary, with some coming in below a manufacturer’s claim and others managing to beat it. In the end though, it’ll all come down to what the EPA decides, so we’ll be waiting to see what the Agency has to say after it has reviewed the data.
EPA reviewing two Ford hybrids on questionable fuel economy claims is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved. | | Newell talks Big Picture Mode, teases “turnkey” Valve PCs for living rooms Posted: 09 Dec 2012 01:54 PM PST Valve, as many of you already know, recently rolled Steam Big Picture Mode out of beta. For those who need a refresher, Big Picture Mode takes Steam and makes it play nice with larger screens, upping the resolution and allowing users to navigate the Steam interface using a controller. Despite the relatively simple idea, it would appear that Big Picture Mode has taken off, with Valve boss Gabe Newell telling Kotaku that the response from users has been “stronger than expected.” 
Looking into the not-so-distant future, what’s on deck for Valve is rolling Steam for Linux out of beta. After that’s done, Valve wants to make Big Picture Mode compatible with Linux. Doing those two things will apparently pave the way for Valve to develop its own hardware for the living room. Newell suggests that PC manufacturers will begin releasing packages aimed at the gamer, which would be computers that players could hook up to a TV and use to run programs like Steam. It would appear that Newell counts his own company among the ones that will be releasing these PC packages, which he points out will compete with the console world’s next generation offerings. Unfortunately, don’t expect Valve’s hardware – if it ever comes into existence, that is – to be an open system. “Well certainly our hardware will be a very controlled environment,” Newell said. “If you want more flexibility, you can always buy a more general purpose PC. For people who want a more turnkey solution, that’s what some people are really gonna want for their living room.” Of course, we’ve been hearing for a very long time that Valve will one day begin creating gaming hardware of its own, and we have to remember that Gabe Newell is a man who likes to talk about the future of technology, especially as it relates to games. In other words, this doesn’t necessarily count as confirmation that Valve is actually working on the oft-rumored Steam Box, but it is something fun to think about. We’ll just have to wait and see how this whole thing unfolds, so stay tuned.
Newell talks Big Picture Mode, teases “turnkey” Valve PCs for living rooms is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved. | | Apple TV getting Bluetooth keyboard functionality with iOS 6.1 Posted: 09 Dec 2012 01:02 PM PST For some, using an iOS device as a keyboard for Apple TV is good enough, but according to a new report from 9to5Mac, it won’t be long before Apple TV users have more options when it comes to keyboard input. Specifically, we’re talking about Bluetooth keyboard functionality, which is apparently a new feature that’s about to land in iOS 6.1. Spotted in the latest Apple TV beta, this new functionality will likely be a big hit with a lot of users. 
That’s because the new Bluetooth menu allows you to completely control Apple TV with a wireless keyboard, no longer requiring that you use the remote or an iOS device for keyboard input. 9to5Mac claims that tracking down the content you want to watch “becomes a thousand times easier” when you’re using a physical keyboard, so there’s plenty of reason to be excited. Unfortunately, at this point in time it looks like Bluetooth pairing is rather limited. For instance, it appears that only keyboards are supported here, as Bluetooth speakers and mice wouldn’t play nice with Apple TV. The same is true for connecting a Mac computer through Bluetooth – it’s a no go. Never fear though, because this functionality could be the first step in a larger Bluetooth roll out for Apple. Even better, it could potentially allow third parties to develop their own Bluetooth-based remotes for Apple TV, so this is definitely one feature to watch. 
This functionality is available with second and third generation Apple TV boxes, so if you’re still rocking a first generation box, you’re unfortunately being left out in the cold. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about Bluetooth keyboard support for Apple TV, remember, which means that the time may finally be here. Check out our story timeline below for more on Apple TV!
Apple TV getting Bluetooth keyboard functionality with iOS 6.1 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved. | | Iomega px2-300d NAS Review Posted: 09 Dec 2012 11:13 AM PST Iomega's StorCenter px2-300d is a NAS unit aimed at businesses and the prosumer crowd, offering features beneficial to both types of user. This particular unit is the 4TB model, but the device is available in up to 6TB varieties, all of which share the same features. While one would initially be tempted to view the px2-300d as a NAS device tailored to the SMB environment, I contend that it also makes an excellent personal server, offering a pleasant mix of appealing design, quiet hardware, easy-to-use software, and high-end functionality. Whether you're a business owner looking for a way to keep your data safe or a prosumer in need a sophisticated personal server, read our full review of the px2-300d to see how the device holds up. 
Hardware Upon picking up the px2-300d, the first thing you notice is that it feels durable; so durable, in fact, I imagine it could take a swift kick and come out of the attack unaffected. The body is constructed from sheet metal, while the faceplate and hard-drive cover are constructed from matte plastic. The back of the unit is solid metal, as is the bottom, which is adorned with four large rubber feet. Overall, the px2 feels like a battle tank of a device, more than durable enough to handle being placed in a potentially precarious location, such as under a desk or atop a busy work surface. The unit measures 8.91-inches x 4.97-inches x 8.18-inches, and weighs in at almost 9lbs with both hard-drives in place. The NAS is a two-bay unit, with both hot swappable hard-drives housed behind a grated door. You can lock the door, but you cannot lock the individual drives in place; this is rather disappointing, as the door is flimsy, and offers little protection from someone with a sturdy prying tool and ill intent. The hard-drives are server class, while the drive carrier supports both 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drives. 
The LCD is large enough to display a decent amount of information, but not so large as to be bothersome; you can place the px2 in an entertainment system setup between the DVR and Blu-ray players, for example, and its display won't stand out obtrusively among the other devices' displays. There are two buttons to the right of the LCD that allow for toggling through the various screens and options. When left alone, the display casually alternates between displaying the network IP address, used/available capacity, and the date and time. 
The px2 runs an Intel D525 Atom dual-core 1.8GHz processor with 2GB of RAM, which gives it a combination of decent power and low energy consumption. You have access to one USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, as well as two gigabit ethernet ports. There is both IEEE 802.3 and IEEE 802.3u LAN standard support, along with RAID 0, 1, and a rotational vibration sensor. Helping make the px2 an all-around accessible device is a VGA port, allowing the device to be used with an external monitor via the MindTree software. There's a USB port conveniently located on the front of the device, as well. Setup Setup is simple and fast; the time from when you plug the device in and turn it on to when you’ve transferred your first file is about five minutes. For the px2 itself, it has an exceptionally long power adapter and includes an ethernet cable, which you’ll plug into your router or modem. The device connected to the network almost instantaneously, displaying the IP address on its LCD. From there, users can access the drive via their browser by going to "http://px2-300d," where they can configure the device, install apps, and more. The device supports multiple network file protocols, including NFS (Unix/Linux), AFP/Bonjour (Apple), SMB/Rally/CIFS (Microsoft), FTP, TFTP, and SFTP. 
Software Users will need to install the Iomega Storage Manager application, which can be done via the installation CD included with the drive or by downloading the application from the company's website. Once installed, the application found the px2-300d immediately. A variety of categories are provided under "Shares," including Backups, Documents, etc. Each category is assigned its own drive letter. You can transfer files via the Storage Manager or directly via Windows Explorer. Either way, transferring a 300MB file took only a few seconds. 
Configuring the device is done via a Web browser by going to "http://px2-300d." It's from here you can install various applications to the device via Application Manager and access the different features. One of the first things I installed was McAfee, a process as simple as clicking on the McAfee icon and verifying that I wanted to install it. Once installed, users can configure system events and schedule tasks, among other things; this provides real-time McAfee VirusScan Enterprise protection, and, according to Iomega, is the only NAS in its class that does so. 
Users can set up the px2-300d to function as a cloud storage solution using the Iomega Personal Cloud, which allows individuals to remote access the NAS via the Web from wherever they are located. Included is a variety of other cloud solutions, including Amazon S3, Mozy Pro, EMC Avamar data duplication, and EMC Atmos. Apple users will be pleased with the ease at which Time Machine integration can be set up. 
One particularly nice feature is the complete implementation of social networking tools. With the px2, users can parse their various files into folders that are tied to social networking accounts, such as Facebook, where the files will then be automatically uploaded. As with the ix2-200 and other Iomega NAS devices, the px2 has UPnP DLNA for media streaming. The unit is compatible with virtualization environments, as well, including VMware and XenServer. While the software options are plentiful, perhaps one of the top features is the integration of SecureMind Surveillance Manager. With this application, the NAS can be used as part of a rather sophisticated surveillance system, supporting up to 16 cameras (the ix4-300d only supports 8 cameras). Via the SecureMind software, users can live monitor multiple channels, record videos, and quickly playback a recorded video. Included with the px2-300d is a single camera license to get you started. Combining it all together, the px2 makes a nice, cohesive, and easy-to-use surveillance base upon which a business (or private user) can setup their security system. 
Issues While the px2-300d ran very well, it did have this particular habit of restructuring data protection seemingly every time the device was powered off, then turned on again. If you remove one of the drives while the unit is running, you'll get an error (obviously), followed by restructured data protection once you reinsert the drive. This is fine. However, multiple times upon leaving the drives in place and shutting the unit down properly, it stated that it was restructuring data protection upon turning the device back on. Fortunately, this can be skipped manually by pressing the top button on the button panel, because total restructuring time averaged three hours. This isn’t much of an issue, considering that the NAS device will be up and running most of the time. Wrap-up There are many cloud storage options aimed at every level of need. While the 4TB px2's price ($999) will be prohibitive for many users who need a storage solution on the personal level, the benefits of using a NAS unit rather than cloud storage are relevant. Aside from the obvious issues of security and being in possession of the physical hardware harboring your data, you get faster transfer speeds and the ability to easily make data available to users on your network. Businesses will find the px2-300d particularly appealing because, as far as the level of features go, the price is rather modest, and the unit does what it claims to do, and it does it well. For the prosumer, the px2 offers a host of features that make it more than some network-accessible hard drives. Overall, the px2-300d is an all-around excellent storage device. It runs relatively quiet when not crunching away at data, looks nice intermingled in with other hardware, and, most importantly, offers many different features that cover a broad enough spectrum to make this NAS an ideal choice for a variety of different users. The small business looking for a way to store files and run surveillance, the medium-sized business that needs a way for a subset of workers to access files via the cloud, and the prosumer who wants a personal server that covers all the bases of home-network storage needs will find the Iomega px2-300d suitable. The diskless model is priced at $499.99; it is also available in 2TB ($699.99), 4TB ($999.99), and 6TB ($1,199.99) varieties.                
Iomega px2-300d NAS Review is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved. | | Twitter photo filters tipped for holidays: Has Dorsey teased them already? Posted: 09 Dec 2012 07:42 AM PST The increasingly bitter rivalry between Twitter and Instagram may reach a peak before New Year celebrations kick off, sources hint, with the microblogging platform supposedly readying its own suite of photo filters for imminent launch. Twitter is aiming to reveal a selection of image tweaking tools that can fettle amateur shutterbugs’ shots prior to sharing, insiders tell AllThingsD, before 2012 is out, with a new version of the mobile app in testing. The results of it might already be in front of us: Twitter chairman Jack Dorsey is tipped to be using the filters on recently shared black-and-white images. 
If true, the new feature would follow Instagram’s moves to drive more traffic to its own user profiles. The company blocked Instagram images from showing up correctly in Twitter’s “cards” layout last week, a strategy which although initially suspected to be an error, was later confirmed to be a strategic decision on Facebook-owned Instagram’s part. Talk of a set of official Twitter photo tools broke earlier in the year, with insiders suggesting the 140-character social service had already planned to encroach on Instagram’s turf. The appeal of the image sharing market – which saw, for instance, in excess of 200 Thanksgiving-themed shots shared through Instagram every second on the US public holiday – has not been lost on Facebook, either, though Zuckerberg & Co. have insisted that Instagram will remain a distinct entity for the time being. Twitter has declined to comment on the filter whispers, though chairman Jack Dorsey may have been flaunting the new functionality in our faces already. Multiple filtered images shared through his own Twitter account show evidence of editing, including an image of a plane wing posted last week. With Christmas and New Year festivities inevitably seeing plenty of photo-taking, an accelerated launch of Twitter’s own filter features is certainly understandable. However, given that Christmas is only two weeks away, the company has little time left to deliver the polish users will demand if seasonal sharing is to go smoothly.
Twitter photo filters tipped for holidays: Has Dorsey teased them already? is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Mitt in the Afterlife
Posted: 10 Dec 2012 01:53 AM PST
| Mitt in the Afterlife Posted: 09 Dec 2012 11:17 PM PST Certainly you've seen them, or at least one -- that steady drumbeat of oddly normal and yet somehow surreal pictures of post-defeat Mitt Romney that keep showing up everywhere. Here, gassing up the minivan with hair and posture right out of a screen test for The Hangover 5. There, with the family at the local Pizza joint. Later in rollercoaster mode at Disneyland. He was 2 feet away. #MittRomney twitter.com/erinafoslid/st... — erin a. foslid (@erinafoslid) December 1, 2012
Is it something about Romney? Or is this just the first post-non-presidency of the Twitter era. Because we didn't see anything remotely like this with John Kerry or John McCain or Al Gore for that matter. More than just a Twitter meme, it's like a 21st century version of the old post-demise Elvis sighting from the late 70s and early 80s. And I think that's because Romney's vanished entirely from official media existence -- no television interviews or appearances -- and yet he's seemingly everywhere where ordinary people can get a snap of him with the smartphone. I saw Mitt Romney wearing khaki shorts and buying cereal so I wore khaki shorts and bought cereal. twitter.com/reabs_/status/... — Shelby (@reabs_) November 27, 2012
In perfect Buzzfeed fashion Andrew Kaczynski put together a list of "15 People Who Just Saw Mitt Romney" and reported it on Twitter. As the phenomenon has grown though it's become clear that at least a decent number of these people couldn't possibly have actually seen Romney. I saw Romney at a midnight 7/11 in Tampa. I saw him at a Hooters in Boise. I saw him working on a fishing boat outside of Delacroix. I saw him shoot a man in Reno just to watch him die. Part of what gets my attention about these photos -- and perhaps others are the same way -- is that Romney seems a lot more normal in his political afterlife than he did before November 7th. Clearly political defeat has been a transformative experience for Romney's hair if nothing else. But no pictures yet of Mitt hopping off the car elevator or berating the staff on the private jet. It's all actually kind of down to earth for a guy worth a few hundred million dollars. It's all oddly conventional and domestic. And yet it's always Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney buying cereal at the CVS. Really? Or at a prize fight? What famous person without ties to some criminal underworld have you seen ringside at a prize fight since the mid-1980s? Mitt Romney's face when Manny Pacquiao got knocked out. via @lesamoursmusic twitter.com/BuzzFeedAndrew... — Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) December 9, 2012
And that's the thing. Romney's somehow like the anti-Zelig. He's seemingly everywhere. Popping up in the oddest places and yet not remotely ever fitting in or blending in. In every new setting he sticks out palpably as Mitt Romney. Not 'Where's Waldo' but 'Here's Waldo!' Right there. You can't miss him.     | | My Friend Emily Posted: 09 Dec 2012 06:37 PM PST Over about exactly 12 years of running TPM, I've exchanged emails with and gotten to know thousands of readers. Some quite well. Many you've read as TPM Reader this or that as I reprint their emails in the Editor's Blog. One of the most special has been Emily Meier, a writer who I've been corresponding with for I really don't know how long, but for many years. Emily's been sick for a number of years. But it's done remarkably little to slow her down until quite recently. And for much of that time she's been at work on a Civil War novel entitled Suite Harmonic: A Civil War Novel of Rediscovery. In a recent email she described it to me as a novel about the "literature of the Civil War, 19th century Irish-American immigration, and the history of communalism in the 19th century, especially New Harmony, IN which brought many innovations, incuding the U.S. Geological Society and Smithsonian and, really, kindergartens and various sccience and artistic endeavors." In the last couple months Emily's health has taken a particularly grave turn. Since I lost my mother when I was very young and Emily is give or take something like the age my mother would be today I can confess to you what I really haven't been able to confess to her that this has made it more challenging than I'd like to admit to maintain the correspondence in quite the same way. What's she's done is post a portion of the manuscript on her site. And tonight I wanted to share it with you in this post. I hope some of you will take a moment to look at Emily's work, enter for a few moments or maybe longer into the lives of America's past and also learn a little more about her.   | You are subscribed to email updates from Talking Points Memo
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