Wild Weather On The Way

By Carol Erickson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) ? The weather needs a new calendar. It?s acting like April even though we are deep into winter.

This afternoon temperatures reached the upper 60?s in advance of a cold front so strong that it could pull warmth to that level into the area.

Tonight the warm and cold air fight it out, with our area on the receiving end of heavy rain and strong, gusty winds.

A flash flood watch for an inch or more of rain covers Pennsylvania and a high wind warning for gusts between 40 and 60 mph covers New Jersey and Delaware.

Loose objects could become missiles in the wind and the recently frozen ground and waterways could flood from runoff.

By sunrise, it?s a whole other story.

The weather and calendar match, temperatures will fall through the 30?s, the winds will blow to about 45 mph and we await an even colder Friday with a moisture starved clipper system hoping to drop a few snow flurries.

The weekend looks equally cold.

Source: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/01/30/wild-weather-on-the-way/

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Deal of the Day ? Toshiba Portege Z935-ST3N01 Core i3 Ultrabook

LogicBUY’s Deal for Wednesday is the 13.3″?Toshiba Portege Z935 series Ultrabooks, starting at just?$779.99. ?Features: Model # Z935-ST3N01 with 1.8GHz?Core i3-3217U processor 6GB DDR3 128GB SSD 13.3″ 1366 X 768 display 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 3 USB ports (1 USB 3.0) Windows 8 OS Featured model is $899.99 – $120 savings = $779.99 with [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/01/30/deal-of-the-day-toshiba-portege-z935-st3n01-core-i3-ultrabook/

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Voucher expansion would undermine public education ? School ...

Mitch Daniels and Tony Bennett sold Indiana?s voucher program with the argument that children shouldn?t be stuck in failing schools because their parents can?t afford anything better ? that children have a right to a good education ?regardless of background, income or zip code.?

But the changes now being pushed by Gov. Mike Pence and some legislators suggest the program has nothing to do with social justice. They want to award vouchers to students who have never enrolled in public schools ? and in some cases, to families that clearly don?t need help paying private school tuition.

Vic Smith of the Indiana Coalition for Public Education isn?t exaggerating when he writes that these proposals are steps toward a universal voucher system, ?a goal that would eventually undermine and marginalize the non-partisan, non-sectarian public schools that for over a hundred years have brought people from all walks of life together in our communities and have undergirded our democracy with citizenship education and our economy with college and career readiness.?

The first test is Senate Bill 184, scheduled for a vote today in the Senate Education and Career Development Committee. It would provide vouchers to siblings of previous voucher students, even if they haven?t met the current requirement of first attending public schools.

The Indiana voucher program, billed as the nation?s most extensive when it was adopted in 2011, provides public funding for low and moderate-income families to send their children to private schools, most of which are religious schools. The family income cutoff is 277 percent of the federal poverty level ? about $67,000 for a family of four.

Pence, in his State of the State address, said that?s not enough of a handout and the state should go further. He said it would be a ?good start? to: 1) eliminate the requirement that students spend a year in a public school to qualify; and 2) award vouchers to children with special needs, children in foster care and children from military families regardless of family income.

House Bill 1003 partially matches Pence?s proposal. Sponsored by Indianapolis Republican Robert Behning, chairman of the House Education Committee, it would give vouchers to special-needs children, foster children and the children of both active-duty and former military personnel, without any income requirement. In other words, if you?ve ever spent time in the military, taxpayers will subsidize your child?s private school tuition, period.

Like SB 184, Behning?s bill would provide vouchers on demand to siblings of current voucher students. It would let students keep their vouchers once they qualify, even if their family income rises to 300 percent of the threshold for reduced-price school lunches. For a family of four, that?s $129,000 a year ? nearly three times the state?s median household income.

This is very different from the concept that then-Gov. Daniels and then-Superintendent Bennett described when they got lawmakers to approve the voucher program. Daniels said on several occasions that it was only fair to expect students to attend public schools for a year before qualifying for a voucher ? that public schools should get a chance to do right before the state helps families opt for private schools.

Bennett, now the Florida commissioner of education, told the Indianapolis Star?s Scott Elliott that his support for vouchers is ?really about social justice.? He said poor parents should have the same opportunity to choose their kids? schools that he and his wife would have.

But Pence, Behning and House Speaker Brian Bosma are moving toward straight-up taxpayer funding of private and religious education on equal footing with public schools ? with the significant difference that public schools must serve all students while voucher-funded private schools may reject students on the basis of religion, disability, gender, IQ, previous school performance or whether they?re a good ?fit.?

That?s not the deal that Daniels and Bennett were selling in 2011. Or is it?

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Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | Gov. Mike Pence, Indiana legislature, vouchers

Source: http://inschoolmatters.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/voucher-expansion-would-undermine-public-education/

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The Engadget Interview: Daniel Graf talks Google Maps for iOS (video)

"It has been a wonderful success for us," says Daniel Graf about Google Maps for iOS. Originally from Switzerland, Graf worked for Leica and Philips, and went on to co-found video service Kyte before landing at Google in 2011. There, he ran the mobile apps lab before taking the role of director of Google Maps for mobile, where he oversees the Android and iOS versions of the iconic mapping app. We recently got the chance to spend a few minutes with Graf at Google's Mountain View headquarters to discuss the iOS app, which launched last December. He's clearly passionate and proud of his work: "It has been an interesting project, because we got the opportunity to start from scratch." Graf explains that the Android version "is actually seven years of history, seven years of product, [...] seven years of user experience. On iOS, we didn't have those seven years so that gave us a chance to take a step back and say. 'Hey, what would be the next-generation mobile mapping experience?'" Read on after the break.

With iOS 6, Apple ended its partnership with Google and experienced some growing pains with its own mapping app. Still, even in iOS 5, the app only offered a fraction of the functionality provided by Google Maps for Android -- lacking voice guidance and 3D views, for example. Graf and his team set out to create an iOS app that wouldn't just catch up with the Android version, but would also showcase the direction the company was taking in terms of user experience. "When Larry [Page] came on board as CEO two years ago, he talked about beautiful experiences and we had very functional and very useful experiences and in term of beauty I think there was work to do," says Graf. "Now two years later if you actually use our product on desktop, on Android, on iOS there's a theme there ... there's a design language there, and I would say actually they're beautiful."

It's not just Google Maps for iOS that's been revamped. Over the past nine months, the company's been busy updating its mobile apps across the board with a more cohesive look and feel. It all started with Google Now -- launched alongside Jelly Bean at Google I/O -- followed by Google+ on both platforms, and more recently GMail and Google Maps on iOS. Interestingly, the Android version has not (yet) been updated to reflect the new design language. The iOS app makes extensive use of info sheets similar to those used in Google Now. "Given the feedback we have gotten from our audience about the user experience here, I would say this is kind of the direction we want to move forward," says Graf. "It's way more use-case driven ... It should actually happen based on your actions."

We asked Graf what challenges his team encountered while building Google Maps for iOS. "With a mapping app, it's actually similar to a gaming app because the map you see here, the 3D rendering we have here, so you need a 3D renderer; you need an engine for that, and that was new for us -- a 3D renderer for iOS." The iOS app is written in Objective C (versus Java on Android) and required fine-tuning: "To get that to a performance [level] where we have it now, that was definitely a technical challenge." But there was another hurdle on iOS: "There's no common login infrastructure like we have on Android -- hopefully that's coming." When pressed whether this is a political issue (related to Apple's stringent app requirements) Graf mentions that "it's a business decision, but it's a technical challenge as well."

Despite being more polished than its Android counterpart, Google Maps for iOS lacks some features, such as Latitude (it's a separate app). Graf admits that "it would be quite interesting to see your friends on the map within Google Maps for mobile." For this version, however, it was important to simplify: "We obviously wanted this app out before the holidays, which we managed to do in December, so there was a lot of time pressure to get it out but we didn't want to make compromises so we said is let's focus on the key use cases which I think we nailed." We inquired about how much Google Maps development is cross-platform. "Of course we have an Android team; we have an iOS team; we have different platform teams and they work very closely together," says Graf. "You do want basically the best experience possible for a platform, so you probably have to develop native." Watch the full video interview above.

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Tablets, Software, Mobile, Apple, Google

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/29/daniel-graf-interview-google-maps-ios/

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Vineit Lets You Easily Share Vine Videos on Tumblr

Vineit is a new tool that lets you share videos from Twitter's video sharing service Vine on Tumblr.

Vineit is very simple to use: open the project's homepage, and drag the "Vineit" button to your bookmarks toolbar. Then, when you see a vine video, simply click on that link, and you'll share it on Tumblr.

[More from Mashable: What Makes Vine So Hot?]

If there are no Vine videos on the page, the tool will return an error.

Marrying Tumblr and Vine is a logical step, since Tumblr has become the go-to service for images and animated gifs (usually surrounding a certain topic), and we don't doubt many users will find it helpful.

[More from Mashable: 5 iPhone Tripods for Perfect Vine Videos]

Vineit joins the fast-growing army of Vine-related tools. For example, VineGifR is a Mac app that turns a Vine URL into an animated GIF file, and Just Vined is a page that lets you see the last 20 videos posted on Vine.

Click here to view the gallery: How To Use Vine

Photo by Emily Price, Mashable

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vineit-lets-easily-share-vine-videos-tumblr-032057643.html

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$100,000 worth of cocaine seized by London police

Police have arrested a man and woman after seizing about $100,000 worth of cocaine in the city's north end.

"It is a significant seizure and will have an impact on the streets in relation to the drug culture," said London Police Const. Ken Steeves.

The pair was arrested after a raid on Capulet Lane, he said. Police have charged a 43-year-old man with trafficking and charges are pending against the 43-year-old woman.

Source: http://www.lfpress.com/2013/01/30/100000-worth-of-cocaine-seized-by-london-police

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Snap Any Window to Half the Screen Size in Windows 7

The community Taskforce initiative has now come to a close.
Thanks to everyone who made thoughtful and genuine contributions to the website.
All submissions will be kept publically available for the forseeable future for reference purposes.

This website is part of the community Taskforce initiative

Submission details

Snap Any Window to Half the Screen Size in Windows 7

Submitted by lenida on April 14, 2010 to Usability

Problem: I have a 23inch monitor and its somewhat difficult for me to drug a window across the screen so that it can be half the screen size.

Solution: There should be a link or a right click option on the menu bar to allow users to do that.

Severity: Low

Impact: Low

Status: Not fixed

Discussion (5 comments)

You might also be interested in...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/windows7taskforce/~3/XolXIj-Xyuo/3959

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SRC directive hits Tennis Zimbabwe | David Coltart (Official Website)

Originally published in

Wednesday ? January 30, 2013 ? by David Coltart

News Day

By Daniel Nhakaniso

30 January 2013

TENNIS ZIMBABWE (TZ) is set to engage the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) as one of the sports associations set to be affected by a directive which requires selectors to have played at their highest level of competition in the particular discipline.

The directive comes into effect on Friday and could see TZ being forced to overhaul its selection committee.

Initial reports had suggested that only cricket, triathlon and lawn bowls would be affected by the directive, but tennis also looks set to be affected.

TZ has a selection committee assigned to selecting the Davis Cup team and representative junior sides for various regional and international tournaments.

The current TZ selection committee is headed by the association?s former TZ vice-president Tanya Chinamo as the convener.

Other members of the committee include Martin Lock, Petty Tshatedi, Martin Dzuwa, Freeman Nyamunokora and Petros Ndlovu.

While Lock and Dzuwa represented Zimbabwe in the Davis Cup, other members of the committee did not represent the country at the highest level.

Selection convener Chinamo played at junior level in the ?80s, the same level played by coaches Nyamunokora and Ndlovu, while Tshatedi did not represent Zimbabwe at any stage.

This is in conflict with the recently amended directive which states that: ?not less than fifty percent (50%) of the selectors shall have represented Zimbabwe as athletes/players at the senior level in the particular sport discipline?.

The directive further states that: ?All conveners shall be former national team players and where there is none former national team players on the selection panel, he/she shall have coaching experience or some technical expertise in the particular sport discipline.?

In the case of junior teams, the directive states that ?. . . a person should have represented Zimbabwe as a player/athlete at a level not lower than the one to which the selection pertains?.
In an interview with NewsDay Sport yesterday, TZ vice-
president Regis Bhunu said they would seek audience on the directive with the SRC.

?There are still some ongoing deliberations on the issue and we are still engaging the SRC. We feel that while the directive is workable in other disciplines, it might be a different case with local tennis. For instance, the composition of the selection committee is guided by our constitution which is approved by the SRC, so before we make any changes we would have to consult them and see if we can map out the way forward together.?

Current convener Chinamo said dialogue was the way forward.

?I think dialogue is the way forward. We are not resisting the directive. In fact, we have always enjoyed very good working relations with the SRC. We are going to use dialogue in order to reconcile the SRC directive and our current selection criteria. I cannot make any further comments beyond that until we have met with the SRC,? Chinamo said.

Zimbabwe Cricket convenor Givemore Makoni has cried foul over the directive, insisting it is aimed at sidelining him from the game and has accused Education, Sport, Arts and Culture minister David Coltart of a deliberate plot to deny ZC a chance to appoint a black coach for the senior team.

Coltart has adamantly denied the charge.

Posted in: Approved, Press reports, Sport

Source: http://davidcoltart.com/2013/01/src-directive-hits-tennis-zimbabwe/

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Three mystery Samsung Galaxy Tab profiles spotted: GT-P8200 model houses 2,560 x 1,600 display?

While we know Samsung's planning plenty for us to see in Barcelona in a few weeks, we're still not certain on the specifics. Perhaps, then, it's got a handful of tablets for us. That's what these handful of User Agent profiles purport to show us. The model numbers GT-P3200, GT-P5200 and the GT-P8200 suggest that they'll join the Galaxy Tab family, although these profiles only give us a little detail to work on. The GT-P3200 appears to be the entry-level slab, with a 1,024 x 600 resolution more suited to tablets of yesteryear. This is cranked up to 1,280 x 800 for the P5200, while the GT-P8200 will apparently match the Nexus 10's pin-sharp 2,560 x 1,600 display.

Unfortunately, there's nothing here to confirm screen-size, processing punch or much else, although we managed to sniff out an AnTuTu benchmark for the GT-P8200 that reckons it'll house a (presumably multicore) 1.7GHz processor and Android 4.2. However, like these User Agent Profiles, we're looking at these results with a suspicious glare until something more official surfaces. Between the trio, there's likely to be a division between two different sizes of tablet -- possibly either side of that Galaxy Note 8 that's set to be make an appearance next month. Check out the GT-P8200's short-but-sweet benchmark listing after the break.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/30/three-mystery-samsung-galaxy-tab-profiles-spotted/

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Johnny Depp Is 'F---ing Beautiful' In 'Lone Ranger'

Armie Hammer tells MTV News that Depp 'knows what he does well, and he does it well for sure.'
By Josh Wigler

Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp in "Lone Ranger"
Photo: Disney

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1700945/johnny-depp-armie-hammer-lone-ranger-preview.jhtml

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'Scary': Up to 50 million home network devices vulnerable to hack

11 hrs.

Jim Finkle , Reuters

BOSTON (Reuters) - Bugs in widely used networking technology expose tens of millions of personal computers, printers and storage drives to attack by hackers over the regular Internet, researchers with a security software maker said.?

The problem lies in computer routers and other networking equipment that use a commonly employed standard known as Universal Plug and Play or UPnP. UPnP makes it easy for networks to identify and communicate with equipment, reducing the amount of work it takes to set up networks.?

Security software maker Rapid7 said in a white paper to be released Tuesday that it discovered between 40 million and 50 million devices that were vulnerable to attack due to three separate sets of problems that the firm's researchers have identified with the UPnP standard.

The long list of devices includes products from manufacturers including Belkin, D-Link, Cisco's Linksys division and Netgear.?

Representatives for Belkin, D-Link, Linksys and Netgear could not be reached for comment on Monday evening.?

Chris Wysopal, chief technology officer of security software firm Veracode, said he believed that publication of Rapid7's findings would draw widespread attention to the still emerging area of UPnP security, prompting other security researchers to search for more bugs in UPnP.

"This definitely falls into the scary category," said Wysopal, who reviewed Rapid7's findings ahead of their publication. "There is going to be a lot more research on this. And the follow-on research could be a lot scarier."?

Rapid7 has privately alerted electronics makers about the problem through the CERT Coordination Center, a group at the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute that helps researchers report vulnerabilities to affected companies.?

"This is the most pervasive bug I've ever seen," said HD Moore, chief technology officer for Rapid7. He discussed the research with Reuters late on Monday.

Moore, who created a widely used platform known as Metasploit that allows security experts to simulate network attacks, said that he expected CERT to release a public warning about the flaw on Tuesday. A spokesman for the CERT Coordination Center declined to comment.?

A source with a networking equipment maker confirmed they had been alerted that CERT would issue an advisory on Tuesday and that companies were preparing to respond.?

Taking control
The flaws could allow hackers to access confidential files, steal passwords, take full control over PCs as well as remotely access devices such as webcams, printers and security systems, according to Rapid7.?

Moore said that there were bugs in most of the devices he tested and that device manufacturers will need to release software updates to remedy the problems.?

He said that is unlikely to happen quickly.?

In the meantime, he advised computer users to quickly use a free tool released by Rapid7 to identify vulnerable gear, then disable the UPnP functionality in that equipment.?

Moore said hackers have not widely exploited the UPnP vulnerabilities to launch attacks, but both Moore and Wysopal expected they may start to do so after the findings are publicized.?

Still, Moore said he decided to disclose the flaws in a bid to pressure equipment makers to fix the bugs and generally pay more attention to security.?

People who own devices with UPnP enabled may not be aware of it because new routers, printers, media servers, Web cameras, storage drives and "smart" or Web-connected TVs are often shipped with that functionality turned on by default.?

"You can't stay silent about something like this," he said. "These devices seem to have had the same level of core security for decades. Nobody seems to really care about them."?

Veracode's Wysopal said that some hackers have likely already exploited the flaws to launch attacks, but in relatively small numbers, choosing victims one at a time.?

"If they are going after executives and government officials, then they will probably look for their home networks and exploit this vulnerability," he said.?

Rapid7 is advising businesses and consumers alike to disable UPnP in devices that they suspect may be vulnerable to attack. The firm has released a tool to help identify those devices on its website.?

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/researchers-warn-widespread-home-networking-gear-bugs-1C8156547

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Iverson rules out basketball return in D-League

Allen Iverson has turned down an opportunity to return to basketball with the Dallas Mavericks' Development League affiliate.

Iverson posted a series of tweets on Tuesday explaining his decision to decline an offer from the Texas Legends. Iverson, the 2001 NBA MVP with the Philadelphia 76ers, says, "While I think the D-League is a great opportunity, it is not the route for me."

Gary Moore, Iverson's manager, confirmed the decision with The Associated Press. Iverson was not available for an interview.

Iverson also wrote, "I realize my actions contributed to my early departure from the NBA." The 37-year-old Iverson has not played in the NBA since the 2009-10 season. He had a brief stop with a professional team in Turkey and has played exhibition games in China.

Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki recently passed Iverson for 18th on the NBA's career scoring list.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iverson-rules-basketball-return-d-league-162559675--spt.html

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Habari - Minimal CMS For More Than Light-Weight Blogging - noupe

Jan 28 2013

Here at Noupe, we evaluate content management systems frequently. Having covered MODX, Concrete5 and Joomla! just recently, we will now share a deeper look into Habari. Unlike previous CMSs covered at Noupe, Habari is a bloggers? CMS ? in the purest sense of the term. While it is true that you can use any CMS to create various types of websites, there should be no argument that Habari is, at least foremost, a tool meant for blogs. Considering the fact that I have mentioned the term ?blogs?, there are good chances that you might be thinking of WordPress already. Yes, since Habari is a blogging CMS, its comparison with WP is inevitable. We will cover that aspect and lots of others in the following article. So, read on?

As always, this article will bypass topics such as installation procedure and customization guidelines ? you can find such info in Habari documentation. Instead, our focus shall be to assess the usability of Habari as a Content Management System.

1. Usability (Ease of Use)

Note: Just in case you haven?t ever tried it, you can check out a working demo of Habari here.

If I were to describe the Habari interface in one word, I would most likely opt for ?usable?. Habari is one of the most user-friendly CMSs that you will ever come across. That said, it must be pointed out that the term ?usability? itself is subjective ? what is usable for me may not be usable for you, and vice versa. However, if you were to leave out the subjective elements, such as customization tools, plugins, installation of themes, etc. and focus entirely on the software?s UI, you would almost certainly find Habari to be extremely simple to use.

Basically, the key behind Habari?s usability is its minimal approach ? all you have is a simple menu with keyboard shortcuts, and a minimal interface. Trust me, you can never lose your way while using Habari.?

Article Editor in Habari

For instance, let us take up the simple task of publishing a new blog post. You will find a self-explanatory command to Create a New Article right in front of you. What else can one ask for?

On the downside, once you find your way to the New Article editor, you might miss the heavily armed TinyMCE toolbar that you are used to seeing in WP. In the end, it will take some level of ?getting-used-to?.

• Pros: Extremely swift, minimal and nimble interface
• Cons: Not meant for you if minimalism isn?t your cup of tea

2. Flexibility and Customization

Habari is flexible and you can easily customize it to suit your needs. However, it all comes down to what you wish to get out of it: if you are expecting a MODX-like customization experience, you will probably find only disappointment. On the other hand, if you like to get to the edge of things and tweak your CMS to your liking, Habari can do wonders for you.

Apparently, as far as I can get it, the pro-customization model adopted by Habari has really not been marketed well. A CMS such as Drupal or MODX can easily boast of being flexible and get away with it ? there is a huge community that is willing to back up the flexibility boast, and if they can back it up, that very boasting becomes a fact. The Habari community is a smaller entity, and naturally the ?customization examples? that one might be looking for are less in number.?

Dashboard in Habari Admin Panel

Another downside to Habari lies in the practical side of things. On the theoretical side, Habari surely is flexible. You can create photo blogs, video blogs, news websites, possibly even e-Commerce sites using it. However, when it comes to the practical affair of things, the story is different. If you are creating an e-Commerce website, you will probably opt for a CMS that has special features for you ? maybe even extra plugins. Even though you might be aware that Habari can work for you if tweaked sufficiently well, you will opt for the other CMS that offers a more ready-made solution. This is a valid choice as this method will save your time which you would?ve otherwise spent in customizing Habari.

• Pros: Flexible CMS; has the potential to power various genres of websites
• Cons: Very few practical examples of customization

3. Community and Documentation (Help and Support)

Habari has a very active and enthusiastic community. If you ever find yourself confused regarding any feature of Habari, just go ahead and ask the users ? in all likelihood, you will find a solution to your problem. In fact, if I may add, I often find the user community for smaller CMSs to be more friendly than that of a bigger CMS, such as WordPress or Drupal.

Speaking of documentation, well, it surely can be improved. The user manual and wiki are all updated and quite solid. However, it is the screen casts and other miscellaneous things that need some work ? not in terms of quality, but in terms of quantity. Habari would surely benefit from a higher number of videos and, possibly, some statistics or graphics about its usage. Love it or hate it, the internet today is a nation of pomp and show, and videos and images go a long way in winning new converts.

• Pros: Active and helpful community
• Cons: Only text wiki and docs are extensive; screencasts are pretty limited in number

4. Other Miscellaneous Elements

Habari claims that it supports multiple database backends, multiple users, static content (pages), tagging, and has importers for WP and Serendipity. Cool, isn?t it?

Actually, it is. But it needs to be more than that. As far as I can get it, having multiple users as well as support for static pages on a blog and tags cannot be called a big deal. Every other CMS supports that (it needs to die if it doesn?t).

What Habari currently needs is a good number of themes ? possibly the evolution of a framework (such as Twitter Bootstrap or Hybrid Core for WP), and responsive child themes. With the latest version, a new responsive theme having support for child themes has come into existence, by the way.?

Yes, the Habari community is passionate enough to customize the layout of their websites manually, but if Habari is to win new converts, it will have to target the section of end users as well ? and ?end users? need ready-made templates, period.

That said, Habari?s plugin repository, on the other hand, is wonderful. You will find virtually everything that might be needed for a blog: Feedburner integration, anti-spam, Flickr and Twitter integration, Disqus comments, and so on. This shows that neither the community nor the devs are lacking in talent.

• Pros: Good plugin repository
• Cons: Most themes look outdated in appearance

5. Comparing Habari With Other CMSs

Let us now compare Habari with certain other CMSs.

Bigger names such as Drupal and Concrete5 apart, I often find Habari to be similar to Wolf CMS in terms of popularity. However, Wolf CMS is not essentially a bloggers? tool. Yet, when it comes to being nimble and swift, both Habari and Wolf CMS receive an A+ on my scale.

Apparently, the present version of WordPress has evolved into a full-fledged CMS, and thus any comparison with a blogging tool happens to be flawed. I generally find Habari to be better than WordPress (oops, that makes me biased, doesn?t it?) in terms of usability.

Habari is still in its infancy ? the latest version is 0.9. Assuming it manages to stick to the minimal and nimble line of thought, where will it be when Habari 3.5 comes out? Definitely not where WordPress is today!

In my opinion, WordPress too began just like Habari ? swift and nimble. Over the period of time, it managed to turn into something bulkier. Of course, not everyone is pleased with what WP has become today. When WordPress 3.5 came out, many people expressed their unhappiness with the new Media Manager and appreciated the dismissal of the Links Manager. What does this show? A good number of WP users cringe for a minimal CMS. Trust me, when it comes to CMSs, minimalism and agility matters a lot.?

If Habari is so awesome, why is WordPress more popular, then?

Like I stated above, Habari needs a good number of themes/templates, and possibly some more ?literature? about it: community blogs, videos, etc. Furthermore, I also feel that Habari needs to re-align its focus. It already has importers for Serendipity and WordPress: I wouldn?t care much about Serendipity, though having a WP importer is awesome. Yet, most WP users will not migrate unless Habari has premium themes and numerous other glamorous concepts to its credit.

Instead, Habari needs to target the section of ?transitional users? ? folks who have outgrown Blogger and Tumblr but do not wish to opt for WordPress. Yes, I am advocating end-user migrants once again ? Habari has all the ingredients to power a tumblog and with minor touches, it can evolve as a major tool for this purpose. Similarly, judging by the way Google is treating Blogger, offering itself as a ?no-nonsense alternative? will not be tough for Habari.

But, Blogger and Tumblr are hosted services! You mean a software such as Habari should become a poor man?s WP.com?

Nope. Habari should stay what it is: a blogging CMS, not a hosted blogging service. But it needs to attempt to bridge the gap between WordPress (.org or .com) and other blogging tools. As far as I can predict, Habari will never be used much by corporate or business websites. It should focus more on bloggers ? folks who are with Tumblr/Blogger/whatever because WordPress is too complicated/bloated for them. Once more, having a good number of themes/templates might help a lot.

What do you think of Habari? Have your say in the comments below!

(dpe)

About the Author

Sufyan bin Uzayr is a 21-year old freelance writer, graphic artist, programmer and photographer based in India. He writes for several print magazines as well as technology blogs, and has also authored a book named Sufism: A Brief History. His primary areas of interest include open source, mobile development, web CMS and vector art. He is also the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of an e-journal named Brave New World. You can visit his website, follow him on Twitter or friend him on Facebook and Google+.

Homepage

Source: http://www.noupe.com/cms/habari-minimal-cms-for-more-than-light-weight-blogging-74625.html

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Life's like that: You Wanna Write a What? On a What?

My blog is two this month. Means two years ago, I was a blogging virgin, and I believed a post was still a post. In fact, the first time I heard the word blog was a little baffling. I was at a writing workshop in a small town rural library. A published Saskatchewan author was mentoring writers from all over Southern Saskatchewan.

Let me set the scene...

We were sitting around the table. The author in charge asked us to introduce ourselves, the genres we write, and what we hoped to get from this weekend. Now this was a long time ago, back before I had Internet at my house and way back before I left comments on posts.

We were quickly looking to the woman to my left. She was dressed in burgundy with some accentuating bling that showed she actually put effort into her wardrobe. (Unlike me, rubbing at a sad stain of baby vomit on the nicest blouse I owned. Eurk.) She smelt nice too. Weird what I remember. But I was used to smelling baby puke, I guess.

Anyway, she says something like this; "I blog."

Yup. She said I blog.

Up until this point, I had almost understood everyone at the table, (the sci-fi writers were speaking their own language and even though I love sci-fi, I didn't know which planet they were from) but I blog clearly had them stumped, too.

Just an aside, blog actually comes from the words: WEB LOG. Eventually it turned into one word, weblog, and that looks so cool people started saying we blog and so we became bloggers. See how we work, just creating words?

Well I could see the dictionaries looming on the shelf. But! I figured it would be rude to ditch the group to look up this word.

So I waited, figuring she'd dish out more clues. Eventually, I could ask her in private. Well, the author in charge did not miss a beat. If she didn't know what blogging was she did not let on. She said, "Tell us about it." There that would help. Well, I'm going to paraphrase here because I don't remember her exact answer but it went something like this, "Well, I was thinking about making my own blog."

So now it was a noun? Something she could make and had to attend a writing workshop to help her with. These clues were getting me nothing.

Oh and then she said something that truly stumped me. "I enjoy leaving comments on posts and would like to sound professional."

Comments on posts? Holy Writing Wizards. I mean... what the heck was she talking about? I suspected that maybe, just maybe, she was creating words. Us writers, we do that.

Break time. I beelined for the dictionaries. Blog. Was it a type of writing like a book or poem? How was she leaving comments on posts??

Well, the dictionaries were by the author's book display and when she saw me rush toward them... well...? I never got a chance to look it up until I got home and well, a post was still a post, and blog- be it the verb or the noun- wasn't in my ancient dictionary. Wow. Time to update my dictionary.

I had talked to her about it and got the impression it involved the Internet. Which was like a sea of information I couldn't access so I left it at that for a few years.

Getting dial-up Internet meant I could contribute to writing groups. I hit it off with a few writers and they referred me to their blog. Now at first I ignored such invites cause it felt a lot like they were giving me directions to their private posts. Why was everyone so trusting with these posts?

Then on an agent website I see the words, "MUST HAVE A WRITING PLATFORM INCLUDING A BLOG". huh. It was requested by an agent? So I went to check out these links I had. I was sucked in instantly. Not because some agent wanted it, I mean really who would do that? It was because wow...

They basically had their own mini website on which they could self-publish their thoughts (each entry being a blog post) and ideas whenever the heck they felt like it. Others could comment, like a game. OMGosh! Why the heck hadn't anyone told me such a thing was possible???????? Oh yeah, they had, I was just stuck in a field somewhere looking at a post I couldn't comment on.

And so two years later, here I am. On a blog. Waiting for someone to comment on my post.

My fav part about blogging is chatting around our posts about writing.

The worst thing is that I don't have enough time to post weekly. I don't want to give it up and so I fit it in when I can. I visit new blogs, familiar blogs, and posts that intrigue me. I wish I could read every post. (Okay I might be coming off an addict. Hi. I'm Tanya and I have a bloggling problem, going on two years now. I went to Google about it and was referred to several posts I could comment on.)

Sadly, I watched some bloggers I adored vanish this past year. Just gone. Some posts are still there, buried under a sea of grass and weeds.

But!! I laughed a lot, too. Blogging is fun, it's unique, and it's very in-the-moment real.

I blog.

Best words ever.

Happy Blogoversary!!! (Look at me- just creating words.)

Why do you blog?

Source: http://tanyareimer.blogspot.com/2013/01/you-wanna-write-what-on-what.html

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TV veteran developing news show for Fuse

This undated image released by Fuse shows Rick Kaplan. The Fuse television network has turned to news veteran Rick Kaplan, who has run CNN and MSNBC and produced programs like "Nightline," to develop a music news program aimed largely at people some 40 years younger than him. "Fuse News" is set to debut Feb. 6 at 8 p.m. ET with pre-Grammy Awards coverage. The half-hour show, originating from Fuse's studios across from Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, will be repeated at midnight. (AP Photo/Fuse)

This undated image released by Fuse shows Rick Kaplan. The Fuse television network has turned to news veteran Rick Kaplan, who has run CNN and MSNBC and produced programs like "Nightline," to develop a music news program aimed largely at people some 40 years younger than him. "Fuse News" is set to debut Feb. 6 at 8 p.m. ET with pre-Grammy Awards coverage. The half-hour show, originating from Fuse's studios across from Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, will be repeated at midnight. (AP Photo/Fuse)

This undated image released by Fuse shows Rick Kaplan. The Fuse television network has turned to news veteran Rick Kaplan, who has run CNN and MSNBC and produced programs like "Nightline," to develop a music news program aimed largely at people some 40 years younger than him. "Fuse News" is set to debut Feb. 6 at 8 p.m. ET with pre-Grammy Awards coverage. The half-hour show, originating from Fuse's studios across from Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, will be repeated at midnight. (AP Photo/Fuse)

NEW YORK (AP) ? The Fuse television network has turned to news veteran Rick Kaplan, who has run CNN and MSNBC and produced programs like "Nightline," to develop a music news program aimed largely at people some 40 years younger than him.

"Fuse News" is set to debut Feb. 6 at 8 p.m. Eastern time with pre-Grammy Awards coverage. The half-hour show, originating from Fuse's studios across from Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, will be repeated at midnight.

"A lot of people are covering music in different ways," said Mike Bair, president of MSG Media, Fuse's corporate ownership. "But not a lot of people are covering it deeper and in a respectful way. We thought there was a real opportunity for us."

Fuse, available in some 70 million homes, is overshadowed by MTV, but unlike its competitor has kept its focus on music and is looking for a signature show.

Kaplan, 65, walked through a busy newsroom with TVs tuned to a Fuse countdown of sexy rap videos one recent afternoon. The 47-time Emmy winner had most recently produced Katie Couric's "CBS Evening News" and Christiane Amanpour's stint on ABC's Sunday morning and has formed his own consulting company.

Bair reached out to Kaplan through a mutual friend to gauge interest, and the idea intrigued Kaplan.

"While he's not in the target audience for Fuse (the network's median age is around 27), I think he also saw the opportunity," Bair said.

A whiteboard in Fuse's office already lists story plans for the first month. The collapse of the traditional music industry has made for many changes ripe for examining.

One future story will talk about bands scalping tickets to their own concerts, another about the sound quality issues behind the resurgence of vinyl. If "Fuse News" was on the air last week, it wouldn't treat the story about Beyonce lip-synching at the inauguration as a joke, but rather look into how widespread the practice is, Kaplan said.

"I want it to be a place where if you're involved in the industry in any way ? and that means anybody with a headset ? this will be the place where you will want to go," Kaplan said.

Kaplan's tastes run to the Eagles, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Now he's learning about electronic dance music, and even liking some of it. Liz Walaszczyk, a 28-year-old producer and contributing correspondent on "Fuse News," is gently introducing her boss to bands like the Xx.

And he's introducing her to the news.

Walaszczyk, who booked bands for Carson Daly's NBC show before joining Fuse, said that she finds blogs like Pitchfork and Stereogum helpful but that there's a void in serious music journalism. Kaplan is teaching her the importance of detail in every question asked and picture selected for her stories.

"I hear his voice and I think, 'This man has spoken to so many legends,'" she said.

Co-anchors for the show are Alexa Chung and Matte Babel. Former Gawker writer Elaine Moran and Jack Osbourne are contributing correspondents.

Yes, the news producer who once worked with Walter Cronkite is telling Ozzy's kid what to do.

Kaplan brushed aside a question about whether some people in the television news business might consider his current gig a comedown.

"Oh, God no," he said. "By no means. People who say that don't get it. It's a great privilege to be asked to do this program. It's the only serious program in this (music) industry. It's a serious attempt to report on music in a credible way."

He said he's having a blast.

"In many ways, what Fuse is attempting to do with this show is more cutting edge than what any of the networks are doing," he said. "We're not starting a magazine show. We're not tinkering with the evening news."

The show will also have studio guests and music performances. Kaplan has hired Audrey Gruber, a former CBS News and CNN producer, to eventually take over for him when the show is up and running.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-01-28-TV-Fuse%20News/id-ac713cbc573240a2bc395bb1960a4431

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Europe Bets ?1BN And 10 Years On ?Wonder Material? Graphene As A Silicon Replacement

A graphene research initiative has been selected by the European Commission as one of two winners of its Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) research excellence award competition -- to develop the potential of graphene as a silicon replacement for future high tech kit. Each FET project will receive ?1 billion to fund 10 years of research "at the crossroads of science and technology".

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/PlQUzIStnJA/

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Quantum communication: Each photon counts

Monday, January 28, 2013

The detector combines near-unity detection efficiency with high timing resolution and has a very low error rate. The results have been published by Nature Communications(doi:10.1038/ncomms2307).

Ultrafast, efficient, and reliable single-photon detectors are among the most sought-after components in photonics and quantum communication, which have not yet reached maturity for practical application. Physicist Dr. Wolfram Pernice of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), in cooperation with colleagues at Yale University, Boston University, and Moscow State Pedagogical University, achieved the decisive breakthrough by integrating single-photon detectors with nanophotonic chips. The detector combines near-unity detection efficiency with high timing resolution and has a very low error rate. The results have been published by Nature Communications(doi:10.1038/ncomms2307).

Without reliable detection of single photons, it is impossible to make real use of the latest advances in optical data transmission or quantum computation; it is like having no analog-digital converter in a conventional computer to determine whether the applied voltage stands for 0 or 1. Although a number of different single-photon detector models have been developed over the past few years, thus far, none have provided satisfactory performance.

Several new ideas and advanced developments went into the prototype developed within the "Integrated Quantum Photonics" project at the DFG Center of Functional Nanostructures (CFN). The new single-photon detector, tested in the telecommunications wavelength range, achieves a previously unattained detection efficiency of 91%.

The detector was realized by fabricating superconducting nanowires directly on top of a nanophotonic waveguide. This geometry can be compared to a tube that conducts light, around which a wire in a superconducting state is wound and, as such, has no electric resistivity. The nanometer-sized wire made of niobium nitride absorbs photons that propagate along the waveguide. When a photon is absorbed, superconductivity is lost, which is detected as an electric signal. The longer the tube, the higher is the detection probability. The lengths involved are in the micrometer range.

A special feature of the detector is its direct installation on the chip, which allows for it to be replicated at random. The single-photon detectors built thus far were stand-alone units, which were connected to chips with optical fibers. Arrangements of that type suffer from photons being lost in the fiber connection or being absorbed in other ways. These loss channels do not exist in the detector that is now fully embedded in a silicon photonic circuit. In addition to high detection efficiency, this gives rise to a remarkably low dark count rate. Dark counts arise when a photon is detected erroneously: for instance, because of a spontaneous emission, an alpha particle, or a spurious field. The new design also provides ultrashort timing jitter of 18 picoseconds, which is 18 times 10-12 seconds. The novel solution also makes it possible to integrate several hundreds of these detectors on a single chip. This is a basic precondition for future use in optical quantum computers.

The detector demonstrated in this study was designed to work at wavelengths in the Telekom bandwidth. The same detector architecture can also be used for wavelengths in the range of visible light. This would allow the principle to be employed in analyses of all structures that emit little light, i.e., photons, such as single molecules or bacteria.

###

Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres: http://www.helmholtz.de/en/index.html

Thanks to Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126479/Quantum_communication__Each_photon_counts

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'Smart Guns,' Designed To Be Fired Only By Owner, Have Battled History

NEW YORK (AP) ? It sounds, at first, like a bold, next-generation solution: personalizing guns with technology that keeps them from firing if they ever get into the wrong hands.

But when the White House called for pushing ahead with such new technology as part of President Obama's plan to cut gun violence, the administration did not mention the concept's embattled past. As with so much else in the nation's long-running divisions over gun rights and regulation, what sounds like a futuristic vision is, in fact, an idea that has been kicked around for years, sidelined by intense suspicion, doubts about feasibility and pressure tactics.

Now proponents of so-called personalized or smart guns are hoping the nation's renewed attention on firearms following the Newtown school massacre will kick start research and sale of safer weapons. But despite the Obama administration's promise to "encourage the development of innovative gun safety technology," advocates have good reason to be wary.

In the fiery debate over guns, personalized weapons have long occupied particularly shaky ground ? an idea criticized both by gun-rights groups and some gun control advocates.

To the gun groups, the idea of using technology to control who can fire a gun smacks of a limitation on personal rights, particularly if it might be mandated by government. At the same time, some gun control advocates worry that such technology, by making guns appear falsely safe, would encourage Americans to stock up on even more weapons then they already have in their homes.

Without the politics, the notion of using radio frequency technology, biometric sensors or other gadgetry in a gun capable of recognizing its owner sounds like something straight out of James Bond. In fact, it is. In the latest Bond flick, "Skyfall," Agent 007's quartermaster passes him a 9 mm pistol coded to his palm print.

"Only you can fire it," the contact tells the agent. "Less of a random killing machine. More of a personal statement."

In real life, though, there's no getting around the politics, and the debate over personalized guns long ago strayed well beyond questions of whether the technology will work.

Those were the first questions asked in 1994 when the research arm of the Justice Department began studying prospects of making a police gun that a criminal would not be able to fire if he wrestled it away during a struggle. Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories examined available technology in 1996 and found it promising, but wanting.

By then the notion of a safe gun had long captivated Stephen Teret, a former attorney and public health expert at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who had gone after automakers for not including air bags in their cars. In 1983, he got a call that the 22-month-old son of a couple he knew had been killed by a 4-year-old who found a loaded gun in a nightstand drawer.

"Very definitely, that was the genesis," said Teret, who went on to found Hopkins' Center for Gun Policy and Research. "Because when one thinks of something as a public health person the first thing is you're sick with grief and the second thing that comes to mind is why in the world would there be a handgun operable by a 4-year-old?"

Teret began trying to get lawmakers and gun makers interested in the concept of personalized weapons. He convinced U.S. Rep. Pat Schroeder, D-Colorado, to earmark funding for the Justice study. And in the mid-1990s he voiced support for a project at Colt's Manufacturing Co., the legendary but beleaguered gun maker that saw an opportunity to sell safe guns to police officers and parents of young children.

Colt's developed a gun equipped with a microchip that would prevent it from firing unless the user was wearing an enabling device located in a special wristband. But gun rights activists were skeptical, partly because the government was funding research of the concept and because gun control advocates like Teret embraced it. At about the same time, New Jersey lawmakers began discussing a measure requiring all new handguns sold in the state to be personalized, three years after the technology came to market. The measure passed in 2002.

Owners' skepticism was heightened in 1997 when Colt's CEO Ronald Stewart wrote an editorial in American Firearms Industry magazine calling on fellow manufacturers to parry gun control efforts by backing a federal gun registry and developing personalized weapons.

"While technology such as this should not be mandated it should be an option for the consumer," Stewart wrote. "If we can send a motorized computer to Mars, then certain we can advance our technology to be more childproof."

Stewart did not respond to a message seeking comment left at a Connecticut company where he now serves on the board of directors.

Soon after, the Coalition of New Jersey Sportsmen ? a state affiliate of the National Rifle Association ? began calling for a boycott of Colt's. It warned that personalized technology might make it difficult for gun owners to defend themselves and called the company's conduct "detrimental to American-style freedoms and liberties."

Stewart was replaced as CEO of Colt's in 1998 and the company eventually abandoned development of a personalized gun.

In 1999, New Jersey's lawmakers approved a grant to researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology to study personalized gun technology. Those efforts focused on adding transducers to a gun's handle to detect the grasp of an authorized user. Meanwhile, the Justice Department offered a challenge grant to gun makers and although two responded, they made limited headway by the time $7 million in funding ran out.

Work on personalized weapons suffered another setback after gun rights' groups boycotted Smith & Wesson over a 2000 agreement it signed with the Clinton administration in which the manufacturer made numerous promises, including one to develop smart guns.

Meanwhile, the New Jersey school, funded by Congressional earmarks, tried repeatedly to find a commercial partner for its work. But even as NJIT bolstered the reliability of its prototype, which now has a recognition rate of about 97 percent, it found it a hard sell. Talks with a Florida gun maker at first seemed productive until industry activists pressured the company to back away, said Donald Sebastian, NJIT's senior vice president for research and development .

"Their claim that these are just blue state liberals looking to take your guns away, it just inflames people to not think a little more rationally," Sebastian said.

"Yes it's a frustrating experience, but we have to be adults," he said. "I think it's been a long lesson to learn that this intermingling of the concepts of gun safety and gun control are ultimately poison."

Mike Bazinet, a spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents gun manufacturers, said questions remain about whether the technology has been improved enough to assure police officers and civilians a personalized weapon would fire when they need protection. But there are also concerns "about individual consumers' ability to choose the firearm that they think is best for them," Bazinet said.

But gun makers and owners have not been the only critics. Activists from the Violence Policy Center, an outspoken gun control group, also spoke against personalized weapons.

"If a smart gun did exist what would its effect be, taking into consideration the nature of gun violence in this country?" said Josh Sugarmann, the group's executive director. "Would you place families at risk or people at risk by giving this impression that this is a safe gun? You know, people who wouldn't normally buy a gun, would they buy one now?"

NJIT's Sebastian, who joined a group of personalized gun advocates who met recently with Attorney General Eric Holder to push for their development, said his school has seen some renewed interest and is talking with officials at Picatinny Arsenal, which develops weapons for the U.S. military.

Meanwhile, two European companies working on personalized gun technology have their eyes on the U.S. market. One of those firms, TriggerSmart Ltd. of Limerick, Ireland, has developed a system using Radio Frequency Identification that would be built into the handle of a gun and triggered by a device the size of a grain of rice inside a user's ring or bracelet. Co-founder Robert McNamara said he is seeking to license the technology to a U.S. manufacturer, but is looking at the possibility of producing kits for retrofitting existing guns.

Another venture, Armatix GmbH of Unterfoehring, Germany, says it has developed a personalized gun, with settings based on radio frequency technology and biometrics, that was approved by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in late 2011. Armatix said it hopes to begin selling the gun as well as accompanying safety and locking systems in the U.S. this year, but would not provide details.

Teret, who long ago launched the campaign for personalized guns, acknowledged much has to happen before they become a reality. But the White House has promised to issue a report on the technology and award prizes to companies that come up with innovative and cost-effective personalized guns, and its interest has rejuvenated hopes that the gun of the future may actually have one.

"For 30 years, at best we've been inching forward at a glacial pace," he said. "And now this puts it up to warp speed."

___

Associated Press writer David Rising in Berlin contributed to this report. Adam Geller, a New York-based national writer, can be reached at features(at)ap.org. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/AdGeller .

Earlier on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/27/smart-guns_n_2562091.html

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UK: Specific threat to Westerners in Somaliland

LONDON (AP) ? British citizens should immediately leave the breakaway Somaliland region of Somalia because of a specific threat to Westerners, British diplomats said Sunday. It was the second such warning issued for an African region in just days and comes amid growing turbulence across the continent's north.

In a statement emailed to reporters, Britain's Foreign Office did not go into any further detail about the nature of the threat but noted that "kidnapping for financial or political gain, motivated by criminality or terrorism" is an issue throughout Somalia.

Somalia has endured years of civil war, and Britain ? along with the United States and a host of other countries ? has long advised against all travel to the Horn of Africa nation. Sunday's travel warning applies specifically to the northwest territory of Somaliland, which declared its independence from Somalia in 1991 and has since been a haven of relative peace amid the chaos and bloodshed of the country's south.

Somaliland Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdulahi Omar told a news conference that his government has full confidence in its security. "We don't believe in that warning," he said. "We are informing the public and foreigners in our country that there's no security scares at all. But in general, terrorism is a worldwide menace."

The new warning was issued only days after Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada urged their citizens in the Libyan city of Benghazi to evacuate in response to what was then described as an imminent threat to Westerners. European officials told The Associated Press at the time that schools were thought to be among the potential targets.

The exact reason for the warnings remains unclear, but they come at a time of heightened tension across north Africa. French and African land forces are battling al-Qaida-linked Islamists in northern Mali, while a renewed bout of unrest has gripped Egypt following the two-year anniversary of the revolution that toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak.

In addition, a Jan. 16 attack on the Ain Amenas natural gas plant in the Sahara ignited a four-day siege by Algerian forces in which at least 37 hostages and 29 militants died. An al-Qaida-affiliated group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Libya also remains unstable following the overthrow of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

It was unclear if any of those factors played a role in Britain's latest warning. The Foreign Office declined to comment beyond its brief statement.

Somaliland, a former British colony, is a key ally for neighboring Ethiopia, which has an embassy in the enclave, and collaborates with the United States and its allies on anti-terrorism missions. Somaliland employs its own security forces, justice system, and currency but is not recognized as a separate country by the international community.

Somaliland was most recently hit by terror attacks in 2008, when suicide car bombers struck inside the enclave and its neighboring Puntland territory, killing more than 29 people.

___

Abdi Guled in Mogadishu, Somalia, contributed to this report.

___

Online:

British government travel advice on Somalia: http://bit.ly/cbSix4

Raphael Satter can be reached at: http://raphae.li/twitter

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-01-27-Somalia%20Warning/id-c131d80f8ba84302af6884f8ce66bfdf

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AP PHOTOS: Fatal race to exit at Brazil club fire

AAA??Jan. 27, 2013?1:03 PM ET
AP PHOTOS: Fatal race to exit at Brazil club fire
By The Associated Press??By The Associated Press

A crowd stands outside the Kiss nightclub during a fire inside the club in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. A blaze raced through the crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing 245 people as the air filled with deadly smoke and panicked party-goers stampeded toward the exits, police and witnesses said. It appeared to be the world's deadliest nightclub fire in more than a decade.(AP Photo/Roger Shlossmacker)

A crowd stands outside the Kiss nightclub during a fire inside the club in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. A blaze raced through the crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing 245 people as the air filled with deadly smoke and panicked party-goers stampeded toward the exits, police and witnesses said. It appeared to be the world's deadliest nightclub fire in more than a decade.(AP Photo/Roger Shlossmacker)

Map locates Santa Maria, Brazil

Relatives of victims react as they wait for news near the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. According to police more than 200 died in the devastating nightclub fire in southern Brazil. Officials say the fire broke out at the club while a band was performing. (AP Photo/Ronald Mendes-Agencia RBS)

ALTERNATIVE CROP OF XSI107.- Relatives of victims react as they wait for news near the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. According to police more than 200 died in the devastating nightclub fire in southern Brazil. Officials say the fire broke out at the club while a band was performing. (AP Photo/Ronald Mendes-Agencia RBS)

Relatives of victims react near the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. According to police more than 200 died in the devastating nightclub fire in southern Brazil. Officials say the fire broke out at the club while a band was performing. (AP Photo/Ronald Mendes-Agencia RBS)

Here are photos showing the aftermath of a fatal nightclub fire in Santa Maria, Brazil. The club was hosting a party for university students, which turned fatal as hundreds of partygoers stampeded toward the exit. Firefighters and police say more than 200 are dead, and at least 200 are injured.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-27-Brazil-Nightclub-Fire-Photo-Gallery/id-026ace68be7f460a809edbb429054c46

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How to set a default Reminders list on iPhone and iPad

The native Reminders app on the iPhone and iPad are not only simple to use, it'll automatically sync your content between any iOS device and Mac you own. Along with the ability to set up your own reminder lists, you can also choose a default one. That means that new events you add using Siri will end up in the list you've specified.

Here's how to tell Reminders what you want your default list to be...

1. Launch the Settings app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on the Reminders section.
3. Now tap on Default list.
4. Tap on the name of the list you'd like the Reminders app to default to when you create a new reminder.

That's all there is to it. The Reminders app will automatically add any non-specified reminder to your default list. If you'd like to add them to other lists with Siri, you can also do that. Check out the link below to find out how.

• How to set reminders and update task lists with Siri

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/WiikUyFnn1s/story01.htm

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