Jon Snyder

August’s third generation Smart Lock lets you lock and unlock your door from using your phone, and you can get the silver model for just $100 today, just a dollar more than we saw on Black Friday.

Assuming you have your phone with you whenever you leave the house, an August Smart Lock-installed door will auto lock behind you and unlock as you approach. It’s especially useful because you don’t have to necessarily be home to grant or restrict access to people like dog walkers, maintenance workers, or other people who need to come into your house; just send them a guest key with the August app. And since it integrates with your existing deadbolt, you can continue using a physical key as well, if your phone ever dies.

Unlike previous August locks, this one doesn’t have Wi-Fi built in—it uses Bluetooth to talk to your phone—but you can add a Wi-Fi hub to your router to access it over the internet from anywhere.

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Mashable, a tech site, says you should buy a kiddie pool. Not for your kids, for yourself. As they point out, if you have a roof or backyard, fifteen bucks, and a garden hose or a big bucket, then baby, you’ve got a pool going. (They claim you can also put a kiddie pool on your fire escape. I cannot endorse that particular variation.)

Your kiddie pool will get filthy fast, and you’ll look like a hipster from 2009, but you’ll use much less water or space than you would with an “adult” pool. You can fill it in five minutes and empty it in one. You never have to learn how chlorine tablets work.

I’d like to point out one more big advantage: it’s not a bath. A bath, like a large coffee or a tweet, is always regrettable. This is because you expect a bath to feel like an expensive spa, when it is actually just a tepid soak in your own filth with your neck craned. A bath is a disappointment, but a kiddie pool is not, because:

• It is outdoors, where expectations are lowered. (Ask anyone who has brunched at a sidewalk table.)
  
• It is for cooling, not for warming. Water is better at cooling than warming. This is known.
• You aren’t trying to clean yourself.
• You get to (probably have to) keep some clothes on. Wearing clothes in water is actually very cool.

You can lie in it, or you can just soak your feet in it. You can drink beer in it. You can lie down in it and then sit in the sun to dry out. A kiddie pool is nature’s air conditioning.

For a real trip, you could fill your kiddie pool with a substance other than water, like slime or spaghetti, which probably is a disappointment but that one scene in Patch Adams made it look like a blast. Only do it at the end of the season, when you never plan to put water in the pool again. Take pics.

So if you are privileged enough to own or rent a home with outdoor space, live life to the fullest by buying and using a kiddie pool. Maybe even let a kid in.

Listen to me: Buy a kiddie pool for your adult self this summer | Mashable

Smart Downloads is a new Netflix feature that makes available the next episode of a TV show on your devices and deletes the watched episode.

Netflix is available for all sorts of devices; you can watch Netflix on smart TVs, using Amazon Fire and other streaming devices, on your smartphones, on Windows 10 PCs, and in your browser.

If you do use Netflix on a mobile or on Windows 10, you may know that you can download shows and movies -- not all but some -- to the device. The feature is very useful as it allows you to watch Netflix without Internet connection, super-slow Internet, super-expensive Internet, or unstable Internet.

The feature is great for pushing movies or shows on the device before you go on a vacation, travel abroad, or prepare for that 10-hour long drive with your kids in the back of the car.

Smart Downloads

Smart Downloads aims to improve the process of downloading and deleting new episodes of TV shows. Up until now you had to select shows for download to download them to your device; you also had to delete the shows manually if you wanted to free up space on the device.

Smart Downloads identifies the shows you are watching. The feature will start the download of the next episode of a show to your device automatically and it will delete the watched show automatically as well for your convenience.

Here is an example of how Smart Downloads works:

• You download the first two episodes of a new TV Show on Netflix to your device.
• You watch episode 1 of the show and finish it.
• Netflix starts the download of episode 3 automatically (if available) once you have watched episode 1. The app deletes episode 1 automatically on the device.

Smart Downloads works only if the device is connected via Wi-Fi. The feature is turned on automatically but Netflix customers may disable it.

If you use Netflix on Android, you'd tap on Downloads and there on "Smart Downloads on". The Netflix app for Android displays a toggle on the next page to turn Smart Downloads off and information about the feature.

You may want to turn the feature off if you want to be in full control over the downloading and deleting of Netflix content.

Closing Words

Whether Smart Downloads is something that you will like depends largely on your watching habits. If you watch TV shows and download episodes to your device regularly, you may like the new feature as it automates the process somewhat.

The feature is somewhat limited, however. Netflix downloads the next episode only which means that it is not usable for preparation of a larger trip or situation where you want an entire show available on the device.

Now You: What is your take on Smart Downloads?

Related articles

• Bypass Netflix's Are You Still Watching prompts
• How to change the Netflix video quality on your computer
• How to disable being included in tests and previews on Netflix
• How to protect individual shows or movies on Netflix with a PIN
• Where is Netflix downloading shows to on Windows 10?

Ghacks needs you. You can find out how to support us here or support the site directly by becoming a Patreon. Thank you for being a Ghacks reader. The post Netflix Smart Downloads explained appeared first on gHacks Technology News.

I woke up today to find my Twitter feed chok full of praise for something called Browsh.

It’s a brand new, modern text-based web browser built for the command line.

Yes, I did just say a text browser.

And yes, the year is still 2018.

So what’s got the geeks I follow gushing over something so terrifically niche? Let’s find out…

Browsh is a Text Based Browser

If I asked you to think of a text browser you’d think of Lynx. It is arguably the best known text browser out there, not to mention one of the oldest web browsers that is still under both active use and development.

But Lynx is very much of its era. It was made for the web that was and not the web that is.

Which is where Browsh comes in.

Browsh supports HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and (amazingly) video, photos and WebGL content. It’s cross platform, open-source.

The only hard requirement is that you need to have a recent version of Firefox installed (v57 or later). Why? Because Browsh uses Firefox to fetch web pages, then pass it the necessary bits via a web extension, so it can render the page in low-fi glory.

If you often compute in an X-less environment then this browser could very well become your new best friend.

Yes, it displays graphics & videos

What makes Browsh rather unique is that it can render images and videos — just don’t expect miracles.

Graphics (including video) appear super pixellated. This is because Browsh uses (to quote its own website) the “UTF-8 half-block trick (▄) to get 2 colours from every character cell” to simulate basic graphics.

Everything is, technically, a character.

Below is a screenshot of how an article on this website looks when fetched with Browsh:

It’s cute, but is it useful?

Given that images are pixellated to the point where they’re indecipherable the browser could help readers out by relaying/displaying alt tags and image title text. Just a thought.

Bandwidth & SSH

Browsh is designed to be more than a geek curio. According to its developer the point of the browser is to “significantly reduce bandwidth [and] increase browsing speeds.”

Given that it relies on Firefox to fetch web page assets and pass them to the app, the bandwidth point seems moot, but you could have it running on one server and then access it on another.

In fact, you can demo that out by running:

ssh brow.sh

For the full how, what and whys of this unique little browser head over to the Browsh website.

For a more comprehensive look at all Browsh’s features, including a glimpse at the browser playing a YouTube video, check out this video:

Download Browsh for Ubuntu (and other OSes)

Browsh might be the geekiest, nerdiest, and flat-out-awesomiest app in a while.

If you’re on the hunt for a (mostly) text only browser then you should definitely check it out. And if you’re not? You should definitely check it out too.

You can find the source code for Browsh over on Github should you want to get involved, check it over, or report any issues.

Binary downloads and Ubuntu installers are also available on the website if you want to install it locally.

Browsh itself is a tiny download and is very easy to install on Ubuntu:

Download Browsh

Let's block ads! (Why?)

submitted by DrScitt to /r/funny
score: 721
46 comments
original (v.redd.it)

Watch the Flip Grip in action ⊟ 

Seven days remain for this Kickstarter campaign from Jeremy Parish, Mike Choi, and Fangamer. If you aren’t convinced yet to fund the Switch accessory (allowing you to play over two dozen released and upcoming games on the platform in handheld vertical mode), watch this Namco Museum: Galaga demo to see the thing working its magic:

Jeremy notes the Flip Grip unit shown here is a 3D printed prototype:

“Bear in mind this is a 3D-printed prototype build, so it doesn’t represent the final product’s appearance in terms of color, build quality, design, and so forth. Still, I think it gets the point across — this is vertical Switch gaming on the go, baby.

This is a quick demo of Namco Museum/Galaga. (This does not indicate an endorsement by Namco Bandai, I just happen to like Galaga a lot.) Here you can see how the standard Switch interface looks when you hold the system vertical (and how some software does have vertical orientation built-in to its main interface), see Galaga in action, and see how to make use of the system functions whose buttons Flip Grip covers up.”

Back the project and preorder the Flip Grip for $12 at Kickstarter.

JOIN CLUB TINY AND OUR DISCORD Support Tiny Cartridge!

A road trip is an epic adventure, but you don’t need a car to see some beautiful parts of America.

Adventure traveler and engineer Derek Low highlights how you can go coast-to-coast (San Francisco to New York) by Amtrak in just four days (not including stopovers, which you’ll want to include) and see a few major cities and sights.

There are four legs of the trip: San Francisco to Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City to Denver, Denver to Chicago, and Chicago to New York. If you wanted to just go straight from San Francisco to New York, you can get the two tickets you need for about $213. However, to do these multiple segments, it’s better to get a rail pass for $459, which allows you travel up to 8 segments.

You don’t have to do these segments, of course, and with the pass you can create your own longer itinerary (perhaps considering this road trip map).

Besides saving on gas and not having to drive, you can relax on the train and don’t need to pay for a hotel. Not sure if this is right for you? Some of the photos Low has posted of his journey might convince you, including this one:

Across the USA by Train for Just $213 | Derek Low via Hacker News

Google's Chromecast is a fantastic and easy way to stream videos from your computer to your TV, but even the workarounds to enable streaming of any video require Chrome. Castnow is a command line utility that'll stream videos, music, and even torrent files.

Castnow works independently of Chrome and entirely from the command line. You can set it so it plays a single local video file, an entire directory, a web video file, YouTube clips, a YouTube playlist, a torrent file with a magnet link, and even do transcoding. The torrent streaming is a bit clunky and slow, but everything else works great. If you don't feel like messing around with Chrome, this is a nice lightweight solution.

Castnow | GitHub via WonderHowTo

If you have a Chromecast and you want to try a new app that supports Google's dongle, install TicTacToe for Android or for iOS. It's a very simple game that requires 2 players and displays the results on your TV. You can install it on an Android phone or tablet, on an iPhone or iPad, but you need 2 devices to play the game.


While the game is pretty basic, it shows that Chromecast isn't just for streaming music and video. Once the Google Cast API is out of beta, you'll find a lot more interesting apps. TicTacToe is based on this sample app.

{ via Reddit }

Tea isn't just a comforting and pleasant beverage, it also has remarkable healing properties—so much so that it's deemed a sort of "wonder drink" that may be even healthier than drinking water. Here are all the ways drinking tea can lead to a healthier, longer life—and how to maximize both the enjoyment of the drink and its health benefits.

Not Just for Pleasure: The Many Health Benefits of Tea

Tea is the second most widely consumed beverage in the world, after water. That's because it's so versatile: You can drink it iced or hot, and there are enough varieties of tea to suit just about any palate (there are over 1,500 types of tea—not including herbal teas).

People have been drinking tea for centuries also because of its health effects. Much research suggests drinking tea—particularly green tea—can fight diseases and even lengthen life. This is due to tea's high concentration of antioxidants called polyphenols, which may contribute to the prevention of cancer, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular diseases. While polyphenols are also found in abundance in fruits, vegetables, and grains—and also coffee in even higher amounts—tea is especially and uniquely rich in particular types of polyphenols called catechins (specifically, EGCG) that may be the most powerful ones of all.

Cancer Prevention

The American Cancer Society explains:

EGCG may help cause certain types of cancer cells to die in much the same way that normal cells do. This effect is important because cancer cells are different from normal cells in that they do not die when they should—they continue to grow and spread.

Although the ACS says more clinical trials are needed to support claims that green tea can prevent or treat any specific types of cancer, it notes the many laboratory studies demonstrating green tea's protective effects against cancer cells. One study, for example, found EGCG to suppress lung cancer cell growth and another found that it inhibits breast cancer tumors. A meta-analysis of 13 studies indicates women who drink green tea have a lower risk of developing breast cancer than non-green-tea drinkers. Like most scientific research, however, there's other conflicting results suggesting black and green tea might not contribute significantly to breast cancer risk—so you probably shouldn't drink tea for the sole purpose of preventing cancer. That's okay, because there are lots of other positive health associations with tea.

Protection Against Heart Diseases and High Blood Pressure

A study of 40,530 people in Japan, where green tea is widely consumed, found drinking green tea significantly lowered the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. (31% lower risk in women, and 22% lower risk in men.) The risk of dying from stroke was even lower: 62% lower in women and 42% lower in men. The catechins in green tea are believed to inhibit the production of free radicals in the lining of the arteries and also help prevent the formation of blood clots.

Regular consumption of green or oolong tea (for at least one year) also has been shown to lower the risk of developing hypertension by 46% for those who drank up to 2.5 cups a day and 65% less for those who drank more than 2.5 cups.

A review, published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, concludes that "green tea and EGCG can be regarded as food components useful for the maintenance of cardiovascular and metabolic health."

Lower Risk of Death from All Causes

The Japanese cohort study mentioned above examined the relationship between green tea drinking and death from all causes. The researchers followed the Japanese adults (ages 40 to 79) for up to 11 years and compared those who drank less than one cup of green tea a day to those drinking five or more a day.

The results? Drinking green tea was associated with a 23% lower risk of dying from any cause in women and 12% lower risk in men.

Brain Boosts

Drinking tea can contribute to both relaxation and concentration. As Tea Class explains:

L-theanine is an amino acid that occurs naturally in the Camellia Sinensis plant. In fact, unless you take an artificially manufactured dietary supplement, tea is the ONLY way to get L-theanine in your diet. This powerful amino acid boosts alpha wave activity in our brains, which promotes a state of relaxed concentration. Think "quiet alertness". The calming effects of L-theanine actually counteract the extreme highs and jitteriness that can result from excessive Caffeine intake.

As with almost all other essential elements in the leaf, L-theanine is most highly concentrated in the newest growth. A high quality loose leaf tea will contain the most L-theanine, and the very highest levels are usually found in green and white teas.

And Lots, Lots More

Studies have also associated drinking green tea with lower LDL or "bad" cholesterol and reduced body fat, inhibition of the flu virus, and even less dental plaque. The book Green Tea by Nadine Taylor also cites these benefits:

• Keeping blood sugar at moderate levels
• Fighting food-borne bacteria
• Enhancing immune system function
• Promoting "friendly" bacteria in the intestines and encouraging bowel regularity
• Assisting in weight loss by blocking the breakdown of starch
• Maintaining the body's fluid balance
• Reducing stress

Taylor writes:

No other substance on the face of the earth, including the most potent drug, can claim such wide-ranging and powerful health benefits, and all without a single side effect.

Well, some side effects have been noted with drinking too much green tea extract or supplements (not the drink itself), and pregnant women might want to avoid large amounts of green tea as well.

It's true that tea contains caffeine, which affects everyone differently, but tea generally contains less caffeine than coffee, and the caffeine in tea is metabolized more slowly, so you can drink more cups all day long without crashing.

How to Choose and Brew Tea for Better Health Benefits

Now that we know some of the many potential ways green tea can make us healthier, let's look at how to buy and brew it optimally.

Types of Tea: Most of the studies have focused on the health benefits of green tea, but what about black and other types of tea? Green tea has more wide-ranging and powerful benefits mainly because of its high amounts of EGCG, whereas black tea has much less because of the way the leaves are "fired" and oxidized during production. Still, black and other teas also share these important compounds and benefits.

Acne Einstein reports these mean levels of EGCG in different teas per cup, as measured by the USDA:

• Brewed green tea: 180mg
• Brewed green tea, decaffeinated: 60mg
• Brewed green tea, flavored: 45mg
• Ready-to-drink green tea: 10mg
• Brewed oolong tea: 80mg
• Brewed black tea: 20mg

The report doesn't mention white tea, which has similar EGCG content as green tea, but might have even more health benefits than green tea because it's even less processed. White tea, however, is rarer than green and thus less studied.

Antioxident content, however, also varies depending on the tea types, brand, and manufacturing.

Tea Brands: Speaking of tea brands, ConsumerLab tested green tea bottled drinks, brewable teas, and supplements to find which had the highest levels of EGCG and other catechins. News Observer reports:

Of the 14 bottled tea and tea supplements that listed levels of EGCG on the label, only three contained significantly less than the amount claimed. The 17-ounce bottle of Honest Tea Green Tea with Honey, for example, had only about two-thirds of the 190 milligrams of the listed catechins, which includes EGCG and other beneficial compounds. (Experts recommend consuming 200 milligrams of EGCG a day for the greatest benefit.)

Among products that don't list EGCG levels – including all of the brewed teas – findings were more varied. Teavana Green Tea Gyokuro Imperial, sold as loose tea, had 86 milligrams of EGCG per serving, while one bag of Bigelow Green Tea had only 25 milligrams. To get the recommended amount of EGCG, you'd have to drink about 2 1/2 cups of the former, eight cups of the latter. (Helpful hint: Steep tea in hot water for three to five minutes to fully extract the EGCG.)

Teavana's is more expensive, however ($2.18 to get the equivalent of 200 mg of EGCG versus $0.27 to $0.60 per tea bag). Bigelow's had the highest amount of EGCG of the bagged, supermarket teas.

Temperature and Brewing Time: Things that additionally affect the EGCG content and antioxidant potential include your water temperature and brewing time. While following general time and temperature recommendations is great for brewing a cup of tea for flavor, if you care about getting the most health-boosting benefits of a cup of tea, Acne Einstein has found:

• Brewing with hotter water results in more antioxidants in the tea
• Steeping for three to five minutes is better than less time

This goes against the usual tea rules for different types (green tea is usually brewed with water at 175 degrees F and for just a minute or so), so you might get a stronger-tasting or even bitter cup, depending on the leaves. Oolong teas, however, often do well with longer steeping time and higher temperatures.

How Many Cups to Drink a Day: Most of the studies suggest the more cups of tea you drink a day (e.g., five or more), the better, but some also found benefits with just two to three cups a day, which is what nurse practitioner and physician assistants network Advanced Healthcare recommends for patients as a "simple healthy lifestyle strategy." (Don't worry, tea is hydrating and doesn't act as a diuretic.) The two-to-three cups a day recommendation fits in with most supplements' 200 mg EGCG recommended daily serving.

All this said, it's silly to guzzle down thermoses of tea if you don't enjoy it. Even if you prefer stronger drinks like coffee, however, you might be surprised to learn you might just enjoy a good cup of tea too (and get the health effects as a nice side benefit).

Photos by Photosani (Shutterstock), ~Mers.

You probably already know that stress is terrible for us, but thankfully there are plenty of things we can do to push back the effect of it. This video from the folks at ASAPScience explains that too much stress can actually be lethal, and sometimes the best way to combat it is a little social interaction.

Many of us understand that stress is bad for us, but it's a fact of life. While a little stress can be beneficial, too much of it can have serious negative effects on our health. As ASAPScience notes, too much stress is potentially lethal.

We've talked about what stress does to your body and what you can do about it, specifically on your own, but the video explains that one way to directly counteract the psychological and biological effects of stress is to spend time with others. Doing so releases the hormone oxytocin into your body, which directly reduces the body's stress response. Since oxytocin is released during positive social interactions—as in, with people you love or enjoy spending time with, that's the best way to counteract the effects of stress.

That's not news—we often destress with friends or family after work at home or in some social situation—but it also points to the notion that one great way to cut down on your stress response is to foster good relationships with the people you work with, or to make friends in the places you're often the most stressed. Putting all of these methods together can give you a solid buffer to keep the negative effects of stress at bay.

Can Stress Actually Kill You? | ASAPScience (YouTube)

This person hasn’t arrived yet. Nope. No one is staying with me.

Since the iPhone 5S landed in the hands of new owners a few weeks ago, there have been reports that on-board sensors like the gyroscope, compass, and accelerometer haven't been working properly on some devices. We've confirmed the new iPhone's failings on our own. It's not just off. It's embarrassing.

We tested two iPhone 5S units running the latest version of iOS 7 against the iPhone 5, as well as against real-world measuring tools to find out if the new iPhone's sensors are off, and if they are, by how much. In most cases, we used the iPhone's built-in iOS 7 apps for measurements, working under the assumption that Apple would properly calibrate its hardware to work with the software of its own design. We were wrong.

---

Level

In the GIF and still image above, you see a pretty dramatic illustration of the difference between the iPhone 5S internal inclinometer readings and a real measurement of inclination. A simple Stanley spirit level tells the whole story: The iPhone 5S level readout in the iOS 7 compass software read 2-3 degrees off in our tests, while other users are reporting that the level is off by as many as 4-6 degrees. We performed the same test with an iPhone 5, and readout was almost perfect, indicating that hardware is at least partly the culprit. That also means a fix might not be as easy as an OTA firmware update.

We also tested the level using the free iHandy Level app to similar results. In all cases, we were sure to keep the side of the iPhone flush to the level.

Two degrees might not seem like much, but it's actually a reasonably big deal. If you use this level to set up shelves (or tackle any other home improvement gig) you'd end up with a mess.

---

Gyroscope

As with the simple inclinometer measurements, the iPhone 5S gyroscope readings show a discrepancy between the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5S. This shouldn't be a surprise since it's the same piece of hardware as the inclinometer, just with an added third dimension. Above is what happened when I tossed both phones on a level table. The iPhone 5 reads level, while the iPhone 5S reads -3 degrees off level.

Why does this matter? Because a wonky gyroscope is going to totally screw up gaming. Check out the drift when I'm playing EA's Real Racing 3. The green light flashes, the car goes left. The phone is still and level.

---

Compass

The compass is a little more challenging to test, because the numbers on both the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5S tended to jump around bit. After getting the readings steady, though the two phones consistently measured 8-10 degrees apart. It's also worth noting that on the iPhone 5S, the compass application was prone to either freezing up or giving wonky readings that could only be fixed by killing and restarting the app.

When comparing the measurements against an actual compass, neither iPhone's compass points to the same magnetic north as the real tool; however, the iPhone 5 clearly has a more accurate measurement.

This compass shortfall won't have you confusing east from west when you get out of the subway. But for more detailed mapping and way-finding apps, a 10 degrees disparity could impact what an app thinks you're doing and which way you're going. You probably shouldn't be using an iPhone compass to navigate the woods or set your course at sea anyway—but, yeah, don't do that.

---

Accelerometer

We did a brief test on the new iPhone's accelerometer data, and preliminary results seem to indicate that the 5S is registering way more latent motion than the iPhone 5. The above images show the readouts from the accelerometers of both phones sitting flat on a level desk. Our testing isn't conclusive here, but it's worth noting because the discrepancy is in line with those seen in tests of the other sensors.

Again, you can expect this to screw up gaming as well as readings on motion-based exercise apps, an especially unfortunate byproduct given how heavily Apple hyped its activity-tracking M7 processor (more on the hardware implications below).

---

What's going on, and what's the fix?

The faulty measurements from the iPhone 5S could either be a hardware problem or a software problem, and if you read through the experiences of users in the extensive MacRumors thread on the topic, there's an argument to be made for both.

The problem seems to be incredibly widespread, but it also affects different phones in different ways. If it were consistent across the board—for example if the compass was 2-degrees off for everyone—then it would be easier to pin the blame on iOS 7. The solution to the current sensor woes, then, could be as simple as a firmware fix to make the calibration more accurate.

As richard371 in the MacRumors thread points out, though, the inconsistency of the problem suggests—and the fact that it doesn't show up on an iPhone 5 running iOS 7—that the hardware isn't being properly calibrated in the factory, and that means that there are millions of phones out there that might never be exactly right. That's a huge problem. (Some users have reportedly had luck taking their phones back and swapping them for others—but just as many users report making the exchange and getting another malfunctioning unit.)

If it's indeed an underlying hardware problem, Apple will probably quietly resolve the issue with a tweak on future production units of the 5S, which still leaves millions of potentially defective units in circulation. It's possible that Apple could push a calibration tool or software fix that accounts for the inconsistent hardware performance in existing handsets, but it's very unlikely that the company will take all of these phones back (or that enough people will notice/care enough to get a new one.

Either way, it's a problem, whether you're a gamer, a home-improver, or someone who just wants their phone to work as advertised out of the box.

Photos by Nick Stango

Despite being one of the most difficult places on earth to reach, Mount Everest is plagued by trash, leftover gear, and yes, even dead bodies. Many climbers have been lost, and Everest does not make reclaiming them an easy task.

The post Mount Everest Is Littered With Dead Bodies appeared first on KnowledgeNuts.

This is a grammar comic about the proper usage of who versus whom.

View

Google acquired the awesome navigation app Waze earlier this year, and today we get to see the first benefits of this joining. Google Maps now shows incident reports from Waze users, and Waze has Google Search and street view.

The real-time incident reports are handy, letting you know when accidents, construction, road closures, and other things are happening on your route. You'll see them on both Android and iOS in a number of countries.

If you're still a Waze user, you should find that it now has better search results powered by Google, and the Waze Map Editor now has Google Street View and satellite imagery.

You can read about both these updates at the link below.

New Features Ahead: Google Maps and Waze Apps Better Than Ever | Google LatLong Blog

Waze Brings Google Search and Street View to the Community | Waze Blog

elementary OS 0.2 Luna stable

You can see these in action in the video at the bottom of this article.

Applications

Default applications include:

• Pantheon Files - a Marlin fork which is very fast and features multiple views, including Miller Columns as well as optional extensions for Ubuntu One or Dropbox;
• Noise (Music) - the default music player offers multiple views, including a browser based on album covers, an equalizer, iPod sync, Last.fm integration and more;
• Geary - an email client developed by Yorba (the team behind Shotwell) and the elementary team, has replaced Postler, and features new email notifications, multiple accounts support and more;

elementary OS Luna video

Below you can watch a quick elementary OS Luna video overview:


(direct video link; for more videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel)

Download elementary OS Luna

Also see: The Road to Luna

You may think spending time alone makes you more productive because you have the opportunity to concentrate, but that's not necessarily true. Productivity and ideas blog the 99u points to an old study that illustrates why proximity to other humans can help you work more efficiently.

One the earliest findings in social psychology was the “social facilitation” effect – the way the mere presence of other people engaged in the same task as us can boost our motivation. In 1920, social psychologist Floyd Allport showed that a group of people working individually at the same table performed better on a whole range of tasks even though they weren’t cooperating or competing. Allport’s research illustrates how the energy of other people can act as a substitute team even if we’re working solo (this is why many creatives enjoy working at their local café surrounded by industrious strangers).

Of course, working at a coffee shop (or in any public place) comes with its own set of challenges as well. Before you set out to work near others, learn how to overcome those potential problems.

9 Facts Every Creative Needs to Know About Collaborative Teams | The 99u

Photo by Alper Çuğun.

(direct video link)

Install GTK3 with Broadway backend enabled in Ubuntu

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:malizor/gtk-broadway
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Then, log out, log back in and to run an application with the Broadway backend, use the following command:

GDK_BACKEND=broadway UBUNTU_MENUPROXY= LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0 <APPLICATION>

where "APPLICATION" is the GTK3 application executable. For instance, to run Gedit with the Broadway backend, use:

GDK_BACKEND=broadway UBUNTU_MENUPROXY= LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0 gedit

"UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=" and "LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0" are required because with the global menu and overlay scrollbars enabled, the applications segfault.

And finally, open Firefox (using Chrome didn't work properly in my test) and enter the following address: http://localhost:8080


To specify the port (if you use a different port for each app, they can run in the same time), use "BROADWAY_DISPLAY=" followed by the port number (e.g.: BROADWAY_DISPLAY=8081) in the command used to launch the application.

Reverting the changes

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge
sudo ppa-purge ppa:malizor/gtk-broadway

Recently, we learned on Neatorama that as spaghetti and meatballs are actually not true Italian food, which got us thinking about what other things we've accepted as truths are actually damned lies. Well, here's what we found out:

1. Baby Carrots Are Actually Made from Grown Up Carrots

In 1986, California farmer Mike Yurosek got tired of having to throw away imperfect carrots at his packing plant. In some loads, as much as 70% of the carrots had to be thrown away because they were twisted, knobby, or otherwise deformed (he couldn't even feed them all to pigs because after a while, "their fat turned orange," he said.)

One day, Yurosek bought an industrial green-bean cutter from a frozen-food company that was going out of business, and cut the carrots into 2-inch pieces. Then he loaded them up into an industrial potato peeler to smooth down their edges. What he got was what we now know and love as baby carrots (technically, "baby-cut" carrots).

Oh, and here's the best part about the whole baby carrot business: they sell for much higher price than regular carrots, despite that they actually started as carrots destined for the trash heap.

2. Portabello Mushroom is Actually Just Mature Brown Crimini Mushroom

Image: BGSmith/Shutterstock

You pay a hefty premium for large portabello mushrooms at the grocyer store, but did you know that you're actually buying mature brown crimini or button mushrooms? Yep, they're the same thing.

3. You Won't Find Fortune Cookies in China

Eat in any Chinese restaurant in America, and you'll be served with a plate of fortune cookies at the end of the meal. Fortune cookies are so quintessentially Chinese ... yet you won't find them in China.

The origin of the fortune cookies is controversial, but food researchers pointed to its origin as distinctly Japanese (the modern version of the fortune cookie was supposedly invented by Japanese bakers who immigrated to the United States).

And here's the kicker: In the early 1990s, Wonton Food, the largest fortune cookie manufacturer in the United States, attempted to introduce fortune cookies to China, but gave up because the cookies were considered "too American" by the Chinese.

4. General Tso Didn't Invent General Tso's Chicken ...

... but he did quell a few rebellions in which millions of people died!

General Tso Tsun-t'ang, the man whom General Tso's chicken was named after, was a real general* in the late Qing Dynasty, China. He didn't invent the chicken dish in question - or any Chinese food at all, for the matter.

*Unlike Colonel Sanders, for example, who wasn't a real colonel in the military. Sanders was a Kentucky Colonel, a title of honor given by the Governor of Kentucky.

5. You Haven't Tasted Real Wasabi

Wasabi root (Image: Chris 73/Wikipedia)

Unless you've eaten sushi in Japan, or at a very expensive sushi restaurant elsewhere, you haven't tasted real wasabi. That pungent glob of green stuff swimming in soy sauce that you think is wasabi is actually a combination of horseradish, mustard and green food dye.

Real wasabi is made from wasabi root. It is traditionally grated with a piece of sharkskin stretched over wooden paddle.

6. Two Words: Meat Glue

If you thought pink slime in your burger was bad, wait till you hear about meat glue in your steak.

Meat glue, or an enzyme called transglutaminase, binds protein together. It is often used in the food industry to stick together scraps of meat into prime cuts of steak. After the meat is cooked, you can't tell the difference.

7. The First Caesar Salad Was Made From Scraps

From its name, you'd think that Caesar salad is a salad fit for Roman emperors, but did you know that the first Caesar salad was made from scraps?

In 1924, chef Caesar Cardini (yes, the salad was named after him), ran out of food in his restaurant's kitchen, so when a customer asked for a salad, he made do. Cardini put together bits of lettuce with olive oil, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, egg, garlic, croutons and Parmesan. He then added the dramatic flair of tossing the salad "by the chef" at the table-side. The crowds loved it, and the Caesar salad was born!

8. Salmon Gets Dyed Pink

Wild salmon got its nice pink color from eating red-hued krill, but farmed salmon don't get a chance to eat that. Instead, they're fed ground up fish meal and oils that turn their flesh a dull gray color. So, to make up for that color deficiency, farmed salmon are fed pink pigments.

SalmoFan (Image: farmedsalmonfree/Flickr)

Salmon farmers can even choose how pink is pink enough with this nifty SalmoFan. It's just like looking at paint swatches at the hardware store!

9. Chilean Sea bass isn't Chilean. It isn't even a Sea bass.

Chilean sea bass sounds quite nice, doesn't it? That's exactly why it's called that instead of the fish's real name: Patagonian toothfish (man, what an ugly fish!)

Patagonian toothfish AKA Chilean sea bass

In 1977, a fish wholesaler named Lee Lantz wanted to sell Patagonian toothfish to the American market, but realized that nobody wanted to eat a fish with such an unappetizing name. So he tried "Pacific sea bass" and "South American sea bass" before settling on "Chilean sea bass."

The clever name isn't the only problem with Chilean sea bass: according a 2011 DNA analysis by Peter Marko of Clemson University, 15% of Chilean sea bass sold with eco-labels weren't actually from approved, sustainable stock. Worse, 8% were actually different species of fish altogether!

10. You Can't Tell the Difference Between Cheap and Expensive Wine

Image: Minerva Studio/Shutterstock

Ah, the sweet nose of lies that is wine tasting. If you ever thought that pretentious wine tasting experts are full of it, you'd be right.

Psychologist Richard Wiseman of the Hertfordshire University conducted a blind test in which he asked 578 regular people to tell the difference between a variety of wine, ranging from cheap £3 wines to expensive £30 bottles:

The study found that people correctly distinguished between cheap and expensive white wines only 53% of the time, and only 47% of the time for red wines. The overall result suggests a 50:50 chance of identifying a wine as expensive or cheap based on taste alone – the same odds as flipping a coin.

So, in other words. They guessed.

Ah, but that's regular people, oenophiles said. What about experts? Well, the results aren't much better: In 2001, Frédéric Brochet at the University of Bordeaux tested 54 wine experts to rate 2 glasses of red and 2 glasses of white wine. The experts couldn't even tell that the red wine was actually the same as the white wine, but colored by red dye.

If that's not bad enough, wait till you hear what Brochet did next. He took a middling bottle of wine and served it in two different bottles. One bottle had a fancy grand cru label and the other one had an ordinary table wine label. The experts gave the same two wines opposite descriptions: they praised the "grand cru" wine and dismissed the ordinary one as less favorable.

Do you know of any more food lies? Tell us in the comments!

Are you tired of trying to be extraordinary? Hate standing out from the crowd and achieving more than those around you? Well then, this cartoon can help show you how to stop reaching for the stars and start living your life as yet another totally unremarkable, average citizen.

Of course, if you read Lifehack, then chances are, you’re probably actively trying to improve yourself and your life on a regular basis so this cartoon doesn’t really apply. But it does show you what not to do if you want to be above average -not to accept things at face value, not to accept rules just because they’re rules, to be productive and challenge yourself at work, and, most importantly, to have dreams and strive to achieve them.

Original Source -Geeks Are Sexy

As a rule, thinking is a good thing and while some people don’t do it enough, some over-think everything.: How to Stop Being an Over-Thinker

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