MALIBU CITY

Why you should (or shouldn’t) root (a.k.a hack) your Android device

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<span id="intelliTXT" name="intellitxt"><img alt="root" class="attachment-full wp-post-image" height="353" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/root-640x353.jpg" width="640" /><div class="photo">
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Android is based on the Linux kernel, so right from the start,
 tinkerers and power users were interested in gaining root access to 
make changes and graft on new features. In the early days, this was a 
fairly simple procedure on most devices. There were several apps and 
tools that could root almost any <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/tag/android">Android</a>
 phone or tablet, and you’d be ready to truly master your device in mere
 minutes. As Android became more capable, the allure of rooting has 
diminished somewhat — and it’s also much harder than it used to be.<br />
So
 what are the advantages and risks of rooting these days, and why are 
some devices resistant to rooting? Let’s see if we can’t figure it out.<br />
<h3>
<b>The advantages of rooting</b></h3>
Gaining
 root access on Android is akin to running Windows as an administrator. 
You have full access to the system directory and can make changes to the
 way the OS operates. As part of rooting, you install usage manager 
(SuperSU is the main one right now). These tools are basically the 
gatekeeper of root access on your phone. When an app requests root, you 
have to approve it using the root manager.<br />
So what can you do with
 root specifically? Let’s say there’s a system app that you really don’t
 like seeing, but it can’t be disabled through the standard method. With
 root you can run an app like Titanium Backup to delete or permanently 
hide the app. Titanium can also be used to manually back up all the data
 for an app or game so you can restore it to another phone. Want to 
remotely access and control your phone? That’s another thing you need 
root to do. Ad-blocking software on Android also needs root access, as 
it modifies the Android hosts file to block known ad servers.<br />
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/unnamed.png"><img alt="supersu" class="size-large wp-image-211316 aligncenter" height="480" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/unnamed-640x480.png" width="640" /></a><br />
Then
 there’s the multi-headed beast known as the Xposed Framework. Root 
access is needed to deploy Xposed in the system, but from that point 
forward Xposed doesn’t need to ask for root to do things like modify the
 UI and add new system-level features. It took a little time to get 
Xposed working on Lollipop, but the developer has finally produced some 
mostly stable builds.<br />
<h3>
<b>The risks of rooting</b></h3>
Rooting 
your phone or tablet gives you complete control over the system, and 
that power can be misused if you’re not careful. Android is designed in 
such a way that it’s hard to break things with a limited user profile. A
 superuser, however, can really trash things by installing the wrong app
 or making changes to system files. The <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/tag/security">security</a>
 model of Android is also compromised to a certain degree, as root apps 
have much more access to your system. Again, you need to be careful what
 you install.<br />
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/AndroidRedTriangle.jpeg"><img alt="AndroidRedTriangle" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-211318" height="264" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/AndroidRedTriangle-300x264.jpeg" width="300" /></a>Root
 methods are sometimes messy and dangerous in their own right. You might
 brick your device simply trying to root it, and you’ve probably 
(technically) voided your warranty doing so. Depending on the company, 
you might still be able to get a device repaired if you damage it 
attempting a root, but that’s not a guarantee.<br />
As of Android 5.0 
Lollipop, Nexus device system updates will only work on completely stock
 unrooted devices. This is because of a change to the way Android 
processes the OTA file. Updates now patch the entire system directory as
 a single blob, so any changes or extra files (i.e. root) will throw off
 the verification and the update will abort.<br />
On other phones and 
tablets, virtually every OTA update you get will wipe out root and block
 the method from working again. If having root access is really 
important to you, you might be left waiting on older buggy software 
while you beg for a new root method or a modded OS update.<br />
<h3>
<b>Why is rooting so much harder than it used to be?</b></h3>
If
 you’ve been using Android for a while, you’ve probably noticed gaining 
root access on most devices is much harder than it once was. There were 
exploits years back that could root almost any Android device in a few 
minutes, but that’s much less common now. The last essentially universal
 exploit was Towelroot in mid-2014, but Google patched that rather 
quickly.<br />
The reason these exploits are patched so quickly now is 
that having active exploits on your system is actually a bad thing for 
most users. These are security holes that can be utilized by malware to 
take over a device remotely and steal data. <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/tag/google">Google</a> and the device makers are being responsible when they shut down root methods after they are disclosed.<br />
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/uaslrskq4tnmlg5sfxuj.jpg"><img alt="uaslrskq4tnmlg5sfxuj" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-211319" height="358" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/uaslrskq4tnmlg5sfxuj.jpg" width="636" /></a><br />
Android
 is more secure, and it takes more work to break that security in a way 
that can grant root access. As a result of this cat-and-mouse game, root
 exploits are often pretty involved. You might have to push files to 
your device over USB, enter terminal commands, and flash modified files.<br />
The
 effort needed to find, test, and develop exploits of this nature is a 
big part of the reason some popular devices (like the Galaxy S6, for 
example) don’t even have root right now. That’s not to say there aren’t 
exploits in these devices, but they’re far too valuable to be given away
 freely to the community. If you peruse XDA, you might come across one 
of the many root bounty threads where users pledge thousands of dollars 
to anyone who can offer a working root method for a phone. This works 
sometimes, but it’s notoriously hard to collect on these bounties and a 
few thousand dollars isn’t actually terribly much for a solid exploit.<br />
Anyone
 who does security testing and research on Android will tell you there’s
 real demand for non-public exploits among security and forensics firms.
 A modder could make several times the theoretical value of a root 
bounty on XDA by selling an exploit to one of these companies. A 
universal exploit like we had back in the day could be worth tens of 
thousands easily. Most people just won’t give that away for a pittance.<br />
<h3>
<b>So should you do it?</b></h3>
If
 you’re primarily interested in Android because you want to tinker, you 
should figure that in when you choose a phone. Don’t get something 
hoping that root method will be released, because you might be waiting a
 long time for a messy exploit that gets patched right away. There are 
some devices that are relatively friendly to rooting like Nexus phones 
and tablets. They have unlockable bootloaders and can be rooted with 
almost no legwork. They also have system images that can be used to 
restore the device in case something goes wrong. The usual warning about
 using care installing apps still applies, though.<br />
If you’re not 
familiar with Android’s tools and how to fix issues with a command line,
 you might want to give this some thought. Root can be a lot of fun to 
play around with, but it can also lead to plenty of frustration as you 
try to fix errors caused by overzealous modding.</span></div>

Why you should (or shouldn’t) root (a.k.a hack) your Android device

Android is based on the Linux kernel, so right from the start, tinkerers and power users were interested in gaining root access to ...

Remote-control device releases drugs right into the brain

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<span id="intelliTXT" name="intellitxt"><img alt="Microfluidic device" class="attachment-full wp-post-image" height="353" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Microfluidic-device-640x353.jpg" width="640" /></span><br />
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Rarely has an invention with a subtext so directly from one of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley">Aldous Huxley</a>‘s dystopian futures appeared in the pages of an academic journal. In a study featured in the journal <i>Cell</i>,
 Washington University associate professor Dr. Michael R. Bruchas has 
led a team of researchers in developing a device for releasing drugs 
directly into the brain via remote control.<br />
For those not familiar with the epic science fiction <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World">Brave New World</a>,</i>
 it lays out a future in which the citizenry are kept in a state 
stupefied pleasure through a universally endorsed drug – soma. While the
 <i>Cell</i> article focuses on the therapeutic uses for the device, 
for instance in treating intractable depression, it isn’t difficult to 
imagine <i>Brave New World-</i>type scenarios in which giving people 
access to the pleasure and pain centers of their brains via remote 
control opens up a whole Pandora’s box of dystopian horrors.<br />
Before
 delving into these morally hazardous subplots, let’s look at the 
science behind the device. For years researchers have been struggling 
with an effective means for delivering drugs to the brain. One of the 
main issues is that the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood%E2%80%93brain_barrier">blood brain barrier</a>
 prevents most substances from ever reaching their targets within our 
gray matter. Another problem is in getting the dosage right. People 
metabolize drugs differently, so knowing exactly how much of a drug to 
administer to create the desired effect can be tricky. Creating a device
 the delivers drugs wirelessly to the brain via remote control has the 
potential to solve both issues at once.<br />
The
 effectiveness of the device was ascertained in an experiment on 
laboratory mice. The rodents in question had been trained to react to 
stimulation by secreting a dopamine-releasing protein whenever they were
 exposed to light. The researchers interfered with the animals’ 
light-sensitive reaction using a remote control to release a drug that 
counteracted the effects of the dopamine. If this sounds familiar, 
dopamine is the same neurotransmitter in humans that controls 
risk-taking behavior like gambling.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_210654" style="width: 310px;">
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/mouse_brainb.jpg"><img alt="Pictured is a mouse wearing the implantable device.Source: Jeong JW, McCall JG, et al. Wireless optofluidic systems for programmable in vivo pharmacology and optogenetics. Cell, published online July 16, 2015." class="size-medium wp-image-210654" height="166" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/mouse_brainb-300x166.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
<div class="wp-caption-text">
Pictured
 is a mouse wearing the implantable device.Source: Jeong JW, McCall JG, 
et al. Wireless optofluidic systems for programmable in vivo 
pharmacology and optogenetics. Cell, published online July 16, 2015.</div>
</div>
In
 another eerie sounding proof of principle, the laboratory mice were 
made to run in a circle by deploying a drug to one side of their brain 
using the wireless remote. That we may be approaching an era of 
remote-controlled pets is indicated by another technology which uses 
Bluetooth transmitters to <a href="https://backyardbrains.com/products/roboroach">steer cockroaches</a>.<br />
While
 the benefits this device will have in helping patients with intractable
 mental disease are real and formidable, to blithely ignore the 
potential moral ambiguities raised by turning animals into 
remote-controlled drones and handing people a device to dial down 
unwanted feeling at the push of a button could have lasting 
repercussions.<br />
There’s little doubt that most in the scientific 
community would pale at the idea of using this kind of technology for 
terrorist purposes or too keep a population subjugated. It’s harder to 
say if the likes of Kim Jung Un and other brutal dictators don’t get a 
twinkle in their eye when scientific papers like this come tumbling out 
of academic institutions free of charge.</span></div>
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Remote-control device releases drugs right into the brain

Rarely has an invention with a subtext so directly from one of Aldous Huxley ‘s dystopian futures appeared in the pages of an academi...

NASA has discovered the closest super-Earth exoplanet yet

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Astronomers have found more than a thousand planets outside 
our solar system, but most of them are large compared to Earth. Of those
 thought to be small and rocky, they’ve all been incredibly far away, 
even by interstellar standards. Now <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/tag/nasa">NASA</a> is reporting the discovery of a new <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/tag/exoplanets">exoplanet</a>
 just several times larger than Earth (a so-called super Earth) that is 
only 21 light years away. This could make it a fantastic target for 
future study.<br />
The alien planet is called HD 219134b and was 
detected by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. The planet is roughly 4.5 
times more massive than Earth, but only 1.6 times as wide. That means 
it’s most likely rocky. That’s what the “super Earth” distinction is 
based on, that it’s too small and dense to be a gas giant. We don’t know
 much else about the surface, though.<br />
HD 219134b was detected via 
the transit method of exoplanet detection, which is the technique also 
used by NASA’s crippled Kepler telescope that <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/196199-after-lengthy-hiatus-nasas-kepler-has-found-another-planet-a-super-earth">regularly spots dozens of potential exoplanets</a>.
 The transit method looks for small dips in the light output of a star, 
indicating that something is passing between it and our location on 
Earth. By watching for recurring dips, we can locate planets and 
partially characterize them.<br />
It didn’t take long for Spitzer to 
confirm the existence of HD 219134b. It whips around its parent star 
once every three days. It also obits extremely closely to the star. This
 is a smaller, cooler Type K orange star, but the surface of HD 219134b 
is still far too hot for life as we know it to exist.<br />
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/black-spot-ttar.jpg"><img alt="transit" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-211427" height="360" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/black-spot-ttar-640x360.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
There are three other planets in the HD 219134 system, but we don’t know as much about them yet. There is one that is <i>at least</i>
 2.7 times as massive as Earth, but it could be much larger. Its orbital
 period is 6.8 days. There’s also a Neptune-sized planet that orbits 
once every 47 days, and a planet 62 times larger than Earth that orbits 
once every 1190 days.<br />
Astronomers are excited to find HD 219134b not only because it’s a super Earth, but because it’s the <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasas-spitzer-confirms-closest-rocky-exoplanet">closest transiting world yet</a>.
 The closest exoplanet we know of is about 14 light years away, but it 
doesn’t transit its star. We can learn much more about the nature of an 
exoplanet when it passes in front of a star like this one does.<br />
The
 James Webb Space Telescope is currently scheduled to launch in 2018, 
and you can bet it’s going to be pointed at HD 219134b quickly. This 
instrument will be able to directly image some exoplanets and perform 
detailed spectroscopic analyses of their atmospheres.</span></div>

NASA has discovered the closest super-Earth exoplanet yet

Astronomers have found more than a thousand planets outside our solar system, but most of them are large compared to Earth. Of those...

Mozilla blasts Microsoft for overriding user choice in Windows 10

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<span id="intelliTXT" name="intellitxt"><img alt="Mozilla-vs-IE" class="attachment-full wp-post-image" height="353" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Mozilla-vs-IE-640x353.jpg" width="640" /><div class="photo">
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Windows 10 dropped this week with a promise of a free upgrade 
for anyone using Windows 7 or 8, but it turns out there’s a fly in that 
ointment. If you previously used Chrome or Firefox as your browser of 
choice, that choice is wiped away with the Windows 10 upgrade. Instead 
of new versions of Chrome or Firefox, you get Microsoft Edge as your 
default selection. This is the kind of maneuver that could land 
Microsoft in hot water with the EU, which has previously mandated that 
the Redmond-based company must offer a selection of alternative browsers
 to its own Internet Explorer when users first set up a Windows machine.<br />
Mozilla has taken exception to this new policy and issued <a href="https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2015/07/30/an-open-letter-to-microsofts-ceo-dont-roll-back-the-clock-on-choice-and-control/">an open letter</a>
 to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, as well as a new tutorial on how to 
restore your original browser preferences using Windows 10. According to
 Mozilla’s CEO, Chris Beard, the non-profit foundation has known about 
Microsoft’s personal preference overrides for months and has previously 
attempted to work with the company to reach some sort of solution. His 
letter states that this conversation “didn’t result in any meaningful 
progress.” Mozilla also claims that it now takes more than twice the 
number of mouse clicks and additional technical sophistication to change
 default settings in Windows 10 as compared to Windows 7.<br />
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_211439" style="width: 650px;">
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/W10-System.jpg"><img alt="W10-System" class="wp-image-211439 size-large" height="535" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/W10-System-640x535.jpg" width="640" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text">
Microsoft’s new Settings menu and the default app selection screen.</div>
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As
 far as measuring the clicks required to change applications after 
you’ve set up the operating system, Beard is wrong. By our count it 
takes six actions to change your web browser in the new Settings menu, 
in the older Control Panel (Windows 10) and in the Control Panel that 
shipped with Windows 7. Ars Technica points out, however, that Beard has
 a point when it comes to Microsoft’s initial Windows 10 upgrade 
screens. While it’s technically possible to change your app selection, 
you must first click on Customize Settings, then click on a small, 
low-context text field several pages later in order to avoid installing 
Microsoft’s application choices by default. All in all, it’s not the 
best solution.<br />
<h3>
The hole in Microsoft’s defense</h3>
Beard 
claims that Microsoft’s new approach to default settings with no 
notification that defaults have been changed is “purposefully designed 
to throw away the choices its customers have made about the Internet 
experience they want, and replace it with the Internet experience 
Microsoft wants them to have.” There’s good evidence he’s right — and 
ironically, it comes from Microsoft itself.<br />
Microsoft’s <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-specifications">Windows 10 specification page</a>
 states that the upgrade assistant will scan your system and determine 
if your installed software is compatible with the new operating system. 
It then states:<br />
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
<em>“For antimalware 
applications, Windows will check to see if your antimalware subscription
 is current (not expired) and compatible during the upgrade.”</em></div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
<em>“If
 the antimalware application is compatible and current, your application
 will be preserved during the upgrade to Windows 10. If the antimalware 
application is incompatible, Windows will uninstall your application 
while preserving your settings. After upgrade is complete, if your 
antimalware provider has informed Microsoft that it has made a 
compatible version available for your active subscription, Windows will 
notify you to install the latest version available with the settings 
that were set prior to upgrade.”</em></div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
<em>“If
 your antimalware subscription is not current (expired), Windows will 
uninstall your application and enable Windows Defender.”</em></div>
In 
other words, when it comes to something as critical as malware 
protection, Microsoft can scan your application, uninstall it if it 
isn’t compatible, notify you when a compatible version is available, and
 import your up-to-date AV license from your old OS install directly to 
the new one. But when it comes to your browser choice, well, that’s just
 not possible.<br />
<h3>
The power of defaults</h3>
Psychologists and 
sociologists have long known that default options have a profound effect
 on user behavior. The majority of people <em>never</em> change a 
default setting. An extensive survey from Firefox a few years back found
 that the highest rate of default change for users who had agreed to 
test pre-release Firefox nightly builds was just over 11%. That means 
that 89% of testers, who were presumably both passionate about Firefox 
and more likely to know how to crawl under the hood, simply never 
changed the default options.<br />
A different example, albeit one that 
still involves Mozilla, is the deal the browser developer cut with Yahoo
 late last year to make Yahoo the default search engine. VentureBeat 
reported in April that Yahoo’s share of search results had improved by 
2.8% to 13% total in just five months. Considering that Mozilla is just 
one browser and that not everyone upgrades immediately and would not 
have received the Yahoo default update, that’s impressive growth. 
Defaults work.<br />
And Microsoft knows it. This new trend of overriding user preference fits neatly in the general pattern of <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/211208-windows-10s-default-privacy-settings-and-controls-leave-much-to-be-desired">using Windows 10 to gather more data on end-users</a> than any previous version of the operating system.</span></div>

Mozilla blasts Microsoft for overriding user choice in Windows 10

Windows 10 dropped this week with a promise of a free upgrade for anyone using Windows 7 or 8, but it turns out there’s a fly in tha...

Watch (Terminator Genisys)

http://viooz.ac/movies/27229-terminator-genisys-2015.html

10 Incredible Plug-ins to Enhance Your Photoshop Experience

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   <a class="g" href="http://art-u3.infcdn.net/articles_uploads/2/2393/10%20Incredible%20Plug-ins%20to%20Enhance%20Your%20Photoshop%20Experience.jpg" rel="g" title="10 Incredible Plug-ins to Enhance Your Photoshop Experience"><img alt="" src="http://art-u2.infcdn.net/articles_uploads/2/2393/thumb/10%20Incredible%20Plug-ins%20to%20Enhance%20Your%20Photoshop%20Experience-665x.jpg" title="10 Incredible Plug-ins to Enhance Your Photoshop Experience" width="420" /></a>
   <span>10 Incredible Plug-ins to Enhance Your Photoshop Experience</span>
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No doubt, Adobe Photoshop is one of the most well-known professional 
image editing programs. But even though with each new release Photoshop 
becomes more powerful and acquires fresh capabilities, it might still 
have its limitations. If you can't find the needed tool in Photoshop, 
don’t worry – there's a whole pile of available plugins that will extend
 your creativity and speed up your workflow. We've rounded up 10 awesome
 Adobe Photoshop extensions to help you make the most out of the 
program.<br />

<h2>
Filter Forge</h2>
<div class="img_preview right">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2393/Filter%20Forge%20effects.jpg" rel="g" title="Filter Forge effects"><img alt="Filter Forge effects" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2393/thumb/Filter%20Forge%20effects-665x.jpg" /></a><span>Filter Forge effects</span></strong></div>
Filter Forge puts at your disposal literally a myriad of textures and
 filter effects. Moreover, this Photoshop plug-in lets you create your 
own effects and submit them to the Filter Forge library. If your filter 
gets popular among other users, you are awarded with a free copy of the 
tool. <br /><em>Price: $79, offers a 30-day trial</em><br />

<h2>
Perfect Resize</h2>
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<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2393/Perfect%20Resize.jpg" rel="g" title="Perfect Resize"><img alt="Perfect Resize" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2393/thumb/Perfect%20Resize-665x.jpg" /></a><span>Perfect Resize</span></strong></div>
With Perfect Resize, you can enlarge your photos in Photoshop without
 losing details. The tool comes with the patented Genuine Fractals 
technology that helps you increase the resolution of your images or 
scale medium-resolution photos to achieve print-quality output. Perfect 
Resize is also good for cropping and straightening pictures.<br /><em>Price: $79,95, offers a 30-day trial</em><br />

<h2>
Exposure 7</h2>
Exposure 7 provides you with a wide array of creative focus, lens 
simulation, vintage, and light effects. The most incredible option that 
this extension offers is an extensive range of effects that will add the
 look of famous film emulsions to your photos.<br /><em>Price: $149, offers a trial</em><br />

<h2>
Velositey</h2>
Velositey is a free Photoshop extension with over 60 templates you 
can use to create your website. The tool is designed to speed up your 
working process by performing all the “boring” job for you and letting 
you focus on more creative work while making the website.<br /><em>Price: freeware</em><br />

<h2>
Kubota Texture Tools Industrial Pak</h2>
<div class="img_preview right">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2393/Kubota%20Texture%20Tools%20Industrial%20Pak%20filters.jpg" rel="g" title="Kubota Texture Tools Industrial Pak"><img alt="Kubota Texture Tools Industrial Pak" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2393/thumb/Kubota%20Texture%20Tools%20Industrial%20Pak%20filters-665x.jpg" /></a><span>Kubota Texture Tools Industrial Pak</span></strong></div>
Kubota Texture Tools Industrial Pak delivers a vast variety of 
textures, borders, and templates to apply techno-industrial style to 
your photos. The plug-in also allows you to manipulate your images using
 the rotation, changing opacity, tone down color, or changing the size 
of the textures options.<br /><em>Price: $69, offers a 14-day trial</em><br />

<h2>
Topaz Adjust</h2>
<div class="img_preview right">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2393/Topaz%20Adjust.jpg" rel="g" title="Topaz Adjust"><img alt="Topaz Adjust" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2393/thumb/Topaz%20Adjust-665x.jpg" /></a><span>Topaz Adjust</span></strong></div>
Topaz Adjust will help you create incredible detailed HDR-like images
 from a single shot. The add-in offers plenty of amazing effects to make
 your photos much more vibrant, bright, and colorful.<br /><em>Price: $49.99, offers a 30-day trial</em><br />

<h2>
Photomatix Pro</h2>
<div class="img_preview right">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2393/Photomatix-Pro%205.jpg" rel="g" title="Photomatix Pro"><img alt="Photomatix Pro" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2393/thumb/Photomatix-Pro%205-665x.jpg" /></a><span>Photomatix Pro</span></strong></div>
Photomatix Pro provides an easy way to create stunning HDR images 
from three or more differently exposed photos. In addition, it includes 
two very handy options: selective deghosting that helps you get rid of 
so called ghosts in dynamic scenes and batch processing that will let 
you apply the same effect to multiple images.<br /><em>Price: $99, offers a trial</em><br />

<h2>
virtualPhotographer</h2>
<div class="img_preview right">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2393/VirtualPhotographer%20Interface.jpg" rel="g" title="VirtualPhotographer"><img alt="VirtualPhotographer" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2393/thumb/VirtualPhotographer%20Interface-665x.jpg" /></a><span>VirtualPhotographer</span></strong></div>
virtualPhotographer comes with a plethora of photo presets. The 
plug-in lets you tweak film grain, color, B/W, soft focus, high 
contrast, and more to achieve the best look of your photo. There is also
 a great split screen preview that lets you compare before and after 
results of a photo effect.<br /><em>Price: freeware</em><br />

<h2>
WebZap</h2>
WebZap is an awesome Photoshop plugin that helps web designers 
increase their workflow. Using the tool, you can create your layout 
based on a 960 grid system. In addition, WebZap is able to generate 
other common user interface elements in various styles and colors.<br /><em>Price: $19</em><br />

<h2>
Renamy</h2>
Renamy is another functional tool that is designed to help you select
 and instantly rename multiple layers. The plugin also lets you use its 
handy autocomplete feature and simple text to find and replace layer 
names.<br /><em>Price: $14.99, offers a free demo version</em><br />

</div>

10 Incredible Plug-ins to Enhance Your Photoshop Experience

10 Incredible Plug-ins to Enhance Your Photoshop Experience No doubt, Adobe Photoshop is one of the most well-known professi...

Best Add-ons To Reduce Firefox's Resource Consumption

<div class="article-content c">
   <div class="img_preview left">
   <a class="g" href="http://art-u1.infcdn.net/articles_uploads/2/2378/main.png" rel="g" title="Best Add-ons To Reduce Firefox's Resource Consumption"><img alt="" src="http://art-u2.infcdn.net/articles_uploads/2/2378/thumb/main-665x.png" title="Best Add-ons To Reduce Firefox's Resource Consumption" width="420" /></a>
   <span>Best Add-ons To Reduce Firefox's Resource Consumption</span>
  </div>
Today's web browsers have a whole bunch of handy features that make 
your experience on the Internet a lot more convenient. Unfortunately, 
this means that they also require a lot of your system's resources, and 
on low or even medium-end PCs this has a visible effect on the overall 
system performance. Although Google's Chrome is by far the most 
resource-hogging browser among the popular ones, Mozilla's Firefox can 
also slow down your computer. Here are a few browser add-ons that will 
help you reduce Firefox's system resources consumption.<br />

<h2>
Memory Fox</h2>
<div class="img_preview right">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2378/MemoryFox.png" rel="g" title="Memory Fox"><img alt="Memory Fox" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2378/thumb/MemoryFox-665x.png" /></a><span>Memory Fox</span></strong></div>
<a href="http://articles.informer.com/go/?go=https%3A%2F%2Faddons.mozilla.org%2Fen-US%2Ffirefox%2Faddon%2Fmemory-fox%2F" target="_blank">Memory Fox</a> is
 one of the best Firefox add-ons you can find. This tool will attempt to
 reduce both the browser's and the Flash RAM usage. In my experience, 
the extension has a visible positive impact on your overall performance,
 as when I first launched it, Firefox's memory usage dropped by almost 
50%. But be warned: if you have a 64-bit operating system, you need to 
use version 1.3.2.0 instead of the latest one. (On a 32-bit system, the 
latest version works fine.)<br />

<h2>
Duplicate Tab Closer</h2>
<div class="img_preview left">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2378/Duplicat%20Tab%20Closer.png" rel="g" title="Duplicate Tab Closer"><img alt="Duplicate Tab Closer" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2378/thumb/Duplicat%20Tab%20Closer-665x.png" /></a><span>Duplicate Tab Closer</span></strong></div>
In case if you're like me and open <em>a million</em> different tabs so that you don't forget where you found a specific bit of information, <a href="http://articles.informer.com/go/?go=https%3A%2F%2Faddons.mozilla.org%2Fen-US%2Ffirefox%2Faddon%2Fduplicate-tab-closer%2F" target="_blank">Duplicate Tab Closer </a>might
 prove to be useful. As I'm sure you guessed from its name, this add-on 
will check if you've opened the same web page in multiple tabs and, in 
case you did, automatically close the duplicate one. However, keep in 
mind that any running add-on will add to your browser's resource 
consumption, so don't install it unless you actually need it.<br />

<h2>
Tab Utilities</h2>
<div class="img_preview right">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2378/Tab%20Utillities.png" rel="g" title="Tab Utilities"><img alt="Tab Utilities" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2378/thumb/Tab%20Utillities-665x.png" /></a><span>Tab Utilities</span></strong></div>
<a href="http://articles.informer.com/go/?go=https%3A%2F%2Faddons.mozilla.org%2Fen-US%2Ffirefox%2Faddon%2Ftab-utilities%2F%3Fsrc%3Dcollection%26amp%3Bcollection_id%3D534c7891-700f-40e9-8cfa-ba02d483241c" target="_blank">Tab Utilities</a> is
 an interesting add-on which offers some really cool extra 
functionality. Although not specifically designed to help improve 
overall performance, this tool is capable of automatically unloading 
tabs you haven't clicked on in a while, thus stopping them from taking 
up memory space. Additionally, this extension will automatically close 
blank tabs that you didn't mean to open, provide an undo button for when
 you accidentally close tabs, as well as allow you to select multiple 
tabs at once, etc.<br />

<h2>
Unload Tab</h2>
<div class="img_preview left">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2378/unload%20tab.png" rel="g" title="Unload Tab"><img alt="Unload Tab" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2378/thumb/unload%20tab-665x.png" /></a><span>Unload Tab</span></strong></div>
In case you prefer a hands-on approach, <a href="http://articles.informer.com/go/?go=https%3A%2F%2Faddons.mozilla.org%2Fen-Us%2Ffirefox%2Faddon%2Funloadtab%2F%3Fsrc%3Dcollection%26amp%3Bcollection_id%3D534c7891-700f-40e9-8cfa-ba02d483241c" target="_blank">Unload Tab</a>
 is a handy add-on which allows you to manually unload any tab you want 
and keep it suspended until you are ready to use it. Basically, this 
tool is the Firefox version of Chrome's Great Suspender extension. 
Furthermore, you can instruct the add-on to automatically unload certain
 tabs, create an exclusion list for tabs that you never wish to suspend 
and control the way Firefox loads your tabs at start-up.<br />

<h2>
Tab Scope</h2>
<div class="img_preview right">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2378/Tab%20Scope.png" rel="g" title="Tab Scope"><img alt="Tab Scope" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2378/thumb/Tab%20Scope-665x.png" /></a><span>Tab Scope</span></strong></div>
Being totally honest, <a href="http://articles.informer.com/go/?go=https%3A%2F%2Faddons.mozilla.org%2Fen-US%2Ffirefox%2Faddon%2Ftab-scope%2F%3Fsrc%3Dcollection%26amp%3Bcollection_id%3D9c098dfd-d353-0183-46c0-f124fc245e12" target="_blank">Tab Scope</a>
 won't drastically improve your browser's overall performance, but it 
could prove to be really useful in certain situations. This add-on will 
allow you to preview open but inactive tabs by hovering your mouse over 
them. This means that, if all you need is a quick peak to a webpage 
you've already opened, you can now do so without making the tab active, 
thus saving precious time. Furthermore, if the website that you're just 
previewing (instead of actually clicking on it) uses resource-consuming 
plug-ins, the overall performance will be less affected.<br />

<h2>
Tab Data (+Memory usage)</h2>
<div class="img_preview left">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2378/Tab%20Data.png" rel="g" title="Tab Data"><img alt="Tab Data" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2378/thumb/Tab%20Data-665x.png" /></a><span>Tab Data</span></strong></div>
In case if you're interested in finding out which of your tabs take up most resources, <a href="http://articles.informer.com/go/?go=https%3A%2F%2Faddons.mozilla.org%2FEn-us%2Ffirefox%2Faddon%2Ftab-data%2F" target="_blank">Tab Data</a>
 is the solution you need. This tool is capable of showing you exactly 
how much RAM each of your tabs requires, highlights your top 5 resource 
consumers and provides detailed statistics of your recent and current 
browsing. Moreover, the add-on is capable of performing a <em>garbage collection</em> which will clear out some of the needlessly occupied space and memory.<br />

<h2>
FlashBlock</h2>
<div class="img_preview right">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2378/Flashblock.png" rel="g" title="FlashBlock"><img alt="FlashBlock" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2378/thumb/Flashblock-665x.png" /></a><span>FlashBlock</span></strong></div>
If you've tried out the previously mentioned add-on, than you've 
probably noticed that websites with Flash content take up a whole lot of
 resources. (Furthermore, the Flash plug-in isn't exactly safe as I've 
mentioned in a recently written <a href="http://articles.informer.com/the-flash-player-revolution.html" target="_blank">article</a>). <a href="http://articles.informer.com/go/?go=https%3A%2F%2Faddons.mozilla.org%2Fen-us%2Ffirefox%2Faddon%2Fflashblock%2F%3Fsrc%3Dcollection%26amp%3Bcollection_id%3D534c7891-700f-40e9-8cfa-ba02d483241c" target="_blank">FlashBlock</a>
 is a Firefox add-on that automatically stops any Flash-related content 
from the websites that you open. HTML5 content still goes through, so 
you will be able to watch videos if they're using the right plug-in. In 
case you actually want to see a Flash video, simply click on it, and it 
will be unblocked.<br />

<h2>
Click&Clean</h2>
<div class="img_preview left">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2378/click%20and%20clean.png" rel="g" title="Click and Clean"><img alt="Click and Clean" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2378/thumb/click%20and%20clean-665x.png" /></a><span>Click and Clean</span></strong></div>
If you've been using Firefox long enough, you might not actually 
realize the how much trash that has piled up from your previous browsing
 sessions. <a href="http://articles.informer.com/go/?go=https%3A%2F%2Faddons.mozilla.org%2Fen-US%2Ffirefox%2Faddon%2Fclickclean%2F%3Fsrc%3Dcollection%26amp%3Bcollection_id%3D534c7891-700f-40e9-8cfa-ba02d483241c" target="_blank">Click&Clean</a>
 is an effective add-on which is capable of automatically deleting your 
browser's history, cache and stored cookies, removing Flash Local Shared
 Objects and clearing your private data each time you close the browser.
 Additionally, this tool has secure deletion capabilities, so that the 
data it destroys could not be recovered.<br />

<h2>
Memory Restart</h2>
<div class="img_preview right">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2378/Memory%20restart.png" rel="g" title="Memory Restart"><img alt="Memory Restart" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2378/thumb/Memory%20restart-665x.png" /></a><span>Memory Restart</span></strong></div>
<a href="http://articles.informer.com/go/?go=https%3A%2F%2Faddons.mozilla.org%2Fen-Us%2Ffirefox%2Faddon%2Fmemory-restart%2F%3Fsrc%3Dcollection%26amp%3Bcollection_id%3D534c7891-700f-40e9-8cfa-ba02d483241c" target="_blank">Memory Restart</a> is
 an add-on which keeps an eye on Firefox's memory consumption and gives 
you a quick way to restart the browser if the resource usage gets too 
high. This tool ads a button next to your address bar which displays the
 browser's current memory usage. If a specified threshold has been 
reached, the button turns red (it's green otherwise), and clicking on it
 will quickly restart Firefox. The add-on is also capable of 
automatically restarting the browser (when a certain memory limit has 
been reached) and can help reduce memory usage.<br />

<h2>
Conclusion</h2>
While all of the tools on this list will help reduce Firefox's 
resource-usage, you should always keep in mind that the add-ons you 
install also require resources to run. This means that you should look 
through the available solutions and only download the ones that you 
really need. Installing and running all of them at the same time could 
make your browser and PC actually move slower than they did before you 
tried to make things better. In case if you're looking for ways to make 
Google Chrome take up less of your system's resources, check out <a href="http://articles.informer.com/" target="_blank">this article</a>.<br />

</div>

Best Add-ons To Reduce Firefox's Resource Consumption

Best Add-ons To Reduce Firefox's Resource Consumption Today's web browsers have a whole bunch of handy features that...

Free Alternatives to Acrobat Reader for Mac

<div class="article-content c">
   <div class="img_preview left">
   <a class="g" href="http://art-u3.infcdn.net/articles_uploads/2/2398/maine.png" rel="g" title="Free Alternatives to Acrobat Reader for Mac"><img alt="" src="http://art-u2.infcdn.net/articles_uploads/2/2398/thumb/maine-665x.png" title="Free Alternatives to Acrobat Reader for Mac" width="420" /></a>
   <span>Free Alternatives to Acrobat Reader for Mac</span>
  </div>
Adobe's Acrobat Reader is a really great solution for viewing and 
editing PDF documents, but the company has a nasty habit of overpricing 
its products, which can be quite annoying. The good news is that if you 
don't want to, you don't have to pay. In case you're willing to try them
 out, there are quite a few free alternative solutions that you can use.
 Of course, starting with OS X Lion, the native Mac PDF viewer also 
offers some basic editing functions, but if you're looking for something
 different, here are some of the best free alternatives you can find.<br />

<h2>
PDF Escape</h2>
<div class="img_preview right">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2398/PDF%20Escape.png" rel="g" title="PDF Escape"><img alt="PDF Escape" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2398/thumb/PDF%20Escape-665x.png" /></a><span>PDF Escape</span></strong></div>
Let's start things off with a great alternative that you don't even need to install. <a href="http://articles.informer.com/go/?go=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pdfescape.com%2F" target="_blank">PDF Escape</a>
 is a web-based tool which allows you to perform a wide variety of 
changes to your PDF files. This service allows adding texts, images, 
drawings or links to your documents and highlight or place sticky notes 
on the fragments which are important to you. Additionally, you can also 
rotate, crop or deskew any page from the PDF. As far as disadvantages 
go, there is no undo option (the only thing you can do is clear all the 
changes) and you can't copy-paste the text from your document. You 
should also keep in mind that the free version of the service limits you
 to 100 MB or 100 pages and will 'forget' your document after 7 days.<br />

<h2>
PDFsam</h2>
<div class="img_preview right">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2398/PDFSam.png" rel="g" title="PDFsam"><img alt="PDFsam" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2398/thumb/PDFSam-665x.png" /></a><span>PDFsam</span></strong></div>
<a href="http://macdownload.informer.com/pdfsam1/" target="_blank">PDFsam</a> (short
 for PDF Split and Merge) is an open-source tool which provides you with
 a great solution for dealing with large documents. This application 
will help you split your PDFs into chapters or single pages, extract 
sections from your documents into a single file and merge multiple files
 or sections into a single PDF. Another cool thing is that PDFsam helps 
you reorganize your documents by allowing you to reorder their pages. 
Last, but not least, this tool can also be successfully used to create a
 mix (with the important bits) from multiple PDF documents.<br />

<h2>
PDF Assistant Lite</h2>
<div class="img_preview right">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2398/PDF%20Assistant%20Lite.png" rel="g" title="PDF Assistant Lite"><img alt="PDF Assistant Lite" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2398/thumb/PDF%20Assistant%20Lite-665x.png" /></a><span>PDF Assistant Lite</span></strong></div>
While technically just a PDF reader, <a href="http://macdownload.informer.com/pdfassistantlite/" target="_blank">PDF Assistant Lite</a>
 also embeds some handy editing functions, such as the ability to add 
notes, underline or highlight important text fragments, create 
bookmarks, insert hyperlinks and rotate or crop documents. The tool 
offers text-to-speech features, page flipping animations and a wide 
range of customization options to make your reading environment as 
pleasant as possible. If that's not enough, the application also has a 
paid version which offers additional functions, such as the ability to 
add drawings and shapes into the PDF.<br />

<h2>
Skim</h2>
<div class="img_preview right">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2398/Skim.png" rel="g" title="Skim"><img alt="Skim" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2398/thumb/Skim-665x.png" /></a><span>Skim</span></strong></div>
<a href="http://macdownload.informer.com/pdf-skim1/" target="_blank">Skim</a> is
 an open-source application perfect for those who need to read PDF 
documents and take notes. This tool allows you to make annotations, 
highlight text fragments, add bookmarks and crop sections from your 
file. Additional advantages include convenient navigation options, 
reading bars (good for those who have problems focusing), the ability to
 make 'snapshots' and embedded transitions which will help you deliver 
powerful presentations.<br />

<h2>
PDF Reader Pro Free - All-in-One PDF Office</h2>
<div class="img_preview right">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2398/PDF%20Reader%20Pro.png" rel="g" title="PDF Reader Pro Free"><img alt="PDF Reader Pro Free" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2398/thumb/PDF%20Reader%20Pro-665x.png" /></a><span>PDF Reader Pro Free</span></strong></div>
<a href="http://macdownload.informer.com/pdf-reader-pro-free/" target="_blank">PDF Reader Pro Free</a> is
 one of the most complete free PDF management tools that you can find on
 the market. As its (long) name states, this application provides an 
all-in-one solution to most of your PDF related problems. PDF Reader Pro
 lets you annotate your document, fill forms, create bookmarks, and it 
can merge, split, rotate, crop or delete pages. Furthermore, the 
application will help you secure your files with passwords, compress 
them in case they're too large and easily share them via Dropbox or 
email. A feature that you will really like is the tool's ability to 
convert your documents into a wide array of other formats such as DOC, 
JPG, HTML, etc.<br />

To be totally honest, none of the products from the list actually 
compare to Adobe Acrobat and, in case PDF documents are an important 
part of your job, you should pay for a professional solution. However, 
if you're an average user on the prowl for a quick and cheap PDF 
managing solution, then these tools should provide you with everything 
you need.<br />

</div>

Free Alternatives to Acrobat Reader for Mac

Free Alternatives to Acrobat Reader for Mac Adobe's Acrobat Reader is a really great solution for viewing and editing P...

Best Tools to Boost Your File Copying Speed

<div class="article-content c">
   <div class="img_preview left">
   <a class="g" href="http://art-u1.infcdn.net/articles_uploads/2/2366/Main.png" rel="g" title="Best Tools to Boost Your File Copying Speed"><img alt="" src="http://art-u2.infcdn.net/articles_uploads/2/2366/thumb/Main-665x.png" title="Best Tools to Boost Your File Copying Speed" width="420" /></a>
   <span>Best Tools to Boost Your File Copying Speed</span>
  </div>
Windows Explorer allows you to copy and paste files, but the speed 
that you get isn't always the greatest. Especially when you're copying a
 large number of small files, the time it takes for Microsoft's default 
utility to complete the process takes longer than it should. 
Furthermore, depending on your hardware, you probably can't do much else
 while copying files (if you are to maintain maximum speed), and the 
standard Windows function doesn't have a pause button, which can be 
quite frustrating. Here you will find a few tools that provide you with 
better options and faster speeds for copying files on Windows PCs.<br />

<h2>
TeraCopy</h2>
<div class="img_preview right">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2366/teracopy.png" rel="g" title="TeraCopy"><img alt="TeraCopy" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2366/thumb/teracopy-665x.png" /></a><span>TeraCopy</span></strong></div>
<a href="http://teracopy.software.informer.com/" target="_blank">TeraCopy</a> is,
 as far as I'm concerned, one of the best file copying utilities you can
 find. Even though you have to pay to enjoy all its features (free 
version only offers basic functions), this tool is worth it. Unlike most
 of the other similar applications, this one actually has clean, 
well-designed interface and offers a ton of features that will simplify 
many of your tasks. The tool integrates itself into your Windows Shell, 
so it will be easily accessible at any time.<br />

TeraCopy will test if the location you've selected has enough free 
space for all your files, recover after errors, verify the integrity of 
copied data and keep a log of all the files it failed to transfer. 
Moreover, you can allow or disallow the application to use your system's
 write cache. The only thing that could use a bit more work is the 
copying speed, which, although is an improvement over the Windows 
default one, it's still not as good as the one offered by other tools of
 the kind. (Despite the warning on our website, the application is 
completely clean according to the VirusTotal service.)<br />

<h2>
FastCopy</h2>
<div class="img_preview right">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2366/FastCopy.png" rel="g" title="FastCopy"><img alt="FastCopy" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2366/thumb/FastCopy-665x.png" /></a><span>FastCopy</span></strong></div>
As its name suggests, <a href="http://fastcopy1.software.informer.com/" target="_blank">FastCopy</a>
 is a tool that will significantly boost your file-copying speed (in my 
experience, it's the fastest one available). This tool can work without 
installation on PC; it can integrate itself into Windows Shell and 
verify the integrity of your files before wrapping up the copying 
process. Additionally, the application also embeds a file-wiping utility
 which makes the data you remove with its help irretrievable.<br />

Unfortunately, there are also several drawbacks to using FastCopy, 
such as a somewhat poorly designed interface or the lack of the pause / 
resume functionality for the copying process. However, what's worse is 
that getting rid of this application can be a bit difficult, especially 
for beginners.<br />

<h2>
KillCopy</h2>
<div class="img_preview right">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2366/Killcopy.png" rel="g" title=""><img alt="" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2366/thumb/Killcopy-665x.png" /></a></strong></div>
<a href="http://killcopy.software.informer.com/" target="_blank">KillCopy</a> is
 a swift solution for copying your files which offers a few interesting 
features, including the ability to resume copying after a crash, 
detailed logs of the files it copies or the capability to verify the 
files it transfers. Additionally, the tool's settings help you boost 
reading or writing speeds and reserve disk space for the important files
 in case you're worried you won't have enough for all your tasks. As far
 as disadvantages go, although it integrates in the Windows right-click 
menu, KillCopy has a completely unattractive interface which makes 
things a bit awkward.<br />

<h2>
RichCopy</h2>
<div class="img_preview right">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2366/RichCopy.png" rel="g" title="RichCopy"><img alt="RichCopy" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2366/thumb/RichCopy-665x.png" /></a><span>RichCopy</span></strong></div>
If you're interested in copying files over your network, then<a href="http://microsoft-richcopy.software.informer.com/" target="_blank"> RichCopy</a>
 is probably the best solution you can choose. Developed by a Microsoft 
engineer, this tool may look a bit outdated, but it's lightning fast 
when it comes to LAN file transfers. Additionally, the application 
offers pause and resume functionality, can continue copying files from 
where it left off even if the network connection went down during the 
process, and it is capable of parallel copying. The only things I didn't
 like about RichCopy is that it's quite slow if you use it locally, and 
for some reason, you need to go through two separate installers before 
actually being able to use it.<br />

<h2>
Unstoppable Copier</h2>
<div class="img_preview right">
<strong><a class="g" href="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2366/UnstopableCopier.png" rel="g" title="Unstopable Copier"><img alt="Unstopable Copier" src="http://articles.informer.com/articles_uploads/2/2366/thumb/UnstopableCopier-665x.png" /></a><span>Unstoppable Copier</span></strong></div>
Last on our list is <a href="http://roadkil-s-unstoppable-copier.software.informer.com/" target="_blank">Unstoppable Copier</a>, the
 right tool to have at your disposal when you're dealing with corrupt 
files. If you've recovered bulk data from a hard-disk or a DVD and need a
 way to copy them, this application can help you out. Moreover, the 
program offers a few additional features, such as the ability to 
automatically shut down the PC after all the files have been copied or 
the capability to prioritize undamaged files. The only inconvenience is 
that Unstoppable Copier offers a slow copying speed when compared to all
 the previously mentioned tools.<br />

</div>

Best Tools to Boost Your File Copying Speed

Best Tools to Boost Your File Copying Speed Windows Explorer allows you to copy and paste files, but the speed that you get...

Scientists to launch hunt for alien life on Jupiter's moons

<img src="http://www.hindustantimes.com//images/2015/5/9ddab621-b8be-4ee2-9e54-4fee56996b04wallpaper1.jpg" /> <br />
After a last week's successful mission to Pluto, scientists are 
preparing to launch a probe to search for life on the icy moons of 
Saturn and Jupiter, according to media reports.<br />

Earlier this week, the European Space Agency announced that it would 
collaborate with aircraft manufacturing giant Airbus to launch a space 
probe in 2022 to look for extra-terrestrial existence on the four icy 
moons -- Titan, Saturn's largest moon and the ocean-bearing worlds of 
Europa, Ganymede and Callisto of Jupiter, the Telegraph newspaper 
reported on Saturday.<br />

Dubbed as the "Juice" (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) spacecraft, the 
mission will look whether the frozen worlds that surround the two giant 
gaseous planets could support extra-terrestrial life.<br />

"All our current exciting and fascinating space missions have been 
dealing with either understanding the origins of life and our Solar 
System or finding exoplanets (planets that revolve around a star other 
than the Sun) that might host Earth-like planets," Daniel Brown, an 
astronomy expert from Nottingham Trent University, was quoted as saying.<br />

"But, life doesn't have to exist on planets like Earth, it could also
 have developed in oceans within icy moons around Jupiter like gas 
giants," he added.<br />

It is hoped that micro-organisms or even fish-like creatures may be 
present in deep-water hydrothermal vents, known as 'black smokers', 
which are known to harbour life on Earth.<br />

"Juice will be exploring the Titan and three Galilean moons of 
Jupiter thought to harbour oceans under their surface. It will give us a
 much better understanding what lies beneath the icy crust and how it 
could offer an environment for life to develop."<br />

The probe will be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket which would spend 
seven and a half years slingshotting around Earth, Mars and Venus to 
pick up enough speed to get to the Jupiter system with as little fuel as
 possible.<br />

For three and a half years, the spacecraft will sweep around the 
giant planet, exploring its turbulent atmosphere, enormous 
magnetosphere, and tenuous set of dark rings, as well as studying the 
icy moons -- Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto.<br />

The probe will start with Callisto before making two fly-bys of Europa, where it will study the icy surface.

Scientists to launch hunt for alien life on Jupiter's moons

After a last week's successful mission to Pluto, scientists are preparing to launch a probe to search for life on the icy moons of S...

Microsoft presses 'Send': a new mobile app for quick office communications

Email may still be the dominant tool for office communications in 
many companies today, but Microsoft on Wednesday unveiled a 
mobile-minded alternative that's focused primarily on short, quick 
messages.<br />
Dubbed Send, the new tool aims to deliver a simple 
experience much like that offered by text messaging or instant messaging
 software, but without the need to know a co-worker's mobile number or 
username. Instead, Send lets users quickly fire off a message to any 
co-worker using just their email address; no subject line, salutations 
or signatures are required.<br />
<aside class="fakesidebar"><strong>[ Digital Spotlight: <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/resources/16298/mobile-device-management/digital-spotlight-enterprise-mobile-app-strategies#tk.ifw-infsb">Enterprise mobile app strategies that work</a>. | Keep up on key mobile developments and insights with the <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/newsletters/signup.html#tk.ifw-infsb">Mobile Computing newsletter</a>. ]</strong></aside>"On my way," might be one example, or "Are you in the office today?"<br />
The
 app connects to Office 365 business and school email accounts to find 
frequent and recent contacts; users need only tap on one to start a 
conversation. A "Quick Reply" option allows for speedy responses.<br />
<aside class="nativo-promo smartphone " id="insert-module-1515"> </aside>That
 Office 365 connection, meanwhile, also means conversations are synced 
with Outlook, letting users continue them from anywhere. Messages sent 
using Send are treated internally like any other work email and comply 
with an organization's email compliance policies, Microsoft said.<br />
Send is now available free for iPhone <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/garage/#app-send" target="new">through the Microsoft Garage</a>
 in the United States and Canada; versions for Windows Phone and Android
 are coming soon, as are additional IT controls. Currently the app works
 with Office 365 business and school email accounts, but Microsoft plans
 to make it more broadly available in the coming months, it said.<br />

</div>

Microsoft presses 'Send': a new mobile app for quick office communications

Email may still be the dominant tool for office communications in many companies today, but Microsoft on Wednesday unveiled a mobil...

Microsoft aims to reboot connections with Windows 10

<img src="http://www.hindustantimes.com//images/2015/3/189444c2-a10a-4e51-984e-df7e8f688944wallpaper1.jpg" /><br />
<br />
Microsoft is aiming to build lasting relationships with Windows 10, 
the operating system to be launched on Wednesday and seen as critical to
 reviving the fortunes of the once-dominant tech giant.<br />

For the first time, Microsoft is making a major new version of 
Windows available free as an upgrade to anyone using either of the prior
 two generations of the system.<br />

The goal is to swiftly have Windows 10 powering a billion devices, 
creating a gigantic audience to induce developers to crank out must-have
 apps for the platform.<br />

Microsoft hopes to break the cycle in which consumers shun Windows 
for mobile because it lacks the large catalog of applications found on 
rival platforms, thus discouraging app makers from creating Windows 
versions.<br />

Hit apps could ramp up popularity of Windows-driven hardware made by 
Microsoft and its partners, and increase opportunities for the company 
to make money from online activities such as search, shopping and 
software as services in the Internet cloud.<br />

"This is all in the direction of building a relationship, being 
connected with you," Forrester Research analyst Frank Gillett said of 
Windows 10.<br />

"They make it free so developers make good stuff. And then create an 
ongoing relationship instead of just a transaction, which is how 
Microsoft has operated in the past."<br />

Microsoft has built its empire on packaged software sold to computer users and makers.<br />

Windows remains the leading operating system for personal computers 
but has failed to gain traction on mobile devices such as smartphones 
and tablets, dominated by Google's Android and Apple's iOS.<br /><br /><strong>'Aggressive' move</strong><br /><br />Special
 events are planned in 13 cities around the world in tribute to the more
 than five million "insiders"  who took part in a Windows 10 test 
period.<br />

The operating system will come as a free upgrade to people who 
already use Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 and will be available in 190 
countries.<br />

Microsoft is not making Windows 10 free to computer makers, which is 
where it has historically gotten the bulk of its revenue from the 
operating system.<br />

"The piece that is given away free is a piece that nobody was buying anyway," Gartner analyst Stephen Kleynhans told AFP.<br />

"You can think of the free upgrade almost as being a teaser -- a free sample of the new operating system."<br />

Microsoft has also made Windows available free to makers of 
small-screen gadgets such as smartphones or tablets to gain traction in 
the mobile market.<br />

Windows 10 will come pre-installed on Microsoft-compatible computers 
and tablets from July 29 and will be available for purchase later in the
 year.<br />

The move marks a major launch for Microsoft, after the lukewarm response to Windows 8, which was rolled out in 2013. <br />

To mark the shift, Microsoft skipped directly from Windows 8 to Windows 10.<br />

"This the first time they have gone two generations back and said you
 are getting it free. It is pretty aggressive," said independent 
technology analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group.<br />

"They are doing it because Windows 8 bounced. They have to move the Windows 7 and 8 users and do it en masse."<br /><br /><strong>High hopes</strong><br /><br />Microsoft
 has high hopes for Windows 10, which it wants to see installed in a 
billion devices around the world by 2018. Some 1.5 billion machines run 
on earlier versions of the operating system.<br />

Windows 10 boasts a common base on which developers will be able to 
build apps that work on smartphones, tablets, PCs and desktops, and even
 Xbox. It will also feature virtual assistant Cortana.<br />

The new operating system is critical for Microsoft as the PC market has been shrinking while smartphone sales have boomed. <br />

And even in PCs, the longtime Microsoft bastion is under siege by 
devices such as Android or Apple tablets and Google Chromebooks.<br />

"The hope is to pull the application guys over, particularly on the 
phone side where Microsoft has struggled, and give users a common 
experience on phone, tablet, and PC," Enderle said.<br />

"Microsoft phones are still strategic."<br />

Early this month, Microsoft said it will cut 7,800 jobs and wrote 
down the value of the struggling mobile phone division it acquired last 
year from Nokia by some $7.6 billion.<br />

The announcement represented the second major round of layoffs in a 
year for Microsoft, which cut some 18,000 jobs a year ago as part of its
 effort to integrate the Finnish-based phone group.<br />

Microsoft said that it would "restructure the company's phone hardware business to better focus and align resources."<br />

Satya Nadella, who became chief executive in 2014, is seeking to 
reinvigorate a company that had been the world's largest but which has 
lost the leadership of the tech sector in recent years.<br />

Gillett predicted that Microsoft will shift from doing major Windows 
releases to routinely honing the software and adding features.<br />

"The dramatic idea is that this is Windows as an ongoing service experience that evolves with you," the Forrester analyst said.<br />

Microsoft's efforts to adapt to modern Internet trends have included 
making popular productivity programs available as cloud services and as 
applications on mobile devices powered by Apple or Android software.<br />

"They really are focused on delivering a range of cloud services, and
 in a lot of cases it won't just be on Microsoft's platforms," said 
Gartner analyst Kleynhans.<br />"It's a good strategy."

Microsoft aims to reboot connections with Windows 10

Microsoft is aiming to build lasting relationships with Windows 10, the operating system to be launched on Wednesday and seen as critic...

Google's self-driving car wins Design of the Year Award for transport

<img alt="" class=" ssrMultiImg" data-aspectratio="1.5" data-maxheight="1280" data-maxwidth="1920" data-srcsizedata="{"values":[{"width":620,"height":413,"url":"http://cdni.wired.co.uk/620x413/d_f/design-7.jpg"},{"width":1240,"height":826,"url":"http://cdni.wired.co.uk/1240x826/d_f/design-7.jpg"},{"width":1920,"height":1280,"url":"http://cdni.wired.co.uk/1920x1280/d_f/design-7.jpg"},{"width":458,"height":305,"url":"http://cdni.wired.co.uk/458x305/d_f/design-7.jpg"},{"width":281,"height":187,"url":"http://cdni.wired.co.uk/281x187/d_f/design-7.jpg"},{"width":195,"height":130,"url":"http://cdni.wired.co.uk/195x130/d_f/design-7.jpg"}]}" src="http://cdni.wired.co.uk/1920x1280/d_f/design-7.jpg" /><br />
<a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/google">Google</a>'s self-driving car has been announced as the winner of the Design Museum's Design of the Year transport award.<br />
Designed
 by YooJung Ahn, Jared Gross and Philipp Haban, the bug-like vehicle 
drives at the push of a button and has no steering wheel or pedals. It 
has only just this week been given permission to drive on public roads 
in California.<br />
"As a precursor to a real revolution in personal 
transport, the Google car brings together various autonomous 
technologies for the first time. The potential for a product like this 
to change the way society thinks about the car, its use and ownership, 
is huge. Google have taken a very bold step entering and leading the 
debate, and this is to be roundly applauded," said judge Richard 
Woolley, who is studio director of Land Rover's Design and Research 
Special Vehicle Operations.<br />
Winner in the product category this 
year was the human organ-on-chips, put together by scientists from Wyss 
Institute and Harvard University. Crafted from living cells, the chips 
are designed to accelerate drug discovery and advance personalised 
medicine.<br />
<div id="inreadAdPlaceholderOuter">
<span id="inreadAdPlaceholderMiddle"><span id="inreadAdPlaceholderInner"></span></span></div>
Other
 winners include the UC Innovations Centre, a digital project designed 
to raise awareness about the problem of plastics in the oceans, the 
Thomas Tait AW13/14 fashion line and Inglorious Fruit and Vegetables, an
 ad campaign celebrating the beauty of imperfect fruit and veg.

Google's self-driving car wins Design of the Year Award for transport

Google 's self-driving car has been announced as the winner of the Design Museum's Design of the Year transport award. Designed ...

Google Glass may help improve social skills in autistic people

A new technology has been developed which uses Google Glass to help 
those with autism make eye contact, engage in conversations and be able 
to read social situations and cues more easily. <br />

Ned Sahin, a Boston entrepreneur and scientist, has developed a new 
technology that aims to change the way those with autism see the world. <br />

"The Brain Power system adds enhancements to the Google Glass or 
other wearable (technology) and then a suite of software," Sahin said. <br />

The software was designed to help those with autism make eye contact,
 engage in conversations and more easily read social situations. <br />

"It coaches eye contact directly, rewarding points to the child or 
adult with autism. Then, when they look at someone in the eye, their 
little computer screen shows the emotions the other person is feeling," 
Sahin said. <br />

The glasses can help make someone relax by playing soft music and 
even has a solution to the fear of "wandering", wbir.com reported. <br />

"A Mom can speak to her child through the device and actually see 
what he is seeing," Sahin explained. "We activate the camera so it 
becomes a remote version of her eyes." <br />

Clinical trials for the new technology will begin later this year at Harvard Medical School.

Google Glass may help improve social skills in autistic people

A new technology has been developed which uses Google Glass to help those with autism make eye contact, engage in conversations and be able...

Dark Pion Particles May Explain Universe's Invisible Matter

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<tr><td><img alt="Researchers propose that dark matter is a kind of invisible, intangible version of a pion, or a type of meson — a category of particles made up of quarks and antiquarks." src="http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/077/465/iFF/particle-physics-pions.jpg?1437771343" style="width: 270px;" />
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                  <a class="pin-it-button" href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A//www.livescience.com/51660-pions-may-explain-dark-matter.html&media=http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/077/465/original/particle-physics-pions.jpg?1437771343&description=Researchers%20propose%20that%20dark%20matter%20is%20a%20kind%20of%20invisible%2C%20intangible%20version%20of%20a%20pion%2C%20or%20a%20type%20of%20meson%20%u2014%20a%20category%20of%20particles%20made%20up%20of%20quarks%20and%20antiquarks."><img border="0" src="http://assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" title="Pin It" /></a>
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              Researchers propose that dark matter is a kind of 
invisible, intangible version of a pion, or a type of meson — a category
 of particles made up of quarks and antiquarks.<br />
              
              
              <span style="float: left; margin-top: 5px; padding-right: 5px;">Credit: MichaelTaylor | Shutterstock.com</span>
              
              
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Dark matter is the mysterious stuff that cosmologists think makes up 
some 85 percent of all the matter in the universe. A new theory says 
dark matter might resemble a known particle. If true, that would open up
 a window onto an invisible, dark matter version of physics.<br />

The only way <a href="http://www.space.com/20930-dark-matter.html">dark matter</a> interacts with anything else is <a href="http://www.livescience.com/37115-what-is-gravity.html">via gravity</a>.
 If you poured dark matter into a bucket, it would go right through it 
because it doesn't react to electromagnetism (one reason you can stand 
on the ground is because the atoms in your feet are repelled by the 
atoms in the Earth). Nor does dark matter reflect or absorb light. It's 
therefore invisible and intangible.<br />

Scientists were clued into its existence by the way galaxies behaved. 
The mass of the galaxies calculated from the visible stuff they 
contained wasn't enough to keep them bound to each other. Later, 
observations of gravitational lensing, in which light bends in the 
presence of gravity fields, showed there was something that made galaxy 
clusters more massive that couldn't be seen. [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/34052-unsolved-mysteries-physics.html">The 9 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics</a>]
<br />

<br />

<strong>Invisible pions</strong><br />

Now, a team of five physicists has proposed that dark matter might be a
 kind of invisible, intangible version of a pion, a particle that was 
originally discovered in the 1930s. A pion is a type of meson — a 
category of particles made up of quarks and antiquarks; neutral pions 
travel between protons and neutrons and bind them together into <a href="http://www.livescience.com/37206-atom-definition.html">atomic nuclei</a>.<br />

Most <a href="http://www.livescience.com/48740-dark-matter-large-chunks-macros.html">proposals about dark matter</a>
 assume it is made up of particles that don't interact with each other 
much — they pass through each other, only gently touching. The name for 
such particles is <a href="http://www.livescience.com/47922-cosmic-rays-reveal-more-about-dark-matter.html">weakly interacting massive particles</a>,
 or WIMPs. Another idea is that dark matter is made up of axions, 
hypothetical particles that could solve some unanswered questions about 
the Standard Model of particle physics. Axions wouldn't interact 
strongly with each other, either.<br />

The new proposal assumes that the dark matter pions interact much more 
strongly with each other. When the particles touch, they partially 
annihilate and turn into normal matter. "It's a SIMP [strongly 
interacting massive particle]," said Yonit Hochberg, a postdoctoral 
researcher at Berkeley and lead author on the study. "Strongly 
interacting with itself."<br />

To annihilate into normal matter, the particles must collide in a 
"three-to-two" pattern, in which three dark matter particles meet. Some 
of the dark matter "quarks" that make up the particlesannihilate and 
turn into normal matter, leaving some dark matter behind. With this 
ratio, the result would leave the right proportion of dark matter to 
normal matter in the current universe.<br />

This new explanation suggests that in the early universe the dark pions
 would have collided with each other, reducing the amount of dark 
matter. But as the universe expanded the particles would collide less 
and less often, until now, when they are spread so thinly they hardly 
ever meet at all.<br />

The interaction bears a close resemblance to what happens to charged 
pions in nature. These particles consist of an up quark and an anti-down
 quark. (<a href="http://www.livescience.com/18141-wacky-physics-particle-flavors.html">Quarks come in six flavors</a>, or types: up, down, top, bottom, charm and strange.) When three pions meet, they partially annihilate and become two pions. [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/45344-facts-about-quarks.html">7 Strange Facts About Quarks</a>]<br />

"[The theory] is based on something similar — something that already 
happens in nature," said Eric Kuflik, a postdoctoral researcher at 
Cornell University in New York and a co-author of the study.<br />

<strong>Different kind of pion</strong><br />

For the new explanation to work, the dark matter pions would have to be
 made of something different from normal matter. That's because anything
 made of normal quarks simply wouldn't behave the way dark matter does, 
at least not in the group's calculations. (There are theories that 
strange quarks could make up dark matter).<br />

Charged pions are made up of an up quark and an anti-down quark, or a 
down and anti-up quark, while neutral pions are made of an up quark plus
 an anti-up or a down quark plus an anti-down.<br />

In the new hypothesis, dark matter pions are made up of dark matter 
quarks that are held together by dark matter gluons. (Ordinary quarks 
are held together by <a href="http://www.livescience.com/47506-heavy-strange-baryons-found.html">normal gluons</a>.)
 The dark quarks wouldn't be like the familiar six types, and the dark 
gluon would, unlike ordinary gluons, have mass, according to the <a href="http://www.livescience.com/38936-mathematics.html">mathematics</a>.<br />

<strong>Dark pions and dwarf galaxies</strong><br />

Another co-author on the paper, Hitoshi Murayama, professor of physics 
at the University of California, Berkeley, said the new hypothesis would
 help explain the density of certain kinds of dwarf galaxies. Computer 
simulations show dwarf galaxies with very dense center regions, but that
 isn't what astronomers see in the sky. "If SIMPs are spread out, the 
distribution is flatter — it works better," he said. [<a href="http://www.space.com/14768-dark-matter-universe-photos.html">Gallery: Dark Matter Throughout the Universe</a>]<br />

Dan Hooper, a staff scientist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory 
in Illinois, said he isn't quite convinced that this model of dark 
matter is necessary to explain the dwarf galaxy conundrum. "There's a 
handful of people who say dwarfs don't look like we expect," he said. 
"But do you need some other property to solve that? People have showed 
it could be the heating of gas." That is, gas heated at the center of a 
dwarf galaxy would be less dense.<br />

The Large Hadron Collider might soon offer some insight into which camp
 is correct; that strange new "dark pions" are dark matter or that they 
aren't and there's something else. Particle accelerators work by taking 
atomic nuclei -- usually hydrogen but sometimes heavier elements like 
lead —and smashing them together at nearly the speed of light. The 
resulting explosion scatters new particles, born of the energy of the 
collision. In that sense the particles are the "shrapnel."<br />

Kuflik said that if there's "missing" mass (more precisely, 
mass-energy) from the  collision of particles that's a strong pointer to
 the kind of dark matter that the researchers are looking for. This is 
because mass and energy are conserved; if the products of a collision 
don't tally up to the same amount of mass and energy you started with, 
that means there might be a previously unknown particle that escaped 
detection somewhere.<br />

Such measurements are hard to do, though, so it will take a lot of 
sifting through data to see if that happens and what the explanation is.<br />

Another way to track down dark matter particles might be in a detector 
made with liquid xenon or germanium, in which electrons would 
occasionally get knocked off an atom by a passing dark matter particle. 
There's already an experiment like that, though, the Large Underground 
Xenon (LUX) project in South Dakota. It didn't find anything yet, but it
 was focused on WIMPs (though it was able to rule out some types). A 
newer version of the experiment is planned; it might detect other kinds 
of dark matter particle.<br />

The team is currently working on a paper outlining the kinds of 
observations that would detect this kind of dark matter. "We're 
currently working on writing up explicit ways these dark pions can 
interact with ordinary matter," Hochberg said.

Dark Pion Particles May Explain Universe's Invisible Matter

Researchers pro...

Why Pendulum Clocks Mysteriously Sync Up

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<tr><td><img alt="Pendulum clocks swinging in exactly the opposite direction from each other." src="http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/077/451/iFF/pendulum-clocks.jpg?1437662050" style="width: 270px;" />
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              Pendulum clocks swinging in exactly the opposite direction from each other.<br />
              
              
              <span style="float: left; margin-top: 5px; padding-right: 5px;">Credit: Henrique Oliveira and Luís Melo</span>
              
              
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<br />

The 350-year-old mystery of why pendulum clocks hanging from the same 
wall synchronize over time may finally be solved, scientists say.<br />

In 1665, Dutch physicist <a href="http://www.livescience.com/37538-who-invented-the-car.html">Christiaan Huygens</a>,
 inventor of the pendulum clock, was lying in bed with a minor illness 
and watching two of his clocks hanging on a wall, said Henrique 
Oliveira, a mathematician at the University of Lisbon and co-author of a
 new study detailing the findings. Huygens noticed something odd: No 
matter how the pendulums on these clocks began, within about a 
half-hour, they ended up swinging in exactly the opposite direction from
 each other.<br />

The cause of this effect — what Huygens called an "odd kind of 
sympathy" — remained a mystery for centuries. But recently, scientists 
analyzing two pendulum clocks hanging from the same beam found that the 
clocks could influence each other through small forces exerted on the 
supporting beam. However, "nobody tested properly the idea of clocks 
hanging on the same wall," Oliveira told Live Science. [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/50195-most-precise-clocks-ever-made.html">5 of the Most Precise Clocks Ever Made</a>]
<br />

<br />

In conversations over coffee, Oliveira andstudy co-author Luís Melo, a 
physicist at the University of Lisbon, decided to analyze how two 
pendulums might interact through an immobile wall, instead of 
investigating how they might interactthrough a movable beam as had been 
done in previous research.<br />

The researchers calculated that, as pendulums move back and forth, 
sound pulses could travel through the wall from clock to clock. These 
pulses can interfere with the swings of the pendulums, eventually 
causing them to synchronize.<br />

The investigators tested their idea with experiments involving two 
pendulum clocks attached to an aluminum rail fixed to a wall. Their 
results showed that changes in the speed of the pendulum swings 
coincided with cycles of those sound pulses.<br />

In addition, they plan to expand their model to explain the behavior of other kinds of oscillators, such as the <a href="http://www.livescience.com/46738-nikola-tesla-fans-legacy.html">electronic oscillators</a> used to synchronize activity on microchips, Melo said.

Why Pendulum Clocks Mysteriously Sync Up

Pendulum clocks...

Ubuntu Phone is shipping, but it appears the software isn’t ready

<div class="content">
<span id="intelliTXT" name="intellitxt"><img alt="Ubuntu phone" class="attachment-full wp-post-image" height="353" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/ubuntuphone-640x353.jpg" width="640" /><div class="photo">
  <div class="box2">
<br /></div>
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Over the last few years, Google and Android have increasingly 
dominated the mobile scene, with Microsoft relegated to bit-player 
status. Once-massive players like BlackBerry scarcely stir a ripple in 
the market. Nonetheless, Ubuntu has chosen to stick its neck out and 
create a mobile operating system based on its own software to hopefully 
compete against the massive entrenched players. A new review of the 
Ubuntu Phone OS puts the operating system through its paces — and finds a
 great deal wanting.<br />
Engadget <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2015/07/24/ubuntu-phone-review/">has published a sizable review</a>
 of Ubuntu Phone, and it’s worth reading in its entirety if you’re 
interested in an alternative operating system. The good news is that 
Ubuntu has nailed some interesting features on the device — the settings
 menu is well-crafted, the browser is nimble, and certain multitasking 
panels and multi-app display modes are well done. The company has 
created a set of content and service capabilities it calls “Scopes.” 
Scopes allow you to pick custom information feeds to scroll through and 
attempt to guess what content you want to see based on how you tell the 
phone you’re feeling. Tell it “I’m stressed,” and the phone will attempt
 to show results that might be pertinent.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_210856" style="width: 309px;">
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/UbuntuPhone1.png"><img alt="Ubuntu Phone " class="size-full wp-image-210856" height="521" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/UbuntuPhone1.png" width="299" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text">
Scopes — Image by Engadget</div>
</div>
Unfortunately,
 when it comes to many basic tasks and fundamental functions, Ubuntu 
Phone still falls short. According to the reviewer, the phone often 
freezes for significant periods of time, which Engadget believes is 
caused by the background updates to Scopes. The quad-core Cortex-A7 
should be up to the task of handling the job, but it doesn’t seem to be.
 There are also significant issues regarding Ubuntu Phone’s touch 
sensitivity, its total lack of applications and reliance on web apps to 
make up the difference, and the operating system’s limited features and 
capabilities.<br />
As Nick Summers, the reviewer, puts it: “Aside from 
the app void and the questionable value of Scopes, Ubuntu Phone is a bit
 of a nightmare to use the majority of the time… The gesture-based 
navigation is unrefined; there are bugs and glitches all over the place;
 and in general, many core experiences are severely lacking in polish. 
Despite years of development, Ubuntu Phone still feels like an early 
beta.”<br />
I have deliberately skimmed the high points of the review, 
because it’s worth a read in full, but based on Summer’s reporting, I’d 
have to agree. In fact, I’d go one further and say I’m not certain 
there’s an actual market for Ubuntu Phone at all. Originally the OS was 
supposed to ship on ultra-low-cost devices, but with Android smartphones
 now dipping entry prices well below $100 in developing markets, I’m not
 sure there’s any need.<br />
Obviously that won’t stop Ubuntu from 
investing in its project, but I can’t help wondering if Ubuntu Phone is 
Ubuntu’s Tizen — an underdeveloped platform with essentially no native 
applications and very limited prospects going forward. Samsung, at 
least, can guarantee that Tizen ships on devices by opting to use it on 
its own hardware. Ubuntu doesn’t have that option.</span></div>

Ubuntu Phone is shipping, but it appears the software isn’t ready

Over the last few years, Google and Android have increasingly dominated the mobile scene, with Microsoft relegated to bit-player st...

Researchers just create an autistic computer program?

<div class="content">
<span id="intelliTXT" name="intellitxt"><img alt="neural net head" class="attachment-full wp-post-image" height="353" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/neural-net-head-640x353.jpg" width="640" /><div class="photo">
  <div class="box2">
<br /></div>
</div>
Last month, it was revealed that <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/208595-pig-snails-in-the-sky-how-google-is-exploring-the-essence-of-artificial-neural-networks">Google’s research in artificial neural networks</a>
 (ANNs) was occasionally producing some truly weird images — and some 
users noticed right away what a striking resemblance these visuals bore 
to the ones people report after taking hallucinogenic drugs. It <a href="http://motherboard.vice.com/read/why-googles-neural-networks-look-like-theyre-on-acid">turns out</a>
 the reason the ANNs “tripped out” is the same reason our brains do: 
with a reduced ability to judge the actual meaning of visuals as they’re
 processed (either because you’re high, or because you’re an 
experimental computer program), pattern recognition algorithms flail 
about.<br />
The algorithms follow the simplest route from basic shapes 
to a guess at the objects those shapes represent, often getting off 
track without meaningful direction from the higher brain. Without some 
wisdom to go with the raw intellect of the computer, every roundish 
shape could, over many iterations, get <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/autism-network-3.jpg">categorized as an eye</a>.
 And without subjective information about the context of a scene, 
otherwise totally functional algorithms can slowly turn clouds into 
creepy mutants on unicycles.<br />
This example shows how the 
computational metaphor of an artificial neural network can grant basic 
insight into the workings of the brain — but <em>scientific</em> 
insight? ANNs are just now reaching the level of sophistication where 
they might be able to be used as a tool by scientists, allowing them to 
actually predict how the brain will react to changes in its structure. 
Now, an amazing new study from the Baylor College of Medicine claims to 
have done just that. When neuroscientists Ari Rosenberg and Jaclyn Sky 
Patterson simulated one theorized cause of autism in an artificial 
neural network, that simulation began exhibiting recognizably 
autism-like behavior.<br />
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/autism-network-2.jpg"><img alt="autism network 2" class="aligncenter wp-image-210792 size-large" height="400" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/autism-network-2-640x400.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
Google has <a href="http://googleresearch.blogspot.ca/2015/07/deepdream-code-example-for-visualizing.html">talked a bit</a>
 about its trippy neural network research, but the search giant’s image 
recognition process is not designed to produce scientific insight. On 
the other hand, the recent Baylor study managed to generate <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/07/08/1510583112.abstract">its autism-like results</a>
 by changing just a single parameter in a direct simulation of a portion
 of the visual cortex. It’s an elegant, if unproven, experimental 
design. Why such a small change worked, or seemed to, is wrapped up in 
the structure of the brain, and a possible cause of one of medicine’s 
most complex disorders.<br />
<h3>
Autism as emergent property</h3>
The 
theory seems almost too simple to be true. Autism is one of the most 
complex health issues studied today, an unhelpful knot of genetics, life
 history, behavioral analysis, and widely varying cultural standards. 
Yet one theory of autism claims that many of the disorder’s most 
characteristic symptoms could be the result of just a single, chemically
 induced modification: autistic brains may simply be too noisy.<br />
Couched
 in the overly syllabic language of biochemistry, this refers to the 
concept of divisive normalization (DN), a measure of the extent to which
 the activity of any one neuron is inhibited by the activity of the 
overall population of neurons around it. In “normal” brains, neurons 
reduce the urgency of their firing when surrounded by many other firing 
neurons — and several years of investigation seem to suggest that by 
doing so, they save our conscious minds from being confused and 
overwhelmed in the way that autistic people often report.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_210815" style="width: 310px;">
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/divisive-normalization.jpg"><img alt="Divisive normalization (DN) may also be responsible for helping us make sense of multi-sensory input on the same stimulus." class="size-medium wp-image-210815" height="161" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/divisive-normalization-300x161.jpg" width="300" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text">
Divisive normalization (DN) may also be responsible for helping us make sense of multi-sensory input on the same stimulus.</div>
</div>
Divisive
 normalization is considered a “canonical computation,” meaning that 
it’s found in multiple brain regions, and multiple species — this simple
 regulatory scheme seems to be fundamentally important to complex brain 
systems. So, as soon as cloning and gene editing technology allowed 
it, scientists turned to animal models, asking a very simple question: 
if they could lower divisive normalization, could they create an 
autistic mouse?<br />
Studies seem to indicate that the answer is, at 
least superficially, yes. When researchers turned off genes critical to 
GABA (the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter), <a href="http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273%2814%2900021-X?_returnURL=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS089662731400021X%3Fshowall%3Dtrue">they exhibited</a>
 what scientists have deemed to be autism-like behaviors: they 
avoided social contact with other mice; engaged in odd, repetitive 
actions; displayed worsened spatial learning; and even seemed to acquire
 a mild fear of open spaces. Reintroducing GABA, and allowing neurons to
 lower their own volume in response to an overwhelming cacophony, 
resulted in markedly less noticeable autism-like behavior.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_210821" style="width: 310px;">
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/neural-net-6.jpg"><img alt="There is some evidence that autistic children develop more neural connections than non-autistic children, as visualized here." class="size-medium wp-image-210821" height="144" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/neural-net-6-300x144.jpg" width="300" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text">
There is some evidence that autistic children develop more neural connections than non-autistic children, as visualized here.</div>
</div>
The
 implication was clear: though it seemed incredible, the results 
suggested that many of autism’s varied symptoms could all be an emergent
 property of a single low-level computational irregularity in the brain.<br />
But
 mice are, unfortunately, mice — who knows why they do what they do? And
 GABA has a multitude of functions, beyond its role in divisive 
normalization. The science of autism was progressing quickly down 
several other, complementary paths, and identified a number of other 
possible neural explanations for autism. The strongest evidence in favor
 of the DN theory of autism continued to rely on human observational 
studies, and the questionable applicability animal behavior.<br />
Since genetic manipulation of <em>human</em>
 test subjects was of course out of the question, that situation seemed 
unlikely to change. After all, it’s not as though you could just build a
 human brain from scratch…<br />
<h3>
Artificial neural networks</h3>
Over
 the past five years, artificial neural networks have come a long way. 
They began mostly as a curiosity in computing science, then in biology —
 ambitious attempts to model the overall organization of the brain by 
using software to simulate individual neurons and the connections 
between them. They provided some nice demonstrations of how a network of
 exceedingly simple programmed actors (neurons) can work together to 
solve complex problems quickly. The primary visual cortex, for example, 
is physically structured to sift incoming visual information for basic 
things like movement, patterns, and the outlines of static objects, and 
it can do this with astonishing efficiency relative to a digital 
computer.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_210811" style="width: 310px;">
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/neural-net-2.jpg"><img alt="A highly simplified diagram of ANN organization." class="size-medium wp-image-210811" height="185" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/neural-net-2-300x185.jpg" width="300" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text">
A highly simplified diagram of ANN organization.</div>
</div>
ANNs describe
 brains as logical pachinko machines in which stimuli fall down through 
various weighted statistical paths determined by their starting 
attributes, and the programming of each neuron they encounter. What this
 means is that just one tiny adjustment to the behavior of all neurons 
can have an enormous cumulative effect to the ultimate fate of data 
being processed — just as we find in biological neural networks 
(brains). In brains, such a behavioral adjustment for neurons likely 
comes from an altered surface protein, while in artificial neural 
networks it comes from direct adjustments to a numerical parameter.<br />
One
 such number might control the strength of neuron-to-neuron signaling, 
collapsing all the nuance of synaptic function down to a single 
quantity. Another might dictate the tendency of neurons to become 
non-responsive after long periods of constant stimulation, deadening 
them to being over-excited. These are computational metaphors for much 
more complex biological systems and they can, in the aggregate, 
mirror or even predict some aspects of neural function.<br />
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_210825" style="width: 650px;">
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/neural-net-7.jpg"><img alt="This attempt by a Google ANN to understand a complex frame as simply as possible led to some of the same results human painters arrive at when trying to do the same thing." class="wp-image-210825 size-large" height="216" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/neural-net-7-640x216.jpg" width="640" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text">
This
 attempt by a Google ANN to understand a complex frame with as few lines
 as possible arrived at some of the same aesthetic results human as 
painters trying for the same thing.</div>
</div>
But for research 
purposes, simply simulating the brain isn’t enough. Artificial neural 
networks could offer a chance to model not only a typical human brain, 
but ones with crucially important experimental changes built in. These 
changes would always be impossible in human testing, but no trouble at 
all in a computer model. Scientists were beginning to ask themselves: 
what might happen if an ANN’s mind went wobbly?<br />
<h3>
A neural network with autism</h3>
Ari Rosenberg and colleagues stepped into this situation, and decided to synthesize.<br />
They
 knew that autism had several recognizable effects on basic visual 
processing, and that the primary visual cortex (called “V1″) was 
currently one of the best areas of the brain for modeling with an ANN. 
And they knew that because it could be represented with just a single 
changed parameter, the theory of divisive normalization offered a 
possible bridge between autism’s highly subjective effects and the 
numerical operations of an ANN.<br />
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/neural-net-5.jpg"><img alt="neural net 5" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-210814" height="234" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/neural-net-5-300x234.jpg" width="300" /></a>They
 had a working computer model to use, a relevant change to make to that 
model, and a prediction about the effect that change should have — in 
other words, they had the makings of an experiment.<br />
“Even in very 
simple visual tasks… you find altered behavior in individuals with 
autism,” Rosenberg said in a recent phone interview. “So, we built a 
very low level neural network model of the primary visual cortex… and 
then we just started playing around with the parameters.”<br />
The 
first thing they tested was complex visual processing. When presented 
with dynamic “gratings” of sinusoidal lines, autistic human beings 
consistently outperform control testees by correctly identifying the 
direction of motion more quickly, and increasing visual contrast greatly
 enhances this advantage. As the size of the lines increases, everyone’s
 performance gets worse — but autistic people’s scores remain higher 
than their “wild-type” counterparts.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_210810" style="width: 310px;">
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/neural-net-4.jpg"><img alt="The top two graphs show human results (autistic tests in blue). The bottom graphs show the ANN results." class="wp-image-210810 size-medium" height="229" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/neural-net-4-300x229.jpg" width="300" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text">
The
 top two graphs show the grating test results of human trials (autistic 
participants in blue). The bottom graphs show the ANN results.</div>
</div>
Rosenberg’s
 two artificial neural networks showed the same general trends. The 
autism model, with divisive normalization tuned down, consistently 
outperformed the “healthy” version. The models’ relative 
abilities followed the same trends as human test subjects.<br />
Next, 
they tested “tunnel vision” — the observed tendency of autistic people 
to be less attentive to visual stimuli occurring far from the current 
object of their attention. The team presented their simulated V1 visual 
cortices with the same sin-curve gratings as before, but this time 
placed them at different distances from a locked center of attention. 
The results are broadly similar to those collected by prior researchers 
testing humans: the autism ANN was far less interested in stimuli far 
from its center of attention.<br />
Finally, the team tested their ANNs 
against a known relationship between statistical inference and autism — 
that autistic people don’t tend to take prior knowledge about the world 
into account as efficiently as non-autistic individuals. They 
accomplished this using the so-called “oblique effect,” which describes 
the fact that people are better at identifying horizontal and vertical 
lines than ones oriented at an oblique angle.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_210809" style="width: 310px;">
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/neural-net-3.jpg"><img alt="Performance on the tunnel vision test. Top graphs from humans, bottom graphs from the ANNs." class="size-medium wp-image-210809" height="251" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/neural-net-3-300x251.jpg" width="300" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text">
Performance on the tunnel vision test. Top graphs from humans, bottom graphs from the ANNs.</div>
</div>
Telling
 a normally functioning neural network to expect oblique lines, 
essentially giving it some experience on the issue of line orientation 
in its “surroundings,” resulted in much better performance. The 
autism model improved far less due to expectation, and gained a far less
 powerful advantage than the normal model from the “priors” the 
researchers provided.<br />
That’s three tests, and three impressive 
confirmations of correlation. ANNs with divisive normalization turned 
down seem to behave much like mice with GABA production turned down, and
 human beings with diagnosed autism. The question is, what does that 
result actually mean?<br />
<h3>
The trouble with models</h3>
As with 
seeming agoraphobia in mice, the output of a neural network is just a 
metaphor for the much more complex behavior of a real human brain — but 
the results are undeniably provocative. If a simulated visual cortex is 
affected in autism-like ways by autism-like organization, as it seems to
 be, then in the future perhaps a simulated frontal lobe could hint at 
the causes of autism’s higher cognitive effects, as well.<br />
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/neural-net-8.jpg"><img alt="neural net 8" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-210836" height="224" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/neural-net-8-640x224.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
For
 now, this study seems to provide powerful support for the divisive 
normalization theory of autism. An ANN can’t prove a biological theory 
all on its own, but Rosenberg said that this sort of software modeling 
could allow a “synergistic process” in research. Insights gained from 
work with patients could update ANN models to be more accurate, which 
would allow the ANNs to motivate more insightful biological experiments.
 You can’t publish the truth of a theory just because an ANN reacted a 
certain way — but you could probably justify a request for funding.<br />
To
 study computational changes in brain function, physical experiments 
must change genes and proteins, then hope that these changes adjust the 
computational behavior the way they desire — without introducing some 
other confounding change along the way. ANNs can simply make 
computational changes directly, and leave it to biologists to later 
reverse engineer a molecular path to that new behavior.<br />
Divisive 
normalization occurs across all regions of the brain, yet this study 
only looked at its effects in the very first link in the chain of visual
 processing. The effects of decreased inhibition by population, when 
applied over the whole brain, could possibly explain an even wider 
variety of autism symptoms — but any such statement will require more 
work, with real patients.<br />
In the end, this study may be more 
interesting as a proof of concept than as a contribution to autism 
research — the theory of divisive normalization existed long before this
 team got to it. But ANNs provide a potentially novel method of 
generating medical hypotheses. They can search very quickly through 
enormous possibility spaces, simulating oddball modifications to human 
brain architecture that no ethical scientist could ever investigate in 
the real world.<br />
It’s an exciting time for brain research.</span></div>

Researchers just create an autistic computer program?

Last month, it was revealed that Google’s research in artificial neural networks (ANNs) was occasionally producing some truly weird...

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Researchers just create an autistic computer program?

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