Randy Johnson inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame

Randy Johnson inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame

Three pitchers who became dominant after trades and a rock-solid catcher-turned-second baseman entered the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday.

Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio basked in the moment, with at least 40,000 fans cheering them one more time.

Johnson, at 6-foot-10 the tallest player elected to the Hall of Fame, gave special thanks to his parents. His father died in 1992. His mother, Carol, was watching from the front row.

“Thank you, mom. You’re the Hall of Famer,” Johnson said.

Johnson became a 20-game winner in 1997 and won four consecutive Cy Young awards with the Arizona Diamondbacks, leading them to the World Series championship in 2001. He finished with 303 victories in 22 seasons.

Playing through an era tainted by steroids and ruled by offense — compliments of bulked-up sluggers, a smaller strike zone and smaller ballparks — Johnson, Martinez and Smoltz proved indomitable. They combined for 735 wins, 11,113 strikeouts and nine Cy Young Awards.

Biggio, who played four positions in his 20-year career, all with the Houston Astros, was indefatigable, becoming an All-Star at second base and behind the plate.

“We changed the culture in Houston by making it a baseball city,” said Biggio, who grew up on New York’s Long Island. “To the Astros fans, you guys are the greatest fans in the world.”

Many fans waved Dominican flags for one of their own. Martinez joined former Giants great Juan Marichal as the only Hall of Famers from the Caribbean nation.

“We waited 32 years another Dominican,” Martinez said. “I hope all Dominicans remember this.”

Martinez, 219-100 for his career, was the first Red Sox pitcher inducted.

He grew up with five brothers and sisters in a one-room home on the outskirts of Santo Domingo. He credits brother Ramon, a starter with the Dodgers during Pedro’s rookie season in Los Angeles, as a key to his career.

“I have a second dad,” said Martinez, whose blue jacket had emblems on each arm from his country’s flag. “Ramon, you are my second dad. I followed in his footsteps and it led me to where I am today.”

Remarkably, all three pitchers didn’t stick around with their first clubs very long. Drafted by Montreal, Johnson made the Expos roster in 1988 and midway through the 1989 season was traded to the Seattle Mariners.

Smoltz, signed by his hometown Detroit Tigers after being selected on the 22nd round of the 1985 amateur draft, was dealt to Atlanta for veteran Doyle Alexander in August 1987. And the Dodgers traded Martinez to Montreal after the hard-throwing right-hander with the pinpoint control had a solid rookie season in the bullpen.

On this day, that was ancient history.

Smoltz won the 1996 Cy Young award and reached the playoffs 14 times with Atlanta. The Braves won five pennants and the 1995 World Series with Smoltz on the roster. He’s the first pitcher to win more than 200 games and save at least 150 games. He’s also the first player inducted with Tommy John surgery on his resume.

Smoltz understood his debt to John.

“I’m a miracle. I’m a medical miracle,” Smoltz said. “I never took one day for granted.”

Biggio became the only player in major league history with at least 3,000 hits, 600 doubles, 400 stolen bases and 250 home runs while being asked to play four positions in his 20-year career, all with the Astros.

He thanked coach Matt Galante, who worked tirelessly over six weeks as Biggio made the transition from catcher to second base. Biggio looked at Galante in the audience.

“I’m not here without that man,” he said.

Samsung releases world’s first 2TB consumer SSDs

Samsung releases world’s first 2TB consumer SSDs

Today, Samsung announced what it is calling the first multi-terabyte consumer solid-state drive (SSD), which will provide 2TB of capacity in a 2.5-inch form factor for desktops and laptops. The new 850 Pro and 850 EVO SSDs double the maximum capacity of the current SSDs.

Like their predecessors, the new 850 SSD Pro and EVO drives remain in the same 7mm, 2.5-in. aluminum case. The storage capacities include 120GB, 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB.

Samsung releases massive 2TB SSDs, adds them to its 850 Evo and 850 Pro families

Designed for power users and client PCs that may need higher performance, the 850 Pro with up to 550MBps sequential read and 520MBps sequential write rates and up to 100,000 random I/Os per second (IOPS). However, the 850 EVO SSD has slightly lower performance with 540MBps and 520MBps sequential read/write rates and up to 90,000 random IOPS.

Both the SSD models come native with full AES 256-bit full disk encryption capability, like the previous SSDs.

The SSDs are made up of 128 individual 32-layer 16GB 3D V-NAND flash chips, along with an upgraded high-performance MHX controller, and four 20 nanometer (nm) size process 4Gb LPDDR3 DRAM chips.

While Samsung was the first to begin mass producing its own version of 3D NAND in 2013, Intel, Micron and other flash makers too have rolled out their own versions.

According to Samsung, the 3D NAND technology offers two to 10 times higher reliability and twice the write performance over planar (2D) flash memory, along with far greater density.

The new drives touted to have double the storage capacity along with a 10-year warranty too

The biggest difference on paper is the specified durability and the length of the warranty. Samsung guarantees the 2TB 850 Pro for 10 years or 300 terabytes written (TBW), and the 2TB 850 EVO for five years or 150 TBW.

Samsung 850 Pro was reviewed by Computerworld last year and it was found to be quick and cheap.

With the introduction of V-NAND flash memory, Un-Soo Kim, Samsung has witnessed a sudden large increase in demand for 500GB and higher capacity SSDs, said Un-Soo Kim, Samsung’s senior vice president of branded product marketing,

“The release of the 2TB SSD is a strong driver into the era of multi-terabyte SSD solutions,” Kim said.

While the 2TB model of the 850 Pro will sell for $999.99, the 850 EVO will retail for $799.99.

The 120GB will sell for $69, the 250GB for $99, the 500GB for $179 and the 1TB EVO SSD for $399. On the other hand, the 128GB 850 Pro will retail for $99 (Rs.6300), the 256GB for $144.99 (Rs.9200), the 512GB for $259 and the 1TB for $499 .

THIS Robot Makes Homes for Humans, Can Build a Home in 2 Days

THIS Robot Makes Homes for Humans, Can Build a Home in 2 Days

Construction was never easy, and it was not going to be. Until Now. An Australian inventor Mark Pivac, with his team, has built a robot that lays 1000 bricks an hour and could raise an outer structure of a house in two days. Conventionally, the bricklayers would require two to three months for that. Also, an average bricklayer works for 5-7 hours a day, while this robot can work tirelessly round the clock for 365 days.

We’re at a technological nexus where a few different technologies have got to the level where it’s now possible to do it, and that’s what we’ve done.

Build at Fastbrick Robotics, the inventor has named the robot Hadrian, after the famous “Hadrian’s Wall”. With the speed and dedication for its work, the bot can build 150 homes a year. Hadrian creates a 3D CAD program (Computer Aided Design) for a given structure, and then processes the order in which the house has to be built. It calculates the location for each brick to be placed precisely and also cuts and shapes the brick and lays them sequentially.

You think this is tough!! Wait for the next part.

The machine doesn’t even require to move an inch while building a complete house. It has a 28m telescopic boom with a robotic arm that lays the brick with coats of mortar over it. The robot also measures and does the quality check on the bricks, and makes way for electrical wiring and internal plumbing too.

Hadrian’s efficient programming helps it do everything perfectly. Mark Pivac and his team were able to create this brilliant machine in 10 years with an expense of over $7 million. The technology has an immense potential to become a rage in this new era of infrastructural development. Hadrian will be available commercially first in WA and then worldwide.

This new innovation would provide speedy developments in under-developed regions and also even help towns rise again after disasters like eartquakes.

This idea somehow seems to be inspired from my childhood cartoon “Bob the Builder”.

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Microsoft has $500K in prize money for HoloLens science projects

Microsoft wowed me a few weeks ago with its internal HoloLens programs, but like we've seen with Kinect, the coolest uses aren't always the ones Redmond devised. To help make more applications a reality, the tech giant has opened up what it's calling the Academic Research Request for Proposals. Five awards -- each including $100,000 and two HoloLens development kits -- will go to accredited universities and be announced this October 6th. The official reasoning here is that Microsoft wants to "better understand the role and possible applications for holographic computing in society." So, to see what people outside of the Redmond campus think augmented reality is capable of. Got it. Other objectives include spurring research for mixed reality and generally getting more people to make holograms. A few examples the company lays out are data visualizations (similar to Epic Games) and creating 3D models for medical training.

Microsoft stresses that these proposals need to be absolutely complete and that those submitting them be fully capable of carrying out the research or experiments. From the sounds of it, projects that answer high-value research questions and could be easily published in places like academic journals will curry favor among judges. All that to say, Microsoft isn't giving any of these awards out lightly. Think your US-based institution has what it takes? Deadline for sign-ups is September 5th.


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Google needs to fix what ails Chrome

Google needs to fix what ails Chrome

I've been a big fan of the Chrome browser for a very long time. On Linux it has worked like a champ since day one. However, I have noticed things are starting to go a bit awry...on Linux, on Android, on Chrome OS.

Memory usage is getting out of hand
Battery life is negatively impacted (especially on Chromebooks and Macbooks)
CPU strain is noticeable
Certain pages (like Facebook) randomly crash
The list goes on and on and it is a problem. At least on the Linux platform, I can always rush back to Firefox until Google gets Chrome sorted out. Even on Android, I can install Firefox and am good to go. That, of course, leaves all of my Chromebooks with a big question mark. I have noticed, of late, battery life on my Chromebooks isn't quite up to snuff. This is all due to, you guessed it, Chrome.

There is, however, good news on the horizon. The Chrome team is fully aware of the issues that are starting to negatively impact the browser and are working diligently on them. In fact, some of the issues have already been resolved (background tabs having same priority as foreground tabs, which led to outrageous memory usage). But remember, Chrome was built, from the ground up, with a singular flaw in that it handles each tab and every plugin as a separate process. That was fine a few years ago—back when websites weren't nearly as complicated or mobile usage didn't make up the majority of browsing time. Now, with the complexity of sites like Facebook, Chrome needs to evolve in such a way that Android, Chrome OS, Linux, Windows, Mac...every platform...doesn't suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous memory usage.

One of the reasons the masses migrated from Firefox to Chrome was that it was a lean, stripped-down machine that clobbered every browser on the planet for speed and efficiency. It was, without a doubt, a much needed breath of fresh, fast air.

But now, Chrome is just as bogged down as Firefox was before the tide shifted.

This is not good...not when mobile platforms actually depend upon that particular browser. We cannot place all our cards on the Chrome table when Chrome is going to eat through those cards and cause the battery operated shuffling machine to come to a crawling stop.

I have always understood why Chrome did things they way they chose. It made perfect sense. But there are simply too many sites and services that opt out of the communication pipeline which only has the effect of breaking things faster than a clumsy seven year old boy. This means more sites bringing more browsers to a halt.

The truth of the matter is simple: Every browser on the planet has to make one very important shift—focus on mobile. This couldn't possibly be any more relevant for Chrome...a browser that serves as a central focus for an entire platform—Chrome OS lives and dies by the Chrome Browser.

The good news (especially for Chrome OS users) is that you can opt to use a version of Chrome that enjoys fixes and updates faster than the stable platform. Opt for the Beta or Dev channel on your Chromebook and many of these issues will vanish far sooner than they would on the Stable channel (I no longer use the Stable channel on any of my Chromebooks and have noticed an improvement). Even on the Android platform, you can opt to use either the Beta or Dev version of Chrome to vanquish some of the issues away.

I would love to see Chrome return to form—back to a leaner, meaner time when Google's browser didn't make or break an experience. Fortunately, I trust Google with this issue. They know how much is riding on not allowing their browser to get out of hand. Anyone using the Android or Chrome OS platform understands the importance of Google putting these major issues to rest. Otherwise, that tide will shift back to Firefox and Google's darling Chrome OS will take a serious hit.

No matter how much we all want to deny it, Google was right in thinking the web browser would eventually become central to productivity. It has and it is. Now it's up to the juggernaut to bring their browser back to a state that doesn't have mobile users scrambling to reboot or recharge devices.

How do you view Google Chrome at the moment? Is it in desperate need of change, or is it working without fail for you?

YouTube star PewDiePie made $7 million in 2014 !

YouTube star PewDiePie made $7 million in 2014 !

Last year around this time, word got out that Felix Kjellberg, a 24-year-old Swedish bro known online as PewDiePie, made $4 million a year by playing video games, recording his reactions and uploading the resulting videos to YouTube. At the time, he had 27 million YouTube subscribers. Today, Kjellberg has 37.7 million subscribers on YouTube and his company, PewDiePie Productions, pulled in roughly $7.4 million in revenue in 2014, according to Swedish newspaper Expressen. It looks like this whole "watch people play video games on the internet" craze is here to stay.

When Kjellberg's revenue numbers hit last year, he was inundated with questions and messages of incredulity -- so many that he did a Reddit AMA to clear the air. He confirmed the $4 million figure and noted that he does charity work alongside his "Let's Play" gaming videos: "I still spent far more money on charities than anything I've ever spent for myself. Which I am proud to say at least." In June 2014, Kjellberg announced that his bro army (see: fans) had raised more than $1 million for various charities, including the World Wildlife Fund, Save the Children, St. Jude hospital and Charity: Water. In March this year, Charity: Water thanked Kjellberg for helping 10,028 people in Rwanda get access to clean water. Not bad for a band of bros.

Kjellberg's next big thing is the launch of his book, titled This Book Loves You, a collection of inspirational quotes that he's said over the years as an online personality. For example: "Don't be yourself. Be a pizza. Everyone loves pizza." This Book Loves You is due to drop in October.

Microsoft to finalize Windows 10 this week

Microsoft to finalize Windows 10 this week !

Microsoft is planning to finalize Windows 10 this week, ahead of its official launch later this month. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the company is currently working on final copies of Windows 10, with a release to manufacturing (RTM) build expected later this week. RTM candidate builds have already been spotted online. Once the RTM build is ready, Microsoft will send the final copy of Windows 10 to its PC partners ahead of a release to the public on July 29th.

"WE WILL NEVER BE DONE."

While the RTM process has been a significant milestone for previous releases of Windows, it’s more of a minor one for Windows 10. Microsoft is moving Windows 10 to a "Windows as a service" model that means the operating system is regularly updated. That’s part of the reason Windows 10 is considered the "final version of Windows," as regular updates means it’s never really finished. "We will never be done," explained Windows chief Terry Myerson last week, and we’ll start to see future Windows 10 updates roll out regularly in the coming months. Those include extensions support for Microsoft’s Edge browser and many app updates for the built-in Windows 10 applications.

An example of Microsoft’s rapid progress with Windows 10 can be seen in recent builds that the company has provided to testers. Microsoft released three separate versions of Windows 10 last week (build 10158, 10159, and 10162) and each contained minor improvements. While there’s still a debate around the readiness of Windows 10, Microsoft has been squashing hundreds of bugs in the OS in just a week. Driver problems and other software bugs still remain on some systems, but the RTM milestone won’t mean these stay a problem for long. Once Microsoft has finalized Windows 10 this week the company will continue to work on bug fixes ready for the July 29th release date. Windows 10 testers will get a copy of the final version first, and the company will be rolling out the OS to the public in waves starting on July 29th.

Hacking Team spyware company hacked, embarrassing emails revealed

Hacking Team spyware company hacked, embarrassing emails revealed

Hacking Team, a company that helps police hack citizens, has been hacked itself. In a series of tweets from the company’s compromised Twitter account, the unknown hackers appear to have revealed embarrassing internal emails and a torrent with 400GB of internal files, source code, and communications. One particular tweet appears to show an email from Hacking Team CEO David Vincenzetti, mocking a competitor for being "severely hacked." No hacking groups have claimed responsibility for the breach yet.

HACKING TEAM SUPPLIES SPYWARE TO THE DEA

Hacking Team has more than 40 employees and sells commercial hacking software to law enforcement in several dozen countries, including Morocco, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates. A recent report from Motherboard revealed that the Hacking Team also supplies spyware tools to the Drug Enforcement Agency to implant software in a suspect’s phone and record texts, emails, passwords, and monitor conversations.

Hacking Team is infamous in security circles for injecting targeted malware into YouTube and Microsoft’s Live services. Formed by two Italian programmers, the pair originally created a program called Ettercap that quickly became the weapon of choice for hackers wanting to spy on people. The success of Ettercap led to Hacking Team, and now attention from rival hackers who have renamed the company’s Twitter account to "Hacked Team"

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Microsoft rebrand the Xbox Music to Groove

Microsoft rebrand the Xbox Music to Groove

Microsoft killed off the Xbox Music branding in its music and video apps for Windows 10, but today the company is rebranding the entire service to Groove. In a blog post detailing the changes, Microsoft's reasoning for the new name appears to be because "Groove describes what people feel and do with music." Groove will be largely the same as Xbox Music, but Microsoft is planning to update it regularly in the coming months. At launch, alongside Windows 10 later this month, the Groove app will work in both light and dark themes with features that are currently in the Windows 10 preview.

While there's no free streaming version of Groove, following the end of Microsoft's free music streaming last year, the company is pitching this updated service to those with big collections of MP3s. Groove will support the ability to upload music to Microsoft's OneDrive cloud storage service and access the songs for free from Windows devices, Xbox consoles, and Android or iPhone handsets. Like Xbox Music before it, there's also a subscription service for $9.99 a month or $99 year that provides access to stream and download music from the Windows Store.

Alongside the Groove rebrand, Xbox Video is also getting a new name. In Windows 10 the app will simply be called Movies & TV, with access to download TV and movies or import personal collections. You can rent or buy movies and TV shows, and they'll be available on all Windows 10 devices and Xbox consoles, but there doesn't appear to be plans to extend this to Android and iOS devices just yet.

Microsoft says "Windows Insiders who are a part of the Fast ring and upgrade to the next PC build will see these updates," which suggests that a new build will be made available to testers ahead of the Windows 10 release on July 29th. Microsoft is planning to finalize Windows 10 this week, and the company is currently putting the finishing touches to the OS before it starts regularly updating it over the coming months.

Update, 3:50PM July 6th: Microsoft mistakenly referred to Groove as Groove Music in its announcement. The company says it's simply Groove and is working to correct its mistake. This article has been updated to reflect the correct name.

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Hersh: Everything We Were Told About Osama bin Laden’s Killing Was a Lie

Everything We Were Told About Osama bin Laden’s Killing Was a Lie

 

The newest Seymour Hersh blockbuster in the London Review of Books has one big claim: virtually the entire story of Osama bin Laden’s death was an elaborate fiction.

Bin Laden wasn’t hiding out in Abbattobad, as we’ve been told he was effectively under house arrest, placed there under guard by Pakistan’s security services with financial help from the Saudis. We didn’t track down his address through diligent intelligence work—a Pakistani informant ratted him out to the CIA in exchange for the $25 million reward. And we didn’t kill him in a firefight—he was abandoned by his Pakistani guards and gunned down in cold blood by U.S. troops. The whole operation was supposed to remain secret, with bin Laden’s death publicly chalked up to a drone strike, but an unexpected helicopter crash at the site of the raid forced the U.S. to concoct a complex symphony of lies. According to Hersh.

The article, if you believe its almost entirely anonymous sourcing (not that there’s anything wrong with anonymous sources!), casts the Obama White House’s account of the operation as a frantic and harried cover-up designed to valorize a “homicide,” as one anonymous commando put it. Though the Hersh account is by no means new—Hersh fails to credit her, but national security writer R.J. Hillhouse wrote a blog post in 2011 that included substantially the same claims, and generated some mainstream press accounts—his stature in the spook world and track record with previous stories means his account is getting traction.

Since his killing in 2011, the U.S. government has maintained (and U.S. media has reported) that bin Laden was given a perfunctory naval funeral off the deck of an aircraft carrier, to prevent any gravesite from becoming a symbol of martyrdom. According to Hersh’s lengthy account of the assassination, bin Laden’s corpse never made it to the USS Carl Vinson, because it had been torn apart by machine gun fire at point blank range before the CIA took whatever shreds were left:

Some members of the Seal team had bragged to colleagues and others that they had torn bin Laden’s body to pieces with rifle fire. The remains, including his head, which had only a few bullet holes in it, were thrown into a body bag and, during the helicopter flight back to Jalalabad, some body parts were tossed out over the Hindu Kush mountains – or so the Seals claimed.

Hersh continues, “there never was a plan, initially, to take the body to sea, and no burial of bin Laden at sea took place...the retired official said that if the Seals’ first accounts are to be believed, there wouldn’t have been much left of bin Laden to put into the sea in any case.” This raises the possibility that the CIA remains in possession, literally, of Osama bin Laden’s head.

From Vanity Fair, November 2012:

“A navy photographer recorded the burial in full sunlight, Monday morning, May 2. One frame shows the body wrapped in a weighted shroud.”

From Hersh:

“It would be navy officers who came up with the “burial at sea” idea. Perfect. No body. Honourable burial following sharia law. Burial is made public in great detail, but Freedom of Information documents confirming the burial are denied for reasons of ‘national security’.”

There Was No Firefight, at All, During the Raid

From the New Yorker, August 2011:

“One SEAL unit had no sooner trod on the paved patio at the house’s front entrance when Abrar—a stocky, mustachioed man in a cream-colored shalwar kameez—appeared with an AK-47. He was shot in the chest and killed, as was his wife, Bushra, who was standing, unarmed, beside him.”

And from the New York Times, May 2011:

Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, Osama bin Laden’s courier, opens fire from behind a door of the guesthouse. Commandos kill the courier. His wife is caught in the cross-fire and killed.

From Hersh: 

“Aside from those that hit bin Laden, no other shots were fired.”

From the New Yorker:  

“Obama decided against informing or working with Pakistan. ‘There was a real lack of confidence that the Pakistanis could keep this secret for more than a nanosecond,’ a senior adviser to the President told me.”

From Hersh:  

“The most blatant lie was that Pakistan’s two most senior military leaders – General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, chief of the army staff, and General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, director general of the ISI – were never informed of the US mission...Obama was anxious for reassurance that the US was going to get the right man. The proof was to come in the form of bin Laden’s DNA. The planners turned for help to Kayani and Pasha, who asked [Maj. Amir] Aziz to obtain the specimens.”

Bin Laden Was Gunned Down in a Hail of Bullets

From the New York Times, May 2011:

When the commandos reach Bin Laden’s room on the third floor, an AK-47 and a Makarov pistol are seen in arm’s reach of Bin Laden. A commando shoots Bin Laden in the left eye and chest, killing him.

From Hersh: 

The later White House claim that only one or two bullets were fired into his head was ‘bullshit’, the retired official said. ‘The squad came through the door and obliterated him. As the Seals say, “We kicked his ass and took his gas.”’

An Informant Ratted bin Laden Out

From the New York Times, May 2011:

After nearly a decade of hunting Osama bin Laden, a breakthrough came in August of 2010 when Bin Laden’s most trusted courier was located and identified. What followed was eight months of painstaking intelligence work.

From Hersh: 

The CIA did not learn of bin Laden’s whereabouts by tracking his couriers, as the White House has claimed since May 2011, but from a former senior Pakistani intelligence officer who betrayed the secret in return for much of the $25 million reward offered by the US.

There Was No “Trove” of al-Qaeda Documents In the bin Laden Compound

From the Washington Post, July 2011:

Toward the end of his decade in hiding, Osama bin Laden was spending as much time exchanging messages about al-Qaeda’s struggles as he was plotting ways for the terrorist network to reassert its strength.

From CNN, May 2012: 

U.S. officials say that the documents found in the compound — about 6,000 worth — were written between September 2006 and April 2011 and were recovered from five computers, dozens of hard drives and more than 100 storage devices. The cache has been described as the single largest batch of senior terrorist material ever obtained.

From Hersh:

These claims were fabrications: there wasn’t much activity for bin Laden to exercise command and control over. The retired intelligence official said that the CIA’s internal reporting shows that since bin Laden moved to Abbottabad in 2006 only a handful of terrorist attacks could be linked to the remnants of bin Laden’s al-Qaida....

Despite all the talk,’ the retired official continued, there were ‘no garbage bags full of computers and storage devices. The guys just stuffed some books and papers they found in his room in their backpacks. The Seals weren’t there because they thought bin Laden was running a command centre for al-Qaida operations, as the White House would later tell the media. And they were not intelligence experts gathering information inside that house.’

If Hersh (and Hillhouse) are correct, then these outlets were basically republishing CIA fan fiction. Loyal Washingtonians have already begun reacting aggressively to Hersh’s story, and there will no doubt be be a series of volleys over “The Killing of Osama bin Laden”—the American presidency and its eager reporters have too much at stake to let a challenge like this go.

Windows 10 the last Windows version?

Windows 10 the last Windows version?

Right now we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10
These words were said by Microsoft developer Jerry Nixon at company’s ignite conference. But, what does this statement mean? So Microsoft won’t be making operating systems anymore? Or, it’s something else? Well, the truth lies in another statement by Microsoft: “Windows as a service.”

With the upcoming launch of its most complete operating system to date, Microsoft wants you to think of more than an operating system when you think of Windows 10. It aims to challenge your conventional definition of OS and wants to evolve the world’s most popular operating system as a service. So, calm down, Microsoft won’t be grounding your favorite operating system. But, it won’t be releasing any other Windows version in foreseeable future.

Actually, Microsoft doesn’t like to call Windows an operating system anymore. The company has been discussing the idea of Windows as a service from some time but hasn’t said anything specific on the topic. The Verge writes that it’s possible that there won’t be any major future Windows release in the conceivable future. The software company wants to release regular improvements and updates instead of any big release like Windows 10.

Microsoft will make sure that the apps and Start Menu act as an independent part and would be updated regularly on whole Windows ecosystem spread across various sized devices. This may take few months’ time, but the company has already shown some promising commitment to this ideology by releasing number of apps and Windows 10 services ahead of the summer launch of Window 10.

Nixon told the Verge: “Recent comments at Ignite about Windows 10 are reflective of the way Windows will be delivered as a service bringing new innovations and updates in an ongoing manner, with continuous value for our consumer and business customers. Customers can be confident Windows 10 will remain up-to-date.”

So, it’s safe to think that Microsoft will refrain itself from launching a big upgrade to the Windows 10 operating system in near future. Just like your Chrome browser gets updates and you don’t know the current browser your browser, you will receive constant Windows 10 updates without worrying about the Windows 11 or Windows 20 release around the corner in future.

Just like your Chrome browser gets updates and you don’t know the current browser your browser, you will receive constant Windows 10 updates without worrying about the Windows 11 or Windows 20 release around the corner in future.

Did you like Microsoft’s idea? Share your views in comments below!

How to Enable the IDM CC

How to Enable the IDM CC

The Internet Download Manager CC extension is no longer officially supported by Mozilla, as of publication, so it’s no longer available in the directory of extensions directly downloadable in Firefox 35. However, you can still download the extension from the developer’s website. After downloading and installing it, enable it like all other extensions using the Add-on Manager in Firefox. If you have an older version of IDMCC, disable and remove it first from Firefox before installing the newer version from the developer’s website. Here How to Enable the IDM CC;

Instructions

• Click the three-line “Menu” icon in the top-right corner of Firefox and select “Add-ons” to load the Add-ons Manager. Click the "Extensions" tab and locate the old version of IDMCC, if present. Click the “Disable” button next to the IDMCC extension and click “Remove” to uninstall it.

• Visit the official IDMCC website.
• Click the green “Install” button located near the top of the page to initiate the installation process. When you click this button, Firefox asks you to verify that you want to permit the extension installation.
• Click “Allow” to permit Firefox to download the extension from the IDMCC website.
• Press the “Install Now” button to install the extension in Firefox.
• Press the “Restart” button to restart Firefox in order to finalize the installation.
• Click the three-line “Menu” icon in the top-right corner of Firefox and select “Add-ons” to load the Add-ons Manager again.
• Click the “Extensions” tab if it’s not already selected to display a list of all extensions currently installed in Firefox.
• Click the “Enable” button located next to the IDMCC extension to enable it.

Many Simple Ways To Rise Traffic from YouTube

Youtube is one of the greatest websites that allow you to upload videos, There are plenty people who visit youtube & view the videos everyday. Youtube in a way can turn out to be a gold mine for internet marketers. It can be a great source for free website traffic & most of you must would have seen plenty of youtube videos in the search results for some of the most competitive keywords.So in my opinion youtube is a great place to get targeted visitors.

 

 Youtube is my favorite. Here is one tip which I learned from ShoutMeLoud Youtube page, you can easily create free videos at Blogging event and press release event you attend. Since, your work will be limited with editing and uploading only, you can easily create content for your Youtube channel and keep it updated.
An official Youtube channel for your Blog is like a Video page for your site and you can not only customize it according to look and feel of your site but you can do way more than in terms of driving traffic, branding and making your website reachable to a wider global audience. Here I’m sharing quick tips which will help you to Simple Ways To Rise Traffic from YouTube.

Here are some simple tips for YouTube taffic. . .

1. Make the videos viral, and spread them to as many websites as possible. Easy way, when you done publishing a video on Youtube, create a blog post and embed the video on your Web page.
2. Like a normal blog post, it’s important that your Youtube video also gets social signals. Share and submit your videos to popular social media and bookmarking sites like Twitter, Google plus, Facebook, Digg. You can also share your videos on Fan pages and ask users to comment and like your video.
3. Creating a video is not enough, you need to take care of professional touch. You can use video editing tools or better hire a Video editor to add final effects on your videos.
4. Make sure the sound on your videos is clear and mixed and edited well so users can clearly hear it.
5. Keep content funny, engaging, and informative so viewers will watch it from beginning to end.
6. Try to keep the videos you create clean without too much controversial material.
7. Embed your logo and website into the video somehow. You can do this with text at the end or beginning, or by including your logo or URL throughout the entire video.
8. Have goals for your You Tube videos, but remember that there are thousands of videos on the site, and some have millions of hits while others only have a couple hundred. Set realistic goals.
9. Make sure you have good camera and editing equipment. If you don’t want to sink the money into these things, consider hiring a professional.
10. Keep the resolution of the video as high as possible, so it’s as clear as it can be.
11. Think about overall color schemes. Some videos may record in a yellow or red hue. This can affect viewer’s opinions subliminally, so try to keep the colors realistic
12. Be yourself. Do not lose sight of the purpose and mission of the video. Be yourself and loosen up when speaking.
13. Remember that nothing is perfect in online videos unless you have a professional editor, so just have fun and keep the goal in mind.
14. Practice before posting the final video. Do a few dry runs before taping and publishing
15. Create a series of ongoing videos or stories, so users will be hooked and want to learn more.
16. Do more than just talk. People don’t want to sit and watch a person just talking to the camera. Make it exciting and interesting as well as fun.
17. Try to limit the video to a couple of minutes if possible. After about two and a half minutes, users generally tend to lose interest and move onto something else.
18. Stick to a schedule if you record a series, otherwise people will just give up on the videos. Be sure to release the next ones on time.
19. Have a sign off that people will remember, then stick to it. This creates a sense of branding.
20. Ask for feedback from your viewers. Some people will not comment unless you ask them to.\
21. Assemble a cast of characters. Use other people in the videos beside yourself. Recruit friends, coworkers, and family members to be actors in the videos. 
22. Do not use music on your video that you do not have the rights to. This can lead to all kinds of problems, so either use your own or get permission. 
23. Do not forget that the title of the video is just as important as the content.
24. Grab viewers by integrating important keywords into the title. This also helps boost the search engine results.
25. Use tags in addition to the keywords, as this also gets peoples’ attention.
26. If people put negative comments, ignore them. By “feeding the trolls” you are encouraging their bad behavior and you might say something you regret later on. Enable comment moderation for uploaded videos, and accept genuine and meaningful comment to maintain the comment quality on your Youtube channels.
27. Use as many places as you can to embed your video, like Facebook,   MySpace, Digg, Twitter, your home page, and many other places.
28. Let your email subscribers and customers know when a new video is posted.
29. Add your video to various communities and subject areas of YouTube for more exposure.
30. Be sure to thank people who post positive comments or consider themselves followers of your videos.
31. Be aware that not all videos you create will be a hit. It is a hit and miss venture, so be patient and practice making good videos.
32. Write the script in advance. While impromptu videos are fun, it’s really easy to mess up the vision when you improvise.
33. Use analytic tools like YouTube Insight to track your sources and hits.
34. Actually use the word “video” in your title, since people usually include this word, and it will get a lot more results in the search engines.
35. Do not make your video an ad. In other words, get a point across but do it without trying to sell something.
36. Choose the thumbnail wisely. You Tube actually lets users choose their thumbnails so do it carefully and thoughtfully.
37. You can delete comments, so do not hesitate to get rid of negative or rude comments under your video.
38. You can release more than one video at once, so if you have several at a time, feel free to do so.
39. Watch others and learn. By viewing other videos that are related to your business, you can get a feel for what people are doing, and what others are saying about it.

Youtube is one of the high traffic website and if you use it wisely you can drive huge traffic from youtube. I hope you enjoyed this post and if you find it worth sharing, don’t forget to share and tweet this post.

How to Split, Merge, Mark Up, Reorder, and Sign PDF on Windows

If you have the paid version of Adobe Acrobat on your PC, it can do this — you might have this on a work computer. Be sure to avoid web-based software tools, don’t upload any PDFs with sensitive personal, financial, or business data to web-based PDF tools.

Split PDF Files

You may sometimes want to split a PDF file, extracting some pages from it and creating a new PDF file with them. The PDFSam (PDF split and merge) tool we mention below can do this, but you may already be able to do this with software on your PC.

All you really need for this is a PDF viewer and software that can print to PDF. This could be Adobe’s official Adobe Acrobat Reader application and a third-party PDF printer like CutePDF Writer. However, CutePDF and similar applications have installers full of the terrible Ask Toolbar and other horrific junkware, so steer clear from these programs if possible — or just be extra careful when installing CutePDF Writer.
If you have Google Chrome installed on your PC, it can actually do this. Google Chrome includes both an integrated PDF viewer and print-to-PDF features. Drag-and-drop a PDF file into the Chrome browser window to open it in Chrome. Click the menu button in Chrome and select Print. Click the “Change” button under Destination and choose Save as PDF.
Under Pages, specify the range of pages you want to extract. For example, you could enter 1-5 to extract pages 1-5, or enter 1-3, 6, 9 to extract pages 1-3, 6, and 9. If you want to split a PDF into several files, repeat this process — for example, print one PDF file with pages 1-5 and a second PDF file with pages 6-10.

Merge and Reorder PDFs

The best free tool we’ve found for merging pages from several PDF files into one on Windows is PDFSam — short for “PDF split and merge.” It’s free and open-source. Unfortunately, it relies on having Java installed on your PC — something we try to avoid. If you do need to merge PDFs with this tool, be sure to at least disable the Java browser plug-in or just uninstall Java entirely after you’re done. PDFSam itself doesn’t try to install junkware on your computer when you install it, but the Java runtime does.

Install the tool, select the Merge/Extract plug-in, and add multiple PDF files. Use the options at the bottom of the window to combine them into a single PDF file.

This tool also allows you to reorder the pages in a PDF file into a different order, which could help if you scanned the pages of a document in the wrong order. PDFSam also has a built-in plug-in for splitting PDFs.

Sign and Mark Up PDF Documents

Adobe’s PDF reader app — formerly Adobe Reader and now Adobe Acrobat Reader DC — has some integrated markup features. These allow you to sign PDFs right on your computer and add comments that can include text and drawings.

These are particularly useful for completing documents on your computer. You can fill in a form or contract and apply a signature without having to print, sign, and scan the document back in.
To use these features, open a PDF file in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC and click the “Comment” or “Fill & Sign” options in the righthand sidebar. The “Comment” tool allow you to annotate a PDF, adding text and drawings anywhere you like. The “Fill & Sign” tool allows you to add a signature anywhere in the document. These particular features are free, although many of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC’s advanced features require a paid subscription.

You don’t need paid software for this, although Adobe Acrobat will do all of these things if you have a license. Adobe Acrobat may be provided by your workplace, but home users won’t want to spend over $400 on it. Just use the free tools above for basic PDF-editing — and be sure to avoid web-based PDF-editor tools. Don’t upload any potentially sensitive document to a tool you don’t trust.