Ubisoft has sent its online pass program to Davy Jones' locker following players' complaints over gated content in Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. Before, if players wanted to access the game's online multiplayer features, companion app and related bonuses they would have to input a single-use code ...
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/BKTeC9UFQeI/Email providers Silent Circle and Lavabit are proposing a new email standard that would make it harder for governments to snoop. Strictly speaking, Darkmail, as the proposed standard is called, would keep individuals and governments from spying on email metadata. Traditional email can never be fully secured, as the standard requires some metadata to be unencrypted. The Darkmail Alliance, which right now consists only of Lavabit and Silent Circle, aims to get Darkmail off the ground, according to the Guardian:
The Darkmail Alliance aims to fix many of the problems affecting the old standard. "The existing email architecture is 40 years old, and it's what allows the world's surveillance community, hackers and other data mining companies, to get [users'] data," Janke told the Guardian.
Darkmail would be as compatible with the current email standard as possible. Unencrypted messages could be sent and received between a Darkmail user and, for instance, a Gmail user. When two Darkmail users are sending messages back and forth, however, the email is encrypted, then routed between the two accounts without passing through a central server.
Both Lavabit and Silent Circle shut down their services rather than in the face of government intrusion earlier this year.
Would you use Darkmail to keep governments out of your email?
Source: The Guardian
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/Rt6JUU9qo98/story01.htmBarbara Helgason/iStockphoto.com
Is Halloween — our national October obsession with candy, costumes and decorations — over and done?
Sure, Americans will create landfills full of candy wrappers tonight. A recent USA Today story, citing research from the NPD Group, reports that a majority of preteens and about half of all teens and adults eat candy on Halloween. Everywhere you turn there are spooky sites and scary shops and stupefying superstores. Yards yowl and howl with imposing inflatables. People dress their pets — dogs, cats, gerbils — in costumes.
But perhaps you can feel it. Among the zillion zombies and countless Count Draculas, the naughty adult get-ups and the macabre makeup for kids. We may be reaching a cultural turning point.
The numbers tell part of the story. The National Retail Federation predicts some 158 million Americans will be celebrating the holiday this year, down from 170 million last year. "Total spending on costumes, treats, festivities, and, yes, even pets will reach $6.9 billion," the NRF states, "compared to $8 billion last year."
All of a sudden, there is a surplus of superheroes. A glut of ghouls. And way too many monsters and masks and Halloween movies. Have we reached spookiness saturation? Is the fall fright fest falling? Could Halloween be waning?
Here are 5 other signs that Halloween may be over the hill:
1) People Are Opting Out. Not in large numbers. But in ways that are telltale. More than 5,000 people "like" the I Hate Halloween page on Facebook, many for religious reasons. Young mother and blogger Kayla Danelle and her family won't be celebrating. "Perhaps it's because this is the first year that I have had to explain all the scary witches, ghosts, Grim Reapers, black cats and mummies to my precious little 2 year old boy" that the family sees everywhere they go, she writes. "And then having to comfort him in the middle of the night because he's waking up screaming and shaking in fear because of nightmares about these things that a month ago he knew nothing of." At Ohio University, students are protesting against offensive Halloween costumes. At Millridge Elementary School in Highland Heights, Ohio, there is a Fall Harvest Party today "for those NOT celebrating Halloween".
2) Older People Are Taking Over. Adults have "hijacked" Halloween, writes Ana Veciana-Suarez in a recent Miami Herald story. She points out that nearly two-thirds of adults will celebrate the holiday in some way and Americans will spend nearly $7 billion, according to the NRF. "Men and women, Gen X and baby boomers, red states and blues states, even purple ones, are equally likely to participate in the revelry," she notes." Pets, too. Fourteen percent of us expect to shop for a four-legged costume ... We will fork over more for adult costumes — $1.22 billion — than we will for children's. And here's the really scary part. The top five most popular costumes, or at least the most searched ones, include a twerker (thank you, Miley Cyrus) and a meth dealer (courtesy of AMC's Breaking Bad)."
3) Concerns About Obesity. America "has the highest rates of childhood obesity in history," Jason Kessler writes in Bon Appetit, speaking for many health-conscious people. "Let's stop this insanity — and just say no to Halloween candy." He just may be the canary in a culinary coal mine. And earlier this week a woman called the Morning Playhouse show at Y94 radio station in Fargo, N.D. and told the hosts that she plans to hand notes — in sealed envelopes addressed to parents — to overweight trick-or-treaters encouraging the parents to "ration candy this Halloween and not allow your child to continue these unhealthy eating habits."
4) Halloween Can Be Dangerous. Perhaps not so much for people, as Time and other websites have pointed out, but for pets. Quoting claims data from Petplan pet insurance company, CBS News reports that "our furry family members are 25 percent more likely to get sick from eating chocolate during the week of Halloween than any other week throughout the year."
5) It's The No. 1 Holiday. In a recent survey by ooVoo, a social video chat provider with scads of subscribers, Halloween is now the most popular holiday among people 25 and under. With 51 percent of respondents that age preferring Halloween, Christmas came in second with 39 percent, and Valentine's Day third with 7 percent. "The rise in popularity of Halloween among millennials is a clear indicator that they crave casual fun in a world where they feel pressured by other popular family activities," Larry Lieberman, chief marketing officer of ooVoo, said in a statement.
So, you may ask: If Halloween is at the top of the popularity charts, how can one say it may have reached its pinnacle? Well. It has nowhere to go now — but down.
The Protojournalist is an experiment in reporting. Abstract. Concrete. @NPRtpj
Mileage Log+ for iPhone is the new and updated version of the popular mileage tracking app Trip Cubby. Not only does it bring a brand new interface, it adds new features that make it more convenient than ever, including the ability to calculate distances for you, no odometer readings necessary.
Aside from being able to calculate trip distance based on addresses you input, Mileage Log+ is also IRS compliant and comes with the up to date accepted rates for expensing mileage. You can also add notes and other related expenses to entries in just a few taps.
If you like the look and feel of iOS 7, you'll love the overhauled interface that Mileage Log+ has gotten in comparison to it's predecessor Trip Cubby. My favorite feature though is the fact that much of the functionality and the way you handle and create trips is very much the same as it was in Trip Cubby so current users can make the transition easily. There are even instructions of Contrast's (previously App Cubby) web page explaining how to import all your old Trip Cubby data right into Mileage Log+.
For those that need a stellar mile tracking app, we'd definitely recommend trying out Mileage Log+. If you do, let us know what you think in the comments!
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/xW3wpsvk2qo/story01.htmUpdate, update, update: Form that habit now, if you haven't already, to keep up with security fixes. The latest include the usual tweaks to fend off malicious attacks, and a fix to Java that should prevent it from disabling itself constantly. That would be nice.
The 11.1.2 version of iTunes for Windows (10/22/2013) fixes several potential security issues. The program could be crashed if someone of sufficiently evil intent exploited memory access flaws in the handling of text tracks.
A bug related to WebKit memory corruption issues could allow nefarious beings to insert themselves between iTunes and the iTunes store. It has also been addressed with this update.
Finally, Apple has updated its usage of libxml and libxslt to 2.9.0 and 1.1.28, respectively, to ward off potential tampering that could cause unexpected program shutdowns or the running of malicious code.
If you've be tracking your browser's add-ons or extensions recently, you may have noticed that Java has been disabled with alarming regularity recently (if you've forgone the automated Java updates). Hopefully Java 7 update 45 (7u45) will lessen the onslaught of disablement with its whopping 51 fixes, all part of Oracle's latest Critical Patch Update released on 10/13/2013 (no, it wasn't a Friday). There are protections against code redistribution, and a warning if an application is started in an unexpected location, just to name two.
Apple issued its own update, but it's probably time to move to Oracle's plug-in if you're a Mac user.
If you don't have automatic updates enabled for Internet Explorer, you might want to grab this one, which was made available on 10/8/2013 for every version of IE since 6. It addresses a number of security flaws, including one that "could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted webpage...". Not only that, attackers could gain local administrative rights and play havoc with your PC in any way they see fit.
2879017 is a must-have, as is any security fix that's been publicized. There are always bad guys waiting to prey on laggards. If you have automatic updates enabled, you probably already have it.
Jon L. Jacobi has worked with computers since you flipped switches and punched cards to program them. He studied music at Juilliard, and now he power-mods his car for kicks.
More by Jon L. Jacobi
Photo illustration by Derreck Johnson; photo courtesy Columbia Pictures
Toward the beginning of the 2012 comedy 21 Jump Street, Officer Jenko (Channing Tatum), a onetime cool kid, gives his partner some advice as they prepare to infiltrate the ranks of the cool kids at Sagan High. “You gotta one-strap it,” Jenko chides Officer Schmidt (Jonah Hill). Schmidt, a onetime nerd, is two-strapping—wearing his backpack over both shoulders. That is not, warns Jenko, what cool kids do.
This advice may sound obvious to all cool kids of a certain age, but when the officers make their debut at school, times have changed. Jenko’s attitude—“I don’t care about anything,” he announces—has gone out of style. The cool kids are into diversity, environmentalism, and, worst of all, trying. And symbolizing this generational sea change: “Everybody’s two-strapping it,” notes Schmidt.
When I first watched this scene, I thought: Funny bit, but is it right? I, like everyone cool (or trying to be cool) in my high school, one-strapped all the way. It was a foundational tenet of cool—you might argue about what kind of music was cool, or what clothes, or what hairstyles, but it was a given that one-strapping was the only way to wear a backpack. Is one-strapping really not cool anymore? And if so, how could something once so cool become so not? My search for the answer sent me on a quest in which I’d consult pediatric orthopedic surgeons, re-examine decades of pop culture, and track down the one consummately cool high-schooler from East Amherst, N.Y., who might have the answer.
The first step was obvious: determining if and when, exactly, this happened. Left without any serious research on the subject—even chiropractors and pediatric orthopedists who have studied the effect of backpacks couldn’t point to any data—I decided to collect some data myself.
After speaking with 75 ex-students and students from all over the country, spanning 60 years of high-schoolers—from the class of 1965 to the class of 2026—the data (however unscientific my polling) were clear. Every ex-student from the class of 1994 and earlier, 12 students, had, to a man, one-strapped. “Everyone one-strapped. No exceptions,” reported a graduate of the class of 1991. “I one-strapped all through college,” reported one of his female classmates.
Starting with the class of 1995, however, the number of two-strappers began to very slowly increase. One ’95-er, who noticed one particularly cool male classmate of hers switching to two-strapping, followed his lead. (More on him later.) A member of the class of ’97 remembered doing the same. Nevertheless, most still one-strapped—it was “the only way,” reported two separate members of the class of ’96. (One member of the class of 2001 even recalled, “Actually, I'm pretty sure I had a backpack that only had one big diagonal strap ... What happened to those Forrest???”)
The real sea change from one strap to two seemed to occur in the mid-2000s. Before this time there was the occasional two-strapper, but starting with the class of 2005, two-strappers began to dominate, outnumbering their peers. “By high school, I’d say pretty much every guy did the two straps,” said one graduate of 2005 (who remembered that most women ditched backpacks altogether). “I don’t remember one-strapping ever being cool in actuality, it was always in theory,” mused another. “Like on TV if you were cool you had one strap, but in person it didn’t really make a difference.” (This was news to me and my classmates from Glastonbury High School’s Class of 2005, who largely remembered one-strapping being the only cool way.)
By the time the class of 2008 started shouldering their backpacks, the change was complete. Every backpack-wearing respondent from then on, from the class of 2008 through the class of 2027—20 former and current students—used both straps. More, they claimed that they always used two straps, and their classmates did, too. (The only exception was one current 5-year-old, who, according to his father, “occasionally one-straps.”)
For many, the idea of one-strapping was silly or uncool, or never even occurred to them. “I wore my backpack with both straps, as did most people,” wrote one 2010 graduate. “I don’t remember ever having a conversation about how to wear a backpack in high school; no one seemed to notice.” “I think one-strapping, even temporarily, is unnecessary and unhelpful,” wrote one 13-year-old. A former college classmate of mine even told me, “I now teach sixth grade and it’s all about the backpacks with the extra straps and clasps. All straps on, all clasps closed.”
Extra straps? Something had happened, starting around the mid-’90s, and finishing around the mid-’00s, that changed the way that kids wear their backpacks. But what could have caused such a radical shift in behavior? Intense data analysis, interviews, and archival research led me to three hypotheses.
1. The Cultural Hypothesis
If one-strapping, and later two-strapping, were about being cool, then something in the nature of cool must have changed. I turned to the source that tells us what’s cool: pop culture.
It’s no surprise at all that movies and TV reflected the above trends almost exactly. Take a look at any ’80s teen movie—Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), or Heathers (1988)—and you’ll find almost nothing but one-strappers. In Fast Times, for example, one-strapping isn’t about clique or comportment. It’s just what everyone does. Students of every type sport one bare shoulder, whether it be the ripped shoulder of surf-stoner Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn) or the skinny one of dutiful Brad Hamilton (Judge Reinhold).
Universal Pictures
In ’90s movies, the trend, at first, continues. When the title character returns to high school for the first time in years in Billy Madison (1995), everyone is one-strapping. In Clueless (1995), Cher (Alicia Silverstone) laments the way that all the guys walk around her high school’s campus dressed like this:
Paramount Pictures
But then things start to shift. In Election (1999), the way characters carry their book bags helps define their characters. The overachieving Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) wears her bag over both arms. Her opponent, the airheaded Paul Metzler (Chris Klein), covers only one of his athletic shoulders.
Paramount Pictures
In 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), similarly, it’s a mix. Most of the heroes—when they use backpacks—two-strap, and the one-strappers tend to be students like the conceited Joey Donner:
Touchstone Pictures
In other words, these movies reflect a trend away from depicting everyone one-strapping and toward using one-strapping as a broad way to signal “cool kid” or, in the case of characters like Donner, “douchebag.” From the mid-2000s on—from Brick (2005) to the High School Musical trilogy (2006–2008) to Easy A (2010)—teen movies seem to have shown just about everyone two-strapping it. In The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), when Peter Parker protects his (two-strapping) classmates by battling the Lizard in the halls of his high school, he two-straps it the whole time.
