The After Math: Engadget Expand SF special

Welcome to The After Math, where we attempt to summarize this week's tech news through numbers, decimal places and percentages.

Last weekend, we wrapped up our inaugural Expand event, and while several of our international editors (yours truly included) are still battle a testing combination of jetlag and the sniffles, we've pulled together some numbers that should offer at least a glimpse at how the weekend in San Francisco all went down. What if you missed out on all the tech, discussions, Engadget editors and giveaways this time? We wouldn't worry. Next stop, New York.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/VpXthICxDpI/

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Doctor: Iraqi president communicating after stroke

BAGHDAD (AP) ? A doctor who oversees Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's medical care says the president is able to speak and understand people around him as he recovers from a stroke he suffered over two months ago.

In an interview Sunday Dr. Najmaldin Karim described the improvement in the president's health as encouraging and "a good development." Karim oversees Talabani's medical care when he is in Iraq, although the president is currently in Germany for treatment.

Karim says he is hopeful Talabani will be able to return to Iraq, but acknowledged that any decision rests with the doctors treating him in Germany.

Talabani was rushed to a hospital on December 17 for what officials described as a serious stroke. He was later moved to Germany. Few details have been released about his condition.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/doctor-iraqi-president-communicating-stroke-092747003.html

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InFocus IN1144

The InFocus IN1144 ($600 street) is one more entry in a growing category of projectors that includes the Acer K330, the NEC NP-L50W, and the Editors' Choice 3M Mobile Projector MP410. What defines the category is a sub-three pound weight, a DLP chip with WXGA (1280 by 800) resolution, and an LED light source with either a 300 or 500-lumen rating. The IN1144 falls in the 500-lumen group, along with the Acer and NEC models, and it's one of the best in the group.

Aside from the brightness ratings, the biggest differences between the 300-lumen models and 500-lumen models in this category are their sizes and weights. The 300-lumen models generally weigh less than a pound by themselves and less than two pounds with their power blocks, while the 500-lumen models typically don't need power blocks but weigh between 2 pounds 8 ounces and just under 3 pounds. The IN1144 is a little unusual on this score. It weighs only 1 pound 13 ounces, but needs a power block. Even including the power block, however, the total weight is 2 pounds 10 ounces.

Basics
The IN1144 comes with a soft case large enough to hold the 1.7 by 6.7 by 5.4 inch (HWD) projector plus the power block, cables, credit-card size remote, and the optional Wi-Fi dongle ($29 direct). InFocus says you can download both Windows and Mac apps, but no mobile apps, ?from its website so you can show images over the wireless connection. For maximum portability, you can also use the projector with just an SD card or USB memory key. The IN1144 can read an assortment of file types directly, including most common image, video, and audio formats as well as PDF and Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files.

Setup is standard. In addition to an SD card slot and USB A port for a USB key, the back of the projector offers HDMI and VGA ports plus two mini plugs for A/V in and audio out. The A/V in port can accept both audio and composite video, but InFocus doesn't provide an appropriate adaptor for video. Also worth mention is a Kensington Lock slot on one side, so you can leave the projector sitting on a conference room table without worrying about someone walking away with it.

As with all the projectors in this category, the IN1144's LED light source is meant to last the life of the projector, which helps keep the total cost of ownership down. InFocus rates the LEDs at 30,000 hours.

Brightness and Data Image Quality
The 500-lumen rating is obviously far below the 2,500 or 3,000 lumens that's typical for today's lamp-based portable projectors. However, perception of brightness is logarithmic, which means you'll perceive 500 lumens as being much more than one fifth as bright as 2,500 lumens.

I found the projector bright enough to let me run my tests using the 78-inch wide (92-inch diagonal) image size I normally use with standard projectors. However, even with theater dark lighting, the image wasn't bright enough at that size for extended viewing. If you want to watch, say, a full-length movie, a 55-inch wide (65-inch diagonal) size would be a better choice. With ambient light, you'll want to drop to an even smaller size.

Data image quality is reasonably good, but well short of excellent. On our standard suite of DisplayMate tests, colors were fully saturated in most modes, with yellow a true yellow, rather than a mustard color, but red and blue a little dark in terms of a hue-saturation-brightness color model. Color balance was excellent in most modes, with neutral grays over the full range from white to black.

One potentially annoying issue is that I couldn't get the entire screen in crisp focus all at the same time. I settled on focusing a broad diagonal swath from the upper left corner to the lower right, leaving two corners with slightly soft focus.

The IN1144 also shares one shortcoming with all of the other projectors in this category, with scaling artifacts (in the form of unwanted patterns in fills) at the claimed native resolution. As I discussed in detail my review of the Optoma ML500, this simply shouldn't happen. However, the artifacts won't be an issue for most people, since they show up only in patterned fills with closely spaced lines or dots. More important, the scaling doesn't affect text readability very much, as it does with some projectors in this category. Text was easily readable at sizes as small as 6.8 points.

Video and Other Issues
Video quality for the IN1144 is best described as watchable. I saw a slight loss of shadow detail (detail based on shading in dark areas) and a tendency for skin tones to be slightly greenish in some scenes, but the quality overall was better than many data projectors can manage.

It also helps that the IN1144 doesn't show rainbow artifacts easily, which is always a potential problem for single-chip DLP projectors, with bright areas breaking up into red-green-blue rainbows. As is typical, the rainbows show up more frequently with video than with data images, but I didn't see any with data, and saw far fewer with video than I've seen with most DLP projectors.

One other plus for the IN1144 is its surprisingly good audio quality. I was able to hear every word of some quietly spoken dialog that's impossible to decipher with most projectors. Unfortunately the two-watt speaker doesn't offer a lot of volume, so you may not hear much from more than three or four feet away.

Despite some minor issues that keep it from being Editors' Choice, most notably the lack of even focus across the entire screen, the InFocus IN1144 stands out from the pack of 300 and 500-lumen projectors. Its balance of brightness, data image quality, video quality, and features?including the ability to read an assortment of file formats from USB keys and SD cards?makes it at least a match for most of its competition, while its near lack of rainbow artifacts makes it far more watchable for anyone who's sensitive to seeing those artifacts. If you want a projector that's both highly portable and eminently watchable, the InFocus IN1144 should be on your short list.

More Projector Reviews:

??? NEC NP-VE281
??? InFocus IN1144
??? BenQ MW519
??? Epson PowerLite 1835 XGA 3LCD Projector
??? Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 3020e
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/hdjps0Ttdf8/0,2817,2415853,00.asp

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So you find certain words annoying? Whatever

NEW YORK (Reuters) - "You know," "whatever" is a really annoying term -- "like" "you know." We're "just sayin'."

When it comes to the most annoying words or phrases used in conversation, those four top the list in 2012, according to the annual Marist Poll.

"Whatever" headed the list, cited by 32 percent of adults, and next came "like," which 21 percent didn't like.

Runners-up included "Twitterverse" and "gotcha'."

The results mirrored last year's survey when "whatever" topped the annoying words list for a third straight year. But "seriously," named by 7 percent last year, dropped off the list entirely - really.

Marist questioned 1,246 adults in a U.S. nationwide, telephone survey.

Results showed differences by age and regions, with people younger than 45 or in the Northeast especially annoyed by "like," while "you know" offended more of the 45-and-over set.

Men and women gave similar responses overall, but whites were twice as likely as non-whites to find "you know" irritating. And people under 45 were more than twice as likely as those over 45 to be put off by "just sayin.'"

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; editing by Patricia Reaney and Kenneth Barry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/certain-words-annoying-whatever-184510720.html

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BMW 3 series a powerful yet fuel efficient hybrid car - Auto Types

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Thursday, December 27, 2012 - 02:23:48

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Rating (4.5/5) 4.5 Star Rating 57 users

Hybrid power train is the latest trend in the car world. Each and every one of the leading car manufacturing brands is struggling with the competition for cutting down the fuel intake of their car. Fuel efficiency and environmental pollution are two of the leading concerns of the modern world. And the car manufacturers are trying to design models that will have the solution to both the problems.

The latest inclusion in this list is the brand new BMW 3 series. The BMW 3 series is one of the bestselling hybrids cars in recent times. The car combines internal combustion petrol driven engine with one run by electricity. So basically has the criteria required to be called a hybrid car.
The aim of all hybrid cars is to go green. The fuel intake of a hybrid car is very low, so that there is minimal stress on the non-renewable resources of energy from this car. The car should cover the maximum distance possible using the minimum amount of non-renewable fuel resource.

The other part of a hybrid car should be to minimise the release of environmental pollutants. The amount of harmful gases that is emitted by a hybrid car affects the amount of pollutants that is present in the air. So a hybrid car should be environment friendly.

The BMW 3 series can be both, but is seldom so. The car can be driven in one of the several modes, one of which is the eco pro mode. The car can be both fuel efficient and eco-friendly when driven at low acceleration in the eco pro mode, but it is seldom driven satisfying these conditions.

If you move on to any other driving mode of the car then the car is all about the speed and thrill. The BMW 3 series has all the required specifications to make it comparable to any sports car. When operated in the sport+ mode, the BMW 3 series blazes through the highway roads.
The design of the car is very impressive. It has all the essential features required in the design of a hybrid car. The internal combustion engine is well in sync with the electric motor. The car can conserve some energy when it is operated, although not as much as the other hybrid cars, but then it makes up for this in the other aspects of the car.

The car packs a powerful engine. It can produce about 340 HP which is enough to produce speeds of up to 155 miles per hour. The pickup of the car is also very nice; it can reach 60 miles per hour in 5.3 seconds. These figures are pretty impressive.

The car consumes one gallon of fuel per 48 miles, which is great. It also emits only 139 gm. of CO2 per kilometre. So it is qualifies as a good hybrid car. The car is priced at about 40,000 pounds, which is quite costly, but then the car is packed with features and is well worth the price.

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Source: http://www.auto-types.com/autonews/bmw-3-series-a-powerful-yet-fuel-efficient-hybrid-car-9644.html

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Should the chat list display a region instead of a system?

(Today 03:16 AM)Govedo13 Wrote: ?Yes it is much desired feature.
However it works only if the server got the numbers, I am all for it but major system reduction should be done as well in order to enable the interaction between players. Adding stuff without central idea why they got added brought us Gallia, this would be disaster if it is added now on the depopulated server without changing few other things:
-reduce the systems a bit creating activity hubs, the 100 average players nowadays does not need even the half of the existing systems.
-give option via special base produced equipment to detect the players in the systems as well.
-rebalance the trade system so there are like 10-20 top runs and other sux because trading unpirated would break the said food chain in discovery.
In general no point to add it to 4.87 since it wont work well because the other more important things are not done.

Ugh. People and bad assumptions.

I can't remember how much of this is public knowledge, but if you've been keeping a close eye on development, you'd notice that many undesirable systems - particularly some (not all) Guard systems and the useless Gallic "home" systems - will be turned into dead-end systems, causing players not to fly through there when travelling.

Additionally, Trade is being refocussed, with the best routes slated to become ones for House Corporations on inter-House circuits. There will be more hubs and activity chokepoints likely to be created as a result.

Source: http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=91189

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Relax! StationCreator is bringing scheduled TV broadcasts to online ...

By Michael Carney
On December 17, 2012

TV is magic in a number of ways that online video has not yet replicated. For starters, there?s always something playing the second you turn it on. Also, even though there are more channels today than ever before, there remains a finite amount of choices. When you don?t know what you?re looking for, it?s actually comforting to know that you won?t be scrolling forever. With most online video portals, however, the experience is quite the opposite. There?s a reason that an endless feed of Web video content aggregated and curated into one place, hasn?t been enough to kill traditional TV because. In many ways, the massive amount of options leads to paralysis by choice, and sometimes, it?s still nice to have a fully leanback consumption experience.

San Diego online video startup StationCreator hopes that its scheduled, continuous broadcast technology is the key ingredient missing amid today?s Web TV world. Via its platform launched publicly just last week, viewers have the option to browse by a traditional channel guide and select a never-ending content stream to watch and enjoy. Like traditional TV, everyone around the world that?s tuned into that same station will be viewing the same content at the same time.

StationCreator channel owners are given a suite of video scheduling tools built on top of its hosting infrastructure to aggregate content from existing online video sites including YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion, UStream, LiveStream, and Justin.tv. Users can import a single item or a full channel from each source. Crucially, the video is played directly from the source and any existing interstitial or overlay advertising from the source is maintained within StationCreator. Users can even mix in live streams and advertisements. It?s incredibly easy to allow the system to create a schedule automatically, or the channel owner can be more deliberate and manually program the content.

In either case, the result is a continuous broadcast stream that viewers can watch on a fullscreen player page, or in a custom player that can be embed on any website. Users can check out the broadcast schedule to see what?s playing at later in the day or can just sit back and enjoy whatever appears on screen. For those more impatient, all content is available ?On Demand? as well.

(Check out PandoDaily?s sample StationCreator station created from our YouTube channel.)

Previously, running a terrestrial television network required equipment, permits, and content licensing that was out of reach for nearly every individual and organization. StationCreator is available to anyone, from premium content providers to individual video bloggers and hobbyists. This means that its channels will range from the equivalent of online HBO to Public-Access Television. The platform won?t be able to make dull content interesting, but at least it will offer a compelling new consumption experience that may give it a fighting chance.

StationCreator is available in a Free and paid Pro version. Free users don?t have the option to manually schedule content or to embed their channel onto another site. Pro users get all-you-can-eat access to the platform?s features including a customizable player and schedule widgets, as well as robust reporting that goes beyond Google Analytics to offer proprietary real-time user behavior tracking tools.

The technical problem solved here is actually quite complex, according to StationCreator founder and former NBC and CBS interactive producer Jon Labes. The startup has developed a patent-pending scheduler and autopilot system that intelligently analyzes existing online video metadata to interpret duration and other key details and then assemble it into a seamless broadcast experience. ?It would still take YouTube a good six to eight months to cook up a bad version of what we have,? he says. (That?s assuming they haven?t already.)

YouTube is actually not the most natural competitor to StationCreator. Given that the startup?s cross-platform support, it?s actually more likely that a third-party company attempts to duplicate its offering. Given his head start and the technological hurdles, Labes is rightfully pleased with his position.

StationCreator began as an idea inside Howard Lindzon?s StockTwits in mid-2011, and now exists as a standalone venture. The five person team is being incubated by the Southern California angel investor?s Social Leverage fund and has raised approximately $350,000 to date from Lindzon and other angels. StationCreator will likely pursue a traditional Seed round of $1 million to $2 million in Q1 2013.

The startup has been in private beta ?for months, with approximately 600 early users ranging from NBC News and the San Diego Union Tribune newspaper, to a large number of regional mega-churches. According to Labes, the startup has been receiving an overwhelming amount of inbound demand and is currently in partnership discussions revolving around licensing its API for use in third-party integrations. In the future, StationCreator hopes to offer users one-click publishing of a unique mobile app built around their channel and available for download on the iTunes and Google Play app stores.

For many of these potential broadcasters, YouTube and/or their website or blog are the current the default repositories for original and curated video content. The problem is, that for frequent visitors, the reverse chronological list of content rarely changes, with occasional new content appearing at the top and old content getting quickly buried. With StationCreator, there?s always something on to engage would be visitors, and new life is breathed into evergreen legacy content. There aren?t many other places in the world of online video where you can say either of those things.

Michael Carney

Michael Carney has spent his career exploring the world of early stage technology as an investor and entrepreneur and has participated in building companies in multiple countries within North and South America and Asia. Ultimately, he is an enthusiast of all things shiny and electronic and is inspired by those who build businesses and regularly tackle difficult problems. You can follow Michael on Twitter @mcarney.

Source: http://pandodaily.com/2012/12/17/relax-stationcreator-is-bringing-scheduled-tv-broadcasts-to-online-video/

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