Rebecca

সোমবার, ২৮ অক্টোবর, ২০১৩

Right-Wing Populism Is Hobbling America

In the Federalist Papers, James Madison promised that a large republic with a representative government would avoid the “instability, injustice and confusion” that had plagued many nations in Europe. In a representative government, he reasoned, disruptive factions would be unable to gain sufficient power to dissolve the social contract. The people’s representatives would not necessarily be paragons of virtue, but they would be less likely to succumb to “local prejudices and schemes of injustice.” In the 225 intervening years, Madison has been proven correct, with two great exceptions. One was the Civil War. The other was the 16-day government shutdown of October 2013.

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2013/10/28/right-wing_populism_is_hobbling_america_318731.html
Similar Articles: Ryne Sandberg

ARM servers with 64-bit Calxeda chips to ship next year

Low-power servers running on Calxeda's 64-bit ARM chip will be available a year from now, Calxeda said.

Samples of Calxeda's 64-bit chip will start shipping in the first half of next year, giving server makers a chance to test out the chips before building final systems, said Karl Freund, vice president of marketing at Calxeda. Servers will become available a few months after that.

"64-bit is coming, it will be an amazing change in the [server] industry," Freund said. "Our priority is to get them to market as fast as possible."

ARM processors, used in most smartphones and tablets, are increasingly being viewed as a power-efficient alternative to Intel's x86 chips, which dominate in data centers. Some believe ARM servers could be good for Web hosting and processing Web requests, which could help cut electric bills in data centers.

Hewlett-Packard is on tap to use Calxeda's ARM chips in its Moonshot dense server, which currently runs only on x86 processors. ARM 64-bit server processors will also be shipped next year by AppliedMicro and Advanced Micro Devices, which offers x86 chips but is betting its server future on ARM processors.

The company has two 64-bit ARM-based server system-on-chips code-named Lago and Sarita on tap, and Freund said more employees are being assigned to work on the products. The chips are based on ARM's ARMv8-A processor architecture, which was announced in 2011.

There has been a slight delay in the delivery of 64-bit ARM chips from many companies to server makers. The 64-bit ARM processor is also used in Apple's A7 mobile chip, but Freund said making server chips is more complex as networking, I/O and memory controllers need to built into a system-on-chip alongside CPUs.

"People set unrealistic expectations on 64-bit and were very aggressive in schedule. It takes time," Freund said.

Meanwhile, Calxeda will release its EnergyCore ECX-2000 chip, based on ARM's Cortex-A15 processor design, which could help speed applications in OpenStack distributed computing environments. The chip supports 32-bit addressing and will be found in "beta" servers by the end of this year, Freund said. The Calxeda chip supports virtualization and Xen hypervisor.

Most server applications today are 64-bit, but the ECX-2000 has found use in cloud servers and storage applications, Freund said.

Aeon will sell 1U servers by the end of this year, and a nonoperational sample of HP's Moonshot server with ECX-2000 chips will be shown at the Open Server Summit trade show this week. A release date for the ARM-based Moonshot hasn't been announced.

Servers from Boston Ltd. and Penguin Computing will be available with the ECX-2000 chips, Calxeda said.

The ECX-2000 has four Cortex-A15 cores running at 1.8GHz, and draws six watts of power. The chip is a self-contained server unit with 10-gigabit Ethernet networking, I/O and memory controllers.

Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com

Subscribe to the Power Tips Newsletter

Thank you for sharing this page.

Sorry! There was an error emailing this page

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2058420/arm-servers-with-64bit-calxeda-chips-to-ship-next-year.html#tk.rss_all
Related Topics: The Blacklist emmy winners Breaking Bad Season 5 Episode 10 Laurie Forman hell on wheels

GOP set to question Sebelius on health law

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans plan to seek answers from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on the Obama administration's troubled start for its health care website to buy insurance, and are raising concerns about the privacy of information that applicants submit under the new system.

GOP lawmakers said Sunday that the Obama administration will face intense scrutiny this week to be more forthcoming about how many people have actually succeeded in enrolling for coverage in the new insurance markets.

Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner is scheduled to appear during a House hearing on Tuesday, followed Wednesday by Sebelius before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The officials will also be grilled on how such crippling technical problems could have gone undetected prior to the Oct. 1 launch of that website, healthcare.gov.

"The incompetence in building this website is staggering," said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., second- ranking Republican on the panel and an opponent of the law.

Democrats said the new system needs more time and it can be fixed to provide millions of people with affordable insurance. Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, said the system was "working in Kentucky."

But the federal online system experienced another problem on Sunday.

A component of that system that has been working relatively well experienced an outage. The federal data services hub, a conduit for verifying the personal information of people applying for benefits under the law, went down in a failure that was blamed on an outside contractor, Terremark.

"Today, Terremark had a network failure that is impacting a number of their clients, including healthcare.gov," HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters said. "Secretary Sebelius spoke with the CEO of Verizon this afternoon to discuss the situation and they committed to fixing the problem as soon as possible."

Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for Verizon Enterprise Solutions, of which Terremark is a part, said: "Our engineers have been working with HHS and other technology companies to identify and address the root cause of the issue. It will fixed as quickly as possible."

Blackburn said she wanted to know much has been spent on the website, how much more it will cost to fix the problems, when everything will be ready and what people should expect to see on the site. Blackburn and Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., raised questions about whether the website could guard the privacy of applicants.

"They do not have an overarching, solid cybersecurity plan to prevent the loss of private information," said Rogers, who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters said when consumers fill out their applications, "they can trust that the information they're providing is protected by stringent security standards and that the technology underlying the application process has been tested and is secure."

The botched rollout has led to calls on Capitol Hill for a delay of penalties for those remaining uninsured. The Obama administration has said it's willing to extend the grace period until Mar. 31, the end of open enrollment, providing an extra six weeks. The insurance industry says going beyond that risks undermining the new system by giving younger, healthier people a pass.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who has urged the Obama administration to postpone the March 31 deadline, said she is concerned applicants would not have a full six months to enroll. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who is seeking a yearlong delay to the penalty for noncompliance, said there is a need for a "transition period to work out the things."

The administration was under no legal requirement to launch the website Oct 1. Sebelius, who designated her department's Medicare agency to implement the health care law, had the discretion to set open enrollment dates. Officials could have postponed open enrollment by a month, or they could have phased in access to the website.

But all through last summer and into early fall, the administration insisted it was ready to go live in all 50 states on Oct. 1.

The online insurance markets are supposed to be the portal to coverage for people who do not have access to a health plan through their jobs. The health care law offers middle-class people a choice of private insurance plans, made more affordable through new tax credits. Low-income people will be steered to Medicaid in states that agree to expand that safety-net program.

An HHS memo prepared for Sebelius in September estimated that nearly 500,000 people would enroll for coverage in the marketplaces during October, their first month of operation. The actual number is likely to be only a fraction of that. The administration has said 700,000 people have completed applications.

Blackburn spoke on "Fox News Sunday," Beshear appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press," Rogers was on CNN's "State of the Union," Manchin was interviewed on ABC's "This Week" and Shaheen made her comments on CBS' "Face the Nation."

___

Follow Ken Thomas on Twitter at http://twitter.com/AP_Ken_Thomas

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gop-set-sebelius-health-law-073925322--politics.html
Category: Ed Lauter dancing with the stars gizmodo Ariel Castro Hyperloop

'Allegiant' Author Veronica Roth Tries Not To Imagine Shailene Woodley, Theo James Making Out

MTV News sits down for a spoiler-free chat with the 'Divergent' trilogy scribe, with a spoiler-filled segment coming Monday at 10 a.m. ET.

By Amy Wilkinson, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Source:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1716073/allegiant-divergent-veronica-roth.jhtml

Related Topics: mrsa emmys Nothing Was The Same Leak Johnny Galecki apple stock

Arcade Fire In The Throes Of Transformation

Arcade Fire on Saturday night in Bushwick. Win Butler on the left, Richard Reed Parry on the right.

Courtesy of Sachyn Mital

Arcade Fire on Saturday night in Bushwick. Win Butler on the left, Richard Reed Parry on the right.

Courtesy of Sachyn Mital

Saturday's hottest ticket in New York City was to see a band nobody's heard of. The Reflektors burned through a fan-only presale, and tickets hit the secondary market at prices high as $5,000 — a hefty sum to see any band, much less a band yet to release its first album, in Bushwick's warehousiest corridors. That's like half a year's rent for that neighborhood. But the hype was real. Based only on the "Is-this-really-happening?" disbelief stretching the faces of all the superfans and industry types in the audience, you'd think they were about to see a band that would never play a skuzzy converted depot in east Brooklyn: U2 or Bruce Springsteen, or, I don't know, Arcade Fire.

The thing about the musicians on stage was that they looked a lot like Arcade Fire. Despite his Jack White-like red shirt and white tie, the bassist's flaming red hair drew Richard Reed Parry comparisons. And they sounded like Arcade Fire, too. They even covered "Sprawl II." And that's because — (no) surprise! — The Reflektors was Arcade Fire. That cat was never really in the bag. After a little tongue-in-cheek stage banter ("We started three years ago. We were nervous to play New York because we heard you're standoffish!"), a gold-suited Win Butler and his band ran through a set of mostly unheard tracks from their upcoming album Reflektor, masquerading as a brand new band riding the promotional cycle for its first album.

But the group that played at 299 Meserole this weekend, no matter what you called them, was clearly neither a set of wide-eyed naïfs dropping their first 12", nor the band that made sneaking out of your parents house feel like toppling the Berlin Wall. The musicians were belied by more than their popularity; never mind that most in attendance — who embraced the show's "formal" dress code with thrifted tuxes, reflective masks or fratty banana suits — only got access to buying these tickets after pre-ordering Reflektor. They're also darker, and maybe a more disillusioned, too. "We're so excited to play CMJ," Butler called out sarcastically. "Thank you so much to all the industry types who offered to sign our band!"

But the plucky effrontery that has underpinned all Arcade Fire's work to date is crumbling. The band has told stories about struggling under somebody's thumb since its 2003 debut album Funeral. Songs like "Wake Up" and "Crown of Love" captured an anthemic emotional power, half hope and half rebellion, unmatched by the group's successors and copycats. The songs bloomed around refrains that felt bigger than any stadium they eventually filled. But this is less so on Reflektor. The new songs Arcade Fire played Saturday were full of new (mostly rhythmic) ideas coming to the fore and many old (mostly romantic) identifiers fading away.

Some saw that change coming when Arcade Fire announced that James Murphy, the David Bowie-obsessed former face of LCD Soundsystem and head of disco-punk label DFA, was announced as Reflektor's producer. He introduced the band at the show. Others heard it in the album's dynamic, Bowie-featuring first single, which abandoned that operatic Springsteenian populism for pop reflective of the transformations undertaken by their arena-sized predecessors the Talking Heads and U2 (there's that similarity again).

That change got its first full public display in Bushwick. Take "We Exist," for one. Four years ago an Arcade Fire song with titles that way might've sounded like "Born to Run," but when that "Hang On To Your Love"/"Your Cover's Blown" bassline crept out beneath the venue's Murphy-esque disco balls and reflective hanging polygons, it left no ambiguities about the type of music Arcade Fire is now interested in making. Fans of the group should have been safe assuming they'd get the standard fare of marching violinists yowling to the rafters, but instead were blindsided by Sade. With strings marginalized and two miscellaneous percussionists in tow, this group looked and sounded more like Stop Making Sense than In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

This departure is not a totally clean break from their last work, 2010's Grammy-winning, Twitter-enraging The Suburbs. There were of course the type of joyful moments Arcade Fire is known for (see the swelling "Supersymmetry"), and brand new sounds, like the Princely backup vocals of "It's Never Over (Orpheus)" and the murky rave-up "Here Comes the Night Time." But taking the stage in the throes of a transformation didn't always work in Arcade Fire's favor. The band sometimes sounded uninspired performing new songs they'd written in their old style (like the underwhelming "Joan of Arc") or those that didn't do Butler's heady aspiration to sound like "a mash up of Studio 54 and Hatian voodoo" real justice (the chopped reggaeton of "Flashbulb Eyes"). Some old favorites even looked limp in their new duds (like the beloved "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)"), while others ("Haiti") sound suddenly prophetic of where the band has touched down.

Gone is the jubilation of the Arcade Fire of days past. The crowd occasionally felt awkward inside the band's new big beat, and responded to Butler's post-encore announcement that there would be no more Reflektors, or Arcade Fire, tonight but rather a DJ set from James Murphy for those who wanted to "dance all night," with more than a smattering of boos. But the band itself is dancing toward something that'll lead it outside the sounds their old crowd formed around. Seeing that live was alone worth the price of admission.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2013/10/23/240251629/arcade-fire-in-the-throes-of-transformation?ft=1&f=1039
Similar Articles: Covered California russell wilson twin towers NFL.com Ichiro Suzuki

iPad Air vs. Retina iPad mini vs. iPad 2 vs. iPad mini: Which iPad model should you get?

2013 iPad buyers guide: How to choose the perfect new iPad Air or Retina iPad mini, or less expensive iPad 2 or iPad mini for you!

Once you're sure you're buying an iPad and now, the next step is to decide which iPad you're going to get. And this year, it's a tougher decision than ever. The new iPad Air and Retina iPad mini are identical in every way but screen size, 7.9- vs. 9.7-inches the only differentiator. If money is incredibly tight, though the old iPad 2 is a bit cheaper, and the old iPad mini, a cheaper still. No matter which one you choose, however, you'll be paying hundreds of dollars. Either a few, or a lot. So do you go with big or small, old or new? Which iPad should you get?

Current iPad models and price points

Apple's 2013 iPad lineup consists of 4 different models, the iPad Air, Retina iPad mini, iPad 2, and iPad mini. The iPad Air and Retina iPad mini have 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB storage options, in either Wi-Fi only, or Wi-Fi and cellular models. The iPad 2 and iPad mini come only with 16GB, but still have Wi-Fi only, or Wi-Fi + cellular models. That makes for a dizzying array of possibilities.

Yes, both the new Retina iPad mini and the old iPad 2 start at $399. Wacky.

Up-front vs. total cost of ownership

The original iPad mini starts at $299, making it the cheapest iPad ever. The iPad 2 starts at $399. Both cost less up-front than the new Retina iPad mini, which starts at $399, and the new iPad Air which starts at $499. That can be a considerable difference up front, $200 or $100 at the very least, depending on the exact model and options you choose. That's real money, in your pocket, for rent, for food, for car payments, for school, or for other important things in your life.

However, if you keep an iPad over the course of a year or two, $100 or $200 isn't that much spread over the course of that time. In some cases, it's less than $10 a month, for a much better screen, a much better processor, and more.

If you have absolutely no money to work with, the iPad mini is good tablet and the iPad 2 an okay one. I'd recommend the Retina iPad mini over the same priced iPad 2 every day of the week, but if you absolutely need the bigger screen and that's all the money you have, that's what you need and what you have.

If money isn't your biggest consideration, go for the iPad Air or Retina iPad mini.

Finite vs. future-proof

iPad Air and Retina iPad mini: Should you upgrade?

Apple is pretty good about supporting older devices. The 2011 iPad 2 is still be sold in stores, after all, and is compatible with iOS 7. However, compatibility comes with compromise. Older generation iPads have older generation hardware. They have lower screen density - standard instead of Retina - and outdated processors - Apple A5 instead of Apple A7. They also don't come with any storage options over 16GB - not 32GB, and certainly not 128GB.

So, while the iPad 2 and original iPad mini might have gotten iOS 7 this year, and be able to run iOS 7 apps, the odds of them being able to run iOS 8 or iOS 9 in a couple of years isn't great.

Alternatively, the iPad Air and Retina iPad mini, their awesome Retina displays, beefy 128GB storage options, and monstrous Apple A7 processors should last you for years to come.

Who should get an original iPad mini?

The iPad mini launched in October of 2012, and comes with a Lightning adapter. Aside from that, it's all old tech. Standard display instead of Retina, and Apple A5 processor instead of Apple A7. The current version does come with Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi + cellular options, but with only 16GB of storage, which isn't much these days.

If there's any way for you to save up an additional $100 for the Retina iPad mini, or better still, $200 for the 32GB Retina iPad mini, you'll have a much, much better experience. Otherwise, if you really want an iPad, and you've got $299 earmarked for it and not a penny more - or you're equipping a school or business by the score - get the iPad mini.

It's just not highly recommended, especially because of the limited storage.

iPad mini review

Who should get an iPad 2?

The iPad 2 launched in April of 2011. It has no Lightning connector, a standard display instead of Retina, an Apple A5 processor instead of an Apple A7, and while it has Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi and cellular options, it maxes out at 16GB of storage, which can be hard to manage.

You might want to consider a Retina iPad mini for the same $399. If you can save up even $100 more, a 32GB Retina iPad mini is great, and a 16GB iPad Air is also go. For $200 more, you can get a state-of-the-art 32GB iPad Air. Otherwise, if you really want a full-sized iPad, and you've got $399 in your pocket and that's it - or you're equipping students or employees by the score - the iPad 2 is an option.

We just don't recommend it.

iPad 2 review

Who should get a Retina iPad mini?

The Retina iPad mini comes packed with 7.9-inches of 2048x1536 Retina display and a smoking fast Apple A7 processor. It's identical in every way but size, weight, and price to the iPad Air. That means choosing between them comes down to $100 and just about 2-inches.

If price is a consideration, the Retina iPad mini is a fantastic tablet, and starts at just $399. If size is a consideration, the Retina iPad mini is better if you want to travel with it, use it as a mobile hotspot, and otherwise value portability the most. (It'll fit in a back jeans pocket if it has to.) Likewise, if you already travel with a laptop, the Retina iPad mini is a great companion device.

Retina iPad mini: Everything you need to know

Who should get an iPad Air?

The iPad Air is the current top-of-the-full-size-line iPad. It has a 9.7-inch, 2048x1536 Retina display and screamer of an Apple A7 processor. Aside from size, weight, and price, however, it's pretty much identical to the Retina iPad mini. So, your choice boils down to an extra $100 for an extra 2-inches.

If money is no object, the iPad Air starts at $499 and is the best big tablet on the market today. If size is something you're debating, the iPad Air is primed for people who use it around the house, office, or school, and otherwise put productively ahead of portability. (Those extra inches can come in handy.) Likewise, if you don't travel with a laptop, the the larger real-estate and keyboard size can make the iPad Air a much better replacement device. - iPad Air: Everything you need to know

Still undecided?

If you're still having trouble choosing between the iPad mini, iPad 2, Retina iPad mini, or iPad Air, jump into our iPad discussion forums and the best community in mobile will happily help you out.

Bottom line, don't spend money you don't have, but don't skimp if you don't have to. Your iPad will be one of the most often-used, most important possessions in your life for months and maybe years to come. Get as much iPad as you can reasonably afford, and then enjoy!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/olH17ku9qlg/story01.htm
Tags: revenge The Crazy Ones elton john Sons Of Anarchy Season 6 tracy mcgrady

The Only Motion In This Music Video Is From Spinning CDs

Phenakistoscopes are old school machines that used illustrated discs to create animation. Kind of the round version of a flip book. And the Japanese band SOUR wanted those methods in their music video. The whole thing is pretty mesmerizing.