Planetaki Planet Anatomy

The Design Pro Show - Episode 12

2012-01-13T19:23:25Z

In which I examine and discuss the important issues surrounding deadlines; how they don't exist in a vacuum, how the designer must always be the one to set them (for everyone), and how you must never, ever miss a deadline…

A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Feb. 11

2012-02-11T08:38:59Z

Google's daily brainteaser helps hone your search skills.

Audio Hijack Pro

2012-02-11T06:46:42Z

My thanks to Rogue Amoeba for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed to promote Audio Hijack Pro, their indispensable audio recording app for the Mac. As they say, if you can hear it on your Mac, Audio Hijack Pro can record it. Skype conversations, streaming radio, or recording a note via your microphone — you name it. Audio Hijack Pro even works to capture audio from sandboxed App Store apps.

Download their free trial, then purchase from Rogue Amoeba’s store. This week only, Daring Fireball readers can save 25 percent using coupon code “DF201202”. Great app at a great discount.

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A Conversation With Amy Jane Gruber

2012-02-11T06:46:42Z

For your weekend enjoyment, even more podcast fun: my wife Amy is the guest on this week’s Let’s Make Mistakes.

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Wow, Is That a Pen?

2012-02-11T06:46:42Z

This week’s episode of The Talk Show, with topics including iPad 3 rumors, Windows 8 on ARM, LTE hardware, Google’s purportedly imminent Dropbox competitor, Super Bowl ads, and Path doing the wrong thing the wrong way.

Brought to you by Smile and Sourcebits.

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Bookle

2012-02-11T06:46:42Z

New app from Stairways Software — a $10 Mac e-book reader for DRM-free ePub books. Included with the app is, self-referentially, Take Control of Bookle, by Adam Engst.

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Amazing Videos of Earth at Night from Space

2012-02-11T08:38:59Z

While you're curled up comfy in your bed each night, the crew of the International Space Station is getting unrivaled views of our planet. For anyone wishing they could see what the astronauts see, here are recent videos of the Earth at night taken from space.

Are Google's Wallet Dreams in Danger?

2012-02-11T08:38:59Z

Two recent Google Wallet hacks have brought the long-term viability of the platform into question.

Telmex y Alcatel-Lucent lanzarán red banda ancha de gran velocidad en México

2012-02-11T04:37:07Z

El día de hoy, Telmex anunció un acuerdo con la empresa franco-estadounidense Alcatel-Lucent para lanzar una de las redes de acceso de banda ancha más grandes y veloces de América Latina.

Alcatel-Lucent es uno de los principales proveedores para el despliegue de una red de acceso de banda ancha de muy alta velocidad, basada en tecnologías VDSL2 y GPON. La tecnología VDSL2 permite que las tradicionales redes de cobre puedan transmitir a velocidades de 100 megabits por segundo.

La noticia es buena por donde se le vea, pues seremos los usuarios finales quienes nos veremos beneficiados con mayores velocidades de conexión. El ancho de banda actual se verá incrementado, pero lo más importante, se podrá acceder a contenido multimedia, vídeo bajo demanda, entretenimiento, redes sociales, sin padecer las lentitud de los servicios actuales

“La nueva red permitirá a Telmex manejar enormes cantidades de tráfico y contenidos multimedia de manera confiable, con mayores distancias de alcance de usuarios, mejor calidad de señal, velocidades de hasta 100 Mbps por usuario y ahorros substanciales en costos de mantenimiento”

-Pierre Chaume, director general de Alcatel-Lucent en México.

Actualmente Telmex cuenta con la red de fibra óptica más grande de México con más de 100.000 kilómetros y es el principal proveedor de internet con 7,9 millones de clientes de banda ancha y 14,8 millones de líneas telefónicas fijas.

Telmex y Alcatel-Lucent lanzarán red banda ancha de gran velocidad en México

2012-02-11T04:37:09Z

El día de hoy, Telmex anunció un acuerdo con la empresa franco-estadounidense Alcatel-Lucent para lanzar una de las redes de acceso de banda ancha más grandes y veloces de América Latina.

“La nueva red permitirá a Telmex manejar enormes cantidades de tráfico y contenidos multimedia de manera confiable, con mayores distancias de alcance de usuarios, mejor calidad de señal, velocidades de hasta 100 Mbps por usuario y ahorros substanciales en costos de mantenimiento”

-Pierre Chaume, director general de Alcatel-Lucent en México.

Surviving the new landscape of physician reimbursement

2012-02-11T07:50:16Z

CNN recently posted an article titled “Doctors Going Broke.” It described several cases of independent physicians who are near bankruptcy although they once were quite well off. For instance, the article detailed the case of Dr. William Pentz, a cardiologist in a small group practice, who had to borrow money last month to make payroll. He and the other cardiologists have cut their salaries in order to meet overhead. Dr. Pentz ascribed the budget problems of the practice to the 35% to 40% cut in Medicare reimbursements for certain tests, such as stress tests. The practice overall saw a 9% decline in income compared to 2010. The article did say that there is a worrisome rise in the number of physicians experiencing financial difficulties. Although some point to new regulations and declining enrollment as the source of the troubles some financial experts point out that the problems may be due to the lack of business acumen of physicians and their staff.

Read the rest of Surviving the new landscape of physician reimbursement on KevinMD.com.

Category: Policy | Tags: Health reform, Primary care | 2 comments

Yahoo to Build Secret Servers in Nebraska

2012-02-11T00:43:49Z

Yahoo is hoping to build a facility in the suburbs of Omaha, Nebraska, where it will assemble its own servers and ship them to data centers it operates across the country, according to lawmakers and officials in the Midwestern state. These lawmakers have proposed a bill that would provide this facility with tax breaks, and though Yahoo has discussed its plans in full, the Nebraska bill opens another window onto how the web's biggest names juggle the massive amounts of servers needed to run their myriad online services.

Intel Agrees to Pay Pocket Change Over Antitrust Allegations

2012-02-11T00:43:49Z

Intel and the New York Attorney General's office have agreed to settle a 2009 lawsuit that accused the chip giant of violating federal and state antitrust laws. As part of the settlement, Intel has agreed to pay $6.5 million dollars to account for some of the court costs, but it has not admitted wrongdoing.

The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde: It's Evolution, Stupid

2012-02-11T00:43:49Z

Peter Sunde, one of the co-founders of the infamous The Pirate Bay file-sharing search engine, argues that Big Content should start innovating and stop trying to use the courts and the law to put the genie back in the bottle.

Keep Your Data Secure Abroad

2012-02-11T00:43:49Z

Traveling into the danger zone? Worried that a hacker or a less... democratically inclined government may attempt to seize your data? Follow these tips to keep your data secure abroad.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus en México

2012-02-11T04:37:07Z

El Galaxy Nexus, con Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 tiene pantalla HD de 4.6 pulgadas Super Amoled con 1280 x 720 pixeles de resolución, soporte para redes LTE/HSPA+, procesador de doble núcleo a 2 GHz dual-core, memoria en RAM de 1 GB y 16 GB en memoria interna, y la última versión de Android, Ice Cream Sandwich. Además de una cámara 5 megapixeles con Flash Led, soporte para grabación en video Full HD de 1080p de resolución a 30 cuadros por segundo y otra cámara frontal de 1.3 megapixeles para video llamadas.

Hay que destacar que el Galaxy Nexus fue el primer teléfono con Android Ice Cream Sandwich, y se ha confirmado que esta joya llegará a México muy pronto, aunque la fecha no se ha confirmado.

Desde que lo vimos en el Consumer Electronic Show de Las vegas, este gadget nos encanto. A pesar de tener una pantalla enorme, sus líneas son muy estéticas, y no podemos esperar a tenerlo. En cuanto tengamos más información de las fechas, operadoras y precios, acá se las compartimos.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus en México

2012-02-11T04:37:09Z

Hay que destacar que el Galaxy Nexus fue el primer teléfono con Android Ice Cream Sandwich, y se ha confirmado que esta joya llegará a México muy pronto, aunque la fecha no se ha confirmado.

No Third-Party Code on the Windows on ARM Desktop

2012-02-10T22:54:55Z

Peter Bright, Ars Technica:

The built-in Windows apps — including Explorer and Internet Explorer 10 — and four Office apps — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote — would run on the desktop, but nothing else would. Third-party applications would be prohibited, and there would be no provision to port existing desktop applications to run on the ARM desktop.

This led to an immediate, if somewhat surprising, reaction across the Internet. “But what about browser plugins? Will they also be forbidden?”

The answer to that is “Yes.” Or perhaps even “Yes, of course they are, since it was stated in unequivocal terms that there would be no provision to run third-party code on the desktop. That means you, Flash.”

So maybe I was right that Windows on ARM would go Metro-only — it’s just that they’ve made an exception for a few built-in apps from Microsoft itself. Why include desktop versions of Explorer and IE, though? Why include two different versions of IE if even the desktop version doesn’t allow plugins?

Also: this seems to suggest that the Office suite is included free-of-charge with Windows on ARM. That’s a pretty bold move considering how much money Microsoft makes from Office licensing.

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Blind Faith in Predictive (or any) Analytics is Dangerous

2012-02-11T04:37:12Z

Can we blindly trust all models simply because the math behind them is highly sophisticated? No! Behind every successful model lurks a few dangerous assumptions. If the assumptions are violated, the model is just conjecture.

Game Day Research Calls Superbowl XLVI a Social Media Blitz

2012-02-11T04:37:12Z

Study Proves Points

Leaked Download Counts for USA Today Tablet Apps

2012-02-10T22:54:55Z

Todd Bishop:

The undated slide shows 260,000 downloads of the USA Today app for Kindle Fire, the Android-based tablet released by Amazon last fall. That is double the 130,000 cumulative downloads of the USA Today app for other Android tablets.

It still pales in comparison to the more than 2.9 million total downloads of the USA Today iPad app, but the iPad has also been around for a lot longer than the Amazon tablet.

Even the HP TouchPad has double the downloads of all Android tablets combined.

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Occupy DC Evicted From a Winter of Communal Discontent

2012-02-11T00:43:49Z

After months of tolerating and even defending Occupy DC, park police swept in with a SWAT team and bulldozer. Wired's Quinn Norton was on the ground - literally - as the police evicted a camp that was full of life.

Tesla Crosses Over With Model X

2012-02-11T00:43:49Z

Tesla Motors continues its relentless push into the mainstream with an uber-practical crossover utility that builds in the Model S sedan.

Navy's Rail Gun Blasts Through Budget Restrictions

2012-02-11T00:43:49Z

Congress had its budgetary knives out for the Electronic Railgun, the Navy's futuristic cannon that fires bullets at hypersonic speeds with a burst of electricity. But the railgun survived -- that is, unless continuing technical hurdles doom it. And it's not the only high-tech weapon the Navy's moving forward with.

Silly Political Argument of the Day - Contraception

2012-02-11T04:37:12Z

Old men choose to deny birth control to young women, think its the free exercise of religion?