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Replicated raises $5 million for its product taking SAAS products out of the cloud

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How to Make Hot Ice That Magically Freezes at Room Temperature

Do you miss Alton Brown’s classic cooking show Good Eats? You’re about to get more of it… and then some. In a live chat with fans, Brown has revealed that his previously hinted-at internet cooking show will be a spiritual sequel to Good Eats, but without the corporate limits that kept him from cooking certain meals or exploring techniques while on TV. He may cook rabbit, for example, or work with sous vides — those just weren’t options on the Food Network, Brown says.

As a sign of the change in direction, the chef spent most of his chat soliciting ideas from fans. You could see him cooking with only a microwave, trying Hawaiian food or making poutine. He even floated the idea of making a Brunswick stew with squirrel meat. The internet-only show won’t debut until sometime in 2017, but it’s already evident that Brown plans to take full advantage of his online freedom — this won’t be sanitized for the sake of nervous broadcasters.

Source: Alton Brown (Facebook)

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Alton Brown’s internet cooking show will be a ‘Good Eats’ sequel

Mike Pence, Donald Trump’s running mate said Friday he is "fine" following his plane skidding off the runway at LaGuardia Airport on Thursday night, adding there were about 10 seconds of "uncertainty." The Indian governor said, "It was about 10 seconds of uncertainty last night, but we’re just so grateful to the pilots and to the first responders on the scene and (that) everybody came off the plane safely." From a CNN report: The press pool in the back of the aircraft, a Boeing 737-700 chartered from Eastern Airlines that was painted with the campaign’s logo, could also feel the plane fishtailing as it touched down and slid off the runway before coming to a very sharp halt in the grass off the side of the runway. Once the plane came to a full stop, the Indiana governor walked to the back of the plane to check on the press. As everyone on board deplaned, Pence could be seen speaking with emergency responders. Donald Trump said, I just spoke to our future vice president, and he’s OK. Do you know he was in a big accident with the plane?" A report on Business Insider explains how "crushable runway technology" saved Pence’s plane: The positive resolution to a potentially disastrous event can be attributed to the Engineered Material Arresting System located at the end of the runway. The system is designed to prevent a runaway airplane from careening into the roads, buildings, and bodies of water commonly found near many airports. EMAS is made up of massive blocks of material designed to collapse as the wheels of an airplane roll over it, sinking the plane into the runway and bringing it to a safe and gradual stop. The system is designed to be able to stop aircraft traveling at speeds up to 80 mph. The Federal Aviation Administration began studying the technology in the early 1990s in conjunction with the University of Dayton, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the company Zodiac Arresting Systems in New Jersey. According to the FAA, more than 60 US airports — including JFK and LaGuardia in New York and O’Hare in Chicago — have installed the technology.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Crushable Runway Technology Saved Mike Pence’s Plane

By Chris Heinonen

This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. When readers choose to buy The Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, they may earn affiliate commissions that support their work. Read the full article here.

After testing five projectors for 70 hours, we’ve concluded that the BenQ TH670 is the best cheap projector. It offers the best contrast ratio and the best color quality of everything we tested, as well as 1080p resolution, low input lag for video games, integrated speakers, plenty of lumens for any size screen, a backlit remote, and up to 10,000 hours of life from a single bulb. It also provides the best selection of image adjustments, with settings that are easy to understand, so it gives you more control over the displayed image than its competitors do.

Who this is for

If you already own a 1080p projector, you can stick with what you have. A new, cheap projector is unlikely to offer better performance than a 1080p projector that is a few years old. These days, 1080p resolution is finally becoming affordable enough to appear in models at this pricing tier.

If you have an older 720p or lower-resolution projector, something meant for business presentations, or a cheap LCD projector, a new 1080p model can offer improvements. With a 100-inch or larger image, the difference between 720p and 1080p is much more noticeable than it would be on a 32- or 50-inch TV screen. Newer projectors are also much brighter than models were a few years ago, giving the image more pop and making for a better viewing experience.

Though we like the BenQ TH670, we recommend that anyone looking at a cheap projector seriously consider saving up a bit more (around $200 more as of this writing) and getting our current pick for the best $1,000 projector, the BenQ HT2050.

How we picked and tested

Our contenders (top to bottom): the InFocus SP1080, the Optoma GT760, the BenQ TH670, and the ViewSonic PJD7828HDL. Photo: Chris Heinonen

Because most people buy a projector because they want a large image—often 100 inches or larger—having double the resolution of a 720p projector produces easily noticeable results. We decided to look only at cheap projectors with 1080p resolution. This eliminated all non-DLP models from consideration. All of the LCD models in this price range were 720p, or maxed out at a 16×10 resolution such as 1280×800.

Every projector for this test group had to have at least one HDMI input. We also needed a brightness of at least 1,000 lumens to clearly differentiate this category from pico projectors in the same price range. In addition, we looked for integrated speakers, wider zoom range, and standard USB ports to easily connect a streaming device (such as our favorite media streamer, the Roku Streaming Stick) and power it directly from the projector.

Comparing two projectors side by side in a darkened room. Photo: Chris Heinonen

After reading all the reviews we could find for models that fit those criteria, we called in the ones that looked promising: the BenQ TH670, the InFocus ScreenPlay SP1080, the Optoma GT760, and the ViewSonic LightStream PJD7828HDL. We tested all the contenders on a 100-inch Silver Ticket white screen, our current pick for the best projector screen, and measured the results using CalMAN software with i1Pro2 and C6 meters. We also compared each projector side by side on the screen using an HDMI repeater. For most of the testing, we focused on the best image we could get from the projector when calibrating using only a Blu-ray disc; we took this step because we assume most inexpensive projectors won’t get a professional calibration costing hundreds of dollars. We watched a variety of TV, streaming, and Blu-ray content on all the projectors.

Our pick

The BenQ TH670 is our top pick. Photo: Chris Heinonen

The BenQ TH670 is the best cheap projector for most people because it offers the best combination of contrast ratios and color accuracy in this price range, and lets you choose which is more important to you. It has a very bright image, lots of flexibility in the controls, a decent zoom range, integrated speakers, a backlit remote control, and 3D support.

Zoom and focus controls on the BenQ TH670. Photo: Chris Heinonen

The BenQ TH670 offered better contrast ratios than all the other inexpensive 1080p projectors we tested. Contrast ratio refers to the difference between the black and white levels a projector can create; it’s by far the most important aspect of a display’s picture quality. A projector with more contrast offers an image that is more lifelike and dynamic than one with a lower contrast ratio. All the DLP projectors we tested achieve their contrast ratios by using a feature called BrilliantColor. What sets the BenQ TH670 apart is that it gives you the ability to disable this feature completely, so you can choose between better contrast or more accurate color. You can read more about color management in our full guide.

Among the remote controls for the projectors we tested, the BenQ’s stood out. Photos: Chris Heinonen

The BenQ’s integrated speakers do the job but aren’t anything special. For impromptu movie nights or video game sessions, they’ll suffice. If you’re having everyone over to watch football on your big screen, however, the yells of everyone watching will easily overwhelm the sound. Having the integrated speakers is better than not, but they won’t replace a true pair of speakers.

In the most accurate picture mode, the BenQ TH670 produces 970 lumens with BrilliantColor off and 1,939 lumens with it on. On the 100-inch Silver Ticket screen, 970 lumens creates an image that’s 32 foot-lamberts bright. For comparison, the SMPTE-recommended brightness for a projector screen in a dark room is only 14 to 16 foot-lamberts, so the BenQ TH670 is plenty bright. Even when the lamp hits half brightness in a few thousand hours, it will still be bright enough. And if you want to go even bigger, the TH670 creates an image of 23 foot-lamberts on a 120-inch screen.

Runner-up

Our runner-up, the InFocus ScreenPlay SP1080. Photo: Chris Heinonen

If the TH670 isn’t available and you don’t want to spend the extra money on BenQ’s HT2050 or HT1075, the InFocus ScreenPlay SP1080 is your next best option. In our tests, this model came in second to the BenQ TH670 in color accuracy and contrast ratio. Unlike the TH670, it offers no way to disable BrilliantColor. It also provides only a single HDMI input, and it lacks a standard USB Type-A port to power a streaming stick.

As for picture quality, the whites on the InFocus SP1080 are slightly bluish next to those of the TH670, though this difference is hard to notice without making a direct comparison. Overall, looking for one of the BenQ models is worthwhile—the TH670 is a nicer projector and worth the small premium over the InFocus SP1080.

Upgrade pick

If you want a better image, look at our picks in our guide to the best $1,000 projector. Our current pick in that category, the BenQ HT2050, is only slightly more expensive than the BenQ TH670. For the additional money, you get much better contrast ratio and more accurate color. This model is easier to install thanks to lens shift and a wider zoom range, and it offers much quieter operation and better performance overall. And dual HDMI ports make hooking multiple devices to it easier.

Care and maintenance

All of these projectors use UHP lamps that need replacing over time. The lamp in the BenQ TH670 is rated for 4,000 to 10,000 hours depending on which mode (Eco or Normal) you run the projector in. Even at four hours of use a day, you should get three-plus years out of the bulb before it requires replacing. When that time rolls around, we recommend buying directly from the manufacturer, as counterfeit lamps are very common elsewhere. Counterfeits can explode, damaging the projector’s internals, and we’ve seen cases where replacement bulbs are dimmer than the half-dead ones they replaced.

We recommend using a Blu-ray disc (you can also use the THX app for iOS or Android if you don’t have a Blu-ray player) to set up your projector correctly. We advise against copying picture settings from what other people post on the Internet, even for the same exact model, because we’ve found that these usually lead to a worse image.

This guide may have been updated by The Wirecutter. To see the current recommendation, please go here.

Note from The Wirecutter: When readers choose to buy our independently chosen editorial picks, we may earn affiliate commissions that support our work.

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The best cheap projector

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The secret ingredient in Continental’s future tires? Dandelions

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Clinton’s Inner Circle: Whoever Told Hillary to Use Private Server Should Be ‘Drawn and Quartered’

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Belkin refreshes Express Dock with Thunderbolt 3 USB-C connector

With tvOS 10, Apple included a small new feature called Dark Mode. It does what it says and here’s how to enable the Dark Mode on Apple TV 4.

If you want a theater like experience on your Apple TV, or use it more at night, then you will love the Dark Mode feature. It is a simple little cosmetic add-on that very much enhances user experience.

Enabling Dark Mode on Apple TV will change the appearance of menus and backgrounds to black. This will help reduce the strain on your eyes when you’re browsing through the movie list at night. The icons and information will become easier to read thanks to the blackish background.

Turn on Dark Mode on Apple TV

Enabling the Dark mode is very simple and there are more than one methods to do it. By default, your Apple TV 4 running tvOS 10 will feature a Light appearance. This will make all the posters and icons pop, but will be too bright for night use.

To turn on Dark Mode on the Apple TV, open the Settings app, then navigate to General>Appearance. Here, select the Dark option. All your menus and backgrounds will have a darker appearance now. To switch back to a Lighter appearance, choose the Light option.

Another way to enable Dark mode on your Apple TV 4, is with the help of the Siri Remote. Simply press the Siri button on the remote and say ‘Enable Dark mode.’ You can also say ‘Dark mode’ and Siri will enable it for you.

If you want to go back to the Light side, then say ‘Light mode.’ And that’s how you enable the Dark mode on Apple TV 4.

Obviously, the Siri method is much faster and easier to perform. However, it would be nicer if Apple had included an Auto mode that would automatically switch the appearance according to the time of day.

So, what side are you on? The Dark side or the Light side? Let us know in the comments section. 

The post Dark Mode on Apple TV: Here’s How to Enable It appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

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Dark Mode on Apple TV: Here’s How to Enable It

As part of the Bearing Arms Against Domestic Violence campaign, we’re running a 7-part series on how seven prominent women in the firearms industry, hunting world and Second Amendment advocacy groups handle gun safety in their own homes.

In part 4, we talk to Jana Waller, Julie Golob, Stacy Washington, Natalie Foster, Shaneen Allen, Katie Pavlich and Nikki Goeser about teaching gun safety to children.

Why do you think teaching gun safety to children is so important? Do you feel there is a negative effect when children haven’t been taught?

WALLER: Teaching gun safety to children is critical and twofold. Children are inquisitive and very impressionable. On the safety side they need to know and respect firearms and learn what to do should they encounter one but also it’s critical that they learn that guns are not bad, but people are bad. We need to pass down our country’s firearms and hunting heritage so the future generations will fight to protect it.

GOLOB: As parents it’s our job to not only protect our children, but to educate them. I can’t say it enough. We teach our children about knives, scissors, electrical outlets and the stove.  Why not guns? We cannot hide true firearm safety. As responsible parents, we need to be there to answer questions, address curiosity and be the resource our children can turn to and trust.

WASHINGTON: The primary reason to teach children about guns is because you can’t be with them at all times.  If they know what to do they will know how to react if they encounter a firearm at a friends residence.  There is a negative effect to not teaching kids: it makes guns a fascinating untouchable, which in turn makes guns more desirable.  Once a child has been taught that a gun is a tool and how to handle it, the fascination is removed and they know how to be safe around them.

FOSTER: I’m a new mom so I think about this quite a bit. I plan to watch and discuss the Eddie Eagle video with my son as he grows up. When the time comes and if he shows the necessary self-control and discipline, I will introduce him to a BB gun and then a .22 rifle. We will move up from there after he has demonstrated proficiency with safety and training. I plan to read a little book on gun safety that I wrote for him, too. The theory is just as important as the practice. I believe that children need to be taught to respect, not fear firearms. And it is up to the parents to teach them proper safety, whether through a class or through individual lessons.

ALLEN: Since the vast majority of firearms-related accidents can be or could have been avoided through education, it stands to reason that the sooner we can educate our children on safe and responsible handling, the safer they will be in the long run.

PAVLICH: Teaching children about guns is no different than teaching them about staying away from the pool without an adult, away from the hot stove and not to drink bleach or other cleaning chemicals under the sink. Education is the number one way to prevent firearms negligence. Children are curious creatures and teaching them what they should and should not do is crucial in a number of household situations.

GOESER: I don’t have children. However, if I did, I would make sure any firearms in the house are out of reach to very young children but start teaching them safety at the same time. Once they reach an age I feel is appropriate to handle a firearm, I would make sure they are well trained and safety is always a priority. Children are naturally curious and I feel it is best to properly train them instead of being irresponsible and letting that curiosity linger. Parents know their children best and what their capabilities are, so I believe parents should be responsible in knowing what is appropriate for their own child. The NRA has a wonderful program called the Eddie Eagle Program which is a great tool in teaching children gun safety.

The post Seven Women Sound Off on Gun Safety: Teaching Gun Safety to Kids appeared first on Bearing Arms.

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Seven Women Sound Off on Gun Safety: Teaching Gun Safety to Kids