Just another WordPress site
The fella in the cubicle next to you has terrific download speed and the woman on the opposite side can run online multi-user games all day –– and you can barely pick up your emails. We’d suggest you have a word with both of these people about just how much bandwidth they’re using but if they look innocent, then call in NetSpot 2.4 to check out the whole wifi network….
via MacNN | The Macintosh News Network
Hands On: NetSpot 2.4 (OS X)
Let me clarify: I don’t actually hate Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I watched the movie three times in four days, and will surely see at least twice more before it leaves theaters. But even though I love the movie, there is one major aspect of it that distresses me immensely. Major spoilers ahead…
Because The Force Awakens has destroyed Luke, Leia, and Han’s happy ending.
It’s gone. That sense of “and they lived happily ever after” from the close of Return of the Jedi has been annihilated as thoroughly as the Hosnian system. The original trilogy, which ended with the Rebels blowing up the Death Star, defeating the Empire, and saving the galaxy from tyranny, now concludes with is merely a brief celebration before the battle continues.
It was inevitable, of course. Once a sequel trilogy was announced, of course there needed to be bad guys for the good guys to fight. So Luke and the others couldn’t have completely saved the day. Perhaps renaming the Rebels and the Empire to the Resistance and the First Order was an attempt to salvage some sense of the original heroes’ accomplishments, but it’s difficult to feel that Luke and the others accomplished very much at all when there are still Stormtroopers marauding throughout the galaxy and entire planets are still being destroyed on the orders of British men in dark military uniforms.
As someone who grew up on Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, retroactively qualifying the Rebels’ victory over the Empire and the accomplishments of the original trilogy is distressing enough. But what really upsets me about The Force Awakens is how it reveals (determines?) that despite all the conflict they faced, and all the victories they won, Luke, Leia and Han’s lives after the Original Trilogy were basically miserable.
And “miserable,” I think, is the correct word: Han and Leia not only had a kid who turned evil, but this was so traumatic that it tore their relationship apart, separating them for years. Luke tried and utterly failed to revive the Jedi order and not only got a bunch of people killed in the process, but failed to prevent his nephew from falling prey to the dark side. He’s spent years in self-imposed exile as a result. There’s no silver living here, no way to spin it—our heroes, the ones I grew up with, spent most of their adult lives alone, in anguish.
I hate this. I hate knowing that despite all the work they did, despite the conflicts they overcame, despite their many losses they suffered already, that their miseries were just beginning. I hate the idea that whenever I watch Leia and Han kiss in Empire Strikes Back from now on, I’ll know that in a few years their son will have murdered the students of Luke’s Jedi Academy, and their romance will end in pain. I hate the idea of when I see Luke save his father Anakin in Return of the Jedi, and finally bring balance to the Force, that I’ll always know that only failure and heartache await him.
I hate this decision, but I understand it. I don’t even think it was a bad choice— once Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford were confirmed to be reprising their roles, there’s no way the three original heroes were all going to be found contentedly sipping the Star Wars equivalent of mai tais on some beach planet somewhere. That’s not interesting, and furthermore the new generation of characters needed conflicts to overcome, which in turn meant conflicts that Luke, Leia and Han couldn’t solve. That’s basic storytelling, and it’s exactly the sort of construction that always informed Star Wars, in that Luke and his compatriots had to solve the problems the previous generation had left behind.
But that doesn’t make it any easier to see Luke, Leia and Han turn from heroes into screw-ups—for them to have saved the galaxy and then, by their various failures, almost immediately bring it into a sorry state once again. I don’t want them to have messed up this badly. I don’t want them to be unhappy. Honestly, I don’t even want them to be old. When I think of Han Solo, I don’t want to remember an elderly smuggler who’s got nobody left to swindle, and whose main legacy is Kylo Ren—I want to think of the dashing scoundrel whose heroic nature got the better of him.
I understand that happy endings aren’t really real, that it’s naïve to think that once Return of the Jedi ended that Luke, Leia and Han suddenly had no more problems. That’s simply not how life works, presumably even a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. But for over 30 years, that was how it worked in the Star Wars universe—three young heroes defeated evil, brought peace to the galaxy, and lived happily ever after. It might not have been a particularly realistic ending, but then, I didn’t fall in love with Star Wars because of its gritty realism.
As great as The Force Awakens is, as many things it gets right, it didn’t come without a cost. I guess we won’t know if it was worth it until Episode IX comes out. But even if all the future Star Wars installments are as good as, or better than, TFA, I can’t help but feel every time I watch the Rebel Alliance’s celebration on Endor, I won’t be cheering for Luke, Leia, and Han; I’ll be mourning them, because this is the end of their happiest moment together, and it’s all downhill from there.
Contact the author at rob@io9.com.
via Gizmodo
There’s One Thing I Totally Hate About The Force Awakens
(PG-13) Gary the stormtrooper takes his daughter to work, Anakin goes to his happy place, Pruneface dreams of having more screen time and more in this look back at the funniest Robot Chicken: Star Wars scenes.
via The Awesomer
Robot Chicken: Star Wars Top 10
Researchers in France have developed a self-setting foam that can repair defects in bones and assist growth. Eventually, this advanced biomaterial could be used to quickly regenerate bone growth and treat degenerative diseases such as osteoporosis.
Injectable calcium phosphate cements (CPCs) have been around for nearly a hundred years, and they’re frequently used in orthopedics and traumathology as bone substitutes during surgery. These biomaterials allow surgeons to fix and harden defective bones “in situ” with relative ease and flexibility. What’s more, they’re biocompatible, self-setting, and non-toxic.
But as James Urquhart reports at Chemistry World, scientists haven’t been able to introduce macroporosity into these materials, which means these injectable cements don’t have pores, or cavities, larger than 50 nanometers. This makes it difficult to treat bone degeneration, or to strengthen cancellous bone—a porous, flexible and spongy tissue that gets progressively weaker once osteoporosis sets in.
Now, Pierre Weiss and his colleagues at the University of Nantes have achieved an important breakthrough in this area. By applying a sophisticated hydrogen as a foaming agent to create air bubbles in the mixture, the researchers have created an effective macroporous, self-setting CPC. The results of their work appears in the latest edition of Acta Biomaterialia.
The key to the breakthrough was in applying a silanized hydrogel as a foaming agent. James Urquhart explains:
Previously, the team had attempted to improve the mechanical properties [0f] CPC by adding a Si-HPMC hydrogel. But during the process of preparing the Si-HPMC hydrogel with an acidic buffer using syringes – which lowers the pH of the solution causing it to self-cross link and gel – air bubbles appeared in the mixture and they were hard to remove. But Weiss’ postdocs Jingtao Zhang and Weizhen Liu wondered if this drawback might be useful for giving macroporosity to CPC and so they set out to develop a CPC foam.
The team made the foam by putting Si-HPMC and CPC solutions in separate syringes, and then pumping air into the CPC syringe. Both syringes were then joined by a connector and plunged to rapidly mix the solutions and air, which formed a homogenous foam.
‘We knew that both biomaterials are biocompatible separately but we didn’t know how the body would react with a combination of both,’ explains Weiss. To find an answer, and also to test the biofunctionality of the foam, they conducted preliminary in vivo tests by making tiny defects in the thigh bones of two live rabbits and injected the foam into the cavities.
Their follow-up tests showed that new bone did indeed form at the implant sites, and with no toxic effects. The researchers would like to use the foam to treat certain bone defects and diseases, so their next step will be to determine the proof of concept in animal models.
Read more at Chemistry World. And check out the study at Acta Biomaterialia: “A simple and effective approach to prepare injectable macroporous calcium phosphate cement for bone repair: Syringe-foaming using a viscous hydrophilic polymeric solution”.
via Gizmodo
Scientists Create Injectable Foam To Repair Degenerating Bones
Less than two weeks after Microsoft introduced its hands-free AI helper, Cortana, to Android mobile devices, the company has yanked the feature from the US market. Users used to be able to say "Hey, Cortana" and then issue a command, just like "OK, Google" natively does for Google Now. However, the feature appears to be incompatible with Google’s voice recognition system and, in some cases, could make the phone unusable for commons tasks — like making phone calls.
As such, Microsoft updated the app on Sunday to disable Cortana’s voice activation. The company could well reinstate it once the interference issues are resolved but until then, the only way to talk to Microsoft’s robo-helper in the states for the time being is on a Windows Phone. The feature is, however, still active for non-US customers.
[Image Credit: FLickr]
Via: Win Beta
Source: Google Play
via Engadget
Microsoft’s AI no longer listens to ‘Hey Cortana’ on Android
Entrepreneur and Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive sat down with TechCrunch to discuss how he’ll be allocating the University of California’s $250 million investment. The venture fund will be used to invest in innovative “value-driven” startups, many stemming from the UC ecosystem. The University of California and its ten campuses have been granted more patents than… Read More
via TechCrunch
Vivek Ranadive On How He’ll Invest UC’s $250 Million
McDonald’s may be offering all day breakfast now, but it’s still cheaper to make your own Egg McMuffins at home. If you want your sandwich to look, feel, and taste like their version, however, it all comes down to how you cook the egg.
The texture and taste of eggs can vary wildly depending on how you cook them. To achieve true homemade Egg McMuffin perfection, Serious Eats’ J. Kenji Lopéz-Alt explains to First We Feast that the eggs are suppose to steam instead of fry:
Preheat a nonstick pan over medium-low. Spray with cooking spray or brush with olive oil. Take a biscuit cutter that’s about the same size as your English muffin… Brush or spray the cutter or can with oil and place in the center of the pan. Once it’s there, don’t slide it… this is metal on nonstick coating. Break the egg into a small bowl, then carefully pour it inside the cookie cutter. Pour water up into the pan outside the cutter, to about ½-inch high. Break the yolk with the back of a spoon and sprinkle lightly with salt. Then, cover the pan with a lid and let the egg cook for 4 to 5 minutes, until the yolk is cooked to your preference.
If you don’t have a round cookie cutter on hand, you can also use a mason jar ring, or remove the top and bottom of a tuna fish can (just be sure to wash it well before use). Now your eggs will have the same texture and pristine whiteness you get at the restaurant. You can find more homemade Egg McMuffin tips at the link below.
The Complete Guide to Making an Egg McMuffin Clone at Home | First We Feast
Photo by Håkan Dahlström.
via Lifehacker
The Secret to the Perfect Homemade Egg McMuffin Clone: Steaming Your Egg
The Washington Post made a recap of Star Wars in the style of Ken Burns’ documentary The Civil War. But YouTuber OneNerdShow already had the exact same idea and he executed it way better too.
via The Awesomer
The Galactic Civil War
OS X: NetSpot is a free utility that makes it easy to map out your wireless network, do a site survey if you have a particularly large one to manage, and to visualize where signal is strong and weak, and what might be getting in the way.
We’ve mentioned NetSpot before, but the app has come a long way since then. For one, the app fully supports Wireless AC routers and access points, makes it easy to manage those access points if you want, and includes a channel and strength analyzer that can run in the background. One click and you can see how strong your network is, and watch it in real time as you move across your house or apartment, or between rooms.
The app also builds a live heatmap of your network (or the network you’re connected to—you don’t have to use it on yours, obviously) so you can see the strong and weak points, ideal if you’re somewhere where the network is spotty, or you can’t pinpoint where the access points are physically located, but you are free to move around. You also get built-in speed tests, support for multiple networks so you can see how your Wi-Fi and your neighbor’s overlap (and if there’s channel interference), and more.
NetSpot is completely free, but there are professional versions with more features for network administrators or companies looking to outfit their admins with solid survey tools. You can read the differences here, but the free version will be fine for most people. Hit the link below to check it out.
via Lifehacker
NetSpot Maps Your Wi-Fi Network and Diagnoses Signal Problems for Free