By J.D. Levite, Gizmodo – July 27, 2012 at 05:20PM
The web is full of secret online weapons stores and places you can legally load up on ammo. But the pen is mightier than the AR-15. Especially this bolt-action bullet pen. More »
By Brent Rose, Gizmodo – July 28, 2012 at 11:00AM
In 1996, 176.5 hours of the Olympics were broadcast in the U.S. This year? Try 5,535 hours across NBC’s channels and sites alone. Holy crap, how are you going to watch all of that? Don’t worry, there are ways. More »
By Adam Dachis, Lifehacker – July 28, 2012 at 11:00AM
OS X Mountain Lion was released this week and we’ve told you everything you need to know about Apple’s new operating system—except one thing: the secret features. With over 200 small changes, a few of them were bound to be awesome. Here are our top ten favorites.
Time Machine is a great, simple backup service that’s been a part of OS X for a few years now. One of the primary complaints, however, is its lack of options. While Mountain Lion didn’t bring a ton of configurability—and Apple is unlikely to add too many options in favor of simplicity—it did bring encrypted backups. If you’ve got some sensitive materials on your hard drive, you no longer need to worry. Enabling encrypted backups is simple: go into the Time Machine section of System Preferences, click on Select Disk, choose a disk, and check the box beside Encrypt Backups.
In addition to offering a much simpler Dashboard where your available widgets are presented like apps, you can now organize them into folders. This works much like you’d expect. Just drag one widget onto another and a folder will be created. You can name it whatever you like and start keeping your widgets tidier so it’s simple to find what you want. And if that’s not enough, you can now search your widgets as well. You’ll find a search box up at the top of the screen when adding a new widget.
It seems Apple hasn’t forgotten that people still love Stickies, an old little notes app from the days os Mac OS 9. Stickies is notably missing from Mountain Lion, likely because the Notes app has replaced it. It may seem like you can’t have desktop-friendly notes, but if you double click on any note in your notes list you can open it separately just like the sticky notes of old. It’ll stick around even if you close the primary notes window, too. Even better, your notes will now sync with iCloud so you can have all your important text on every Mac you own.
If you like to tweet, Mountain Lion has plenty of ways you can do it with Twitter integration throughout the OS. Anywhere you see the share icon, you can share it on Twitter (if you’re signed in via the Mail, Contacts, & Calendars section of System Preferences). Doing so ends up composing a message containing a file or URL, however, so it’s not that convenient if you just want to tweet some text. That’s where Notification Center comes in. Open it up, and you’ll find a link that says “Click to Tweet” at the top. It does exactly what you’d expect.
Since Lion, OS X has allowed you to sign into many of your accounts from the Mail, Contacts, & Calendars section of System Preferences. Mountain Lion now uses this information more effectively by keeping you signed into these services whenever you need to log in. This way you don’t have to enter your username and password constantly, and that information is stored securely on your computer. Right now your options are fairly limited, but Apple intends to add Facebook access in the Fall so we may be able to expect incremental updates that add single sign-on integration in the future.
Notification Center does a pretty good job of staying out of your way, but if your want your notifications to shut up for awhile you can do that pretty easily. All you have to do is option-click the Notification Center icon in the top right corner of your menubar. Alternative, you can open Notification Center, scroll up in the list, and you’ll find a toggle switch to turn “Do Not Disturb” mode on and off.
Working on a document and want to change its name? Prior to Mountain Lion you’d have to save it, close it, change the name in the Finder, and then open the document back up again. Now you can just click its name and choose Rename from a list of drop-down options. This is much easier and less time-consuming.
Mountain Lion makes every effort to make sharing easy, and one of the best implementations is through QuickLook. Say you’re browsing photos on your camera using QuickLook and you want to share one, all you have to do is click the share icon and send it over to Flickr, Twitter, an email, or, in the Fall, Facebook. This is a pretty simple way to just get your photos where you want them at a moment’s notice.
Let’s say you have a PDF document and it’s missing a page, or you just want to add a new page easily. In Mountain Lion, you can insert pages easily by opening the Edit menu and visiting the Insert submenu. Here you’ll find options to insert a page from a file or by scanning it in. Both are cool, helpful, and a welcome edition to Preview—OS X’s most underrated app.
When you’re remotely accessing another computer with Screen Sharing, you’re generally doing this to control that computer. Sometimes you’ll find yourself without a file you need on that machine, but happen to have sitting on your primary computer’s desktop. In Mountain Lion, you can just drag the file onto the shared screen, drop it where you want it, and it’ll be copied over the network. This feature has actually been around in Apple’s Remote Desktop software for several years, but it’s nice to finally see it on the consumer side. Note: to use this feature, both the shared and primary computer need to be running Mountain Lion.
Photo by Mopic.
By Adam Dachis, Lifehacker – July 27, 2012 at 08:00PM
Have you heard that sitting is killing you? Probably, because we’ve mentioned it a few thousand times. While you can solve the problem by moving around every hour, a standing desk can keep your metabolism from slowing down, build up your leg strength, and simply offer a healthier solution for your workspace. These desks can be expensive, but there are plenty of options you can make yourself on the cheap. Here are our favorites.
I’ve sectioned all our DIY standing desk options into levels of commitment so you can choose the type that suits you best. We’ll start off with options you can use to see if the setup is right for you and make our way up to the fully committed, perpetual standing worker.
If you’re hesitant about joining the standing community, you may want to try it out first. That’s not necessarily an attractive prospect if it involves spending a bunch of money and time on getting a desk together. Here are some options that involve very little work so you can see how you feel about standing up at work before taking the plunge.
The Simple and Portable Standing Desk
Don’t want to make a commitment? Want to be able to take your standing desk with you? Only have about $20 to your name? This is the standing desk for you. By combining an IKEA LACK side table, a couple of brackets, and a shelf, you can just plop this creation down on any existing desk and stand to your hearts content.
The Office Chair Standing Desk
If $20 is too rich for your blood, and you don’t really want to put any effort into finding out how you feel about standing all day, just put your office chair on top of your desk and let your laptop (or monitor) sit on it. In most cases this should bring your computer’s display to eye level and you can work standing up. You’ll have to figure out where to put the external keyboard and mouse, but at least you can use this method to test the waters and see how you feel.
The Standing Dresser
If you’ve got a spare chest of drawers lying around, chances are it’ll make for a decent standing desk. You can store all your stuff in the drawers and then just place your computer up on top. Certain bookshelves/bookcases may work well, too, if they’re large enough. Consider any excess furniture in your home as a potential standing desk and go from there.
A simple, low-commitment option like the ones above are only useful to a point. You won’t get the full experience with any of those “desks.” In this section, we’ll take a look at a few standing desks you can build for minimal money that will offer the full experience.
The Optional Standing Desk
Standing desks are just taller desks, so you really just need a wide platform that rises up a little higher. This optional standing desk is such a platform, but it only takes up half the space. The other half is reserved for sitting so you can alternate in the begging if you find yourself getting tired.
The Double Decker Standing Desk
This double-decker standing desk won’t cost you more than $30 and offers a few neat benefits. First, when in standing desk mode you get to use the lower platform as a storage area. Second, since you’ll be standing you can use the space underneath the desk for even more storage (since your legs won’t be down there, kicking everything around). Finally, if you decide you hate standing and want to angrily destroy the top floor of your new work area, you can just rip it off in a monstrous rage and have a regular desk instead.
You’re ready to take the plunge and want the best standing desk a small fraction of your paycheck can buy—or at least buy the parts to build it. Here are some serious standing desks you can make yourself on the cheap.
The Wide, Height-Adjustable Standing Desk
You may not know this, but people come in different shapes and sizes. One of the key differences is height. As a result, a standing desk that works for a 5’2″ person might not suit someone who’s 6’8″. While you can build one to your height, an easier option may be to just make one that’s adjustable—like this standing desk. This option is just an inexpensive IKEA table with variable length legs. It’s as easy to assemble as any IKEA table (which is pretty simple, especially when comparing it to their filing cabinets), and you’ll be able to make the desk whatever height you need.
The Truly DIY Standing Desk
If you want a true DIY project, here’s a standing desk that lets you do all the hard work you want. It comes from reader Timothy Bohen who built his out of MDF sheets with pine trim and painted the whole thing black. You can find more photos here if you’re looking for additional inspiration and information. If you want a truly unique standing desk, this is the way to go.
By Cory Schultz, iMedicalApps – July 27, 2012 at 05:55PM
Two fourth-year Johns Hopkins School of Medicine students, Craig Monsen and David Do, have recently created a website that is smartphone compatible and able to help determine what your sickness is based on symptoms that are input into the system.
By Brett & Kate McKay, The Art of Manliness – July 27, 2012 at 12:56PM
Supreme Allied Commander. Head of the American Occupation Zone in Germany. Chief of Staff. President of Columbia University. Supreme Commander of NATO. President of the United States of America.
To read a list of the positions that Dwight D. Eisenhower held during his life truly makes you reflect on what a remarkable man he really was.
And yet in researching Eisenhower’s accomplishments over these past couple of months, the thing that struck me the most was how truly unremarkable most of his life was–how late in his career he emerged into history-changing prominence.
Thus of all the lessons I have gleaned from Ike’s life, this has been the most memorable: to work and train hard every day and every year, even when it seems your efforts are fruitless, because you never know when you will be called upon to lead others through a crisis, and when your goodness will get the opportunity to become greatness.
After graduating from West Point in 1915, Eisenhower was given various assignments which largely revolved around coaching Army football teams, training officers, and organizing new units.
In 1917, as the United States began to mobilize its armed services for entry into WWI, Eisenhower had the same ambition as every other West Point graduate: to get to Europe and into the field. Ike applied several times for overseas duty, and was denied each time—rejections he found quite “distressing.”
Instead, having been noticed by superiors as a “young officer with special qualities as an instructor,” he ended up at Fort Leavenworth, training provisional lieutenants and supervising all of the regiment’s physical training, from bayonet drills to calisthenics.
Ike tried to focus on the fact that by “preparing young officers to lead troops,” he was making a “constructive contribution” to the war effort. But he found the prospect of once again being stuck training and organizing units “one of falling into dull routine” and mighty discouraging:
“For one thing, all West Point traditions that nourished élan and esprit centered on battlefield performance. The leadership of the men who had gone before us, faced with headlong attack, stubbornly defending and then causing their troops to follow them was in our minds the hallmark of a true solider. My mastery of paper work, even of rudimentary training methods, hardly seemed a shining achievement for one who had spent seven years preparing himself to lead fighting men…
Some of my class were already in France. Others were ready to depart. I seemed embedded in the monotony and unsought safety of the Zone of the Interior. I could see myself, years later, silent at class reunions while others reminisced of battle…It looked to me like anyone who was denied the opportunity to fight might as well get out of the Army at the end of the war.”
Eisenhower’s gloomy mood lifted when he was ordered to Camp Meade in Maryland to organize and equip the 301st Tank Battalion, a unit he was told would be shipping out for overseas duty. In March 1918, Ike got word that the battalion would soon be embarking from New York, and that Ike would be going along in command! Eisenhower could barely hide his exuberance from others, and went to NYC to make sure every detail was taken care of, so his men would be ready to ship out without a hitch.
Just two days later, he was back at Camp Meade. His chief told him he was impressed with Ike’s “organizational ability” and that this ability was needed to set up a new training camp in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This was another great disappointment for Ike; “my mood,” he remembered, “was black.” But he was told the assignment was temporary, and that after this training operation was completed, he’d again be considered for an overseas assignment. So Ike threw himself into whipping Camp Colt into shape, and took pride in the fact “that not a single man of ours was turned back from port because of any defect in his instructions, records, and physical condition.”
Ike’s superior, Colonel Welborn, was so pleased with Eisenhower’s masterful training of the troops, that he offered to promote him to full colonel if he agreed to give up his plans for overseas service. Ike not only declined the offer, but told Welborn he’d take a reduction in rank if it would ensure the opportunity to serve in Europe. Seeing that Ike could not be dissuaded from his desire to see combat, Welborn promised to put him in command of a November shipment of troops.
When November 1918 finally arrived, Ike had picked the men he wanted to take with him to the Western Front, had pondered strategy, and had practiced tactics with the troops. He had prepared for every detail…except one: the surrender of the Germans.
With the Armistice signed, Ike’s hope of being shipped overseas vanished; this was the war to end all wars, it was said, and thus when it came to ever getting a field command, Eisenhower was miserable he had “missed the boat:”
“As for my professional career, the prospects were none too bright. I was older than my classmates, was still bothered on occasion by a bad knee, and saw myself in the years ahead putting on weight in a meaningless chair-bound assignment, shuffling papers and filling out forms. If not depressed, I was mad, disappointed, and resented the fact that the war had passed me by.”
Eisenhower thought about leaving the Army and becoming a civilian like many of his classmates had done. But he decided to stay in. Looking on the bright side, Ike saw that his “education had not been neglected.” He had gotten the opportunity to take what he had learned in his textbooks and get real world practice in how to “take a cross-section of Americans and convert them into first-rate fighting troops and officers.” And he was grateful that his military career brought him into contact “with men of ability, honor, and a sense of high dedication to their country.”
After the war, Eisenhower trained more troops, advanced and advocated for the use of the tank (along with his friend, George Patton), became an executive officer to General Fox Conner in Panama, coached more football, attended the Command and General Staff School (graduating first out of 245 officers) and the Army War College, wrote battlefield guides as part of the Battlefield Monuments Commission, and served as a deputy to the Secretary of War, studying how to prepare for the next major conflict.
After a stint as chief military aide to General MacArthur, the Army’s Chief of Staff, Ike was itching to serve with the troops again. But when MacArthur was made Military Advisor to the Philippines in 1935, the General insisted on Ike coming along with him to act as his assistant in developing the Filipino army in preparation for that country’s independence.
In the Philippines, Ike again carried out his duties to the utmost and even learned how to fly. But as hostilities increased in Europe, he realized that the U.S. could not stay out of the war for long, and he wished to get home as soon as possible to be part of the imminent preparations for battle. MacArthur told Ike he was “making a mistake,” and that “the work [he] was doing in the Philippines was far more important than any [he] could do as a mere lieutenant colonel in the American army.”
In reply, Eisenhower reminded the general “that because the War Department had decided I was more useful as an instructor in the United States than as a fighting man in World War I, I had missed combat in that conflict. I was now determined to do everything I could to make sure I would not miss this crisis of our country.”
Eisenhower returned to the States and to active duty again, training the troops and commanding a battalion; he was ready to jump into the war effort with both feet, and was elated when he got a letter from Patton in 1940, saying that if war broke out he was sure he’d be given command in the new armored division and would make Eisenhower regimental commander under him when that happened. Ike dreamt about this prospect for weeks. Then, as it had many times before, “the roof fell in.” Ike received a telegram asking him to join the War Department Staff in D.C. as part of the War Plans Division. “Shock waves of consternation hit me,” Eisenhower remembered. The telegram sent Ike “into a tailspin;” after his many years “of constant staff assignments,” he felt he “really deserved troop duty.” But now it seemed a very real possibility that he would be left out of this war, just as he had the previous one.
While Ike wasn’t sent immediately to the War Plans Division after all, he was assigned various other staff positions, ending up as Chief of Staff for the Third Army, where his success overseeing practice maneuvers did not go unnoticed; he was given the star of brigadier general.
Then, in the wake of Pearl Harbor, General George Marshall summoned Ike to the War Department in D.C., putting him at a desk in the Planning Section and then as Chief of Operations. The possibility of ever getting field command had never seemed so remote.
Marshall, who had felt that too many staff officers had been promoted compared to field commanders during WWI, one day saw fit to blurt out to Ike: “The men who are going to get the promotions in this war are the commanders in the field, not the staff officers who clutter up all of the administrative machinery in the War Department and in higher tactical headquarters. The field commanders carry the responsibility and I’m going to see to it that they’re properly rewarded.”
He then turned directly to Ike and said: “Take your case. I know that you were recommended by one general for aviation command and by another for corps command. That’s all very well. I’m glad they have that opinion of you, but you are going to stay right here and fill your position, and that’s that!”
To which Marshall added: “While this may seem a sacrifice to you, that’s the way it must be.”
At that moment, Ike’s long-simmering resentment from not getting overseas in 1918, mixed with his umbrage at Marshall’s insinuation that he was anxious about his promotion prospects, prompting him to angrily reply: “General, I’m interested in what you say, but I want you to know that I don’t give a damn about your promotion plans as far as I’m concerned. I came into this office from the field and I am trying to do my duty. I expect to do so as long as you want me here. If that locks me to a desk for the rest of the war, so be it!”
Eisenhower almost immediately regretted his angry response, knowing it had helped neither man nor made Marshall’s job any easier. He told his son he figured the outburst had sealed the deal for him: he would forever remain a brigadier, and an assistant to other men.
And so it was a great shock to Eisenhower, when, just 3 days later, Marshall promoted him to major general and sent him to command the European Theater of Operations.
It was 1942 and Eisenhower was 52 years old. He had been in the Army for 30 years but had never held a troop command above a battalion and had no real accomplishments to his name. He had been highly praised over the course of his career, but no one knew how he’d perform outside the duties of a staff officer. But Ike had always felt confident in his ability to rise to the challenge. He had prepared himself. And now, at an age when many men begin to think of retirement, he finally had a chance to prove it.
In November 1942, he was made the Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force of the North African Theater of Operations, and oversaw Operation Torch and the Invasion of Sicily. Then in December 1943, FDR chose Eisenhower as the Supreme Allied Expeditionary Commander. And that is how after 30 years of largely unremarkable service in the Army, Dwight D. Eisenhower came to be the man responsible for pulling the trigger on Operation Overlord–the largest amphibious military assault in the history of the world. And how he gained a war hero reputation that led to two terms in the White House.
The ups and downs, hopes and disappointments that shaped the course of Eisenhower’s life really speak to me as a man. Eisenhower was always hoping to get the opportunity do great deeds, to do something extraordinary, to test himself and finally put all his theoretical training to work. And yet these hopes were dashed over and over again, leaving Ike to feel as though life was passing him by and would remain forever workaday.
While these disappointments would blacken his moods for a while, Ike never let his setbacks make him cynical or feel that his less exciting duties were pointless. Instead, he put the focus on his work, helping others, and making the best of whatever situation he found himself in. He kept on studying military history and strategy. He took pride in training his men to excellence, and in giving those who fell behind more chances to reach their potential. As he remembered about his pre-brigadier days:
“Happy in my work and ready to face without resentment, the bleak promotional picture, I had long ago refused to bother my head about promotion. Whenever the subject came up among the three of us at home, I said the real satisfaction was for a man who did the best he could. My ambition in the Army was to make everybody I worked for regretful when I was ordered to other duty.”
While in some ways Ike’s work ethic seemed to work against him—he was so good at training and organizing that his superiors couldn’t bear to send him into the field–eventually his commitment to doing his duty over attaining personal glory was exactly what put him in position for greatness.
Reflecting on his outburst with General Marshall later in life, Ike wondered if “the years of indoctrinating myself on the inconsequential value of promotion as a measure of an Army man’s worth influenced my reply to him,” and whether if he not angrily replied as he had, “General Marshall would have had any greater interest in me than he would have in any other relatively competent staff officer.”
As an older man in retirement, Ike sought to impart the lessons he had learned to young people who were suffering the same kind of disappointments he had experienced earlier in his life:
“Since coming to Gettysburg to make our home after leaving the Presidency, I sometimes receive letters from young people, men and women in their thirties as well as high-school and college students, in which an underlying theme recurs. This theme is expressed by the question, in one form or another, “What can I do?”
What is happening, of course, is that they are, in part, in the grip of youth’s eternal conviction that most of what they are studying, and much of what they are working on, is pointless or irrelevant or futile. Added to this is the probability that in an age where atoms appear to threaten life and automation seems to threaten vocation, they feel that they may be losing their identity and any control over their destiny. Either implicitly or explicitly, the letter writers tend to blame forces beyond their control.
Those who write really want more inspiration than explanation, but at least they are questioning and that is healthy in itself. Their letters cannot be answered by one of my old proverbs or succinct statements of rosy optimism.
I could say, if we were talking together, “My friend, I know just how you feel. Everyone, including ancients like myself, feels the same as you do at times. The only thing to do is keep questioning but keep plugging.” I never make that reply. It would be fast rejected as the pat answer of a man who, already in the evening of life, does not appreciate what happens when day to day work seems sterile or purposeless.
On the other hand, it is easier to point out that if they were to examine the correspondence of any of their heroes out of history, they might find that he had revealed his feelings in pessimistic moments in the same sort of letters. I’ve done no special research but George Washington’s letter, written in the autumn of 1758, months before the fall of Fort Duquesne and the collapse of the French empire in the Ohio Valley, would be an example. As he camped at Fort Cumberland, a hundred miles or so from the enemy, he was doing absolutely nothing, in his judgment, toward victory. He put his feelings this way (capitalization, punctuation, and spelling are General Washington’s):
‘We are still Incamp’d here, very sickly; and quite displeased at the prospect before Us. That appearance of Glory once in view, that hope, that laudable Ambition of serving Our Country, and meting its applause, is now no more!’ …
Washington got his gripes off his chest, much in the mood of those who write me, by putting them down on paper. Then he went back to work.
To me, his method makes good sense. Early letters of mine displayed a dazzling ignorance of coming events. Whenever I had convinced myself that my superiors, through bureaucratic oversight and insistence on tradition, had doomed me to run-of-the-mill assignments, I found no better cure than to blow off steam in private and then settle down to the job at hand.”
Eisenhower admitted that “the cure is never total,” and added that because he could so keenly appreciate the letter writers’ gloom “when the road traveled seems to have a dead-end” it troubled him that he could not “express [himself] more eloquently and helpfully” on the subject.
Perhaps what Eisenhower was struggling to convey is that lasting success comes to those willing to spend a lifetime preparing.
Stephen Ambrose begins his 1990 biography of Ike this way:
“Dwight David Eisenhower was a great and good man. This is an assertion I hope to prove; let me begin by defining the terms.
In 1954, Dwight Eisenhower wrote his childhood friend Swede Hazlett on the subject of greatness. Ike thought greatness depended on either achieving preeminence in ‘some broad field of human thought or endeavor,’ or in assuming ‘some position of great responsibility’ and then so discharging the duties ‘as to have left a marked and favorable imprint upon the future.’
The qualities of a great man, he said, were ‘vision, integrity, courage, understanding, the power of articulation, and profundity of character.’ To that list, I’d add two others: decisiveness (the ability to take command, decide, and act) and luck.
The qualities of goodness in a man, I believe include a broad sympathy for the human condition, that is, an awareness of human weakness and shortcomings and a willingness to be forgiving of them, a sense of responsibility toward others, a genuine modesty combined with a justified self-confidence, a sense of humor, and most of all, a love of life and of people.
Eisenhower was one of the outstanding leaders of the Western world of this century. As a soldier he was professionally competent, well versed in weaponry, decisive, courageous, dedicated, popular with his men, his superiors, and his subordinates.
As President, he was a leader who made peace in Korea and kept peace thereafter, a statesman who safely guided the free world through one of the most dangerous decades of the Cold War, and a politician who captured and kept the confidence of the American people. He was the only President of the twentieth century who managed to preside over eight years of peace and prosperity.
As a man he was good-looking, considerate of and concerned about others, loyal to his friends and family, ambitious, thin-skinned and sensitive to criticism, modest (but never falsely so), almost embarrassingly unsophisticated in his musical, artistic, and literary tastes, intensely curious about people and places, often refreshingly naive, fun-loving—in short, a wonderful man to know and be around. Nearly everyone who knew him liked him immensely, many—including some of the most powerful men in the world—to the point of adulation.”
To me Eisenhower’s life serves as a potent metaphor for manhood. For much of his career he had the skills and the training to do great things, but as a member of the Nomad generation, it seemed he lived in a time that had no need of those skills…until one day they did. Even when it seemed there would never be another war, he kept himself ever ready to serve.
Today there is much talk of men being obsolete–that masculine traits are no longer necessary in the modern world. Men aren’t needed anymore…until they are.
Every man can strive to develop the qualities of a good and great man; he needn’t wait for an emergency to spur him into action. For some men, their lives will intersect with a crisis that calls upon the talents and skills they have spent years cultivating, presenting them with an opportunity to serve and lead and become a great man. No man knows if and when such a chance will arrive; in 1940 Eisenhower, looking at the fixed way he would likely ascend the Army’s ranks in peacetime, thought he’d only be able to reach colonel before he retired, and told his son he thought his chances of ever earning even a single star were practically “nil.”
Whether the chance for a man to lead in a dramatic way ever comes or not, doesn’t matter. The man who spends a lifetime cultivating the traits of goodness and greatness enjoys the confidence of being ready for whatever comes and the competence to handle the small emergencies in his day-to-day life. He will be revered for generations by family and loved ones, and if fate requires him to exercise the traits of greatness, will be remembered by history books as well. Either way, he will be able to look back at the end of his life with the satisfaction of knowing it was well-lived.
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By (author unknown), MacNN | The Macintosh News Network – July 27, 2012 at 12:49PM
Apple is now distributing v2.0.0 updates for some of the optional voices in OS X, notes AppleInsider. If not already loaded, the voices can be installed by clicking “Customize” in OS X Mountain Lion’s upgraded Dictation & Speech panel. If an update is needed, Apple is currently distributing the v2.0.0 files via Software Update. Each download is described as delivering “pronunciation and clarity improvements.”…
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By Alan Henry, Lifehacker – July 27, 2012 at 07:00AM
One of the more useful and interesting features in OS X Mountain Lion is Dictation, which allows you to speak to your Mac and have your words translated to text. It’s system-wide, and works in any app where text can be entered. Before you dive in and start speaking to your Mac, here’s how to use it to its fullest.
If you’ve used a tool like Dragon Naturally Speaking, Siri on your iPhone, or Google Voice Actions (or another personal assistant) on your Android phone, you know how Dictation works already. The difference here is that instead of using Dictation to issue commands, search the web, or call friends, it’s ideal for writing documents, commenting on articles, and turning your thoughts into blocks of text anywhere text can be entered. Here’s how to set it up.
Once enabled, tap the function key (FN) twice (or whichever shortcut you selected) to start or stop Dictation. You can also skip System Preferences entirely by tapping the function key twice from any window, but we think the long way is best so you can change the shortcut if you want.
Keep in mind that when you use Dictation, your words (and some other data) are sent to Apple to be translated into text—much like when you use Siri. Apple says the data is used to improve voice recognition only, and not associated with any other information Apple may have about you.
In the Dictation and Speech preferences, you have the choice to switch the input used for dictation to your Mac’s line-in over the internal microphone. Unless you’re sitting right in front of your Mac all the time, we’d suggest using a headset or dedicated microphone when you’re working with Dictation. Using the internal mic isn’t bad, but using a headset is definitely better and in our tests led to fewer skipped or incorrect words. Of course, common sense also applies: speak loudly and clearly when working with dictation and you’ll have better luck. No mumbling! Photo by Paul Arrington.
Remember, the dictation tool translates your words into text—it doesn’t know much about grammar. That means if you want a comma in a sentence, or want to end a sentence with a period or exclamation point, you have to say it aloud for the app to understand what you want. It”s tricky to get into the habit of saying things like "Dear Adam comma new line thank you for sending this over to me period it's a huge help exclamation point" but you’ll get the hang of it. The result, of course, would be:
Dear Adam,
Thank you for sending this over to me. It’s a huge help!
Dictation does a good job of recognizing proper nouns and capitalizing them, and can even recognize your contacts’ names and proper spellings. Here are some other helpful commands to remember:
Dictation works out of the box. You don’t need to train it with your voice, and while it does get better over time as it learns your voice, it’s not like many mobile assistants that need hours of input before they work effectively. Best of all, it supports US, UK, and Australian English, so an accent from any of those locations won’t matter much. If you use your Mac in a different language, Dictation also supports French, German, and Japanese, and will enter text spoken in those languages correctly.
If you’ve upgraded to Mountain Lion and are using the new Dictation feature, let us know some of your favorite commands, and share your experience with it in the discussions below.
By Aaron Cohen, kottke.org – July 26, 2012 at 04:25PM
The second in a series of remixed PBS icons is out with a super positive Bob Ross track, again by Symphony of Science’s John Boswell. You may recall the brilliant Mr. Rogers remix from June. “Relax. Let it flow.” and “Believe you can do it because you can do it.”
And here are a couple profiles of Ross: Orlando Sentinel, 1990, and NY Times, 2001. Additionally, this NY Times, 1991 profile talks about how he didn’t sell his paintings despite how prolific he was.
Mr. Ross, who said he has produced nearly 30,000 paintings (the prolific Picasso did not match that record), does not sell his paintings or show his work in galleries; he has only had one retrospective — at the Minnetrista Cultural Center in Muncie, a town that boasts of the artist as an honorary native son. Mr. Ross said he had no desire for a major exhibit. “There are thousands of very, very talented artists who will never be known, even after they are dead,” he said. “Most painters want recognition, especially by their peers. I achieved that a long time ago with TV. I don’t need any more.”
By A Manly Guest Contributor, The Art of Manliness – July 26, 2012 at 02:42PM
Editor’s note: This post is based on a series that was written by the ITS Crew and originally ran on ITS Tactical.
Potential Navy SEALs face many challenges during BUD/s (Basic Underwater Demolition/Navy Seal Training) as they become schooled in swimming, diving, parachuting, and enduring grueling physical exercise. Another challenge every candidate must complete is the Underwater Knot Tying Test. During the first phase of BUD/s, students are taught five knots–the Bowline, Square Knot, Becket’s Bend, Clove Hitch, and Right Angle–which they’re required to tie one at a time underwater, each on a single breath hold.
How would you do on this test? Why not take it yourself and find out? Below, we provide instructions in both photograph and video form on how to tie the five required knots, and then set down the test conditions you’d experience at BUD/s, along with a video demonstrating how the test is performed.
All knots tied during the test are with the BUD/s student’s knot tying line that he’ll have with him at all times during BUD/s until completing the Underwater Knot Tying Test.
The rope used at BUD/s is just common nylon rope that usually measures 5/16″ diameter and is around 20″ in length.
Students are encouraged to practice their knots whenever they can fit it in during their days at BUD/s to prepare themselves for the test.
(Strength: 2/Secure: 2/Stability: 4/Difficulty: 3)
Before we continue any further we’d like to clear the air on how to properly pronounce bowline. This knot comes from the need for attaching sails to the bow of a ship for stabilization, and is pronounced “bow” like a ship’s bow, not “bow” like bow and arrow.
The Bowline Knot was originally used for the purpose just mentioned, but has progressed to include a host of other uses today.
Nowadays, you’d most likely see a Bowline used for mooring a small boat to a pier or in rescue applications when a fixed loop is needed that won’t close around a waist or foot.
In rescue applications we highly suggest, due to the somewhat unstable nature of the Bowline, that a half hitch is added to the knot at the very end to further secure it.
If the Bowline is not kept under load, it can easily come untied which is why we recommend the extra half hitch (we’ll explain below).
Uses:
Tying Instructions:
View the gallery or YouTube video below and follow along with the steps above!
(Strength: 2/Secure: 2/Stability: 1/Difficulty: 1)
Yes, the Square Knot is a somewhat simple knot, but the primary purpose of teaching this knot at BUD/s is for demolition.
When working with Det Cord (Detonation Cord), lines need to be spliced together. The simplest way to do this is with a Square Knot.
It’s debatable whether or not to back up the ends when dealing with Det Cord. It burns from one end to the other when ignited and is basically just cord with a PETN core that burns at a calculated rate.
When the Det Cord burn reaches the backed up portion of the Square Knot, it will start burning not only towards the center of the knot, but also take off in the direction of the tail. This is why some don’t back up the knot.
At least a six-inch tail must be left after tying the Square Knot to prevent moisture from entering the Det Cord through the exposed end.
During the BUD/s Underwater Knot Tying Test, it’s not required to back up the knot.
Uses:
Tying Instructions:
View the gallery or YouTube video below and follow along with the steps above!
(Strength: 2/Secure: 2/Stability: 2/Difficulty: 2)
There’s a method to our madness in showing the Square Knot before the Becket’s Bend, as the two are tied similarly.
Much like the Square Knot, the Becket’s Bend is used to splice together two lines of Det Cord when working with demolitions.
The Becket’s is more secure than the Square Knot in certain applications. To add additional strength to the knot, a second turn can be added with the working end when tying.
As with the Square Knot, a six-inch tail must be left in both ends after tying. This prevents moisture from entering the Det Cord through the exposed ends.
Uses:
Tying Instructions:
View the gallery or YouTube video below and follow along with the steps above!
(Strength: 4/Security: 2/Stability: 4/Difficulty: 3)
The Clove Hitch is an especially important knot taught at BUD/s, and also has its purpose rooted in demolition.
A Clove Hitch is the preferred knot to fasten Det Cord to underwater obstacles, linking them together in a chain for demolition.
During WWII the NCDU’s (Naval Combat Demolition Unit), the predecessor to UDT’s (Underwater Demolition Teams) and eventually Navy SEALs, cleared the beaches for the Normandy invasion.
You can bet that Clove Hitches were used during Normandy, just like they’re still used today. Anyone interested in a great article about the background of Navy SEALs, visit this link.
Uses:
Tying Instructions:
An alternative method of tying the Clove Hitch is tying it on the bight, which means that it’s tied without having either working end available.
(This additional method is also shown in the video, but not the photos)
View the gallery below and follow along with the steps above!
(Strength: 4/Secure: 3/Stability: 4/Difficulty: 3)
The Right Angle is a knot that is typically used as an alternate to the Clove Hitch, which we just covered.
When used, the Right Angle creates a more secure knot than the Clove Hitch, and if you know how to tie the Clove Hitch, you know how to tie the Right Angle.
As mentioned above, the Clove Hitch is the preferred knot to fasten Det Cord to underwater obstacles, linking them together in a chain for demolition. The Right Angle is used if you have multiple obstacles which would be linked to a ring main, or main line of Det Cord. To link each obstacle’s Det Cord lead to the ring main, a Right Angle is used.
Uses:
Tying Instructions:
View the gallery below and follow along with the steps above!
At BUD/s, the Underwater Knot Tying Test is performed in the 15 ft. section of the CTT (Combat Training Tank), where students must swim out to a waiting instructor who is treading water over trunk line on the bottom of the CTT.
Upon reaching the instructor, students tread water while sounding off with their name, rank, and which of the five knots they’ll be tying.
One knot is tied at a time to a trunk line or stationary rope, and the student and instructor tread water between each knot that is tied.
After sounding off on which knot he’ll be tying, the student gives the waiting instructor the downturned thumb signal to descend. The instructor will return the signal, and the student and instructor will descend. The student must descend without splashing the surface of the water.
Upon reaching the trunk line on the bottom of the CTT, the student ties the specified knot and signals the instructor with an OK sign. The instructor then ensures the knot is tied correctly and returns the OK sign.
The student then unties the knot, grabs his rope, and signals the instructor with an upturned thumb to ascend. The instructor returns the signal, and the student and instructor will ascend.
After reaching the surface the student and instructor will tread water again as the student sounds off with the next knot he’ll be tying, and the process repeats itself.
Some things that will cause a student to fail:
If the student does run out of air underwater, he’s instructed to give the slash across the throat sign for out of air, followed by the upturned thumb to ascend.
In the video below we’ve recreated the BUD/s Underwater Knot Tying Test, so you can see how it works:
Note: Because photos of the BUD/s test are not available, the photos above depict SWCC (Special Warfare Combatant Crewman) students training, who take the same test, in the same pool as SEAL candidates.
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