Month: March 2013

By kdawson, Slashdot – May 15, 2010 at 09:13PM

theodp writes “Provoked by an iPad ad promising a ‘revolution,’ Valleywag’s Ryan Tate fired off a late-night missive to Steve Jobs. Jobs responded, and the two engaged in an after-midnight e-mail debate over lockdown, Cocoa vs. Flash, battery life, and whether ‘freedom from porn’ is a bug or a feature. ‘The times they are a changin’,’ quipped Jobs, ‘and some traditional PC folks feel like their world is slipping away. It is.’ Tate was unswayed by the Apple CEO’s reality distortion field, but did come away impressed by Jobs’ willingness to spar one-on-one over his beliefs. At 2:00 in the morning on a weekend.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

By Rich Whittle, Business Opportunities Weblog – May 15, 2010 at 06:15PM

When Trevis Kurz looked around at his surroundings last March, he knew he was representing Ohio State to people from all over the world. The commotion was incredible, the excitement was infectious and the competition seemed insurmountable.

“There were 50,000 people,” Kurz said. “It was total chaos, I didn’t know what was going on that first day.”

Kurz is not a five-star recruit on the men’s basketball team. He is a third-year in industrial design who placed first at the 2010 International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago, reports The Lantern.

Kurz’s winning entry in Chicago was what he called the Sanas Smoke Alarm. Kurz had been assigned to the baby boomer generation and discovered that many people he talked to had problems changing the batteries on their alarms.

“I found out that a lot of people couldn’t even access their smoke alarms without a ladder, and so the whole premise for me was to design a smoke alarm that you could access without getting off the ground,” Kurz said.

So he designed a model that works with an everyday broom handle, using a quick-release spring to drop the alarm down the broom handle to eye level for battery changing and a face that acts as an “off button” that can be hit if the alarm sounds and there isn’t a fire.

Photo by osu.edu.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

By Ben Blanquera, Techlife – June 03, 2010 at 06:25AM

OSU revamps commercialization office – Business First of Columbus

By nipper, The Invent Blog – June 02, 2010 at 04:29PM

Via this press release, the USPTO and Google have teamed up to distribute bulk USPTO data via a Google page:  https://www.google.com/googlebooks/uspto.html.

The good news:  easier access to USPTO data.

The bad news:  it is BULK data.  Don’t expect it to be sexy, or easy to access/use.

Let’s hope that Google (or someone else) starts doing some cool things with the BULK data…

Thoughts?  The comments are open.

Related posts:

1. USPTO considering opening access to public patent/trademark data? According to the notice: Due to overwhelming interest from the…
2. USPTO wants feedback regarding CWUs (chemical structure drawings, mathematical formulae, protein crystal data, and table data) Complex Work Units Pilot at the USPTO The United States…

By Drea, Business Pundit – June 02, 2010 at 01:01PM

Image: EpSos.de/Flickr

Leadership is an art. Keeping your workers happy and maximizing their potential while attaining company goals is not for the faint of heart. We’ve compiled 50 tips that cover the mental, physical, and management aspects of being a leader.

General Leadership Tips
These tips will give you an all-around leadership boost. From leading like a child to accessing your brain chemistry, here’s how to lead well.

Here’s a list of skills you should have to be a leader.

Good leadership vs. effective leadership.

If you want to be a successful leader, crunch time is all the time.

Exceptional leaders start with why, not what or how.

Build your leadership skills on a solid foundation.

Is your company playing follow the leader?

How to get yourself out of the work doghouse.

Unlock brain chemistry to learn new leadership skills.

Leadership always has a pinch of fear–and it has to.

Lead like a child.

Redefine failure to be a better leader.

Lead first, then manage the numbers.

Rehearse dealing with distractions.

Leading and restarting business growth: Don’t just wait for someone to fix your elevator.

Why you shouldn’t hire the best and brightest candidate.

Great leaders should move to a cubicle.

Rapid change tests leaders. How do you stand?

How to get back on track when things get crazy.

Leadership and Team Building
When you’re managing a team, certain skills come into play. How do you keep employees motivated? What about dealing with excuses, or setting an example? Learn more below.

Build a competent, self-reliant team by being human.

How to create core values for your team.

7 ideas to help leverage different perspectives on your team.

Help your people perform better, and they’ll care more.

Avoid these toxic words while communicating with your team and superiors.

Having difficult conversations with members of your team.

How to regularly acknowledge your direct reports.

What to do when your team is protecting you from bad news.

How to develop a great culture within your team.

How to keep your workers happy.

Why you shouldn’t accept excuses from your employees.

Defining Leadership Success
Before you can become a successful leader, you need to know what leadership success–let alone leadership–is.

2 things you absolutely must do to be an effective leader.

What is leadership?

What persistence has to do with leadership.

The true measure of your greatness as a leader is to develop better leaders than yourself.

What’s the mark of a great leader?

What’s the one thing leaders can do to become more successful? Nothing.

A Q&A on leading without a title.

How to tell a who-do from a guru.

You want to be a leader? Then lead.

Who do you really work for? And who works for you?

The management uncertainty principle.

Short, useful daily quotes on leadership and business.

Mistakes to Avoid
Every good leader makes mistakes. That doesn’t make those mistakes any less painful. See what you can avoid ahead of time.

Are you mismanaging talent?

8 traits of ineffective leaders.

Ignoring unpleasant truths is often encouraged in the leadership world.

Avoid the nonsense in leadership.

How not to implement change in your organization.

Leadership Stories
The world is full of powerful, effective leaders. Learn by example.

3 leadership lessons from the military.

Hillary Clinton’s leadership secrets.

Goldman Sachs’ leadership lesson in addiction.

Lessons for leaders from the world’s highest mountains.

By (author unknown), Columbus Business News – Local Columbus News | Business First of Columbus – June 02, 2010 at 11:55AM

Ohio State University will leverage the expertise of its business school and expansive research faculty, while still seeking outside market experts, in a reorganization of its lagging efforts to turn discoveries into dollars.

By Lee Mathews, Download Squad – June 01, 2010 at 03:30PM

Filed under: Utilities, E-mail

UnDBX extracts email messages from Outlook Express data files originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments











Outlook Express – Email client – Download Squad – Email – Recycle Bin

By Jorge Sierra, MakeUseOf – June 01, 2010 at 02:20PM

There are many great tutorials on the web for using a Mac to install Mac OS X Snow Leopard on a PC. Unfortunately, you may be unable to follow such tutorials if you do not readily have access to a Mac to perform the preparation necessary for the installation.

Great progress has been made in hacking PCs to run OS X, and it is now possible to install Mac OS X without a Mac. Thanks to some great tools put together by some brilliant hackers, it is also much easier and does not involve nearly as much time and effort as was once required.

Step 1: Getting The Hardware Ready

I recently purchased the following set of hardware for the purposes of building a Hackintosh (often PCs running Mac OS X are referred to as such):

• Intel Core i3-530 Clarkdale 2.93GHz
• Gigabyte GA-H55M-USB3 Motherboard
• 4 GB DDR3 1333 RAM (2 x 2GB)
• DVD Burner
• MicroATX Computer Case
• 585 Watt Power Supply
• 4-pin to 8-pin Power Adapter

The motherboard has an 8-pin power connector on it, and although it is possible to connect a single 4-pin connector to it, you may encounter odd issues running with just a single 4-pin connector. To ensure that you provide sufficient power to the board, you should purchase the 4-pin to 8-pin power adapter. Alternatively, you could purchase a power supply with 3x 4-pin connectors (1 for the 20+4-pin main connector, and 2 for the 8-pin connection) or an 8-pin connector.

I did not purchase a hard drive or video card, as I used some I already had from another PC, but you will need those items as well. As of the time this article was written, you can get a 1TB drive shipped for $75 and an NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT video card for $65.

I also purchased v10.6.3 of OS X Snow Leopard retail DVD for a mere $29 (was about $35 with shipping & handling).

All-in-all, the full system (without monitor) will run you around $600 (you could also add a 22″ monitor for $170). You could certainly try doing it even cheaper with different hardware, but you’ll need to figure out the appropriate changes to make in the BIOS and boot loader installation.

I did my best to put together a fairly modern system for a very reasonable price. Having used this set of hardware, I can affirm that it runs OS X Snow Leopard very well. Without a doubt, $600 – $800 is a far cry from what you would spend on an equivalent Mac from Apple. Granted it won’t be as compact or pretty as an iMac, but it will be just as functional.

Step 2: Putting The Hardware Together

If you purchase the hardware I used, along with a hard drive and NVIDIA GeForce video card, you should be able to follow the instructions exactly as I’ve laid them out. If you’ve never built a PC before but are willing to give it a try, you’ll definitely want to check out The Idiot’s Ultimate Guide to Build Your Own PC. It is a step-by-step guide to building your own PC, with plenty of photos to help you out.

You can try following this tutorial with existing hardware you have as well, although you may need to make adjustments when configuring the BIOS and installing the boot loader. The more modern your hardware is, the better the chances are it will work for you. It would be best if you have a 64-bit Intel dual-core (or quad-core) processor, although an older CPU might still work as well. I would recommend NVIDIA GeForce video card, but ATI cards should work too.

Step 3: Prepare The Boot Disk

In addition to the hardware and a retail copy of Mac OS X Snow Leopard, you’ll also need a blank CD. You may want to use a rewritable CD if you’re using a different hardware configuration, just in case the first one I recommend doesn’t work for you. There are two boot disk images that will allow you to install OS X directly from the installation DVD:

• iBoot (by tonymacx86 and MacMan)
• Empire EFI (by Prasys)

I successfully used both of them with my hardware setup. However I recommend you try iBoot first, as it is a bit leaner and doesn’t take as long to boot. If you’re using my hardware configuration, be sure to download the iBoot Supported disk image. If you use Empire EFI, download the Empire EFI v1.085 R2 image.

You can use one of many free programs to burn CDs if you don’t have one. Be sure to use the disk image burning mode in your CD burning software. Do not just simply copy the disk image file to a blank CD. I like InfraRecorder, because it makes this very easy. All you have to do is click the Write Image button, select the image, and burn it. Once again, you may wish to use rewritable media if you’re using a different hardware configuration than mine.

Step 4: Bios Configuration

Fortunately, the Gigabyte GA-H55M-USB3 does not require a lot of configuration to run Mac OS X. When you first turn on or reboot the machine, press the delete key to enter the BIOS setup. You can just load the Optimized Defaults, and just make a few changes within three sections of the bios: Advanced BIOS Features, Integrated Peripherals, and Power Management Setup.

4.1 – First, go to Advanced BIOS Features and set the First Boot Device to CDROM. I have my USB drive as the second drive and then Hard Disk as third – you can configure yours the same way if you wish to ever boot from a USB drive. Just be sure that Hard Disk is the Second Boot Device or Third Boot Device.

4.2 – Next, configure SATA to run in AHCI mode in the Integrated Peripherals menu. You’ll need to set both PCH SATA Control Mode and Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode to AHCI.

4.3 – Finally, go to Power Management Setup and set the HPET Mode to 64-bit mode.

Step 5: Installing Mac OS X

5.1 – Insert the iBoot (or Empire EFI) boot disk.

5.2 – When you see screen below, eject the disk.

5.3 – Insert the Retail Mac OS X Snow Leopard DVD, wait a few seconds, and press F5.

5.4 – When you see the screen below, select Mac OS X Install DVD (it should already be selected) and press Enter.

5.5 – If all goes well, you should eventually see the language selection screen for the installer. If all did not go well and you do not make it to the language selection screen, try downloading a different version of iBoot or Empire EFI.

5.6 – Select your language and click the arrow to proceed.

5.7 – Next, you need to partition your drive. Click on Utilities > Disk Utility.

5.8 – Select your disk drive.

5.9 – Click Partition.

5.10 – Select 1 Partition for the partition scheme. Note: If you have a drive that is larger than 2 TB, do not create partitions larger than 1 TB. Split the drive into multiple partitions, and be sure the main installation partition is 1 TB or smaller.

5.11 – Enter a name for the partition (I used Hackintosh).

5.12 – Select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the Format.

5.13 – Click Options…, select GUID Partition Table, and then click OK.

5.14 – Click Apply.

5.15 – Quit Disk Utility and proceed with the installation. Install on the Hackintosh partition.

Step 6: Installing the Boot Loader

Do not fret when you reboot after the installation and get a boot error, as you will need to first boot the machine with iBoot (or Empire EFI). Eject the Mac OS X Snow Leopard install DVD, put your boot CD back into the drive, and reboot the machine. Now when you boot up, you should see a second choice for your installation partition (Hackintosh if you named it that way). Select the Hackintosh partition and press Enter to boot into OS X.

Once you’ve completed the first-run setup, open up Safari and download Multibeast. Multibeast is another superb tool by tonymacx86 and MacMan that makes it stupid easy to install the boot loader, along with all the drivers necessary for your Hackintosh to function properly.

In addition to downloading Multibeast, you will need to download the DSDT for the Gigabyte GA-H55M-USB3 and copy it to the desktop. Launch Multibeast and make the following selections (your choices will differ if you have a different motherboard/hardware configuration):

• UserDSDT
• System Utilities
• Advanced Options > Kexts > Audio > LegacyHDA > ALC889
• Advanced Options > Kexts > Graphics > NVEnabler
• Advanced Options > Kexts > Network > RealtekR1000SL
• Advanced Options > Patched Kernels > 10.3.1 Supported Kernel

After MultiBeast finishes installing, eject the iBoot CD and reboot the system. You should be able to boot right up from the hard drive, and all your devices should work just fine.

Step 7: Getting Started with Your New Mac

So what now? Most certainly you’ll want to check out 5 apps to get more out of your new Mac as well as 15 must-have apps for your Mac. In fact, you should probably just go ahead and browse the entire Mac section on MakeUseOf, as you’ll find a wealth of great free stuff for your new Mac in there. And most importantly make sure to download MakeUseOf’s getting started manual for Mac. Highly recommended for switchers.

If ever you encounter into problems with your new Mac, you can always seek help from MakeUseOf Answers.

If you have any problems installing Mac OS X on your PC, just post a comment right here and we’ll do what we can to help. Just be sure to provide as much information about the hardware you’re using:

• Motherboard make and model (i.e. Gigabyte GA-H55M-USB3)
• CPU model (i.e. Intel Core i3-530 )
• GPU model (i.e. NVIDIA GeForce 9900 GT)

I never managed to get sleep to work. When I try to put the computer to sleep, it sort of goes into a coma. The fans never shut down and the machine doesn’t wake up when you press the power button. If you manage to get sleep to work with my hardware configuration, please do feel free to share your solution in the comments on this article.

There are also many great forums and sites out there that provide a lot of information and assistance with running Mac OS X on PC. Here are just a few you may want to check out:

• tonymacx86 Forum
• InsanelyMac Forum
• Hackint0sh
• Prasys’ Blog
• OSx86 Project

If you do seek assistance from any of these or similar resources, be sure to search for your problem before posting it. You will be flamed to no end if you ask a question that has already been answered. Another tip for posting in these forums: never call it a MAC (in all caps) instead of a Mac, or you will solicit many abusive responses. Mac is an abbreviation not an acronym.

Here are a few more links that provide tools and files to help you set up a Hackintosh on hardware other than what I’ve mentioned here:

• myHack – Another bootloader/kext installer, similar to Multibeast
• Kexts.com – A good resource for downloading Kexts (device drivers)
• Kext Helper – A tool that makes it easy to install new Kexts
• Kext Utility – A tool to ensure proper kext installation
• Chamelon Boot Loader – The boot loader that pretty much all the boot disks out there use (including iBoot and Empire EFI).
• netkas PC EFI – Used in combination with Chameleon to provide maximum compatibility for booting OS X. Most boot disks use this as well.
• BootCDMaker (French) – Utility (for Mac) to create your own custom boot disks

A million thanks to tonymacx86 and MacMan for developing iBoot and Multibeast to make installing Mac OS X Snow Leopard on PC a piece of cake. Enjoy your new Hackintosh and let us know what you think of it!

Disclosure Statement: Please note that the links to the hardware in this article are affiliate links. MakeUseOf will earn a small commission on any purchases you make. Commissions earned will support the staff of MakeUseOf and allow us to continue to bringing you more great articles.

Disclaimer: Please note that running Mac OS X Snow Leopard on hardware other than a Macintosh is against the Mac OS X End User License Agreement (EULA). If you have concerns about this, you may wish to read Is Making Your Own Hackintosh Legal? By installing Mac OS X you are in breach of a contract (breaking a contract is not the same as breaking the law). As long as you own a legal copy of the software, you are not in violation of copyright law.

Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 20,000 fans already!

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By Jeffry Thurana, MakeUseOf – June 01, 2010 at 01:30PM

By nature, humans always want to improve their quality of life by finding or inventing the easiest possible way to do something. This basic behavior continues on even in the digital age. Computer users rely on applications to make their computing life easier.

But life is not static. What we consider as the best solution today might become obsolete tomorrow. Most of the time, there are also more than one solution to a problem, more than one way to do something, more than one applications to achieve the same thing.

The result is a bloated Applications folder which filled with unused and outdated apps. Here are two steps that I took to tidy up my Mac’s Applications library.

Step 1: Updating Outdated Apps

Actually, there’s not much of a problem here. Most modern applications come with automatic updating. If you turn the feature on, the app will check whether there’s any update available and then pop-up the notification.

But this process has to be done individually. And the availability of updates is different from one app to another. If you have hundreds of apps on your Mac, checking and updating them all could take a lot of time.

Luckily there is a more convenient way available. To check the status of your applications, you can use the help of another application.

One of such apps is Bodega. Jackson discussed this app a little while back. This is actually a kind of application store where you can browse for applications and download the ones that you want. Some of the apps are free and some others are not free.

But Bodega can also be used to check the availability of applications updates. Just select the Applications folder from the left pane and Bodega will show you the status of your installed apps.

You can sort the result by status – updated, free updates, and paid updates, and click the “Get” or “Buy Now” buttons to update a specific app.

But Bodega does not show all of your apps, only the ones that matches the data that they already have. The reason is – as mentioned in their support page – that they want to be sure that they’re giving users the right updates and information on those applications.

Another alternative that you can use to update your apps is AppFresh which is specifically built for this purpose. We’ve discussed the features of this app already so I won’t repeat the babbling here. AppFresh gives more complete list of applications, but it doesn’t offer the experience of “discovering new cool apps” like Bodega.

Step 2: TrashMe – Delete Unwanted Apps Entirely

Using Bodega or AppFresh, you can find unwanted apps that still reside inside your machine. Maybe those apps are so old that they are unusable, maybe you’ve found another better alternatives, or perhaps the available updates are not free anymore and you are not willing to pay for the updates — like iCompta here.

To uninstall apps in Mac, you can just drag and drop them to the Trash and get away with it. But there are apps that will leave behind some system files. Even though these leftover files are harmless, they do litter our system.

To get rid of any app completely, you need the help of uninstaller app. We have discussed three free uninstaller for Mac before and they work just fine. But I’ve just find another alternative that I like called TrashMe which comes from the same developer who created TunesArt.

Using the app is as simple as dragging and dropping your unwanted app(s) to the drop zone. You can also use the “Places” on the left pane to search for and filter your unwanted app(s). After you found the one that you don’t want, check the box next to it and click the “Related files” button.

You will have a list of the files related to the app that you are going to delete. Double-check for unrelated files. You don’t want to delete files that you still need. If everything is checked, hit the “Delete” button.

TrashMe will ask for your confirmation one more time. Be brave and move on with your life.

You may continue uninstalling other unwanted apps based on your findings from Bodega and AppFresh. I myself also using TrashMe to uninstall other uninstallers, which I no longer use.

What about you? What method do you use to tidy up your installed applications? Do you know other alternatives to the applications mentioned here? Share using the comment below.

Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Do share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.

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By noreply@blogger.com (David), Strobist – June 01, 2010 at 01:00PM

Moishe Appelbaum and the folks at MPEX were never ones to leave well enough alone. Building on the sold-out LP120, the original quad-sync flash, LumoPro today announced the arrival of the more powerful LumoPro LP160 — a second version borne of user feedback from the original model.

It’s a lotta flash, for notta lotta cash. Details after the jump.
__________

This is the reason those LumoPro LP120’s have been out of stock the last couple of months. They were not re-upped in anticipation of the impending arrival of the LP160.

I am told that for those of you who had previously unfilled LP120 orders (for instance, in Strobist kits) they are simply gonna swap you out for the LP160. You’re welcome, internet.

The feature set is improved all around (except they kept it to quad-sync, cause quintuple-sync woulda been crazy…)

Specs

• Power level: Equal to a Nikon SB-900 or Canon 580 EX II

• Four-second recycle time w/NiMH batts

• Metal, screw-lock hot shoe (sync #1)

• Rotating head turns 180 degrees to the right, 150 degrees to the left for 330-degree coverage. (So you can aim the flash head and the slave in any two directions.)

• Built-in slave (sync #2, and extremely sensitive)

• Built-in PC jack (sync #3, until the industry finally comes to its senses)

• Built-in 1/8″ sync jack (sync #4, giving you access to cheap sync cords)

* Motorized Zoom Head goes from 24mm to 105mm

• 7 f/stop range: 1/1 – 1/64th power in 1-stop increments

• 2-year warranty.

The LP160 ($159.99) ships with the following accessories: Slip-on ultra-wide diffusor, 1/8 to PC pigtail sync cord (for remotes) and a cold-shoe stand. Note, the stand does not have a 1/4 x 20 socket embedded.

Additionally, it has a “digital” slave that somehow ignores preflashes. I have never used one of those, and do not usually have to deal with preflashes. But for those of you interested, have at it.

As for road testing, I got to play with a beta unit for a while a ways back. My results confirmed the power levels, and the flash was very color- and level-consistent from pop to pop.

Essentially, it has everything an manual off-camera flasher could want, without a lot of TTL doodads to drive up the price.

I am excited about this not just because it is great value for dollar in an off-camera speedlight, but also because the improvements came largely as a result of user feedback on the already user-inspired LP120.
__________

:: LumoPro LP160 Product Page ::