Does the Hypervisor Still Matter? - Petri
Add Disk Performance Counters to Windows Server 2012 R2 - Petri
Put wget On OS X | Krypted - nice simple guide, if you don’t do it as root though, you’ll need to enter sudo before each command
Just because I like the phrase and how it’s almost as nebulous as the phrase ‘cloud’, I’m going to say “The Internet of Things"
Kane Fulton In Depth: Five ways IT is transforming the classroom in 2014
Cnet Does your ISP throttle BitTorrent traffic? Find out
(Credit: CNET) Does your ISP interfere with your file-sharing traffic? Find out below.
File-sharing, made rapid and easy by software including BitTorrent, has exploded in use besides increased broadband penetration worldwide. It's important to remember that BitTorrent searches and BitTorrent clients -- such as uTorrent, BitTorrent and Tixati -- and the practice of file-sharing between computers is not an illegal one. However, ISPs have throttled speeds if BitTorrent clients are in use in the past for traffic management purposes, and more recently -- as many people use the software in order to obtain intellectual property-protected files, such as films, music and television shows -- the practice has spread.
Internet service providers are not always transparent over this practice, however, it is now possible to find out if your ISP is in on the game.
As reported by TorrentFreak, thanks to data collected and displayed by Measurement Lab (M-Lab), we can all examine the frequency of data throttling worldwide.
The Glasnost application, developed by the Max Planck Institute, can be used for free in order to detect meddling in the use of BitTorrent, eMule and Gnutella, as well as video streaming sites including YouTube, e-mail, Usenet, HTTP transfer, and SSH transfer protocols.
Based on M-Lab tests of at least 100 connections performed between December 2012 and December 2013, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore were the worst data throttlers, with 74 percent, 61 percent and 53 percent of tested connections having been tampered with respectively. The United States had a throttling rate of 14 percent, whereas the United Kingdom was the second most throttled country in Europe with 28 percent, beaten only by Poland with 35 percent.
Greece and Romania performed more positively, with tests showing only 7 and 9 percent of limited BitTorrent connections.
If we then take a look at which Internet service providers throttle speeds the most, in the United States, Comcast throttles roughly 12 percent of connections. Cox interferes with 13 percent of connections, whereas Verizon manipulates only nine percent of connections. However, as the publication notes, throttling rates are beginning to creep higher again after taking a dive when ComCast was exposed for controlling customers' file-sharing traffic several years ago -- causing a dive of 50 percent throttling rates to the single digits.
In the United Kingdom, Orange is the most throttle-happy ISP, with a limiting rate of 38 percent. BT comes in second with 35 percent, whereas TalkTalk throttles only 10 percent of connections.
For information on your ISP, check out M-Lab's diagnostic tools.
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Macworld Use your smartphone to check your remote control batteries
Most standard remote controls send signals to your home theater gear using a beam of infrared light, which a sensor on your hardware picks up. You can't see this beam, but your smartphone's camera can! So, if your remote isn't working right, you can use your phone to check if your remote needs fresh batteries.
Wake your smartphone and pop open its Camera app. Next, switch to the front-facing camera, point the remote at the camera, and press any button on the remote.
Pew pew pew.
If the remote is working properly, you should see a flicker of light come from the IR blaster as viewed through your phone's screen that looks something that this:
If you don't see the flicker from the IR blaster, or perhaps just a very, very dim flicker, you probably need to change the remote's batteries. (And if new batteries don't help, you probably need to replace your remote. Sorry.)
Of course, this trick isn't limited to your smartphone's camera; many digital cameras can see infrared light, despite having filters to tune it out. So if all you have at your disposal is your laptop's built-in webcam, you may have everything you need.
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Three-year, 27,000 drive study reveals the most reliable hard drive makers | PCWorld - I knew I liked the Hitachi drives for a reason!
TechRadar: All latest feeds In Depth: Why has Google bought Nest?
If you hate the phrase the Internet of Things, then you are not alone. Tony Fadell, founder of Nest, isn't a fan either.
He told TechRadar back in November that items that should never be 'connected' include fridges, toasters and kettles. And this is from the guy who made both smoke alarms and thermostats 'smart'.
According to recent news, he has every right to be picky. His company Nest now belongs to Google – the web giant acquired it this week for a whopping $3.2 billion.
But what does Google want with Nest? The answer is simple: Google just bought itself a first-class ticket into your home, something it has unsuccessfully been trying to do for years.
Google has been gearing up for this moment since 2009, when it launched its web energy management tool PowerMeter.
The idea was ahead of its time. PowerMeter essentially enabled its users to monitor and also manage the energy they consumed online through an iGoogle widget (yup, remember iGoogle?).
The problem was that Google couldn't convince the world that energy consumption was data that needed tracking. Oh, and it also couldn't convince the energy companies to buy into the service either so closed it down in 2011.
By buying Nest it just solved both of those problems.
And then there's the Android@Home initiative. At its I/O developer conference in 2011, Vic Gundotra talked about how the perfect home was one that was run in part by Android. The centrpiece to this presentation was a strang black orb – a prototype that ended up being the much maligned Google Nexus Q. The eventual product was officially shown off at Google I/O 2012.
The idea was that the Nexus Q was to be a social media player, one that would connect to both your living room's television and speakers. It would connect up the home entertainment parts of your home like no other product since could.
Much to Google's disappointment, it didn't connect with audiences at all and now lives only in the homes of Google I/O attendees (who all got one for free) and those who pre-ordered it – who also eventually got the device for free.
Since the Nexus Q, Google's plans to dominate the home has, well, stuttered. At the same time the home automation market has started to show its true worth, with a trickle of stand out products taking advantage of the connected home idea – one being Philips Hue lighting system and the other being Nest's thermostats and smoke alarms.
Until its buyout of Nest, Google has only been on the cusp of the home. Its Android system is being used sporadically in refridgerators and the like – typically the products that Tony Fadell believes shouldn't be connected – but with Nest, Google has hit the home automation sweet spot.
In a way, Nest's relationship with Google has come full circle. Google Ventures was at the front with its wallet out when Nest went through a new round of funding this time a year ago.
And now it is paying for a company it helped fund more than double what it paid for YouTube in 2006. But what is it actually getting?
Well, unlike YouTube, it is buying a product and service that doesn't need fixing. The day Google bought YouTube was the day Google's lawyers let out a deep, synchronised sigh. It was a service mired in copyright clashes that needed fixing fast.
With Nest, Google has picked up two products that are universally praised by reviewers and the people that use them.
Nest Protect is a smoke and carbon monoxide alarm that gives you piece of mind even when you are away from your home.
The Nest Thermostat has revolutionised how some US homes deal with energy consumption. It helps level out energy bills – a massive problem in some areas because of air conditioning use in the summer – and allows you to regulate the temperature in your home when you aren't there.
These are the smartest smart products around and, as Fadell explained to us, they are products that up until now nobody really cared about.
"Nest is all about getting those unloved things in your home, reinventing them and making you reawakened to them and make you embrace them in a whole new way," he explained.
These are everyday products rethought and a perfect way in for Google to take over our homes.
And take over our home is precisely what Google wants to do. It was no coincidence that in November, Google showed off a 'home of the future' in London, where it invited journalists to sample all the products Android is used in and where it can be used in the future.
Each room in the posh Fitzroy Square house was taken over by Google, where it showed off how you can stream media with the Chromecast – something that is still lacking in the UK – how Google Now is more effective than Siri in offering information and how YouTube can be used for recipes in the kitchen... it was Google showing off how it can run the home but it was a showroom lacking real substance.
Nest is the substance that Google was lacking. It brings with it the products that were truly needed to furnish Google's home of the future.
Being that this is Google, though, there are those that will take issue with this. The world has been, quite rightly, critical of Google's apparent nonchalance about the data of its users. It's been drummed into those who use a Google product that, rightly or wrongly, its services may be free but those who use them pay with their data.
Now Google has Nest - and when the deal officially goes through it will have a huge amount of data on the thing Fadell hates, the 'internet of things'.
We all have to remember that the internet of things isn't just about products linking together – the key part of that machine ecosystem is us, the user.
Your kettle may link up to your fridge in the future, but all the data inputted is about you – how you use these products, when you use them - all these snippets of data will eventually connect up so that when you turn off your smart TV, turn on your smart kettle, turn down your smart thermostat and open your smart fridge someone somewhere will know about this.
Google wants to be that someone.
This is all laid bare in Nest's post about the sale, where it explains: "From the beginning, our vision was to create a conscious home. A home that is more thoughtful, intuitive."
The only way to do this is through data – data Google will soon have control of, as the post continues: "Google will help us fully realize our vision of the conscious home and allow us to change the world faster than we ever could if we continued to go it alone. We've had great momentum, but this is a rocket ship.
"Google has the business resources, global scale and platform reach to accelerate Nest growth across hardware, software and services for the home globally."
Google buying Nest shows that the home is where the heart is for Google's future growth. Of course it will continue to advance smartphones but this is a market it already has a massive grip on. Of course it will continue search but this is a market it... well, you get the idea.
For Google grow, it needs to expand into other areas. It failed once in the home with the PowerMeter, it failed again with the Nexus Q - but if you don't succeed just buy, buy and buy again.
Don't be surprised if Android@Home makes another appearance at this year's Google I/O. But this time front and centre of its plans will be one huge, valuable Nest egg.
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Macworld How to control focus and depth of field on your iPhone camera
One of the most striking differences between your iPhone and a large camera like a DSLR is the way the two cameras focus and control depth of field. In a DSLR, depth of field is easy to manage by changing the aperture—a large aperture like f/4 results in a relatively narrow field of focus, for example, while a small aperture like f/20 delivers deep depth of field in which most of the photo is in focus.
On the iPhone and other smartphones, though, you don't generally get that kind of flexibility. Without an aperture dial, you get little control over your depth of field. And thanks to the laws of physics, the tiny sensor results in a large depth of field in most of your photos.
You don't have to be satisfied with that, though. Take control of your iPhone's focus to capture the photos you want to achieve.
Specify the focus. This is hardly a state secret: All but absolute iPhone beginners know that you can tell the phone where to focus by tapping on the screen. If you want the foreground in focus, tap on something close to the camera. Want the background in focus? Tap a background subject. If most of the objects and people are about the same distance from you, this won't matter very much, and you can rely on the phone's autofocus to do the work for you. But if you have something very close and somewhat distant, you can definitely affect what's in focus.
Tap and hold to lock the focus with the Camera app.
Separate focus and exposure. The problem with that common trick is that the iPhone sets both exposure and focus with the same tap. If your foreground subject is also dark, you can end up over-exposing the photo. To solve that problem, install a better camera app – popular favorites include Camera+ ($2) and Top Camera ($3). Using either of these apps, you can tap separately to focus and specify where to set the exposure. The end result: You no longer have to live with under- or over-exposed photos just because you chose to set the focus point.
AfterFocus lets you adjust the parts of the image you want to focus after the fact.
Lock the focus. You don't need to install a new camera app to take advantage of this fancy focusing trick: You can lock the focus on the iPhone sort of like holding the shutter release button halfway down locks focus on a traditional digital camera. Tap and hold a spot on the screen for a few seconds until you see a yellow box flash around your finger. Let go, and you'll see the message "AE/AF Lock" on the screen. You can now re-compose the shot, and the focus and exposure will remain the same until you tap the shutter release button.
FocusTwist shots a short video and then shows you a still photo derived from it.
Simulate a DSLR's depth of field. The smaller a camera's image sensor, the larger the depth of field it creates. That's why smartphones and compact digital cameras can't compete with Digital SLRs when it comes to taking photos with romantically blurred backgrounds. There's help, though. Try an app like AfterFocus ($1). Open an existing photo or take a new one, and then outline the areas that you want to be in sharp focus and in blurry relief. The app then blurs the background for you, giving you a convincing shot with simulated depth of field.
Control depth of field after the fact. One of the wonders of modern engineering is a camera known as Lytro—it uses a sophisticated array of sensors to capture sharp focus everywhere in the scene at once.
Afterwards, using special software, you can change the focus point just by clicking. Want the background in focus and the foreground blurry? You can do it in one click, and then change your mind as often as you like. You can simulate that same effect on your iPhone with FocusTwist ($2). This app shoots a short video of a scene and presents it as a still image. When you tap in the image, it changes the scene to show that part of the scene in focus. You can also share your variable-focus creations online.
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