Author: admin

Government Internet

The story behind the company contracted to make the buggy Healthcare.gov website

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As reported on The Verge. By Dante D’Orazio  It’s no secret that the Healthcare.gov website — which is home to Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges — hasn’t had a smooth launch. The company that won the $93.7 million contract to construct the site is CGI Federal, a subsidary of a Canadian firm called CGI Group. Blame for the botched launch has largely settled on the company, the contractors it hired to complete the job, and the bureaucratic system that awards…

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Google

Face value: digging through Google’s clumsy new terms of service

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As reported on The Verge. By Russell Brandom Users raised hell when Instagram made a similar move, so why didn’t Google learn its lesson? On Friday, anyone signed into a Google account was greeted with a banner across the top of the page announcing the company’s terms of service had changed. Google was clearing the path for Facebook-style advertising, announcing any “shared endorsement” would be fair game to be used in promoted content. It’s a familiar playbook,…

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Business Cloud Culture Entertainment

40% Of YouTube Traffic Now Mobile, Up From 25% In 2012, 6% In 2011

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As reported on TechCrunch. by Josh Constine It’s hard to get people to concentrate long on anything on their phones and tablets, yet YouTube seems to be the exception. The video service is quickly going mobile, with small screens making up 40% of its traffic now compared to 25% last year, Google said on its earnings call today. In 2011, just 6% of YouTube traffic came from mobile. Google’s not the only one rapidly shifting a 1…

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Application

Yahoo Screen for iOS now supports AirPlay and live video broadcasts

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As reported on Engadget. By Edgar Alvarez The Yahoo Screen application is still a relatively young one, but it’s never too early to start adding more features to it. With this in mind, Yahoo revealed today that it’s bringing AirPlay compatibility to the app, making it easy for viewers to stream content on their television set — all while being able to use the iOS device to browse other videos and select what to play next. The refreshed…

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Photography

Giant X-Rays Reveal the Bare Bones of Planes, Cars, and M16 Machine Guns

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As reported on Wired. BY JAKOB SCHILLER Mini. Boeing 777. Tommy Gun. M16. Anschutz. Walther PPK. Spas-12. Walking robot. Robot face on. Robot crucifixion. Veasey’s studio. The outside of Veasey’s studio. View as gallery The best photographs work on multiple levels, capturing what’s happening on the surface while transcending two-dimensions to invite viewers to dig into whatever’s pictured. That’s literally the idea behind Nick Veasey’s x-ray photographs. He uses five x-ray machines to take probing photos that provide…

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Entertainment

Walter White and Jesse Pinkman could show up in ‘Better Call Saul’

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As reported on The Verge. By Jacob Kastrenakes We may not have seen the last of Walter White. As Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan prepares for the spinoff series Better Call Saul, he tells The Hollywood Reporterthat both Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, who played Jesse, have expressed an interest in coming onto the new show in a cameo. “The sky is the limit with a prequel,” Gilligan tells the Reporter. “You never know who might turn up or when or where.” The…

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Environmental

CLEANING UP ONE OF AMERICA’S MOST POLLUTED CITIES

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As reported on The Verge. By Matt Stroud A Pittsburgh-area steel town fights for clear skies In 1995, the Monongahela River Valley’s air was among the most polluted in the United States. This collection of municipalities, about 10 miles southeast of downtown Pittsburgh, sat downwind from the Clairton Coke Works, which is a giant factory engaged in one of the dirtiest industrial processes known to civilization. It had been established decades earlier that people who grew up close…

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Application Business Cloud Entertainment

Amazon’s Instant Video apps for iOS improve AirPlay support, let users multitask

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As reported on Engadget. By Richard Lawler Amazon added AirPlay support to its Instant Video (US) and Lovefilm (Europe, iPad only) apps for iOS devices in September, and now it’s pushed simultaneous updates to make it better. Both apps now support multitasking (the Instant Video app notes iOS 6+ is required, with AirPlay Mirroring disabled). That should make streaming to Apple TV boxes even easier, although Amazon’s lack of a generic app for Android and/or Chromecast support from the Kindle…

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Business Hardware Dev

Freeformer industrial 3D printer creates complex items in batches, can combine soft and hard parts

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As reported on Engadget. By Mariella Moon Regular 3D printers (from pens to desktop models) debut quite frequently these days, but a new machine named Freeformer was created with industrial-grade manufacturing in mind. The device was designed by German company ARBURG and employs a proprietary process called ARBURG Plastic Freeforming or — we swear this acronym’s not a typo — AKF. It takes 3D CAD data and uses it to make functional parts out of liquid plastic without the…

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Culture Education

How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses

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As reported on Wired. BY JOSHUA DAVIS These students in Matamoros, Mexico, didn’t have reliable Internet access, steady electricity, or much hope—until a radical new teaching method unlocked their potential.  Peter Yang José Urbina López Primary School sits next to a dump just across the US border in Mexico. The school serves residents of Matamoros, a dusty, sunbaked city of 489,000 that is a flash point in the war on drugs. There are regular shoot-outs, and it’s not…

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