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Reblog: How Feathers Evolved

(YouTube link)

We now know that many dinosaurs had feathers; the question is, why? They couldn't fly, but for some reason, they developed fluff that eventually became feathers. There must have been some benefits from the plumage that eventually helped birds to fly. One of my favorite science writers, Carl Zimmer, explains how this may have happened. -via Geeks Are Sexy

from Neatorama http://bit.ly/17UrQUh

#How Feathers Evolved #Miss Cellania

Reblog: How to deploy certificates with Group Policy – Part 1: Introduction

Andrew Jacops - 0 comments

Andrew Jacops is a system/network administrator with over ten years experience managing Windows environments and the network infrastructures they run on.

Whether you’re trying to protect source code, company secrets, or just trying to keep your users safe, machine and user certificates are an important part of a multi-factor authentication system to secure your territory. In the first part of this two part series for deploying user and machine certificates using Group Policy, we will discuss what certificates are, best practices, and what they can be used for.

What Are Certificates?

Certificates, defined in the standard X.509, are a form of electronic identity verifiers for users and devices on a network. They can be likened to birth certificates. When you are born a government agency issues you a certificate as proof that you were in fact born, the date and time of that occurrence, in what place, etc. You can then use that certificate to prove that you are who you claim to be and reap the benefits of having this verification such as a driver’s license, passport, and a job.

Certificate Information

Certificate Authorities

In the example above, the government agency is the CA, or Certificate Authority, and the certificates are of course the birth certificates. A CA is used to issue digital certificates and verify their authenticity.

… read more of How to deploy certificates with Group Policy – Part 1: Introduction

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Deploying VPN connections to Windows 7 and 8 with Group Policy (0)

from 4sysops http://bit.ly/1aqMBGn

#How to deploy certificates with Group Policy – Part 1: Introduction #Andrew Jacops

Reblog: King of the Who?

King of the Who -Monty Python & the Holy Grail Tribute is the latest art print from Chet Phillips. If you are a fan of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, you can probably recite all the lines in the movie, just not in any particular order. The most memorable of those lines are right here in this 11x14 print, available signed by the artist at Etsy! However, if it's not your favorite film, there are also similar tributes to O Brother Where Art Thou and The Princess Bride available, too. Link-Thanks, Chet!

from Neatorama http://bit.ly/11WcmdY

#King of the Who?#Miss Cellania

Reblog: Snowden in online chat: NSA analysts can get “anything they want”

The Guardian

Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency (NSA) leaker, is continuing to speak out. He just wrapped up a public Q&A session from an undisclosed location in Hong Kong, answering moderated questions via live chat on The Guardian’s website on Monday. Snowden gave more details about exactly how NSA encryption works and how the public debate was progressing from his point of view.

Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who first broke Snowden’s story, noted that the chat was “subject to Snowden's security concerns and also his access to a secure Internet connection. It is possible that he will appear and disappear intermittently, so if it takes him a while to get through the questions, please be patient.”

A reader named Mathius1 asked a question probably on the minds of many Ars readers: “Is encrypting my e-mail any good at defeating the NSA surveillance? Is my data protected by standard encryption?”

Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

from Ars Technica http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/06/snowden-in-online-chat-nsa-analysts-can-get-anything-they-want/

#Snowden in online chat: NSA analysts can get “anything they want”#Cyrus Farivar

Reblog: Laser Maze: A Delightful Puzzle Game

Laser Maze components. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu

I’ve played a lot of digital puzzle games that involve bending lasers with mirrors to hit targets, but now I’ve got the real thing. Laser Maze is a new puzzle toy from Thinkfun with mirrors, beam splitters, and—of course—a real laser.

Here’s what comes in the box:

a plastic 5×5 grid

one laser token

5 target/mirror tokens

2 beam splitter tokens

1 double mirror token

1 checkpoint token

1 cell blocker token

60 puzzle cards

The plastic grid is about 7″ wide and has a slot on one edge that can hold a puzzle card, and the base has rubber feet to keep it from slipping. It would have been nice to have a cover or something to store all the tokens in, but for now I’m keeping the cardboard box it came in (which has a decent plastic tray to hold all the bits).

There’s a reference card, and each puzzle card has a solution on the back.

Each puzzle card shows you some number of tokens that must be placed on the grid: a question mark means that it can face any direction; otherwise it must be placed in the orientation matching the card. The top right shows what other tokens must be added to the board. Finally, the top right shows a number of targets from 1 to 3, indicating how many of the purple target tokens the laser must strike.

The purple tokens have a mirror, plus one red orthogonal face that serves as a target. Some cards indicate which of the purple tokens must be used as targets, and others let you decide. However you place the remaining tokens, though, the laser must strike each token on the board at least once.

Of course, in real life you can’t see the laser beam, just little spots where it strikes things. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu

The puzzles go from extremely easy (place one mirror to change the direction of the laser) to head-scratchingly difficult. Particularly tricky are the puzzles that require you to use the beam splitter to hit multiple targets and those in which the laser hits a particular token more than once from different directions. The solutions are printed on the backs of the cards—of course, this is a physical game so you can’t get just a hint, unless you ask a friend to peek for you.

It’s recommended for ages 8 and up, though as long as your kid knows not to point the laser at their own eye, they can have fun exploring how mirrors bend light. Both of my older daughters (ages 9 and 6) have been trying it out, and my wife and I have also been working our way through the deck of puzzles. If you like lasers (hey, who doesn’t?) and logic puzzles, Laser Maze is a lot of fun.

I did notice that in cases where the laser has been bounced around a lot before hitting the targets, the spot is no longer centered on the token—probably the tolerances on the angles are just slightly off, but not so far that it doesn’t work. If you had a bigger grid and several more mirrors then the laser might end up too far from the center with these tolerances.

Laser Maze retails for $29.99 and you can order it directly from Thinkfun or get it from Amazon, or look for it at your local toy store. If you’d prefer something a little more confrontational, check out Khet, a chess-like game that also involves lasers and mirrors.

Disclosure: Thinkfun provided a sample of Laser Maze for review purposes.

Thanks for reading GeekDad. Please consider clicking through to our site, we'd love to have you become more involved in our community!

from GeekDad http://bit.ly/11TPrQE

#Laser Maze: A Delightful Puzzle Game #Jonathan H. Liu

Reblog: A 3D Printing Neophyte Spends Three Weeks With a Cube 3D Printer

The Cube from 3D Systems is designed to look like a small appliance. Photo by Brad Moon

I’m one of those people who is obsessed with technology and gadgets, so it may be somewhat of a surprise that, up until a month ago, I hadn’t yet dabbled in the world of 3D printers. I’m not sure why it took so long, but I finally took the leap and spent a few weeks playing with one of the first mass-market 3D printers, 3D Systems’ Cube, a device that’s now available on store shelves at retailers like Staples. It’s easy to see 3D Systems is laser focused on the home and small business market with this device — the printer itself is designed to look like a colorful small kitchen appliance (in other words both chic and non-threatening), it’s compact, relatively easy to use and carries a $1,299 price tag. After two weeks, I believe that 3D printing is an interesting technology, but it’s still largely at the hobbyist level. The combination of cost and limitations in the technology mean 3D printing isn’t ready for prime time — yet.

There’s a lot to like about the Cube. It’s an attractive device and 3D Systems has designed it so that much of the mechanics are hidden. Connectivity can be via Wi-Fi to minimize cables. That simplicity and concealment approach extends to the cartridges the 3D printer uses. They’re sealed units to make things as easy as possible for users – loading the machine up is pretty similar to loading an inkjet printer. But, like an inkjet printer, the Cube is obviously intended to generate ongoing revenue through sales of raw materials. A single cartridge is $49 (the company does offer bulk discounts), and the cartridge is a sealed unit with a chip — I suspect a determined user could crack it open and replace the filament with third party stuff, but doing so would be a pain.

I discovered an immediate drawback to this approach (besides the cost) when I cracked open the review unit. Someone had tucked a nearly full PLA cartridge in the box without securing the filament that extends out of the plastic shell with the result that the filament retracted fully inside the sealed cartridge with no way to extend it back out. I could have cracked it open at that point, but it was a review unit and I had three unopened cartridges to play with. If a Cube owner made the same mistake, that cartridge would likely have been a $50 lesson.

Having never used a 3D printer before, or even personally seen a consumer-level model in action, there were some realities that caught me off guard. GeekDad contributors and readers who are into 3D printing will know all about this stuff and either shrug it off, or point out other manufacturers such as MakerBot as an alternative. As I said, I’m a neophyte when it comes to this area, but I am technically inclined and follow the industry from a distance; if some of these issues surprised me, you can bet they’re going to throw the general public.

Setup Of course it makes sense that you’d need a stable platform to securely hold the model being printed, but I didn’t realize that means applying glue to the print platform. Yeah, makes sense, but that’s a pain. Alignment of the print head and platform (in three dimensions) is also critical to success, but 3D Systems makes it pretty easy on the Cube and it needed only minor adjustments after shipping.

Cost Of course any new technology is going to be expensive. I don’t have a problem paying for something that solves a problem or offers a real advantage (in the old days I recall paying $800 or so for an external 2X CD burner). Still, $1,299 is on the high side for a consumer level peripheral (although I noticed Amazon has the Cube for $200 under the MSRP) and the cost of materials is an ongoing and not immaterial expense. I figured I was getting around a half dozen fist-sized objects from a single $50 cartridge, so if you print a lot this could quickly turn into an expensive hobby. And yes, I realize MakerBot went with spools of plastic instead of proprietary cartridges to minimize the expense of consumables, but a Replicator 2 goes for $2,199 which may be reasonable for hobbyists but is really pushing it for consumers.

A Minion model (from Despicable Me) found on Thingverse illustrates what an object really looks like when it comes off a 3D printer. Photo by Brad Moon

Realities and/or Limitations Most of the photos of 3D printed objects you’ll find online (and in promotional material) are of clean, finished objects. They look professional. The output from a 3D printer — at least this 3D printer — is full of support structures that need to be snapped or cut off and sanded smooth before the object comes anywhere close to those photos. And this should be obvious but often gets lost in the hype — large or complex objects (such as those with moving parts) don’t just work that way. You have to print pieces and assemble them. Entry level printers like the Cube are limited to a single color of plastic. Sure you can switch them up for different models, but for multicolored models you need to move to a more expensive printer. Despite online resources like Thingverse, it can be hard to find objects to print, especially if you’re looking for a specific object. With copyright lawyers taking notice of 3D plans posted online, this has the potential to get even trickier before it gets better.

So Slow… My single biggest complaint was the speed of 3D printing. Yes, the Cube is an entry level printer, so maybe others go faster, but I grew up in a slower world and I’m frustrated by the speed — manufacturers are going to have a hell of a time selling these things to younger buyers in that prime, compulsive technology buying demographic. The same buyers who have grown up in a digital world where everything is available on demand. The simplest model I printed took two hours, the most complex took eight. When I’d invite people over to show them the 3D printer in action, instead of the “Wow!” moment something like this should be, there were a few seconds of curiosity watching the print head zip around doing it’s thing, followed by a glazed eye look when I explained that if we came back in an hour or two, we’d be able to see some progress on the model. That delay lost them.

I learned the only thing more frustrating than waiting eight hours for a model to complete printing (and then have to cut off all the extra bits and finish it), was having a print head jam six hours into an eight hour print job and having to start from scratch. That’s six hours wasted, plus five bucks or more of plastic filament down the drain.

Conclusion I see the potential of 3D printing. I understand the reason for the interest in our GeekDad community. For those on the bleeding edge, the Cube seems like a reasonable entry point to me, and I think 3D Systems’ approach of making their printer look like an appliance was the right way to approach the consumer market. I think 3D printing is cool and fully expect to buy a 3D printer. But it won’t be for a few more years. Bring the cost down a bit, turn the all-day print jobs into a few hours, make the raw materials a little more reasonable in cost, build up the community of printable designs and 3D printers could have the potential to take off the way inkjet printers did in the home.

Thanks for reading GeekDad. Please consider clicking through to our site, we'd love to have you become more involved in our community!

from GeekDad http://bit.ly/19HsSmZ

#A 3D Printing Neophyte Spends Three Weeks With a Cube 3D Printer #Brad Moon

Reblog: Five Best Grills

With the summer grilling season upon us, you may be looking for the perfect backyard cooking surface for your next cookout, or you may just have strong opinions on which grills do the best job at helping a skilled cook turn out the best dishes. Whichever it is, we asked you for your picks for the best grills on the market, and you responded. Here are five of the best, based on your nominations.

Earlier this week, we asked you which grills you thought were the best—not just the fanciest or that had the most burners, cooking surfaces, or options, but the ones that were all around the best bang for the buck, the best at what they did, offered great build quality and speedy heating, and were overall easy to use and easy to clean up. Of course, we know there's a difference between grilling, barbecuing, and smoking, but we're using "grill" as the catch-all for backyard cooking appliances. Most of you picked up on that, and here's what you said:

Weber One Touch Kettle Series

The Weber One Touch series is one of the most popular, tried and true backyard grills on the market. The One Touch is a perhaps Weber's most iconic grill. Its kettle style is almost synonymous with charcoal grilling, and the One Touch is available in a number of sizes and corresponding price points, from the 18.5" ($79 at Amazon) to the 26.75" One Touch Gold ($299 at Amazon). All of the One Touch models offer steel plated cooking grills, ash catchers for easy cleanup, wheels for portability, and a self-cleaning system. The higher end One Touch Gold models also feature charcoal reservoirs in case you need more fuel, a removable aluminum ash catcher for even easier cleanup, a reinforced handle, tool hooks, a built-in thermometer, and a stainless steel cooking grate. Those of you who nominated the One Touch line noted there's a model for every price point or preferred size, and they're exceptional at both direct and indirect heating based on where you put your coals. Easy cleanup and solid build quality is extremely important too—so much so that our friends at The Sweethome (an offshoot of The Wirecutter) think the 22.5" One Touch Gold is the best chargoal grill you can buy.

Big Green Egg

The Big Green Egg is, as the name implies, a big green egg-shaped cooker that can serve as a grill, a smoker, and an oven. It's available in five different sizes, from the free-standing 24" "XLarge" that sports shelves on the sides and plenty of room to cook enough food to feed a crowd to the 10" "Mini" egg that's perfect for picnics, camping trips, or grilling on an apartment patio, with three more sizes in between. The Egg is a Kamado-style barbecue, namely it's made of an earthen material (ceramic, in this case) and is a charcoal cooker with a design meant to contain the heat and only vent it through a small vent at the top (somewhat similar to the Kettle design). In fact, there's a whole page dedicated to how the egg works, if you want to read it. With the right accessories, the Egg is perfect for indirect cooking, grilling pizza, grilling the perfect steak, even roasting chickens and turkeys. They're well-loved and have developed a bit of a cult following, but they're not cheap—the Large and XL will set you back around to $1000 (possibly more, especially if you spring for accessories at the same time), and the Mini is closer to $400. Those of you who praised the Egg pointed out that while they may be expensive, they'll likely be the last grill you ever buy, not just because they cook so well and offer incredible temperature control, but because they're incredibly versatile and built incredibly well. If you want one, you'll have to find a dealer near you that sells them, or a barbecue retailer that ships to your location.

Weber Genesis Series

The Weber Genesis line of premium gas grills designed to offer solid build quality, great design, and it heats up extremely fast and stays hot for the long haul. The Genesis models can cook with liquid propane gas or natural gas, depending on the model you purchase, and depending on your choice come with (S Series) stainless steel or (E Series) cast iron cooking rods, shroud, and trim. All models sport built-in thermometers, three massive burners, and plenty of cooking space. The S-330/E-330 offers a center "sear station" that cranks up the heat to give you the delicious browning you want on grilled meats, and a side-burner that can keep a pot or side-dish bubbling while you work on the grill. All models offer two stainless steel work stations on either side of the cooking surface, tool hooks, a fuel gauge (for propane models), and a massive 637 sq. in. cooking surface. You'll pay for that cooking surface and the convenience of gas though—the E-310 will set you back $699 at Amazon while the S-310 bumps that up to $849. The E-330 is closer to $800, and the S-330 is close to $1000. Still, they're huge, high-end, and solidly built—again, likely the last grill you ever buy.

We should note that our friends at The Sweethome point out that if you're looking for a bang for your buck gas model, you might want to step down from the Genesis to the Spirit line, specifically the Weber Spirit E-310, which we've highlighted before.

Char-Griller Akorn Kooker

The Char-Griller Akorn Kooker is Char-Griller's only Kamado-style grill. It's not even listed on their website anymore (although accessories for it are), but it's widely available at retailers and online ($300 at Amazon). Because it's a Kamado cooker, it features a single vent at the top and an insulated, all-ceramic body that's meant to keep the food inside hot for the long haul, even if you don't use a lot of charcoal. The Akorn Kooker is most often compared to the Big Green Egg, since it's a Kamado grill and available at a fraction of the price compared to the size, but even the reviewers at Amazon will openly note that it's not as good and not quite built as well, but there's no way you can look at it that the Akorn Kooker isn't significantly cheaper for a similar style cooker. Regardless of your take on the competition, the Akorn Kooker features a cast iron cooking surface, two work surfaces on the sides, and durable wheels to help you move the thing around. Those of you who praised the Akorn highlighted its price, it's bang for the buck, and its portability as highlights—especially if you must have a Kamado-style grill but you don't want to spend a ton of money to get one.

Weber Q Series

The Weber Q Series is a line of compact, durable gas grills that are designed for portability, ease of use, and quick grilling. They don't have the most powerful burners around, and depending on the model you get, they need to rest on top of a sturdy surface (since they may not have legs or wheels of their own), but they're affordable (the Weber Q 100 is $149 at Amazon, while the high-end, free-standing Weber Q 320 is $379 at Amazon) by comparison to some of Weber's other models and offer many features that apartment dwellers or people who don't cook outside that frequently will love and appreciate. All of the Weber Q models feature one-touch electric ignition switches, porcelain enameled cooking hoods and cast-iron cooking grates, and feature one or two burners (two on the higher-end models), and the higher-end models feature built-in thermometers and side-mounted work surfaces for platters or storage while you work. Those of you who praised the Q series noted its portability, ease of setup, and its ability to cook for four or five people at once without a problem, no matter where you set it up. If you're looking for a grill you can toss in the back of the car with you when you go camping or head out on vacation, the Q may be the one for you.

Now that you've seen your nominees, it's time to vote for the all out winner:

The honorable mention this week goes out to Traeger's Wood Pellet Grills and Smokers, which earned several nominations but not enough to get into the top five. You praised the Traeger models for using a different type of fuel, eliminating the need for charcoal briquettes or propane refills and hoses, and for their design and build quality. If you're looking at charcoal versus gas and wishing you had an alternative, here you go.

Have something to say about one of the contenders? Want to make the case for your personal favorite, even if it wasn't included in the list? Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread from earlier in the week. Don't just complain about the top five, let us know what your preferred alternative is—and make your case for it—in the discussions below.

The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it's not because we hate it—it's because it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at [email protected]!

Photos by Phil Gwinn, Bart Everson, and Mike the BBQ Guy.

from Lifehacker http://bit.ly/11EH1IL

#Five Best Grills #Alan Henry

Reblog: How we feel can change how we taste fat

The child on the right will be both depressed and unable to taste fat once the ice cream falls out of his cone.

Library of Congress

We’ve all done it: after a rough day, you come home and open a bag of M&Ms or potato chips and polish off the whole thing before even realizing it. It's often as simple as being tired, distracted, or hungry. However, new research suggests that it’s possible you weren’t even able to taste that fatty goodness, which may be why you just kept on eating. A paper published last week in PLoS ONE suggests that there is a complex relationship between emotional arousal, symptoms of depression, and taste perception, and that this phenomenon could have links to emotional overeating.

Previous studies have suggested that both depression and strong emotions can affect how and what we taste. Now that fat has been shown to stimulate taste receptors in a similar way to other qualities like sweetness and bitterness, a group of German researchers wondered whether our psychological state could also affect how we taste and perceive fat.

To test this relationship, the researchers brought in 80 subjects (48 women and 32 men) from 19 to 47 years old. The participants were asked a few questions about their lifestyle and were each given a questionnaire called Beck's Depression Inventory, which evaluates depression-related symptoms such as irritability and feelings of guilt. Based on the responses, the subjects were divided into two groups: the “subclinical depression” group, each of whom had depression scores lower than the median, and the “no subclinical depression” group, who had depression scores that were higher than the median.

Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

from Ars Technica http://ars.to/1abqZxy

#How we feel can change how we taste fat #Kate Shaw Yoshida

Reblog: Lessig: It's time to rewrite the internet to give us better privacy and security

Lawrence Lessig writes in the Daily Beast today about the relationship between the internet and civil liberties principles, in the wake of Edward Snowden's NSA surveillance leak.

"We don’t know yet whether Snowden is telling the truth," says Lessig. Not that he doubts Snowden, or doesn't, it's just that we literally can't know how much of it is true, because it's all secret.

But what we do know are the questions that ought to be asked in response to his claims. And specifically, this: Is it really the case that the government has entrusted our privacy to the good judgment of private analysts? Are there really no code-based controls for assuring that specific surveillance is specifically justified? And what is the technology for assuring that rogues paid by our government can’t use data collected by our government for purposes that none within our government would openly and publicly defend?

Lessig is on Bill Moyers' show tonight, also. Worth watching.

from Boing Boing http://bit.ly/17JZEmK

#Lessig: It's time to rewrite the internet to give us better privacy and security #Xeni Jardin

Reblog: The Trajectory of Television—starting with a big history of the small screen

Aurich Lawson / Thinkstock

Though it's a relatively recent invention, television is a pillar of Western—and even global—culture. Even if you're that one guy who makes it a point to mention that you don't watch or even own a television, your life has inevitably been shaped by the small screen to some degree. Popular culture has its moments of being swept up in the comedies and dramas of the airwaves, and television (cable news in particular) indelibly established in the minds of the world that instant access to breaking news on faraway continents is a normal thing.

Even as "millennials" stray away from the idea of "watching" TV in a form recognizable or understandable to advertisers, most households in the first world still have big screens in the living rooms. For more than 60 years, television has filled the role of surrogate storyteller for a world that no longer has to spend evenings huddled around open fires. Even in the so-called "emerging market" countries, television is pervasive: TVs are inexpensive, and their ability to mesmerize and entertain ensures that they are found everywhere.

But how did we reach this point, and does anyone really know what comes next? It wasn't so long ago that we chose to tell each other tales like shamans and bards, but nowadays we spend endless evenings staring at phosphors and LEDs.

Read 43 remaining paragraphs | Comments

from Ars Technica http://ars.to/16dJ6Ak

#The Trajectory of Television—starting with a big history of the small screen #Lee Hutchinson

Reblog: What the NSA can do with “big data”

NSA Headquarters in Fort Meade, MD.

mjb

One organization's data centers hold the contents of much of the visible Internet—and much of it that isn't visible just by clicking your way around. It has satellite imagery of much of the world and ground-level photography of homes and businesses and government installations tied into a geospatial database that is cross-indexed to petabytes of information about individuals and organizations. And its analytics systems process the Web search requests, e-mail messages, and other electronic activities of hundreds of millions of people.

No one at this organization actually "knows" everything about what individuals are doing on the Web, though there is certainly the potential for abuse. By policy, all of the "knowing" happens in software, while the organization's analysts generally handle exceptions (like violations of the law) picked from the flotsam of the seas of data that their systems process.

I'm talking, of course, about Google. Most of us are okay with what Google does with its vast supply of "big data," because we largely benefit from it—though Google does manage to make a good deal of money off of us in the process. But if I were to backspace over Google's name and replace it with "National Security Agency," that would leave a bit of a different taste in many people's mouths.

Read 31 remaining paragraphs | Comments

from Ars Technica http://ars.to/14vGyxD

#What the NSA can do with “big data”#Sean Gallagher

Reblog: rhubarb cream cheese hand pies

A few weeks ago, I retold the sad tale of the late rhubarb meringue tart that met its end when it slid off the plate and managed to coat nearly every part of the open fridge I’d intended to put it into with smears of curd, puffs of meringue and crust of crumbs. Rhubarb, although not to blame, and I took a break after that, and it might had continued longer had I not been haunted by an Instagram commenter (hi!) who urged me to try my hand at a rhubarb cream cheese danish. I imagined the tart pink rhubarb against a lemony slick of cheesecake, enveloped in a puff of orange-scented pastry and I could not bear it.

However, as I began researching danish dough, my interested waned. I don’t think it will be a bad project for one day, but all of that envelope folding and yeast and butter and carefully timed steps seemed a bit much for six to eight folded pastries that wouldn’t survive beyond the breakfast meal. And certainly not when it is finally high pie season, that blissful period from May to September when we in this hemisphere are lucky enough to have more fruit than we know what to do with.

... Read the rest of rhubarb cream cheese hand pies on smittenkitchen.com

from smitten kitchen http://bit.ly/14FVQMT

#rhubarb cream cheese hand pies #deb

Reblog: The Elder Scrolls Online: Watch the E3 Gameplay Trailer

The Elder Scrolls Online is definitely my most anticipated game since Skyrim and one that I expect to consume a great deal of my time. Details are still somewhat scarce, but Bethesda keeps teasing us with little tidbits of info. Check out below for the E3 game play trailer, which includes a lot less game play than I’d like to see, but is still enough to string me on for another month or so. Block out next spring on my calendar: I’m going to be busy, very busy.

Thanks for reading GeekDad. Please consider clicking through to our site, we'd love to have you become more involved in our community!

from GeekDad http://geekdad.com/2013/06/the-elder-scrolls-online-watch-the-e3-gameplay-trailer/

#The Elder Scrolls Online: Watch the E3 Gameplay Trailer #Anton Olsen

Reblog: Study: Is Problem Solving Different Than IQ?

Genetics Lab: a downloadable game to test complex problem solving

Intelligence tests are great; they do a darn good job predicting which students will succeed in school. But an article just published in the journal Intelligence wonders how much these IQ-like academic subjects and the tests that measure them continue to matter in the real world. In addition or as an alternative to traditional intelligence tests, the article evaluates measures of complex problem solving.

This is cool: instead of answering questions about trains leaving stations, vocabulary and block stacking patterns to measure IQ, the researchers propose “computer-based problem-solving scenarios called microworlds” to assess higher-order thinking skills. Designing these microworlds requires looking inside what makes higher-order thinking and, in fact, what goes on inside complex problem solving itself.

See, questions on IQ tests have answers: donkey and horse are to mule as lion and tiger are to liger. (Okay, I kind of love the liger, but that’s beside the point.) But in the real world, problems can consist of many, interconnected variables whose relationships are obscured and change over time, and goals can be unclear or even competing and contradictory – factors the authors of the Intelligence study cite as central to complex problem solving.

But pulling apart these ideas – traditional definitions of intelligence from complex problem solving – is tricky. As you’d expect, there’s significant overlap; people who are intelligent are generally good at CPS and vice a versa. But in what ways do these skills diverge? How is the intelligence measured by IQ and trained in school different from the skills of complex problem solving needed in the real world?

To answer that question researchers stuck 563 Luxembourgian high-schoolers in a genetics lab – or, at least in front of a free, downloadable microworld called Genetics Lab, which you should definitely check out if you have time. In GL, test-takers turn on and off “genes” and then click “next day” to discover how the combinations affect a fictional creature’s traits like IQ, Inventions and Ideas. It turns out to be a bit of a mish-mash, and sorting out which genes create which abilities is a strange and complex soup.

Like many problems in the real world, GL not only requires manipulating information on the way to a goal, but sallying forth into the microworld to discover this information in the first place and using the information to create a mental model of how the system works. So Genetics Lab is scored three ways: Do students manipulate Genetics Lab in a way that creates unambiguous rules? Can they understand the relationships between genes and characteristics? And only finally, can they manipulate genes to get target characteristics?

Students were studious. Researchers researched. And then the researchers compared students’ three GL scores to their IQs, grades and whole bunch of other measures. What they found is cool, but only when you look at it with a bit of nuance. See, they found that Genetics Lab measures the same thing as the reasoning section of the standard IQ test. D’oh!

But, “Although they might not measure something different from reasoning scales, they measure it differently,” the authors write. And by measuring this reasoning or problem solving or whatever you want to call it differently, the researchers were able to see not only the endpoints but the waypoints that led there – they could measure problem solving process and not simply its product, and so answer not only the question of who is and is not good at reasoning/problem-solving, but what got them there.

Gathering information, making a mental model of how information drives results, and finally putting this model to work to get the results you want: that’s the process of complex problem solving. At this point, it ain’t yet been pulled as a skill distinct from IQ-like reasoning. But a peek inside this process shows how results happen – and, as a parent or teacher knows, this process may allow you to help your kids learn this complex and important skill.

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from GeekDad http://bit.ly/1902t13

#Study: Is Problem Solving Different Than IQ?#Garth Sundem

Reblog: Pipe exits beta, lets Facebook friends share giant files

Cloud storage from the likes of Dropbox and Google is all well and good, but let's face it -- many of our friends won't venture far beyond Facebook. Thankfully, Pipe is about to publicly launch a file transfer service built with them in mind. The company's namesake Facebook tool lets socialites send files without dedicated apps, and automatically picks a method depending on whether or not both contacts are online. If they are, they can send files up to 1GB through a peer-to-peer link; a locker will also hold on to as much as 100MB if the recipient isn't ready and waiting. Pipe doesn't go live until mid-day on June 5th, but those who want to share more on Facebook than their memories can get a heads-up on availability at the source link.

Filed under: Storage, Internet, Facebook

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Via: GigaOM

Source: Pipe

from Engadget RSS Feed http://engt.co/13GljqB

#Pipe exits beta #lets Facebook friends share giant files #Jon Fingas

Reblog: Spock Gets It On In This Star Trek Slow Jam

(Video Link)

This video is highly logical about the Vulcan mating ritual, which takes place every seven years. If you never thought Vulcans seemed very romantic, boy will you be surprised...ok, not really.

from Neatorama http://bit.ly/11xBac6

#Spock Gets It On In This Star Trek Slow Jam #Jill Harness

Reblog: How Much More Productive Is ToDoist Premium? Here Are 6 Good Reasons To Upgrade

I kept using ToDoist for free for a while. But kept coming up against things I wanted to do and couldn't. Email reminders. Adding notes to task. Things that would really add a whole lot to the value of ToDoist as a time management and task management solution. So, one day this year, I just decided to bite the bullet.

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Read full post: How Much More Productive Is ToDoist Premium? Here Are 6 Good Reasons To Upgrade

from MakeUseOf http://bit.ly/16NuNWV

#How Much More Productive Is ToDoist Premium? Here Are 6 Good Reasons To Upgrade #Ryan Dube

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