A Brief Essay About The Guy That Created The Internet...Sort Of

David Wallechinsky didn't invent what's on the Internet. It just seems that way.
In 1977, Wallechinsky, his father Irving Wallace and his sister Amy Wallace published "The Book of Lists." The compendium of cleverly presented facts, such as "15 People Who Became Words," "10 Men Who Were Supported By Their Wives" and "6 Positions for Sexual Intercourse -- In Order of Preference," wasn't just simple enumeration.
It featured detailed explanations about its subjects, proving itself a worthy and entertaining reference work. "The Book of Lists" immediately took its place on another list -- the bestseller list -- and spawned three sequels.
More than three decades later, in the Internet age, its impact is everywhere. Countless websites, including CNN.com, have turned to lists -- sometimes in the form of galleries -- to help tell stories in a digestible way and boost page views. Topics range from "History's Biggest Mysteries" to "13 Team Names That Will Make a Lot More Sense When You Know Their Origins" to "11 Things You Didn't Know About Spinal Tap."
Sure, you can't copyright an idea that goes back to God and Hammurabi, but one might think that Wallechinsky might be seething about seeing his child so misused.
Not in the least, says the author, Olympic historian and creator of the website AllGov.com.
"I was thrilled when the Internet came around," he says. He understands that the list concept makes it easier to process information, and "I'm glad to have done what I could."
These days, Wallechinsky, 66, devotes his time to AllGov.com, an attempt to create a different kind of information repository: a site all about the business of government, including details about dozens of government agencies and names of hundreds of government officials. Currently AllGov features the United States, California and France; plans call for it to cover every U.S. state and every country in the world.
"We pride ourselves on accuracy, double-checking," he says. "The Internet is so full of junk and not-researched material. ... We try to emphasize policy instead of politics."

LG TO START SALES OF G2 MINI NEXT MONTH

For those of you who are fans of LG, the company will start selling its G2 MINI android phone first in Russia and neighboring countries starting next month then spread to other parts of the world

Compared to the LG G2, the mini is smaller, less powerful and less expensive.--- has a 4.7-inch, 950x540 pixel screen , a 1.2GHz quad-core snapdragon 400 processor, 2440mAh removable battery and Android 4.4 kitkat.

Networking abilities will vary tho, 4G LTE will be standard in Europe and Asia but Russian and other CIS countries  will 3G dual sim version. In addition, only the 4G LTE models have NFC (near field communication) abilities.

Pricing hasn't been announced yet but CNET estimates the price won't be $150 on contract or $400 dollars without one. 

LG MINI SMARTPHONES TO BEGIN SALES IN APRIL

For those of you who are fans of LG, the company will start selling its G2 MINI android phone first in Russia and neighboring countries starting next month then spread to other parts of the world

Compared to the LG G2, the mini is smaller, less powerful and less expensive.--- has a 4.7-inch, 950x540 pixel screen , a 1.2GHz quad-core snapdragon 400 processor, 2440mAh removable battery and Android 4.4 kitkat.

Networking abilities will vary tho, 4G LTE will be standard in Europe and Asia but Russian and other CIS countries  will 3G dual sim version. In addition, only the 4G LTE models have NFC (near field communication) abilities.

Pricing hasn't been announced yet but CNET estimates the price won't be $150 on contract or $400 dollars without one. 

EARLY SALE OF SAMSUNG S5

The new Samsung galaxy S5 is now on sale.. Its sale set of two weeks before the scheduled date due to impatient south Korean carrier Sk telecom.

This came as a surprise to samsung.  The phone was made available for about 866,800 won. The S5 is set to go on sale around the world on 11 April , hitting top shelves in 150 countries before the month runs out.

HTC ONE: THE WORLD'S BEST SMARTPHONE

It is considered poor form to begin a review with the conclusion, but there's no reason to drag this out: the HTC One (M8) is the best Android phone the world has ever seen.
Period.
Full stop.
In many ways, in fact, it is the best smartphone the world has ever seen. From the design to the power of its components and everything in between, HTC's new One is better than its predecessor -- and its predecessor, as you might recall, was the best all-around Android phone the world had ever seen.
One of the most important things to be aware of from the get-go with the new HTC One is that looks can be deceiving. From afar, the M8 looks very similar to last year's One. Having the same name certainly doesn't help matters either. But the new HTC One is not a minor, iterative update. It's not a bunch of newer components stuffed into the same case. It is a brand new smartphone from top to bottom, inside and out.
HTC redesigned the device's case, for starters. It looks similar but there are plenty of important differences. First, there is much more metal. Last year's HTC One case was 70 percent metal; this year's model is 90 percent. The aluminum on the back of the new HTC One wraps around to the sides and bottom now, with the only remaining plastic found in inserts on the back and top of the phone.
The display itself is fantastic, as was the case with the original HTC One. HTC's M8 uses a Super LCD 3 panel that is slightly larger than the screen on last year's model, having been bumped up to 5 inches from 4.7 inches. It's still the same 1080p full HD resolution so pixels are a bit more spread out, but the difference isn't discernible to the naked eye. Text and objects are smooth, colors are rich and the contrast is impressive.
Metal inserts above and below the glass screen house HTC's signature BoomSound speaker system -- speakers, amplifiers, audio tuning and hollow chambers behind the micro-drilled holes you see on the face of the phone. These chambers help amplify the sound from the speakers, and on the new HTC One they're 20 percent larger. HTC also used new and improved speakers and amps on the new model. The result is sound that's deeper, 25 percent louder, and even a bit clearer (at least to my ear).
A dual-LED flash and two camera lenses comprise HTC's new "Duo Camera." HTC is not worried about the megapixel race. Instead, the company stuck with its 4-megapixel "UltraPixel" technology and focused on two things: Improving the quality of the images captured, rather than the size, and adding unique new features to the camera experience.
This is a fine strategy, in theory. In practice, the results are somewhat mixed.
On the "adding unique new features" front, HTC absolutely succeeded. A second smaller lens is used to measure depth, for example, and the related information allows the phone to apply several very nifty photo effects after the fact.
But image quality, sadly, is another matter entirely. HTC said that it spent a great deal of time working on improving the quality of the camera so photos would come out better in all lighting conditions. I didn't find that to be the case in my testing. I still found colors to be washed out when taking pictures in many lighting scenarios and the photos definitely don't pop like they do with leading cameras like the ones on the Lumia 1020 and iPhone 5s.
On the software front, HTC has redesigned just about every last pixel in the Sense interface. And as is the case with the phone's housing, everything was changed for the better. In keeping with the latest trends in iOS and other Android software, Sense 6 is much more minimalistic than earlier versions, and it also makes use of nice bright colors that vary depending on which app you're in.
Unlike iOS, Sense 6 supports themes so you can change the color palette to suit your preference. Fonts have been changed across the device, while gradients and textures have been flattened and made solid. The result is a much more modern look throughout the entire operating system.
HTC added intelligent features to Sense 6 that use location, time and other context to present the user with relevant information even before she requests it. So, for example, HTC's Foursquare integration will allow the phone to pop up information about a restaurant the user is passing if it's lunchtime and the user's friends have recommended it in the past.
Another key partnership has been made with FitBit, which has added support for the M8's in-built "sensor hub" to its step-tracking app. Like the M7 motion coprocessor in Apple's iPhone 5s, the new HTC One includes sensors that track movements in order to count steps. But the sensor hub is about more than just step counting.
One of my favorite simple new HTC One (M8) features is called "Motion Launch," and it is made possible by HTC's new sensors. This feature allows the user to pick up his or her phone with the display off and perform one of several tap, swipe or motion gestures to perform specific commands.
The last big software change I'll draw attention to is one that I absolutely love: Extreme power saving, a drastic measure to squeeze as much as possible out of your battery. Enabling this mode lowers the brightness of the screen and displays a special screen that provides access to voice calling, texting and email, though automatic email downloading is turned off. Everything else, including background data, is disabled. According to HTC, a 5 percent charge will last 15 hours and a 100 percent will last a ridiculous two weeks.
My review of the first-generation HTC One was titled "the smartphone that changes everything," and it was quite apropos at the time. The One was easily the closest thing we had ever seen at the time to a no-compromise smartphone.
The new HTC One changes everything again.From the design, to the materials, to the internal components and the software, it's all new and it's all remarkably impressive. And the new gunmetal gray color with a brushed finish is absolutely stunning.
The HTC One (M8) will go on sale in the U.S. and abroad Tuesday, and will start at $199.99 on contract for the 16GB model. At launch, Verizon's retail stores will be the only to stock and sell the M8, though it will be available from all four major carriers online. AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile will start selling the phone in stores as well sometime early next month.

DWARF PLANET DISCOVERED

For anyone holding out hope of Pluto being reinstated as a major planet, you should probably do as they say in the movie "Frozen" and "let it go."




 



But here's a new exciting find from the far reaches of our solar system: Astronomers have discovered a dwarf planet that's even farther away than Pluto -- so far, in fact, that its orbit reaches into a new edge of the solar system.

The dwarf planet's current name is 2012 VP113, and it is located in a "wasteland or badland of the solar system," said astronomer Chad Trujillo, head of adaptive optics at Gemini Observatory in Hawaii and co-discoverer of this object. His study was published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

"The big question is, how is this formed? How can you get an object out there?" he said. "We really don't know an answer to that yet."

This dwarf planet is unusual because of its orbit, Trujillo said. On its elliptical path, the closest it ever comes to the sun is still very far away from the rest of the solar system. Its full orbit is farther than the orbit of any other object we know of in the solar system.

"Nothing that we currently know in the solar system can make objects that are so distant all the time, that never come close to any of the planets," Trujillo said.

The most distant major planet from the sun is Neptune, orbiting our star at a distance of 30 astronomical units. One astronomical unit is the average distance between the Earth and the sun -- about 150 million kilometers, or 93 million miles.

Beyond Neptune is the Kuiper Belt, a doughnut-shaped ring of small objects, which extends from about 30 to 55 AU, according to NASA. This belt may contain hundreds of thousands of large icy objects and trillions of comets, if not more. Pluto is considered a dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt.

The awkwardly-named 2012 VP113 is much farther from the sun, at 83 astronomical units. That puts it at 83 times the distance between our own planet and the sun.

But in terms of average distance from the sun, there is a dwarf planet even farther out: Eris, which Trujillo helped discover. Eris is bigger than Pluto, and has a satellite called Dysnomia. The presence of Eris helped scientists determine that Pluto should not be counted among the major planets.

Sedna, a dwarf planet that Trujillo co-discovered as well in 2004, is located in the same distant area, and takes about 10,500 years to orbit the sun.

"Finding Sedna so far away seemed odd and potentially a fluke," said Mike Brown, professor of astronomy at California Institute of Technology, in an e-mail. "But this one is beginning to make it look like that might be a typical place for objects to be. Not at all what I would have guessed."

This home of Sedna and 2012 VP113 is called the "inner Oort Cloud." It may be where some comets come from, Trujillo said.

Trujillo's study also suggests that there could be a large planet that no one has seen, way out at 250 astronomical units, affecting the orbits of Sedna and the new dwarf planet. But this is only a theory; the planet has not been detected.

Brown, who was not involved in this study, also co-discovered Sedna.

"These unusual objects -- Sedna and this new one -- can tell us about very early in the solar system, when the sun and planets were just forming," Brown said.

Scientists have not been able to discern what 2012 VP113's composition is, but most would suspect it is icy because of its distance from the sun, Trujillo said. Its color is slightly reddish, and "not especially unusual compared to Kuiper Belt objects," Trujillo said.

Trujllio and colleagues estimate that the new dwarf planet is relatively small -- about 450 kilometers (280 miles) in diameter, which less than the driving distance from Philadelphia to Boston. It's probably ball-shaped, he said.

So why is this not a major planet such as Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars? Trujillo explains that a bona fide planet is big enough that other objects in its orbit will be sucked into it gravitationally. A dwarf planet is not big enough to become gravitationally dominant; it's too small to pull in objects in the area of its path.

It's possible that this dwarf planet formed very early in our solar system's history, in the region between Jupiter and Saturn, and then got thrown out beyond Pluto. One theory is that, billions of years ago, another star passed by our sun and took material with it out to a distant orbit.
As far as we know, it's too cold out where the dwarf planet is to have liquid water, Trujillo said.

"To me, what this discovery really shows is that we are on verge of finally being able to read the story that Sedna is trying to tell us, and that the next few years should bring a flood of new discoveries in this new region of the outer solar system," Brown said.

2012 VP113 will be eventually renamed, but Trujillo's website says it's informally called "Biden" because of the "VP" designation.

This is BlackBerry's Unreleased 'Cyclone' Streaming Box. Cool Right?

In 2011, BlackBerrywas rumored to be developing a media box to compete against the likes of Rokuand Apple TV. While that device never made it to market, it looks like the company did manufacture some units, as proven by pictures posted on the CrackBerry forums. These photos were taken by user "isaac708," who claims he got 10 BlackBerry Cyclones (the device's code name) inside a box full of server stuff from a RIM liquidator. Half of those units came with a remote control, and some of them can actually connect to the internet via WiFi as well as stream videos to a TV using HDMI connection. One of the images he posted even shows the box's user interface with the YouTube and Slacker apps in full view, though Netflix, which is also supposed to be part of Cyclone's repertoire, is nowhere to be seen. While the device's fate is likely up in the air (if it hasn't been scrapped yet) due to the company's ongoing struggles

Samsung Galaxy Beam 2 spotted with metal exterior in China

At Mobile World Congressin 2012, Samsung announced a pico projector smartphone known as the Galaxy Beam. Although it was a cool concept, the phone's downfall was its middling specs, aging OS and large chassis. Two years later, it appears that Samsung's working on a successor to the Beam called the SM-G3858, according to China's government database. The Tenaa entryeven comes with a few pictures, most of which offer an indication of a projector: there's clearly a bump on the upper back which opens up to a wide lens on the top, and we also saw an extra button that models after the original Beam -- in fact, the icon above the button looks eerily like the one seen here. Curiously, Samsung has shed the sporty misshapen look in favor of a sleek metal build, which certainly seems a better fit for professionals.
The database also gives us a glimpse at its specs, some of which are an improvement over the original Beam; the China Mobile-branded phone reportedly packs a 4.66-inch WVGA (800x480) display, Android 4.2.2, a quad-core 1.2GHz chipset with 1GB of RAM, microSD slot with up to 32GB external storage, as well as TD-SCDMA and GSM connectivity (no LTE on this model, although there's a chance this is simply a 3G-only variant of a global model). It's also 11.6mm thick, which is much thicker than most Samsung smartphones but still is nearly a full millimeter thinner than the original. It's still too early to determine whether this is going to be exclusive to China Mobile or available to a global market, but at least we know the phoneexistsfor now; Samsung, we're hopeful, will provide us with the rest of the story at some point down the road.

Instagram Actualy Does Your Pictures A Favour.

Go ahead, ask any youngster around you: selfies are serious business. No one is more mindful of that universal truth than Instagram, which is why it pushed out yetanother iOS app updateearlier today. No, there aren't any new filters (isn't 19 enough?) -- instead, the company brought some much-needed control to its Lux feature.
Lux (a.k.a. that little sun icon that makes pictures look better) was originally added to help mobile photogs salvage their underexposed, anemic-looking shots. The big caveat? It was an all-or-nothing affair, with no way to find the middle ground between the original image and the occasionally over-the-top Luxified result. Today's update adds a much-needed slider to the mix so you can decide just how dramatic the effect should be. If you're feeling particularly devious, you can crank down the Lux to desaturate your shots, too. Alas, there's no word on when the tweaked feature will hit Androidor Windows Phone, but hey -- there's no shortage of photo editingapps to get the job done until it arrives.

Update On The Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane.

Interpol tweeted Sunday it was examining additional "suspect #passports"
"We have not found anything," official says
Family members are being told to brace for the worst
The focus has shifted to the Andaman Sea.
(CNN)-- Despite the efforts of 34 planes, 40 ships and search crews from eight countries, officials have not found any sign of a Malaysia Airlines flight that went missing two days ago.
"Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, we have not found anything that appear to be objects from the aircraft, let alone the aircraft," Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of the Malaysian civil aviation department, told reporters Monday.
So, more than 48 hours later, the mysteries surrounding Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 -- and the true identifies of some of its passengers -- remain intact.
Rahman discounted media reports that a plane door had been spotted.