One Sec Tech

SOURCE: CNN

Personality differences, such as shyness and overtness are now being explored biologically in the brain.

A new study in the journal Psychological Science finds that several personality traits are associated with definite brain regions. Scientists from the University of Minnesota, University of Toronto, Yale University, and The Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, New Mexico, collaborated on the study.

Participants were 116 people, half of whom were male, and all between 18 and 40 years old. They were given a personality test and then underwent magnetic resonance imaging.

The researchers found evidence in the brain for four of the “Big Five personality traits”: extroversion,
neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. They looked at the volumes of various brain regions to see how greater or smaller volumes might be connected to personality traits.

A brain region involved in processing reward information, called the medial orbitofrontal cortex, seemed to be associated with how extroverted participants were. Extroverted people tend to be more sociable and talkative.

Brain regions associated with threat, punishment, and negative affect seemed to have something to do with how neurotic participants were. Neuroticism includes elements of irritability, anxiety, and being self-conscious.

Brain areas dealing with information about the intentions and mental states of other people were associated with agreeableness. Cooperation, compassion and politeness are part of agreeableness.

The lateral prefrontal cortex, involved in planning and the voluntary control of behavior, seemed to be associated with conscientiousness. People who are highly conscientious tend to be self-disciplined and orderly, rather than impulsive.

The one major personality trait that did not have an association with a brain area volume in this study was openness/intellect, which includes people who are creative, philosophical, imaginative, and intellectually engaged. This is also the only trait that has been associated with intelligence in previous research. Further study would be needed to determine how biology might be related to this trait.

_________________________________________

MY TAKE: Shocked to find out that there is no MRI activity to show where intellectual personality traits are stored. I suppose someone will work on it and perhaps one day we’ll be able to use more hard drive recovery in the brain to understand what makes a person smarter than another?

Data recovery obviously isn’t just about computers. The MRI technology used on these studies is fascinating to say the least. But that’s about as deep into brain tech as I want to venture. I’m limited as it is in the real time hard category to the ability of being able to download horror movies online. I like Netflix movies download streaming options because I can watch them from my laptop anywhere I go. But don’t ask me how to fix my laptop if it acts up. That’s where my computer repair guy comes in handy. There are some great computer service companies out there who will come to your house and virtually get you back up and running in no time. I wish I’d had the interest a long time ago in this field I’d be making money hand over fist.

—————————————————————-

Other Resources

Levels of Minecraft Play

One of the neat things about Minecraft is that a player must always be vigilant against potential disasters and to accommodate different levels of play, Minecraft server hosting allows for three different difficulties or modes. In the easiest mode a player will have access to as many blocks as he or she wants and will not have to actually mine for resources. In a harder version of the game, there are more monsters and a larger variety of blocks available for play. Then there is a very difficult mode that makes just about everything harder for the player.

Performance and Hardware

Some of the best options for obtaining a fast website or swiftly accessed server options include making sure that the performance level required for the dedicated server hosting isn’t such that it completely outstrips the actual level of what the company requires. Just because a company believes that it might grow in the future doesn’t mean that the speed required for such server hosting is required at the beginning of a hosting cycle. If anything, options should be considered to allow for future updates without a significant amount of effort but which don’t need to be installed at the beginning.

Applying for a Student Visa

Just about everyone who wants to enter the United States must obtain a visa and for students who are between the ages of fourteen and seventy-nine, an international student visa is usually required under most circumstances. Visas for children and the elderly who are younger and older than the accepted age range can usually obtain a visa without an interview. Since the waiting time for a visa is often significant. It is advisable that anyone who wants to obtain a student visa for schooling do so at an early date lest they risk being in application limbo and missing the start of the school year.

Applications for Machine Vision

When presented with an automated inspection option, there are many methods that a company can choose and several implantations of machine vision which may be useful including robot guidance, sorting, calibration, material handling and quality assurance. The monitoring of significantly sized operations is essential for businesses with lengthy manufacturing or product creation timelines. It is often the requirements of customers or clients which determine the value of quality assurance and accuracy in the creation of a product although a business must tread a fine line between offering a product that is financially viable and well made and a product which is too expensive.

Construction Advice

If you had your home built by a Colorado home builder and there are problems with the structure or other basic foundation issues, you should contact a qualified Denver contract attorney. All Denver Colorado construction law lawyers are fully trained in the latest laws impacting the home construction industry and they can help you obtain recourse if your home is not up to the standards you and your builder agreed upon.

Source: PC World
Adobe Systems announced plans to release the final version of Flash Player 10.1 for smartphones but don’t expect to be able to use it right away.

Flash Player 10.1 is designed to offer a consistent user experience across laptops, desktops, tablets, phones and televisions. The player for desktops became available June 10.

Users of phones running Android 2.2 will be the first to get the player, said Anup Muraka, director of technology strategy at Adobe. The trouble is that version 2.2 has so far only been pushed out to review units of one phone model, the Nexus One. All Nexus One phones, Motorola’s Droid and other Android models are expected to get the operating system soon.

Adobe also is releasing the final version of the player to partners including Research In Motion, Palm, Symbian and Microsoft; however, it’s unclear yet which phones currently on the market might get it.

“We have to work with each platform company to figure out which phones can support it,” said Muraka. If existing phones can handle it, Adobe will work with the phone makers to determine how to distribute the player to users.

“We may not see a huge number of these devices available on Tuesday, but the pipeline for Christmas, CES, Mobile World Congress next year is really exciting,” he said. The Consumer Electronics Show and Mobile World Congress are two large conferences early in the year where many phone makers announce new products.

The software can be pushed out to users over the air or it can be made available in application stores where users can choose to download it, he said.

Once software testing services are complete, there are other plans for the player.

It will also be possible for an operating system provider to display a pop-up for users who visit a Web site that requires Flash Player 10.1, explaining that they need the player and letting them download it immediately, he said. That would work similarly to the way computer operating systems allow people to download the most recent Flash Players when they visit sites that require it. listed a number of high-profile companies that support the newest version of the Flash Player including Dell, Samsung, Google, RIM, HTC, Arm, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Intel and Texas Instruments. Content partners that said they’re happy for the new release include Turner, Viacom, HBO, MSNBC and Photobucket.

Otherwise, Flash Player 10.1 will be built into new phones that may appear by the end of the year or early next, Muraka said.

Flash Player 10.1 for mobile phones will support multitouch, gestures, soft keyboards and other input methods like accelerometers, he said. It will incorporate some other new features aimed at simplifying viewing Web pages on small devices. For instance, double tapping on a Flash object on a page will automatically zoom in on the object, he said.

Still, he cautioned that Flash Player 10.1 doesn’t have loads of new features. “This release is redesigned from the ground up to build a new foundation that not just scales across the Mac, Windows and Linux, but for the first time supports a wide range of mobile and emerging TV platforms,” he said. “While there may not be the usual long list of new features, that foundation is critical to upcoming growth and features coming in future versions.”

Adobe

One company notably absent is Apple, which has publicly derided Adobe and is pushing the next-generation HTML 5 instead. Many content producers have been willing to recreate or format their content for display on Apple’s iPhone and iPad. But many haven’t, as is evident in a comment made by Forrester Research analyst Jeffrey Hammond in a blog post about Flash Player 10.1. He tested it on his Nexus One and wrote: “I think it’s great to not have to deal with ‘little blue cubes’ on the sites I visit every day.” Instead of content, iPhone users see blue boxes on pages designed with Flash.

Still, Apple’s stance throws a wrench in Adobe’s strategy. “[Adobe] realized there was an opportunity in the market and they got ahead of the game and positioned themselves to be the cross-platform form factor across mobile and desktop,” said Al Hilwa, an analyst with IDC. “They thought it was just a matter of implementing those variations but it turned out it’s not just that. The owners of the platforms like [Apple's CEO Steve] Jobs have to say we’ll use it, and he didn’t,” he said.

However, all of the major platforms except the iPhone are supporting Flash Player 10.1. That means that developers who wish to make their content available to most smartphones will be able to use Flash to cover most devices, creating separate content or applications for iPhone users.

Adobe’s battle with Apple points to the challenges that software makers face in the mobile market, a challenge that not just Adobe faces. “It’s not like in the desktop world where they could do all the work themselves and release it,” said Hilwa. “They have to work hand in hand with the device makers. That’s the nature of mobile software. It’s gated through the device makers so it’s a much more complicated integration story.”

_____________________________

My Take: I’m no techie junkie, but I have some knowledge of software consulting use. I would love to be able to use my smart phone for much more than a business answering service. I can pay answering services companies to handle my calls, but I pay them to help me watch movies or stream videos on my phone.

Speaking of my phone, have you been through a metal detection security site at the airport recently? I have. My cell phone was confiscated by the metal detector manager, the one in charge of waving the wand over me. I was able to get the phone back once it was opened up and searched, but it was an hour delay and I nearly missed my flight. Be warned: if your smart phone looks like it could be opened and big enough to store something inside, it could be searched.

—————————————————————–

Other Resources

Hiring a Lawyer

Need to hire an assault lawyer Philadelphia? What about a Bucks County DUI attorney? Click here for some great guidelines on how.

Copy Center

CD duplication service providers can make it very easy for you to back up your company data. These guys can produce CD copy products and other products to help you keep your data safe and store it easily off-site or on.

Source: Reuters

A Southern California mother whose two children were reported missing 15 years ago has tracked them down in Florida using Facebook.

The children’s father, Faustino Utrera, took off with them in 1995 when they were ages 2 and 3, said San Bernardino Deputy District Attorney Kurt Rowley. The mother had found her daughter’s Facebook profile after searching for her name on the social networking site in March, Rowley said.

An official said Saturday that the now 17-year-old girl and 16-year-old boy have been placed in the custody of the state of Florida.

“You can imagine the feelings she’s having, not seeing her children for so many years and knowing they’ve bonded with another family,” Rowley said about the mother. “But at the same time they’re almost within her grasp.”

The two teenagers are being cared for by a non-relative in Florida with whom the pair have an existing relationship, said Florida Department of Children and Families spokeswoman Elizabeth Arenas, who did not identify the mother.

She referred further questions to the woman’s lawyer, who did not return a phone call.

Osceolla County Sheriff’s deputies detained Utrera on an arrest warrant last month obtained by San Bernardino County prosecutors who were contacted by the missing children’s mother, Rowley told the San Bernardino Sun.

He was charged with kidnapping and violating child custody orders.

Rowley said that when the daughter’s profile was found on Facebook, she initially told her mother that she did not want to re-establish their relationship, but the contact helped prosecutors file two felony counts each of kidnapping and child abduction against Utrera.

Rowley said he expected Utrera to fight extradition at a July 17 hearing in Florida.

_____________________________________

My Take: At a time when you can buy or locate just about anyone or anything on line, it should come as no surprise to anyone that Facebook was used to help this mother find her stolen children. Let’s face it, you can buy everything from Greek apparel and miniature flags to products that claim to show you how to lose belly fat online. But what makes this story so interesting is that it comes at t time when Facebook is struggling with security issues, having recently been forced to do damage control and revamp its customer online security tools.

Other Resources

Patriotically Pious

You can display your support of your faith in a lot of ways and buying and displaying religious flags is one of them. Buy Papal flags and others created to let you wave your spiritual self all over the place.

Cited: Law.com

Everybody has now heard about the infamous motorized La-Z-Boy whose owner or driver became the first person to be arrested for driving under the influence in an easy chair. After his arrest, the police department put it on eBay to sell and it was going for over $40,000. Unfortunately, La-Z-Boy (the company) did not like the idea of being associated with a drunk driver. They put a stop to the auction real fast.

Well, now we know more, thanks to reports from Wired and Sphere, among other sources. Walter Wobig, the police chief in Proctor, Minn., whose department had seized the notorious chair and put it up for auction, told Wired, “I talked to this guy Rand Tucker from La-Z-Boy who asked if we could take ‘La-Z-Boy’ out of the listing and out of the whole thing and to respect the La-Z-Boy trademark.”

Rand Tucker would be R. Rand Tucker, assistant secretary and corporate counsel of La-Z-Boy Incorporated. Chief Wobig said his conversation with Tucker was cordial and the lawyer agreed the auction could go forward provided the La-Z-Boy name was not used.

For those who have also had trouble with drinking and driving . . . There is a Monmouth County traffic ticket lawyer who can also handle DUIs. If you think about it, all that really stands between you and the power of the police is a d good Freehold NJ DUI attorney. Or if you live elsewhere and get your license suspended, you could get a  OUI defense attorney to help your case. A license suspension specialist will also tell you if there are grounds to challenge your license suspension to get your full license back. This DWI lawyer will fight for you.

Turns out the motorized chair was not even a La-Z-Boy in the first place. A company spokesperson told Wired, “The La-Z-Boy chair and name is one of our most valuable assets and this is a trademark infringement.” As a matter of fact, Wobig said he used the trade name in his eBay auction only because the media had used it in reporting on the case. “The chief even ran the listing by his attorney beforehand, but the guy didn’t pick up on the legal landmine,” Wired says.

Meanwhile, the Proctor police department has relisted the motorized chair on eBay, this time as DWI Chair, Motorized Chair, and Racing Chair. It would appear that now that everyone knows this is a knock-off and not an actual La-Z-Boy, the chair’s value has diminished. The bidding this time around has so far yet to break $10,000.

Going … Going … the DWI Chair is Gone!

The city of Proctor, Minn., is $11,000 richer today but $30,000 poorer than it would have been had it not been for the intervention of the lawyers for La-Z-Boy Corp. The city was finally able to conclude its eBay auction of the now world-famous, pimped-out motorized recliner it seized after arresting the recliner’s driver for operating under the influence.

The auction end on November 6 at 8:15 PM Eastern. The chair officially went to the winning bid of $10,099.99. So far, nobody knows who the new driver is who purchased, however they will have to go to Proctor to get the chair since the bid did not include shipping. Let’s hope the new owner will not repeat the events of the previous owner.

—————————————

My Take: I think this is the most ingenious thing anybody has ever created. It just shows you how lazy people really are. I mean, how lazy can you be if you do not want to get out of your easy chair to get a beer?

When will people learn that drinking and driving, even in an easy chair, does not mix. I keep hearing about these devices are going to be put into cars that prevent people from driving if their breath contains a certain level of alcohol, but that does not prevent people with older cars from driving drunk. Too many people die because of drunk drivers.

On a lighter note, this is easy chair and drunk driver have insurance? I wonder if you get charged with not having license plates or insurance?

—————————————-

Related Resources

Canadian DUI and Traffic Tickets

If you have been charged with impaired driving, operating a motor vehicle while impaired, driving under the influence (DUI), or any other drinking and driving offence, an Ontario traffic ticket attorney may be able to help you. It is also in Ottawa assault lawyer who can help you if you were involved in an altercation.

Cited: TruckingInfo.com/ApparelNews.net

New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Newark Mayor Cory Booker have announced their support of the Port of Los Angeles’ Clean Truck Program, and have urged Congress to update the law to allow all ports to implement such programs.

“Today, I am calling on Congress to support legislation that will empower ports to implement the LA Clean Truck Program, an innovative initiative that will create good, green jobs and improve the quality of the air that New Yorkers breathe,” said Bloomberg.

Earlier this week Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums also expressed his willingness to educate Congress on the need to amend the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act, which prohibits states and local governments from regulating the trucking industry.

“Newark’s residents and port workers disproportionately bear hazards from pollution caused by outdated diesel trucks that transfer cargo shipments,” said Booker. “I applaud the Port Authority efforts to enhance air quality such as their program to replace over 600 of the oldest most polluting trucks with newer models, but much more needs to be done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality. I urge Congress to support changes in federal legislation that would enhance the ability of our nation’s ports to effectuate policies to improve air quality and protect public health.”

The Port of Los Angeles announced earlier this month that the program is on track to reduce truck-related emissions by 80%, two years ahead of schedule. Since inception, the program has purged the roads of more than 2,000 polluting trucks, with more than 5,500 clean trucks in operation today.

As part of the Los Angeles Clean Truck Program, owner-operators are banned from servicing the port, a provision for which the American Trucking Associations has obtained a temporary injunction. The Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports charges the injunction has caused large trucking companies to transfer the cost and maintenance of the clean technology to its individual contract drivers.

“We must have a federal framework that allows local port authorities to implement market-based solutions to replicate LA’s clean-air successes on both coasts and create a level-playing field for responsible businesses ready to compete and grow in a green economy,” said Amy Goldsmith, the state director of the New Jersey Environmental Federation.

In addition to the mayors in California, New York and New Jersey, the Los Angeles Clean Truck Program has received public endorsements from then-Senator Barack Obama; Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi; California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein; 31 House California Democrats; Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-N.J.); and Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.); and New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine.

Picking up and dropping off cargo containers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will soon get easier. Starting Nov. 15, cargo hauled by clean trucks will no longer have to pre-pay a clean-truck fee and then be reimbursed for it. The new, simplified process came after a number of meetings were held between officials at the Port of Long Beach, the Port of Los Angeles and the West Coast Marine Terminals Operators Association.

Under the new system, cargo owners using trucks that comply with 2007 emissions standards will no longer pre-pay the clean-truck fee. Only cargo owners using older, more polluting trucks will pre-pay the fee, which is $35 per 20-foot container and $70 per 40-foot container. Cargo moved by train is exempt from the fees.

Since the Clean Trucks Program was launched at the two ports on Oct. 1, 2008, 85% of all containers moved through the Port of Long Beach and 66% of containers moved through the Port of Los Angeles are done with clean trucks.

The program is attempting to reduce diesel fuel emissions that come from cargo container-hauling trucks by some 80% by the year 2012. Companies need to purchase newer and cleaner trucks and the clean truck fees are used to help those companies.

————————–

My Take: I am glad to see that some companies are actually trying to help the environment. Now if they could do the same thing with the trucks that are cross country that would really be impressive. Then they should start on the city buses. I know a lot of city buses now run on natural gas, but there is still some that you do not want to be sitting behind a stoplight.

I see more and more that people are becoming more conscious of our environmental problems. I just hope that it is not too little too late and all the horror stories we keep hearing from scientists will not come true. All we have to do is take a look at the weather and we can see something different each year.

I live in Phoenix Arizona where the summers are hot and the winters are almost cold. However, this summer it was hotter than normal and summer lasted longer. We have had temperatures in the 90s in October and November, which is not normal. At this time of the year we are usually in the 70s and 80s. To make it even weirder, one day we had temperatures almost to the 90s and the next two days were down in the 60s and then back up into the 80s and 90s. A ruddy hair was talking about the effects of global warming after that.

—————————–

Other Resources

Soft Skin

Do you want products that are ethically produced, and that help promote a cleaner planet? One company offers trusted brands that do not contain potentially harmful synthetic chemicals and are never tested on animals like organic moisturizers. They come from natural ingredients that are healthier for you, healthier for the planet. They offer only organic and natural beauty products from reputable manufacturers with a track record of purity, quality, and efficacy.

Iowa Oil Filtration Performance

The single most important aspect that this company will add to your current operation is the ability to support your facility in a maintenance response capacity. They will measure and strive to continuously improve operations that include Iowa light truck tires and lubrication solutions. Their industrial service program typically targets product cost reductions associated with environmental hazards, used oil disposal and lubricant performance. You should find out how they can help reduce unscheduled downtime, extend Iowa commercial lubricants and component life and reduce disposal cost!

Cited: CNNMoney.com

Steve Jobs has turned geeky PCs into lusted-after objects from the brightly colored iMac to the ultra-sleek MacBook Pro and it all started when Apple launched the iMac in 2001. At that time it only had a 2% share of the US PC market. Over the next 10 years things would drastically change things thanks to Steve Jobs.

The “decade” of Steve actually began in 1997, when he returned to Apple after having been ousted a dozen years earlier. That was a year of triage, of a humbling investment from Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), of paring Apple’s product line to a bare minimum of four computers.

By the following year Steve’s regime had kicked into gear. Jobs completed the hiring of a new management team, which included several executives from his previous company, Next. Those top players would form the nucleus of the Jobs brain trust for nearly 10 years.

Then came the first Macintosh after Jobs’ return, the iMac, a breakthrough all-in-one computer and monitor that heralded Apple’s return to health. The success of the pricey iMac, coupled with drastic cost cutting, allowed Jobs to build a cash cushion. By repairing Apple’s balance sheet, he prepared the company for big investments to come, a shrewd business move if ever there was one.

Today Apple has 9% of the PC market, but it dominates the high end, accounting for 90% of the dollars spent on computers costing over $1,000, according to NPD Group. Of course, that’s almost the only place Apple plays; the cheapest notebook starts at $999.

Other gadgets

While sales of Macs and iPods made up 60% of Apple’s revenue in fiscal 2009, the fastest-growing gadget Apple sells is the iPhone. In 2009, iPhone sales accounted for 18.5% of revenue. Additional gear like wireless hubs, fancy monitors, and other accessories brought in $1.5 billion, or 4% of sales.

Customer service

Computer viruses, the scourge of the Windows world, are almost nonexistent in the Mac universe, thanks in part to the security built into the UNIX software. But customers with problems can visit the Genius Bar, which was designed not to sell products but to mimic the concierge service found at a high-end hotel.

Case Closed

All software and or or work magnificently together but not well with others. Apple computing is basically closed and developers and gadget makers need permission to break into the software and hardware so that their programs or gadgets will work. Of course, in 2006 Apple started using the Intel processors and made it possible for windows to run on a Mac, however most consumers do not run Windows. While Apple’s OS X. sets the standard for user-friendly software, it has also brought multi-touch trackpad, backlit keyboards and integrated Webcams to the mainstream

—————————————

My Take: Well, it is evident that Steve Jobs is done very well for Apple! However, I am a PC and I will remain a PC! I do not care for the Mac because it is such a closed system. I like to be able to change things on my computer that you cannot change on a Mac.

I am sure that data recovery on a Mac is much easier than on a PC. In fact, you probably do not have to worry about data recovery services unless there is a power surge or something like that. However, I am unsure of multi level RAID types for a Mac, so I could not comment on this. I do know that all of these are easily achievable with a PC.

I also know that there are many businesses that use Macs because they are simple to use. However someone who needs construction estimating software needs to make sure that it is compatible with Mac, which could be costly. Even if they only want to use blueprint software, they would need to get a compatible program. With a PC all I have to do is make sure it is compatible with the version of Windows they are using. I also understand that most software designers develop their software so it is compatible for both Mac and PC, however this does make the software cause more.

—————————————-

Other Resources

Unlimited DVD Movies

Just imagine, you could start viewing your favorite movie titles, TV shows, and music files for free today with full confidence. There is a service online that can provide unlimited 24/7 movies download capability, with no time limits, no bandwidth limits, and no content limits. They also provide software for you to easily burn your videos or music downloads directly to CD, with no expensive CD burner required. This means you can get the best movie downloads any time!