Should Reddit Be Blamed for the Spreading of a Smear?

 F.B.I. via Getty Images; Tripathi FamilyWhen a picture of Sunil Tripathi (right) was posted on Reddit alongside an image of Suspect No. 2 in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, it fueled speculation that they were the same person.

On an overcast day in early May, I traveled to suburban Philadelphia to visit the family of Sunil Tripathi, the deceased 22-year-old Brown University student who, for about four hours on the morning of April 19, was mistakenly identified as Suspect No. 2 in the Boston Marathon bombings. The Tripathis had just arrived home after nearly two months spent in Providence, R.I., where they went to organize the search for Sunil, who disappeared on March 16. When I entered the house, Judy Tripathi, Sunil’s mother, asked me for a hug. In a shattered voice, she said, “I need hugs these days.” We sat at the kitchen table and talked, and at one point Judy handed me a photo of a young, smiling Sunil, caught in the motion of throwing a ball. “Look how happy he looks,” she said. For the next two hours, she and her husband, Akhil, and their daughter, Sangeeta, described what happened to them in the early-morning hours of April 19, and how the false identification of their son derailed their ongoing search for him and further traumatized their lives.

 At 5 p.m. on April 18, three days after the bombs went off at the marathon finish line, the F.B.I. released grainy photographs of two suspects. For the past month, the Tripathis had been renting a house and spending their days working with F.B.I. agents, Brown administrators and an organization dedicated to finding missing persons. Early on in the search, the family created a Facebook page called “Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi,” which included video messages from family and friends and recent images of Sunil — walking the beach with his older brother, Ravi; attending his sister’s graduation ceremony; posing with his mother at a Phillies game.

Minutes after the world first saw the suspects’ photos, a user on Reddit, the online community that is also one of the largest Web sites in the world, posted side-by-side pictures comparing Sunil’s facial features with the face that would later be identified as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The pictures were accompanied by speculation about the circumstances surrounding Sunil’s disappearance and the F.B.I.’s involvement in his search. By 8 p.m., three hours after the F.B.I. released the suspects’ photos, angry messages began to appear on the Tripathi’s Facebook page, and at 8:15 Ravi received a phone call from a reporter at ABC News in New York, who asked if Sunil had been spotted in Boston and if Ravi had seen the F.B.I. photos of Suspect No. 2. Ravi, unclear at what she was getting at, told her there had been no word from Sunil. As the minutes passed and the volume of threatening Facebook messages increased, the Tripathis finally called their F.B.I. contact in Providence, who assured them that nobody within his office believed that Sunil was Suspect No. 2.

The family had been told that missing people sometimes go to libraries or other places with free Internet service, where they type their own names into search engines to track their cases. The Facebook page was created with the hope that if Sunil searched for himself, he would find loving messages from his family and friends. Now they worried that he would see what was being written about him and take drastic measures to harm himself. Around 11 p.m., at roughly the same time that the news came out that Sean Collier, a 27-year-old police officer at M.I.T., had been shot and killed, the Tripathis closed the page so that no more messages could come in.


The removal of “Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi” was noted by several people in the media, including Sasha Stone, who runs an inside-Hollywood Web site called Awards Daily. At 10:56 p.m., Stone tweeted: “I’m sure by now the @fbipressoffice is looking into this dude” and included a link to the Facebook page. Seven minutes later, she tweeted: “Seconds after I sent that tweet the page is gone off of Facebook. If you can cache it . . .” For Erik Malinowski, a senior sportswriter at the Web site BuzzFeed, the takedown of “Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi” was noteworthy enough to pass along. At midnight, Malinowski, whose Twitter following includes a number of journalists, tweeted: “FYI: A Facebook group dedicated to finding Sunil Tripathi, the missing Brown student, was deleted this evening.” Roughly 300 Twitter users retweeted Malinowski’s post, including the pop-culture blogger Perez Hilton, who sent Sunil Tripathi’s name out to more than six million followers. From there, the small, contained world of speculation exploded on every social-media platform. Several journalists began tweeting out guarded thoughts about Sunil’s involvement. If the family had taken down the Facebook page, the reasoning went, it must mean that the Tripathis had seen their missing son in the grainy photos of Suspect No. 2. 

Should you keep using Windows XP?

Mae Watson's aging computer still works fine. She asked if she should give up XP before next spring.

Microsoft will stop supporting Windows XP on April 8, 2014. That's less than nine months away.

The end of support means the end of updates--even security updates. When an exploit is found after that date, too bad; it will not get patched. Gradually, Windows XP will become less and less secure.

And it may not be all that gradual. Malware authors love to use outdated software as a path into your PC--and the more people there are using an outdated program, the more they love it. Besides, an outdated operating system makes a more tempting target than an out-of-date .pdf reader. A year from now, it will be hard to pick a more tempting target than Windows XP.

Long-time readers might accuse me of inconsistency. I covered this subject back in 2011, and gave very different advice, suggesting that an upgrade was a good idea but not an absolute must. "After 12 years, there may be little left in XP to patch. Besides, malware written in 2014 probably won't be designed to exploit an old and outdated OS."

I was wrong. It looks like a great many people will still be using XP next year and beyond, making it all the more dangerous.

Now that I'm telling you not to stick with XP, what should you do? Here are some suggestions:

You could buy a new PC. That will certainly solve the problem, and your new computer would almost certainly be better than your current one. Unfortunately, this is the expensive choice.

Or, for considerably less money, you might be able to upgrade from XP to Windows 8 (or to Windows 7 if you can find a copy). I say "might"because your hardware may not support a newer operating system. To find out, download and run the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant. This will tell you what you'll need to change before the transition.

Click for full image
Finally, you can switch to Linux, which won't cost you a thing. You can try Ubuntu  Linux--the most popular variation and the one I recommend as a Windows replacement--before you make the decision to give up Windows. It installs like a Windows application, giving you a dual-boot system where you can choose either operating system.

Microsoft should yank Windows RT for Windows RT's own good

Okay, Microsoft. You had your fun fling with ARM processors, serenading your newfound love with glitzy dubstep ads full of creepy dancing schoolgirls. Thin and light tablets packing a—gasp!—free version of Office? Freedom from Intel and AMD's x86 processors? Sanctity from traditional Windows malware? How dreamy.

But the honeymoon is over, and reality ain't happy with the frivolous romp. Thursday, Microsoft announced that it took an accounting hit to the tune of nearly $1 billion—yes, with a B—thanks to the steep discount it had to apply to the millions of Surface RT tablets lying around unsold. The dream has become a nightmare, and not just for Surface.

Microsoft, it's time for Windows RT to take a vacation.
The writing has been on the wall for Windows RT for a while now, but this week really crystallized that its time is not now.

By all accounts, the Surface RT was the star of the Windows RT show. In fact, stats from AdDuplex consistently showed it as the best-selling Windows 8/RT device period—but that doesn't mean it sold well from a pure numbers standpoint. After Microsoft moved a reported 900,000 Surface RT tablets alone in the fourth quarter of 2012, IDC reported that all Windows RT tablets combined only managed to ship 200,000 units in the first quarter of this year. Yep, the Surface RT is sinking fast.
That's bad. Nope, that's horrible.

But while Surface RT is the juggernaut when it comes to ARM-powered Windows slates, it's not the elephant in the room. That distinction goes to just how fervently third-party manufacturers are avoiding Windows RT.

Lenovo's Windows RT hybrid is gone, replaced by a Windows 8 model. Many of the biggest names in PCs have taken a pass on the operating system: HP, Samsung, Acer, and Toshiba all respectfully (or not-so-respectfully) bowed out of this particular race.

Even some tentative early supporters are starting to pull back. Lenovo unceremoniously dumped the RT-sporting IdeaPad Yoga 11 this past Wednesday, mere weeks after launching the IdeaPad Yoga 11S, which took the original Yoga 11's superb physical design and imbued it with an Intel Core processor and the full-blown version of Windows 8. The few Windows RT tablets left are all getting steep price cuts, from the Surface RT to the Dell XPS 10 to the Asus VivoTab RT.

Nope, iTunes isn't coming to Windows RT anytime soon—and it’s not the only big-name software missing. And who can blame the manufacturers for fleeing? Windows RT simply isn't a compelling option right now. It doesn't run classic desktop programs, only modern-style Windows apps—and the Windows Store still doesn't have anywhere near a full catalog of apps,  despite recently hitting the 100,000 app milestone. There are still glaring Windows Store no-shows. Major software developers have been as slow to support Windows RT as hardware manufactuers.

Windows 8.1 will make the modern UI more useable, but that doesn't change the fact that it's still so new and different. The mixture of “different” and “no apps” isn't one destined for stardom.
"But wait!" you shout at your monitor, no doubt shaking your fist. "You just argued that Windows RT is crucial for the Windows ecosystem even if its sales stink, Brad!"

I did! And it is! But here's the thing: Windows RT's mere existence is the boon, not the tablets themselves. Windows RT is important, but actually selling Windows RT hardware is not.

The threat of ARM infiltration prodded Intel and AMD into creating much more energy efficient x86 processors, and tablets running on Clover Trail+ chips now offer full desktop software compatibility with all-day-plus battery life. Clover Trail's impending successor, Bay Trail, promises just-as-long endurance with much better performance, while Intel's flagship "Haswell" Core PC processors were built with a focus on energy efficiency. The availability of long-lasting, fully backwards compatible Windows 8 slates puts an even bigger damper on Windows RT's prospects.

IntelIntel has come up with a new thermal specification for CPUs that will operate in tablets and notebooks with detachable displays.

  Likewise, ARM support is now baked into the modern UI, right alongside x86 compatibility. Any modern-style app will run on both types of processor just fine. Meanwhile, the modern UI and apps run on the Windows Runtime application architecture, a variant of which also powers Windows Phone. Microsoft makes no bones about the fact that Live Tiles are its future, a dedication driven home by CEO Steve Ballmer's decision to unify all OS development within a single division under the One Microsoft umbrella.
The biggest benefits Microsoft gained from Windows RT—ARM integration and better power efficiency—occurred at its genesis, not from its day-to-day sales (or lack thereof).

Microsoft's all-in, but Windows RT needs a time out. All this points to one thing: Microsoft should call time-out for Windows RT.

Microsoft definitely needed to create Windows RT. The company was on the verge of missing the tablet train completely. It needed to keep Intel honest while broadening its technical horizons to embrace ARM. The Surface RT was the first Microsoft-made PC. I could go on.

But now that the creation is done, it's time to pull back and let the concoction bake. Windows RT doesn't make sense right now. Nobody wants it. Intel's latest mobile processors rock battery life that rivals the endurance of ARM chips. The modern UI is still in its infancy, and Windows RT's entire existence revolves around an app store that's still relatively barren.

Meanwhile, reports of high Surface RT return rates abound. The headlines are filled with articles about billion-dollar Surface RT write-offs and manufacturers fleeing the OS. Nothing good is being said about Windows RT. The brand—and the very concept of using the modern UI as an exclusive computing interface—is being damaged irreparably, and for what? Windows RT tablets aren't selling, and from a strategic standpoint, Microsoft has nothing to gain by letting the horror show continue.

Michael HomnickPutting Windows RT on hiatus would give Microsoft time to nurture the Windows Store and more closely connect RT with Windows Phones. It's time to yank Windows RT. If Microsoft blazes the trail and lets the Surface RT fade away, third-party manufacturers will follow suit. And rather than being a disaster, a lack of available hardware would only give Windows RT room to grow, as odd as that may sound.

The vocal complaints about the OS's neutered nature would cease, as it wouldn't be in the limelight. But that doesn't mean Windows RT development would stop. Far from it! Since the modern UI is also found in Windows 8 proper, its wrinkles would continue to be smoothed out over time. More importantly, the Windows Store will continue to fill with apps that work on ARM and x86 processors alike, especially once a critical mass of PC users inevitably upgrade to Windows 8.

Time could heal Windows RT's early wounds. After the modern UI and the Windows Store have a few years to blossom, Microsoft could reintroduce Windows RT in a much more viable form than it is today—one less conducive to complaints and returns.

And, until then, Microsoft could stop swirling fruitless billions down the drain.
Sources have told PCWorld that the Surface RT isn't dead, nor should it be in the long run. But for its own good, Windows RT should definitely take a short-term break.

Apple should lead the move to DRM-free ebooks

I like books. I also own a lot of them. When moving recently, I realized just how many: Even after disposing of a third of my collection, I still have a couple of thousand. And boy, do they take up a lot of space—it’s one of the things that makes ebooks so attractive.
On the other hand, those dead-tree books are free from one of ebooks’ most onerous encumbrances: digital rights management. That lack of DRM means I can read them wherever and whenever I want—well, as long as I have light. For ebooks with DRM, though, the publishers and retailers get to dictate how they can be used, read, and shared.
I’ve embraced ebooks, in part to save on buying more shelving. But because DRM prevents ebooks from having the same flexibility as print books, I’m loath to buy them for anything more than books I only plan on reading once. But that doesn’t have to be the way it is, and Apple could lead the way to change—it’s done so in the past.
It seems at times unbelievable that we’re all now used to having music without DRM, but still have books that depend on what platform we use.
Granted, not all publishers or authors sell their books with DRM. As an author of several Take Control ebooks, I’m very happy that these books are not locked down. Users can purchase these books in PDF, ePub, and MOBI format, and read them on just about any ebook reader, tablet or computer. While some well-known authors and publishers sell unrestricted ebooks, such DRM-free titles remain just a drop in the ocean of ebooks.
The publishing industry’s road to digital has been rocky. Amazon has long sold ebooks at a loss; in the long run, that’s changed the perceived value of books and it’s coincided with a drop in the sales of hardcover fiction. Apple’s not without blame either: the recent antitrust decision against Apple found the company guilty of colluding with five major publishers to set ebook prices, part of what seems to be a concerted effort to bite into Amazon’s market-dominant status.
Though we can’t change the past, it’s not hard for me to imagine a way that this might have gone differently. In February 2007, Steve Jobs penned Thoughts on Music, an open letter to the music industry about DRM and digital music. If I take an excerpt from that text and change a few of the key words, it might instead read like this:
“Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free books in open licensable formats. In such a world, any ebook reader can display books purchased from any store, and any store can sell ebooks which are readable on all ebook readers. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big publishers would license Apple their books without the requirement that they be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free books on our iTunes store.”
(As an interesting experiment, read the entire open letter, mentally substituting “books” for “music.”)
Of course, one of Jobs's points in that letter was that it was incumbent upon the record labels to make it possible for Apple to sell DRM-free music. Apple can’t unilaterally decide to sell ebooks DRM-free without the publishers agreeing. But Apple can—and should—apply pressure and make the case to publishers, because in the long run it will benefit Cupertino’s own customers.
I can listen to my digital music files on just about any device; I want to do the same thing with my books. I can lend my music to my friend; why can’t I lend her a book I bought on my Kindle or iPad? (Amazon, to its credit, offers a lending option, but it’s so crippled and feature-limited as to barely register above “useless.”) Above all, why can’t I read any ebook on any device of my choice?
I use two types of devices to read ebooks: I have a Kindle Paperwhite and two iPads (one full-sized and one mini). These devices aren’t interchangeable.
But I can’t read all of my ebooks on the Kindle Paperwhite because of DRM; I can only read books purchased from Amazon or those rare DRM-free books sold in the MOBI format that Kindles support. Likewise, I can’t easily take my iBookstore-purchased ebooks outside to read, because they aren’t compatible with my Kindle. (The iPad, though, does have a leg up, in that it supports apps for reading ebooks purchased from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google, and other stores.)

Because of these limitations, I consider two variables when I want to buy an ebook: If a book is a lot cheaper in the iBookstore, I’ll get it there. But because Kindle books offer the option to be read on multiple devices—including outdoor-friendly e-ink Kindles, I generally pick Amazon’s offering, unless I’m certain I’ll be reading exclusively on the iPad.

Music has lost its DRM fetters; it’s time for ebooks to do the same. But in order for that to happen, consumers need to be the ones to demand that this DRM, and the platform lock-in it engenders, be eliminated.

Apple could take the lead, as the company did with DRM-free music, and help change another market that needs it. This could be good for Apple itself, too, given the perception of the company in the wake of the ebook price-fixing ruling.

But above all, what should matter to Apple is that ending ebook DRM would be good for consumers. It would lead to true competition among ebook retailers, since any retailer could sell books that could be read on different devices, just as any bookstore can sell dead-tree books that anyone can read. We would be able to choose the device we want to use to read a new book. We wouldn’t have to worry about being able to access our digital libraries in the future.

And the next time I move, I wouldn’t have to worry as much about how many books I’m schlepping from one home to another. 

Ten fabulous Finder commands you should be using

Think the Finder’s menu commands are simple and straightforward? Think again. Add to your desktop repertoire by using hidden menu (and keyboard) commands. All you need to make them appear is the right magic key: Shift, Option, or Control.

The standard Open command changes to Open in New Window when you hold down the Control key, or to Open in New Window and Close with the Option key pressed.
Want to open a folder? You’ve got options. Select a folder in a Finder window, open the File menu and press the Control key to change the Open command to Open in New Window. Not only do you get to keep the original window around for further work, but also the new window displays the folder’s contents the way you last left it—say, in a short-but-wide, Icon-view window in the lower right of the screen—instead of using the current window’s settings. If you prefer to use the keyboard, press Command as you double-click a folder to get the same effect.

When you want to open a folder the way you left it, but don’t want to be stuck with two open windows, use the Option key to change the Open command to Open in New Window and Close. The original window will close as the new one opens.

With a file selected, pressing the Option key changes the Open command to Open and Close Window. It sounds like a practical joke, but is merely practical, since it opens your document and closes its no-longer-needed window in the Finder. Another approach for this clean-as-you-go procedure is pressing Option when you double-click a folder or file.

A document usually knows what app created it, so when you double-click the file, that app opens. But what if you don’t have the parent application, or if the default program is one you’d rather not use? A JPEG image, for instance, can be opened by Apple’s Preview, Adobe Photoshop, or any Web browser. A text file might open in Microsoft Word, Apple’s TextEdit, or Bare Bones Software’s BBEdit. You can override the default by using the File > Open With command and choosing from the submenu. Or, Control-click (or right-click) on a file, and choose the Open With command in the contextual menu that pops up.

To make the program you choose the new default when you open a particular document, press Option to change the contextual menu’s Open With command to Always Open With. Forever afterward, that document will open in the app you chose from the contextual menu.

Bonus tip: Want to always open a certain type of file in a specific program? You might want, for instance, JPEGs to always open in Photoshop so you can edit them, instead of in Preview. Select any JPEG and choose File > Get Info. In the Info window’s Open With section, select an app from the drop-down menu, click the Change All button, and click Continue in the confirmation dialog box.

You use File > Get Info on Finder items, right? It opens the Info window for the selected item, which provides all sorts of…well, info. You’ll find the basics of kind, size, and created and modified dates, and you can change things like the item’s icon or label color. But press Control, and the menu command changes to Get Summary Info. Press Option, and you get Show Inspector (or Hide Inspector if it’s showing). What’s the difference?

Select three documents and choose File > Get Info to see three individual Info windows (left). Press the Control key to reveal the Get Summary Info menu command that opens a single aggregate window (top right). The Option key reveals the Show Inspector menu command, which opens the Inspector window (bottom right), which changes in response to what you select in the Finder.
If you have only a single item selected, there’s no difference between Get Info and Get Summary Info. But say you want to move several large files to a USB stick and you want to know if they’ll fit. There are other items in the folder, so checking the folder size won’t help.

Instead, select all the files and use the Control key to reveal Get Summary Info. Select this, and you get a single window, titled Multiple Item Info, that summarizes the group selection, including the files’ total size. You can also use this window to set some options on all the selected items at once. For example, you can change their label color, lock or unlock them, set the Open With application, and even change their icons. (How do you change the icon? Click the icon in the top of the Info window of a file whose icon you like, and choose Edit > Copy. Select the icon in another file’s Info window, and choose Edit > Paste.)

The Finder’s Inspector window is a hidden gem. Select an item, or multiple items. Hold Option to change the File menu’s Open command to Show Inspector. The window that appears when you select this seems, at first glance, to be a duplicate of the Info window. But a closer look reveals that it has a different title bar—thin and squared off instead of the standard height with rounded corners. And, sure enough, it behaves like a palette rather than a window, remaining on top of all other Finder windows. But that’s a minor convenience.

Its real power is that it changes to reflect whatever selection you make in your Finder window. So, you don’t have to open and close individual Info windows to inspect file and folder information.

Sure, you can copy and paste files and folders in the Finder with the Edit menu’s basic Copy and Paste commands (Command-C and Command-V, respectively) . But there’s another option—or should I say “Option”? Use the Option key to change the Finder’s Paste Item command to Move to Here. (Its keyboard shortcut, Command-Option-C, adds Option to the standard Copy shortcut.) This is much easier than dragging an item to a new location when the target window isn’t already open. For more details, check out this article I wrote about special uses for the Copy and Paste commands.

Your current window shows your folder’s contents, but you want to move up to see what else is in its parent folder. So you select Go > Enclosing Folder (or press Command-Up Arrow). But if what you really want to do is to peruse the enclosing folder without losing the current window, press the Control key to change the command to Enclosing Folder in New Window (or press Command-Control-Up Arrow).

You can change or close all your Finder windows in one fell swoop just by adding the Option key. For example, select the Window menu and then hold down Option. The Minimize and Zoom commands change to Minimize All and Zoom All. Use the same trick to change File > Close Window command to Close All.

Bonus tip: Click on the red, yellow, or green button at the top of any Finder window while holding down Option to close, minimize, or zoom all open windows.

Say someone has explained that you can fix a wonky program by deleting its preferences files. Here’s a quick way to get to those files in your Library folder without drilling down through many folders: Select the Go menu and then press Option to see Library appear in the list of options.

On a big screen, you may have to drag a long way to move an icon into the Dock. Instead, select the icon, and press Shift to change the File menu’s ‘File > Add to Sidebar’ command to File > Add to Dock.

When you’ve made one or more selections in a List view window that has no empty space at its bottom, it’s not easy to deselect everything. That is, not unless you use Option to change Edit > Select All (Command-A) to Edit > Deselect All (Command-Option-A).

There are two basic organizational options for a Finder window: sorting, which puts things in order by name, size, kind, modified date, and so on, and arranging, which groups things according to certain aspects. You can use both options to, say, group things according to type—folders in one group, documents in another—and then sort items within those groups by something like creation date. The View menu provides only an Arrange By command, and you’re stuck sorting things by clicking on columns in List view windows—unless you press Option to change the command to Sort By.

Introducing Macworld's 100 More Things Every Mac User Should Know

Your Mac has many features you may not know about. Let Macworld’s editors teach you more about your computer with our new ebook, 100 More Things Every Mac User Should Know.

Two years ago, we adapted a feature from Macworld into a book called 100 Things Every Mac User Should Know. The idea was to compile a bunch of tidbits—keyboard shortcuts, Finder techniques, and the like—that we thought every savvy Mac user should understand and feel confident about using: not ABC beginner stuff, and not truly esoteric expert-level maneuvers, but the kinds of things that mark you as experienced and informed.

Of course, there are a lot more than 100 such things. So we decided to revisit the idea, coming up with another 100 pieces of Mac-related information we think users should have at their command. So, yes: You now have 200 things you need to know, applicable to those running Snow Leopard, Lion, and Mountain Lion.

As we said back in 2011: We’re sure you know a lot of the things we’ve listed here. But we bet that very, very few of you, if you’re really being honest, can say you know them all. Check them out, and let us know if we’re wrong.

Want a peek inside? You can download a free PDF preview of the book from our website.

To get 100 More Things Every Mac User Should Know on the device of your choice, you can purchase it now from the iBookstore, Kindle Store, and Nook Store for $2.99.

You can also pick up a bundle of the book in all formats—PDF, ePub, and MOBI— for $3.99 or as a PDF for $2.99 from our Web store.

We hope that you enjoy this extended feature. If you want to learn even more about your Mac runs on, make sure to check out our other available Superguides including our Mac Basics Superguide and Total OS X Mountain Lion Superguide.

20 computer terms every Mac user should know

Throughout the life of Mac 101, we’ve talked a lot about Apple technologies and terms. But with the gentle persuasion of this column’s readers, I’ve come to realize that—all too often—terms and acronyms that many of us take for granted leave users new to technology scratching their heads. Let’s rectify that now with a meander through some common tech terms.

For many of us, our Mac isn’t a one-stop shop. We routinely attach things like printers, cameras, and external hard drives to it. Below, I discuss the technologies that support such connections.

USB (Universal Serial Bus): This connection standard supports the transfer of data between devices and their peripherals. You’ll find USB connectors on computers, keyboards, pointing devices (mice and trackpads), digital cameras, camcorders, printers, portable media players (such as iPhones, iPods, and iPads), hard drives, network adapters, AV receivers, hubs, music keyboards, microphones, headphones, and just about any other device that can be attached to a computer. USB can also deliver power to devices that don’t demand a lot of the stuff.

A regular USB connector appears at one end of this cable (the upper end in the photo), and a Micro-USB connector appears at the other end.

There have been three major working USB specifications—USB 1.1, USB 2.0, and USB 3.0. The main difference between them is speed. Newer versions of USB are faster than their predecessors. USB is backward-compatible, so you can use a device designed for USB 2.0 in combination with another device using USB 3.0 ports.

Three styles of USB connectors are available: the standard rectangular one you find on your Mac; the trapezoid-shaped mini-connector that some digital cameras and hard drives rely on, and the tiny Micro-USB connector that you would use with a modern Kindle reader.

FireWire: FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394) is a technology for connecting compatible devices. It was designed for situations where fast transfer rates are crucial, including computers, storage devices, audio interfaces, and video gear such as camcorders and video interfaces.

A FireWire 400–to–FireWire 800 cable.

Although higher-speed FireWire standards exist, you’ll most often encounter FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 connectors. FireWire 800, the newer standard, supports much faster speeds than FireWire 400 does. FireWire 800 is backward-compatible with FireWire 400 devices. Each bears a unique connector. The typical FireWire 400 connector is oblong, rounded on one end and flat on the other. The FireWire 800 connector is rectangular. You can also find mini FireWire connectors, which are small and have a trapezoidal shape. Recent Macs that have a FireWire connector use FireWire 800.

Apple's Lightning cable.

Lightning: This is the proprietary connector found on today’s most recent iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, and iPad mini models. It replaces the 30-pin dock connector found on earlier iOS devices and iPods. Unlike that connector, the Lightning connector works regardless of which side is facing up. Like the 30-pin connector before it, the non-Lightning end of the cable sports a USB connector and lets you transfer data as well as power to an attached device.

Thunderbolt: Thunderbolt is today’s faster transfer scheme. Unlike FireWire or USB, it can handle both data and video connections simultaneously. You can string a single Thunderbolt cable between your Mac and, say, Apple’s Thunderbolt Display, and use that connection to view the Mac’s video on the display while using the USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt, and ethernet connectors on the back of the display to attach other devices to your Mac.

Thunderbolt is up to 20 times faster than USB 2.0 and up to 12 times faster than FireWire 800. You can connect as many as six compatible devices from a single Thunderbolt port. With a compatible adapter, you can connect USB, FireWire, and gigabit ethernet devices to a Thunderbolt port. The following Macs have Thunderbolt ports:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, late 2012)MacBook Pro (Retina, mid-2012)MacBook Pro (early 2011) and laterMacBook Air (mid-2011) and laterMac mini Server (mid-2011) and laterMac mini (mid-2011) and lateriMac (mid-2011) and later

There are many ways to move video signals around. Here are the video standards you’re most likely to encounter.

With this $39 kit, you can send video and audio from your 30-pin iOS device to a composite-compatible device.

Composite: Composite video is an analog standard that supports 480p video (which has a resolution of 720 by 480 pixels). Composite cables most often use three RCA-style connectors. The red and white connectors are for right and left stereo audio, respectively, and the yellow connector is for video.You'll find these connectors on old VCRs, videogame consoles, TVs, AV receivers, and camcorders. Macs haven’t had composite video connectors on them for a very, very long time—and even when they were available, they were found only on “AV” Macs. Apple doesn’t sell composite adapters for the Mac, but you can purchase such an adapter for your 30-pin iOS device in the form of Apple’s $39 Apple Composite AV Cable.

Component: Component video is another analog video standard, but one of higher quality than composite. Component cables typically have three RCA connectors colored red, green, and blue. In household use, it supports up to 1080p resolution (1920 by 1080) and offers a better picture than composite video. Some video cards offer component connectors, but you won’t find them natively on Macs.

A Mini DisplayPort connector.

Mini DisplayPort: Introduced with late 2008’s Mac models, Mini DisplayPort supports digital video only and offers resolutions of up to 2560 by 1600. The connector is a small rectangle with two rounded corners and looks exactly like a Thunderbolt connector. (In fact, you can use a Mini DisplayPort connector in a Thunderbolt port.) Adapters are available for converting Mini DisplayPort to VGA, DVI, or HDMI signals.

DVI (Digital Visual Interface): The DVI connector can act as both an analog connector and a digital one. It supports three kinds of connectors—DVI, Mini-DVI, and Micro-DVI—and offers resolutions of up to 2560 by 1600. You can identify these rectangular connectors by their two blocks of straight round pins next to a larger thin rectangular pin. DVI connectors were found on Macs in the 2000s until 2008, when Apple replaced them with Mini DisplayPort connectors.

HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface): Found on today’s HDTVs and AV receivers, HDMI connectors are also part of today’s Mac mini models and will be available on the Mac Pro that Apple intends to release in fall 2013. HDMI supports resolutions of up to 2560 by 1600 at 75Hz and up to 4096 by 2160 at 24Hz. An HDMI connection includes both audio and video.

VGA (Video Graphics Array): This is a large, 15-pin trapezoidal connector found on older computers and inexpensive video cards. Such connectors can still be found on some modern TVs and computer monitors. VGA is another analog standard and supports resolutions of up to 2048 by 1536. Macs haven’t had VGA connectors for quite some time, but you can attach a Mac to a VGA monitor, TV, or projector by using an adapter compatible with your Mac’s video connector.

Should political fundraisers become ambassadors?

Washington Howard Gutman, the current US ambassador to Belgium, was a campaign donor Many of the US ambassadors to swanky European capitals are campaign donors. Are politically appointed diplomats a bad idea?


Last week President Barack Obama recommended 10 new individuals for ambassadorships. Two of them had raised money for his presidential campaign - Denise Bauer for Belgium and James "Wally" Brewster for the Dominican Republic.

They are "bag men", people who give money to political campaigns - a group that is increasingly female, despite its name.

They are like dozens of other ambassadors who are chosen by the White House for the postings - though they have no background in foreign service.
Rather than serving in the diplomatic corps, political appointees have instead worked as business executives, lawyers, consultants and in other professions.


As non-career diplomats, they can be appointed "without competition", according to the Office of Personnel Management.

Giving money - and later becoming ambassador - is a long-standing tradition in the US diplomatic world.

In the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon was blunt about the arrangements he had in place when talking with an aide about a diplomatic posting to Belgium.

"Anybody who wants to be an ambassador must at least give $250,000," Nixon said. "I'm not going to do it for political friends and all that crap."

Political appointees are not necessarily wealthy. At times, presidents nominate individuals who have personal ties.

"There was an ambassador in the Bush administration who used to bicycle with the president," says Robert Rizzi, a Washington lawyer who helps clients through the official vetting process for political appointees.

Once the president has selected a candidate for an ambassadorship, the individual appears before the Senate foreign relations committee for a confirmation hearing.

The proportion of political appointees among ambassadors has remained the same - roughly one-third - since the 1950s.

The political appointees are part of the "spoils system", says Susan Johnson, president of the American Foreign Service Association.

"It undermines the whole concept of meritocratic professional diplomatic service," she says. Many people have found fault with the system over the years.
Nicole Avant, centre at a New York party, was ambassador to the Bahamas for less than two years
Shortly after being elected president, Obama vowed to "reform the political appointee process".

A statement on his website reported that "in the Obama-Biden administration, every official will have to rise to the standard of proven excellence".

Yet instead of declining under Obama, the percentage of political appointees has remained the same.

Today about 29% of ambassadorships are held by political appointees, according to the American Foreign Service Association.

The UK, Canada and other countries have political appointees - but not as many. Jim LeBlanc, a consultant who used to work for a Canadian ambassador, says: "It doesn't go as deep."

Bruce Oreck is a lawyer who helped raise $575,000 (£377,000) for Obama's presidential campaign. He got a call from the White House after the election.

"They said, 'Would you be willing to serve and, if so, where would you have an interest in serving?'" Oreck recalls.
Continue reading the main story Researchers JW Fedderke and D Jett examined US political appointees in a 2012 paper, looking at campaign contributions and postings based on criteria such as gross domestic product per capita The greater the contributions to the campaign, they wrote, "the more highly ranked the posting" - and they include "a price list" for different postingsA posting to Finland or France, for example, would likely be granted to a fundraiser who had amassed $616,490 in campaign contributionsA posting to Portugal would likely go to a fundraiser who had amassed $341,160Oreck, whose father is the founder of Oreck, a company that has sold millions of vacuum cleaners, is now the ambassador in Helsinki. He had never seen the city before his posting.


"People who are successful are disciplined," Oreck says. "You want people who've had that kind of success because they're going to be good advocates for America."

Some political appointees do well. Citigroup's Louis Susman raised money for Obama and then went to London as ambassador.

Shortly before he left in April, Susman had an audience with the Queen, "a privilege rarely afforded to departing ambassadors", reports the Telegraph.

The ambassador in Paris, Charles Rivkin, helped raise $800,000 (£524,000). "Neither the ambassador nor the embassy in Paris have any comment on this topic," says embassy spokesman Mitchell Moss.

The ambassador in Lisbon, Allan Katz, raised $500,000 (£328,000).

Embassy spokeswoman Virginia Staab says: "In the US Foreign Service, we aim to strike the perfect balance between career and political appointees since each can provide strengths and opportunities to further US foreign policy."
Continue reading the main story
A government report alleges a political appointee, later identified as the ambassador in Brussels, Howard Gutman, "routinely ditched" bodyguards to seek prostitutes in a park.

From the embassy in Brussels, Gutman strenuously denied the allegations and described them as "baseless". He says: "I live on a beautiful park in Brussels that you walk through to get to many locations and at no point have I ever engaged in any improper activity."

In 2010 Gutman said Belgium should send more troops to Afghanistan, a suggestion that galled politicians in Brussels.

Unlike career diplomats, Gutman has a background in politics. He helped raised $500,000 (about £320,000) for Obama's presidential campaign and $275,000 for his inauguration.

Sources: US state department, US embassy, Center for Responsive Politics
Career diplomats such as Thomas Boyatt, who served as ambassador to Colombia after working for years in the foreign service, resent the way that wealthy individuals end up in cushy posts.


"The media used to call us 'the striped-pant boys'," says Boyatt.

"I used to say, 'The only stripes I ever had on my pants were from my own blood.' That shut them up."

Whether political appointees or career diplomats, they should accept posts that are located in the developing world - rather than accepting ambassadorships only to European or wealthy nations, says Boyatt.

The Obama administration has had an unusual number of high-level disasters among its political appointees, many from postings in Western nations.

Cynthia Stroum, a political appointee who served as the ambassador to Luxembourg, was "hostile and intimidating", according to a 2011 governmental report about that embassy.

"I'm baffled that I was forced to resign over such petty and unsubstantiated allegations," Stroum says.

Regarding the selection of ambassadors, Stroum says: "I have no way of knowing how they made or continue to make their choices or what criteria they use."

Not all political appointees are fundraisers. Some are public figures who are known on a national level or for their work in a local community.

One appointee, Douglas Kmiec, a former Catholic University of America dean, resigned as head of the US mission in Malta in 2011.

State department officials said he had been spending hours every day writing about Catholicism - and not enough hours, apparently, on his diplomatic work.

Kmiec says he chose to resign "when individuals within the department refused to follow the president's efforts to use faith-based diplomacy".

Another political appointee, Nicole Avant, the former ambassador to the Bahamas, lasted less than two years. The state department's office of inspections gave her a negative report.

She says she "had inherited a dysfunctional embassy. Under the direction of the new executive team that I appointed, the embassy began to recover."

Critics say they wish career diplomats were serving in more posts as ambassadors, since political appointees do not always fare well.

"There have been some that have turned out to be real busts," says the American Foreign Service Association's Susan Johnson.

Rivals: Google should be regulated like telcos and electricity companies

Companies who have been assessing Google’s planned remedies to anti-competitive practices called on the European Commission on Tuesday to reject them and to consider regulating Internet search.

 

Google has been under investigation by the Commission since November 2010 after rivals accused the search giant of setting its algorithm to direct users to its own services by reducing the visibility of competing websites and services. It was also accused of content-scraping and imposing contractual restrictions that prevent advertisers from moving their online campaigns to rival search engines.

 

On April 25 Google proposed specific measures to address these complaints and rivals and interested parties were invited by the Commission to “market test” them. That testing period ends on Thursday.

 

However, Michael Weber, CEO of Hot Map, said the testing period had not been long enough. “You cannot do a serious scientific study in one month,” he said. Weber and others asked the Commission for a two- to three-month extension, but were only granted four extra weeks.

 

Weber was unimpressed with Google’s remedies and said that a formal statement of objections from the European Commission’s antitrust department would have been better than the current negotiations.

 

Google has proposed to label its preferred links to its own sites in search results. But publishers say that this will mislead consumers into thinking these were somehow tailor-made results for search queries and interests, thereby causing even greater harm to competition.

 

Google also proposes to include links to rival search engines for specialist restaurant search results that generate revenue for Google. Google’s paid-for services would be separated from general search and treated more like advertising.

 

Finally, Google has agreed to remove exclusivity provisions from all future contracts and any legacy advertising contracts and will offer tools to prevent Web scraping by allowing content owners to opt out.

 

But many complainants who met in Brussels on Tuesday to present their position on the remedies said that search is such an important Internet tool that it should be regulated like a telecommunications or electric utilities.

 

“Everyone relies on it,” said Weber. “Unfortunately no one planning the digital single market thought that a single company would control access to the Internet.” Google has 95 percent of the search market in the E.U.

 

Thomas Vinje, legal counsel and spokesman for FairSearch Europe, which represents some of the complainants, said that in putting Google’s remedies forward for market testing, the Commission made clear that it thought they were “palatable” and “worthy of discussion.” But he, too, called on the Commission to reject the remedies.

 

Many complainants said the remedies don’t go far enough since they won’t apply to redirected searches to new top level domains such as .fly or .hotel.

 

Others thought that the remedies wouldn’t make much difference to Google anyway. “Google will exploit the loopholes. Look at what they do with regard to tax,” said Kate Sutton, commercial director of Streetmap.

 

Meanwhile hundreds of publishers and their trade associations wrote an open letter calling on Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia to reject Google’s draft remedies completely.

 

“As a minimum requirement, Google must hold all services, including its own, to exactly the same standards, using exactly the same crawling, indexing, ranking, display and penalty algorithms,” said one of the signatories, Helmut Heinen, president of the Federation of German Newspaper Publishers.

 

Feedback from the market test will be taken into account in the Commission’s final analysis. However, it is the Commission that Google’s remedies must satisfy, not any other party involved. If a solution isn’t found, the Commission could still fine the company up to 10 percent of its annual global revenue.

 

 

Miami Beach Should Definitely Have a Huge Fake Sun Looming Over It

Architecture firm VisionDivision brings Florida's passion for themed structures to Miami Beach. Image: VisionDivision

 

The designers thought of their structure more like a cruise ship than a traditional building. Visitors can only reach it by water taxi, or for the more daring, swimming. Image: VisionDivision

 

High powered lights embedded in the building's skin would create a dramatic sunset on command. Image: VisionDivision

 

The proposal is novel and futuristic, but also shares the curves and bright colors found in Miami's famed Art Deco buildings. Image: VisionDivision

 

An observation deck would provide unique vantage point for real sunrises and sunsets. Image: VisionDivision

 

Solar panels built into the structure of the building would make The Miami Sun energy independent. Image: VisionDivision

 

The network of small islands surrounding the building would be used as places to serve refreshments and host recreational events. Image: VisionDivision

 

With creative concepts like The Miami Sun to its credit, VisionDivision has a bright future. Image: VisionDivision

 

Standing atop the Eiffel Tower is sure to spark feelings of romance. Memorials in Washington, D.C. create an environment for somber reflection. When Anders Berensson and Ulf Mejergren, principles of Stockholm-based architecture firm VisionDivision, were challenged to create an iconic landmark for Miami Beach, they asked, “What kind of monument would be nice to have a colorful cocktail next to?” and “What kind of monument would be nice to do push-ups next to?”

 

Their proposal is called The Miami Sun, a hotel/casino that takes the form of a giant half circle emerging from the water, amidst an archipelago of palm tree-dotted islands. The surface of the structure is covered with reflective panels that mirror the sky and would be laced with high-power lights that can create the illusion of a shining sun just a few hundred feet from shore.

“What kind of monument would be nice to do push-ups next to?”

“Miami is a tropical metropolis, a major tourist destination, and it has an air of flamboyant decadence that is very intriguing,” says Mejergren. “We wanted to create something positive and glamorous that would capture the soul of Miami and at the same time be unique and truly epic.” The proposal is a spectacle worthy of the city and achieves the rare feat of making Zaha Hadid’s nearby project seem conservative by comparison.

Lights embedded in the skin of the structure would glow red/orange during the day, but produce a soft white glow at night — a moon in the heart of Miami. Image: VisionDivision

 

 

The daring design flirts with kitsch. Their thin dome echos another Floridian architectural landmark — the geodesic sphere at Disney’s Epcot Center. “To compete with the sun and the moon is a tough task, no doubt, but it is do-able in some aspects,” says Berrensson. “The feeling of seeing the building blazing in the dusk from the Bayfront Park is probably more spectacular than any sunset, because it is arranged, enhanced and developed for a unique site and viewing point. It is a sunset on steroids.” The VisionDivision team also proudly claims that their version of the sun makes for a more reliable photo-op.

 

Hubris aside, the designers seriously considered how to produce something ambitious that wouldn’t feel like a tacky eyesore a few years after construction. They achieved this by stripping away detail and letting the simple form and play of light provide the visual appeal. Site placement was another important design consideration — there is no physical connection to dry land in the proposal. Instead, visitors arrive by water taxi or swimming, the lack of traditional roads and parking is intended to make the project seem exclusive. “Since the sun is standing in the water that also helps creating a certain distance so you’re never too close to the exterior,” says Berensson. “Thus keeping up appearance of being almost immaterial as a mirage.”

“To compete with the sun and the moon is a tough task, no doubt.”

The concept reflects Miami’s glitz literally and figuratively, but the proposed design would earn a grudging nod from members of the Green Party. The entire exterior surface of the building would be clad in translucent solar panels allowing natural light to stream through the facade, reducing energy use during the day, while harvesting solar power that would completely meet the building’s energy needs by night. Sadly, the chances of visiting The Miami Sun are dim. The design is merely one of many proposals in a competition, neighbors in multi-million-dollar waterfront condos would likely oppose any project that blocked their views, and the building’s scope and technical complexity would make it prohibitively expensive. However, Berensson and Mejergren were undaunted by these challenges. “Sometimes the creative urges are too strong, and if you get an idea that you want to try, it is hard to have the patience to wait for a paying client to pay to investigate the thoughts further.”