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Monday, March 11, 2013
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Musaic Box HD iPad Game Review: Music To Our Ears
Tucker Cummings | On 07, Mar 2013
Musaic Box HD is an iPad game developed by KranX Productions. In this mysterious iPad game, you need to search a room for information about music that your grandfather taught you. Part puzzle, part music game, Musaic Box HD is quite enthralling.
It might look like a typo, but the word ?Musaic? is actually a clever blend of ?music? and ?mosaic,? which alludes to the dual nature of the game: building musical themes out of mosaic-like puzzle tiles.
In Musaic Box HD, you reconstruct famous melodies from fragments played by different musicians. Suitable for all ages, you don?t need any music training to understand how to play this game.
It?s a bit like the book ?Sophie?s World,? but with music instead of philosophy. There?s an enigmatic character forcing you through a set of lessons and puzzles as a way of teaching you music. And as with any good puzzle game, there?s an in-app option to purchase hints to help you out when you get stuck on a particularly tricky song.
Some users might not like Musaic Box HD for the same reason that they dislike games like Guitar Hero or Rock Band: you spend all this time playing a music-related game, but never learn how to read musical notation. It?s a fair argument: the mosaic tiles are cool and all, but you could use this game to actually get kids excited about music if there were more notation elements in the game.
Winner of an award from the Independent Games Festival, Musaic Box HD features great graphics and a good array of music. With?Hidden Object game elements to help you find clues to solve the more difficult melodies, Musaic Box HD has a lot of different gameplay modes to keep players entertained.
Musaic Box HD?is compatible with iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later.
Review Overview
A creative blend of music and puzzles.
Source: http://www.tapscape.com/musaic-box-hd-ipad-game-review/
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PFT: Redskins reportedly likely to release Hall
If it wasn?t so pathetic, it would be funny.
After years of looking the other way despite blatant tampering in the days and weeks prior to the official launch of free agency, which often featured the negotiation of multi-million-dollar contracts in a matter of minutes and/or the instantaneous making and execution of travel plans to visit teams, the league has created a three-day window during which negotiations may occur between teams and agents representing free agents.
The ?2013 free agency questions and answers? published by the NFL on Thursday plainly state: ?Beginning at 12:00 midnight ET on Saturday, March 9 (i.e., after 11:59:59 p.m. ET, on Friday, March 8) and ending at 3:59:59 p.m. ET on Tuesday, March 12, clubs are permitted to contact, and enter into negotiations with, the certified agents of players who will become Unrestricted Free Agents upon the expiration of their 2012 Player Contracts at 4:00 p.m. ET on March 12.? However, a contract cannot be executed with a new club until 4:00 p.m. ET on March 12.?
This language does not prohibit the finalization of an agreement in principle, with the formal contract execution coming the moment the close strikes 4:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, March 12.? Thus language implies that everything can be prepared by Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. for the prompt execution of the formal contract.
But even at a time when tampering has been rampant and blatant (as anyone who attended the Scouting Combine and/or stayed at one of the hotels swarming with team employees and player agents knows), the NFL has reportedly warned teams not to strike agreements in principle with agents before 4:00 p.m. ET on March 12.
The memo sent Friday to all teams, a copy of which PFT has obtained reiterates that ?no contract can be executed until 4:00 p.m., New York time, on March 12.?
In the next breath, the memo explains that ?prior to the beginning of the new League Year it is impermissible for a club to enter into an agreement of any kind, express or implied, oral or written, or promises, undertakings, representations, commitments, inducements, assurances of intent or understandings of any kind concerning the terms or conditions of employment offered to, or to be offered to, any prospective Unrestricted Free Agent for inclusion in a Player Contract after the start of the new League Year.?
So what the hell are the teams and agents supposed to be negotiating?
The limitation in the document dubbed PP-28-13 contradicts the plain language of the rule articulated in PP-26-13.? If the original limitation was that no contract may be executed before 4:00 p.m. ET on March 12, the notion that no verbal understandings may be reached by then guts the rule.? And turns common sense on its head.
The most amazing aspect of PP-28-13 is the threat of a ?tampering investigation.?? When it comes to tampering investigations, the league has been impotent for years, pursuing only the most blatant, defiant, and/or idiotic instances of tampering and turning a blind but knowing eye to countless instances of it.
The NFL doesn?t pursue tampering cases in part because everyone does it.? So now, out of the blue, the NFL threatens a tampering investigation against any team that reaches a tentative agreement during a period expressly allowing everything short of a signed contract?? Really?
It?s a joke, but it all points to something former Chiefs G.M. Scott Pioli first mentioned last month on Pro Football Talk:? The league is building toward a contrived ?signing day,? on which players will announce that which previously was unknown to anyone except the player and his family.
Still, it?s impractical in this context, and we can?t imagine that a sudden wave of huffing and puffing from a league office that has little capacity to blow anything down if the teams are discreet will keep teams from striking informal deals and then getting the word out in order to scare other teams away from the player.
Obviously, we encourage discreet defiance.? In part because I just slept three hours so that I could stay up all night and write about the agreements in principle that, prior to Friday?s memo, the new rules clearly allowed.
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Friday, March 8, 2013
Can South Africa's justice system handle the Oscar Pistorius case? (+video)
The lead detective in the Oscar Pistorius murder case has been replaced. But can the South African police force recover from the mistakes made to date?
Detective Hilton Botha sits inside the court witness box during the Oscar Pistorius bail hearing in Pretoria, South Africa. Botha is off the case, and now faces attempted murder charges himself over a 2011 shooting, police said Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013,
AP Photo/Themba Hadebe
EnlargeThe lead investigator in the Oscar Pistorius murder case has been replaced. Why? Detective Hilton Botha himself now faces charges of attempted murder.
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Hilton Botha, the lead investigator in the Oscar Pistorius case was replaced Thursday. Botha faces attempted murder charges.Yes, the detective investigating the murder of Reeve Steenkamp had attempted murder charges reinstated on Feb. 4 ? some 10 days before the Pistorius case. Botha and two other police officers face seven counts of attempted murder in a 2011 shooting incident. The drunk policemen allegedly fired at a minibus they were trying to stop.
In an attempt to rebound from this setback, South Africa's National Police Commission Riah Phiyega said Thursday that a team of "highly skilled and experienced' detectives will now take over the investigation. South African Olympic runner Pistorius faces a premeditated murder charge for the killing of his girlfriend Reeva SteenKamp.
But this sudden removal of Botha, in addition to his testimony during three days of bail hearings, is raising questions not only about the quality of the prosecution's case but the effectiveness of South Africa's judicial system.
During Thursday's bail hearing, Pistorius's defense attorney Barry Roux cast doubt on the version of events given by Botha on previous days.? Prosecutors claimed Steenkamp had fled to the bathroom after a fight, fearing an enraged Pistorius. But Pistorius's version of events was that she had gone to the bathroom to relieve herself, and he didn't know it was her behind the door when he fired the gun four times. He thought she was an intruder.
On Thursday, Botha conceded that the angle of the shots was consistent with Pistorius's version of events.
As The Guardian live blog on the case reported:
"Defence lawyer Barry Roux said that Steenkamp?s bladder was empty when she died, indicating she had indeed got up to use the toilet. Usually at 3am you would not find an empty bladder, Roux said. Roux said Steenkamp?s autopsy showed no sign of defensive wounds or an assault. Botha said that was correct. Roux said that Steenkamp might have locked the toilet door to protect herself when she heard Pistorius shouting that there was a burglar. And he said that Botha could not say for sure that the shots were fired from 1.5m away and at the angle he described ? and Botha admitted he couldn?t be sure about that. Roux also criticised Botha?s handling of the crime scene, saying the police had failed to find a bullet cartridge and that Botha had walked in to the house without protective feet covers on, contaminating the scene."
And there were other mistakes that came to light on Wednesday, as The Christian Science Monitor reported, "Police ... left a 9 mm slug from the barrage that killed Reeva Steenkamp inside a toilet and lost track of illegal ammunition found inside the house."
"Unfortunately there are too many instances of poor police work," Gerhard Kemp, a professor of criminal law at the University of Stellenbosch, told Reuters. "It's absolutely not CSI. It's a totally different world."
On Thursday, Desmond Nair, the magistrate in charge of the bail hearing, also raised questions about the competence of Botha's work, asking why the police hadn't acquired Steenkamp's phone records yet.
"Do you agree that [if] the deceased received SMSs or Phonecalls at 3 a.m., would it change the position of case?" the judge asked.
Pistorius's attroney, Roux pressed his advantage Thursday. "The poor quality of the evidence offered by investigative officer Botha exposed the disastrous shortcomings of the state's case," Roux said. "We cannot sit back and take comfort that he [Botha] is telling the truth."
Asked about Botha's court performance and handling of the investigation, National Police Commission Phiyega said South Africa's police force "can stand on its own" compared to others around the world, according to The Associated Press.
And Reuters reports:
With huge international media interest in the case against a global celebrity, many South Africans feel that apparent initial slip-ups by the police are hurting the country's image.
"Bring someone from outside to sort out this mess," said businessman Godfrey Baloyi. "The whole justice system needs an overhaul."
The bail hearing in Pretoria is scheduled to continue on Friday.
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West Hills resident Roya Dejan wins California Strawberry Festival poster contest
Photo gallery: California Strawberry Festival poster contest winner
West Hills resident Roya Dejan is the winner of the California Strawberry Festival poster contest.
Dejan's poster was among 65 entries.
Organizers announced her win on Tuesday, March 5, 2013 in Oxnard. Dejan will receive $2,000 and a trip to Aruba.
The poster will be the basis of strawberry merchandise for the 30th Anniversary Festival on May 18-19, 2013 in Oxnard.
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Thursday, March 7, 2013
How the librarian of Congress controls your cell phone?s future
Just spent $200 on a smartphone and want to switch carriers? Due to congressional act, it?s up to the librarian of Congress to decide if and when you?re allowed to ?unlock? your phone and get a different provider.
James H. Billington Source: Library Of Congress
The semi-obscure law doesn?t date back to the time of James Madison or even Alexander Graham Bell.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 sprung up during the Bill Clinton era and it was designed to protect copyrighted content on the Internet and computer devices, while not curbing freedom of expression.
Digital publishers like Constitution Daily and any business that publishes digital content are very aware of the ?take down? procedure under the law. If someone has a copyright claim to an image, an audio recording or a video, the copyright holder files a DCMA notice and the publisher takes down the content, until the issue is resolved.
Another part of the law was designed to curb ?pirated? video, audio and software on the Internet and on digital devices.
That?s where the librarian of Congress comes in. The DMCA says that the librarian , as the final authority on copyrights, can grant exemptions to the law every three years.
Wireless providers use copyrights to make phones they sell proprietary to their own networks, by requiring a code to ?unlock? the phone for use on competitors? networks. One reason is that a provider may sell a phone to you at a deep discount in exchange for a two-year service contract.
Link: Latest carrier unlocking costs
Last October, Librarian of Congress James Hadley Billington (of Bryn Mawr, Pa.) decided to end an exemption that allowed people to unlock their cell phones without their carrier?s permission. The updated rule went into effect in January amid much fuss in the digital world.
So now, if you have a locked phone, you need to negotiate a deal with your provider. Some will provide an unlock code after your current contract expires, or even sooner. (Policies vary among carriers.)
In his ruling, which remains in effect for three years, Billington said today?s consumers can just buy an unlocked phone on the market. Typically, the markup on an unlocked phone can be 300 percent, and you still need to buy a monthly service plan for voice, texting and Internet access.
But another key point is that Billington?s ruling makes it illegal to unlock a phone with a carrier?s permission.
Since the rules went into effect, the White House received more than 100,000 signatures on an online petition to overturn the ruling.
On Monday, the Obama administration responded with a statement supporting the unlocking of all phones, after a consumer meets a contractual requirement. The administration also supports the idea that tablets like the iPad should be unlocked in a similar way.
?Neither criminal law nor technological locks should prevent consumers from switching carriers when they are no longer bound by a service agreement or other obligation,? said David Edelman, White House Senior Advisor for Internet, Innovation, & Privacy.
On Tuesday, the librarian responded with a low-key rebuke to the president, saying that the review process that led to the ban was executed within the DMCA.
?Rulemaking can often serve as a barometer for broader policy concerns and broader policy action. The most recent rulemaking has served this purpose,? the statement said.
In Congress, the idea of some controlled form of unlocking is getting bipartisan support.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont.) supports the idea and Senator ?Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) is proposing a new unlocking law.
Representative Darrell Issa (R-California), an influential force in Congress, has also supported an unlocking law, but he?s also voiced concerns about a rise in cell phones prices if people can break their contracts with providers.
For now, the librarian?s ruling stands, but the administration did drop one hint about how it could get around Congress to make it easier for people to get unlocked phones.
It said the Federal Communications Commission, an Executive Branch agency, should have a role in the process.
The FFC is involved in rulemaking for cell phone plans. One theory explained on the industry website eWeek, is that FCC could require providers to give permission to consumers who want an unlock code?no questions asked.
That could be problematic, says CNET?s Marguerite Reardon, in her review of the current situation because the FCC should work to support laws passed by Congress.
Reardon says the actual legality of the DCMA and unlock codes could be questioned.
?Until the law is actually tested in court or until Congress amends it to make it more clear, it?s difficult to say whose interpretation is correct,? she said in an online article that lays out the broad debate about the issue.
The stakes in the debate are huge. According to Pew Research, more than 45 percent of American adults own a smartphone and 31 percent have computer tablets. The value of the wireless services industry in the U.S. is about $211 billion.
Scott Bomboy is the editor-in-chief of the National Constitution Center.
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Also ReadSource: http://news.yahoo.com/librarian-congress-controls-cell-phone-future-181608514.html
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