Bre Pettis, Jeff Clavier, And Matt Rogers Will Join Us At Hardware Battlefield In Vegas

With the rise of crowdfunding and easier paths to manufacturing, there are more gadgeteers than ever before. And we’re looking for some of the best hardware startups to compete on our Las Vegas stage for a giant $50,000 check, tons of publicity and the brand new Hardware Battlefield cup.

We are pleased to announce that Makerbot’s Bre Pettis, VC Jeff Clavier, and Nest founder Matt Rogers have all agreed to be judges for the competition. Each one will bring their years of experience to bear on what should be an amazing event.

Like Startup Battlefield, this new competition will pit 20 hardware startups against each other. The winner will be chosen by VCs, makers and TechCrunch Editors.

The best thing? The Hardware Battlefield is taking place at CES 2014 in Las Vegas but is open to all comers and you don’t need a conference badge to enter, attend the battlefield events, or simply spectate. Our goal is to find the diamond in the CE rough. We don’t care about Samsung, Sony, and Philips -– we care about you.

It’s free to enter. The competition is open to all hardware companies who are planning to launch (crowdfund or ship) product in a two week window before or after January 10. You can still be in prototyping stage but you must have a working, usable product by January 7 and be ready to offer pre-orders on that day or soon thereafter. We recommend launching your crowdsourcing page during the event, however, as it will have maximum impact.

We will have more details shortly but for now we invite you to submit your product. The rules are simple:

1. You must launch your product or crowdfunding campaign before January 7.
2. You must be a single proprietor or small company.
3. This must not be a feature update to an existing product.
4. You must be able to attend rehearsals and sessions in Las Vegas prior to CES and during the show.
5. You must launch first with TechCrunch and approach other media after you appear on our stage.

We will pick 15 entrants on October 30 and announce the location, time, and judges closer to the event. The grand prize winner will get $50,000 to go towards research, development, or whatever else your team needs to get by. All projects will be kept confidential until January 7.

We are very excited about this new event and we want to make it the best one ever. Remember to email sponsors@techcrunch.com if you’d like to sponsor the festivities and if you have any questions email john@techcrunch.com. We look forward to seeing what you’re working and we hope to see you in Vegas!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/21qxXnFAx1k/
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Security firm releases tool to audit SAP's HANA

October 16, 2013

By Jeremy Kirk | IDG News Service

A new tool from security vendor Onapsis aims to secure SAP's in-memory database HANA, the German company's fastest-growing data processing product.

Onapsis, a Boston-based company that specializes in SAP security, will incorporate the tool into its X1 suite, which scans for vulnerabilities and configuration problems in SAP deployments.

[ Prevent corporate data leaks with Roger Grimes' "Data Loss Prevention Deep Dive" PDF expert guide, only from InfoWorld. | Stay up to date on the latest security developments with InfoWorld's Security Central newsletter. ]

HANA is a cornerstone of SAP's strategy to compete with Oracle and IBM. Available as a cloud service and an appliance, it's designed to process analytical and transaction workloads much faster for SAP's ERP, CRM, supply chain and business intelligence applications.

HANA became generally available last year, and SAP has called it the fastest-growing product in its history, with more than 1,000 customers at the end of 2012.

But the product is "so new that there is no real practical knowledge on how to secure it," according to Onapsis CEO Mariano Nunez.

The HANA modules in X1 perform automated scans that check if a HANA's configuration matches SAP's security guidelines for the platform. They look for problems such as missing patches, users with excessive permissions, dangerous SAP XS Engine applications, missing audit trails and weak passwords, among other issues.

The modules prioritize the risks administrators should mitigate and continuously monitor HANA for new risks, Nunez said. The HANA modules will be available in November as a free update for existing X1 customers.

Send news tips and comments to jeremy_kirk@idg.com. Follow me on Twitter: @jeremy_kirk

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/t/vulnerability-assessment/security-firm-releases-tool-audit-saps-hana-228867
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What President Taft Can Teach Us About Weight Loss

By Jody Lin, M.D.

President William Howard Taft didn't have it easy.

Everyone who has taken a White House tour knows by now that his administration marked the installation of the largest presidential bathtub. Legend has it he once got stuck in it.

Are fitness apps making us healthier or driving us crazy?

Widely remembered as a lackluster politician, Taft was our portliest president - a fact that did not go unnoticed by the American populace.

But Taft may yet distinguish himself in another way, according to a new review published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. He may be a historical poster child for the future of dieting.

Deborah Levine, a professor of health policy and management at Providence College in Rhode Island, pored over the letters between Taft and famed English diet expert Dr. Nathaniel Yorke-Davies that were written in 1905. What she found was a trans-Atlantic correspondence similar to today's cutting-edge approaches to weight loss, using what are now considered proven weight loss tools along with remote counseling.

Taft's version of the iPad, of course, was an actual pad of paper, and his desktop was, well, a desktop.

But Levine learned from the letters she studied that, in the course of their communications, Taft managed to shave 60 pounds off his more than 300-pound frame.

Nancy Copperman, director of public health initiatives at the North Shore-LIJ Health System, who was not involved in the research, said Taft's letters from more than a century ago still have relevance for today's dieters.

"Here we are over 100 years later … and we're really treating obesity in the same way," she said. "And the things that were used for President Taft to lose weight are now evidence-based strategies."

The letters may also show support for remote counseling as a weight-loss method - particularly interesting as more people use high-tech apps to help their weight-loss efforts. A separate study released last week revealed that 30 of the most popular applications for iPhone and Android devices are for losing weight, although researchers said they were far from perfect.

Sherry Pagoto, a University of Massachusetts researcher behind this study, said the success of these apps come from their ability to help us make connections - much like the one Taft enjoyed with his British diet guru.

"We could have better care with patients and spend less time with them," Pagoto said.

Would you use the Wii Fit Meter?

For right now, most weight-loss apps do a great job of tracking calorie consumption and weight-loss progress, and reminding people to go to the gym. But they still fall short in many ways when it comes to connecting us with those who can help us shed the pounds. And it is this aspect that Dr. David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University, said should be improved in future versions of these apps. They don't "write back" as Taft's doctor did.

"If you have an interesting website, an app, and an engaged clinician … the whole is greater than the sum of its parts," said Katz. "The real value of apps is they can populate the space between contact with a physician."

So it might make sense for us to take a page from Taft's letters as these new technologies develop. As "connected" as these devices make us feel, those hoping to lose weight should strive to use new apps or current technology, such as Skype, to keep the communication going between themselves and health providers, even outside the doctor's office.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/president-taft-teach-us-weight-loss-142938964.html
Category: Olivia Culpo   Steam Controller   Scott Eastwood   clemson   George Alexander Louis  

Report: Microsoft to boost Xbox TV lineup with street soccer series

After snagging CBS exec Nancy Tellem and launching a Halo-based TV series with Steven Spielberg, Microsoft's Xbox Entertainment Studios appears to be tackling a whole new genre. According to Deadline Hollywood, the fledgling TV division will launch its first reality-TV series for Xbox Live based on street soccer called Every Street United. Eight 30-minute episodes will be produced featuring undiscovered talent playing four-on-four soccer across eight different countries. The idea is to have the top eight compete in a climactic final match during the World Cup, though final details are still up in the air. The show will reportedly target Xbox's sports-crazy demographic, though the choice seems a bold move for Microsoft -- which is clearly thinking outside the US box.

[Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/16/xbox-entertainment-studios-street-soccer/?ncid=rss_truncated
Tags: philip rivers   Common App   Miley Cyrus Wrecking Ball   Wally Bayola scandal   JJ Cale  

Eating Popcorn at the Movies Makes You Immune to the Advertising

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2010, AT 6:19 PM
Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma

FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2011, AT 3:07 PM
Obama Gets Firsthand Look at a Tornado Damage

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2010, AT 6:19 PM
Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma. Very long title. Long long long. Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma. Very long title. Long long long.

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2010, AT 6:19 PM
Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma. Very long title. Long long long. Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma. Very long title. Long long long.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/video/video/2013/10/eating_and_advertising_popcorn_and_snacks_at_movies_nullify_the_message.html
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TC Cribs: The Lights, Cameras, And Classrooms At CreativeLIVE's San Francisco HQ

Typically, TechCrunch Cribs goes inside tech companies to show a side of them that cameras don't often see. But this episode took us to the San Francisco office of CreativeLIVE, the online education startup that broadcasts its classrooms live to a worldwide audience -- here, cameras are literally part of the furniture.

So in this case, Cribs just turned the cameras on the people who typically turn the camera on others. So meta! It was very fun to see behind the scenes of a truly modern kind of video studio.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/CywlIGnbZi0/
Tags: Tony Gonzalez   Government Shutdown 2013   Pretty Little Liars   Katy Perry Vma 2013   mumford and sons  

Suspected plotter of 1998 embassy bombings appears in New York court

Christine Cornell

Courtroom sketch of Anas al-Libi in Federal Courthouse iin New York City on October 15, 2013.

By James Novogrod, Jonathan Dienst and Erin McClam, NBC News

A suspected al Qaeda operative captured by U.S. special forces in Libya pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Manhattan federal court to charges that he helped plan the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa.

The alleged operative, Abu Anas al-Libi, 49, entered his plea via a court-appointed lawyer and then told the judge through an Arabic language translator that he cannot afford a private attorney.

Prosecutors said the case — which includes charges of conspiracy to kill Americans and conspiracy to destroy U.S. defense utilities outside the country — is not eligible for the death penalty.

During the brief hearing, al-Libi — who wore close-cropped hair, a beard, and gray sweatpants and a black shirt — was declared a flight risk and ordered held. He will be back in court again next week.

A key al-Qaeda planner indicted for bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzaniahas been brought to American soil for medical treatment, sparking outrage by some who say he should have been sent to Guantanamo Bay. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

Al-Libi was whisked off the streets of Tripoli on Oct. 5 and held aboard the USS San Antonio, where he was locked in the brig and questioned without Miranda rights, U.S. officials said.

Because of what U.S. officials have described as a serious medical condition — his family says it is severe hepatitis — he was taken within a week to New York, where he has been under indictment since 1998.

Some Republicans in Congress said that he should have been sent to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for further interrogation.

“This isn’t a question of getting a conviction,” said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. “It was a question of getting intelligence.”

He is one of 21 men indicted in the bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed more than 200 people. He is among nine in custody. Eight have been killed, including Osama bin Laden; one died awaiting trial, and three are at large.

The indictment accuses al-Libi of helping plan the attacks and of conducting surveillance of the embassy and other diplomatic facilities in Nairobi, Kenya.

According to testimony at an earlier embassy bombing trial, it was al-Libi, who was in London at the time of the attacks, who first proposed the bombing of foreign embassies in 1993.

Richard Engel of NBC News contributed to this report.

Related:

Fugitive al Qaeda leader was hardly lying low in Libya, photos show

Slow-motion manhunt: U.S. relentlessly pursues '98 embassy bombing suspects

 

 

 

 

This story was originally published on Tue Oct 15, 2013 10:38 AM EDT

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663306/s/327f7512/sc/11/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C10A0C150C20A9742120Esuspected0Eplotter0Eof0E19980Eembassy0Ebombings0Eappears0Ein0Enew0Eyork0Ecourt0Dlite/story01.htm
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