Uncrowned Guard

Google added a screen capture ability to Chrome OS already, but it has been an awful experience so far. The current software lacks many features standard in the screen capture apps (like long recordings) and even requires the user to convert the file after recording to get all access to standard video features. But now that will hopefully be changing once Chrome OS 93 arrives to users as Google has revamped to app in a serious fashion and seems to have a quality screen recorder now. This will be a major move for the platform as currently users need to use third party apps (often full of subscriptions) to record their screens on par with other built-in solutions. While the solution for capture screens on Chrome OS is still an odd process due to how dependent the OS is on its browser, the new solution seems to offer a much more user-friendly solution. Sadly, Google seems to have completed the fix for this app, but it will not be released in Chrome OS 92 for some reason. If you are in dire need of a better screen capture option, then you may want to jump into the beta release channel on your Chromebook instead of the stable channel. Of course, you can always go down the third-party app route, but we would advise doing a bit of research first as many are lined with pay-walled features.

A study, published in Nature Communications, was carried out in collaboration with teams at the University of Exeter, India, Switzerland, Singapore, and the US, has found that HDDs made using graphene can improve storage capabilities ten-fold when compared to current modern standards. For those that do not know, HDDs are made up of two major components: a platter (or set of platters) and a head (or multiple heads). You can visualize these as the platter being a CD and the head simply being the tool that writes the data onto the CD. The materials used in these devices have evolved over the years with HDDs getting both smaller in physical size and denser in data storage. In fact, since 1990, HDDs have quadrupled in storage capacity and are able to be nearly ¼ of the size. However, with the research being completed on graphene-based HDDs, those massive improvements over time might look minor should the technology come to these devices. Graphene has also shown benefits beyond storage density, as it also reduces friction and corrosion on the platter in significant amounts, which would extend the life of the drive. Some may be wondering why HDDs are even still around and that is simple, the amount of new data being added each year is simply unbelievable and newer SSDs would never keep up with demand or offer a cost-effective solution. Studies have estimated that YouTube alone gets around 720,000 hours of video uploaded to their servers every day, so storage solutions are always needed (this is also why YouTube moderating via bots is not going way). Obviously, this is currently at the research phase of the product and when or even if a product will be made is still completely unknown. Although it is a safe assume that any solution for higher density storage will be followed up by someone in the tech industry as data storage needs are certainly not going away or reducing over time. Costs of theses drives are also unknown as graphene (a once incredibly expense product) has certainly reduced in price over the years, but the demand for the product is far from low and when compared to other materials, it is safe to bet that these drives will not be cheaper than existing ones. View full article

A study, published in Nature Communications, was carried out in collaboration with teams at the University of Exeter, India, Switzerland, Singapore, and the US, has found that HDDs made using graphene can improve storage capabilities ten-fold when compared to current modern standards. For those that do not know, HDDs are made up of two major components: a platter (or set of platters) and a head (or multiple heads). You can visualize these as the platter being a CD and the head simply being the tool that writes the data onto the CD. The materials used in these devices have evolved over the years with HDDs getting both smaller in physical size and denser in data storage. In fact, since 1990, HDDs have quadrupled in storage capacity and are able to be nearly ¼ of the size. However, with the research being completed on graphene-based HDDs, those massive improvements over time might look minor should the technology come to these devices. Graphene has also shown benefits beyond storage density, as it also reduces friction and corrosion on the platter in significant amounts, which would extend the life of the drive. Some may be wondering why HDDs are even still around and that is simple, the amount of new data being added each year is simply unbelievable and newer SSDs would never keep up with demand or offer a cost-effective solution. Studies have estimated that YouTube alone gets around 720,000 hours of video uploaded to their servers every day, so storage solutions are always needed (this is also why YouTube moderating via bots is not going way). Obviously, this is currently at the research phase of the product and when or even if a product will be made is still completely unknown. Although it is a safe assume that any solution for higher density storage will be followed up by someone in the tech industry as data storage needs are certainly not going away or reducing over time. Costs of theses drives are also unknown as graphene (a once incredibly expense product) has certainly reduced in price over the years, but the demand for the product is far from low and when compared to other materials, it is safe to bet that these drives will not be cheaper than existing ones.

Memorial Day is an American holiday honoring the men and women who lost their lives serving the United States military. It is observed on the last Monday of May and originated in the years following the US Civil War, before becoming an official federal holiday in 1971. Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting memorials and cemeteries of those who lost their lives in military service along with holding family gatherings and festivals that are often based around parades. Memorial Day got its beginning after the Civil War ended in 1865 and had claimed so many lives, more live than any conflict in U.S. history, that it required the establishment of the nation's first national cemeteries. The Civil War ended in the spring which began a tradition in many American towns and cities where people would hold tributes at the cemeteries for the countless soldiers that lost their life in the line of duty. These tributes were performed by decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers to honor the graves of those who had fallen. There is no record of the true origin of these tributes, and many agree that they were independently created by local communities. The earliest account of a Memorial Day style commemoration to the fallen soldiers of the war is a group of freed slaves in Charleston, SC less than a month after the war ended. However, in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, NY as the official birthplace of Memorial Day. The Waterloo celebration was first held on May 5th, 1966 and was chosen as the birthplace as it hosted an annual, community-wide event, that was also recognized by the closing of all local businesses during the celebration. In 1968, General John A. Logan was the leader of an organization that aided northern civil war veterans and called for the creation of a national holiday to remember the fallen. Decoration Day was the original name chosen for the holiday to be celebrated for the first time on the 30th of May in 1968. On the first Decoration Day, future president General James Garfield made a speech at the Arlington National Cemetery and approximately 5000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 civil war soldiers buried there. Many northern states held similar commemorative events and by 1890 every northern state had made Decoration Day an official state holiday. Southern states would also adopt commemorative holidays for the fallen veterans of the civil war but would celebrate on different days than the north. Confederate Memorial Day was the holiday created in the South, and is still celebrated in several states today, also commemorating the fallen veterans of the civil war but with a heavy focus on the confederacy. Today this holiday has become highly controversial, and it is only celebrated in a select few states. During World War 1, the United States found itself in a new war that resulted in a heavy casualty toll on the men and women serving the U.S. military. This war was the beginning of a trend to change Decoration Day into a holiday that commemorates all American military personnel who died in all wars. The holiday slowly became known as Memorial Day and continued to be observed on May 30th with even the southern states now adopting the holiday. In 1968 the U.S. government passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, as an attempt to standardized Holidays and create a three-day weekend for federal employees to celebrate those events. In this act, Memorial Day was officially recognized as a national holiday and began being celebrated on the last Monday of May. This change went into effect in 1971 and created the Memorial Day holiday that we know of today.

Xiaomi recently announced that they will be trying to develop a practical solution to over-the-air charging on their smartphones and now Motorola has teamed up with GuRu to add true wireless power to its own smartphones. So far no company has announced when a phone will be released with these technologies, but the current marketing of the technology is that users will be able to charge their phone meters away from the charger. Odds are you will not see a Motorola device with over-the-air charging in 2021 as this team up is far too late into the development of their products for a practical 2021 release date. While details of the systems are limited they do seem to be quite restricted in their capabilities at this time. Xiaomi has announced that their charging solution will top out at 5 Watts (far from modern day fast charging) and some Motorola teasers have referenced only 3.3 ft for their charger (which does not quite convert into “meters”). There is also going to be development costs and costs to the system as a whole that will very likely outweigh Qi wireless chargers in adding to the retail price of the phone. However this is certainly a step in the correct direction for those hoping for a truly portless phone with no sacrifices being made. Image: monticellllo - stock.adobe.com View full article

Xiaomi recently announced that they will be trying to develop a practical solution to over-the-air charging on their smartphones and now Motorola has teamed up with GuRu to add true wireless power to its own smartphones. So far no company has announced when a phone will be released with these technologies, but the current marketing of the technology is that users will be able to charge their phone meters away from the charger. Odds are you will not see a Motorola device with over-the-air charging in 2021 as this team up is far too late into the development of their products for a practical 2021 release date. While details of the systems are limited they do seem to be quite restricted in their capabilities at this time. Xiaomi has announced that they're charging solution will Top out at 5 Watts (far from modern day fast charging) and some Motorola teasers have referenced only 3.3 ft for their charger (which does not quite convert into “meters”). There is also going to be development costs and costs to the system as a whole that will very likely outweigh Qi wireless chargers in adding to the retail price of the phone. However this is certainly a step in the correct direction for those hoping for a truly portless phone with no sacrifices being made. Image: monticellllo - stock.adobe.com

Launched in 1977, the Voyager 1 was the first Voyager device sent into interstellar space to find out what is beyond our own solar system. It has spent 43 years traveling a distance into space that is now 150 times the distance between Earth and the Sun. Currently it takes transmissions over 21 hours to reach Earth from Voyager 1. In 2012 Voyager 1 passed the heliopause (the boundary at which pressure solar wind is no longer strong enough to push into wind from space) and even at this distance, Voyager 1 is continuing to prove that space is not just an empty void. Since 2017, astronomers have discovered a constant hum being generated from the gases that exist between stars. Astronomers have known that space is not empty, but trying to study the material that lives between solar systems has always been a challenge due to the size of gas particles at that distance and the challenges of facing the brightness of other stars. These recent finds are starting to make astronomers believe that there is actually more activity in these voids than originally thought. Voyager 1’s radioisotope thermoelectric generator is expected to last until 2025 and that means mankind’s first interstellar space trip is not over yet. A full publication of these findings can be found in Nature Astronomy. View full article

Launched in 1977, the Voyager 1 was the first Voyager device sent into interstellar space to find out what is beyond our own solar system. It has spent 43 years traveling a distance into space that is now 150 times the distance between Earth and the Sun. Currently it takes transmissions over 21 hours to reach Earth from Voyager 1. In 2012 Voyager 1 passed the heliopause (the boundary at which pressure solar wind is no longer strong enough to push into wind from space) and even at this distance, Voyager 1 is continuing to prove that space is not just an empty void. Since 2017, astronomers have discovered a constant hum being generated from the gases that exist between stars. Astronomers have known that space is not empty, but trying to study the material that lives between solar systems has always been a challenge due to the size of gas particles at that distance and the challenges of facing the brightness of other stars. These recent finds are starting to make astronomers believe that there is actually more activity in these voids than originally thought. Voyager 1’s radioisotope thermoelectric generator is expected to last until 2025 and that means mankind’s first interstellar space trip is not over yet. A full publication of these findings can be found in Nature Astronomy.

So recent news (linked below) has Facebook developing an Instagram just for kids under 13 (being that once they are 14, they can just join the "adult" social media platforms). However this is raising a lot of concern across the board with many seeming to believe that young children are not properly prepared to be on social media and even studies being done to show that almost half of younger users on social media are already being cyberbullied. One counter point to this concern is the fact that many young children are already using social media before they are of age and it would be safer for those kids to use a dedicated platform. I find myself at a crossroads on this one as I would be against a social media platform just for minors as I can see too many problems arising and if children and parents put their trust into the platform, then malicious users can be lead to horrible outcomes. Perhaps I would be more for the idea if it wasn't Facebook creating the platform as they do not have the best track record at protecting children on their current platforms, but I do see their point in the fact that young children are already (and have been for decades) using the internet before turning 14. What are your thoughts on this matter?

A letter from the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) is urging Facebook to abandon its plans to create an Instagram platform aimed for kids under the age of 13. The group is citing numerous concerns about the safety and wellbeing of children using the platform and the harm that can be done to unprepared children being on social media. The Attorney General from 44 states have signed the waiver after two months of a report mentioning that Facebook was in the early stages of creating the new social media. The plans are not yet official and numerous politicians are pushing for the plans to be abandoned far before that point. The letter references Facebook’s already poor reputation at protecting children from damaging content and users on their current platforms. It also brings up a survey completed in 2017 that found 42 percent of young Instagram users experienced cyberbullying and that Instagram was the most common platform for young users to be cyberbullied on out of the platforms researched. While it seems very few disagree with the findings and focus of this letter and its intentions to protect children, a quite common counter point is that children under the age of 13 are already finding ways to use “adult Instagram” and a child safe version may protect those children much better than the adult version. Although it is also worth noting that Facebook has been seen as lacking in addressing these already known issues and that does lead to doubts about a new platform. View full article

A letter from the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) is urging Facebook to abandon its plans to create an Instagram platform aimed for kids under the age of 13. The group is citing numerous concerns about the safety and wellbeing of children using the platform and the harm that can be done to unprepared children being on social media. The Attorney General from 44 states have signed the waiver after two months of a report mentioning that Facebook was in the early stages of creating the new social media. The plans are not yet official and numerous politicians are pushing for the plans to be abandoned far before that point. The letter references Facebook’s already poor reputation at protecting children from damaging content and users on their current platforms. It also brings up a survey completed in 2017 that found 42 percent of young Instagram users experienced cyberbullying and that Instagram was the most common platform for young users to be cyberbullied on out of the platforms researched. While it seems very few disagree with the findings and focus of this letter and its intentions to protect children, a quite common counter point is that children under the age of 13 are already finding ways to use “adult Instagram” and a child safe version may protect those children much better than the adult version. Although it is also worth noting that Facebook has been seen as lacking in addressing these already knew issues and that does lead to doubts about a new platform.

Yes, they were kinda a pain to setup but did wonders for complex home theater setups.

Mother's Day is a holiday that honors motherhood and is celebrated in numerous different formats and on different days around the world. In the United States, Mother's Day is a single day event where children will often present their mother with flowers and other gifts of appreciation. The holiday has also been known to be associated with numerous women's rights activist movement in recent history. The earliest accounts of a holiday or celebration of motherhood can be traced to the ancient Greeks and Romans who often held festivals in honor of the mother goddesses Cybele and Rhea. However, when it comes to the actual traditions of modern-day Mother's Day, it is often associated with the early Christian festival known as Mothering Sunday. Mothering Sunday was once a major tradition in Europe, primarily the United Kingdom, and fell on the 4th Sunday during Lent. The tradition was based around faithful Christians returning to their “mother church” (the main church around their home) for a special service provided at the church. This tradition slowly transitioned into a holiday where children would present their actual mothers with flowers and other gifts. Mothering Sunday slowly fell out of popularity and eventually merged with the American Mother's Day in the 1930s. In the United states Mother's Day got its start from clubs called Mother's Day Work Clubs that taught local women childcare and other motherly skills. These clubs became a unifying force during the civil war and in 1868 Ann Reeves Jarvis organized Mother’s Friendship Day which mothers of both union and Confederate soldiers gathered to promote reconciliation. In the late 1800s numerous movements and celebrations began appearing to celebrate motherhood and even world peace, like Mother's Peace Day. In the early 1990s Anna Jarvis, the daughter of Ann Reeves Jarvis, conceived Mother’s Day after the death of her mother as a way for children to honor the sacrifices their mothers make. The first Mother's Day celebration was in May of 1908 funded by a Philadelphia department store owner John Wanamaker and took place as a celebration at the Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. During that day thousands of people also attended a special Mother's Day event at one of Wanamaker’s retail stores in Philadelphia. Following the success of the first Mother's Day celebration Jarvis committed her life to getting the holiday added to the national calendar. Her argument was that American holidays were biased towards male achievements and as early as 1912 many states and local areas had adapted Mother’s Day as an annual holiday. In 1914 president Woodrow Wilson officially signed Mother's Day as a national holiday on the 2nd Sunday in May. After it became a national holiday, Jarvis began to protest the commercialization of the holiday in the 1920s when commercialization of flowers and other gifts seemed to outweigh the original celebration of motherhood. By the time of her death in 1948 Jarvis had disowned the holiday altogether after years of actively lobbying the government to remove it from the national calendar.

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Cinco de Mayo, or translated as the Fifth of May, is the Mexican holiday that celebrates the Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla during Franco-Mexican war. The day is sometimes referred to as Battle of Puebla Day and always falls on the 5th day of May. Cinco de Mayo is often referred to in the United States as Mexican Independence Day, but this is an incorrect reference as it is a minor holiday in Mexico and is the celebration of a single battle. Mexican Independence Day, or Día de la Independencia, is celebrated on September 16th as the commemoration of Mexico’s declaration of war against the Spanish government in 1810. The Franco-Mexican war was a joint military response by France, Britain, and Spain who sent military forces to Veracruz, Mexico demanding repayment of loans and other finances due to Mexico’s ongoing financial troubles and defaulting on recent payments. Britain and Spain never engaged in military combat due to negotiations with the Mexican government, however, France decided to use the opportunity to expand their empire into the Mexican owned territory. The Battle of Puebla was a final stand made by a ragtag Mexican military force that was vastly outnumbered and underequipped to face the French army but managed to hold the line against the French invasion. After this battle The United States, who was finally recovering from the Civil War, began to apply political pressure to the French and support for the Mexican military causing the French forces to withdraw. While in Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is primarily observed in the state of Puebla, where the victory had occurred, the United States began celebrating the holiday around the 1960s as a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage within the United States. Since the 1960s Cinco de Mayo has rapidly grown in popularity within the United States with numerous festivals and events celebrating Mexican traditions and culture within the nation. While the holiday is still officially the commemoration of a victory in a military battle, it is widely regarded has a cultural celebration in modern times here in the United States. Many people connect this holiday with the association of Mexican traditions due to the high number of indigenous Mexicans that fought in the Battle of Puebla.

Logitech has announced that they will be discontinuing all their Harmony products effective immediately. Harmony products are loved by many home theater users as the nearly undebatable best solution to creating a universal remote and integrating smart features into those remotes. While the future of the Harmony line has been questioned for many years due to the rise of smart TVs and smart speakers having their own solutions to Harmony’s answer, the surprise discontinuation of the lineup is still a shock. Thankfully, Logitech has stated that they will continue to offer support for these products and will allow retailers to sell though their inventory. Logitech has even gone as far as stating that they will continue to update and add new home theater products into the Harmony database, but only time will tell how dedicated they are in this task. So, all current Harmony users should be unaffected by this move and new users can still get into the system by simply visiting a store until they sell out. Although we would cation anyone from starting a smart home system based on a discontinued product line. Logitech has stated that no refunds will be issued as the products will continue to work and if users want to return a Harmony product, they will need to check with the place of purchase. Nearly all of the release and following information is based around the remotes offered by Harmony and little information was given about other items, such as the Harmony smart hub, but they did state ALL products will continue to receive support. View full article

Logitech has announced that they will be discontinuing all their Harmony products effective immediately. Harmony products are loved by many home theater users as the nearly undebatable best solution to creating a universal remote and integrating smart features into those remotes. While the future of the Harmony line has been questioned for many years due to the rise of smart TVs and smart speakers having their own solutions to Harmony’s answer, the surprise discontinuation of the lineup is still a shock. Thankfully, Logitech has stated that they will continue to offer support for these products and will allow retailers to sell though their inventory. Logitech has even gone as far as stating that they will continue to update and add new home theater products into the Harmony database, but only time will tell how dedicated they are in this task. So, all current Harmony users should be unaffected by this move and new users can still get into the system by simply visiting a store until they sell out. Although we would cation anyone from starting a smart home system based on a discontinued product line. Logitech has stated that no refunds will be issued as the products will continue to work and if users want to return a Harmony product, they will need to check with the place of purchase. Nearly all of the release and following information is based around the remotes offered by Harmony and little information was given about other items, such as the Harmony smart hub, but they did state ALL products will continue to receive support.