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Firefox 15 beta boasts support for Opus audio format, reduces add-on memory leaks
Engadget – Can’t bear to part with your favorite browser extensions, but can’t stand to see them devour your system memory? Maybe you should check out Firefox 15. According to Mozilla’s Hacks blog, the browser’s latest beta should patch up the majority of memory leaks gushing from Firefox add-ons. Also new, is the beta’s support for Opus, a free audio format partially supported by Mozilla. More
Firefox Beta 15 supports the new Opus audio format
What is it?
Opus offers these benefits:
-Better compression than MP3, Ogg, or AAC formats
-Good for both music and speech
-Dynamically adjustable bitrate, audio bandwidth, and coding delay
-Support for both interactive and pre-recorded applications
Why Should I care?
First, Opus is free software, free for everyone, for any purpose. It’s also an IETF standard. Both the encoder and decoder are free, including the fixed-point implementation (for mobile devices). These aren’t toy demos. They’re the best we could make, ready for serious use.
US Retail Sector at Lowest Level Since Summer of 2009
Gateway Pundit -
Thanks Barack.
The US retail sector is now at its lowest level since the summer of 2009.
Profit Confidential reported:The retail sector reports that sales for June, for stores open at least one year, gained an anemic 0.1%, the slowest rise since August 2009.
This was the third month in a row of significant weakness in the retail sector!
When compared to the 6.7% rise in sales in the same period last year for the retail sector, this 0.1% rise in retail sales from last month reveals how weak consumer spending in this supposed economic recovery is. Remember, dear reader: 70% of gross domestic product (GDP) is composed of consumer spending.
The retail sector uses this measure—stores open at least one year—because stores that are shutting down and new store openings tend to skew the data, so taking stores that are open for at least a year provides a more accurate reading of the retail sector and consumer spending patterns. More
Vizio meets the MacBook
CNET – Vizio is the latest to make a run at Apple’s MacBook. So far, I like what I see.
The Irvine, Calif.-based company’s ultrabooks are front and center at the Los Angeles Microsoft store these days.
I counted six Vizio ultrabooks. That’s more — a lot more in most cases — than any other single vendor in the store.
Ditto Vizio. In another nod to Apple, Vizio has only two basic ultrabook models — 14-inch and 15.6-inch — and the Los Angeles Microsoft Store had six of the same 15.6-inch models side-by-side.
Throw in the fact that Vizio has a minimalist metal (anodized aluminum) design similar to the MacBook and you have the makings of an Apple experience.
But enough about the store logistics. I’ve spent enough time in the LA store lately using Vizio’s ultrabooks to appreciate what the company is trying to do: Deliver a laptop that competes head on with the Air and Pro but with better bang-for-the-buck.
Vizio 15.6-inch ultrabook offers a 1,920-by-1,080 display and 256GB solid-state drive for $1,249. While it doesn’t match he MacBook Pro’s 2,880-by-1,800 pixel density display, for a metal unibody design, it’s a pretty solid configuration.
(Credit: Vizio)
Boycott Honda Until ABC Fires George Stephanopoulos and Brian Ross!!!
Here’s the short version: Conservatives, tea party members and Americans interested in civil discourse need to boycott Honda until ABC fires George Stephanopoulos and Brian Ross.
Those two “newsmen” maligned tens of millions of Americans by aligning the tea party movement with the recent murders in Aurora, Colorado. Honda is one of ABC’s biggest advertisers. We need to let them know that Honda’s business will suffer as long as they support Stephanopoulos and Ross.
Along with boycotting Honda products, please call their customer service number (1-800-999-1009) and let them know how you feel. Also tweet them HondaCustSvc. If ABC doesn’t capitulate, Honda eventually will stop advertising with them. Then we’ll move on to ABC’s other top advertisers until ABC gets the point.
This type of behavior from the national news media is nothing new, they have been trying, in vein, to link the Tea Party with violent acts since it’s inception, most notably:
September 2009 – Man found hanged with “Fed”scrawled across chest
“The death of a U.S. Census Bureau worker in Clay County, Ky., who was found hanging from a tree, reportedly with the word Fed scrawled on his chest, rippled through the national consciousness more than other crimes from rural, tucked-away corners might have. The discovery of the body of Bill Sparkman, 51, a substitute teacher and a field worker for the bureau, comes at a time when talk media, tea parties and white-hot town-hall meetings have fanned antigovernment sentiment. Speculation has run rampant that the Sparkman case may be related to the vitriol. Kentucky, like many other Southern states, voted overwhelmingly for Senator John McCain during the 2008 presidential election.” Sparkman hanged himself.
February 2010 – Man flies plane into IRS office in Texas
“Second, given the apparent momentum of the Tea Party movement, it would be nice to know if Stack’s kamikaze mission was a not-all-that-shocking emanation from it — whether, as some claim, more than a few Tea Partiers are unhinged.” Stack posted a “manifesto” on the Internet that compared communism favorably to capitalism.
May 2010 – Times Square Bomber
“It may be that the Pakistan-based Taliban, the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has quietly established a Connecticut franchise while we weren’t looking. That’s possible. But it seems far more likely to me that the perpetrator of the bungled Times Square bomb plot was either a lone nut job or a member of some squirrely branch of the Tea Party, anti-government far right. Which actually exists in Connecticut, where, it seems, the car’s license plates were stolen.”
Shahzad was a Pakistan-born American citizen who tried to flee to Dubai following the failed attack.
January 2011 – Congresswoman Gabby Giffords shooting
“Even before the name of the shooter was known, a fierce debate spilled out across blogs and social media, with liberal commentators blaming the attack on the violent imagery evoked by some “tea party” candidates and conservatives during the recent midterm elections.” Loughner, who acted alone, is crazy and had no political motive.
July 2012 – Aurora, Colorado theater shooting
ABC’s Brian Ross: “There’s a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado, page on the Colorado Tea party site as well, talking about him joining the Tea Party last year. Now, we don’t know if this is the same Jim Holmes. But it’s Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado.” Wrong guy.
The media’s rush to judgement in all of these cases trying to tie them to the Tea Party is journalistic malpractice and dangerously irresponsible. It’s important to note that in all these cases the media has been proven wrong and the exact opposite was the truth. In this case, it’s starting to look like the same MO as suspected shooter James Holmes may be a registered Democrat and quite possibly a member of the Occupy Wall Street Movement.
The flagrant bias and irresponsible news coverage cannot stand. If conservatives want a different kind of change, we have to fight for it.
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Godspeed, and get busy!!
Steve Foley
Editor-in-chief, Minority Report Blog
