But the U.S. intelligence agency needed some security of its own, so it developed a NoSQL data store called Accumulo with built-in policy enforcement mechanisms that strictly limit who can see its data.
At the O'Reilly Strata-Hadoop World conference this week in New York, one of the former National Security Agency developers behind the software, Adam Fuchs, explained how Accumulo works and how it could be used in fields other than intelligence gathering. The agency contributed the software's source code to the Apache Software Foundation in 2011.
"Every single application that we built at the NSA has some concept of multilevel security," said Fuchs, who is now the chief technology officer of Sqrrl, which offers a commercial edition of the software.
In the parlance of NoSQL databases, Accumulo is a simple key/value data store, built on a shared-nothing architecture that allows for easy expansion to thousands of nodes able to hold petabytes worth of data. It features a flexible schema that allows new columns to be quickly added, and comes with some advanced data analysis features as well.
Accumulo's killer feature, however, is its "data-centric security," Fuchs said. When data is entered into Accumulo, it must be accompanied with tags specifying who is allowed to see that material. Each row of data has a cell specifying the roles within an organization that can access the data, which can map back to specific organizational security policies.
It adheres to the RBAC (role-based access control) model. This approach allowed the NSA to categorize data into its multiple levels of classification -- confidential, secret, top secret -- as well as who in an organization could access the data, based on their official role within the organization. The database is accompanied by a policy engine that decides who can see what data.
Showing some love to his adoring fans, Cristiano Ronaldo showed up at the kickoff of his CR7 by Cristiano Ronaldo underwear line in Madrid, Spain today (October 31).
Unfortunately for the crowd, the Real Madrid stud wore more than just his signature briefs as he hammed it up at Palacio de Cibeles.
The CR7 goodies will go on sale on November 1st, however there was a bit of a snag in the promotional campaign for the boys range.
In an attempt to get fans involved, CR7 issued a contest, inviting consumers to “upload your best, craziest and funniest fan image showing your love for CR7 and win a trip to meet Cristiano Ronaldo and seen him play a match! The first prize covers three lucky people, so bring a grown-up and your best friend.”
After the close of the competition, Ronaldo tweeted, “Thank you all for participating in the CR7 Boys Underwear Competition- it’s been a real pleasure to see all of your photos.”
Upon closer examination, Ronaldo’s people realized the creepy factor and deleted the post.
NEW YORK (AP) — Young New Yorkers who want to light up will soon have to wait for their 21st birthdays before they can buy a pack of smokes after lawmakers in the nation's most populous city voted overwhelmingly to raise the tobacco-purchasing age from 18 to 21.
The City Council's vote Wednesday makes New York the biggest city to bar cigarette sales to 19- and 20-year-olds, and one of only a few places throughout the United States that have tried to stymie smoking among young people by raising the purchasing age so high. The age limit also would apply to electronic-vapor cigarettes, and the council also approved setting a minimum $10.50-a-pack price for tobacco cigarettes and stepping up enforcement on illegal tobacco sales.
"We know that tobacco dependence can begin very soon after a young person first tries smoking, so it's critical that we stop young people from smoking before they ever start," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement after the council's vote.
Bloomberg, a strong supporter of tough smoking restrictions, is expected to sign the measure. The minimum age would rise 180 days afterward.
Merchants who sold to under-21 customers would face fines starting at $1,000. Repeat violations could cost them their cigarette-vending licenses.
The city's current age limit is 18, a federal minimum that's standard in many places. The city prohibits smoking in restaurants, bars, parks and beaches.
Advocates say higher age limits help prevent, or at least delay, young people from taking up a habit that remains the leading cause of preventable deaths nationwide.
But some smokers say it's unfair and patronizing to tell people considered mature enough to vote and serve in the military that they're not old enough to decide whether to smoke. And cigarette manufacturers, who argue that the city's high cigarette taxes have fueled black-market sales, have suggested young adult smokers may just turn to illicit sellers.
"This new law will only make the problem worse," said Bryan D. Hatchell ,a spokesman for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, which makes Camel and other brands.
Another anti-smoking initiative pushed by the Bloomberg administration was shelved ahead of Wednesday's vote: forcing stores to keep cigarettes out of public view until a customer asks for them.
Newsstand clerk Ali Hassen, who sells cigarettes daily to a steady stream of customers from nearby office buildings, said he didn't know if the new age restrictions would do any good.
While he wouldn't stop vigilantly checking identification to verify customers' age, Hassen doubted the new rules would thwart determined smokers.
"If somebody wants to smoke, they're going to smoke," he said.
Similar legislation to raise the purchasing age is expected to come to a vote in Hawaii this December. The tobacco-buying age is 21 in Needham, Mass., and is poised to rise to 21 in January in nearby Canton, Mass. The state of New Jersey also is considering a similar proposal.
"It just makes it harder for young people to smoke," said Stephen McGorry, 25, who started smoking at 19. He added that had the age been 21 when he took up the habit, "I guarantee I wouldn't be smoking today."
CHICAGO (AP) — Derrick Rose is in the starting lineup for the Chicago Bulls' home opener against the New York Knicks after missing Thursday's shootaround due to a sore neck.
Rose warmed up with black tape on either side of his neck, but opted not to talk to reporters. He was in his usual spot at point guard when the starting lineups were released.
It will be Rose's first meaningful home game since he injured his left knee in the 2012 playoffs.
Coach Tom Thibodeau said earlier that Rose has a sore neck and is a game-time decision. He also said the 2011 NBA MVP isn't sure how he got hurt.
Rose tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in the 2012 playoff opener and missed all of last season. He had 12 points in Chicago's season-opening 107-95 loss at Miami on Tuesday night.
Rose missed an exhibition game in Brazil due to soreness in his left knee. But that was his only significant setback while preparing for this season.
FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013 file photo, recording artist Kanye West speaks onstage during the 17th Annual Hollywood Film Awards Gala at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. West is postponing the rest of his “Yeezus” tour after a 60-foot LED screen used during his shows was damaged. A representative for the rapper says a truck that carried the screen was in an accident Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, that has “damaged the gear beyond repair.” (Photo by Frank Micelotta/Invision/AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Kanye West is postponing the rest of his "Yeezus" tour after a 60-foot LED screen used during his shows was damaged.
A representative for the rapper says a truck that carried the screen was in an accident Wednesday that "damaged the gear beyond repair." The truck was on its way to Vancouver.
The rep said in a statement Thursday that it would be "impossible" to put on a show until the screen is repaired.
Thursday's show in Vancouver and next week's shows in Denver and Minneapolis were postponed. The West rep planned to provide an update later on any new dates.
West's tour kicked off this month in Seattle. Rapper Kendrick Lamar is his opening act.
FILE - This July 28, 2013 file photo shows singer Katy Perry at the world premiere of "The Smurfs 2" in Los Angeles. Perry says though she’s “older and wiser,” she still plans to have fun on her new album. During an interview with an Australian radio show this week, the pop star said she sang backing vocals for Mick Jagger’s 2004 song, “Old Habits Die Hard.” Perry said she had dinner with the veteran rocker and that “he hit on me when I was 18.” In a statement Thursday, Oct. 31, a representative for Jagger says he “categorically denies that he has ever made a pass at Katy Perry.” (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — In her teenage dream? Mick Jagger says he never hit on Katy Perry when she was 18.
During an interview with an Australian radio show this week, the pop star said she sang backing vocals for Jagger's 2004 song "Old Habits Die Hard." Perry said she had dinner with the veteran rocker and that "he hit on me when I was 18."
In a statement Thursday, a representative for Jagger says he "categorically denies that he has ever made a pass at Katy Perry." The rep adds: "Perhaps she is confusing him with someone else."
Perry was one of the singers to make a guest appearance on the Rolling Stones' tour this year. The 29-year-old singer also said in the interview that the 70-year-old Jagger has been "very kind" to her.
DAVIE, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins tackle Jonathan Martin left the team this week to receive professional assistance for emotional issues, a person familiar with the situation said, and was ruled out of Thursday night's game against Cincinnati.
Martin was with relatives, and his issues didn't involve any problems with the coaching staff, the person said. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the Dolphins have said not released any details of the illness.
Martin, 24, played in Sunday's loss at New England, then missed practice this week. He was replaced by Tyson Clabo, who started Miami's first six games before being benched.
A second-round draft pick from Stanford, Martin started every game at right tackle as a rookie last year. He switched to left tackle this season, then moved back to the right side last week in a reshuffling of the Dolphins' struggling offensive line.
"You can approach this two different ways," Martin said last week regarding his latest position switch. "You can go in the tank and be one of those guys that moans and is a cancer in the locker room, or you can be a professional and play as hard as you can. My mindset is I'm going to go out there and do whatever I can to help the team win."
Pass protection has been a problem for Miami all season. Ryan Tannehill went into the Bengals game with an NFL-high 32 sacks, and the Dolphins (3-4) were saddled with a four-game losing streak.
Martin's agent didn't respond to requests for comment.
In an unrelated move, the Dolphins promoted receiver Ryan Spadola from the practice squad to the active roster.
___
AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL
___
Follow Steven Wine on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Steve_Wine
Ratings wars are fierce between network morning shows, and the “Today” hosts pulled out all the stops with their Halloween costume selections.
Matt Lauer donned a red swimsuit for his Pamela Anderson “Baywatch” impersonation with Carmen Electra and a David Hasselhoff-dressed Willie Geist, while Carson Daly teamed up with legendary actor Erik Estrada for some “Chips” action.
Always a ham, Al Roker got out his gold chains and cut-off camo top to play Mr. T, and Savannah Guthrie and Natalie Morales dressed as Laverne and Shirley.
And never ones to be left out of the fun, Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford also partnered for their costumes, playing Wilma Flintstone and Betty Rubble.
Audio for this story from Tell Me More will be available at approximately 3:00 p.m. ET.
Members of the Oneida Nation met with representatives from the NFL on Wednesday to discuss the growing call to change the Washington Redskins name. Host Michel Martin finds out how the meeting went from the Nation's representative, Ray Halbritter.
Maintenance work on Outlook.com's calendar application is now in its second week, and the lengthy, ongoing tune-up could be causing problems for users.
The maintenance began on Oct. 23, according to a note posted on Microsoft's Live Status dashboard, where people can check on the status of the company's consumer online services.
"You might see error messages when creating/editing birthdays. The checkbox to get notifications in the Options page may also be disabled during this time," the announcement says.
Asked for an update, a Microsoft spokesman confirmed on Wednesday that the work hasn't been finished. "We apologize for any inconvenience and expect the updates to be completed soon," he wrote via email.
It's not clear in what ways Outlook.com's calendar is being improved.
Outlook.com is Microsoft's new Webmail service. It made its debut in mid-2012 and has since replaced Hotmail.
Microsoft describes Outlook.com as a total reinvention of webmail, from the user interface to the back-end platform. It's supposed to give Microsoft a stronger competitor to Google's Gmail and Yahoo Mail.
It malfunctioned in August in various ways for several days and experienced a prolonged outage in March.
Juan Carlos Perez covers enterprise communication/collaboration suites, operating systems, browsers and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Juan on Twitter at @JuanCPerezIDG.
If you've been having trouble upgrading from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1, and are encountering Blue Screens marked 0xc1900101 - 0x40017 or 0xC1900101-0x20017, 0xC1900101-0x40019 or 0xc1900101 - 0x30018, there may be a fix for your problems. But if none of the remedies offered here get you upgraded, please head to the Microsoft Answers forum and post details about your configuration. Because after two weeks of trying, Microsoft still hasn't figured out what's causing the problem, and your input may help.
On Oct. 18 I wrote about the show-stopper bug for many people upgrading from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1. Martin Dixon posted the original description on the Microsoft Answers forum, shortly after the Windows 8.1 upgrade rolled out:
I have downloaded the Windows 8.1 update from the store but cannot get it to install. Each time I try, I get to the point where it is "getting my devices ready", then the PC restarts to a blue screen with error message. It then tries to recover the installation, fails, then restores Windows 8. When the system boots up after this, I get a message saying:
"Couldn't update to Windows 8.1
Sorry, we couldn't complete the update to Windows 8.1. We've restored your previous version of Windows to this PC.
0xC1900101 - 0x40017"
There is no explanation as to why the update couldn't be completed. Any ideas how to resolve this?
To date, almost 400 posts on that thread -- plus hundreds more on severaladditional, similarthreads -- have led to a small handful of customer-discovered solutions, but no definitive workaround that everyone can apply.
Here are the approaches that seem to work for some people:
If you have SteelSeries peripherals, running the SteelSeries Engine driver, uninstall it before re-trying the upgrade.
If you have an Asus N53 dual-band PCI-e wireless adapter, pull it. If necessary, find another way to download the upgrade.
When it comes to making virtual server farms easier to manage, the SAN is the great enabler. But when it comes to maximizing virtual server performance, the SAN is the great bottleneck. A single host running dozens of virtual machines (or more) can easily generate enough I/O operations to reduce overall SAN response time, increasing I/O latency and adversely affecting virtual machine performance. Adding more spindles may help in the short term, but that can be very disruptive to the storage infrastructure and does not really take care of the root of the problem: I/O bottlenecks.
One company that is working to improve VM performance by reducing storage I/O latency is PernixData. PernixData FVP is an add-on module for the VMware vSphere hypervisor that creates a cluster of high-speed SSD devices across multiple vSphere hosts. The PernixData "flash cluster" creates a distributed cache for reads and writes to the SAN, accelerating virtual machine I/O without requiring any changes to the VMs or their host datastores. And because the flash cluster is shared among hosts, PernixData FVP fully supports VMware services such as vMotion, DRS, and HA. VMs can continue to move freely from host to host without incurring a cache "miss" penalty.
By consolidating server-side flash into a single shared flash cluster, PernixData FVP leverages many small flash investments into a large I/O improvement. Installation is quick and easy, and it doesn't even require a reboot of the hosts. PernixData FVP comes in SMB and Standard versions. The SMB version is $9,995 per host for up to four hosts and 100 VMs. The standard edition is $7,500 per host with no restrictions on the number of hosts or virtual machines.
Zero to hero Here is the quick takeaway for PernixData FVP: zero changes to the virtual machine environment. There are no changes to the VMs or to the underlying host datastores, and PernixData FVP is transparent to both the VMs and the SAN.
Contact: Tracey Peake tracey_peake@ncsu.edu 919-515-6142 North Carolina State University
Oysters begin their lives as tiny drifters, but when they mature they settle on reefs. New research from North Carolina State University shows that the sounds of the reef may attract the young oysters, helping them locate their permanent home.
Larval oysters are planktonic, meaning that they cannot swim against or across currents. However, they do have the ability to move up and down within the column of water that they're in. As they mature, they develop a muscular "foot" that they can use to sense the terrain along the ocean floor. When they find the right spot, they attach themselves and remain there throughout their lives.
Ashlee Lillis, an NC State Ph.D. candidate in marine sciences, wondered how the tiny oysters knew when to drop down and start looking for a home. Scientists know that larval oysters and other bivalves, like clams, respond to some chemical and physical signals in seawater, but Lillis wondered if the sound of the reef played a role.
"When you're as small as these larvae, even if you're only 10 or 15 feet up in a water column you wouldn't have any real sense of where you were in terms of the seafloor beneath you," Lillis says. "But an ocean reef has very loud, distinct sounds associated with it. They're noisy enough to be heard by scuba divers and snorkelers. Even though oysters don't have ears and hear like we do, they might be able to sense the vibration from the sounds of the reef."
Lillis and her adviser David Eggleston, professor of marine sciences, decided to test the hypothesis. With help from NC State geophysicist Del Bohnenstiehl, the team first made underwater sound recordings of oyster reefs and the open seafloor. Then they tested larval oysters in the wild and in the lab to determine if the settlement rates increased when they were exposed to reef sounds versus those from further out.
The team found an increased settlement rate in both the lab and the wild when the larvae were exposed to reef sounds. Their results appear in PLOS ONE.
"The ocean has different soundscapes, just like on land," Lillis says. "Living in a reef is like living in a busy urban area: there are a lot of residents, a lot of activity and a lot of noise. By comparison, the seafloor is more like living in the quiet countryside.
"This research is the first step in establishing what normal, healthy reef environments sound like," Lillis adds. "If we can figure out how the noise impacts oysters it may give us strategies for establishing new oyster beds. It might also give us a noninvasive method for keeping tabs on the health of our undersea reefs."
###
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation (OCE-1234688).
Note to editors: Abstract follows.
"Oyster larvae settle in response to habitat-associated underwater sounds"
Authors: Ashlee Lillis, David B. Eggleston, and DelWayne R. Bohnenstiehl, Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University
Published: Oct. 30, 2013 in PLOS ONE
Abstract:
Following a planktonic dispersal period of days to months, the larvae of benthic marine organisms must locate suitable seafloor habitat in which to settle and metamorphose. For animals that are sessile or sedentary as adults, settlement onto substrates that are adequate for survival and reproduction is particularly critical, yet represents a challenge since patchily distributed settlement sites may be difficult to find along a coast or within an estuary. Recent studies have demonstrated that the underwater soundscape, the distinct sounds that emanate from habitats and contain information about their biological and physical characteristics, may serve as broad-scale environmental cue for marine larvae to find satisfactory settlement sites. Here, we contrast the acoustic characteristics of oyster reef and off-reef soft bottoms, and investigate the effect of habitat-associated estuarine sound on the settlement patterns of an economically and ecologically important reef-building bivalve, the Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica). Subtidal oyster reefs in coastal North Carolina, USA show distinct acoustic signatures compared to adjacent off-reef soft bottom habitats, characterized by consistently higher levels of sound in the 1.5-20 kHz range. Manipulative laboratory playback experiments found increased settlement in larval oyster cultures exposed to oyster reef sound compared to unstructured soft bottom sound or no sound treatments. In field experiments, ambient reef sound produced higher levels of oyster settlement in larval cultures than did off-reef sound treatments. The results suggest that oyster larvae have the ability to respond to sounds indicative of optimal settlement sites, and this is the first evidence that habitat-related differences in estuarine sounds influence the settlement of a mollusk. Habitat-specific sound characteristics may represent an important settlement and habitat selection cue for estuarine invertebrates and could play a role in driving settlement and recruitment patterns in marine communities.
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Listen up: Oysters may use sound to select a home
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
30-Oct-2013
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Contact: Tracey Peake tracey_peake@ncsu.edu 919-515-6142 North Carolina State University
Oysters begin their lives as tiny drifters, but when they mature they settle on reefs. New research from North Carolina State University shows that the sounds of the reef may attract the young oysters, helping them locate their permanent home.
Larval oysters are planktonic, meaning that they cannot swim against or across currents. However, they do have the ability to move up and down within the column of water that they're in. As they mature, they develop a muscular "foot" that they can use to sense the terrain along the ocean floor. When they find the right spot, they attach themselves and remain there throughout their lives.
Ashlee Lillis, an NC State Ph.D. candidate in marine sciences, wondered how the tiny oysters knew when to drop down and start looking for a home. Scientists know that larval oysters and other bivalves, like clams, respond to some chemical and physical signals in seawater, but Lillis wondered if the sound of the reef played a role.
"When you're as small as these larvae, even if you're only 10 or 15 feet up in a water column you wouldn't have any real sense of where you were in terms of the seafloor beneath you," Lillis says. "But an ocean reef has very loud, distinct sounds associated with it. They're noisy enough to be heard by scuba divers and snorkelers. Even though oysters don't have ears and hear like we do, they might be able to sense the vibration from the sounds of the reef."
Lillis and her adviser David Eggleston, professor of marine sciences, decided to test the hypothesis. With help from NC State geophysicist Del Bohnenstiehl, the team first made underwater sound recordings of oyster reefs and the open seafloor. Then they tested larval oysters in the wild and in the lab to determine if the settlement rates increased when they were exposed to reef sounds versus those from further out.
The team found an increased settlement rate in both the lab and the wild when the larvae were exposed to reef sounds. Their results appear in PLOS ONE.
"The ocean has different soundscapes, just like on land," Lillis says. "Living in a reef is like living in a busy urban area: there are a lot of residents, a lot of activity and a lot of noise. By comparison, the seafloor is more like living in the quiet countryside.
"This research is the first step in establishing what normal, healthy reef environments sound like," Lillis adds. "If we can figure out how the noise impacts oysters it may give us strategies for establishing new oyster beds. It might also give us a noninvasive method for keeping tabs on the health of our undersea reefs."
###
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation (OCE-1234688).
Note to editors: Abstract follows.
"Oyster larvae settle in response to habitat-associated underwater sounds"
Authors: Ashlee Lillis, David B. Eggleston, and DelWayne R. Bohnenstiehl, Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University
Published: Oct. 30, 2013 in PLOS ONE
Abstract:
Following a planktonic dispersal period of days to months, the larvae of benthic marine organisms must locate suitable seafloor habitat in which to settle and metamorphose. For animals that are sessile or sedentary as adults, settlement onto substrates that are adequate for survival and reproduction is particularly critical, yet represents a challenge since patchily distributed settlement sites may be difficult to find along a coast or within an estuary. Recent studies have demonstrated that the underwater soundscape, the distinct sounds that emanate from habitats and contain information about their biological and physical characteristics, may serve as broad-scale environmental cue for marine larvae to find satisfactory settlement sites. Here, we contrast the acoustic characteristics of oyster reef and off-reef soft bottoms, and investigate the effect of habitat-associated estuarine sound on the settlement patterns of an economically and ecologically important reef-building bivalve, the Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica). Subtidal oyster reefs in coastal North Carolina, USA show distinct acoustic signatures compared to adjacent off-reef soft bottom habitats, characterized by consistently higher levels of sound in the 1.5-20 kHz range. Manipulative laboratory playback experiments found increased settlement in larval oyster cultures exposed to oyster reef sound compared to unstructured soft bottom sound or no sound treatments. In field experiments, ambient reef sound produced higher levels of oyster settlement in larval cultures than did off-reef sound treatments. The results suggest that oyster larvae have the ability to respond to sounds indicative of optimal settlement sites, and this is the first evidence that habitat-related differences in estuarine sounds influence the settlement of a mollusk. Habitat-specific sound characteristics may represent an important settlement and habitat selection cue for estuarine invertebrates and could play a role in driving settlement and recruitment patterns in marine communities.
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| E-mail
Share
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
I was in Amsterdam for probably three hours when I began to see that having children and not being married was not a big deal there. In fact, marriage itself is not a big deal there. I was there to talk about my book In Praise of Messy Lives, which was coming out in Dutch, but what passes in America for a messy life is in Amsterdam just, well, how things go.
The Dutch attitude, which I like, is that marriage is not for everyone; it is a personal choice, an option, a pleasant possibility, but not marrying is not a failure, a great blot on your achievements in life, a critical rite of passage you have missed. Sometimes people get around to getting married, and sometimes they don’t. Several Dutch women in their 40s, with children and rich romantic histories, tell me about marriage, “It just wasn’t something that mattered to me.”
As a popular view, this laissez faire approach accommodates the vicissitudes of the heart, the changing nature of love, the great variety of forms attachments take in real life. It acknowledges that things change, and to exit a relationship with kids is less violent somehow, less publically absolute, than to exit a marriage. A bit of tolerance, of bemusement, of compassion or imagination is built into the system.
I try to describe to a couple of audiences in Amsterdam the against-the-grainness of someone, especially a woman, who has not married in America. I try to explain how having children outside of marriage is still considered an alternative, and essentially inferior life choice. I mention that an American writer wrote a cover story in the Atlantic on the remarkable and exotic fact that she was in her late 30s and had never married. This sort of blew their minds. Who could possibly care? It seemed like a crazy American thing for marriage to matter so much. To them this obsession, this nagging necessity for weddings, the lack of general acceptance toward other pretty common ways of living, is so foreign, so uniquely American, such a quaint narrowness, that it’s incomprehensible as an actual mode of modern life.
At first I started fantasizing about whether I could move to a steep little Dutch house, and if I could balance a child on a bicycle. But it also seems to me it would be a great thing if we could absorb some of the Dutch attitude toward conjugal life. I am not here arguing against marriage, but against marriage as a rite of passage, against the assumption of all little girls that they will one day be married in a white dress on a green lawn, against the socially engraved absolute of it, the impossible-to-evade shining ideal.
What would it mean to end the centuries-long American fixation on traditional family structures? Would we be able to look at families living outside of convention without as much judgment, as much toxic condescension? Would the “smug marrieds” Helen Fielding wrote about in Bridget Jones’ Diary be less smug and just married?
If we woke up one morning and discovered that in America marriage was suddenly regarded as a choice, a way, a possibility, but not a definite and essential phase of life, think how many people would suddenly be living above board, think of the stress removed, the pressures lifted, the stigmas dissolving. Think how many people living unhappily would see their way to living less unhappily. In Edwardian England, the cultural critic Rebecca West wrote about the “dinginess that come between us and the reality of love” and the “gross, destructive mutual raids on personality that often form marriages.”
Whatever one thinks about the institution, the truth is that marriage is increasingly not the way Americans are living. If one goes strictly by the facts—that the majority of babies born to women under 30 are born to single mothers, or that about 51 percent of American adults are married—one has to admit that marriage can’t be taken for granted, assumed as a rite of passage, a towering symbol of our way of life. But somehow this hasn’t dimmed our solid sense of marriage as the American normal.
If we suddenly stopped being in thrall to the rigid, old-fashioned ideal of marriage, we could stop worrying about low marriage rates and high divorce rates. We could stop worrying about single mothers and the decline of marriage as an institution, especially in the lower middle class, and the wasteful industry of wedding planning. We could instead focus on actual relationships, on intimacies, on substance over form; we could focus on love in its myriad, unpredictable varieties. We could see life here in the amber waves of grain not for what it should be, but for what it is.
When you have a big enough hammer, everything begins to look like the same kind of nail.
That's one of the potential problems with Hadoop 2.0, the greatly reworked big data processing framework that's been at the center of a whole storm of developer and end user interest. Cloudera in particular has plans to make it into a hammer for all kinds of nails.
There's no question that Hadoop 2.0 is a major leap over its predecessor. Instead of being a mere batch data processing framework for MapReduce jobs (limited, boring), it's now turned into a general framework for deploying applications across a multi-node system, with MapReduce just being one of the many possible things that can be run across those nodes (flexible, exciting).
Cloudera's clearly excited by the possibilities inherent in such an arrangement. During a keynote presentation at the O'Reilly Strata-Hadoop World conference in New York City this past Tuesday, the company described an "enterprise data hub" powered by Hadoop, one where all manner of data could be funneled in, processed in place, and extracted as needed.
Sounds great, but how feasible is it? Especially given Hadoop's status as the shiny new big data toy on the block? Such a hub may be a long way off for any company that's late to the big data party and has only just now found a place forits multi-mega-terabyte data farms to live. Turning those "silos" (as Cloudera refers to legacy data repositories, with a near-audible sniff) into Hadoop installations isn't trivial.
The single biggest obstacle to making all that happen isn't Hadoop itself, although that's still a fairly major obstacle. In talking with vendors and users alike at Strata-Hadoop, it's clear Hadoop is still seen on all sides as a bucket of parts that needs major lifting and welding to be fully useful.
The most fruitful uses of Hadoop have been through the third parties that turn it into a ready-to-deploy product -- not just Cloudera or its quasi-rival Hortonworks, but cloud providers like Microsoft (a major Hortonworks partner), Amazon, SoftLayer, Rackspace, and just about every other name-brand cloud outfit. And few of them have yet to offer the kinds of really high-level abstraction we associate with powerful software tools, where the likes of Puppet or Python scripting are options rather than requirements.
The sheer number of moving parts and pointy edges that pop up out of Hadoop, even for smaller deployments, is still intimidating. A panel given by Dan McLary (principle product manager, Oracle) about Oracle building Hadoop appliances shed a lot of light on how much blood has to be shed, even by the likes of Oracle, to make Hadoop into a deliverable product. McLary was fairly sure over time Hadoop's rough edges would get sanded down by back-pressure from the community and vendors alike, but that time had definitely not arrived yet.
But the single biggest obstacle remains moving apps into Hadoop. The new infrastructure within Hadoop for applications, YARN, is far more open-ended than before, but it isn't trivial to rewrite an application to run there. It's not impossible there could be jury-rigs to accelerate that process -- e.g., some kind of virtualization wrapper that would allow apps to be arbitrarily shoehorned into the framework -- but that's not trivial work either.
Small wonder, then, that a great deal of work right now is being done to make Hadoop play well with existing apps -- connectors, data funnels, and the like. Very little of the discussion I encountered focused on moving existing apps into Hadoop, although few disagreed that it would happen eventually; most of it revolved around taking one's existing analytics and connecting them to Hadoop. There are, I imagine, far more people who want to do that than there are people who want to scrap everything and start over.
That said, the sheer level of bustle at the O'Reilly conference was a tipoff as to how soon that might happen. By this time next year, when the conference moves to the far-larger Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, some of Cloudera's pronouncements may seem a little less wildly optimistic. But until then, the trend right now is toward using Hadoop as a complement to existing big-data systems, not as a forklift upgrade for them.
Historic blaze fueled a boom in tire recycling, advances in fire monitoring
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30-Oct-2013
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Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 202-872-6042 American Chemical Society
An historic tire fire 30 years ago that blazed on for nine months in the northwest Virginia Appalachians, releasing giant plumes of toxic smoke, sparked a recycling revolution and advances in fire-monitoring methods. The fire's environmental legacy is the topic of the cover story in Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society.
Stephen K. Ritter, C&EN senior correspondent, explains that the massive fire left firefighters and government officials at a loss. They considered how to use every conceivable firefighting tool at their disposal to battle the unprecedented blaze, but they could see nothing was going to work. The fire had to burn itself out, creating an environmental disaster. When burned, tires release a number of harmful compounds, crude oil and metals that can be toxic to aquatic life. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added the site to its fledgling Superfund program, which aims to remediate an array of hazardous waste sites. About 20 years and $12 million later, the site was officially declared remediated.
In the meantime, tire use and disposal has only grown, but scientists, entrepreneurs and environmental managers have made considerable progress to stanch the rubber waste stream. About 45 percent of tire waste is now destined for shredding plants and is repurposed as mulch for playgrounds, fill material for road construction and plastics. Some of it helps power cement kilns and paper mills and is used to generate electricity. Chemists have also been inspired to find sustainable ways to reuse the rubber in old tires to make new ones rather than rely on virgin rubber. In addition to advancing tire recycling, the historic fire fueled progress in air monitoring techniques that help firefighters and local governments track pollutants from fires, and model and predict how blazes will behave in order to put them out faster.
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The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 163,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.
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Historic blaze fueled a boom in tire recycling, advances in fire monitoring
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
30-Oct-2013
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Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 202-872-6042 American Chemical Society
An historic tire fire 30 years ago that blazed on for nine months in the northwest Virginia Appalachians, releasing giant plumes of toxic smoke, sparked a recycling revolution and advances in fire-monitoring methods. The fire's environmental legacy is the topic of the cover story in Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society.
Stephen K. Ritter, C&EN senior correspondent, explains that the massive fire left firefighters and government officials at a loss. They considered how to use every conceivable firefighting tool at their disposal to battle the unprecedented blaze, but they could see nothing was going to work. The fire had to burn itself out, creating an environmental disaster. When burned, tires release a number of harmful compounds, crude oil and metals that can be toxic to aquatic life. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added the site to its fledgling Superfund program, which aims to remediate an array of hazardous waste sites. About 20 years and $12 million later, the site was officially declared remediated.
In the meantime, tire use and disposal has only grown, but scientists, entrepreneurs and environmental managers have made considerable progress to stanch the rubber waste stream. About 45 percent of tire waste is now destined for shredding plants and is repurposed as mulch for playgrounds, fill material for road construction and plastics. Some of it helps power cement kilns and paper mills and is used to generate electricity. Chemists have also been inspired to find sustainable ways to reuse the rubber in old tires to make new ones rather than rely on virgin rubber. In addition to advancing tire recycling, the historic fire fueled progress in air monitoring techniques that help firefighters and local governments track pollutants from fires, and model and predict how blazes will behave in order to put them out faster.
###
The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 163,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.
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President Barack Obama speaks at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall about the federal health care law, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Faneuil Hall is where former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Obama's rival in the 2012 presidential election, signed the state's landmark health care law in 2006, with top Democrats standing by his side. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
President Barack Obama speaks at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall about the federal health care law, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Faneuil Hall is where former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Obama's rival in the 2012 presidential election, signed the state's landmark health care law in 2006, with top Democrats standing by his side. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Protesters interrupt President Barack Obama as he speaks at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall about the federal health care law, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Faneuil Hall is where former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Obama's rival in the 2012 presidential election, signed the state's landmark health care law in 2006, with top Democrats standing by his side. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
President Barack Obama speaks at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall about the federal health care law, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Faneuil Hall is where former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Obama's rival in the 2012 presidential election, signed the state's landmark health care law in 2006, with top Democrats standing by his side. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
BOSTON (AP) — President Barack Obama chose the site where Massachusetts' health care system became law to promote his signature health insurance program, arguing that the state plan also faced initial setbacks and low enrollment but in time gained popularity and became a success.
"All the parade of horribles, the worst predictions about health care reform in Massachusetts never came true," he said. "They're the same arguments that you're hearing now."
The Massachusetts' law provided the model for the federal health insurance overhaul. Obama spoke in Boston's historic Faneuil Hall, where Massachusetts Republican Gov. Mitt Romney was joined by the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy to sign the state's 2006 health care overhaul bill.
The president pointed to benefits already available under the 3-year-old health care law, including ending discrimination against children with pre-existing conditions and permission to keep young people on their parents' insurance plans until they turn 26.
But he conceded the troubled launch of the open enrollment period that began Oct. 1.
"I am not happy about it," he said.
Underscoring the president's challenge, the HealthCare.gov website was down, because of technical difficulties, during his remarks. Republicans say the current computer dysfunction is more reason to repeal the law, and they're pressing Obama administration officials for an explanation.
Obama also tried to clarify the most recent controversy surrounding the law — the wave of cancellation notices hitting small businesses and individuals who buy their own insurance. Obama repeatedly had vowed that people who liked their insurance would be able to keep it.
The cancellation notices apply to people whose plans changed after the law was implemented or don't meet new coverage requirements. The president said those changes ensure that all Americans are able to get quality coverage.
He said that because of government subsidies, most people who must get new policies will pay less than they do now. But he acknowledged that "a fraction of Americans with higher incomes" will likely pay more.
Romney took issue with Obama's characterization of the Massachusetts health care law. In a statement, he said "had President Obama actually learned the lessons of Massachusetts health care, millions of Americans would not lose the insurance they were promised they could keep, millions more would not see their premiums skyrocket and the installation of the program would not have been a frustrating embarrassment." During the 2012 presidential campaign, Romney had pledged to work for the repeal of Obama's health care law if elected.
Obama, who lived in Boston while a student at Harvard University, was in town for a World Series game day, but his spokesman said he didn't plan to make a side trip to Fenway Park, mindful of the impact his security entourage has on the public.
While in Boston, Obama also spoke at a fundraiser for House Democrats, where about 60 people dined on Spanish-influenced fare, followed by Red Sox cookies honoring the World Series game being played in town the same night.
Invoking the school shooting in nearby Connecticut and the Boston Marathon bombing, Obama said it had been a "challenging year." He said he had hoped the tragedies would presage a new spirit of cooperation in Congress, but Americans got obstruction, instead.
"However low people's estimations were of Washington before the shutdown," Obama said, "they're lower now."
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Associated Press writer Steve LeBlanc in Boston contributed to this report.
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Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler
Loyola cardiologist is co-editor of text on minimally invasive procedures for vascular diseases
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30-Oct-2013
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Contact: Jim Ritter jritter@lumc.edu 708-216-2445 Loyola University Health System
MAYWOOD, Il. Loyola University Medical Center interventional cardiologist Robert Dieter, MD, is co-editor of a new authoritative textbook on minimally invasive endovascular techniques to treat vascular disease.
Endovascular Interventions: A Case Based Approach describes current endovascular (catheter-based) treatment of peripheral artery disease, venous diseases, lymphatic disorders and other venous disorders.
Co-editors are Dieter's father, Raymond Dieter Jr. and his brother, Raymond Dieter III. This is the third major textbook the Dieters have edited together. Their previous books are Peripheral Arterial Disease and Venous and Lymphatic Diseases. Raymond Dieter Jr. also is editor of Thoracoscopy for Surgeons: Diagnostic and Therapeutic.
"My father and older brother are fantastic to work with," Robert Dieter said. "I have learned a lot from them."
Endovascular Interventions uses a series of case studies to present a range of complexities and complications physicians encounter in their daily practice, along with tips and tricks for overcoming them. The 1,300-page text is a practical guide and resource for practicing vascular specialists, interventional cardiologists, interventional radiologists, vascular surgeons and cardiothoracic surgeons.
Robert Dieter is an associate professor in the Division of Cardiology at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine and Director of Vascular Medicine at Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital.
Raymond Dieter III is a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Raymond Dieter Jr. is a semi-retired cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon formerly with Du Page Medical Group.
Robert Dieter lives in Glen Ellyn, Il., where he was raised and where his parents still live.
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Loyola cardiologist is co-editor of text on minimally invasive procedures for vascular diseases
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
30-Oct-2013
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Contact: Jim Ritter jritter@lumc.edu 708-216-2445 Loyola University Health System
MAYWOOD, Il. Loyola University Medical Center interventional cardiologist Robert Dieter, MD, is co-editor of a new authoritative textbook on minimally invasive endovascular techniques to treat vascular disease.
Endovascular Interventions: A Case Based Approach describes current endovascular (catheter-based) treatment of peripheral artery disease, venous diseases, lymphatic disorders and other venous disorders.
Co-editors are Dieter's father, Raymond Dieter Jr. and his brother, Raymond Dieter III. This is the third major textbook the Dieters have edited together. Their previous books are Peripheral Arterial Disease and Venous and Lymphatic Diseases. Raymond Dieter Jr. also is editor of Thoracoscopy for Surgeons: Diagnostic and Therapeutic.
"My father and older brother are fantastic to work with," Robert Dieter said. "I have learned a lot from them."
Endovascular Interventions uses a series of case studies to present a range of complexities and complications physicians encounter in their daily practice, along with tips and tricks for overcoming them. The 1,300-page text is a practical guide and resource for practicing vascular specialists, interventional cardiologists, interventional radiologists, vascular surgeons and cardiothoracic surgeons.
Robert Dieter is an associate professor in the Division of Cardiology at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine and Director of Vascular Medicine at Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital.
Raymond Dieter III is a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Raymond Dieter Jr. is a semi-retired cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon formerly with Du Page Medical Group.
Robert Dieter lives in Glen Ellyn, Il., where he was raised and where his parents still live.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
You have to appreciate Microsoft’s tenacity. After launching the original Surface Pro tablet to mixed reviews, the company opted not to rebuild from scratch but to refine its vision for a thick and heavy, but powerful, tablet. The result is Surface Pro 2.
Much like Windows 8.1, Surface Pro 2 is less conflicted on both the laptop and tablet sides of the hybrid equation, arriving with a more flexible kickstand, improved Touch and Type Covers, longer battery life, and better thermal design. It’s still less than the best of both worlds, but the balance between them no longer feels so uneasy.
The Surface Pro 2 is also a better lesson in compromise than the just-released Surface 2. Both hybrid devices sport incremental rather than revolutionary upgrades, but the Pro version is simply more useful when you’re working with your hardware in the field.
Image: Michael HomnickThe Surface Pro 2 is a tablet that leans toward a laptop, and does a better job of it than most hybrids currently available.
As with the original Pro hybrid, the Surface Pro 2 resembles a plain old tablet until you unfurl the integrated kickstand and attach a keyboard cover to the base, transforming the device into a small, funky-looking laptop. It retains the satisfying clicking sounds as you close the kickstand or snap in a keyboard cover, and the trapezoidal design still looks vaguely like a piece of Imperial architecture straight out of Star Wars.
Many other details are unchanged. The tablet alone weighs 2 pounds and measures 0.53 inch thick, and boasts a 10.6-inch, 1920-by-1080 display. You’ll find a full-size USB port and a headphone jack on one side, and a MicroSD card slot and a Mini DisplayPort output on the other.
The included active digitizer stylus has the same mechanical-pencil vibe as the original, and allows for pressure-sensitive drawing while resting your hand on the screen. Pricing is similar to that of the original, too, at $900 with 64GB of storage and 4GB of RAM, and $1000 for 128GB of storage. Now, however, you can bump up to 256GB for $1300 or 512GB for $1800, both versions with 8GB of RAM.
Image: Michael HomnickThe angled, trapezoidal profile of the Surface Pro 2 helps it stand out among tablet competitors.
Why so bulky and pricey? Because Microsoft wanted to make a tablet that handles robust productivity tasks, such as video editing and image processing. The Surface Pro 2’s Intel Core i5-4200U processor is what you’d typically find in an Ultrabook, and it doesn’t flinch under heavy loads. As a side benefit—or perhaps a main draw—the integrated graphics on the 256GB, 8GB RAM model do an admirable job on fairly recent PC games, at least at 720p resolution. Where’s the Surface-ready Bluetooth Xbox controller, Microsoft?
PCWorld benchmarked a 64GB version of the Surface Pro 2 with 4GB of RAM. Compared with the original Surface Pro (128GB), the Surface Pro 2 (64GB) was about 9 percent faster in WorldBench 8.1. The Surface Pro 2 was also about 16 percent faster than the new Sony Tap 11, which carries a slower Haswell-class processor. The Asus Transformer Book T100T, which uses an Atom processor, was barely half as fast as the Surface Pro 2.
The Surface Pro 2 outpaces the original Surface Pro, as well as other recent Windows tablets.
Microsoft would prefer that you think of the Surface Pro 2 as a laptop first, and that you not compare the product directly to Apple’s much thinner and lighter iPad. But it’s hard to ignore the iPad given the Surface Pro 2’s ability to act as a tablet.
Let’s state the obvious: The Pro 2 can be tiresome to hold, its selection of touch-optimized apps is inferior to that of the iPad, and its battery doesn’t last nearly as long. But those drawbacks aren’t as pronounced as they were when the original Surface Pro launched in February.
Since that launch, Microsoft has also secured some key apps for its tablet-friendly modern interface, including Facebook and Twitter, with Flipboard on the way. Microsoft has also made improvements to its own built-in apps in Windows 8.1, and the modern version of Internet Explorer 11 has helpful new features, such as the ability to open unlimited tabs across multiple windows. (Check out our review of Windows 8.1 for more details on what’s new.)
As for the hardware, the Surface Pro 2 benefits in the battery department from Intel’s fourth-generation “Haswell” processor, though not quite as much as we’d hoped. We’re still doing formal testing, but my experiences juggling lots of browser tabs and a few modern apps on the Surface Pro 2 yielded about 6 hours of battery life—basically the same as PCWorld Labs' benchmarked result of six hours and nine minutes. That’s an hour or two better than the original Surface Pro, and more than adequate for an afternoon working at Starbucks or an evening on the couch. But an entire day of use would require a top-up in the middle.
Improvements to the Surface Pro 2’s thermal design are more substantial. The tablet runs cool and quiet during lighter use, and it doesn’t spin up its internal fans as often as the original did. Unless you’re putting a heavy load on the Surface Pro 2, it won’t get uncomfortably warm or noisy.
Image: Michael HomnickThanks to a new 40-degree incline, the Surface sits more easily on a table or on your lap.
The other big change is in the Surface Pro 2 kickstand, which can position the machine at a 40-degree angle in addition to the original 22-degree angle. That doesn’t sound like much, but the flatter viewing angle feels more natural when the tablet is resting in your lap, or next to you on a couch. Just having the kickstand helps mitigate the tablet’s bulkiness, because you don’t have to hold up the tablet with your hands.
Many of the tablet-enhancing improvements in the Surface Pro 2 carry over to laptop mode. The added kickstand angle makes the Surface Pro 2 less prone to toppling, even when you have it balanced on one leg with the keyboard attached, and the screen never feels as if it’s aimed in an awkward direction. Battery life is now comparable to that of many other small Windows laptops (but frustratingly it’s still nowhere close to Apple’s MacBook Air).
Windows 8.1 also brings several improvements for desktop users, including better scaling, so things don’t look so teeny on the Surface’s 10.6-inch display. The small screen feels like less of a constraint than before, though text still becomes tough to read if you’re running two websites side by side. You may also find that a lot of desktop software isn’t optimized for the Surface’s higher pixel density, making things look fuzzy. Here’s hoping that software makers will catch up as more high-DPI laptops come to market.
Image: Michael HomnickThe new Type Cover is backlit, but the touchpad is trickier to use than it should be.
Even after all those improvements, the Surface Pro 2 struggles to provide the same experience as a full-blown laptop, in large part because of the optional Touch Cover and Type Cover accessories.
The physical footprint of the Surface Pro 2 limits how large these covers can be. Although the keyboards don’t feel cramped, the small touchpad is tricky to master. Moving the pointer from one corner of the screen to the other usually takes more than one swipe unless you crank up the mouse sensitivity, thereby sacrificing accuracy. (You handle touchpad sensitivity through the Mouse section of Control Panel, separate from the Mouse and Trackpad Settings in the modern interface.)
The touchpad would be more useful if not for some baffling decisions on Microsoft’s part. When you drag down from the top of the pad, for instance, two-finger scrolling doesn’t register right away, so you get a dead zone that occupies roughly the top fifth of the pad. Clicking and dragging is even more of a nightmare: To begin a selection, you can’t just double-tap anywhere on the touchpad. Instead, you must hold one finger down on the tiny sliver that represents the left mouse button, a process that often takes two or three tries to get right, and more frequently messes up midselection. Expecting users to attach a mouse for reliable text selection is unacceptable, and a software fix needs to be high on Microsoft’s priority list.
Image: Michael HomnickGood news for assertive typers: The new Type Cover’s keys are firmer and less springy, though the travel is also shorter.
Thanks to firmer, less springy keys, typing on the Type Cover 2 feels solid, and the keyboard seems sturdier than its predecessor for in-lap use. Typing still takes getting used to, as the keys don’t travel as much and they have no space in between them, but the touchpad is the bigger hindrance.
A few other nitpicks come to mind: First, when you’re using the Type Cover with scrolling inverted, on occasion the Surface can scroll in the wrong direction, forcing you to detach and reattach the cover. Second, the built-in stylus still connects magnetically to the same slot as the charger, so you can’t attach both at the same time. And finally, Microsoft exacerbates the Surface Pro 2’s battery woes by forcing hibernation when your machine has only a little life (8 percent) left in the tank. You can dig into the Windows settings to give yourself more time, but Microsoft shouldn’t be leaving a half hour of battery life on the table by default.
Bottom line
Clearly, Microsoft has lots of refinement left to do. But despite all the Surface Pro 2’s flaws, there’s something alluring about it. No other touchscreen laptop or convertible device plays the hybrid game as well as the Surface Pro 2 does. The kickstand is a brilliant flourish that compensates for the tablet’s weight while solving for the top-heaviness you find in other detachable hybrids. The Touch and Type Covers are so thin and light that you can keep them attached, and the total package still feels light enough to rival the slickest laptops.
Image: Michael HomnickThe second-generation Surface Pro is a refinement rather than a total rebuild.
The Surface Pro 2 is a different kind of device, aimed at people who need to edit videos, create digital art, run a dozen applications at once, or kick back with some full-blown PC games. The fact that you can do those things on a tablet that still feels comfortable for Facebook, Netflix, or solitaire is no small achievement, and a sign that the best of both worlds might be attainable if Microsoft keeps chipping away.
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