california – Page 42

Webflow’s “first visual CMS” is like WordPress mixed with Photoshop

A demo video showing off Webflow CMS. Web design tools like Webflow have done a lot to thin the line between designers and developers. Now, however, the birthed-by-Y-Combinator startup wants to take it further with what it describes as the world’s first visual content management system (CMS). There’s not much to it right now. In a nutshell, Webflow CMS is a barebones WordPress installation jammed into a Photoshop-like interface. The idea here is to provide a way to create “completely custom websites powered by dynamic content” without any knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP, or databases. And to an extent, it works. The Webflow CMS allows users to create or use pre-existing “Collections”—templates for dynamic content types. From there, you can then determine the kind of fields associated with the Collection, such as whether they’re mandatory to be completed, if they’re to be linked to another Collection, and what kind of minimum word counts are to be expected. These criteria are universal for any instance of the Collection. All Blog Posts, for example, will draw from the parent Blog Posts Collection. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Webflow’s “first visual CMS” is like WordPress mixed with Photoshop

New subreddit chronicles the most public “blue screens of death”

The new subreddit Public Blue Screens of Death. I swiped my credit card at a gas station last week, and as I replaced the nozzle, the pump’s display screen froze, blanked, and then rebooted. I had never seen such a thing before. Not sure if I had actually paid for the gas or not, I went inside and told the cashier. “It happens,” she said. Indeed it does. Thanks to our ever-more-computerized world, crashed software and arcane error messages are a common sight in public-facing displays. A new subreddit called Public Blue Screens of Death aims to chronicle these public crashes, especially those that result in the infamous Windows “blue screen of death” (BSOD). This isn’t the first such collection of BSODs, of course. The Flickr group ” Public Computer Errors ” has been around since 2005 and contains 1,500 images—but its remit extends far beyond the BSOD. More commonly, public BSODs are collected into humorous, one-off roundups . The new subreddit aims to be an ongoing archive of such material, however, and it has been skinned to resemble an old Windows display. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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New subreddit chronicles the most public “blue screens of death”

Unionized video game voice actors overwhelmingly approve strike vote

Members of the SAG-AFTRA union have overwhelmingly approved a measure authorizing an “interactive media” strike that could have wide-ranging impact on the availability of professional voice talent for video game projects. The union announced today that 96.52 percent of its members voted in favor of the strike. That’s well above the 75 percent threshold that was necessary to authorize such a move, and a result the union is calling “a resounding success.” Despite the vote, union members will not strike immediately. Instead, a strike can now be called whenever the union’s National Board decides to declare it. Armed with that knowledge, SAG-AFTRA will be sending its Negotiating Comittee back to talk with major game publishers including EA, Activision, Disney, and Warner Bros., which are signatories to a current agreement with the union. After their old agreement technically expired at the end of 2014, both sides have failed to reach a new understanding in negotiation sessions in February and June. SAG-AFTRA is looking for a number of concessions from the game industry, including “back end bonus” royalties for games that sell at least two million units, “stunt pay” for “vocally stressful” work, and more information to be provided about projects before time-consuming auditions are scheduled. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Unionized video game voice actors overwhelmingly approve strike vote

Android 6.0 Marshmallow, thoroughly reviewed

(credit: Ron Amadeo) After a lengthy developer preview , the newest version of Google’s flagship operating system is finally ready for the masses. Android 6.0 Marshmallow is the 23rd version of Google’s “mobile” operating system, though it can accurately be described as “mobile” only if you’re referring to how much it gets around. With all the areas in which Google now tinkers, Marshmallow is destined for smartphones, tablets, watches, televisions, and cars, among others. Google says that the new release has a “back to basics” motif with a focus on “polish and quality.” Marshmallow makes many long-requested features a reality with selectable app permissions, a data backup system that actually works, and the ability to format SD cards as Ext4, allowing the system to treat cards just like internal storage. Marshmallow is also prepared for the future with support for USB Type-C’s power delivery spec, a Fingerprint authentication API, and 4K display support. And, as with any Android release, there’s also lots of new Googley stuff—a slick new search interface and a contextual search mode called “Google Now on Tap,” for example. While this is a review of the final build of “Android 6.0,” we’re going to cover many of Google’s apps along with some other bits that aren’t technically exclusive to Marshmallow. Indeed, big chunks of “Android” don’t actually live in the operating system anymore. Google offloads as much of Android as possible to Google Play Services and to the Play Store for easier updating and backporting to older versions, and this structure allows the company to retain control over its open source platform. As such, consider this a look at the shipping Google Android software package rather than just the base operating system. “Review: New Android stuff Google has released recently” would be a more accurate title, though not as catchy. Read 156 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Android 6.0 Marshmallow, thoroughly reviewed

Patreon was warned of serious website flaw 5 days before it was hacked

Enlarge / Results of a Shodan search performed on September 11 made it clear Patreon was vulnerable to code-execution attacks. (credit: Detectify) Five days before Patreon.com officials said their donations website was plundered by hackers, researchers at a third-party security firm notified them that a serious programming error could lead to disastrous results. The researchers now believe the vulnerability was the entry point for attackers who went on to publish almost 15 gigabytes’ worth of source code, user password data, and private messages . The error was nothing short of facepalm material. Patreon developers allowed a Web application tool known as the Werkzeug utility library to run on a public-facing subdomain. Specifically, according to researchers at Swedish security firm Detectify , one or more of Patreon’s live Web apps on zach.patreon.com was running Werkzeug debugging functions. A simple query on the Shodan search service brought the goof to the attention of Detectify researchers, who in turn notified Patreon officials on September 23. Adding to their concern, the same Shodan search shows thousands of other websites making the same game-over mistake. Remote code execution by design The reason for the alarm was clear. The Werkzeug debugger allows visitors to execute code of their choice from within the browser. Werkzeug developers have long been clear about this capability and the massive risks that stem from using it in production environments . But in case anyone missed the warning, an independent blogger called attention to the threat last December. Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Patreon was warned of serious website flaw 5 days before it was hacked

How to make your own bootable OS X 10.11 El Capitan USB install drive

Enlarge / Even in the download-only era, it’s easy to make yourself offline OS X install media. (credit: Andrew Cunningham) It was 2009 when Apple last released a new operating system on physical media . Things have proceeded remarkably smoothly since version 10.7 switched to download-only installers, but there are still good reasons to want an old, reliable USB stick. For instance, if you find yourself doing multiple installs, a USB drive may be faster than multiple downloads (especially if you use a USB 3.0 drive). Or maybe you need a recovery disk for older Macs that don’t support the Internet Recovery feature. Whatever the reason, you’re in luck, because it’s not hard to make one. As with last year , there are two ways to get it done. There’s the super easy way with the graphical user interface and the only slightly less easy way that requires some light Terminal use. Here’s what you need to get started. A Mac that you have administrator access to, duh. We’ve created El Capitan USB stick from both Yosemite and El Capitan, but your experience with other versions may vary. An 8GB or larger USB flash drive or an 8GB or larger partition on some other kind of external drive. For newer Macs, use a USB 3.0 drive—it makes things significantly faster. The OS X 10.11 El Capitan installer from the Mac App Store in your Applications folder. The installer will delete itself when you install the operating system, but it can be re-downloaded if necessary. If you want a GUI, you need the latest version of Diskmaker X app. As of this writing, version 5 is the one you’ll want for official El Capitan support, and it has been promised but not yet delivered. We’ll show you how to do it with version 4 and update the article when the update is released. Diskmaker X is free to download, but the creator accepts donations if you want to support his efforts. The easy way Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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How to make your own bootable OS X 10.11 El Capitan USB install drive

Sprint offers $2.1 billion to acquire the rest of Clearwire

As most observers expected , Sprint has finally made a formal offer to acquire the rest of Clearwire. On Thursday, Sprint said it would pay $2.1 billion for the remaining 49.7 percent of Clearwire that it does not currently control. As we reported yesterday , the move is widely seen as a play for Sprint to acquire Clearwire’s valuable 2.5 GHz spectrum, which it would use to offer LTE and strengthen its position against Verizon and AT&T. The bid works out to $2.90 per share—higher than the company’s closing price on Wednesday—but analysts say the offer may not be good enough. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Building the ultimate X99 gaming and benchmarking PC

Armed with an Intel Haswell-E CPU, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, and an M.2 SSD, Ars UK puts together the ultimate gaming and benchmarking rig for the office. (video link) There are all sorts of reasons why you might want to get into PC gaming over, or in addition to a console: the huge library of comparatively cheap games on Steam, niche indie games that just wouldn’t find a home anywhere else, or maybe even the flexibility to run games on anything from lowly laptops all the way through to watercooled 4K behemoths. Then there are the other guys: the ones who obsess over clock speeds, how much wattage their power supply puts out, and if you really can cram an 8-core processor and a Titan X into a PC the size of shoebox . Consider me one of those people. For me, picking out the right components and building it all into a sleek, cable-managed rig is as much a part of PC gaming as it is actually playing games. Read 23 remaining paragraphs | Comments

New Horizons sends back stunning partial-color images of a new world

A red/blue/infrared image of the dwarf planet reveals that many of the features we’d seen in earlier images have their own distinctive colors. (credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI ) When last week’s batch of images came down from New Horizons, a number of our readers complained that they were all in black and white. While they gave us a sense of the planet’s rugged features and complex geology, they really didn’t tell us what this icy world looks like. NASA may have been reading the article discussion because the latest batch of images handles the color issue—mostly. Rather than providing RGB images, however, the new batch has data on red, blue, and infrared. So it’s not full color yet, but you can revel in the fact you’re looking at information that your eyes can’t actually see. NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI A red/blue/infrared image of the dwarf planet reveals that many of the features we’d seen in earlier images have their own distinctive colors. 5 more images in gallery In any case, the colors make the planet’s rugged mountains, which show up in red and brown, look even more distinctive compared to the beige-colored plains they border. A partial view of the planet at a specific infrared wavelength shows that the different colors also line up with different chemistries: methane ices are much more common in the icy plains of Pluto than they are in the mountains. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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New Horizons sends back stunning partial-color images of a new world

iOS 9’s space-saving “app slicing” disabled for now, will return in future update

Enlarge / Apple’s sample universal binary here is just 60 percent of its original size when downloaded to an iPad or iPhone. (credit: Andrew Cunningham) Back in June, we wrote a bit about App Thinning , a collection of iOS 9 features that are supposed to make iOS 9 apps take up less space on iDevices. Apple has just announced to developers that one of those features, “app slicing,” is not available in current iOS 9 versions due to an iCloud bug. It will be re-enabled in a future iOS update after the bug has been resolved. App slicing ensures that your iDevice only downloads the app assets it needs to work. In older versions of iOS, all devices downloaded “universal” versions of apps that included all of the assets those apps needed to work on each and every targeted iDevice. If you downloaded an app to your iPhone 5, for example, it could include larger image assets made for the larger-screened iPhones 6 and 6 Plus, 64-bit code that its 32-bit processor couldn’t use, and Metal graphics code that its GPU didn’t support. That’s all wasted space, a problem app slicing was designed to resolve. Apple says the iCloud bug affects users who are restoring backups to new devices—if you moved from that iPhone 5 to a new iPhone 6S, for example, iCloud would restore iPhone 5-compatible versions of some apps without the assets required by the newer, larger device. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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iOS 9’s space-saving “app slicing” disabled for now, will return in future update

Ken May

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