Facebook launches AI research laboratory

Facebook has announced that it is expanding into research with a laboratory specifically targeted at artificial intelligence.

(Credit: Facebook; Human Brain Symbol image by Pendethan, CC BY-SA 3.0)

The new laboratory will be headed up by New York computer and data sciences professorYann LeCun, who announced the new laboratory today on Facebook and Google+. Mark Zuckerberg is expected to make a more formal announcement at the Neural Information Processing Systems conference.

The laboratory, LeCun said, will have "the ambitious, long-term goal of bringing about major advances in Artificial Intelligence". In addition, Facebook will partner with NYU's Center for Data Science to research data science, machine learning and AI. The Facebook AI group will have offices in Menlo Park, California, where Facebook has its global headquarters; London; and Facebook's new facility in New York City.

We're not sure exactly what Facebook plans to do with its AI technology, although we assume it will in some way be integrated with the social-networking website. The move, however, does pit the company up against Google, which earlier this year hired computer scientist and psychologist Geoffrey Hinton in its own bid to develop AI; as well as Microsoft, which is building its own Siri competitor; Apple; and others.

LeCun will remain working at NYU part-time.

Sony offers summer deals on Xperia Tablet Z

As well as summer price reductions, Sony is throwing in some nice bonus deals for Xperia Tablet Z buyers.

Waterproofing makes the Xperia Tablet Z a great summer option.
(Credit: Sony)

Even in the face of numerous tablet releases in recent months, the Sony Xperia Tablet Zremains the thinnest in the market, as well as being a rare option to deliver waterproofing, dustproofing and shock resistance all in a sleek and sexy package.

So it's good news to hear Sony is offering a few price reductions through to end of January to make this summer-friendly option even friendlier.

This brings the 16GB Wi-Fi model down to AU$499 and the 16GB Wi-Fi + 4G model to AU$649. These are both AU$30 off. That doesn't set the world on fire, but it's a nice extra if you were already considering a purchase.

The seriously great value deal is the 32GB Wi-Fi model priced at AU$579 — AU$70 off the regular price. This model will also include a bonus set of NFC-capable Bluetooth headphones, the DR-BTN200, worth AU$199.95 on their own.

These deals run until 31 January, but until the end of December, there is a further bonus of Sony Entertainment Network content (which is also available to all Xperia Z1, Z Ultra and Tablet Z owners). This package includes 10 free PlayStation Mobile game downloads, a 60-day Music Unlimited trial, five movie downloads as well as a digital copy of Elysium when it is released.

What happens when lava meets ice?

It's the ultimate battle between two extremes of nature. Which one will emerge victorious?

(Screenshot by Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)

A collaboration between sculptor Bob Wysocki (assistant professor, Department of Art) and geologist Jeff Karson (professor, Department of Earth Sciences) from the Syracuse University Lava Project aims examine lava from both a scientific and artistic perspective, which are both admirable goals.

As reported by DVICE, the team staged man-made basaltic lava flows, poured down a specially built funnel, for students and the public.

The video below shows what happens when 276 kilograms of 1371-degree-Celsius lava is poured over a 1.8-metre bed of ice on a day that reached a top temperature of -11 degrees Celsius. Brrr! Standing next to a lava flow suddenly sounds like a good idea.

You can see what happened in the video below. Hint: there was a lot of hissing.

Game Original Tomb Raider ported for iOS

Square Enix has quietly launched a ported version of the original 1996 Tomb Raider on the iTunes app store — with support for third-party controllers.

(Credit: Square Enix)

Lara Croft may have had a significant overhaul this year, but many of us still hold a special place in our hearts for her rather more polygonal, braid-less (because it was too hard to animate in 1996) forebear.

Square Enix — which bought the IP in 2010 — isn't just sitting around making reboots. Rather than let the original property go to waste, it's quietly been launched on iTunes in Australia and New Zealand — for a very un-Square Enix-like AU$0.99.

It seems that the game's had a few mechanical tweaks — well, it would have had to, having been ported from code originally written for MS-DOS, PlayStation and Sega Saturn to a touchscreen-based interface — but, for all intents and purposes it's the same game, even down to the textures.

The touchscreen controls have been created in a fixed-button interface: D-Pad for movement, first-person camera toggle and walk/

Ticks For Microsoft Excel.....

Microsoft Excel

033. Insert date and time

To insert the current date in a cell, press CTRL + ;. To insert the time, press CTRL + SHIFT + ;.

034. Colour your sheet tabs

You can colour-code the tabs on your Excel spreadsheets for easier navigation. Click the tab you'd like to colour, then right click on it and chooseTab Color. Select the colour you want and click OK.

Your tabs can be coloured however you like.
(Credit: CNET.com.au)

035. Hide your sheet

You can hide Excel worksheets to reduce the number of sheets on your screen. In Excel 2003, just select the sheets you'd like to hide and select Format > Sheet > Hide. To restore them, go to Format > Sheet > Unhide.

In Excel 2007, right click on the sheet tab you want to hide, and select Hide. To reveal it, right click on any sheet tab and choose Unhide.

036. Clear formatting

To clear the formatting in an Excel 2003 spreadsheet, highlight the cells you want changed and select Edit > Clear > Formats. In Excel 2007, highlight the cells you wish to reset, click the Home menu, then click Clear, then Clear Formats.

037. Sort things out

You can rearrange the data in a spreadsheet any way you like by clicking the column(s) or row(s) you want and then clicking on the Data menu, and selecting Sort. In the Sort window, select the column you'd like to sort by and whether you want the data in ascending or descending order.

Sort your data to prioritise your information.
(Credit: CNET.com.au)

038. All together now

To select the entire spreadsheet in one shot, click the box in the top left corner that joins the columns and rows.

039.Mathematics and formulas

Excel supports a whole range of maths to calculate the data you need. The basics are easy enough to get a grip on:

• To start a formula, you need to enter = in a cell first
• Use the row and column addresses to perform operations
• You can use +, -, / (divide), * (multiply), ^ (power of) and brackets to separate the operations. So for example, typing =(A1+B1)/C2*D5^2 would take the value in A1, add it to the value in B1, then divide it by the value in C2 multiplied by the square of the value in D5. As you update entries in A1, B1, C2 and D5, the formula will also update to reflect this
• To simply add up values quickly, use the SUM command. For example, =SUM(A1:A6)would add up all the values in A1, A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6

You can see the formula for cell B7 in the formula field (shown next to the fx). Here it's adding up all the values from B1 through B5, even though the numbers only start at B2. If any values were updated, or a number put into B1, the value in B7 would also change to reflect this.
(Credit: CNET.com.au)

040. The extend series function

The best way to explain this function is a demonstration.

1. Type out in a vertical column: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, then select the entries as shown below
   
   
   
   

   (Credit: CNET.com.au)
2. See the little dot at the bottom right-hand corner of the selection? Left click and drag that down a few cells, then release. Low and behold, Excel has figured out the number series and has added the extra values automatically
   
   
   

   (Credit: CNET.com.au)
3. You can also do the same with formulas, and it will alter all the cells referenced in the formulas accordingly. In our example below, we have added one formula for the initial total: A2+B2. We then clicked and dragged down, and Excel has intelligently created all the other total formulas
   
   
   

   (Credit: CNET.com.au)
   

   (Credit: CNET.com.au)

041. Make Excel 2007 save to .xls by default

Excel 2007 uses a highly incompatible .xlsx file format for saving files, making it difficult to share with friends and colleagues who don't have the same version. To change this:

1. Click the Office button in the top left
2. Click the Excel Options button
3. On the left-hand side, select Save
4. Change the Save files in this format drop down box to Excel 97 - 2003 Workbook
5. Click OK

Convert FAT32 to NTFS Without Formatting or Losing Data

You have a flash drive or probably an external hard drive that currently has FAT32 file system and you want to change it to NTFS, because FAT32 does not support handling large files (over 4GB) or it is just simply old for your taste but there is just one problem, you don't want to lose your saved data. This article is for you then as it explains exactly how you can achieve seamless transition from FAT to NTFS without involving any data loss.

While it is generally recommended to use the NTFS file system because of its stability, security and lesser defragmentation time, most of us end up using FAT32 because that is what most disks are preformatted with. Unless, we notice the “Not enough disk space error” despite disk space being available, we don't bother to change the file system. Moreover, most of us don't change it because of the risk of losing important data and lack of time (read laziness). As Microsoft was aware of this scenario, they added a capability in the command prompt to overcome this by executing a simple command. There are manysoftware that support this too but the Convert command is one of the easiest ways to do so. Follow the steps below to know how:-

Important: While this method works perfectly, I would still advise you to backup your data in case anything goes wrong.

FAT 32 to NTFS Conversion Steps

1) Go to Computer, and note the name of the drive whose file system you wish to convert.
2) Click on Start.
3) Type cmd in the search bar if you use Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows Vista. If you use Windows XP, click on Run and then execute cmd. 
4) Execute "chkdsk h: /f " (without quotes) where H is the letter of the drive to undergo conversion. This checks the drive for errors and fixes them automatically.
5) Execute "Convert H: /FS:NTFS" (without quotes). H is again the letter of the drive to be converted.
6) The command prompt will start the conversion process and after a few minutes, CMD will say that conversion was successful.
7) You can check it in the properties of the drive through right click<Properties.

This works on Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows 8 and Windows Vista. I converted my flash drive's file system using these steps and it worked flawlessly. It is interesting to note that this method cannot be used to reconvert NTFS file system back to FAT32. To reconvert back to FAT32, you will need to format the entire drive which will definitely cause data loss.

Cool JavaScript Tricks: Edit Websites in Browser (Live)

Imagine a world where you are a God and have ultimate control on what happens and more importantly, how it happens. Seems too good a dream. Now it has come true, at least for the online world.

Using this trick, you will be able to edit any webpage live in your browser as if it was a Wiki and change the details according to your wish. Yes, you read that right. You can edit Google or even Facebook for that matter right in your browser and that too without requiring any technical know-how or getting deep into hacking and cracking.

Here is an example picture demonstrating the Google Homepage edited by me to say that I own Google.

This is just an example. You can use it for anything like showing wrong traffic stats or for fooling people by showing that someone said something about them on Facebook or Twitter. It depends only on your creativity. But I would advise you to stay ethical and use it for entertainment purposes only.

(Mozilla Firefox does not support this. If you use Firefox, you can use the bookmarklets given at the end of this post. If you use Google Chrome and the code does not seem to work, precede it with "javascript:" without quotes.)

To use this trick, all you need to do is just copy the code given below and paste it in your address bar after you have opened the website you wish to edit. And start editing.

javascript:document.body.contentEditable%20=%20'true';%20document.designMode='on';%20void%200

You can capture a screenshot by pressing the Print Screen key or by using the Snipping Tool if you use Windows 7 or Windows Vista. If you wish to again make the website non-editable to give a more authentic look, copy and paste the code given below in the address bar after you are done editing (does not work in Firefox).

javascript:document.body.contentEditable%20=%20'false';%20document.designMode='off';%20void%200

Or, alternatively you can use the following bookmarklets by dragging them to your Bookmarks bar.

1.  Edit this Website

2.  Done Editing

The editing that you do will however be temporary as it is not server-sided. You can also save the modified website through your browser by File>Save. This works on all common web browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer.

Enable Command Prompt Disabled by Administrator or Virus

Command Prompt is the tool in Windows which allows users to interact with their computer from a character user interface(CUI). It allows users to bypass most restrictions that are enforced on the Windows explorer based GUI. Hence, it can also be used to remove viruses and malware and also undo their effects. To avoid this, most viruses disable command prompt. Some administrators also purposefully disable it to avoid users changing critical settings of the computer.

In these situations, if you run the command prompt (cmd.exe), you will get an error saying "The command prompt has been disabled by your Administrator". However, there are ways in which you can re-enable it. This article contains some such few simple techniques using which you can easily enable the command prompt.

Enable Command Prompt using the Group Policy Editor

1) Click on Start. Go to Run. Users running Windows 8, Windows 7 or Vista, go to Search.
2) Type gpedit.msc and press Enter.
3) Navigate to User Configuration/ Administrative Templates / System.
4) In the work area on the right side, double click on "Prevent access to the command prompt".
5) In the popup dialog, encircle Disabled and click OK. 
6) You should be able to immediately use the command prompt. If you still cannot access it, restart your computer.

Home editions of Windows do not contain the Group Policy Editor.

Enable Command Prompt from Registry in Windows 8, 7, XP or Vista

Registry Editor is an in-built tool in Windows which is used to view and edit the Windows registry. You can use it to easily enable the command prompt by simply modifying a registry key. To do so, follow these steps.

1) Users running Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista, go to Start>Search. Users of Windows XP, got to Start>Run.
2) Type regedit and press Enter.
3) Registry Editor will start. If it is disabled, you will need to enable Registry Editor first.
4) Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System. If the Windows key is not there, you will need to create a new key called Windows. Also, if the System key is not there, you will need to create it.
5) In the work area on right side, double click on DisableCMD and set its value to 0. If you cannot locate DisableCMD, you will need to create a new DWORD value called DisableCMD and set its value to 0.
6) Close the Registry Editor.

The Command Prompt in Windows 8

The command prompt should immediately be accessible. If it isn't, restart your computer.

Enable Command Prompt by simply running a command

If you are unfamiliar with directly editing the Registry, you can use a simple command to quickly enable the command prompt. Just follow these steps:-
1) Click on Start and go to Run. Users of Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista, go to Search. 
2) Copy and paste the following command and execute it.

HOW TO ADD LINK NUDGING BY JQUERY?

1. First Go to Blogger Dashboard > Design Tab > Edit HTML Tab
2. Search for </head> tag
3. Add following code just Before </head> tag

   <script src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.8.2/jquery.min.js' type='text/javascript'></script>
   <script type='text/javascript'>
       var dur = 400; // Duration Of Animation in Milli Seconds
       jQuery(document).ready(function($) {
           $('a.linknudge').hover(function() {
               $(this).animate({
                   paddingLeft: '25px'
               }, dur);
           }, function() {
               $(this).animate({
                   paddingLeft: 0
               }, dur);
           });
       }); // end of Jquery Script
   </script>

4. Now Save Your template!

When You want to Add link Nudging to your links, Simply add a class “linknudge” to your links like this!

<a class='linknudge' href='http://www.way2blogging.org'>Way2blogging</a>

The above code is For Custom links those are you animating by adding a class of ‘linknudge‘

Here is another code i am giving that is for your labels as well as for your custom links

<script src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.4/jquery.min.js' type='text/javascript'>
</script>
<script type='text/javascript'>
    var dur = 400; // Duration Of Animation in Milli Seconds
    $(document).ready(function() {
        $('a.linknudge, .Label ul li a').hover(function() {
            $(this).animate({
                paddingLeft: '25px'
            }, dur);
        }, function() {
            $(this).animate({
                paddingLeft: 0
            }, dur);
        });
    }); // end of Jquery Script
</script>

Enjoy!