Acer Aspire AME600-UR378

If the Acer Aspire AME600-UR378 ($899.99 list) is a harbinger of the sort of mainstream multimedia desktops that we'll be seeing in a Windows 8 world, then consider us enthusiastic. In addition to packing a nimble Intel Core i7-3770 processor, a hefty amount of RAM, and a huge hard drive, it also offers decent expandability and sports a reasonable price tag. Although a few shortcomings keep it from being a total knockout, it nonetheless sets the bar pretty high for what we expect from media-center desktops in a Windows 8 world.

Design and Features
The AME600-UR378 measures 14.9 by 7.09 by 15.82 inches (HWD). Its boxy black metallic chassis is a relatively unassuming affair, but its glossy plastic face adds a splash of style. The front portion houses a dual-layer DVD burner and a free optical drive bay. Directly beneath that is a sliding door that covers a swappable expansion bay whose removable sled allows for a straightforward hard drive upgrade without having to open the chassis. The only departure from the AME600-UR378's all-black aesthetic is its gray upper lip protruding above the tower, which houses two USB 2.0 ports, a pair of USB 3.0 ports, a multicard reader, headphone and mic jacks, and a button that toggles a dim white light that emanates from a sliver between the AME600-UR378's face and the lip. The rear of the chassis houses the remainder of its ports, including four USB 2.0 ports, dual USB 3.0 ports, two PS/2 ports (for old-school mice and keyboard, even though the ones bundled with the AME600-UR378 are USB 2.0), HDMI- and VGA- out, audio ports, and Ethernet.

Opening the AME600-UR378's chassis requires unscrewing two rear bolts. Once you pop open the side of the AME600-UR378, you'll find an empty bay that can accommodate a supplemental optical drive as well as the removable sled mentioned above for an additional hard drive The system's 10GB DDR3 RAM is divvied into one 2GB module and a pair of 4GB modules, leaving a single vacant socket for RAM upgrades. One of the system's three PCIe x1 slots is occupied by the built-in 802.11a/g/n Wi-Fi card. The other two PCIe x1 slots are available, as well as a free PCIe x16 slot. The AME600-UR378 has integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU, and one of its available PCI slots can be filled with a beefier GPU. That said, the AME600-UR378's 300W power supply means that it won't be able to accommodate anything beyond a midrange graphics card.

The AME600-UR378 ships with a generous 2TB 5,400RPM hard drive. At the same time, however, it's laden with a fairly heavy amount of preloaded software. As is often the case, these programs vary in utility. At any rate, one encounters all of the usual suspects, ranging from the genuinely useful (Office 2010 Starter, a full version of McAfee Internet Security Suite, media-oriented software like CyberLink Media Espresso, Clear.fi Media and Photo) to the obligatorily proprietary (Acer Power Management, Acer Recovery Management, Acer Cloud Docs) to the typical delete-immediately-after-unpacking bloatware (Wild Tangent games suite, desktop links to eBay, Amazon, Spotify). The AME600-UR378 is covered by a one-year limited warranty.

Performance
The AME600-UR378's 3.4GHz Intel Core i7-3770 processor and 10GB of DDR3 RAM yielded impressive scores across the board. Since it was one of our first Windows 8 mainstream multimedia desktops, comparable systems are scarce. That said, we were able to stack the AME600-UR378's performance against similarly priced Windows 7 desktops, like the Lenovo IdeaCentre K430 and the Dell Vostro 470.

While each system sported the same processor, the Aspire AME600-UR378's PCMark 7 score of 3,917 points muscled its way past its competitors, well ahead of the Lenovo IdeaCentre K430 (3,737 points). It also scored higher than both the Gateway DX4870-UR11P (3,540 points) and Asus Essentio CM6870 (3,304 points). The AME600-UR378 displayed similar agility in multimedia-oriented tasks. It completed our Handbrake video-encoding test in a brisk 40 seconds, leaving the Asus CM6870 (1:03) in a distant second place. The AME600-UR378 completed our Photoshop CS6 test in 3 minutes 32 seconds.

On our Cinebench test, the Aspire AME600-UR378 scored 7 points, coming relatively close to the Gateway DX4870-UR11P (7.45 points) but falling a bit short of the Lenovo K430 (7.86 points), a disparity that can be attributed to the latter's extra 2GB of RAM. On a practical level, though, the two score closely enough that most users won't be able to discern much of a difference in processing capability between them.

While the Aspire AME600-UR378 understandably didn't display the same 3D rendering prowess as desktops sporting discrete graphics processors did, it held its ground in 3DMark 11 (1,478 in Entry-level settings; 230 in Extreme-level settings) where it counted?against the Gateway DX4870-UR11P (1,460 points in Entry-level settings), the only other system in the class with an integrated GPU. It came as no surprise, then, that the Aspire AME600-UR378 was outflanked by systems in its class with discrete graphics, like the Asus CM6870 (2,832 points and 523 points, respectively) and the Lenovo K430 (2,948 points and 525 points, respectively.

Like the Lenovo K430, the Aspire AME600-UR378 failed to crack the 30 frames per second (fps) playability barrier in the high-end gaming arena. Such was the case in both our Aliens vs. Predator benchmark test (14fps with medium-quality settings in 1,366-by-768 resolution; 5fps with maximum-quality in 1,920-by-1,080 resolution) and our Heaven benchmark tests (14fps with medium-quality settings in 1,366-by-768 resolution; 4fps with maximum-quality in 1,920-by-1,080 resolution), and this shortcoming is more forgivable than it is with the IdeaCentre K430's inability to do so in both Aliens vs. Predator (12fps with maximum-quality in 1,920-by-1,080 resolution) and Heaven (26fps and 12fps) since that system is actually touted as a gaming rig.

All said, the Acer Aspire AME600-UR378 is a good choice for users looking for an affordably priced mainstream multimedia desktop preloaded with Windows 8. In addition to its solid hardware offerings, it also offers decent expandability and comes with a reasonable price tag. At the same time, however, the mere inclusion of Windows 8 alone hardly distinguishes it from our current Editors' Choice for midrange desktop PCs, the Gateway DX4870-UR11P, a system whose extremely similar specs and slightly lower price help keep it at the top of the pile. Still, the Aspire AME600-UR378 is certainly worth checking out.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Acer Aspire AME600-UR378 with several other desktops side by side.

More desktop reviews:
??? Acer Aspire AME600-UR378
??? HP Spectre One 23-e010se
??? HP Envy 23-d060qd TouchSmart
??? Apple iMac 21.5-Inch (Late 2012)
??? Apple iMac 27-Inch (Late 2012)
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/OU7uyRIIp5Q/0,2817,2413568,00.asp

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Syrian interior minister leaves Beirut hospital

BEIRUT (AP) ? Officials at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport say Syria's interior minister has been released from a hospital and is flying home aboard a private jet.

The officials said Mohammed al-Shaar left Beirut on Wednesday and is on his way to Damascus. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations,

Al-Shaar was wounded on Dec. 12 when a suicide bomber exploded his vehicle outside the Interior Ministry, killing five and wounding many, including the minister.

The Syrian government denied at first that al-Shaar was wounded. Then it emerged that he was brought to a Beirut hospital last week for treatment.

The same minister was wounded when a bomb went off on July 18 during a high-level crisis meeting in Damascus, killing four top officials.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-26-Syria/id-7632e813e7f64bd8bb4e7d148e8dec3c

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3 Video Marketing Gifts: Content Repurposing Tools & Inspiration for ...

Repeat after me: This holiday season, I resolve to take into consideration the increasingly mobile and visual preferences of my customers or readers, and to create and repurpose content to meet their needs, on whichever platform they use to connect with my business.

Recently, TopRank?s Alexis Hall and Lee Odden have each shared with us a few figures that underscore the importance of video in a modern day marketing strategy:

• Sixty percent of executives will watch a video before reading a word of text on their screen.
• Forty-two percent of executives have made a purchasing decision based on an online video.
• 500 years worth of YouTube videos are shared each day on Facebook.
• Over 3 billion hours of video is consumed monthly on YouTube.

Over 53% of e-commerce retailers are already using non-product related video content (informational videos) on their sites. An additional 30.5% plan to add informational videos to their content arsenal in 2013.

Video Creation & Editing Using Existing Content: Getting Started

At TopRank, we?ve long been advocates of content repurposing as part of a sustainable marketing strategy; in fact, in this 2008 Online Marketing Blog post, Lee suggests repurposing PowerPoint decks to better leverage the research and content created for a presentation. More recently, we?ve used videos to add visual and audio to blog posts by way of an introduction or explanation (as in this video, a screenshot of which is at the top of this post). Yet marketers may be weary to take the plunge as video production can be costly and time-consuming.

Back in 2010, I discovered the value of content repurposing video through my work with a non-profit adult literacy agency. This organization held their first annual Transliteracy Conference that year, to teach educators how to reach learners more effectively through multimedia content.

This need to connect and educate applies in business as much as learning programs; your customers may be visual, auditory or kinesthetic learners, who want to be informed, educated and entertained, not marketed to. Now keep in mind, we had almost no budget to play with and though I had been creating written content for years, I had zero video production or editing skills. Yet we knew that people consume content in a variety of ways and in order to reach the greatest audience and help them actually retain information, we had to get creative.

After testing out a few free, open source video tools, we went with Cam Studio for the task of converting PowerPoint decks from the conference to videos we could upload to YouTube. Educators could access these videos online after the event, share them with other practitioners, and even embed them in their own content (see below). Videos are incredibly versatile content that can be shared on your blog, corporate site, social media accounts and more.

It took approximately two hours per presentation to record a voiceover track for each slide and edit, then upload the video. In keeping with accessibility standards, we created a second version of each, with closed captioning for hearing-impaired viewers (this took an additional hour per video).

How to Use Repurposed Video Content in Business

Imagine how you can use this content repurposing strategy for your business! There are even more free tools now and they?re far more advanced than those we had to choose from in 2010. Business videos can be used to:

• Demonstrate unique uses of your product or service
• Answer frequently asked questions
• Share original research
• Showcase customer testimonials
• Introduce your staff or give a tour of your facilities
• Tell the story of your company?s involvement in charitable or social good activities
• Display customer success stories
• Interview customers, suppliers, brand advocates or industry thought leaders
• Video press releases
• Much, much more? whatever your customers want and need to know!

Free & Open Source Tools for Video Content Marketers

For the purpose of this post, I?ll assume that like many people, you would prefer to experiment and learn the basics with a no-cost tool before taking the plunge and investing in video software. Here are a few free tools you can use to get started:

1. CamStudio ? Desktop Screen Recorder

CamStudio is the stripped down, basic ? and free ? version of TechSmith?s popular Camtasia screen recording and video editing software. I?ve used both and have to say that Cam Studio was a fantastic beginner?s tool; it was easy to learn, simple to use and the finished product was decent.

The trick to using this tool for repurposing a presentation was to set the PowerPoint display time for each slide longer than required. For example, we set a 30-second slide time and it took 15 to 25 seconds for each voiceover recording. This allowed us to easily cut out the additional few seconds of slide time, rather than rushing to fit the audio in, for seamless transitions in the video to the next slide.

2. Google Hangouts

Google Hangouts are a free and incredibly flexible video tool from social network Google+. You might be familiar with its potential for online meetings and chat, but it?s also a great option for content repurposing.

Easily transition from live video to screen captures to dive deeper into blog posts, add commentary to written research studies, or read and explain customer testimonials. The entire video can be uploaded to YouTube at the push of a button.

3. Windows Movie Maker

This is a good option for marketers with a collection of images to convert to video. For example, your company could turn a set of charts or graphs based on original research into a video with commentary that links back to your original report. Or, narrate the story of a number of customers using your product in a variety of ways. The possibilities are only as limited as your imagination.

Eighty-five percent of the U.S. Internet audience watch videos online each month and on average, each user watches 1,399 minutes per month. To get your company started in video marketing as quickly and inexpensively as possible, without sacrificing the quality of your customer interactions, you need a solution that:

1. Allows you to repurpose existing content, making it fresh and relevant again without creating a whole new project.
2. Doesn?t have a huge learning curve.
3. Is flexible and allows you to incorporate screencaptures, audio (music or voiceover), subtitles or other text cues, and actual video.

Once you become comfortable with video content repurposing, you may choose to upgrade to a paid software solution with more features. In the meantime, I hope these free tools fit the bill!

How do you use video in your content marketing strategy? Share your tips and tricks with other readers in the comments.

Source: http://www.toprankblog.com/2012/12/3-video-marketing-gifts-content-repurposing-tools-inspiration-for-2013/

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Google vs. Microsoft: Santa-tracking systems go out of sync

16 hrs.

Alan Boyle , NBC News

Not even Santa Claus can avoid getting drawn into the tech clash between Google and Microsoft: The two companies have set up separate online systems to track where the Jolly Old Elf has been on Christmas Eve?? but they show him simultaneously at widely separated locations, delivering presents at a dramatically different rate.

On the official "NORAD Tracks Santa" website, powered this year by Microsoft, Santa Claus was in Rome, well past the 3-billion-present mark in his holiday rounds. At the same time, Google's Santa Tracker showed him buzzing through Agadez in the African country of Niger, not quite up to the 1-billion-present mark.

They can't both be right. Can they? Here's the word from Search?Engine?Land's Danny Sullivan, who has been tracking the discrepancy in this year's?Santa-tracking software:

"NORAD explains that it uses everything from radar to jets to track Santa. Google doesn?t explain its technology, but I suspect it tries to triangulate Santa using his cell phone signal or use of wifi hotspots.

"As for why NORAD shows Father Christmas delivering three?times the number of gifts that Google is listing, perhaps NORAD?s radars can better pinpoint presents while Google might be doing estimating.?Meanwhile? both services sometimes show presents being delivered over oceans! And why is NORAD showing Santa arriving in some places at 9pm rather than midnight, as has been the case in the past?"

Maybe this is just the sort of thing that happens when you switch software: NORAD (also known as the North American Aerospace Defense Command) has been monitoring Santa's flight as a public service since 1955, and five years ago, it teamed up with Google to keep up with the crush of Web traffic. This year, however, the NORAD Santa operation parted ways with Google and partnered with Microsoft instead.

Google stayed in the Santa game by setting up its own tracking system for "Santa's Dashboard" and Google Maps?? a system that doesn't make use of NORAD's tracking data.

Today, Canadian Maj. Gen. Andre Viens, a spokesman for NORAD, declined to intervene in the Santa-tracking war.

"It's not affecting our tracking," Viens told MSNBC. "We're not in competition with anyone. Our role, and we've been doing that for more than?50 years, is to track Santa and make sure that he has a safe and secure journey throughout the world, and throughout North America in particular."

TODAY:?Follow Santa's Christmas Eve flight

PhotoBlog: Inside NORAD's command center

Maybe it shouldn't be surprising to find?that it's so difficult to get a firm fix on Santa's position, considering how many presents he has to deliver in so little time. Some experts have speculated that the only way Santa could ?deliver gifts (or lumps of coal) to billions of homes in the course of just a few hours would be if he somehow harnessed quantum teleportation. And once you accept that, it's not that big of a leap to detect Santa in two places at once.

Alan Boyle is the science editor for NBC News Digital, and has been tracking NORAD's Santa tracker since 1998.?Boyle's usual online?hangout is over at Cosmic Log.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/google-vs-microsoft-santa-tracking-systems-go-out-sync-1C7657754

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Tongue Rings Have Come A Long Way In The Past Two Decades ...

Tongue rings are now not only the third most popular of all piercings, but they have also become much safer to have done.

Tongue rings were once only rarely seen and people heard more often the horror stories about people who get it done. That has changed a lot over the past couple of decades. Tongue piercings have become much more common due mainly to safer standards in the piercing industry.

Where once people would actually get their tongues pierced at home by friends they now realize the importance of going to a professional who has done tongue rings before. Unlike other parts of the body that are commonly pierced, the tongue has two major veins running through it. If either of these veins is even nicked by the needle, it can cause severe blood loss.

Even when done correctly tongue rings still take two to six weeks to heal. It can take up to six months for the piercing to be fully healed. During this healing time, it is not uncommon for the tongue to swell. This is easily treated with cold drinks, sucking on ice and taking anti-inflammatory to bring the swelling down.

Also during the healing time, it is highly recommended that the pierced person refrain from alcohol, smoking, and making tongue contact with other people. Spicy food is also something to be avoided. And after doing any of the above, it is strongly suggested that they rinse their mouths with alcohol free mouthwash. Being such a warm moist environment, people who get tongue rings need to take extra care to avoid infection. They must also tighten the barbell daily to avoid it coming lose and them swallowing it.

It is commonly believed the tongue rings first got started at the Gauntlet. The Gauntlet was the first professional body piercing shop in the United States. Founder of the Gauntlet and body-piercing pioneer, Elayne Angel, is often given credit with popularizing the tongue rings.

Julie enjoys sharing health and beauty tips. A great resource for flat irons, curling irons and hair styling tools of all kinds is My Hair Styling Tools.

Source: http://www.huntingbynight.com/tongue-rings-have-come-a-long-way-in-the-past-two-decades/

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Instruction/Reference Librarian - HigherEdJobs

Company Description:

Founded in 1919, AUC moved to a new 270-acre state-of-the-art campus in New Cairo in 2008. The University also operates in its historic downtown facilities, offering cultural events, graduate classes, and continuing education. Student housing is available in both downtown Zamalek and New Cairo. Among the premier universities in the region, AUC is Middle States accredited; its Engineering programs are accredited by ABET, its Chemistry program is accredited by the Canadian Society for Chemistry, and the Management program is accredited by AACSB. The AUC Libraries contain the largest English-language research collection in the region and are an active and integral part of the University's pursuit of excellence in all academic and scholarly programs. AUC is an English-medium institution; eighty-five percent of the students are Egyptian and the rest include students from nearly ninety countries, principally from the Middle East, Africa and North America. Faculty salary and rank are based on qualifications and professional experience. All faculty receive generous benefits, from AUC tuition to access to research funding; expatriate faculty also receive relocation benefits including annual home leave, and tuition assistance for school age children.

Job Description:

Under the direction of the Head of Research and Information Services and the Coordinator of Instruction, the successful candidate will join a dynamic team to teach and assess on a variety of levels: the LALT 101 (a mandatory course for freshmen), subject specific one-shots, graduate seminars and orientations, as well as other areas. He//she will participate as a member of the Reference Team through the Learning Commons and other service points. Other areas of responsibility include collection development, outreach in a targeted discipline as a library liaison, and working with the User Experience Librarian on a variety of projects.?

Requirements:

Under the direction of the Coordinator of Instructional Services, the candidate would provide classroom instruction on a variety of levels:?1. Teach and develop content for the required full semester Freshman Information Literacy Course, LALT 101;?2. Develop and teach content for blended online new Freshman Year courses;?3. Teach and develop content for subject specific courses;?4. Assist with programmatic assessment.?

The candidate would interact with faculty, students, and visitors to identify information needs and assist with research needs.?The candidate would also provide outreach services with designated academic departments (areas of liaison duties to be determined by background).

Additional Information:

For details see the complete job description at http: //lib.aucegypt.edu/screens/jobs.html

Review of applications begins immediately

Application Instructions:

All applicants must submit the following documents online:?
a) a current C.V; b) a letter of interest; c) a completed Personal Information Form; d) at least three reference letters from referees familiar with your professional background sent directly to LLTJOB@aucegypt.edu.

Note: Please remember that your account login enables you to respond to AUC additional questions (if required).

?

Source: http://www.higheredjobs.com/details.cfm?JobCode=175705648

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Pro-gun rights US petition to deport Piers Morgan

LONDON (AP) ? Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition calling for British CNN host Piers Morgan to be deported from the U.S. over his gun control views.

Morgan has taken an aggressive stand for tighter U.S. gun laws in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting. Last week, he called a gun advocate appearing on his "Piers Morgan Tonight" show an "unbelievably stupid man."

Now, gun rights activists are fighting back. A petition created Dec. 21 on the White House e-petition website by a user in Texas accuses Morgan of engaging in a "hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution" by targeting the Second Amendment. It demands he be deported immediately for "exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens."

The petition has already hit the 25,000 signature threshold to get a White House response. By Monday, it had 31,813 signatures.

Morgan seemed unfazed ? and even amused ? by the movement.

In a series of Twitter messages, he alternately urged his followers to sign the petition and in response to one article about the petition said "bring it on" as he appeared to track the petition's progress.

"If I do get deported from America for wanting fewer gun murders, are there any other countries that will have me?" he wrote.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pro-gun-rights-us-petition-deport-piers-morgan-130319681.html

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