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Nokia 808 PureView mungkin sudah terbilang lawas. Namun soal kualitas
foto, ponsel 41 megapixel ini ternyata masih lebih unggul dibanding
Galaxy S5, Xperia Z2, dan iPhone 5S sekalipun.
Sebuah percobaan
dilakukan perusahaan yang bergelut di bidang grafis, DxOMark. Mereka
membandingkan kualitas sejumlah kamera ponsel dengan memperhitungkan
beberapa aspek seperti tingkat noise, exposure, keakuratan warna dan
autofocus.
Hampir semua ponsel dengan kamera terbaik
diikutsertakan dalam pertandingan tersebut, termasuk Nokia 808 PureView
yang sudah dirilis sejak dua tahun lalu. Seperti dikutip Android Authority, Kamis (19/6/2014).
Nokia
808 PureView memang bukan ponsel biasa. Di dalamnya terdapat teknologi
foto PureView yang diklaim dapat menghasilkan gambar dengan baik. Lalu
bagaimana jika dihadapkan dengan Galaxy S5, Xperia Z2 atau bahkan iPhone
5S?
DxOMark menyatakan bahwa kualitas foto Nokia 808 PureView
masih juara, lebih baik dari Galaxy S5, Xperia Z2 atau iPhone 5S. Namun
soal kemampuan merekam video, ponsel jadul Nokia tersebut memang harus
mengakui tiga ponsel di atasnya itu.
Pun begitu, secara
keseluruhan Galaxy S5 menduduki peringkat pertama sebagai ponsel dengan
kamera terbaik, sedangkan Xperia Z2 berada di posisi kedua, Nokia
PureView 808 di posisi tiga, dan iPhone 5S di peringkat 4.
1Password (Free + IAP) As
useful apps go, one that creates and stores passwords for the various
sites you use – strong, proper passwords, too – then helps you log in
with a single tap on the screen is a pretty good idea. 1Password is a
long-awaited release for Android, synchronising neatly with PC, Mac and
iOS.
Sky Sports Football SC Brazil (Free) Just
in time for the big tournament, Sky Sports’ new World Cup app makes it
onto Android. It’s a dedicated app for scores, live text commentary,
tables, photos and other data from Brazil, complete with an option to
set your preferred country as “My Team”.
The Great British Bee Count (Free) The
latest in a growing line of crowdsourcing-for-good apps. In this case,
the good is helping Friends of the Earth and its partners build a map of
how healthy (or not) bees are around the UK. Its app is used to track
the bees you see in your local area, then send that data back to the
scientists.
Copy Bubble (Free) One
of the joys of Android is the large number of simple, single-purpose
utility apps that tweak Google’s software for specific tasks. In this
case: copying and pasting, as you tap on a floating bubble to clip text
and images.
Corner - Find Football Pubs (Free)While
we’re on the subject of single-purpose apps… Corner is an app for
quickly finding pubs near your current location that are showing
football, released to capitalise on World Cup fever. You can filter by
food and facilities, check on fixtures and invite friends to a match
from within the app.
DinnerTime: Parental Control (Free) Affronted
by surly children texting or playing games at the dinner table rather
than joining the family banter? DinnerTime aims to help, albeit by the
somewhat draconian method of locking a child’s device for a set period
of time. It can also be used for bedtime, revision-time or any other
time you deem necessary.
Spydy Contacts (Free + IAP) Spydy
is apparently a “social launchpad and people organiser” – presumably
for people whose social life remains defiantly land-bound and whose
friends are un-organised. It promises a visual revamp of your contacts
app, puling in Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, with group messaging
included.
Peugeot Music (Free) The
challenge of “music discovery” – helping people find new songs or
rediscover old favourites in streaming music services – is being talked
about a lot in the music industry. How about help from… Peugeot? Yes,
the carmaker has its own music app, offering a curated selection of
streaming tunes.
TCS SocialSoccer (Free) More
World Cup – well, it is the week for it – with this app offering scores
and stats, but with just as much focus on tweets about prominent teams
and players. It’s also claiming to throw in some “big data analytics” to
keep you posted on Twitter sentiment around the tournament. If it
works, it could be fun.
Talking Progress (Free) Finally,
an app designed for adults suffering from depression. The idea being
that you can record your feelings in a digital diary, helping you track
the condition and discuss the results with your doctor. There’s also a
medicine-reminder alarm built in, if that’s of use.
Angry Birds Epic switches bird-flinging for roleplaying game (RPG) action.
GAMES
Angry Birds Epic (Free + IAP) The
latest Angry Birds game sees no physics-based flinging. Instead, it’s a
roleplaying game (RPG) that sees you building up a team of birds and
attacking pigs through other means. Along the way, you craft and upgrade
weapons, learn new skills and get to grips with its turn-based battles
system.
VVVVVV (£1.99) Ever
played Super Hexagon? This is the new game from its developer Terry
Cavanagh, and if anything is picking up even more buzz. It’s a platform
game that’s been available since 2010 on other devices, with graphics
reminiscent of the 1980s, and gameplay that grips you quickly then won’t
let you go.
Band Stars (Free + IAP) As
someone who happily wasted many hours on a game called Rock Star Ate My
Hamster as a child, I’ve always thought the music industry makes for
cracking games. Band Stars is the latest attempt to prove the theory
right: a fun social game that gets you hiring and firing members and
racing up the charts.
King of the Course Golf (Free + IAP) EA
knows a thing or two about golf games from its stewardship of the Tiger
Woods franchise. Its new mobile game takes a new direction –
free-to-play – with famous courses, neat touchscreen controls and, ahem,
boosts. Well, there had to be something to justify the in-app
purchases, presumably…
Flick Soccer Brazil (Free + IAP) First
of a smattering of football games in this World Cup month. Flick Soccer
Brazil comes from developer Full Fat: a new game in its very-good Flick
Soccer franchise. You’ll be flicking balls past the goalkeeper or at
the crossbar over several modes, even if the inclusion of “Brazilian
bikini babes” feels a bit unnecessary.
Great Little War Game 2 (£1.99) Developer
Rubicon Development’s little and big war games have a fervent fanbase
on Android, and this latest one looks like it won’t disappoint. It’s
another turn-based strategy game where you take your troops into battle
over 60 missions. “Just jump in and start shooting,” advises its Google
Play listing. And thankfully, it really is that accessible.
Up, Down, Left, Right (Free) Up,
Down, Left, Right is probably one of the most frustrating games I’ve
played on a mobile phone – up there with Flappy Bird – but in a way that
means you play it more, not less. It sounds simple: tap the up, down,
left, right keys on a virtual keyboard in time to a beat, switching one
of them every so often in response to falling keys above. If you don’t
throw your smartphone out of the window within 10 minutes, you’ll be
hooked.
QuizTix: World Football (Free + IAP) QuizTix
is a new brand of “collectable quiz” games for Android and iOS, with
this the third following versions focused on pop music and movies. Here,
you’ll be answering football trivia in a range of categories, taking on
friends or asking them for help with tricky questions.
Fluid SE (£1.19) Fluid
SE is being described as part racing game, part Pac-Man, which does a
good job of describing its charms. There are 40 levels to speed through,
collecting dots and avoiding spectres – yep, Pac-Man – with a
well-worked star system to grade your times and keep you coming back to
improve your score.
CN Superstar Soccer (£1.79) Finally,
one more football game, this one from Cartoon Network. It sees you
playing as characters from shows including Adventure Time, Ben 10 and
Regular Show. Power-shots, online multiplayer and spiffing visuals make
it worth a look for children and parents alike.
You may need a variety of bits of kit to speed up a reluctant PC or laptop.
Tired of twiddling your thumbs during downloads? Try these remedies for
speeding up a dozy old PC before you almost lose the will to live. Probably the most common reason people ditch their old computer and
buy a new one is not that the old one is broken in any way, but that
it’s simply running slowly. There are plenty of suggestions online, as
well as paid-for products, which claim to fix slowness. Many of these
will make little difference and some may make the problem even worse.
There are a few key things that are well worth trying before giving up
on your trusty PC or Windows laptop (and many of these will work for
Macs too), but before you attempt anything, it’s vital that you back-up
your files.
Viruses and antiviruses
Viruses or malware on
your computer are very likely to slow it down. If they manage to gain
control of your computer before your antivirus kicks in, they can hide
themselves. One answer is to run an offline virus scan from a CD or USB
memory stick independently of Windows – Sophos or Kaspersky are possibilities. There are also free, reliable and lightweight antivirus programs available, such as Avast.
Be aware that duelling antivirus programs can cause extreme slowness.
If you've switched antivirus programs, make sure you uninstall any
earlier programs.
Background and startup programs
Having
cleaned up any viruses and made sure your regular antivirus program is
functioning and up to date, the next thing to look at is whether you
have any unused programs installed or running in the background. You can
do this from within Windows, but it's easier if you download the free
version of CCleaner and run it. Click the Tools tab on the left and select Uninstall.
If
you use Adobe Reader you can download a lightweight alternative such as
Foxit Reader or SumatraPDF for viewing PDF files and then uninstall the
Adobe offering. The same applies for video players. Media Player
Classic is a lightweight alternative to Windows Media Player.
Resist the urge to hit your computer with a
baseball bat, or to dropkick it through the nearest window.
If you haven't yet, you should experiment using Opera or Chrome,
which are the fastest browsers available, and can perform significantly
better on old hardware.
Programs which start up along with
Windows, as well as browser plug-ins, can really slow down computers.
The Startup button on CCleaner shows these start-up programs. It’s hard
to give specific advice on what you can disable, but learn more about
the things you don't recognise and get rid of what you don't need. And
if you’ve collected any of those pesky browser toolbars which come along
for the ride, you can disable them too.
Hard disks
A
tired or full hard disk can slow a computer down. In order to keep your
computer running smoothly, you need to leave 10-15% of your hard drive
space free. If you're running out of space, you should consider deleting
unnecessary programs or moving files you no longer need to an external
drive.
Modern hard disks can suffer from low performance before
failing completely. Diagnose the health of your hard disk with software
such as SpeedFan, which can give you more information than Windows.
One
easy and affordable way to increase the speed for some operations in
your computer is to upgrade to a solid state drive (SSD). This can
reduce the loading time of the operating system, as well as the time
required to load and access software and files. Make sure your computer
supports hard drives using a SATA connector and that you use an
operating system optimised for them (anything beyond Windows XP will
do).
Reinstall your operating system – or move to Linux
If
all else fails then the “nuclear option” of reinstalling Windows and
all your programs and data will usually help. You might also need to
install more memory: 512MB is the minimum for Windows XP, 1GB for Vista,
Windows 7 or later. However, if you’re still running XP then you’re
living dangerously. Think about using Linux, a free and open-source
operating system – there are versions that will run happily even on an
old laptop from the last century.
First
of all it's good to consider what sort of “flavour” you want. Ubuntu,
Xubuntu Linux, and Linux Mint may appeal to those who are used to
Windows. If you want the lightest and least resource-hungry system to
make your older hardware really fly again, Puppy Linux and Lubuntu are
two very small and effective options. Most Linux distributions are
designed to run directly from a CD or USB stick as a “live
installation”. This enables you to try the operating system out before
you commit to installing it.
Donetsk separatist
leader, Denis Pushilin, said Moscow would be asked to consider absorbing
the region. Photograph: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP
The "People's Republic of Donetsk" declared itself an
independent country on Monday and, within two hours of doing so, had
asked to join Russia.
The separatist leader Denis Pushilin told journalists that the
self-proclaimed republic would ask Moscow to consider absorbing the
region, which borders Russia.
But it remains extremely doubtful
whether Moscow will carry out a Crimea-style annexation of the region,
which held a controversial referendum on independence on Sunday,
together with neighbouring Luhansk.
According to results announced by the de facto authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk – which also declared independence from Ukraine
on Monday – about 90% on a turnout of 70% and 96% on a turnout of
nearly 75% respectively voted for state sovereignty. The referendums –
which Kiev has dismissed as illegitimate – were hastily organised and
marked by numerous violations.
The results were roundly condemned
in the west, but Russia said it respected the results. However, instead
of previous statements saying it would protect people in the regions
with troops if need be, the Kremlin called for dialogue between the
government in Kiev and the south-east regions of the country.
"In
Moscow, we respect the will of the people of the Donetsk and Luhansk
regions and are counting on practical implementation of the outcome of
the referendum in a civilised manner, without any repeat of violence and
through dialogue," the Kremlin said.
In a press conference in
Moscow, Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, read out the Kremlin
statement and added that only Russian television channels were telling
"the truth in real time" about the crisis, whereas western news outlets
were hiding the real causes.
Lavrov made no mention of the
controversy over the referendum, merely noting the "high voting
activity" of the population despite attempts from Kiev to disrupt the
vote. He said no new international talks were planned on Ukraine.
Oleksandr
Turchynov, Ukraine's acting president, told the country's parliament:
"The farce which terrorists call the referendum will have no legal
consequences except the criminal responsibility for its organisers."
The
Kremlin has called the new government in Kiev "neo-fascist" and Kiev
has accused Russia of organising the separatist movement by providing
weapons and tactical advice. Nevertheless, Vladimir Putin, the Russian
president, last week asked the separatists to delay their referendum,
which appeared to be an attempt to distance Russia from the vote, but
was ignored.
There were a number of irregularities with the count
and procedure, and it seems unlikely that the figures announced are an
accurate reflection of views in the region, with most of those who
disagreed with the proposition staying at home.
Nevertheless,
there has been an increasing mood of defiance, especially as a Ukrainian
army operation against the armed separatists resulted in multiple
casualties. It is hard to judge how many people support the armed
takeover of government buildings and attempts to separate from Ukraine,
but feelings are running high.
The referendum question was worded
ambiguously, appearing to offer state sovereignty for the Donetsk and
Luhansk "people's republics". Roman Lyagin, head of the de facto central
election committee in Donetsk, said before the vote that nothing would
change in terms of state borders as a result of the vote.
He said
that, in future, the region would be free to decide whether to stay
within Ukraine, become independent or join Russia. In the end, it
apparently took only two hours to make the decision, apparently making a
mockery of what voters had been told in the runup.
In Luhansk,
separatists announced that more than 96% of ballots had been cast in
favour of the independence of the region from Ukraine.
"Congratulations
on the birth of the Luhansk republic," said Vasily Nikitin, deputy head
of the region's separatist movement. "We are now preparing an appeal to
the UN and international community asking them to recognise us."
Nikitin
said the constitution of the new "country" was almost ready, and added
that its residents would not participate in Ukrainian presidential
elections planned for 25 May. Donetsk's de facto authorities have also
said they will not allow voting in the elections. A key demand of Moscow
has been to postpone the elections.
In Luhansk, one resident,
Anatoliy Sukharev, 80, approached Nikitin and asked whether there would
be a second referendum on joining Russia.
"What is next? When are
we going to have this referendum?" he asked. Nikitin said a second
referendum would happen, but the republic needed to "organise as a
country" first.
But for many Ukraine-oriented residents, recent events have been a tragedy.
"My
father is a businessman, now he is trying to sell all his businesses
here before moving away. Many people I know have already left," said
Olesia, 20, who refused to give her last name fearing retribution.
"I can love Luhansk only if it is a Ukrainian Luhansk," she said.
The
eastern regions are entering an uncertain situation, with tension and
anger rising on both sides. Ukrainian army and affiliated paramilitary
units killed unarmed civilians in Mariupol last week and in
Krasnoarmeysk during the voting on Sunday. For their part, the rebels in
Donetsk have taken hostages among pro-Ukraine activists and been
accused of torture.
It is unclear whether either side is ready for
talks. With a number of armed gangs in the region, there is every
danger of conflict with Kiev forces and of events slipping into violent
chaos.
A Kremlin-linked MP, Vyacheslav Nikonov, said the Ukrainian
military operation in eastern Ukraine represented "genuine fascism" and
said that the residents of Luhansk and Donetsk deserved no less
support. "Indeed, they deserve much more support from us, than the
residents of Crimea," he said.
However, he added that Moscow would
have to weigh the "economic, political, and military risks" before
deciding whether it should absorb the regions.
Gazprom, Russia's
state energy company, also told Ukraine it had to settle a $3.5bn (£2bn)
gas debt, and pay in advance for deliveries in June, or be cut off.
In
Brussels, EU foreign ministers added 13 people and two firms to their
visa ban and asset freeze list over Ukraine, according to two officials
who spoke on condition of anonymity because the measure had yet to be
officially announced. The EU has targeted a number of officials but the
sanctions have been far narrower than US sanctions over Ukraine.
Labour's low ebb in
the Guardian/ICM poll goes hand-in-hand with negative views of its
leader, Ed Miliband. Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA
Labour's
support is draining away, according to a Guardian/ICM poll which
records the first Conservative lead in over two years and gives Ed Miliband's party its smallest share of the vote for four years.
The
Tories are on 33% in the monthly state of the parties poll, up a single
point and two points ahead of Labour, which has sunk by six points
since April. The poll will add to Labour nerves a week and a half before
European and local elections, and less than a year before the general
election.
Flush with publicity of all kinds before the European ballot, Nigel Farage's Ukip climbs four points to 15%. The Liberal Democrats edge up one to 13%. The ICM finding is surprising because although polling averages have pointed towards a narrowing gap between the two main parties, internet polls for the Sunday papers pointed to continuing Labour leads of between four and seven points. However, a second telephone poll published on Monday,
sponsored by the Tory peer Lord Ashcroft, also points to a two-point
Conservative lead. That poll has the Tories on 34% against Labour's 32%.
Haunted
by memories of the Thatcher/Major years, when healthy opposition leads
during mid-term repeatedly disappeared in the runup to polling day,
Labour has long feared that Miliband's edge may not be big enough to
take the party safely into power next May.
As a nervous Labour
party seeks an explanation for its dwindling ratings, it may take some
comfort from the fact that the Tories have barely advanced. However,
with Europe, immigration and an improving economy in the spotlight, the
party will now be wondering whether it faces an even stiffer task in
persuading an uncertain country to entrust it again with the levers of
power.
Labour's low ebb in the Guardian/ICM poll goes hand in hand
with negative views of its leader.
Despite a month in which Miliband
has put regulation of rental agreements on the agenda, and made the running against the government over AstraZeneca,
51% of voters believe he is doing a bad job, twice as many as the 26%
who think he is doing well, giving him a net negative rating of -25.
This is the worst score for him that ICM has recorded on this
occasional question, although it is only marginally worse than the net
-22 he notched up when it was last asked, a year ago.
What has
changed since then is where this leaves Miliband in relation to other
political leaders. Nick Clegg remains comparably unpopular, with 51%
also believing him to be doing badly and just 30% rating him as doing a
good job.
But whereas David Cameron
and George Osborne were also in negative territory last spring, after a
year in which the economic recovery has picked up pace their standing
is now much improved.
Some 44% of voters believe the prime
minister is doing a good job, against 42% who say the reverse. That
gives him a net rating of +2, which compares with -15 last May.
The
bounceback in Osborne's stock is more dramatic. After the
"omnishambles" budget of 2012, his net score was -25, and in April 2013,
when the question was last asked of the chancellor, it was -14.
But
in the latest poll, 41% of respondents tell ICM that he is doing a good
job, against just 36% who regard him as doing badly, which gives him a
net +5.
ICM's monthly phone survey is best interpreted in the
light of wider trends. Labour opened up a clear lead during the first
half of 2012, after Andrew Lansley's NHS reforms turned controversial
and more particularly after that unpopular budget.
Ukip is now within three points of the 18% it notched up a year ago, in its best ever score with ICM. Curiously, however, the party's resurgence comes alongside flagging enthusiasm for Farage.
In May last year, his job approval rating was +17. Today, 39%
say he is doing a bad job as against 31% who see him as doing well,
giving him a negative net rating of -8.
Among Lib Dem voters his score is -20, among Labour supporters -28, and even among Conservatives
he notches up -11. By contrast, among his own tribe, his popularity is
overwhelming: 93% of Ukip backers believe Farage is doing well,
suggesting support for the man is translating into support for the
party.
Clegg just scores in positive territory among current
Conservatives, a contrast with 2010 Lib Dem voters, who now believe that
the man they supported last time around is doing a bad job, by 44% to
40%.
Miliband can draw some comfort from the narrow majority of
current Labour voters, 52%, who believe that he is doing well, although –
after Labour's "incredible shrinking man" broadcast assaulting Clegg – he will be disappointed that 54% of 2010 Lib Dems rate him as doing badly.
ICM also asked more specifically about voting intentions for next week's European elections.
With only 37% of electors suggesting they are certain to cast their
ballot, such projections inescapably depend on fewer respondents than
those for Westminster.
Even so, the news is again encouraging for the Conservatives, and worrying for Labour.
The
Tories are up two on April, which puts them on 27%, and in a virtual
dead heat with Ukip, which has bounced up four in the European stakes to
stand at 26%. Labour sinks by 12 points on April, to 24%, with
appreciable proportions of the party's 2010 votes moving to Ukip and the
Greens.
Together with Lib Dem defectors –Clegg's party languishes
on 7% – this helps push the Greens up four and into a clear fourth
place, on 10%. The Scottish and Welsh nationalists are on 2% each, and
assorted independents and others notch up 3%.
Voters across the
United Kingdom will elect 73 members of the European parliament next
week. There are also local council elections for 4,200 seats in 161
councils and direct elections for mayors in four London boroughs. Labour
is looking to reach at least 35% in the council elections. The polls
are the last major test of public opinion before the general election,
which is set for 7 May 2015.
• ICM Research interviewed a
random sample of 1,000 adults aged 18+ by telephone on 9-11 May 2014.
Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been
weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British
Polling Council and abides by its rules
A Metropolitan police officer wearing a body camera. Photograph: EPA for The Guardian
It was supposed to be the start of a new life, but after moving
to Stevenage Old Town in Hertfordshire last November, I found myself a
target of haters and abusers in public. I still don't know why.
It
began with a group of young lads attempting to guide me in to a
lamppost before laughing and running away. Not long afterwards, the
situation grew worse, with groups of mainly younger males circling me,
swearing, and in one harrowing case, telling me they were filming for
YouTube as they urged me to "trip over the curb you blind bitch" and
"fuck off back to blind land".
Many other incidents happened
before I broke down crying one day on my living room floor. But like 40%
of hate crime victims, I still didn't report it. I had no way of
identifying the perpetrators, the people whose actions had persuaded me
not to leave my house alone.
These people made me doubt everything
about myself and my worth. I felt pathetic because I couldn't defend
myself or identify them, and it made me think about what would happen if
I was physically attacked or even raped. I became a wreck, overwhelmed
by dark thoughts.
I finally spoke to the police after the
situation came to a head, one early Saturday evening. While walking
through the Old Town high street with my fiance, who is also registered
blind, a group of young men started laughing and swearing at us. As we
walked past, one said they were going to take our money, while another
shouted, "we'll find out how much they can see".
I honestly
thought I was about to be physically attacked; I shouted for the group
to leave me alone and asked: "Why are you doing this?" My fear was so
intense that I lost control of my bladder.
Unaware of quite how
scared and degraded I felt, my fiance used his mobile phone to attempt
to film the individuals involved. But when we took this footage to the
police, it was too shaky to provide more than a few small clues.
In
the following days and weeks, as the abuse continued, I researched
body-worn cameras, eventually securing the loan of some from Reveal
Media and Taser International – who have provided the cameras currently on trial with 500 frontline response officers in the Metropolitan police.
This kit was unavailable for me to purchase from TSR, Taser's UK
supplier, which was a shame because the protection they offered, and the
security I felt, meant more to me than I can describe.
As a
result, I was able to take footage to Hertfordshire police, who have
been very supportive throughout. They identified some of the individuals
involved, and after speaking to one of them, the abuse finally stopped.
Body-worn
cameras gave me the confidence to leave my house alone and provided the
proof that this behaviour was happening. Before I collected this
evidence some people found it difficult to believe. I would highly
recommend the use of body-cams to anyone suffering abuse on the street,
while adding the obvious health warning that no one should put
themselves in danger in an attempt to gather evidence.
The abuse
and hate nearly destroyed me. But I decided to use the experience to
educate people about the real human costs of disability hate crime. In
2012-13, 1,841 incidents were reported to police in England and Wales – a
5% increase on the previous year – but that is only a small reflection
of the problem. The Crime Survey for England and Wales
estimates that there are, on average, 62,000 disability-motivated hate
crimes each year. A third of the reported crimes (32%) involved
violence.
Working with Stevenage borough council and Hertfordshire police, I have set up a Respect campaign,
visiting schools and youth groups to tell my story, and spreading the
word on Facebook and Twitter (#RespectCampaign). I'm determined to raise
awareness, develop strategies to combat these crimes, and to get the
message across that hate hurts.
HashTab is a file hasher that integrates into Windows and remains very light on computer resources all the time, it could repair a corrupt file.
Although
most similar applications come with a dedicated interface, HashTab
adopted a different approach and can be accessed via the Windows Context
Menu, once the user clicks on the “Properties” option.
In other
words, if you wish to check file integrity, it's enough to perform a
simple right-click on the file you want, hit “Properties” and look for
the “File Hashes” tab.
HashTab provides three different algorithms, namely CRC32, MD5 and SHA-1, with all values displayed straight in the same window.
In
addition, the application comes with a handy comparison tool at the
bottom of the screen. Just pick the file you wish to compare using the
adjacent browsing button and the information is displayed in no time.
Since
it integrates so well into Windows, the program remains incredibly
light on computer resources all the time, so it won't slow down the
operating system in any way. Things are slightly different when it comes
to larger files, but one thing is for sure: you can safely use it on
older machines as well.
Although everything is so intuitive and
easy to use, there is no help file included in the package, which means
users looking for more information have to use a search engine for the
job.
Other than that, HashTab is quite a handy tool that may
become a must-have for many users out there. It works very fast and it
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Jeremy Clarkson came
under fire after apparently using the N-word in unbroadcast footage from
the BBC's Top Gear. Photograph: Ben Stansall/PA
Jeremy Clarkson has begged viewers' forgiveness after he appeared to use the N-word during filming of his BBC programme Top Gear.
In a video statement posted online on
Thursday, he said that he had tried to obscure the word when reciting
the "eeny, meeny, miny, moe" nursery rhyme to chose between two cars,
but that his efforts to do so "weren't quite good enough".
Clarkson
had previously issued a robust denial of the allegation, telling his
3.2 million Twitter followers: "I did not use the N-word. Never use it.
The Mirror has gone way too far this time."
But footage of the incident was later posted on The Daily Mirror website.
In it Clarkson recites the beginning of the children's nursery rhyme
"eeny, meeny, miny, moe" before apparently mumbling: "Catch a nigger by
his toe."
His apology came after a day of growing calls for the
BBC to sack him. The corporation issued a strongly worded statement
saying: "Jeremy Clarkson has set out the background to this regrettable
episode. We have made it absolutely clear to him, the standards the BBC
expects on air and off. We have left him in no doubt about how seriously
we view this.".
Downing Street condemned any use of the word, saying that David Cameron – a friend of Clarkson's – would "certainly not" use it.
Aliya Mohammed, the chief executive of Race Equality First, called for immediate action from the BBC.
She
said: "I am appalled at yet another open display of racism from
Clarkson. How many racist comments will the BBC allow from the
presenter? It makes me question whether Clarkson feels it would be
acceptable because he thinks viewers and others within the BBC share his
views.
"Racism is illegal and it has no place in modern society. I
urge as many people as possible to show their condemnation of this
abhorrent display of racism. A public personality should set an example
to viewers and Clarkson is clearly a very bad example."
Lawyers
for the Indian-born actor Somi Guha, who appeared in The Bill and other
television shows, made a formal complaint to the BBC Trust as calls for
Clarkson to be sacked gathered pace. In the letter, which was also sent
to the media regulator Ofcom and has been seen by the Guardian, the
lawyer Lawrence Davies demanded an external investigation into how the
offensive language had come to be edited out of the show and whether
Clarkson had been reprimanded.
Davies, director of the law firm
Equal Justice Solicitors, said Clarkson would be dismissed in any other
line of work. "It's appalling. He's a repeat offender and should be
sacked," he said.
"If he was a Ukip councillor in a private
meeting I believe they would suspend or dismiss him. If he was the owner
of an American basketball team he would be fined and banned. But the
BBC consider themselves unaccountable on the issue of racism."
The prime minister's spokesman said: "In terms of any usage of that word, that would be quite wrong."
He
added that the BBC would be investigating the claims. "If there are
those types of reports and allegations I'm sure that is something the
BBC will look at."
Clarkson, who earned more than £14m last year
for his Top Gear work, is understood to have spoken to senior BBC
figures on Thursday morning as part of the corporation's investigation
into the allegations.
Executives learned about the controversy only when a preview of the Mirror's front page was published online on Wednesday night.
Clarkson's Top Gear co-host James May earlier leapt to the star's defence. May told his 1.4 million Twitter followers:
"Jeremy Clarkson is not a racist. He is a monumental bellend and many
other things, but not a racist. I wouldn't work with one. #ThatIsAll."
Piers
Morgan, the former CNN presenter with a long history of feuding with
Clarkson, led calls on Twitter for him to be dismissed. He said Clarkson
should be "TV toast", and added:
"Ron Atkinson was fired by @ITV for using the N-word. Don't see how the
BBC can avoid firing @JeremyClarkson if he did the same … In America,
he'd be fired by now."
The programme, aired in February 2013,
showed Clarkson standing between a Toyota GT86 and a Subaru BRZ and
saying: "Both cost the same, they have the same bodies and the same
interiors with the same equipment.
"They are even built by the
same people in the same factory. You might imagine then that it's quite
hard to choose between them, but actually, it isn't. Watch, because this
is how you do it."
In the unaired footage – which was later
passed to the Mirror – the presenter then recites the children's
counting rhyme and appears to use the N-word under his breath before
pointing at the Toyota and shrugging: "Toyota it is." The offensive term
was removed from the episode, according to the Mirror. In the broadcast
version, Clarkson recited the rhyme but this time used the word
"teacher".
Clarkson's full apology
"Ordinarily
I don't respond to newspaper allegations but on this occasion I feel I
must make an exception. A couple of years ago I recorded an item for Top
Gear in which I quote the rhyme "eeny, meeny, miny, moe". Of course, I
was well aware that in the best-known version of this rhyme there is a
racist expression that I was extremely keen to avoid. The full rushes
show that I did three takes. In two, I mumbled where the offensive word
would normally occur and in the third I replaced it altogether with the
word teacher.
Now when I viewed this footage several weeks later I
realised that in one of the mumbled versions if you listen very
carefully with the sound turned right up it did appear that I'd actually
used the word I was trying to obscure. I was mortified by this,
horrified. It is a word I loathe and I did everything in my power to
make sure that that version did not appear in the programme that was
transmitted.
"I have here the note that was sent at the time to
the production office and it says: 'I didn't use the N-word here but
I've just listened through my headphones and it sounds like I did. Is
there another take that we could use?'
"Please be assured I did
everything in my power to not use that word, as I'm sitting here begging
your forgiveness for the fact my efforts obviously weren't quite good
enough, thank you."
Oklahoma corrections director Robert Patton
addresses the media about the execution of Clayton Lockett. Photograph:
John Clanton/AP
Clayton Lockett, the death-row inmate who was the subject of a
botched execution by the state of Oklahoma, was Tasered by prison staff
and had cut his own arm on the day of the failed procedure, according to
a timeline released by the state's corrections chief on Thursday.
The
document released by the director of the corrections department, Robert
Patton, shows that medical staff could not find a suitable vein on any
of his limbs in which to inject the lethal drugs intended to kill him,
and had to use his groin instead. Lockett died, apparently from a heart
attack, 43 minutes after his attempted execution began and 10 minutes
after it had been called off.
Patton recommended an indefinite
stay of executions in Oklahoma until procedures for judicial killings
in the state are completely rewritten and staff retrained. The execution
of another inmate, Charles Warner, also due to have been carried out on
Tuesday, has already been postponed.
“It will take several
days or possibly weeks to refine the new protocols,” Patton wrote in a
letter to the Republican governor of Oklahoma, Mary Fallin. “Once
written, staff will require extensive training and understanding of new
protocols before an execution can be scheduled. I recommend asking the
court of criminal appeals to issue an indefinite stay of execution.”
Patton said he supported an “external investigation” of Lockett's death.
Fallin
said on Thursday that she had the authority to grant a 60-day
moratorium before the attorney general would petition the appeals court
for an extension. “We need to take as long as possible to get the answer
right,” she told reporters.
Alex Weintz, a spokesman for Fallin,
said the state “will not proceed with any executions until department
of corrections protocols can be reviewed and updated, and staff then
trained to implement those new protocols.”
The timeline published
by Oklahoma details a chaotic scene in the death chamber before and
during the failed execution, as staff struggle to place an intravenous
line into Lockett, report that he was unconscious, but then did not spot
that the IV connection had failed because they had covered Lockett
groin with a sheet, to prevent that area of his body from being seen by
witnesses.
The document is notable as much for what it leaves
out as for what it reveals: there is no mention of the three minutes in
which witnesses saw Lockett thrashing violently on the gurney and
attempting to speak, despite having been declared unconscious. Neither
does it say anything about what happened in the ten minutes between the
procedure being called off and the moment Lockett died.
Lawyers, state officials and journalists from media groups including the Guardian witnessed the first 16 minutes
of the attempted execution before officials drew the blinds that
separated the viewing room from the death chamber. For the final three
visible minutes, Lockett writhed, groaned, attempted to lift himself off
the gurney and tried to speak, despite a doctor having declared him
unconscious.
Lockett was convicted in 2000 and sentenced to death
for the kidnap and murder of a 19-year-old, Stephanie Neiman, during a
home invasion the previous year. She survived the initial assault, and
Lockett ordered two accomplices to bury her alive. He also raped one of
her friends. His accomplices are serving life sentences.
Neiman
had graduated from high school only two weeks before her death. Her
parents, Steve and Susie Neiman, supported Lockett's sentence. After his
death on Tuesday, the Neimans issued a statement, saying: “We are
thankful this day has finally arrived and justice will finally be
served.”
The timeline released by Patton shows that just after
5am on Tuesday, Lockett had refused to be restrained when officers
arrived to take him for X-rays. A correctional emergency response team
(Cert) was called to use force on him, and he was Tasered at 5.50am.
Three minutes later he was found to have a self-inflicted cut on his
arm. At 8.15am, the wound was determined not to be serious enough to
require sutures.
Oklahoma's timeline also goes into detail
about what happened before and during the attempted execution. At
5.22pm, Lockett was restrained on the execution table, but a suitable
vein could not be found anywhere on his body in which to insert an
intravenous line. Veins on his legs and arms were rejected before a
doctor examined his neck, and then finally his groin.
The timeline
reveals that the insertion point was covered by a sheet “to prevent
witness viewing of the groin area”. The execution began at 6.23pm with
the injection of the first of a cocktail of three drugs, but the
intravenous line – covered by the sheet – was only checked after 6.44pm,
when the blinds between the execution chamber and the viewing room were
lowered.
The report says: “The doctor checked the IV and reported the blood vein had collapsed,
and the drugs had either absorbed into tissue, leaked out or both. The
warden immediately contacted the director by phone and reported
the information to the director.”
According to the timeline,
Patton asked if enough drugs had been administered to cause death, to
which the doctor replied “no”. The director then asked if another vein
was available to complete the execution, and if so, were there enough
drugs left. The doctor answered no to both questions, the timeline
reveals.
The doctor reported a “faint heartbeat”, and at 6.56pm,
Patton called off the execution. The timeline does not detail what
happened between then and 7.06pm, when Lockett was declared dead.
At
an open meeting of the board of corrections on Thursday, Patton refused
to answer a question from the Guardian about whether any attempts were
made to revive Lockett, and walked out of the room.
Fallin was
asked later whether she believed that what happened to Lockett was
constitutional. “That will be answered by the courts and by those that
are in authority,” the governor said, adding that she did not know if
any attempts had been made to resuscitate Lockett after the execution
was called off.
Attorneys for Lockett and Warner had challenged Oklahoma's secrecy
about the source of death penalty drugs, which is permitted under a
state law enacted in 2011. The state used a cocktail of drugs in
Tuesday's procedure in dosages that were untested in American
executions. But the timeline appears to indicate that problems with the
execution could be attributed to the failure even to inject the drugs
properly.
Madeline Cohen, a lawyer for Warner, the second of the
two inmates due to have been put to death on Tuesday, agreed with
Patton's conclusion that an indefinite suspension of executions was
necessary.
“As the Oklahoma department of corrections dribbles
out piecemeal information about Clayton Lockett's botched execution,
they have revealed that Mr Lockett was killed using an invasive and
painful method – an IV line in his groin,” she said. “Placing such a
femoral IV line requires highly specialised medical training and
expertise.
“Furthermore, the timeline the department of
corrections has released strongly indicates that the femoral IV was
never properly inserted, and the drugs were injected into Mr Lockett's
flesh, rather than his veins,” she said.
Specialists expressed particular alarm
that the final minutes of the attempted execution were obscured from
public view. “It’s abysmal that they had the gall to close the curtains
at a time when transparency was essential,” said one expert familiar
with drugs used in Oklahoma’s botched execution of Lockett, who declined
to be named. “That’s when witnesses were most needed to report back
what happened to the rest of the country.”
The expert said
that it should have been possible to save Lockett’s life once the
execution had been called off and even after the drugs had been
administered. Medics could have very likely saved Lockett by deploying a
breathing tube, placing him on a ventilator, and applying tourniquets
to his arms to prevent the drugs reaching his heart, the specialist
said.
Cohen expressed concern about the failure by the timeline
released on Thursday to account for what happened in the ten minutes
between the suspension of Lockett's execution and his death. “We need so
many answers,” she said
On Wednesday, Fallin directed the
Oklahoma department of public safety to review what happened to Lockett.
Lockett's body was moved overnight to the Southwestern Institute for
Forensic Science in Dallas, which will carry out a postmortem
examination.
Lockett's attorneys expressed doubt that the
review would be independent. The commissioner of the department of
public safety, Michael Thompson, is a Fallin appointee and was in the
execution viewing room on Tuesday night. Fallin “did not assign this
duty to a neutral, third party with independent interests”, said Dean
Sanderford, an attorney for Lockett.
“Instead, she has charged
the commissioner of the department of public safety with the job. The
DPS is a state agency, and its commissioner reports to the governor. As
such, the review proposed by governor Fallin would not be conducted by a
neutral, independent entity. In order to understand exactly what went
wrong in [Tuesday’s] horrific execution, and restore any confidence in
the execution process, the death of Clayton Lockett must be investigated
by a truly independent organisation, not a state employee or agency.”
All too often games based on popular movies end up as pale imitations
and disappoint those who were expecting to recapture the essence of
their favourite film. However every once and a while a game which has a
cinematic tie delivers the goods.
The Thing is just such a game. Being based on the John Carpenter film from the early 1980s, The Thing sees you investigating some mysterious goings on at a remote Antarctic research station.
Naturally all is not well and before long you stumble across scenes
of terrible carnage and evidence that extra terrestrial life forms are a
part of the problem (there is also a manmade conspiracy too!). Now it
is up to you and your fellow US Army special operations troops to make
sense of this mess and restore order to the chaotic area.
The Thing is a suspenseful game to play for a number of
reasons. For a start you and your squad mates are all susceptible to
infestation and once infested could attack each other. So you don't
always know if the chaps who are supposed to be supporting you in the
field are friend or foe.
The knowledge that anyone could become infested, combined with the
stressful nature of the mission, also has an impact on your squad mates
and you must keep them calm by ensuring that any wounds they have are
healed and that they can protect themselves. Often giving your squad
mates a gun will calm then down. However this can backfire if they then
become infested by the parasite and turn on you, which makes for some
entertaining and paradoxical moments.
Evidence of this is sometimes pretty obvious as your fellow troopers
will sometimes suffer from uncontrollable fits of vomiting -- something
which looks pretty funny the first time you see it.
Being in an isolated area where the temperature is as cold as forty
degrees below zero means you cannot operate safely for long periods
outside and this adds to the tension. Stay outside for too long and you
will succumb to the elements. However being inside has its own obvious
attendant dangers so the game keeps you on the edge of your seat as you
try and survive in very hostile conditions.
So The Thing can be quite vexing to play as you will be
often without ammunition and unable to escape shambling mounds of mutant
flesh which is clawing at you, leaping at your throat or spitting this
gross acid stuff which looks a lot like microwaved snot (don't ask us
how we know this by the way!).
There are tape recorders which you can use to save your progress,
but these aren't always in convenient locations, so sometimes you will
palpably feel the desperation of having a few rounds of ammunition left
as you are nearly overrun. Luckily you can find a fair bit of ammunition
about the place, but again this isn't always in the most convenient
location so you have to make sure you are judicious and not too
trigger-happy.
As you have probably guessed there is a fair bit of gunplay in this
game. That said sometimes your conventional guns aren't powerful enough
to kill some of the bigger alien abominations you come across. In some
instances you'll need to use your guns to bring down the shambling
mounds of alien flesh and then, once they have been immobilised, you
will have to burn them with a flamethrower to finish them off.
Mastering the quick switch to flamethrower and then becoming good at
avoiding the spot fires you start is a really vital skill and sometimes
it is hard not too seriously burn yourself. The fairly fixed weapon
aiming system helps contribute to the problems you occasionally suffer
in this regard and while the game does let you indulge in three weapon
accuracy settings these seem to apply to everything except the
flamethrowers, which are sometimes hard to use with anything less than a
haphazard spray. Being unable to aim up or down also makes this hard,
especially when you have smaller creatures attacking you from below your
field of vision as they rip into your feet.
So the aiming interface isn't perfect, but it still manages to not get in the way of the ballistic bliss most of the time.
The Thing is for the most part an immersive and enjoyable
game. The visuals and sound are top notch and the sense of desperation
you feel when you are stuck outside and about to succumb to the elements
or being hunted by packs of the foul creatures is very real. The squad
based elements and the way you keep your men from losing their minds
also adds to the depth of the play experience.
There is only one aspect of the game which deserves much criticism
and that is the fact that the controls can sometimes feel a little
imprecise, especially during a busy fire fight. However this very minor
niggle is not enough to stop this game from receiving a glowing
recommendation. Play it at night with your PC speakers turned up loud if
you dare!