August 31, 2016 – Peter's Quasi-Daily Blah-g

August 31, 2016

How to Watch the Ring-of-Fire Solar EclipseÂ

We will never, ever tell you to stare at the sun. Fortunately, we have a far better way for you to get a glimpse of the upcoming ring-of-fire solar eclipse.

Netflix Panders to Nostalgic Millennials With a New Bill Nye Science Show

Bill Nye has a new science showâ€”but it wonâ€™t be on TV. Itâ€™s coming to Netflix this Spring.

Google’s OnHub routers can now control Phillips Hue lighting

It’s been just about a year since Google launched OnHub, a series of routers designed to make setting up and dealing with WiFi a lot easier. Our experience with OnHub found that it did exactly that, and Google has added a handful of features over the last year to make its routers even more unique. Today, Google’s announcing its latest OnHub integration: support for the Phillips Hue series of smart LED lighting.

Google says its the first connected home device that connects with OnHub, and it works as follows: once you have your Hue lights connected to your OnHub’s WiFi network and go through a basic setup process, any other device that’s connected to the OnHub can control the lights without needing to use the Hue app. You just type "on.here" into any web browser and you’ll see the option to tweak out the Hue lights to your heart’s content. On.here already worked as a portal to see what devices were connected to your OnHub’s guest network; this is just the latest feature.

The one downside to the OnHub routers is that they aren’t cheap, but Google’s giving potential buyers some cash back right now — from now until September 30th, you can get $20 off either the TP-Link or Asus OnHub. The deal is available on both Google’s own store as well as Amazon. Given Google’s commitment to its routers over the last year, there’s a good chance they’ll continue to gain features in the coming months. They might not always be game-changers, but there’s a good chance they’ll be things other router manufacturers aren’t doing.

Source: Google

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August 31, 2016

Google Launches In Apps Search on Android to Let You Search Within Everything

Late last night, Google unwrapped a new feature for the Google App on Android that lets you search within apps installed on your phone. The new feature is called (fittingly) In Apps and will show up as a new â€œIn Appsâ€ tab within Search.Â

Whatâ€™s the point of specifying a search to within apps? For one, this allows you to search contacts and messages on your phone from within a single interface, that being the Google App. Google gives an example of you and a friend talking about sushi last week, so a quick search from the In Apps tab for â€œsushiâ€ could help you find that conversation. You could also just search that friendâ€™s name and find conversations you have had with them throughout multiple apps, like Gmail, Facebook Messenger, SMS, etc. Or maybe you want to pull up a running list for the grocery store â€“ you could search for â€œgroceriesâ€ and get to it. All of this happens on your phone, by the way, so you can perform these searches even without a data connection.

That make sense?

As of today, Google says that In Apps works with Gmail, Spotify, and YouTube, but that they will continue to add support for it â€œin the coming months.â€ The next wave of apps should include Facebook Messenger, LinkedIn, Evernote, Glide, Todoist, and Google Keep.

In related news, Google continues to pump up the LG V20 for LG by announcing that their next phone will be the first with a dedicated shortcut to the In Apps mode on both the home screen and second screen of the device (second screen confirmed!). The V20 integration also means you will be able to search In Apps for pre-installed LG apps as well, alongside those supported right away by Google.

Below, you can see how In Apps works on a Nexus 5 and the V20.

Via: Inside Search

Dropbox hackers stole e-mail addresses, hashed passwords from 68M accounts

Dropbox hurriedly warned its users last week to change their passwords if their accounts dated back prior to mid-2012. We now know why: the cloud-based storage service suffered a data breach that’s said to have affected more than 68 million accounts compromised during a hack that took place roughly four years ago.

The company had previously admitted that it was hit by a hack attack, but it’s only now that the scale of the operation has seemingly come to light.

Tech site Motherboard reportedâ€”citing "sources in the database trading community"â€”that it had obtainedÂ four files, totalling 5GB in size, which apparently contained e-mail addresses and hashed passwords for 68,680,741 Dropbox users.

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August 31, 2016

Minnesota Cracks Down On Neonic Pesticides, Promising Aid To Bees

Minnesota’s governor has ordered new restrictions on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, which have been blamed for killing bees. Many details of the plan, however, remain to be worked out.

Markus Trienke/Flickr

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Minnesota’s governor has ordered new restrictions on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, which have been blamed for killing bees. Many details of the plan, however, remain to be worked out.

Markus Trienke/Flickr

It’s been four years since scientists first started accusing a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids, or neonics for short, of killing bees. These pesticides are used as seed coatings on most corn and soybean seeds.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is taking a new look at neonics, but it hasn’t imposed any new restrictions on the pesticides.

Now Minnesota is stepping ahead on its own. Last Friday, Gov. Mark Dayton ordered a variety of steps to help pollinators, including bees. Several of those steps involve restrictions on neonics.

If Minnesotans want to spray neonics on plants, for instance, they now need to go through an additional step, verifying that the pesticides are needed. The state’s Department of Agriculture also will increase inspections and enforcement efforts to make sure that any pesticides that are highly toxic to bees â€” including neonics â€” are being used according to regulations.

Those measures, however, don’t affect seed coatings, which are the most common way that neonics are used. But on the same day that Dayton announced his executive order, the Department of Agriculture proposed a new “Treated Seed Program” to fill that gap.

Setting up such a program will require approval from the state legislature. If it clears that hurdle, the program would have the authority to regulate whether seeds can be treated, and how such treated seeds can be used. Minnesota, for instance, could create regulations on neonics that mirror those currently going into effect in Ontario, Canada.

That Ontario law, which will be phased in over the next two years, has infuriated grain farmers there. It is intended to cut the use of neonicotinoid seed coatings by 80 percent. The first of its provisions went into effect this year.

The Ontario law requires farmers to prove that they really need the seed coatings in order to protect the crop. They can do this by hiring pest experts to monitor their fields, placing bait in the soil to show that insect pests, such as wireworms and grubs, are in fact present.

According to some scientists, however, such tests often aren’t very reliable unless you dig holes and place traps all over the field. “Nobody has really been able to come up with a cost-effective way to determine populations of wireworms in a field,” says Robert Vernon, a research scientist at the Agassiz Research and Development Centre, which is funded by the Canadian government.

According to Stephen Denys, a farmer and seed company executive in Chatham, Ontario, most Ontario farmers have been unwilling to go without insecticidal seed treatments. So far, he says, farmers have either continued to use neonics or they have switched to an alternative insecticide, cyantraniliprole, which is not covered by the new law.

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August 31, 2016