You can now 'handwrite' your Google searches

2 hrs.

Rosa Golijan

Google has a knack for coming up with features that you never even realized you need until they exist.

Google Handwrite is one of those features.

As Google software engineer Rui Ueyama explains on the official Google blog,?Handwrite is simply?another way to conduct Web searches from your smartphone or tablet.?It means that you can now?write out search terms with your finger instead of tapping them out the good old-fashioned way. (You can still also search using your voice or an image, of course.)

It sounds like a silly feature at first, but?you'll likely fall in love with it after a couple of tries. I most certainly did.

As someone with handwriting so atrocious that I should be a medical professional, I expected that Handwrite would fail to recognize any query I tried. But instead, it flawlessly transcribed three out of every five words, no matter how long or bizarre they were. I tried to trip the feature up by mixing?cursive and block letters, but no dice?? Handwrite still did pretty well. It even worked like a charm when I wrote with my eyes closed and one of my hands?metaphorically?tied behind my back.

I have a hunch that once one gets used to writing things out on a mobile device's screen, it could become a faster to search than good ol' typing.

To try Handwrite yourself, you'll need?an Apple device running iOS 5 or higher, an Android smartphone running Android 2.3 or higher, or an Android tablet running Android 4.0 or higher. If you've got one of those around, open your browser, go to the Google search page and look for the "Settings" button. There you can enable Handwrite.

Once you've done that, you can just tap the new?Handwrite icon any?time you want to scrawl out?your search query. And don't worry, you can still continue using auto-complete in conjunction with Handwrite. Here's how the two work together:

Want more tech news?or interesting?links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts,?or circling her?on?Google+.

Source: http://www.gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/technology/gadgetbox/you-can-now-handwrite-your-google-searches-913606

woody guthrie benson henderson 2012 dunk contest edgar vs henderson berkshire hathaway ufc 144 james jones

Syrian rebels say gain ground as grip of army weakens

REYHANLI, Turkey (Reuters) - Since he joined a poorly armed, ragtag rebel group, Syrian fighter Radwan al-Saaour has been mostly on the run, hiding in the woods of Idlib province near Turkey as loyalist forces overran town after town killing people at will.

But his fortunes, and those of the armed resistance movement against President Bashar al-Assad's rule, have changed dramatically in the last few weeks. Last month, Saaour celebrated repelling an army attack on the town of Kafr Karmin by setting a Russian-made army tank on fire.

"We took their anti-aircraft guns, the booty and left a dozen of their men dead," said Saaour, 26, a former laborer who once earned a living in the port of Latakia.

Sixteen months after the uprising against Assad began, the battle between lightly armed rebels and the awesome firepower of the Syrian military - one of the largest standing armies in the Middle East - has become a war of attrition as defections weaken Assad's forces and the rebels' combat skills improve.

Saaour's successes have been matched by broader rebel gains across the country in the last two weeks, as fighters seized several border posts and took the fight against Assad to the capital, Damascus, and to Aleppo, Syria's biggest city.

It hasn't all gone the rebels' way though - government troops have since regained control over most of Damascus and were poised on Friday to launch a counter-attack in Aleppo after bringing in reinforcements from nearby provinces.

But while intense army shelling in the last few weeks has forced hundreds of Saaour's comrades to retreat from towns within Idlib province and rural areas north of Aleppo, most of the countryside in northwest Syria is now outside the control of the overstretched military.

"We are now in control of most of the countryside around Idlib and the countryside north of Aleppo," Saaour, one of hundreds of fighters who go back and forth across the border, told Reuters in a flat in the Turkish border city of Reyhanli.

Almost 70 percent of the large countryside towns in northwestern Syria that border Turkey - towns such as Maarat al-Nuaman, Sarmada, Maarat Nisreen, Kafar Takharim, Teftanaz and Binish - are in rebel hands, several Free Army commanders say.

In northern and western rural areas near Aleppo, the country's largest city and commercial hub, the larger towns of Atareb, Darat Azeh, Anadan, Tel Rifat and scores of smaller villages have also fallen under rebel control.

That has left only the southern and eastern rural outskirts of the city of Aleppo still under the control of Assad's forces.

"If it had not been for the shelling he would have no control at all over the countryside. The more losses on the ground, the more defections that weaken the army," said Abu Omar, a young fighter from Idlib.

ARMY ON BACKFOOT

Only Harem, a pro-Assad Sunni Muslim border town, and the Shi'ite Muslim villages of Foua and Kfrya, 25 km (15 miles) from the border with Turkey, as well as parts of Jisr Shughur, now remain as isolated pro-army territory in the predominantly Sunni-populated Idlib province that borders Turkey, rebels say.

Subjected to more frequent attacks and roadside bombs, Assad's battalions in the northwest have been increasingly confined to several large bases, including the main Mastuma army base, 4 km (2 miles) south of Idlib city.

The headquarters of the feared 46th battalion of the Republican Guard south of the restive town of Atareb, 15 km (10 miles) west of the Turkish border post of Reyhanli, has been the source of some of the heaviest artillery barrages, rebels say.

In the last two months, the army has even deserted checkpoints that used to seal off one county town from another after suffering losses from ambushes and landmines targeting army convoys on supply routes to Aleppo, Idlib and Homs.

One sophisticated operation last month saw the rebels briefly capture the strategic air base of Ghanto near the restive town of Rastan where they destroyed surface-to-air missiles.

Around the same time, a daring raid on the Jebel Sheikh Barakat mountain, almost 20 km (12 miles) northeast of Aleppo, saw rebels overrun a radar station, loot its contents, and kill its defenders. Last week, rebels also overran the main Bab al-Hawa crossing with Turkey, and two other border posts.

"The state's authority has almost disappeared on the main international highway, all the way from Turkey to Homs," said one Syrian business traveler who entered the crossing from Aleppo and gave his name as Barakat.

In the town of Anadan, 20 km (12 miles) north of Aleppo, fighters say they return at night to engage the army in hit-and-run attacks on checkpoints and nearby security compounds, even after the army forced them to retreat to nearby mountains.

"They don't have control during the night and even during the day they cannot stay too long," said Ibrahim Maatouk, 35, a local rebel commander, brought by rebels to a Turkish ambulance at the border and rushed to surgery for bullet wounds in the chest and left leg.

"They are shelling rebel-held countryside towns randomly as far as 30 km (20 miles) away from their bases. Their aim is to terrify locals and make people hate us and turn them against us but the effect is the opposite. The more they bombard us the more people get closer together and hate them," he added.

BOLDER ATTACKS

Young fighters, many suffering shrapnel wounds and broken limbs, say months of gun battles have honed their combat skills.

"We did not have experience to lay explosives, or any coherent leadership ... but this is now changing," said Khaldoun al-Omar who arrived from Sarmada, 5 km (3 miles) from the Turkish border.

"The battles are looking more like warfare between two armies, even though they far outgun us," he added.

Higher ranking officers who joined the rebels in June with rocket-propelled launchers looted from army depots in the village of Khan Sobol and Jabal al-Zawya helped bring much needed expertise to the poorly equipped force.

"Two months ago we would not be able to confront a tank. Now, we are able to and the captured ones have been hidden in the mountains for when the time comes to use them," said Omar, who underwent six hours of surgery in Turkey for a leg wound.

Omar said hundreds of youths, many of whom already had military training as conscripts, were now getting more rigorous training in woodland areas along the long porous border in makeshift camps.

Young rebels were now also using more sophisticated improvised explosive devices against armored vehicles that the Syrian army has used in battle against them.

Syrian official media have shown munitions they say have been confiscated from "armed terrorists", in displays which officials say are further proof that foreign financed weapons are getting into the hands of rebels.

Although they are becoming bolder and more effective across large swathes of the countryside, fighters say a lack of anti-tank weapons, bullets and rocket-propelled grenades puts them at a disadvantage when attacking heavily fortified army bases.

Several months ago, rebels retreated from the city of Idlib, where attacks against the army by youths shouldering AK-47 rifles did little damage and resulted in massive tank and artillery retaliation, rebels say.

"We ran out of ammunition and we had to pull back, even though we could have held them back for weeks if we had had more," said Abdul Rahman al-Sheikh, a brigade commander now operating in the plantations near Taftanaz, a restive town in Idlib province.

The army's use of sophisticated transceivers in helicopters to track rebel communications has also helped pinpoint many rebel hideouts for aerial bombardment, said Anas Haj Hassan, a rebel fighter.

"They are getting the location from mobiles and walkie talkies we use to communicate to hit the building we are taking cover in," said Hassan, who only survived an attack that killed five of his group by leaving the location half an hour before.

A young wounded fighter, who goes by the name of Abu Abdullah, 27, who had just arrived from the town of Saraqib, said lack of sufficient anti-tank weapons and RPGs was hindering further gains.

"Our weapons are still weak, we need much more, at least RPGs and anti-tank missiles that we are now mostly using. The Russian AK-47 no longer has a role in the fiercest battles we are now waging against Assad's forces," said Abu Abdullah, lying in a Turkish hospital bed a few kilometers away from the battleground inside Syria.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-rebels-gain-ground-grip-army-weakens-140300797.html

2012 golden globe nominations houston texans houston texans texans lana del rey snl enemy of the state golden globe nominees

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee Knows A Useful Tragedy When He Sees One (Theagitator)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/238351448?client_source=feed&format=rss

comedian patrice o neal occupy philadelphia occupy philadelphia conrad murray conrad murray jack del rio jack del rio

Having A New Website Built Can Really Help To Promote Your ...

New start-ups should consider the benefits of having their own website.

If you have just set up your business, if you are looking the ways to provide your company more audience and get people to get interested in the products you sell, why not get a website designed.
By logging onto internet and searching for an item, you will come across websites, some designed in bad ways and some designed in great ways that will attract you buy from that business.

Question is, if you have a business do you need a website to show of your product? The answer is YES you do, because people are using internet more and more now, as the time is going by, everything is turning digital and more and more people will start using internet to shop around and purchase online.

If you want to succeed in your line of business you will want a great website, which will not only get the people to look at it but also get them interested in buying your product. Now a day most businesses that sell online would have an ecommerce website because there, this means that the customer can buy online and pay online. Web is a worldwide network and people all over the world can see your product and if you can deliver your product around the world the best way to do this is to have ecommerce set up on your website.
If you have set up your business search for a web designer that will develop a nice website for you, make it catchy that will attract people to it. There are thousands of web developers offering this for businesses and you can search to find the right one for your business.

Always ask the web developer he has any websites of his own clients so you can browse through to see if they are well designed.

If you are happy with the developer, have them develop the website for you, but in the meantime, register your website name as your domain name so it exists online.

When everything has been done and the developer has finished the website, your next step is to optimise your website in the right way that you will be recognised for the products you sell, so anybody searching for the product will find your website showing up first. This will drive the customer to enter the website and buy from you.

Think of your business and what the website can do for you.

Claire Warrol shares her interest on the benefits of haing your own website on behalf of W1 Design t/a one productions

Source: http://thesuccess4life.com/website-built-promote-products/

apple juice occupy la miranda kerr adriana lima victoria secret angels fox 4 fox 4

Madonna Defends Controversial Nazi Tour Imagery

Queen of Pop says her use of swastikas is a commentary on 'growing intolerance' around the world.
By Jocelyn Vena

Madonna performs on her MDNA tour
Photo: Dave J. Hogan/ Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1690571/madonna-nazi-tour-imagery.jhtml

don t trust the b in apartment 23 world financial center shabazz muhammad angela corey zimmerman charged bonobos charles manson

Romney goes to Europe, causes international stir

LONDON (AP) ? Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney caused a stir in Britain on Thursday by questioning whether the country is prepared to pull off the Olympic Games without a hitch and scheduling a fundraiser with the former leader of a troubled bank.

On the first full day of his trip abroad, the former Massachusetts governor visited British political leaders as part of a larger effort to show he has what it takes to represent the U.S. on the world stage. But instead of highlighting ties with the America's staunchest ally, Romney may have embarrassed the Brits instead.

Romney launched a three-nation tour this week designed to bolster his foreign policy credentials and highlight his personal Olympic experience. Romney led the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, and used the games to launch his political career.

But the trip got off to a shaky start.

Romney openly doubted whether Britain could handle the games, saying it was unclear whether issues that have dogged the final preparations could be overcome.

"It's hard to know just how well it will turn out," Romney told NBC News in an interview on Wednesday, two days before the opening ceremonies.

Romney later met with Prime Minister David Cameron, and they discussed the Olympic Games in addition to alliances in Afghanistan and Syria.

"I expect the games to be highly successful," Romney declared after the meeting.

Earlier Thursday, Romney and Cameron seemed to address each other through the media. After Romney suggested it's impossible for any Olympic Games to go off without a hitch, Cameron said Romney and others will "see beyond doubt that Britain can deliver."

At the same time, Romney faced scrutiny for a London fundraiser Thursday night that's expected to attract employees of Barclays, which has been in the spotlight after becoming the first bank to admit its employees were involved in manipulating a key market index.

Last month, U.S. and British agencies fined Barclays a total of $453 million. In the wake of that shock, chief executive Bob Diamond resigned. Diamond had been scheduled to attend the fundraiser at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in the tony Knightsbridge district, but has pulled out. He already had sent Romney a check for $2,500.

Romney sought to steer the conversation away from the controversies.

"The world is a tumultuous and dangerous place," Romney said Thursday. "And certainly in many of the regions around the world we have great interests in having a common effort in seeing greater peace and prosperity."

As he met with British leaders past and present, the Republican also praised "the unique relationship that exists between our nations, our commitment to common values, our commitment to peace in the world and a desire to see a stronger and growing economy."

Romney, whose decades in private business gave him ample exposure to international affairs, is a former one-term governor untested on the world's political stage. He hopes to convince voters back home that he is no novice on foreign affairs and that they should feel confident electing him as president in a complex world and with the U.S. facing a myriad of security threats.

During the public portion of his meeting with Cameron, Romney weighed in again after his comment about the Olympics drew attention across Britain. "It is impossible for absolutely no mistakes to occur," he said. "Of course there will be errors from time to time, but those are all overshadowed by the extraordinary demonstrations of courage, character and determination by the athletes."

Meeting with British officials is typically one of the first priorities of any new president, and establishing those relationships beforehand can help smooth any transition. It's not unusual for American presidential candidates to meet with British leaders during the campaign; Obama did so when he took a trip abroad as the likely Democratic nominee in 2008.

Romney's weeklong trip also will take him to Israel and Poland.

On Thursday, Romney also met with former Prime Minister Tony Blair; Ed Miliband, the current leader of the Labour Party ? the opposition to Cameron's Conservative Party; and Foreign Secretary William Hague. The candidate also met with Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, Britain's top financial official.

On Friday, Romney is scheduled to attend the opening ceremonies of the London Games.

This wasn't Romney's first meeting with Cameron; the two talked when Romney visited London in 2011. Cameron visited the U.S. earlier this year to meet with Obama and attended a White House state dinner, but he did not meet with Romney.

The meetings come a day after the Daily Telegraph published a story quoting an unidentified Romney campaign adviser saying the Republican believes the U.S. relationship with Britain is special because of shared "Anglo-Saxon heritage" that the adviser said the White House doesn't appreciate.

Romney, however, quickly distanced himself from any such view.

"I don't agree with whoever that adviser might be," Romney told NBC News, "but do agree that we have a very common bond between ourselves and Great Britain."

Nonetheless, Vice President Joe Biden and top Obama aides criticized Romney. "The comments reported this morning are a disturbing start to a trip designed to demonstrate Gov. Romney's readiness to represent the United States on the world's stage," Biden said.

Accompanying Romney to some of his meetings Thursday were former Missouri Sen. Jim Talent, an adviser, and Kerry Healey, who served as lieutenant governor when Romney was governor of Massachusetts. Three of Romney's sons ? Tagg, Josh and Craig ? also have joined him in London.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/romney-goes-europe-causes-international-stir-143822733.html

obama budget woolly mammoth belize resorts nikki minaj grammy performance shel silverstein niki minaj grammy performance grammys 2012

Real Life Biggest Loser: This Is My Way of Life Now - FU Diet

Welcome to the Real Life Biggest Loser series, where I interview real people who lose weight and get healthy using good old-fashioned blood, sweat and tears.? At 5?3? and 230 pounds, Cherie had the audacity to believe that she could RUN.? How did she start? By running for 10 seconds at a time.? That was 2 years ago, now she?s running 20 miles a week.? What did that audacity cost her?? About 85 pounds and counting?

?

Name: ?Cherie Steffen

Age: 34

Occupation: Certified Fitness Trainer

All time high weight: 230 pounds

Current weight and height: 145 pounds, 5?3?

Total weight loss: 85 pounds

How did you gain the weight??Eating too much and being sedentary packed on the majority of the pounds, but some personal life changes added to it in a short time. My mother was diagnosed with cancer in March 2009 and she died soon after on June 8, 2009. I was totally a Mommy?s Girl, so I was DEVASTATED. Two weeks after she passed away, I herniated my lumbar disc and couldn?t move for some time. I was very limited in movement for about two months. During that time, Whole Foods Market fired me because they had no light duty for me and I couldn?t do anything else there. So the mom, the back, and the job sent me into a depressed eating frenzy.

When did you begin your weight loss journey??January 2010

How long have you kept the weight off? Since I began

What motivated you to lose weight?? Did you have an A-HA moment?? I went back to school for a second degree in January 2010. I needed to take a different career path and needed a fresh start. One of my teachers called me Precious {the fat Black girl from the movie of the same name} in front of a bunch of students. Instead of getting angry, I vowed to use those hurtful, embarrassing comments as motivation to lose the weight so no one would ever, ever call me that again. I always knew I needed to lose it?had even promised my mother on her deathbed that I would?but that one name-calling incident sparked a fire in me.

To what extent had your weight affected your physical health? I was very sluggish?easily became out of breath. It was difficult to even bend over to paint my toenails! Any type of physical movement was just that much harder with the extra weight on my frame.

How did you lose the weight?? Tell us about your diet and exercise regimen.?First I began walking. I started in small increments. At first, all I could do was run for 10 SECONDS!! But I had to start somewhere, so that was it. I did little intervals: Run 10 secs, walk 50 seconds and I?d repeat that for 30 mins. Then the next week, I?d run 20 secs, walk 40 secs?the next week, run 30secs, walk 30 secs?and so forth until I COULD run for a whole minute. Believe me when I say I really had to take baby steps! Once I could do a full minute, I repeated that same system, but in 10 minute increments. Run 1 min, walk 9. Run 2 mins, walk 8. Run 3 mins, walk 7. Eventually, I got to the point where I could run a full mile without stopping, and then after a while, my endurance built up to where I am now which is running for about 6 miles or so without needing a walk break. It was definitely something I had to train myself to do. I?m not saying everyone has to take baby steps like this, but it certainly helped me get used to running. I used to hate it and now I love it.?The hardcore running started in April 2011 because I was training to go into the police academy. I ran too far, too fast, too hard, didn?t listen to my body and got a stress fracture in my right tibia in May 2011. I was not able to try out for the academy, couldn?t run for five months and decided to study personal training while I was benched! The rest is history and I?m not a cop but I can run and the weight kept coming off. ?Ha!?My diet is to eat clean about 90% of time. If it?s processed or filled with a lot of artificial stuff, I do my best to avoid it.

Who was the most influential person/people to you during the process of losing weight? I suppose it was the name-calling teacher.

Have you ever lost weight and then gained it back?? If so, how was this time different? I had been on a cycle of losing again since grade school. This time was different because I was so very hurt and embarrassed. No one had ever called me out like that.

It?s easy to let your diet drift or slowly stop exercising. What do you find to be the key to STICKING TO IT? I don?t ever want to look like my ?before? picture or have someone liken me to Precious. That?s enough motivation right there.

Just starting off, losing weight is hard.? Tell us, did it get easier or harder for you over time? Definitely easier?once the habits formed and I saw weight coming off my body, this just became my way of life.

What is the hardest part for you now? There really isn?t a hard part now. I did most of the uphill, hard work already! Again, it?s just my way of life now and it?s just what I do. I don?t always HAVE time to work out; I MAKE time.

If you could tell your former self anything, knowing what you know now, what would you say? Keep that beautiful turquoise sweater Mommy gave you right before she passed away. You?ll fit it in about two years. I know you don?t believe me, but I promise. Really.

Do you worry about gaining weight back?? How do you prevent yourself from gaining it back??No I don?t. Again, I look at my ?before? picture often. Works like a charm.

Can you tell us how your participation in social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs (reading them and writing your own) has impacted your weight loss journey? It?s helped tremendously. I could never have dreamed of the support from people that I?ve never even met. They?re amazing!

What is different (if anything) about your life (and/or health) now that you have lost the weight? My self esteem has improved. I?m more self confident. I love shopping now. I don?t worry if someone has a camera and wants to take pictures of me. I?m still me, but the best version I could ever have imagined. I?ve become an inspiration to people and it humbles me every time someone tells me so. Haha, in fact, it usually makes me cry. So I?m a lot more emotional now too!

If we want to follow you, where do we find you? @cherielianne on Twitter,?http://www.facebook.com/cherierunsthisblog on my FB blog page, http://www.cherierunsthis.com is my blog, @cherierunsthis on Instagram,?http://pinterest.com/cherielianne/ on Pinterest,?http://www.youtube.com/user/ztagrrl on YouTube

Cherie and her unstoppable audacity live in Mebane, North Carolina with her husband, Mark.

Share on Facebook

Source: http://www.fudiet.com/2012/07/real-life-biggest-loser-this-is-my-way-of-life-now/

second degree murders bobby petrino brian dunn vin scully petrino fired george zimmerman charged tony romo