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Friday, November 1, 2013

Google, Oracle, Red Hat join HealthCare.gov effort

Employees of Google, Oracle and Red Hat have joined the U.S. government's effort to fix the ailing HeathCare.gov, officials said Thursday.

"Dozens" of workers have come aboard the project in recent days, said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. HealthCare.gov, where U.S. residents without health insurance are supposed to be able to shop for coverage, has been plagued with slow load times, time outs and other problems since its Oct. 1 launch.

[ Also on InfoWorld: How federal cronies built -- and botched -- Healthcare.gov. | For a quick, smart take on the news you'll be talking about, check out InfoWorld TechBrief -- subscribe today. ]

The site was also down overnight Wednesday and during part of last weekend. The site was up since Thursday morning and seeing significant traffic, said Julie Bataille, director of the CMS Office of Communications.

Asked exactly how many people have come aboard in recent days, Bataille would only give "dozens" as an answer to reporters during a press briefing Thursday. Experts in site reliability and scalability, including a site stability expert from Google, have come to the project, she said.

The dozens of additions, including federal workers and contractors, are supplementing the existing teams working on the site, she said.

Outsiders coming to help fix the website are being paid by contractors, Bataille said.

CMS has confidence that the team in place will be able to meet a Nov. 30 goal set by HHS officials to have the site working smoothly for the large majority of users, Bataille added. "We believe that we have the right team in place that is going to enable us to meet that timeline," she said.

HHS has so far committed about US$630 million to the HealthCare.gov project, Bataille said.

Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant's email address is grant_gross@idg.com.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/t/e-government/google-oracle-red-hat-join-healthcaregov-effort-229992
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Jerk or genius? Debate over Banksy's month of art

NEW YORK (AP) — The secretive street artist Banksy ended his self-announced monthlong residency in New York City with a final piece of graffiti, a $615,000 painting donated to charity and a debate: Is he a jerk or a genius?

Banksy, who created a new picture, video or prank every day of October somewhere in the city, spent his last day like thousands of graffiti artists before him: He tagged a building near a highway with his name in giant bubble letters. The twist was that these letters were actual bubbles: balloon-like inflatables stuck to a wall near the Long Island Expressway in Queens.

As if to underscore his dual identity as both a street punk and an art-world darling, he also donated a painting that was auctioned off Thursday night for $615,000. The original painting first sold for $50 at a Manhattan thrift shop that benefits Housing Works, an organization that fights homelessness and AIDS. Banksy added a Nazi soldier to the landscape scene and Housing Works sold it in an online auction.

Throughout his 31 days here, Banksy put pictures of his work on BanksyNY.com, with clues as to locations but nothing precise. That spawned a treasure hunt by fans who hunted the works down, shared locations via social media, then swarmed to see them.

But by the time Banksy was done, New Yorkers were divided in their opinions. Some tweeted "Go home, Banksy!" Others declared their admiration.

The turning point for many was an essay he wrote criticizing the building replacing the World Trade Center. Banksy called the new design "vanilla ... something they would build in Canada," and added, "It so clearly proclaims the terrorists won." He offered the essay to The New York Times. The paper wouldn't print it, so he posted it on his website.

"The terrorists won" comment upset many New Yorkers, including Brian Major, 51, of Brooklyn. "Enough!" Major said. "Who is this guy? Everybody's got a right to an opinion but what gives him any kind of credibility in New York? Shut up, Banksy! Go home!"

A lifelong New Yorker, Major says he understands graffiti culture, and he also appreciates fine art. But he doesn't think Banksy's art is all that good — "though I'll give him credit, he's a good marketer."

But Sean Lynch, 25, of Staten Island thinks Banksy is "one of the more captivating artists of our generation." Lynch said it was magical visiting Banksy sites around the city and hearing conversations about art that the works inspired, with "people of all different walks and cultures sharing opinions, sharing stories. ... The walls started to talk to them, in a way."

Banksy, who refuses to reveal his full identity, began his career spray-painting buildings in Bristol, England. In New York, many of his images were silhouetted figures or spray-painted messages. The art ranged from a stencil of a dog lifting his leg on a hydrant to a video of a "slaughterhouse delivery truck" filled with stuffed animals. Some works were defaced by other graffiti artists. But interest grew with each piece, and at least one Banksy street work was covered with Plexiglas to preserve it. He also sold some pieces, unadvertised, for $60 on the street.

Radhika Subramaniam, a professor at Parsons The New School for Design in Manhattan, says Banksy is part of a long tradition of graffiti artists like Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat whose work ultimately earned recognition from the art establishment. But he also fits into a contemporary trend of opening up public spaces to conversations about who owns them and what can happen there — especially in today's cleaned-up New York, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg, when asked about Banksy, called graffiti "a sign of decay and loss of control."

OK, but is Banksy any good? "There's plenty of wit in what he does, as well as some thoroughly ordinary, sometimes pleasant, sometimes banal, but sometimes sweet things," Subramaniam said. But he's also "not a naïf in the art world. After all, who would care if you or I were to set up a blog and enact a residency like this? It's only because he's able to marshal this kind of PR and marketing that ... catapults his residency to another level and elicits these polarized points of view."

In a final gesture that was simultaneously serious and self-mocking, audio commentary posted Thursday on Banksy's website called his final piece— his name in bubble letters by the road — "an homage ... to the most prevalent form of graffiti in the city that invented it for the modern era. Or it's another Banksy piece that's full of hot air."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jerk-genius-debate-over-banksys-month-art-050216837.html
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[VIDEO] UFC Primetime: Georges St-Pierre vs. Johny Hendricks

Episode 1 of the documentary serial, UFC Primetime: St-Pierre vs. Hendricks, premiered Wednesday night and took fans inside the lives and camps of both welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre and challenger Johny Hendricks as they head into their UFC 167 main event bout next month. Watch the full episode above to see what kinds of training St. Pierre is doing in Montreal and Hendricks has been doing in Dallas.

A couple things stood out to Cagewriter while watching UFC Primetime. First off, St. Pierre seems completely focused on motivated to fight Hendricks.

When you're champ as long as the Canadian has been, there's always the question of if you can stay motivated to keep doing what you've been doing. In St. Pierre's case, there's been indication that he's already thinking of retirement.

In episode 1 of Primetime, however, we see a St. Pierre who is either a really good actor or that he is truly obsessed with Hendricks. Unfortunately, we'd already seen enough commercials and "films" that he's appeared in to know the former isn't the case.

But take two examples from last night's UFC Primetime to let the point sink in. St. Pierre talks about learning recently during a media tour to promote the fight that Hendricks was planning to get to Las Vegas - the site of the bout - three weeks early in order to train in and acclimate himself to the regulation-sized Octagon.

St. Pierre lost his mind thinking that his opponent might have even the smallest advantage there and so says he purchased and and had constructed a full-sized UFC Octagon replica in the Tri-Star gym in Montreal where he trains.

Also, Primetime shows that St. Pierre and his coach Firas Zihabi have brought in Rick Story to train with the champ in preparation for Hendricks and UFC 167. Now, Rick Story is an excellent fighter but he's certainly not red-hot or appearing to be at his all-time sharpest of late.

Story has lost two out of his last three bouts and four out of his last six. However, Story is the only person to have ever beaten Hendricks in an MMA bout, back in 2010. Therein lies his true value to the Hendricks-obsessed St. Pierre.

There's lots of fun intimate, family time and training footage in episode 1 of Primetime, but the main other take away for us was simply this - Johny Hendricks may have been the most adorable little kid in America.

While learning about Hendricks' life growing up in a tough, wrestling family, we're treated to photo after photo of Hendricks being way too cute for anyone's good. As fearsome as he looks now as a grown man and knockout specialist, it is hilarious to see pictures of a chubby-cheeked and wide-smiling little Johny in Primetime.

(Lil' Johny Hendricks. Cutest. Baby. Ever.)

Follow Elias on Twitter @EliasCepeda

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/video-ufc-primetime-georges-st-pierre-vs-johny-161702593--mma.html
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Ewan McGregor to star on Broadway next year

FILE - This Sept. 10, 2013 file photo shows actor Ewan McGregor at the press conference for "August: Osage County" at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto. McGregor will make his Broadway debut next year in a revival of Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Thing.” Roundabout Theatre Company said Thursday McGregor will play the unhappily married Henry in the play under the direction of Sam Gold. Previews begin next October at the American Airlines Theatre. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — "Star Wars" and "Trainspotting" star Ewan McGregor will make his Broadway debut next year in a revival of Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing."

Roundabout Theatre Company said Thursday that McGregor will play the unhappily married Henry in the play under the direction of Sam Gold. Previews begin next October at the American Airlines Theatre.

McGregor was last seen on the stage in 2008 in London starring as Iago (ee-AY'-goh) opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor's (CHOO'-ih-tel EHJ'-ee-oh-fohrz) Othello at the Donmar Warehouse. He also starred alongside Jane Krakowski, Douglas Hodge and Jenna Russell in the original Donmar Warehouse production of "Guys and Dolls" at the Piccadilly Theatre in London.

McGregor will be seen next in John Wells' film adaptation of Tracy Letts' Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play "August: Osage County" opposite Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-10-31-Theater-Ewan%20McGregor/id-73386d82b3eb4699966d99fec39f0a97
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There's No Escaping These Pack-Hunting Soviet Assault Choppers

Sure the MI-24 Hind packs a wallop, but it's big, heavy, and cumbersome to fly. So, to penetrate enemy territory, Russia designed and built the agile and deadly Black Shark assault chopper. All it's missing is a frickin' laser.

Hauppauge teases the HD PVR Rocket, a portable game capture box for $169

Hauppauge is taking its considerable video-recording prowess mobile with the HD PVR Rocket. Its 4.3-ounce frame is smaller than the HD PVR 2's and instead of using a computer to store recorded video, it uses USB media. The company estimates that you'll fill a 16GB thumb drive with about four hours ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/ds0EB2QdNzY/
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Photoshop Contest: What Else Is Hiding in New York City's Tunnels?

You may have read about the lost cow tunnels of New York City yesterday. And if you haven't, you should! It's a great story—and the subject of this week's photo challenge.