Software News

Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux became engaged in August last year and, for some reason, everybody expected them to tie the knot as soon as possible. Naturally, when this didn’t happen, people assumed it was because they were having problems.

Nothing could be farther from the truth, the actress said in a recent interview cited by the New York Daily News.

She’s not married yet but, contrary to reports, it’s not because she and Justin are fighting like crazy or not agreeing on important aspects such as where to be married, where to live after the wedding or whether they want children or not.

The reason they’re yet to wed is simple: their schedules are too hectic right now.

“We just want to do it when it's perfect, and we're not rushed, and no one is rushing from a job or rushing to a job,” Aniston said.

“And, you know, we already feel married,” she added.

“There have been no canceled weddings. There have been no postponed weddings. There have been no arguments about where to get married. Just clearing all that up,” Aniston continued.

Just last week, reports in the blogosphere were saying that the two actors might have gotten married in secret in Charlottesville, Virginia.

At the same time, other reports claimed that they would not be married anytime soon because they had called off the wedding after intense fighting on where they should live their family life: she wanted Los Angeles, he New York.

In all fairness, neither Jennifer nor Justin ever announced a wedding date, so all the assumptions that it’s to take place on X or Y date were pure speculation from the start.

Considering they usually go out of their way to keep their life out of the pages of the tabs, expect to find out about the nuptials after the special day.


Via: Jennifer Aniston Explains Why Shes Not Married Yet to Justin Theroux

The team at PopCap Games and publisher Electronic Arts are delivering a new video developer diary for their Plants vs Zombies 2: It’s About Time tower defense game, designed to give players an insight into how the game was created.

The developer says, "meet some of the team and find out all about Crazy Dave, his taco, Penny and what's coming new to PvZ 2!"

PopCap explains how it developed the ideas that will make the sequel as much fun as the original experience.

At the moment It's About Time is soft launched in New Zeeland and in Australia and the game is expected to arrive in the rest of the world before summer is over.

Plants vs. Zombies will also be used as a setting for the Garden Warfare cooperative shooter.


Via: Plants vs Zombies 2: Its About Time Gets New Behind the Brainz Video Diary

The following tutorial will teach Ubuntu 12.10 and Ubuntu 13.04 users how to install the recently released LibreOffice 4.1 open source office suite on their operating system(s), replacing the old 4.0.x version.

Dubbed "a landmark for interoperability" by The Document Foundation, LibreOffice 4.1 was officially released on July 25 and it brought a large number of improvements in the area of document compatibility, especially when importing or exporting Microsoft OOXML filters, as well as legacy Microsoft Office and RTF file filters.

The "LibreOffice Packaging" team made a great job releasing the LibreOffice 4.1 packages on their PPA repository for Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) and Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) so fast. However, packages for the "still in development" Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) are also available!

Step 1 - Add the LibreOffice 4.1 repository

If you use one of the supported Ubuntu operating system (read above for details), open a terminal by typing "Terminal" in the Unity Dash (without quotes)...


...and copy/paste the following command in the terminal window, once it is opened:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa

Hit the Enter key after you’ve pasted the above command, type your password when asked and hit the Enter key.

Hit Enter again when asked...


Don't close the terminal window! Proceed to the next step.

Step 2 - Install LibreOffice 4.1 on Ubuntu

Now copy and paste the following command in the terminal window:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y dist-upgrade

Wait for the installation to finish and close the terminal window. That's it! Your LibreOffice office suite has been upgraded to version 4.1. In time, it will automatically upgrade to newer releases, as they are published by The Document Foundation, so make sure you update your system regularly.


If you have problems with the tutorial, do not hesitate to comment below!

Via: How to Install LibreOffice 4.1 on Ubuntu 12.10 and 13.04

This week, the review department of Softpedia Games delivers long-form evaluations for: Civilization V – Brave New World, an expansion that redefines the turn-based strategy experience from Firaxis, Shadowrun Returns, the Harebrained Schemes title that brings back the classic universe, and The Raven – Legacy of a Master Thief.

At the same time, we have a Gamer Diary that explains more about the core ideas of Brave New World, while chronicling my world domination attempt playing as Brazil.

As always, there are two Weekend Reading features to explore: one about time and the Steam Summer sale and another about Shadowun Returns and saved games.

Our sole Quick Look talks about Race to Mars and we have an exclusive interview with the team working on Satellite Reign.

Our EndWeekGame piece talks about our free time and we also have a selection of the most important news of the week.

On Monday, Sony revealed that the PlayStation 4 could record fifteen minutes of gameplay, while Blizzard offered people at Comic-Con the first look at the World of Warcraft movie.

On Tuesday, an analyst talked about potential launch shortages for the Xbox One and the PS4 and Valve talked about its future plans for Steam and Greenlight.

On Wednesday, Treyarch talked about death threats and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 updates and Microsoft revealed how the Xbox One could be used as a game development platform.

On Thursday, Microsoft revealed that the Xbox One could be used as a game development platform and Sony confirmed the existence of a Gran Turismo movie.

On Friday, Activision revealed that World of Warcraft subscription numbers dropped to 7.7 million, while The Creative Assembly delivered a new diary for Total War: Rome II featuring Carthage.

On Saturday, Sony talked about the RAM allocation for the PS4 and the LeBron James approved NBA 2K14 soundtrack was revealed.

Via: A Gamers Week: July 28

Human activities are releasing tons of carbon dioxide into our planet's atmosphere. Scientists are hoping to rid the world of some of it by burying it deep underground.

More precisely, they wish to inject it in basalt. They hope that basalt formations can trap this gas, and that, in time, the CO2 will react with calcium and magnesium to form limestone.

The mineralization of this compound would curb the risk that the CO2 could leak out of the ground and work its way back in the atmosphere.

As geochemist Juerg Matter puts it, “You reduce the risk of leakage, and you can pretty much walk away from your storage reservoirs”.

Nature reports that, since about a week and a half ago, scientists at the US Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have been pumping pure carbon dioxide in the ground close to the town of Wallula in Washington, US.

The area they have chosen for this project is the Columbia River Basalt formation, which apparently contains numerous pores.

According to the same source, the researchers working on this project are confident that, by early August at the latest, these pores will have become home to about 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

Data collected while carrying out laboratory tests and computer simulations suggests that, in about 10 -15 years' time, roughly 20% injected in the Columbia River Basalt formation will be mineralized.

“The mineralization reaction is most likely faster than what we in the community had thought,” Juerg Matter argues.

To prevent any leakages that might occur before the CO2 starts reacting with the calcium and the magnesium, the injection well will be capped by solid rock.

Shortly after they are done burying the carbon dioxide in this porous formation, scientists will begin to closely monitor the injection well.

They will collect water and soil samples, and try to determine what chemical reactions are taking place in the underground, and whether or not the project has turned out to be a success.

Via: Scientists Try to Rid the World of CO2 by Injecting It in Basalt

The Obama administration used to be in favor of protecting whistleblowers, but lately it seems that things have changed.

Back after Obama’s election in 2008, his team added a promise to protect whistleblowers to the Change.gov site, but now that entire content has been wiped out.

As the Sunlight Foundation noticed, the page has been pointing to the White House homepage for a while, but access to a variety of old material and agendas was still allowed.

“Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government,” the promise said, calling whistleblowing an act of courage and patriotism.

Now, that Edward Snowden has let the world know that the NSA is spying on everyone, the Obama administration seems to have changed its tune and is now hunting him down, putting pressure on nations that have offered him help and trying to influence the decision of Russian authorities on his asylum request.


Via: Obama Once Promissed to Protect Whistleblowers, Now Hunts Snowden

There’s no shame in admitting you’re a workaholic (who isn't these days?), and admittance is usually the first step towards curing this so-called condition.

Which is why if you think you spend way too much time in front of the computer, you might want to consider using this free utility called Awareness, created by the people at Futureproof LLC.

Ask any physician and they’ll tell you it’s recommended to step away from the computer screen once every other hour or so. While everyone has their own work pace, the general consensus is that you should take 5 minutes off every other hour.

And if you can’t seem to remember this on your own, you can use Awareness, which plays a relaxing Tibetan singing bowl sound at pre-determined intervals, letting you know it’s time to go have a snack, or take a sip of water.

Download Awareness for Mac OS X (Free)

Via: Awareness Is a Free Utility for Mac Workaholics