U.S. Census Bureau Will Finally Count Married Gay Couples As Families

The U.S. Census Bureau will be counting same-sex married couples as families for the first time. It's pretty incredible to think that it's taken this long, right??

The Washington Post reports:

The Census Bureau, which struggles to keep up with the rapid changes in American life, is about to start categorizing same-sex married couples as families.

The 2013 American Community Survey results, which will be reported in September, will mark the first time the census integrates an estimated 180,000 same-sex married couples with statistics concerning the nation’s 56 million families. Until now, they had been categorized as unmarried partners, even when couples reported themselves as spouses.

Because of the large disparity between the number of gay and straight married households, combining the two is not expected to have a significant effect on the statistics that scholars and planners use to analyze how families are changing. Its significance is largely symbolic of the growing acceptance of gays in American society.

Symbolic or not, it's important that gay families be counted and acknowledged by the U.S. government. Visibility is key so this is definitely a positive step forward.

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Gisele Bündchen goes for some ‪#‎Balmain‬ custom-made essentials for Lui Magazine June 2014.

Chrome For Windows Will Now Only Install Extensions From Google’s Web Store

This has been a long time coming, but starting today, Chrome users on Windows will only be able to install extensions from Google’s own Chrome Web Store. Google argues that this is meant to keep malicious extensions — which are often installed from third-party sites — in check.

Users who have already installed extensions from third-party sites may find that they have been disabled and cannot be re-enabled or re-installed. The only way to get them back up and running is by installing them through the Chrome Web Store (assuming the developer has made them available there).

Google first announced its plans for this move last November. At the time, it told developers who were hosting their extensions themselves to migrate to the Web Store as soon as possible. At that time, the company said that it would start enforcing this policy at the beginning of this month. But some developers weren’t quite ready yet, so the companydecided to delay these changes until today.

As a result, chances are that the impact of today’s announcement will be relatively limited and that you won’t notice anything unusual. If some of your extensions stop working, though, you know why.

Developers will continue to be able to install extensions locally and businesses can also enable local installs through their Enterprise policies. In addition, users on the developer channel will also be unaffected by today’s changes.

Google X Built A Fully Self-Driving Car From Scratch, Sans Steering Wheel And Pedals

Google’s experimental Google X division has been working on self-driving cars for a while, but it’s created the prototype for a brand new version that looks nothing like the retrofitted version.

“We took a look from the ground up of what a self-driving car would look like,” Brin said at the CODE Conference tonight, after showing a demo video.

What does a built-from-the-ground-up self-driving car look like? Well, you start by taking away all the things that allow you to actually drive the thing — you take away the steering wheel and pedals that give a driver control. Check out our gallery post for a dozen more photos of the cutesy vehicle.

Brin said the company has not had any crashes so far, but the company has also been testing it in pretty safe conditions. But for Google, the self-driving car is part of a bigger vision for re-envisioning the transportation environment.

“What I’m excited about is how we could change transportation today,” Brin said. If you look at people who are too old, too young, or disabled, and can’t get around, that’s a big challenge for them.”

Brin said the company decided to develop this prototype vehicle because it could do a better job than with one of its retrofitted vehicles.

The big reason it could be better was safety — placement becomes more optimal with where it could put lasers. Steering was also better, with redundant power steering, and it had redundant braking as well.

The cars, for now, only drive about 25 miles an hour, which also increases safety. It also adds about two feet of foam on the front, and instead of glass uses plastic. The company plans to build about 100-200 prototypes.

Brin said that the company would be testing the vehicles with safety drivers by the end of the year, but the company hopes to surpass its safety level later this year.

More at:  http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/27/google-x-introduces-a-fully-self-driving-car-sans-steering-wheel-and-pedals/?ncid=rss&source=gravity&cps=gravity

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Microsoft warns against Windows XP security update hack

Hackers discover way to trick Microsoft into continuing to support Windows XP after updates ceased

Microsoft warns against hack that allows continued Windows XP updates Photograph: Mark Sykes/Alamy

Microsoft has warned against using a hack that allows Windows XP to continue to receive important security updates after Microsoft withdrew support in April.

The hack tricks Microsoft’s update servers into applying security patches to Microsoft’s 13-year-old Windows XP. A small change within Windows XP makes it appear as other versions of Windows that are still supported until 2019. 

Microsoft warned that Windows XP customers may face problems if they install the updates. “The security updates that could be installed are intended for Windows Embedded and Windows Server 2003 customers and do not fully protect Windows XP customers,” Microsoft said in astatement released to ZDnet. “Windows XP customers also run a significant risk of functionality issues with their machines if they install these updates, as they are not tested against Windows XP.”

Switch browsers at the very least

The UK government paid £5.5m to extend support for Windows XP for one year to allow the public sector more time to migrate to Windows 7 or other supported software. Other countries including the Netherlands also negotiated similar deals with Microsoft.

An Internet Explorer security bug that was actively being used by hackersto gain control of Windows computers came just days after Microsoft ceased security support updates for Windows XP, emphasising the importance of continued security updates for crucial software.

Microsoft later reneged on its support withdrawal and fixed the bug in Internet Explorer on Windows XP. Security experts warned that this would just be the start and that Windows XP users should upgrade their software to a currently supported system like Windows 7, but at the very least should switch to a browser like Google’s Chrome or Firefox that is actively supported.

An estimated 430m PCs were still running some version of Windows XP at the point at which Microsoft withdrew support. In the UK, Windows XP was still used on 17% of computers four weeks later according to data from security firm Secunia.

• Are Windows ‘XPocalypse’ reports overblown?

• How can I use Windows XP safely not it’s no longer supported?