U.S. Franciscan friars go digital, accept prayer requests via text

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The largest group of Franciscan friars in the United States is offering the faithful a new way to pray in the digital age by accepting prayer requests via text messages.
The Friars of Holy Name Province, who staff 40 parishes and have colleges, soup kitchens and food centers along the eastern seaboard, as well as groups in Peru and Tokyo, are among a few religious groups offering this type of digital service.
Its "Text a Prayer Intention to a Franciscan Friar" initiative, which is described as faith at your fingertips, is a novel way for Roman Catholics to connect.
"People are always saying to friars, 'Can you say a prayer for me?' Or 'Can you remember my mother who has cancer?'" Father David Convertino, the New York-based executive director of development for the Franciscan Friars of the Holy Name Province, said in an interview.
"I was thinking that a lot of people text everything now, even more than email, so why not have people have the ability to ask us to pray for them ... by texting."
The faithful simply text the word 'prayer' to 306-44, free of charge. A welcome message from the friars comes up along with a box to type in the request. When the it is sent, the sender receives a reply.
The intentions are received on a website and will be included collectively in the friars' prayers twice a day and at Mass.
It is one of several ways the friars hope to reach a younger audience, increase the number of faithful and spread the faith. They have already renovated their website and the next step is moving into Facebook and tweeting.
"If the Pope can tweet, friars can text," said Father David.
The friars also have a presence on LinkedIn and have been streaming some of their church services.
"We're trying," said Father David when asked if the friars are well into the digital age, adding that they were "rushing madly into the 19th century."
Most of the 325 friars, whose average age is about 60, are comfortable with the technology.
"We have a friar who is 80 who was texting today," said Father David.
The friars are following the example of 85-year-old Pope Benedict, the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, whom the Vatican said had 2.1 million followers on Twitter just eight days after sending his first tweet.
The Pontiff tweets in several languages, including Arabic, and plans to add Latin and Chinese to them.
"We're really excited about this working," said Father David, about the new program. "I think we'll be able to keep up (with all the intentions). That's what we do, we pray for people."

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Aereo CEO: Hollywood Apathy, "Irrelevant" Ads Inspired the Controversial Service

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Sorry, networks, but Aereo - the streaming TV service you love to hate - has no plans to go away. In fact, CEO Chet Kanojia and company are planning a major expansion thanks to $38 million in new spending money.
That's not just to fund the service's move from New York into 22 other major cities, as announced Tuesday, but onto videogame consoles, Smart TVs and the Android operating system. (Currently, Aereo is available via web browsers, set-top boxes like the Roku and Apple devices.)
Aereo has one very important backer in its corner, media mogul Barry Diller, who IAC/InterActiveCorp has invested millions in the startup. However, not everyone is enamored of the technology.
TV networks feel that Aereo, which uses clusters of tiny antennas to stream mostly broadcast channels directly to devices like tablets and smartphones, is stealing their content.
The court is not so sure. A federal court in July denied a plea by broadcasters for an injunction to block the service in New York. Kanojia said that decision emboldened Aereo to move into markets like Chicago and Houston.
TheWrap spoke with Kanojia at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas about Aereo's planned expansion, Hollywood apathy and his least favorite commercials.
What convinced you now was the time to expand?
Consumer engagement data and the volume of requests we were getting from different cities - when are you coming to Atlanta? When are you coming to Detroit? It was a consistent theme.
The data that we saw from New York in terms of engagement, the utilization of our product and the quality we were able to provide made us want to scale things. We don't have all the data or all the answers - but enough to give us confidence that we have a great product here that people really really like.
You mentioned "trends" in New York. How many users do you have now?
We don't disclose that, but it's an incredibly positive trend.
How did you select the cities?
Obviously, this is phase one. We wanted to concentrate on the Eastern corridor. The location of the company is east coast, and it's still a small company relatively speaking.
Also, age and demographics. There's a huge Latin population in some of these markets, and 90 percent of viewership of Latin content is on broadcast.
You raise the Latin market, but there's no Los Angeles included here.
No Los Angeles, no Seattle - pretty much nothing west of Denver with the exception of Salt Lake City. The focus is eastern, and in stage two we'll focus on the west.
What does Aereo have to do in order to expand? What kinds of costs are associated with it?
We go in and establish the facility, which is really a data center that we lease from data-center providers. We put in rooftop antenna systems. We can get that done in about 60 days at any given system, and we have teams working at all the main sites.
Our operation and execution is centralized. We're not building out people and offices in every location.
How much concern remains about legal roadblocks?
We firmly believe in our position. Nothing that we've seen or heard gives us any less confidence in the basic premise that consumers have the ability to do this today. We have the right to be able to do this. There is nothing prohibiting technology from being implemented in the ways we have.
We've made an incredible amount of effort to comply with the law.
Like?
Building the technology to comply with the law the way we did. We're clearly within precedent. We're more conservative than precedent.
The Dish CEO spoke at CES on Monday and struck something of a populist tone. Television is the medium of the masses but one owned by a select few. Do you sense a wave of democratization? It really comes down to lack of competition and innovation. They haven't kept the consumer in the forefront because they don't have competition; distribution is locked up. They have guaranteed payments, and it's getting worse with the increasing costs of cable.
There's been no innovation in advertising - the same, more irrelevant stuff you don't care about.
Do you have a truck?
No.
Do you intend to buy one?
No.
Well, how many times have you seen that same damn commercial? We're wasting consumer engagement with this. There's so little innovation in how content is distributed, user experience and all of that. Apathy is the biggest enemy.
You can't only feel this way about broadcast. Do you intend to add more channels to the service?
The sequence of events is as follows - markets, devices and make barriers go away. We need to get to a certain amount of the population base and given the general trends out of New York that's a doable exercise. Once we get to that point, we'll think about adding additional content.
What devices are you missing right now?
We don't have an Android app, and that's a big priority for us. Game consoles make a lot of sense. Smart TVs.
What isn't being discussed about Aereo?
There's so much attention and drama with the litigation that people are ignoring the importance of what's going on. For the first time, someone is coming out with a way consumers can get quality access to TV at an incredible price on any device. The change we're causing with cloud-based implementation is something that's a much bigger story at the end of the day than litigation drama.
In two years the company has gone from not being in existence to building out to 22 markets.

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'The Hunger Games' lead fan favorites at People's Choice awards

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Post-apocalyptic action film "The Hunger Games" was the big winner at the People's Choice Awards on Thursday, picking up five awards including favorite movie of the year, while singer Katy Perry again led in the music categories.
Hosted by "The Big Bang Theory" actress Kaley Cuoco, the People's Choice Awards named winners in more than 40 categories across film, television and music. About 475 million fans voted through the People's Choice website.
"The Hunger Games," based on the trilogy of novels by Suzanne Collins, beat out "The Avengers," "The Amazing Spider-Man," "The Dark Knight Rises" and "Snow White and the Huntsman" for the coveted favorite movie accolade.
Jennifer Lawrence, who plays "Hunger Games" heroine Katniss Everdeen, won the favorite movie actress award over Mila Kunis, Emma Stone, Anne Hathaway and Scarlett Johansson.
"Thank you for loving movies as much as I do, and loving this movie and voting," Lawrence said.
"The Hunger Games" was also named favorite action film and favorite movie franchise, while its stars Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth won favorite on-screen chemistry.
The People's Choice is the first of Hollywood's annual awards shows, but unlike the Oscars or the Golden Globes, the winners are determined by fans, so it provides few insights into likely winners of the movie industry's top honors in February.
"The Avengers," which was nominated in eight categories, didn't go home empty-handed. Robert Downey Jr. was named favorite movie actor for his role as Iron Man in the superhero ensemble box office hit.
"You've chosen wisely," the actor joked on stage.
Adam Sandler picked up the fan favorite award for comedic actor, while former "Friends" star Jennifer Aniston picked up the favorite comedic movie actress award, beating out Mila Kunis, Reese Witherspoon, Emily Blunt and Cameron Diaz.
"I cannot thank you enough for allowing me to be honored with this, after supporting me for almost 20 years," Aniston said.
Emma Watson of "Harry Potter" fame picked up the favorite dramatic actress accolade for her role in "The Perks of Being a Wallflower."
"Perks" was also named favorite dramatic movie, while "Ted," the raunchy R-rated comedy from "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, was named favorite comedy film.
MUSIC AND TELEVISION WINNERS
Katy Perry took home four trophies this year, including favorite female artist and a surprise win for favorite pop artist over Justin Bieber.
Fan favorite Taylor Swift beat out Tim McGraw, Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton and Carrie Underwood for favorite country artist.
"You guys have blown my mind with what you've done with this album 'Red.' I want to thank you for caring about my music and me," the singer said in her acceptance speech.
Her chart-topping album "Red," which the singer based on her experiences, was one of 2012's top-sellers. The singer attended the awards alone following a widely reported split from boyfriend Harry Styles of U.K. boy band One Direction.
Maroon 5 picked up the favorite band award. The band's popularity skyrocketed in 2012 after lead singer Adam Levine served as a judge on television talent show "The Voice."
British boy band The Wanted won favorite breakout artist.
In the television categories, CBS comedy "The Big Bang Theory" was named favorite network comedy, while ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" picked up favorite network drama.
Ellen Pompeo of "Grey's Anatomy" and "Castle" actor Nathan Fillion won the favorite TV dramatic actress and actor awards, while "Glee" stars Lea Michele and Chris Colfer picked up the favorite TV comedic actress and actor awards.
Sandra Bullock was named favorite humanitarian for her efforts in helping victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

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Composición de un grupo de usuarios OpenNMS independiente; conferencia prevista para marzo 2013

Un grupo de usuarios OpenNMS ha creado la OpenNMS Foundation Europe como organización sin ánimo de lucro para promover la gestión de red en general y la plataforma de gestión de red OpenNMS en particular.
"La OpenNMS Foundation Europe acoge a todos aquellos usuarios de OpenNMS dentro de la comunidad OpenNMS, no solo a aquellos que contribuyen al código. Hemos integrado con éxito a aquellos que contribuyen al código, pero si uno fuese únicamente un usuario satisfecho que deseara compartir con el resto y aprender de ellos, estaríamos mucho peor organizados", ha explicado Alex Finger, presidente de la OpenNMS Foundation Europe. "Ahora disponemos de un lugar en el que reunir a los seguidores de OpenNMS y difundir nuestros conocimientos y experiencia en relación con el producto. Queremos abogar por el open source y enseñar a los demás a utilizar OpenNMS. La fundación es una forma de ampliar esta comunidad". La agenda de la conferencia de usuarios prevista para el año que viene ya está repleta de las historias y experiencias de estos usuarios, y completada por una formación básica y avanzada de la aplicación.
Tarus Balog, CEO del grupo OpenNMS Group (la empresa con ánimo de lucro detrás de OpenNMS), ha declarado: "Una de las plataformas de gestión más exitosa de todos los tiempos fue OpenView, de Hewlett-Packard. En gran medida, este éxito se puede atribuir a la comunidad independiente y activa desarrollada por el grupo de usuarios OpenView Forum. El hecho de que la fundación promueva todavía más OpenNMS y haga hincapié en la naturaleza open source del software nos anima y entusiasma".
La conferencia de usuarios OpenNMS está prevista para la semana del 11 de marzo de 2013, y tendrá lugar en la Universidad de Fulda, Alemania. La información completa sobre dicha conferencia y las oportunidades de patrocinio están disponibles en http://opennms.eu.
ACERCA DE OPENNMS
OpenNMS (www.opennms.org) es la primera plataforma de aplicación de gestión de red de empresa desarrollada siguiendo el modelo open source. Es una alternativa de software totalmente gratuita frente a los productos comerciales como HP Operations Manager, IBM Tivoli, y CA Unicenter.
ACERCA DE LA OPENNMS FOUNDATION
La OpenNMS Foundation Europe (www.opennms.eu) es una organización registrada sin ánimo de lucro de Alemania. La fundación promueve la educación, investigación, defensa e intercambio de conocimientos en torno a la gestión de red con software open source y, específicamente, OpenNMS. Está abierta para aquellas personas y empresas interesadas en formar parte de dicha comunidad.
ACERCA DEL GRUPO OPENNMS
El grupo OpenNMS (www.opennms.com) mantiene el proyecto OpenNMS. Dicho grupo también ofrece asistencia comercial, servicios y formación para la plataforma OpenNMS.
El comunicado en el idioma original, es la versión oficial y autorizada del mismo. La traducción es solamente un medio de ayuda y deberá ser comparada con el texto en idioma original, que es la única versión del texto que tendrá validez legal.

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US designates Syria's Jabhat al-Nusra front a 'terrorist' group at lightning speed

The US State Department designated the Jabhat al-Nusra militia fighting Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria a foreign terrorist organization Monday.
The speed with which the US government moved to designate a fairly new group that has never attacked US interests and is engaged in fighting a regime that successive administrations have demonized is evidence of the strange bedfellows and overlapping agendas that make the Syrian civil war so explosive.
The State Department says Jabhat al-Nusra (or the "Nusra Front") is essentially a wing of Al Qaeda in Iraq, the jihadi group that flourished in Anbar Province after the US invaded to topple the Baathist regime of secular dictator Saddam Hussein. During the Iraq war, Sunni Arab tribesmen living along the Euphrates in eastern Syria flocked to fight with the friends and relatives in the towns along the Euphrates river in Anbar Province.
Think you know the Middle East? Take our geography quiz!
The terrain, both actual and human, is similar on both sides of that border, and the rat lines that kept foreign fighters and money flowing into Iraq from Syria work just as well in reverse. Now, the jihadis who fought and largely lost against the Shiite political ascendancy in Iraq are flocking to eastern Syria to repay a debt of gratitude in a battle that looks more likely to succeed every day.
The Nusra Front has gone from victory to victory in eastern Syria and has shown signs of both significant funding and greater military prowess than the average citizens' militia, with veterans of fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya among its numbers.
The US of course aided the fight in Libya to bring down Muammar Qaddafi. In Afghanistan and Iraq, the chance to fight and kill Americans was the major drawing card.
In Iraq, the US toppled a Baathist dictatorship dominated by Sunni Arabs, opening the door for the political dominance of Iraq's Shiite Arab majority and the fury of the country's Sunni jihadis. In Syria, a Baathist regime dominated by the tiny Alawite sect (a long-ago offshoot of Shiite Islam) risks being brought down by the Sunni majority. Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is in the odd position of now rooting for a Baathist regime to survive, frightened that a religiously inspired Sunni regime may replace Assad and potentially destabilize parts of his country from Haditha in Anbar's far west to the northern city of Mosul.
For the US, the situation is more complicated still. The Obama administration appears eager for Assad to fall, but is also afraid of what might replace him, not least because of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile. If the regime collapses, the aftermath is sure to be chaotic, much as it was in Libya, where arms stores were looted throughout the country. The presence of VX and sarin nerve gas, and the fear of Al Qaeda aligned militants getting their hands on it, has the US considering sending in troops to secure the weapons.
That's the context in which today's designation was made – part of an overall effort to shape the Syrian opposition to US liking, and hopefully have influence in the political outcome if and when Assad's regime collapses. But while the US has been trying to find a government or leadership in waiting among Syrian exiles, Nusra has been going from strength to strength. Aaron Zelin, who tracks jihadi groups at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, notes in a recent piece for Foreign Policy that 20 out of the 48 "martyrdom" notices posted on Al Qaeda forums for the Syria war were made by people claiming to be members of Nusra.
Zelin writes that it's highly unusual for the US to designate as a terrorist group anyone who hasn't attempted an attack on the US. In fact, the US only designated the Haqqani Network in Afghanistan, which had been involved in attacks on US troops there for over a decade, this September.
His guess as to why the US took such an unusual step?
The U.S. administration, in designating Jabhat al-Nusra, is likely to argue that the group is an outgrowth of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). While there is not much open-source evidence of this, classified material may offer proof -- and there is certainly circumstantial evidence that Jabhat al-Nusra operates as a branch of the ISI.
Getting Syria's rebels to disavow Jabhat al-Nusra may not be an easy task, however. As in Iraq, jihadists have been some of the most effective and audacious fighters against the Assad regime, garnering respect from other rebel groups in the process. Jabhat al-Nusra seems to have learned from the mistakes of al Qaeda in Iraq: It has not attacked civilians randomly, nor has it shown wanton disregard for human life by publicizing videos showing the beheading of its enemies. Even if its views are extreme, it is getting the benefit of the doubt from other insurgents due to its prowess on the battlefield.
Will it hurt the group's support inside Syria? It's hard to see how. The US hasn't formally explained its logic yet, but it's hard to see how that will matter either. The rebellion against Assad has raged for almost two years now and the country's fighters are eager for victory, and revenge. The US has done little to militarily assist the rebellion, and fighters have been happy to take support where they can get it.
Most of the money or weapons flowing into the country for rebels has come from Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and Qatar and some of that support, of course, has ended up in the hands of Islamist militias like Nusra.

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Campaña en Facebook contra diputado costarricense gana premio internacional

San José, 11 dic (EFE).- Una campaña en la red social Facebook en contra de la designación del diputado cristiano Justo Orozco como presidente de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Congreso en Costa Rica, por sus posiciones en contra de la homosexualidad, ganó el premio Access Innovation Prize 2012.
La agencia costarricense de publicidad en línea BigWebNoise, creadora de la campaña, en la que participaron miles de personas pidiendo la salida de Orozco de la Comisión, informó hoy sobre el galardón y que a partir de ahora trabajará con Access y Facebook en desarrollo de la herramienta a nivel global.
La campaña "Fuera Justo Orozco" fue la ganadora de entre más de 300 postulantes de 66 países.
La "manifestación virtual" FueraJustoOrozco.com inició en junio anterior tras el nombramiento de Orozco como presidente de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos de la Asamblea Legislativa de Costa Rica.
Con el lema "si no bastó con la firma, pongamos la cara", la campaña invitó a los ciudadanos a "dar la cara", es decir a colocar su fotografía de perfil de Facebook en un espacio virtual para expresar su descontento por el nombramiento del diputado, que ha generando gran rechazo por sus posiciones abiertamente homofóbicas.
La aplicación alcanzó las primeras 5.000 caras en solo 48 horas y y sumó 14.000 usuarios en los primeros 10 días en línea. También produjo un enorme eco en medios de comunicación locales e internacionales, y una masiva difusión viral en redes sociales.
Esta es la primera vez que una acción costarricense de incidencia civil en línea es reconocida a nivel internacional.
El Access Innovation Prize, entregado el lunes en Nueva York, premia "las mejores ideas y acciones que usen las nuevas tecnologías de información para promover los derechos humanos", de acuerdo con un comunicado de la organización.
"En un país conocido por el respeto a los Derechos Humanos, esta iniciativa movilizó a los ciudadanos para dar la cara contra quien los amenaza", dijo al entregar el premio el gerente de Políticas Públicas de Facebook, Mathew Perault.
Para el director de Estrategia Online de BigWebNoise, Cristian Cambronero, "la frontera entre el mundo desconectado y el conectado cada día es más difusa. Internet ha probado ser una potente herramienta para la participación y la incidencia de los ciudadanos. Es una extensión del espacio público".
El jurado para este premio estuvo integrado por expertos en comunicación, innovación, derecho y emprendimiento como el consejero general de Twitter, Alex MacGillivray; el exCEO de Mozilla John Lilly y el vicepresidente de Comunicación y Políticas Públicas de Facebook, Elliot Schrage.
El premio otorga un reconocimiento económico de 20.000 dólares para garantizar la sostenibilidad del proyecto galardonado, pero además, los costarricenses trabajarán ahora junto a Access y Facebook en una segunda etapa que consiste en convertir la aplicación usada en FueraJustoOrozco.com en una herramienta "open-source" que pueda ser utilizada para causas sociales y de defensa de los Derechos Humanos en cualquier lugar del mundo. EFE

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Samsung Galaxy Muse is like an iPod Shuffle that Syncs with Your Phone

In perhaps the most awkwardly titled tech press release ever, Samsung Mobile announced the launch of the new Samsung Galaxy Muse, a device which appears to have nothing to do with "CORRECTING and REPLACING and ADDING MULTIMEDIA" but everything to do with being a music player crossed with a smartphone accessory.
​Say goodbye to iTunes?
While most handheld music players (and smartphone or tablets with music apps) sync with a PC or Mac music app, like iTunes or Banshee, the Samsung Galaxy Muse syncs with your Android phone itself. It uses the Muse Sync app, which Google Play says will install on devices like the Nexus 7 tablet but which Samsung says will only work with the Galaxy S II, Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note and Galaxy Note II smartphones.
​Plug it in, turn it on
The pebble-shaped Muse connects to your Samsung phone via its headset jack. It doesn't have a screen, so you have to control it iPod Shuffle style, and use the Muse Sync app to see how much of its 4 GB of space are free and decide which playlists to sync. Since it only has those 4 GB, it can only hold a fraction of the music that can be put on the much more powerful smartphones.
​Who is Samsung selling the Galaxy Muse to?
Samsung says "users can sync the songs they want and leave their phone behind," the usefulness of which may depend on whether or not you feel limited by having to bring your smartphone with you. The press release mentions its "wearable design and small form factor," and suggests taking it "in place of [your] smartphone ... at the gym or on the go."
​What other gadgets are like the Galaxy Muse?
The most obvious comparison is to the iPod Shuffle, Apple's similarly tiny and screen-less portable music player. At $49, it costs the same as the Galaxy Muse (although a Droid-Life tipster found a $25 off coupon code for the Muse), but comes in seven different colors and has an embossed click-wheel controller instead of a flat and featureless surface. It requires you to use iTunes on a desktop PC or Mac, though.
​On the upside
The Galaxy Muse's six hours of battery life may not be suitable for all-day listening, but may at least take the pressure off of a battery-hungry smartphone (so long as it's one of Samsung's flagship models). And as PCMag's Chloe Albanesius notes, "it's not very convenient to strap a 5.5-inch Galaxy Note II to your arm when you hit the gym."
Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

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Facebook, Google tell the government to stop granting patents for abstract ideas

Facebook (FB), Google (GOOG) and six other tech companies have petitioned the courts to begin rejecting lawsuits that are based on patents for vague concepts rather than specific applications, TechCrunch reported. The agreement, which was cosigned by Zynga (ZNGA), Dell (DELL), Intuit (INTU), Homeaway (AWAY), Rackspace (RAX), and Red Hat (RHT), notes the only thing these abstract patents do is increase legal fees and slow innovation in the industry. The companies claim that “abstract patents are a plague in the high tech sector” and force innovators into litigation that results in huge settlements or steep licensing fees for technology they have already developed on their own, which then leads to higher prices for consumers.
“Many computer-related patent claims just describe an abstract idea at a high level of generality and say to perform it on a computer or over the Internet,” the briefing reads. “Such barebones claims grant exclusive rights over the abstract idea itself, with no limit on how the idea is implemented. Granting patent protection for such claims would impair, not promote, innovation by conferring exclusive rights on those who have not meaningfully innovated, and thereby penalizing those that do later innovate by blocking or taxing their applications of the abstract idea.”
The companies conclude, “It is easy to think of abstract ideas about what a computer or website should do, but the difficult, valuable, and often groundbreaking part of online innovation comes next: designing, analyzing, building, and deploying the interface, software, and hardware to implement that idea in a way that is useful in daily life. Simply put, ideas are much easier to come by than working implementations.”

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