Restaurateurs, Resolve to Be More Efficient This Year with SteadyServ

If any industry needs to be more efficient, it's the restaurant and bar business. Profit margins are tight, employee turnover is a problem, and customers can be fickle. That's why I love shows like Bar Rescue which feature new technological solutions for one of the oldest industries.

Case in point, managing beer keg inventory. Traditionally, bars are caught off guard when a key runs dry, but SteadyServ aims to bring some predictability to the market. The company says their SteadyServ keg sensor collects and sends information such as how much beer remains, the type and style of the beer in the keg, when it was delivered, when it was tapped, its age, and when the keg may run out. It sends this information to SteadyServ's cloud-based software, where it is paired with other information, such as how much safety stock remains, the next delivery date, previous order information, past consumption trends, event information, beer consumption trends nearby, and even local weather forecasts which may impact patronage trends.

And what high tech solution would be complete without an app? The SteadyServ service comes with a free companion app, called iKeg, naturally! The app is free, but without a login, you can't really use it; However there are videos on their site that show it in action. There are also interfaces for retailers and for distributors.

The SteadyServ sensor, their intelligent cloud, and the iKeg app are a practical application of artificial intelligence that could make the difference between a profitable bar and a losing proposition!

8 Steps to Make 2014 the Best Year Ever (With the Help of Your iPhone)

I love the time between Christmas and the New Year. My business is slowing down, which gives me time to think and reflect about the past and dream about the future. And to make some New Year's resolutions. Do New Year's resolutions give you a a smile because they remind you of goals achieved, or a bad taste of broken promises?

For many, I suspect it is the second. Sometimes I think having a fitness center must be the best business ever. In January half the country signs up for a one-year membership and in February the place is empty. Having clients paying for something that they do not use must be very profitable.

What is the difference between someone setting a New Year's resolution and failing to follow through and an elite athlete setting and achieving the goal to be in the 2016 Olympics? Many times a clear roadmap is missing.

In this post I want to show how you can turn your New Year's resolutions into concrete results so that 2014 will be your best year ever! As always we have the help of our iPhone.

1. Take Time to Reflect

Go to a place where you will not be disturbed. Look back at your past year and notice the highs and the lows. What did you like and what did you not like in your previous year? What would you like to see more of and what would you like to see less off? Take notes in your iPhone. Go through your social media feeds and find some highlights.

2. Ask Yourself, "Where Am I Now?"

Look at your life at this point in time. Where are you when it comes to your health, relationships, career/business, and finances? What do you need to focus on in the next couple of months to design and live an extraordinary life? Rank yourself between 1 and 10 in the major parts of your life. Write it down in your iPhone and make sure to put a date next to it. This is a snapshot of your life at a given point in time. Try to check in with yourself at least once a month to see that you are going in the right direction.

3. Analyze

Look at everything you wrote down about your past and your present and look for patterns. When were you the happiest? Who were you with? What were you doing? What do you not want to happen again?

4. Dream!

If 2014 was your best year ever what would it look like? Write it down as a story as if it were December 2014. You can start with pen and paper, but when you are done I recommend you transfer everything into your iPhone so you can review often during the year.

5. Break it Down into Concrete Goals

From your dream find some highlights and make them into two to four measurable goals. Next find pictures that relate to these goals and put them in your 2014 goal folder in your iPhone. Review often.

6. Action Plan

Break down your goals into a clear action plan. What do you need to do today to get closer to your goal? Put some action steps into your to-do application. Schedule it!

7. Install New Habits

What new habit do you need to install to achieve your goal? Use the app "good habits" to push yourself to put this new habit into place.

8. Commit

Make a commitment to make this happen. First to yourself by recording a voice memo: "Thanks to my commitment, 2014 has been the best year in my life!" (or something similar related to your goal). Put this voice memo in your favorite play list so you listen to it from time to time.

Next commit to your friends and family. Either by posting your goals on social media so everyone can read them or by sending to selected people that you know will support you.

 

That is the theory behind making 2014 an awesome year. Now do the exercises and go out and make it happen!

You can download a complete version of this goal exercise for free by clicking here.

Ariel Castro pleads guilty over Ohio abductions to avoid death penatly

Ohio man - charged with 997 counts including kidnap and rape - agrees deal with prosecuctors that will spare him death penalty

A man accused of abducting three woman and holding them captive at his Ohio home for a decade pleaded guilty to multiple charges on Friday, as part of a plea deal that spared him from a death sentence.

Ariel Castro - charged with 977 counts over the kidnap, rape and brutal treatment of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight - agreed a deal with prosecutors under which he will serve life without parole, plus 1,000 years.

Asked in court in Cleveland, Ohio on Friday if he understood that he would spend the rest of his days behind bars, he replied: "I do understand that, your honour". He added: "I knew I was pretty much going to get the book thrown at me."

Castro, 53, had been due to stand trial over an indictment sheet that included two counts of aggravated murder over allegations that he punched and starved one of his captives until she miscarried.

The three victims - all of whom disappeared between 2002 and 2004 - escaped on 6 May, when one of them kicked out part of a door while being aided by a neighbour alerted to her screams for help.

The women were 14, 16, and 20 when they were abducted by Castro, a former school bus driver. Relief over their escape earlier this year quickly turned to horror as details emerged of their ordeal at his home in Cleveland.

For about a decade, Castro repeatedly abused them and kept them hidden from the world, often chaining them to a bedroom heater or a pole in his basement, prosecutors said.

Berry gave birth to a child, now six years old. On the day the daughter was born, Castro raped one of the other women, who had helped deliver the baby.

Other pregnancies never went to full term. Knight told prosecutors that she became pregnant five times but was starved and beaten up by Castro so she would miscarry.

Earlier this month, the three victims posted a video on YouTube, to thank the public for the support they had received since escaping from Castro's house. "I may have been through hell and back, but I am strong enough to walk through hell with a smile on my face and my head held high," Knight said.

She added: "I will not let the situation define who I am, I will define the situation. I don't want to be consumed by hatred."

Castro, who was picked up by police soon after Berry escaped the home, had initially intended to plead not guilty. If the case had gone to trial, the victims would probably have had to testify in court about their ordeal.

Prosecutors had the option of pursuing the death penalty in the case. But under the plea agreement announced on Friday, that option was ruled out.

Lincoln Memorial partially reopens after green paint spill

Police say spill 'appears intentional based off of the splatter', which was discovered on Lincoln statue early Friday morning

Katie Rogers

Moon may influence sleep, study finds

Even if moonlight isn't streaming through your curtains, the phase of the moon may affect how well you sleep

Science and myth rarely agree, but new research suggests that the lunar cycle could have an effect on the quality of sleep.

The study by researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland found that even in the absence of moonlight, participants slept less deeply and for shorter periods during the full moon than at other lunar phases. It is a phenomenon already known in other organisms as the "circalunar rhythm", but has never before been shown in humans.

Christian Cajochen, who was the lead researcher on the study, said: "A lot of people complain about bad sleep during moon stages, or they claim that 'it was the moon', and there's a lot of myth involved. We decided to go back in our old data to see whether we could effectively quantify such an effect."

Previous research has found no association between the phases of the moon and human physiology or behaviour. "While I'm quite cautious and sceptical about the data myself, I have to say after a proper statistical analysis that, to our surprise, we found something there," said Cajochen. "There is a circalunar influence."

The brain pattern, eye movements and hormone secretion of volunteers were studied while they slept. Participants were also asked for subjective assessments of their sleep quality.

The results, published in Current Biology, showed that around the full moon, subjects' brain activity associated with deep sleep decreased by 30%, they took 5 minutes longer to fall asleep, had 20 minutes less sleep overall and lower levels of melatonin - a hormone known to regulate sleep. These findings correlated with the volunteers' own perception that sleep quality was poorer during the full moon.

"I think one issue in the past was that they compared a lot of people by mixing different laboratories, different devices, and including data from patients, so the entire thing was not standardised," Cajochen said. "The advantage here is that we really had a standardised protocol."

The data was taken from a previous study that was not originally looking at the moon's influence. Participants were kept in a very controlled environment, with artificial lighting, regulated temperature and no way of checking the time. This ensured that internal body rhythms could be investigated independently of external influences.

"The only disadvantage with such a standardised procedure is that we could only investigate 33 people," said Cajochen. "What I would like to do in the future is to increase the number of subjects and then to follow up each person through the entire moon cycle."

But such a study would have problems of its own, he added. "If you're actually going to tell people you're investigating the influence of the moon, then you may trigger some expectation or sensitivity in them. Sleep is also a psychological thing, of course."

If true, the mechanisms responsible for the phenomenon are unknown. Malcolm von Schantz, a molecular neurobiologist at Surrey University, said: "Essentially it could be either two things: the moon itself has a gravitational pull which somehow affects our physiology. I find that very unlikely as the gravitational pull of the moon is fairly weak. It doesn't cause tides in lakes for example, only in large oceans. In fact, if you're sitting within 15 inches of the wall right now then the wall has a stronger gravitational pull on you than the moon does. So I don't think we have a sort of mini-tide in ourselves.

"The alternative is that there is a 'counter', a mechanism which keeps track somehow of the phases of the moon."

Marine animals are already known to follow a circalunar rhythm and some believe it is tightly intertwined with the circadian rhythm - the other internal clock that many organisms, humans included, have which is entrained to the sun. "In worms, at least, there is a crossover between these two clocks," said Cajochen. "But we are not worms any more."

Other researchers have wondered why a human circalunar clock should exist in the first place. Michael Hastings, a neuroscientist studying circadian rhythms at Cambridge University, said: "In evolutionary terms, it sounds plausible to me at least. If you were a hunter gatherer, you'd want to be out there on a full moon, not a new moon. It might be that there's something about suppression of sleep under those circumstances because you should be out hunting.

"I think at best it's intriguing. There's a biological plausibility, if we take the hunter gatherer scenario, with regard to the mechanisms ... It is such a striking and unexpected finding that replication by other sleep labs is absolutely critical."

Not everyone is concerned that there were only 33 subjects - von Schantz even said these numbers are "fairly sizeable" for such a study.

"It's true, the body of negative data on the effects of the moon on a huge number of parameters is fairly impressive," he added. "It's entirely conceivable that all those previous studies are correct, but that there is also an effect in a limited number of other parameters, one of them being sleep, for reasons we don't yet understand."

Small signs of change in Iran as Hassan Rouhani's inauguration approaches

Hope is tempered by caution both among Iranians and in the west, where some see an opportunity to repair relations

A young Iranian couple, Masoud Bastani and Mahsa Amr-Abadi, both journalists and both imprisoned on account of their writing, have seen very little of each other for the past four years. Like many Iranian prisoners they were granted occasional temporary releases, but officials always made sure they were not allowed out at the same time.

"The authorities wanted to make life yet more miserable for the two, like an extra punishment," said one of their friends. Their convictions were for colluding and spreading propaganda against the state, a frequent charge against dissidents and independent journalists. This month, however, Bastani and Amr-Abadi were reunited at their house in Tehran, and pictures on Facebook showing the smiling couple embracing one another delighted their friends and followers.

Their newfound happiness is one of a number of small signs of change after the election in June of President Hassan Rouhani, a veteran pragmatist who ran on an ambitiously reformist platform. With a week until Rouhani's inauguration, such signs have fuelled hope that a peaceful "Iranian spring" could be on the way, reversing the intensifying repression of the last eight years under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Yet those hopes are tempered by bitter experience. Green shoots of civic freedoms and human rights were even more apparent under the last reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, and at the peak of the 2009 opposition Green movement, only to be emphatically quashed by conservatives in the regime and security forces.

There is even greater caution in the west about the possibility of a better relationship with Tehran and perhaps even a deal to defuse the long and dangerous standoff over Iran's nuclear aspirations. National security and the nuclear programme in particular are very much the preserve of the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. But optimists hope that the intense economic pressures on Iran - amplified by severe US and European sanctions - that helped carry Rouhani to victory will drive the regime towards a historic compromise.

Rouhani has not yet formed a government, so the hopes and doubts swirling around his presidency are based mostly on speculation. However, Iranians report that since the election there has been a distinct thaw in the air.

Bastani and Amr-Abadi are not alone. More temporary releases have been handed out and a handful of the political prisoners recently granted leave have been told they need not return to jail provided they stay out of trouble. Others have been told they will be released on Eid al-Fitr, the holiday next month marking the end of Ramadan. Those on trial for political offences say they have been promised acquittal or light sentences. One recently released activist said his interrogators had been noticeably more polite, as if sensing the winds of change.

The new mood has been apparent among the police on the street. As millions of jubilant Iranians poured on to the streets to celebrate Iran's qualification for the 2014 World Cup days after the election, the police tolerated public music, dancing and slogans chanted in favour of imprisoned opposition leaders, which would have been suppressed only days before.

Last week 25 independent Iranian documentary film-makers accused of working clandestinely inside the country for the BBC's Persian service were all acquitted, even though at least 10 of them had previously been found guilty. The film-makers were alleged to have supplied the BBC with information, footage, news and reports misrepresenting Iran, leading to fears some would be charged with espionage. However, the country's cinema organisation, affiliated to the powerful ministry for culture and Islamic guidance, surprised many by ruling that "none of the works was found to be propaganda against the ruling system and none contained anti-revolution material".

At the same time, local media appear to be pushing back previously rigid boundaries. The semi-official Isna news agency broke a taboo by printing the names of opposition leaders under house arrest.

Summing up the popular mood, the former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was blocked from standing in the election, said on Thursday: "The election's result has brought hope, peace and rationality to our country."

Even as they celebrate, many Iranians acknowledge they may be suffering from over-exuberance in view of the limited real changes to date and their extreme fragility. On Facebook and Twitter, the two-word post-election chant "Rouhani Mochakerim" (Rouhani thank you!), is increasingly used ironically as universal expression of gratitude for everyday occurrences ("My brother just passed his exams - Rouhani thank you!").

The past few weeks have not just been a series of prisoner releases. There have been occasional political arrests too, such as that of the journalist Fariba Pajouh.

Faraz Sanei, of Human Rights Watch, said it was too early to declare a new Iranian spring on the basis of a few rays of sunshine. "Rouhani's win was certainly a surprise to most analysts, but it is not an indication that reformists will have the upper hand during the next four years," he said.

Rouhani's impact on Iran's relations with the rest of the world is even harder to predict. Khamenei set the tone for national security and foreign policy in the Ahmadinejad era and made clear during the election campaign that he did not intend to change under the new president.

There are signs that the regime intends to use Rouhani's softer image to try to win more friends abroad. The government has broken with previous practice to invite foreign leaders - with the exceptions of US and Israel - to the inauguration next Sunday.

The foreign ministry even mounted something of a charm offensive in the direction of the UK, seen in ruling circles as Iran's third worst adversary. On the occasion of the birth of Prince George, the ministry spokesman Abbas Araghchi, a UK-educated fluent English speaker, offered congratulations to the Queen and the Prince of Wales.

The conservative backlash to those comments, however, served to underline the scale of the challenge facing the new government in attempting a rapprochement with the west. Araghchi was fiercely criticised by parliamentary rightwingers, and state TV broadcast a furious diatribe describing the Queen as an "iron-fisted dictator" who chose members of parliament and filled key positions by appointment. "England has one of the most reactionary and medieval forms of governments," the report from London declared.

Ali Ansari, professor of modern history at Saint Andrews University, said the regime would ultimately have to resolve its contradictory views on dealing with the west. "The conservatives seem to think that Rouhani's election will change international perceptions overnight," Ansari said. "But if they think that a smiling Rouhani will get sanctions lifted and everything will be hunky dory without giving something substantial to the west, they may be surprised."

The mixed messages emanating from Tehran have deepened divisions in the west over how to respond to the dawning of the Rouhani age. The UK government has opted not to send officials to the inauguration, arguing that to do so would be to break with the common EU position that only local ambassadors should attend. (The UK has not had a diplomatic presence in Tehran since its embassy was stormed by a mob in November 2011.)

That decision was quickly condemned by the shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander, as "a misjudgment and a missed opportunity". Ben Wallace, Conservative chairman of the British-Iran parliamentary group, also voiced concern that western mis-steps could undermine the new president. "Rouhani has a real task ahead. He has to balance the politics inside Iran while at the same time trying to bring Iran into the mainstream of the international community," Wallace said. "The danger for him and for peace is if the US and the UK move the goalposts

and are seen to be hypocritical in support of repressive Sunni regimes yet tough on the Shia nation of Iran."

The uncertainty over how to respond to Rouhani's rise is even more pronounced across the Atlantic. According to the New York Times, the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, passed a message purportedly from Rouhani to the White House, saying that the new president was interested in direct negotiations. As an apparent sweetener to encourage such sentiments, Washington has tweaked its draconian sanctions to allow the transfer of more medical equipment. At the same time, however, the Republican-run House of Representatives is preparing to vote on the imposition of even more stringent sanctions before going on its August recess. A joint letter by two retired senior US officers, General Joseph Hoar and Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, and Trita Parsi, head of the National Iranian American Council, published on The Hill's congressional blog said: "Rouhani's election represents what could be the last best hope for serious negotiations with Iran to produce a diplomatic resolution to the nuclear dispute. . "The House must not snuff out hopes for Iranian moderation before Rouhani even gets a chance."

Hacker Barnaby Jack dies in San Francisco aged 35

Jack, who became famous after demonstrating an ATM hack, died on Thursday - but coroners did not give details

Barnaby Jack, a hacker who was due to present his findings on the security vulnerabilities of implanted medical devices, has died.

The San Francisco medical examiner's office said Jack, 35, died in the city on Thursday - but did not provide details on the circumstances surrounding his death.

Jack had exposed a security flaw in insulin pumps that could be made to dispense a fatal dose by a hacker 300ft away, pushing some medical companies to review the security of these devices.

He was also a popular and respected figure in the information security scene. Within that small scene, reverse engineers are especially close, said Matthieu Suiche, a friend of Jack's and chief scientist at CloudVolumes Inc in an email. "We pretty much all know each other, or have lots of common friends," Suiche said. "It's almost like we all grew up together."

He added: "There isn't much to say except that Barnaby was one of the rare people in InfoSec who was a brilliant researcher but also a good friend to many of us."

Suiche met Jack at the Black Hat conference a few years ago and said they had been really good friends since. He said he had drinks with Jack and his girlfriend in San Francisco just over a week ago.

He called his friend "brilliant", and said Jack's latest research on medical devices could help save the lives of many people. "In this world full of people fearfully complying and worrying, very few people are crazy enough to challenge the rules, to approach life in an unconventional paradigm and to speak up to contribute to change this world," Suiche said.

Jack was due to speak at the Black Hat conference, which starts Saturday in Las Vegas. His presentation, "Implantable medical devices: hacking humans," would have explained how these devices could be compromised and would have suggested ways to improve device security.

Black Hat said the room his discussion was meant to take place will instead be used as a place for his friends and colleagues to gather and remember him on 1 August, when the session was set to take place.

Black Hat said in a statement:

We have lost a member of our family. Everyone would agree that the life and work of Barnaby Jack are legendary and irreplaceable. Barnaby had the ability to take complex technology and intricate research and make it tangible and accessible for everyone to learn and grow from. Beyond his work in our industry, Barnaby was an incredibly warm hearted and welcoming individual with a passion for celebrating life. We all have a hilarious and upbeat story about Barnaby. He is truly a shining example of what we love about this community.

Black Hat will not be replacing Barnaby's talk on Thursday, Aug. 1. No one could possibly replace him, nor would we want them to. The community needs time to process this loss. The hour will be left vacant as a time to commemorate his life and work, and we welcome our attendees to come and share in what we hope to be a celebration of his life. Barnaby Jack meant so much to so many people, and we hope this forum will offer an opportunity for us all to recognize the legacy that he leaves behind.

Our deepest sympathies go out to Barnaby Jack's family and loved ones. Words cannot adequately describe how much he will be missed, but it is certain that Barnaby will NEVER be forgotten.

At the time of his death, Jack was director of embedded security research at security firm IOActive. On Twitter, the company said: "Lost but never forgotten our beloved pirate, Barnaby Jack has passed. He was a master hacker and dear friend. Here's to you Barnes!"