Updates to 10.0 dharma, rocks XBMC powerful additional and enhanced support [video] graphics acceleration (Gawker)

Windows/Mac/Linux: XBMC, impressive open source and highly customizable media updates to XBMC 10.0 Dharma today with some serious changes under the hood - including an absolutely extraordinary complementary framework upgrade Center.

Last year at this time, XBMC team dropped the release of 9.11 Camelot. Camelot blew all further with a dramatically improved user interface and as your Media Center skins look us like a million bucks - literally, none of the visitors at my house never think that I have received free of charge.

In 2010, we saw various incarnations of the generation of Dharma as he squeezed beta and release candidate phase. From today, XBMC 10.0 Dharma is available for public release and it is quite an impressive upgrade. At first glance you might have trouble he say apart from 9.11 Camelot. Extraordinary style introduced in the latest version is always there and who better than ever with a few minor adjustments. The real magic in this release cycle is under the hood.

Let us be honest. I love XBMC, there is a good chance that you too love XBMC - he won five hive for best media center application and XBMC articles always collect much attention here. We have to claim that, historically, adding XBMC and customization experience XBMC was a walk in the Park. You have to comb forums XBMC.org read post after post and hope that make us the combing for you and write a nice guide. Modules were almost entirely hit or random and what worked in a cycle of generation may not work the next - or even between machines. This release cycle removes adhesive tape holding the additional support and replaces it with a complementary system based on the elegant and streamlined repository.

Sounds too good to be true? Check out the video below. I was able to install modules easily, to the right of the box, with a new installation. Instead of marinating in a lot of hand editing configuration files, look at how I easily download a new skin, add in some media scrapers and even add a video plugin to within a few minutes (any configuration or modification of the hand is necessary at any time).

If you're new to XBMC you think OH, well "that seemed easy enough!" but if you're a veteran of the XBMC, you are probably still in shock. I did not FTP in my installation XBMC, hand edit the configuration files or sacrifice all livestock to achieve. Adding media scrapers, music and modules subtitle, new skins, tools, videos and additional web interfaces to your Media Center remote control has never been this easy.

In addition to support additional awesome (and we do not insist enough what a great not forward this new framework complementary and repository is XBMC project) you will find even more improvements in the generation of the dharma, including:

Support for new media, including acceleration WebM VP8.Improved equipment for a large number of hardware configurations, including support for Windows Vista/7 and CrystalHD acceleration on all platforms - Linux and OS X users DXVA2 codecs will see major improvements with CrystalHD.Support for unencrypted Blu - ray playback.Integrated day including support for update or automatic update notifications.

For a detailed overview of all improvements to 10.0 Dharma XBMC see complete milestone here.

Excited about the new version and want to make your collection of media like whipping and customizing your XBMC experience? Information on how to get so many things with our practice guides:

Visit the link below to read more or go to download right to seize a copy of your operating system of choice.

Send an e-mail to Jason Fitzpatrick, the author of this post in jason@lifehacker.com.

Mashable Ben Parr Gawker Hack on "Attack of the show G4" negotiations [video] (Mashable)

Our own Ben Parr made an appearance on the attack to see today to talk about security recently experienced by several sites belonging to Gawker Media issues.

He speaks with Kevin Pereira questions at your fingertips: personal password and the user for a number of sites hosted by Gawker were compromised, and since many users use the same password for all their activities online, their other accounts - Twitter to PayPal and beyond - were also at risk.

Watch the clip to get the complete history as well as advice from Ben to keep yourself and your online accounts safe - and Yes, there are ways to easier to do than keep random 20-character passwords stored in your brain-box already overclocked, we promise.

Top 10 best ways to stay warm this winter [video] (Gawker)

Winter is once more on us, but instead of letting his icy breath interrupt your life, conquer frigid temperatures with these tips.

Photo by Jon Olav Eikenes.

You do not want to wait that temperatures are freezing before you visit your oven, because if there is anything wrong, you'll be caught in freezing temperatures while you repair. The approach of winter, while giving a good test to ensure that it works so find a repair before your pipes freeze you are not rapidly. Photo by Eneas Troya.

If you only spend time in a room of your House, you can generally give your heating a break and use smallest heater. They you only cost $ 50 to $ 100. much lower than the cost of keeping your hot home - and in addition, you have a number of models to better fit your needs.

If you have not invested in a fully programmable thermostat, now might be the time as they can make life much easier. Not only are more environmentally friendly energy, but after the installation of the system, there is very little hassle involved subsequently. They you just settle themselves depending on the time of day, so when it is warmer at, you're not wasting heat (and when you're at work, you can leave your House a little cooler).

A fire in the evening is not only a good job to keep you warm, but it provides a very pleasant atmosphere on cold winter evenings. Unfortunately, homes can be a little inefficient, taking tons of heat in the stack (which is even worse when you don't have a course of fire). Fortunately, there are a few DIY solutions provides a roaring fire to maximize heat. Be sure to sprinkle some coffee grounds then also easier clean-up afterwards.

There is nothing wrong with hot chocolate and tea, but pass until trying something again, as the Russian drink spicy, focusing on Sbiten honey. If it is too late and you past chills and a cold, you can choose to try a soothing throat honey lemon ginger infusion, or one of our many other homemade cough and cold remedies.

It is important to have a good heating system in your home, the other half of the equation is ensuring no escape from the heat. Before it gets too cold, take some time to weather strip your Windows to keep cold air (and warm air). If you do not have time for a full waterproofing, a rapid application of film are nicely enough.

While keeping the air to escape your doors and Windows may seem obvious, they aren't the only places in the air in your home can escape. Harvest of current switches can contribute a remarkable amount of draftiness if not properly isolated. With just a screwdriver, some cheap foam plate seals and perhaps some foam in full expansion, you can connect the sneaky air until tight holes.

While it does probably heating your home set, probably, you can cut your heating costs by making your own solar system. You can use almost everything that you drag – as the old metal fixtures or soda cans - Tower and some black paint to create a free heat collector. If the sun shines where you come from, you can also create your own Rocket stove to heat your home using pieces of wood.

Heated blankets are a godsend in the winter, but if you think you could use a little extra electric powered body heat all the time, you can use some Teflon and connected to a battery of copper wire your own heated thermal underwear. It is extreme, of course, but nothing that comforting, fresh out-of-the-drying feel of the day.

Apart from actually creating and never heat precious isolation, you must make sure not be neglecting the changing needs of your body in the winter. Cold, sick and depression is much worse to be just a little chilly. Enough sun, water, vitamins and social activity is crucial to keep you comfortable in winter, so read on how best to stay healthy in the winter before you sick.

Send an email to the author of this post in whitson@lifehacker.com Whitson Gordon.

Browser speed tests: IE 9, Firefox 4 beta, chrome crankshaft and Opera 11 Beta [performance tests] (Gawker)

Google of the obtained a new "crank" in its chrome bleeding edge, Internet Explorer 9 is out to prove its modern value, Firefox 4 is almost complete and Opera extensions added. This is a good opportunity to put these browsers head to head.

We've done a few of these before tests, and we have our test in the main method. Two variants this go round, though. One is that Opera 11 beta, too, has extensions. We have tried to install extensions just nearly equal, depending on every browser, but market Opera is just a little too young to include everything that we needed. We are going to record what was missing in the results. We have also installed "Canary Islands" build of chromium, the generation of test with more updates and patches, even newer than the Dev channel features risky to check the engine crankshaft, JavaScript that we had so much heard.

Now - on tests. Click on the images below to enlarge.

When it comes to cold boot-ups (aka just after booting), on ever-so-light Opera. When new boot or raising after a bit of inactivity, Opera and chrome 10 as "Canaries" are almost instant to raise up - so narrow that measured by human timers may be too close to call. Firefox 4 beta 7 had some seriously long delays startup, such that we throw results from 20 seconds more than once to try to reach a balance.

What is the stable version, consumers face slightly better chrome handle rapid loading of nine tabs - including YouTube, Hulu, LifeHacker, Gizmodo and each home browsers and Google homepage? We have no idea, but don't forget that the Chrome Canary is a rougher generation engine and interface which is normally shut down by the chromium team, therefore the optimizations can occur on the line.

Has polished Google on their JavaScript engine improvements are not only company reusable. It seems that the crankshaft puts chrome just after its earlier mark, helping to load sites script-heavy like Gmail. Remarkable in this round, too, is Internet Explorer, finishing his test of JavaScript without crashing or failing to – a first!

Curious to see chrome 10 to work a little slower processing layout page and other aspects of the design elements while last beta Opera to makes some serious jumps. IE9, unfortunately, could not complete the test.

In its bare form, we've learned during these tests, Firefox may be enough light on memory. It was a close call at the Opera, but the current Mozilla browser WINS. IE9 turns into a fairly decent performance, too.

It is a difficult call because an extension, Cooliris, was not available for both Firefox 4 or in any form of Opera 11 nascent extension beta-level market. But we is gone and tested that we could finally get brief, and it appeared that Firefox 3.6 was still good enough memory, even with five installed extensions and nine tabs loaded.

Any how formula you classify a browser on the "winner" is the one best suited to your needs, whether it is in the design experience online or pure, raw speed. But as we already all numbers tabulated here, we thought that you want to see how browsers scored on their "test." We evaluated each of the 7 browsers in the categories that they were tested and then marked their University-style against the total number of points may have received. The main difference lies in the browsers offer extensions - five of the seven competed in this field, too.

Chrome 10 (Canary Islands): 72.5% Opera 10: 71.4% chromium 8 (stable): 70 Opera 11 beta: 62.5% for Firefox 4 beta 7: 52.5% Firefox 3.6.13: 52.5% Internet Explorer 9: 45.7% is our latest batch of timing and testing of newer browsers. We will try to test these browsers on a Mac soon, too.

What results in line with what you have seen in your own Office? What results do much sense for you? Speak your piece in the comments.

Send an email to the author of this post in kevin@lifehacker.com Kevin Purdy.