On Our Desk - Mionix Propus 380

As you can imagine, we get lots of natty little bits and pieces sent into the bit-tech offices. Annoyingly, though, much of it is just a little too small or a little too silly to write about in a full page review. As a result, I?m trying to resurrect the On Our Desk series of articles that we used to cover all these little bits of gadgetry.

So without further ado I?ll tell you about the Mionix Propus 380 mouse mat, on which my CM Storm Inferno has been happily sitting for the last few days.

The first feature that grabbed me about the Propus 380 is that it looks good. It was actually its unusual shape and sleek, unfussy design that prompted me to pick it out from the pile of gaming mouse mats we?ve got sitting in the labs in the first place; it certainly looks like it means business.

On Our Desk - Mionix Propus 380

Once out of the packaging, I was pleasantly surprised by the build quality on show. The edges of the Propus 380 are very precisely cut, with no rough edges in sight. The upper tracking surface is also very firmly bonded to the rubber base of the mat; it certainly doesn't feel like the Propus 380 would suffer from the kind of delaminating or edge-peeling you may have seen on older mouse mats.

The surface of the mat is made from extremely fine-grained plastic, results in some very quick mouse movements. In fact, I was actually able to move my mouse almost too quickly compared to the cloth covered mat that the Propus 380 replaced, with very little drag or friction between the mouse and mat. Once I was used to it, though, the lack of friction meant that my mouse movement felt very precise, and that fatigue was less of a problem during long gaming sessions.

Measuring 380 x 260mm, the mat is wider than it is tall, but this means there?s plenty of room for large sweeping movements if you run your mouse with low sensitivity. If you don?t need all that width, though, then you can rotate the mat through 90 degrees. What's more, in this orientation, the indents in the upper and lower edge of the mat help it to butt up nearly with your keyboard.

On Our Desk - Mionix Propus 380

If you?re into your LAN gaming, then the fact that the Propus 380 doesn?t roll up could be an issue. It does have a degree of bend in it, but it'll crease if you push it too far. For most people, though, this is unlikely to be a problem, and it also means the edges of the mat won?t curl with time.

Of course, a gaming orientated mouse mat is a luxury; most decent mice these days will track quite happily without any mouse mat at all. The Propus 380 is a great piece of kit, though. It feels well made, and has a surface that provides very smooth and quick tracking for a laser mouse. At £17 it couldn?t be called cheap, but at least you feel like you?re getting £17 worth of kit; it?ll definitely be staying on my desk for the foreseeable future.

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Tracking How Mobile Apps Track You

Third-party apps are the weakest link in user privacy on smart phones. They often get access to large quantities of user data, and there are few rules covering how they must handle that data once they have it. Worse yet, few third-party apps have a privacy policy telling users what they intend to do.

That was the message delivered at a hearing of the U.S. Senate committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held yesterday. Companies and regulators are struggling to find ways to ensure that user data is handled properly by apps installed on smart phones, but the way apps are designed makes this difficult.

Mobile privacy has come under extreme scrutiny since revelations that Apple's iPhone and Google's Android software collect and store users' location data. Last week, a U.S. Senate subcommittee questioned those two companies on their handling of personal data. This week, Facebook joined Google and Apple on the hot seat.

But all three companies run platforms that support thousands of third-party developers, and how to make sure those apps respect users' privacy, and explain their rules, is a major question. Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Arkansas) said at the hearing, "It's not clear that Americans understand how their information may be shared or transferred."

The hearing also highlighted several reasons why it'll be difficult to control what apps are doing with user data. It's not clear which laws should be used to regulate third-party apps, and, in some cases, it's hard to design proper technical requirements. "There's no privacy law for general commerce whatsoever," said Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts). "Data collectors alone are setting the rules."

A major initiative designed to improve consumer privacy on the Web?the proposed "Do Not Track" bill?could be hard to apply to mobile devices, regulators said. The bill would allow consumers to opt out of having their online activity tracked.

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Thoughts on Jumping

It may seem an odd subject to focus on, as jumping doesn't seem to be very important on the face of it ? cut it out of a game, though, and it can make a huge difference. Games in which players can?t jump, or at the very least dodge or roll, can seem painfully slow, dull and static. Games in which players can jump around and use that movement to interact with the environment can seem immeasurably more fun because of it.

Take Half-Life 2, for example. It?s a game which nearly everyone would agree is well-made, decently written, fun and fast to play through. Now cast your mind back to the first scene in Kliener?s lab, where Gordon is first properly introduced to his allies, where the plot is given its first proper push and where you?re gifted with the HEV suit again. It?s a busy sequence; lots to do, lots to take in. You?d expect most players to pay close attention, at least the first time around.

Instead, every single player I know spends most of the time jumping around. Sometimes they try to jump on the scenery or knock over objects, other times they just leapfrog around the room when a simple stroll would suffice.


The same behaviour holds true in most other games too, I?ve found. When I played Beyond Good and Evil for the first time I hardly walked anywhere across the surface of Hillys; I rolled. In Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, any hallway that involved walking for more than two seconds would be punctuated by periodic bounding. It seems like aberrant behaviour at first, yet it seems as though everyone does it. Why?

The reason, I think, is actually more to do with player speed than actually jumping. It?s not that people always like to move fast through games or that they enjoy spending time off the ground. Instead, it comes back to the original point ? games that don?t feature jumping can feel static and slow, so we use these features if they're present to help negate this effect. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a pretty fast-paced game, but running down a long corridor can still feel dull and empty; jumping as you run lets you vary the speed of the game. It creates tiny events of player agency and interaction, which stave off that staid feeling.

At the same time, adventure games that don?t feature anything so much as a sprint button? Don?t they seem increasingly slow and dated these days?


This isn?t the only reason why jumping is important, though. It helps you practice for later. It can be used to ward off boredom. It helps you to further explore the game space away from the key features. There's an abundance of smaller reasons; not least of which is possibly the fact that some people just have twitchy thumbs.

For the best games, though ? and this ties into a more overarching theory of mine about character speed ? the act of jumping can be a joy in itself. Master Chief?s jump, for example, is pleasantly floaty, while Dante?s can last for as long as you can hammer the attack buttons. Faith?s standing jump in Mirror?s Edge, however, is realistically awkward; she?s much better with running leaps.

Getting these nuances of player speed correct is one of the most subtle and important aspects of making a good game, especially for first person shooters. Trust me, I play a lot of really rubbish games and I can tell you that, if you throw all the cleverness away and boil it down to basic functionality, Half-Life 2 would still stand above Conspiracy Island 2 based solely on player speed. And the quality of the jumping.

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Thoughts on Jumping

It may seem an odd subject to focus on, as jumping doesn't seem to be very important on the face of it ? cut it out of a game, though, and it can make a huge difference. Games in which players can?t jump, or at the very least dodge or roll, can seem painfully slow, dull and static. Games in which players can jump around and use that movement to interact with the environment can seem immeasurably more fun because of it.

Take Half-Life 2, for example. It?s a game which nearly everyone would agree is well-made, decently written, fun and fast to play through. Now cast your mind back to the first scene in Kliener?s lab, where Gordon is first properly introduced to his allies, where the plot is given its first proper push and where you?re gifted with the HEV suit again. It?s a busy sequence; lots to do, lots to take in. You?d expect most players to pay close attention, at least the first time around.

Instead, every single player I know spends most of the time jumping around. Sometimes they try to jump on the scenery or knock over objects, other times they just leapfrog around the room when a simple stroll would suffice.


The same behaviour holds true in most other games too, I?ve found. When I played Beyond Good and Evil for the first time I hardly walked anywhere across the surface of Hillys; I rolled. In Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, any hallway that involved walking for more than two seconds would be punctuated by periodic bounding. It seems like aberrant behaviour at first, yet it seems as though everyone does it. Why?

The reason, I think, is actually more to do with player speed than actually jumping. It?s not that people always like to move fast through games or that they enjoy spending time off the ground. Instead, it comes back to the original point ? games that don?t feature jumping can feel static and slow, so we use these features if they're present to help negate this effect. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a pretty fast-paced game, but running down a long corridor can still feel dull and empty; jumping as you run lets you vary the speed of the game. It creates tiny events of player agency and interaction, which stave off that staid feeling.

At the same time, adventure games that don?t feature anything so much as a sprint button? Don?t they seem increasingly slow and dated these days?


This isn?t the only reason why jumping is important, though. It helps you practice for later. It can be used to ward off boredom. It helps you to further explore the game space away from the key features. There's an abundance of smaller reasons; not least of which is possibly the fact that some people just have twitchy thumbs.

For the best games, though ? and this ties into a more overarching theory of mine about character speed ? the act of jumping can be a joy in itself. Master Chief?s jump, for example, is pleasantly floaty, while Dante?s can last for as long as you can hammer the attack buttons. Faith?s standing jump in Mirror?s Edge, however, is realistically awkward; she?s much better with running leaps.

Getting these nuances of player speed correct is one of the most subtle and important aspects of making a good game, especially for first person shooters. Trust me, I play a lot of really rubbish games and I can tell you that, if you throw all the cleverness away and boil it down to basic functionality, Half-Life 2 would still stand above Conspiracy Island 2 based solely on player speed. And the quality of the jumping.

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Weekend tech reading: Llano GPU 325% faster than Sandy Bridge

AMD - Llano offers 325% better graphics performance than Sandy Bridge AMD continues to ride the GPU performance before the launch of the new mid-range processor Llano. Recently leaked documents from the company points to that the Llano-based Fusion A series will offer up to 325% better graphics performance then equivalent Intel processors based on Sandy Bridge. Nordic Hardware

Jack Wolf, who did the math behind computers, dies at 76 Jack Keil Wolf, an engineer and computer theorist whose mathematical reasoning about how best to transmit and store information helped shape the digital innards of computers and other devices that power modern society, died on May 12 at his home in the La Jolla section of San Diego. He was 76. NYT

Firefox 5 beta arrives, quietly Mozilla officially activated its beta channel on Friday, providing the first beta version that comes out of its accelerated release cycle. Don?t expect revolutionary changes. Following a first ?fake? beta build (5.0b1) that was posted on May 2, Mozilla has moved the second build (5.0b2) into the public beta channel. ConceivablyTech

Apple alumni don't fall far from the tree After selling mobile ad startup Quattro Wireless to Apple in late 2009, Lars Albright took a job helping the iPhone maker work with its community of mobile app developers. He noticed that programmers were having trouble keeping users glued to their apps. Voilà: business opportunity. Bloomberg

IT's future: Bring your own PC-tablet-phone to work CIOs should buckle up and brace themselves for a future of flexible IT as employees will be routinely bringing in their own machines and expecting the business to support them, says Tony Henderson, head of communications at UK tech sector trade body Intellect. Silicon.com

Guild Wars 2 interview We?ve already had a lengthy chat with Guild Wars 2 designers Jon Peters and Eric Flannum about how the game?s progressing but the ArenaNet devs were also kind enough to impart to us some new information on a brand new character class, the engineer. Strategy Informer

Editorial: Why Half-life 3 isn't coming soon Are you waiting for Half-life: Episode 3? Or maybe you're thinking Valve's ditched the episodic format altogether (and you'd probably be right). Regardless, don't hold your breath for a sign of life from Gordon Freeman any time soon. IGN

Google silently patches Android authentication flaw Google is implementing a server-side fix to address the authentication flaw that allows third-parties to access Android user data... eWeek

Q&A: How today's tech alienates the elderly On Silver Surfer's Day, a UK academic has blamed unnecessarily complicated user interfaces for putting older people off joining the Government-backed Race Online. PC Pro

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Obama Challenges Israel to Make Hard Choices Needed for Peace

In his remarks to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the president, while offering praise for the relationship with Israel, did not walk back from his speech on Thursday, which had infuriated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. Rather, the president took indirect aim at Mr. Netanyahu, first by repeating what the Israeli prime minister so objected to ? the phrase pre-1967 borders ? and then by challenging those whom he said had ?misrepresented? his position.

?Let me repeat what I actually said on Thursday,? Mr. Obama said in firm tones at one point, ?not what I was reported to have said.?

?I said that the United States believes that negotiations should result in two states, with permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and permanent Israeli borders with Palestine. The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states.?

The president emphasized the ?mutually agreed swaps,? then went into an elaboration of what he believes that means. Mr. Netanyahu, in his critique of Mr. Obama?s remarks, had ignored the ?mutually agreed swaps? part of the president?s proposal.

?Since my position has been misrepresented several times, let me reaffirm what ?1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps? means,? Mr. Obama said. ?By definition, it means that the parties themselves ? Israelis and Palestinians ? will negotiate a border that is different than the one that existed on June 4, 1967. It is a well known formula to all who have worked on this issue for a generation. It allows the parties themselves to account for the changes that have taken place over the last 44 years.?

?There was nothing particularly original in my proposal,? he said. ?This basic framework for negotiations has long been the basis for discussions among the parties, including previous U.S. administrations.?

Mr. Netanyahu?s furious reaction last week to what many administration officials viewed as a modest compromise from the more dramatic all-encompassing American peace plan that some of Mr. Obama?s advisers had been advocating, infuriated the White House. In particular, administration officials were angry by Mr. Netanyahu?s lecturing tone during statements the two leaders gave on Friday. American officials were also irritated by Mr. Netanyahu statement directly after Mr. Obama?s speech that used the phrase ?expects to hear? in saying that Mr. Netanyahu expected to hear certain assurances from Mr. Obama during their meeting.

Mr. Obama also assured the group that the administration was steadfast in its ?opposition to any attempt to de-legitimize the state of Israel,? but he warned that Israel would face growing isolation without a credible Middle East peace process.

Sunday?s audience, which had been quiet, cheered Mr. Obama, although the cheers were far more muted than the standing ovation they had given at other points of Mr. Obama?s speech, like when he talked about Iran and when he reiterated that his opposition to a looming United Nations vote on Palestinian statehood.

?I know very well that the easy thing to do, particularly for a president preparing for re-election, is to avoid any controversy,? Mr. Obama said. ?I don?t need Rahm? ? former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel ? ?to tell me that.?

But, Mr. Obama added, ?as I said to Prime Minister Netanyahu, I believe that the current situation in the Middle East does not allow for procrastination. I also believe that real friends talk openly and honestly with one another.?

Others close to the administration have also pushed back against the notion that Mr. Obama was signaling a major shift in American policy on Thursday. ?No, he wasn?t,? said his newly departed special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, when asked that question on Sunday.

?The president didn?t say that Israel has to go back to the ?67 lines,? Mr. Mitchell said on ABC?s ?This Week?.  ?He said ?with agreed swaps.? Those are significant.? 

Mr. Mitchell went on: ? ?Agreed? means through negotiations; both parties must agree. There?s not going to be a border unless Israel agrees to it, and we know they won?t agree unless their security needs are satisfied.?

It was a quietly delivered speech that lasted 20 minutes, and at the end, the packed hall of at the Washington Convention Center stood up for Mr. Obama and clapped ? some even cheered. There were no boos or hisses, as some of the president?s allies had feared. 

Mr. Obama?s arrival on stage, before a backdrop collage that meshed fragments of the Israeli and American flags, was met with loud applause. But that was at least partly because it followed an introduction by Lee Rosenberg, the group?s president, that ended with a guaranteed applause line: ?Thank you, Mr. President, for ridding the world of Osama bin Laden.?

Brian Knowlton contributed reporting.

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Mideast Questions Likely to Surface in Obama?s Trip to Europe

Mr. Obama will head overseas late Sunday after speaking earlier in the day to a pro-Israel lobbying group that has expressed deep suspicions of his latest efforts to break the deadlock between the Israelis and Palestinians. The upheaval in the Middle East is likely to figure prominently throughout a trip that will also take him to Britain, France and Poland.

But his 24 hours in Ireland will be a respite from geopolitics, allowing Mr. Obama to engage in a familiar ritual for American presidents: celebrating his Irish roots, however distant. He plans to drop by Moneygall, a rural hamlet where his great-great-great grandfather, Fulmouth Kearney, lived before immigrating to the United States in 1850.

Mr. Obama?s arrival follows by days a historic trip to the Irish Republic by Queen Elizabeth II. It was the first by a British monarch and showed how far the two countries have gone in ending the years of strife known as The Troubles. The Irish may be hard-pressed to match the jubilant reception they gave the queen, though they prize their ancestral ties to Mr. Obama through his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham.

?This is a homecoming of sorts for President Obama,? a deputy national security adviser, Benjamin J. Rhodes, said. ?He?s very excited to see this small town in Ireland from which he has roots, and we?re very much looking forward to seeing some of the people of Moneygall.?

Later on Monday, Mr. Obama will deliver an address in Dublin, on the historic College Green at Trinity College, where hundreds of thousands flocked to hear President Bill Clinton speak in 1995. Mr. Clinton named a special envoy to Northern Ireland, Senator George J. Mitchell, who helped negotiate the so-called Good Friday agreement in 1998, which defused the violence in Northern Ireland.

Underscoring the intractability of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mr. Mitchell turned in his resignation two weeks ago as President Obama?s special envoy to the Middle East after more than two years of futile efforts to bring the two sides to the table. The tensions in the region will loom large in London, the next stop on Mr. Obama?s itinerary. Administration officials said they expected the president to discuss the NATO-led air campaign in Libya with Prime Minister David Cameron in their meeting on Tuesday. Britain and France have pressed the United States to take a larger role in the operation, according to diplomats, out of frustration that it has failed to dislodge the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

?I?m confident they?ll talk about it in their meeting,? said Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, senior director for European affairs at the National Security Council. She predicted that Mr. Obama and Mr. Cameron would use their talks ?to show Qaddafi that time is not on his side.?

On Tuesday evening, Queen Elizabeth will host a state dinner for Mr. Obama and the first lady, Michelle Obama, at Buckingham Palace. Sticklers for protocol will no doubt be watching to see if Mrs. Obama puts her arm around the queen as she did briefly during a previous visit, prompting clucks from those who said it was a breach of decorum.

And on Wednesday Mr. Obama will address both houses of Parliament and elaborate, aides say, on the ideas he introduced last Thursday in his speech on the Arab Spring and the future of the Middle East.

Questions about the Arab world will likely resurface at Mr. Obama?s next stop: a meeting of the Group of Eight world powers in Deauville, France. The leaders, officials said, will discuss how the West can help Egypt, Tunisia and other Arab states in political transition. Even though Mr. Obama announced $2 billion in aid and debt relief for Egypt last week, he is relying on Europe to shoulder much of the financial burden.

Officials also said they expected the topic of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, to come up at the meeting. But they stressed that Mr. Obama would say little about the accusations of sexual assault against Mr. Strauss-Kahn, beyond noting Mr. Obama?s desire for an ?open process? to select a new managing director.

On Friday, Mr. Obama will fly to Poland for what is a makeup visit after the ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano forced him to cancel his attendance at the funeral of Poland?s president, Lech Kaczynski, last year. (Never mind that another Icelandic volcano is now erupting, prompting fears that a new cloud could drift over Europe later in the week.)

Polish officials are expected to press the president to allow Poland to join the State Department?s visa waiver program, which would make it easier for Poles to visit the United States. Mr. Obama has pledged to do this before he leaves office, and officials said he would discuss progress toward that goal during his 24 hours in Warsaw.

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Do Biofuels Reduce Greenhouse Gases?

Greenhouse-gas emissions from biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, may be lower than many researchers have estimated, according to a new study. The findings could further fuel a debate over whether biofuels actually reduce greenhouse-gas emissions compared to gasoline, and if so, by how much.

Some recent studies have suggested that the indirect effects of biofuels production, such as higher food prices, could encourage farmers to clear forested land to grow more crops?thereby worsening climate change. At least one study suggested that the emissions resulting from such decisions would make biofuels?even advanced biofuels made from cellulosic materials such as switchgrass?worse for the environment than gasoline. These studies use economic analysis to predict the effect of future biofuels production on land use, while attempting to control for other factors that influence farmers, such as the amount of grain stocks on hand and changes in food demand.

The new study, to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Biomass and Bioenergy, uses analysis of historical data instead of economic models. It found no statistical correlation between changes in biofuel production in the U.S. from 2002 to 2007 and recorded changes in cropland use outside of the country. "There is no evidence for indirect land use change," says Bruce Dale, a professor of chemical engineering at Michigan State University, who led the study.

Jason Hill, a professor of bioproducts and biosystems engineering at the University of Minnesota, says that it's not surprising that the study found no correlation, given that there are many competing forces that influence crop use. "It's difficult to distinguish the signal from the noise," he says.

Indeed, another study, due out in July, draws different conclusions from an analysis of historical data, says Wallace Tyner, a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University, who is one of this study's authors. He says that the data shows a large increase (27 million hectares) in the amount of land under cultivation for key crops from 2006 to 2011, a time when biofuels production rapidly increased. Most of the land was cultivated for corn, soybeans, and rapeseed, all biofuels crops. Tyner attributes the increase to biofuels production and factors such as growth in demand from China. But he says the only way to estimate how much of that increase in cropland was due to biofuels production would be to run an economic simulation. Using one such model, he recently estimated that the share of the increase from U.S. biofuels production was about 2 million hectares.

Given the lack of scientific consensus around the impacts of land use changes on greenhouse-gas emissions?and the likelihood that there will always be some uncertainty in the estimates?some researchers have recommended policies that account for a range of possible impacts.

They think, for example, that policymakers should weigh the risk that a biofuel will increase greenhouse-gas emissions against the risk of not using the biofuel, and using gasoline instead. This would resemble the way that regulators weigh the risks and benefits of new drugs, says Michael O'Hare, a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley.

Others, including representatives of the biofuels industry, argue that policymakers should ignore the effect of land use change until there is better research. They also say that if indirect effects of biofuels are to be estimates, studies of indirect effects of gasoline production should also be considered when comparing gasoline and biofuels.

For example, a recent study suggested that factoring in the impact of land use changes from mining oil sands in Canada could increase estimates of carbon-dioxide emissions. Including such emissions could make gasoline look worse than it does now, and make biofuels look better.

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Mideast Questions Likely to Surface in Obama?s Trip to Europe

Mr. Obama will head overseas late Sunday after speaking earlier in the day to a pro-Israel lobbying group that has expressed deep suspicions of his latest efforts to break the deadlock between the Israelis and Palestinians. The upheaval in the Middle East is likely to figure prominently throughout a trip that will also take him to Britain, France and Poland.

But his 24 hours in Ireland will be a respite from geopolitics, allowing Mr. Obama to engage in a familiar ritual for American presidents: celebrating his Irish roots, however distant. He plans to drop by Moneygall, a rural hamlet where his great-great-great grandfather, Fulmouth Kearney, lived before immigrating to the United States in 1850.

Mr. Obama?s arrival follows by days a historic trip to the Irish Republic by Queen Elizabeth II. It was the first by a British monarch and showed how far the two countries have gone in ending the years of strife known as The Troubles. The Irish may be hard-pressed to match the jubilant reception they gave the queen, though they prize their ancestral ties to Mr. Obama through his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham.

?This is a homecoming of sorts for President Obama,? a deputy national security adviser, Benjamin J. Rhodes, said. ?He?s very excited to see this small town in Ireland from which he has roots, and we?re very much looking forward to seeing some of the people of Moneygall.?

Later on Monday, Mr. Obama will deliver an address in Dublin, on the historic College Green at Trinity College, where hundreds of thousands flocked to hear President Bill Clinton speak in 1995. Mr. Clinton named a special envoy to Northern Ireland, Senator George J. Mitchell, who helped negotiate the so-called Good Friday agreement in 1998, which defused the violence in Northern Ireland.

Underscoring the intractability of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mr. Mitchell turned in his resignation two weeks ago as President Obama?s special envoy to the Middle East after more than two years of futile efforts to bring the two sides to the table. The tensions in the region will loom large in London, the next stop on Mr. Obama?s itinerary. Administration officials said they expected the president to discuss the NATO-led air campaign in Libya with Prime Minister David Cameron in their meeting on Tuesday. Britain and France have pressed the United States to take a larger role in the operation, according to diplomats, out of frustration that it has failed to dislodge the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

?I?m confident they?ll talk about it in their meeting,? said Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, senior director for European affairs at the National Security Council. She predicted that Mr. Obama and Mr. Cameron would use their talks ?to show Qaddafi that time is not on his side.?

On Tuesday evening, Queen Elizabeth will host a state dinner for Mr. Obama and the first lady, Michelle Obama, at Buckingham Palace. Sticklers for protocol will no doubt be watching to see if Mrs. Obama puts her arm around the queen as she did briefly during a previous visit, prompting clucks from those who said it was a breach of decorum.

And on Wednesday Mr. Obama will address both houses of Parliament and elaborate, aides say, on the ideas he introduced last Thursday in his speech on the Arab Spring and the future of the Middle East.

Questions about the Arab world will likely resurface at Mr. Obama?s next stop: a meeting of the Group of Eight world powers in Deauville, France. The leaders, officials said, will discuss how the West can help Egypt, Tunisia and other Arab states in political transition. Even though Mr. Obama announced $2 billion in aid and debt relief for Egypt last week, he is relying on Europe to shoulder much of the financial burden.

Officials also said they expected the topic of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, to come up at the meeting. But they stressed that Mr. Obama would say little about the accusations of sexual assault against Mr. Strauss-Kahn, beyond noting Mr. Obama?s desire for an ?open process? to select a new managing director.

On Friday, Mr. Obama will fly to Poland for what is a makeup visit after the ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano forced him to cancel his attendance at the funeral of Poland?s president, Lech Kaczynski, last year. (Never mind that another Icelandic volcano is now erupting, prompting fears that a new cloud could drift over Europe later in the week.)

Polish officials are expected to press the president to allow Poland to join the State Department?s visa waiver program, which would make it easier for Poles to visit the United States. Mr. Obama has pledged to do this before he leaves office, and officials said he would discuss progress toward that goal during his 24 hours in Warsaw.

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Mideast Questions Likely to Surface in Obama?s Trip to Europe

Mr. Obama will head overseas late Sunday after speaking earlier in the day to a pro-Israel lobbying group that has expressed deep suspicions of his latest efforts to break the deadlock between the Israelis and Palestinians. The upheaval in the Middle East is likely to figure prominently throughout a trip that will also take him to Britain, France and Poland.

But his 24 hours in Ireland will be a respite from geopolitics, allowing Mr. Obama to engage in a familiar ritual for American presidents: celebrating his Irish roots, however distant. He plans to drop by Moneygall, a rural hamlet where his great-great-great grandfather, Fulmouth Kearney, lived before immigrating to the United States in 1850.

Mr. Obama?s arrival follows by days a historic trip to the Irish Republic by Queen Elizabeth II. It was the first by a British monarch and showed how far the two countries have gone in ending the years of strife known as The Troubles. The Irish may be hard-pressed to match the jubilant reception they gave the queen, though they prize their ancestral ties to Mr. Obama through his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham.

?This is a homecoming of sorts for President Obama,? a deputy national security adviser, Benjamin J. Rhodes, said. ?He?s very excited to see this small town in Ireland from which he has roots, and we?re very much looking forward to seeing some of the people of Moneygall.?

Later on Monday, Mr. Obama will deliver an address in Dublin, on the historic College Green at Trinity College, where hundreds of thousands flocked to hear President Bill Clinton speak in 1995. Mr. Clinton named a special envoy to Northern Ireland, Senator George J. Mitchell, who helped negotiate the so-called Good Friday agreement in 1998, which defused the violence in Northern Ireland.

Underscoring the intractability of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mr. Mitchell turned in his resignation two weeks ago as President Obama?s special envoy to the Middle East after more than two years of futile efforts to bring the two sides to the table. The tensions in the region will loom large in London, the next stop on Mr. Obama?s itinerary. Administration officials said they expected the president to discuss the NATO-led air campaign in Libya with Prime Minister David Cameron in their meeting on Tuesday. Britain and France have pressed the United States to take a larger role in the operation, according to diplomats, out of frustration that it has failed to dislodge the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

?I?m confident they?ll talk about it in their meeting,? said Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, senior director for European affairs at the National Security Council. She predicted that Mr. Obama and Mr. Cameron would use their talks ?to show Qaddafi that time is not on his side.?

On Tuesday evening, Queen Elizabeth will host a state dinner for Mr. Obama and the first lady, Michelle Obama, at Buckingham Palace. Sticklers for protocol will no doubt be watching to see if Mrs. Obama puts her arm around the queen as she did briefly during a previous visit, prompting clucks from those who said it was a breach of decorum.

And on Wednesday Mr. Obama will address both houses of Parliament and elaborate, aides say, on the ideas he introduced last Thursday in his speech on the Arab Spring and the future of the Middle East.

Questions about the Arab world will likely resurface at Mr. Obama?s next stop: a meeting of the Group of Eight world powers in Deauville, France. The leaders, officials said, will discuss how the West can help Egypt, Tunisia and other Arab states in political transition. Even though Mr. Obama announced $2 billion in aid and debt relief for Egypt last week, he is relying on Europe to shoulder much of the financial burden.

Officials also said they expected the topic of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, to come up at the meeting. But they stressed that Mr. Obama would say little about the accusations of sexual assault against Mr. Strauss-Kahn, beyond noting Mr. Obama?s desire for an ?open process? to select a new managing director.

On Friday, Mr. Obama will fly to Poland for what is a makeup visit after the ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano forced him to cancel his attendance at the funeral of Poland?s president, Lech Kaczynski, last year. (Never mind that another Icelandic volcano is now erupting, prompting fears that a new cloud could drift over Europe later in the week.)

Polish officials are expected to press the president to allow Poland to join the State Department?s visa waiver program, which would make it easier for Poles to visit the United States. Mr. Obama has pledged to do this before he leaves office, and officials said he would discuss progress toward that goal during his 24 hours in Warsaw.

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