Every company wants kids to build stuff—not in an illegal child labor kind of way but in a fun, educational kind of way. Ball robots are teaching kids code
and Google’s new modular blocks work toward a similar goal. But Bose’s BOSEbuild speaker is more interested in teaching the ins and outs of sound and speaker design. It also looks cool as hell.
Source: Gizmodo – Bose’s New Speaker Only Costs 0 But You Have to Build It Yourself
Reading Marion Nestle’s Food Politics will make you feel like a speck in a universe of giants. Corporations alternately battle and collude with the United States government in chapter after chapter, spending billions of dollars to influence what you, the consumer, choose to put in your mouth.
Source: LifeHacker – Food Politics Shows You How Your Sausage Is Made
If you have a bunch of old printed photos sitting in a drawer somewhere, there are plenty of ways you can easily save digital versions of them. You could scan the original negatives, but for that, you need a special scanner and a lot of time. On the other hand, you could also just use your phone.
Source: Gizmodo – How To Save Old Film Photos With Your Phone
Facebook’s save-for-later feature just got much quicker if you’re a Chrome fan. The social network is releasing a Save to Facebook extension for Google’s web browser that lets you preserve that news story or recipe for posterity. There’s a Share to F…
Source: Engadget – Facebook add-ons save and share stories in Chrome
It’s telling that most of my stories about Windows 10, a genuinely decent operating system, have been about how crappy Microsoft has made the upgrade experience. Microsoft seems to be getting the hint, though.
Source: Kotaku – Microsoft Altering Its Shady Windows 10 Forced Upgrade System
Yandere Simulator would be less messed up if it was just about murdering high schoolers.
Source: Kotaku – The Secretive Creator Of Yandere Simulator, A Game About Murdering High School Girls
Less than a week after a California-based woman won $10,000 lawsuit against Microsoft over Windows 10 upgrades, the Redmond-based company has announced it will make it easier for users to say no to Windows 10 updates. The company plans to change the Windows 10 update prompt to make it clearer and easier for Windows 7 and Windows 8.x users to schedule or reject upgrading to Windows 10. ZDNet reports:Microsoft officials said late on June 27 that the new update experience — with clearer “upgrade now, schedule a time, or decline the free offer” — will start rolling out this week. Microsoft also will revert to making clicking on the Red X at the corner of the Windows 10 update box dismiss the update, rather than initiate it, as it has done for the past several weeks. Microsoft officials said they are making the change “in response to customer feedback.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Microsoft To Make Saying No To Windows 10 Update Easier
Now that we’re down to just one nominee per party, we’re starting to hear some finer points of the candidate’s platforms. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton revealed a more detailed tech policy today, a plan that includes hig…
Source: Engadget – Clinton’s tech policy includes student loan relief for startups
Such cantilevers! Who knew that shipping containers could do that.
Source: TreeHugger – Shipping container pavilion lets it all hang out
Will Burrard-Lucas likes to photograph unsuspecting African animals with strategically placed camera traps. For his latest project, the wildlife photographer sought to capture images of nocturnal animals as they conduct their affairs at night, and the results are spectacular.
Source: io9 – 13 Sensational Camera Trap Photos of African Animals At Night
Seen here looking like a poor man’s Matthew McConaughey (a VERY poor man’s — a hobo’s Matthew McConaughey), film director Aaron Chervenak went to a Las Vegas wedding chapel and married his smartphone, presumably just to make this ridiculous little video about it because this is the world we live in. I want out of this snow-globe.
If we’re going to be honest with ourselves, we connect with our phones on so many emotional levels. We look to it for solace, to calm us down, to put us to sleep, to ease our minds. And to me, that’s also what a relationship is about. So, in a sense, my smartphone has been my longest relationship.
How profound. Such a powerful message. Of course when you’ve never had a real human relationship that’s lasted past a single Tinder date of course your phone is going to win the longest relationship award. Me? I date a phone for like six months to a year then shatter them into a thousand pieces. That wasn’t meant to be a metaphor. Still, no word if these two have consummated their relationship yet, and I’m thankful for that.
Keep going for the video. Also, can he be charged with murder if her battery dies?
Source: Geekologie – So, It’s Come To This: Man Marries His Smartphone
The “miracle question” is a thought experiment that’s used in solutions-focused brief therapy. It’s designed to shift your focus on how helpless you feel to being able to see positive solutions and good things that are happening. Here’s how it can work for you.
Source: LifeHacker – Answer the ‘Miracle Question’ to Overcome Your Fitness Lows
Source: Engadget – Microsoft revamps pushy Windows 10 upgrade process
If you’re the kind of person who takes lots of photos and videos at concerts, your days might be numbered. Apple has been granted a patent that would let the company to disable photo and video capturing in places where it’s frowned upon.
Source: Gizmodo – New Apple Patent Could Stop You From Taking Photos and Videos at Concerts
Jason Donenfeld announced today WireGuard, what he describes as a next-generation secure network tunnel for the Linux kernel…
Source: Phoronix – Next-Generation Secure Network Tunnel Announced For The Linux Kernel
More companies need to do stuff like this. The best part about using this service is that the whole thing is operated just like you are shopping for something on Amazon, complete with a search bar, star ratings and user reviews.
Just ahead of the back-to-school season, Amazon plans to make a major foray into the education technology market for primary and secondary schools, a territory that Apple, Google and Microsoft have heavily staked out. Monday morning, Amazon said that it would introduce an online marketplace with tens of thousands of free lesson plans, worksheets and other instructional materials for teachers in late August or early September.
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Source: [H]ardOCP – Amazon Unveils Online Education Service for Teachers
I like how they make it seem like people leave data on old computers and drives on accident. If you are like me, I leave naked pictures on all the stuff I sell just for funsies. Consider it bonus content.
A new study (PDF), conducted by the Blancco Technology Group, finds that a staggering amount of personal and confidential information is retrievable from used, resold, or refurbished devices that have supposedly been wiped. Of the 200 devices they tested, 78% — more than three-quarters — had some kind of residual data on them that should not have been there.
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Source: [H]ardOCP – 78% Of Resold Drives Still Contain Readable Data
The production company that is currently adapting Ghost in the Shell with Scarlett Johansson has just announced it’s remaking another famous work of Japanese pop culture. It’s acquired the rights to Lone Wolf and Cub: Final Conflict, based off the comic series written by Koike Kazuo and illustrated by Goseki Kojima.
Source: io9 – Lone Wolf and Cub to Get English Language Remake With ‘Essentially Japanese’ Cast
Jaunt is a company obsessed with creating the cameras and hardware needed for artists and creators to fully embrace virtual reality. The big problem is that those cameras can be cost-prohibitive. It’s why Jaunt only works with partners with deep pockets, like Sir Paul McCartney. Now Jaunt is opening its doors to the public by launching a hardware rental program with Radiant Images.
Source: Gizmodo – You Can Now Rent Jaunt’s Crazy Expensive Camera For Your Own VR Creations
Reader citadrianne shares a Motherboard article: There are big “no trespassing” signs affixed to most of our electronics. If you own a gaming console, laptop, or computer, it’s likely you’ve seen one of these warnings in the form of a sticker placed over a screw or a seam: “Warranty void if removed.” In addition, big manufacturers such as Sony, Microsoft, and Apple explicitly note or imply in their official agreements that their year-long manufacturer warranties — which entitle you to a replacement or repair if your device is defective — are void if consumers attempt to repair their gadgets or take them to a third party repair professional. What almost no one knows is that these stickers and clauses are illegal under a federal law passed in 1975 called the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act . To be clear, federal law says you can open your electronics without voiding the warranty, regardless of what the language of that warranty says.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – How Sony, Microsoft, and Other Gadget Makers Violate Federal Warranty Law