Source: Engadget – Hackers target Vietnam airport screens with political messages
Monthly Archives: July 2016
HBO's 'Westworld' sci-fi series arrives October 2nd
JJ Abrams’ and Jonathan Nolan’s TV adaptation of Westworld hit its share of snags on the way to release (it was originally supposed to debut in 2015), but it’s nearly here. HBO has confirmed that the robot-theme-park-gone-wrong show will debut on Oc…
Source: Engadget – HBO’s ‘Westworld’ sci-fi series arrives October 2nd
The Week In Games: The New Adventures Of Old Batman
After years of playing as a man in a bat-themed armor brutally beating thugs, this week we finally get to play that same man
pretending to be a normal, everyday billionaire.
Source: Kotaku – The Week In Games: The New Adventures Of Old Batman
Create a Voice Controlled Scoreboard with Alexa and IFTTT
Spend a lot of time playing indoor games where you’re keeping track of points? It sucks to have to stop the action to draw a line on a chalkboard, which is why Instructables user JeffreyLoucks created his own voice controlled scoreboard system using an Alexa and IFTTT.
Source: LifeHacker – Create a Voice Controlled Scoreboard with Alexa and IFTTT
C Isn't The Most Popular Programming Language, JavaScript Is
An anonymous reader quotes Network World:
U.K.-based technology analyst firm RedMonk just released the latest version of its biannual rankings of programming languages, and once again JavaScript tops the list, followed by Java and PHP. Those are same three languages that topped RedMonk’s list in January. In fact, the entire top 10 remains the same as it was it was six months ago…
Python ranked #4 on RedMonk’s list, while the survey found a three-way tie for fifth place between Ruby, C#, and C++, with C coming in at #9 (ranking just below CSS). Network World argues that while change comes slowly, “if you go back deeper into RedMonk’s rankings, you can see slow, ongoing ascents from languages such as Go, Swift and even TypeScript.”
Interestingly, an earlier ranking by the IEEE declared C to be the top programming language of 2016, followed by Java, Python, C++, and R. But RedMonk’s methodology involves studying the prevalence of each language on both Stack Overflow and GitHub, a correlation which “we believe to be predictive of future use, hence their value.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – C Isn’t The Most Popular Programming Language, JavaScript Is
GNOME Maps Should Now Work Again, Switches From Mapquest To Mapbox
The GNOME Maps program has seen update in the GNOME 3.14/3.16/3.18/3.20/3.21 series with new releases to change its tiling provider so that the mapping program will work once again…
Source: Phoronix – GNOME Maps Should Now Work Again, Switches From Mapquest To Mapbox
Rated E For Sexual Conduct
Gal*Gun: Double Peace is a game about shooting schoolgirls with your love. It is not for everyone
, and especially not for Everyone with a capital E, as shown on the back of the physical Vita release of the game.
Source: Kotaku – Rated E For Sexual Conduct
Uber reportedly pours $500 million into mapping the planet
Source: Engadget – Uber reportedly pours 0 million into mapping the planet
From Azathoth to Zann: Scare Kids to Sleep With Free Mythos ABC Book
Fans of H.P. Lovecraft, newcomers to the horror writer’s work or anyone who likes the idea of slightly tormenting children, Mythos ABC- A Lovecraftian Alphabet Book is now available as a free, downloadable PDF.
Source: io9 – From Azathoth to Zann: Scare Kids to Sleep With Free Mythos ABC Book
Reboots be damned, Stranger Things shows a better way to do nostalgia
This trailer is completely fine, but the series is so much more charming.
Warning: This post contains minor spoilers for Stranger Things‘ first season.
New Netflix sci-fi series Stranger Things wastes no time transporting viewers to a time, place, and feeling. There are vinyl records and cassette tapes, endless freedom via fixed gear bikes, and AV Club devotees with ham radios and walkie-talkies. The first episode even uses an epic, demogorgon-loaded Dungeons & Dragons campaign as both a delightful pop-culture reference and as an obvious call-out to some expected character tropes from the ’80s.
Our four kid heroes represent well-established kid-movie roles: the quiet one (Will), the cynic (Lucas), the optimist (Mike), and the realist (Duncan). They have awkward, older siblings at opposite ends of the popularity spectrum, and they interact with adults we already kind of know at first blush—a flawed but capable sheriff, a stressed but determined single mom, a sage-like science teacher. Add allusions to Stephen King, Steven Spielberg, and a bevy of other era-appropriate pop culture entities, and you’d be forgiven for thinking you know how this “set in 1983” series will play out.
One of many, many videos you can find citing and explaining the pop culture allusions in Stranger Things
After all, this is a story that could happen (and has happened) in any era. A kid has gone missing, some dark forces seem to be at play, and it’ll take a village (or at least a team of adults, our D&D nerds, and their siblings) to figure everything out. But what makes Stranger Things stand out after its eight-episode first season is that the show only uses the familiar as a backdrop; it doesn’t wallow in it or simply retread known stories. This isn’t Ready Player One, new Ghostbusters, or any of the upcoming Star Wars onslaught. Instead, Netflix’s lovely homage to 1980s genre fiction deploys nostalgia only to speed up and deepen world-building. Its story, by contrast, feels fresh by including enough twists and turns to keep even the most capable pop-culture detectives guessing and entertained.
Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Source: Ars Technica – Reboots be damned, Stranger Things shows a better way to do nostalgia
No, Niantic Isn't Making a Harry Potter Version of Pokémon Go
Since Pokémon Go hit the app stores, people have been wondering what other fictional universes they could be fun in augmented reality. Of course, Harry Potter is one that keeps showing up.
Source: Gizmodo – No, Niantic Isn’t Making a Harry Potter Version of Pokémon Go
Microsoft Brings ChakraCore to Linux and OS X
An anonymous reader quotes a columnist at CIO:
A few days ago I wrote about Microsoft’s revival of Skype for Linux. I called it “a big deal” — less because of Skype itself and more because it signified Microsoft’s recognition that Linux is a platform worth supporting… Now the company has done it again. At Node Summit this week, Microsoft announced the availability of ChakraCore for Linux. ChakraCore is the core part of the Chakra JavaScript engine that powers Microsoft Edge and Universal Windows Platform. With this move, Microsoft is putting one of its core technologies on a competing platform. This, more than any other Linux-friendly move the company has made, is a clear departure from the Microsoft of Gates and Ballmer that used its technologies to lock users into Windows…
While Ubuntu is the primary Linux distribution that Microsoft is using to showcase its ChakraCore technologies, the company said that the support should easily translate to other modern Linux distributions.
Microsoft’s blog post says the experimental implementation runs not only on x64 Linux but also on OS X.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Microsoft Brings ChakraCore to Linux and OS X
Worrying About Money Is Tough on Wallets and Wrinkles
As someone who often struggles to make ends meet, I often feel like I want to just curl up in a ball and never leave my house. During the worst months, I often found that it took a toll on my appearance. The dark circles under my eyes started to sag, my face would break out in pimples, and I’d gain weight. Of course, that only added to the stress.
Source: Gizmodo – Worrying About Money Is Tough on Wallets and Wrinkles
Netflix's Stranger Things Characters Get Animated in Adorable Flipbook
Netflix’s new 80s sci-fi tribute series Stranger Things is excellent. It’s got the love and adulation of critics and fans alike, including “The Flippist” artist Ben Zurawski. In fact, after binge-watching all eight episodes of the Netflix show last week, Zurawski created a cute flipbook all about the young heroes.
Source: io9 – Netflix’s Stranger Things Characters Get Animated in Adorable Flipbook
GoldenHour.One Tells You the Perfect Time and Place to Take Photos
iOS: We all know that golden hour is the hour
before sunset and the hour after sunrise when lighting is great for photography. There’s a bit more nuance to it than that, and this app helps photographers optimize golden hour to get the best possible pics.
Source: LifeHacker – GoldenHour.One Tells You the Perfect Time and Place to Take Photos
Cable Companies Urge Judges To Kill 'Net Neutrality' Rules
An anonymous reader quotes Reuters:
Trade associations representing wireless, cable and broadband operators on Friday urged the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to reverse…the Federal Communications Commission’s so-called net neutrality rules, put in place last year to make internet service providers treat all internet traffic equally…
The cable groups said the court should correct “serious errors” in a decision “that radically reshapes federal law governing a massive sector of the economy, which flourished due to hundreds of billions of dollars of investment made in reliance on the policy the order throws overboard”.. In its filing on Friday, the CTIA said it was illegal to subject broadband internet access to “public-utility style, common carrier regulation” and illegal to impose “common-carrier status on mobile broadband.”
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said he wasn’t surprised to see “the big dogs” challenging net neutrality.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Cable Companies Urge Judges To Kill ‘Net Neutrality’ Rules
Leak: Samsung's next Gear VR works with your old phone
The Galaxy Note 7 isn’t likely to be the only treat at Samsung’s August 2nd media event… and you may well be happy even if you have no intention of buying a new smartphone. Well-known tipster OnLeaks and French tech site Nowhereelse claim to have…
Source: Engadget – Leak: Samsung’s next Gear VR works with your old phone
It's Good Those Pesky Infinity Stones Won't Be in Guardians of the Galaxy 2
We all have a love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with the Infinity Stones, Marvel’s favorite magical McGuffin. So, will they make a cameo in the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie? Director James Gunn addressed it, plain and simple, on Facebook Saturday.
Source: io9 – It’s Good Those Pesky Infinity Stones Won’t Be in Guardians of the Galaxy 2
Kotaku 'Shop Contest: Being Detective Pikachu: Winners!
Last week
we asked our ‘Shop-savvy readers to show us who could play Detective Pikachu in the upcoming live-action film
. It all came down to a coin-toss.
Source: Kotaku – Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Being Detective Pikachu: Winners!
Use the AIM Method to Take Control of Your Happiness
Being happy isn’t just something you achieve by ticking off certain boxes (or else we’d all do it). It’s a mental state that you have to practice over time. To get better at it, use the AIM method.
Source: LifeHacker – Use the AIM Method to Take Control of Your Happiness