At this point, it’s well-known that Facebook is as much an advertising company as it is a social network. The company is probably second only to Google in the data it collects on users, but the info we all share on the Facebook site just isn’t enough…
Source: Engadget – Facebook buys data on users’ offline habits for better ads
Monthly Archives: December 2016
There's a Good Reason to Be Excited About Game of Thrones Having Shorter Seasons
Shortening the final two seasons of Game of Thrones seems, on its face, to be a bad thing. All previous seasons included 10 episodes, but the next two will only have seven or eight each. Overall, we’re getting less Game of Thrones than usual! But one of the show’s stars has a very good explanation as to why having shorter seasons is actually a good thing.
Source: io9 – There’s a Good Reason to Be Excited About Game of Thrones Having Shorter Seasons
Trump Bans Drones, Selfie Sticks, and Guns From His Inauguration Because Apparently He Hates Freedom
Donald Trump will be sworn in as President of the United States on January 20th! And if you plan to attend the festivities in Washington DC you should be aware of some ground rules. Rule number one: No explosives.
Source: Gizmodo – Trump Bans Drones, Selfie Sticks, and Guns From His Inauguration Because Apparently He Hates Freedom
Nebby Gets Out of The Bag, Destroys A Pokémon Team
The only two moves that Cosmog can learn are Splash and Teleport. Surely, then, a Cosmog would be useless in a Pokémon battle? Not necessarily!
Source: Kotaku – Nebby Gets Out of The Bag, Destroys A Pokémon Team
Checking Email as Soon as You Wake up Could be Ruining Your Day
From a CNBC report: If you’re like most people, you wake up to an alarm ringing on your smartphone. Then you probably roll over and check your work email. That’s a dangerous way to start the day, according to a woman who studies happiness for a living. Reading just one negative email could lead you to report having a bad day hours later, says Michelle Gielan, former national CBS News anchor. […] Before you check your email or the news, put yourself in the right frame of mind by taking two minutes to draft a positive email to someone in your social support network. Thank a friend or family member for their support, or praise a colleague on their recent work, she suggests. After you send your upbeat email, move on to your regular routine of checking your work email or the news. That two-minute message primes your brain to see everything in a more positive light.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Checking Email as Soon as You Wake up Could be Ruining Your Day
Why are so many pedestrians getting killed in our roads?
There are a lot of reasons, but in the end, it is all about design.
Source: TreeHugger – Why are so many pedestrians getting killed in our roads?
Why Trolls Won in 2016
A decade is all it took, more or less, for the internet to become unmanageable.
Source: Gizmodo – Why Trolls Won in 2016
2017 Tech Company Deathwatch
Ars Technica has posted what they call a “short list of dead companies walking” today. Aside from the obvious ones on the list like Yahoo and Blackberry, there were some not so obvious companies like Gearbox Software on there as well.
Given the flat-lined response to Battleborn, Gearbox needed a good product to follow it up. Instead, the company pushed out two lackluster remasters. The first, a 20th anniversary edition of Duke Nukem 3D, may not have cracked the 50,000 unit-sales mark since launching in October on consoles and PC (this conservative estimate relies on a SteamSpy estimate of 10,000 sales on PC, so its total sales could be even lower). That will be followed in January with a remaster of the 2011 shooter Bulletstorm—to be sold at a crazy-high price point of $60 with very little in the way of new content. Unless Gearbox knows something that I don’t about this pricing strategy, I expect anemic Bulletstorm sales to force some tough decisions at Gearbox HQ. These will rattle the company through the rest of 2017, especially if 2K Games decides to cut its losses in terms of its Gearbox publishing arrangement.
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Source: [H]ardOCP – 2017 Tech Company Deathwatch
The year's biggest loser was the American public
Even if we judge 2016 purely on the musical legends it stole from us, it would be an awful one. The truth is, this year has been rough by any standard. Our social networks, ostensibly designed to connect us, led us to turn on one another. Incidents o…
Source: Engadget – The year’s biggest loser was the American public
Upcycling workshop in Israel leads fight against human trafficking
This social enterprise is on a mission to provide skills training to former sex workers, while transforming waste products into art.
Source: TreeHugger – Upcycling workshop in Israel leads fight against human trafficking
You Can Build a Working Nerf Blaster Using Lego
Proving once again that the only toy any kid really needs is a giant box of Lego, YouTube’s Astonishing Studios has managed to recreate a working version of the classic Nerf Maverick REV-6 blaster using nothing but plastic bricks and a metal spring for power.
Source: Gizmodo – You Can Build a Working Nerf Blaster Using Lego
Climate researcher’s defamation suit about insulting columns is on
Enlarge / Mike Mann of Penn State poses for a selfie with a fan. (credit: Andrew Read/Penn State)
Several years back, some conservative columnists wrote pieces that accused a prominent climate researcher of having fraudulently manipulated data, phrasing it in a way that made comparisons with a convicted child molester. The researcher demanded the columns be removed; when the publishers refused, he turned to the courts. His suit, filed in the District of Columbia’s Superior Court, has been kicking around ever since, as motions to get it dismissed have ended up languishing amidst more filings and an appeal.
In the mean time, events seem to have overtaken the case. With no facts to back them up and plenty of evidence to the contrary, the columns at issue now seem to fit the definition of what we’re now calling “fake news.” And, just in time to be relevant, the appeals court has weighed in, ruling that the case should go to trial and indicating that the climate scientist has a good chance of prevailing there.
Climate fight
At issue is the research of Penn State’s Mike Mann, who specializes in reconstructing global temperature records from periods before thermometers were available. His initial work showed a long period of relatively mild variations, followed by a sudden, sharp rise in temperature over the last century. The resulting graph picked up the nickname the “hockey stick,” and has been the subject of contention since it was released. Mann has become a prominent advocate of action on climate change, writing a regular stream of books and columns meant for popular audiences.
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Source: Ars Technica – Climate researcher’s defamation suit about insulting columns is on
Make a Tasty Weed-Infused Honey With Only Three Ingredients
A drizzle of honey in a cup of tea can sweeten up your favorite soothing beverage, but a drizzle of weed-infused honey can really enhance the relaxing nature of the drink.
Source: LifeHacker – Make a Tasty Weed-Infused Honey With Only Three Ingredients
Steve Rogers Has Turned Into a Full-On Comic Book Supervillain
If you’ve been following the long saga of Steve Rogers, you’ll know that this year he returned to superpowered heroism as the current second Captain America. You’ll also know that he came back with some… intriguing quirks, like, for example, being a secret brainwashed Hydra agent. That’d be bad enough, but now, he’s become a loopy supervillain, and it’s amazing.
Source: io9 – Steve Rogers Has Turned Into a Full-On Comic Book Supervillain
Joke Science Papers Get Less Funny Every Year
Imagine reading a study from a prestigious science journal and finding out that the scientists performed and wrote the study as a joke. Sure, all of the data is true, but they littered the abstract and conclusion sections with irony. Other years you might have found it funny. But what if the joke was so arcane that only the scientist got it? And what if just minutes before you’d seen another fake news article denying climate change?
Source: Gizmodo – Joke Science Papers Get Less Funny Every Year
Broadwell HD Graphics 5500 Delivering Similar Vulkan/OpenGL Performance
With having out a Core i7 “Broadwell” ThinkPad X1 Carbon laptop for the MoCA 2.0 network tests, I decided to run some end-of-year graphics tests on this Core i7 5600U system with OpenGL and Vulkan…
Source: Phoronix – Broadwell HD Graphics 5500 Delivering Similar Vulkan/OpenGL Performance
Seattle Region Home To 10 of Nation's 30 Most Competitive Neighborhoods For House Hunters
After a recent report revealed Seattle had the nation’s hottest housing market for the second month running, it should come as no surprise that many of the most competitive neighborhoods in the country are clustered around the Seattle region. From a report on GeekWire: Redfin, a Seattle-based real estate and technology company, crunched the numbers on the most competitive neighborhoods from house hunters across 27 U.S. metro areas. Four of the top 10 and 10 of the top 30 hottest neighborhoods are in or near Redfin’s hometown of Seattle. Bellevue, Wash.’s Factoria neighborhood, home to T-Mobile, is the most competitive neighborhood in the country. Seattle’s University district is second, followed by two neighborhoods in Boston, Mass. Redfin ranked the neighborhoods based on the percentages of homes that sold for cash and sold for more than their asking price. Analysts also considered the median days on the market and home price growth in each neighborhood. Home prices in the Seattle area are soaring, fueled by booming job and population growth.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Seattle Region Home To 10 of Nation’s 30 Most Competitive Neighborhoods For House Hunters
A Conceptual Floating Cycling Gym That Members Pedal Down The River
This is the conceptual Paris Navigating Gym, the brainchild of Italian design firm Carlo Ratti Associati. It consists of a 65-foot boat with 45 stationary cycling stations that power the boat’s journey down the Seine River. Not like a paddleboat though, but rather by turning human pedaling into electricity, both to power the cycling equipment (ie display screens) and an electric engine. The power can also be supplemented by solar cells when there aren’t enough cyclists onboard or nobody feels like pedaling. While still conceptual, the firm believes that could produce a functional prototype within 18 months. No word if the boat makes a round trip or drops you off somewhere other than where you started, but if that’s the case then why not just bike there instead? I love biking outdoors, but I tried a cycling class at the gym once and it just wasn’t for me. “That was Zumba.” Whatever, never again.
Keep going for a couple more shots while I can’t even begin to imagine what the membership fees to a floating cycling gym in Paris would cost.
Source: Geekologie – A Conceptual Floating Cycling Gym That Members Pedal Down The River
Nathan Grayson’s Top 10 Games Of 2016
“Pa,” said the girl, “famine took everything from us, and disease the rest. Also the other day a pack of wolves plain stole old man Edwards, and they didn’t even ‘splain what they was plannin’ to use him fer.” The father studied his daughter, gaunt but strong, face hollowed by months of uncertainty. “The video games, though,” he replied. “The video games were good this year.”
Source: Kotaku – Nathan Grayson’s Top 10 Games Of 2016
Sonos alarms are waking users a day early
Source: Engadget – Sonos alarms are waking users a day early