via http://www.bonjourmadame.fr/post/49664598345/propose-par-jerome
Darshu17
Shared posts
tumblr_mm6eapOQm01qzy9ouo1_500.jpg (Image JPEG, 500x732 pixels) - Redimensionnée (91%)
Segunda Rima com Bunda #222
Olá, amigos. Adivinha que dia é hoje? Nem precisa dizer que é o dia com as melhores bundas da semana do Uhull. Bora ver as belezuras que preparamos pra vocês hoje no Segunda Rima com Bunda!
Se gostou, pode ver outros S.R.B. que perdeu!
- Segunda rima c/ bunda – 216
- Segunda rima c/ bunda – 217
- Segunda rima c/ bunda – 218
- Segunda rima c/ bunda – 219
- Segunda rima c/ bunda – 220
- Segunda rima c/ bunda – 221
Pin-Digital, The NSFW Startup Behind (Ahem) PinSex And PinGay, Raises $800K
Pin-Digital, a Barcelona-based startup that created PinSex and PinGay, says that it has raised $800,000 in funding.
The names are pretty self-explanatory — they’re both Pinterest-style sites where users can save, share, and browse adult content.
It turns out that there are several Pinterest-inspired for porn sites, including sex.com and Snatchly. Pin-Digital founder and CEO Christian Thorn suggested that until now, there hasn’t been “real social media for adult content”.
The Pinterest model is one that makes sense for this kind of content, he added, because it’s “very visual” while also having an aspect of social following. As for what will set Thorn’s sites apart, he said he’s hoping to turn them into the place where porn stars can connect with their fans, and he has already signed one model, Vanilla DeVille.
He added that the funding includes his own money, along with undisclosed angel investors. He admitted that he has faced “resistance” from traditional investors, but he said the company is exploring other models, such as trading media (i.e., promotional ad space) for equity.
“I see it as any other business, but I definitely think there are many taboos to break,” Thorn said.
By the way, I checked out both the PinSex and PinGay sites, and I did it from the office. (Why? Something something research.) So if this turns out to be the last thing I write for TechCrunch, now you know why.
For your pleasure
by Matthew Cobb
I have shamelessly copied all these gifs (yes, that’s “jiffs”, folks!) (and yes, some of them appear to be jpgs) and the titles from buzzfeed. I am lazy and Jerry is somewhere between Germany and Chicago, and presumably hellishly jet-lagged. The original title of this selection of gifs is “28 cats having a way worse day than you”.
h/t Vicky Thomson and Chris Strafford on FB.
1. This cat who just wanted to check out that big red dot.
10. This cat who thought a can of soda would be refreshing but was obviously very wrong.
15. This kitten who had dreams of jumping high but has some more work to do.
21. This cat who can’t seem to figure out where the measuring tape is running off to.
27. This kitty who wasn’t expecting anyone to see his secret shoe collection.
50+ fantastic free tools for designers
One of the very best things about the Web is the great tools that the community keeps on delivering. We love discovering new stuff almost as much as we love bringing it to you.
This great selection has over 50 free resources including coding tools for developers, icons sets, fonts, PSD and vector design sets, patterns and flat UI kits, and many more, meant to dazzle everyone with your next mobile projects, website or blog. Let’s get to work!
OOcharts
A toolkit for building your own Google Analytics dashboard.
One div emoticons
Text based emoticons created with one div.
Metrize icons
Massive collection of 300 metro-style icons in multiple file formats.
Famous landmarks
Icon set with 12 famous landmarks
Sabado type family
Cool font that’s a little different.
Pricing tables
Nice, simple and straight forward pricing tables in a PSD.
World monuments
Set of 250 vector icons with monuments from around the world.
Relax widgets
PSD pack with professional widgets.
PSD Shelves
100 fully editable and pixel perfect PSD shelves.
Verb Condensed
Nice contemporary font.
Creative Link Effects
Subtle and modern effects for links and menu items
Iconset
Nice set of 63 outlined icons in a PSD.
Viber iOS7
Mockup of Viber’s iOS7 app
CSS Circular Navigation
Downloadable resource and tutorial
jquery.arbitrary-anchor.js
Arbitrary anchors for any element on your page.
Legacy Edition
Handwritten font face with 269 glyphs.
PSD Player
Nice and simple music player with glossy style.
Google+ Template GUI
Useful interface elements for every designer.
Dripicons
Useful vector line-icon font in several formats.
Compress PNG
Convert mages from PNG to PNG-8 with transparencies and full browser compatibility.
iPhone 6 wrap around screen
Interesting concept mockup of the next iPhone.
Braxton
A brush flavored script font.
Long Shadow Flat UI Kit
Nice interface with strong colors and mainly dashboard elements.
iOS7 Glyph Icons
Set of 42 outlined icons with source files
Weather Loader
Nice weather animation made in CSS.
Absolute Centering
Effect for centering horizontally and vertically.
Pantone Sample
A good way to showcase color schemes to clients.
Light Patterns
Set of 5 subtle patterns in light color tonalities.
iOS7 Line Icons
50+ line-icons ready to use in iOS7.
Medium.js
Useful tool to keep HTML code semantic and clean.
Jelly Navigation
Nice touch device jelly animation concept in CSS and JS.
Google Product Logos
Useful illustrator file with all of Google’s product logos.
PHP DebugBar
Nice looking PHP debug bar for your data collection projects
Typewonder
Useful online tool to test fonts on any website.
60 SEO Services Icons
Pack of fully editable SEO icons with source files.
CSS Radio Buttons
Clean set of CSS buttons.
FancySelect
A slick drop-down menu.
Vector Shapes
Create beautiful labels and badges with these vector shapes.
Corbert Condensed
Clean modern font.
iOS7 Calendar PSD
A timely calendar PSD.
Organic
A free website template.
Flat Map Icons
A great free resource with map icons.
Thin round Icons
Flat icons inspired by iOS7.
Lintel
A great font for blogs and apps.
Slimerjs
An open source scriptable browser for web developers.
CSS flip effect
Create responsive lists with a flip effect.
Textures
Awesome resource for textures.
Login script
A simple, clean and secure PHP & MySQL login script.
Simple Toggle Switch
A simple toggle switch in CSS.
Validation, Styling & Semantics
An awesome tool for designing forms.
AnimateScroll
A simple jQuery plugin for animating scrolling.
Have you used any of these resources? Have we missed any of your favorites? Let us know in the comments.
500 Stock Photos with No Background – only $29! | |
Black Milk’s Harry Potter Line Is Almost As Good As Getting Accepted To Hogwarts
Enable JavaScript to check out our fancy slideshow.
On sale in just a few hours is Black Milk’s long-awaited Harry Potter collection. I’ve been tempted in the past by their offerings, specifically the many geek licenses they’ve picked up recently but this is the first time I’ll be reaching in my wallet. Unlike most of their past collections, Black Milk’s Harry Potter line features more than just images from the films on leggings, swimsuits and more. Take a look at what they have to offer this time around.
(via Fashionably Geek)
Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?
Segunda Rima com Bunda #219
Olá, amigos. Adivinha que dia é hoje? Nem precisa dizer que é o dia com as melhores bundas da semana do Uhull. Bora ver as belezuras que preparamos pra vocês hoje no Segunda Rima com Bunda!
Se gostou, pode ver outros S.R.B. que perdeu!
Surprise Goggie!
'Ask a Slave' Makes Depressingly Stupid Tourist Questions Hilarious
Actress and comedian Azie Mira Dungey used to work as a historical re-enactor at Mount Vernon. And 1- because George Washington's old stomping grounds are staffed with people acting out roles they might have had during the George Washington days and 2- Dungey is black, she played the role of a slave named Lizzy Mae. Now, she's made her experiences fielding actual stupid questions from actual stupid tourists into a video series that not only invites laughter, it encourages people to think a little harder about how we lionize the Founding Fathers as paragons of morality.
10 Websites that Teach Coding and More
So you want to learn to code, do you? Well, you happen to be in luck, as it has never been easier or cheaper to learn that new skill, and there are plenty of websites that teach coding and more. They will help turn you from zero to hero, as long as you stick to it and practice, practice, practice!
1. Codeacademy
Codeacademy leads you through the process of learning to program web-oriented languages. Here you can learn Javascript, Python and Ruby, etc. The free environment provides a safe place for experimentation, as you can try things out without needing a web server or any other hardware or software. If you are starting from scratch (or have limited experience) then Codeacademy is a brilliant starting point. Not only are you provided with access to the courseware, but having the ability to test things is incredibly useful for safe try out.
2. Lynda.com
The online tutorials offered by Lynda.com are recognized as some of the best e-learning courses out there. You need to pay for a monthly subscription, but this will give you access to over 2,000 courses covering over 140 different skill areas. Lynda.com isn’t just for learning to code: you will also get access to courses covering areas as diverse as 3D animation, business, video editing, and design.
3. Udacity
Udacity aims to be the future of online higher education. Courses are pitched at high schoolers who wish to get ahead, college students who want to broaden their understanding, and professionals needing to brush up their skills. There is a lot of excellent courseware that you can access once you’ve signed up, covering business, sciences and computer science.
4. Coursera
Coursera provides you with course materials created by a number of reputable worldwide universities. The courses tend to be introductions to subject areas and lend themselves to those who wish to gain a general understanding before going further. This is great if you wish to study further and start on a new path. Coursera is one of the 10 websites that teach coding and more as it goes beyond learning to code, or, indeed, learning new technologies.
5. W3Schools.com
If you wish to learn the majority of the web-based languages, then W3Schools is an indispensable reference site. The site shows you how to code with and use HMTL, CSS, HTML5, Javascript, PHP and ASP, amongst others. What is great about the site is that if you search for a particular element of code it returns an example of how to use it practically. As a result you get something that you can adapt and put together to make a cohesive whole.
6. Apple Developer Program
This is the place you start if you plan to develop apps for iOS and OSX. Whether you wish to develop apps for iPhone, iPad or Mac you should sign up for the Apple Developer Program. This allows you to get access to the latest documentation and code examples. Not only that, but it is the recommended way to get your apps and applications into app stores. There are many well-documented examples with code that you can run to get you started. You get shown how to use the XCode environment and start creating your first app. One prerequisite of developing for iOS is that XCode only runs within OSX, so you will need a Mac of some description.
7. Developer.Android.com
For app developers wishing to learn how to code Android Java apps ready for the mobile platform, this is the place to start. Here you will be able to download an Android-infused version of Eclipse IDE. There are buckets of code examples, which will get you running apps in a virtual environment or on your device.
8. Developers.Google.com
Learn how to expand some of the coding skills you’ve picked up along the way into extending Google products at developers.google.com. Whether it be Chrome extensions, interacting with Google Drive, or creating applications that utilize Google Maps, there are well documented APIs and lots of example material to get you going.
9. MSDN.Microsoft.com
Microsoft provide lots of material on their developer network for the free and paid editions of their Visual Studio products. Learn how to master Visual Basic, C++ or C# for Windows environments using the .Net Framework. As with many of the others there are lots of tutorials and example code for you to build, run and play with. If you are wanting to develop apps for Windows, then this is a really great starting place and may well be the only stuff you ever need.
10. Instructables
Instructables shows you how to get things done. This might involve getting an Arduino to communicate with the world, starting making use of a Raspberry Pi, or just generally hacking things together. There are many inspirational instructables, all created by the community. If you have a good set of instructions yourself, this is also something that you could contribute to. This finds its way into the 10 websites that teach coding and more as it does a lot more than just show you how to code.
Summary
If you want to learn some new skills, then spend some time looking through these websites that teach coding and more. You will no doubt find a mine of useful information and this can set you on a new path.
How a life hacker learnt to code in 8 weeks 10 Websites that Teach Coding and More
The post 10 Websites that Teach Coding and More appeared first on Lifehack.
Segunda Rima com Bunda #217
Olá, amigos. Adivinha que dia é hoje? Nem precisa dizer que é o dia com as melhores bundas da semana do Uhull. Bora ver as belezuras que preparamos pra vocês hoje no Segunda Rima com Bunda!
Se gostou, pode ver outros S.R.B. que perdeu!
- Segunda rima c/ bunda – 211
- Segunda rima c/ bunda – 212
- Segunda rima c/ bunda – 213
- Segunda rima c/ bunda – 214
- Segunda rima c/ bunda – 215
- Segunda rima c/ bunda – 216
drucila616: How Do Court Reporters Keep Straight Faces?These...
How Do Court Reporters Keep Straight Faces?
These are from a book called Disorder in the Courts and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while the exchanges were taking place.
ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said, ‘Where am I, Cathy?’
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan!
_______________________________
ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: What is your date of birth?
WITNESS: July 18th.
ATTORNEY: What year?
WITNESS: Every year.
_____________________________________
ATTORNEY: How old is your son, the one living with you?
WITNESS: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can’t remember which.
ATTORNEY: How long has he lived with you?
WITNESS: Forty-five years.
_________________________________
ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget..
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn’t know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
____________________________________
ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: He’s 20, much like your IQ.
___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you shitting me?
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Getting laid
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: She had three children , right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death..
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Take a guess.
___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I’m going with male.
_____________________________________
ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Doctor , how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral…
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 PM
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Are you qualified to ask that question?
______________________________________
And last:
ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No..
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.
The Ultimate Skinny Guy’s Guide to Bulking Up Fast: How to Bulk like the Hulk
Want to go from a skinny guy to building muscle quickly? I got you.
I’ve spent my entire adult life trying to pack on muscle, and after years and years of trial and error, I finally cracked the code.
Today, I share that code with you!
This is a topic that is near and dear to me, because I’ve spent my life devoted to this stuff:
These are the exact tactics I’ve used, and the same strategies we use with our Online Coaching Clients.
Our coaching program helps people bulk up quickly. Learn how:
This free guide is gonna get you started off on the right foot!
Here are the 4 parts we’ll cover in this ultimate guide:
#1) INTRO:
#2) NUTRITION:
- The most important thing for putting on muscle (your diet).
- What foods should I eat to bulk up?
- What are the best bulk up strategies?
- What supplements should I take to bulk up and build muscle?
#3) STRENGTH TRAINING:
- How to grow bigger muscles (get stronger).
- Skinny Guy Workout Plans for bulking up.
- Can bodyweight training help you bulk up?
- I am skinny fat: should I gain weight or lose weight first?
#4) RECOVERY, TIPS AND TRICKS, NEXT STEP:
- Proper sleep and rest for putting on muscle.
- FAQ for skinny guys trying to bulk up.
- More resources for skinny guys looking to bulk up.
How I Bulked up After Years of Struggling as a Skinny Guy
Growing up, I was always the scrawny, skinny weak kid.
There was a reason I dressed up like Superman every other day for the first six years of my life:
Superman was strong, big, and powerful…and I wasn’t.
To this day, it’s still a big challenge for me to gain weight or build muscle.
When people tell me “must be nice to have been skinny growing up,” I explain that a killer flat top, my height (5’2″ until I was 16), four years of braces, and two Accutane treatments made sure I still got the full adolescent experience 🙂
When I was cut from the high school basketball team (which I thought was the end of the world), I signed up for a gym membership to get big and strong.
Within five minutes I had almost killed myself when loading up way too much weight for a set of bench presses.
Fortunately, I survived, and thus began my love affair with strength training.
I spent the next six years training in a gym, reading every muscle and fitness magazine I could find, drinking protein shakes religiously…and had about 3 pounds of muscle gain to show for it.
I just assumed “I’m one of those people who can’t gain weight.”
It turns out, I was doing it all wrong.
After graduating college, I moved to California, signed up for a gym membership, and received a few free personal trainer sessions.
Although I thought I had known it all (I had been training for 6 years in a gym! I read the muscle mags! I was in good shape already!), I still took the free sessions for the hell of it.
I’m so glad I did!
The trainer drastically simplified my workout and DOUBLED the amount of food I was eating.
I thought he was crazy at first, but I stuck with it.
In 30 days, I had put on 18 pounds (pictured below), increased the strength in ALL of my lifts, and felt more confident than I ever had before in my life.
That’s when the lightbulb when off in my head: there’s a better way.
And thus began a radical redefinition of how I thought the human body worked, how muscle was built, and where I needed to put my priorities.
Since then, I’ve spent seven years learning everything I can about how muscle is built.
A few years back, I took an epic 35,000-mile trip around the world, and despite not having access to a gym for 6 months, I managed to once again pack on even more muscle and get myself in great shape without once picking up a weight (pictured below):
Again, my world was turned upside down.
I learned that gyms are not a requirement to build muscle and get stronger, though a great gym workout can certainly speed up the process.
And after a few more years of up and down challenges, I had finally – jokingly – changed from Steve Rogers to Captain America (there’s a story behind this):
I’m still not the biggest guy in the world, nor will I ever be. I’m okay with that!
I’ve learned that anyone can pack on muscle, even skinny nerds like me.
If you’re skinny and want to get bigger, you’ll be fighting genetics the whole way, but do not let that deter you.
Anything is possible.
Today’s article outlines everything I’ve learned over the past 13 years of mistakes, successes, failures, and adventures.
The Most Important Thing for Putting on Muscle: Eat More Food.
As they say, muscle isn’t made in the gym, but in the kitchen:
If you want to bulk up, you’d be better off working out twice a week for 30 minutes and eating right, than working out 6 days a week and not eating properly.
I learned this the hard way.
I spent four years of college working out five days a week for 90 minutes a day trying to get bigger.
I drank protein shakes like I thought I was supposed to. I got a little stronger, but never bigger.
Why?
BECAUSE I DIDN’T EAT ENOUGH CALORIES.
When I get emails from people who lament the fact that they can’t gain weight, I always first ask about the person’s diet.
More often than not, that person thinks they are eating enough, but are definitely not.
Here’s the truth:
If you are not getting bigger, you are not eating enough.
Your body can burn 2000+ calories every day just existing (and then factor in exercise and, gulp, cardio – I’ll get to that in a minute), and you need to overload your system with calories in order for it to have enough fuel for the muscle building process.
Want to know how many calories you burn every day just existing?
Plug your stats into our TDEE (Total daily energy expenditure) calculator:
Click right here for our Metric calculator.
Note: we have used The Mifflin-St Jeor Equation to create this calculator! [1]
For every person, the number of required calories for bulking up daily is different, especially when you factor in how much you move, fidget, and how much weight you need to gain:
- For some people, it might be 2,500 calories a day.
- For others, it might be 3,500 calories a day.
- For others, it might be 5,000 calories a day.
I don’t love calorie counting (I prefer a “Balanced Plate” approach), but I think for a newbie starting out, tracking calories for a few days is a great place to begin.
So, track your calories using something like MyFitnessPal over a few days and get an average.
I bet you’ll discover you’re eating significantly less than you thought you were.
LEARN HOW MANY CALORIES YOU NEED TO EAT FIRST.
And then eat MORE!
Spend the next two weeks eating an additional 300-500 calories per day above your TDEE (which you calculated above) and see how your weight adjusts (and how you look in progress photos!).
If you are not getting bigger, add an additional 300-500 calories per day and repeat the process.
Depending on your training, genetics, how skinny you are, and how much muscle you need to gain, you can decide how much weight you want to gain each week.
Everybody’s results will vary, and thoughts are mixed on how quickly we can build muscle:
- Under optimal conditions, some say you can expect to gain 1 pound (.5 kg) of muscle per week,
- My results have shown that 2 lbs (1kg) per month is more realistic.
- A 2016 study[2]revealed that strength training produced a 2.2 lb increase (1kg) increase in lean mass in 8 weeks.
Regardless of how fast you bulk up, it might be helpful for you to gain weight by putting on some fat with your muscle!
Here are things to consider if you overeat WHILE strength training: extra glycogen, some fat, and water stored in your body can be a good thing for your confidence and get you headed down the right path.
So, don’t listen to the sites or programs that say “gain 40 pounds of muscle in two months!”
Unless you’re on the juice (‘roids, not Hawaiian Punch), it’s going to be a slow, long process.
Yes, it is possible to have incredible transformations in a short amount of time, like when I gained 18 pounds (8.1kg) in 30 days
This was due to strength training, overeating, protein, and extra water weight (from supplementing with creatine):
My advice: Rather than massive weight gain over a month, you’d be much better off gaining .5-1.5 lbs. (.25-.75 kg) a week, every week, for six months…and keeping the weight on!
Now, I know this stuff isn’t easy.
There’s nothing worse than spending 6+ months in a gym and doing what you think you SHOULD be doing, only to step on the scale and realize that you haven’t made any progress!
If you’re somebody who’s worried about wasting time, or you want to have an expert guide your nutrition based on your current situation, consider checking out our Online Training Program!
Learn to bulk up correctly with our Coaching Program!
What Food Should I Eat to Bulk Up?
Let’s go through how you should be prioritizing your nutrition, nutrient by nutrient:
- Protein: rebuilds muscle after you break it down.
- Carbohydrates: provides your muscle with fuel and body weight with energy
- Fat: helps your bodily functions and can also be burned as fuel in the absence of carbs.
Let’s look at each of these individually:
PRIORITY #1: PROTEIN
Protein can come from any number of sources, including:
- Meat (steak, bison, pork).
- Fowl (chicken, turkey, duck).
- Eggs![3]
- Cheese and dairy.
- Fish and shellfish (salmon, tuna, shrimp).
- Legumes (black beans, chickpeas).
- Other vegetarian protein sources here.
As we cover in our “How much Protein do I need?”, claims for the amount of protein needed vary wildly from source to source (and athlete to athlete).
Here is our recommendation for protein consumption:
If you’re of healthy weight, active, and wish to build muscle, aim for 1 g/lb (2.2 g/kg).
If you’re an experienced lifter on a bulk, intakes up to 1.50 g/lb (3.3 g/kg) may help you minimize fat gain.
Let me simplify it for you: target at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight (2.2 grams per kg).
If you’re curious, from our healthy eating article, this is what a portion of protein looks like:
Also, here’s how much protein is in a serving of food:
- 4 oz (113 g) of chicken has around 30 g of protein.
- 4 oz (113 g) of salmon has 23 g of protein
- 4 oz (113 g) of steak has 28 g of protein.
Want to get more protein? Consider protein shakes, like so:
PRIORITY #2: CARBS
After protein, in order for you to get bigger, you need to eat enough calories, and those calories should come from sources composed of carbs and/or fats.
Here are foods full of carbohydrates you can prioritize for bulking up:
- Rice
- Quinoa
- Oats
- Legumes and lentils
- Sweet potatoes
- Yams
- Regular potatoes
- Whole grain pasta
- Whole grain bread
To help you get better at eyeballing serving sizes:
1 serving of a starchy carbohydrate is 1 cupped hand (uncooked), or your two hands forming a cup (cooked).
Here are some images to help you learn proper portion sizes (thanks to SafeFood):
In addition to consuming carbohydrates from these sources, it’s okay to consume plenty of fruit while trying to bulk up!
You can read our full “Is fruit healthy” guide to learn more.
PRIORITY #3: FAT!
Fat is a macronutrient that you can eat that can help you reach your goals in the right quantity, as fat can be higher calorie and you can eat lots of it without feeling full.
Healthy fat can be found in foods like:
- Avocado
- Almonds
- Walnuts
- Macadamia nuts
- Olive oil
- Almond butter
- Peanut butter
Science has recently come around on saturated fat too [4]. Once completely vilified, but now considered okay for moderate consumption.
Saturated fats can come from things like:
- Whole milk
- Full-fat dairy
- Coconut oil
- Grass-fed butter
- Fatty cuts of meat
- Lard
To help you gauge: a serving size of fat is roughly the size of your thumb!
For reference, this is a single serving of almonds (162 calories):
THIS is a serving of olive oil (119 calories):
As you can see, you can eat an extra 500 calories of “healthy fats” by eating lots of “heart-healthy” fats like nuts or adding more olive oil to your meals.
PRIORITY #4: VEGETABLES!
Last but not least, you need vegetables in your diet.
If you start to eat a lot more food, your “indoor plumbing” is going to really benefit from eating some high-fiber veggies with each meal:
A serving of veggies is about the size of your fist.
Here’s a quick, non-complete list of veggies that can fill your plate:
- Broccoli
- Broccolini
- Cauliflower
- Spinach
- Kale
- Spaghetti squash
- Brussels sprouts
- Zucchini
- Cucumber
- Carrots
- Onion
- Asparagus
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER:
This plate and serving size stuff above is just to help you get started thinking about healthy food differently and in proper portion sizes.
To recap:
HERE’S HOW TO EAT TO BULK UP:
- Calculate your (Total daily energy expenditure) and add +500 cal over your number.
- Consume 1-1.5g per pound (2.2-3.3g per kg) of body weight in protein every day.
- Consume the rest of your calories from foods composed of carbs and fats.
- Always eat vegetables so that your body can actually PROCESS all this extra food.
- If you are not gaining weight, add more carbs and/or fats to your meal.
It really does come down to the following:
If you are not gaining weight fast enough, you’re not eating enough. Increase your portions of carbs and fats!
Whenever we work with coaching clients who struggle to bulk up, this is the area we target: adding more carbs and fats to each meal.
Need an expert to help you bulk up quickly and safely? Learn more:
What are the Best Popular Bulk-Up Eating Strategies?
If you read the previous section, you know that we have some pretty specific “best practices” on how to bulk up.
However, there are multiple strategies that can also work, and I’d like to cover each of those here too.
Depending on your budget, your taste in food, and your goals, these strategies will work better for some than others.
#1) The “Healthy” Bulk
I have followed this method to great success multiple times (including right now).
Ultimately, I follow the “real food” principles whenever possible (good sources of quality meat, tons of vegetables, minimal amounts of gluten and processed carbs), but I mix in some specific items that are calorie/carbohydrate dense to reach my calorie goals for the day.
This is the exact strategy we laid out in the previous section of this article.
Speaking of quality calories – how I recommend doing this – receive your Get Bigger Shopping List and Bulk Up Cheat Sheet by putting your email in the box below:
- The Nerd Fitness "Get Bigger" Shopping List
- Bulk like the Hulk with our rules for getting bigger
#2) The “See Food” Diet
This is the diet I used to put on 18 pounds in 30 days.
Looking back at how I ate, I’m now grossed out.
But for me at the time, it worked (and got me interested in diet research).
If you are super skinny and on a tight budget, this might be your only option, and that’s okay!
Foods that are high in calories include:
- Whole milk
- Cottage cheese
- Cereal
- Pasta
- Rice
- Potatoes
- Ice cream
- Juice
- Peanut butter sandwiches
- Meatball subs from Subway
- Pizza
- Burgers
Etc.
Whatever gets you to your caloric intake goal for the day.
When I put on my 18 lbs, I used to drink 3 CytoGainer shakes a day, because it was the easiest way for me to stay on target.
If you are training properly, a majority of these calories will go towards building muscle instead of putting on a lot of fat.
Steve’s thoughts: I’m not a big fan of this method much, as I’ve come to learn the quality of food is as important (if not more so) than quantity when it comes to your overall health, and we’re aiming for bigger AND healthier.
#3) GOMAD
Drink a gallon of whole milk every day along with your meals.
Sounds crazy, yup, but it works.
A gallon of whole milk is full of enough sugar, carbs, fats, and protein that when all said and done, results in 2400 calories consumed in liquid form.
Mix in vegetables and meat for healthy meals and you got yourself a simple-to-follow diet.
I’ve attempted this diet back in my younger days, and although my stomach hated me, I certainly had success with it, mostly because it was simple to follow and easy to understand.
#4) Paleo Bulk or Keto Bulk
Bulking up while following the Paleo Diet, or bulking while following a Keto Diet.
Yes, it’s possible to bulk while following either of these diets:
If you are eating Paleo, you’ll want to eat LOTS of carbs and fats from calorie-dense foods like fruit, sweet potatoes, and nuts.
If you are going Keto, you’ll want to eat LOTS of fat from cheeses, nuts, oils, and so on.
If you have the budget and want to try it, go for it. You’ll be eating truckloads of nuts, avocados, and meat.
“WHICH STRATEGY IS BEST FOR ME?”
In our opinion, we’ve had the most success with Coaching Clients who adopt a “healthy bulk” strategy, #1 above.
It’s a focus on real food, a sustainable increase in calorie intake, and can be adjusted easily by adding or reducing total portions of carbs and fats.
But hey, you do you, boo.
What Supplements Should I take to Bulk up? How to eat more calories.
If you are struggling to consume enough whole foods every day, then here are some tips to help you reach your caloric goals to bulk up:
“WHAT SUPPLEMENTS SHOULD I TAKE TO BULK UP FAST?”
Most supplements are garbage
Plus, you should ALWAYS prioritize consuming real food over shakes and powders.
HOWEVER, if you are interested in bulking quickly, there are two I would recommend:
- Protein Powder. A great solution for getting extra protein and calories in your diet and building muscle.[5] As we point out in our article on protein and protein shakes, mix and match your own ingredients and see how many calories you can get into a smoothie without breaking your blender.
- Creatine supplement. It helps your muscles retain more water [6], and has been shown to increase the hormone IGF-1, which is needed for muscle growth[7]. It’s one of the only two supplements (along with protein) that I take regularly.
Outside of these two supplements, you really don’t need to prioritize supplementation, despite what the muscle magazines tell you! Hell, many of these muscle mags are OWNED BY SUPPLEMENT COMPANIES.
I’ll leave you with two more big suggestions on how to bulk up in this section:
#1) Liquid calories are your friend. Liquid calories can give us lots of calories without ‘filling us up,’ which is an easier way to consume enough calories every day without feeling overly full.
I personally get a huge chunk of my calories every day from making my own ‘Powerbomb Shake – from our Protein Guide
- Water: 16 oz.
- Quaker Oats: 3 servings (120g)
- Frozen spinach: 1.5 servings (120g)
- Frozen mixed berries: 1.5 servings (120g)
- Protein powder: 2 scoops of Optimum Nutrition Vanilla Whey
And here is the macronutrient breakdown:
- Calories: 815 cal
- Protein: 70g
- Carbs: 107g
- Fats: 12g
I put all of this into a Vitamix Blender – yep, it was expensive, but worth the investment. This blender has been used twice a day for 8 years without a single issue.
If you need even more calories consider adding whole milk, coconut milk, or almond milk instead of water.
You can also add a shot of olive oil to add calories/fats to a shake in the quest for MOAR MUSCLE!
#2) Train your Body to Eat More: If you are cooking rice, each week try adding in an extra quarter cup when you cook it.
And yeah, you have to FORCE your stomach to accept more food, even when you’re not hungry.
This is not enjoyable, as you often feel like you’re going to explode.
However, just like it’s necessary to force your muscles outside of your comfort zone to get bigger, you need to force your stomach outside of its comfort zone until it adapts to accepting more calories.
So, start by adding a little bit more food each day and soon enough your stomach will expand.
How to Grow Bigger Muscles: Get Stronger
When you strength train, your muscles are broken down and then get rebuilt stronger to adapt to the stress you have applied to it.
So every time you pick up a slightly heavier weight, you are increasing the challenge and forcing your muscles to adapt and get more resilient.
What I’m trying to say:
If you want to get bigger, focus on getting stronger.
As long as you are continually increasing the weights or increasing the sets and reps you are lifting, your muscles will continually adapt to get stronger.
This is called “progressive overload” and it. is. everything.
Coach Jim walks you through the ins and outs of progressive overload in this video:
If you want to dive in more, check out our guide “What is Progressive Overload?“
Follow a progressive overload strategy and eat enough calories, and you will get bigger.
You have two approaches to consider while bulking up:
PATH A: BODYBUILDER BULK. Follow a bodybuilder-type routine that focuses on isolation exercises that chops your body into different segments and works each of them out once a week.
You may have seen something like this:
- Monday: Chest
- Tuesday: Legs
- Wednesday: Shoulders
- Thursday: Back
- Friday: Arms and Abs
I think these routines are fine, and you might even enjoy them.
However, they do require a fairly large time commitment at the gym, and you’ll be training 5-6 days per week.
PATH B: STRENGTH AND MUSCLE. Focus on full-body routines that contain compound exercises like squats and deadlifts that give us the most bang for our buck.
Every time you train, most of the muscles in your body are getting worked out.
Specifically, this path has you focusing on getting really strong at these movements:
If you can focus on getting really strong with the above exercises, and eat enough calories, you will also get bigger in all of the right places.
Path B is something we’re bigger fans of compared to Path A, and it’s what we recommend to our Coaching Clients.
Specially, we find it to be safer and also more time-efficient: you’ll be training just 2-3 days per week on this path (instead of 5-6 days per week with Path A).
Mark Rippetoe (author of Starting Strength, a must-read for anybody interested in the above exercises) lives for old-school barbell training (path B):
Why?
Because it works.
Just. Keep. Eating. And. Lifting.
Skinny Guy Workout Plans for Bulking Up
As we cover in our “How to build muscle” article, here’s a sample routine you can follow NOW to start bulking up.
After you do your dynamic warm-up, do the following workout:
MONDAY BULK-UP WORKOUT:
- Squats: 4 sets of 5 reps
- Bench press 4 sets of 5 reps
- Wide Grip Pull-Ups: 3 sets of 10 reps
- Planks 3 sets of 60 seconds
WEDNESDAY BULK-UP WORKOUT:
- Deadlift: 3 sets of 5 reps
- Overhead Press: 3 sets of 5 reps
- Inverted Bodyweight Rows: 3 sets of 10 reps
- Hanging Knee Raises: 3 sets of 10 reps
FRIDAY BULK-UP WORKOUT:
- Front Squats: 3 sets of 5 reps
- Weighted Dips: 3 sets of 10 reps
- Weighted Chin-Ups: 3 sets of 10 reps
- Reverse Crunches: 3 sets of 15 reps
Get stronger and the rest will take care of itself.
NERD FITNESS RECOMMENDATION: Feel free to pick WHATEVER workout program you want from wherever. If you don’t want to follow the workout above, consider these sources:
- 5 Beginner Strength Training Routines you can follow.
- Follow our 6-level gym workout routine.
- You can build your own workout routine.
- You can follow any workout from any muscle magazine.
If you’re curious, here are some commonly accepted strategies based on your goals for how many sets and reps you should do:
- Strength and power: 1-5 reps
- Strength and some size: 5-8 reps
- Size and some strength: 8-12 reps
- Muscular endurance: 12+ reps
Now, don’t worry too much about which path is best.
Nutrition plays the most important role in bulking up, and any strength training plan will help you get bigger.
There are 3 studies I want to point out:
- A recent study showed that a higher intensity workout (heavier weight for low reps) created more muscle mass than a higher volume (lower weight for more reps).[8]
- Getting more volume (more sets of exercises) per week resulted in more mass compared to less volume (fewer sets of exercises), in this study[9].
- Studies show that weight training creates superior “bulk up” results compared to bodyweight training,[10] but that doesn’t mean bodyweight training isn’t beneficial. Studies show that bodyweight training exercises can build muscle, but require a LARGE number of sets per rep, and pushing oneself to absolute failure.[11]
What this means: Don’t overthunk it.
- Pick up heavy stuff for 3-4 sets of 5 reps. Pick up a weight that is heavy enough that you can only complete your specified number of reps.
- Challenge yourself on bodyweight exercises, either by making them more difficult, adding weight, or doing high reps to failure.
- And then do more next time.
What’s important is that you pick a plan and follow through with it while focusing on eating enough.
After a few months, you can reevaluate and then adjust based on how your body has changed.
On any of these days, feel free mix in bicep curls or tricep extensions or calf raises at the END of your workouts.
Focus on the big lifts first and get stronger with them.
How much weight should you lift? For every one of the barbell movements above, I start with just the bar, and then add weight in 5lb increments each week.
It’s important to get form right and get your body used to the movement for when you start to lift heavy weight.
How long should you wait between sets? Again, don’t overthink it. Waiting 2-3 minutes allows you lift heavier weight, and thus makes you stronger.
Waiting 60-90 seconds puts more of an emphasis on muscular size and endurance (as you’re resting for a shorter period)…but don’t overthink it. Do the next set when you’re ready.
A piece of advice from 8-time Mr. Olympia, Lee Haney: “stimulate, don’t annihilate.”
Don’t destroy yourself for the sake of destroying yourself; stopping one or two reps short of maximum effort can save you from overtraining and potential injury – remember that muscles are built in the kitchen!
If you’re already overwhelmed and just want somebody to tell you what to do, you’re not alone.
I’ve had a coach since 2014 and it’s the best investment I make in myself every month.
Our coaching program helps people bulk up quickly and safely. Learn more:
Can Bodyweight Training Help Me Bulk Up?
Yes, you can get bigger and stronger by doing exclusively bodyweight exercises.
Take a look at any Olympic gymnast: he is jacked, with giant muscles, all built with bodyweight exercises:
HOWEVER, it requires a very specific type of training regiment to see those results.
Studies show that weight training creates superior “bulk up” results compared to bodyweight training,[12] but that doesn’t mean bodyweight training isn’t beneficial.
Studies show that bodyweight training exercises can build muscle, but require a LARGE number of sets per rep. In other words, you’ll need to push yourself to absolute failure.[13]
So, here’s where the challenges arise:
Like with weight training above, you need to increase the difficulty in order for your muscles to adapt.
Because it’s often more challenging to add a few pounds to a bodyweight exercise to make it tougher – compared to putting a weight on a bar, you need to increase the difficulty of the bodyweight movement itself.
If you are trying to build size, you can also do sets where your rep ranges are in the 25-35 reps per set, and you are pushing your muscles to failure (woof):
- If you can do 4 sets of 15 push-ups, consider making them harder to progress. Do 4 sets of 15 push-ups with your feet on a bench.
-
Bodyweight squats too easy? Work your way up to pistol squats (one-legged squats).
4 sets of 12 pull-ups not a challenge anymore? Great. Make them tougher. Go for a wider grip, an uneven grip, or weighted pull-ups.
I highly recommend beginners start to take a serious look at strength training with free weights; it’s much easier to record one’s progress, easy to add more difficulty (just add more weight!), and very structured.
You can ALSO mix in bodyweight training, which is what I prefer to do!
In fact, I personally believe the best routine mixes both weights and bodyweight training. I have been working with my online coach for 4 years, and I’ve packed on size by following a barbell + bodyweight training routine.
Weight training for my lower body, advanced bodyweight movements for my upper body.
Every day starts with either a squat, front squat or deadlift.
Here I am pulling 420 pounds at a body weight of 172 pounds:
Each workout also contains a lot of Olympic/gymnastic style movements and holds to build upper body strength.
Handstands too (read our Guide on Handstands):
And I just try to get stronger.
What it really comes down to is this: no matter what you have access to (a gym, barbell, dumbbells, or just a pull-up bar) you can find a way to build strength and muscle if you follow a plan and eat enough calories.
If you’re trying to bulk with just bodyweight, it might be worth enlisting the help of a coach to help you scale your bodyweight exercises correctly and in the proper sequence!
Learn how to bulk up with bodyweight exercises in our Online Coaching Program!
I am Skinny Fat: Should I gain or lose weight first?
If you are skinny fat (you have skinny arms and legs but have a gut), there are three paths available to you:
- Bulk up and build muscle, then lean out.
- Lean out, then build muscle.
- Build muscle and lean out at the same time.
We all want Door #3, right?
Here is how to accomplish both goals at the same:
- Heavy strength training…
- While following a healthy diet and slight calorie restriction…
- To decrease your body fat percentage.
If you follow a program with the right calories and strength training, you can both lose weight AND build muscle at the same time.
It’s how we helped NF Coaching Client Jimmy (these photos are 5 months apart):
Our advice: Get strong and eat a SLIGHT caloric deficit while consuming enough protein every day.
Get yourself down to roughly 12% body fat (~20% for women), and then start to increase the size.
By slimming down first, while building muscle, you don’t have to worry about buying BIGGER clothes first, only to then need smaller clothes once you start cutting the fat.
Then, once you decide to eat more and get bigger, if you notice your body fat percentage start to creep up, you can simply adjust until your body fat gets back in the acceptable range. Then keep building!
To recap, here’s what to do if you are skinny-fat:
- Eat a caloric deficit while heavy strength training to build muscle while leaning out.
- Prioritize protein intake: 1.5g per pound (.75g per kg) of body weight.
- Get strong as hell with big lifts and low reps (this will build muscle even in a deficit).
- Once you reach a certain body fat percentage you’re happy with (probably 10-12%), then you can increase your caloric intake to build more muscle without putting on too much fat.
Our coaching program can help you rebuild your physique. Learn how:
Proper Sleep and Rest for Putting on Muscle
Last but not least, the other important piece to this Triforce of muscle building:
Strength training, eating enough, and RECOVERY.
Your body builds and rebuilds its muscles during RECOVERY.
Our muscles generally need 48 hours or so to recover from their previous workout, so I do not recommend you do any serious strength training of the same muscle group on back-to-back days.
Feel free to do dynamic warm-ups or fun exercises if you feel like it doing some active recovery on off days, but I tend to take my off days OFF.
I might go for a walk (to Mordor!), but that’s about it.
A word about cardio: if you are serious about getting bigger and stronger, lots of long-distance cardio will work against you.
It’s something Coach Jim brings up in the video “7 things I learned adding on 50 lbs of muscle”:
Your body has to burn so many calories for your runs that it doesn’t get to use any of these calories in the muscle-building process.
If you love to run/bike, that’s cool, as long as you know it’s slowing (or halting) your progress.
So, cut back on the running or cut it out completely.
Try mixing in sprints and interval training if you want to keep the cardio up without having to do all of the crazy distances. You can always add it back in once you accomplish your weight gain goals.
A few words on SLEEP: You need more of it when you are building muscle.
It’s that simple.
Don’t be surprised if after a heavy deadlift day you find yourself wanting to sleep for 10 hours.
It might mean less TV or less video games.
Again, if you are serious about getting bigger and stronger, don’t neglect sleep.
FAQ for Skinny Guys Trying to Bulk Up
QUESTION #1: “But I just want to get toned, I don’t want to get too bulky.”
That’s not a question, but I hear it all the time. Do NOT worry about getting too bulky. I’ve been trying to get “too bulky” my entire life – it takes years of concerted effort to pull that off.
I’m gonna guess you have 30+ pounds to gain before you’d ever even be considered “bulky.”
That means that if you struggle with weight gain, getting to the point where you are TOO bulky would actually be a good problem to solve.
As you start to put on weight if you ever find yourself getting a tiny bit too chubby, simply eat less at that point!
So, when in doubt, always err on the side of too many calories than not enough. If you’re not sure if you should eat or not, etc.
QUESTION #2: “But I don’t want to do that stuff, so I’m gonna do _____ instead.”
Again not a question. But hey, go for it. Give it a month, and see how your body reacts. If you’re getting bigger, stronger, and healthier, keep doing it.
If not, come back to this article and apply the lessons here!
QUESTION #3: “I’m a vegetarian/vegan, can I bulk up?”
Siri for iOS 7 updated with Twitter, Wikipedia and Bing integration
We just got a look at the updates to Siri in iOS 7. There's now a sound wave on the bottom of the voice-control feature, and you'll have your choice of male or female versions -- and Siri will be available in French and German, with more languages to come. And, as the headline above indicates, Siri now features integration with Twitter, Wikipedia and -- get this -- Bing. Eddy Cue also teased the next frontier for Apple's voice control: iOS in the Car will integrate the latest mobile OS with an auto's infotainment system, and Siri will help drivers pull up directions and more. Don't get too excited, though, that feature isn't coming until 2014.
Follow all of our WWDC 2013 coverage at our event hub.How Google built a 108 terapixel time-lapse portrait of Earth
In May, Google unveiled Earth Engine, a set of technologies and services that combine Google's existing global mapping capabilities with decades of historical satellite data from both NASA and the US Geological Survey (USGS). One of the first products emerging from Earth Engine is Timelapse—a Web-based view of changes on the Earth's surface over the past three decades, published in collaboration with Time magazine.
The "Global Timelapse" images are also viewable through the Earth Engine site, which allows you to pan and zoom to any location on the planet and watch 30 years of change, thanks to 66 million streaming video tiles. The result is "an incontrovertible description of what's happened on our planet due to urban growth, climate change, et cetera," said Google Vice President of Research and Special Initiatives Alfred Spector.
But that's just the surface of what Google has created with Earth Engine. In an exclusive interview with Ars Technica, Spector and Google Visiting Scientist Randy Sargent drilled down on how Google, using software developed by Sargent's team at Carnegie Mellon University's CREATE Lab, has generated what amounts to an animated 108 terapixel time-lapse portrait of the planet. Here's how the company did it.
Google's Inroads For Waze Could Roadblock Facebook And Apple
In the ever-raging Map War, Google seems to be not only a first mover, but the boldest mover.
According to the Globes, an Israel-based publication, Google is reportedly set to acquire the Israeli transit and navigation company Waze for $1.3 billion, making it one of the larger Google acquisitions in recent memory. This latest development comes amid swirling rumors that Waze would be bought up by one of the big guys, by Facebook for $1 billion, Apple for $500 million and now Google.
Waze provides information on traffic congestion, police presence, speed-sensing cameras, and other transportation-related information thanks to the crowdsourced information flowing in from its almost 50 million users.
According to a number of other Hebrew sources, the deal will be in all cash. Noam Bardin will reportedly remain as CEO and Waze will also continue as its own brand. Waze’s R&D facility, as well as their offices in Israel, will remain in place for at least three years.
We had heard originally that Apple was interested in Waze, which made perfect sense at the time considering Apple was building and releasing a buggy, inadequate Maps app. Waze probably could have helped out quite a bit.
However, those rumors died down to make room for new ones, namely that Facebook was considering buying the social satellite-navigation company.
In fact, Globes reports that Facebook executives went into negotiations with Waze right in Israel, but neither company could come to a comfortable resolution. But perhaps more interesting, Google moved in to have chats with Waze while Facebook was still in negotiations to buy, showing just how eager Google is to block out potential competitors in the mapping space.
Neither Google nor Waze is commenting on the acquisition at this moment, but this isn’t the first time that the search giant has been paired with Waze. Just last month, Bloomberg reported that the companies were in talks, and that Waze was seeking more than $1 billion.
The report says the deal has just entered due diligence, and details are subject to change.
Google’s long-term goal with Waze is somewhat unclear. It obviously increases its footprint in Israel, where it currently operates two offices, and there is a thriving startup scene, from which Google has already plucked Labpixies and Quicksee. But looking further, this is also a good way to keep competitors like Apple and Facebook away from such reliable and popular mapping software.
Remember, Google’s Maps application is already a world-class product, with nothing even remotely close following behind in terms of competition. But that’s not to say that folks aren’t trying. Apple booted Google Maps as the default mapping app on its iDevices with the launch of iOS 6 and the iPhone 5. Unfortunately for Apple, Apple Maps is abysmal.
By buying Waze, Google keeps competitors like Apple and others away from the easy out, which would be an acquisition of a company with already-working and reliable technology. With this deal, Google effectively blocks Apple and Facebook from even having a chance.
See, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and any other big tech player will be focusing on location technology as a way to bolster other services. Maps is the spinal cord of the mobile ecosystem. It affects advertising, other social tools and apps, and e-commerce. Apple, Facebook and friends won’t give up on owning our location data anytime soon, but Google is doing a good job of blocking out the potential to buy technology instead of build it.
Waze was founded back in 2007, and has since raised a total of $67 million from investors like KPCB, Horizon Ventures, Blue Run Ventures, Magma Venture Partners, and Vertex Venture Capital.
Audi hits up Inrix to add parking spot finder to Audi Connect dash systems
While there are smartphones apps that take some of the hassle out of finding parking, Audi's bringing similar time- and frustration-saving features to a different screen in your ride, through its Audi Connect infotainment systems. Announced at the Telematics Detroit conference, Audi is tapping Inrix's parking spot data so you can find car-friendly floor space from within its dashboard navigation platform. After telling the car where you want to go, you'll have the option to see parking info at the journey's end, including the nearest locations, operating hours, prices and real-time space availability, depending on what data is available from each garage. The sat-nav will also direct you straight to the entrance of the lot, and should you want to know what that entrance looks like, Google Street View will show you. Audi's new parking feature should start hitting Connect-equipped cars from today via an OTA update, so the "finding a space was a nightmare" excuse won't fly next time you're late. But don't worry, we won't tell anyone.
Filed under: Transportation, Software
Source: CNET, Seattle Times
Get started with Google Cloud Datastore - a fast, powerful, NoSQL database
By Chris Ramsdale, Product Manager
Cross-posted from the Google Cloud Platform Blog
Cloud Datastore builds off the strong growth and performance of HRD, which has over 1PB of data stored, 4.5 trillion transactions per month and a 99.95% uptime. It also comes with the following features:
- Built-in query support: near SQL functionality that allows you to search, sort and filter across multiple indexes that are automatically maintained
- ACID transactions: data consistency (both Strong and Eventual) that spans multiple replicas and requests
- Automatic scaling: built on top of Google’s BigTable infrastructure, the Cloud Datastore will automatically scale with your data
- High availability: by utilizing Google’s underlying Megastore service, the Cloud Datastore ensures that data is replicated across multiple datacenters and is highly available
- Local development environment: the Cloud Datastore SDK provides a full-featured local environment that allows you to develop, iterate and manage your Cloud Datastore instances efficiently
- Free to get started: 50k read & write operations, 200 indexes, and 1GB of stored data for free per month
Getting started with Cloud Datastore
To get started, head over to the Google Cloud Console and create a new project. After supplying a few pieces of information you will have a Cloud Project that has the Cloud Datastore enabled by default. For this post we’ll use the project ID cloud-demo.
With the project created and the Cloud Datastore enabled, we’ll need to download the Cloud Datastore client library. Once installed, it’s time to start writing some code. For the sake of this post, we’ll focus on accessing the Cloud Datastore from a Python application running on a Compute Engine VM (which is also now in Preview). We’ll assume that you’ve already created a new VM instance.'
import googledatastore as datastore def main() writeEntity() readEntity()Next include writeEntity() and readEntity() functions:
def WriteEntity(): req = datastore.BlindWriteRequest() entity = req.mutation.upsert.add() path = entity.key.path_element.add() path.kind = 'Greeting' path.name = 'foo' message = entity.property.add() message.name = 'message' value = message.value.add() value.string_value = 'to the cloud and beyond!' try: datastore.blind_write(req) except datastore.RPCError as e: # remember to do something useful with the exception pass def ReadEntity(): req = datastore.LookupRequest() key = req.key.add() path = key.path_element.add() path.kind = 'Greeting0' path.name = 'foo0' try: resp = datastore.lookup(req) return resp except datastore.RPCError as e: # remember to do something useful with the exception passFirst create a new file called “demo.py”. Inside demo.py, we’ll add code to write and then read an entity from the Cloud Datastore. Finally we can update main() to print out the property values within the fetched entity:
def main() writeEntity(); resp = readEntity(); entity = resp.found[0].entity for p in entity.property: print 'Entity property name: %s', p.name v = p.value[0] print 'Entity property value: %s', v.string_valueBefore we can run this code we need to tell the SDK which Cloud Datastore instance we would like to use. This is done by exporting the following environment variable:
~$ export DATASTORE_DATASET cloud-datastore-demoFinally we’re able to run the application by simply issuing the following:
~$ python demo.pyBesides the output that we see in console window, we’re also able to monitor our interactions within the Cloud Console. By navigating back to Cloud Console, selecting our cloud-datastore-demo project, and then selecting the Cloud Datastore we’re taken to our instance’s dashboard page that includes number of entities, properties, and property types, as well as index management, ad-hoc query support and breakdown of stored data.
And that’s really just the beginning. To fully harness the features and functionality that the Cloud Datastore offers, be sure to check out the larger Getting Started Guide and the Cloud Datastore documentation.
Cloud Datastore is the latest addition to the Cloud Platform storage family, joining Cloud Storage for storing blob data, Cloud SQL for storing relational data, and Persistent Disk for storing block data. All fully managed so that you can focus on creating amazing solutions and leave the rest to us.
And while this is a Preview Release, the team is off to a great start. As we move the service towards General Availability we’re looking forward to improving JSON support, more deeply integrating with the Cloud Console, streamlining our billing and driving every bit of performance that we can out of the API and underlying service.
Happy coding!
Chris Ramsdale has worked extensively in the mobile space, starting as a Software Engineer at Motorola in 1997, and then joining local start ups as a Tech Lead and Product Manager. Chris is currently a Product Manager for Google Cloud Platform focused on developer tools and platform services like Google App Engine and Google Cloud Datastore.
Posted by Scott Knaster, Editor
Watch the Google I/O 2013: Day 1 Keynote and Android Sessions live here
Google is holding its Google I/O day 1 keynote at 9am PT and you can watch it right here on BetaNews.
We will of course be bringing you stories covering all the big announcements as they happen.
Rumors of what to expect include a revamped Google Maps, Android 4.3, a new music service set to rival Spotify, and even a Google branded Galaxy S4. Let’s see which of those comes true.
Sit back and enjoy the fun.
Programmer Creates An AI To (Not Quite) Beat NES Games
Programmer and CMU PhD Tom Murphy created a function to “beat” NES games by watching the score. When the computer did things that raised the score it would learn how to reproduce them again and again, resulting, ultimately, in what amounts to a Super Mario Brothers-playing robot. The program, called a “technique for automating NES games,” can take on nearly every NES game, but it doesn’t always win.
You can read his full paper here but, as you can see from the above video (fast-forward to about six minutes to see Mario in action), the game does most of the things normal humans would do but consistently uses very difficult tricks to, say, attack two Goombas in rapid succession.
Murphy writes:
Bytes in memory (and sometimes 16- and 32-bit words) can contain interesting game facts like the player’s position in the level or score. The central idea of this paper is to use (only) the value of memory locations to deduce when the player is “winning”. The things that a human player perceives, like the video screen and sound effects, are completely ignored. As an additional simplification, we assume that winning always consists of a value going up—either the position in the level getting larger, the score getting larger, the number of lives, the world or level number getting bigger, and so on.By giving the program a little bit of training – how to jump, what to grab – the program becomes a coin-hungry juggernaut, stomping turtles and taking no mushroom prisoners. Murphy ran a few other games through it, including Tetris, and found that the program would eventually just pause itself rather than continue playing and lose, a tactic shared by annoying, over-competitive cousins around the world since 1985.