This is the House of the Infinite in Cádiz, Spain, designed by architect Alberto Campo Baeza. It looks like the sand actually solidified into the house itself. Simple straight lines, simple use of materials, large windows to watch ocean and make the breeze of the Bahía de Cádiz circulate through its interior. Just beautiful.
For almost two years, Ars has advised readers to use a software-based password manager to ease the password fatigue that comes from choosing and securing dozens of hard-to-guess passcodes that are unique to each site or service. A research paper scheduled to be presented at a security conference next month underscores the hidden dangers of selecting the wrong products.
The researchers examined LastPass and four other Web-based managers and found critical defects in all of them. The worst of the bugs allowed an attacker to remotely siphon plaintext passcodes out of users' wallets with no outward sign that anything was amiss. LastPass and three of the four other developers have since fixed the flaws, but the findings should serve as a wakeup call. If academic researchers from the University of California at Berkeley can devise these sorts of crippling attacks, so too can crooks who regularly case people's online bank accounts and other digital assets.
"Widespread adoption of insecure password managers could make things worse: adding a new, untested single point of failure to the Web authentication ecosystem," the researchers wrote in their paper, titled The Emperor's New Password Manager: Security Analysis of Web-based Password Managers (PDF). "After all, a vulnerability in a password manager could allow an attacker to steal all passwords for a user in a single swoop. Given the increasing popularity of password managers, the possibility of vulnerable password managers is disconcerting and motivates our work."
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Greg Cox:
I was very excited when I read Satya Nadella’s recent public email message about his direction for Microsoft. I left the company in early 2010, frustrated with its direction. The email seemed to confirm what I had hoped about his appointment as CEO.
Then I saw Jean-Louis Gassée’s critique of the message and realized that I had read Satya’s words through Microsoft goggles. Having lived the internal corporate process that takes a few strong, simple ideas and makes them into thousands of words of compromised language, I had subconsciously decoded his message.
A few months ago, I was scouting some apartments in the Plaza Hotel when my guide asked if I wanted to see the Plaza’s courtyard.
Now here’s the thing: not only did I have absolutely no idea the Plaza had a courtyard, I couldn’t even figure out where a courtyard would fit. But, after winding our way through a maze of hallways, we finally came to a door…
…and stepped out into the Plaza Hotel’s hidden courtyard.
Though you’d never know it from the street, the Plaza Hotel is actually U-shaped, to afford windows and airflow for its inner rooms.
The courtyard stretches the entire length of the inner area, and features manicured gardens and several pools, beginning with this large one at the widest part of the building…
Then, a series of tiered pools continue out to the west (water flows from pool to pool)…
…finally ending in a large fountain…
…and a garden beyond:
Here are some pictures of the fountains in action during the warmer months from Delta Fountains, the architects/manufacturers responsible for the space.
The pools feature a series of underwater lights, which must look beautiful at night when shimmering up at the towers surrounding them.
I tried to turn up some of the courtyard’s history, but for some reason, there’s next to nothing to be found.
One neat perk is that most of the courtyard level rooms feature personal balcony spaces, a pretty good consolation if you can’t get a street view:
Looking up:
I’m a big fan of hidden urban oases, and I love how the Plaza’s courtyard offers a private and tranquil sanctuary from the hustle and bustle of the city, yet never lets you forget you’re in the heart of Manhattan.
I’m sure there are a number of readers out there who have seen this while staying at the hotel; in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if this one of the few spaces in New York better known by tourists than locals. Definitely going to have to try to go back now that the gardens are in bloom.
I’m also going to make it a point to really appreciate the remaining 73 days of summer, because man was this past winter brutal.
-SCOUT
Forget your fancy arcade sticks . The breakout player during this year's EVO fighting game tournament used a gamepad to beat down all comers. Not just any gamepad, either. Luffy won the top spot with a controller from the original PlayStation.
While the likes of Amazon and Netflix continue to court major exclusives for their respective services, Hulu earned a big win of its own this weekend. At the Television Critics Association Press Tour yesterday, Trey Parker and Matt Stone announced that all 17 seasons of South Park will be available for streaming on Hulu Plus, with new episodes available for subscribers the day after broadcast.
According to the New York Times, the deal for the series' 240-plus episodes was worth more than $80 million, helping to ensure that the series will live on well beyond its 20th season. Previously, viewers had to rely on Hulu, Netflix, or SouthParkStudios.com, which has up until now provided the complete catalog of episodes (save for a handful of...
This is how the front page of today’s Sports section in The New York Times covered LeBron James’s decision to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Pretty clever. +
You can now watch acclaimed South Korean director Bong Joon-ho's slick, post-apocalyptic sci-fi film Snowpiercer right at home — just two weeks after it hit US theaters for the first time. That's an extremely rare move for a film such as this, which has a sizable budget ($80 million), rave reviews (such as our own), and buzz at the theaters.
But Snowpiercer, which follows a band of impoverished underclass survivors led by Chris Evans (Captain America) as they fight their way to the front of a train that houses the remnants of humanity after an ice age, at first opened in just eight screens in the US. Before that, the film was a hit internationally, according to The Los Angeles Times; it's drawn over $80 million overseas, with most...
To promote the fact that Delta has added USB ports to every seat on its long-haul international flights, the airline installed these clever ads—as spotted by Laughing Squid's Scott Beale—in New York Uber taxis, giving them powered USB ports too so that passengers can recharge their phones.
Land Rover's windshield experiments have already been pretty impressive — remember the concept that would make your car's bonnet appear transparent to make it easier to avoid potholes? But what if you're on a silky-smooth race track, looking to perfect your performance?
We've seen high-tech guns cropping up in the private sector, and now the military has taken them to the next level. DARPA's Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance, or EXACTO, program recently completed its first live test, firing a series of .50-caliber shots that use "in-flight guidance" to maneuver to their target.
The military bought six Linux-powered TrackingPoint rifles earlier this year, but DARPA's version seems to move beyond that. While a TrackingPoint rifle calculates things like gravity and wind and fires when the gun is properly aligned, DARPA's system maneuvers the bullet after it's been shot. A guidance system and maneuverable bullet can "compensate for any unexpected factors" such as wind, weather, or a moving target, according...
Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Videos, Lamborghini
Continue reading Swedish man bests Kobe Bryant by jumping speeding Lambo
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Comcast's proposed acquisition of Time Warner is, to put it lightly, controversial. The $45.2 billion all-stock transaction would extend Comcast's already substantial swaths of subscriber territory even farther, an idea that's incensed Senator Al Franken and a former FCC commissioner, among others. Now it's the public's turn to weigh in.
What if in-app purchases didn’t have to happen in-app? Rather than indirectly helping developers monetize with ads that drive them installs and re-engagement, Facebook today began letting them sell Facebook desktop game virtual goods straight from ads in the News Feed or sidebar. But an even more lucrative opportunity could be bringing these “out-app purchase” ads to mobile.… Read More
Back in January, AT&T announced its "Sponsored Data" program, which lets app developers and brands pick up the tab for data send to your mobile device without it counting towards your monthly data plan. It's a very transparent way for AT&T to make money off companies that can afford to pick up the tab to push products and services to people who might shell out for content on the go. Now AT&T has one of its first examples of how that will be used. A company called Syntonic Wireless plans to use the feature in an app that promises to do many things — from installing apps, to browsing online stores, and eventually streaming video, with none of these things will count towards your data limit, Recode reports. An early version of the software...
If you were the most powerful person in the world, wouldn't you use that power to the head of what is arguably America's most famous barbecue destination, skip the notoriously long line, and grab some brisket? You so would, and that's just what Barack Obama did earlier today while he was in Austin, surprising locals with a trip to Franklin Barbecue. According to KXAN, POTUS made up for jumping the queue by paying for the people who were already in line. "Because these folks were in front of me, I’m buying for them," he said before also purchasing "about eight pounds of brisket, ribs, sausage and turkey."
Obama talks with some locals during a surprise visit to Franklin Barbecue in Austin, Texas pic.twitter.com/vYNf6DK01d
— Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) July 10, 2014
Obama at Franklin Barbecue in Austin pic.twitter.com/JjccNZ7TSb
— Steve Holland (@steveholland1) July 10, 2014
He sealed the purchase with a fist-bump:
Obama gets a fist pump as he pays for his lunch during a surprise visit to Franklin Barbecue in Texas #obamaaustin pic.twitter.com/sPUAMIAm2S
— Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) July 10, 2014
Related: A Brief History of Barack Obama Eating at Trendy Restaurants
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Filed Under: power moves, barack obama, franklin barbecue
Major League Baseball was among the first to embrace Apple’s iBeacon technology on a wide scale, installing them in 28 MLB ballparks across the U.S. last year to help iPhone owners check-in to games automatically and collect special offers. Now, the project is entering phase two, with a debut project at this year’s All-Star Game at Target Field that uses iBeacons combined with… Read More
Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) is already the largest independent chip foundry, and it's about to get a little bigger, as the Wall Street Journal reports that TSMC has begun manufacturing and shipping new chips for Apple. Samsung has manufactured all iPhone and iPad processors for Apple to date, and news of the switch to TSMC follows years of rumors that Apple was looking to switch.
The report indicates that TSMC is using its new 20nm manufacturing process to make the chips (Samsung is using a 28nm process). It's difficult to do apples-to-apples comparisons of different processes from different foundries, but in general, smaller manufacturing processes allow chip designers to fit more transistors into the same amount of space or to fit the same amount of transistors into a smaller space. Chips made on smaller processes can typically increase performance while keeping power usage the same or maintain performance while reducing power usage—both will be important to improving performance and battery life in next-generation phones and tablets.
Even though the chips are reportedly shipping now, that doesn't mean current iPhones and iPads will soon switch to TSMC-made chips. Adapting an existing processor architecture to a different foundry's manufacturing tech takes quite a bit of work by itself. It's more likely that existing A5, A6, and A7 SoCs will continue to be made at Samsung for the time being, while TSMC focuses on new chips like the A8 that's expected for next-generation iOS devices.
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All photos by Chuck Choi courtesy Studio KCA
If you visited Governor’s Island in New York last summer you most certainly saw the billowing, cloud-like structure that sits in the middle of the lawn. And if you’re anything like my kids you probably dashed up to it to see exactly what thing was. But it’s not until you get up close that you realize it’s made from many, many plastic bottles stringed together. “53,780 used plastic bottles,” says designer Jason Klimoski, “the number thrown away in NYC in just 1 hour.” Klimoski and his team at STUDIO KCA collected the bottles – a combination of milk jugs and water bottles – and lashed them together to create “Head in the Clouds,” a pavilion people can walk into, sit inside, and contemplate just how much plastic is thrown away every day.
The structure, however, was temporary and the team is now looking for its next home. If you’re interested in having this in your back yard get in touch with the designers.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sent a broad email to all employees today outlining the company’s ambitions for the new financial year. Top of the agenda is reshaping what the "core" of Microsoft is, and Nadella admits the devices and services description, introduced by former CEO Steve Ballmer, was helpful, but that "we now need to hone in on our unique strategy." That unique strategy is a Microsoft that’s focused on mobile and cloud, a similar message that Nadella has hinted at previously. "We will reinvent productivity to empower every person and every organization on the planet to do more and achieve more," Nadella boldly states.
Uniqlo occupies a weird place in the clothing landscape. The Japanese fast-fashion behemoth bounces between tasteful minimalism and bland normcore that your dad would find suspicious for all the wrong reasons. But if there’s one thing just about everyone can agree on, it’s that Uniqlo is a pretty great place to go T-shirt shopping.
The store produces new designs and collaborations at a dizzying pace, and earlier this year launched "The New Model T" — a redesign with stronger materials and no seams along the side. The new UT line is now under the creative direction of Nigo, who founded legendary Japanese streetware label A Bathing Ape, with Pharrell Williams on board as the public face of the brand. And now you can design your own Uniqlo...
Oh, man: Over at Bedford + Bowery, our colleagues dropped an unbelievable photo of a convenience-store coffee machine that doles out Choco Taco-flavored coffee. At this early hour, while Grub is still sipping on our own morning coffee, the shot, from a store in Lake Placid, New York, strikes a particular chord — and it causes us to ask ourselves three very important questions:
1. What would a Choco Taco Cappuccino actually taste like? Choco Tacos just taste like chocolate sauce and vanilla ice-cream in a waffle-cone shell, so we'd guess "mocha."
2. Why didn't our friends at B+B actually order one? We can't say for sure, but we actually don't begrudge them for being fearful of such a creation at an early hour. 7 a.m. is no time for culinary shenanigans.
3. Are we about to enter a full-on Choco Taco renaissance? Maybe. Empellón's Alex Stupak whipped some up a while back, after people asked for them on social media. B+B offered its particular photo after noticing that a vendor at the Hester Street Fair's Ice Cream Social will offer a version of the treat. And people obviously love these things. Can a Smorgasburg stand be far behind?
Just as we were ready to write this off as a one-time-only missed opportunity, we came across this mention from CNN's Kat Kinsman, who has apparently also seen these sweet babies in the wild. She, in turn, points the world to some (dated-looking) sales information for the machine in question. And now, even though it is six months away, Grub Street knows exactly what we will be asking for this Christmas.
The Choco Taco Cappuccino. It Exists. [Bedford + Bowery]
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Filed Under: inventions, choco taco, ice cream
In computer games, you usually know things that your avatar could not, like the locations of enemies on a mini-map.
How do you create a viral tweet? If you're Google, the answer is easy: see what everyone in the world is interested in by tracking their search results, then write something about whatever's popular. During the Germany–Brazil World Cup game yesterday, Google let NPR into its newsroom to see how it chooses which trends it should share with the world. NPR's most interesting finding was that Google chooses to avoid negativity — avoiding, say, bringing up Brazil's staggering loss, despite a wide interest in it.
"We're also quite keen not to rub salt into the wounds," Google producer Sam Clohesy tells NPR, "and a negative story about Brazil won't necessarily get a lot of traction in social."
Instead, Google chose to share this through...
Nathaniel Bolwell, a 19-year-old kid from Wales, was pretty sure he had about £400 in his account when his debit card was declined at the supermarket, so he checked with his bank Lloyds and discovered he hadn't exactly gotten a bargain on the large cheese pizza he ordered from Domino's: The chain accidentally charged him the equivalent of $300,000 instead of $30. "Not even the poshest meal in the poshest restaurant would cost anything like that even if I took all my friends and family out," Bolwell says. "How did it allow Domino's to take all that money?" (For its part, Domino's said it "immediately flagged" the transaction.) The purchase went through as authorized, in any event, and outside of what were likely some intense heart palpitations in the beginning, Bolwell made it out of the ordeal okay. Lloyds even gave him £100 for the hassle. [Wales Online via NYDN]
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Filed Under: whoopsie pie, checking card, domino's, the chain gang, wales
Because funds raised on Kickstarter are considered income in the United States, Zack Danger Brown will likely owe at least $21,167 in federal, city, and state taxes for his improbably successful crowd-funded campaign to make a simple bowl of potato salad. He's got to have a slew of paperwork to fill out, too, according to Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, which has posted a full rundown of Brown's income and deductions. As of today, the potato salad campaign has raised $71,846, and while there's a chance a savvy accountant may be able to qualify some of the funds as nontaxable gifts, it's probably still going to be a five-figure tariff for those Yukon Golds. Dude better hold the mayo. [Tax Foundation, Related]
Read more posts by Hugh Merwin
Filed Under: complex carbohydrates, crowdfunding, kickstarter, potato salad, zack danger brown
The August issue of Consumer Reports features a very thorough fast-food survey, ranking some 65 chains from best to worst. It mostly confirms what everybody already knows: Chick-fil-A trumps KFC; Chipotle is better than Taco Bell; and Carl's Jr. and Hardee's basically end up tied because they're the same place anyhow. But in the coveted burger category, a dark horse crushed the competition: Santa Barbara-based Habit Burger Grill beat out, if only narrowly, presumed champ In-N-Out and runners-up Five Guys and Smashburger. The small chain, established in 1969 and known for its maybe-soon-to-be-iconic Double Charburger, didn't begin franchising until last November, but it's clearly not wasting any time. It already has plans to invade the Northwest with 25 locations then head east, where it may open as many as three. The first is a sure thing, though; it arrives later this summer, just over in Fair Lawn, Bergen County, a mere hour-long burger journey via New Jersey Transit. [Consumer Reports]
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Filed Under: survey says, consumer reports, five guys, habit burger grill, in-n-out, smashburger
That little update in April was the first time that the internet got new Homestar Runner stuff in three years. Now, the cult cartoon's creators say that we'll be seeing more of Strong Bad, the Cheat and the show's other characters soon. Are you ready for a Strong Sad Tumblr?