Itsomp

How many times have you had a situation when you open a file for editing, make a bunch of changes, and discover that you don't have the rights to write the file? This happens to me a lot.

It usually goes like this. You open a file and you forget to use sudo:

$ vim /etc/apache/httpd.conf

You make many changes and then you type:

:wq!

And you get an error:

"/etc/apache/httpd.conf" E212: Can't open file for writing
Press ENTER or type command to continue

And then you go like, duh. At this point you either quit vim:

:q!

And open the file again with sudo:

$ sudo vim /etc/apache/httpd.conf

And make all the changes again. Or if you're a bit smarter, you save the file to /tmp directory:

:w /tmp/foo

And then you sudo move the /tmp/foo to the right location:

$ sudo mv /tmp/foo /etc/apache/httpd.conf

Don't do that anymore! Use this command:

:w !sudo tee % >/dev/null

This command will save you hundreds of hours throughout your career. Here's how it works - vim spawns sudo tee FILENAME and pipes the contents of the file to its stdin. The tee command now runs in a privileged environment and redirects its stdin to FILENAME. The >/dev/null discards tee's stdout as you don't need to see it.

In fact, don't use this command as it's too too long and complicated to remember! Save another few hundred hours and create a vim alias for this command because you'll use it for the rest of your life. Put this in your ~/.vimrc:

cnoremap sudow w !sudo tee % >/dev/null

Now the next time you're in this situation, just type:

:sudow

See you!

πρόβλεψη αεροψεκασμών

Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Charles Stross has written a very clever article where he describes the religious metaphor he uses with non-technical folks to explain the relationship between Mac OS X and UNIX. There is one true religion in operating systems says Stross and it is UNIX although there's also an earlier, older, more arcane religion with far fewer followers, MULTICS, from which UNIX sprang as a stripped-down rules-deficient heresy. If MULTICS is Judaism then UNIX is Christianity. By the mid-1970s there were two main sects: AT&T UNIX, which we may liken unto the Roman Catholic Church, and BSD UNIX, which we may approximate to the Orthodox Churches. In an attempt to control the schisms, the faithful defined a common interoperating subset of the one true religion that all could agree on—the Nicene Creed of UNIX which is probably POSIX. Stross says that today the biggest church in the whole of UNIX is Mac OS X, which rests on the bedrock of Orthodox BSD but "has added an incredible, towering superstructure of fiercely guarded APIs and proprietary user interface stuff that renders it all but unrecognizable to followers of the Catholic AT&T path." But lo, in the late 1980s, UNIX succumbed to the sins of venality, demanding too much money from the faithful and so, in 1991 Linus Torvalds nailed his famous source code release to the cathedral door and kicked off the Reformation. 'The Linux wars were brutal and unforgiving and Linux itself splintered into a myriad of fractious Protestant churches, from the Red Hat wearing Lutherans to the Ubuntu Baptists.' More recently, a deviant faith has sprung from Linux. 'Android is the Church of Latter Day Saints of UNIX: hard-working, sober, evangelizing the public, and growing at a ferocious rate. There are some strange fundamentalist Mormon Android churches living in walled communities under the banners of Samsung and Amazon, but for the most part the prosperous worship at the Church of Google.' Stross notes that as with all religion, those sects with most in common are the ones who hold the most vicious grudges against one another. 'Is that clear?'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Πριν από μερικούς μήνες είχα γράψει για ένα "βιβλίο" του Κρις Γουέαρ που στην πραγματικότητα δεν ήταν βιβλίο, ήταν ένα κουτί με χάρτινα κόμιξ διαφόρων ειδών και μεγεθών. Το συμπέρασμα ήταν πως, όσο υπάρχουν τέτοια θαυμάσια αντικείμενα που έχουν αξία όχι μόνο ως φορείς του περιεχομένου (λέξεις, σκίτσα), αλλά και ως αντικείμενα καθαυτά, τα βιβλία ως προϊόντα δεν θα πάψουν να υπάρχουν.

Σήμερα θα σας δείξω άλλο ένα τέτοιο παράδειγμα. Λέγεται "S":

Είναι ένα βιβλίο με σκληρό εξώφυλλο ντυμένο με μαλακό ύφασμα που έρχεται σε μια θήκη. Η θήκη γράφει τον τίτλο, το μυστηριώδες "S", και τα ονόματα των συγγραφέων που είναι Νταγκ Ντορστ και Τζ. Τζ. Έιμπραμς. Ναι, αυτός. Το ίδιο το βιβλίο, ωστόσο, έχει απάνω άλλο όνομα και άλλο όνομα συγγραφέα. Λέγεται "The Ship of Theseus" και ο συγγραφέας V.M. Straka.

Πριν καν ανοίξεις το βιβλίο μπορείς να καταλάβεις ότι κάτι περίεργο συμβαίνει εδώ. Δεν είναι μόνο ο διπλός τίτλος. Είναι το βιβλίο το ίδιο. Μοιάζει αφύσικα φουσκωμένο, ιδιαίτερα βαρύ, σαν να περιέχει περισσότερα πράγματα μέσα από τις σελίδες του.

Από την πρώτη κιόλας σελίδα καταλαβαίνεις πως, όντως, αυτό δεν είναι ένα συνηθισμένο πράγμα. Φτιαγμένο ώστε να μοιάζει με παλιό βιβλίο δανειστικής βιβλιοθήκης, το "The Ship of Theseus" είναι ένα δημιούργημα του φανταστικού και μυστηριώδους Στράκα, ο οποίος υποτίθεται ότι το έγραψε το 1949 και έκτοτε εξαφανίστηκε χωρίς να μάθει ποτέ κανείς την τύχη του. Το βιβλίο έχει σημειώσεις του ανθρώπου που το εξέδωσε, ενός επίσης μυστηριώδους τύπου ονόματι F.X. Caldeira, που ήταν ο μεταφραστής του Στράκα και έχει κάποιες δικές του απόψεις για την ταυτότητα και την τύχη του (άγνωστού του) συγγραφέα.

Αλλά αυτό είναι μόνο ένα μέρος της ιστορίας.

Γιατί το βιβλίο περιέχει άλλα δύο χαρακτηριστικά που το μετατρέπουν σε κάτι εντελώς διαφορετικό. Πρώτα, τα σχόλια.

Κάθε σελίδα του βιβλίου, εκτός από το κείμενο του "Στράκα" και τις υποσημειώσεις του "Καλντέιρα" έχει στα περιθώρια γραμμένες χειρόγραφες σημειώσεις. Διαβάζοντάς τις ο αναγνώστης γρήγορα καταλαβαίνει ότι πρόκειται για μια μορφή συζήτησης. Δύο αναγνώστες, η φοιτήτρια Τζεν και ο μελετητής του έργου του Στράκα Έρικ, δανείζονταν εναλλάξ το βιβλίο από τη βιβλιοθήκη και απαντούσαν ο ένας στα σχόλια του άλλου, δημιουργώντας αμέτρητες συζητήσεις μεταξύ τους με αφορμή εδάφια του βιβλίου, σχολιάζοντας το μυστήριο της ταυτότητας του Στράκα, τις ιδέες του Καλντέιρα και, τελικά, δημιουργώντας μια πιο προσωπική σχέση.

Ξεφυλλίζοντας καταλαβαίνεις ότι ετούτο εδώ είναι ένα πολύ ασυνήθιστο πράγμα: Κάθε σελίδα του βιβλίου είναι έγχρωμη, τυπωμένη έτσι ώστε να μοιάζει παλαιωμένη, με τα πολύχρωμα γράμματα της Τζεν και του Έρικ γύρω γύρω να σου δίνουν την εντύπωση πως ετούτο το αντίτυπο έχει όντως περάσει από διάφορα χέρια. Ο εντυπωσιασμός αυτός γρήγορα δίνει τη θέση του σε μια μικρή σύγχυση και μια αγωνία:

Εντάξει, πώς διαβάζεται αυτό το πράγμα;

Υπάρχουν δύο βασικές πλοκές που καλείται να ακολουθήσει ο αναγνώστης: Η κανονική υπόθεση του "κανονικού" βιβλίου, πλαισιωμένη από τα σχόλια του μεταφραστή Καλντέιρα, βεβαίως, και ταυτόχρονα ο σχολιασμός της στα περιθώρια από τους δυο αναγνώστες. Αν ακούγεται περίπλοκο, σε ενημερώνω ότι είναι, αλλά όχι όσο θα φανταζόταν κανείς. Ξεκίνησα διαβάζοντας διστακτικά, αποφασίζοντας να δώσω έμφαση στο κανονικό κείμενο και, σε κάθε διάλειμμα του κεφαλαίου, να γυρνάω πίσω για να διαβάσω και τα σχόλια, και δούλεψε. Από τη στιγμή που μου λύθηκε και η απορία της χρονικής συνέχειας της "κουβέντας" της Τζεν με τον Έρικ (δεν υπάρχει) η ανάγνωση κυλούσε φυσιολογικά, αν και αργά.

Και ήταν μια εμπειρία πολύ περίεργη.

Δεν ήταν σαν να διαβάζεις ένα μυθιστόρημα -ήταν σα να μελετάς ένα μυστήριο, τη λύση του οποίου καλείσαι να ανακαλύψεις.

Δεν είναι λογοτεχνία: Είναι παιχνίδι.

Αυτό, βεβαίως, δεν είναι απαραιτήτως κακό και δεν το λέω για κακό. Το παιχνίδι είναι καλό πράγμα, έχει ως αποκλειστικό σκοπό να ψυχαγωγεί και να προκαλεί χαρά. Δεν υπάρχει άλλη λέξη για το συναίσθημα που σου προκαλεί το ξεφύλλισμα αυτού του βιβλίου. Χαρά. Γιατί δεν είναι μόνο οι χρωματιστές σελίδες και η ασυνήθιστη ροή. Κάθε λίγες σελίδες, τοποθετημένα προσεκτικά από χέρια, επίτηδες, εξεπιτούτου, υπάρχουν δώρα.

Επιστολές, αποκόμματα, φωτογραφίες, καρτ-ποστάλ, αντικείμενα από χαρτί βρίσκονται τοποθετημένα ανάμεσα στις σελίδες, σε σημείο συγκεκριμένο και σχετικό με τη μία ή την άλλη πλοκή, για να τα ανοίξεις, να διαβάσεις, να παίξεις.

Ανάμεσα στα αντικείμενα υπάρχει μια ροδέλα για την αποκρυπτογράφηση γρίφων:

Και, το καλύτερο από όλα: Μια χαρτοπετσέτα με ένα χάρτη ζωγραφισμένο απάνω. Μια χαρτοπετσέτα:

Δεν υπάρχει άνθρωπος που να έχει δει αυτό το βιβλίο και να μην έχει φορέσει ένα πλατύ, λαμπερό χαμόγελο για ώρα πολλή. Ετούτο το πράγμα είναι χαρά, είναι αγάπη και μεράκι και αφοσίωση και επιμέλεια και φροντίδα, ένα αντικείμενο να το πιάνεις και να χαίρεσαι, και πες μου εσύ τώρα πόσα τέτοια υπάρχουν εκεί έξω, 21 δολάρια στο Amazon;

Ετούτο το βιβλίο είναι κατά τη γνώμη μου άλλη μια απόδειξη για το τι μπορεί να είναι "βιβλίο". Το βιβλίο δεν είναι μόνο οι λέξεις -οι λέξεις μπορούν να διαβαστούν και αλλού, σε οθόνες, ίσως και καλύτερα. Το βιβλίο είναι η εμπειρία. Ετούτο εδώ το πράγμα δεν μπορεί να διαβαστεί αλλού, μόνο σε ένα χάρτινο τόμο μπορεί, αυτό είναι το νόημα, αυτή είναι η ουσία, και ως τέτοιο είναι όμορφο και πολύτιμο. Τέτοια αντικείμενα έχει νόημα να υπάρχουν, και θα υπάρχουν, όσο προσφέρουν χαρά στον κόσμο.

Having said that,

Εγώ το βιβλίο ετούτο πιθανότατα δεν θα το τελειώσω ποτέ.

Επίτρεψέ μου να σου εξηγήσω.

Όπως είπαμε, το "S" το έφτιαξε ο γνωστός δημιουργός του Χόλιγουντ Τζ.Τζ. Έιμπραμς, μαζί με ένα συγγραφέα. Έφτιαξε και τυπικό μυστηριώδες τρέιλερ λίγους μήνες πριν από την κυκλοφορία του βιβλίου, το εξής:

Ο Τζ.Τζ. Έιμπραμς έχει δημιουργήσει διάφορα πράγματα, τα καινούρια Star Trek, το Alias, ένα Mission Impossible, τώρα φτιάχνει το επόμενο Star Wars. Αλλά είναι πιο γνωστός από όλα για τη δημιουργία μιας από τις διασημότερες τηλεοπτικές σειρές των τελευταίων χρόνων: Το Lost. Σιχαίνομαι το Lost. Βεβαίως η σειρά ετούτη πήρε τον κακό δρόμο αφότου έφυγε ο Έιμπραμς κι άφησε δυο άλλους να βγάλουν το φίδι από την τρύπα, αλλά πολλοί από εμάς επένδυσαν ώρες ατέλειωτης θέασης και σκέψης για τα μυστήρια εκείνουν του περιβόητου νησιού, κι όταν αποδείχτηκε πως αυτοί οι κύριοι δεν είχαν την παραμικρή ιδέα πώς να τα λύσουν με ικανοποιητικό τρόπο, καθώς τα έστηναν στα κουτουρού, ε, τον πήρε και τον Έιμπραμς η μπάλα του θυμού.

Το "S" είναι σχεδόν 500 σελίδες και απαιτούν όλες από τον αναγνώστη πολύ χρόνο και πολλή προσοχή. Περιέχει μυστήρια και μυστικά η αποκρυπτογράφηση των οποίων είμαι σίγουρος ότι μπορεί να είναι απολαυστική. Αλλά φοβάμαι να επενδύσω πάλι χρόνο. Φυσάω και το γιαούρτι, που λένε. Προς το παρόν μάλλον θα προτιμήσω να δείχνω το βιβλίο σε όποιον επισκέπτεται το σπίτι μου, και να απολαμβάνω τη θέα των πλατιών χαμόγελων για πολλή ώρα.

Είναι κι αυτό μια απόλαυση αξιοσημείωτη, νομίζω.

Μια ενδιαφέρουσα ομιλία του Κέβιν Σπέισι για την αλλαγή στον τρόπο με τον οποίο καταναλώνουμε οπτικοακουστικό περιεχόμενο, αυτό που παλιά λέγαμε "τηλεόραση", για το Netflix και για το House of Cards.

Πολύ ωραία τα λέει.

Το πιο ενδιαφέρον πράγμα που έγινε τελευταία στο ελληνικό ίντερνετ είναι το εξής: Οι 196 ταινίες της θρυλικής εταιρείας παραγωγής Φίνος Φιλμ έχουν αρχίσει ανεβαίνουν ολόκληρες -φυσικά δωρεάν- στο επίσημο κανάλι της εταιρείας στο YouTube. Είναι μια πολύ συναρπαστική κίνηση, που έρχεται σε μια εποχή κατά την οποία τα καταχρεωμένα τηλεοπτικά κανάλια αδυνατούν να πληρώσουν έστω και για φτηνό περιεχόμενο. Οι ταινίες προβάλλονται σε 480p, με pre-roll διαφήμιση και με απενεργοποιημένη τη δυνατότητα για embed (κι έτσι δεν σας έβαλα και μία να δείτε εδώ). Η μεταφορά σε κάποιες είναι λίγο περίεργη -οι 4:3 ταινίες εμφανίζονται με μαύρες μπάρες στα πλάγια, το "Κάτι Να Καίει" εμφανίζεται με μεγάλο μαύρο πλαίσιο γύρω γύρω. Αλλά βλέπονται -σε full screen η εμπειρία και η ανάλυση είναι παρόμοια της τηλεοπτικής εικόνας που έχουμε συνηθίσει.

Θα έχει πολύ ενδιαφέρον να δούμε πώς θα πάει το πείραμα. Subscribe εδώ.

UPDATE: Περισσότερες πληροφορίες για το πώς έγινε η όλη δουλειά, εδώ.

What if I said that I was writing this post in Microsoft Word ... on an iPad? You probably wouldn't believe me, but I am! It's not a tablet version that's been stripped of features, either. It's the same version that I use on my Mac -- in fact, it's exactly the same version I have on my Mac.

I'm not performing some sort of virtualization here; instead, I'm using a new service and app released today by Parallels called Parallels Access (Subscription, $79.99 per year) that gives iPad users total access to any application on their desktop Macs or Windows PCs. Parallels Access makes using those applications more touchscreen-friendly than what you usually encounter while using typical remote control apps like LogMeIn Ignition, iTeleport, Mocha VNC or Desktop Connect.

Parallels Access is incredibly easy to set up. You'll need a free Parallels account, which you can either sign up for when you begin to use Parallels Access on your iPad or Mac, and which you may already possess if you use Parallels Desktop. If it takes you more than two minutes to get Parallels Access up and running, you're definitely doing something wrong.

There are two components to Parallels Access: an iPad app and an application (called an "agent") that is installed on the Mac or Windows machine of your choice. That $80 annual subscription fee applies to each Mac that you're sharing -- the Windows desktop app is currently a free beta but will eventually go to the same subscription rate when it goes live. Install the iPad app on your second- through fourth-generation iPad or iPad mini and log into the Parallels account. Next, download the Mac or Windows agent and install it on the desktop machine. Once again, log in with the Parallels account.

As soon as the Mac or Windows machine is logged in, it appears in the iPad app. Tap on the name of the machine, and you're greeted with an App Launcher displaying all of the major and frequently-used apps on your desktop machine. Tap one of the app icons, and it immediately appears on your iPad screen. When I say "immediately", I'm not kidding. The apps start up as quickly as they would on your Mac or PC when you're on a fast Wi-Fi connection. Even over an LTE cellular data connection, it's very usable.

The user experience is completely different from using a screen sharing, VNC or remote control app. Instead of focusing on squeezing your entire Mac or PC screen into the screen real estate available on an iPad, Parallels Access concentrates on putting only one app at a time front and center on your iPad. Parallels refers to this as "applifying" your desktop applications by enabling native iPad tap and swipe gestures for those desktop apps.

The result is that a desktop app -- whether it's Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, AutoCAD, or any other desktop app -- dominates the iPad screen and is simple to navigate and control with standard iPad gestures. The app menu, sans the Apple menu, appears at the top of the screen. I installed the iPad app on both my third-generation iPad and iPad mini, and it's just as easy to use on both devices.

Parallels Access helps to speed control of the desktop apps by taking "near misses" on taps and applying them to the nearest button, icon, or menu item. This ability is known as SmartTap and works very well. If you need even more precision in grabbing a selection handle or something similar, holding down a finger for a moment displays a magnifying glass tool that enables the accuracy you need for either selecting text or using a navigation element.

If you currently use Parallels Desktop 8 on a Mac to run a Windows virtual machine, you're going to get an extra added bonus. All of the Windows apps that you have installed on the virtual machine are accessible from the App Launcher as well. Switching between desktop applications in Parallels Access is also a piece of cake -- tap on the App Switcher icon on the floating tool palette that shows up on the side of the iPad screen, and then tap on the other app you wish to use. Two taps and you've switched to the other desktop app.

Selecting words and graphics in an "applified" Mac or Windows app is done with one finger. You can either drag and drop those elements, or select them and then paste into an iPad app or another desktop app -- or even onto another desktop if you have access to it.

One thing I found extremely useful while I was using Parallels Access on the iPad mini is that Siri dictation is fully supported. I was able to "type" into Microsoft Word for Mac using dictation, helpful instead of stumbling with the smaller virtual keyboard of the mini.

During my testing of a pre-release version of Parallels Access, I found it to be extremely stable and fast. The only time I ran into an issue was when I tried to run desktop apps on my office iMac over a bad data connection that kept wavering between LTE and 3G at about one or two bars of signal strength. Running those same apps on my local Wi-Fi network and from a remote Wi-Fi network, I found the speed of operation to be almost as fast as if the desktop apps were native to my iPad.

So what happens on the desktop computer while you're running those apps from your iPad? Well, the screen resolution changes, and you see your computer being used -- no surprise there. If you're in an office environment and/or would rather not have someone watching what you're doing remotely, there are settings for the desktop app that let you lock the computer when you're working remotely and after you're done with your remote session.

The connection between your iPad and the desktop machine is secured using SSL and 256-AES. One feature that I liked was receiving a confirmation email from Parallels Access any time that a new iPad was registered. These confirmation emails are also sent when a new user or computer is registered, so that you're always aware of who is accessing your machines.

Is there any feature I'd like to see added to Parallels Access? Sure -- it would be really cool if someone could be working on the desktop machine in one account and using Parallels Access in a different account. That way, for example, if I had kids they could be using the Mac for "educational purposes" while I'm doing work. But I'm probably dreaming...

If I were Steve Ballmer, one of my final acts before retiring from Microsoft would be to kill the Windows Surface tablet products. With Parallels Access and an iPad, there's really no need for a Windows tablet if you already have a home or office PC. Those ads showing that you can't run Microsoft Office on an iPad are going to start looking pretty silly starting today.

Parallels Access: 'Applifying' desktop apps on the iPad originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 27 Aug 2013 09:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The world is flat, and resting on the backs of four elephants who, in turn, stand upon the back of a giant, space-faring turtle. Welcome to Terry Pratchett's Discworld. How does it all work? Pratchett, along with Professors Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, explain it all in The Science of Discworld IV.

Read more...

NYC-based ad creatives Manuel Urbanke and Maximilian Hoch imagine a Trurkish spirit perfectly suited for the current times.





Cargo Collective | via

During the moments before the beginning of the Green Day concert last weekend, the crowd gathered on the Emirates Stadium in London sang along to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.


Redditor Hyperguy20, who was there at the concert, writes:

"The crowd were going more crazy for this than any of the support acts. It is probably the closest i'll get ever get to going to a Queen stadium gig. R.I.P. Freddie even in death you can still work a crowd."

via

Tim Cook, one year ago, to Walt Mossberg: “We’re going to double down on secrecy on products.”

12 months later, here we are, on the cusp of WWDC 2013, and nobody outside Apple seems to have any idea what Apple is set to show tomorrow. Cook’s words to Mossberg were anything but empty. The most secretive company in the industry got more secretive. We know Jony Ive has been leading the software design of iOS and OS X. We can be pretty sure they’re going to show us what they’ve been up to. But no one seems to know just what that is.

Yours truly included — and I couldn’t be happier. I haven’t been this in the dark about what Apple was set to announce in a keynote since the original iPhone introduction in January 2007. I’ve seen some speculation over the past few days that Vesper’s UI was informed by advanced knowledge of iOS 7. It was not. In fact, if anything, I expect Apple to zig where we (Q Branch) have zagged, in some ways. (And if iOS 7’s reveal does make Vesper seem at least somewhat presciently designed, chalk it up simply to our being able to tell which way the design wind is blowing.)

The thing to focus on — now, during the anticipatory lull, and tomorrow, once we have the actual design before us — is not merely what it looks like. The quote I keep coming back to is this classic from Steve Jobs, 10 years ago: “Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it’s this veneer — that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

Whatever has changed in iOS 7 has changed for reasons other than fashion, or difference for the sake of difference.

The original iPhone was designed for a world where smartphones were horrid little button- and scroll-wheel-driven devices, and where proper humane computer interfaces were driven by mouse and trackpad cursors. The iPhone blended the two — the size and cellular networking of the smartphone, the humaneness of Mac-style UI design — and did so by introducing something new. The touchscreen.¹

The design of the iPhone software was entirely informed by the fact that this was a new experience, it was nothing like using an existing smartphone, nor anything like using a Mac or Windows PC. It needed training wheels to get people up to speed. Thus, to name one small example, why iOS buttons have tended to look so very button-y. To inform the user, as clearly as possible, that this is a button that can be tapped.

Look around you. Any street corner. Any office. Any shopping mall. Any restaurant. You will see people tapping on touchscreens. We all get it now. iOS-style computing is no longer novel; it is now the standard interaction model for personal computing.

The primary problem Apple faced with the iPhone in 2007 was building familiarity with a new way of using computers. That problem has now been solved. It is time to solve new problems.

The training wheels can now come off. That’s what I think Apple’s going to do tomorrow.²

by Torsten

Matt Clinch, CNBC:

Tight security restrictions at Thursday’s Google shareholder meeting led even the company’s much-hyped Google Glass technology to be banned, infuriating a consumer watchdog group who accused the tech giant of hypocrisy.

Eric Schmidt, back in 2009:

“If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

Israeli musicians Rotem Shefy (vocalist) and Leat Sabbah (cellist/arranger) bring you a unique version Radiohead's Karma Police, from their 1995 classic album OK Computer.


Get it on Amazon or iTunes

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Jeff Wysaski of Pleated Jeans is back with a new Misheard song lyrics video, this time doing songs from the 1990's.



Previously: Misheard song lyrics, Misheard song lyrics - part 2, Misheard song lyrics - 2012 edition

Pleated Jeans

Fringe has finally saved its last universe, and Walter Bishop has made his last acid-fueled discovery. But if you're still craving more Fringe, then here's some good news — a brand new novel tells the story of an adventure that Walter had with his comrade, William Bell, back when they were young. And here's the first chapter!

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Astronauts are usually pretty busy while they're off planet so there hasn't been a lot of time to, um, look into this stuff, but it's unclear whether humans can procreate in weightless conditions. Apparently, you can't just march into space like you own it and do whatever you want.

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A tax break scheme from the sinister Chancellor Palpatine George Osborne allows Lucasfilm to shoot and produce the new Star Wars movie primarily in England's green and pleasant land.

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Next week we'll learn the secrets contained in the Doctor Who season finale"The Name of the Doctor," but for now, BBC gives us the prologue: a pair of symmetrical monologues from Clara and the Doctor about the mysteries of each other's existence.

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Forget putting up four walls and a roof; these homes use the stony walls of natural and human-made caves to shelter their inhabitants from the storm. Check out these incredible rocky homes, from ancient cave dwelling to modern house, to the buildings that may have inspired J.R.R. Tolkien's Hobbiton.

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Αυτό το συγκλονιστικό βίντεο από την πτώση ενός μεταφορικού Boeing 747 στο Αφγανιστάν κάνει τη γύρα στα ίντερνετς τις τελευταίες ώρες. Είναι αληθινό και πάρα πολύ τρομαχτικό. Εδώ μπορείς να διαβάσεις μια ερμηνεία για το τι συνέβη και το αεροσκάφος συμπεριφέρθηκε έτσι αλλόκοτα τις τελευταίες στιγμές πριν από την πτώση του.

...an aerodynamic stall is nothing like a normal car-engine stall. The simplest way to envision it is to think of bicycling up a very steep hill in high gear. At some point, you won't be able to keep the bicycle's speed up -- and since a bike needs to be moving forward to stay upright, at that point it will fall over.

Από την πρόσκρουση επτά άνθρωποι έχασαν τη ζωή τους.

BitTorrent just released BitTorrent Sync, a p2p “dropbox alternative”. What it does, more or less, is sync folders between computers using the bittorrent protocol.

This is huge!

Obviously, it will replace dropbox for many users. It’s easy to have multiple folders and give to other users a read-only or a read-write key to sync with them. Example: use my key RNK7XXLW3LB4JSR7OP7LMKOTZLHEDRIRE to get read-only access to my test folder.

But it’s much bigger than this!

For example, I put an HTML page in my test folder. I could put my whole blog in there, and you could have the most updated version at all times. Or I could put small json files that represent status updates and you could have a client that reads them and constructs something like... twitter. And of course, I could have a movies file, or a music file and share my movies and music...

Wow. This is huge. I’ll have to play with it a bit, and write more about it.

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Some more thougths...

OK. So my new “web space” may actually be one (or more) btsync folder. I’ll share with the world my read-only key, and they will be able to read, or get my content: status updates, blog posts, etc.

Think about it. Your next microblogging platform may be btsync. You’ll get read access to your friends folder containing small xml or json files for each status update, and your desktop client will put them together as a stream. And you’ll publish yours just by putting new status updates in your folder! (There was an OS X app that did this over dropbox, I can’t remember the name.)

And this btsync key, is... the new IP, right? Much like people had to know IPs back in the early days of the Internet. And someone will make one or more centralized registries, mapping btsync keys to human readable names. Host names? Space names? Someone will come up with a good term. And then, we will probably need something like a DNS :-)

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one more update: It looks like this post is on the right track.

@vrypan gets it (perhaps the first to do so), initial steps toward the content-centric network with BitTorrent Sync http://blog.vrypan.net/2013/4/24/bittorrent-sync/ —Eric Klinker, CEO of BitTorent

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Read first: For a more refined version of VSRE visit VSRE.info.

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I get a lot of email: requests for advice, presentations, meetings, new projects/services... In most of these cases, the answer itself could be as simple as “Yes”, “No”, or “Tuesday”, or “I’ll be available after July”.

But I want to be polite, which adds a considerable overhead to delivering a simple reply.

The “I can’t”, ends up looking something like “Dear John, thank you ..., I would be happy to ... but right now I’m ... and ... and ... and I won’t be able to invest the required amount of time. Please [....] Thank you”. Even saying yes, gets more complicated than it should: unless I know the sender really well, I’ll go with something more than “Great. Yes. Send me details.”.

As a result I find myself delaying replies, until get the time to write “a proper reply”, and this takes much more time than it should.

Remember “RSVP” that indicates that the sender (of an invitation) expects a reply? What if, much like in the case of RSVP, the sender had a way to inform me in advance that a very short reply is welcome?

I’ll call it VSRE, for “Very Short Reply Expected”. It will be a way to indicate that it’s OK for the recipient to give a very short reply. So when I see an email with subject “VSRE: Invitation to participate to event X”, I’ll know in advance I can safely reply with a “yes, thank you”, or even a simple “no”.

“VSRE” can also be used at the end of your email, like this

Looking forward to your reply (VSRE),

John.

or even like this

VSRE, John.

Yes, VSREs will be the first emails I’ll answer. Yes, VSREs will be the emails I’d rather answer on my mobile.

However, if you use VSRE, make sure your email can be replied using a very short reply. I mean, some questions require a long answer. If you add VSRE at the subject of an email that requires a long answer, I’ll probably reply with “VSR not possible, check out what VSRE stands for” and a link to this post.

The rules:

• VSRE stands for “Very Short Reply Expected”
• In this context, a very short reply can be a single word, and is usually consisted of no more than five.
• If you ask for VSRE, expect to get answers like “No.” or “Ping me in 4 weeks”. If you wanted the full story, you shouldn’t have used VSRE in the first place.

If you like the idea, spread the word. The more people are aware of it, the more it will make sense using it. (update: the best way to link to this is http://vsre.info/)

Feel free to copy this post (a link back here will be appreciated) or (even better) describe the idea behind VSRE in your own words.

If you write something that extends (or debates) the idea, send me an email, or ping me on twitter (@vrypan).

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Discuss on HN

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This post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

EA confirmed today on its website that the latest SimCity instalment will be headed to Mac this summer with an official release scheduled for June 11. The title will be available exclusively through EA’s Origin platform (in addition to “other online retailers”), but those who have already purchased the PC version of the game will be able to grab the Mac download for free on Origin:

“SimCity is coming to Mac on June 11 and one purchase will give you both the Mac and PC versions. You only need to buy SimCity once to play together across the same servers, regardless of which version you’re playing,” said Lucy Bradshaw, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA’s Maxis Label. “We didn’t want to make any compromises when it came to the Mac so we created a native version that is optimised for the hardware and OSX.”

Good news if you plan on picking up the Mac version this summer: right now you can get SimCity for the lowest price we’ve seen ever, $32 on 9to5Toys, and then download the Mac version free in June.

EA made a point of noting that the game is not your average port but rather runs natively on OS X with “its entire software renderer was rewritten for OpenGL, ensuring the best performance for the platform.” SimCity will allow players to play online across platforms on the same servers as PC users when it launches and Origin account holders will be able to use the same account on both copies. The game originally got off to a bit of a rough start, with players experiencing major server issues that eventually lead to EA offering refunds and free games to disgruntled users.

EA is also currently offering 50% off all its Mac titles on Origin for a limited time.