Deabreu

Today's comic is a response to this individual.

It’s always odd to hear people say RSS is dead. The fact is, RSS is easily the most successful stealth, insurgent technology on the web. It is pervasive and is the engine for much of the Internet.

Apple uses it to syndicate computer updates. Your podcast subscriptions rely on RSS. Every Wordpress blog is RSS enabled and every major news site is broadcasting via RSS. They’re all syndicated. They all have an RSS feed. It’s the background hum of the Internet.

There are millions of feeds out there, continually connecting users to their favorite content. Just about everything online except Facebook and Twitter is available via RSS.

Even more importantly, RSS has proven to be resilient and durable regardless of what corporate interests want to do with it. Netscape invented the underlying code in the late 90’s, and then took away all documentation and support in 2001 after AOL bought them out. But even that didn’t slow the dissemination. 

And then last year, the biggest player on the Internet took its ball and went home when Google killed its Reader. Despite the fact that Google retired the most popular RSS application on the Net, it did not affect RSS in any appreciable way. All of those feeds are still available and users are still getting their content delivered exactly as they want it. What greater proof is there of the resiliency of RSS?

In fact, what might have seemed like a disaster at first is perhaps the best thing that could happen to the technology. Remember, RSS is a technology and a service; it is not a product. AOL thought they could squash this great idea, but a community of developers took the idea and ran. Then Google thought they could abandon the technology and assumed everyone would gravitate to their social networks instead.

In fact, any number of companies can go out of business, but nobody can stop anybody from publishing and reading RSS feeds. 

However, just because a technology is widely available does not guarantee success. What makes RSS truly powerful is that users still have the control. The beauty of the system is it that no one can force you to be tracked and no one can force you to watch ads. There are no security issues I am aware of and no one ever has to know what feeds you subscribe to. This may be the last area of the Internet that you can still say things like this.

Google Reader was a monopolist product built on an anti-monopolist technology. Now that they’re gone, RSS is once again anyone’s game. You’re going to see a lot more innovation and new stuff for RSS. I never know if its supposed to be a blessing or a curse to live in interesting times. But I have to believe this RSS is entering maybe the most interesting time in its long history.

No, this is not fake. Our pals at Slate have confirmed that Shaq's LinkedIn profile does indeed list the NBA legend's occupation as "Owner, a lot of companies." God bless you, Shaq.

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In 2010, I discussed doing VFX for a client’s feature-length film. I gave him an estimate, time frame, and a PO Box to mail a hard drive of raw footage to. He promised to send the footage within the week.

Three years later, I received a bubble wrap envelope from the client. The envelope contained a single CD, with no case or paper envelope protecting it.

The only file on the CD was a single JPG image. It was a picture of a hand-written note taken on a webcam.
The client, thinking the webcam would flip the image, wrote the entire note backwards; every letter, every word, every sentence, all of it was written from right to left.

 The note (to the best of my reading ability) said:

Client: Here is the footage, like we discussed. Call me before you start.

Gas Station | Norway

(When I was born, there were serious complications, and doctors had to step in to keep both me and my mother alive. They tore all my muscles and damaged a lot of nerves in my neck. I went to a physical therapist for many years. I hardly ever notice it now, 20 years later, but once in a while, after lifting heavy items for a long period of time, my back acts up and it hurts a lot. All of my coworkers know this, and despite this, I’m a very hard worker. A customer in his 40s walks in, skips right across the line, and to me, where I’m currently working on a problem with a coffee machine. He sets an empty can of gas, the steel type, down on the floor next to me. I have equipment all over the counter and floor, trying to figure out the problem with the machine. It is also worth mentioning that I live in a small town, where everyone knows everyone. I have hardly ever dealt with rude customers because of this, and it’s well known that we can take abuse until a certain point.)

Customer: “I need you to go out to your gas cabinet and fetch me a new one of these.”

Me: “Sure, let me just clean up a little here.”

Customer: “Do you think I have time for that?! Do you know who I am? I have other places to be!”

Me: “All right, then.”

(I shuffle all the pieces and tubes onto the counter, hoping no one will brush them off and step on them. I run out to the cabinet, open the lock, grab a new can, and head back inside. Right as I walk into the store, I get insanely painful cramps in my back, I manage to scoot over to the customer and set the can down, obviously in pain, but I smile and shrug it off to my coworkers.)

Customer: “You teens are so useless these days! All you do is stare at your phones and your computers! Look at you, you can’t even carry a can of gas! You’re all useless! Now hurry up, for f*** sake! I’m going to a very important job interview over at [local entrepreneur, with the owner’s name as a company name]!”

(The other customers have been startled at his behavior by now, but at the mentioning of said company, many of them snicker.)

Me: “You know what? My neck was nearly broken when I was born. I have worked at [Gas Station] for three years, and never have I had a more rude and pretentious customer than you. I want you to calm down so we can finish this transaction. You’re startling the other customers.”

Customer: “Does it look like I give a s***!?”

Me: “That’s it.”

(I pick up the phone and dial a number. My boss is looking at me with approval.)

Me: *on the phone* “Hey, Dad, I want you to know there’s a man in his 40s, drives a green Honda CRV, who said he’s heading over for an interview with you today. He has been a real pain in the butt, and if you hire him, I’m not giving you grandchildren.”

(The customer’s face goes pale. He looks at me, the other customers who are now laughing at him, and scurries out the door, leaving both his old and the new can behind. My dad didn’t hire him, either.)

At Google, Talking To Coworkers Can Get You Fired:

cognitivedissonance:

dennisnsantana:

averyterrible:

taylorswifthecreator:

Here’s the story, according to Wilson: outside of regular Googlers and the occasional contractors, there are a number of workers, who are hired to digitze books for Google’s massive Books effort to scan and put online every book. These workers are identified by yellow badges, start at 4am, have their own building and have none of the privileges of regular Googlers (the awesome cafeteria, the shuttles, etc) or even contractors like Wilson. Apparently, these workers even have an instruction on the back of their badges to talk to a manager if anyone tries to talk to them.

Anyway Wilson, who is “interested in issues of class, race, and labor”, noticing these peculiar employees filing out of the building at the same time every day (and noticing that they’re apparently all of color…), asks (and gets) an ok from his manager to film them and go talk to them out of general curiosity.

Since these workers are not allowed to talk to other people, cue a general freakout by Google and by the company employing Wilson (who fear that Google will cut them off if their employees go around doing stuff like that). Long story short, despite apologizing profusely and promising not to do it again, Wilson gets fired.

The guy made a short film about it here

http://www.andrewnormanwilson.com/WorkersGoogleplex.html

our technofuture

cant wait for eric schmidt and justine tunney to save america

Whoa.

More dogs and more marketing.

One stretch of road in the Netherlands may make you feel like you're cruising through a video game. A new glow-in-the-dark pavement has replaced power-sucking streetlights for a 500m (.3mi) piece of the highway. The result is a Tron-like street that...

“Can’t you just draw it not as good for cheaper?”

Client: Why haven’t you started on the project? We discussed this over month ago.

Me: I issued a fee proposal three weeks ago, and a follow up a week ago. You never responded to either.

Client:  Well, this is critical now. We need it for tomorrow morning.

Me: But as I outlined in my fee proposal, that’s four days worth of work.  I can’t do that in a day.

Client: You will if you want to be paid.  

Me: I’d have to charge rush -

Client: You can’t be serious. If it’s only takes a day to do it, you won’t charge for more than a day.

Me: So, because you’ve left it late, you’d like me to work through the night so I can do four days work in eighteen hours, and you’d only like to pay me for eight of those hours?

Client: Yes. If you want to keep working with us, I expect you to work to our deadlines and accept our payment terms.

I am no longer working with these clients. 

Client: Why would I hire another designer when I could just get you to do it for free?

Me: … I wasn’t planning to work for free.

Client: I meant that I’d get you to do this work in addition to the work I’m already paying you for.

Me: I’d have to charge if the scope of the project gets bigger.

Client: You can’t just spring something like that on me. 

Filed under: Motorcycle, Celebrities, TV/Movies

Decades before Chris Evans took on the role of Captain America and brought the comic book character a new round of popularity, Cap starred in two TV movies in the late 1970s - Captain America and Captain America II: Death Too Soon. They are both incredibly cheesy movies with the hero busting a red, white and blue motorcycle out of the back of a groovy van for action scenes. While the films might not hold up, Gary Davis, the stuntman behind them, is a fascinating personality.

Road & Track found Davis accidentally when it discovered his massive collection of vintage motorcycles for sale on Craigslist in the San Francisco Bay Area. It turns out that, in addition to being Cap's stuntman in the '70s movies, he also had roles in Terminator 2, Speed and a ton of other movies. Davis is also a huge motorcycle fan and stored his collection in a warehouse on his property, which includes at least two dirt tracks to race them on.

The piece seems to barely scratch the surface of the enigmatic man. In addition to all of the motorcycles, stunt work and even some vintage racing, Davis is also building a zip line in his backyard while R&T is there. Even if you're not a fan of old bikes, Hollywood action movies or just a really interesting profile, the photos that go along with the story are fantastic.

Original Captain America bike found in private collection originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 09 Apr 2014 18:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Niscemi, Italy

Niscemi, Italy

Niscemi, Italy

Niscemi, Italy

Bologna, Italy

Bologna, Italy

Rome, Italy

Messina, Italy

Messina, Italy

Messina, Italy

Over the last year artist Blu has dropped a number of killer murals in several Italian cities, most recently in Niscemi (top) where he created a three-story piece depicting a military figure playing a weaponized xylophone. Despite the extreme visual density present in Blu’s latest works, it’s impossible to miss his perspective on contemporary society from his skewering of religion and consumerism to his distaste for war and injustice. The last images shown here are parts of a massive mural painted last August in Messina, Italy—you really need to see the piece in its entirety to grasp it fully.

If you want to learn more about the context behind all of these pieces, StreetArtNews has you covered.

Cloud To Butt is a Google Chrome web browser extension originally created by technology enthusiast Steven Frank that replaces instances of the phrase “the cloud” with “my butt” for comedic value. Cloud To Butt Plus, which is a fork of the original GitHub project, replaces “cloud” with “butt” in certain appropriate contexts in addition to the regular “the cloud” and “my butt” swaps.

image via Alex Pretzlav

via Ross Doran

A 7.2 ton, 43,200 pages book, contestant for Guiness World Record. It contains all tax rules approved in Brazil since 1988 Constitution. Complied by lawyer Vinicios Leoncio in protest against the maddening bureaucracy faced by anyone trying to run a company in the country. 

Filed under: Performance, Earnings/Financials, Motorcycle, Fiat

Apparently to be a cool automaker in Europe, you have to build motorcycles. Volkswagen Group bought Ducati in 2012, and BMW has made bikes longer than it's made cars (until recently, it also owned Husqvarna). Fiat might be the next automaker to get into the two-wheel business, with rumors flying that it is considering buying cash-strapped Italian sportbike brand MV Agusta.

At the moment, it's all still very much a rumor, but the purchase would certainly seem to help the motorcycle company. However, according to Asphalt and Rubber, the business would need a lot of cash to grow and sustain itself. Fiat might not want to invest so much into a brand that may never be a huge moneymaker.

MV Agusta is best known for its racing success in the '50s and '60s. Until Japanese manufacturers took over the sport, the Italian company was one of the fastest things on two wheels, with a long list of championships in various classes. Recently, it was briefly owned by Harley-Davidson.

Still, Fiat would likely only have to pay a fraction of the rumored $1.1 billion that Audi plunked down to acquire Ducati. MV Agusta is a much smaller brand with fewer sales, and Sergio Marchionne has proven himself to be a canny negotiator - he might be able to add another brand to the company for a steal.

Fiat mulling purchase of MV Agusta? originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 26 Mar 2014 14:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Motorsports, Honda, Motorcycle, UK, Racing

The Isle of Man TT is one of the world's last great races held public roads that hasn't been sanitized in any way. Motorcycles barrel through quaint villages at max speed in a way that is hardly believable in today's much safer world of racing. And this isn't just through a few miles downtown - a single lap takes the fastest classes over 17 minutes.

This video might be one of the greatest showcases off what the Isle of Man TT is about ever made. It shows rider Michael Dunlop on a Honda CBR600RR on lap three of the second race of the Supersport class in 2013. As it starts, Dunlop is in second place leaving from his pit stop and heading out on track aiming for a win. The camera strapped to the bike picks up every minor correction and the wonderful noise from the Honda engine. It seems like the throttle is wide open for over half the lap. To go right bike-against-bike action, Dunlop starts to catch up to other riders about eight minutes into the video and has quite a challenge for several minutes. Scroll down, turn up your speakers and enjoy.

Continue reading Watch a full lap of the Isle of Man TT with Michael Dunlop on board

Watch a full lap of the Isle of Man TT with Michael Dunlop on board originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 27 Mar 2014 19:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bruce Lee and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the set of Game of Death.