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Custom furniture maker Craig Thibodeau created this showpiece "Automaton Table" to illustrate all the different ways that he can hide secret compartments in the pieces he builds. (more…)

Twitter is trying to repair the damaged relationship it has with app makers by offering them a more robust service for building applications. Fabric, the company's suite of tools for building apps, added eight new integrations yesterday that should make Twitter a more tempting partner: mobile payments from Stripe, cloud infrastructure from Amazon Web Services, and Mapbox for building custom maps. Twitter announced the partnerships, which include five other partners, at its Flight developer conference yesterday in San Francisco. The software development kits will become available to any developer that utilizes Twitter's free Fabric developer toolkit.

The company wants to court developers back to its platform after years of mixed signals...

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Keeping a browser on one side of your iPad's screen while you work in other apps is one of the more useful ways to multitask with Apple's new Split View feature in iOS 9, so those of the Chrome persuasion will be pleased to know that Google has updated its browser with full support.

The feature works best on the iPad Air 2, mini 4, and presumably the upcoming plus-sized iPad Pro; older models let you slide a browser view in temporarily, but you can't use another app at the same time. This iOS update isn't only focused on the iPad — it also contains support for Autofill, meaning you'll be able to use stored information like credit card numbers on mobile as well as desktop. You can get the update right now.

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 Jack Dorsey is giving about a third of his Twitter shares — or 1% of the company — back to Twitter’s employees, he said in a tweet today. A move like this is likely at least partially geared at improving morale at Twitter, which has gone through a major transition — with both a big round of layoffs and Dorsey returning as CEO happening in the past few months.… Read More

Hardly a day goes by that we don’t complain, criticize, blame, gossip or compare ourselves to other people. I certainly struggle with it. But sometimes playing the victim only limits what we’re actually capable of.

This post originally appeared on the Crew blog.

I’ll take 30 minutes to journal or meditate only to hop in the car to grab my daughter from kindergarten and silently (ok fine, not so silently) curse everyone in the pickup line who doesn’t understand the basic concepts of driving a car.

All of a sudden I’m tense, grumpy, and sometimes downright furious. And all of that mindfulness work to put me in the right headspace for the rest of the day? Yeah, it’s gone right out the window. It’s a small example, but one that demonstrates how easily we turn to emotional reasoning (I feel it, therefore it must be true) to dictate and justify our reactions. And despite our best efforts, emotions are very difficult to control.

But we do control them.

Every response we make to people and events—whether it’s out of habit or consciously thought out—is a choice. A choice to take ownership of our actions or to place blame on someone else. It’s our choice to say who is in control of our lives. Either you run the day or it runs you.

http://lifehacker.com/stop-playing-t...

How (and Why) We Love to Play the Victim

The victim mentality—the idea that we are not responsible for our actions and circumstances—is a story that, quite literally, goes back to the beginning of time. Adam blamed Eve for eating the forbidden apple, who in turn, blamed the serpent for persuading her.

Today, thanks to the internet and social media, blame, criticism, and a general lack of acceptance have become a regular part of our daily dialogue.

Popular articles like The Coddling of the American Mind and The Rise of Victimhood Culture highlight the increased sensitivities that have emerged in the workplace, and in our high schools and universities. Comedians aren’t performing at college campuses because students “can’t seem to take a joke.” Books aren’t being assigned in class for fear of causing distress.

As sociologists Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning discuss in their study on ‘microagressions’ and the victimhood culture, we are being taught to respond to even the smallest offense. And instead of resolving the issue on our own, we depend on others to validate our status as a victim.

But all this does is create a mindset of powerlessness. We fall into disempowering patterns where we blame others, bemoan circumstances, and engage in self pity.

• “If only X, then things would be better”
• “Why her not me?”
• “If I were in charge… if things were up to me…”

David Emerald, in his book Power of TED, calls this victim mentality the ‘dreaded drama triangle’ after a concept developed in the 1960s by Dr. Steven Karpman where we play any (or all) of three roles:

As victims, we focus on everything negative in our lives and feel wronged by those who judge and criticize us.

As persecutors, we judge and criticize others, typically out of a place of anger and spite.

Finally, we turn to rescuers—whether in the form of another person, vices, or some other way to numb or distract ourselves—for relief. That’s why complaining is such a great self-defense mechanism. It’s the perfect way to convince ourselves we deserve better when things don’t go our way (without actually having to do anything about it). It’s far easier to complain and criticize than create, lead, and act.

When we perceive our circumstances to be external, we give ourselves permission to not apply ourselves and move forward. We don’t grow, mature, and learn from our mistakes. Even though we know that to be a great leader, entrepreneur, or creative, we must do the opposite.

We must invest in continuous growth, recognize our shortcomings and errors, and accept that we are responsible for our fates.

http://lifehacker.com/how-to-move-pa...

How We Can Ditch the Victim Mentality and Become Empowered

The antidote to David Emerald’s Drama Triangle is called “The Empowerment Dynamic.” Where victims focus on problems, creators get clear on what they want, and become empowered to create outcomes for their own lives.

Persecutors become challengers, who help them learn and grow in their journey of self exploration.

And finally, rescuers act as coaches—someone supportive who helps the creator move toward their desired outcome.

The same problems, challenges, and events are there. We just look at them through a different lens. In order to shift out of victim mode, we have to take time to reflect and ask ourselves:

• What is our ideal outcome?
• What is the intention behind our responses?
• Who are we blaming for the things that happen to us?
• What are we turning to for ‘rescue’

One philosophy that is based around continuously framing life’s obstacles in this empowering manner is found in the works of Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus, and other Stoics. Stoicism is based on the idea that we can’t control what happens to us, but we can control how we react to it.

We become dissatisfied with our lives because we rely on our emotions to dictate our thoughts and actions as opposed to logic and rational thought. We forget that obstacles and misfortune are rich opportunities to learn and grow.

Writer and marketer Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph, draws on these Stoic principles to share stories of great historical figures like Theodore Roosevelt, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Ulysses S. Grant, and Thomas Edison, among others, who looked at failure and challenges as a way to grow stronger.

He says:

“It’s one thing to not be overwhelmed by obstacles, or discouraged or upset by them. This is something that few are able to do. But after you have controlled your emotions, and you can see objectively and stand steadily, the next step becomes possible: a mental flip, so you’re looking not at the obstacle but at the opportunity within it. As Laura Ingalls Wilder put it: ‘There is good in everything, if only we look for it.’ Yet we are so bad at looking. We close our eyes to the gift.”

It’s our nature to believe that things are supposed to be a certain way, and so we refuse to accept them when they’re not. We’ll whine about an annoying coworker when we could be studying their shortcomings and looking for ways to improve our own conduct and performance.

A simple exercise to shift out of this victim mentality is to try a period of “no complaining.” And by no complaining, I mean no gossiping, judging, and swearing. My own efforts to abstain from complaining has made me realize how powerful words are as influencers of our thoughts.

We think in words, so the words that we say affect the words that we think. In the same way that affirmations and positive mantras influence how our brains filter and interpret information (this 2012 study actually showed that positive affirmations and mantras can decrease stress, improve decision making, and performance on challenging tasks) being conscious of the way we talk about other people teaches us to to select our words more carefully, recognize the things we’re being negative about, and focus on solutions and positive responses.

So, instead of thinking “All you people need to learn how to drive your damn cars,” I’m now saying to myself “This is the nature of school pickup lines, so I’d better download a couple of great audiobooks to keep me company while I wait.”

I admittedly default to the former before recognizing my unhealthy reaction, but it’s a profoundly effective exercise in bringing more awareness to my words and thoughts.

By doing this with everyday annoyances, challenging situations, and the larger problems we all face, we can improve our ability to stay calm, positive, and action oriented in stressful situations.

Buddha said “our life is the creation of our mind.” While Aristotle said “It is the mark of an educated mind to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

We can’t avoid hardship and discomfort, and it does us no good to shield ourselves (and the next generation) from it. We must face our obstacles because, as Socrates taught over 2500 years ago, it is through the process of experience and constant questioning and reflection that we grow and succeed.

You get to choose how you respond to every situation you’re faced with. So what’s more important? Anger or personal growth?

The obstacle is the answer: How to take control of every situation | Crew Blog

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Rosanna Casper is the author of Hackerella.com where each month, she embarks on a new health and wellness challenge. Image by Ikon_Grafix (Shutterstock).

It's not in English, but you won't miss it in this amusing collection of pranks played on bike thieves. My favorite part is the ceremonial chasing of the confused thief after his downfall. [via]

Prune is a game about planting trees, and I'm sure you think that sounds super-duper boring, but it's really not. With a swipe you can plant a tree and watch it grow toward the light. Only with your careful pruning can it grow large enough to sprout flowers and unlock the next botanical challenge.

Each level has shady areas, shafts of light, and obstacles that will knock branches from your tree.

Read More

Beautiful, Atmospheric Puzzle Game 'Prune' Springs Forth From The Play Store was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

MagicStick is a Windows 10 PC stick that is currently on Indiegogo as a crowdfunding campaign. The campaign has well surpassed its goal, and likely for good reason. So, what is the MagicStick you ask? Well, it's a full Windows 10 machine, on a portable HDMI drive. It runs on Intel's Cherry Trail Z8700 processor with 16 Core GPU, and the comes equipped with 8GB of RAM and 64GB of on-board storage. The stick comes pre-loaded with both Windows 10 Home Edition and Android Lollipop.

As far as ports, the MagicStick has one USB 3.1, two USB 3.0, one USB Type-C, as well as a microSD card slot. To take control, you can use an app on your smartphone, or connect a wireless keyboard and mouse if you wish. You'll be able to play cutting edge HEVC (h265) video and a host of regular codecs including h264 smoothly in hardware as well as stream video from the likes of Netflix, Amazon Video and Hulu using their regular windows apps or browser of your choice. While smartphones are becoming more powerful, and Windows 10 Mobile with Continuum will let you take your smartphone content to the big screen, sometimes you just want a full Windows 10 machine in your pocket.

Pricing for the MagicStick Wave starts at $249 for the stick itself, with the ability to add some more power and storage. There is a lower priced MagicStick One that comes with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, but you need to purchase Windows 10 for a $50 upgrade for that one.

Back MagicStick on Indiegogo

The leaking of first-run movies onto the Internet continues to be a thorn in the side of Hollywood and its distribution partners around the world.

The studios themselves refuse to make their own content widely available on the day of release, which means that people who prefer their own homes over a cinema have only one (illegal) choice if they wish to view the latest movies quickly.

This unwelcome competition is something Hollywood is desperate to stamp out and increasingly it’s turning to workers in the movie chain to help it to do so. One of those efforts includes rewarding cinema staff for remaining vigilant during screenings in order to shut down so-called ‘cammers’.

In the UK cinema staff are motivated by cash rewards handed out by the Film Distributors’ Association and the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT). Together the groups have paid out thousands of pounds to pirate-catchers and now they’re about to up the rewards considerably.

During a ceremony at Universal Pictures yesterday, the FDA and FACT announced the launch of an “enhanced rewards period” which will see cash payments to cinema workers doubled from £500 to £1000 for each thwarted attempt at unauthorized recording.

The period will run between 23rd October and 1st January 2016 and is set to coincide with a batch of new releases hitting UK cinema screens.

“From next week through to Christmas, the exceptional run of new releases is highly attractive both to mass-market cinemagoers and, regrettably also, to the networks of copyright pirates who persist in trying to rip off the creative industries and consumers,” says Mark Batey, Chief Executive of the Film Distributors’ Association.

During yesterday’s event at Universal Pictures, more than a dozen UK cinema workers received awards for their vigilance earlier in the year. In all, 13 employees received a cash prize and a certificate after intervening against unauthorized cammings of Fast and Furious 7, Pitch Perfect 2 and Minions.

According to figures released by FACT, in total there were 11 incidents of which 10 were attended by police. Four of those incidents led to a formal caution and one incident led to two arrests.

“Detecting and disrupting illegal recording in cinemas is a key area of FACT’s work to protect the creative content that we all love,” says FACT Director General Kieron Sharp.

“Illegal camming is still the source of more than 90% of all pirated films and so our film protection programme is essential to protecting new releases and preventing criminal activity.”

Today’s rewards announcement coincides perfectly with the impending launch of upcoming James Bond blockbuster ‘Spectre’. The movie will enjoy its world premiere at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Monday and will be immediately released nationwide. FACT has already indicated that security of the movie will be intense, with night vision goggles deployed to catch would-be cammers.

The anti-piracy group will be hoping that £1,000 will prove an exciting prospect for cinema workers around the country and enough to stop any leak of Spectre before its November 6 launch in the United States.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

The DEA has been raiding medical marijuana providers in defiance of a recent bill that bars the Justice Department from using federal funds to "prevent such States from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana." (more…)

Predicting the next word you're going to type is getting to be as common of a keyboard feature as having letters, so SwiftKey is trying to take its predictions a step forward. It announced today that it's testing a new version of its keyboard that can predict two words at a time. For the most part, these seem to be words that frequently go together as a phrase; in one example, SwiftKey sees "at" and predicts "a time" and in another sees "is" and predicts "out now."

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Pop chart destroyer Adele has been teasing her new album 25 with letters and mysterious commercials for a week now, and she's finally coughed up details regarding the album's tracklist, release date, cover, and first single. 25 will be available on November 20th, and Adele is releasing "Hello" tomorrow alongside a video directed by Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan. She announced the album's availability by sharing its cover on Instagram. There's a very good chance "Hello" is the song Adele teased over the weekend with a UK TV ad based on the snippet's lyrics, but that hasn't been confirmed. It'll be the first single she's released since her 2012 Bond theme "Skyfall."

If there's anything surprising about the impending arrival of "Hello,"...

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 Phhhoto, the animated photo-sharing app that started out as an iPad-powered photo booth for parties, has finally gone live on Android. The app lets users capture four frames in a row, threads them together and makes them sharable to social networks alongside the main Phhhoto feed. Users can speed up or slow down the frame rate, and Phhhotos that get the most engagement pop up on the #wow feed. Read More

 Facebook is ready to challenge Google and Twitter for control of real-time news search and the news itself. Starting today with a rollout to US English language users, Facebook Search will return anything you’re allowed to see from its 2 trillion posts. That includes public posts by all people and Pages, not just your friends and Pages you Like as before. The personalized results will… Read More

If you're poor in Jackson, MS and you get a fine that you can't pay, the City of Jackson will sentence you to a "pay or stay" forced labor farm where you will work off your debts at $58/day literally shoveling shit; the alternative is to sit in an overcrowded, jail notorious for its violent guards and filthy conditions and pay down your fines at $25/day. (more…)

As university tuition has skyrocketed and bond-holders have become more and more reliant on student loan payments for a source of reliable passive income, successive US presidential administrations have taken it upon themselves to shore up those bonds by making it nearly impossible to escape from crushing student debt. (more…)

 Nike has been teasing the idea of releasing self-lacing shoes — a la Back To The Future — for years. Seriously — heres an article we wrote on them back in 2011. Word around the rumor mill is that they’ll finally announce some details of the shoes on the Jimmy Kimmel show this evening. As you’ve likely been reminded by basically every website on the entire… Read More

In recent years the movie and music industries have continually pressured Google to take action against online piracy.

Ideally, groups including the MPAA and RIAA want search engines to remove clearly infringing websites from their search results entirely, especially if courts have previously found them to be acting illegally.

Just recently the MPAA reiterated this stance in recommendations to U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC) Daniel Marti.

However, Google disagrees and is now urging the Government not to facilitate or promote so-called “whole-site” removals. According to the search giant this may lead to overbroad censorship.

“Unfortunately, whole-site removal is ineffective and can easily result in censorship of lawful material,” Google writes.

In its letter Google points out that blogging sites or social networks can contain infringing material, but that removing an entire site would also take down perfectly legitimate content.

The MPAA is probably not referring to blog platforms, but The Pirate Bay instead. However, according to Google the current DMCA takedown system is both effective and efficient enough to deal with all infringing content

“The DMCA provides copyright owners with an effective and efficient framework for removing any infringing page on a site,” Google stresses, noting that it has removed hundreds of millions of URLs already this year.

Removing or blocking entire websites might not only chill free speech but also prove counterproductive, Google says.

“Whole site removal would simply drive piracy to new domains, legitimate sites, and social networks,” the company notes, adding that copyright holders should go after the site’s revenue sources instead.

Another downside of whole-site removal is that the U.S. would send the wrong message to the rest of the world.

If the U.S. is prepared to censor entire websites based on copyright violations, then other regimes may find it easier to demand the same based on local laws. For example, by demanding the removal of news sites based on political statements, or insults to religion.

“This would jeopardize free speech principles, emerging services, and the free flow of information online globally and in contexts far removed from copyright,” Google notes.

Instead of taking a repressive approach, the U.S. Government should address piracy in a more positive way by encouraging the development of legal alternatives.

“Piracy thrives when consumer demand goes unmet by legitimate supply,” Google writes.

“Online services like Google Play, Spotify, Netflix, and iTunes have demonstrated that the most effective way to combat piracy on the web is to offer attractive legal alternatives to consumers.”

Google’s letter will be taken into consideration by Intellectual Property Czar Daniel Marti, who is expected to release the 2016 – 2019 Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement during the months to come.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

 Another day, another fitness device that can track your distance, pace, heart rate, and nag you when you don’t exercise. This time we have the Garmin 230, 235, and 630, three great smartwatches with exercise freaks in mind. The 230 and 235 have colorful screens and the 235 includes built-in heart rate tracking technology. They can connect to a phone to bring up notifications and it… Read More

 YouTube made its top video creators an offer they literally couldn’t refuse, or they’d have their content disappear. Today YouTube confirmed that any “partner” creator who earns a cut of ad revenue but doesn’t agree to sign its revenue share deal for its new YouTube Red $9.99 ad-free subscription will have their videos hidden from public view on both the… Read More

Our best pens nominations round was the biggest so far. Here are the five you signed off on, and now it’s time to vote for a winner.

http://co-op.kinja.com/whats-your-fav...

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Pilot G2

...affordability, its broad availability, and it’s smooth, clean writing. - Alan Henry for Lifehacker’s 2012 Budget Pen Hive Five, which the G2 won.

http://lifehacker.com/5947513/five-b...

This Is The Best Pen. - Dayna Evans for Domesticity’s best pen roundup, which the G2 won.

http://domesticity.gawker.com/what-is-the-be...

...G-2 is my favorite pen, and I’m pretty much never without one in my bag, in my pocket, or in my hand. I was a fan of the 0.7mm until I discovered the 1.0mm, which is perfectly inky and thick but not unwieldy. Perfection. - Jordan Kushins for Gizmodo’s best pen roundup, which the G2 won.

http://gizmodo.com/what-is-your-f...

I would amend this to “Pilot G2 (Any diameter)“ - I prefer the 1mm (10), but any G2 is fantastic. I carry my G2 Limited with 1mm ink with me all the time.

A Uniball will do in a pinch, but G2 is really the best all around pen out there.

The G2 is available in four sizes:

.38mm “Ultra Fine” - Incredibly thin lines, lets you write so small that an index card might as well be letter sized. A bit difficult to find, and this thing is so sharp it borders on dangerous, it may even tear through lesser paper if too much pressure is applied - but it’s worth it for the precision.

.5mm “Extra Fine” - For those that prefer a thin line, but don’t want to go to an office supply store, or simply don’t want it that fine.

.7mm “Fine” - The standard and most common G2, perfect for... well, anything really. It’s a damn good pen. You really can’t go wrong with this pen.

1mm “Bold” - For those that like thick lines and even more-smoother writing. Especially awesome when paired with really good paper for an incredible writing experiance. Unfortunately, they are hard to find and small letters will become blobs if you aren’t careful.

Available in many colors (07’s have a very wide pallet, including metallics) and a variety of special designs. Plus the Pro and the metal Limited editions that use the same ink tubes, but have improved grips and style. - zeel

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Zebra F-301

Many of Zebra’s most popular models are known for their trademark all-steel, metallic design, and you may remember the first time you encountered one—if it was like the first time I picked one up, they were unlike any other pen you’d seen in a world of disposable plastic pens. They just look sharp and elegant, and using them is just as much fun... Many of you also praised Zebra for its portability and attractive design—most of their pens are unibody, and can slide into a pocket or bag without worrying you’ll lose a cap in the process. Besides, they really do look and feel good to use. - Alan Henry for Lifehacker’s 2012 Budget Pen Hive Five

some pens, like bic pens are too slow. others like those gel ones, the g2s or whatever. too fast. lead to illegible handwriting. the zebra pen strike a nice balance. it’s about resistance” —Taylor Berman for Domesticity’s best pen roundup.

This one is my favorite as well. I like it for its size. I have really small hands and it’s a very comfortable length and grip. I like that you can get refills in medium and fine point (fine point always). They last forever - I’ve literally had a couple for more than 20 years. It also looks a little nicer than a disposable but it’s not pretentious. My one complaint is that you can’t buy refills for the red ones. However, when I wrote the company to ask, they sent me a decent supply for free. So they have my business for life. - KittenCaboodle

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Fisher Space Pen

http://gizmodo.com/5977151/how-na...

http://io9.com/5838635/the-mi...

http://gizmodo.com/10-gifts-to-se...

http://gizmodo.com/5436458/space-...

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Uniball Jetstream

Whether it’s the quick-drying Jetstream series, designed for speedy writers who don’t want their ink to smudge... Uniball has a pen engineered for whatever writing style you prefer, that’s comfortable enough to use for long periods, and at a price point that makes sure you can pick up more than a few and keep them around your home or office. - Alan Henry for Lifehacker’s 2012 Budget Pen Hive Five

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Sharpie Pens

Sharpie’s best known for their permanent markers, but their new pens offer the same quality non-toxic, smear-proof ink that—at least in this case—won’t bleed through the paper as you use it. Sharpie’s medium and fine point pens come with soft tips for smooth, consistent writing, and the best part is that they’re available virtually anywhere. No refills or fancy designs on these, but those of you who nominated them love them to the point where at least one of you said that if you used one, you’d never vote for anything else. Sharpie’s had a rough road with some of their pens, but we have to say: Sharpie’s newer pens are great, and well worth a shot, especially considering the price point. - Alan Henry for Lifehacker’s 2012 Budget Pen Hive Five

I’m left-handed and apparently don’t hold my pens correctly, so any ballpoint pens just don’t work for me. The ink just doesn’t come out smoothly for me. I like Sharpie pens because they have a nice felt tip and work no matter how I’m holding them. - Megganna

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Traditional watchmakers are thirsty to break into the smartwatch world and today, Fossil announced its plans to do so. The new Fossil Q line is an entire range of connected wearables, with the Android Wear-powered Q Founder as its flagship.

Three of the four Q watches are standard analog timepieces with electronics integrated into their bands for activity tracking. The Q Reveler and Q Dreamer are priced at $125, while the Q Grant adds the ability to mirror smartphone notifications and runs $175-$195. These watches will be available starting October 25th and are compatible with Fossil's app for both iOS and Android.

But the top of the line (and arguably most interesting) model is the Q Founder, which runs Android Wear and incorporates a...

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The Conservative Party's "anti-radicalisation" laws call on teachers and other public servants to report brown children who espouse "radical" ideologies -- and now the other shoe has dropped, with the Family Division of the Judiciary promising to steal those children from their parents. (more…)