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Commenters Are Relentlessly Mocking This $40,000 TV On Amazon
Amazon's commenters are poking fun at the 79-inch Samsung "Smart TV" on sale for $39,997.99 (down from $44,999.99).
While the TV is top-of-the-line, with voice control and 3D capabilities, most of the 500 reviewers seem to be mocking how expensive the device is.
Some highlights:
SEE ALSO: 14 Facts About Wal-Mart That Will Blow Your Mind
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How To Make An NES Stealth Hard Drive
“The NES Stealth Hard Drive! A simple mod to keep your data safe in the analog world! Convert your old external Hard Drive into something new and awesome! Put it into an old NES cartridge! The process is simple. We just need an old NES game, an external drive and a few minutes to put it altogether!” — HouseholdHacker
Date A Creep
“DateACreep.com. More kidnaps, more rapes, and more murders than any other site.” — Bad Weather Films
Late sixties "Internet" brand transistor radio
Mark Hill found this Internet Radio Product Ltd-branded "Internet" radio from the late sixties in a Dutch junk-market. It's an interesting find, not least because it suggests that the official etymologies of "Internet," dating to the seventies and the Arpanet crowd, is a bit muddier than previously thought.
Was ‘Internet’ First Used For A Transistor Radio? (via M1k3y)
Warning: Xbox One Hoax on 4chan Permanently Damages Your Console
A six-step guide on online forum 4chan promises to unlock backward compatibility on the Xbox One, but Microsoft warns it's a hoax that will break the new gaming console.
The graphic, which closely resembles Microsoft's marketing materials, surfaced over the weekend and instructed gamers on how to turn their consoles into developer mode, which would allow Xbox One owners to play Xbox 360 games. The offer may sound tempting, since the One isn't backward compatible and can't play any of the hundreds of Xbox 360 games, but Microsoft spokesman Larry Hryb cautioned users on Twitter not to try it
More about Microsoft, Entertainment, Gaming, 4chan, and Hoaxsomeone says FML
Today, my car broke down. I pulled to the side of the road to call a tow truck. After waiting what seemed like hours, the tow truck showed up, and then ran into the back of my car. FML
Ubisoft thinks The Division's Snowdrop Engine is amazing
Ubisoft released a video showing off the Snowdrop Engine from The Division, and it seems like they thinks it's really cool. In fact, they say that "never before has a video game reached this level of detail." I think that's a bunch of hyperbole, and that Ubisoft just wants you to know how cool and next-gen it is.
The Snowdrop engine will have a dynamic day and night cycle, volumetric lighting, dynamic global illumination, procedural destruction, an advanced particle system, and dynamic material shaders for weather effects. These are all things that have been done before, so it's not really groundbreaking technology, but the game does look really pretty.
Of course, this demo was probably created on a crazy high-end PC, and the actual game will look no where near as good.
Sitcoms > Mandela
From the Independent, Irish edition:
Now what kind of people would not just grumble about that, but make a formal complaint?
The sad part is that the BBC had to “explain” itself:
BBC News Director James Harding apologised to viewers, but said that Mandela’s passing was of “singular significance”.
“The importance of his life and marking his death seems extremely clear to us,” Harding told the BBC’s Newswatch programme over the weekend.
And. . . the program was a repeat.
Only 3 left before the big 400 <3
submitted by thesamon [link] [35 comments] |
Marissa Mayer's Next Big Acquisition Could Be Imgur, The Photo-Sharing Site Reddit Loves (YHOO)
This fall, Yahoo began serious talks to buy photo-sharing site Imgur, a source with first-hand knowledge of those discussions tells us.
Since she joined Yahoo in July 2012, CEO Marissa Mayer has acquired dozens of startups. Most of these acquisitions have been acqui-hires.
The buy that cost Yahoo the most was its $1.1 billion purchase of Tumblr. Yahoo bought Tumblr because it has a deeply engaged, youthful audience, that uses the product on mobile. It would buy Imgur for all the same reasons.
Imgur (pronounced "Image-er") was created in 2009 by Alan Schaaf, a student at Ohio University in Athens. He made the site "as a gift to Reddit," because he was annoyed at how hard-to-use so many of the Web's photo-sharing sites were.
In a message to the Reddit community, he wrote:
"I got fed up with all the other image hosts out there so I made my own. It doesn't force you to compress your images, and it has neat things like crop, resize, rotate, and compression from 10-100. It's my gift to you. Let's not see anymore imageshack/photobucket around here ;)"
In the years since, Imgur has actually grown larger than Reddit. The site crossed the 100 million user mark in September. That's bigger than Reddit's audience of 85 million, and up from 30 million at the beginning of 2012.
Those stats are according to The Atlantic's Megan Garber, who just wrote an excellent 3,000-word story about Imgur (the kind of positive, access-given story that comes out about a startup when it is fundraising or on the block).
Imgur is now based in San Francisco, where 10 people work for the company. It's not a huge business, but does generate some revenue through ads, memberships, and a new product its testing: sponsored images. Imgur also sells image-hosting capacity to other companies. One of its clients is Yahoo.
We don't know how much Yahoo wants to pay for Imgur.
Schaaf hasn't taken any venture capital, so he doesn't need to hold out for an Instagram-sized offer to make as much money as Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom or Tumblr CEO David Karp made selling their venture-backed startups for ~$1 billion each. (Sometimes its better to sell a startup for $20 million than $200 million.)
But it's unlikely Imgur can be had for cheap.
Three reasons:
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Imgur would not be an aqui-hire for Yahoo. Acqui-hires are something failed startups do when they have cool technology but not very many users. Imgur has decent technology and design (it's very easy to use), but it's main asset is all those users.
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Imgur is "social." Barber's story on Imgur begins with an Atlantic story on Imgur begins with anecdote about how to users met and started dating through the site. Every image on Imgur accumulates "points" through votes up or down by its community of users. Schaaf told Barber, the average amount of "points" every image gets on the site is between 6,000 and 10,000.
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Imgur isn't going to run out of money any time soon. All Things D's Liz Gannes reports VCs are "are literally—literally—sliding term sheets under their door.”
Our guess is Yahoo would have to offer something between $100 million and $500 million. But who knows in a world where Snapchat supposedly turned down a $3 billion offer from Facebook.
Acquisition talks fall apart all the time, and so could discussions between Imgur and Yahoo. It's unclear if Imgur wants to sell. Schaaf hasn't been looking for an exit. Before Yahoo came calling, Imgur hadn't even hired an investment bank.
Yahoo declined to comment on this story.
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“Mega Shark Vs. Mecha Shark” Is A Thing On Syfy [Video]
Oh, Syfy, you bring all the crazy to the yard. Once again we’re getting shark-filled action with Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark and it looks terrible in a fantastic way. There’s a great big real shark. There’s a great big robot shark. They battle. They break things. They freak out some airline pilots. Debbie Gibson is in it.
This upcoming Movie of the Week just can’t get here fast enough to satiate the robot shark, Debbie Gibson-loving masses.
See the video after the break…
(via io9)
Scare All The Kids In This Santa Bodysuit
Here’s what you absolutely don’t want to wear this year unless you’re looking to scare all the kids and possibly get arrested. It’s a skin-tight, spandex Santa suit complete with belt and hat. And you thought the Santa at the mall was scary!
Product Page ($50 David Wahl via Laughing Squid)