firehose

Following Virtuix's announcement earlier this month that its virtual reality treadmill will arrive in July for its early adopters, the company revealed this morning that it received seed funding. Virtuix received $3 million to "expand production and...

Politico

State health exchange still broken, Oregon looks to join feds Politico Oregon state officials are ready to hand off their disastrous Obamacare website to the federal government — a concession backed by the governor that the state won't be able to operate the website on its own any time soon. Oregon is the first state to give up ... Oregon May Shut Health Site to Join Obamacare ExchangeBloomberg Oregon May Give Up on Its Troubled Health-Insurance Exchange SiteWall Street Journal Oregon gets ready to jettison healthcare exchange after website woesLos Angeles Times Fox News all 249 news articles »

If you're at all interested in the push for a higher minimum wage in Portland—or even if you're convinced its Communist nonsense that will sink the economy—there's a good opportunity this evening to get a sense of the movement.

Kshama Sawant, the Socialist who won a surprising upset last year to earn a seat on the Seattle City Council, is in town to rally for the issue that spurred her to victory: a $15 minimum wage. Sawant will take the stage with Nick Caleb, who's vying for long-time City Commissioner Dan Saltzman's seat in the May primary (Caleb and other candidates need to hold Saltzman below 50 percent of the vote plus one to prompt a November run-off between the top two vote-getters). The rally's at Westminster Presbyterian Church, at 6:30 pm. Here's the flier.

As we've reported, the $15 hour movement has roots in New York City, but has gotten most traction in Seattle. But the effort's been hugely contentious there. A committee formed to study how best to move toward a $15 wage broke apart this week after members couldn't reach consensus. Seattle's new mayor, Ed Murray, plans to release his own plan today. In case no agreement is reached, the group 15 Now—closely affiliated with Sawant—has filed a ballot measure it could put before voters in November.

Obviously, the discussions in Portland look nothing like that, but Caleb's candidacy has forced movement on the part of established politicians. Both Saltzman and Commissioner Nick Fish have said in recent they'd be willing to fight a state preemption preventing the city from establishing its own minimum wage.

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Unrealized plan for Astoria, Queens, NYC. 1900

Note a more “City Beautiful” grid plan with boulevards and plazas as well as an early plan for the Triboro Bridge; no Hells Gate Bridge.

Source NYPL

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Nota Bene: Don’t worry, Unread fans. I’m still enthusiastic about the iPad as a reading device. Unread for iPad is still full-steam-ahead. – Jared.

I can’t find a way out of an uncomfortable conclusion. In order for the iPad to fulfill its supposed Post-PC destiny, it has to either become more like an iPhone or more like a Mac. But it can’t do either without losing its raison d’être.

Multiple Purposes, One or Two Uses

Although both the iPhone and the iPad are multi-purpose devices, it seems only the iPhone fills a multi-purpose need in customers’ lives. A typical¹ customer’s iPhone is put to work in all its capacity, while her iPad is relegated to only one or two niche uses. An iPhone is a phone, a flashlight, a GPS navigator, a camera, etc. An iPad can be most of those things, but in practice it gets stuck being just one or two of them.

The two devices are nearly identical in their technical specifications. They’re constructed from similar materials. They have the same operating system, chips, and sensors. It seems they differ only in size. The canned rebuttal to this comparison is that the iPad is more than “just a big iPod”. It’s a “Post-PC” device, capable of both content creation and consumption, destined to usurp the PC as the essential tool for getting shit done.

An Accumulation of Niches

iPad apologists are half right. The iPad isn’t a big iPod, but it isn’t more than that. In a way it’s less. Customers use it for only one or two of several niche purposes:

• Private Reading – Books, magazines, and web sites.

• Family Entertainment – TV, movies, and gaming.

• Productivity – Notepad, calendar, sometimes not much more than a portable typewriter.

• Professional Tools – Think of the myriad, mutually-exclusive uses portrayed in the Your Verse series of Apple ads. Unless you’re a tap-dancing molecular biologist filming your latest travel documentary, then your iPad is most likely a single-purpose professional tool.

• Education – Substitute for textbooks and handouts.

Every iPad has the latent capacity for many uses, but individual customers don’t have a need for all of them. The iPad over-serves the needs of its typical owner. Elementary school students don’t need surgery guides. Videographers don’t need to play Clash of Clans on the way to Grandma’s.

iPhone vs iPad vs Mac

There are exceptions, areas in which the iPad under-serves customers’ needs. The problem for the iPad is that these are the same areas in which either the iPhone or the Mac are already better-suited to the task at hand.

A Mac is Better Than an iPad for…

• Workplace Productivity – The Mac has an exposed file system, physical keyboard, a pixel-accurate pointing device, and multitasking applications, all of which contribute to more efficient workflows.

• Power Computing – There are some professional tasks that require powerful processors, expansion ports, large storage devices, multiple displays, etc. These features are only available on a PC.

An iPhone is Better Than an iPad for…

• Taking Pictures – The iPhone is more portable and more discreet, which means it takes more and better photographs. It usually has a better lens and sensor, too.

• Messaging & Social Media – It’s easier to stay connected to family and friends on the iPhone. Because it’s smaller than the iPad, it’s much more likely to be in your pocket or purse. Because it’s sold with carrier subsidies, it’s far more likely to have a mobile data plan, which ensures you rarely miss an important message.

• Way-Finding via GPS – An iPhone is better than an iPad at GPS navigation, for the same reasons as it’s better at messaging: portability and cellular data. This is true even in spite of having a smaller display.

So What’s the Point of the iPad?

The iPad can’t get better at these tasks without becoming either more like an iPhone or more like a Mac. For the iPad to become just as good as the iPhone, it would need to be smaller, equipped with a better camera, and sold with carrier subsidies and mobile data plans. But this would turn it into “just a big iPhone.” So this can’t be iPad’s future.

For the iPad to become just as good as the Mac, it would need to be larger, faster, equipped with expansion ports, and powered by software that supports legacy features like windowed applications and an exposed file system. But this would turn the iPad into a Macbook Pro with a touch screen and a detachable keyboard. This can’t be iPad’s future, either.

I think the future of the iPad is for it to disappear, absorbed at the low end by iPhones with large displays and at the high end by Macs running a more iOS-like flavor of OS X. Perhaps it won’t disappear completely. After all, for certain niche uses – especially those listed above – the iPad is great because it’s neither a phone nor a PC. But these are still niche uses and can’t possibly sustain the long, bountiful future that many hope the iPad has.

We're a little worried about the Jem and the Holograms movie, and the film's very young cast doesn't alleviate our fears. With filming just days away , we now know who will be playing four members the outrageous eponymous band.

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BURBANK, CA—Citing a groundswell of praise for such stereotype-bucking princess films as Frozen, Brave, and Tangled, Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger said Thursday his company has probably accumulated enough goodwill to make its...

If you're wondering what a Digital Prophet at AOL does to justify his existence (and salary), here is video documentation.

Very excited for Batman: Arkham Knight considering Barbara Gordon, aka Oracle looks to be playing a larger role this time around. There's a closeup of her face on SuperheroHype as well.

It’s big news time at Miss Matatabi headquarters today as I can finally announce the launch of our Tokyo Craft Guide ebook!

My friend Angela from Saké Puppets and I, in collaboration with our wonderful friend and illustrator Hanako Clulow from I Like Sleeping, are so excited to be able to share our love of craft shopping in Tokyo with you.

Tokyo Craft Guide is a 66 page downloadable ebook packed full of our favourite craft stores in western Tokyo as well as recommended cafes and other things to do when you visit this fantastic city.

We also have a blog where we feature other popular Tokyo craft stores and areas such as Wrapple in Shibuya and Nippori Textile Town so do please visit us there if you are interested in the Tokyo craft scene.

Thank you to everyone who has supported and encouraged us so far. We love you! xo

E! Online

Meg Ryan joins the cast of 'How I Met Your Dad' Fox News Actress Meg Ryan arrives for the season opening of the Metropolitan Opera in New York September 27, 2010. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson (UNITED STATES - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT PROFILE) - RTXSQRC. Meg Ryan has joined the cast of CBS' comedy pilot ... Meg Ryan cast to voice mother in How I Met Your DadFanSided Meg Ryan to narrate sequel to How I Met Your MotherHindustan Times Meg Ryan to Voice 'HIMYD' MotherDaily Beast TV3.ie -Yahoo TV UK -The Nationalist all 94 news articles »

Omori, a "surreal, exploration, horror RPG" from webcomic artist Omocat bears fleeting similarities to popular games like Nintendo's Earthbound, which may be what pushed it past its $22,000 goal on Kickstarter in just over one day. Omori has players...

An anonymous reader writes with news that Verizon and New Jersey regulators have reached a deal releasing Verizon from their obligation to have brought 45Mbps broadband to all NJ residents by 2010. Instead, 4G wireless service is considered sufficient. From the article: "2010 came and went and a number of rural parts of the state are still living with dial-up or subpar DSL. And even though the original deal was made in the days of modems and CompuServe, its crafters had the foresight to define broadband as 45Mbps, which is actually higher than many Verizon broadband customers receive today. ... In spite of that, and the thousands of legitimate complaints from actual New Jersey residents, the BPU voted unanimously yesterday to approve a deal with Verizon ... According to the Bergen Record, Verizon will no longer be obligated to provide broadband to residents if they have access to broadband service from cable TV providers or wireless 4G service. ... Residents who happen to live in areas not served by cable or wireless broadband can petition Verizon for service, but can only get broadband if at least 35 people in a single census tract each agree to sign contracts for a minimum of one year and pay $100 deposits."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

“I need to wear one of my thongs. Will you get it for me? Because I’m in a diaperrr…” – Jacob

Bad Lip Reading has created a funny bad lip reading parody of the 2010 romantic fantasy film, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. The 7-minute video is filled with characters talking about off the wall topics and it ends with a comical “Hot Potato” tune sung by Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). We’ve previously written about their ongoing series of bad lip reading videos.

submitted by simonpercy [link] [3 comments]

submitted by CosmicGame [link] [19 comments]

Caption: A man looks at cherry blossoms in full bloom in Tokyo on March 31, 2014.

Credit: Toru Hanai/Reuters

Found at The Atlantic.

beben-eleben:

by Rap Poems

pyCardDAV:

pyCardDAV is a simple to use CardDAV CLI client. It has built in support for mutt’s query_command but also works very well solo (and with other MUAs).

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andsinceweare:

Me at parties

Given that the FCC is usually run by past or future lobbyists and executives for the industry they’re supposedly “regulating”, like most American regulators, it’s no surprise that it usually does what’s best for the country’s big ISPs at the expense of the citizens.

The New York Times published an article yesterday entitled, “F.C.C., in a Shift, Backs Fast Lanes for Web Traffic”. Pay careful attention to the ISP-friendly political marketing language being used. Emphasis mine:

The Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday that it would propose new rules that allow companies like Disney, Google or Netflix to pay Internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon for special, faster lanes to send video and other content to their customers. …

Still, the regulations could radically reshape how Internet content is delivered to consumers. For example, if a gaming company cannot afford the fast track to players, customers could lose interest and its product could fail.

The rules are also likely to eventually raise prices as the likes of Disney and Netflix pass on to customers whatever they pay for the speedier lanes, which are the digital equivalent of an uncongested car pool lane on a busy freeway. …

“Americans were promised, and deserve, an Internet that is free of toll roads, fast lanes and censorship — corporate or governmental.” …

Broadband companies have pushed for the right to build special lanes. …

Under the proposal, broadband providers would have to disclose how they treat all Internet traffic and on what terms they offer more rapid lanes…

Those earlier rules effectively barred Internet service providers from making deals with services like Amazon or Netflix to allow those companies to pay to stream their products to viewers through a faster, express lane on the web. …

Consumers can pay Internet service providers for a higher-speed Internet connection. But whatever speed they choose, under the new rules, they might get some content faster, depending on what the content provider has paid for.

Everyone in this discussion has been led, most likely by talking-points marketing by the FCC and ISPs, to describe the destruction of net neutrality as allowing ISPs to “create fast lanes”.

This language was carefully constructed to sound like a positive, additive move: It’s building, not destroying or restricting. They want to offer faster service, not reduce the speed or priority of all existing traffic. Who could possibly be against that? They’re building fast lanes, like a highway! Everyone loves fast lanes! U-S-A! U-S-A!

Naturally, this doesn’t reflect reality at all. Only a fool would believe that the ISPs would actually create any new capacity, higher speeds, or consumer value in this process, leaving their existing service untouched. Yet that’s exactly the future you’re suggesting by using the “building fast lanes” metaphor.

Be honest.

This is not building anything new — it’s discriminating and restricting what we already have.

This is not making anything faster — it’s allowing ISPs to selectively slow down traffic that they don’t strategically or financially benefit from, and only permit traffic from their partners to run at the speeds that everything runs at today.

It’s ostensibly the FCC’s job to see through this bullshit language and do what’s right for the country and the people, but only the fool who believed that ISPs are trying to build something beneficial here would believe that the FCC gives a damn about what’s best for American citizens.

And 52.9% of us were that fool for believing in another big, empty political marketing campaign.

Two years ago, Julie Ann Horvarth had a simple message for women in software development: Know your stuff, don’t talk about feminism, make great things and you’ll be fine. Last month, Horvarth had a public about-face, claiming she was bullied out of a job at one of the most prestigious companies in tech - bringing harassment allegations against GitHub that shocked the tech industry. Github founder Chris Wanstrath immediately promised a “full investigation.” He personally apologized to Julie, and said he was “certain that there were things we could have done differently.” The results of the investigation came out yesterday.

WORTHINGTON, MA—While struggling to be heard over the deafening roar of nu-metal and late-’90s rap-rock, patrons announced Wednesday night that the music at Liston’s Bar and Grill could probably stand to be just a bit louder and a touch ...

Since last Sunday, the Internet has been abuzz with talk of Game of Thrones' controversial rape scene. We touched on it in our recap and shared with you the responses of the scene's director, co-writer, and one of its actors, plus A Song of Ice and Fire scribe George R.R. Martin. But we hadn't written a post specifically on our personal thoughts on scene, because...well, because we have a lot of them. There's much to unpack about rape culture, storytelling tropes, and the responsibility of fiction. So Jill Pantozzi and Rebecca Pahle, along with Geekosystem's Victoria McNally, sat down to hash it all out. Below you'll find our uncensored discussion on the scene and why, specifically, it made us boil with seething, all-encompassing rage.

Space is full of mysteries, but one in particular has been weighing on our minds lately: How’s the food up there? Here’s how space meals get made, the best astronaut food hacks, and the experiment that showed just where the best french fries in the galaxy would really be found.

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