firehose

jfruh writes "Recently Business Insider caused a minor stir among developers with dreams of riches with a story about a nameless Google engineer who's making $3 million a year. Who is this person, and how unusual are pay scales like this inside the Googleplex? Phil Johnson uses public information to try to figure out the answer. His conclusion: the $3 million engineer may exist, but is a rare bird indeed if so."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The other major benefit to the users of the chair (besides the ease of travel and lifestyle) is the total integration of the occupant’s virtual social life, personal life, fashion (or lack-thereof), and basic needs in one device. Passengers are seen talking with friends remotely, not-so-remotely, playing games, getting updated on news, and receiving basic status updates. The device also serves as a source of advertising (try blue! it’s the new red!).

A slight digression: What are the ads there for? Considering that the Axiom appears to be an all-inclusive permanent resort model, the ads could be an attempt to steer passengers to using resources that the ship knows it has a lot of. This would allow a reprieve for heavily used activities/supplies to be replenished for the next wave of guests, instead of an upsell maneuver to draw more money from them. We see no evidence of exchange of money or other economic activity while on-board the Axiom…

OK, back to the social network.

Security?

It isn’t obvious what the form of authentication is for the chairs. We know that the chairs have information about who the passenger prefers to talk to, what they like to eat, where they like to be aboard the ship, and what their hobbies are. With that much information, if there was no constant authentication, an unscrupulous passenger could easily hop in another person’s chair, “impersonate” them on their social network, and play havoc with their network. That’s not right.

It’s possible that the chair only works for the person using it, or only accesses the current passenger’s information from a central computer in the Axiom, but it’s never shown. What we do know is that the chair activates when a person is sitting on it and paying attention to the display, and that it deactivates as soon as that display is cut or the passenger leaves the chair.

We aren’t shown what happens when the passenger’s attention is drawn away from the screen, since they are constantly focused on it while the chair is functioning properly.

If it doesn’t already exist, the hologram should have an easy to push button or gesture that can dismiss the picture. This would allow the passenger to quickly interact with the environment when needed, then switch back to the social network afterwards.

And, for added security in case it doesn’t already exist, biometrics would be easy for the Axiom. Tracking the chair user’s voice, near-field chip, fingerprint on the control arm, or retina scan would provide strong security for what is a very personal activity and device. This system should also have strong protection on the back end to prevent personal information from getting out through the Axiom itself.

Social networks hold a lot of very personal information, and the network should have protections against the wrong person manipulating that data. Strong authentication can prevent both identity theft and social humiliation.

Taking the occupant’s complete attention

While the total immersion of social network and advertising seems dystopian to us (and that’s without mentioning the creepy way the chair removes a passenger’s need for most physical activity), the chair looks genuinely pleasing to its users.

They enjoy it.

But like a drug, their enjoyment comes at the detriment of almost everything else in their lives. There seem to be plenty of outlets on the ship for active people to participate in their favorite activities: Tennis courts, golf tees, pools, and large expanses for running or biking are available but unused by the passengers of the Axiom.

Work with the human need

In an ideal world a citizen is happy, has a mixture of leisure activities, and produces something of benefit to the civilization. In the case of this social network, the design has ignored every aspect of a person’s life except moment-to-moment happiness.

This has parallels in goal driven design, where distinct goals (BNL wants to keep people occupied on the ship, keep them focused on the network, and collect as much information as possible about what everyone is doing) direct the design of an interface. When goal-driven means data driven, then the data being collected instantly becomes the determining factor of whether a design will succeed or fail. The right data goals means the right design. Wrong data goals mean the wrong design.

Instead of just occupying a person’s attention, this interface could have instead been used to draw people out and introduce them to new activities at intervals driven by user testing and data. The Axiom has the information and power, perhaps even the responsibility, to direct people to activities that they might find interesting. Even though the person wouldn’t be looking at the screen constantly, it would still be a continuous element of their day. The social network could have been their assistant instead of their jailer.

One of the characters even exclaims that she “didn’t even know they had a pool!”. Indicating that she would have loved to try it, but the closed nature of the chair’s social network kept her from learning about it and enjoying it. By directing people to ‘test’ new experiences aboard the Axiom and releasing them from its grip occasionally, the social network could have acted as an assistant instead of an attention sink.

Moment-to-moment happiness might have declined, but overall happiness would have gone way up.

The best way for designers to affect the outcome of these situations is to help shape the business goals and metrics of a project. In a situation like this, after the project had launched a designer could step in and point out those moments were a passenger was pleasantly surprised, or clearly in need of something to do, and help build a business case around serving those needs.

The obvious moments of happiness (that this system solves for so well) could then be augmented by serendipitous moments of pleasure and reward-driven workouts.

We must build products for more than just fleeting pleasure

As soon as the Axiom lands back on Earth, the entire passenger complement leaves the ship (and the social network) behind.

It was such a superficial pleasure that people abandoned it without hesitation when they realized that there was something more rewarding to do. That’s a parallel that we can draw to many current products. The product can keep attention for now, but something better will come along and then their users will abandon them.

A company can produce a product or piece of software that fills a quick need and initially looks successful. But, that success falls apart as soon as people realize that they have larger and tougher problems that need solving.

Ideally, a team of designers at BNL would have watched after the initial launch and continued improving the social network. By helping people continue to grow and learn new skills, the social network could have kept the people aboard the Axiom it top condition both mentally and physically. By the time Wall-E came around, and life finally began to return to Earth, the passengers would have been ready to return and rebuild civilization on their own.

To the designers of a real Axiom Social Network: You have the chance to build a tool that can save the world.

We know you like blue! Now it looks great in Red!

Benderdict Cumberbatch.

(Bender traced from here.)

A British biologist who spent the past 30 years studying cat behavior is claiming that domesticated cats aren’t all that domesticated, and believe that their owners are “larger, non-hostile cats” instead of another species.

20th Century Fox has closed a deal to acquire the hugely popular fantasy card game from Hasbro and will develop the property with an eye to launch a massive franchise on the scale of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. The studio has enlisted Simon Kinberg, the Fox-based writer-producer who is also helping shepherd the X-Men and Fantastic Four universes at the studio, to produce the adaptation. Kinberg will also act as the franchise's engineer -- or supreme sorcerer, if you will -- overseeing the development of the movie series in concert with Hasbro execs.

Slow clap it out. Via Twitter.

Jane Austen fans, be prepared to swoon. Coming home one day Redditor ByTingo was greeted by the unusual sight of her sister, dressed in Regency-era garb, exclaiming that Netherfield had been let at last! What followed was was the lucky Austenite getting suited up as Lizzie Bennet to be led through scenes Pride and Prejudice, at the end of which her own Mr. Darcy popped the question. "I was an English lit major - he knew I love P&P and that I would be glad my family was involved," explains ByTingo. "The important part was that it was personal to us!" Props to Darcy for his sentimentality and his common sense: "My favorite book is Les Miserables... but that would have been way too depressing for a proposal. He chose wisely."

The defensive FAQ by Nest to alleviate widespread fears about the Google acquisition has been quoted extensively. The whole thing (it’s short) is worth examining critically.

Before we dig in, I want to acknowledge what I consider the first great Nest partnership. I’m not talking about Google. I’m talking about the one between you and the team here at Nest.

How patronizing.

Let’s all give each other a big hug! We’re just a $3 billion company that just got acquired by a massive advertising conglomerate that controls, tracks, and records an ever-expanding amount of everything that people do with all modern technology. We’re all friends and everything’s great. Give yourselves a big round of applause for being such great customers!

Keep this next part in mind:

Will Nest and Google products work with each other?
Nest’s product line obviously caught the attention of Google and I’m betting that there’s a lot of cool stuff we could do together, but nothing to share today.

This is fairly straightforward and obvious: the division between Nest and Google products and services will blur, leading to merged products in the future. Of course. Why would Google buy them if they didn’t have something like that in mind?

The definitions of “products” and “services” can be broad. Maybe the thermostat is still a Nest-branded product, but the weather service it connects to is a Google service. Habit analysis and prediction could also be a Google service. (It already is.) Obviously, Google and Nest should be considered one entity with one product line and shared services in the future, regardless of whose name is painted on the front of the thermostat.

So when I see so many people only quoting this part and thinking it changes anything, it’s pretty easy to have a more cynical (and realistic) interpretation:

Will Nest customer data be shared with Google?
Our privacy policy clearly limits the use of customer information to providing and improving Nest’s products and services. We’ve always taken privacy seriously and this will not change.

Statements like this should be interpreted as if you’re a lawyer trying to find a loophole. (Because theirs will.)

“This will not change” only refers to “We’ve always taken privacy seriously”. In other words, the sentence only says “We will always take privacy seriously”, which doesn’t mean anything and should be disregarded. So we’re down to this:

Will Nest customer data be shared with Google?
Our privacy policy clearly limits the use of customer information to providing and improving Nest’s products and services.

The question in bold is not answered by the following sentence, or anywhere else. Asking a question without answering it is a diversion, containing no information, so it can also be removed. We’re left with only one sentence that actually says something:

Our privacy policy clearly limits the use of customer information to providing and improving Nest’s products and services.

It’s meant to sound reassuring, but their privacy policy can change whenever they feel like it. And remember, the definition of “providing and improving Nest’s products and services” can be very broad.

Think of how much more accurate your Nest thermostat’s predictions could be if it integrated with a few Google services.

If you’re using Google’s services enough to give them a pretty good idea of where you are and what you’re doing,¹ Nest could automatically turn your heat on so it reaches the ideal temperature at exactly the time you’re most likely to arrive home based on your location, travel speed, the route you usually take, and current traffic conditions. How clever and impressive! It’s even environmentally friendly!

Google won’t break into your home. You’ll invite them in.

Dr. Martha Lauzen's yearly analysis of the state of women's jobs behind the camera in Hollywood goes by the name Celluloid Ceiling Report, and according to the numbers on 2013, opportunities for women who want to make movies from the other side of the lens haven't improved since roughly the time There's Something About Mary was hitting theaters.

itwbennett writes "The hackers who stole millions of credit card numbers from Target customers are probably 'laying low knowing that everyone is looking for them,' says Alex Holden, who runs cybercrime consultancy Hold Security. But it's also likely that they can't sell them: 'You can imagine that having a lot of stolen credit cards will not net the hackers, say $35 per card for all 40 million,' said Holden. 'Even if the hackers are willing to sell cards for $1 a card, no one will buy the stolen goods in these amounts.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Let that wave of 8-bit '80s nostalgia wash over you.

RBI BASEBALL IS BACK.

Let's say you're a gamer of a certain age, which is to say, old. Or maybe you're just young with extraordinarily good taste in video games. You undoubtedly owned RBI Baseball and played it, say, constantly on your Nintendo, because it allowed you to play as your favorite team or create famous moments in Bill Buckner's life. Or just bunt with the bases loaded. Plus it was a lot better than any of the football choices at the time.

Sure, there were many baseball games that came out after it did in 1988. Graphics got better. Simulations got better.  For some reason robots fought and rode around like a motorized unicycle. The scoreboard at Fenway Park looks more real than the real one.

But there was never another RBI Baseball. Until now.

MLB Advanced Media made the announcement Tuesday that the franchise will return for the first time in more than two decades when RBI Baseball 14 is released across all consoles, old and new, and on mobile this spring.

Hallelujah, choirs sing. Wait. We can do even better than that. 8-bit music.

Just listen to that. Over and over and over.

Or just listen once and sing it to yourself over and over and over. It's the theme song you never forget.

Well, this is awkward.

Jordan Peele, star of the excellent sketch show Key & Peele, made the mistake of announcing that he'd unfollowed Mark Cuban on Twitter:

I just unfollowed Mark Cuban, and it felt AMAZING.

— Jordan Peele (@JordanPeele) January 15, 2014

To be clear, unfollowing Mark Cuban isn't a mistake. Mark Cuban's pretty annoying on Twitter. Announcing it, though, was a bad idea, because it invited response:

. @JordanPeele damn. I watch the show all the time. Record it in my Neilson diary even when I don't watch. Wow. #bummed

— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) January 15, 2014

You see what you did? You made Mark Cuban #bummed. And now there's this awkward tension floating around the internet. You don't send the obnoxious kid in your class a letter saying he's not invited to your birthday party, and you don't announce to the world that you unfollowed the obnoxious guy on Twitter. Unfollow quietly, or suffer the consequences.

Also: 1. Is Mark Cuban really part of the Nielsen polling? 2. If he is, they should stop counting him because he just publicly admitted to misrepresenting his viewing habits. JUST SAYING.

3D typography

Die trying

Unlike juggaLOVE.

The post Date Edge, the Dating Website for Straight Edge People, is a Really Real Thing appeared first on MetalSucks.

RESTAURANTS OF PORTLAND!
Pleeeeeaaaaasssseeeee do the world a favor and do not serve 1/2 # hamburgers; it's too much!
A 0.33333 lb burger is the maximum weight EVER required!
I'll eat a 12 oz steak, sure, but not on a bun with cheese, bacon, radioactive-giant-turnip-squid aioli, and an onion ring.
Lots of us LOVE burgers, but not the death knell feeling we get after finishing one of these monstrosities! And then there is the environmental destructiveness of beef production—YES, a few less ounces over xxx,xxx burgers/year DOES make a difference!
I'd like to go Michael Bloomberg on the burger world! 1/3 > 1/2!
P.S. LBBs are too small. Picky, I know!

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Using data from linguistics research by Kostiantyn Tyshchenko, Teresa Elms clustered European languages in this network graph. If you look closely, you might wonder why English is considered a Germanic language. Elms explains:

So why is English still considered a Germanic language? Two reasons. First, the most frequently used 80% of English words come from Germanic sources, not Latinate sources. Those famous Anglo-Saxon monosyllables live on! Second, the syntax of English, although much simplified from its Old English origins, remains recognizably Germanic. The Norman conquest added French vocabulary to the language, and through pidginization it arguably stripped out some Germanic grammar, but it did not ADD French grammar.

An anonymous reader writes "An Irish politician has called for tougher controls on the use of open source internet browsers. He said, 'An online black market is operating which protects the users’ anonymity and operates across borders through the use of open source internet browsers and payments systems which allow users to remain anonymous. This effectively operates as an online supermarket for illegal goods such as drugs, weapons and pornography, where it is extremely difficult to trace the identity of the buyers. We need a national and international response to clamp down on this illicit trade.' The politician added that the U.S. had 'taken action' to address this, but he seemed surprised that their solution was only 'temporary.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Olympian

Texas politicians file campaign finance reports MiamiHerald.com AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas politicians are filing their campaign finance reports, providing a clue as to how well their doing ahead of the March 4 primaries. Texas law requires that candidates and officeholders tell the state Wednesday how much money they've ... Fundraising signals tough fight ahead in Texas governor's raceChicago Tribune Wendy Davis Raises Over $12 Million for Texas Gubernatorial BidTIME Davis edges Abbott in fundraising for gov raceHouston Chronicle Fox News all 127 news articles »

Breaking the Silence: Broad Support for Footballer's Coming Out:

Former German national team player Thomas Hitzlsperger on Wednesday became the first professional footballer in the country to acknowledge his homosexuality. The upcoming Winter Olympics in Russia, he said, was a reason for going public now.

Caption: Hitzlsperger played a total of 52 games for the German national team and took part in the 2006 World Cup and the 2008 European Championships.

Credit: Getty Images

Above, Bart's "apology" on behalf of The Simpsons writers for referring to Judas Priest as "death metal" in a previous episode which infuriated the group's very vocal fans. From The Guardian:

The original slur came in a storyline where Homer starts illegally downloading music, leading to an anti-piracy investigation from the FBI and an escape to immunity in a Swedish consulate. The FBI counter by hiring the "death metal" Judas Priest to blast a piracy-themed rework of their track Breaking the Law, with the words changed to "Respecting the law: copyright law!"

"The Simpsons apologise to Judas Priest for calling them 'death metal'"

A U.S. district judge has ruled Oklahoma's ban on gay marriage unconstitutional. But same-sex couples can't head to the courthouse just yet, as the ruling is on hold pending appeals.

Read more...