The Old Reader

11 Jan 16:24

The NBA made Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Breen nickname jerseys too

by Rodger Sherman

THE NOTORIOUS JVG is in Brooklyn.

The NBA has nickname jerseys for Heat-Nets. From LeBron wearing "King James" to Miles Plumlee wearing "Plums," the whole endeavor has been met with mixed -- well, let's be honest, primarily negative -- reactions.

That said, it's all worth it for this:

Yes, Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Breen are The Notorious JVG -- THAT'S AN INTERNET JOKE!!!!!!111! -- and The Gray Mamba. We are on board with this wholeheartedly, and think they should have to announce in these from here on out.

firehose likes this

11 Jan 16:23

Computer Scientists Quantify Elements Of Writing Style That Differentiate Successful Fiction

Imagine the challenge publishers face, pouring over thousands of manuscripts to determine if a book will be a hit. Stony Brook Department of Computer Science Assistant Professor Yejin Choi thinks she has a tool to bring some science to that art.

11 Jan 16:23

Leaked Arrest Warrants Suggest Sabu Wasn't The Only FBI Mole In Lulzsec

For years, it was assumed that Hector “Sabu” Monsegur was the only hacker-turned-FBI-rat responsible for bringing down Lulzsec, the international group of hackers that left a trail of bedlam across the Internet in 2011.

11 Jan 16:21

The Wolf Of Wall Street: The F*cking Short Version

"The Wolf of Wall Street" is the most f*ck-filled non-documentary movie in the history of Hollywood. Slacktory counted 522 audible, intelligible f*cks, and compiled them into a single f*cking video.

11 Jan 16:18

Photo

Russian Sledges, firehose likes this

11 Jan 16:17

Dropbox website goes down, hackers claim responsibility

by Kwame Opam

The hacker collective Anonymous took to Twitter to state that, in honor of Aaron Swartz on the anniversary of his death, they've compromised the Dropbox website.

Developing...

Source Anonymous (Twitter)

11 Jan 16:15

Photo

firehose and -1 others like this

11 Jan 16:14

Overstock CEO says company made $130,000 in first day of Bitcoin sales

by Kwame Opam

After announcing its plans to start accepting Bitcoin payments last month, Overstock.com officially took the plunge yesterday, having brokered a deal with Bitcoin payment processor Coinbase to help handle sales. Now, only a day later, CEO Patrick Byrne announced on Twitter that the company made $130,000 in Bitcoin payments.

Byrne's off-the-cuff announcement at the very least shows the interest consumers have in Bitcoin, putting Overstock.com, now the largest retailer to accept the crytpocurrency, in a fairly unique position to profit on it. However, this success is likely only a drop in the bucket for the company. According to Overstock.com's financials, the online store made more than $300 million last quarter, translating to approximately $3 million a day in revenue. At this point, as ever, Overstock.com likely won't be shifting away from traditional currencies anytime soon.

Source Patrick Byrne (Twitter)

11 Jan 16:14

Pizza Hut Xbox 360 app made over $1 million in first four months

by David Hinkle

The Pizza Hut app on Xbox 360, which made its debut back in April and allows you to order food from the delivery chain directly through your console, has earned Pizza Hut quite a bit of dough - over $1 million in four months. That's around ...

11 Jan 16:10

bluepueblo: Sunset, The Golden Gate, San Francisco photo via...

bluepueblo:

Sunset, The Golden Gate, San Francisco

photo via subzero

zushikiki, Tertiarymatt and one other like this

11 Jan 16:09

archatlas: ObviousState

archatlas:

ObviousState

Jay Yoon, firehose and -1 others like this

11 Jan 16:04

Stunning graphs show how Reddit went from porn to WTF

by Valentina Palladino

firehose
'subreddits like "firstworldproblems," "todayilearned," and even "trees." '

'even "trees." '

why are you shocked that reddit is obsessed with pot

The weird and fascinating world of Reddit has been too large to comprehend all at once, at least until now. Randy Olson, a PhD student from Michigan State University researched how Reddit has changed since its conception in 2005, and made a few stunning graphs that illustrate the rise and fall of topics. The most striking graph provides a stratigraphic look at at the website's past, showing how topics that ruled Reddit in 2006 like "NSFW" and "programming" are no where near as sought out now as topics like "funny" and "WTF." It's almost possible to pinpoint when the most dramatic change occurred by using the graph as well — it came around 2008 when Reddit added a feature that allowed users to create their own subreddits. That small feature was all the community needed to flood the site with subreddits like "firstworldproblems," "todayilearned," and even "trees." These graphs make it easier than ever to take a close look at the peaks and valleys of one of the biggest worlds on the Internet, and they're also just fun to look at.

Via Wired
Source Randal S. Olsen
Related Items graphs data visualization reddit subreddit

11 Jan 16:03

transitmaps: Historical Map: The Plan of Chicago — Proposed...

transitmaps:

Historical Map: The Plan of Chicago — Proposed Arrangement of Railroad Stations, 1909

A plate from the hugely influential 1909 Plan of Chicago (also known as “the Burnham Plan” after its primary author, the renowned architect and urban planner Daniel Burnham) showing proposed amendments and additions to the railroads of the city.

The thin red lines show main line railroads, which were going to be rerouted to two mega-stations to the south and west of the downtown area. To facilitate movement between these stations, an ambitious plan of subterranean streetcars (blue lines) and subway trains (dashed red lines) was proposed in addition to the already existing “El”. It’s hard to make out without viewing the image at its largest size on Flickr, but the “El” is shown by thin orange lines on the map.

In the end, little of this part of the plan was ever implemented. A new Chicago Union Station was finished in 1925, but no other stations were consolidated or relocated. In 1929, the South Branch of the Chicago River was rechanneled between Polk and 18th Streets to untangle railroad approaches as recommended by the plan. However, its importance as a part of this vastly influential document cannot be underestimated.

(Source: Penn State Libraries Pictures Collection/Flickr)

firehose likes this

11 Jan 16:03

In the pilot episode for the 2011 re-imagining of the TV show...

In the pilot episode for the 2011 re-imagining of the TV show Charlie’s Angels a floor safe is found beneath Gloria’s kitty litter box. While breaking into the safe the image in question appears. The code is a snippet of a Sudoku puzzle solver written for the Obfuscated C code contest in 2005. That code can be found here.

A day after the airing I had not found anyone who posted about this little gem so I had commented on a review of the episode at the time. That can be found at the bottom of this page.

firehose likes this

11 Jan 16:03

Hackers steal customer credit card data from US fashion retailer Neiman Marcus

by Rich McCormick

firehose
continuing

In December, US retail giant Target confirmed up to 40 million credit card accounts were at risk after customer data was stolen by hackers. Now, according to Brian Krebs — the journalist that first reported the Target security breach — a second retailer has suffered a similar attack. Krebs on Security reports that hackers have stolen customer credit card data from the Dallas-based fashion chain Neiman Marcus.

Krebs says his sources in the finance industry started to suspect a large retailer had been hacked after a December surge in fraudulent debit and credit card charges. The payments, Krebs says, were traced to cards that had been recently been used at Neiman Marcus' brick-and-mortar stores. Those suspicions were confirmed by Neiman Marcus spokesperson Ginger Reeder, who said that the chain was informed of "potentially unauthorized payment card activity that occurred following customer purchases at Neiman Marcus Group stores" by its credit card processor in mid-December. The company says it informed federal law enforcement agencies, in addition to "a leading investigations, intelligence and risk management firm, and a leading forensics firm." On January 1st, that forensics firm found evidence that the fashion chain was indeed "the victim of a criminal cyber-security intrusion," and said that some customers' cards were "possibly compromised" as a result.

The hack affects cards that were used in Neiman Marcus brick-and-mortar stores

The scale and scope of the hack are yet to be revealed, but the amount of time the hackers had to access the data undetected may affect the number of customers affected. Target's hackers were reportedly able to obtain so much data — details for up to 40 million cards, and up to 70 million names, email addresses, and phone numbers — because the security hole stayed open from Thanksgiving until mid-December. Reeder says Neiman Marcus has "taken significant steps to further enhance information security" since uncovering the breach, but also suggests that the company has only recently "begun to contain the intrusion," some weeks after the first fraudulent payments appeared.

Source Krebs on Security
Image Credit Becky Mullane / Flickr
Related Items neiman marcus hack credit cards security shopping fraud identity theft

11 Jan 16:01

Photo

firehose likes this

11 Jan 16:00

Where is the grimdark stuff?

by Karl

firehose
R.O.F.L

I quite like "dark" RPGs, specially dark fantasy.

I have read a few compalints from people that cant stand "dark" stuff anymore, the market is satureated with it, etc.

The thing is, I dont see it. The most "cool" RPGs nowadays seem to go the opposite direction. Ive been reading Dungeon World, FATE Core, and theres in new stuff like 13th Age and Numenera that dont look "grimdark" at all.

Granted, theres always some warhammer around, but even white wolf stuff seem less dark than the old stuff (and certaionly less goth!). Anyways, Exalted seems to be their next big thing, also on the lighter side of the spectrum and shunning the shock tactics of the "dark" stuff on infernals.

Something like Kult is nowhere to be seem. Newer games are great, maybe even better than Kult, like the (great and often funny) Pandemonio or the "post modern" Unknown Armies, but certainly less DARK than kult.

And, of course, Cthulhu is always around, but nothing like the (seemingly awful) Cthulhutech.

Pathfinder is going strong on the "high fantasy" and D&D Next seems "lighter" than older editions.

So where are the darker games of today?

AND: would you be interested in new "dark" games, specially dark fantasy?

11 Jan 15:59

Cannabis Cuisine Takes Colorado With Gourmet Munchies, Food-Pot Pairings

With marijuana now legal in Colorado, the food industry is creating gourmet munchies, THC-spiked sodas, and food–pot pairings. Welcome to the new cannabis cuisine!

11 Jan 15:59

The Murderer And The Manuscript

firehose
'S. J. Rozan, the author of award-winning private-detective novels, served as a judge on behalf of the Private Eye Writers association, and she recommended Hunt’s submission to Kirkpatrick. “The voice was new,” Rozan told me. “It wasn’t the same wisecracking self-deprecating tone you see with a lot of private-eye books. The characters seemed real.” Kirkpatrick was similarly impressed. “The manuscript felt very accomplished,” she said. “He clearly knew how to tell a story. The language and dialogue were fantastic.”

Beyond that, though, all either of them knew about Alaric Hunt was that he had submitted a manuscript along with a Southern California phone number. So when a woman answered the phone, Kirkpatrick asked if she could speak to Alaric.

“He’s not available. He’s in an institution.”

The woman on the phone was Hunt’s first cousin, Jade Reed. She had mailed the manuscript to Minotaur on his behalf.

“Like a prison?” Kirkpatrick asked.

“Yes.”

“Will he be out soon?”

Reed paused. “Well, he’s there indefinitely.”

Before this phone call, it had never occurred to Kirkpatrick that her contest winner might have spent the past 25 years in prison, where he’s serving a life sentence for murder.
...
Hunt has been incarcerated since 1988 for murder, arson, robbery and other charges. He won’t be eligible for parole for five more years.

South Carolina makes it exceedingly difficult for outsiders to visit inmates in the state’s prison system. Only friends and relatives who knew the inmate before his or her incarceration are approved for visitation. Face-to-face interviews by journalists and taking photographs of inmates are no longer permitted, according to the state corrections-department website, “so as not to glamorize the crimes of the offenders, and not to revictimize the victims and their family members.” In addition, South Carolina has one of the most dangerous prison systems in the country, rife with riots and in dire need of renovations that an underfinanced state budget cannot afford.
...
Minotaur wasn’t fazed upon learning the news of Hunt’s imprisonment — if anything, Kirkpatrick was intrigued. “One of the beautiful things about the competition is that it’s open to anyone,” she told me. And because South Carolina repealed its version of the “Son of Sam” law in 2000, Hunt is free to publish and profit from his work. “He’s allowed to write,” Andrew Martin, the Minotaur publisher, said. “He’s allowed to submit. No one said he’s not allowed to publish. He’s not writing a memoir of the crimes and trying to make money off that.” John Lutz, a crime writer who read and blurbed an advance copy of “Cuts Through Bone,” thought Hunt’s situation “might even lend credibility. He’s writing about crimes and criminals, and that’s what got him where he is, in a manner of speaking.” Rozan went a step further, saying: “If I were in Alaric’s position, I might find a P.I. character easy to identify with. He can help other people, but he can’t do anything for himself.”
...
Upon learning of Hunt’s novel, Austin’s voice vibrated with anger. “He caused my daughter’s death, and now he’s writing a book about it.” I assured her the book was not her daughter’s story. “I can’t believe this,” she repeated several times. “I heard you. I wrote down what you said.”

More silence passed. “This is America,” Austin said finally. “I can’t prevent him. Can’t even try. But knowing this creates a lot of emotions I don’t want to deal with.” Before hanging up, she said she would not buy a copy of “Cuts Through Bone.” She had another notion, though: “I may browse through it in a public library.” '

The winner of the novel-writing contest was a complete unknown, right down to the fact that he was serving a life sentence.

11 Jan 15:52

The Ballad Of Damon Dash

He was the crown prince of the Bling Era, a Svengali who turned his friend and partner Jay-Z into a superstar, signed Kanye West, and built a business empire that extended far beyond hip-hop. Then he split with Hova, and bit by bit, the mercurial mogul began to lose it all—his label, his wife, his homes, and the figurative shirt off his back. Today, as Jay-Z towers over the culture, the 42-year-old Dash insists he's right where he wants to be: hustling and hungry.

11 Jan 15:52

Justin Bieber WILL Be Charged With Felony If L.A. Authorities Have Their Way - Contactmusic.com

Contactmusic.com

Justin Bieber WILL Be Charged With Felony If L.A. Authorities Have Their Way
Contactmusic.com
Justin Bieber had his first bit of bad press in 2014 (it really didn't take long did it) this week when he was accused of vandalism against one of his neighbours. The singer is accused of pelting his neighbour's home with eggs on Thursday, 9 January, evening ...

and more »

firehose likes this

11 Jan 15:50