Microsoft is updating its OneNote for Windows 8.1 app today with some significant changes. Visually the app remains very similar to the previous version, with some tweaks here and there, and the multiple Snap Views in Windows 8.1 are now fully enabled. OneNote now also supports the Share Charm in 8.1, allowing users to copy a website or information from an app directly into a new note in the app. If you’re sharing from a Windows 8.1 app or IE11 then it keeps the full richness of the images and text that’s captured into a note.
The biggest improvements come with a new Camera Scan feature and optical character recognition (OCR). OneNote has always supported capture from cameras, but the feature has been updated to improve scanning of documents and whiteboards. The idea is to make images look like there were scanned directly into a page, and Camera Scan automatically rotates, straightens, crops, sharpens, and remove shadows from images after they’re taken so they fit into a note.
OneNote combines Camera Scan with a new OCR feature that lets you search for text within an image embedded into a note, or simply copy text from an inserted image. You can insert any image to copy the text out of it, and it works in a similar way to the OCR recognition on Microsoft’s SkyDrive service. We tested the feature a number of times and found it’s a little hit and miss that depends largely on image quality. However, screenshots with text work perfectly, and the overall Camera Scan feature works well to crop and align documents.
Other improvements to the OneNote Windows 8.1 app include page previews in the notes list, a fullscreen view, and improvements to inking support. The OneNote for Windows 8.1 update is available immediately in the Windows Store.
AUSTIN, TX—University of Texas professor Thom Windham once again furthered the cause of human inquiry in a class lecture Monday, as he continued his longtime practice of finding connections between things and other things, pointing out these parallels, and then elaborating on them in detail, campus sources reported.
"By drawing parallels between things and other, entirely different things, I not only further my own studies, but also encourage young minds to develop this comparative methodology in their own work," said Windham, holding his left hand up to represent one thing, then holding his right hand up to represent a separate thing, then bringing his hands together in simulation of a hypothetical synthesis of the two things. "It's not just similarities that are important, though—the differences between things are also worth exploring at length."
Fifteen years ago, Windham was awarded tenure for doing this.
On November 19, Atlantic Records released The Best of Nickelback Volume 1, which follows — not very closely — on the heels of their 2011 double-platinum album Here and Now.
A few mind-boggling stats: Nickelback has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide and has charted with 19 singles. All The Right Reasons, which was released in 2005, has sold more than 15 million copies worldwide, spending 112 consecutive weeks in the top tier of the Billboard Top 200. It won an American Music Award, helped the quartet snag three Billboard Music Awards and a couple of Junos (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys), and led to Billboard magazine calling Nickelback its “group of the decade.”
So, why is Nickelback still a punch line?
For a while, it was cool to be snarky about Nickelback. (Here’s even more.) When that seemed overly mean, there were a few dissenting voices (including one in our sister publication). Personally, I always wondered what it was about the music itself that invited criticism. I began listening to every Nickelback album I could find, and I ultimately found a few musical characteristics — chord changes, melodic contours, formal devices, and so on — that kept popping up. I created a spreadsheet, tallying up those elements. The sum of those features, which I’ll discuss below, is what I call the “Nickelback Factor” (or NB Factor).
(Chad Kroeger, Nickelback’s lead singer, is also fond of musical dissection: In 2001, Kroeger, according to Wikipedia, said he did his own analyses, “studying every piece, everything sonically, everything lyrically, everything musically, chord structure… I would dissect every single song that I would hear on the radio or every song that had ever done well on a chart and I would say, ‘Why did this do well?’”)
The Nickelback spreadsheet contains (to my ears) an accumulation of certain tics and quirks that make up the Nickelback sound, which reached its apex (not surprisingly) with All the Right Reasons (and beyond, to 2008’s Dark Horse). (I didn’t get into the lyrics, sadly, but it’s probably worthwhile.)
I listened to seven albums — The Curb (1996), The State (2000), Silver Side Up (2001), The Long Road (2003), All the Right Reasons (2005), Dark Horse (2008) and Here and Now (2011) — for a total of 76 songs. Here’s some of what I heard, over and over (in some cases). (I’m sure mistakes were made, and for that I apologize.)
Soft-Loud-Soft or Power-Ballad Form. Nirvana and other bands, probably inspired by the Pixies, adopted this dynamic strategy: take it down for the verses and ramp up in the choruses. You don’t want to blow your wad. In 76 songs, Nickelback did this 37 times, spread evenly and consistently throughout their career (including 7 out of 11 songs on All the Right Reasons).
Four-Chord Chorus. A huge percentage of pop-rock choruses written after, say, 1995 seem to be built on a sequence of four chords, in a few different configurations (I won’t get into the details). Not surprisingly, Nickelback did this a bunch, especially toward the back-end of their catalog: six times on All the Right Reasons, seven examples on Dark Horse and another six on Here and Now. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the consistently is certainly noticeable.
Grunge Melody. This one’s a little more abstract. But if you dissect the melodies of, say, Nirvana, Pearl Jam or other early-’90s rockers, they seemed to be awfully fond of what you’d call mixolydian-mode melodies, which essentially gravitate toward the third and flatted-seventh scale degrees. (It’s sort of like major, with one little “non-chord tone” (that seventh) to keep it off balance. (See, for example, the melodies of “All Apologies” by Nirvana or Pearl Jam’s “Evenflow,” the first two melodic notes of which are the third and flat-seventh.) (See also: The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood.”)
Nickelback, and other groups, consciously or not, picked up on this sound and emulated it, but less often than I would have thought. For Nickelback, the use of Grunge Melody peaked on 2001’s Silver Side Up (three times). It’s understandable why this device showed early promise but ultimately got eclipsed by other factors: it’s too mystical, too ambiguous, not enough to hang your hat on, and not nearly bro-ish enough.
Half-Time. Occasionally a song’s beat gets cut in half, for dramatic effect. It happened on two songs from The Long Road (2003) before it was abandoned.
Guitar solo. Not surprising when they show up, but still worth pointing out that they are important to the Nickelback sound. Roughly half of their songs (or less), it seems, have guitar solos (short ones).
The Instrument Drop-Out Bridge. By far, this is the most common characteristic of Nickelback’s sound, occuring in 56 (!) of the 76 songs I listened to. It’s that moment after the song’s second chorus when everything drops out, leaving Kroeger’s voice to deliver a lyrical punch. It’s another device you might use to introduce variety, but it’s possible to overuse it, as Nickelback shows.
Acoustic/Piano Somewhere. Another way to mix it up within the confines of a short rock song is to alternate between acoustic instruments (usually an acoustic guitar or piano) and electric ones. It adds variety. Nickelback started using this effect more and more as time went on (and as they crossed over further from alternative rock to the mainstream). Nearly half the songs on each of their last four albums drop the acoustic-bomb somewhere.
Bro-Beat. Ah, the bro-beat: We’ve all heard it, the sound of handing an acoustic guitar to someone who’s ready to get the emotions flowing. It’s a characteristic groove that, in some ways, mimics the kick-snare alternation a drummer might use in a rock texture. (Listen to “Photograph” from “All the Right Reasons” for an example.) Nickelback seems to have limited their use of bro-beat to one song per album, which is admirable. (Hootie might be the bigger offender.)
The two albums with the highest Nickelback Factor are All the Right Reasons and Dark Horse, but the band’s been remarkably consistent over the years. When Nickelback releases a new album, hopefully soon, we’re likely to hear these factors again. Formulas exist for a reason: they work. But if they lead to further criticism and punch lines, I guess nobody will be surprised.
The Spreadsheet.Not for the meek. Scroll to the bottom of this post and you’ll find it lurking.
Such a cool collection of interactive voice response systems, with high fives out to everyone who thought up great (and ofttimes obscure) “talkie computers” from decades of sci-fi from the 1950s to the 2000-teens. By name…
kedamono x7
Joe Bloch x10
dhwood
Burning x4
Kelley Strang
dhwood
brightrock
Clayton
Pixel I/O
pavellishin x2
Clayton
@CarsTheElectric
Steve Silvas x2
Matt Sheehe
Ben
Matt Sheehe
Joe Bloch
pavellishin
Matt Sheehe x2
Lela x2
NP
Clayton x2
The list of talkie computers we collected is “Robby the Robot, Adam Link, Jupiter 2, Landru, M-5, Nomad probe, The Oracle, Beta-V, HAL, Colossus, BOXX, Thermostellar Triggering Device, IRAC, the Übercomputer, C-3PO, Alex 7000, Proteus IV, Zen, Orac, Slave, V-Ger, Artificial persons, Dr. Theopolis and TWKE-4, MU-TH-UR 6000, KITT, Replicants, Image Machine, MCP, SAL, Max, Holly, Kryten!, L7, 790, Sphere, Ship [sic], AMEE, Ship, Andromeda Ascendant, Zero, S.A.R.A.H., Andy the Deputy AI, Icarus, KITT, Otto, Gerty, and Jarvis.” Think you could name the movies and TV shows these are from just from these names?
The next step is to build a collection of the scripts of these interactions, since we’ll be analyzing any peculiar, non-standard-English that we find. I’m down to provide these scripts myself, but it would be easier if we crowdsource it. If you’re up to it, head to the following form to add the metadata and line-by-line script of the interaction. You can often find the scripts with a simple Google Search, or by (popping in the VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray you own, finding a video of the scene on some online video service and transcribing it from there. We are interested in word-perfect transcriptions. Don’t sweat it if you don’t have the time yourself. As of Thanksgiving weekend, I’ll manually complete any unfinished ones that I find.
Monty Python is adding at least four extra dates to its reunion show next year after the initial 14,500-seat show sold out in 43.5 seconds. The show will now run from July 1st through July 5th at London's O2 Arena, and Variety reports that a sixth show is being planned for the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. A world tour could also be in the works, according to The Daily Mirror, which reported the addition tour dates before they were announced. Even if the dates and locations remain limited, it's an exciting opportunity for fans: the shows will reunite all five surviving members of the sketch comedy group just over 30 years after they disbanded.
The NBA continues to be ahead of the curve when it comes to media.
Over the past year, the NBA has made huge strides in how the league is consumed online. The NBA.com stats page that debuted in February is a massive index of numbers, while the recently released SportsVU tracking data will also add to the analytics conversation. The league has taken another step in making their statistics archive more user friendly, adding video for every play to box scores.
The system will be quite simple. Go to a box score and click on a stat, and every single play involving that stat will be available for viewing. Not only will videos from this year going forward be available, but so will ones from last season. It will take about 45 minutes after each game for videos to be ready in the box score.
The NBA began working to add video to its database this offseason, according to Ira Boudway of Bloomberg Businessweek. For now, the replays will only be available on desktop, but the league is working to add mobile capabilities.
Uber drivers that walk into a Toyota or General Motors dealership will get as much as $7,500 off their next car. According to a report today in the Wall Street Journal, the cab-hailing app is partnering with the two manufacturers to offer Uber drivers on-the-spot discounts and more favorable terms for financing on their next car purchase. The exact terms of the deal are still unclear, but apparently some driver's have already taken Uber up on the offer. The piece highlights one driver, Alexandre Sandor, who purchased a new Cadillac XTS and received both a $7,500 rebate and low-interest financing through the program.
It's part of Uber's larger push to get more drivers on the road. CEO Travis Kalanick says he wants to add more than 200,000 new vehicles to the fleet over the next two years. The program could also give Uber a much-needed political boost, as it faces crucial legal challenges in Los Angeles and Washington, DC, along with sluggish numbers in the crucial New York market.
An interesting take on how the Beer-Check-In apps change the other behaviors around social drinking.
1) The time it takes to check-in and the impact that has on conversation
2) The usage of the app to check-in beers during festivals and provide a quick rating
3) The braggadocious attitude that the app encourages via social media
On point 1: I partially agree. Many apps take too long. But I don't see that it impacts the conversation if you are talking about the beer. When I drink top-tier beer with my friends that also enjoy similar tastes, we talk about what we are drinking. Rating the beer is just another aspect of the experience. Rating a beer if you are not with other beer snobs is just boring. Don't do that.
On point 2: This is the point of the festival. It's up to you to decide if the tasting was sufficient. The app just gives you better recall later. Also of note: the last beer you drink at a festival is likely going to be rated higher than the first. Alcohol is funny that way.
On point 3: Pick better friends. I really only share my beer preferences with people I like. If they are acting like a dick on Untappd, then they are not someone I would follow. Oddly, choosing "friends" on social networks is very similar to choosing friends in meatspace. You don't have to be friends with dicks.
The missing point 4: I'm very skittish about sharing my beer check-ins publicly. Sharing drinking habits among friends is not a problem. But I wouldn't share what I drink with my insurance company. Before Glassboard died, that's how I shared what I liked with friends. Now, I use DM's with very select people. The data is still on a server somewhere but it's out of context and much more difficult to extract meaning out of. Among people I know, I am in the extreme minority.
Launched in 2005 Google Maps has been providing, well, maps to the world and has evolved into one of the most robust and helpful online thingies ever. Since 2007 Google Maps has provided the option for Street View, a ground-level, real-life, 360-degree view of streets where you are aided by a little yellow man to find your orientation (geographically speaking, that is). That little yellow man has a name: Pegman. In May, Google introduced a new version of its map application going from "Classic maps" to "new Google maps" and took the opportunity to redesign Pegman with the help of B-Reel. (A few additional details and images can be found at Matt Delbridge's Behance project page).
This redesign provided an opportunity to align Pegman more closely with current Google aesthetics. In considering Pegman's role as an ambassador for the brand, it was important that he appeared strong as an icon, while, at the same time, not losing his personability or his most identifiable characteristics. For example, the telltale triangle on his chest has remained, but by adjusting his proportions, we hoped to improve his readability at small sizes within the product.
Pegman detail.Rotation samples.Pegman in Google Maps. Four of the 200+ costumes. See all here.New Pegman introduction.Family portrait.
It goes without saying that this is far from our typical reviews but still a before-and-after is a before-and-after and this fits most of the talking points of any logo and identity. Both Pegmen have their merits and I don't think one is necessarily better than the other. The old one was less human and more like a Monopoly token, which made for a nice metaphor of placing it on the board of, like, Earth. But it felt a little robotic and impersonal. The new one is more like someone you would want to have a beer with. It's more human and relatable and obviously has an advantage in gaining popularity by its myriad costumes. Accessories aside though, the new Pegman does feel more usable and helpful within Google Maps with a much clearer sense of direction and volume. His head probably needs a bit of shading to help it become part of the body but other than that he seems like a great travel companion.
(Florida Congressman Trey Radel and) rising Tea Party star was caught in a coke bust. Apparently he forgot the part of the Tea Party story where you dump the product in the harbor before the cops show up.
Personally, I hated to lose a Congressman who was so fiscally conservative that I’m sure he snorted his blow through a one dollar bill. And so committed to family values, folks, that he actually voted to drug test people who received food stamps. He’s not a hypocrite, because he doesn’t get food stamps from the government.
Just his paycheck.
”
- STEPHEN COLBERT, The Colbert Report (via inothernews)
The classic 1989 film Road House, which featured Patrick Swayze as a legendary bouncer called in to clean up a notorious Missouri club with his fists, is getting a remake. The Hollywood Reporter says that MGM has assigned Rob Cohen, director of the original The Fast and the Furious, to direct. Road House was a big hit for Swayze, who plays a vigilante "cooler" called in to clean up the riotous Double Deuce in Jasper, MO. His character soon runs afoul of a corrupt local businessman, leading to many people being punched in the face.
A script has been written, but there's no word on casting or an estimated release date. While we wait, here are 11 minutes of fights from the original (viewer discretion advised).
Wes Welker decided not to catch the ball, and that was the best thing that happened to the Patriots all night.
Wes Welker didn't catch the ball, but this time he did it by choice.
With the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos tied at 31 and heading toward a tie at the end of overtime, a Patriots punt flew in Welker's direction inside the 20-yard line. At the last second, the former Patriot, who dropped a key pass in the team's last Super Bowl, decided not to catch the punt.
It was too late.
The ball bounced and hit Broncos special teamer Tony Carter, and the live ball was picked up by the Patriots. New England set up the field goal, and Stephen Gostskowski knocked through the 32-yard field goal on third down, giving the Patriots a dramatic 34-31 win over the Denver Broncos in Week 12 on Sunday Night Football.
Throughout the night, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady couldn't stop screaming.
Things looked bleak for the Patriots in the first half. New England lost fumbles on its first two drive. Both turnovers resulted in Broncos touchdowns. Von Miller returned the first fumble for a touchdown.
A third lost fumble in the half prevented the Patriots from getting into any rhythm on offense. A game that was supposed to be a showdown between Brady and Peyton Manning was quickly becoming a blowout in which neither quarterback was making an impact.
With under two minutes to play in the first half, Tom Brady was screaming. Down 24-0, the Patriots' quarterback had thrown another incomplete pass. His timing was just off. He was frustrated.
Everything changed in the second half. Brady opened the half with a touchdown to Julian Edelman. Manning, meanwhile, couldn't get anything going. Constantly adjusting the glove on his throwing hand and feeling uncomfortable in the pocket, Manning struggled for most of the second half, opening the door for Brady and company to creep back into the game.
In the fourth quarter, Brady was screaming again, but this time it was because he had just completed a touchdown to Rob Gronkowski. The touchdown drew the Patriots within three points and was part of the 28 unanswered points New England scored in the second half.
The fans who fought through the bitter cold at Gillette Stadium were treated to a vintage Brady comeback. After the touchdown to Gronkowski to pull the Patriots within three, Brady connected with Edelman again on the opening drive of the fourth quarter. The touchdown gave the Patriots their first lead of the game and had Brady screaming again. This time, he had company.
Manning didn't go down lightly, though. Down by seven late in the fourth quarter, Manning methodically led the Broncos down the field for a touchdown, his second of the game. Ultimately, he was out-dueled by Brady. Manning completed just over 50-percent of his passes for 150 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Brady, meanwhile, had 344 yards and three touchdowns.
The Patriots needed overtime to beat the Broncos, because of course. Tied 31-31, Patriots coach Bill Belichick opted to take the wind rather than receive the opening kick of overtime. The decision didn't backfire. A third-down Peyton Manning pass fluttered through the air, died in the wind and killed the Broncos' first drive of the extra frame. Brady was left screaming over a missed pass interference call later in overtime as the clock ticked down toward zero.
With a tie looking like a possibility, the Patriots punted the ball a final time, and Welker made the decision that cost Denver the game. Brock Osweiler did make a valiant attempt at blocking Gostkowski's winning kick, for what it's worth.
The biggest comeback in franchise history moves the Patriots to within one game of the top seed in the AFC with an 8-3 record. The Broncos fall to 9-2 with the loss.
Fantasy studs and duds
Tom Brady was a fantasy stud, maybe more so than he has been all season. He threw for more than 300 yards and three touchdowns. The Broncos' biggest fantasy star was running back Knowshon Moreno, who had more than 200 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Injury report
Broncos defensive tackle Kevin Vickerson left the game with a hip injury. Cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie also left the game for the Broncos. He injured his shoulder on a Brady Hail Mary at the end of the first half.
Did they cover?
The Broncos entered the game as 2.5-point favorites, according to OddsShark. They did not cover the spread.
The color of the Aurora depends on the altitude and the atom being struck by solar radiation (causing excitation). At higher altitudes, there is more Atomic Oxygen than Nitrogen, leading to the common color stratifications you see.
500-200 km altitude — Atomic Oxygen — Red 200-100 km — Atomic Oxygen — Greenish-Yellow — Ionized Nitrogen — Blue/Purple 100-80 km — Nitrogen (N2) — Crimson
Oxygen only emits red at higher altitudes because once it’s excited, it takes a longer time to emit red than it does green. Why is that important? Well, at lower altitudes there is more Nitrogen for the Oxygen to bump into and absorb that excitation-energy before it gets a chance to emit red light. In this case, where the collision occurs, the Oxygen will emit Green and at low enough altitudes the Nitrogen-Oxygen collisions eventually prevent Oxygen from emitting any light at all.
During stronger storms, high energy solar particles will reach lower in the atmosphere and cause the Crimson emission from Nitrogen, creating a deep-red band at the lower edge of the aurora. Other elements emit light too, like Hydrogen (Blue) or Helium (Purple) which are at higher altitudes.
You are looking at medieval parchment - animal skin - that was stabbed, cut and stitched up. Preparing animal skin, the first step in producing a medieval book, was challenging. The parchment maker had to scrape off the fleshy bits from the one side, and the hair from the other... If the parchment maker pushed too hard while removing the unwanted parts, he would cut right through the surface, which is what happened in the images above. While some cuts were simply stitched up with a thin parchment cord, it also happened that book producers turned these defects into art. I tumbled these images from a manuscript in Uppsala a while ago, in which holes are plugged with embroidery... In the last image the material was used to attach a missing corner, producing what I tend to call a “Frankenstein page”.
From Erik Kwakkel's incomparable blog about medieval books; there are two additional images of repaired pages at the link.
(tumblr really fought me on uploading this one so I had to cut down on the length a TON to get it to upload. Hopefully it still looks good enough. Enjoy!)
Maybe your significant other won’t let you turn the living room into the bridge of the Enterprise, but just one little room won’t hurt, right? Transform your bathroom into the transporter room from Star Trek: The Original Series with this bath set. We provide the transporter room background on the shower curtain and the platform in the rug. You provide the water to make it look like you’re dematerializing and the sound effects.
hodad
