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Amanda Bynes' Meltdown Linked to Teen Unemployment in Billboard
Stanley Nails New Look
firehoselooks nice but the first thing I thought of when I saw it was DeWalt
Established in 1857, Stanley is a well-known and popular product line of hand tools, power tools, and stuff-making accessories for consumer and industrial use. In 2010, Stanley and Black & Decker merged to form, well, Stanley Black & Decker and since then the Stanley brand has grown beyond tools into new industries like security, healthcare, infrastructure, and oilfield services. Looking to communicate the breadth of its offering and establish a unified brand, Stanley introduced last week a new logo and identity designed by Lippincott.
Sample of old look. Not designed by Lippincott.
Conversations with Stanley employees and customers around the world reinforced our belief that the brand positioning and its subsequent visual identity must signal the evolution of an agile, unified brand whose business units were connected by a single concept. This cohesion was achieved with "Performance in action," the new brand essence that focuses on the excellence that is inherent in every Stanley product, employee, and business. This vital new direction was communicated through the new positioning, tagline, brand architecture, and comprehensive messaging guidelines.
— Lippincott case study
The new visual identity is grounded in Stanley's rich heritage while simultaneously signaling the brand's new direction. The new logo is more dynamic; it frees the Stanley name from its holding shape, yet maintains the "notch" concept with an angular cut to the letter 'N' in the center of the word. The resulting shape is an upward arrow-like triangle that speaks directly to this concept of "action." Finally, the logo maintains the signature Stanley yellow and black palette that is universally synonymous with the brand.
— Lippincott case study
As ugly as the old logo was with that clunky holding shape, it got the job done — it looked tough, rugged, and no non-sense — but it definitely felt old and tired and with the evolution of the look of the products themselves these deserved a more contemporary logo. The new wordmark is a simple and handsome sans serif that doesn't try do more than it's supposed to. It's about the tools (a lot of tools), not about the tricks the logo or the identity can do. Its one trick, the barely customized "N", is more than enough to establish a single unique trait about the wordmark to make it memorable and recognizable although, really, all Stanley (and Lippincott) had to do was keep the yellow and black color palette to continue the evolution of this brand. The new logo looks great on the product — freed from its holding shape — and the packaging looks fresh and bold, with the angle of the "N"'s slice being reinforced whenever possible. This project didn't need a whizbangpow revolution, just a really good dusting to keep working for the next dozens of years. And that axe? Come to papa.
Thanks to Brian Ramage for the tip.
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Darth Pro, Powerful Mashup of Darth Vader & Apple’s Upcoming Mac Pro Desktop Computer
firehose"This takes the Force Quit command to a whole new level."
Berlin, Germany-based artist Hilmar Stehr (aka “Okarola”) of No Cats On The Blog has created “Darth Pro,” a powerful mashup of Star Wars’ ruthless Sith Lord Darth Vader and the newly announced Mac Pro desktop computer from Apple. This takes the Force Quit command to a whole new level.
via Nerdcore
Death of Trees Correlated With Human Cardiovascular & Respiratory Disease
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Exclusive Look at Kate Beaton's Illustrations for a Brand New YA Novel
Meet Mia Kish, the hero of The Well's End, a brand new young-adult novel from debut author Seth Fishman which comes out next February. We've got the exclusive cover reveal, plus one more illustration by Hark! A Vagrant creator Kate Beaton that shows the whole cast.
    
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Film: Newswire: Warner Bros. shuts down its Dumb And Dumber sequel project after monitoring millions of citizens' Dumb And Dumber references
Presumably after being revealed to have helped the NSA track and monitor millions of Americans typing “So you’re telling me there’s a chance?” into the Internet, thus creating a “reference pattern” that can identify potential sleeper cells of hilarious people, Warner Bros. has quickly moved to shut down its Dumb And Dumber To program. The initiative undertaken in 2011—ostensibly to protect the nation from the threat of more serious Jim Carrey movies in the wake of The Number 23 (Never Forget)—has been the subject of numerous misinformation campaigns since involving Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels’ participation. This created a confusing timeline that it now seems was intended all along to lure the nation into sharing their most personal Dumb And Dumber quotes.
With the whistle blown, Warner Bros. has officially severed all ties with the project, leaving directors Bobby and Peter Farrelly to shop it to ...
Read more
Quite possibly the creepiest fashion statement ever made
Do you spend all day spying and "rendering" people for cash? Then you might want to consider sporting an item from this amazing new Blue Force Gear tie collection, made from "tactical nylon" — so perhaps they can double as an on-the-fly garrote?
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Testing the Virtuix Omni: a walk on the virtual side
firehose"I couldn’t run backwards, or sideways ... It was explained to me later that the only method of turning my character was by turning my head with the Oculus. My walking had nothing to do with it."
well fuck that then
I’ve tried many attempts at VR locomotion, including a hamster cage and a bizarre contraption involving several bungie cords. Omni’s method is simpler. You walk in place on a solid object, and that motion is translated to in-game movement.
But right now, Omni isn’t Omni yet. It’s just a wooden prototype. The shipping product will have accelerometers and magnets in clip-ons for any shoe, which will track each step individually, in multiple directions. For now, Omni’s shoes and platform are "dumb," and instead a Kinect tracks your steps. All this hardware, all this technology, all this beautiful experimentation, results in one thing: you’re simulating the press of a "W" button to walk forward. If you swipe your feet speedily across the Omni surface, the Kinect software detects your flailing and holds the "shift" button in addition to the "W" button, and you can sprint across the game world. You can’t go backwards, you can’t turn, you can’t crouch… you’re basically just the world’s most convoluted "W" button. The Virtuix guys tested the setup by simply opening a Notepad and typing.
Omni’s current demo of choice is the Half-Life 2 beta that’s been configured to work with the Oculus VR goggles. When the level was loaded, I squinted through the low-res display and swung my head around to test its responsiveness. The motion of the plastic gun in my hand wasn’t reflected in the game world: the only way I could aim was by tilting my head. That frustrated me. And now I was locked in a cage, in a diaper, with no way to proceed in-game other than tricking a Kinect sensor into pressing the W key.
I was locked in a cage, in a diaper
But I quickly forgot about those Ws. Instead, I just started walking. This particular Omni was configured for someone shorter than me, so I had to slump down a bit for my diaper to get support from the ring. Sometimes I felt really stupid, like my legs were all wrong, but then my character would start to move, I would start to "get" it, and then the bad guys invaded and I shot them and they died. And then I got stuck on a corner, or out in the open, or hovering above a grenade, and I died.
Like many people, I’ve found the Oculus Rift is best experienced in slow, combat-free ways. It’s about exploration and discovery. Finally, you can stand and look at your surroundings with your natural head movements, fueled by your natural curiosity. But there was no time for any of that. The bad guys were coming, and I was on an Omni, and so I ran.
Even though Virtuix warned me it was a typical response, the first time a grenade was chucked at my feet I booked it. But I couldn’t run backwards, or sideways, so I didn’t get far away from the grenade before it detonated. The fear of a grenade at your feet is somehow primal. Because you can’t see your body while using the Oculus, but you’re using your body because of the Omni, it’s like you’re floating in a murky lake. Then you’re gripped with the sudden fear that Something's In the Water, and it’s probably a piranha.
I constantly got hung up on sharp corners. I’d bump into an object and get stuck, unable to sidestep it. It was explained to me later that the only method of turning my character was by turning my head with the Oculus. My walking had nothing to do with it. I mean, I knew that, but my body didn’t know that. In fact, I don’t know if my body could ever learn that. VR has a weird learning curve: the more it’s like real life, the more difficult it is to operate the aspects that aren’t.
The more it’s like real life, the more difficult it is to operate the aspects that aren’t
After a while, the Virtuix guys decided, because of my height, I should try to use the Omni without the harness. Despite the more natural posture it was much more difficult, as I braced myself with one hand and held my gun in the other. With so much concentration spent just trying to walk forward, I didn’t mind so much that my neck was the cursor. In fact, it was a bit of a relief.
The real test will be when Omni is in more than its current hacky incarnation. Virtuix hopes to ship the device in early 2014, and is currently gearing up its final design for manufacture. The device will be rapidly adjustable, collapsible, smaller, vastly more responsive (allowing the ability to turn, strafe, do analog speed control, and maybe even perform backwards locomotion), and surprisingly cheap: retail versions should go for somewhere between $499 and $599, and early Kickstarter backers will get one for much cheaper. Add in an Oculus Rift and a fake gun and you’re still probably under $1,000 for the whole setup. This is revolutionary for VR. It’ll be even more revolutionary if it really works; if it’s more than a W key.
At one point I spoke out loud about what was happening in the game, and received no response in the room, IRL. I spoke again, nothing. I felt like if nobody spoke the third time, I could be stuck forever in the game world. And then my buddy Trent yelled off to the right: "Save me! I’m over here!" I know Trent’s voice, I know he’s not a Half-Life character. I smiled. But I still ran toward him in the game. I could’ve sworn I’d find a ghost of him behind the tanker car. The worst part of virtual reality, and I had never considered this before that moment, might be being the only human in a 3D land.
Music: Newswire: Neko Case announces new record due out Sept. 3, just three days before she plays A.V. Fest
Neko Case has officially announced her first new album in four years. The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You is due out Sept. 3—just three days before Case performs at A.V. Fest—and is billed as the singer’s “most precise, urgent record to date.” That shift is evident in the first single off the record, “Man,” which is streaming below and comes accompanied by a totally bitchin’ press photo of Case all gussied up in a mustache and cowboy duds. “Man” features guest guitar work from M. Ward, and a number of other artists show up on The Worse Things Get, including members of the New Pornographers, My Morning Jacket, Calexico, and Los Lobos.
In addition to her A.V. Fest appearance (tickets on sale now!), Case also has a number of other North American dates on ...
Read moreTV: Great Job, Internet!: Learn to dress like Jackie Harris with Hipsters Who Dress Like Jackie From Roseanne
Over the nine-season run of Roseanne, Jackie Harris assumed many different roles, but thanks to a new Tumblr we now have Jackie Harris: Style Icon. Hipsters Who Dress Like Jackie From Roseanne matches photos of Jackie’s costumes from the show with posed pictures that approximate those outfits. The best is the chicken-egg shirt, an honest-to-goodness real product available on the Internet, though not in the oversized, loose-fitting version Laurie Metcalf wore on the show. One can only assume that a collection of Hipsters Eating Loose Meat Sandwiches is not far behind.
Mini Sugar Skulls That Double as Sugar Cubes
Back in 2011 artist Snow Violent created these finely detailed miniature sugar skulls that double as sugar cubes for coffee.
via CRNCHY, IanBrooks.me, My Modern Metropolis
photos by Olesya Turchuk
2013 Open Hardware Summit at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The 2013 Open Hardware Summit will take place on September 6, 2013 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The annual conference is organized by the Open Source Hardware Association, and features speakers and panel discussions centered on the topic of the Open Source movement. Tickets for the event are currently available to purchase from the Open Hardware Summit website.
Speakers include world renowned leaders from industry, academia, and the maker community. Talks cover a wide range of subjects from electronics and mechanics to related fields such as digital fabrication, fashion technology, self-quantification devices, and DIY bio. Discussions and panels focus on, but are not limited to, education, manufacturing, design, business, and law. As a microcosm of the Open Source Hardware community, the Summit provides a friendly forum for discussion desire to be as inclusive as possible.
image via Open Hardware Summit
TV: Great Job, Internet!: The inevitable Game Of Thrones/Lonely Island "Dick In A Box" mash-up is here
While not as catastrophic as The Red Wedding, the unenviable plight of Theon Greyjoy was uncomfortable to watch this season on Game Of Thrones. Theon was on the receiving end of brutal torture at the hand of a mysterious captor, who turned out to be the sadistic bastard son of Roose Bolton. Starved, beaten, and degraded, the once-lecherous Theon suffers somewhat the same fate as Jamie Lannister, losing his most prized appendage, though not one that would carry a sword. So after Ramsay Snow sends that piece of Theon to Balon and Asha—characters barely seen at all this season—it was inevitable that the literal dick in a box get the “Dick In A Box” treatment. The quick mash-up matches creepy Theon groping the girl he doesn’t know is his sister with relentlessly tortured Theon and the delicately wrapped wooden box. Considering the plot didn't add up ...
Read morewholockian221b: sammyshadenoughnow: benaddiction-cumberbitch: ...
wooooooooooooooooooooooow
whoaaaaaaa
HOLY FUCK
ITS LIKE
REAL LIFE ANIMATION
this choreography
this
everything
somebody make words
proper commentary i cannot
uhh?
WOW
I believe these guys were on Americans Got Talent!
THIS.
VIDEO.
OH. MY GOD.
MOTHER. OF. GOD.
That’s the next logical evolution of the black box trick with electronic lights in clothing. Very sophiscatedly done in this vid.
China launches three astronauts to its prototype space station
Third-Party Publishers Will Have Final Say On Used Games for PS4 [Update]
firehosesame as it ever was
![Third-Party Publishers Will Have Final Say On Used Games for PS4 [Update]](http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18qig6ggqpsh3jpg/ku-xlarge.jpg)
In an interview with Game Trailers’ Geoff Keighley, Sony CEO Jack Tretton shed more light on how used games will work on the PlayStation 4. It seems that, while the system’s first-party games will be free to trade in or share without restriction, third-party publishers can choose to behave otherwise.
Tretton’s remarks start at about 1:08:00 in this segment:
“If the consumer pays x amount of dollars for a game and they don’t have the flexibility to get some additional value out of it, it changes the way the perceive the value of the game and it takes dollars out of their pocket to buy a new game... We just want to give the consumer flexibility.”
Asked what Sony’s response would be if publishers wanted to restrict used games sales, Tretton replied:
“We create the platform. We’ve certainly stated with our first party games, we’re not going to be doing that. But we welcome publishers and their business models to our platforms. There’s going to be free-to-play; there’s going to be every potential business model on there and again that’s up to their relationship with the consumer and what they think is going to put them in the best stead. So we’re not going to dictate that. We’re going to give them a platform to publish on."
On DRM:
"The DRM decision is going to have to be in the hands of the third parties. That’s not something that we’re going to dictate or mandate or control or implement."
Tretton also said that a PlayStation Plus membership will be a mandatory purchase if you want to play multiplayer for PS4.
Update: We contacted Sony to clarifying Tretton's statements, which we were told might have been misunderstood. We were given the following response, which stresses online multiplayer on third-party used games:
The Online Pass program for PlayStation first-party games will not continue on PlayStation 4. Similar to PS3, we will not dictate the online used game strategy (the ability to play used games online) of its publishing partners. As announced last night, PS4 will not have any gating restrictions for used disc-based games. When a gamer buys a PS4 disc they have right to use that copy of the game, so they can trade-in the game at retail, sell it to another person, lend it to a friend, or keep it forever.
While the statement verifies that third-party publishers will have a choice to continue using online passes or charge a fee for online multiplayer, it doesn't shut the door on other avenues of used game restriction. The PlayStation 4 "will not have any gating restrictions" means there is nothing built into the hardware to restrict used games running on the system. That doesn't restrict third-party publishers from implementing their own methods.
We've reached out to Sony for a definitive statement, and shall update when we have it.
Update 2: Upon a request for further clarification, Sony responded with the following:
“Our used game position for PS4 is exactly the same as PS3, which publishers and consumers broadly support today. In fact, all publishers we’ve spoken to are in agreement with our position.”
That's probably as specific as it's going to get at this time.
To contact the author of this post, write to evan@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @EvNarc
Crowdfunded court stenographers must be admitted to Manning trial, judge rules
After being initially denied admittance, court stenographers hired through a crowdfunding campaign to transcribe the trial of whistleblower Pfc. Bradley Manning must be given permanent access to the courtroom, judge Colonel Denise Lind has ruled.
Since the military court does not provide any public record of the proceedings and no electronics are allowed in the courtroom, the Freedom of the Press Foundation has set up a fundraising campaign to hire two stenographers to create a public transcript of the historic trial, which began last week. Of the 350 media organizations who applied for press credentials, only 80 were given access and only 10 allowed into the courtroom due to fire code restrictions. But because the court did not specifically say that stenographers were allowed, the stenographers were denied access until media organizations including The Verge, Forbes, and The Guardian offered up their own press passes.
"We believe that this enforces PFC Manning's Sixth Amendment right to a public trial."
Now the judge has ruled that the government must admit the stenographers for the duration of the trial, saying the court "has ordered the government to arrive at some kind of accommodation," according to the unofficial transcript. "We believe that this enforces Pfc. Manning's Sixth Amendment right to a public trial and also impacts on a First Amendment right for the press to accurately keep track of what happens in the court-martial," said Manning's lawyer, David Coombs.
It's a big win for those urging greater transparency of the trial, which ironically concerns the leak of confidential government documents to the whistle-blowing organization WikiLeaks motivated in part by a lack of government transparency. However, the court also warned that admittance "can always be reconsidered should there be a violation of the rules of court with respect to audio broadcasting or visual broadcasting," as occurred with the leaked audio recording of Manning's statement during a pre-trial hearing.
- Via Freedom of the Press Foundation
- Source Kevin Gosztola
- Related Items wikileaks bradley manning freedom of the press foundation denise lind stenography
Feedly officially leaves Google Reader behind, transitions to own servers with three weeks to spare
firehosegrave's dug, headstone's carved
With only two weeks remaining before Google Reader disappears for good, Feedly has completed its transition away from the dying service and onto its own backend cloud. Feedly has been among a host of third-party Reader clients searching for a new way to handle their users RSS feeds, which have long been loaded and synced over Google's servers. Now that Feedly is officially supported by its own backend, the service can continue to work after Reader shuts down on July 1st, and give users what should be a seamless transition away from Google.
A number of different companies have committed to building a Reader alternative, and with today's transition, Feedly is among the first out of the gate — and it's the most promising option so far. In large part, that's due to just how easy Feedly has made it for third-party clients to integrate with its new cloud. It already announced that a slew of major RSS clients would be supporting it by the end of June — so if you're not a fan of Feedly's own apps, there'll be more than few alternatives to try out.
- Source Feedly (iTunes)
- Related Items feedly rss google reader api app
Extended Metal Gear Solid 5 trailer adds scenes of brutal torture
firehosegreat
A new extended version of the Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain trailer is significantly more brutal than the edition shown at Microsoft's E3 press event.
The first three or so minutes of the "Red Band" trailer are entirely new, and contain several scenes of graphic torture and violence. A woman, later in the trailer revealed to be the voiceless sniper Quiet, is tied to a chair and shocked with electric prods. A prisoner is beaten and drowned by pouring water over the bag on his head before being executed, and a young boy is held down as a package is cut out of his stomach and handed to protagonist Punished Snake. Another prisoner with a similar black bag over his head is awoken via a bucket of water thrown by longtime series nemesis Revolver Ocelot.
The new content also shows a man instructing child soldiers how to fire an assault rifle, and narration that reinforces the characters' motivations: not love or honor, but revenge.
The rest of the trailer is identical to the version shown yesterday, featuring both a gameplay demo that highlights MGS5's new open world and a story trailer introducing the major players like Ocelot and Emmerich, who is presumably the father of Solid Snake's companion Hal "Otacon" Emmerich. Emmerich's clothing resembles that of the man woken by Ocelot earlier in the trailer.
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain will be coming to PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One sometime in 2014.
friendlycloud: agewa: “We went to Kineshma, that’s in Ivanovo...
“We went to Kineshma, that’s in Ivanovo region, to visit his parents. I went as a heroine and I never expected someone to welcome me, a front-line girl, like that. We’ve gone through so much, we’ve saved lives, lifes of mothers, wives. And then… I heard accusations, I was bad-mouthed. Before that I’ve only ever been “dear sister”… We had tea and my husband’s mother took him aside and started crying: “Who did you marry? A front-line girl… You have two younger sisters. Who’s going to marry them now?” When I think back to that moment I feel tears welling up. Imagine: I had a record, I loved it a lot. There was a song, it said: you have the right to wear the best shoes. That was about a front-line girl. I had it playing, and [his?] elder sister came up and broke it apart, saying: you have no rights. They destroyed all my photos from the war… We, front-line girls, went through so much during hte war… and then we had another war. Another terrible war. The men left us, they didn’t cover our backs. Not like at the front.” from С.Алексеевич “У войны не женское лицо”
In Soviet Union women participating in WWII were erased from history, remaining as the occasional anecdote of a female sniper or simply as medical staff or, at best, radio specialists. The word “front-line girl” (frontovichka) became a terrible insult, synonimous to “whore”. Hundreds thousand of girls who went to war to protect their homeland with their very lives, who came back injured or disabled, with medals for valor, had to hide it to protect themselves from public scorn.
This has always happened in history: Women do something important. Then they get shamed for it (so nobody will talk about it) and it gets erased from history.
And then certain men will say: “Women suck, they’ve never done anything important.”
Look into history and learn that women have played a far greater role then douches (present and past) wanted you to know.
Wii Fit Trainer will battle the bulge in Super Smash Bros.
firehosego home Nintendo you're drunk
This follows this morning's announcement of new characters The Villager from Animal Crossing and Mega Man.
Wii Fit Trainer will battle the bulge in Super Smash Bros. originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 11 Jun 2013 14:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Let These New Thief Screens Steal Your Attention
firehoseyear of the bow
So far, all we've seen of the upcoming Thief game during E3 is an impressive but gameplay-free cinematic trailer. These new screens are helpful, then, in terms of figuring out what all that skulking and theft is going to look like.
Weekly update: Jun 10-16
firehose"API is being cooked, and it is getting there. It is about 70% done, and I can already have first The Old Reader in-app experience (basic and painful, but still!). We really hope we can completely finish it in July, and it remains our top priority. I already have a mailing list for developers (thank you for your input on REST vs Google Reader API) and everyone else who expressed their interest in this topic, so the moment it’s ready we’ll spread the news as much as we can."
Then and now
Our first public beta was released on June 13 a year ago. It had an ugly icon and default Bootstrap theme, but it was ok. At least, our friends said so. Looking back, I can’t believe what we have actually achieved in a year, and I absolutely can’t believe the amount of things that need to be done. The scale of things is also kind of scary.
One of our users suggested that we update our blog more often, another one posted the picture below, so we decided to write more regular updates of what we are up to. And even though The Old Reader is our free time project, we usually spend time on it every day.
Google Reader is due to be closed in less than a month, and our team can feel things heating up: new web-based RSS readers seem to be launching every week; we got some new code contributors aboard; and we started getting more and more questions about API and mobile apps.
Well, API is being cooked, and it is getting there. It is about 70% done, and I can already have first The Old Reader in-app experience (basic and painful, but still!). We really hope we can completely finish it in July, and it remains our top priority. I already have a mailing list for developers (thank you for your input on REST vs Google Reader API) and everyone else who expressed their interest in this topic, so the moment it’s ready we’ll spread the news as much as we can.
Besides working in API, we’ve been quite busy with other stuff during last couple of months: improved our feed refresh intervals significantly, fixed a number of nasty bugs that duplicated user posts in some cases, improved monitoring, and answered what feels like several thousands of emails, forum messages, and tweets.
We have also recently enjoyed crossing another milestone in user count – 218 – and sorted some legal issues that seemed actually more difficult than all our technical challenges combined.
We also launched several new servers so that we could fit new users, and our hosting cost increased even more. So we will kindly remind you of that Flattr button (hopefully it won’t be there for too long).
Next planned post will be about our future plans, making The Old Reader sustainable, and probably some announcements.
(image from our Trending section which never fails to amuse)
E3 audience offended by "rape joke" at Microsoft Xbox One event - CBS News
firehosevia Russian Sledges, today's "Xbone is creepy" share
#gamerculture
Video of the Day: Abusive Dunkin’ Donut Customer Flips the F**k Out
firehosevia saucie
never go to Florida (or Dunks)
