Convos With My 2 Year Old is a funny new web series from Warmland Films and father Matthew Clarke about real conversations that he has with his 2 year old daughter (Coco), as reenacted by himself and another grown man. In episode 1, the little girl’s innocent words become quite intimidating, when spoken by a scruffy-looking adult male.
video via ConvosWith2YrOld
For his company Halloween party, Utah-based blogger Damon McNeil of Because It Amuses Me had trouble choosing which Marvel superhero to dress up as from The Avengers. The solution? Dress up as all of them!
photos via Because It Amuses Me
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Google (GOOG) Could Soon Face New Antitrust Probe Over Display Ads, Report
Wall Street Pit Google (GOOG) could face a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission [FTC] into its web-display ad business, a source told Reuters on Thursday. The source said that the new inquiry, which comes on the heels of the FTC's decision to close ... FTC Begins Probe of Google's Display-Ad BusinessWall Street Journal Google set for fresh US antitrust probe over ad salesV3.co.uk Google faces new federal antitrust probeTimes LIVE ZDNet -Blouin News Blogs -TechCrunch all 35 news articles » |
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US ITC refuses to ban Microsoft's Xbox at Google's request
PCWorld The U.S. International Trade Commission has turned down a request for a ban on Microsoft's Xbox after finding that the gaming device did not infringe a patent owned by Google's Motorola Mobility unit. The ITC's ruling Thursday has essentially confirmed an ... and more » |
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Microsoft created confusion over its Xbox One online requirement this week, but fresh details are emerging that offer an insight into why the next-generation console needs an internet connection. Microsoft is increasing its number of Xbox Live servers to 300,000, up from only 500 at launch and 15,000 today. The servers will help power a lot of the new Xbox dashboard features, but they'll also be a core part of Microsoft's cloud gaming plans.
The software giant didn't discuss these plans in detail during the Xbox One unveiling earlier this week, but an Ars Technica interview with General Manager of Redmond Game Studios and Platforms Matt Booty sheds some light on the 300,000-server cloud architecture. Part of the server setup will be used to compute scenes in games. Booty explains that Microsoft is targeting areas that aren't sensitive to latency, a common complaint around cloud-powered games. "There are some things in a video game world, though, that don't necessarily need to be updated every frame or don't change that much in reaction to what's going on."
Latency-sensitive cloud gaming
Part of the cloud processing could be focused on elements such as lighting in games. Booty describes a forest scene where light shines through trees, or a battlefield with fog. Both elements don't need to be updated in real time and can be processed in the background, while the controller remains responsive to the action parts of the game. "Those are perfect candidates for the console to offload that to the cloud—the cloud can do the heavy lifting, because you’ve got the ability to throw multiple devices at the problem in the cloud."
The processing highlights why Microsoft is aiming to keep its Xbox One online as much as possible, a requirement that has still not been fully explained. Microsoft's Phil Harrison suggested the console will need to be online at least once a day, something Microsoft later denied as a potential scenario that is still being worked on. Explaining the online requirement, Booty notes that Microsoft is going to capitalize on fast connections and the cloud. "In the event of a drop out—and we all know that Internet can occasionally drop out, and I do say occasionally because these days it seems we depend on Internet as much as we depend on electricity—the game is going to have to intelligently handle that."
Still a lot to prove and show, but cloud is the future
It's not clear exactly how this cloud gaming works, and whether publishers will need to make a lot of changes to their games to support it. Microsoft has not yet demonstrated any games that take advantage of its cloud processing or the benefit to players, so it's entirely possible that it's a process that's effect won't immediately be felt.
The Xbox One doesn't appear to match the PlayStation 4 hardware in terms of raw power, with Microsoft choosing to focus on the broad strokes of entertainment and TV over gaming alone. Time will tell if developers target Sony's specifications, back porting or scaling back games to the Xbox One, or if the similarities between the consoles help keep the gaming stakes even. Microsoft is clearly betting on the long-term viability of cloud gaming, something that could theoretically make up for its lower specifications in time. Similarly, Sony is also working on PS4 cloud features as part of its recent purchase of Gaikai. The upcoming console war won't immediately be won thanks to the cloud, but it's a core part of how the next-generation will attempt to live on for years to come.
On the eve of the international release of Alex Gibney’s WikiLeaks documentary We Steal Secrets, the organization is blasting the film, leaking a complete, annotated transcript reporting dozens of factual errors and instances of "sleight of hand" from the Oscar-winning director. In the transcript, WikiLeaks points to, among other things, the use of a "crude gay caricature" to paint Bradley Manning’s decision to leak US military and diplomatic documents as "a failure of character, rather than a triumph of conscience."
It also paints as false a number of statements made by 'Guardian' journalist Nick Davies
Gibney’s narration in the film is criticized throughout, including an implication that Manning and Assange had communicated directly, the latter possibly being "persuaded" by WikiLeaks to leak classified information. The organization points out that the particular claim is contradicted in Manning’s plea statement, in which he states, "no one associated with the WLO pressured me into giving more information." It also paints as false a number of statements made by Guardian journalist Nick Davies, including his statement that WikiLeaks had no harm-minimization process, and an alleged Assange quote, refuted by journalist John Goetz, that an Afghan helping coalition forces "deserves to die."
The premiere of We Steal Secrets comes just days before Bradley Manning’s trial is set to begin for charges including aiding the enemy, which carries a potential death sentence — timing that WikiLeaks asserts is opportunistic. As we pointed out in our own review of the film, Gibney’s project is completely lacking the voices of any WikiLeaks supporters. For another look at the story, the organization suggests two other, upcoming films from Ken Loach and Laura Poitras.
PBS News -
Super Momotarou Dentetsu III (Make/Hudson - Super Famicom - 1994)
firehosemeanwhile, in Portland
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firehosein Jamaica Plain!
firehosegod fuck yes
Reminds me of this quote from former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi:
“If the Game Boy looks like a pizza, we will rise to heaven, but if it doesn’t, we will sink to hell.”
NewBanZo painted this slice (toppings also include an inverted red LED backlight, clear red buttons, and an internal prosound mod), and 8bit Aesthetics is selling it for $119.99.
[Update: Looks like Nyan Cat creator Chris Torres just bought it!]
BUY Game Boy games, upcoming releases
For the first time ever, planetary scientists have created a topographical map of Titan, the largest of Saturn's many moons, and the second-largest in the entire solar system. The map is a boon to researchers who study Titan, a mysterious moon that is arguably the most Earth-like body in our solar system – and it's beautiful, too.
    
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firehoseGizmo
DaveHax explains how to make a tiny bow and arrow using household items including a popsicle stick, dental floss, and a Q-tip. He also demonstrates how to make flaming arrows for the miniature bow.
via The Awesomer
firehose"Apple is far from the only big company booking these unrecognized tax benefits. Google reported $2.07 billion of them as of the end of March, including $1.89 billion that could alter the company’s effective tax rate, which was 7.9%. General Electric reported $5.58 billion, of which $4.19 billion could alter its effective tax rate (12.4% as of March 31)."
Apple was under scrutiny this week for allegedly dodging corporate income taxes on big chunks of its profits in recent years, much of it through controversial but perfectly legal maneuvers involving overseas subsidiaries.
But the company freely admits that it hopes to benefit from hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks that are probably too aggressive to pass muster with tax authorities. The figure has been rising in recent years, and now stands at $1.1 billion, up from $348 million just three years ago.
Technically, that’s just a subset of some $3.2 billion in so-called “gross unrecognized tax benefits” on Apple’s books. These amount to tax benefits—deductions, credits, etc.—that the company has claimed on its tax returns, but which it thinks have less than a 50% chance of surviving an audit. In other words, they’re aggressive tax positions that aren’t likely to succeed—but which the company is pursuing anyway.
Apple hadn’t responded to a request for comment before publication.
About two thirds of the $3.2 billion boils down to issues of timing—whether a tax break kicks in now or later, which doesn’t fundamentally alter the amount of tax the company pays in the long run, or its effective tax rate.
But the rest, totaling $1.1 billion as of March 30, are essentially permanent deductions or credits that “would affect the Company’s effective tax rate” if recognized, Apple says in its most recent quarterly report. Those are the tax breaks that matter, notes Jack Ciesielski, an accounting expert who testified at a previous Senate hearing on companies’ offshore tax-avoidance schemes and who publishes The Analyst’s Accounting Observer, a widely read service for securities analysts.
From a shareholder’s perspective, the accounting treatment for these aggressive maneuvers is conservative. Apple ignores them in calculating its effective tax rate, essentially assuming that they won’t pan out. Accounting rules let Apple book the tax benefits it claims on its returns only if there’s a good chance that a given benefit will survive an audit. (The rules assume everything is audited, which is a good bet with the biggest companies.)
“They go for the gusto, they go for the aggressive thing on the tax return,” Ciesielski told us, “but in the report to investors they say it’s more likely than not that they couldn’t take [the tax break].”
As a result, shareholders don’t lose out if Apple fails to capture the tax breaks, but do win out if it succeeds. If an audit fails to invalidate some of the tax breaks, the company’s effective tax rate would go down from its current level of about 26%. And that’s pretty likely, says Donna Bobek Schmitt, an associate professor specializing in tax at the University of Central Florida. She has had students track down Apple’s gross unrecognized tax benefits as part of a class exercise (pdf).
“They’re telling you that if they lost on all of them—which, by the way, no one ever does—it would have no effect on their tax expense,” Bobek Schmitt says. “But if they won on any of them, it would lower their tax rate.”
Like most companies, Apple doesn’t say which tax benefits it expects to flame out. Chances are good that many of them involve transfer pricing, Bobek Schmitt says—essentially, the fees that one Apple subsidiary charges another for services or the use of patents and other intellectual property, which is a common point of contention with tax authorities. (Bloomberg News has a more detailed look at various ways of measuring Apple’s tax bill.)
Apple is far from the only big company booking these unrecognized tax benefits. Google reported $2.07 billion of them as of the end of March, including $1.89 billion that could alter the company’s effective tax rate, which was 7.9%. General Electric reported $5.58 billion, of which $4.19 billion could alter its effective tax rate (12.4% as of March 31).
Last December, the NRA's Wayne LaPierre decided to blame Hollywood's "blood-soaked" gun "pornography" for gun violence. But now, the NRA has posted a list of great gun movies, and what they taught us. What important lesson about guns did we learn from The Terminator and Zombieland?
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Android: Google has updated its Drive mobile app with a cleaner, cards-style look and several awesome new features. Among them: the ability to download a copy of documents directly to your device and scan papers using OCR.
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Thanks to @fionamoseley!
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Android/iOS/OS X/Web: To-do service Producteev, one of your favorite group to-do management tools, unveiled a major overhaul to its webapp today that's aimed at making your personal to-dos easier to follow, and group projects easier to manage.
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