firehose

Nerval's Lobster writes "Google senior vice president Amit Singhal, one of the executives heading up the company's search-engine operations, sat down with Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist for Apple and author, at one of this year's SXSW keynotes in Austin, TX. 'Our dream is for search to become the "Star Trek" computer, and that's what we're building today,' Singhal said. But he seemed reluctant to share much about his company on a more tactical level, parrying Kawasaki's queries about everything from the amount of code in Google's search platform to recent cyber-attacks on the company's systems. But the two did have an interesting back-and-forth about SEO. 'We at Google have time and time again said—and seen it happen—that if you build high-quality content that adds value, and your readers and your users seek you out, then you don't need to worry about anything else,' Singhal said. 'If people want that content, your site will automatically work you could make a bunch of SEO mistakes and it wouldn't hurt.' When Kawasaki followed up by asking, 'Is SEO bull****?' Singhal replied: 'That would be like saying marketing is bull****.' That drew a laugh from the audience—and maybe some gritted teeth from people who position themselves as SEO experts. The two talked about much more with regard to Google's future plans."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ralph Baer, inventor of the first home console, is featured in the latest episode of the PBS Inventors series. Filmmaker and photographer David Friedman speaks with Baer about his creation, the Magnavox Odyssey, and why he continues to invent at the age of 90.

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

comparative rules of time travel

by Shana Siegel

“

Two artists sampled in Baauer’s Number One hit “Harlem Shake” are seeking compensation from the label that released the song, which has sparked an Internet dance craze over the past few weeks.

The New York Times reports that former reggaeton performer Hector Delgado and rapper Jayson Musson say Baauer used elements of their music without permission in “Harlem Shake,” which has spent three weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

The song opens with the voice of Delgado, now an evangelical preacher in Puerto Rico, saying, “Con los terroristas,” which was a refrain on his 2006 single “Maldades” and popped up occasionally in his other songs. The phrase “Do the Harlem Shake” comes from the 2001 song “Miller Time” by Plastic Little, Musson’s former rap group in Philadelphia. He now lives in New York and performs as Hennessy Youngman.

Both artists are seeking compensation from Mad Decent, the label that released the song last summer. “It’s almost like they came on my land and built a house,” Delgado said of the sample.

”

- Sampled ‘Harlem Shake’ Artists Seek Compensation - Yahoo! Music

“On February 27, 2013, Knight scored a career high 32 points to secure a win against the Washington Wizards.[16] On March 10, 2013 Knight died in a game vs the Los Angeles Clippers. The cause of death was determined to be DeAndre Jordan.”

-

Brandon Knight (basketball) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

re: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evakBZ4WCzs#t=11s

littlelarrylover:

darkthoughtsbrightdays:

cerezsis:

whethervane:

genalikestoons:

katimus:

captainassbutt:

idc how much you hate twilight her dad is awesome

Yeah, basically Twilight would be so much cooler without Bella and Edward.

Dude, can you imagine if Twilight was just about Charlie Swan, finding out that his best friend is a werewolf, and the town doctor he’s trusted for years is a vampire? And then he helps them stop the vampires that are murdering everyone?? THAT WOULD BE SO COOL.

Bella can stay in Arizona.

Oh hell, I would read that.

Charlie Swan: Vampire Slayer

THE REAL WEIRD TWITTER IS THE ESPIONAGE TWITTER:

kadrey:

criminalwisdom:

Is Twitter being used as a numbers station?

‘GooGuns posts nothing but strings of letters and numbers, like b39e65fa00000000 in intervals of about five minutes on average. The string of characters always ends with zeroes, occasionally with the location service turned on, so you can see that 554705fa00000000 was allegedly tweeted from the “Region of Khabarovsk.” This has been going on all day and all night, for years, with more than 318,000 tweets posted since 2009. But why?’

(Source: Linkmachinego)

Number stations in social media? 

Marvel verschenken heute und morgen 700 Comics für lau – sofern man auf den Server von Comixology oder den Onlinestore von Marvel draufkommt, die sind nämlich seit Stunden bereits überlastet – weshalb Marvel das Angebot wahrscheinlich verlängern wird. Das ganze ist ein Promodings für ihren #1-Relaunch:

In an unprecedented new reader initiative, Marvel Comics unleashes Marvel #1, an offering of over 700 first issues from the length and breadth of the company’s history at no charge. This special promotion begins Sunday March 10 and runs until 11PM Eastern Time on Tuesday, March 12 as free downloads via the Marvel Comics app and Marvel Comics Digital Comics Shop.

Through Marvel #1 you’ll witness the beginnings well-known characters like the Avengers, X-Men and Spider-Man to the new superstars like the Guardians of the Galaxy, Thanos, Iron Fist and more. Creators featured include names such as Joss Whedon, Stan Lee, Jeph Loeb, Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Kevin Smith, Jonathan Hickman, Ed Brubaker, Jason Aaron, and Chris Claremont.

SXSW 2013: Marvel #1 – Sample over 700 first issues of new and classics Marvel series for free!

everydayimwholockin:

By Megan Farokhmanesh on Mar 10, 2013 at 3:57p

Digital Foundry recently critiqued Tomb Raider's performance on PlayStation 3 as the "preferred choice" to Xbox 360 for those seeking a console copy.

Although the Xbox 360 is "slightly more consistent," the PlayStation 3 has the overall advantage on image quality and presentation. Digital Foundry writes that PlayStation 3 is better suited for the overall feel and richness of the game.

"This is a game where much of the experience is built around the spectacle and in that respect, PS3 offers an advantage of its 360 sibling," the report reads.

The Windows PC version of the game also offers a favorable option for those interested. According to Digital Foundry, Tomb Raider's PC copy provides a more natural rendering of Lara Croft.

"Crystal Dynamics's goal in creating a more believable Lara Croft is taken one step further on the PC version through the use of advanced hair simulation in the form of TressFX," the report reads. " ... The effect can be convincing in slower scenes with little movement, bringing out more human characteristics in Lara's face, which in turn helps to create a better emotional hook between the player and the character."

You can find the full report here for the specifics. Tomb Raider launched for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC March 5. Read our review here.

I don't know your name. We had a small conversation, few words, before and after the presentation, but I thought you were really cute. We meet during one of the last presentations on Friday, March 8. You had awesome poufy side swipe hair and a beauti [...]

@azbiker72 The game was designed for MP, we sim the entire region on the server so this is just not possible

- SimCity (@simcity) March 9, 2013

The issues barraging SimCity stem from its requirement that players are always online and connected to EA's servers, even if a player wants to experience the game alone. Making the game available offline could solve many players' issues, but that's "just not possible," developer Maxis General Manager Lucy Bradshaw said during a Twitter Q&A session.

"The game was designed for MP, we sim the entire region on the server so this is just not possible," Bradshaw said, in response to a question about offline modes. Previously Bradshaw responded to another question about an offline patch: "We have no intention of offlining SimCity any time soon but we'll look into that as part of our earning back your trust efforts."

Making SimCity offline would be a significant undertaking, if it were in the cards at all. Bradshaw further reiterated the sentiment of a leaked internal memo, noting that EA wasn't responsible for SimCity's issues; Maxis was.

"Hey, this is on Maxis," she wrote. "EA does not force design upon us. We own it, we are working 24/7 to fix it, and we are making progress."

Recent progress included increasing SimCity's server capacity by 120 percent, disabling "non-critical" game features, and a report that EA asked SimCity affiliates to stop actively promoting the game.

Maxis: SimCity offline mode is 'just not possible' originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 10 Mar 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In a bid to increase oversight of web usage among its citizens, Iran is reportedly clamping down on Encrypted Virtual Private Network (VPN) systems. According to Reuters, Iranian web users are reporting that various VPNs — which normally help evade the government's draconian internet filters — are no longer accessible. Ramezanali Sobhani-Fard, who leads parliament's information and communications technology committee, has confirmed that the regime is currently weeding out unauthorized VPNs. "Within the last few days illegal VPN ports in the country have been blocked," he told a local news agency. "Only legal and registered VPNs can from now on be used." As you'd expect, those preferred VPNs are subject to surveillance by officials.

Private web access is becoming all but impossible in the country as Iran approaches June's presidential election. The timing isn't surprising: in 2009, its citizens protested election results en masse. The revolt was met with severe internet censorship with sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube blocked from public view. Iran's regime is reportedly working on solutions that would grant restricted access to those social networks, but in the meantime its citizens have had to make do with homegrown (and monitored) substitutes. China has also sought to cut off VPN workarounds as part of its own efforts to control internet access within its borders.

• Source Reuters
• Image Credit Nick Taylor (Flickr)
• Related Items iran censorship vpn encrypted virtual private network

Food is cheap and getting cheaper in America, unless you're poor

Bloomberg Businessweek

Like most journalists, Atlantic writers tend to be both curious and often hungry, which might be why we write so much about the price of food and drinks. So I really dug this new Bloomberg Businessweek chart about "America's shrinking grocery bill." (You should check out the full, rich version of the chart.)

Here's the story. Thirty years ago, the average household spent about 17% of its income on food. Today it spends about 11%. It's a global trend: Food is getting cheaper relative to incomes everywhere with rising incomes. But there's also a distinctly American thing going on here. We spend less of our cash on food than any other country -- "half as much as households in France," according to Dorothy Gambrell.

In fact, if you consider "cheap eats at home" the most important measure of social welfare, the United States is the greatest country on earth. Eating at home takes much less from our budget than other countries.

One reason we spend so little money at home is that we spend so much more money under other people's roofs. Over the last century, Americans have spent more and more on food they didn't prepare at home.

This is all part of one of the happiest economic stories of the last century -- the falling relative price of essentials like food and apparel in the 20th century. Families used to spend more than 50 percent of our income on eating and clothing. Now, the average household spends well under 20 percent.

But "average household" doesn't mean much in a country where the top 20 percent earns 15X the bottom 20 percent. So how do poor families food budgets compare to the rich -- and how that changed over the last 30 years?

The short answer is that relative food costs are low and falling fast for everybody -- but they're not falling for the poor.

In 1984, the poorest Americans spent 16 percent* of their income to eat. The median-income family also spent 16 percent of its (slightly higher) income on food. And the rich spent the least. In the last three decades, food's share of the family budget has fallen for all but the poorest families, where it's stayed the same.

It's well understood that everybody needs food to live, no matter how much money they make. But stomach sizes have a much narrower spectrum than U.S. incomes. So how are rich people earning so much more, but spending nearly the same share of their budgets on food?

Deep inside the numbers, you see some pretty spectacular differences between rich and poor families' eating habits. The richest quintile spends about 4X as much as the poorest in general-- but it spends 6X on alcohol, 5X on dining out, and 3X on food. The most important difference between rich families and poor families when it comes to food spending isn't really what they eat, but where they spend their food money. Poorer families eat much more at home. Richer families spend more money (but a similar share of their income) dining out.

Overall, the falling burden of food costs is good news for lower- and middle-class families. It means they can devote more money to things like health care and education and energy and homes, which are getting expensive faster than their wages are rising. But we shouldn't rule out the possibility that those accelerating costs are putting pressure on poor families to spend less on food.

In other words, we can't rule out that the lowest-income households only spend one-sixth of their money on food, not only because real food prices are falling, but also because they're forced to consume less, as mortgages and gas prices eat into the budget.

________

*Why are my figures slightly different than Bloomberg's? I used "spending" and they used "after-tax income." Slightly different figures. Same general idea, though, but keep in mind that richer households are more likely to save more, so dividing by income will always give you a lower number than dividing by spending.

By Megan Farokhmanesh on Mar 10, 2013 at 3:14p

God of War's visceral kills are important for the series' action to "feel impactful" and not just like a video game, lead game designer Mark Simon said during a recent interview.

Speaking with the PlayStation Blog, Simon said that the designers want to avoid creating too much of "gamey" feel.

"If you swing a club and hit someone it's got to feel like you've just hit them with a club," Simon said. "If it doesn't, it feels gamey. We don't want that gamey feeling — we want it to feel like you're actually impacting someone's head. It makes that sound, it feels like that — you kind of cringe thinking about it, but that's what melee combat should feel like."

The latest title in the franchise, God of War: Ascension launches on March 12. You can read our review here. SCE Santa Monica recently said that they are unsure of what they'll work on after Ascension.

Golden Krishna, Senior Designer at Samsung Innovation Labs, wants to upend the way we think about user interfaces. "Our love for the digital interface is out of control," he says. "It has become our answer to everything." If he has his way, the future of Samsung consumer electronics might work more like the Nest thermostat, which learns about your favorite temperature, or a Mercedes-Benz automobile, which automatically unlocks when it detects the keys in your pocket.

"The best interface is no interface."

"The best interface is no interface," he repeated over and over at a SXSW keynote this morning. Three principles form the roots of the movement he's pioneering, which even has a hashtag: #NoUI. In order to create better and more natural user interfaces, we must first "embrace natural processes" like the act of opening a door, and stop creating cumbersome apps to do the work for us or get in the way. "We're creating ovens so you can watch YouTube while you bake cookies," Krishna says.

He more specifically called out the My BMW app for iPhone, which requires an astounding thirteen steps to unlock your car door:

1. A driver approaches her car.
2. Takes her smartphone out of her purse.
3. Turns her phone on.
4. Slides to unlock her phone.
5. Enters her passcode into her phone.
6. Swipes through a sea of icons, trying to find the app.
7. Taps the desired app icon.
8. Waits for the app to load.
9. Looks at the app, and tries to figure out (or remember) how it works.
10. Makes a best guess about which menu item to hit to unlock doors and taps that item.
11. Taps a button to unlock the doors.
12. The car doors unlock.
13. She opens her car door.

"Is this really an improvement on the car key?" he asked. A Mercedez-Benz vehicle, on the other hand, fires off a low frequency signal when you pull on the door handle, which detects the keys in your pocket and opens the door instantaneously. Once you've tried it, it's obvious, like the mechanics of an automatic sliding door.

Principle two is to "leverage computers instead of catering to them." In other words, we must stop letting computers talk to us like this: Error message: your password must be at least 18770 characters and cannot repeat any of your previous 30689 passwords. "We service computers. Let's reverse this relationship," Krishna says. We should instead create technology that communicates what's gone wrong in human terms, he says, or even fixes the issue automatically, like Goodyear's self-inflating tires.

"Google Now is a step towards this kind of thinking."

Krishna's third and final principle is to "create a system that adapts for individuals," like the Nest thermostat. "The Nest is the most magical when it learns and when it thinks about us," Krishna says. "You don't have to use the interface anymore — it becomes part of the background," like airbags and automatic transmissions. All of these things we take for granted, but one day long ago posed enormous technical challenges.

"Google Now is a step towards this kind of thinking," Krishna says, "since it doesn't require as many steps to get what you want. Google is one of the few [companies] who have the data, and can parse through it in a good way." So will a world of automatic pattern-learning machines turn us into idiots, like the creatures from the far-off future of The Time Machine? "Nope," says Krishna — at least for the time being. "I'd hope we could just have more time with the things we want to be doing in our day-to-day lives."

• Related Items design samsung ui ux user interface simplicity golden krishna

BOOM! Studios has provided CBR with an exclusive preview of "Bravest Warriors" #6. The miniseries final issue from Joey Comeau, Mike Holmes and Ryan Pequin goes on sale March 13.

Baby Goes Skydiving In Wind Tunnel (by Network A)

There was a young man from Honshu
Who tried limericks in haiku,
But

– Doug Holyman, in Word Ways, May 2007

Handkerchief

By Megan Farokhmanesh on Mar 10, 2013 at 10:35a

Game developer and father Mike Mika hacked a 2010 Nintendo ROM of Donkey Kong to give his daughter the chance to save Mario instead of playing as him.

Mika posted a video of the new "Pauline Edition," where Mario patiently awaits rescue from the game's original damsel in distress, Pauline.

"My three year old daughter and I play a lot of old games together," Mika wrote in the video's description. "Her favorite is Donkey Kong. Two days ago, she asked me if she could play as the girl and save Mario. She's played as Peach in Super Mario Bros. 2 and naturally just assumed she could do the same in Donkey Kong. I told her we couldn't in that particular Mario game, she seemed really bummed out by that."

To solve this, Mika swapped palettes, redrew frames and replaced Mario with Pauline. Check out the video above to see Pauline hop into action.

Donkey Kong isn't the first game to get a role reversal from a loving father. Last year, Mike Hoye transformed The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker's Link into a girl for this daughter by hand-editing the game's dialogue.

Adam Wallacavage, whose Hello Kitty Chandelier was shown at the Known Gallery last year, has created a number of unique octopus chandeliers using lamp parts, epoxy clay, and spray paint.

images via Adam Wallacavage

via High Fructose, Octavekitten

For his sculpture series “Built of Books,” Dutch artist Frank Halmans transforms stacks of old books into quaint row houses. To make the sculptures Halmans painstakingly hollows out the books and cuts windows and doorways into the covers.

via designboom, Visual News, My Modern Metropolis

New submitter ghops spotted Engadget's coverage of an interesting gaming machine at SXSW, writing: "Multimorphic shows off the P3, an innovative multi-game pinball platform. With a 27" 'touchscreen' LCD in the lower playfield and modular shot layouts comprising the upper playfield, the P3 delivers a 'one machine, many games' system where the physical pinball can interact with graphics on the screen as it rolls towards traditional, physical objects (ramps, loops, targets, etc) on the upper playfield. The system will ship with two games, one designed by famed pinball designer Dennis Norman, and it's an open platform allowing anybody to develop their own shot layouts and/or software. Because of its ball tracking technology, it can even play itself!"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

6 writes "Destructoid, one of the few remaining bastions of independent game journalism online, wonders what to do now that nearly 50% of their users run ad-blockers."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

MSNBC

Jeb Bush's hedging on immigration resonates Tbo.com "There has to be some difference between people who come here legally and illegally," Jeb Bush said Monday.. jeb1. "There has to be some difference between people who come here legally and illegally," Jeb Bush said Monday.. ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE ... Marc Caputo: Political reporters act like 'crack addicts,' Jeb Bush saysMiamiHerald.com Jeb Bush: Is the world ready for a third Bush in the White House? (+video)Christian Science Monitor Former Florida Governor Jeb BushTIME Wall Street Journal (blog) -Politico (blog) -Huffington Post all 139 news articles »

NEW YORK—ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith recently made several dismissive remarks about ice hockey this week, causing Americans across the country to flock to the sport in droves, sources confirmed Sunday.

By Megan Farokhmanesh on Mar 10, 2013 at 11:30a

Designer Richard Garriott and Portalarium, Inc. have raised more than half of the $1 million Kickstarter goal for Ultima's spiritual successor, Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues, in two days.

After passing the halfway mark in funding, Portalarium posted a video featuring David "Iolo" Watson and Garriott. The video, which you can watch below, is a 23-minute discussion about the Ultima series and Shroud of the Avatar. Portalarium also recently hosted an hour-long livestream to answer fan questions.

The Kickstarter launched on March 8 and has about $616,000 as of Sunday morning. Shroud of the Avatar is a reinvention of classic, online fantasy role-playing with a greater focus on player choice instead of level grinding. Players will have the option to adventure, explore or remain as a homesteader. If funded, Shroud of the Avatar will feature a classless player system, player housing, online and offline gameplay, PvP that "minimizes griefing" and more.

The Kickstarter for Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues ends April 7. The game is currently in development for Windows PC, Mac and Linux. Read our feature on Garriott's vision for Ultima franchise's spiritual successor here.

TheMeerkatMania has posted a video of two red pandas wrestling at the Nagano Chausuyama Zoo in Japan.

via Daily Picks and Flicks