More than 3,200 customers are paying for monthly or annual Avid Media Composer subscriptions, the company said, giving its editing software a foothold in a larger universe of users that includes pros and hobbyists who have historically been unable to afford … more »
The new supervisor thought his idea was innocent enough. He wanted the baristas to write the names of customers on their cups to speed up lines and ease confusion, just like other Starbucks do around the world.
But these aren’t just any customers. They are regulars at the CIA Starbucks.
“They could use the alias ‘Polly-O string cheese’ for all I care,” said a food services supervisor at the Central Intelligence Agency, asking that his identity remain unpublished for security reasons. “But giving any name at all was making people — you know, the undercover agents — feel very uncomfortable. It just didn’t work for this location.”
This purveyor of skinny lattes and double cappuccinos is deep inside the agency’s forested Langley, Va., compound.
…The baristas go through rigorous interviews and background checks and need to be escorted by agency “minders” to leave their work area. There are no frequent-customer award cards, because officials fear the data stored on the cards could be mined by marketers and fall into the wrong hands, outing secret agents.
And this:
The chief of the team that helped find Osama Bin Laden, for instance, recruited a key deputy for the effort at the Starbucks, said another officer who could not be named.
Employees at the branch also are not allowed to bring smart phones inside. The piece is interesting throughout.
Oh, joyous day! According to /Film, the long-awaited adaptation of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series now has a screenwriter: novelist Sarah Cornwell!
Although I’m not familiar with any of Cornwell’s work, her appointment as a screenwriter is a sign that this time, it’s actually happening: despite Warner Bros. optioning the 22-book-series earlier this year, I was still pessimistic that an actual film franchise would ever come to fruition. Besides, considering all the nerve-wracking names that could have been attached to a highly-anticipated project like this, I’ll take a relative unknown writer over the alternatives anyday.
Hell hath no fury like a French First Lady scorned: Valerie Trierweiler in UK to tell ... Mirror.co.uk After being betrayed and humiliated by French President Francois Hollande, his furious ex Valerie Trierweiler is now wreaking revenge on a truly international scale. In France, Valerie's book, Thank You For This Moment: A Story of Love, Power and Betrayal, ...
The iPhone 6 was supposed to have a sapphire display. More than a year ago, Apple turned to GT Advanced Technologies, the now-bankrupt supplier, to solve its longstanding problems with scratched and cracked displays. But as soon as the two companies signed an agreement, their relationship became riddled with complications. In the ensuing year, as chronicled in detail by the Wall Street Journal, everything shifted. Apple originally wanted to buy furnaces with which to make sapphire itself, before changing its mind and deciding to simply buy the produced sapphire from GT. But GT couldn't make sapphire at the volume and quantity Apple wanted, and the relationship splintered over and over until it broke.
The Journal's story is full of remarkable details, like the almost-loss of 500 sapphire bricks worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Or the 700 people GT hired as a result of the project, many of whom wound up with nothing at all to do. It's also full of what should have been obvious red flags, like the fact that three days before GT signed its deal with Apple, it produced 578 pounds of sapphire — and not one ounce was usable.
But it's fundamentally a story about the power, and the danger, that comes from working with Apple. Tim Cook and his team in Cupertino demanded high quality and low prices, which make it a difficult partner to work with profitably. The prospect of making massive amounts of sapphire for the world's most valuable technology company was too hard for GT to pass up, even though its inexperience and inability to scale ultimately cost the company much more than the nearly $1 billion that was invested in the project. Apple and GT worked together to help GT stay financially solvent, but it was too late; GT filed for bankruptcy barely two weeks after the iPhone 6 was released — without a sapphire screen. In bankruptcy court, the two companies blamed each other for the failure. In truth, it seems clear both partners are to blame.
Sapphire screens are an obvious, tested improvement over the materials used in smartphone displays around the world. But if GT's story is any indication, not even Apple can find an easy way to make one of the hardest materials on earth.
Either this is the Knightscope K5 posed next to a man of average height, or this is a leaked image from new Marvel comic series "Cyborg Cid and the Invisible CEO."
Knightscope
Over 25 years ago, sardonic filmmaker Paul Verhoeven imagined a future in which justice was served by the cold steel of humanoid robots. Thankfully, in the real world, we've yet to see fleets of Robocop-like robots telling pedestrians that they "have 20 seconds to comply," but even the tongue-in-cheek Verhoeven couldn't have imagined that his guesses about futuristic security would emerge in the form of the Knightscope K5.
After being teased in a profile in last week's MIT Technology Review, Knightscope's patrolling robot product received a public video unveiling on San Francisco CBS affiliate KPIX on Tuesday. The squat K5 model, shown wheeling around the company's Mountain View, CA parking lot, looked more like a Dalek or a Star Wars droid than Robocop's Peter Weller. The five-foot-tall K5 comes equipped with four cameras spread at 90 degree angles from each other, along with a weather sensor, a microphone array, a separate "license plate camera," a GPS sensor, and a Wi-Fi-enabled system to transmit live video and keep track of other nearby K5s.
In the KPIX video, the 300-pound behemoth appeared to move at a rate of no more than five miles per hour, and it was even shown noticing and side-stepping any nearby humans in its patrol path. Knightscope co-founder Stacy Stephens confirmed that the K5 is not equipped with weapons or any other means of dispatching crooks; instead, he described this robot as a crime deterrent (while simultaneously suggesting that people think it looks "cute" and want to hug it). We struggle to agree with its usefulness as a deterrent; having played our fair share of stealthy video games, we can't help but feel like we've trained for years to dodge and avoid exactly this kind of slow, awkward-looking artificial intelligence.
wiredmikey writes A federal court has temporarily shut down and frozen the assets of two telemarketing operations accused by the FTC of scamming customers out of more than $120 million by deceptively marketing computer software and tech support services. According to complaints filed by the FTC, since at least 2012, the defendants used software designed to trick consumers into believing there were problems with their computers and then hit them with sales pitches for tech support products and services to fix their machines. According to the FTC, the scams began with computer software that claimed to improve the security or performance of the customer's computer. Typically, consumers downloaded a free, trial version of the software that would run a computer system scan. The scan always identified numerous errors, whether they existed or not. Consumers were then told that in order to fix the problems they had to purchase the paid version of the software for between $29 and $49. In order to activate the software after the purchase, consumers were then directed to call a toll-free number and connected to telemarketers who tried to sell them unneeded computer repair services and software, according to the FTC complaint. The services could cost as much as $500, the FTC stated.
In light of Uber executive Emil Michael's villainous statements against the app's biggest critics, John Hodgman revealed that he's quitting the car service. In a blog post on his web site Tuesday night, the comedian critiqued Michael's moves and officially deleted the app in protest.
The City of Toronto wants a local court to shut down the Uber. The news comes just one day after an Uber executive was revealed to have suggested digging into the personal lives of journalists who write about the ridesharing company.
In its Tuesday application for an injunction, Toronto claims that the company "operates in breach of the City’s licensing by-laws insofar as, among other things, it operates as a taxicab brokerage and limousine service company."
Uber has fought similar regulatory battles elsewhere around the globe and has prevailed to some degree. Most famously, the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates taxis in the Golden State, created an entirely new class of transit for Uber and its competitors.
We examined data on intelligence, longevity, genetic ailments and other markers to create a “data-score” and then plotted it against public popularity of various breeds, according to the American Kennel Club.
This infographic and other data driven designs are available in David’s new book, Knowledge is Beautiful.
'Michelle Lam, whose San Francisco-based online lingerie company, True&Co., draws on her professional experience in data science and investing at Bain Capital and the Boston Consulting Group, and also her personal experience in bra shopping.
True&Co. offers a Warby Parker-style “try before you buy” model and invites women to answer a series of questions about the bras they receive: Is the band too tight or too loose? The cup too small or too big? Is the lift too padded? Not padded enough? How about the color? Also…are you married?
“One third of the data points we gather have nothing to do with bras,” says Lam. “Women in a relationship are buying less red lacy underthings than women who are single.” '
If statistics (and marketing) are to be believed, most of us women are walking around wearing bras that do not fit us properly. Straps are digging into our shoulders; under-wires are compressing our ribs; our cups runneth over.
Last week, Mallory Ortberg, founder of the website The Toast, published a satirical account of her own bra-size epiphany, on the very day another author published an earnest one. Also that day, large-busted models made a rare appearance on Vogue.com, in a photo shoot by renowned photographer Cass Bird. In the feature, entitled “’Give me a D! Give me an F!’ Because Gorgeous Bras Come in All Shapes and Sizes,” photos were captioned with models’ quotes about well-fitting bras, and how difficult it is to find them.
This storyline isn’t new. (“Women of America,” Oprah declared, on her 2005 “Bra Revolution” episode, “you need to rise up and get a proper bra fitting.”) But today the movement has new fervor, with blogs such as Busts4Justice and Sweet Nothings reviewing the support, or lack thereof, provided by underpinnings and the companies that manufacture them.
Those companies are wise to pay attention. In 2013, lingerie sales were worth nearly $12 billion in the US alone. A spate of startups is out to “disrupt” what arguably is a broken system, and pick up the pieces—and profits.
In 2013, lingerie sales were worth nearly $12 billion in the US alone.
Perhaps one of the shrewdest founders in the field is Michelle Lam, whose San Francisco-based online lingerie company, True&Co., draws on her professional experience in data science and investing at Bain Capital and the Boston Consulting Group, and also her personal experience in bra shopping.
True&Co. offers a Warby Parker-style “try before you buy” model and invites women to answer a series of questions about the bras they receive: Is the band too tight or too loose? The cup too small or too big? Is the lift too padded? Not padded enough? How about the color? Also…are you married?
“One third of the data points we gather have nothing to do with bras,” says Lam. “Women in a relationship are buying less red lacy underthings than women who are single.”
Since True&Co.’s 2012 launch, more than 1 million women have taken the site’s “fit quiz.” The results place each woman into a color on the company’s proprietary fit spectrum, based on the shape and size of her breasts.
If you’ve never considered whether your breasts are rounder on the top, bottom, or sides, this would be the time. Once you’ve taken the quiz and been assigned a color—“sapphire,” for example, indicates a shape that’s shallow and bottom-heavy—an algorithm recommends an assortment of bras.
In October 2013, the algorithm started to serve up not only popular brands such as Calvin Klein and Natori, but also True&Co.’s own private-label collections. Within a few months of True&Co.’s launching its second collection, Uniform, in June, revenue from the private label accounted for 20% of sales. Lam predicts it will be 40% by the end of the year.
“Nips are probably not great in a coed board meeting situation—in the American landscape anyway.”—Michelle Lam
True&Co. says the recommendation algorithm is brand-agnostic, but what potentially separates the brand’s own bras from, say, Calvin Klein’s, are designs that benefit from data and feedback the company receives from customers. And more bras sold means more data gathered: True&Co. reports that 7 million points of “boob data” have grown to 22 million within the last three months alone.
So what does all this data yield?
For one thing, padding. Lam says one of the most common issues for her customers is “nipple modesty,” meaning that women don’t want the silhouette of their nipples to be visible through their shirts. So for True&Co.’s latest collection of lace bras, Lam was mindful that the pieces include a substantial lining.
“It gives you the nipple modesty to get you through the day, because nips are probably not great in a coed board meeting situation—in the American landscape anyway,” says Lam.
True&Co. sent me a sample of its best-selling bra, a push-up model from its own private label. It holds its shape like an egg crate and has what Lam calls a “banana pad,” a crescent-shaped cushion that runs along the bottom and widens at the outer edges of the cups.
“The banana pad was based on the number of women who reported they were not only shallow breasted—especially after having children—but that also their cup gaped at the top, meaning that the cup was too big for their breast,” Lam explains.
“This was a predominant issue especially among smaller cup sizes, so we took this banana pad—which not only lifts the flesh in from the bottom and gives you lift there—but also flesh in from the sides, so it creates a super-subtle, fill-up-the-cup type look without being a super push-up look,” Lam says, “because we also know from our quiz that four in five women didn’t want an extreme pushup.”
Personally, I found the bra to be overly padded and structured. But as it turns out, Lam might have predicted that, too. The thin, unlined style of bras I prefer are popular with “a sliver of women in New York and San Francisco,” of which I am apparently one.
I took the fit quiz and tried out the service myself, ordering five bras from those selected for me by True&Co.’s algorithm. A few days later, I opened the box at home, and opened my laptop. A checklist of the bras in the box appeared on my True&Co. account page, each with the option to “keep” or “return.” But before I could return anything, I had to select a reason, whether it involved the band, cup, lift, or color.
True&Co. makes the process relatively simple, with free shipping and returns via a label included in the original package. But procrastinators beware. Understandably, True&Co. doesn’t want its inventory just hanging around customers’ homes: If I failed to fill out the form and get the box postmarked back within five days, I would be charged a $20 fee. After 30 days, I would be charged for the contents of the box in full.
The most promising bras I tried were evenly split between True&Co.’s private label and another brand selling at a comparable price point. I’m not sure whether I’ll go back for round two, but it’s possible I will because at this point, I’ve invested some time in the process. It’s as if I’m already in the dressing room, and a store attendant has offered to grab something in another size.
I didn’t find a bra I loved in that first box. But in ticking the reasons why each wasn’t quite right, and even adding a sentence or two of free-form feedback, I gave True&Co. the ammo to recommend another round of options—while adding to the company’s ever-increasing pool of data.
merbs writes The CEO of the world's largest PR firm has a policy when it comes to campaigns that focus on the environment. "We do not work with astroturf groups and we have never created a website for a client with the intent to deny climate change," Richard Edelman wrote in a blog post in August. That may actually turn out to be true. Technically. Edelman may not work with astroturf groups. Instead, it appears to prefer to build them itself, from the ground up, using sophisticated proprietary software platform designed to "convert" advocates and then "track" their behavior.
One day after it was announced that Idris Elba would not star in an American adaptation of his acclaimed BBC drama Luther, Variety reports that Elba will reprise his role for a new two-part Luther BBC miniseries. This could be seen as undermining Fox’s version of the series, to which Elba has signed on as a producer—unless, of course, the public’s thirst for Luther turns out to be unquenchable. Series creator Neil Cross is also attached to both upcoming Luthers, and said in a statement about the BBC revival of the show, “Luther is coming back where he belongs. Back to the BBC. Back to London. And back to work.” Look for Elba schooling whoever Fox chooses as its Luther in the art of playing a tortured detective whose brilliance is matched only by his deep personal flaws—with a British accent, thank you very much ...
'Southwest. As of today, JetBlue Airways has ended its practice of free checked bags'
It’s Southwest. As of today, JetBlue Airways has ended its practice of free checked bags, announcing at an investor event in New York that it will add a bag-check fee for fliers buying the cheapest tickets—and cut legroom on select aircraft.
JetBlue—which built its reputation on seat comfort, free check-in bags, and free snacks—is the latest airline to succumb to investor pressure to focus on returns and cost control, after failing to reach seat-per-mile revenue targets.
The airline says under its new pricing packages, the cheapest tickets will no longer include a free checked bag, second-tier tickets would include one piece of luggage free, and the priciest tickets would allow two.
The airlines also announced the addition of 15 more seats on its Airbus A320 as part of a “cabin refresh,” bringing the total number of seats to 165 from 150. This will mean a tighter squeeze for passengers, but will add $100 million to earnings by 2019.
The announcement comes during a purple patch for US airlines, thanks to low fuel costs, an airline’s single biggest expense. But they aren’t passing on the savings to their customers.
Here’s hoping Southwest keeps flying against the trend.
Eagle-eyed Apple customers noticed a small change in the App Store today; where Apple once touted apps with no immediate cost as "FREE," customers are now being made to tap a "GET" button. The new language shows up throughout the different sections of the mobile and desktop versions of the App Store and is the same whether or not an application allows in-app purchases.
The move is similar to the small language and behavior tweaks other mobile platforms have made to their mobile stores in the last year in the face of increasing pressure from the likes of the European Union and the Federal Trade Commission. Removing the word free from their respective app stores was one of many suggestions made by the European Union in guidelines it proposed back in September, but at the time it was unclear if Apple or Google would carry those changes over to the United States. At the time of publishing this article, Google still uses the word free throughout its Play Store.
In March, Google added an option to its Play Store that allowed users to enable a password requirement for every in-app purchase, and even if they don't enable this setting, the company has also tweaked the default amount of time it takes for the store to automatically ask for one. Even with these changes in mind, both Apple and Google have already settled with the FTC in the United States to the tune of millions of dollars each thanks to complaints from consumers over the misleading ease of in-app purchases. Amazon refused its own FTC-proposed settlement, stating that the company was ready to fight the commission's claims in court. It's a popular topic that means a lot to consumers, so much so that it keeps finding its way into pop culture. "Freemium" apps were the target of the week for one of this season's South Park episodes, and as we learned this week, even Sex Pistols singer John Lydon has trouble resisting the power of tapping-to-buy.
Jessica Jones: Krysten Ritter (Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23) Alexandra Daddario (Percy Jackson, White Collar, True Detective) Teresa Palmer (Wish You Were Here, Warm Bodies) Jessica De Gouw (Arrow, Dracula)
Luke Cage: Lance Gross (Tyler Perryverse) Mike Colter (Ringer, Halo)
A new report states that Marvel Television has begun testing actors for the lead roles of its "Jessica Jones" and "Luke Cage" Netflix series.
WASHINGTON—Coming up just one vote short of the supermajority needed for the measure to pass, the U.S. Senate rejected an oil pipeline plan Tuesday that analysts say would have created thousands of climate activist jobs.
Although Community’s fifth season soldiered on ably after Donald Glover’s departure— even earning a semi-miraculous sixth season from Yahoo—it was hard not to miss the rapid-fire, deeply nerdy back and forth between Glover’s character Troy and Danny Pudi’s Abed. But there’s good news for fans of the bromantic duo (as well as fans of watching a beloved comic pair pitch exciting new products): Glover and Pudi have reunited in an ad for Ubisoft’s new video game, Far Cry 4.
The ad, which is airing on Comedy Central, follows the two as they discuss the game’s features, ignoring askance looks from passersby. It’s just like that beloved Community feature, Troy And Abed In The Well-Positioned Marketing Vertical, but with more discussion of wing suits and “open-world co-op.” The commercial seems to suggest that people are giving the duo odd looks because they ...
Lynch has a history of being reticent with the media in both pregame press conferences and in the postgame locker room. Two years ago, Lynch was fined $20,000 because he wouldn't speak to the press during the league-mandated sessions. Last February, he threatened to boycott Super Bowl Media Day, though he eventually showed up, but provided reporters with the bare minimum to fulfill his obligation.
On Sunday, he refused to talk to the media after the loss to the Chiefs, but he apparently called two NFL Network reporters after he left the building, thinking that level of cooperation with the media was enough to suffice per the league's mandates. It was not, and the league decided to hand down the season's heftiest fine to a player since the Ray Rice incident in the offseason.
Lynch ranks fourth in the NFL in rushing yards (813), and has a league-best nine rushing touchdown this season. He rushed for 124 yards on 24 carries against the Chiefs, his second straight 100-yard rushing game.
Busch met with police for nearly an hour on Tuesday. There is no timetable for when or if charges may be filed.
NASCAR driver Kurt Busch met with the Dover (Del.) Police Department regarding allegations he assaulted his ex-girlfriend Sept. 26 at Dover International Speedway.
Busch and his attorneys met with investigators for nearly an hour on Tuesday, Dover police spokesman Cpl. Mark Hoffman confirmed to SB Nation. No further meetings are scheduled and Hoffman does not foresee Busch being interviewed again. There is no timetable on when charges may be filed.
According to the court documents obtained by The Associated Press, Patricia Driscoll alleges Busch was upset after a poor effort in qualifying and "wished he had a gun so that he could kill himself." Busch then accused Driscoll of spying on him before proceeding to hit her head three times against a wall in his motorhome.
Driscoll said the assault caused her severe pain, difficulty breathing and bruising on her neck. When meeting with police she presented documentation and photos of the injuries she sustained.
Busch's attorney, Rusty Hardin, denied the allegations and said it was "a complete fabrication" brought by "a woman who has refused to accept the end of a relationship."
NASCAR has taken no disciplinary measures against Busch, who since the allegations were made public, raced in the final two Sprint Cup Series events of the season. NASCAR chairman Brian France said last week he wanted the police investigation to conclude before taking action.
"If charges are filed, that will change our equation, and we will look at that," France said. "We realize the heightened awareness of this important topic, and our policies will reflect that as we go down -- they'll reflect how serious it is.
"But we ought to have a process that gets to the bottom of the facts before anybody does anything."
That Busch has been allowed to compete has drawn criticism. Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) penned an open letter to NASCAR and Stewart-Haas Racing, Busch's team, demanding he be suspended immediately until the investigation is completed.
In a Nov. 14 interview with SB Nation, Speier said by not suspending Busch NASCAR was "complicit with the crime" in her viewpoint.
"I think it is emblematic of what we see in the sports world generally, and that as long as it's not caught red-handed on camera beating up your girlfriend or spouse, it didn't happen," Speier said. "As long as there is not a spotlight on the issue, let's sweep it under the rug. And that kind of conduct by these (sports) organizations makes them complicit with the crime as far as I'm concerned."
Adam Silver levied a suspension against the Hornets forward on Wednesday.
Charlotte Hornets power forward Jeff Taylor has been suspended by the NBA for 24 games without pay after being arrested for domestic abuse in September, the NBA has announced. Taylor has already missed 11 games on paid leave for the Hornets this season and will be required to sit out 13 more. The financial penalty will be the equivalent of 24 games.
Taylor was arrested on Sept. 24 after an argument escalated between he and his girlfriend in an East Lansing, Mich., hotel. Taylor allegedly shoved the woman in a violent manner, causing her to fall to the ground and hit her head on a door across the hall. Taylor also allegedly slapped the woman's arm and punched a hole in the wall of the hotel.
Taylor pleaded guilty to misdemeanor domestic violence assault and malicious destruction of hotel property. He was sentenced to 18 months of probation and 26 weeks in an intervention program for domestic abuse.
Taylor has not played this season for the 4-7 Hornets. He played only 26 games for Charlotte last season because of a torn Achilles. When he was on the court, Taylor averaged 8 points and 2.3 rebounds per game on 37.6 percent shooting.
