Dan Jones

Star Wars Lightsaber Keychain Flashlight – Shed a little light on The Dark Side

Also available via ThinkGeek

First same-sex divorce in New Orleans comes before first marriage

Leaving clothes in your luggage during hotel stays leaves them a wrinkly mess. On the other hand, I’m too lazy to put my clothes in the drawers. ShelfPack is the solution I desperately need.

The ShelfPack features stacked shelves and telescoping supports that are simple to load up with clothes and then pack away.

It’s a little too big for carry-on, and it is a little expensive at $350, but being able to conveniently organize your clothes and skip using a hotel room dresser does sound rather appealing.

(Ubergizmo via Gizmodo)

A hose attachment that fills up 148 water balloons in under a minute… Where was this when I was a kid?!

When a Company Is Put Up for Sale, in Many Cases, Your Personal Data Is, Too

Google has a cool Chrome extension called Earth View, which replaces the new tab page with a stunning satellite image from Google Earth. The latest release brings a lot of new features: there are 500 new images, you can see the images from the last 10 tabs you've opened, there's a download feature in the menu and a sharing button. You can share images on Google+, Facebook, Twitter or copy the URL and paste it somewhere else.

How to see the images from the last 10 tabs you've opened? Just mouse over the bottom of the new tab page and click "recent imagery". You should see a list of 10 clickable thumbnails.



If you don't want to install the extension or you use a different browser, there's a web gallery that shows all the 1500 images. Click the arrow button or use the left/right keyboard shortcuts to navigate between images. There's also a slideshow feature called "leanback mode".


"Earth View is a collection of the most striking and enigmatic landscapes available in Google Earth. The colors, shapes, textures and patterns all contribute to the strange beauty of our planet, reminding us of nature’s uncanny geometry and bewildering simplicity. Each of the 1500 images featured in this collection was hand curated and available for download as wallpaper for your desktop or mobile," informs Google.

Google Earth celebrates its 10th birthday and the desktop software adds a new layer called Voyager, which integrates Earth View, Street View highlights, 3D cities, a map of recently published satellite images and a tour that shows a few of the thousands of Voyager locations to choose from.

The Freedmen's Bureau Project is a new initiative to digitize and make available online the records collected by the The Freedmen's Bureau near the end of the Civil War. The records detail the lives of about 4 million African Americans and will be available by the end of 2016.

FamilySearch is working in collaboration with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society and the California African American Museum to make these records available and accessible by taking the raw records, extracting the information and indexing them to make them easily searchable online. Once indexed, finding an ancestor may be as easy as going to FamilySearch.org, entering a name and, with the touch of a button, discovering your family member.

The Freedmen's Bureau was organized near the end of the American Civil War to assist newly freed slaves in 15 states and the District of Columbia. From 1865 to 1872, the Bureau opened schools, managed hospitals, rationed food and clothing and even solemnized marriages. In the process it gathered priceless handwritten, personal information including marriage and family information, military service, banking, school, hospital and property records on potentially million African Americans.

What an amazing resource this will be...many families out there will learn about the ancestors for the first time. The documents are currently 9% indexed and you can sign up to help at discoverfreedmen.org.

Tens of thousands of volunteers are needed to make these records searchable online. No specific time commitment is required, and anyone may participate. Volunteers simply log on, pull up as many scanned documents as they like, and enter the names and dates into the fields provided. Once published, information for millions of African Americans will be accessible, allowing families to build their family trees and connect with their ancestors.

(via open culture)

Tags: Civil War   geneology   slavery   USA   war

This Joker cosplay by Jesse Oliva is so spot on it’s disturbing.

Man, I miss Heath Ledger.

See the full photo after the break.

Photos by York in a Box.

(via Kotaku)

The “Ok, Google” hotword is already pretty great, letting you quickly look up information, check the weather, and more. But some new code suggests that Google is going to soon make the hotword even better.

The folks at Android Police dug into the latest version of the Google app, v4.8 that rolled out just a few days ago, and found references to offline support for the “Ok, Google” hotword and just tapping the microphone. According to the strings, you’ll be able to tell your phone to “Make a call,” “Send a text,” “Play some music,” and “Turn on Wi-Fi.”

Obviously the offline commands are a bit limited now, but there’s nothing stopping Google from adding more in the future. And hey, having a limited number of offline voice commands is better than having none at all.

The code for the newest Google app hint at a few other new features as well. For example, there are warnings for when you’re connected to an insecure network, voice commands for changing volume and brightness, and a Google Now card that can tell you when you’ve got a Google Cast going with the option to disconnect it.

It’s good to see Google continuing to improve on its main app for Android and adding handy new features. Unfortunately, it’s not clear when any of the goodies hinted at in this code will actually launch to the public, if they do at all, but at least we’ve gotten a taste of what’s to come thanks to today’s leak.

Artist's Note:

...I am surprised at how often we've used restaurants & whatnot as backdrops for our comics. But it tends to serve us well~

Writer's Note:

Ok, this is some of the worst dialogue I have ever written. I revised it multiple times, but couldn't throw off the awkward and as uneconomical wording.

Whelp.  

Pro Tip. #CaptainObvious
http://ift.tt/1ImxKiD http://ift.tt/1GGxmWu

What is WebAssembly?:

Interesting new development in client-side web programming.

Which would be worse? 20 million bees spilling onto the highway in front of you? Or your town being overrun by 25,000 tarantulas?

Utah University Adds Texting and Walking Lane to Its Stairs

Even Robert E. Lee Wanted the Confederate Flag Gone

Muslim Cleric's Warning: Cucumbers Too Sexy for Women

Gravity Kills Schrödinger's Cat

Google wants to bring free wifi to the world…. and it’s starting NOW

thegardenofenid:

Enid vs. The Blood of the Martyr

6/27/2014

OneDrive for Android supports Chromecast streaming  as of its latest update.  Microsoft had previously teased plans to support Chromecast streaming for files stored in its free cloud storage service. With OneDrive (v3.2) for Android this feature is delivered. You can fling compatible images, music and video files stored in OneDrive account to a nearby TV with just a couple of taps. Using the feature is […]

The article OneDrive for Android Now Supports Chromecast was first published on OMG! Chrome!

Classic Google Maps has been replaced by Google Maps Lite back in April, but there were a few URLs you could use to access it. Now they no longer work, so you'll have to get used to the new interface or switch to a different service like Bing Maps or Here.com. There are still various sites that use features from the Classic Maps, including Google's own Map Maker.

Last week, I had to print some directions in Google Maps and I realized that the classic Google Maps had a much better printing feature. You could include a map for each step or add Street View imagery. The new Google Maps offers two options: print text only or print including maps. There are fewer maps included since directions are now grouped and you can no longer customize each step.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again.

See more: Clowning Around

Did you know there’s a store? Dang.

As a kid, I loved Disney’s animated Robin Hood. I also had a huge crush on Robin. I thought it has passed, but seeing this Robin Hood cosplay by Deaththorn Cosplay has me crushing all over again.

Photos by York In A Box and Estrada Photography.

Check out another pic after the break.

(via Cosplay Blog)

Google has recently changed its privacy policy and there's a page that shows the differences. It's not clear if there are actual changes or the updated privacy policy only clarifies some existing features.

The new privacy policy states that information like your name, email address, phone number or credit card could be stored with your Google account, which is not something new. Another change is that the "cookies and anonymous identifiers" section is now called "cookies and similar technologies", which is a broader title.

The following text:

We and our partners use various technologies to collect and store information when you visit a Google service, and this may include sending one or more cookies or anonymous identifiers to your device.

... has been replaced with:

We and our partners use various technologies to collect and store information when you visit a Google service, and this may include using cookies or similar technologies to identify your browser or device.

Basically, Google removed all the references to "anonymous identifiers" from the privacy policy and replaced them with "similar technologies", which includes anonymous identifiers, but also HTML5 Local Storage, local shared objects (Flash cookies), Web beacons and more. The privacy policy clearly states that Google can use cookies and similar technologies to identify your browser or device. Google says that it uses "these technologies to collect and store information when you interact with services we offer to our partners, such as advertising services or Google features that may appear on other sites."

There's also a new paragraph:

Information we collect when you are signed in to Google may be associated with your Google Account. When information is associated with your Google Account, we treat it as personal information. For more information about how you can access, manage or delete information that is associated with your Google Account, visit the Transparency and choice section of this policy.