Nick Garner

Dutch artists Lernert and Sander cut raw food into 98 perfect 2.5 x 2.5 x 2.5 cm cubes, and the result is making me very hungry. Read the rest

Read the rest

I'd do the same.

In its opening screen, Royals describes itself as an "optimistic peasant simulator." This turns out to be a rather grim tagline, given how unlikely it is that your character will ever make it past age 30. Read the rest

The RC Tie Interceptor custom drone, from Olivier C, creator of the far out DIY Millennium Falcon drone. (more…)

Who needs life affirming bromides when you can have fatalistic, abyss-plumbing truths straight from the mouth of filmmaker Werner Herzog Stipetić? Here's a sampling from the Herzog Inspirationals Tumblr.

It's an amazing piece of video editing/lip-syncing, right up there with Sesame Street Sure Shot.

---

Google today announced its Google Fiber service is coming to 18 new cities across four metro areas: Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, and Raleigh-Durham. This is in addition to the existing Google Fiber areas of Kansas City, Provo, and Austin.

That’s not all. Google says it is still exploring the option of bringing Google Fiber to five additional metro areas: Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, and San Jose. These potential cities will be getting news about whether they made the cut “later this year.”

While the announcement may be official today, Google has been working with city leaders over the past year to prepare. Here is how the company outlined its plans:

Our next step is to work with cities to create a detailed map of where we can put our thousands of miles of fiber, using existing infrastructure such as utility poles and underground conduit, and making sure to avoid things like gas and water lines. Then a team of surveyors and engineers will hit the streets to fill in missing details. Once we’re done designing the network (which we expect to wrap up in a few months), we’ll start construction.

Google has also been very busy with growing Fiber in its existing cities. In November, for example, it promised free Internet to Austin’s public housing residents, and kicked off its Google Fiber for Small Business option in select areas of Kansas City.

As it moves forward, Google’s pitch has naturally been transforming from “this is an experimental project” to “gigabit broadband is the future.” Today, the company referenced last week’s U.S. President Obama’s State of the Union speech calling for faster networks, research showing gigabit networks are contributing billions of dollars in economic growth, and U.S. communities in general demanding more speed for their homes and businesses.

Rumors of Google’s plan to expand its Google Fiber service to more cities have been ongoing since at least February 2014. In fact, they continued right up until yesterday, when The Wall Street Journal reported on the upcoming news.

Typing random thoughts into Google image search is always delightful, but "pets in lion manes" was especially delightful. Read the rest

"At least two people have reportedly been injured when a fireworks factory exploded in Colombia."

buy this print!

It's always Stupid Medieval Type Joke Day here at Hark A Vagrant


Topatoco's holiday shipping deadlines approach, so get it while it's hot/available!

Clicking on the image will take you to the store. Hooray!!

buy this comic as a print!
Or share on: facebookreddit
If you enjoy the comic, please consider supporting A Softer World on Patreon

---

Disclosure: The organizers of Slush 2014 paid my way to Helsinki. Our coverage remains objective.

HELSINKI — It’s easy to get lost in cavernous indoor spaces like shopping malls and Las Vegas casinos. Indoor Atlas is one of many tech companies racing to map indoor spaces, and it uses an approach that is similar to how turtles and lobsters navigate the oceans.

The Helsinki-based startup senses magnetic variation. It figures out the unique signature of a building by measuring the unique signals produced by its steel girders. Once a single space is mapped, it can be shared with the whole community of users, said Inka Mero, chairwoman of Indoor Atlas, in a presentation at the Slush 2014 conference in Helsinki.

“We spend 80 percent of our time indoors, but global positioning satellites don’t work inside,” Mero said. “With magnetic variation, we can position anyone with one meter accuracy.”

I met the startup at last year’s Slush event. Since then, it has made a lot of progress. In September, it raised $10 million from China’s Baidu. The reason for that is clear, Mero said.

“The whole indoor positioning market is the Holy Grail for social, advertising, analytics, and location apps,” she said. “All the big players are looking at this space.”

That’s why there are a lot of rivals, including WifiSLAM, Google, Qualcomm, CSR, Nokia, and Samsung. WifiSLAM uses a combination of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to determine your position.

But Indoor Atlas uses a technology based on the navigational abilities of sea creatures. It was developed originally for submarines in the 1970s and 1980s, and it was picked up again by Janne Haverinen, Indoor Atlas’ chief executive, who founded the company by spinning it out of Finland’s University of Oulu.

He realized that building materials affected magnetic fields, but the deviations remain constant, and they can be tracked with compass sensors, which are in every mobile device. He started the company in 2012.

The company has three granted patents and 17 applications filed. It has 25 employees.

Indoor Atlas hopes to leverage a developer ecosystem the way outdoor traffic navigation service Waze has, as well as a community of users to do the mapping.

Indoor Atlas has launched a commercial version of its developer software development kit (SDK), and it will store floor plans and maps in its cloud. Developers can use Indoor Atlas to collect data and create their own apps.

Besides Baidu, investors include Mobility Ventures, Koppi Catch, Vera Ventures, Finnvera, and Tekes.

Time for my Hot Takes on Old Media. SOmetimes... they're bad *explosion gif*

buy this comic as a print!
Or share on: facebookreddit
If you enjoy the comic, please consider supporting A Softer World on Patreon

In honor of the World Series (Go Giants!), a repost of this classic animation of the great Pittsburgh Pirates player Dock Ellis telling how in 1970 he pitched a no-hitter while tripping balls on LSD. Directed by James Blagden and Chris Isenberg.

Priorities. "As he lay bleeding, Noll raised the phone and snapped a selfie."(via)

Spam writes, "I'm a fan of XKCD and so I decided to put together a watchface for the Moto 360 based on xkcd.com/now because I really like Randall Munroe's concept for a simple world clock." Read the rest

[via, thanks Eric Mittleman!]

AAA! This is creepy!! But enough Halloween fun, I got some news to share with you. Gunshow will stop at the end of the year. If this seems sudden, it is because I just decided it a couple of days ago. Here is a longer post about what why when where etc. But right now, we are still in the scary horror mode and have two more months to have fun. So let's have a lot of it (fun).

Doghouse Diaries via This Isn't Happiness.

buy this print!

Watch out! Dames like this are dangerous. But you know, they have other things going on in their lives than walking through a detective's door through a dangerous cloud of fog. Probably.

I've watched some noir films while drawing this comic, and where has that dialogue been all my life? Also, if you read essays on how femme fatales threw out conventions of the day you realize they are all basically the best characters ever. Too bad for any lousy rat they cross paths with though.

The store is going to update as soon as the new merchandise comes in. STAY TUNED

Wendys is a popular restaurant chain that serves inexpensive ground beef sandwiches. Reportedly, all the employees know the catchy song in the official employee training video by heart and are known to sing it spontaneously as they go about their work. [via]

Every Frame a Painting analyses the work of director David Fincher (Seven, The Social Network): "He cares about information." But what does he not do?

OCTOBER COMES UPON US!!! And then it will be time for unfunny horror comics from Gunshow! Prepare!!!! To Not laugh all month!!!!!

Mammal penises, including those of cetaceans, are pretty easy to find, while vaginas are more difficult to examine; historically, accounts of animal reproduction have emphasized the features of penises and theories of sperm competition, but a burgeoning scientific emphasis on whale vaginas is revealing structures and strategies that are amazing and wonderful. Read the rest

"What a day for Germany!" [NSFW language]

Thinkgeek's Ghost Pepper Super Hot Candy Balls ($10 for about 44 balls) are red-hot candy balls dusted and infused with powdered Bhut Jolokia (ghost pepper) and Trinidad Scorpion Pepper, coming in at about one million Scovilles. Also, they may contain peanuts, so there's that. Read the rest

Your dad ran a moving company and he was killed by a couch. It was being raised up to the third floor to try and get it through the window of an apartment because it couldn’t fit through the door. The cord snapped and the couch dropped right on your dad’s head, snapping his neck. 

“He left the business to me,” you’re telling a customer. “And I’ve built it into a small local empire. I did it with hatred in my heart.”

The logo on your trucks reads “Your Furniture Killed My Daddy, And I Will Never Let Your Furniture Get The Upper Hand Again.” As Couch Maureen, you promise that you will be in control at every point in the move. No one will ever see you or your team members hesitating or guessing at an angle or a width for getting a couch or an armoire through a doorway. You’re always ten steps ahead of your furniture. You’ve already carried their couch up the steps and around the corners and through the vestibule and into the living room before your customers have even finished packing. 

“It’s about not letting the furniture get the jump on me,” you’re telling your customer. “Like my dad did.”

You turn to the portrait of your father.

“You were sloppy daddy,” you say.

The customers are getting uncomfortable.

“SLOPPY!” you scream. “YOU WERE SLOPPY DADDY!”

You’re crying now. Spit is coming out of your mouth as you scream.

“HOW COULD YOU, DADDY! HOW COULD YOU LET A COUCH TAKE YOU AWAY FROM ME?! HOW? DID YOU WANT IT TO TAKE YOU AWAY? DID YOU NOT WANT TO BE WITH ME AND MOMMY ANY MORE?”

The customers are moved to tears with you. You barely even know they’re there anymore.

“WHYYYYYYY DADDY? WHYYYYYY?”

Getting a grip on yourself you turn back to the customers and slam your fist on their moving contract. 

“As God is my witness,” you growl. “I will tame your furniture. I will be its master during the entire course of your move. Your furniture wants to be damaged to prove that it cannot be subjugated to human will. I will make very clear to your furniture that on this matter, it is very mistaken.”

Your customers sign their contract, and then the three of you hug and cry together.

“Fuck your furniture,” you say, waving goodbye as they leave. “Fuck it straight to hell.”

They wave back as they step through the door, confident that their move is in good hands.

Happy They Call You Couch Maureen Day!