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28 Apr 16:11

Newswire: John Oliver's first guest on Last Week Tonight will be the former NSA director

by David Anthony

This Sunday, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver will premiere on HBO, and though its promos have suggested its general tone won’t be too far afield from his work on The Daily Show, it remains to be seen what form the interview portions will take. But at least the guest list promises to be every bit as serious, as Oliver will kick off his first show by talking to former National Security Agency director General Keith Alexander. 

In the fall of 2013, Alexander announced his retirement from the NSA amid the ongoing controversy surrounding Edward Snowden and leaked documents that detailed the NSA’s surveillance practices. Oliver already proved he could offer up illuminating and comedic interviews when he sat-in for Jon Stewart on The Daily Show last summer, and there’s certainly plenty to talk about here.

 Last Week Tonight airs Sunday at 11 p.m. ET—part ...

28 Apr 15:48

Thursday, April 24 @ 3:50:30 am

by chocolateface



























26 Apr 19:28

Photo



26 Apr 15:03

Final Moments

by Doug

Final Moments

Here are more apocalypses.

And a reminder to Vancouver folks: I’ll be at the Carded! art show tomorrow night. You should go too – it looks like fun!

26 Apr 15:03

This Is It. This Is How It Happens.

by DOGHOUSE DIARIES

This Is It.  This Is How It Happens.

“And also your batman pajamas.”

Comments/Wisecracks here.

26 Apr 15:01

‘Every Praise’: Kidnapper Releases 10-Year-Old Who Won’t Stop Singing Gospel Song | Fox News Insider

by hodad

“He told me he didn’t want to hear a word from me,” Myrick said. That’s when Myrick began to sing a gospel song called “Every Praise.” The kidnapper started cursing and repeatedly told Myrick to shut up, but he wouldn’t. He sang the song for about three hours until the kidnapper let him out of the car.

Original Source

26 Apr 14:59

tastefullyoffensive: Previously: How to Snore in 7 Langues...

26 Apr 14:58

Crossover | ece.gif

ece.gif
25 Apr 21:03

April 24, 2014


From now on, only time travel jokes.
25 Apr 16:24

The Parsons Code

by Greg Ross

In 1975 Denys Parsons devised a surprisingly simple way for nonmusicians to record melodies — write an asterisk for the first note, then hum the tune and decide whether each subsequent note goes up (U), down (D), or repeats (R). The first two phrases of “Happy Birthday,” for instance, look like this:

*RUDUDDRUDUD

(“* repeat up down up down down repeat up down up down”)

This is surprisingly effective — Parsons, who spent five years indexing practically every well-known classical theme from the 16th century onward, wrote, “I continue to be astonished that such a simple test, taken to the sixteenth note (or less), should be adequate to distinguish more than 10,000 classical themes.” Can you identify the eight famous classical melodies below?

  1. *RRDURRD
  2. *RUURURDRDRUURURDR
  3. *RUURDDDDRUURDRURUURDDDDRUUDDR
  4. *DUDUDUUUDDUDUDDUD
  5. *DUDDDDDUDDUDUDU
  6. *UDUUDUDUUDUDUUDUDUU
  7. *DUDUDUDURRRRRRRRDUDU
  8. *RRRRRRRUUUDRRRRUURDDD

Click for solution …

25 Apr 16:22

bunnyfood: BEHIND YOU (via sexhaver:gajumaru3:lotusrootsoup)

25 Apr 16:06

becomming: xlizardx: Apparently this is "The clearest photo of...



becomming:

xlizardx:

Apparently this is "The clearest photo of Mercury ever taken."

why isnt everyone getting so excited about this, it is literally another planet look at how beautiful it is stop what your doing and look at how alien like this planet is what is living there oh my god mercury

25 Apr 16:06

3D Printed Eyes Are Insanely Cheap Prosthetics and Look Perfect

by Mark Strauss

3D Printed Eyes Are Insanely Cheap Prosthetics and Look Perfect

Custom-made, prosthetic eyes are molded in acrylic and then painted by hand—a meticulous process that can take anywhere from 4 to 8 hours. But a recently developed 3D printing process can produce eyes of equal quality, at a rate of 150 per hour, reducing the cost by 97 percent.

Read more...








25 Apr 16:05

Old Files

Wow, ANIMORPHS-NOVEL.RTF? Just gonna, uh, go through and delete that from all my archives real quick.
25 Apr 15:45

Vic Gundotra, el padre de Google+, deja Google

by María González

Gundotra

"Vic construyó Google+ de la nada". Así definía hoy Larry Page el trabajo de Vic Gundotra, ejecutivo del gigante buscador que hoy ha anunciado su intención de dejar la compañía tras más de ocho años trabajando en ella. Por ahora no ha explicado los motivos de esta decisión ni ha hecho público qué hará después. A modo de curiosidad, hace dos días que en Secret apareció un post asegurando que Vic estaba siendo entrevistado, sin especificar dónde.

Aunque Gundotra ha liderado varios proyectos importantes en Google (es el artífice, por ejemplo, del evento Google I/O anual para desarrolladores), como bien recuerda Page su gran legado es Google+. Pocos conocían a Gundotra antes de que Google lanzara su propia red social. Además de ser su creador y el que le dio forma, hasta ahora él también había sido su gran defensor y portavoz en público.

¿Qué repercusiones tendrá esto en Google+? Es difícil de decir, ya que todavía no se sabe quién tomará ahora el mando de la red social. Desde Re/code aseguran que no será la mano derecha de Gundotra, Bradley Horowitz, sino que el puesto podría ir para David Besbris, Vicepresidente de Ingeniería en Google. Como decimos, por ahora todo son rumores, ya que lo único oficial es lo que ha dicho Larry Page: "Mientras tanto, seguiremos trabajando en construir grandes y nuevas experiencias para todos los fans de Google+".

Más información | Comunicado oficial de Vic Gundotra
En Genbeta | Larry Page pidió a Vic Gundotra, ejecutivo de Google+, que dejara de utilizar Twitter

-
La noticia Vic Gundotra, el padre de Google+, deja Google fue publicada originalmente en Genbeta por María González.


25 Apr 15:44

Bitconha — Agora vai!

by Carlos Cardoso

weedvendingmachine

Uma das maiores hipocrisias da história da civilização ocidental foi a liberação nos EUA da chamada “maconha para fins terapêuticos”. Não me entenda mal, meu lado libertário é a favor da legalização de tudo, desde que seja cobrada responsabilidade pessoal. Em verdade já tive que brigar com bêbado inconveniente mais de uma vez, maconheiros nunca me encheram o saco. É uma gente que não acorda pela manhã pensando “vou conquistar a Europa hoje”. Esses sim são perigosos.

A hipocrisia foi fingirem que estavam vendendo remédio, quando qualquer “médico” de estacionamento de WalMart arrumava uma receita. Agora Colorado e Washington legalizaram maconha pra uso recreativo e — pasmem — o mundo não acabou. Até se aprimorou. Para agilizar o atendimento nos dispensários (boca de fumo é tão demodê) começaram a instalar máquinas de venda. Há vários fabricantes no mercado. O maior já instalou 160 máquinas, mas a grande novidade são as ZaZZZ.

Criada pela American Green, a ZaZZZ usa até biometria para determinar a idade do comprador. Sim, igual às máquinas de bebidas e cigarros no Japão, que qualquer moleque sabe as manhas de enganar. Só que esse não é o maior problema da ZaZZZ, e sim o status esquizofrênico da legalização.

Embora no âmbito estadual o cigarrinho de artista esteja liberado, a erva do diabo ainda é ilegal para o governo federal. Por isso bancos não liberam transações de cartão de crédito para uso nas máquinas. Só vale dinheiro.

mightyjoint

Ou valia, pois a ZaZZZ passará a aceitar… Bitcoin. Ou seja: a moeda virtual criptografada era usada para aquisição de entorpecentes no Silk Road, agora é uma forma perfeitamente legal de garantir o santo beck de cada dia. Com anonimato, sigilo e todas as garantias que acalmam um maconheiro paranóico.

O mais engraçado é que a volatilidade do Bitcoin torna a máquina um péssimo negócio pra todo mundo mas, na falta de opção, é melhor do que nada. Se o Governo Federal relaxasse nas proibições cartões seriam aceitos e todo um perfil de consumo seria traçado. A maior acusação contra o Bitcoin está se tornando sua entrada pela porta dos fundos no mundo das moedas legítimas.

Se eu não fosse careta estaria rindo alto, mas maconheiro ri de qualquer coisa mesmo…

Fonte: RT.

The post Bitconha — Agora vai! appeared first on Meio Bit.








25 Apr 15:40

good news for net neutrality activists

by kris

20140424-netneutrality

the fight is finally over! because net neutrality is done. the very thing that allowed many of us to have careers online, including myself – being allowed to exist on the same footing as any other company on the web – is going away. and even if this measure gets defeated in the 59th minute of the 11th hour, we’re just weeks away from the next one.

maybe webcartoonists can just fall back on ASCII comics, since they’d still load pretty quick

24 Apr 18:37

tyleroakley: Perfect.

by aishiterushit






tyleroakley:

Perfect.

24 Apr 18:34

Joss Whedon Releases New Film On Demand

by samzenpus
Rambo Tribble (1273454) writes "Popular director Joss Whedon has taken the film world by surprise by releasing his latest offering, 'In Your Eyes', available for download on the same day it premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. The new release comes from Whedon's own "micro studio", Bellwether Pictures, and is featured on Vimeo as a $5 rental, (free trailer). Whedon mused, 'It's exciting for us because we get to explore yet another new form of distribution — and we get $5.' Mr. Whedon has a history of pushing the delivery envelope, as with Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, in 2008."

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24 Apr 18:30

April 23, 2014


Another favorite comic up up over at The Nib:

24 Apr 18:26

I meant like, Tyrion

by HUGELOL
24 Apr 18:24

as-cool-as-an-attempted-suicide: wallflowerbloom: No matter...





















as-cool-as-an-attempted-suicide:

wallflowerbloom:

No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.

We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.

(Dead Poets Society, 1989)

Me
24 Apr 18:21

Face Recognition Algorithm Finally Outperforms Humans

by Unknown Lamer
KentuckyFC (1144503) writes "Face recognition has come a long way in recent years. In ideal lighting conditions, given the same pose, facial expression etc, it easily outperforms humans. But the real world isn't like that. People grow beards, wear make up and glasses, make strange faces and so on, which makes the task of facial recognition tricky even for humans. A well-known photo database called Labelled Faces in the Wild captures much of this variation. It consists of 13,000 face images of almost 6000 public figures collected off the web. When images of the same person are paired, humans can correctly spot matches and mismatches 97.53 per cent of the time. By comparison, face recognition algorithms have never come close to this. Now a group of computer scientists have developed a new algorithm called GaussianFace that outperforms humans in this task for the first time. The algorithm normalises each face into a 150 x 120 pixel image by transforming it based on five image landmarks: the position of both eyes, the nose and the two corners of the mouth. After being trained on a wide variety of images in advance, it can then compare faces looking for similarities. It does this with an accuracy of 98.52 per cent; the first time an algorithm has beaten human-level performance in such challenging real-world conditions. You can test yourself on some of the image pairs on the other side of the link."

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24 Apr 18:16

A fábula do juiz que queria ser chamado de “doutor”

by Cristina Moreno de Castro

"I'm the Master" sign on executive's desk

Ainda em 2007, escrevi sobre a história do juiz Antonio Marreiros da Silva Melo Neto.

Vou refrescar a memória dos leitores: ele é um que queria obrigar o funcionário de seu condomínio a chamá-lo de “doutor” e “senhor”. Como não conseguiu fazer isso por meio da simpatia, pura e simples, apelou à máquina do judiciário (que conhece bem, por ser juiz), para tentar obter o tratamento à força.

Lá foi o juiz Marreiros entrar para a história do judiciário brasileiro, como um desexemplo. Não sei quanto a vocês, mas me lembrarei para sempre do nome dele. E, se um dia vier a encontrá-lo em minha frente, farei questão de chamá-lo de “você” — ou, mais mineiramente, de “cê”. Acho o caso tão anedótico e, ao mesmo tempo, tão absurdo, por chegar à mais alta esfera do judiciário — o STF — depois de longos dez anos de tomada de tempo e dinheiro do nosso sistema judiciário, que tenho convicção de que ele deve ser estudado nas boas escolas de direito do país. Se não é, pelo menos vale um belo post para este blog. Recomendo a leitura até o fim, queridos leitores, porque trata-se de uma verdadeira fábula:

CAPÍTULO 1 – DA BRIGA DE CONDOMÍNIO

Tudo começou com um vazamento no prédio. Ele pediu a ajuda do porteiro para resolver o problema, que, por não ter a autorização da síndica, negou o socorro. Os dois discutiram e o porteiro passou a chamar Marreiros sempre de “você” e “cara”, enquanto chamava a síndica de “dona” (daí surge a ofensa maior, reparem bem!). Como se vê na própria apelação do juiz, ele chegou a interfonar para o porteiro e insistir em várias ocasiões que fosse chamado de “senhor” e “doutor”. O empregado, antipatizado, respondeu: “Não vou te chamar de senhor não, cara!” e acrescentou: “Fala sério!”. Marreiros retrucou que “não é cidadão comum, mas juiz”. Pneus de seu carro começaram a aparecer furados. Enfim, típico barraco de condomínio.

CAPÍTULO 2- DO COLEGA QUE CONCORDOU COM O JUIZ

Inconformado com as ofensas do displicente porteiro e com o dar-de-ombros da síndica, Marreiros decidiu entrar com uma ação na Justiça, em setembro de 2004 — um mês depois do início das discussões — pedindo para ser tratado por “senhor” e “doutor”, sob pena de multa diária que seria fixada, e pedindo ainda indenização por danos morais, a ser paga pela síndica e pelo condomínio, no valor de no mínimo 100 salários mínimos (o que, em valores de hoje, daria mais de R$ 70 mil). Leia a petição inicial dele.

A juíza Simone Ramalho Novaes, da 7ª Vara Cível de São Gonçalo, negou o pedido de liminar, e Marreiros recorreu. Na segunda instância, o desembargador Gilberto Dutra Moreira concordou com Marreiros e concedeu a liminar, decidindo:

“Tratando-se de magistrado, cuja preservação da dignidade e do decoro da função que exerce, e antes de ser direito do agravante, mas um dever e, verificando-se dos autos que o mesmo vem sofrendo, não somente em enorme desrespeito por parte de empregados subalternos do condomínio onde reside, mas também verdadeiros desacatos, mostra-se, data vênia, teratológica a decisão do juízo a quo ao indeferir a antecipação de tutela pretendida. Isto posto, defiro-a de plano. Oficie-se, inclusive solicitando as informações e indagando sobre o cumprimento do art. 526, do CPC. Intimem-se os agravados para contra-razões, por carta.”

Na época, o presidente da OAB-RJ, Octávio Augusto Brandão Gomes, repudiou a decisão, dizendo: “Todos nós somos seres humanos. Ninguém nessa vida é melhor do que o outro só porque ostenta um título, independente de ter o primeiro ou segundo grau completo ou curso superior”.

Apesar disso, em março de 2005, a 9ª Câmara Cível do TJ confirmou a decisão do desembargador Gilberto Dutra Moreira, por 2 votos a 1.

CAPÍTULO 3 – DA AULA DE BOM SENSO

Pouco depois, em maio de 2005, Marreiros teve sua primeira grande derrota: o juiz Alexandre Eduardo Scisinio, da 9ª Vara Cível de Niterói, foi decidir o mérito da ação, não só a antecipação de tutela (que tinha sido favorável a Marreiros até então). E sua decisão foi um poço de sabedoria e bom senso. Ela pode ser lida na íntegra AQUI, mas seguem alguns trechos:

“Embora a expressão “senhor” confira a desejada formalidade às comunicações — não é pronome —, e possa até o autor aspirar distanciamento em relação a qualquer pessoa, afastando intimidades, não existe regra legal que imponha obrigação ao empregado do condomínio a ele assim se referir.”

“O empregado que se refere ao autor por “você”, pode estar sendo cortês, posto que “você” não é pronome depreciativo. Isso é formalidade, decorrente do estilo de fala, sem quebra de hierarquia ou incidência de insubordinação.”

“Tratamento cerimonioso é reservado a círculos fechados da diplomacia, clero, governo, judiciário e meio acadêmico”

“Mas na relação social não há ritual litúrgico a ser obedecido. Por isso que se diz que a alternância de “você” e “senhor” traduz-se numa questão sociolingüística, de difícil equação num país como o Brasil de várias influências regionais. Ao Judiciário não compete decidir sobre a relação de educação, etiqueta, cortesia ou coisas do gênero, a ser estabelecida entre o empregado do condomínio e o condômino, posto que isso é tema interna corpore daquela própria comunidade.”

UM BREVE PARÊNTESIS

(Se ele realmente tivesse conseguido uma decisão judicial favorável, de que adiantaria? Será que o funcionário iria cumpri-la? Se não cumprisse, ainda mais antipatizado com o magistrado depois dessa peleja jurídica, quem o iria punir? Ele seria preso? Multado? O juiz andaria com um gravador para mostrar que ele descumpriu a determinação? E quantos anos depois conseguiria a execução da “pena”? Enfim, fico só a pensar.)

EPÍLOGO

Marreiros ficou inconformado com esta sentença e apelou para o TJ de novo, dizendo que a conduta da síndica é “pior do que um soco na face”. Perdeu. Em 2006, enviou Recurso Extraordinário ao STF, dizendo que o caso diz respeito à Constituição “por envolver os princípios da dignidade da pessoa humana e da igualdade”.

No dia 22 de abril de 2014, o ministro Ricardo Lewandowski, do Supremo, pôs fim à novela, negando o pedido de Marreiros, apenas poucos dias depois de o STF julgar o caso de um ladrão de galinhas que já havia até devolvido as aves furtadas. Leia a decisão de Lewandowski.

MORAIS DA HISTÓRIA

1) Nosso sistema judiciário precisa de reforma urgente. Não é cabível que se despenda esforço, equipe, dinheiro e tempo (dez anos!) para julgar uma rixa de condomínio. Não é cabível que se despenda o mesmo por um furto de galinhas. Num Brasil de mensalões petistas e tucanos, de operações lava-jatos, castelos de areia, satiagrahas, sanguessugas, navalhas, caixas de pandora, etc ad nauseam, não é possível que nosso judiciário tenha que perder tempo para acalmar o incômodo de um juiz que ficou #chatiado.

2) O juiz Marreiros terá que se conformar em ser chamado de você. Ou pode fazer duas coisas:

  • se mudar de condomínio, para um no qual seja melhor atendido pelos síndicos e porteiros, com os quais poderia até travar alguma amizade;
  • fazer doutorado na área de linguística (após esses dez anos de aula que ele teve que tomar na área, forçosamente), para ser chamado de doutor onde esta forma de tratamento funciona bem: no meio acadêmico.

Leia os posts relacionados:


Arquivado em:Crônicas e Contos, Noticiário Tagged: Alexandre Eduardo Scisinio, Antonio Marreiros da Silva Melo Neto, briga de condomínio, condomínio, doutor, forma de tratamento, Gilberto Dutra Moreira, Judiciário, Justiça, ladrão de galinhas, Lewandowski, linguística, processo judicial, senhor, Simone Ramalho Novaes, STF, TJ, vizinhos, você
24 Apr 18:10

Digging around in the legacy code

by sharhalakis

by secondhype

24 Apr 18:08

Ad giants enforcing web standards? Hmmph.

The Wall Street Journal says Google is considering giving a boost in its search-engine results to websites that use encryption.

Is Google being a bully? Are they a force for good? I’m not sure it matters. What concerns me is the idea that a company is now so powerful and influential that it can force the rest of us on the internet to make decisions that may or may not be in our best interests.

I know a lot of people lost their faith in the company when they dropped Google Reader. But I think we all more or less understand why it happened.  I recently got one of those calls confirming recent credit card transactions and they described Google as an advertising company.  Nothing about technology or the internet.

Google’s power comes from the fact that, to a very large extent, they control what people see on the Internet. They create the system and they game the system to their own ends. They offer a service for free to the end user- provided they can make money off that service. 

It is probably inevitable that almost all technologies we depend on for our online experience will be heavily influenced by a few powerful organizations. The question is, where does that influence and control end?

Here’s a useful thought experiment. Imagine that Google takes away search results. Search may seem like the company’s essential function. But why does Google have to keep serving up search results from the Internet? Very few people look beyond the first couple results anyway.

Why wouldn’t a company in a position of almost total control serve up nothing but sponsored content if they could? Or just content only from sites that jump through their hoops. (Content from unencrypted sites would almost never be seen if Google changes its algorithm to de-value their content.)  

In fact, Google would probably make more money than they already do if they took this approach. The idea that a search engine doesn’t show search results isn’t too far fetched once you think about it.  No different than Facebook neglecting to show you posts from a person or company that you follow.

I don’t expect everyone to trust me or assume that we have their best interests at heart. We want people to gravitate to the Old Reader because it gives them what they ask for. It’s not altruism- it’s just how the open web works. We will certainly make decisions about how to run the service that not everyone will agree with.

Critics have said that RSS has not always been as consumer-friendly as social media. But what is more user-friendly than giving you exactly what you want to see, and not what a single company wants you to see? That’s how the Internet is supposed to work. 

By its very nature, The Old Reader is not a closed system and will never have the kind of concentrated market power to control what you see. The very nature of RSS is that it delivers the content that you request.

We don’t need some Advertising firm telling us how to consume or construct our web.  Do we?

23 Apr 16:49

jung-money: They even have Lil Sebastian. I love this. MY...

Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.



jung-money:

They even have Lil’ Sebastian. I love this.

MY HEART

23 Apr 15:24

Google's Street View now lets you step back in time

by Josh Lowensohn

The feature, which Google is rolling out to the web version of Maps today, generally stays out of the way unless you want to go back in time. If you’re viewing a location with earlier recorded images, there’s now an hourglass and a slider in the top left of the screen that shows you the month and year. Dial it back and it sweeps to that copy stored on Google’s servers, almost as if you were clicking on a location just up the road.

Interstate90_utahSingapore_skyline

The result is a kind of time warp that can show you months' and years' worth of human ingenuity, and just as quickly show it erased following a disaster or new construction project. With Street View now recording more than 6 million miles across 55 countries, there are a lot of those.

"We have built this very complicated graph of imagery through time and space," says Luc Vincent, the director of engineering for Street View. He says the option to go back and forth through time was the most requested by Google Maps users, who have been hounding the company to add it for years. This was primarily for simple things, like seeing older images of their house, school, or neighborhood. "People would say, ‘My house, can you please preserve it? Because I like it this way,’" Vincent told The Verge. "We can show you everything now."

Google is creating so much data, in fact, Vincent says the current iteration of Time Machine is intentionally dialing back what people see. The smallest interval of time you can jump to is a month, even if Google’s gone through and captured Street View recordings more frequently. That’s not a normal occurrence for most places, Vincent says, but there are places like Google’s campus, and major cities where Street View cars are recording more than once a month, sometimes even several times a week.

Algorithms pick the best looking images to show you

Vincent says the company’s using an algorithm designed to pick the best imagery from the data that’s collected each month. It goes through the images the company has captured and weeds out sets that tend to have a lot of motion blur, or that have particularly bad weather.

But expanding the recordings to what Vincent refers to as "slices" has opened up new avenues for the company to show off Street View imagery it once kept to itself. That includes roads with shoulders heaped with snow, drenched dark forests, or simply alternate views of familiar places. "We can show you Times Square at night," Vincent says, a first for the service that overwhelmingly prefers clear blue skies. "When we chose the image, the freshest imagery is typically the best … now you don’t have to make a choice."

One wrinkle in all this is that the physical location of roads changes over time, either by human interaction or mother nature. In the case of the movement from the 9.0 earthquake, for instance, roads and buildings that were in one place when Google was first there, were at new GPS coordinates when they went through again. That’s been preserved in Time Machine, Vincent says.

Mexico_overpass

"It’s not a bug; after the earthquake, the ground shifted by 3 meters. Everything else is from the same geo-coordinates," Vincent says. "It was the same thing with Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans."

Soumaya_museum_mexico_citySeasonalchange_norway

Vincent and company hope Time Machine will be more than just a way to gawk at before and after photos of disasters, and perhaps become a tool for planning travel. They imagine people using it when planning a vacation to somewhere they’ve never been in order to see what it looks like during that particular time of year.

Google won’t initially offer Time Machine for indoor imagery of buildings, or on trails, something it’s captured using its special Trekker backpack. It also won’t be available from the get-go on mobile devices. Vincent made no promises on timing short of saying that the company was working on it. With that said, Street View on the go is often meant as a way to get your bearings on what’s around you now, not years ago. But that behavior, just like images of the world Google is capturing, might ultimately change.

"We’ve been driving 3D cars for more than seven years," Vincent says. "It was totally different from what it is now."

23 Apr 15:14

'Arrested Development' creator Mitch Hurwitz will be making new shows for Netflix

by Chris Welch

Even if the result didn't live up to expectations, Netflix deserves some credit for realizing the dreams of Arrested Development fans and bringing the show back for a fourth season. With that chapter closed (for now), the company is set to continue its relationship with creator Mitch Hurwitz. According to Deadline, it's managed to sign a multi-year deal with Hurwitz, which will see him both create and produce new shows for the streaming service. “It is incredibly inspiring to get to produce for Netflix, a company that not only doesn’t resist change, but is leaps and bounds ahead of everyone in forging it,” Hurwitz said in a statement.

Netflix has spent huge chunks of cash to guarantee itself exclusive rights to content, but rarely pursues lengthy deals with showrunners. So this agreement is evidence of the company's faith in Hurwitz — even after The New York Times described season four as a public "execution" of Arrested Development that led the show "down a bad path." Hurwitz will also serve as an executive producer on other Netflix shows and as a consultant for the company's future comedy efforts. "The fact that I’m also getting one month of their streaming right to my TV or Xbox free, well, it really takes the sting out of buying that Xbox," Hurwitz added.

23 Apr 15:11

'Flash Gordon' movie reportedly in the works from 'Star Trek 3' writers

by Jacob Kastrenakes

Science-fiction adventure hero Flash Gordon may be heading back to the big screen for the first time in decades. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Twentieth Century Fox has picked up the rights to Flash Gordon and is having writers behind the script for Star Trek 3, J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, create a screenplay for the comic book series' new adaptation. The film's producer will reportedly be John Davis — who previously was a producer on Predator and, more recently, Chronicle. Bourne Ultimatum writer George Nolfi reportedly wrote the film's treatment for Payne and McKay to work off of.

There's no word on how closely the film will follow Gordon's traditional story, which has him haplessly end up on an alien planet battling its oppressive ruler. The Reporter says various studios have been trying to create a new Flash Gordon series for some time now, but this one appears to have the pieces in place that should keep it moving. In particular, it reports that Davis worked has been working to secure the rights for over a year, so the team involved clearly has the interest.